Enoch - ENOCH THE PROPHET, 1821

nother book, which Enoch wrote for his son Mathusala, and for those who should come after him, and preserve their purity of conduct in the latter days.

2. You, who have laboured, shall wait in those days, until the evil doers be consumed, and the power of the guilty be annihilated.

3. Wait, until sin pass away; for their names shall be blotted out of the holy books; their seed shall be destroyed, and their spirits slain. They shall cry out and lament in the invisible waste, and in the bottomless fire shall they burn. ⁽¹⁴⁵⁾ (145) In the bottomless fire shall they burn. Literally, "in the fire shall they burn, where there is no earth" (Laurence, p. 178).

4. There I perceived, as it were, a cloud which could not be seen through; for from the depth of it I was unable to look upwards. I beheld also a flame of fire blazing brightly, and, as it were, glittering mountains whirled around, and agitated from side to side.

5. Then I inquired of one of the holy angels who was with me, and said, What is this splendid object? For it is not heaven, but a flame of fire alone which blazes; and in it there is the clamour of exclamation, of woe, and of great suffering.

6. He said, There, into that place which you behold, shall be thrust the spirits of sinners and blasphemers; of those who shall do evil, and who shall pervert all which God has spoken by the mouth of the prophets; all which they ought to do.

7. For respecting these things there shall be writings and impressions above in heaven, that the angels may read them and know what shall happen both to sinners and to the spirits of the humble; to those who have suffered in their bodies, but have been rewarded by God; who have been injuriously treated by wicked men;

8. who have loved God; who have been attached neither to gold nor silver, nor to any good thing in the world, but have given their bodies to torment;

9. To those who from the period of their birth have not been covetous of earthly riches; but have regarded themselves as a breath passing away. Such has been their conduct; and much has the Lord tried them; and their spirits have been found pure, that they might bless his name.

10. All their blessings have I related in a book; and He has rewarded them; for they have been found to love heaven with an everlasting aspiration. God has said, While they have been trodden down by wicked men, they have heard from them revilings and blasphemies; and have been ignominiously treated, while they were blessing me.

11. And now will I call the spirits of the good from the generation of light, and will change those who have been born in darkness; who have not in their bodies been recompensed with glory, as their faith may have merited.

12. I will bring them into the splendid light of those who love my holy name: and I will place each of them on a throne of glory, of glory peculiarly his own, Matt. 19:28

13. and they shall be at rest during unnumbered periods. Righteous is the judgment of God; For to the faithful shall he give faith in the habitations of uprightness.

14. They shall see those, who have been born in darkness unto darkness shall be cast; while the righteous shall be at rest.

15. Sinners shall cry out, beholding them, while they exist in splendour and proceed forwards to the days and periods prescribed to them.

16. Here ends the vision of Enoch the prophet.
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