have become the leaders of a detestable emulation. For we shall incur no slight injury, but rather great danger, if we rashly yield ourselves to the inclinations of men who aim at exciting strife and tumults, so as to draw us away from what is good. Let us be kind one to another after the pattern of the tender mercy and benignity of our Creator. For it is written, "The kind-hearted shall inhabit the land, and the guiltless shall be left upon it, but transgressors shall be destroyed from off the face of it."[1] And again [the Scripture] saith, "I saw the ungodly highly exalted, and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon: I passed by, and, behold, he was not; and I diligently sought his place, and could not find it. Preserve innocence, and look on equity: for there shall be a remnant to the peaceable man."[2]
Chap. xv.—We must adhere to those who cultivate peace, not to those who merely pretend to do so.
Let us cleave, therefore, to those who cultivate peace with godliness, and not to those who hypocritically profess to desire it. For [the Scripture] saith in a certain place, "This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me."[3] And again: "They bless with their mouth, but curse with their heart."[4] And again it saith, "They loved Him with their mouth, and lied to Him with their tongue; but their heart was not right with Him, neither were they faithful in His covenant."[5] "Let the deceitful lips become silent,"[6] [and "let the Lord destroy all the lying lips,[7]] and the boastful tongue of those who have said. Let us magnify our tongue; our lips are our own; who is lord over us? For the oppression of the poor, and for the sighing
- ↑ Prov. ii. 21, 22.
- ↑ Ps. xxxvii. 35–37. "Remnant" probably refers either to the memory or posterity of the righteous.
- ↑ Isa. xxix. 13; Matt. xv. 8; Mark vii. 6.
- ↑ Ps. lxii. 4.
- ↑ Ps. lxxviii. 36, 37.
- ↑ Ps. xxxi. 18.
- ↑ These words within brackets are not found in the MS., but have been inserted from the Septuagint by most editors.
