1   And the Angel answered me, that was sent to me, whose name was Vriel,

2   and sayd to me: Thy hart exceding hath exceded in this world, & thou thinkest to comprehend the way of the Highest.

3   And I sayd: It is so my Lord. And he answered me, & sayd: I am sent to shew thee three wayes, & to propose to

thee three similitudes.

4   Of the which if thou shalt declare to me one of them, I also wil shew thee the way which thou desirest to see, and wil teach thee whence a wicked hart is.

5   And I sayd, Speake my Lord. And he sayd to me: Goe, wey me the weight of the fire, or measure me the blast of the winde, or cal me backe the day that is past.

6   And I answered, and sayd: what man borne can doe it, that thou askest me of these thinges?

7   And he sayd to me: If I should aske thee, saying: How great habitations are there in the hart of the sea, or how great vaines be there in the beginning of the depth, or how great vaines be there aboue the firmament, and what are the issues of paradise:

8   thou wouldest perhaps say to me: I haue not descended into the depth, nor into hel as yet, neither haue I ascended at anie time into heauen.

9   But now I haue not asked thee, sauing of the fire, and the winde, and the day by the which thou hast passed, and from the which thou canst not be separated: and thou hast not answered me of them.

10   And he sayd to me: Thou canst not know the thinges that are thine which grow together with thee:

11   and how can thy vessel comprehend the way of the Highest, and now the world being outwardly corrupted, vnderstand the corruption euident in my sight:

12   I sayd to him: Better were it for vs not to be, then yet liuing to liue in impieties, and to suffer, and not to vnderstand for what thing.

13   And he answered me, & said: Going forth I went forward to a wood of trees in the filde, and they deuised a deuise,

14   and sayd: Come and let vs goe, and make warre against the sea, that it may retyre backe before vs, and we may make vs other woodes.

15   And in like maner the waues of the sea they also deuised a deuise, and sayd: Come let vs goe vp, let vs ouerthrow the woodes of the filde, that there also we may consummate an other countrie for our selues.

16   And the woodes deuise was made vaine, for fire came, and consumed it.

17   Likewise also the deuise of the waues of the sea. For the sand stood, & stayed them.

18   For if thou wert iudge of these, whom wouldest thou begin to iustifie, or whom to condemne?

19   And I answered, and sayd: Verely they deuised a vayne deuise. For the earth is geuen to the wood, and a place to the sea to carie her waues.

20   And he answered me, and sayd: Thou hast iudged wel, and why hast thou not iudged for thy self?

21   For as the earth is geuen to the wood, and the sea for the waues therof: so they that inhabite vpon the earth, can vnderstand onlie the thinges that are vpon the earth: and they vpon the heauens, the thinges that are aboue the height

of the heauens.

22   And I answered, and sayd: I besech thee Lord, that sense may be geuen me to vnderstand.

23   For I meant not to aske of thy superiour thinges, but of those that passe by vs dayly. For what cause Israel is geuen into reproche to the gentiles, the people whom thou hast loued, is geuen to impious tribes, & the law of our fathers is brought to destruction, & the written ordinances are no where:

24   and we haue passed out of the world, as locustes, and our life is astonishment and dreade, and we are not worthie to obtaine mercie.

25   But what wil he doe to his name that is inuocated vpon vs? and of these thinges I did aske.

26   And he answered me, and sayd: If thou search very much, thou shalt often meruail: because the world hastening hasteneth to passe,

27   and can not comprehend the thinges which in times to come are promised to the iust: because this world is ful of iniustice and infirmities.

28   But concerning the thinges that thou demandest I wil tel thee: for the euil is sowed, and the destruction therof is not yet come.

29   If then that which is sowen be not turned vp, and the place depart where the euil is sowen, that shal not come where the good is sowen.

30   Because the grayne of il seede hath bene sowen in the hart of Adam from the beginning: and how much impietie hath it ingendered vntil now, and doth ingender vntil the floore come?

31   And esteme with thy self the graine of the il seede, how much fruite of impietie it hath ingendred:

32   When the eares shal be cut, which are innumerable, what a great floore wil they begin to make?

33   And I answered, and sayd: How, and when shal these things be? why are our yeares few and euil?

34   And he answered me, and sayd to me, Hasten not aboue the Highest. For thou doest hasten in vaine to be aboue him, for thy excesse is much.

35   Did not the soules of the iust in their cellars, aske of these things, saying: How hope I so, and when shal the fruite come of the floore of our reward?

36   And Ieremiel the Archangel answered to those things, and sayd: When the number of the sedes in you shal be filled, because he hath weyed the world in a balance,

37   and with a measure hath he measured the times, and in number he hath numbered the times, and hath not moued, nor stirred them, vntil the foresayd measure be filled.

38   And I answered, and sayd: O Lord Dominatour, we also are al ful of impietie.

39   And lest perhaps for vs the floores of the iust be not filled, for the sinnes of the inhabitantes vpon the earth.

40   And he answered me, and sayd: Goe, and aske a woman with childe, if when she hath accomplished her nine

monethes, her wombe can yet hold the infant within it?

41   And I sayd it can not Lord. And he sayd to me, in hel the cellars of the soules are like to the matrice.

42   For as she that is: In trauail maketh hast, to escape the necessitie of trauailing: so this also hasteneth to render those thinges which are commended to it.

43   From the beginning it shal be shewed thee touching those thinges, which thou doest couet to see.

44   And I answered, and sayd: If I haue found grace before thine eyes, & if it be possible, and if I by fitte,

45   shew mee if there be more to come then is passed, or moe things haue passed, then are to come.

46   What passed, I know: but what is to come, I know not.

47   And he sayd to me: Stand vpon the right side, and I wil shew thee the interpretation of the similitude.

48   And I stood, and saw: and behold a burning fornace passed before me, & it came to passe when the flame passed, I saw: and behold the smoke ouercame.

49   After these thinges there passed before me a clowd ful of water, and with violence casting in much raine: and when the violence of raine was cast, the droppes therin ouercame.

50   And he sayd to me: Thinke with thyself, as the raine increaseth more then the droppes, and the fire then the smoke: so did the measure that passed, more a bound. But the droppes, and the smoke ouercame:

51   and I prayed, & sayd, shal I liue thinkest thou vntil these dayes? or what shal be in those dayes?

52   He answered me, and sayd: Of the signes wherof thou askest me, in part I can tel thee, howbeit of thy life I was not sent to tel thee, neither doe I know.

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