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Jesus Christ; to whom belong-will be manifested; 2 feed the eth praise and dominion to the flock of God which is among ages of ages. Amen. you, being overseers of it, not by constraint, but willingly; nor for base gain, but with a ready mind; 3 nor as domineering over those alloted to you, but as being examples to the flock. 4 And, when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive an unfading crown of glory.

12 BELOVED, be not surprised at the fiery persecution among you, which cometh to pass for your trial, as though some strange thing befel you: 13 but be glad, inasmuch as ye share the sufferings of Christ; that, when his glory shall be manifested, ye may be also glad with exceeding joy.

14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye: for the spirit of glory, and of power, and of God, resteth upon you. [On their part he is evil-spoken of, but on your part|| he is glorified.] 15 For let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil-doer, or as a busy medler in other men's affairs. 16 But if any one suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this account.

5 Likewise, ye younger, be subject to the elder. Yea, all of you [be subject] one to another, and be clothed with humility: for "God resisteth the proud; but bestoweth favour on the humble."

6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: 7 having cast all your anxiety upon Him, inasmuch as He careth for you. 8 Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the impostor walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour: 9 whom resist, stedfast in the faith; knowing that the same sufferings are undergone by your brethren who are in the world.

17 For the time is come when this condemnation must begin from the house of God: and if it begin from us, what will the end be of those who believe not the gospel of God? 18 And if the righteous be scarcely pre10 NOW the God of all faserved, where will the ungodly vour, himself, who hath called and the sinner appear? 19 us to his aionian glory in Christ Wherefore let those also, who Jesus, after ye shall have sufsuffer according to the will offered a short time, prepare, God, commit the keeping of support, strengthen, [establish] their lives to him in well-doing, [you.] 11 To him be [glory and] dominion to the ages of ages. Amen.

as to a faithful creator.

CH. V. 1 THE elders that are among you I exhort, that am a fellow-elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and an heir also of the glory which

12 By Silvanus, a faithful brother to you, as I suppose, I have written in few words; exhorting you, and testifying that

this is the true favour of God 14 Salute ye one another with in which ye stand. 13 The a kiss of love. Peace be with church which is at Babylon, cho- you all who are in Christ [Jesen together with you, saluteth | sus.]

you: and so doth Mark, my son.

THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER.*

and to patience godliness, 7 and to godliness brotherly-kindness, and to brotherly-kindness love.

CHAP. I. 1 SIMON Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like 8 For these things being in precious faith with us, through you, and abounding, they will the justification of our God, make you thrive and bear fruit and of our Saviour Jesus Christ: in the knowledge of our Lord 2 favour and peace be multi- Jesus Christ. 9 But he who plied to you, through the know-hath not these things is blind, ledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.

3 SEEING that his divine power hath given us all things relating to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who hath called us by his glory and virtue: 4 (through which very great and precious promises are given to us, that through these ye might be partakers of a divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world through evil desire :) 5 now, to this end, use all diligence, and add to your faith fortitude, and to fortitude knowledge, 6 and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience,

closing his eyes, and hath forgotten his former purification from his sins.

10 Wherefore, brethren, more earnestly endeavour to make your calling and election sure: for, if ye do these things, ye will never fall: 11 for thus an entrance into the aionian kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will be richly ministered to you.

12 WHEREFORE I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things; though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. 13 Yet I think it right, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up, by

"This epistle is placed by Eusebius amongst those books of the New Testament, the ge nuineness of which was disputed in the primitive ages. Of these Dr. Lardner says, they should be allowed to be publicly read in Christian assemblies for the edification of the people, but not to be alledged as affording alone sufficient proof of any doctrine.' Lardner's Hist. of the Apostles, vol. i. ch. ii. Some have thought the first and third chapters genuine, but from the difference of style have doubted of the second." Im. Ver. note.

reminding you; 14 knowing who will privily bring in destructhat shortly I must put off this tive heresies, even denying the

my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ declared to me. 15 So I will endeavour that ye may always be able, after my decease, to make mention of these things.

sovereign Lord who bought them; bringing on themselves swift destruction. 2 (And many will follow their impurities; on account of whom the way of truth will be evil-spoken of.) 3 And 16 For we did not follow cun-through covetousness they will ningly devised fables, when we make a gain of you by their made known to you the power feigned words: but the condemand appearance of the Lord Je-nation, long since foretold, now sus Christ, but were eye-wit- lingereth not, and their destrucnesses of his majesty. 17 For tion slumbereth not. he received from God the Father honour and glory, when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory, "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well-pleased." 18 And this voice which came from heaven, we heard, when we were with him on the holy mountain.

19 We have also the word of prophecy more confirmed; to which ye do well that ye attend, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star rise in your hearts: 20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture giveth its own interpretation. 21 For prophecy came not at any time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by a holy spirit.

