Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 1.djvu/317

 how often  the  Almighty  God  has  awfully  wreaked

contempt of  Himself  upon  guilty  men,

or how  often  He  has  pitied  mankind  in  some  way,

those who  with  confession  ceased  from  their  evil.

We must  not  murmur,  nor  anxiously  bemoan,

though mischance  befall  us  respecting  our  possessions,

because murmuring  is  a  very  great  danger,

that a  man  murmur  against  God,  even  as  St. Paul has  told  us.

There will  be  many  misfortunes  at  the  end  of  this  world,

but each   one  must  patiently  suffer  his  lot,

so that  he  sin  not  against  God  by  murmuring,

and, for  love  of  this  world,  merit  for  himself  punishment.

This time  is  the  last  time,  and  the  end  of  this  world,

and men  are  made  unjust  amongst  themselves,

so that  the  father  contendeth  with  his  own  son,

and one  brother  with  another,  to  their  own  destruction,

and thereby  add  iniquity  to  themselves,

both in  this  world  and  in  that  which  is  to  come.

For it  seemeth  to  the  wicked,  as  if  they  might  live  for  ever,

and they  know  not  the  saying,  which  God  saith  of  such,

Viri sanguinum  et  dolosi  non  dimidiahunt  dies  suos;  that  is  in English,

'The bloody  men  and  those  who   choose  deceit,

they shall  not  live  out  half  their  days'  [Ps. lv. 23 ].

They are  bloody  men  who  commit  manslaughters,

and those  who  seduce  men's  souls  to  destruction.

Such shall  end  by  a  very  evil  death,

if they  do  not  amend  their  evil  before  the  end.