1 He exhorts such as have been concerned in these divisions to
repent, and return to their unity, confessing their sin to God,
7 which he enforces from the example of Moses,
10 and of many among the heathen,
23 and of Judith and Esther among the Jews.
LET us therefore, as many as
have transgressed by any of
the suggestions of the adversary,
beg God's forgiveness.
2 And as for those who have
been the heads of the sedition and
faction among you, let them look
to the common end of our hope.
3 For as many as are endued
with fear and charity, would rather
they themselves should fall into
trials than their neighbours: And
choose to be themselves condemned,
rather than that the good and just
charity delivered to us, should
suffer.
4 For it is seemly for a man
to confess wherein he has
transgressed.
5 And not to harden his heart,
as the hearts of those were
hardened, who raised up sedition
against Moses the servant of God
whose punishment was manifest
unto all men, for they went down
alive into the grave; death
swallowed them up.
6 Pharaoh and his host, and
all the rulers of Egypt, their
chariots also and their horsemen,
were for no other cause drowned
in the bottom of the Red Sea,
and perished; but because they
hardened their foolish hearts,
after so many signs done in the
land of Egypt, by Moses the
servant of God.
7 Beloved, God is not indigent
of anything; nor does he demand
anything of us, but that we
should confess our sins unto him.
8 For so says the Holy David,
I will confess unto the Lord, and
it shall please him better than a
young bullock that hath horns and
hoof. Let the poor see it and be
glad.
9 And again he saith, Offer
unto God the sacrifice of praise,
and pay thy vows unto the Most
Highest. And call upon me in the
day of trouble, and I will deliver
thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
The sacrifice of God is a broken
spirit.
10 Ye know, beloved, ye know
full well, the Holy Scriptures;
and have thoroughly searched into
the oracles of God: call them
therefore to your remembrance.
11 For when Moses went up into
the mount, and tarried there forty
days and forty nights in fasting
and humiliation; God said unto
him, Arise, Moses, and get thee
down quickly from hence, for thy
people whom thou broughtest out
of the land of Egypt, have
committed wickedness: they have
soon transgressed the way that
I commanded them, and have made
to themselves graven images.
12 And the Lord said unto him,
I have spoken unto thee several
times, saying, I have seen this
people, and behold it is a stiff-
necked people: let me therefore
destroy them, and put out their
name from under heaven. And I
will make unto thee a great and a
wonderful nation, that shall be
much larger than this.
13 But Moses said, Not so,
Lord: Forgive now this people
their sin; or if thou wilt not,
blot me also out of the book of
the living. O admirable charity!
O insuperable perfection! The servant
speaks freely to his Lord: He beseeches
him either to forgive the people,
or to destroy him together with them.
14 Who is there among you
that is generous? Who that is
compassionate? Who that has
any charity? Let him say, if this
sedition, this contention, and these
schisms, be upon my account,
I am ready to depart; to go away
whithersoever you please; and do
whatsoever ye shall command me:
Only let the flock of Christ be in
peace, with the elders that are set
over it.
15 He that shall do this, shall
get to himself a very great honour
in the Lord; and there is no place
but what will be ready to receive
him: For the earth is the Lord's,
and the fulness thereof.
16 These things, they who have
their conversation towards God
not to be repented of, both have
done, and will always be ready to
do.
17 Nay and even the Gentiles
themselves have given us examples
of this kind.
18 For we read, How many
kings and princes, in times of
pestilence, being warned by their
oracles, have given up themselves
unto death; that by their own
blood, they might deliver their
country from destruction.
19 Others have forsaken their
cities, so that they might put an
end to the seditions of them.
20 We know how many among
ourselves, have given up
themselves unto bonds, that
thereby they might free others
from them.
21 Others have sold themselves
into bondage, that they might feed
their brethren with the price of
themselves.
22 And even many women,
being strengthened by the grace
of God, have done many glorious
and manly things on such occasions.
23 The blessed Judith, when
her city was besieged, desired the
elders, that they would suffer her
to go into the camp of their enemies;
and she went out exposing herself
to danger, for the love she bare
to her country and her people
that were besieged: and the
Lord delivered Holofernes into
the hands of a woman.
24 Nor did Esther, being perfect
in faith, expose herself to any
less hazard, for the delivery of the
twelve tribes of Israel, in danger
of being destroyed. For by fasting
and humbling herself, she entreated
the Great Maker of all things, the
God of spirits; so that beholding
the humility of her soul, he
delivered the people, for whose
sake she was in peril.