Instructions & Apologetic Poem 2 part 2/3

Believe in the one God, where you, though dead, may be able to live; that you may rise even in the kingdom, since there is a resurrection for the just. (33. LIKEWISE TO THE IGNORANT GENTILES) The untamed heifer refuses to bear the yoke for labour, then delights to fill itself with rich little cabbages in the fields. And yet, though unwilling, it is tamed, equally useful, and being tamed becomes less fierce thereby; you race, you man, you my brother, do not be a beast of the wild, dig yourself out at last and reflect within yourself: you were not born a beast nor a brute, but a man; tame your own self, wise, and enter beneath the cave. You who follow idols — there is nothing but the vanity of the age. Frivolous hearts lead you on into the penal abyss. There gold, garments, silver you heap up in armfuls; there is dancing, then singing of love-songs instead of psalms. You think it to be life, where there are games — or do you look forward to such things:

You cast lots, ignorant one, for things extinguished, you seek golden trifles. Thence you shall not escape the plague, though you yourself divine. The grace which the Lord has sent upon the earth to be gathered, you do not seek it, but thus wander like a brute. After death the golden ages will come to you, if you believe rightly, that you may begin again to live immortal forever. This too is given you to know, what you were before: render yourself subject to God, who governs all things. (34. ACROSTIC: A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T U X Y Z) Adam, the first-formed, in order to escape God's precepts — the Devil was the preserver, out of envy of the creature. Whether he wrought us good or evil, the prince of our birth bestowed it; we die likewise through him, since he himself, departing from the divine, was made an exile from the Word. When six thousand years are finished, we shall be immortal.

When the fruit of the tree was tasted, death entered into the world: by this tree of death let us seek the tree of life to come. On the tree hangs life, bearing fruits — the precepts: Take now from the tree of life its fruits, you who believe. A law to be feared was given from the tree to the first man, whence death arose, the law of the beginning being neglected: Now stretch out your hand and take of the tree of life. The best law of the Lord proceeded following from the tree; the first law was lost; he tastes, whence it is permitted him, who adores forbidden gods, the evil joys of life. Spit out the taste; it will suffice to know what it was. If you wish truly to live, render yourselves to the second law, shun the worship of temples, the shrines of demons. Turn yourselves to Christ, and you shall be companions of God. Holy is the law of God, who says the dead shall live.

The Lord commanded that a hymn be offered to Himself alone; shun altogether the devilish law, every one of you. (35. ON THE FOLLY OF THE WICKED) Of the twofold tree I have spoken, whence death proceeded, and again whence, in turn, life proceeds in frequent measure. The King of eternity by the cross foreshadows the cruel, that they may not believe in Him. O fools, living in death! Cain slew the younger, being found wicked: thence are said to come the offspring of Noah, the Canaanites born. So the wicked race grew up in the world, which never changes its mind to believe in the cross of the Lord. It comes into error, and they say they live rightly. The law was on the tree first, and thence the second went before the terrible first law with peace. In their depraved boasting the wicked rushed savagely:

They are unwilling to acknowledge the Lord pierced with nails, into whose judgment, when He shall have come, there they shall discern Him. But the race of Abel now believes in the benign Christ. (36. WHO ARE THE FANATICAL JUDAIZERS?) What? You half a Jew, would you be half a heathen? Whence you shall not escape the judgment of Christ when dead. You yourself, blind, go astray and enter in among the blind, foolish one; therefore the blind man leads the blind back into the ditch. You go where you know not, and ignorant you depart from thence. Learners go to the learned, that the learned may withdraw; but you go to others, whence you can learn nothing. You go out before the doors, and thence you go to the idols also. Ask first, what is the precept in the Law; let them tell you whether it is commanded to adore gods. For it is ignored, on account of which we are chiefly:

But since they are guilty out of their very transgression, they tell nothing of God's precepts except marvels. Then nevertheless, blind, they lead you down with them into the ditch. There are funerals; it is too much to relate all about them — or, since I am hemmed in, I would drive a plow through narrow ground. The Almighty did not will them to understand the King; from so great a crime He Himself fled the bloodstained men. He delivered Himself to us under a new, superadded law; therefore now they bark against us with the deserted king. But if you suppose there is hope in them, ******** (37. TO THE JEWS) Wicked always and with hard neck you kick back, you are unwilling to be conquered: thus you shall be disinherited. Isaiah said that you are of a thickened heart. You look upon the law which Moses, enraged, dashed to pieces; and the same Lord gave him a second law.

