The Instructions of Commodian

In the law the Lord of heaven and earth and sea commanded:

Do not, he said, worship empty gods,

Made by your hands from wood or gold;

My indignation shall scatter blemishes on account of these things.

The people before Moses, rude, dwelling without law,

And not knowing God, prayed to dying gods,

To whose likenesses they made vain idols.

When the Jews were brought over by the Lord from the land of Egypt,

He imposed a law afterward, and commanded these things:

That the Almighty alone should be served, not those others.

Concerning the resurrection also one is taught in that same law,

And the hope of living again in a blessed age,

If vain idols are abandoned and not worshipped.

When God Almighty was adorning the nature of the world,

He willed that this earth be visited by Angels,

Whose lawful obligations those sent down despised:

So great was the beauty of women that it bent them,

So that, being defiled, they could not return to heaven.

Rebellious from that time, they sent forth words against God.

The Most High then sent his sentence upon them;

From whose seed giants are said to have been born;

By them the arts were brought forth upon the earth;

And they taught how to dye wool, and whatever else is done.

And mortals set up images to those same ones when they died.

But the Almighty, because they were of wicked seed,

Did not judge it right that they be received back from death.

Wherefore now, wandering, they overturn many bodies:

Chiefly those whom today you worship as gods and pray to.

And old Saturn: if he is a god, why does he grow old?

Or if he was a god, why did he devour his children,

Driven by fears? But because he was not a god,

He consumed the entrails of his children in monstrous rage.

He was a king on earth, born on Mount Olympus;

Nor was he divine, but called himself a god.

He came, bereft of sense, and swallowed a stone in place of his son.

Thus he escaped being a god: that one is now called Jupiter.

This Jupiter, born in the island of Crete to Saturn,

When he was grown, deprived his father of his kingdom.

Moreover, he seduced the wives and sisters of noblemen.

Besides, the craftsman Pyracmon had made his sceptres for him.

In the beginning God made heaven, earth, and sea:

But this terrible one, born in the middle of time,

Came forth from a cave as a youth, and was reared in secret.

Consider that the author of all things is God, not that Jupiter.

You say, O fools, that Jupiter thunders: that he himself hurls lightning:

And if childishness has thought thus, why for two hundred years

Were you infants; will you indeed always be so?

Infancy turned toward maturity does not admit the age

Of play: the childish age has passed, so let your hearts also depart.

Your counsels are owed to manly conduct.

Therefore, foolish one, you believe that Jupiter thunders;

He, born on earth, is nourished on goat's milk.

Therefore if Saturn had devoured him,

In those times who would have rained when he was dead?

Especially if a god is believed to be born of a mortal father,

Saturn grew old on earth, and failed upon it.

No one prophesied that he would be born beforehand.

Or if he himself thunders, a law would have been given by him.

Histories fabricated by poets lead you astray.

But he reigned in Crete, and there he failed.

The Almighty became for you the lover of Alcmena;

He himself would similarly love the living now, if he were alive,

You pray to the impure, and say they are heavenly,

Born of mortal seed from those giants.

You hear, and you read that he was born on earth;

How did the corruptor deserve to ascend to heaven?

It is also said that the Cyclopes made the thunderbolt for him;

For the immortal one had his weapons from mortals.

For so many criminal deeds, and also as a parricide of his own kin,

By your own authority you have raised him on high.

Concerning the circle of the zone, your own ignorance deceives you,

And from it perhaps you find Jupiter to be prayed to.

Saturn is said to be there, but as a star; for that one

Was expelled by Jupiter, or let him be believed to be in Jupiter's star:

He who governed the poles and their stars, and the sower of the sun,

Who made war on the Trojans, who loved kindly Venus,

Or Mars caught with her by the very stars

In marital jealousy; he is called a god though a young man.

O exceedingly foolish ones, who think that the Magi from the stars,

As they are born, govern them, or the whole nature of the world!

Placed in wounds, and themselves living under fate,

Obscene, curious, warriors of impious life;

And they begot just as many mortal sons;

All terrible, foolish, mighty in the Septizodium.

If you worship stars, worship also the twice-six signs;

Then the ram, the bull, the twins, and the fierce lion.

And finally they go among the fishes: and thereby you will prove it.

A law without law, your flight will prevail to be what it wills.

It wishes to be wanton, it seeks to live without restraint.

You yourselves will be what you wish, and you pray to gods and goddesses.

Thus I worshipped while I wandered, what I now condemn.

Concerning the sun and moon, although they are present before us,

You err, as I did before, thinking them to be prayed to.

They are indeed among the stars, but they do not run of their own will.

The Almighty, when he first created all things,

Placed them there together with the stars on the fourth day.

The ancient error still persists with them,

And indeed in the law he commanded that no one worship them.

You pray to so many gods, who promise nothing concerning life.

Whose law is not on earth, nor were they themselves foretold.

But a few priests lead you astray,

Saying that something of a divine power will profit the dying,

Come, read, and learn the truth.

Let your Mercury be depicted together with his Saraballo.

And winged with a helmet or cap, and otherwise naked.

I see a wondrous thing, a god flying with a money-bag.

Run, you poor little ones, with your laps open to where he flies,

That he may pour out his purse; be ready from that moment.

Look at the painted one, for thus from on high he will

Toss coins to you; then dance without a care.

Vain one, are you not mad? To worship gods painted on a panel?

If you know not how to live, go dwell among the beasts.

You make Neptune a god, sprung from Saturn:

And he carries a trident, so that he may spear fish.

It is plain that he is a god of the waves with that equipment.

Did he not himself, together with Apollo, build the walls for the Trojans?

How then did that destitute mason become a god?

Did he not beget the Cyclops, a monster? Was he not himself something greater?

He could not live from his own means; what he had was from his building work.

Thus he begot, himself begotten, who had already died long ago.

You make Apollo a lyre-player and a diviner.

First born of Maia on the island of Delos,

Afterward, for a fee offered, as a builder, he obeyed

King Laomedon and built the walls of the Trojans.

And he established himself, whom the deceived think a god:

With whose bones the love of Cassandra burned,

Whom the maiden cunningly mocked, and the diviner is deceived.

By the service of a wether he was able to know a two-stringed lyre.

For, being rejected, the diviner departed from there.

The maiden terrified him with her beauty, whom he ought to have had.

She who ought first to have loved the god,

The wanton one who thus began to love Daphne:

And yet he pursues her, while he wishes to violate the maiden;

The fool loves in vain, nor could he catch her in the race.

Or, if he was a god, he would have met her through the air.

She came first under a roof, and the diviner remained behind.

The race of men deceives you, for they lived in wretched sustenance.

He is also said to have pastured the flocks of Admetus.

While in play he was sending a discus high into the air,

He could not hold it as it slipped: he struck down his friend:

That was the last day of his companion Hyacinthus.

If he was a diviner, he would have foreknown the death of his friend.

Father Liber you yourselves certainly say was born twice,

First born in India from Jupiter and Proserpina.

Warring against the Titans with blood poured out,

He expired indeed as one of the mortals;

Restored again by his fate in another womb,

Semele, another Maia of Jupiter, receives this one again.

Her womb being cut open, she having died near childbirth,

He is taken up, and given to Nisus to be reared as a foster-child,

From this he is called twice-born, that one is called Dionysus,

Whose false religion is tended in emptiness.

And those ones revel, such as they now appear to be,

Either reckless fellows and cobblers of Mimnermus,

They conspire in evil, they play beforehand with feigned frenzy,

So as to deceive others, who will say that a divine power is present.

