Part 16 (1/2)

V. 17. _They are wells without water, and clouds driven about by the whirlwind._ In like manner Solomon presents us a comparison, in Prov.

xxv., and says, ”As when a great cloud and strong wind go forth, and yet no rain follows, so is a man who makes high boastings of himself, and does not make good his words.” So Peter says here, also, _they are wells without water, and clouds driven about by the whirlwind_; that is, they make great show, and have nothing beside. They are like the dry, false and exhausted wells, although they have the fame and t.i.tle of being true wells. For Scripture calls those who teach, wells, as the ones from whom should flow that wholesome doctrine by which souls are to be quickened. To this office are they anointed and set apart. But what do they do? Nothing, as a general thing; for they have nothing else but just the bare name, just as they are called shepherds, and yet are wolves.

Besides, they are the clouds which the wind drives about--not like the thick, black and lowering clouds which are wont to give us rain, but like those fleecy ones which move about and fly in the air, and are very light, which the wind drives wherever it will, after which no rain can follow. So our teachers also sweep about and move high in Christendom, like the clouds in heaven, but let themselves be driven about wherever the devil chooses, to whom they are ready to yield in all kinds of l.u.s.ts. But yet they preach not a word of G.o.d, like true teachers and preachers, who are called clouds in Scripture (as Is.

v.),--as also by all that gives forth water, preachers are typified in Scripture.

_For whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever._ They live now at their ease, and things go with them just as they themselves would have them. But there shall come an eternal darkness upon them, although they do not believe nor apprehend it.

V. 18. _For they speak in swelling words, which have nothing back of them._ If you ask how they may be called wells without water, and clouds without rain, while they yet preach throughout the whole world, St. Peter answers: they rain and preach, alas! altogether too much; but they are only vain, swollen and puffed-up words, by which they blow the poor people's ears full, so that men think it is something fine; and yet it is nothing but show. Just as the monks, with high, bold words, set forth their obedience, poverty and chast.i.ty, so that men think they are a holy people, while yet it is nothing but mere trickery, and certainly no faith nor love can be found among it. Like this, also, is their pretence that the estate of bishops is a more perfect estate, while these yet do nothing else but ride about pompously on their fine horses, and now and then consecrate churches and altars, and baptise bells. Such puffed-up and swollen words are the whole spiritual law of the Pope, throughout.

_And they allure, through guile, to the l.u.s.t of the flesh, those who had well-nigh escaped, and now they walk in error._ This is what these wells and teachers do, so that they who were almost escaped must fall into the snare of wickedness, and for the first time be truly captured. A child that has been baptised, rescued from all sins, s.n.a.t.c.hed from the devil and set out from Adam into Christ, when he comes to reason is soon entangled and led away into error. Men should be taught of faith, and love, and the holy cross, while our clergy go their own way, throw up their work whereby these persons fall back again into error, even though they had escaped it. But how does this come to pa.s.s? Thus: in that by guile they allure the people to the l.u.s.t of the flesh. Their strongest persuasion is in their saying that priests, monks and nuns should not be married, and should bind themselves to maintain chast.i.ty, by which they do no more than allure to unchast.i.ty, forasmuch as the wretched people must perish in their wicked l.u.s.ts, and there is nothing to help them.

But here you clearly see that Peter speaks of none other than teachers who bear rule in Christendom, where men are baptised and believers,--for among the Turks and heathen, no one has so escaped; it is only among Christians, where they have the chance to lead souls astray, and bring them into the snare of the devil.

V. 19. _And they promise them freedom, while they themselves are the servants of corruption, for of whom any one is overcome, his servant has he become._ They set up Orders by which a man is to be saved,--as Thomas, the monk preacher, has shamelessly written, that when a man shall enter into one of these Orders, be it as vile as it may, it is as though he had but just come forth from his baptism; and then they promise him freedom and forgiving of sins by works of his own. Such blasphemy must we hear, while they set their human fancies and ludicrous conceits, dest.i.tute of faith, on a level with faith and baptism which G.o.d has established, and which are peculiarly his work.

Who is to endure this and still keep silent? Such stories have the monks gotten up, and they cram them into the young; and such teachers as these men have set up for saints. But the other saints, truly such, they have burnt to ashes.

V. 20. _For if they have escaped the pollution of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, but shall be again entangled and overcome in the same, their last end is worse for them than the first._ There Peter shows why they are the servant of corruption. To confess Christ is to know what he is, even our Saviour, who forgives us our sins from pure grace. By this confession we escape the vice and come out from the pollution of the world. But though they should already have been delivered from sin in baptism, they shall afterwards be plunged therein, for that they have again gone from faith to their own works. For where there is no faith, the Spirit is absent; but where the Spirit is absent, there is nothing but flesh, so that there can be nothing at all that is pure. So has it come to pa.s.s. .h.i.therto in regard to Christianity. Rome first heard the pure Gospel, but afterward went back and fell away to human doctrines, until even upon herself all abominations have come up; so that her last end has become worse than her first, in that she is now far more hopeless in her heathenism than she ever was before she heard the word of G.o.d.