In that law He placed hope, which you, erect, deride. So then, shall you not be unworthy of the heavenly kingdom? (38. LIKEWISE TO THE JEWS) Behold, Leah was a type of the synagogue, with eyes as weak as Jacob received her under a sign; and yet he served again for the lesser, the beloved one, a true mystery and a type of our Church. Look upon the saying of Rebecca, full of meaning, from heaven, whence you feign yourselves estranged, that you may not believe in Christ. Then approach the birth of Tamar's twins; turn your attention to Cain, the first tiller of the earth, and to Abel the shepherd, the ancient, the spotless one who offered, who in his brother's savagery was slaughtered by his brother. So therefore receive the younger ones approved by Christ.

(39. AGAIN TO THE SAME) The unbelieving people is none but yours, you wicked, in so many places and so often reproved by the law of those who cry out. The Most High spurns your sabbaths and your new-moon feasts; He has wholly annulled all your things from the law, so that He who said to cast a stone for a stumbling-block among you would no longer make them perform the appointed sacrifices. If any of you wicked ones have not believed in death, another part of the law cries out: 'You shall behold thence Life hung upon the tree; nor did you believe in Him.' God Himself is life, He Himself hung for us, but you with hardened heart deride that same One. (40. ON THE TIME OF THE ANTICHRIST) Isaiah said: This man, who has shaken the world and as many kings, under whom the earth shall become a wasteland. Hear, since the prophet foretold concerning him;

I have said nothing of my own composition, but reading the law as I read. Then indeed the world is ended, when he shall appear and shall himself have overcome three rulers in the world. But when Nero shall have been raised up from the underworld, Elijah shall come first to seal the beloved; before which the King reigns under the end, and there is total constraint. In seven years the earth shall tremble on every side: but the middle time Elijah shall hold, the middle Nero. Then Babylon the harlot shall be reduced to ashes and embers; thence to Jerusalem the conquering Latin shall proceed, and shall then say: I am Christ, whom you ever pray to. And indeed the deceived first ones praise him, since the false prophet works many signs. ****** The Almighty grants that the spiritual one root him out.

Recapitulating the Scriptures from this, the Jews together cry out to the Most High that they have been deceived. (41. ON THE HIDDEN HOLY PEOPLE OF THE ALMIGHTY CHRIST, THE LIVING GOD) There sits a hidden people, the last, the holy, and indeed unknown to us where it abides. They live through nine and a half tribes themselves; two and a half tribes are these which belong to us. And Christ commanded the ancients to live by the law. Let us all now live, the new tradition of the law, as the law itself teaches! More openly I declare it to you. Two and a half tribes are left behind: why are two and a half tribes from those?

That they might be martyrs, when war is brought against His elect in the world; or surely that a chorus of holy prophets might rise up to that people, who should put a bridle upon them, whom the obscene horses trampled with loosened hoof, nor would it ever hold peace at hand. These are the tribes set apart, that the mysteries of Christ may all be fulfilled through them in the whole age. But they sprang from the crime of two brothers, under whose ill omen the deeds followed. Not deservedly were such bloodstained ones scattered? They come together again to the camps for the sake of the mysteries. Then they hasten to fulfill the things narrated by the law. Almighty Christ descends to His own elect, who were obscured to us for so great a time, made thousands; that is the true heavenly race.

There no one born before his father dies, nor do they feel pains in their bodies, as ulcers that arise. Resting on their bed they depart in ripe age, fulfilling all things of the law, and therefore they are protected. They are commanded to pass over to the Lord in those regions; for them He dries up the river, as before, once crossed over, and no less the Lord Himself goes forth with them. He has crossed over to our things; they come with the heavenly King. On their journey, what shall I say, by which God shall lead them out? The mountains sink down before them and fountains burst forth: the creation rejoices to see the heavenly people. Here, however, they hasten to defend their captured mother. But the wicked King, who holds her, when he hears of this, flees to the region of the north and gathers all his forces.

