e teachings of men, should
destroy faith entirely. For he clearly saw what a cruel trial there
would yet be in the world, as had even then already begun; as St.
Paul says, II. Thes. ii., "The mystery of iniquity already works."

Thus is this Epistle written as a warning for us, that we prove our
faith by our good works, and yet that we trust not to our works.

CHAPTER I.

V. 1. _Simon Peter, a servant and Apostle of Jesus Christ, to those
who have attained like faith with us, in the righteousness which our
God gives, and our Saviour, Jesus Christ._ Such is the subscription
and the superscription of this Epistle, that we may know who writes
it, and to whom he writes it, even to those who have heard the word
of God and abide in the faith. But what sort of a faith is this? In
the righteousness (says he) which God gives. Thus he grants
justification to faith alone,--as St. Paul, also, in Rom. i. In the
Gospel is that righteousness revealed which avails with God, which
comes from faith; as it stands written: "The just shall live by
faith." Thus St. Peter would admonish them that they should be armed,
and not let the doctrine of faith be torn away, which they have now
apprehended and thoroughly known.

And to this end he adjoins, _in the righteousness which God gives_,
that he may separate from it all human righteousness. For by faith
alone are we righteous before God; wherefore faith is called a
righteousness of God, for with the world it is of no account; yea, it
is even condemned.

V. 2. _Grace and peace be multiplied among you, through the knowledge
of God and Jesus Christ our Lord._ This is the greeting usually
prefixed to the Epistles; and it amounts to this: I wish you, in
place of my service for you, to increase in grace and peace, and grow
ever richer and richer in the grace which comes from the knowledge of
God and the Lord Christ,--that is, which none can have but he who has
the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ.

The Apostles, and the prophets also, in the Scripture, are ever
setting forth the knowledge of God. As Isaiah, xi: "They shall not
injure or destroy in my whole mountain, for the land is filled with
the knowledge of God, as the land is covered with the water." That
is, so overflowingly shall the knowledge of God break forth, as when
a mass of water gushes up and rushes forth and swallows up a whole
land.

Thence shall such peace then follow, that no one shall wrong another,
or make him