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[1]Neuerthelesse, thy saintes had a very great light, whose voyce they hearing, and not seeing their figure, for that they suffred not the same thinges, they thought them blessed.
[2]And for that they dyd not hurt them nowe of whom they had ben wronged before, they thanked them, & besought them pardon of that they had ben enemies.
[3]Therfore thou gauest them a burning piller of fire to leade them in the vnknowen way, and the sunne not to hurt them in their honourable iourney.
[4]But reason it was that they shoulde leese the light and be put in the pryson of darknesse, whiche had kept thy chyldren shut vp, by whom the vncorrupt light of the lawe was to be geuen vnto the worlde.
[5]After when they thought to slay the babes of the saintes, one chylde beyng cast out, and preserued to reproue them, thou tokest away the whole multitude of their chyldren, and destroyedst them altogether in a mightie water.
[6]Of that night were our fathers certified afore, that they knowing vnto what othes they had geuen credence, might be of good cheare.
[7]Thus thy people receaued the health of the righteous, but the vngodly were destroyed.
[8]For like as thou hast reuenged our enemies, so hast thou promoted vs whom thou hast called.
[9]For the righteous chyldren of the good men offred secretely, and made a godly lawe with one consent, that the saintes should in like maner receaue together both good and euil, and that the fathers nowe should first sing prayses.
[10]But there was hearde a disagreing voyce of the enemies, and there was a miserable lamentation for children that were bewayled.
[11]The maister and the seruaunt were punished after one maner: and lyke as the king, so suffred the common people:
[12]So they had innumerable that dyed with one kinde of death altogether: neither were the liuing sufficient to bury the dead, for in the twinckling of an eye the noblest ofspring of them was destroyed.
[13]For whereas they woulde discredite all thinges by reason of the inchauntmentes, in the destruction of the first borne they acknowledged that this people was the chyldren of God.
[14]For whyle all thinges were styl in scilence, and when the night was in the middest of her course, thy almightie worde O Lorde lept downe from heauen out of thy royall trone,
[15]As a rough man of warre in the middest of the land that was destroyed,
[16]And brought thyne vnfayned commaundement as a sharpe sworde, and standing vp, filled all thinges with death, yea it stoode vpon the earth and reached vnto the heauen.
[17]Then the sightes of the euyl dreames vexed them sodainly, and fearefulnesse came vpon them vnawares.
[18]Then lay there one here, another there halfe dead [halfe quicke] and shewed the cause of his death.
[19]For the visions that vexed them, shewed them these thinges afore, that they might not be ignoraunt wherefore they perished.
[20]Yea the temptation of death touched the righteous also, and among the multitude in the wildernesse there was insurrection: but thy wrath endured not long.
[21]For the blamelesse man went in all the haste, and toke the battayle vpon hym, brought foorth the weapon of his ministration, euen prayer and the reconciliation of incense, set hym selfe against the wrath, and so brought the miserie to an ende, declaring [therby] that he was thy seruaunt.
[22]For he ouercame not the multitude with bodyly power or force of weapons: but with the word he subdued him that vexed, alleaging the oth and couenaunt made vnto the fathers.
[23]For when the dead were fallen downe by heapes one vpon another, he stoode in the middest, pacified the wrath, and parted the way that it might not come to the liuing.
[24]And why? in his long garment was all the beautie, and in the foure rowes of the stones was the glory of the fathers grauen, and thy maiestie was wrytten in the crowne of his head.
[25]Unto these the destroyer gaue place, and was afrayde of them: for it was inough that they onlye tasted of the wrath.
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