Chapter 9

Certain signs shall go before the day of judgement. ℣.14. More shall perish than be saved. ℣.25. Prayer with other

1. 2

   then shalt thou understand, that the same is the time wherein the Highest will begin to visit the world that was made by him.

2. 3

   And when there shall be seen in the world moving of places, and trouble of peoples,

3. 4

   then shalt thou understand, that of these spake the Highest from the days that were before thee, from the beginning.

4. 5

   For as all that is made in the world hath a beginning, and also a consummation, and the consummation is manifest:

5. 6

   so also the times of the Highest have the beginning manifest in wonders and powers, and the consummations in work and in signs.

6. 7

   And it shall be, every one that shall be saved, and that can escape by his works, and by faith, in which you have believed,

7. 8

   shall be left out of the foresaid dangers, and shall see my salvation in my land, and in my coasts, because I have sanctified myself from the world.

8. 9

   good works are means to salvation. And he answered me, and said: Measuring measure thou the time in it-self: and it shall be when thou seest, after a certain part of the signs which are spoken of before shall pass,

9. 10

   For they that knew not me, having obtained benefits when they lived:

10. 11

    and they that loathed my law, when they yet had liberty,

11. 12

    and when as yet place of penance was open to them understood not, but despised: they must after death in torment know it.

12. 13

    Thou therefore be not yet curious, how the impious shall be tormented: but inquire how the just shall be saved, and whose the world is, and for whom the world is, & when.

13. 14

    And I answered, and said:

14. 15

    I have spoken heretofore, and now I say, and hereafter will say: that they are more which perish than that shall be saved: .

15. 16

    as a flood is multiplied above, more than a drop.

16. 17

    And he answered me, and said: Like as the field so also the seeds: and as the flowers, such also the colours: and as the workman, such also the work, and such as the husbandman, such is the husbandry: because it was the time of the world.

17. 18

    And now when I was preparing for them, for these that now are before the world was made, wherein they should dwell: and no man gainsaid me.

18. 19

    For then every man, and now the creator in this world prepared, and harvest not failing, and law unsearchable their manners are corrupted.

19. 20

    And I considered the world, and behold there was danger because of the cogitations that came in it.

20. 21

    And I saw, and spared it very much: and I kept unto myself a grape kernel of a cluster, and a plant of a great tribe.

21. 22

    Let the multitude therefore perish, which was born without cause, and let my kernel be kept, and my plant: because I finished it with much labour.

22. 23

    And thou if thou add yet seven other days, but thou shalt not fast in them,

23. 24

    thou shalt go into a field of flowers, where no house is built: and thou shalt eat only of the flowers of the field, and flesh thou shalt not taste, and wine thou shalt not drink, but only flowers.

24. 25

    Pray to the Highest without intermission, and I will come, and will speak with thee.

25. 26

    And I went forth, as he said to me, into a field which is called Ardath, and I sat there among the flowers. And I did eat of the herbs of the field, and the meat of them made me full.

26. 27

    And it came to pass after seven days, and I sat down upon the grass, and my heart was troubled again as before.

27. 28

    And my mouth was opened, and I began to speak before the Highest, and said:

28. 29

    O Lord thou shewing thyself to us, wast shewed to our fathers in the desert, which is not trodden, and unfruitful, when they came out of Aegypt: and saying thou saidst: Exod. 19. & 24. .

29. 30

    Thou Israel hear me, and seed of Jacob attend to my words.

30. 31

    For behold, I sow my law in you, and it shall bring forth fruit in you, and you shall be glorified in it for ever.

31. 32

    For our fathers receiving the law observed it not, and kept not my ordinances, and the fruit of the law did not appear: for it could not, because it was thine.

32. 33

    For they that received it, perished, not keeping that which had been sown in them.

33. 34

    And behold it is the custom, that when the earth hath received seed, or the sea a ship, or some vessel meat or drink: when that shall be destroyed wherein it was sown, or into the which it was cast:

34. 35

    that which was sown, or cast in, or the things that were received, are destroyed withal, and the things received now tarry not with us: but it is not so done to us.

35. 36

    We indeed that received the law, sinning have perished, and our heart that received it:

36. 37

    For the law hath not perished, but hath remained in his labour. Esai. 48.

37. 38

    And when I spake these things in my heart, I looked back with mine eyes, and saw a woman on the right side, and behold she mourned, and wept with a loud voice, and was sorrowful in mind exceedingly, and her garments rent, and ashes upon her head.

38. 39

    And I left the cogitations, wherein I was thinking, and I turned to her and said to her:

39. 40

    Why weepest thou? and why art thou sorry in mind. And she said to me:

40. 41

    Suffer me my Lord, that I may lament myself, and add sorrow: because I am of a very pensive mind, and am humbled exceedingly.

41. 42

    And I said to her: What aileth thee: tell me. And she said to me:

42. 43

    I thy servant have been barren, and have not born child, having a husband thirty years.

43. 44

    For I every hour, and every day, and these thirty years do beseech the Highest night and day.

44. 45

    And it came to pass, after thirty years God heard me thy handmaid, and saw my humility, and attended to my tribulation, and gave me a son: and I was very joyful upon him, and my husband, and all my citizens, and we did glorify the Strong exceedingly.

45. 46

    And I nourished him with much labour.

46. 47

    And it came to pass when he was grown, and came to take a wife, I made a feast day.