that the trial of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes, however being tried by the fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor in the revelation of Jesus Christ:

Concerning which salvation the prophets, who prophesied concerning the grace towards you, sought out and investigated,

to whom it was revealed, because they were ministering not these things for themselves, but for you, which are now proclaimed unto you by those who preach to you the gospel with the Holy Ghost having been sent from heaven; into which things the angels desire to look down.

Therefore having girded up the loins of your minds, being perfectly sober, hope unto the grace which is conferred on you in the revelation of Jesus Christ.

but the word of the Lord abides forever. And this is the word which has been preached unto you.

Therefore to you who believe he is precious: but to the unbelievers, the stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner, and the stone of stumbling, and the rock of offence,

who stumble over the word, disbelieving: unto which they indeed were appointed.

Beloved, I exhort you as pilgrims and strangers, to abstain from the carnal desire which wars against the soul;

beholding your chaste deportment which is with reverence:

but let their beauty be the hidden man of the heart, in the purity of the meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is perfection complete.

but sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts: being always ready for an answer to every one asking you a reason for the hope which is in you, but with meekness and fear:

by which also having gone he proclaimed to the spirits in prison;

who at one time were disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, the ark being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls were saved through the water.

Which antitype baptism does even now save you, not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the seeking after a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

in which they are astonished you not running to the same excess of wrath, blaspheming;

if any one speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any one ministers, as from the strength which God supplies; in order that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ; to whom there is glory and power unto the ages of the ages. Amen.

Therefore I, being a fellow-elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, also a communicant of the glory which is about to be revealed, exhort the elders who are among you:

shepherdize the flock of God which is among you, not coercively, but willingly, for the sake of God; not for filthy lucre, but cheerfully.

and chief Shepherd having appeared, you shall receive a crown of glory which will never fade away.

Through Silvanus, the faithful brother, as I consider, I have written unto you briefly, exhorting, and witnessing that this same grace of God is true in which you may stand.