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Jam. i. 2 — 4. My brethren, count it all joy ivhen ye fall into divers temptations ; knowing this, that the trying of your faith jvorketh patience. But let patience have her perfect ivork, that ye 7nay he perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
WE at this time are scarcely able to form a con- ception of the state of the Church in the Apo- stolic age. Christianity amongst us is attended with none of the evils to which the primitive professors of it were exposed. But to what is this owing? Is Christianity altered at all ? or is it less offensive than it was in the eyes of ungodly men ? No : it is the same as ever : and, if those who profess it be not despised and hated now as they were in former times, it is because they retain " the form only of godliness, and have none of its power." Let persons enter into the spirit of Christianity now, as the Christians did in the Apostles' days, and they will be treated pre- cisely as they were, so far at least as the laws of the land will admit of it: and, if they be not persecuted unto death, it will not be from there being any more love to piety in the carnal heart now, than there was then; but from the greater protection which is af- forded by the laws of the land, and from a spirit of toleration which modern usages have established. Real vital godliness was then universally hated ; and it is so still. It was not to the Jewish converts in Palestine only that St. James wrote, but " to the twelve tribes who were scattered abroad." Religion was persecuted not by one party only, but by every VOL. XI. B party