Chapter II
1 Exhorts them against heretics.
8 The danger of their doctrine.
NOW these things, beloved, I put
you in mind of, not questioning
but that you yourselves also
believe that they are so.
2 But I arm you before-hand
against certain beasts in the shape
of men, whom you must not only
not receive, but if it be possible
must not meet with.
3 Only you must pray for them,
that if it be the will of God they
may repent; which yet will be
very hard. But of this our Lord
Jesus Christ has the power, who
is our true life.
4 For if all these things were
done only in show by our Lord,
then do I also seem only to be
bound:
5 And why have I given up myself
to death, to the fire, to the
sword, to wild beasts?
6 But now the nearer I am to
the sword, the nearer I am to
God: when I shall come among
the wild beasts, I shall come to
God.
7 Only in the name of Jesus
Christ, I undergo all, to suffer
together with him; he who was
made a perfect man strengthening,
me.
8 Whom some not knowing, do
deny; or rather have been denied
by him, being the advocates of
death, rather than of the truth.
Whom neither the prophecies, nor
the law of Moses have persuaded;
nor the Gospel itself, even to this
day; nor the sufferings of every
one of us.
9 For they think also the same
things of us. For what does a
man profit me, if he shall praise
me, and blaspheme my Lord; not
confessing that he was truly made
man?
10 Now he that doth not say
this, does in effect deny him,
and is in death. But for the names
of such as do this, they being
unbelievers, I thought it not
fitting to write them unto you.
11 Yea, God forbid that I should
make any mention of them, till
they shall repent to a true belief
of Christ’s passion, which is our
resurrection.
12 Let no man deceive himself;
both the things which are in heaven,
and the glorious angels, and princes,
whether visible or invisible, if they
believe not in the blood of Christ,
it shall be to them, unto condemnation.
13 He that is able to receive
this, let him receive it. Let no
man’s place or state in the world
puff him up: that which is worth
all his faith and charity, to it
nothing is to be preferred.
14 But consider those who are
of a different opinion from us,
as to what concerns the grace of
Jesus Christ which is come unto us,
how contrary they are to the
design of God.
15 They have no regard to charity,
no care of the widow, the fatherless,
and the oppressed; of the bond or
free, of the hungry or thirsty.
16 They abstain from the eucharist,
and from the public offices;
because they confess not the eucharist
to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus
Christ which suffered for our sins,
and which the Father of his goodness
raised again from the dead.
17 And for this cause contradicting
the gift of God, they die in their
disputes; but much better would it
be for them to receive it, that they
might one day rise through it.
18 It will therefore become you.
to abstain from such persons, and
not to speak with them, neither in
public nor in private.
19 But to hearken to the prophets,
and especially to the Gospel, in
which both Christ’s passion is
manifested unto us, and his
resurrection perfectly declared.
20 But flee all divisions, as the
beginning of evils.