Hence you plainly see men living in like fashion,

Stirred up by wine, which he first had pressed out,

Under his own sport they gave him honor.

The Unconquered One, born from a rock, if he is held to be a god,

Now therefore give back to these ones their prior claim.

The rock conquered the god; the creator of the rock must be sought.

Moreover you still depict him as a thief;

Since if he had ever been a god, he did not live by theft.

He was certainly earthly, and of a monster-devouring nature.

And he always turned other men's cattle into his caves,

Just as Cacus also did, that son of Vulcan.

Whence did Silvanus again appear to be a god?

Perhaps it pleases on this account, because the pipe plays well,

Because he bestows wood; for perhaps there would be none.

You have bought a master when you have purchased wood for him.

Look, the wood runs out. What is owed to him?

Are you not ashamed, fool, to worship such planks?

Seek one God, who says that one may live after death.

Depart from those who have been made to die by violence.

Because Hercules destroyed the monster of the Aventine hill,

Which was accustomed to steal the herds of Evander;

The rustic mind of men, likewise untaught, in praise,

When they wished to give thanks, to the absent thunderer,

Vowed offerings foolishly, as if praying to a god,

They made suckling altars in memory of him.

From this it came about that he is worshipped from ancient custom.

But this one is not a god, although he was strong in arms.

You say there are gods, who are manifestly bloodthirsty:

And you say that the fates of nativity assign your destinies to you.

Say now therefore to which ones sacred rites are first to be offered.

Between the two paths, untimely death wanders.

If the fates of nativity grant things, why do you pray to a god?

You are vainly deceived, you who seek to pray to the shades,

And those who are fashioned you call your lords.

Or you also pray to certain women I know not what as goddesses,

Bellona and Nemesis as goddesses, and Faria together as heavenly,

Virgins, and Venus, for whom your wives waste away.

There are other demons besides in the shrines,

Which are not yet counted, and are carried on the neck,

So that not even they themselves can give account of themselves. These plagues

Ought rather to be exported to the uttermost lands.

A few wicked, empty soothsayers delude you.

While they seek to extricate their own livelihood:

They suborn others with falsehood under the guise of mysteries.

Then, pretending to be shaken by some divine power,

They chant of majesty, and exhaust themselves under a pretense.

You have often seen the Dindymarian priests, with what a din

They enter upon their excesses while they seek to feign frenzy,

Or when they beat their foul backs with the double axe:

With their teaching they preserve what they heal with blood.

Consider by what name they compel those

Who first compose themselves with sound mind for those same ones.

But in order to collect alms, they seek such devices.

From this see, that all these things are fabricated.

They overshadow the simple people, who will perish if they do not believe.

The matter once proceeded in vain from antiquity,

So that one who prophesies and delivers falsehoods is believed.

But their majesty has spoken nothing.

We have already said much concerning abominable superstition,

And yet we continue, lest we be said to have passed over anything.

And his worshippers used to worship their Ammudate in their fashion:

He was great to them, when there was gold in the temple.

They bowed their heads under the divine power as if present.

It came to the point that Caesar took away the gold:

The divine power failed, or fled, or passed into the fire.

The author of this crime is established, who fashioned the same one,

He falsely prophesying deceives so many great men;

And now he has fallen silent, who used to be a diviner.

For voices would burst forth, as if with a changed mind;

As if the god of the wood were speaking into his ear.

Say now yourselves, if these divine powers are not false?

How many did that prophet destroy by that prodigy?

He has forgotten to prophesy, who used to do so before.

These monsters are so fabricated by wine-devourers;

Whose damnable audacity fashions divine powers.

For they carried it about, and such a seal withered:

For he himself is silent, and no one prophesies from him

At all, but you yourselves wish to destroy yourselves.

Is it not a disgrace, for a prudent man to be led astray,

And to worship such a one, or to call Diana a piece of wood?

In the morning you believe a drunken, raw, doomed man;

Who by his art speaks falsely whatever seems good to him:

While he acts severely, he feeds his own belly.

One detestable man corrupts all the citizens.

And he has attached to himself, having formed a similar fellowship,

With whom he fabricates a story, so as to adorn a god.

He himself does not know how to divine for himself, yet he dares to for others.

He lifts him up when it pleases him, and when he sets him down.

He turns himself spinning with a forked piece of wood;

As if you might think him breathed upon by the divine power of the wood.

You do not worship the gods whom they themselves falsely prophesy;

You worship the priests themselves, fearing in vain.

But if your heart is strong, flee now the shrines of death.

You say that the Titans are your Tutani.

You pray to the merciless and silent ones beneath your roof.

So many household gods, shrines, and fashioned images for the Titan.

For you fools worship those who died by an evil death;

Not reading their own law: they themselves do not speak.

And you dare to call gods those poured out in bronze.

You would rather melt them down into little vessels for yourselves.

You call mountains gods: let them rule in gold.

Darkened by evil, helping others with a foreign mind.

For if a pure soul and a serene mind were to remain,

You yourself ought to dispute with yourself concerning those things.

You are out of your mind, O man, if you think that they themselves will save you,

Or rule you, or diminish you. If you seek anything of sound sense,

Seek rather the justice of the law: it carries

The aid of salvation, and declares that one may become eternal.

For what you follow in vanities rejoices only for a time.

You rejoice briefly, and afterward you weep in the depths.

Withdraw yourself from them, if you wish to rise again with Christ.

Alas, I grieve, O citizens, that you are so dulled by the world!

One runs off to lots, another watches birds,

Another, with the blood of bleating animals shed, inspects his hands,

And credulously desires to hear vain responses.

So many leaders and kings who were consulted about their lives,

Or what did it profit them to have known their own portents?

Learn what is good, I pray, O citizens; beware of images:

Let all seek in the law of the Almighty.

Thus it pleased the Lord of lords on high,

That demons wander in the world for our testing, and yet on the other side He sent forth commandments

That those who forsake their altars shall become heavenly.

Wherefore I do not trouble to dispute this in a small book:

The law teaches, it calls out in the midst: Consult for yourselves.

You have entered upon two roads; agree upon the right one.

While you serve your belly, you say that you are innocent,

And as one who is common you make yourself ready for anything everywhere.

Woe to you, foolish man, you yourself look about for death.

You seek to live without law after the manner of a barbarian;

You even hymn yourself, to insinuate yourself by your word,

You who feign simplicity: I live simply with this man.

You think you are living, while you desire to fill your belly.

A petty man, to dwell wickedly in your own house;

Ready for feasts, and to shrink from precepts.

Or because you disbelieve that God judges the dead;

You foolishly make yourself the ruler of heaven in His place.

You look to your belly, as though you were its provident guardian.

At one moment you appear profane, at another moment holy.

You come forth as a suppliant of God, with the bearing of a tyrant.

You shall feel in your fate by whose law you are now aided.

Thinking to be safe by living doubtfully between the two,

Stripped of the law, worn out by excess, you go forward.

So vainly do you look ahead; why do you seek iniquitous things?

And whatever you have done, reflect that it remains here when you are dead,

O fool: you were not, and behold you are seen.

You know not whence you came forth, nor whence you are nourished;

You flee from the exalted God, who is gracious to your life,

And from your Ruler, who would rather have you live:

You turn your face away and present your back to God;

You plunge yourself into darkness, while you think you dwell in light.

Why do you run to the synagogue to the Pharisees,

That he whom you freely deny may show you mercy?

You go out from there, and again you seek sound things.

You wish to live between the two, but thereby you shall perish.

Moreover you say: Who is it that has redeemed from death,

That we should believe in him, since punishments are carried out there?

