Mans witte and reason is not able to vnderstand the counsel and iudgement
of God, 22. why his people are afflicted by wicked nations, 33. nor of
times, and thinges to come.
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, Speak 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,
(Judges 9 / 2 Par 25) 14 and said: 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 sayed: 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 conerning 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 the 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 left 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 more 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 And 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.