V. 21. _For it had been far better for them that they had never known the way of righteousness, than that they should know it, and turn themselves away from the holy command that has been given them. For it has happened to them according to the proverb, The dog turns to his own vomit again, and the sow after her was.h.i.+ng wallows in the mire._ This proverb St. Peter has taken out of the book of Prov.

xxvi., where Solomon says, ”A man who repeats his folly is like the dog who turns again to his vomit.” By baptism they have thrown off unbelief, and have been washed from their polluted life, and have entered upon a pure life of faith and love, while they fall off from it again to unbelief and their own works, and defile themselves again in the dirt. So that we are not to make this proverb bear on works; for little is accomplished by one's saying and directing at confession, ”Thou shalt henceforth be chaste, meek, and patient,” &c.

But if you will be pious, pray G.o.d that he will give you a real faith, and see to it that you forsake your unbelief. When you shall then have attained faith, good works shall afterwards take care of themselves, so that you will live purely and chastely, even though you should secure yourself by no other means; and though, again, you might awhile conceal the mischief in your heart, yet at last it comes out.

This is the second chapter of this Epistle, wherein Peter speaks specially of our teachers, how shamefully we have been treated by them. We have indeed had warning enough, but we have not minded it, so that the fault is ours that we have not laid hold on the Gospel, and that we have by our lives deserved such anger of G.o.d. We hear it generally, all of us, with gladness, when some one a.s.saults and upbraids the Pope along with his priests and monks; but yet, no one will draw advantage to himself from it. It is not such a trifling matter of sport that one must laugh at it, but of such seriousness that the heart should fear and tremble on account of it. Therefore should we lay hold upon it with seriousness, and pray that G.o.d would turn away from us his anger and such plagues. For this calamity has not come upon us unforeseen, but it is sent upon us by G.o.d as a punishment,--as Paul says, II. Thes. ii.: ”Since they have not received the love of the truth, that they might be saved, therefore shall G.o.d send upon them strong delusion so that they shall believe a lie,” &c., &c. For had the punishment gone but so far that the false teachers only were lost, it would have been yet a little thing against the fact that they have had the rule, and carried all the world with them to h.e.l.l. Therefore, in regard to the evil, we are to take no counsel except to apprehend the matter in G.o.dly fear and humility, confess our guilt, and pray G.o.d to turn away the punishment from us. By prayer must one contend against the false teachers, although the devil do not let him win.--Now follows, next:

CHAPTER III.

V. 1, 2. _This is the second Epistle which I write to you, beloved, in which I stir up your pure minds to remembrance, that ye may think upon the word which was said to you before by the holy prophets, and upon our command, who are Apostles of the Lord and Saviour._ Here St.

Peter comes to us again, and warns us in this chapter to be prepared, and look every moment for the last day. And so he says in the first of it, that he has written this Epistle, not in order to lay down a ground of faith, which he had done before, but to awaken, remind, arrest, and urge them not to forget the same, and to abide in the clear view and understanding which they have of a true christian life. For it is the preacher's office, as we have said often, not only to teach, but also continually to admonish and restrain. For since our flesh and blood ever clings to us, G.o.d's word must be stronger in us, that we may not give room to the flesh, but strive against it, and gain the upper hand of it.

V. 3, 4. _And know, first of all, that in the last days there shall come scoffers who walk after their own l.u.s.ts, and say, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things remain as from the beginning of creation._ Yet are men swayed hither and thither by a book concerning Antichrist, wherein it is written that the people before the last day shall fall into such error that they shall say, there is no G.o.d, and shall scoff at all that is preached of Christ and the last day. That is true, whencesoever it has been taken. But we are not so to understand it as that the whole world shall say and hold such things, but the greater part. For that time is even now at hand, and shall prevail yet more when the Gospel shall come down among the people, when the proud ones shall lift themselves up, and the secrets of many hearts break forth, which are now hidden and unknown. There have even already been many who have altogether rejected the idea of the coming of the last day.

Of such scoffers St. Peter here warns us, and tells us of them beforehand, that they must come, and rush into this hazard and live as they list. At Rome and in Italy this word is now at length fulfilled, and they who come thence, bring such errors also forth with them; for just as they have a long time perplexed themselves therein, so, also, must they perplex the people by the same means.

And even though the last day were now before the door, such people must come abroad. So shall be fulfilled that which Christ says, Mat.

xxiv.: ”Just as it was in the time of Noah, so shall it also be at the coming of the Son of Man; for as they were in the days before the deluge, they ate, they drank, they married and were given in marriage, even to the day when Noah entered into the ark, and they knew it not till the flood came and swallowed them all; so, also, shall the coming of the Son of Man be.” Also, ”The Son of Man shall come at an hour when ye think not.” Also, Luke xxi.: ”This day shall come as a snare, upon all that dwell upon the earth.” And once more, Luke xvii.: ”As the lightning lightens over us from heaven, and s.h.i.+nes upon all that is under the heaven, so shall the Son of Man be in His day,”--that is, so quick and unforeseen and sudden shall He break in upon it, while the world shall be living above all, for itself first, and shall throw G.o.d's word to the winds.

Therefore this shall be a sign of the last day that it is near, when the people shall live as they list, according to all their l.u.s.ts, and such talk goes about among them as this: ”Where is the promise of his coming? the world has stood so long and continued to abide, is it now for the first time to be otherwise?” Thus Peter warns us that we should not be surprised, and that we have a sure sign that the day will soon come.--It follows, further: