(3) "'1. O Lord, unto thee have I lifted up my soul, O my God. "'2. I have abandoned myself unto thee; let me not be put to shame and let not mine enemies mock at me. "'3. For all who wait upon thee shall not be put to shame; let them be put to shame who do iniquity without a cause. "'4. O Lord, show me thy ways and teach me thy paths. "'5. Lead me in the way of thy truth and teach me, for thou art my God and my saviour; on thee will I wait all the day long. "'6. Call to remembrance thy mercies, O Lord, and the favours of thy grace, for they are from eternity. "'7. Remember not the sins of my youth and those of my ignorance. Remember me according to the fulness of thy mercy because of thy goodness, O Lord. "'8. The Lord is gracious and sincere; therefore fore will he instruct sinners in the way. "'9. He will guide the tender-hearted in the judgment and will teach the tender-hearted his ways. "'10. All the ways of the Lord are grace and truth for them who seek his righteousness and his testimonies. "'11. For thy name's sake, O Lord, forgive me my sin, [for] it is exceedingly great. "'12. Who is the man who feareth the Lord? For him will he establish laws in the way which he hath chosen. "'13. His soul will abide in good things and his seed will inherit the land. "'14. The Lord is the strength of them who fear him; and the name of the Lord belongeth to them who fear him, to make known unto them his covenant. "'15. Mine eyes are raised ever unto the Lord, for he will draw my feet out of the snare. "'16. Look down upon me and be gracious unto me, for I am an only-begotten; I am wretched. "'17. The afflictions of my heart have in-creased; bring me out of my necessities. "'18. Look upon my abasement and my woe, and forgive me all my sins. "'19. Look upon mine enemies, how they have increased themselves and hated me with unjust hatred. "'20. Preserve my soul and save me; let me not be put to shame, for I have hoped on thee. "'21. The simple and sincere have joined themselves to me, for I have waited on thee, O Lord. "'22. O God, deliver Israel from all his afflictions.'"

(2) I was greatly troubled in my groaning. I will bathe my bed and my cover each night with my tears. I have become old in the midst of all my enemies. Depart from me, all you who work at lawlessness, for look, the lord has heard the cry of my weeping and the lord has heard my prayer.

(1) "'1. Out of the depths I have cried unto thee, O Lord. "'2. Hearken unto my voice; let thine ears give heed to the voice of my supplication. "'3. O Lord, if thou heedest my iniquities, who will be able to pass [the test]? "'4. For pardon is in thy hands; for the sake of thy name have I waited for thee, O Lord. "'5. My soul hath waited for thy word. "'6. My soul hath hoped in the Lord from the morning until the evening. Let Israel hope in the Lord from the morning until the evening. "'7. For grace standeth by the Lord and with him is great redemption. "'8. And he will deliver Israel from all his iniquities.'

(100) For He shall cast down your glory, And bring affliction on your hearts, And shall arouse His fierce indignation, And destroy you all with the sword; And all the holy and righteous shall remember your sins.

(1) And Andrew came forward and said: "My Lord and Saviour, thy light-power hath prophesied aforetime through David concerning this repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered, and said in the one-hundred-and-eighth Psalm: "'1. God, keep not silent at my praise-singing. "'2. For the mouths of the sinner and crafty have opened their chops against me and with crafty deceitful tongue have talked behind me. "'3. And they have surrounded me with words of hate and have fought against me without a cause. "'4. Instead of loving me they have slandered me. But I prayed. "'5. They showed evil against me for good and hate for my love. "'6. Set a sinner over him, and let the slanderer stand at his right hand. "'7. When sentence is passed upon him, may he go forth condemned and his prayer become sin. "'8. May his days be shortened and another receive his overseership. "'9. May his children become orphans and his wife a widow. "'10. May his children be carried away and be driven forth and beg; may they be thrown out of their houses. "'11. May the money-lender sift out all that he hath, and may strangers plunder all his best efforts. "'12. Let there be no man to back him, and no one to take pity on his orphans. "'13. May his children be exterminated and his name blotted out in a single generation. "'14. Let the sin of his fathers be remembered before the Lord, and the sin of his mother be not blotted out. "'15. Let them be ever present to the Lord and his memory be rooted out from the earth; "'16. In that he hath not thought of using mercy and hath persecuted a poor and wretched man and hath persecuted a sorry creature to slay him. "'17. He loved cursing,--and it shall come unto him. He desired not blessing,--it shall stay far from him. "'18. He clothed himself with cursing as with a vesture, and it entered into his bowels as water, and it was as oil in his bones. "'19. May it be for him as a garment in which he shall be wrapped, and as a girdle with which he shall ever be girded. "'20. This is the work of them who slander [me] before the Lord, and speak unlawfully against my soul. "'21. But do thou, O Lord God, be gracious unto me; for thy name's sake save me. "'22. For I am poor and I am wretched; my heart is tumult within me. "'23. I am carried away in the midst as a shadow which hath sunk down, and I am shaken out as grass-hoppers. "'24. My knees have become weak from fasting, and my flesh is altered from [lack of] oil. "'25. But I have become a mock unto them; they saw me and wagged their heads. "'26. Help, O Lord God, and save me according to thy grace. "'27. May they know that this is thy hand, and that thou, O Lord, hast fashioned them.' "This is then the solution of the twelfth repentance which Pistis Sophia uttered, when she was in the chaos."

