| 404 |
Bitter
was the misery upon them there and upon their children too after the
eating - a meal hurtful to their sons and daughters. Painfully their
alacritous teeth were punished according to their guilt; they endured
the wrath of God, bitter and baleful sorrow. Ever since, their children
have paid for it, because they consumed that food against the word
of the Everlasting. Thus, mournful of mood, they had to give up the
bliss of their homeland through the serpent's envy, when it artfully
seduced our parents in the former days, out of its deceitful spirit,
so that far away from there in this vale of death they looked for
somewhere to live, for dwellings more fraught with care. The worthier
existence was hidden from them by obscurity and the hallowed plateau
firmly closed through the devil's guile for a great number of years,
until the King of glory, mankind's Joy, Comforter of the weary and
the one Hope, through his advent opened it again to the holy. |
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VI
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| 424 |
Most
similar to this, according to what scholars in their pronouncements
tell us and writings testify, is the migration of this bird when,
old and wise, he forsakes dwelling-place and homeland, and is grown
elderly. Weary of mood he sets out, harassed by his years, to where
he finds the lofty canopy of the woodland in which, with twigs and
with the noblest herbs, he builds a new abode, the nest in the grove.
A great longing is upon him that he might receive a fresh existence
again through the holocaust of fire, life after death, and be young
anew; and that he might seek his ancient home, a dwelling radiant
with sunlight, after his fiery bath. Just so, those forbears, our
parents, left that lovely plateau and that precious seat of glory
behind them and made the long journey into the grasp of malignant
beings, where their persecutors, miserable monsters, harmed them often. |
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| 443 |
Yet
there were many who served the Lord well below the heavens with holy
virtues and praiseworthy deeds so that the Lord, the heavens' high
King, was well-disposed towards them in his heart. This is the lofty
tree, in which the holy now keep their habitation, where none of the
ancient enemies can harm them at all with their venom, the token of
their wickedness, during this perilous time. There the Lord's warrior
builds himself with praiseworthy deeds a nest against every malicious
attack when he distributes alms to the destitute and to those without
means and calls upon the Lord and Father as his help; onwards he hastens;
the vices of this ephemeral existence, the dark doings of evil, he
stifles; he keeps the law of the ordaining Lord, confident in his
bosom and turns to prayer with pure intentions and nobly bows his
knee to the earth; he flees every evil and dire sin out of awe for
God; joyous of spirit he yearns to accomplish the greatest number
of good deeds. To him the Lord, Disposer of victories, generous Benefactor
of the multitudes, is a shield. These are the herbs and the fruits
of the plants which the wild bird gathers from far and wide below
the sky to his lodging-place, where he builds a nest marvellously
secure against every malicious attack. |
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| 470 |
Thus,
here in these habitations and now, by courage and by main strength,
the soldiers of the Lord accomplish his will and strive towards glories.
For this the everlasting Almighty will recompense them with a blessed
meed. Out of those herbs a habitation shall be founded for them in
the heavenly city as reward for their works, because they passionately
cherished holy precepts in their heart. With fervent purpose by day
and by night they show love to the Lord; with shining faith they choose
the Beloved above the world's wealth: not for them is the comfortable
expectation that they will inhabit long this ephemeral existence.
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| 482 |
Thus
the blessed man earns by valour joy everlasting and a heavenly home
with the high King until an end comes to his tally of days, when death,
the warrior gluttonous for carnage, fortified with weapons, snatches
the life of each individual man and swiftly dispatches the ephemeral
corpses, robbed of their souls, into earth's embrace where they will
long remain concealed in the ground until the coming of the fire.
Then the multitude of humanity will be led into congregation: the
Father of angels, true King of victories, will hold a synod and the
Lord of the elect, with justice, will pass judgement. Then shall all
the people in clay achieve resurrection as the mighty King, Ruler
of the angels, Saviour of souls, proclaims his summons by the powers
that dark state of death shall be ended for the blessed. The noble
beings will depart, in squadrons they will go thronging, when this
sin-working world burns in disgrace, kindled with flame. Each single
man will grow fearful in spirit when fire destroys the dry land's
ephemeral wealth and flame devours all the chattels of the earth,
voraciously attacks the beaded gold and greedily swallows the treasures
of the dry land. |
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