CHAPTERS 163 - 179
"THE WILDERNESS BEYOND JORDAN"
163. 1. Jesus went into the wilderness beyond Jordan with his disciples, and when the midday prayer was done he sat down near to a palm-tree, and under the shadow of the palm-tree his disciples sat down.
2. Then Jesus said: 'So secret is predestination, O brethren, that I say to you, truly, only to one man shall it be clearly known. He it is whom the nations look for, to whom the secrets of God are so clear that, when he comes into the world, blessed shall they be that shall listen to his words, because God shall overshadow them with his mercy even as this palm-tree overshadows us. Yes, even as this tree protects us from the burning heat of the sun, even so the mercy of God will protect from Satan them that believe in that man.'
Muhammad the White Cloud of Mercy
3. The disciples answered, "O Master, who shall that man be of whom you speak, who shall come into the world?" Jesus answered with joy of heart: 'He is Muhammad;, Messenger of God, and when he comes into the world, even as the rain makes the earth to bear fruit when for a long time it has not rained, even so shall he be occasion of good works among men, through the abundant mercy which he shall bring. For he is a white cloud full of the mercy of God, which mercy God shall sprinkle upon the faithful like rain.'
Predestination
164. 1. I will accordingly tell you now [what] little God has granted me to know concerning this same predestination. The Pharisees say that everything has been so predestined that he who is elect cannot become reprobate, and he who is reprobate cannot by any means become elect; and that, even as God has predestined well-doing as the road by which the elect shall walk to salvation, even so has he predestined sin as the road by which the reprobate shall walk into damnation. Cursed be the tongue that said this, with the hand that wrote it, for this is the faith of Satan. Wherefore one may know of what manner are the Pharisees of the present day, for they are faithful servants of Satan.
2. What can predestination mean but an absolute will to give an end to a thing [of which] one has the means in hand? for without the means one cannot destine an end. How, then, shall he who not only lacks stone and money to spend, but has not even so much land as to place one foot upon, destine to build a house? Surely, none [could do so]. No more, then, I tell you, is predestination, taking away the free will that God has given to man of his pure bounty, the Law of God. Surely it is not predestination but abomination we shall be establishing.
3. That man is free the Book of Moses shows, where, when our God gave the Law upon Mount Sinai, he spoke thus: My commandment is not in the heaven that you should excuse yourself, saying: Now, who shall go to bring us the commandment of God? and who perhaps shall give us strength to observe it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that in like manner you should excuse yourself. But my commandment is near to your heart, that when you will you may observe it.
4. Tell me, if King Herod should command an old man to become young and a sick man that he should become whole, and when they did not [do] iti should cause them to be killed, would this be just? The disciples answered: "If Herod gave this command, he would be most unjust and impious."
5. Then Jesus, sighing, said: "These are the fruits of human traditions, O brethren; for in saying that God has predestinated the reprobate such that he cannot become elect they blaspheme God as impious and unjust. For he commands the sinner not to sin, and when he sins to repent; while such predestination takes away from the sinner the power not to sin, and entirely deprives him of repentance."
The Elect
165. 1. But hear what says God by Joel the prophet: "As I live, [says] your God, I will not the death of a sinner, but I seek that he should be converted to penitence." Will God then predestinate that which he [does] not will? Consider that which God says, and that which the Pharisees of this present time say.
2. Further, God says by the prophet Isaiah: "I have called, and you would not hearken to me." And how much God has called, hear how he says by the same prophet: All the day have I spread out my hands to a people that believe me not, but contradict me." And our Pharisees, when they say that the reprobate cannot become elect, what [do] they say, then, but that God mocks men even as he would mock a blind man who should show him something white, and as he would mock a deaf man who should speak into his ears?
3. And that the elect can be reprobated, consider what our God says by Ezekiel the prophet: "As I live, says God, if the righteous shall forsake his righteousness and shall do abominations, he shall perish, and I will not remember any more any of his righteousness; for trusting therein it shall forsake him before me and it shall not save him."
4. And of the calling of the reprobate, what says God by the prophet Hosea but this: I will call a people not elect, I will call them elect." God is true, and cannot tell a lie: for God being truth speaks truth. But the Pharisees of this present time with their doctrine contradict God altogether.
