James 1:23

For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

Ver. 23. His natural face] Gr. the face of his nativity, that wherewith he was born into the world. Pythagoras wished his scholars often to view themselves in a glass, that if they were well-favoured, they might likewise be well-conditioned; as if otherwise, they might make it up in virtue.

" Si mihi difficilis formam natura negavit,

Ingenio formae damna rependo meae. "

Ovid. Epist.

The law is a crystal glass, wherein a man may soon see his spiritual deformities, and be advertised of his duty. See Trapp on " Jam 1:25 "