Nay, it is not so as you think, O malicious one.

For it profits him after death who has lived rightly.

But you, dying soon, are led to a malign place;

Those who believe in Christ, however, to a benign place:

And that pleasantness clings to and soothes those to whom it belongs.

But for you it is feeble, upon you without body is the punishment,

The order of the torturer stirs up to cry out against a brother.

How long, O foolish man, do you refuse to acknowledge Christ?

You avoid the rich field, and cast your seed upon barren ground.

You seek to remain in the forest, where the robber dwells.

You say, I too am of God; and yet you wander outside.

Enter now at last, so many times invited, into the hall.

The harvest is now ripe, the time likewise is ready.

Behold, reap now: what? Do you not repent? Hence

Now, if you have nothing, gather: the vintage yields wine.

The time of life is at hand, the time for believing at the time of death.

The first law of God is the foundation of the later law.

It indeed marked you out as one who would believe in the second law,

And the threats are not from him, but from it they are powerful for you:

Be now struck with wonder; swear that you believe in Christ;

For the old testament proclaims him.

For it is necessary only to believe in him who died,

That one can rise again, and live for all time.

Therefore if you disbelieve that these things are to come,

Though the guilty one shall be overcome in the second death,

I shall tell in a few words in this little book what is to come.

For it can be known where hope is to be placed first.

Nevertheless I exhort you all to believe in Christ as quickly as possible.

You reject, O wretched one, the good of heavenly discipline,

And you rush into death, while you wish to wander without restraint.

Luxury and the brief joys of the world destroy you:

Wherefore you shall be tormented beneath hell for all time.

The joys are vain with which you are foolishly delighted.

Do not those things render you back as a man who has died?

Can thirty years not yet make you learned?

If you erred at first in ignorance, look upon your grey hairs.

You think now that a happy life is to be enjoyed here

Amid injuries: there are the losses of your own,

Wars, and unspeakable frauds, thefts with bloodshed,

The body is vexed with sores, and lamented with groaning,

Or light ailments assail you, or you are held by a long illness,

Or you are bereaved of children, or you weep for a lost spouse.

Everything is forsaken: alas! Dignities tumble from on high,

Through vices, through poverty, doubly indeed if you are sick:

And you call it life, where mortal life is as fragile as glass?

Reflect at last that this time is worthless:

But in the future your hope is to live without deceit.

The little ones who were snatched away certainly wished to live,

But deprived of life, the young men were perhaps growing old,

They were preparing to enjoy joyful days and to partake of them;

And yet unwillingly we lay all things aside for the world.

I too was a people dwelling in a perverse mind,

And I thought that the life of this age was the true one;

And I judged death to be present just as you do;

That once the soul had departed, it had perished with the dead.

But these things are not so, but the founder and author of the world

Indeed required a brother from the brother who slew him.

Say, impious one, he said, Where is your brother? He denied it.

For the blood of my brother has cried out to me on high.

You are tormented, I see, where you thought you would feel nothing:

But he lives, and holds the places on the right hand;

He enjoys the delights which you, O wicked one, have lost;

And when you have recalled the age; and he has gone before,

He shall be immortal; but you shall weep beneath Tartarus.

God surely lives, who has made the dead to live;

And to render worthy rewards to the innocent and good:

But to the mad and impious, cruel Tartarus.

Begin to feel the judgments of God, O you who have been led astray.

Fool, you do not die away from him, nor does the dead man escape the Most High.

Though you arrange that you shall feel nothing when dead,

You are overcome, O senseless one: God the founder of the world lives,

Whose lawful decrees proclaim that the dead have power.

But while you headlong seek to live without God,

You judge him extinguished in fate, and believe it to be fate.

The eternal God has not so disposed as you think,

That the dead are forgetful of what was done before.

Now ruling over us he has made receptacles of death;

But after our ashes we shall see those things.

Strip yourself, O fool, who think that through death you shall cease to be;

You have made your Ruler and Lord to be of no power:

But death is not in vain, if you reflect in your heart.

Know what is to be desired: for you shall feel him late.

You were the ruler of the flesh; certainly the flesh did not rule you.

Removed from it, it is laid away, and you go hence:

Rightly is mortal man separated from the flesh:

Therefore mortal eyes shall not be able to be made equal.

Thus our abyss holds from the secret of God.

Give honor now therefore to God, while you die as a fragile being:

And believe that Christ will restore you living from the dead.

You ought to render praises to the Almighty in the Church.

Justice and goodness, peace and true patience

Cause one to live after death, and care for one's conduct.

But a crafty mind, harmful, treacherous, and wicked,

Lifts itself up into factions, and lingers in a savage death.

O impious one, hear now what you gain through evil deeds;

Look upon earthly judges, who now in the body

Torment the wicked with punishments: or by the sword are prepared

Penalties for the deserving, or to weep in long imprisonment.

Do you in the end hope to mock the heavenly God,

And the Ruler of heaven, through whom all things were made?

You rage, you are mad, you now even revile the name of God;

Wherefore you shall not escape: he will impose punishments according to your deeds.

Now I wish you to be cautious, lest you come into the heat of fire.

Surrender yourself now to Christ, that good deeds may follow you.

You defer, O rich man, beholding all your possessions

Insatiably, to which you still seek to cling.

To live after these things, you say, I do not hope when dead.

Ungrateful to the most high God, who thus judges God to be;

Who brought you forth without your knowing, and then nourished you:

He himself governs your meadows, your vineyards himself,

Himself your flock of cattle, and whatever you yourself possess.

You attend not to these things, or perhaps you rule all things yourself.

He who made this heaven and earth and the salt seas

Has decreed to restore us ourselves in a golden age;

And now if you believe, one lives in the secret of God.

Learn God, O fool, who wishes you to be immortal,

That you may render thanks to him in the contest everlastingly.

His law teaches, but because you seek to wander,

You disbelieve all things, and thence you shall go into Tartarus:

Soon you yield up your soul, you are led where you repent to be.

There an eternal spiritual punishment is washed upon you;

There are lamentations always, nor do you die away in it,

Proclaiming the Almighty God there now too late.

Learn, O you who must die, to show yourself good to all.

Why do you make yourself another person in the midst of the people?

You go where you know not, and depart thence unknowing.

You deal impiously, while with that very body you are

Always thirsting for riches: you lift yourself up too high,

And you carry yourself with pride, nor do you look upon the poor.

Those now subject to you, you do not even feed your own parents.

Alas, wretched ones! Let those of middling station flee far from you.

He lived: and, I have destroyed him. The poor man cries, Eureka.

Soon you are driven by the Furies when you yourself perish, O Charybdis.

Thus you rich men are undisciplined.

You give the law to others, you do not prepare it for yourselves.

Strip yourself, O rich man, of so many evils, perverse toward God,

Let what you have now wrought come to your aid, if perhaps it may.

Be companions of the divine power while you have time,

As the elm loves the vine, so do you love the little ones.

The law, terrible to the wicked, equally gracious to the good,

Observe now, O barren one; be protected in prosperity:

Lift up your hearts from fraud, O rich men, and take up peace.

And look upon your evil. Do you do good? I am here.

Consider the words of Solomon, all you judges.

How with his one word he reproaches you.

Gifts and presents corrupt judges: hence

Justice follows: you always love those who give;

And when there is a case, iniquitous victory carries it off.

Thus I am innocent, nor do I, a small one, accuse you,

Because Solomon openly removes the blasphemy.

But for you God is your belly and rewards are justice.

The apostle Paul suggests this, not I who am double.

