ther God will be gracious to me and will forgive
my sins?" and they remain forever in such doubt, "who knows it,--who
knows it?" and their conscience is never at peace. The longer they
thus continue, the more terrible is death to them; for death cannot
first be subdued, till sin and an evil conscience have been taken
away. So will their condemnation come upon them hastily, so that they
must abide in eternal death.

V. 2. _And many shall follow their destruction._ It may be seen
before our eyes, that it has come to pass just as St. Peter first
declared. There has been not a father or mother who has not wished to
have a priest, monk, or nun, from among their children. Thus one fool
has made another; for when people have seen the misfortune and misery
that are found in the marriage state, and have not known that it is a
safe estate, they have wished to do the best for their children, to
help them to a happy life and freedom from wretchedness. So that St.
Peter has foretold here nothing else but just that the world should
become full of priests, monks, and nuns. Thus youth, and the best
that are in the world, have run with the multitude to the devil. St.
Peter says it, alas! only too truly, that many should follow them to
this destruction.

_By whom the way of truth shall be blasphemed._ This, too, is a thing
that may be seen before our eyes. To blaspheme is to libel, damn, and
curse; as when one condemns the christian estate as error and heresy.
If one now should preach and say that their course is against the
Gospel, because they lead men away from faith to works, then they go
about and cry, "Thou art cursed, thou leadest the world astray." And
they blaspheme even yet more, in perverting what Christ has said, and
saying no! to it. As when they, out of that which Christ has bidden,
make nothing but a story, so that they forbid what Christ would have
left free, and make that sin which He makes none, besides condemning
and burning whoever preaches against it. The way of truth is a
well-ordered life and walk, in which there is no fraud nor hypocrisy,
such as that faith is in which all Christians walk. This they cannot
bear; they blaspheme and condemn it, so as to praise and sustain
their Order and sect.

V. 3. _And through avarice, with feigned words shall they make
merchandise of you._ This is specially the way of all false teachers,
that they preach from avarice, that they may fill their belly, just
as we see that