1   Simon Peter seruant and Apostle of Iesvs Christ, to them that haue obtained equal faith vvith vs in the iustice of our God and Sauiour Iesvs Christ.

2   Grace to you and peace be accomplished in the knovvledge of God and Christ Iesvs our Lord:

3   as al things of his diuine povver vvhich pertaine to life and godlines, are giuen vs by the knovvledge of him vvhich hath called vs by his ovvne propre glorie and vertue, by vvhom he hath giuen vs most great and pretious promises: that by these you may be

made partakers of the diuine nature, fleeing the corruption of that concupiscence vvhich is in the vvorld.

5   And you employing al care, minister ye in your faith, vertue: and in vertue, knovvledge:

6   and in knovvledge, abstinence: and in abstinence, patience: and in patience, pietie:

7   and in pietie, loue of the fraternitie: and in the loue of the fraternitie, charitie.

8   For if these things be present vvith you, & abound: they shal make you not vacant, nor vvithout fruite in the knovvledge of our Lord Iesvs Christ.

9   For he that hath not these things ready, is blinde, and groping vvith his h&abar;d, hauing forgotten the purging of his old sinnes.

10   Vvherfore, brethren, labour the more that09Q1459 by good vvorkes you may make sure your vocation and election. for, doing these things, you shal not sinne at any time.

11   For so there shal be ministred to you aboundantly an entrance into the euerlasting kingdom of our Lord and Sauiour Iesvs Christ.

12   For the vvhich cause I wil begin to admonish you alvvaies of these things: and you in deede knovving & being confirmed in the present truth.

13   But I thinke it meete as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stirre you vp by admonition:

14   being certaine that the laying avvay of my tabernacle is at hand, according as our Lord Iesvs Christ also signified to me.

15   And I vvil doe my diligence, you to haue often 09Q1460 after my decease also, that you may keepe a memorie of these things.

16    ^noteFor, not hauing folovved vnlearned fables, haue vve made the povver and ^note presence of our Lord Iesvs Christ knovven to you: but ^note made beholders of his greatenesse.

17   For, ^note he receiuing from God his father honour and glorie, this maner of voice comming dovvne to him from the magnifical glorie, This is my beloued sonne in vvhom I haue pleased my self, heare him.

18   And this voice vve heard brought from heauen, vvhen vve vvere vvith him in the ^note holy mounte.

19   And we haue the prophetical vvord more sure: vvhich you doe vvel attending vnto, as to a candel shining in a darke place, vntil the day davvne, and the day starre arise in your hartes: &cross4;

20   vnderstanding this first that no prophecie of scripture is made by09Q1461 priuate interpretation.

21   For, ^note not by mans vvil vvas prophecie brought at any time: but the holy men of God spake, inspired vvith the holy Ghost.

^{note note}

^note Chap. II. At not onely Prophets, but also false-prophets vvere in the old Testament, so novv likevvise there shal be Maisters of Heresie, to the damnation of them selues, and of their folovvers. 4 And of their damnation he pronounceth by examples (as he comforteth the vertuous Catholikes or true beleeuers vvith the example of Lot) because of their railing at their Superiors and Prelates, their blaspheming of Catholike doctrine, their voluptuous liuing, their lecherie, their couetousnes, their maner of seducing, and the persons seduced, 20 for vvhom it had been lesse damnable, if they had neuer been Christians.

1   Bvt there vvere also false-prophets in the people, as also in you there ^note shal be lying maisters vvhich shal bring in sectes of perdition, & denie him that hath bought them, ^note the Lord: bringing vpon them selues speedie perdition.

2   And ^note many shal folovv their riotousnesses, by vvhom the vvay of truth shal be blasphemed.

3   and in auarice shal they ^note vvith feined vvordes make merchandise of you. vnto vvhom the iudgement novv long since ceaseth not: and their perdition slumbereth not.

4   For if God spared not Angels sinning: but with the ropes of Hel being dravven dovvne into Hel deliuered them to be tormented, that they should be reserued vnto iudgem&ebar;t:

5   & he spared not the original vvorld, but ^note kept the eight, Noë, the preacher of iustice, bringing in the deluge vpon the vvorld of the impious.

