rned to ashes, so shall these also be destroyed at
the last day.

V. 7. _And rescued righteous Lot who was troubled greatly by the
libertine course of the wicked._ Was it not a great aggravation that
they not only rushed publicly and shamelessly into whoredom and
adultery, but into such sins as may not be mentioned,--insomuch that
they did not even spare the angels who came to Lot, and they rushed
on thus in their course, both young and old, in all the corners of
the city! Against this, righteous Lot had daily preached and warned
them, but all in vain, except that he is vexed by them, since he must
stand still yet cannot smooth over the evil, just as is the case with
us now, for there is no more hope to reform or help this grievous
course of life that the world leads.

V. 8. _For while that righteous man dwelt among them, since he must
see and hear it all, they vexed his righteous soul from day to day,
by their ungodly deeds._ Here Peter describes the cross which this
holy man must have borne, while he preached to the people and brought
up his daughters in faith; and so it is accounted toward him by God.
Now St. Peter decides how the godless shall be kept for punishment at
the last day.

V. 9, 10. _The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of
temptation, but to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment to be
punished, but especially those that walk after the flesh in the lust
of uncleanness._ This is certainly deep passion and earnestness in
the Apostle. If God spared not (says he) the young new world, how
much more severely and fearfully will he now punish those to whom the
Gospel has been revealed and preached, and before which no such great
light has arisen; as Christ also declares, Matt. xi., "Woe to thee,
Capernaum, who art exalted even to heaven! thou shalt be thrust down
to hell; for if the deeds that have been done in thee had been done
in Sodom, it had been standing at this day; for I say unto you, it
shall be more tolerable for Sodom in that day than for you." But such
threatening is in vain. The godless do not turn themselves for it.

To live in the lust of uncleanness is to live just like an
unreasoning beast--according to mere sense and every kind of lust. So
everything is ordered by the Pope, ordered as it has pleased him, and
all must subserve their wilfulness and tyranny; and they have warped
and explained all just as it has pleased them, and thereupon said,
"the holy See at Rome cannot er