therein, not having become a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

26. If any man seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain,

27. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father it is, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

CHAPTER II.

1. My brethren, have not the belief our Lord Jesus Christ concerning the glory that is to come with respect of persons.

2. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;

3. And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:

4. Ye are determined by their own estimate of themselves, and are become judges by evil considerations.

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

6. Yet ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?

7. Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?

8. If indeed ye fulfil a law, royal through the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:

9. But if ye have respect to persons on account of external advantages, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.

10. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, save that he offend in one point, he is liable to reproach from all men.

11. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. So if thou commit no adultery, yet shalt kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

12. So speak ye, and so act toward others, as

they that being under a law of liberty are delayed to be judged.

13. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; for he treats mercy arrogantly by his judgment.

14. What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? faith is not able to save him.

15. If a brother or sister be naked, or destitute of daily food,

16. And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

17. Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

18. But, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without the works I have, and I will shew thee the faith thou hast by my works.

19. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well, though the devils believe the same, and tremble.

20. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is unprofitable?

21. Abraham our father was not justified by works, when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar.

22. Thou seest that faith wrought with his works, as by works was his faith made perfect;

23. And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him unto justification: even that he was called a Friend of God.

24. See then, that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

25. Likewise also Rahab the harlot was not justified by works, she having through faith received the messengers, and sent them away for another journey.

26. As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

CHAPTER III.

1. My brethren, make not many masters, having experienced that we shall receive increased condemnation by so doing.

2. For in many things we offend. If any man

offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

3. Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and so we turn about their whole body.

4. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governer listeth.

5. In like manner so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a fire it is, it kindleth how great materials.

6. Even the tongue is a fire; the regulator of iniquity is the tongue to our members; that is it that defileth the whole body, even setting on fire the course of nature, and being set on fire of the hell it attains.

7. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:

8. But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

9. Therewith bless we the Lord and Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.

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

11. What? a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?

12. The fig tree, my brethren, cannot bare olive berries, nor a vine, figs; so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.

13. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of the good course of life he has pursued his works with meekness of wisdom.

14. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, boast not or lie in respect of the truth.

15. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

16. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

17. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated,

1. From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, 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 spend extravagantly upon your lusts.

4. Ye adulteresses know 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. Or think ye that the scripture saith in vain for the sake of malice, It seeketh the spirit that shall dwell in us acceptably to God.

6. And giveth more grace for its attainment. Wherefore it saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

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

8. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to 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, or judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law and if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

12. There is but one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy then who art thou that judgest thy neighbour?

13. Go to now, ye that say, to day or to morrow we will go into the city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:

14. Whereas ye know not what shall be your life on the morrow. For it is even a vapour, that

away.

15. Wherefore ye ought to say, If the Lord will, and we shall live, then will we do this, or that.

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

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

CHAPTER V.

1. Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your

miseries that shall come upon you.

2. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.

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 later days.

4. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of Jehovah of Sabaoth.

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

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

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, that your hearts, that the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

9. Groan not, brethren, by others suggestions, lest ye should be condemned: behold, the judge hath stood before the door.

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

11. Behold, we count those of them happy which sustained a patience like Job's; and ye have heard and seen the end of Jehovah; that Jehovah is very pitiful, and of tender mercy therein.

12. And above all things, my brethren, swear not by either heaven, or the earth, or any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.

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

14. Is any among you deficient in authority to teach? let him call for the presbyters of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil on account of the fame :

15. And the prayer after the faith shall save him that labours from wanting authority, and the Lord shall raise him up to authority by so doing; and if he should have caused sin by want of authority, it shall be forgiven him.

16. Therefore confess the sins of this character one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be made whole in respect of authority. A fervent prayer for what is just availeth much.

17. Elias 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. My 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 an error in his course shall save a soul from death by such course, and shall thus bury a multitude of sins that a sinner would have committed.

CHAPTER I

1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ unto elected strangers of dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

2. For their having a foreknowledge of God the Father, with respect to sanctification of spirit of 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 exists according to his abundant mercy having begotten us again, in vouchsafing to us a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4. Of an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven,

5. For you that are by the power of a revelation from God, being kept in hope through faith of a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

6. Whereby ye greatly rejoice; a little now, if need be, ye are caused grief through manifold temptations that attack you :

7. In order that your trial of the faith, (being much more precious than of gold that perisheth,) even though being tried with fire, it might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ :

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 the faith, even a salvation of souls.

10. Of which salvation prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the salvation that is revealed unto you by grace:

11. Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit was by them declaring, when it testified

beforehand the sufferings of men by Christ's not having come, and the glories on earth after their removal.

12. By 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 glad tiding for you in a Spirit's freedom from guilt having been sent down from heaven; unto obtaining which things the angels desire to ascertain the means employed.

13. Wherefore having girded up the loins of your mind, constantly being sober, hope for salvation through grace that is brought unto you by revelation by Jesus Christ;

14. As obedient children, not conforming yourselves thereto by the former lusts in your ignorance of meriting salvation:

15. But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;

16. Because it is written, For be ye holy; for I am holy.

17. And if on a Father ye call, who without respect of persons judgeth salvation according to every man's actual work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:

18. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers for attaining an assurance of salvation;

19. But with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,

20. By Christ's having been foreordained, even before the foundation of the world, though having been made manifest in these last times for you,

21. Who by him do believe in God, that raised

him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

22. He having purified your souls in the obedience after the truth in unfeigned brotherly love from the heart for one another; love with continuation :

23. Ye being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of a living and abiding God.

24. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

25. But the word of God can endure for ever. And this endurance the word has which by the gospel is preached unto you.

CHAPTER II.

1. Wherefore having laid aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisy, and envies, and all evil speakings,

2. As newborn babes, desire the reasonably sincere milk of brotherly love, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation.

3. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

4. In whom coming to a living stone, having been disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,

5. So are they as living stones a spiritual house; be ye built up into an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

6. Because he surrounds all things with acceptance by scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a foundation stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him should not be confounded.

7. Unto you therefore which believe is the preciousness, though they do not believe, that a stone which the builders disallowed was made a head of

a corner,

8. And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, not believing that to which they were appointed.

9. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a people by acquirement; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

10. Which in time past were not a people, but are now a people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

11. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from the fleshly lusts, which wars as to the soul,

12. For your conversation to be honest to the Gentiles that, in what they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in a day of inspection.

13. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man unto justice for the Lord's sake: whether it be by the king, as supreme;

14. Or by governors, as being sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.

15. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of the foolish men that deny your acceptance:

16. As free from past sins, yet not using your liberty for a cloke of again sinning, but as a proof of your being the servants of God.

17. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

18. The inferiors being subject to the superiors in all cases where fear of acting wrongly exists ; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.

19. For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.

20. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your sins, ye shall take it patiently? but if when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable to God.

21. For even hereunto were ye called: because even Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

22. Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth :

23. Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:

24. Who himself bare sins like yours in his body on the tree, that we having died by such sins, should have assurance of life by the justification