6   And ^note bringing the cities of the Sodomites and of the Gomorrheites into ashes, he damned them vvith subuersion, putting an example of them that shal doe impiously:

7   and ^note deliuered iust Lot oppressed by the iniurie and luxurious conuersation of the

abominable men.

8   for in sight and ^note hearing he vvas iust: dvvelling vvith them vvho from day to day vexed the iust soule vvith vniust vvorkes.

9   Our Lord knovveth to deliuer the godly from tentation, but to reserue the vniust vnto the day of iudgement to be tormented: ^note

10   and especially them vvhich vvalke after the flesh in concupiscence of vncleannesse, and c&obar;temne dominion, bold, self-pleasers: they feare not to bring in sectes, blaspheming.

11   Vvhereas Angels being greater in strength and povver, beare not the execrable iudgem&ebar;t ^note against them.

12   But these men as vnreasonable beastes, naturally tending to the snare and into destruction, ^note in those things vvhich they know not, blaspheming, shal perish in their corruption,

13   receiuing the revvard of iniustice, esteeming for a pleasure the delightes of a day: ^note coinquinations and spottes, flovving in delicacies, in their feastings rioting vvith you,

14   hauing eies ful of adulterie and incessant sinne: alluring vnstable soules, hauing their hart exercised vvith auarice, the children of malediction:

15   leauing the right vvay they haue erred, hauing folovved the vvay of Balaam of Bosor, vvhich loued the revvard of iniquitie,

16   but ^note had a checke of his madnesse. the dumme beast vnder the yoke, speaking vvith mans voice, prohibited the folishnes of the prophet.

17   These are fountaines vvithout vvater, and cloudes, tossed vvith vvhirlevvindes, to vvhom the mist of darkenesse is reserued.

18   For, speaking the proud things of vanitie, they allure in the desires of fleshly riotousnes, those that escape a litle, vvhich conuerse in errour,

19    ^notepromising them libertie, vvhereas them selues are the slaues of corruption. for ^note vvherevvith a man is ouercome: of that he is the slaue also.

20   For if fleeing from the coinquinations of the vvorld in the knovvledge of our Lord and Sauiour Iesvs Christ, they againe intangled vvith the same be ouercome: ^note the later things are become vnto them vvorse then the former.

21   For it vvas better for them not to knovv the vvay of iustice, then after the knovvledge, to turne backe from that holy c&obar;maundement vvhich vvas deliuered to them.

22   For, that of the true prouerbe is chaunced to them, ^note The dogge returned to his vomite: and, The sovve vvashed ^note into her vvallovving in the mire.

Chap. III. These tvvo Epistles he vvriteth to confirme them in the Apostles doctrine, and vvarneth them of scorners that shal come, and denie Domesday. 5 Whose vaine argument he ansvvereth, and giueth the reason of Gods so long patience, 10 exhorting to al holines of life in respect of that terrible day. 16 Finally giuing vvarning of such as misinterprete S. Paules Epistles & the other Scriptures, and that vve must not for any thing fall from the true faith.

1   This loe the second epistle I vvrite to you my deerest, ^note in vvhich I stirre vp by admonition your sincere minde:

2   that you may be mindeful of those vvordes vvhich I told you before from the holy Prophetes, and of your Apostles, of the preceptes of our Lord and Sauiour.

3   Knovving this first, that ^note in the last daies shal come mockers in deceit, vvalking according to their ovvne concupiscences,

4   saying, Vvhere is his promise or his c&obar;ming? For since the time that the fathers slept, al things do so perseuêre from the beginning of creature.

5   for they are vvilfully ignorant of this, that the heauens vvere before, & the earth, out of vvater, and through vvater, consisting by the vvord of God:

6   by the vvhich, that vvorld then, being ouerflovved vvith vvater perished.

7   But the heauens vvhich novv are, & the earth, are by the same word kept in store, reserued to fire vnto the day of iudgem&ebar;t & of the perdition of the impious men.

