1. Parable the first. When the congregation of the righteous shall be
manifested; and sinners be judged for their crimes, and be troubled in
the sight of the world;
2. When righteousness shall be manifested in the presence of the
righteous themselves, who will be elected for their _good_ works _duly_
weighed by the Lord of spirits; and when the light of the righteous and
the elect, who dwell on earth, shall be manifested; where will the
habitation of sinners be? and where the place of rest for those who have
rejected the Lord of spirits? It would have been better for them, had
they never been born.
3. When, too, the secrets of the righteous shall be revealed, then shall
sinners be judged; and impious men shall be afflicted in the presence of
the righteous and the elect.
4. From that period those who possess the earth shall cease to be[77]
powerful and exalted. Neither shall they be capable of beholding the
countenances of the holy; for the light of the countenances of the holy,
the righteous, and the elect, has been seen by the Lord of spirits.
5. Yet shall not the mighty kings of that period be destroyed; but be
delivered into the hands of the righteous and the holy.
6. Nor thenceforwards shall any obtain commiseration from the Lord of
spirits, because their lives _in this world_ will have been completed.
Footnote 77:
_shall not be._