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of good fruits, without partiality, [and] without hypo18 crisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace*.

CH. IV. Whence come contests† and fightings among you?

come they not hence, from your desires of pleasure 2 which war in your members? Ye desire, and have not : ye kill, and earnestly covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and contend; yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3 Ye ask, and receive not; because ye ask amiss, that ye 4 may consume it on your pleasures. Ye adulterers and

adulteresses, know ye not that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a 5 friend to the world, is an enemy to God. Do ye think that the scripture speaketh in vain? Doth the spirit that 6 dwelleth in us stir up to envy? Nay, it bestoweth more abundant favour. Wherefore it is said, "God resisteth 7 the proud, but bestoweth favour on the humble."

Sub

mit yourselves therefore to God: resist the devil¶, and & he will flee from you: draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and 9 purify your hearts, ye men of divided minds: be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to 10 mourning, and your joy to heaviness: humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

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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 of it. There is one law-giver and judge, who is able to save and to destroy. Who art thou that judgest another? Come now, ye "To-day or to-morrow let us goff into such a city, and continue there a year, and

13

who

say,

is sown for the makers of peace. Wakefield.

↑ Or, sensual desires, N. m.

† Or, wars, N. m.
Or, and envy, N. m.

q. d. every temptation to evil, whether from without or from within.

we will go, R. T.

14 traffic, and acquire gain:" ye who know not what will For what is your life? It is even a

be on the morrow.

vapour, which

appeareth for a little time, and then va15 nisheth away*. Whereas ye ought to say, " If the Lord 16 will, and we live, then let us do this, or that." But now ye glory in your boasting words: all such glorying 17 is evil. To him therefore it is sin, who knoweth how to do what is right, and doeth it not.

CH. V. Come now, ye rich men, weep and lament for your 2 miseries which are coming upon you. Your store is cor3 rupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is rusted; and the rust of them will be for a testimony against you, and will eat your flesh like fire]]. 4 Ye have heaped up treasure in the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers that have reaped your fields, which is unjustly kept back by you, crieth against you : and the cries of the reapers have entered into the ears of 5 the Lord of hosts. Ye have lived delicately on the earth,

and have rioted in pleasure: ye have nourished your 6 hearts, as it were in the day of slaughtertt. Ye have condemned, ye have killed, the Righteous One, who did not resist you.

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Be patient therefore, brethren, until the appearance of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and is patient for it, until it 3 receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; establish your hearts; for the appearance of the Lord 9 draweth near. Murmur not against each other‡‡, brethren, lest ye be judged: behold, the judge standeth

* disappeareth. N.

+ Or, then we will, Wetstein.

Or, presumptuous speeches: Or, presumption: N. m.

Or, your flesh. Ye have treasured up as it were fire in etc. N. m. See Wakefield. i.e. yourselves. So ver. 8. N. m.

+ ye have regaled your hearts as in a day of sacrifice. Wakefield.

# So Wakefield. Grieve not for one another, N. who explains it, Lament not heavily for the calamities of one another. This, he observes, is well connected with the preceding and following verses.

f condemned, R. T. and N. See Griesbach.

10 before the door. My brethren, take the prophets, that

have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of 11 suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we pronounce those happy that endure patiently. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen what the Lord did in the end*; for the Lord is of tender mercy, and full of compassion.

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But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by the heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath : but let your yes be yes; and your no, no; lest ye fall under condemnation.

:

Doth any among you suffer affliction? Let him pray. 14 Is any cheerful? Let him sing praisef to God. Is any sick among you? Let him call to him the elders of the church; and, when they have anointed him with oil, 15 let them pray over him in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith will preserve the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up; and although he have committed sins, 16 they will be forgiven him. Confess your offences to one another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth 17 much. Elijah was a man of like infirmities with us; and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained 18 not on the land for three years and six months and he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the carth brought forth its produce.

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Brethren, if any of you err from the truth, and one 20 turn him back to it; let him know, that he who turneth a sinner back from the error of his way, saveth a soul¶ from death, and covereth his multitude of sins.††

Gr. the end of the Lord: N. m.

† Or, hymns, N. m.

The writer here alludes to the miraculous power of the apostolic age. Or, inwrought, i. e. inspired. i. e. a man, a person, N. m. + This excellent epistle is one of those the genuineness of which was disputed in the primitive church. But it is not unworthy of the apostle to whom it is generally ascribed.

THE

FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL

OF

PETER.

CHAP. I.

PETER, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the sojourners scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, 2 and Bithynia; elect*, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctification of the spirit, to obedience, and to the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ favour and peace be multiplied to you.

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:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus 4. Christ from the dead; even to an inheritance incorrupti

ble, and undefiled, and unfading†, reserved in heaven 5 for you, who are kept by the power of God, through your faith, to salvation ready to be revealed in the last 6 time: wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a short time (if need be) ye be grieved by various trials; 7 that the proof of your faith, which is a much more precious proof than that of gold, which perisheth though proved by fire, may be found to praise, and honour, and 8 glory, at the manifestation of Jesus Christ; whom, though ye have not known him, ye love; in whom,

i. e. chosen, N. m.

+ to an incorruptible, and undefiled, and unfading inheritance, N.

though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with 9 gladness unspeakable, and full of glory; being to receive the end of your faith, even the salvation of your 10 souls*. Of which salvation the prophets, who prophesied concerning the favour of God which was to come unto 11 you, inquired and searched diligently; searching what time, or what kind of time, the spirit of Christ † which was in them signified, when it witnessed beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glories which were to fol12 low to whom it was revealed, that they ministered not to themselves, but to you f, the things which have now been told you, by those, that have preached the gospel to you through the holy spirit sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

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Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and fully hope for the gracious gift which will be given 14 you at the manifestation of Jesus Christ; as obedient

children, not fashioning yourselves according to your 15 former desires in your ignorance: but according as he

that hath called you, is holy, be ye also holy in all your 16 behaviour: because it is written, "Be ye holy; for I am 17 holy." And if ye call on the Father, who without re

spect of persons judgeth according to every one's work, 18 pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: knowing that ye were not redeemed** with corruptible things, as with silver and gold, from your vain behaviour delivered 19 down by your fathers; but with the precious blood of 20 Christ, as of a spotless and unblemished lamb: who was

* i. e. yourselves. N. m.

i. e. the spirit which prophesied concerning Christ. See Lindsey's Seq. p. 281. us, N. and R. T.

Perhaps the meaning of the apostle may be, that the messengers who are now employed to promulgate this glorious doctrine, cannot fully comprehend its import, and are desirous of improving their acquaintance with it. See Eph. iii. 18, 19.

¶ Gr. children of obedience.

** i. e. delivered from your former state of heathenism, prejudice, and vice, by the gospel; which was ratified with the blood of Christ.

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