2 Peter THE SECOND EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER 2 Peter 2Pe THE SECOND EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER Simon Peter a seruant and an Apostle of Iesus Christ, to you which haue obteined like precious faith with vs by the righteousnesse of our God and Sauiour Iesus Christ:Grace and peace be multiplied to you, through the acknowledging of God, and of Iesus our Lord,According as his diuine power hath giuen vnto vs all things that perteine vnto life and godlinesse, through the acknowledging of him that hath called vs vnto glory and vertue.Whereby most great and precious promises are giuen vnto vs, that by them ye should be partakers of the diuine nature, in that ye flee the corruption, which is in the worlde through lust.Therefore giue euen all diligence thereunto: ioyne moreouer vertue with your faith: and with vertue, knowledge:And with knowledge, temperance: and with temperance, patience: and with patience, godlines:And with godlines, brotherly kindnes: and with brotherly kindnes, loue.For if these things be among you, and abound, they will make you that ye neither shalbe idle, nor vnfruitfull in the acknowledging of our Lord Iesus Christ:For he that hath not these things, is blinde, and can not see farre off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his olde sinnes.Wherefore, brethren, giue rather diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye doe these things, ye shall neuer fall.For by this meanes an entring shalbe ministred vnto you aboundantly into the euerlasting kingdome of our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ.Wherefore, I will not be negligent to put you alwayes in remembrance of these things, though that ye haue knowledge, and be stablished in the present trueth.For I thinke it meete as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stirre you vp by putting you in remembrance,Seeing I knowe that the time is at hand that I must lay downe this my tabernacle, euen as our Lord Iesus Christ hath shewed me.I will endeuour therefore alwayes, that ye also may be able to haue remembrance of these things after my departing.For we followed not deceiuable fables when we opened vnto you the power, and comming of our Lord Iesus Christ, but with our eyes we saw his maiestie:For he receiued of God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voyce to him from that excellent glory, This is my beloued Sonne, in whom I am well pleased.And this voyce we heard when it came from heauen, being with him in the Holy mount.We haue also a most sure worde of the Prophets, to the which ye doe well that yee take heede, as vnto a light that shineth in a darke place, vntill the day dawne, and the day starre arise in your hearts.So that yee first knowe this, that no prophecie of the Scripture is of any priuate interpretation.For the prophecie came not in olde time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moued by the holy Ghost. Bvt there were false prophets also among the people, euen as there shalbe false teachers among you: which priuily shall bring in damnable heresies, euen denying the Lord, that hath bought them, and bring vpon themselues swift damnation.And many shall follow their destructions, by whom the way of trueth shalbe euil spoken of,And through couetousnes shall they with fained words make marchandise of you, whose condemnation long since resteth not, and their destruction slumbreth not.For if God spared not the Angels that had sinned, but cast them downe into hell, and deliuered them into chaines of darkenes, to be kept vnto damnation:Neither hath spared the olde worlde, but saued Noe the eight person a preacher of righteousnesse, and brought in the flood vpon the world of the vngodly,And turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrhe into ashes, condemned them and ouerthrewe them, and made them an ensample vnto them that after should liue vngodly,And deliuered iust Loth vexed with the vncleanly conuersation of the wicked:(For he being righteous, and dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soule from day to day with their vnlawfull deedes.)The Lord knoweth to deliuer the godly out of tentation, and to reserue the vniust vnto the day of iudgement vnder punishment.And chiefly them that walke after the flesh, in the lust of vncleannesse, and despise gouernement, which are bolde, and stand in their owne conceite, and feare not to speake euill of them that are in dignitie.Where as the Angels which are greater both in power and might, giue not railing iudgement against them before the Lord.But these, as naturall brute beasts, led with sensualitie and made to be taken, and destroyed, speake euill of those things which they know not, and shall perish through their owne corruption,And shall receiue the wages of vnrighteousnes, as they which count it pleasure dayly to liue deliciously. Spottes they are and blottes, deliting them selues in their deceiuings, in feasting with you,Hauing eyes full of adulterie, and that can not cease to sinne, beguiling vnstable soules: they haue heartes exercised with couetousnesse, they are the children of curse:Which forsaking the right way, haue gone astray, folowing the way of Balaam, the sonne of Bosor, which loued the wages of vnrighteousnes.But he was rebuked for his iniquitie: for the dumme beast speaking with mans voyce, forbade the foolishnesse of the Prophet.These are welles without water, and cloudes caried about with a tempest, to whome the blacke darkenes is reserued for euer.For in speaking swelling wordes of vanitie, they beguile with wantonnesse through the lusts of the flesh them that were cleane escaped from them which are wrapped in errour,Promising vnto them libertie, and are themselues the seruants of corruption: for of whomsoeuer a man is ouercome, euen vnto the same is he in bondage.For if they, after they haue escaped from the filthinesse of the world, through the acknowledging of the Lord, and of the Sauiour Iesus Christ, are yet tangled againe therein, and ouercome, the latter ende is worse with them then the beginning.For it had bene better for them, not to haue acknowledged the way of righteousnes, then after they haue acknowledged it, to turne from the holy commandement giuen vnto them.But it is come vnto them, according to the true Prouerbe, The dogge is returned to his owne vomit: and, The sowe that was washed, to the wallowing in the myre. This seconde Epistle I nowe write vnto you, beloued, wherewith I stirre vp, and warne your pure mindes,To call to remembrance the wordes, which were tolde before of the holy Prophetes, and also the commandement of vs the Apostles of the Lord and Sauiour.This first vnderstande, that there shall come in the last dayes, mockers, which wil walke after their lustes,And say, Where is the promise of his comming? for since the fathers died, all things continue alike from the beginning of the creation.For this they willingly know not, that the heauens were of olde, and the earth that was of the water and by the water, by the word of God.Wherefore the worlde that then was, perished, ouerflowed with the water.But the heauens and earth, which are nowe, are kept by the same word in store, and reserued vnto fire against the day of condemnation, and of the destruction of vngodly men.Dearely beloued, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord, as a thousande yeeres, and a thousande yeeres as one day.The Lord of that promise is not slacke (as some men count slackenesse) but is pacient toward vs, and would haue no man to perish, but would all men to come to repentance.But the day of the Lord will come as a thiefe in the night, in the which the heauens shall passe away with a noyse, and the elements shall melt with heate, and the earth with the workes that are therein, shalbe burnt vp.Seeing therefore that all these thinges must be dissolued, what maner persons ought ye to be in holy conuersation and godlinesse,Looking for, and hasting vnto the comming of that day of God, by the which the heauens being on fire, shall be dissolued, and the elements shall melt with heate?But wee looke for newe heauens, and a newe earth, according to his promise, wherein dwelleth righteousnesse.Wherefore, beloued, seeing that yee looke for such thinges, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and blamelesse.And suppose that the long suffering of our Lord is saluation, euen as our beloued brother Paul according to the wisedome giuen vnto him wrote to you,As one, that in all his Epistles speaketh of these thinges: among the which some thinges are hard to be vnderstand, which they that are vnlearned and vnstable, wrest, as they do also other Scriptures vnto their owne destruction.Ye therefore beloued, seeing ye know these thinges before, beware, lest ye be also plucked away with the errour of the wicked, and fall from your owne stedfastnesse.But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ: to him be glory both now and for euermore. Amen.