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For the ungodly said, reasoning with themselves, but not aright: "Our life is short and tedious, and in the death of a man there is no remedy; neither was there any man known to have returned from the grave.
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For we are born at random, and we shall be hereafter as though we had never been. For the breath in our nostrils is as smoke, and a little spark in the moving of our heart,
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which, being extinguished, our body shall be turned into ashes, and our spirit shall vanish as the soft air.
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And our name shall be forgotten in time, and no man shall have our works in remembrance; and our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist that is driven away with the beams of the sun, and overcome with the heat thereof.
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For our time is a very shadow that passeth away, and after our end there is no returning; for it is sealed fast, so that no man cometh again.
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"Come on, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are present; and let us speedily use the creation as in youth.
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Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments; and let no flower of the spring pass by us.
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Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they be withered.
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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.
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Let us oppress the poor righteous man; let us not spare the widow, nor reverence the ancient gray hairs of the aged.
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Let our strength be the law of justice; for that which is feeble is found to be worth nothing.
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Therefore let us lie in wait for the righteous, because he is not for our way, and he is clean contrary to our doings; he upbraideth us with our offending the law, and objecteth to our infamy, the transgressings against our education.
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He professeth to have the knowledge of God, and he calleth himself the child of the Lord.
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He was made to reprove our thoughts;
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he is grievous unto us even to behold. For his life is not like other men's; his ways are of another fashion.
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We are esteemed by him as counterfeits; he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness; he pronounceth the end of the just to be blessed, and maketh his boast that God is his father.
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Let us see if his words be true, and let us prove what shall happen at the end of him.
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For if the just man be the son of God, He will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies.
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Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his meekness, and prove his patience.
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Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for by his own saying he shall be respected."
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Such things they did imagine and were deceived, for their own wickedness hath blinded them.
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As for the mysteries of God, they knew them not; neither hoped they for the wages of righteousness, nor discerned a reward for blameless souls.
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For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of His own eternity.Œ
24
Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world; and those who take hold of his side do find it.