By which he hath given us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these, having escaped the corruption which is in the world thro' desire, ye may become partakers of the divine nature:

And we have the word of prophecy more confirmed, to which ye do well that ye take heed, as to a lamp that shone in a dark place, till the day should dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts:

This second epistle, beloved, I now write to you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance,

That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: Knowing this first,

Thro' which the world that then was, being overflowed with water perished.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up.

As also in all his epistles, speaking therein of these things, in which are some things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction.