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57:1 Do ye, therefore, that have laid the foundation of the sedition submit
yourselves to the presbyters, and be chastised to repentance, bending the knees
of your hearts.
57:2 Learn to submit yourselves, laying aside the vain and haughty self-will
of your tongues; for it is better that you should be small and approved in the
flock of Christ, rather than that, seeming to be superior to others, ye should
be cast out of his hope.
57:3 For thus saith the most excellent Wisdom, Behold, I will send upon you
the language of my Spirit; I will teach you my word.
57:4 Since I called and ye did not hearken, and prolonged my words, and ye
attended not, but made my counsels of none effect, and were not obedient to my
reproofs, therefore I will laugh at your destruction, I will exult when
desolation cometh upon you; when perturbation hath suddenly come upon you, and
ruin is at hand like a whirlwind, when tribulation and oppression cometh upon
you.
57:5 For the time shall come when ye shall call upon me, and I shall not
hearken unto you; the wicked shall seek me, and shall not find me. They hated
wisdom and chose not the fear of the Lord; they were not willing to attend to my
counsels, they mocked at my rebukes.
57:6 Wherefore they shall eat the fruits of their own way; they shall be
filled with their own unrighteousness.
57:7 For because they wronged the innocent they shall be slain, and judgment
shall destroy the unrighteous; but he who hearkeneth unto me shall abide
trusting in hope, and shall rest securely from all evil.