But when the tyrant shall dash himself against the army of God, his soldiers are laid low by heavenly terror; he himself is seized together with the unspeakable false prophet; by the Lord's decree they are delivered alive to Gehenna. From this, the chief men and leaders are commanded to serve. Then the saints shall enter to the ancient breasts of their mother, that those too may find refreshment, whom that evil one persuaded, and tormented with various punishments those who were to be believing toward him. The end has come, that the offences may be taken away from the world; the Lord shall begin to render judgment through fire. (42. ON THE END OF THIS AGE) The trumpet gives the sign from heaven, the lion being taken away, and suddenly there come darkness with the crash of the sky. The Lord lowers His eyes, that the earth may tremble, and now He cries aloud, that all in the world may hear:

'Behold, long have I kept silence, enduring your deeds for so great a time!' They cry out together, lamenting, too late they groan; there is wailing, weeping, nor is any space given to the wicked. What shall the mother do for the suckling infant, when she herself is burned? In the flame of fire the Lord shall judge the wicked: but the just the fire shall not touch — nay rather it shall lick them gently. Under one (fire) they tarry, but a part shall weep in the sentence. So great shall be the burning, that the very stones melt; in the thunderbolt the winds drive together, the heavenly wrath rages, so that, wherever the impious one flees, he is overtaken by the fire. There shall be no help nor nautical vessels. The flame, nonetheless, divides itself through the midst of the nation, preserving, that for a thousand years the saints may bear bodies. For thereafter, after a thousand years, they are delivered to Gehenna, and the structure of which they were made is burned together with it.

(43. ON THE FIRST RESURRECTION) From heaven there descends a city in the first resurrection. And what shall we relate of so great a heavenly structure? We rise again, we who were devoted to Him, and they shall then be incorrupt, living without death, but neither shall there be any sorrow nor groaning in that place. Those too shall come who under the Antichrist conquer in robust martyrdoms, and they themselves live the whole time, and receive good things, since they suffered evils, and they themselves, marrying, beget children through a thousand years. There all the revenues of the earth are gathered, since the earth, renewed without end, pours forth too abundantly. There no rain, no cold comes into the golden camps; no sieges, as now, nor plunderings. Nor does that city desire the light of a lamp:

From its own Author it shines, nor does night appear there. Through twelve thousand stadia it is broad, long, and so high; its root in the earth, but its head levels with heaven. Into the city before its gates the sun or moon shall give light. The wicked one, shut up in anguish, on account of the just who are to be nourished. But from a thousand years onward God carries all things. (44. ON THE DAY OF JUDGMENT) Concerning the day of judgment, on account of the unbelievers, I add: Sent forth again, God's fire shall hold dominion; the earth gives a groan of all things, then in the last end, that then all the unbelieving nations in the earth — yet it shall avoid the camps of His own saints. In one flame the whole of nature is turned; the earth is burned from its depths and the mountains melt; of the sea nothing remains, it is conquered by the mighty fire, this heaven perishes and that earth is changed.

Another newness of heaven is fashioned, of an everlasting earth. Thence those who merit it are sent into the second death, but the just are placed within in dwellings. (45. TO THE CATECHUMENS) All you who believe in Christ, having forsaken idols, I admonish in few words for your salvation. If in the first times you did anything through error, having been ransomed for Christ, leave all things behind, and when you have come to know God, be a good recruit, approved, and let virginal modesty dwell with you in the Lamb. Let the mind keep watch for good things: take care that you do not sin as before; in your generative baptism alone are these things granted you. For if any catechumen sinning is marked with punishment, let that one live distinguished, but you do not delay without loss. The sum for you: avoid grave sins always.

(46. TO THE FAITHFUL) I admonish the faithful, brothers, not to bear up hatreds: impious hatreds toward the martyrs are reckoned unto the fire; the martyr is undone, whose confession is such; a law is given to the unjust man, that he may be able to bridle himself; thence, having been washed, you too ought likewise to keep free. Twice you sin against God, who prolong quarrels against your brother. Whence you shall not escape sin, pursuing the old ways. Once you are washed; surely you cannot be dipped anew? (47. FAITHFUL ONES, BEWARE OF EVIL) Let the birds and the beasts of the woods be deceived by baits: incautious is the nature of mind that has been handed to them, and they are deceived, following tricks or the bait, and they know not how to avoid evil nor are they held by law. A law is given to man, and a teaching of life to be read, from which he remembers, that he may be able to live warily, and the place of his own being, and to put away the things of death.