Free Will
166. 1.Andrew replied: "But how is that to be understood which God said to Moses, that he will have mercy on whom he wills to have mercy and will harden whom he wills to harden." Jesus answered: "God says this in order that man may not believe that he is saved by his own virtue, but may perceive that life and the mercy of God have been granted him by God of his bounty. And he says it in order that men may shun the opinion that there be other Gods than he.
2. If, therefore, he hardened Pharaoh he did it because he had afflicted our people and essayed to bring it to nought by destroying all the male children in Israel: whereby Moses was near to losing his life. Accordingly, I say to you truly, that predestination has for its foundation the Law of God and human free will. Yes, and even if God could save the whole world so that none should perish he would not will to do so lest thus he should deprive man of freedom, which he preserves to him in order to do despite to Satan, in order that this [lump of ] clay, scorned of the spirit, even though it shall sin as the spirit did, may have power to repent and go to dwell in that place whence the spirit was cast out.
3. Our God wills, I say, to pursue with his mercy man's free will, and wills not to forsake the creature with his omnipotence. And so on the day of judgment none will be able to make any excuse for their sins, seeing that it will then be manifest to them how much God has done for their conversion, and how often he has called them to repentance.
The Inscrutability of Predestination
167. 1. Accordingly, if your mind will not rest content in this, and you be fain to say again: "Why so?" I will disclose to you a wherefore." It is this. Tell me, wherefore cannot a [single] stone rest on the top of the water, yet the whole earth rests on the top of the water? Tell me, why is it that, while water extinguishes fire, and earth flees from air, so that none can unite earth, air, water, and fire in harmony, nevertheless they are united in man and are preserved harmoniously?
2. If, then, you know not this no, all men, as men, cannot know it how shall they understand that God created the universe out of nothing with a single word? How shall they understand the eternity of God? Assuredly they shall by no means be able to understand this, because, man being finite and composite with the body, which, as says the prophet Solomon, being corruptible, presses down the soul, and the works of God being proportionate to God, how shall they be able to comprehend them?
3. Isaiah, prophet of God, seeing [it to be] thus, exclaimed, saying: Truly you are a hidden God! And of the Messenger of God, how God has created him, he says: His generation, who shall narrate? And of the working of God he says: Who has been his counsellor? Wherefore God says to human nature: Even as the heaven is exalted above the earth, so are my ways exalted above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts. Therefore I say to you, the manner of predestination is not manifest to men, albeit the fact is true, as I have told you. Ought man then, because he cannot find out the mode, to deny the fact? Assuredly, I have never yet seen any one refuse health, though the manner of it be not understood. For I know not even now how God by my touch heals the sick."
The Clear Mirror
168. 1. Then said the disciples: "Truly God speaks in you, for never has man spoken as you speak." Jesus answered: "Believe me when God chose me to send me to the House of Israel, he gave me a book like to a clear mirror; which came down into my heart in such wise that all that I speak comes forth from that book. And when that book shall have finished coming forth from my mouth, I shall be taken up from the world."
2. Peter answered: "O master, is that which you now speak written in that book?" Jesus replied: "All that I say for the knowledge of God and the service of God, for the knowledge of man and for the salvation of mankind all this comes forth from that book, which is my gospel." Said Peter: "Is there written therein the glory of paradise?"
The Glory of Paradise
169. 1. Jesus answered: "Hearken, and I will tell you of what manner is paradise, and how the holy and the faithful shall abide there without end, for this is one of the greatest blessings of paradise seeing that everything, however great, if it have an end, becomes small, yes nought. 'Paradise is the home where God stores his delights, which are so great that the ground which is trodden by the feet of the holy and blessed ones is so precious that one drachma of it is more precious than a thousand worlds.
2. These delights were seen by our, father, David, prophet of God, for God showed them to him, seeing he caused him to behold the glories of paradise: whereupon, when he returned to himself, he closed his eyes with both his hands, and weeping said: "Look not any more upon this world, O my eyes, for all is vain, and there is no good!"