If place or time favors, or rank has advanced you;

Be a new judge: why do you now exalt yourself thereby?

You blaspheme, unteachable, by whose bounty you live,

In such great frailty you never look back.

Through degrees and gains you greedily presume upon fortune;

You have no law, nor do you know yourself in prosperity.

Though they may be reckoned in gold, let the courts always revel;

If you have not worshipped the cross of the Lord, you have perished.

Both place and time and rank are given to you

Now, if however you believe: but if not, you shall fear on account of it.

Temper yourself to Christ; and lay your neck before him.

This honor remains and all confidence of things.

When time flatters you, be more cautious.

Not foreseeing the last things of fate which befall you,

Without Christ you can never live again.

O fierce people without a shepherd, wander no more.

And I who give warning was the same, unknowing, erring.

Now therefore take upon you the image of your Lord:

Lift up your fierce and hardened hearts on high:

Enter steadfast to the manger of Silvester the shepherd,

Remaining safe from robbers under the royal roof.

In the forest are wolves; therefore flee under the cave.

You war madly, nor do you look where you dwell.

Believe in one God, so that being dead you may live;

And rise in the kingdom when the resurrection weeps for the just.

An untamed neck refuses to bear the yoke of toil;

then it delights to be filled with thick husks in the fields:

and yet the useful mare is tamed against her will, and her fierceness is diminished, being first broken in.

O people, O man, O brother, do not be a wild beast;

rescue yourself at last, and reflect within yourself;

you are not altogether a beast, nor a brute animal, but born a human being;

tame yourself wisely, and come under the arms, you who follow idols, which are nothing but the vanity of the age:

your fickle hearts destroy you, nearly set free.

There gold, garments, silver are carried in armfuls;

there war is waged, then Love is sung in place of psalms.

Do you think there is life where you play, or look upon such things?

You draw lots, O ignorant one, for things that are dead;

you seek golden things;

from thence you will not escape the plague, even if you yourself are a diviner.

The grace which the Lord sent to be gathered upon earth you do not seek, but wander thus as though more brutish than a beast.

The golden ages spoken of will come to you, if you believe, and you will begin again to live immortally forever.

That too is granted to know, what you were before:

submit yourself to God, who governs all things.

Adam, the first to fall, so as to avoid the commandments of God—Belias the tempter acted out of envy of the palm—and he brought upon us whatever of good or evil he did, the leader of our birth by nativity;

through him we die, departing himself as an exile from the divine word.

When six thousand years are ended, we shall be immortal.

By the tasting of the wood of the fruit, death entered into the world:

by this wood of death we are born for future life.

On the wood hangs life, bearing fruits, the commandments.

Take heed now, O believers, of the life-giving fruits.

The law given from the wood to the first man was to be feared, whence death came through neglect of the law of the beginning:

now stretch out your hand, and take from the wood of life.

The best law of the Lord, following, proceeded from the wood.

The first law was lost;

whence it is permitted to him to taste.

He who worships forbidden gods—the evil joys of life.

Reject the taste;

it will suffice to know what it was.

If you wish to live, give yourselves to the second law.

Avoid the worship of temples, the fates of demons;

turn yourselves to Christ, and you will be companions of God.

The law of God is golden, which teaches the dead to live.

The Lord alone has commanded that a hymn be offered to him;

avoid altogether the law of the devil.

Of the double sign I have spoken, whence death proceeded;

and that life proceeds from it again repeatedly.

But the cross has been made foolishness to the adulterous people.

The king of eternity through the cross, dread, foreshadows, that they may now believe in him—O fools, living through death!

Cain slew the younger, found to be wicked:

thence the offspring of Cain, the Cainites, are said to have been born.

Thus the wicked race grew in the world, which never turns its mind to God:

to believe in the cross comes as a horror to them, and they say they live rightly.

The law was first in the wood, and thence the second.

The terrible law first;

with peace it returns.

Lifted up in vain transgressions, they fell headlong:

they refuse to acknowledge the Lord pierced with nails;

when his judgment comes, they will recognize it there.

But the race of Abel now believes in the gracious Christ.

What?

Do you wish to be half Jew, half pagan?

Whence you will not escape the judgment of Christ when you are dead.

You yourself were blind, and you enter among the blind, O foolish one:

therefore the blind leads the blind into the pit;

you go where you do not know, and depart thence in ignorance;

let learners go to the learned, and the learned depart.

But you go to those from whom you can learn nothing.

You go out through the doors, and thence go also to the idols.

Ask first what is commanded in the law;

let them tell you, if it is commanded to worship gods.

For they are ignored on account of what they are chiefly capable of.

But they, since they are guilty, from that very fault tell nothing of the commandments of God but what is wonderful:

yet then the blind lead you with them into the pit.

These are dead things;

it is too well known to report about them.

Or because the heap of the plough encloses the field.

The Almighty was unwilling that they should understand the king;

he himself, bloodstained, fled from so great a crime.

He delivered himself to us with the law added above, and so now they hide among us, deserted by their king.

But if you think there is hope in them, you err entirely, if you worship both God and shrines.

Ever wicked, and with stiff neck you kick back, you do not wish to be overcome;

thus you will be heirs.

Isaiah said that you are of hardened heart.

You look upon the law which Moses dashed down in anger.

And the same Lord gave him a second law:

in that he placed hope, which you, mocked, reject.

But therefore you will not be worthy of the heavenly kingdom.

Consider that Leah was a type of the Synagogue;

with eyes so weak, as Jacob received her as a sign:

and yet he served again for the beloved younger one.

A true mystery and type of our Church.

Consider fully the word spoken to Rebecca from heaven:

whence, likening yourselves to a stranger, believe in Christ.

Then approach the birth of the twins of Tamar:

attend to Cain, the first tiller of the earth, and Abel the shepherd, who was spotless, an offerer slain by his brother at his brother's death.

So therefore understand that the younger ones are approved by Christ.

An unbelieving people—there is none but yours, O wicked ones—reproved in so many places and so many times by the law of those who cry out, and the Most High spurns your sabbaths and your new moons, rejecting altogether all your things from the law, so that you should not make the sacrifices commanded to him;

who said he would send a stone as a stumbling-block to you.

If any have not believed that the wicked perished by death;

and that the beloved are saved through other laws:

thence the life hung on the wood, and you do not believe in him either.

God himself is life:

he himself hung for us.

But you with hardened heart mock him.

Isaiah said:

This is the man who moves the world, and as many kings, under whom the earth will be made desolate.

Hear, for the prophet foretold concerning him:

I have said nothing in an orderly fashion, but carelessly.

Then indeed the world ends, when he shall appear.

He will have divided the world among three rulers:

but when Nero has been raised from the underworld, Elias will come first to seal the elect.

The things which the region of Africa and the whole northern nation—for seven years the earth will tremble on every side, but Elias will hold the middle time and Nero the middle time.

Then Babylon the harlot, burned to ashes, thence will proceed to Jerusalem, and the Latin conqueror will then say:

I am the Christ whom you always worship.

And indeed the first deceived ones praise him.

He works many signs, because his false prophet does so.

Above all, that they may believe in him, an image will speak.

The Almighty grants that such a one should come forth.

The Jews, recapitulating the scriptures from him, cry out together to the Most High that they have been deceived.

Let the last hidden holy one be sought, and indeed unknown to us where he dwells, passing through nine tribes and a half to us—[lacuna]—and he commanded them to live by the ancient law:

let us all now live;

the new tradition of the law:

as the law itself teaches, I judge more fittingly for you.

