from all the persecutions of this billowy world.
Likewise the three youths in the Chaldean land,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who for the true faith
were bound in the burning oven,
and condemned to death, but God quickly showed forth in them
what faith they had, when the flame could not
burn even their hair in that pyre;
but they all went out, uninjured, to the king.
Likewise again Daniel, the noble prophet,
for his simplicity and constant faith,
was twice thrown by the furious Chaldeans
into the lions' pit, but they lived in hunger
seven nights meatless, and might not hurt him.
Many other patriarchs and holy prophets
were glorious men, and performed miracles
under the Old Law, and they all set forth
by words, or by works, that the glorious Saviour
would redeem us from hell-torment by Himself.
Again, books tell us how the sinful have perished,
and [how] the wicked are lost eternally for their evilness,
because God is so righteous that righteous men
shall not be bereaved of the reward of their righteousness.
Nor again, may the wicked, who anger Him by their evilness,
ever in any wise escape from the eternal torments.
Afterward, at the Saviour's advent, was the holy John
sent before Him as a heavenly herald,
that he by his words might make straight Christ's ways,
and convert the people to right works.
Prophecy, and the Old Law, continued until that time,
