1 This is the second letter I now write to you, my brethren, by which I would awaken your sincere attention,
2 by admonishing you to be mindful of the predictions of the holy prophets, and of the directions of the apostles of our Lord and Saviour.
3 Above all things you are to know, that in these last times, impostors will appear, who will abandon themselves to their own sensual passions, whose cry will be,
4 "where is the promise of his coming? for since our fathers are dead, the state of things is the same it has ever been since the beginning of the world."
5 but they are wilfully ignorant, that the heavens were originally form'd by the divine Logos, and likewise the earth, which was separated from the water, and still subsists upon it.
6 whence the former world was destroyed by an inundation.
7 but the heavens and the earth now existing are kept in store by his Logos, reserv'd for the conflagration of doomsday, when the impious shall be involv'd in perdition.
8 But there is one thing, my brethren, you ought to be appriz'd of, which is this, that "with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."
9 the Lord does not delay the accomplishment of his promise, as some do imagine. but he waits with patience upon our account, as being unwilling that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 As for that day of the Lord, it will advance like a thief: then the heavens will rush with violence, the boiling elements will be dissolved, and the earth with all its contents, shall be burnt away.
11 Since then this whole system is to be destroyed, how holy should your conduct be, and how ardent your piety?
12 expecting, and vehemently desiring the day of the Lord would come, when the heavens all on fire shall be dissolv'd, and the elements shall melt with intense heat.
13 As for us, in consequence of his promise, we expect a new heaven, and a new earth, where justice shall reside.
14 since then, my dear brethren, your expectations are such, take care to appear before him, without any defect or blemish, in order to be happy; and be persuaded,
15 that the patience of our Lord is for your advantage: as our dear brother Paul, according to the information he receiv'd, has writ to you,
16 as it were in all his epistles, where he takes notice of these things: in which there are some passages that are difficult to understand, which the illiterate, and unstable wrest, as they do the rest of the scriptures, to their own ruin.
17 Do you then, my dear brethren, being thus forewarn'd, take care not to be seduc'd by those prophane impostors, and so lose the reward of your constancy.
18 on the contrary, may you increase in the favour, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! to him be glory both now and for ever. AMEN.