Two tribes and a half were left behind:

why a half tribe from these?

That they might be martyrs when he would bring war against his elect in the world:

or certainly that the choir of the holy prophets might rise up to the people, who would put a bridle upon them, those whom the wanton horses slaughtered with their unrestrained heel;

and that a hand might not rush rashly to peace at any time.

These tribes were set apart, and all the mysteries of Christ are fulfilled through them throughout the whole age.

But they are sprung from the crime of two brothers, in whose auspice the deed was followed.

Not undeservedly were those bloodstained ones themselves dispersed:

they will come together again on account of the mysteries of Christ.

Then they hasten to fulfill the things narrated in the law.

Almighty Christ descends to his elect, who were hidden from us for so long a time;

made so many thousands:

that is the true heavenly people.

No one born before the father dies there, nor do they feel pains in their bodies, or swellings on the nose.

Resting in their bed they depart in due time, fulfilling all things of the law:

and therefore they are protected.

They are commanded to pass over to the Lord on the right side, for whom the river dries up as before when they crossed;

and no less the Lord himself proceeds with them, he crossed over to our side;

they come with the heavenly king.

What shall I say of what God brings forth on their journey?

Mountains sink down before them, and springs burst forth:

creation rejoices to see the heavenly people.

Yet these hasten to defend their mother who is held captive.

But the wicked king who holds her, when he hears, flees to the northern quarter and gathers all.

But when the tyrant dashes himself against the army of God, they are laid low by the heavenly terror of the heavenly soldiery;

he himself is seized together with the unspeakable false prophet.

By the decree of the Lord they are handed over alive to gehenna.

From that point the chief men and leaders are commanded to serve.

Then the saints will enter into the bosom of their ancient mother.

But that those also whom he wickedly persuaded may be refreshed, he will torment in various punishments those who believed in him.

The end has come, at which the stumbling-blocks are removed from the world.

The Lord will begin to render judgment through fire.

The trumpet gives the signal to heaven, the lion being taken away;

and suddenly darkness comes with the crashing of heaven.

The Lord casts down his eyes that the earth may tremble;

he cries out that all may hear throughout the world:

Behold, I have long been silent, enduring your deeds for so long a time.

They cry out together, lamenting, groaning too late;

there is wailing, there is weeping, and no space is given to the wicked.

What will a mother do for her nursing child?

When she herself is burned.

In a flame of fire the Lord will judge the wicked:

but the fire will not touch the just, but rather will lick them clean.

They dwell together, but one part wept at the sentence.

So great will be the heat that the very stones melt;

the winds come together into thunderbolts, the wrath of heaven rages, so that wherever the wicked man flees, he is overtaken by fire.

There will be no refuge, nor any ship of the sea:

the fire inflames the nations, and the Medes and Parthians burn for a thousand years, as the hidden things of John report.

For thence after a thousand years they are handed over to gehenna, and the fabric of which they were a part, when they themselves are burned.

The city will descend from heaven at the first resurrection:

there is something to tell of so great a heavenly structure.

We shall rise again, we who were devoted to him, and they will be incorruptible, living then already without death:

but neither will there be any pain, nor groaning in that place.

Those also will come who conquer under Antichrist with strong martyrdoms:

they too live throughout the whole time, and receive good things because they suffered evil things, and they themselves beget children, marrying through a thousand years.

All the revenues of the earth are gathered there, because the renewed earth pours forth without end.

There no rain, no cold in the golden camps, no sieges as now, nor plunderings, nor does that city need the light of a lamp:

it shines from its own author, and moreover it appears there twelve thousand stadia wide, long, and likewise high;

its root in the earth, but its summit it equals with heaven.

In the city before the gates, however, the sun and moon will shine.

The wicked one is hemmed in by anguish for the sake of feeding the just.

But after a thousand years God will destroy all things.

I add concerning the day of judgment for the sake of unbelievers.

The fire of God will be sent forth again as a gift:

the earth gives a true groan, then at the final end, acting three times, and then all unbelievers.

Yet avoiding the camps of his saints, all nature is turned into one flame:

the earth is burned from its depths, and the mountains melt:

nothing of the sea remains, it is overcome by the mighty fire.

This heaven and the stars perish, and these things are changed.

Another newness of heaven and earth, everlasting, is fashioned.

Thence those who deserved it are sent into the second death:

but the just are placed in the inner dwelling places.

All you who believe in Christ, having forsaken idols, I admonish briefly for the sake of your salvation.

If in earlier times you did anything through error, having been given over to Christ, leave all things behind.

And when you have come to know God, be a good recruit, proven:

and let virginal modesty dwell with you in the Lamb.

Let the mind be watchful for good things:

take care that you do not sin henceforth.

In baptism your birth-stain alone is washed away.

For if any catechumen sinning is marked with punishment, let him live in those signs, but not without loss.

The sum for you:

always avoid grave sins.

I admonish the faithful brethren to put away hatred:

impious hatreds are reckoned as fire against martyrs;

the martyr is destroyed whose confession is such:

it is taught that evil is not expiated even by shed blood.

The law is given to the wicked man, that he may be able to restrain himself.

Thence he ought to be free from deceit;

and likewise you.

You sin twice against God, who extend quarrels to your brother:

whence you will not escape sin, following old ways.

You have been washed once;

can you be plunged in again?

Birds are deceived, and the beasts of the forests in the forests, enchanted by those very things, to whom loss of mind has been handed over.

And they deceive those who follow them as a profitable bait:

and they know not how to avoid evil, nor are they held by law.

Law was given to man, and the teaching of life to be read, from which he takes heed, that he may be able to live cautiously, and may diminish his own place:

and the things of death which exist.

He condemns himself gravely, who offends against the king;

either bound in chains, or cast down from his rank, or deprived of life, he loses what he ought to enjoy.

Warned by this example, be unwilling to sin gravely.

Translated by baptism, have charity all the more.

Shun far off the bait of the mousetrap, where death is.

Many are the martyrdoms which are accomplished without the shedding of blood.

Not to covet another's goods, to wish to possess martyrdom, to bridle the tongue, to render yourself humble you ought, not to do violence of your own accord, nor to return violence when done against you.

You have become a penitent;

pray by night and by day:

yet depart not far from your mother, and the Most High will be able to be merciful to you.

The confession of guilt shall not be made in vain;

accordingly in your guilt learn to weep openly.

If you have a wound, seek an herb and a physician.

And yet in your punishments you will be able to lighten your losses.

For I will confess, for I acknowledge myself to be one of you, and that terror must be left behind:

I myself felt the ruin.

Therefore I admonish the wounded to walk more cautiously.

To defile beard and hair in the dust of the earth, and to roll in sackcloth, and to beseech the Most High King—he will come to your aid, lest you perish perhaps from among the people.

When war is waged, or the enemy presses in, to be able to conquer or to hide—great trophies.

But unhappy will he be who has been captured by them.

He loses his homeland and his king, who was unwilling to fight worthily for the truth, for his homeland, and for his life:

he ought to have died rather than go under a barbarian king;

and let him seek servitude, who chooses to submit to enemies without law.

If you die fighting for your king, you have conquered.

But if you have surrendered, you have perished by the law while unharmed.

The enemy sweeps past:

hide yourself in a hiding place.

Or if he can enter, whether or not, do not cease:

make yourself safe on every side, and your people too;

you have conquered.

And act watchfully, lest anyone fall into those snares.

It will be a shameful thing if anyone reveals himself to the enemy.

He who knows not how to conquer, and rushes forward to surrender himself, the fool has in the end granted pardon neither to himself nor to his homeland.

