itten, as he also in all his
letters speaks thereof, in which are some things hard to be
understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they also do
other Scriptures, to their own destruction._ There St. Peter bears
testimony for the Apostle Paul in respect to his doctrine, which
shows plainly enough that this Epistle was written long after St.
Paul's Epistles. And this is one of the passages which might be
adduced to maintain that this Epistle is not St. Peter's, as also
there was one before this in this chapter--namely, where he says,
"the Lord wills not that any should be lost, but that every one
should give himself to repentance." For it falls some little below
the Apostolic spirit; still it is credible that it is none the less
the Apostle's, for since herein, he is writing not of faith but of
love, he lets himself down somewhat, as the manner of love is,
inasmuch as it humbles itself toward its neighbor, just as faith
rises above itself.

But he has yet seen that many unstable spirits wrested and perverted
St. Paul in his words and doctrines, inasmuch as some things in his
Epistles are hard to be understood,--as when he speaks in this way,
"that no one is justified by works, but by faith alone;" so, too,
"the law is given to make sin more gross;" so, too, "where sin
abounded, there grace much more abounds," and more passages of the
same sort. For when men hear such, then they say, if that is true, we
will go on indolently, and do no good work, and so be righteous, as
men even now say, that we forbid good works; for if one so perverts
St. Paul's own words, what wonder is it that they should, in like
manner, pervert ours?

V. 17, 18. _But ye, my beloved, since ye know this beforehand, beware
for yourselves that ye be not led away by the error of the wicked
likewise, and fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace,
and in knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom be
praise, now and forever. Amen._ Since ye know, he says, all that has
been said above, and see that many false teachers must come, who lead
the world astray, and such scoffers as pervert the Scripture and will
not understand it, take care of yourselves; guard against them with
diligence, that ye fall not from the faith by doctrines of error; and
grow, so as to become stronger from day to day by the steadfast
practice and preaching of the word of God. Here observe how great
care the Apostle shows for those who have come to