2 For if there shall come into And mercy exalteth itself above your assembly a man having a judgment. golden ring, in fine apparel, and 14 What shall it profit, my brethere shall come in also a poor man thren, if a man say he hath faith, in mean attire,

3 And you have respect to him that is clothed with the fine apparel, and shall say to him: Sit thou here well: but say, to the poor man : Stand thou there, or sit under my footstool:

4 Do you not judge within yourselves, and are become judges of unjust thoughts?

5 Hearken, my dearest brethren: hath not God chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him ?

6 But you have dishonoured the poor man. Do not the rich oppress 19 Thou believest that there is you by might; and do not they one God. Thou dost well: the dedraw you before the judgment vils also believe and tremble. seats?

7 Do not they blaspheme the man, that faith without works is good name that is invoked upon dead? you?

13 For judgment without mercy the spirit is dead: so also faith to him that hath not done mercy. without works is dead.

Ver. 10. Guilty of all. That is, he becomes a trangressor of the law, in such a manner, that the observing of all other points will not avail him to salvation: for he despises the lawgiver; and breaks through the great and general commandment of charity, which is the fulfilling of the whole law.

CHAP. III.

Of the evils of the tongue. Eye not many masters, my brethren, knowing that you re

BE

ceive the greater judgment.

2 For in many things we all offend. If any man offend not in word; the same is a perfect man. He is able also with a bridle to lead about the whole body.

3 For if we put bits into the mouths of horses, that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body.

4 Behold also ships, whereas they are great, and are driven by strong winds, yet are they turned about with a small helm, whithersoever the force of the governor willeth.

5 So the tongue also is indeed a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how small a fire what a great wood it kindleth?

6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is placed among our members, which defileth the whole body, and inflameth the wheel of our nativity, being set on fire by hell.

7 For every nature of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of the rest, is tamed and hath been tamed by the nature of man :

8 But the tongue no man can tame, an unquiet evil, full of deadly poison.

9 By it we bless God and the Father: and by it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God.

10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

11 Doth a fountain send forth, out of the same hole, sweet and bitter water?

12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear grapes: or the vine, figs? So neither can the salt water yield

sweet.

13 Who is a wise man and endu

ed with knowledge among you? Let him shew, by a good conversation, his work in the meekness of wisdom.

14 But if you have bitter zeal, and there be contentions in your hearts; glory not and be not liars against the truth.

15 For this is not wisdom descending from above: but earthly, sensual, devilish.

16 For where envying and contention is, there is inconstancy, and every evil work.

17 But the wisdom, that is from above, first indeed is chaste, then peaceable, modest, easy to be persuaded, consenting to the good, full of mercy and good fruits, without judging, without dissimulation.

18 And the fruit of justice is sown in peace, to them that make peace. CHAP. IV. Admonitions against pride, &c. ROM whenceare wars and contentions among you? Are they not hence, from your concupiscences, which war in your members?

2 You covet, and have not: you kill and envy, and cannot obtain. You contend and war, and you have not, because you ask not.

3 You ask and receive not: because you ask amiss: that you may consume it on your concupiscences.

4 Adulterers, know you not that the friendship of this world, is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world becometh an enemy of God.

5 Or do you think that the scripture saith in vain: To envy doth the spirit covet which dwelleth in you?

6 But he giveth greater grace. Wherefore he saith: God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.

7 Be subject therefore to God, but resist the devil, and he will fly from you.

8 Draw nigh to God, and he will shall eat your fresh like fire. You draw nigh to you. Cleanse your have stored up to yourselves wrath hands ye sinners; and purify your against the last days.

hearts, ye double minded.

9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy, into

sorrow.

10 Be humbled in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

11 Detract not one another, my brethren. He that detracteth his brother, or he that judgeth his brother, detracteth the law, and judgeth the law. But if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

12 There is one law-giver, and judge, that is able to destroy and to deliver.

13 But who art thou that judgest thy neighbour ? Behold, now you that say: To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and there we will spend a year, and will traffick, and make our gain.

14 Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow.

15 For what is your life? It is a vapour which appeareth for a little while, and afterwards shall vanish away. For that you should say: If the Lord will; and, if we shall live, we will do this or that.

16 But now you rejoice in your arrogancies. All such rejoicing is

wicked.

4 Behold the hire of the labourers, who have reaped down your fields, which by fraud has been kept back by you, crieth: and the cry of them hath entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

5 You have feasted upon earth: and in riotousness you have nourished your hearts, in the day of slaughter.

6 You have condemned and put to death the just one, and he resisted you not.

7 Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth: patiently bearing till he receive the early and the latter rain.

