(44) And thy worldly Bravery, Glory, Beauty, and Riches, will not exalt thee before God, as thou supposest, nor yet thy Office which thou didst bear here, be it the kingly or priestly Office; if thou desirest to be in Heaven, then thou must (through thy Saviour) be new born; thou must endeavour to bring thy Subjects to Righteousness, and then thou wilt shine (with thy Office) as bright as the Luster of Heaven, and thy Works will follow thee. O Man! consider thyself in this.

(14) And He said unto him : " This (man) will not be thy heir, but one that will come out of thine own bowels ; he will be thine heir."

(23) Accordingly, those fall from this eminence who follow not God whither He leads. And He leads us in the inspired Scriptures.

(26) And by thy sword wilt thou live, And thou wilt serve thy brother. And it shall come to pass when thou becomest great, And dost shake his yoke from off thy neck, Thou wilt sin a complete sin unto death,* And thy seed will be rooted out from under heaven."

(35) And now my heart is troubled because of all his deeds, and neither he nor his seed is to be saved, for they are those who will be destroyed from the earth, and who will be rooted out from under heaven, for he hath for- saken the God of Abraham and gone after his wives and after their uncleanness and after their error, he and his children.

(151) Now come on, you Electionists, and contenders about the Election of Grace, you that suppose you alone are in the right, and esteem a simple faith to be but a foolish thing; you have danced long enough before this door, and have made your boast of the Scriptures, that they maintain that God has of grace chosen some men in their mother's womb to the kingdom of heaven, and reprobated or rejected others.

(5) But ye--ye have not been steadfast, nor done the commandments of the Lord, But ye have turned away and spoken proud and hard words With your impure mouths against His greatness. Oh, ye hard-hearted, ye shall find no peace.

(391) No man who down upon the earth and upon tables is wise.

(54) And this will happen to that man who hath not entered, or refuseth to enter in by the right Way and the right Door (which is Christ, as we have said), and imagineth that he would or could come by any other way to the highest truth. He may perhaps dream that he hath attained thereunto, but verily he is in error. And our witness is Christ, who declareth: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.”59 A thief, for he robbeth God of His honour and glory, which belong to God alone; he taketh them unto himself, and seeketh and purposeth himself. A murderer, for he slayeth his own soul, and taketh away her life, which is God. For as the body liveth by the soul, even so the soul liveth by God. Moreover, he murdereth all those who follow him, by his doctrine and example. For Christ saith: “I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.”60 And again: “Why call ye Me Lord, Lord?”61 as if he would say, it will avail you nothing to Eternal life. And again: “Not every one that saith unto Me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in Heaven.”62 But He saith also: “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.”63 And what are the commandments?

(1) LOOK up now, weak wretch, and see what thou art. What art thou, and what hast thou merited, thus to be called of our Lord? What weary wretched heart, and sleeping in sloth, is that, the which is not wakened with the draught of this love and the voice of this calling! Beware, thou wretch, in this while with thine enemy; and hold thee never the holier nor the better, for the worthiness of this calling and for the singular form of living that thou art in. But the more wretched and cursed, unless thou do that in thee is goodly, by grace and by counsel, to live after thy calling. And insomuch thou shouldest be more meek and loving to thy ghostly spouse, that He that is the Almighty God, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, would meek Him so low unto thee, and amongst all the flock of His sheep so graciously would choose thee to be one of His specials, and sithen set thee in the place of pasture, where thou mayest be fed with the sweetness of His love, in earnest of thine heritage the Kingdom of Heaven.

(311) The wise man shares in the kingdom of God; an evil man does not want the foreknowledge of God to come to pass.

(9) "Since I was glorified like this once before, why do you hold me back when I am eager to go? After my labor you have made me stay with you another eighteen days because of the parables. For some people it was enough to listen to the teaching and understand 'The Shepherds,' 'The Seed,' 'The Building,' 'The Lamps of the Young Women,' 'The Wage of the Workers,' and 'The Silver Coins and the Woman.'

(17) But if you have not got this Garment on, and will prattle and talk much of God, then you are a Thief and a Murderer, and you enter not into the Sheepfold of Christ by the Door, but you climb over into the Sheepfold with Antichrist and the Robbers, and you will do nothing but murder and steal, seek your own Reputation, Esteem, and Pleasure, and are far from the Kingdom of God. Your university Learning and Arts will avail you nothing: It is your Poison, that you are promoted by the Favour of Man to sit in great Authority and Place, for you sit upon the Stool of Pestilence; you are but a mere Servant or Minister of the Antichrist. But if you be new born, and taught by the Holy Ghost, then your Place or Office is very pleasing and acceptable to God, and your Sheep will hear your Voice, and you shall feed them and bring them to the chief Shepherd: God will require this at your Hands, therefore take Heed what you teach and speak of God without the Knowledge of his Spirit, that you be not found to be a Liar. Now here follows the Chapter.

(43) And he said unto them : < Not so, the man with whom I find, him only shall I take as a servant, and ye will return in peace unto your house."

(4) and himself are equally the children of God. Shall then such a one trouble whether man visits him with evil or with good? Man indeed regards him as a child; and this is to be a servant of God. "He who is outwardly crooked is a servant of man. He bows, he kneels, he folds his hands;—such is the ceremonial of a minister. What all men do, shall I dare not to do? What all men do, none will blame me for doing. This is to be a servant of man. "He who is completed after the models of antiquity is a servant of the Sages of old. Although I utter the words of warning and take him to task, it is the Sages of old who speak, and not I. Thus my uprightness will not bring me into trouble, the servant of the Sages of old.—Will this do?"

(12) And he said, " Shall I return unto Ur of the Chal- dees who seek my face that I may return to them, or am I to remain here in this place? The right path before Thee prosper it in the hands of Thy servant thathe may fulfil (it) and that I may not walk in the deceitfulness of my heart, O my God."

(3) Now, it is a very great thing to abandon opinion, by taking one's stand between accurate knowledge and the rash wisdom of opinion, and to know that he who hopes for everlasting rest knows also that the entrance to it is toilsome "and strait." And let him who has once received the Gospel, even in the very hour in which he has come to the knowledge of salvation, "not turn back, like Lot's wife," as is said; and let him not go back either to his former life, which adheres to the things of sense, or to heresies. For they form the character, not knowing the true God. "For he that loveth father or mother more than Me," the Father and Teacher of the truth, who regenerates and creates anew, and nourishes the elect soul, "is not worthy of Me" - He means, to be a son of God and a disciple of God, and at the same time also to be a friend, and of kindred nature. "For no man who looks back, and puts his hand to the plough, is fit for the kingdom of God."

(11) Therefore let every one take Care what he does: I say again, that whosoever he be that intrudes himself to be a Pastor [or Shepherd] without the divine Calling, without the Knowledge of God, he is a Thief and a Murderer; he enters not through the Door into Paradise, but he creeps in with the Dogs and the Wolves, into the Den of Thieves, and he does it but for his Belly's Sake, and his own Honour [and Esteem;] he is no Pastor [or Shepherd,] but he depends on the great Whore, upon Antichrist; and yet he supposes that he is a Pastor [or Shepherd;] but he is not known in Paradise.

(23) But seeing thou knowest it, and dost it not, and the others know it not, but yet do it, they, with their doing, judge thy knowledge; and thou art found to be a hypocrite, a dissembler, and an unprofitable servant, who wert put into the vineyard of the Lord, and wilt not work therein.

(111) It is not so to be understood that my reason is greater or higher than that of all other men living; but I am the Lord's twig or branch, and am a very mean and little spark of his; he may set me where he pleaseth, I cannot hinder him in that.