The first Chapter.
Simon Peter a servant and an Apostle of Iesus Christ, to them which
have obtained like precious faith with us in the righteousness that
cometh of our God, and of the saviour Iesus Christ.
Grace with you, and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God, and of
Iesus our lord. According as his godly power hath given unto us all
things that pertain unto life and to serve God with all, thorow the
knowledge of him that hath called us by virtue and glory, by the means
whereof, are given unto us excellent and most great promises, that by
the help of them ye should be part takers of the godly nature, in that
ye fly the corruption of worldly lust.
And hereunto give all diligence: in your faith minister virtue, and in
virtue knowledge, and in knowledge temperancy, and in temperancy
patience, in patience godliness, in godliness brotherly kindness, in
brotherly kindness love. For if these things be among you, and are
plenteous, they will make you that ye neither shall be idle nor
unfruitful unto the knowledge of the our lord Iesus Christ. He that
lacketh these things is blind and gropeth for the way with his hand,
and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
Wherefore brethren give the more diligence for to make your calling and
election sure. For if ye do such things, ye shall never err. Yee and by
this means an entering in shall be ministered unto you abundantly into
the everlasting kingdom of our lord and saviour Iesus Christ.
Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you allways in remembrance of
such things, though that ye know them yourselves and be also stablished
in the present truth. Notwithstanding I think it mete (as long as I am
in this tabernacle) to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, for
as much as I am sure how that the time is at hand that I must put off
this my tabernacle, even as our lord Iesus Christ hath shewed me. I
will enforce therefore, that on every side ye might have wherewith to
stir up the remembrance of these things after my departing.
For we followed not deceivable fables when we opened unto you the
power, and coming of our lord Iesus Christ: but with our eyes we saw
his majesty. Even then verily when he received of God the father honour
and glory, and when there came such a voice to him from that excellent
glory. This is my dear beloved son, in whom I have delight, this voice
we heard when it came from heaven, being with him in the holy mount.
We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto if ye take heed,
as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, ye do well, until the day
dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. So that ye first know this,
that no prophecy in the scripture hath any private interpretation. For
the scripture came never by the will of man: but wholy men of God spake
as they were moved by the wholy ghost.
The .ij. Chapter.
There were false prophets among the people even as there shall be false
teachers among you: which privily shall bring in damnable sects, even
denying the lord that hath bought them, and bring on their own heads
swift damnation, and many shall follow their damnable ways, by which
the way of truth shall be evil spoken of, and thorow covetousness shall
they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment is not
far off, and their damnation sleepeth not.
For if God spared not the angels that sinned but cast them down into
hell, and put them in chains of darkness, there to be kept unto
judgement: neither spared the old world: but saved Noah the eighte
preacher of righteousness, and brought in the flood into the world of
the ungodly, and turned the cities of Zodom and Gomor into ashes:
overthrew them, damned them, and made of them an ensample unto all that
after should live ungodly. And just Lot vexed with the uncleanly
conversation of the wicked, delivered he. For he being righteous and
dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul
from day to day with their unrighteous deeds. The lord knoweth how to
deliver the godly out of temptation, and how to reserve the unjust unto
the day of judgment for to be punished: namely them that walk after the
flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise the rulers. Presumptuous
are they, and stubborn and fear not to speak evil of them that are in
authority. When the angels which are greater both in power and might,
receive not of the lord railing judgement against them. But these as
brute beasts, naturally made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of
that they know not, and shall perish through their own destruction, and
receive the reward of unrighteousness.
They count it pleasure to live deliciously for a season. Spots they are
and filthiness: and of you they make a mockingstock feasting together
in their deceivable ways: having eyes full of advoutry, and that cannot
cease to sin, beguiling unstable souls. Hearts they have exercised with
covetousness. They are cursed children, and have forsaken the right
way, and are gone astray following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor,
which loved the reward of unrighteousness: but was rebuked of his
iniquity. The tame and dumb beast, speaking with man's voice forbade
the foolishness of the prophet.
These are wells without water, and clouds carried about of a tempest,
to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. For when they have
spoken the swelling words of vanity, they beguile with wantonness
thorow the lusts of the flesh them that were clean escaped: but now are
wrapped in errors. They promise them liberty, and are them selves the
bondservants of corruption. For of whomsoever a man is overcome, unto
the same is he in bondage. For if they, after they have escaped from
the filthiness of the world thorow the knowledge of the lord, and of
the saviour Iesus Christ, they are yet tangled again therein and
overcome: then is the latter end worse with them than the beginning.
For it had been better for them, not to have known the way of
righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn from the holy
commandment given unto them. It is happened unto them according to the
true proverb: The dog is turned to his vomit again, and the sow after
she is washed, is returned to her wallowing in the mire.
The .iij. Chapter.
This is the second pistel that I now write unto you, my derly beloved,
wherewith I stir up and warn your pure minds, to call to remembrance
the words which were told before of the holy prophets, and also the
commandment of us the apostles of the lord and saviour.
This first understand, that there shall come in the last days mockers,
which will walk after their own lusts and say: Where is the promise of
his coming? For since the fathers died all things continue in the same
estate wherein they were at the beginning. This they know not (and that
willingly) how that the heavens a great while ago were, and the earth
that was in the water, appeared up out of the water by the word of God:
by the which things the world that then was perished overflowen with
the flood. But the heavens verily and earth which are now, are kept by
the same word in store, and reserved unto fire, against the day of
judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
Derely beloved be not ignorant of this one thing, how that one day is
with the lord, as a thousand year, and a thousand year as one day. The
lord is not slack to fulfil his promise as some men count slackness:
but is patient to us ward and would have no man lost, but would receive
all men to repentance. Nevertheless the day of the lord will come as a
thief in the night, in the which day, the heavens shall perish with
terrible noise, and the elements shall melt with heat, and the earth
with the works that are therein shall burn.
If all these things shall perish, what manner persons ought ye to be in
holy conversation, and godliness: looking for, and hasting unto the
coming of the day of God, in which the heavens shall perish with fire,
and the elements shall be consumed with heat. Nevertheless we look for
a new heaven, and a new earth, according to his promise, wherein
dwelleth righteousness.
Wherefore derly beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be
diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and
undefiled: And suppose that the long suffering of the lord is health,
even as our derely beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given
unto him, wrote to you, yee, almost in every pistel speaking of such
things: among which are many things hard to be understood, which they
that are unlearned, and unstable pervert, as they do other scriptures
unto their own destruction. Ye therefore beloved seeing ye are warned,
Beware lest ye be also plucked away with the error of the wicked, and
[fall from your] own steadfastness: but grow in grace, and in the
knowledge of our lord, and saviour Iesus Christ. To whom be glory both
now and for ever, Amen.