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Of covetousness.

James.

17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

CHAP. IV. 1 Against covetousness, 4 intemperance, 5 pride, 11 detraction, and rash judgment. FROM whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not henee, even of your lusts, that war in your members ?

2 Ye lust and have not; ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God.

5 Doye think that the scripture saith in vain,a The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy ?

6 But he giveth more grace;b wherefore he saith, God re

a Saith in vain, speaketh falsely. b But be, that is, the Spirit, giveth more grace; wherefore the Spirit saith, &c. Prov. iii. 34.

of intemperance.

sisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

7 Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh unto you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up.

11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of 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 lawgiver, who is able to save, and to destroy; who art thou that judgest another?

13 Go to now,c ye that say, To-day, or to-morrow, we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell and get gain;

14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow; for what is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

15 For that ye ought to say,d

c Go to now, come now. d For that ye, &c. Instead of which ye ought to say.

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If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that.

16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings; all such rejoicing is evil.

17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

CHAP. V.

1 Of wicked rich men, 7 Of patience, 12 To forbear swearing, 13 Topray in adversity. GO to now,a ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.

3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

4 Behold, the hire of the labourers which have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped, are enter ed into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.b

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5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.

6 Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.

a Go to norv, come now.

in affliction.

7 Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lorde draweth nigh.

9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned; behold the judge standeth before the door.

10 Take, my brethren the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.

11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

12 But, above all things, my brethren, swear not; neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath; but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest fall into condemnation.

ye

13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders

The coming of the Lord, to destroy Jerusalem and to break the power of

b The Lord of sabaoth, the Lord of the unbelieving part of the Jewish

hosts.

nation, draweth nigh

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of the 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,d and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

d Shall save the sick, &c. In the first ages of the church, many possessed the gift of miraculously healing the sick. This power has long been discontinued.

in adversity.

17 Elias e was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;

20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins.

e Elias, Elijah, was a man of like infirmities with us. 1 Kings, xviii.

PREFATORY REMARKS

TO THE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETer.

SIMON, whose surname was Peter, was a native of the town of Bethsaida, which was situated on the western shore of the lake Gennesareth. He was by occupation a fisherman, which business he left for the more important work, to which he was appointed by Jesus Christ, who, foreseeing the fortitude he would exercise in preaching the Gospel, honoured him with the name of Cephas or Peter, which signifies a rock or stone. Peter being made an apostle, shewed the strongest faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah, and the most extraordinary zeal in his service. He was one of the three apostles whom Jesus admitted to witness the resurrection of Jairus' daughter, before whom he was transfigured on the holy mount, and with whom he retired to pray in the garden the night before he suffered. It was he who in the fervour of his zeal for his master cut off the ear of the high priest's servant, when the multitude came out against Jesus, as against a thief, with swords and staves to take him. Yet this same Peter, a few hours after thrice denied

Prefatory

Chap. i.

remarks, his master, even with oaths, in the palace of the high priest. But being stung with remorse for the baseness of his conduct, Jesus forgave him. From this time Peter never faultered in his faith, nor shrunk from his master's service. He ever after acted a conspicuous part among the apostles, and devoted the remainder of his life to the defence and support of the Gospel. After having preached to the Jews, who were dispersed through Asia Minor, it is said, he went to Rome, where he was crucified with his head downward, having himself requested this particular mode of execution.

In proportion as the Christians of the first age multiplied, their sufferings became more general and severe; in consequence of which the apostles considered themselves, as especially called upon to comfort and encourage them. With this view Peter wrote this first Epistle to the Christians in Pontus, and the neighbouring provinces in Asia, in which he shews, it is the duty of Christians to be willing to suffer for their religion, and suggests a variety of motives to induce them to suffer cheerfully. In order to enrage both the magistrates and the people against the Christians, their enemies represented them every where, as atheists and enemies to mankind, as seditious and addicted to every species of wickedness, because they would not comply with the common idolatry; nor obey the Heathen magistrates in things contrary to their religion. Peter therefore besought the brethren to behave both towards magistrates, and towards their Heathen neighbours in a harmless manner, and to be exemplary in every virtue; and, that they might know how to conduct themselves on every occasion, he gave them a particular account of the most important duties both in civil and social life.

It is generally thought, that Peter wrote this Epistle about A. D. 66 or 67, at Rome, which place he, as well as the apostle John, figuratively calls Babylon, to signify that Rome would resemble Babylon in its idolatry, in its opposition to true religion, and its persecution of the church of God, and that like Babylon, it would be utterly destroyed.

THE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER.

CHAP. I

1 He blesseth God, for his manifold spiritual graces; 10 sheweth that the salvation in Christ had been foretold by

the prophets of old; 13 and exhorteth them to a godly conversation, forasmuch as they are now born again by the word of God.

Of God's manifold

PE

I. Peter.

ETER, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through 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, which according to his abundant mercy, hath begot ten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,

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

6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season (if need be)a ye are in heaviaess through manifold temptations;

That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ;b

a If need be, since it is needful.

The appearing or revelation of Jesus Christ means here his coming to raise the dead & judge the world.

spiritual graces, §¤.

8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory;

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

10 Of which salvation the prophets have inquired,c and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace, that should come unto you;

11 Searching what,d or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, & the glory that should follow.

12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minister the things which are now reported unto you,by them that have preached the Gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind,e be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ f

c Of which salvation,concerning the nature and manner, &c.

d Searching what people, &c.

e Gird up the loins of your mind, keep the faculties of your minds in a fit condition to discern this great salvation.

f Revelation of Jesus Christ. See verse 7, note 3,

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