2 Esdras 9:5-22
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5 For like as all that is made in the world hath a beginning and an end, and the end is manifest:
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6 Even so the times also of the Highest have plain beginnings in wonder and powerful works, and endings in effects and signs.
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7 And every one that shall be saved, and shall be able to escape by his works, and by faith, whereby ye have believed,
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8 Shall be preserved from the said perils, and shall see my salvation in my land, and within my borders: for I have sanctified them for me from the beginning.
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9 Then shall they be in pitiful case, which now have abused my ways: and they that have cast them away despitefully shall dwell in torments.
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10 For such as in their life have received benefits, and have not known me;
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11 And they that have loathed my law, while they had yet liberty, and, when as yet place of repentance was open unto them, understood not, but despised it;
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12 The same must know it after death by pain.
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13 And therefore be thou not curious how the ungodly shall be punished, and when: but enquire how the righteous shall be saved, whose the world is, and for whom the world is created.
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14 Then answered I and said,
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15 I have said before, and now do speak, and will speak it also hereafter, that there be many more of them which perish, than of them which shall be saved:
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16 Like as a wave is greater than a drop.
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17 And he answered me, saying, Like as the field is, so is also the seed; as the flowers be, such are the colours also; such as the workman is, such also is the work; and as the husbandman ls himself, so is his husbandry also: for it was the time of the world.
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18 And now when I prepared the world, which was not yet made, even for them to dwell in that now live, no man spake against me.
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19 For then every one obeyed: but now the manners of them which are created in this world that is made are corrupted by a perpetual seed, and by a law which is unsearchable rid themselves.
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20 So I considered the world, and, behold, there was peril because of the devices that were come into it.
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21 And I saw, and spared it greatly, and have kept me a grape of the cluster, and a plant of a great people.
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22 Let the multitude perish then, which was born in vain; and let my grape be kept, and my plant; for with great labour have I made it perfect.