Then he was unwilling to live, when life itself will perish.

If anyone is destitute of the Lord, or profane, from the enemy, the sound of the deed ringing out, or like asps, deaf, such persons ought to pray sufficiently, or to hide themselves.

The enemy's war came suddenly flooding in, and before they could flee, it seized the helpless little ones.

They are not to be reproached, even though they appear to have been captured:

nor indeed do I excuse them:

perhaps on account of the sins of their parents they deserved it;

therefore God delivered them over.

Yet I urge the adults to return to arms, and to be born again as it were anew from the womb of their mother.

Let them flee the terrible law, ever bloodthirsty, impious, unteachable, living a bestial life.

For when another war shall perhaps have to be waged, he who shall be able to conquer, or at least already know how to take heed, [lacuna]

Deserters are spoken of in more than one kind.

One is wicked, another withdraws in part;

but yet to both true judgments are decreed.

Behold, one serves under Christ, just as one obeys Caesar.

Seek the refuge of the king, if you have been an offender;

implore him, prostrate yourself before him, confess to him:

he will grant all things, whose are also all our things.

With your camp restored, take care to offend no more.

Wander not long, O soldier, through the dens of wild beasts.

Let it be for you that to sin, to desist, is an immense deed accomplished.

When you have given your name to military service, you are held by the bridle.

Begin then from that point to put away your former deeds:

shun luxuries, since the toil of arms presses upon you.

The command of the king must be obeyed with every virtue, if you wish to reach the last times in joy.

That good soldier, always await the things to be enjoyed;

flatter not yourself, put away idleness altogether, so that you may be present before your commander every day;

be solicitous beforehand, revisit the standards at morning.

When you see war, take up the nearby contest.

This is the glory of the king, to see the soldier prepared;

the king is present, on account of the hope of him who is to reign as Lord.

He prepares gifts, he rejoices on account of victory, looks up, and dedicates his own man to be his attendant.

Do not spare yourself moreover against Belial:

be more diligent, so that he may render fame in return for death.

The souls of the condemned deservedly separate themselves.

Born of this stock, they return again to their own.

The root of Cain, the accursed seed, breaks forth, and takes refuge in a servile people under a barbarian king, those whom eternal flame will torment on the appointed day.

The wandering fugitive wishes to roam without discipline, to prowl through the jaws of the roads, loosed from the law.

These therefore, such as they are, whom no punishment has constrained, if they are unwilling to live, ought to be regarded by the idols.

Concerning the seed of the tare, those who stand mingled in the Church.

When the times of harvest are fulfilled, the tare that has sprung up, which the Lord had not sown, is separated from the fruit.

The farmer collects all the tare and separates it.

The law is our field:

whoever shall have done good in it, the ruler himself assuredly grants us true rest:

for the tare is burned with fire.

If therefore you suppose that, because they dwell in one place, you are mistaken:

I designate you as barren Christians.

The fig tree without fruit was cursed by the word of the Lord;

and straightway it withered.

You perform no works, you prepare no gift for the treasury.

And do you thus think to deserve the Lord, you empty ones?

Do you dissemble the law proclaimed with so great a proclamation, crying out in the heavenly voice of so many prophets?

If a single prophet had declared it into a cloud, the voice of the Lord sent through him would have sufficed.

In the volumes of so many prophets the law of the Lord proclaims aloud;

no one puts away his wickednesses:

and so likewise from the heart you wish to see good, and you seek to live by deceits.

Why then did the law itself come forth with so great labor?

You abuse the commandments of the Lord, and call yourself his son.

If you shall be such without cause, you shall be seen, I say.

The Almighty seeks to have sons who are gentle, upright in good heart, devoted to the divine law:

but where he has plunged the unmerciful, you already know.

If certain teachers, while they await your gifts, or fear persons, loosen everything for you;

I too do not grieve, but I am compelled to speak the truth.

With the crowd of evil you go to vain spectacles, where Satan works amid the crashes of the circus.

You persuade yourself that whatever will please you is lawful.

O offspring of the Most High, mingled with the children of Zabulus, do you wish to look back upon those former things which you renounced?

You are involved in them again;

what will the One profit?

Or if it was given on account of weakness, the profane one foolishly [lacuna] Love not the world, nor the ambition thereof:

so great is the voice of God, and it seems right to you.

You observe the commandment of man, and avoid that of God;

you trust in the gift by which teachers stop their mouths, that they may be silent and not tell you the divine commands.

Look to me speaking truth, as you are bound, look to the Most High:

to whose son you were, to him assign yourself as a client.

If you seek to live in a gentile manner, O faithful man, the joys of the world remove you from the grace of Christ:

undisciplined, you presume that what is light is lawful for you, and you seek beloved actors and musical songs;

nor do you care that madness of such a kind babbles to your offspring:

do you think that he lives in enjoyment?

You err improvidently.

The Most High commands, and you avoid his just precepts.

Since the Lord says, to eat bread in groaning:

here, why do you now act as you do, you who desire to live in joy?

You seek to annul the sentence of the Most High God sent upon the first-formed man:

you wish to betray the bridle of the law.

If God Almighty commanded to live with sweat, you who make merry will already be a stranger to him.

Scripture says that the Lord was indignant with the Jews.

Filled with food, the sons rose up to play.

Why then do we now follow those who went forth of their own accord?

From the thing by which they perished, we ought to take heed.

The greater part of you, given over to luxuries, obeys.

You transgress the law when you stain yourself with cosmetics:

against you the Apostle cries out, nay God through him:

your licentiousness, he says, destroys you in those very things.

Be therefore such as Christ wishes you to be.

Gentle and joyful in him, for sad toward the world.

Run forth, labor, sweat, fight with sadness.

Hope comes with labor, and the palm of victory is bestowed.

If you desire to be refreshed, submit yourself to martyrdom.

Await the future rest in the passage of death.

You wish to be matrons, O Christian woman, as the ladies of the world, you surround yourself with gold, or with silken garment, chaste one;

you send away the terror of the law from your ears with the wind:

you affect vain things, all the pomp of Zabulus:

you adorn yourself before the mirror, with curls turned back upon your brow;

and moreover you apply false remedies to your cheeks:

stibium upon your pure eyes with perverse adornment, or you dye your hair, that it may be black at all times.

God is the inspector, who penetrates every heart;

besides, these things are not necessary for the chaste.

Pierce your breast with a chaste and modest mind.

The law of God testifies that such practices must be put away.

For her who believes from the heart, it suffices for a woman approved by her husband to be not in adornments but in good mind.

Put on garments which cold and heat demand, or the excess of the sun;

only that you may be proved chaste;

and show the gifts of your means among the people of God.

You give yourself a memorial, once most illustrious.

She who lay lifeless, raised up by the prayers of widows, merited to be lifted up by her giving, not by her adornments.

You good matrons, flee the beauty of vanity.

Adornment befits women of the brothel.

Conquer the evil one, you chaste women of Christ.

In giving, show forth all your riches.

Hear the voice, you who wish to remain a Christian woman, how the blessed Paul prescribes that you be adorned;

likewise the heaven-speaking Isaiah, teacher and author:

for he detests those who follow the depravity of the world.

The exalted daughters of Sion, he says, shall lie low.

It is not right before God that a faithful Christian woman be adorned.

Do you seek to go forth after the manner of the Gentiles, O holy one of God?

The heralds of God condemn these things, crying out in the law, that women who adorn themselves in such a manner are unjust.

