Scriptural poems being several portions of Scripture digested into English verse /

THE General Epistle of JAMES.

CHAP. I.

UNTO the twelve Tribes scattered abroad, James, and Apostle of the living God, And of the Lord Christ Jesus, Salutation. My Brethren, when you fall into Temptation Of divers kinds, rejoice, as Men that know From trial of your Faith doth Patience flow: But let your Patience have its full effect, That you may be entire, without defect. If any of you lack Wisdom, let him cry To God, and he will give it liberally, And not upbraid. But let him ask in Faith, Not wavering, for he that wavereth, Unto a Wave o'th' Sea I will compare, Driven with the Wind and tossed here and there: For let not such a Man himself deceive, To think that he shall from the Lord receive. A double-minded Man most surely lacketh Stability in all he undertaketh. Let every Brother of a low degree Rejoice in that he is advanced, but he That's Rich in being made low, for he shall pass Away, as doth the flower of the Grass. ⟨p. 90⟩For as the […] doth rise, Is scorched by […] and dies; Its Flower fades, […] more The beauteous […], So fades the Rich Man, […] his Store. The Man is blest that doth endure Temptation: For when he's tried, the Crown of God's Salvation, The which the Lord hath promised to give To them that love him, that Man shall receive. Let no Man be possest with a persuasion, To say, when he falls under a Temptation, That God's the cause; for with no evil can God be tempted, nor tempts he any Man. But every Man is tempted when he's drawn Away, and by his Lusts prevailed upon; Then when Lust hath conceived, it ushereth In Sin, and Sin when finished brings Death. Err not, my Brethren whom I dearly love. Each good and perfect Gift is from above, Down from th' original of ights descending, With whom's no change, nor shadow thereto tending According to his own good pleasure, he Begat us with the word of Truth, that we Should as the first […] of his Creatures be. Wherefore, beloved Brethren, I entreat You to be swift […] […], and slow to speak, And slow to wrath, for wrath cannot incline The Sons of Men to Righteousness divine. Wherefore avoiding every thinness, And superfluity of naughts: Receive with meekness the grafted word, Which can Salvation to your Souls afford.