He gravely condemns himself who offends against the king: either he is bound in iron, or, cast down from honour in rank, or deprived of life, he loses what he ought to enjoy. Warned by the example, do not sin gravely, you who are translated by the laver; rather have charity, and the bait of the mousetrap, where death is, shun far off. Many are the martyrdoms which are without shedding of blood. Not to covet another's, to be willing to have martyrdom, to bridle the tongue, to render yourself humble you ought; not to do violence of your own accord, nor to return it when done — if you are a patient mind: understand that you are a martyr. (48. TO THE PENITENT) You have become a penitent: by nights and by days pray, yet do not depart far from your mother, and the Most High will be able to be merciful to you.

The shame of your fault will not thereby fall to nothing; in your guilt you ought openly to weep, you who have a deep wound — seek out the physician too — and yet in your sufferings you shall be able to soften your own losses. For indeed I will confess that I myself am one among you, and that I once long felt the terror of ruin. Therefore I admonish the wounded to walk more warily, to defile beard and hair in the dust of the earth, and to roll in sackcloth, and to ask of the Most High King that He come to your aid, lest perchance you perish from among the people. (49. THOSE WHO HAVE APOSTATIZED FROM GOD) When war, however, is waged, or the enemy floods in, he who shall be able to conquer or to lie hidden has great trophies; but unhappy shall he be who has been captured by them. He loses both fatherland and king, to whom it duly befell — he who would not fight for the fatherland nor for life.

He ought to have died rather than go under a barbarian king, and that servitude lie open to deliver to the enemies without law. If you, by proclaiming, die for your land, you have conquered; but if you give your hands unharmed, by the law you have perished. The enemy floods across the river; hide yourself in a hiding-place, or if he can enter without slaughter, do not cease. Render yourself safe on every side, and your own people too: you have conquered; and act watchfully, lest anyone fall into those snares. The king shall be infamous, if anyone reveals himself to the enemy. He who knows not how to conquer and runs forward to surrender himself, has won praise neither for himself nor for his fatherland, the fool; then he was unwilling to live, when life itself shall perish. Thereafter, if a needy or profane man flees from the enemy — like sounding brass, or like deaf asps — he ought sufficiently to pray and to hide himself as such.

(50. ON INFANTS) If the war of the enemy comes suddenly, flooding in, and before they could flee it seized the helpless little ones, they are not to be reproached, though they seem to be captives. Nor indeed do I excuse it: on account of their parents' sins perhaps they deserved it, and therefore God delivered them up. Nevertheless I exhort the adults to run back into the hall, and they are born as if anew from their mother's womb, fleeing the terrible nation, ever bloodstained, impious, unteachable, living a beastly life. For when another war must perchance be waged, he who shall be able to conquer, or at least already to know how to beware — S............................................ (51. DESERTERS) Deserters, then, are said to be of more than one kind:

There is one who is wicked, another who withdraws to a side, but nevertheless true judgments decide concerning both. Behold, one wars for Christ as for Caesar: one obeys. Seek the King's refuge, if you have been a delinquent; implore Him, prostrate before Him confess: He will grant all things, whose are also all our things. Restored to the camp, beware henceforth that you offend not. Do not wish to wander long, a soldier, through the dens of wild beasts. Let it be for you, instead of sinning, an immense deed to desist. (52. TO THE SOLDIERS OF CHRIST) When you have given your name to the soldiery, you are held by the bridle. Begin then therefore to dismiss your former deeds; shun luxuries, since toil presses upon arms; with all strength you must obey the King's command, if you wish to attain the last times joyful.

As a good soldier, ever look for those things to be enjoyed; do not flatter yourself, abandon idleness altogether; that you may daily stand ready before your appointed task, be solicitous, and at morning review the standards. When you see the war, draw near and take up the contest; this is the King's glory, to see a soldier ready. The King is present, as longed for; for the sake of your hope He fights; He prepares gifts, He, for the victory, takes up the chosen and consecrates each to be His own attendant. You, moreover, do not be sparing in what is given; rather be diligent, that He may render fame in exchange for death. (53. ON THE FUGITIVES) The souls of the damned rightly separate themselves; from Him who protects them, again they run back to their own.

