1. FOR they haue said thinking with themselues not wel: Little, and with tediousnes is the time of our life: and in the end of a man there is no recouerie, and there is none knowne that hath returned from hel:
2. because of nothing were we borne, and after this, we shal be as if we had not bene: because the breath is a smoke in our nosthrels: & speach a sparke to moue our hart.
3. Which being extinguished, our bodie shal be ashes, and the spirit shal be powred abrode as soft ayre, and our life shal passe as the trace of a cloude, and shal be dissolued as a mist, which is driuen away by the beames of the sunne, and oppressed with the heate therof:
4. and our name in time shal be forgotten, and no man shal haue remembrance of our workes.
5. For our time is the passing of a shadow, and there is no returne of our end: because it is sealed, and no man returneth.
6. Come therfore, and let vs enioy the good thinges that are, and let vs quickly vse the creature as in youth.
7. Let vs fil ourselues with precious wine, and oyntments: and let not the flowre of the time passe vs.
8. Let vs crowne ourselues with roses, before they wither: let there be no medow, which our riote shal not passe through.
9. Let none of vs be exempted from our rioteousnes: euerie where let vs leaue signes of ioy: because this is our portion, and this our lot.
10. Let vs oppresse the poore iust man, and not spare the widow, nor reuerence the oldmans grey head of long time.
11. But let our strength be the law of iustice: for that which is weake, is found vnprofitable.
12. Let vs therfore circumuent the iust, because he is vnprofitable to vs, and he is contrarie to our workes, and reprochfully obiecteth vnto vs the sinnes of the law, and defameth in vs the sinnes of our discipline.
13. He boasteth that he hath the knowledge of God, and nameth himselfe the sonne of God.
14. He is made vnto vs to the defaming of our cogitations.
15. He is greuous vnto vs euen to behold, because his life is vnlike to others, and his wayes are changed.
16. We are estemed of him as triflers, and he absteyneth from our wayes as from vncleannes, and he preferreth the later ends of the iust, and glorieth that he hath God for his father.
17. Let vs see therfore if his wordes be true, and let vs proue what thinges shal come to him, and we shal know what shal be his later ends.
18. For if he be the true sonne of God, he wil defend him, & wil deliuer him from the hands of the aduersaries.
19. By contumelie and torment let vs examine him, that we may know his reuerence, and proue his patience.
20. To a most shameful death let vs condemne him: for there shal be respect had vnto him by his wordes.
21. These thinges haue they thought, and haue erred: for their malice hath blinded them.
22. And they haue not knowen the sacraments of God, nor hoped for the reward of iustice, nor estemed the honour of holie soules.
23. For God created man incorruptible, and to the image of his owne likenes he made him.
24. But by the enuie of the diuel, death entred into the world:
25. and they folow him that are of his part.