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Iames a seruant of God, and of the Lord Iesus Christ, to the twelue Tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
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My brethren, count it all ioy when ye fall into diuers temptations,
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Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience,
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But let patience haue her perfect worke, that ye may be perfect, and entier, wanting nothing.
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If any of you lacke wisedome, let him aske of God, that giueth to all men liberally, and vpbraideth not: and it shalbe giuen him.
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But let him aske in faith, nothing wauering: for he that wauereth is like a waue of the sea, driuen with the wind, and tossed.
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For let not that man thinke that he shall receiue any thing of the Lord.
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A double minded man is vnstable in all his wayes.
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Let the brother of low degree, reioyce in that he is exalted:
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But the rich, in that hee is made low: because as the floure of the grasse he shall passe away.
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For the Sunne is no sooner risen with a burning heate, but it withereth the grasse;
and the flowre thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his wayes.
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Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when hee is tried, hee shall receiue the crowne of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that loue him.
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Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with euill, neither tempteth he any man.
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But euery man is tempted, when hee is drawen away of his owne lust, and entised.
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Then when lust hath conceiued, it bringeth forth sinne: and sinne, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
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Doe not erre, my beloued brethren.
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Euery good gift, and euery perfect gift is from aboue, & commeth downe from the Father of lights, with whom is no variablenesse, neither shadow of turning.
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Of his owne will begate hee vs, with the word of Trueth, that wee should bee a kinde of first fruites of his creatures.
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Wherefore my beloued brethren, let euery man bee swift to heare, slow to speake, slow to wrath.
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For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousnesse of God.
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Wherefore lay apart all filthinesse, and superfluitie of naughtinesse, & receiue with meeknesse the engrafted word, which is able to saue your soules.
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But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers onely, receiuing your owne selues.
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For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like vnto a man beholding his naturall face in a glasse:
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For hee beholdeth himselfe, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what maner of man he was.
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But who so looketh into the perfect Law of libertie, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetfull hearer, but a doer of the worke, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
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If any man among you seeme to be religious, & bridleth not his tongue, but deceiueth his owne heart, this mans religion is vaine.
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Pure religion and vndefiled before God and the Father, is this, to visit the fatherlesse and widowes in their affliction, and to keepe himselfe vnspotted from the world.