by the means whereof are given unto us excellent and most great promises; that by the help of them ye should be partakers of the godly nature, in that ye flee the corruption of worldly lust.

For if these things be among you, and are plenteous, they will make you that ye neither shall be idle nor unfruitful in the knowledge of the our Lord Jesus Christ.

namely, them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise the rulers. Presumptuous are they, and stubborn, and fear not to speak evil of them that are in authority;

when the angels, which are greater both in power and might, receive not of the Lord railing judgment against them.

and receive the reward of unrighteousness. They count it pleasure to live deliciously for a season. Spots they are, and filthiness, living at pleasure, and in deceitful ways feasting with you:

having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease to sin, beguiling unstable souls. Hearts they have exercised with covetousness. They are cursed children,

and have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, which loved the reward of unrighteousness:

These are wells without water, and clouds carried about of a tempest, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever.

For when they have spoken the swelling words of vanity, they beguile with wantonness through the lusts of the flesh them that were clean escaped: but now are wrapped in errors.

They promise them liberty, and are themselves the bondservants of corruption. For of whomsoever a man is overcome, unto the same is he in bondage.

For if they, after they have escaped from the filthiness of the world through the knowledge of the Lord, and of the saviour Jesus Christ, they are yet tangled again therein and overcome: then is the latter end worse with them than the beginning.

But the heavens verily and earth which are now, are kept by the same word in store, and reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

Nevertheless, the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which day, the heavens shall perish with terrible noise, and the elements shall melt with heat, and the earth, with the works that are therein, shall burn.

yea, almost in every epistle, speaking of such things: among which are many things hard to be understood: which they that are unlearned and unstable pervert, as they do other scriptures, unto their own destruction.