Moreover who is it that will harm you if ye follow that which is
good? notwithstanding happy are ye if ye suffer for righteousness'
sake. Nevertheless fear not though they seem terrible unto you,
neither be troubled: but sanctify the lord God in your hearts. Be
ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason
of the hope that ye have, and that with meekness and fear: having a
good conscience, that when they backbite you as evil doers, they may
be ashamed, for as much as they have falsely accused your good
conversation in Christ.
It is better (if the will of God be so) that ye suffer for well
doing, than for evil doing. For as much as Christ hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, for to bring us to God, and was
killed, as pertaining to the flesh: but was quickened in the spirit.
In which spirit, he also went and preached unto the spirits that
were in prison, which were in time past disobedient, when the long
suffering of God abode exceeding patiently in the days of Noah, while
the ark was a preparing, wherein few (that is to say viij. souls)
were saved by water, which signifieth baptism that now saveth us, not
the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but in that a good
conscience consenteth to God, by the resurrection of Iesus Christ,
which is on the right hand of God, and is gone into heaven, angels,
power, and might, subdued unto him.
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