Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 1.djvu/309

 Thus spake  God,  of  old. concerning the  people  of  Israel;

it is  nevertheless  very  nigh  thus  accomplished  in  us,

now in  these  late  days,  and  notoriously.

"We ought  to  worship  God  with  true  constancy,

because He  is  Almighty  God,  and  He  created  us  to  be  men;

now do  we  very  wrongly  if  we  worship  Him  not

for our  own  need,  and  our  souls'  bliss.

God from  the  beginning  avenged  contempt  of  Himself  by  punishments,

first upon  the  Angels  who  rashly  exalted  themselves,

and afterward  on  Adam,  when  He  had   sinned.

Again, in  the  days  of  Noah,  when  men  wrought  very  foolishly,

and by  fornication  angered  Almighty  God  exceedingly,

so that  He  sent  the  Flood,  and  drowned  them  all,

except only  Noah  with  his  own  household,

because he  alone  of  them  all  was  righteous.

Again when  God  desired  to  wreak  with  fire

the foul  fornication  of  the  vilest  race  of  men,

the people  of  Sodom,  then  He  told  it  to  Abraham.

Abraham then  prayed  the  Almighty  thus;

"Thou, Lord,  who  judgest  all  mortal  flesh,

Thou shouldest  not  slay  the  righteous  with  the  wicked.

If there  be  fifty  men  dwelling  in  the  place,

righteous before  Thee,   spare  them  all."

Then said  God  to  him  again:  "I  will  spare  them  all,

if I  find  there  fifty  righteous."

Then began  Abraham  again  to  entreat  God   earnestly,

that He  would  not  destroy  them,  if  there  were  forty  there,