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remedy: neither was there any man known to have returned from the grave.

2. For we are born at all adventure: and we shall be hereafter as tho' we had never been : for the breath in our noftrils is as fmoke, and a little spark in the moving of our heart:

3. Which being extinguished, our body shall be turned into ashes, and our fpirits shall vanish as the foft air,

4 And our name fhall be forgotten in time, and no man fhall have our works in remembrance, and our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and fhall be difperfed as a mist that is driven away with the beams of the fun, and Overcome with the heat thereof.

5. For our time is a very fhadow that passeth away and after our end there is no returning: for it is faft fealed, fo that no man cometh a gain.

6. Come on therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are prefent: and let us speedily ufe the creatures like as in youth.

7. Let us fill ourselves with coftly wine, and ointments: and let no flower of the fpring pafs by us.

8. Let us crown ourselves with rose-buds before they be withered.

9. Let none of us go without his part of our voluptuousness: let us leave tokens of our joyfulness in every place: for this is our portion, and our lot is this.

10. Let us opprefs the poor righteous man, let us not fpare the widow, nor reverence the antient gray-hairs of the aged.

11. Let our ftrength be the law of juftice: for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth.

12. Therefore let us lie in wait for the righteous: because he is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings: he upbraideth us with our offending the law, and objeEteth to our infamy the tranfgreffings of our education.

13. He profeffeth to have the knowledge of God: and he calleth himself the child of the Lord:

14. He was made to reprove our thoughts. 15. He is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other mens, his ways are of another fashion.

A 4

16. We

16. We are efteemed of him as counterfeitshe abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness: he pronounceth the end of the just to be bleffed, and maketh his boaft that God is his fa.ther.

17. Let us fee if his words be true: and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him.

18. For if the just man be the son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies.

19. Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his meeknefs, and prove his patience.

20. Let us condemn him with a fhameful death for by his own faying he fhall be refpected.

21. Such things they did imagine, and were deceived: for their own wickedness hath blinded them.

22. As for the myfteries of God, they knew them not: neither hoped they for the wages of righteousnefs: nor difcerned a reward for blameless fouls.

23. For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.

24. Never

24. Nevertheless, thro' envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his fide do find it.

CHA P. III.

1. The godly are happy in their death, 5. and in their troubles, &c.

Band of God, and there fall no torment UT the fouls of the righteous are in the

touch them.

2. In the fight of the unwife they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery,

3. And their going from us to be utter deftruction but they are in peace.

4. For tho' they be punished in the fight of men: yet is their hope full of immortality.

5. And having been a little chastised, they fhall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself.

6. As gold in the furnace hath he tried them, and received them as a burnt-offering.

7. And in the time of their vifitation, they fhall fhine, and run to and fro like fparks among the ftubble.

8. They fhall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their Lord fhall reign for ever.

9. They that put their trust in him fhall un derstand the truth: and fuch as be faithful in love, fhall abide with him: for grace and mercy is to his faints, and he hath care for his elect. 10. But the ungodly fhall be punished according to their own imaginations, which have neglected the righteous, and forfaken the Lord.

11. For whofo despiseth wisdom and nurture, he is miferable, and their hope is vain, their labours unfruitful, and their works unprofitable.

12. Their wives are foolish, and their children wicked.

13. Their offspring is cursed: wherefore bleffed is the barren that is undefiled, which hath not known the finful bed: fhe fhall have fruit in the visitation of fouls.

1a 14. And blessed is the eunuch which with his hands hath wrought no iniquity, nor imagined wicked things against God: for unto him fhrall be given the special gift of faith, and an inheritance in the temple of the Lord, more acceptable to his mind.

15. For