_Whence are wars [1] and contentions, in all kinds, but from your lusts and disorderly passions, coveting to have and enjoy what you have not, as to pleasures, riches, honours, &c. (Witham)_ [BIBLIOGRAPHY] Unde bella et lites? _Greek: polemoi kai machai, as also ver. 2, litigatis et belligeratis,... [ Continue Reading ]
_You covet, and have not. Though God has promised that whosoever asks shall receive, (Matthew vii. 8.) yet no wonder you receive not, because you ask amiss, by asking such temporal things as would be prejudicial to your soul, or because you ask not with humility, devotion, and perseverance. (Witham)... [ Continue Reading ]
_Adulterers: which is here taken in a figurative sense for those who love creatures more than God, the true spouse of their souls; who reflect not that the love and friendship of this world is an enemy to God, and the true manner of serving him. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
Do you think that the scripture saith in vain: To envy doth the spirit covet, with dwelleth in you? [2] This verse is obscure, and differently expounded. By some, of an evil spirit in men, by which they covet and envy others for having what they have not. Others understand God's spirit inhabiting in... [ Continue Reading ]
But he giveth greater grace. The Holy Spirit which dwelleth in you, giveth you graces in proportion to your fidelity in complying with them, and according to your humility and the love which you bear to your neighbour. (Calmet) --- St. James may also mean by these two verses, to exhort the Jews and... [ Continue Reading ]
_Be subject therefore to God; humble yourselves in his sight, considering your own nothing. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Purify your heart from the love of creatures, so that your affections be not divided betwixt God and this world, like persons of two minds [3] or two souls. (Witham)_ [BIBLIOGRAPHY] Duplices animo, _Greek: dipsuchoi._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Be afflicted [4] and mourn, and deplore your sins against his divine majesty; punish yourselves, and think not that a mere change of life is sufficient after so many sins committed. (Witham)_ [BIBLIOGRAPHY] Miseri estote, _Greek: talaiporesate._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Detract not one another, (nor judge rashly) brethren. Though he spoke so much against the evils of the tongue, he give them a special admonition against the vice of detraction, so common in the world, as also against rash judgments, which happen so frequently where there are dissensions and divisio... [ Continue Reading ]
_To-day or to-morrow, &c. An admonition against that presumption, when persons forget the uncertainty of life, and the vanity of all things in this world, which vanish like a vapour, and can never be relied upon, so as to count upon years and the time to come. All things here appear and disappear in... [ Continue Reading ]
_For what is your life? it is a vapour. We frequently meet with three beautiful comparisons in holy writ. "Remember that my life is but wind....As a cloud is consumed, and passeth away; so he that shall go down to hell, shall not come up." (Job vii. 7, 9.) "Man is like to vanity, his days pass away... [ Continue Reading ]