(3) I say not that it shall ever last and dwell in all their minds continually, that be called to work in this work. Nay, so is it not. For from a young ghostly prentice in this work, the actual feeling thereof is ofttimes withdrawn for divers reasons. Sometime, for he shall not take over presumptuously thereupon, and ween that it be in great part in his own power to have it when him list, and as him list. And such a weening were pride. And evermore when the feeling of grace is withdrawn, pride is the cause: not ever pride that is, but pride that should be, were it not that this feeling of grace were withdrawn. And thus ween ofttimes some young fools, that God is their enemy; when He is their full friend.

(102) And if He sends His anger upon you because of your deeds, ye cannot petition Him; for ye spake proud and insolent words against His righteousness: therefore ye shall have no peace.

(63) And in the day of our suffering and tribulation He saves us not, And we find no respite for confession That our Lord is true in all His works, and in His judgements and His justice, And His judgements have no respect of persons.

(9) For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

(33) But to those, who are able rightly to understand salvation, I know not what will appear dearer than the gravity of the Law, and Reverence, which is its daughter. For when one is said to pitch too high, as also the Lord says, with reference to certain; so that some of those whose desires are towards Him may not sing out of pitch and tune, I do not understand it as pitching too high in reality, but only as spoken with reference to such as will not take up the divine yoke. For to those, who are unstrung and feeble, what is medium seems too high; and to those, who are unrighteous, what befalls them seems severe justice.

(5) Then will He sometimes peradventure send out a beam of ghostly light, piercing this cloud of unknowing that is betwixt thee and Him; and shew thee some of His privity, the which man may not, nor cannot speak. Then shalt thou feel thine affection inflamed with the fire of His love, far more than I can tell thee, or may or will at this time. For of that work, that falleth to only God, dare I not take upon me to speak with my blabbering fleshly tongue: and shortly to say, although I durst I would do not. But of that work that falleth to man when he feeleth him stirred and helped by grace, list me well tell thee: for therein is the less peril of the two.

(96) Fear not the sinners, ye righteous; For again will the Lord deliver them into your hands, That ye may execute judgement upon them according to your desires.

(1) "Our Father, thou who dwellest in the heavens, Not circumscribed, but from the greater love Thou bearest to the first effects on high, Praised be thy name and thine omnipotence By every creature, as befitting is To render thanks to thy sweet effluence. Come unto us the peace of thy dominion, For unto it we cannot of ourselves, If it come not, with all our intellect. Even as thine own Angels of their will Make sacrifice to thee, Hosanna singing, So may all men make sacrifice of theirs. Give unto us this day our daily manna, Withouten which in this rough wilderness Backward goes he who toils most to advance. And even as we the trespass we have suffered Pardon in one another, pardon thou Benignly, and regard not our desert. Our virtue, which is easily o'ercome, Put not to proof with the old Adversary, But thou from him who spurs it so, deliver. This last petition verily, dear Lord, Not for ourselves is made, who need it not, But for their sake who have remained behind us."

