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HOW THE LADY POVERTY SORROWED OVER CERTAIN RELIGIOUS WHO WERE POOR IN THE WORLD, AND YET MORE PRONE THAN OTHERS TO SELF-INDULGENCE IN RELIGION
HOW THE LADY POVERTY SORROWED OVER CERTAIN RELIGIOUS WHO WERE POOR IN THE WORLD, AND YET MORE PRONE THAN OTHERS TO SELF-INDULGENCE IN RELIGION
In my Sorrow I sorrowed all the more over certain Religious who had been poor and contemptible in the World, and yet grew rich after they had come to me. And when they had waxed fat and gross♦Deut. xxxii. 15.♦beyond the rest, they spurned and derided me. They in the World were thought unworthy of Life, being destitute through Need and Hunger. Once they ate Grass and the Bark♦Job xxx. 4.♦of trees, they were disfigured♦Job xxx. 31.♦by their Calamity and Misery, and now they are not content with the Community Life, but separate themselves without shame, eating of special Meats. Their Example in this is hurtful to the rest, and, moreover, they aspire to Honour among the Disciples of Christ, who in this World were held most worthy of Contempt. They who often wanted for Barley-bread and Water, and were glad to lie under the Hedges, were the Sons of the Ignorant and Mean and Unknown, on a level with my own Wretchedness. Now they hate me and fly far from me, and are not ashamed to spit in my face. I have suffered Contumely and Terrors at their Hands,♦Jer. xx. 10.♦and those who were my Friends and stood by my side have insulted me. They grew ashamed of me, and cast me off all the more that they knew they had been enriched by my Favours, so much so that they even scorned to hear my Name.
♦Jer. iii. 22.♦In my Sorrow I sorrowed and said unto them: Return, ye rebellious Children, and I will heal your Backslidings.♦Luke xii. 15, and Ephes. v. 5.♦Take heed and beware of Avarice, which is the Service of Idols, for the Avaricious Man shall not be satisfied with♦Eccl. v. 9.♦Silver. Call to Mind your former Days in which, being♦Heb. x. 32.♦illuminated, you endured a great Fight of Afflictions. Do not be of them who draw♦Heb. x. 39.♦back unto Perdition, but of them that believe to the Saving of the Soul. He who made void the Law of Moses died♦Heb. x. 28.♦without Mercy under two or three Witnesses. How much♦Heb. x. 29.♦more, think you, doth he deserve sorer Punishment, who hath trodden under Foot the Son of God, and hath accounted the Blood of the Covenant, by which he was sanctified, an unclean thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of Grace? Return, then, ye Transgressors,♦Isa. xlvi. 8.♦search your Hearts, for a Man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of Things which he possesseth.
♦Job xix. 21, 22.♦But they were angered, and said: Go to, depart from us, thou miserable thing. We desire not the knowledge of thy Ways. And I answered and said unto them: Have♦Luke xii. 15.♦pity upon me, have pity upon me, at least, O ye, my Friends. Why do you persecute me without a Cause? Did I not tell you that your Ways and mine would not agree? It repenteth me that I have ever seen you.
♦Cant. vi. 12.♦And the Word of the Lord came to me, saying: Return, return, O Shulamite, return, return, that we may look upon thee. These are the Children of Wrath; they will not hear thee, because they will not hear Me. Their Hearts have become stubborn and unbelieving; they have departed and gone away, but they have not rejected thee without rejecting Me. For thou hast♦Jer. xiii. 21.♦taught them against thee, and instructed them against thine own Head, for if they had never received thee, they would never have been made rich. They pretended to love thee, so that having received thy Benefits, they might depart from thee. Wherefore under adverse Temptation they have turned away, and having laid♦Jer. viii. 5.♦hold on Lying, they would not return. Do not again believe those that speak thee fair, for they despise thee and seek thy Life. Do not offer Prayers or Hymns for them, for I will not hear thee: I have cast them off because they have despised Me.