Matthew(i)
1 Iob answered, and sayde.
2 O heare my wordes, and amende youre selues.
3 Suffre me a litle that I may speake also, and then laugh my wordes to scorne, yf ye wyll.
4 Is it with a man, that I make this disputacyon? Whych yf it were so, shoulde not my spyrite be then in sore trouble?
5 Marck me well, be abasshed, and laye youre hande vpon youre mouth.
6 For when I pondre & considre this, I am afrayed, & my fleshe is smitten with feare.
7 Wherfore do wicked men lyue in health and prosperite, come to their olde age, and increase in ryches?
8 Their childers children lyue in their syght, and their generacion before their eyes.
9 Their houses are safe from all feare, for the road of God doth not smyte them.
10 Their bullocke grendeth, and that not oute of tyme: their cowe calueth, and is not vnfrutefull.
11 They sende forth their children by flockes, and their sonnes lead the daunce.
12 They beare with them tabrettes and harpes, & haue instrumentes of musycke at their pleasure.
13 They spent their dayes in welthinesse: but sodenlye they go doune to hel.
14 They say vnto God: go from vs: we desyre not the knowledge of thy wayes.
15 What maner of felow is the Almightye, that we shoulde serue him? What profyt should we haue, to submitte oure selues vnto hym?
16 Lo there is vtterly no goodnesse in them, therfore wyll not I haue to do with the councell of the vngodly.
17 How oft shall the candle of the wicked be put oute? howe oft commeth their destruccyon vpon them? O what sorow shal god geue them for their part in his wrath?
18 Yea, they shalbe euen as chaffe before the wynde, and as dust that the storme caryed awaye.
19 And though God saue their children from suche sorowe, yet wyl he so rewarde them selues, that they shall knowe it.
20 Their owne destruccion and misery shall they se with their eyes, and dryncke of the fearfull wrath of the Almighty.
21 For what careth he, what be come of his housholde after his death? whose monethes passe awaye swyfter then an arowe.
22 In as muche then as God hath the hyest power of all, who can teache hym any knoweledge?
23 One dyeth now, when he is myghtye & at his best, riche, & in prosperite:
24 euen when his bowels are at the fattest, & his bones ful of mary.
25 An other dyeth in sorowe and heauynesse, and neuer had good dayes.
26 Nowe slepe they bothe a lyke in the earthe, and the wormes couer them.
27 But I knowe what ye thincke, yea and what ye ymagin against me vnrighteously.
28 For ye saye: where is the Princes palace? where is the dwellinge of the vngodly?
29 Aske any man that goeth by the way, and (yf ye wyll not regarde their tokens and dedes) he shal tel you,
30 that the wicked is kept vnto the daye of destruccion, and that the vngodly shalbe broughte forthe in the daye of wrath.
31 Who darre reproue him for his waies to hys face? who rewardeth him for the vngracyousnesse that he doth?
32 Yet shall he be brought to his graue, and watche amonge the heape of the deade.
33 Then shall he be faine to be buryed amonge the stones by the broke syde. All men must folow him, and there are innumerable gone before him.
34 O how vayne is the comforte that ye geue me? Are not youre answeres cleane contrary to right and truthe.