CH. II. 1 [Bur there were also false prophets among the Jewish people; as there will be also false teachers among you,

4 For if God spared not the angels who sinned,* but cast them down to tartarus, and delivered them up to chains of darkness to be reserved for condemnation; 5 and spared not the old world, but preserved eight persons, among whom was Noah, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought the flood on the world of ungodly men; 6 and turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, and condemned them with an utter overthrow, making them an example to those who should afterward be ungodly; 7 but delivered righteous Lot, who was grieved by the impure behaviour of lawless men: 8 (for that righteous man, while he dwelt among them seeing and hearing, tormented his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds ;) 9 so the Lord knoweth how to deliver those who are godly out of trial, and to

"Or, if God spared not the messengers who had sinned, i. e. the spies who were sent to explore the land of Canaan, etc. See Simpson's Essays, p. 205, etc. But, if the common interpretation be admitted, it will not establish the popular doctrine concerning fallen angels. For, 1. The epistle itself is of doubtful authority. 2. From the change of style this is the most doubtful portion of the epistle. 3. By those who admit the genuineness of the epistle, this chapter is supposed to have been a quotation from some ancient apocryphal book, and the apostle might not mean to give authority to the doctrine, but to argue with his readers upon known and allowed principles. See Sherlock's Diss., and Benson, and Doddridge's ¡Introductions to this epistle. The epistle of Jude is supposed to allude to, or quote from, the same apocryphal work." Im. Ver. note.

19 While they promise them freedom, they themselves are the slaves of corruption: for by whatever any one is overcome, by that he is also enslaved.

returned to his own vomit; and the sow that had washed herself, to her wallowing in the mire.”]

reserve those who are unrighte- | live in error. ous to a day of judgment to be punished: 10 but chiefly those who walk after the flesh with polluted desires, and despise dominion. Presumptuous, and selfwilled, they are not afraid to 20 For if, having escaped the speak evil of dignities: 11 where- pollutions of the world, through as angels, who are greater in the knowledge of our Lord and power and might,* bring not a Saviour Jesus Christ, they are blaspheming accusation against entangled in them again, and them [before the Lord.] 12 But | overcome, their last state is worse these, as brute creatures led by than their first. 21 For it had nature, made to be taken and been better for them not to have destroyed, blaspheming in things | known the way of righteousness, of which they are ignorant, will|than, having known it, to turn be destroyed in their corruption from the holy commandment deof themselves; 13 and will receive | livered to them. 22 But it hath the reward of unrighteousness, happened to them according to accounting it pleasure to riot in | the true proverb, “ The dog hath the day-time; blemishes and spots, rioting in their love-feasts, while they banquet with you; 14 having eyes full of adultery, and which cannot cease from sin; alluring the unstable; having a heart exercised in covetousness; cursed children, 15 who have forsaken the right path, and gone astray, and followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the reward of unrighteousness, 16 but received a rebuke for his trans-knowing this first, that great gression: the dumb beast of burden speaking with man's voice, forbad the madness of the prophet. 17 These are as wells without water, and as clouds driven away by a storm; to whom the blackness of darkness is reserved [to the age.] 18 For when they speak very great swelling words of falsehood, they allure, by carnal desires and impurities, those who had nearly escaped from such as

CH. III. 1 THIS second epistle, beloved, I now write to you; in both which I stir up your pure understanding by reminding you; 2 that ye may remember the words formerly spoken by the holy prophets, and the commandment of us the apostles of our Lord and Saviour: S

scoffers will come in the latter days, walking after their own evil desires, 4 and saying, "Where is the promise of his appearance? for, since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation."

5 For of this they are wilfully ignorant, that the heavens were made of old by the word of God, and the earth also,

* See the note on ver. 4. Compare also Jude, ver. 9.

which standeth out of the water and in the water: 6 which things being so, the world that then was, having been overflowed with water, was destroyed. 7 But the heavens and the earth which are now, are reserved by his word, and are kept for fire at a day of condemnation, and of the destruction of ungodly men.

8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing; that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is long-suffering towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in which day, the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be greatly heated and dissolved, the earth also and the works on it will be burned up.

vens will be set on fire* and will be dissolved, and the elements will be greatly heated and will melt? 13 Nevertheless, according to his promise, we look for new heavens, and a new earth, in which righteousness will dwell.

14 WHEREFORE, beloved, since ye look for these things, endeavour to be found by him in peace, spotless and unreprovable: 15 and account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation: as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given him, hath written to you; 16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things: of which things some are hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unsteadfast wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction.

17 Since therefore, beloved, ye know these things before, beware lest ye be led away with the error of the wicked, and 11 Since therefore all these fall from your own steadfastness. things will be dissolved, what 18 But grow in the favour and kind of persons ought ye to be knowledge of our Lord and Sain all holy behaviour and godli-viour Jesus Christ. To him be ness; 12 looking for and earn- glory, both now and to the day estly desiring the coming of the of the age. [Amen.] day of God, in which the hea

"This in a literal sense is impossible, because the heavens are incombustible. Nor is it reasonable to believe that an event so little countenanced by natural appearances as that of the destruction of the earth by a general conflagration, is the subject of a divine prediction. It is well known that in the language of prophecy great political changes and revolutions are foretold under the symbol of terrible convulsions in the natural world. In this language our Lord foretells the approaching desolation of Jerusalem, Matt. xxiv. 29. And in language precisely similar, borrowed indeed from the prophet Joel, the apostle Peter himself, Acts ii. 31, describes the calamities of the Jewish nation which were then impending. It can hardly admit of a doubt that the sublime language of this context is to be interpreted in a similar manner. The 13th verse is a quotation from Isaiah lxv. 17, where the new heavens and the new earth are universally understood to signify the gospel dispensation. Consequently, "the heavens and the earth which are now," ver. 7, must necessarily signify the Jewish dispensation, or the then moral state of the world, which must pass away to make room for the promulgation of the Christian religion. But this revolution cannot take place without producing great changes and convulsions in the political world; which, in prophetic language, is expressed by the heavens being on fire, the elements melting, and the earth with the works on it being burned up." Im.

Ver. note.

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