Letters to the Churches

For he that biddeth him, God speede, is partaker of his euill deedes. Although I had many things to write vnto you, yet I woulde not write with paper and ynke: but I trust to come vnto you, and speake mouth to mouth, that our ioy may be full.

The sonnes of thine elect sister greete thee, Amen.

The children of thy elect sister greet thee. Amen.

The Elder vnto the beloued Gaius, whom I loue in the trueth.

Beloued, I wish chiefly that thou prosperedst and faredst well as thy soule prospereth.

For I reioyced greatly when the brethren came, and testified of the trueth that is in thee, how thou walkest in the trueth.

I haue no greater ioy then these, that is, to heare that my sonnes walke in veritie.

Beloued, thou doest faithfully, whatsoeuer thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers,

Which bare witnesse of thy loue before the Churches. Whom if thou bringest on their iourney as it beseemeth according to God, thou shalt doe well,

Because that for his Names sake they went forth, and tooke nothing of the Gentiles.

We therefore ought to receiue such, that we might be helpers to the trueth.

I wrote vnto the Church: but Diotrephes which loueth to haue the preeminence among them, receiueth vs not.

Wherefore if I come, I will call to your remembrance his deedes which he doeth, pratling against vs with malicious wordes, and not therewith content, neither he himselfe receiueth the brethren, but forbiddeth them that woulde, and thrusteth them out of the Church.

Beloued, follow not that which is euill, but that which is good: he that doeth well, is of God: but he that doeth euill, hath not seene God.

Demetrius hath good report of al men, and of the trueth it selfe: yea, and wee our selues beare recorde, and ye know that our record is true.

I haue many things to write: but I will not with yncke and pen write vnto thee:

For I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speake mouth to mouth. Peace be with thee. The friends salute thee. Greete the friends by name.

IVde a seruaunt of Iesus Christ, and brother of Iames, to them which are called and sanctified of God the Father, and returned to Iesus Christ:

Mercie vnto you, and peace and loue be multiplied.

Beloued, when I gaue al diligece to write vnto you of the common saluation, it was needful for me to write vnto you to exhort you, that yee should earnestly contend for the maintenace of ye faith, which was once giuen vnto the Saintes.

For there are certaine men crept in, which were before of olde ordeined to this condemnation: vngodly men they are which turne the grace of our God into wantonnesse, and denie God the onely Lord, and our Lord Iesus Christ.

I wil therfore put you in remebrance, forasmuch as ye once knew this, how that the Lord, after that he had deliuered the people out of Egypt, destroied them afterward which beleeued not.

The Angels also which kept not their first estate, but left their owne habitation, hee hath reserued in euerlasting chaines vnder darkenesse vnto the iudgement of the great day.

As Sodom and Gomorrhe, and the cities about them, which in like maner as they did, committed fornication, and followed strange flesh, are set foorth for an ensample, and suffer the vengeance of eternall fire.

Likewise notwithstanding these sleepers also defile the flesh, and despise gouernment, and speake euill of them that are in authoritie.