Book 23

While I was seated in my house, and was glorifying the Lord for all that I had seen, and enquiring about the commandments because they were beautiful and joyful and glorious, and able to save the soul, of man, I said in myself: I shall be blessed if I walk in these commandments, and whoever shall walk in them shall be blessed.

While I said this in myself I suddenly saw him seated by me, and saying this: Why are you double-minded concerning the commandments which I commanded you? They are beautiful. Be not double-minded at all, but put on the faith of the Lord, and you shall walk in them, for I will strengthen you in them.

These commandments are helpful to those who are going to repent, for if they do not walk in them their repentance is in vain.

Do you, therefore, who repent, put away the wickednesses of this world which lead you astray, but if you put on all the virtue of righteousness, you shall be able to keep these commandments, and no longer add to your sins. Therefore walk in these commandments of mine, and you shall live to God. All these things have been spoken to you by me.

And after he spoke these things with me, he said to me: Let us go into the country, and I will show you the shepherds of the sheep. Let us go, sir, said I. And we came into a plain, and he showed me a young shepherd, clothed with a suit of garments of yellow colour.

And he was feeding very many sheep, and these sheep were well fed and very frisky, and were glad as they skipped here and there. And the shepherd himself was very joyful over his flock, and the face of the shepherd was very joyful, and he ran about among the sheep.

And he said to me: Do you see this shepherd? Yes, sir, said I, I see him. This, said he, is the angel of luxury and deceit. He wears out the souls of the servants of God, and perverts them from the truth, deceiving them with evil desires in which they perish.

For they forget the commandments of the Living God, and walk in deceit and vain luxury, and are destroyed by this angel, some to death, and some to corruption.

I said to him: Sir, I do not know what is to death, and what is to corruption. Listen, he said, the sheep which you see joyful and skipping, these are those which have been torn away from God completely, and have given themselves up to the lusts of this world. For these, then, there is no repentance of life, because they added to their sins and blasphemed against the name of God. Such men incur death.

But the sheep which you see not skipping, but feeding in one place, these are they who have given themselves up to luxury and deceit, but have uttered no blasphemy against the Lord. These then have been corrupted from the truth; in them there is hope of repentance, in which they can live. Corruption, then, has hope of some renewing, but death has eternal destruction.

Again I went on a little, and he showed me a great shepherd, as it were savage in appearance, clothed in a white goat-skin, and he had a bag on his shoulders, with a great staff, very hard and with knots, and a great whip. And he looked very bitter so that 1 was afraid of him, such a look had he.

This shepherd then was receiving the sheep from the young shepherd; that is to say, those who were frisky and well-fed but not skipping, and put them in a certain place precipitous and thorny and full of thistles, so that the sheep could not disentangle themselves from the thorns and thistles, but were caught in the thorns and thistles.

These then were being pastured all entangled in the thorns and thistles, and they were very wretched, being beaten by him, and lie was driving them about here and there, and gave them no rest, and those sheep had no happy time at all.

When therefore I saw them thus beaten and miserable I grieved for them that they were being so tormented, and had no rest at all.

I said to the shepherd who was speaking with me: Sir, who is this shepherd who is so pitiless and bitter, and has no compassion at all on these sheep? This, said he, is the angel of punishment. He is one of the righteous angels, but is set over punishment.

Therefore he receives those who have wandered away from God, and walked in the lusts and deceits of this world, and punishes them, as they deserve, with various terrible punishments.

I should like, sir, said I, to know these different punishments, of what kind they are. Hear, said he, the different tortures and punishments. The tortures befall them in this life, for some are punished with loss, others with deprivations, others with divers illnesses, others with all unsettlement, and others are insulted by the unworthy, and suffer many other things.

For many have been unsettled in their counsels and try many things, and nothing goes well for them at all. And they say that they do not prosper in their undertaking, and it does not enter into their hearts that they have done wicked deeds, but they blame the Lord.

When, therefore, they have been afflicted with every affliction, then they are handed over to me, for good instruction, and are made strong in the faith of the Lord, and they serve the Lord the rest of the days of their life with a pure heart. And if they repent, then it enters into their hearts, that the deeds which they did were evil, and then they glorify God saying that he is a righteous judge, and that they suffered righteously, each according to his deeds, and for the future they serve the Lord with a pure heart, and they prosper in all their deeds, receiving from the Lord all things, whatever they ask;, and then they glorify the Lord that they were handed over to me, and they no longer suffer any of the evils.

I said to him: Sir, tell me this also. What more, said he, do you ask? Whether, Sir, said I, those who live in luxury and are deceived are punished for the same time as they live in luxury and deceit? And he said to me: Yes, they are punished the same time.

Sir, said I, they are punished a very short time, for those who live in such luxury and forget God, ought to be punished sevenfold.

He said to me: You are foolish, and do not understand the power of punishment. No, said I, Sir, for if I had understood it, I should not have asked you to tell me. Listen, said he, to the power of both.

The time of luxury and deceit is one hour, but the hour of punishment has the power of thirty days. If, therefore, any man live in luxury and deceit for one day, and be punished one day, the day of punishment has the power of a whole year, for a man is punished as many years as he has lived days in luxury. You see, therefore, said he, that the time of luxury and deceit is very short, but the time of punishment is long.

Sir, said I, I still do not at all understand about the time of deceit and luxury and torture; explain it to me more clearly.

He answered and said to me: Your foolishness is lasting, and you do not wish to purify your heart and to serve God. See to it, said he, lest the time be fulfilled, and you be found still foolish. Listen, then, said he, that you may understand it as you wish.

He who lives in luxury and deceit for a single day, and does what he likes, is clothed with great foolishness, and does not understand the deed which he is doing. For he forgets to-morrow what he did yesterday. For luxury and deceit have no memory, because of the foolishness which they have put on. But when punishment and torture cleave to a man for a single day, he is punished and tortured for a year, for punishment and torture have long memories.

Therefore, being tortured and punished for a whole year, he then remembers his luxury and deceit, and knows that he is suffering evil because of them. Therefore, all men who live in luxury and deceit are thus tortured, because though they have life, they have given themselves over to death.

What sort of luxuries, Sir, said I, are harmful? Every act which a man does with pleasure, said he, is luxury, for even the ill-tempered man, by giving satisfaction to his own temper, lives luxuriously. And the adulterer and drunkard and evil-speaker and liar, and the covetous and the robber, and he who does such things as these gives satisfaction to his own disease; therefore he lives in luxury from his own acts.

All these luxuries are harmful to the servants of God. Those, therefore, who are punished and tortured suffer, because of these deceits.

But there are also luxuries which bring men salvation, for many who do good luxuriate and are carried away with their own pleasure. This luxury therefore is profitable to the servants of God, and brings life to such a man. But the harmful luxuries spoken of already bring them torture and punishment. But if they continue in them and do not repent, they procure death for themselves.