Mace(i)
4 For certain men have insinuated themselves among you, who were formerly proscrib'd to be punish'd; impious men, who pervert the divine favour to licentiousness, and renounce their only master, and Jesus Christ our Lord.
5 Now, I would call to your remembrance what you once were inform'd of, that when the Lord had delivered the people from the land of Egypt, he afterward destroyed those that were disobedient.
6 and the angels which kept not their original dignity, but deserted their proper abode, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, to the judgment of the great day.
7 so it was with Sodom, Gomorrha, and the neighbouring cities, who abandoning themselves to the same licentiousness and abominable passions, were made examples by suffering the punishment of eternal fire.
8 yet these visionary debauchees despise princes, and traduce dignitys.
9 whereas Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, did not take the liberty to inveigh against him, but said, "the Lord rebuke thee."
10 As for these, they inveigh against what they do not understand: and abuse those natural instincts which regulate brute animals.
11 unhappy creatures! they have followed the practices of Cain, they have addicted themselves to the mercenary illusions of Balaam, and perish in their rebellion like Core.
12 they are a disgrace to your love-feasts, they indulge themselves at your festivals without reserve: clouds without water, transported with every wind: trees whose fruit soon withers and is useless, twice dead and rooted up:
13 raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame: wandering lights, to whom is reserv'd the thickest darkness for ever.
14 Of these did Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesy in these words, "see! the Lord is coming with ten thousand of his saints,
15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the impious among them, of all the impious actions they have committed, and of all the injurious expressions, which impious sinners have utter'd against him."
16 These are murmurers, complainers, who pursue their own passions: their language swells with flattery, which they offer to the personages of men from a prospect of gain.