The Canaanite root, the accursed seed, breaks forth, and in a servile race flees back under a barbarian king, whom the eternal flame shall torment on the appointed day. The profane one wishes to wander astray without discipline, to rove through the throats of the highways, loosed from law. Such men, then, whom no penalty has compelled — if they will not withdraw from idols, they ought to be spat out. (54. ON THE SEED OF THE TARES) Concerning the seed of the tares, which stand mingled in the Church: when the times are fulfilled, the harvest is separated from the fruit. The tare is born which the lord did not sow; every tare the husbandman gathers and separates it. The field is the law to us: he who shall have done good in it, to him indeed the Ruler Himself grants the true rest, where the tare is burned by fire. If therefore you have supposed, since they tarry under one (roof), you are mistaken:

I declare you barren ones to be Christians (only in name). The barren fig-tree, without fruit, was cursed at the word of the Lord, and at once it withered. You do not do works, you prepare no gift from your treasure: and do you thus suppose, you empty ones, that you may merit the Lord? (55. TO THE DISSEMBLER) You dissemble the law, made known with so great a proclamation, while the heavenly voice cries out in the present trumpet. If a prophet only had declaimed it into a cloud, the Lord's voice sent through him would surely suffice. In so many volumes of those who spoke forth, the Lord's voice proclaims; no one dismisses malice equally from the heart. You wish to seem good, and you seek to live by frauds. Why then did the law itself proceed with so great a labour? You abuse the Lord's commands, and you call yourself a son; if you shall be such, you trust in vain, I say.

The Almighty seeks for Himself meek sons to be, upright, good of heart, devoted to the divine law; but the unkind ones, you now know where He has plunged them. (56. WORLDLY THINGS ARE WHOLLY TO BE FLED) If certain teachers, while they await your gifts, or fear persons, relaxing each thing for you, — even so, I do not teach (thus), but am compelled to speak the truth. With the troop of the Evil one you proceed to vain spectacles, where Satan with crashing din contrives his wiles; you persuade yourself that it is allowed wherever it shall please. The offspring of the Most High, mingled with the sons of the Devil, you are unwilling to look back upon Him whom you renounced, the former things. In these very things you are again engaged: who shall profit you, the One? Or if, for the sake of weakness, you profanely waste what was given, foolishly — I........................................ Do not love the world nor its ambition:

So great is the voice of God, and to you it seems a light thing. You observe the command of man, and you shun God's; you trust in a gift, by which the teachers stop their mouths, that they be silent and not tell you the divine commands. If you should despise me speaking the truth, look to the Most High: whose son you were, to Him assign yourself as a client. If you, a faithful man, seek to live in heathen fashion, the joys of the world remove you from the grace of Christ; you who, undisciplined, presume that the light is allowed, and seek historical choruses and musical songs, nor do you care to unteach your offspring of such madness. While you suppose you are enjoying life, improvident you go astray. The Most High lives, and you shun His just precepts. (57. THAT A CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO BE SUCH) Since the Lord says to eat bread in groaning, why do you now act thus, you who desire to live merry?

You seek to rescind the sentence of the Most High, sent down upon the first-formed man — see the bridle of the law go forth. If God almighty commanded us to live by the sweat (of our brow), you who make merry are therefore already a stranger to Him. The Scripture says the Lord was angry with the Jews: refreshed from food, the sons rose up to play. Now therefore why do we follow those who went forth of their own accord? Whence they perished, we ought to beware. The greatest part of you, given over to luxuries, obeys (them). You transgress the law, when you set yourself among musicians. The apostle cries out — nay rather God cries through him: 'Your license,' he says, 'ruins you in that very thing.' Be therefore such as Christ wills you to be: meek and cheerful in Him, but sorrowful toward the world. Run forth, labour, sweat, fight with sorrow;

Hope comes with labour, and the palm of victory is given. If you desire to refresh your soul, go to the martyrs! Await the rest of things to come, by the passing-over of death. (58. TO THE MATRONS OF THE CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD) Do you wish to be a Christian matron, while learning the ways of the world? You gird yourself with gold or with silken garb, you modest one; you send forth from your ears the terror of the law to the wind, you affect vain things, all from the Devil's pomp, you adorn at the mirror your curls bent back over the brow, and you even apply false medicaments to your cheeks, antimony in your pure eyes with perverse adornment, or you dye your hair, that it may be black all the time. God is the inspector, who penetrates each heart. For the rest, to the modest these things are not necessary. With clear and modest sense pierce through your breast;

