ther hoped they
for wages of holiness, nor did they judge that there is a prize for
blameless souls. Because God created man for incorruption, and made him
an image of his own proper being; but by the envy of the devil death
entered into the world, and they that are of his portion make trial
thereof.

But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment
shall touch them. In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died;
and their departure was accounted to be their hurt, and their journeying
away from us to be their ruin: but they are in peace. For even if in
the sight of men they be punished, their hope is full of immortality;
and having borne a little chastening, they shall receive great good.
Because God made trial of them, and found them worthy of himself; as
gold in the furnace he proved them, and as a whole burnt offering he
accepted them. And in the time of their visitation they shall shine
forth, and as sparks among stubble they shall run to and fro. They shall
judge nations, and have dominion over peoples; and the Lord shall reign
over them for evermore. They that trust on him shall understand truth,
and the faithful shall abide with him in love: because grace and mercy
are to his chosen.

But the ungodly shall be requited even as they reasoned, they which
lightly regarded the righteous man, and revolted from the Lord: for he
that setteth at nought wisdom and discipline is miserable. And void is
their hope and their toils unprofitable, and useless are their works.
Their wives are foolish, and wicked are their children; accursed is
their begetting.[3] For good labours have fruit of great renown; and the
root of understanding cannot fail. But children of adulterers shall not
come to maturity, and the seed of an unlawful bed shall vanish away.
For if they live long they shall be held in no account, and at the last
their old age shall be without honour; and if they die quickly they
shall have no hope, nor in the day of decision shall they have
consolation. For the end of an unrighteous generation is alway grievous.
Better than this is childlessness with virtue. For in the memory of
virtue is immortality, because it is recognised both before God and
before men; when it is present men imitate it, and they long after it
when it is departed; and throughout all time it marcheth crowned in
triumph, victorious in the strife for the prizes that are undefiled. But
the multiplying brood of the ungodly s