(176) O ye covetous, stiffnecked and drunken Rioters! how do you wooe and go a whoring after the covetous Devil? Thus saith the LORD: Will you not feed my People which I have committed to your Charge?

(46) Behold, thou callest thyself a Christian, and thou boastest [that] thou art a Child of God; this thou confessest with thy Mouth, but thy Heart is a Thief and a Murderer; thou endeavourest after nothing else but Honour and Riches, and thy Conscience regards little by what Means thou attainest them. Thou hast a Will, one Day, to enter into earnest Repentance, but the Devil keeps thee back, that thou canst not; thou sayest Tomorrow, [Tomorrow,] and that is always so, from Time to Time; and thou thinkest with thyself, if I had my Chest full, then I would give to him that has Need, [and become another Man.] If I had but enough to serve my Turn [beforehand,] that I may not come to Want myself; this is thy Purpose till thy End, which the Devil persuades thee it is far off from thee.

(11) Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger.

(10) But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.

(122) Now eat and drink, now trim and dress thyself therewith, and domineer therein, thou fair Goddess, how art thou become a Whore, and thy Shame and Reproach continue for ever!

(47) In the mean Time, thou consumest the Sweat and Blood of the Needy, and thou gatherest all his Miseries and Necessities on a Heap in thy Soul; thou takest his Sweat to maintain thy Pride therewith, and yet thy Doings must be accounted holy; thou givest Scandal to the Poor, so that by thy Example and Doings, he comes to be vile [and wicked,] and to do that which is not right in the Presence of God; he curses thee, and therewith causes himself to perish also; and thus one Abomination generates another, but thou art the first Cause thereof. And thou settest forth thyself never so wisely and handsomely, yet the Driver is still before thee, and thou art the Root of all those Sins, [which thou causest in others by thy Hardness or Oppression.]

(48) 1 say not that thou receivest the Wrath of God in the Bread and in the Wine, but in thy false Confidence; thou art with thy Body and Soul in the Anger, and wilt not go out from it. Why then dost thou approach often to the Covenant of God, seeing thou art captivated of the Devil? Dost thou think that he will adorn thy Hypocrisy, and will hang his Pearl on thee? Thou art a Wolf, and howlest with the Dogs; thy Mouth prays, and thy Soul is abominably wicked [and naught;] when it goes from the Testament of Christ, it enters into the Stall of Robbery again, and is a Murderer; it howls with the Dogs; it is a bGod. perfidious Whore; when it goes away from the Covenant, it steps into whorish Corners, into the Den of Thieves; and there they stand, and pretend great Holiness. O, this Day is a holy Day to me, I must not sin; and yet they think, Tomorrow or next Day, they will go thither again.

(108) And thou Cainish Church, here thou hast a Glass, in thy Rising up in Pride, and Self-Power, also in thy voluptuous self-honouring Life, behold thyself [in it.] For thou art gone into the Spirit of this World, and thou hast made the Kingdom of this World thy Kingdom of Heaven, and thou trustest only in thyself; thou makest thyself a Lord over Babel, and thou drawest the Kingdom of this World to thee only by cunning [Subtilty;] and thou makest thyself a Patron therein, and therewith thou goest out from God; thou supposest that thou art holy, though thou suppressest the poor Abel under thy Yoke, and vexest him Day and Night; he must here be thy Blood-Hound, and thou accountest him thy Slave, though thou hast not right to the least Hair of his Head as thine own; and therefore thou art no other than his Driver [or Hunter] in Jericho, thou art his Murderer, who strippest him, beatest, and killest him.

(13) And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

(6) Wherefore "let the false lips become speechless, and let the Lord destroy the boastful tongue: those who say, We shall magnify our tongue, and our lips are our own; who is Lord over us? For the affliction of the poor and the groaning of the needy now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety; I will speak out in his case." For it is to the humble that Christ belongs, who do not exalt themselves against His flock. "Lay not up for yourselves, therefore, treasures on the earth, where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break through and steal," says the Lord, in reproach perchance of the covetous, and perchance also of those who are simply anxious and full of cares, and those too who indulge their bodies. For amours, and diseases, and evil thoughts "break through" the mind and the whole man. But our true "treasure" is where what is allied to our mind is, since it bestows the communicative power of righteousness, showing that we must assign to the habit of our old conversation what we have acquired by it, and have recourse to God, beseeching mercy. He is, in truth, "the bag that waxeth not old," the provisions of eternal life, "the treasure that faileth not in heaven." "For I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy," saith the Lord. And they say those things to those who wish to be poor for righteousness' sake. For they have heard in the commandment that "the broad and wide way leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in by it." It is not of anything else that the assertion is made, but of profligacy, and love of women, and love of glory, and ambition, and similar passions. For so He says, "Fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee; and whose shall those things be which thou hast prepared?" And the commandment is expressed in these very words, "Take heed, therefore, of covetousness. For a man's life does not consist in the abundance of those things which he possesses. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" "Wherefore I say, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for your body, what ye shall put on.

(7) And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

(20) (But, O ye listening men!) he who renders the saint deceived , for him shall be later destruction . Long life shall be his lot in the darkness; foul shall be his food; his speech shall be of the lowest . And this, which is such a life as your own, O ye vile! your (perverted) conscience through your own deeds will bring you !

(16) Or dost thou suppose that we are mad? If we did not see thee, we would be silent. Thou boastest now (by the Flatterers) of a golden Time; but they are most of them Wolves of Babel; when the Day breaks, then they will be known. Or should I not tell thee this, thou proud Whore? Behold, when thou with Adam and Eve wentest out of Paradise into the Spirit of this World, then thou wast as a God in the Spirit of this World; thou Slightest seek all Mysteries, and use them for thy Ornament. If thou hadst always gone cloathed in Silk and Purple, [or Scarlet,] yet thou hadst not [thereby] offended God; but thou hadst gone [in them] to the Honour of the great God in his Deeds of Wonder. Why hast thou forsaken the Love, and art become a Murderer? Was not Covetousness thy Sin, in that thou affordest not thy Members so much as thyself? Thou desirest to be only fine thyself alone. Thy Way only i should be holy. Wherefore was the Fratricide between Abel and Cain? The self-honouring Pride brought it about, so that Cain envied Abel's Uprightness, for the Sake of which he was so much beloved of God. Why was not Cain also humble and pious?

(248) O man, know this, that the unrestrained are in a bad state; take care that greediness and vice do not bring thee to grief for a long time!