Matthew Poole and continuators on James 1:2

2 My brethren , count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations .

Both as being of the same Nation, and the same Religion; so he calls them, that the kindness of his Compellation might sweeten his Exhortations.

Esteem it so by a spiritual Judgment, tho the Flesh judg otherwise.

Matter of the chiefest Joy, viz. spiritual. So all is taken, 1 Tim. 1.15.

When you are so beset, and circumvented by them, that there is no escaping them, but they come upon you, though by the Direction of God's Providence, yet not by your own seeking.

So he calls Afflictions from God's end in them, which is to try and discover what is in Men, and whether they will cleave to him, or not▪ The Iews were hated by other Nations, and the Christian Iews even by their own, and therefore were exposed to divers Afflictions, and of divers kinds, 1 Pet. 1.6.

Marginal references: Matth. 5.12. Acts 5.41. [illegible: 1 letter]eb. 10.34.