The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Book 67: 1 Peter

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. PETER THE APOSTLE

The first Epistle of St. Peter, though brief, contains much doctrine
concerning Faith, Hope, and Charity, with divers instructions to all
persons of what state or condition soever. The Apostle commands
submission to rulers and superiors and exhorts all to the practice of a
virtuous life in imitation, of Christ. This Epistle is written with such
apostolical dignity as to manifest the supreme authority with which its
writer, the Prince of the Apostles, had been vested by his Lord and
Master, Jesus Christ. He wrote it at Rome, which figuratively he calls
Babylon, about fifteen years after our Lord's Ascension.

1 Peter Chapter 1

He gives thanks to God for the benefit of our being called to the true
faith and to eternal life, into which we are to enter by many
tribulations. He exhorts to holiness of life, considering the holiness
of God and our redemption by the blood of Christ.

1:1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers dispersed
through Pontus, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, elect,

1:2. According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, unto the
sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you and peace be multiplied.

1:3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
according to his great mercy hath regenerated us unto a lively hope, by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead:

1:4. Unto an inheritance, incorruptible, and undefiled and that cannot
fade, reserved in heaven for you,

1:5. Who, by the power of God, are kept by faith unto salvation, ready
to be revealed in the last time.

1:6. Wherein you shalt greatly rejoice, if now you must be for a little
time made sorrowful in divers temptations:

1:7. That the trial of your faith (much more precious than gold which is
tried by the fire) may be found unto praise and glory and honour at the
appearing of Jesus Christ.

1:8. Whom having not seen, you love: in whom also now though you see him
not, you believe and, believing, shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and
glorified;

1:9. Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

1:10. Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and diligently
searched, who prophesied of the grace to come in you.

1:11. Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ in them
did signify, when it foretold those sufferings that are in Christ and
the glories that should follow.

1:12. To whom it was revealed that, not to themselves but to you, they
ministered those things which are now declared to you by them that have
preached the gospel to you: the Holy Ghost being sent down from heaven,
on whom the angels desire to look.

1:13. Wherefore, having the loins of your mind girt up, being sober,
trust perfectly in the grace which is offered you in the revelation of
Jesus Christ.

1:14. As children of obedience, not fashioned according to the former
desires of your ignorance,

1:15. But according to him that hath called you, who is holy, be you
also in all manner of conversation holy:

1:16. Because it is written: You shall be holy, for I am holy.

1:17. And if you invoke as Father him who, without respect of persons,
judgeth according to every one's work: converse in fear during the time
of your sojourning here.

1:18. Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as
gold or silver, from your vain conversation of the tradition of your
fathers:

1:19. But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and
undefiled.

1:20. Foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but
manifested in the last times for you:

1:21. Who through him are faithful in God who raised him up from the
dead and hath given him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.

1:22. Purifying your souls in the obedience of charity, with a brotherly
love, from a sincere heart love one another earnestly:

1:23. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, by
the word of God who liveth and remaineth for ever.

1:24. For all flesh is as grass and all the glory thereof as the flower
of grass. The grass is withered and the flower thereof is fallen away.

1:25. But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word
which by the gospel hath been preached unto you.