8   But this one thing be not ignor&abar;t of, my deerest, that ^note one day with our Lord is as a thousand yeres, & a thousand yeres as one day.

9   Our Lord slacketh not his promis, as some do esteeme it: but he doth patiently for you, ^note not vvilling that any perish, but that al returne to penance.

10   And ^note the day of our Lord shal come as a theefe in the vvhich the heauens shal passe vvith great violence, but the elementes shal be resolued vvith heate, and the earth and the vvorkes vvhich are in it, shal be burnt.

11   Therfore vvhereas al these thinges are to be dissolued: vvhat maner of men ought you to be in holy conuersations and godlinesses,

12   expecting and hasting vnto the c&obar;ming of the day of our Lord, by vvhich the heauens burning shal be resolued, and the elementes shal melt vvith the heate of fire?

13   But vve expect ^note nevv heauens and a nevv earth according

to his promises, in vvhich iustice inhabiteth.

14   For the vvhich cause my deerest, expecting these things, labour earnestly to be found immaculate and vnspotted to him in peace:

15   and ^note the longanimitie of our Lord, do ye account saluation, as also our most deere brother Paul according to the vvisdom giuen him hath vvritten to you:

16   as also in al epistles, speaking in them of these things, in the vvhich are09Q1462 certaine things hard to be vnderstoode, vvhich the vnlearned and vnstable depraue, as also the rest of the Scriptures, to their ovvne perdition.

17   You therfore brethr&ebar;, foreknovving, take heede lest ledde aside by the errour of the vnwise you fal away from your owne stedfastnes.

18   but grovv in grace and in knovvledge of our Lord and sauiour Iesvs Christ. To him be glorie both novv and vnto the day of eternitie. Amen. ^note

THE ARGVMENT OF S. IOHNS THREE EPISTLES.

Of S. Iohn vvas said in the Argument before his Gospel. Novv here folovv his three Epistles: one to al Catholikes (though ^note some auncients do cal it, Ad Parthos:) the other tvvo being very short, vnto a certaine Ladie, & to one Gaius. The effect of al is, to vvitnes vnto them the certaintie of the Catholike faith, and to exhort them to continue still in it: also to loue the Catholike Church. and so, neither to become heretikes, nor Schismatikes: but rather to auoid al such, as the forerunners of Antichrist, and to remember, that Catholikes neede not to goe to schole to any such Masters, hauing at home in the Catholike Church, the doctrine of the holy Ghost him self, vvho vvas giuen to the Church visibly in the beginning, to leade her into al truth, and to continue vvith her for euer. Therfore he saith: That vvhich you haue heard from the beginning, let it abide in you. ^note Likevvise a litle after. v. 27. and ep. 2. v. 6. This is the commaundement, that as you haue heard from the beginning, you vvalke in the same, because many seducers are gone out into the vvorld. and v. 8. & 9.

And not only thus in general, but also in particular he expresseth the pointes vvhich the heretikes did then call in question. Some vvere about Christ him self. for they denied that Iesvs is Christ, that he is the very sonne of God, that he is incarnate. Ep. 1. c. 2. v. 22. and Ep. 2. v. 7. And against such it vvas that he vvrote his Gospel also, as he there signifieth. Ioh. 20. v. 31. Other pointes are about our iustification, against onely faith, and for good vvorkes, as also S. Aug. noted, vvhose vvordes vvere cited before. ^note Herevpon he saith: If vve say vve haue societie vvith God, and vvalke in darkenes, vve lie. Ep. 1. c. 1. ^note Againe, He that saith he knovveth God, and keepeth not his commaundements, is a lier. Againe, This is the charitie of God, that vve keepe his c&obar;maundements, and his commaundements are not heauie. Finally, Children let no man seduce you, he that doth iustice, is iust, euen as he is iust. Ep. 1. c. 3. v. 7. 8. 9. likevvise c. 2. v. 29. and in deede in all the three Epistles through out, he doth inculcate good vvorkes and keeping the commaundements, against the heresie of only faith.

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