The law of God testifies that such practices depart far; the woman who from the heart believes, approved by her husband — let it suffice for her to be (adorned) not with finery but with a good mind. Put on the garments which are fitting, only that you may shield off the cold or too much sun, that you may be approved as modest, and that among God's people you may show forth the gifts of your means. Tabitha, once most renowned, gives you a memory; lifeless she lay, raised up by the prayers of the widows. By giving she earned, not by adornments, to be lifted up thence. You good matrons, flee the comeliness of vanity: among loose women a harlot's adornment is fitting. Conquer the malignant one, you modest women of Christ, by giving show forth all your riches. [The holy woman of God shows forth her riches in her heart.

With a hymn-singing choir, and Christ being well-pleased, to serve, zealous in favour, offer to Christ a fragrant odour.] (59. ACROSTIC: A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T U X Y Z) You have heard the voice, you who wish to remain a Christian woman, how blessed Paul commanded you to ask. But heaven-speaking Isaiah, teacher and author, (for he detests those who follow the love of the world,) 'The exalted daughters of Zion,' he says, 'have fallen.' It is not lawful in God that a faithful Christian woman be adorned. In Gentile fashion do you seek to outstrip the holy things of God? These heralds of God condemn in the law, crying out that unjust are the women who adorn themselves in such a way.

You dye your hair, you smear your eyes with blackness, you wreathe your locks crescent-wise, bound up step by step over the brow, you medicate your cheek with a certain superinduced redness, and likewise earrings hang of heaviest weight, you bury your natural neck with gems and gold, you bind your palms, worthy of God, with an evil portent. Why should I mention garments, or the whole pomp of the Devil? You spurn the law, you prefer to please the world, you dance in the houses, instead of psalms you sing love-songs. Though you be chaste, the left hand does not cleanse you by your following (such ways): therefore Christ makes such of you equal with the Gentiles. The holy woman of God shows forth her riches in her heart. With a hymn-singing choir, and Christ being well-pleased, to serve, zealous in favour, offer to Christ a fragrant odour.

TO THE WHOLE PEOPLE OF GOD IN THE CHURCH. I am not righteous, brothers, raised up out of the sewer, nor do I exalt myself; but I grieve for you, because I see that out of so great a people not one is crowned in the contest. Surely, if a man does not fight himself, let him at least supply others with help. You scold the disaster, yet exultantly you busy yourselves with luxury! Your brother labors under arms against an opposing world, while you, relying on your riches, neither fight nor stand by the one who fights. ******** Upon such a one the whole Church depends, if he conquers. You see your brother fasting and warring with the enemy. You long for peace in the camp, while he wages war outside. Be merciful, that before all things you may be saved. Do you not regard the Lord, who cries out with so great a proclamation, who commands that food be provided even to enemies?

Therefore provide for the daily meals, which on every single day are taken together with the poor. You seek to feed, O fool, the one who in turn would feed you. Scarcely does that man obey me, who proposes that all be set in order. Daintily fed, with belly distended, you declaim, while your brother, oppressed by want, wastes away close beside you. What do you say of the Lord's Day? If you have not invited beforehand, call out from the crowd a poor man whom you may lead to your meal. In such deeds is your hope, refreshed out of your own substance. ON THE ZEAL OF COVETOUSNESS. While you covet, thereby you perish, while you burn with envy of your neighbor; you extinguish your very self when, driven on, you set yourself ablaze. You envy another, O grudging one, who profits from evil, and you long to be made equal to such great wealth. Thus the law does not regard it;

while you seek to lie heavy upon that wealth, you live wholly in suspense, in the burning of gains; and while you are guilty before yourself, condemning yourself as your own judge, the eyes' edge of the greedy is never satisfied. Now therefore, if you would believe and consider: vain is the desire to heap up too much riches while life lingers on so fragile a thread. Whence God cries out: O fool, this night you are summoned! Afterward ruin comes crashing down: whose then shall these treasures be? You fall into ruin striving after unjust gains, while the Lord supplies to each his daily portion conquered. Let another heap up: you, seek to live well, and God, weighing the heart, you act above all as conqueror. For I do not say that you should cast yourself into fear, when for your own day you keep watch, living without deceit. The bird perishes by the bait, or unwarily sticks fast to the lime. Judge for yourself that you must take very simple and great care.