(9) Let your countenances be without restraint towards him who cometh to me

(15) Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.

(24) My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

(3) This sorrow, if it be truly conceived, is full of holy desire: and else might never man in this life abide it nor bear it. For were it not that a soul were somewhat fed with a manner of comfort of his right working, else should he not be able to bear the pain that he hath of the witting and feeling of his being. For as oft as he would have a true witting and a feeling of his God in purity of spirit, as it may be here, and sithen feeleth that he may not—for he findeth evermore his witting and his feeling as it were occupied and filled with a foul stinking lump of himself, the which behoveth always be hated and be despised and forsaken, if he shall be God’s perfect disciple learned of Himself in the mount of perfection—so oft, he goeth nigh mad for sorrow. Insomuch, that he weepeth and waileth, striveth, curseth, and banneth; and shortly to say, him thinketh that he beareth so heavy a burthen of himself that he careth never what betides him, so that God were pleased. And yet in all this sorrow he desireth not to unbe: for that were devil’s madness and despite unto God. But him listeth right well to be; and he intendeth full heartily thanking to God, for the worthiness and the gift of his being, for all that he desire unceasingly for to lack the witting and the feeling of his being.

(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.

(1) I salute thee, the holy soul! O beloved one! and this for me is more appropriate than for most. Hail! O truly beloved! And to the truly Loveable and Desired, very beloved! Why should it be a marvel, if Christ speaks truly, and the unjust banish His disciples from their cities, themselves bringing upon themselves their due, and the accursed severing themselves, and departing from the holy. Truly things seen are manifest images of things unseen. For, neither in the ages which are approaching, will Almighty God be Cause of the just separations from Himself, but they by having separated themselves entirely from Almighty God; even as we observe the others, becoming here already with Almighty God, since being lovers of truth, they depart from the proclivities of things material, and love peace in a complete freedom from all things evil, and a Divine love of all things good; and start their purification, even from the present life, by living, in the midst of mankind, the life which is to come, in a manner suitable to angels, with complete cessation of passion, and deification and goodness, and the other good attributes. As for you then, I would never be so crazy as to imagine that you feel any suffering; but I am persuaded that you ate sensible of the bodily sufferings merely to appraise them. But, as for those who are unjustly treating you, and fancying to imprison, not correctly, the sun of the Gospel, whilst fairly blaming them, I pray that by separating themselves from those things which they are bringing upon themselves they may be turned to the good, and may draw you to themselves, and may participate in the light. But for ourselves, the contrary will not deprive us of the all-luminous ray of John, who are even now about to read the record, and the renewal of this, thy true theology: but shortly after (for I will say it, even though it be rash), about to be united to you yourself. For, I am altogether trustworthy, from having learned, and reading the things made foreknown to you by God, that you will both be liberated from your imprisonment in Patmos, and will return to the Asiatic coast, and will perform there imitations of the good God, and will transmit them to those after you.

(3) His cheer and his words should be full of ghostly wisdom, full of fire, and of fruit spoken in sober soothfastness without any falsehood, far from any feigning or piping of hypocrites. For some there be that with all their might, inner and outer, imagineth in their speaking how they may stuff them and underprop them on each side from falling, with many meek piping words and gestures of devotion: more looking after for to seem holy in sight of men, than for to be so in the sight of God and His angels. For why, these folk will more weigh, and more sorrow make for an unordained gesture or unseemly or unfitting word spoken before men, than they will for a thousand vain thoughts and stinking stirrings of sin wilfully drawn upon them, or recklessly used in the sight of God and the saints and the angels in heaven. Ah, Lord God! where there be any pride within, there such meek piping words be so plenteous without. I grant well, that it is fitting and seemly to them that be meek within, for to shew meek and seemly words and gestures without, according to that meekness that is within in the heart. But I say not that they shall then be shewed in broken nor in piping voices, against the plain disposition of their nature that speak them. For why, if they be true, then be they spoken in soothfastness, and in wholeness of voice and of their spirit that speak them. And if he that hath a plain and an open boisterous voice by nature speak them poorly and pipingly—I mean but if he be sick in his body, or else that it be betwixt him and his God or his confessor—then it is a very token of hypocrisy. I mean either young hypocrisy or old.