Page:The Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas.djvu/165



34. "One thing, however, I would in the first place implant into your ear, why I have come to you, the care for your souls, that you think not that this time last to all eternity, which is rather a time of the yoke, and that you lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where everything passeth away. Think also not, if you have children, to rest in them, and seek not to rob and defraud on their account! Mourn also not, ye who are poor, if you cannot serve the lusts! For even those who can do it, call you happy, when they are sick. And ye who are rich, rejoice not because you have more treasures! For their possession causes you unlimited sorrow, when you have lost them. And again, when you have them, you must be afraid that on their account some one might kill you.

35. "And thou who art of bodily beauty, and with proud confidence liftest up thy countenance, thou at least wilt only see the end of the promise, when thou comest to the grave. Thou who delightest in adultery, know that law and nature revenge themselves on thee, and above all the conscience! And thou, adulteress, which didst trespass against the law, thou knowest not whither thou wilt go. and [sic] if thou didst keep thy treasures without helping the poor, having left this body and being in the flames of the (hellish) fire, thou shalt find no one that will have mercy on thee when asking for mercy. Thou who art passionate and raging, know that thou livest like brutes; thou drunkard and