A Call to Maturity

1Wherfore let vs leave ye doctryne pertayninge to the beginninge of a Christen man and let vs go vnto perfeccio and now no more laye the foundacio of repentaunce from deed workes and of fayth towarde God 2of baptyme of doctryne and of layinge on of hondes and of resurreccion from deeth and of eternall iudgemet. 3And so will we do yf God permitte. 4For it is not possible yt they which were once lyghted a nd have tasted of the hevenly gyft and were become partetakers of the holy goost 5and have tasted of the good worde of God and of the power of the worlde to come: 6yf they faule shuld be renued agayne vnto repentaunce: for as moche as they have (as concerninge them selves) crucified the sonne of God a fresshe makynge a mocke of him. 7For that erth which drinketh in the rayne wich cometh ofte vpon it and bringeth forth erbes mete for them that dresse it receaveth blessynge of god. 8But that grounde which beareth thornes and bryars is reproved and is nye vnto cursynge: whose ende is to be burned.

9Neverthelesse deare frendes we trust to se better of you and thynges which accompany saluacion though we thus speake. 10For god is not vnrighteous that he shuld forget youre worke and laboure that procedeth of love which love shewed in his name which have ministred vnto the saynctes and yet minister 11Yee and we desyre that every one of you shew the same diligence to the stablysshynge of hope even vnto the ende: 12that ye faynt not but folowe them which thorow fayth and pacience inheret the promyses.

God’s Unchangeable Promise

13For when god made promes to Abraham because he had no greater thinge to sweare by he sware by him silfe 14sayinge: Surely I will blesse the and multiply the in dede. 15And so after that he had taryed a longe tyme he enioyed the promes. 16Men verely sweare by him that is greater then them selves and an othe to confyrme the thynge ys amonge them an ende of all stryfe. 17So god willynge very aboundanly to shewe vnto the heyres of promes the stablenes of his counsayle he added an othe 18that by two immutable thinges (in which it was vnpossible that god shuld lye) we myght have parfect consolacion which have fled for to holde fast the hope that is set before vs 19which hope we have as an ancre of the soule both sure and stedfast. Which hope also entreth in into tho thynges which are with in the vayle 20whither ye fore runner is for vs entred in I mea Iesus that is made an hye prest for ever after the order of Melchisedech.