Page:Suppressed Gospels and Epistles.djvu/225

 because I understand nothing at all. For all your answers are great and excellent; and which a man can hardly understand.

138 Hear, said he: The name of the Son of God is great and without bounds, and the whole world is supported by it. If therefore, said I, every creature of God be sustained by his Son, why should he not support those also who have been invited by him, and who carry his name, and walk in his commandments?

139 Seest thou not, said he, that he doth support them, who with all their heart, bear his name? He therefore is their foundation, and gladly supports those who do not deny his name, but willingly bear it.

140 And I said: Sir, tell me the names of these virgins; and of those women that were clothed with the black garment.

141 Hear, said he, the names of those virgins which are the more powerful, and stand at the corners of the gate. These are their names:

142 The first is called Faith; the second Continence; the third Power; the fourth Patience; the rest which stand beneath these are, Simplicity, Innocence, Chastity, Cheerfulness, Truth, Understanding, Concord, Charity.

143 Whosoever therefore bear these names, and the name of the Son of God, shall enter into the kingdom of God.

144 Hear now, said he, the names of those women, which were clothed with the black garment. Of these, four are the principal: the first is Perfidiousness; the second, Incontinence; the third, Infidelity; the fourth, Pleasure.

145 And the rest which follow are called thus, Sadness, Malice, Lust, Anger, Lying, Foolishness, Pride, and Hatred. The servant of God, which carries these spirits, shall see indeed the kingdom of God, but he shall not enter into it.

146 But, sir, what are those stones which were taken out of the deep and fitted into the building? The ten, said he, which were placed at the foundation, are the first age; the following five-and- twenty, are the second, of righteous men.

147 The next thirty-five, are the prophets and ministers of the Lord. And the forty, are the Apostles and doctors of the preaching of the Son of God.

148 And I said, sir, why did the virgins put even those stones into the building after they were carried through the gate? And he said, Because these first carried those spirits, and they departed not one from the other, neither the men from the spirits, nor the spirits from the men:

149 But the spirits were joined to those men even to the day of their death; who if they had not had these spirits with them, they could not have been useful to the building of this tower.

150 And I said, sir, show me this farther. He answered, What dost then ask? Why did these stones come out of the deep, and were placed into the building of this tower, seeing that they long ago carried those holy spirits?

151 It was necessary, said he, for them to ascend by water, that they might be at rest. For they could not otherwise enter into the kingdom of God, but by laying aside the mortality of their former life.

152 They therefore being dead, were nevertheless sealed with the seal of the Son of God, and so entered into the kingdom of God.

153 For before a man receives the name of the Son of God, he is ordained unto death; but when he