You dye your hair, you smear your eyes with soot, you raise up your little locks grain by grain, your brow painted, you doctor your cheeks with a certain applied redness, and moreover earrings hang with very great weight;

you load your neck with necklaces, gems, and gold;

you bind your hands, worthy of God, with an evil omen.

Why should I mention garments, or all the pomp of Zabulus?

You reject the law when you wish to please the world.

You dance in your houses, you sing loves instead of psalms.

Though you be chaste, you do not cleanse yourself by following sinister things:

therefore Christ equates such as you with the Gentiles;

please Christ with a hymn-singing choir that is pleasing to him;

burning with fervor, offer your fragrance to Christ.

I am not just, brethren, raised up from the sewer:

nor do I exalt myself, but I grieve for you, seeing that from so great a people no one is crowned in the contest.

Surely if he does not fight himself, let him at least suggest it to them.

You reproach the disaster;

O belly stuffed full with luxury, a brother labors under arms with the world opposing him, and you, fattened with riches, neither fight nor present yourself to the one who fights?

Fool, do you not attend to the one fighting for many?

Upon such a one the whole Church depends, if he conquer.

You see a brother abstaining and fighting with the enemy.

You desire peace in the camp, while he fights back outside:

be merciful, that you may be safe above all things.

Nor do you fear the Lord crying out with so great a proclamation:

who commands that food be provided even for enemies, look to the meals of Tobias, who always on all days without exception ate with the poor.

You seek to feed yourself, fool, so that he who feeds you may feed you again.

Does he wish to obey me, who proposes to be set in order?

He who is sumptuously fed with a distended belly declaims, while a brother oppressed by poverty wastes away close by.

What do you say of the Lord's day?

If he has not placed himself beforehand;

rouse from the crowd a poor man, whom you may lead to dinner.

Your hope is in the tables refreshed from Christ.

Since you desire martyrdom, my son, hear.

Be such as Abel was, or such as Isaac himself, or Stephen who loves for himself a right life as his path.

What you desire is indeed a thing suited to the blessed.

First conquer Evil by good deeds, by living rightly.

When that king of yours shall have seen, be secure.

The time is his, and we bearing ourselves in either case:

so that if war is absent, martyrs will go forth in peace.

Many indeed err saying:

By our blood we have conquered the Wicked One, while he remains they are unwilling to conquer.

He perishes by being besieged, and therefore the Wicked One feels it:

but the lawful one does not feel the punishments inflicted.

And with lamentation and zeal beat your breast with your fists.

Now if you have conquered by good deeds, you are a martyr in that.

You therefore who seek to take up martyrdom by word, clothe yourself in peace with good things;

and be secure.

I am not a teacher, but the law itself teaches by crying out.

You carry such great words in vain, you who in a single moment seek to take up martyrdom for Christ while idle.

You seek to make war, fool, as though battles were at rest.

From the first-made man, the fight is waged against you until the end.

Lust rushes headlong—that is war; fight against it.

Luxury persuades you to indulge—overcome it, and you have conquered the war.

Spare yourself from abundant wine, lest you go astray through it.

Restrain the tongue of cursing, with which you worship the Lord.

Curb your rage: render yourself peaceable to all.

Beware of crushing the lowly who are oppressed by miseries.

Provide only a guardian, and do no harm.

Lead yourselves on the straight path with sincere zeal.

In your riches, show yourself generous to the humble.

Give from your labour, clothe the naked: thus you shall conquer.

Lay no snares for anyone, you who serve God.

Look upon the beginning, whence the envious enemy perished.

While you covet, you perish thereby; while you burn with zeal for your neighbour's goods:

You extinguish yourself when you set yourself ablaze from within.

You are jealous, O envious one, of another who toils for evil gain;

And you desire to make yourself equal to so great a wealth.

The Law does not look upon this thus: while you seek to press upon him,

Wholly suspended, you live in the burning desire for profits.

And since you are guilty before yourself, you condemn yourself as your own judge.

The greedy keenness of the eyes is never satisfied.

Now therefore, if you return and reflect, desire is vain.

Whence God cries out: Fool, this night you are called,

Death rushes after you: whose shall these talents be?

Storing up unjust gains in the top of the house.

Daily life will present each man's account before the Lord.

Let another heap up: you seek to live well.

And conscious of God's heart, you shall act as victor over all things.

For I do not say that you should jingle coins at the crossroads,

When you keep watch for your own day, living without deceit.

The bird perishes in the snare, or sticks unwary in the birdlime.

Consider that you must take very simple care for yourself.

Let others exceed the limit: you look ahead always.

Why do you pretend to be good at another's wound, you fool?

From what you lavish, another weeps every day.

Do you disbelieve that the Lord sees this from heaven?

The Most High does not approve the gifts of the wicked, He says.

You burst upon the wretched, once you have obtained a position.

One man gives gifts in order to render another empty.

Or if you have lent at interest: the hundredth part doubles the coin,

You wish to be generous, so as to cleanse yourself, as it were, of evil by evil.

The Almighty utterly refuses such works.

You have given from tears: that man, made a candidate for ingratitude,

Crushed by usuries, laments, reduced to poverty.

Moreover, having seized the moment for those who lie in wait—an enemy

To the people at present; you, holy through price, are unjust,

And also from the profit of merchandise you wish to purify yourself;

You deceive yourself, not another, O unjust one.

The appointed time comes for our people: there is peace in the world;

And ruin presses at the same time, with the age flattering.

O headlong people, whom you have cast into schism.

Either observe the law of the city, or go out from it.

You behold the straw clinging in our eyes,

And in your own eyes you refuse to see the beam.

A treacherous peace comes to you, persecution blazes.

Wounds will not spare, and thus you fall without slaughter.

War is waged in secret, which under that very peace

Scarcely one among you has conducted himself cautiously.

O ill-fortified ones, and foretold for slaughter!

You praise a treacherous peace, and one unjust to yourselves.

Made soldiers of another, not of Christ, you have perished.

I admonish certain readers to know only this,

And to give material to others as an example of living;

To flee contention, and to avoid quarrels equally;

To suppress terror, and never to be proud.

Render just services even to the wicked.

Make yourselves like Christ your master, little children;

Among the rustic thorns, be lilies through good deeds.

You are made blessed when you carry out the edicts.

You are the flowers among the people, you are the lamps of Christ.

Keep what you are, and you are able to be remembered.

Deacons, exercise the mystery of Christ chastely,

Therefore as ministers carry out the precepts of the master.

Do not play the role of an impartial judge,

Fulfil your office in all things as those who are learned, Looking upward, always devoted to God most high.

Render the sacred ministries of the altar safely to God,

Ready to give an example in diverse matters.

Bow your head to the pastors themselves.

So it shall come to pass that you may be found approved by Christ.

If a pastor has made confession, he has doubled his contest.

The Apostle moreover commands such masters to be:

Let the ruler be patient, let him know where to loosen the reins.

Let him first inspire fear, and afterward anoint with honey.

And let him first observe that he himself does what he says.

A pastor who keeps worldly ways is answerable in fault,

In whose face you would dare to say anything.

Gehenna itself seethes in hell with rumours.

Woe to the wretched flock, which wavers with uncertain countenance.

If such a pastor shall be present, it stands nearly lost;

But a devoted one holds it together, governing rightly.

Swarms are gladdened by fitting kings.

In such men there is hope, and the whole Church lives.

The time demands of me alone to speak the truth to you.

Often one man gives warning of what many refuse.

I wish to turn your hatred upon me alone,

So that the hearts of all may fear the tempter.

Consider the saying, that truth removes hatred.

I have already foretold how great is the treacherous peace.

