1:1 On account of the sudden and repeated calamities and mischances, brethren, that have come upon us, we suppose that we have the more slowly given heed to the things that are disputed among you, beloved, and to the foul and unholy sedition, alien and foreign to the elect of God, which a few headstrong and self-willed persons have kindled to such a degree of madness, that your venerable and famous name, worthy to be loved of all men, is greatly blasphemed.
1:2 For who that hath tarried among you hath not approved your most virtuous and firm faith, hath not admired your sober and seemly piety in Christ, hath not proclaimed your splendid disposition of hospitality, hath not deemed blessed your perfect and unerring knowledge?
1:3 For ye did all things without respect of persons, and walked in the laws of God, submitting yourselves to them that have the rule over you, and giving the due honour to the presbyters that are among you. Young men ye enjoined to think such things as be sober and grave. Women ye exhorted to perform all things in a blameless and honourable and pure conscience, loving dutifully their own husbands; and ye taught them to manage the affairs of their houses with gravity, keeping in the rule of obedience, being temperate in all things.
2:1 And ye were all humble, boasting of nothing, submitting yourselves rather than subjecting others, more gladly giving than receiving, content with the provision that God had given you; and attending diligently to his words, ye received them into your very hearts, and his sufferings were before your eyes.
2:2 Thus a deep and rich peace was given to all, and an insatiable longing for doing good, and a plentiful outpouring of the Holy Spirit was upon all of you.
2:3 And ye, being filled with a holy desire, with excellent zeal and pious confidence, stretched out your arms to Almighty God, beseeching him to be merciful unto you, if ye had in anything unwillingly done amiss.
2:4 Ye contended day and night for the whole brotherhood, that in his mercy and good pleasure the number of his elect might be saved.
2:5 Ye were simple and sincere without malice one toward another:
2:6 all sedition and all schism were abominable unto you. Ye grieved over the transgressions of your neighbour, judging his short-comings your own.
2:7 Ye repented not of any well-doing, being ready to every good work;
2:8 and being adorned with a very virtuous and holy habit of life, ye did all things in his fear. The commandments and ordinances of the Lord were written on the breadth of your heart.
3:1 All honour and enlargement was given to you, and then was fulfilled that which is written: -- The beloved ate and drank, and was enlarged and grew fat and kicked.
3:2 From this came emulation and envy, strife and sedition, persecution and disorder, war and captivity.
3:3 Thus the mean men were lifted up against the honourable; those of no repute against those of good repute; the foolish against the wise; the young against the elder.
3:4 Through this justice and peace are afar off, because each of you leaveth off the fear of God and is dimsighted in his faith, nor walketh in the laws of his commandments, nor behaveth as becometh a citizen of Christ; but each walketh according to his own evil lusts, having taken up unjust and unholy envy, by which also death entered into the world.
4:1 For it is thus written: And it came to pass after certain days, that Cain brought of the fruits of the ground a sacrifice to God, and Abel brought also of the firstlings of the sheep and of their fat.
4:2 And God had respect unto Abel and unto his gifts; but unto Cain and his gifts he had no regard.
4:3 And Cain was grieved greatly, and his countenance fell.
4:4 And God said unto Cain, Why art thou very sorrowful, and why hath thy countenance fallen? If thou hast rightly offered, but hast not rightly divided, hast thou not sinned?
4:5 Hold thy peace; thy gift returneth unto thee, and thou shalt be master over it.
4:6 And Cain said unto Abel, Let us pass over into the field. And it came to pass while they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him.
4:7 Ye see, brethren, jealousy and envy wrought the slaughter of a brother.
4:8 Through envy our father Jacob fled from the face of his brother Esau.
4:9 Envy caused Joseph to be persecuted unto death, and to enter into bondage.
4:10 Envy compelled Moses to flee from the face of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, because he heard his countryman say, Who made thee a judge or a decider over us? Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?
4:11 Through envy Aaron and Miriam pitched their tents without the camp.
4:12 Envy brought down Dathan and Abiram alive to the grave, because they contended against Moses, the servant of God.
4:13 Through envy David suffered jealousy not only of foreigners, but was persecuted also by Saul, king of Israel.
5:1 But let us pass from ancient examples, and come unto those who have in the times nearest to us, wrestled for the faith.
5:2 Let us take the noble examples of our own generation. Through jealousy and envy the greatest and most just pillars of the Church were persecuted, and came even unto death.
5:3 Let us place before our eyes the good Apostles.
5:4 Peter, through unjust envy, endured not one or two but many labours, and at last, having delivered his testimony, departed unto the place of glory due to him.
5:5 Through envy Paul, too, showed by example the prize that is given to patience:
5:6 seven times was he cast into chains; he was banished; he was stoned; having become a herald, both in the East and in the West, he obtained the noble renown due to his faith;
5:7 and having preached righteousness to the whole world, and having come to the extremity of the West, and having borne witness before rulers, he departed at length out of the world, and went to the holy place, having become the greatest example of patience.
6:1 To these men, who walked in holiness, there was gathered a great multitude of the elect, who, having suffered, through envy, many insults and tortures, became a most excellent example among us.
6:2 Through envy women were persecuted, even the Danaides and Dircae, who, after enduring dreadful and unholy insults, attained to the sure course of the faith; and they who were weak in body received a noble reward.
6:3