Page:The Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas.djvu/221



1. "Are ye all so slack? Are ye not yet convinced of yourselves, that ye are not yet carrying his goodness? Let us reverently rejoice with one another over the rich communion which we have with him! Let us say among ourselves, Happy is our generation, by whom is it loved? Blessed our existence, of whom did it receive compassion? We are not prostrated, since we are known from such a height. We belong not to time, to be afterward destroyed by it. We are not the product of moving, to be again annihilated by it, nor of earthly generation, to return again (to earth). We belong to that greatness after which we follow, and to him who pities us. We belong to the better. Therefore, we run away from the baser. We belong to the noble, by whom we reject the ignoble; to the righteous, by whom we thrust away the unrighteous; to the merciful by whom we repel the unmerciful; to the Saviour, by whom we have known the destroyer; to the light, by which we banished the darkness; to the One, by whom we removed the many; to the heavenly, by whom we perceived the earty; to the permanent, by whom