While it flattered you, alas, the seducer crept in.

Because you did not know that snares were at hand, you fell.

You swallow altogether bitter things, but that is the world's own doing.

No one acts without purpose, on whose behalf you intercede.

He who flees from fire acts in a whirlpool, at your cost:

Then the wretch, stripped bare, seeks help from you.

The judges themselves now shudder at your embezzlements.

[lacuna]

From a shorter title I would not have ploughed so many lines,

You behold the teachers toward whom you stretch yourselves willingly:

With them you both take meals and feed them.

On account of these things you are now entering almost the foundations of the earth.

If a brother is sick—I speak of one who is poor—Do not visit such a one lying there with empty hands.

Do good under God, render services through the divine powers.

From this he recovers, or, if he should fall,

Let the poor man be refreshed, who has nothing with which

To repay you, but the creator and author of the world shall do so for him.

Or if it should be irksome to go to the poor man, always avoided,

Send money, and something from which he may be able to restore himself.

And likewise if a poor sister lies sick in bed,

Let your matrons begin to bring provisions.

God himself cries out: Break your bread for the needy.

It is not words that are needed to visit, but good deeds.

It is unjust that a brother, overcome by want, should lie sick.

Be diligent—he requires food and drink, not words.

Look upon such as these, but certainly upon those who are weakened,

Who cannot sustain themselves—give to them from time to time.

I pledge to you that fourfold shall be given to you by the Lord.

What is healthy poverty, unless riches are present?

If you certainly have a trade, share it also with your brother.

Provide this one thing for yourself, lest you be said to be proud.

I promise, since you live more securely than the rich man:

Receive into your ears the teaching of great Solomon.

God hates that a poor man be a respondent in high places:

Therefore submit yourself, and render honour to the powerful.

For a gentle word, as you know the proverb, will set things right.

Even long-standing anger is overcome by dutiful service.

If the tongue is silent, you have found nothing better.

But if there is no trade by which life may be sustained,

Either offer your labour, or your running, at the command of the powerful:

Let not the healthy man be ashamed or reluctant to run forward.

Moreover, from your labour you ought to put something into the treasury;

Like that singular woman whom the Anointed One commended.

Although the loss of children leaves grief in the heart,

Yet it is not lawful to go out in black garments nor to wail.

The Law wisely says to grieve in spirit, not in show,

In the book of Solomon, with the week completed.

Forgetting the Lord and the resurrection He promised,

If you have made your children martyrs, will you weep for them thus with your voice?

Are you not ashamed to mourn your children in pagan fashion without restraint?

You tear your face, beat your breast, rend your garments,

And do you not fear the Lord whose kingdom you hope to see?

Mourn what is lawful: yet do not go astray on their account.

You are such as you are because you are less than the pagans:

As one easily swept along in the offspring born of the devil's seed;

You cry out that the dead are lost: by what grace? A false one—you have perished.

Nor did the father lead his son to the altar to be slain with grief;

Nor did the prophet mourn his dead son with grief: For he did not lead the nursling of the Almighty weeping,

But devoted to God he performed the funeral rites in haste.

You who seek to be concerned about the pomp of a funeral,

Err, still a servant of God, in wishing to please even in death,

Alas! That a lifeless and mournful body should be adorned.

O true vanity, to desire honour for the dead.

A mind held captive by the world, not devoted to Christ even in death.

You know the proverb: he wished to be carried through the forum.

So like him, and living with a savage mind,

You wish to have a prosperous and happy day at your departure,

So that the people may gather to see praise mingled with mourning.

You do not foresee where you may deserve to go when dead.

Behold, they follow him: but you perhaps are already being burned,

Reduced to punishment. What will the pomp profit the dead man?

You will be accused who seek these funeral guilds for such reasons.

You desire to live under Vejovis: you deceive yourself.

It is fitting at Easter, on our most blessed day,

That those also who seek the divine gifts should rejoice:

Let there be distributed to them what suffices, wine and food.

Consider the source from which these things are remembered on your behalf.

At a small expense you fail to give to Christ.

When you yourselves do not do this, how can you persuade

Such persons of the justice of the law? Even once a year.

Thus blasphemy often presses hard upon many because of you.

While it seems a light matter to anyone and is not avoided,

And as something easy it slips away while you misuse it,

Idle tales come to the fore, in the place where you came to pour forth prayers,

Or to knock at the house of the stomach for the daily offence.

The trumpet of the heralds cries out, while the reader reads,

So that ears may be opened, and yet you stop yours up all the more;

You loosen the lips with which you ought to be groaning.

Bolt your breast against evil, or loose it within your breast.

But because money gives boldness of face to the rich,

From this all is lost, when they trust most in themselves.

So too women gather as though they were initiating a bath;

And of the house of God you make as it were a market-place—they burn.

The Lord indeed struck terror into the house of prayer,

When the priest of the Lord commanded hearts to be lifted up,

In tearful prayer, so that your silences might be kept;

You answer clearly, and yet you do not restrain yourselves even in your promises.

He entreats the Most High on behalf of the devoted people,

Lest any should perish, and you turn yourself to idle tales;

You smile there, or you detract from your neighbour's reputation;

You speak without discipline, as though God were absent,

He who made all things, and neither hears nor sees.

I set no limit for the drunkard,

but I prefer a beast.

By drinking you grow proud, you withdraw from your inner mind,

Holding the rule of one who governs, fool, among the Cyclopes:

Hence in the histories: While I am not dead, I do not drink, you say.

The best thing for me is to drink and to have a wise heart.

Supply rather—what more do you seek to misuse?—

To the lowliest little poor man, and you will both be refreshed.

If you do this, you extinguish Gehenna for yourself.

You who seek to feed, and have prepared what you were able;

By feeding continually you have done rightly.

Yet visit the poor man who will not feed you in return.

Then your table will be approved by the one God.

The Almighty has commanded that such persons especially be fed.

When you feed the sick, look upon them, and you lend to the Most High.

In this the Lord willed you to be found approved.

If you desire that your prayer be heard from heaven,

Break the bonds of wickedness from their hiding places.

Or if you pray with good deeds, having shown mercy to the needy,

Do not doubt that what you have asked shall be given to the one who prays.

But if you worship God naked of good deeds,

Do not make your prayers in such a way at all—they are inept.

Future inhabitants of the heavens with God Christ

Who holds the beginning, beholding all things from heaven.

Let simplicity and goodness dwell in your body.

Be not angry without cause at a devoted brother:

For you shall receive back whatever you have done to him.

This pleased Christ: that the dead rise again, from the depths,

With their own bodies, and those whom fire has burned in this age,

When six thousand years are completed and the world is ended.

Meanwhile heaven is turned with a changed course:

For the impious are then burned with divine fire.

The wrath of the most high God burns, and creation groans.

Those of higher rank and born of illustrious lineage,

And noble men, with Antichrist defeated:

By the command of God, living again in the age,

For a thousand years indeed, that they may serve the saints and the Most High,

Under a servile yoke, that they may carry provisions on their necks;

So that they may be judged again when the kingdom is ended.

Those who have made God of no account, when the thousandth year is completed,

Shall perish by fire, speaking with the mountains themselves.

In tombs and burial mounds all flesh is restored when the age is accomplished,

They are plunged into hell, they drag out punishments in eternity.

Their deeds are shown to them, and they read what was done from heaven,

The ancient record with its due debt and worthy deserts.

Reward in perpetuity according to the deeds of the tyrant.

I cannot comprehend all things in a small book.

The curiosity of the learned will find the name in this.