8 Be you therefore also patient, and strengthen your hearts: for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

9 Grudge not, brethren, one against another, that you may not be judged. Behold the judge standeth before the door.

10 Take, my brethren, for an example of suffering evil, of labour and patience, the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord:

11 Behold we account them blessed who have endured. You have heard of the patience of Job, and you have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is merciful and compassionate.

12 But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven nor by the earth, nor by any other oath. But let your speech be, yea, yea: no, no: that you fall not under judgment.

13 Is any of you sad? Let him pray. Is he cheerful in mind? Let him sing.

14 Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the

Chap. 5. Ver. 14. Let him bring in, &c. See here a plain warrant of scripture for the sacrament of extreme unction

church, and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man: and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him.

16 Confess therefore your sins one to another: and pray one for another, that you may be saved. For the continual prayer of a just man availeth much.

17 Elias was a man possible like unto us: and with prayer he prayed

that it might not rain upon the earth, and it rained not for three years and six months.

18 And he prayed again: and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

19 My brethren, if any of you err from the truth, and one convert him:

20 He must know, that he who causeth a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins.

Ver. 16. Confess your sins one to another. That is, to the priests of the church, whom, v. 14, he had ordered to be called for, and brought into the sick.

The first EPISTLE of St. PETER the Apostle.

CHAP. I. He exhorts to holiness of life. DETER an apostle of him not, believe: and

8 Whom having not seen, you love: in whom also now, though

PChrist, to the sprangers dispers believing shall rejoice with joy un

ed through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect,

2 According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, unto the sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of JESUS Christ: Grace unto you and peace be multiplied.

3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord JESUS Christ, who according to his great mercy hath regenerated us unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of JESUS Christ from the dead,

speakable and glorified,

9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

10 Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and diligently searched, who prophesied of the grace to come in you,

11 Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ in them did signify: when it foretold those sufferings that are in Christ, and the glories that should follow: 12 To whom it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to you they ministered those things which that have preached the gospel to you, the Holy Ghost being sent down from heaven, on whom the angels desire to look.

4 Unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that cannot fade, reserved in heaven for you, are now declared to you by them

5 Who by the power of God, are kept by faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

6 Wherein you shall greatly rejoice, if now you must be for a little time made sorrowful in divers temptations:

7 That the trial of your faith (much more precious than gold which is tried by the fire) may be found unto praise and glory and honour at the appearing of JESUS Christ.

13 Wherefore having the loins of your mind girt up, being sober, trust perfectly in the grace which is offered you in the revelation of JESUS Christ,

14 As children of obedience, not fashioned according to the former desires of your ignorance:

15 But according to him that hath called you, who is Holy, be you also in all manner of conversaton holy :

16 Because it is written: You shall be holy, for I am holy.

17 And if you invoke as Father him who, without respect of persons, judgeth according to every one's work: converse in fear during the time of your sojourning here.

18 Knowing that you were not 6 Wherefore it is said in the redeemed with corruptible things scripture: Behold I lay in Sion a as gold or silver, from your vain chief corner-stone, elect, precious. conversation of the tradition of And he that shall believe in him, your fathers.

19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled,

20 Fore-known indeed before the foundation of the world, but manifested in the last times for you,

shall not be confounded.

7 To you therefore that believe, he is honour: but to them that believe not, the stone which the builders rejected, the same is made the head of the corner :

8 And a stone of stumbling, and

21 Who through him are faithful a rock of scandal, to them who in God, who raised him up from stumble at the word, neither do the dead, and hath given him glo- believe, whereunto also they are ry, that your faith and hope might set. be in God.

9 But you are a chosen genera

22 Purifying your souls in the tion, a kingly priesthood, a holy obedience of charity, with a bro- nation, a purchased people: that therly love from a sincere heart you may declare his virtues, who love one another earnestly : hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

23 Being born again not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the word of God who liveth and remaineth for ever.

24 For all flesh is as grass: and all the glory thereof as the flower of grass. The grass is withered, and the flower thereof is fallen away.

25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever, and this is the word which by the gospel hath been preached unto you. CHAP. II.

We are to lay aside all guile.

10 Who in time past were not a people: but are now the people of God. Who had not obtained mercy: but now have obtained mercy.

11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, to refrain yourselves from carnal desires which war against the soul,

12 Having your conversation good among the gentiles: that whereas they speak against you as evil doers, they may, by the good works which they shall behold in the day of visi

WHEREFORE laying away you, glorify God in

all guile,

dissimulations, and envies, and all detractions,

2 Asnew born babes, desire the rational milk without guile, that thereby you may grow unto salvation.

tation.

13 Be ye subject therefore to every human creature for God's sake: whether it be to the king as excelling:

14 Or to governors as sent by him