3. Of these delights said Isaiah ;the prophet: "The eyes of man have not seen, his ears have not heard, nor has the human heart conceived, that which God has prepared for them that love him." Know you wherefore they have not seen, heard, conceived such delights? It is because while they live here below they are not worthy to behold such things. Wherefore, albeit our father David truly saw them, I tell you that he saw them not with human eyes, for God took his soul to himself, and thus, united with God, he saw them with light divine. As God lives, in whose presence my soul stands, seeing that the delights of paradise are infinite and man is finite, man cannot contain them; even as a little earthen jar cannot contain the sea.
4. Behold, then, how beautiful is the world in summer-time, when all things bear fruit! The very peasant, intoxicated with gladness by reason of the harvest that is come, makes the valleys and mountains resound with his singing, for that he loves his labours supremely. Now lift up even so your heart to paradise, where all things are fruitful with fruits proportionate to him who has cultivated it.
5. As God lives, this is sufficient for the knowledge of paradise, forasmuch as God has created paradise for the home of his own delights. Now think you that immeasurable goodness would not have things immeasurably good? Or that immeasurable beauty would not have things immeasurably beautiful? Beware, for you err greatly if you think he have them not.
God is the Reward of His Servants
170. 1. God says thus to the man who shall faithfully serve him: "I know your works, that you work for me. As I live eternally, your love shall not exceed my bounty. Because you serve me as God your creator, knowing yourself to be my work, and ask nought of me save grace and mercy to serve me faithfully; because you set no end to my service, seeing you desire to serve me eternally: even so will I do, for I will reward you as if you were God, my equal. For not only will I place in your hands the abundance of paradise, but I will give you myself as a gift, so that, even as you are fain to be my servant for ever, even so will I make your wages forever."
171. 1. What think you," said Jesus to his disciples, "of paradise? Is there a mind that could comprehend such riches and delights? Man must needs have a knowledge as great as God's if he would know what God wills to give to his servants. Have you seen, when Herod makes a present to one of his favourite barons, in what sort he presents it?"
2. John answered: "I have seen it twice; and assuredly the tenth part of that which he gives would be sufficient for a poor man." Jesus said: "But if a poor man shall be presented to Herod what will he give to him" John answered: "One or two mites."
3. Now let this be your book wherein to study the knowledge of paradise," [said Jesus]: "because all that God has given to man in this present world for his body is as though Herod should give a mite to a poor man;; but what God will give to the body and soul in paradise is as though Herod should give all that he has, yes and his own life, to one of his servants."
172. 1. God says thus to him that loves him, and serves him faithfully: "Go and consider the sands of the sea;, O my servant, how many they are. Wherefore, if the sea should give you one single grain of sand, would it appear small to you? Assuredly, yes. As I, your creator, live, all that I have given in this world to all the princes and kings of the earth is less than a grain of sand that the sea would give you, in comparison of that which I will give you in my paradise."
The Abundance of Paradise
173. 1. 'Consider, then," said Jesus, "the abundance of paradise. For if God has given to man in this world an ounce of welling, in paradise he will give him ten hundred thousand loads. Consider the quantity of fruits that are in this world, the quantity of food, the quantity of flowers, and the quantity of things that minister to man. As God lives, in whose presence my soul stands, as the sea has still sand over and above when one receives a grain thereof, even so will the quality and quantity of figs [in paradise] excel the sort of figs we eat here. And in like manner every other thing in paradise.
2. But furthermore, I say to you that truly, as a mountain of gold and pearls is more precious than the shadow of an ant, even so are the delights of paradise more precious than all the delights of the princes of the world which they have had and shall have even to the judgment of God when the world shall have an end."
Of the Body in Paradise
3. Peter answered: "Shall, then, our body which we now have go into paradise?" Jesus answered: "Beware, Peter;, lest you become a Sadducee for the Sadducees say that the flesh shall not rise again, and that there be no angels. 'Wherefore their body and soul are deprived of entrance into paradise, and they are deprived of all ministry of angels in this world. Have you perhaps forgotten Job, prophet and friend of God, how he says: "I know that my God lives; and in the last day I shall rise again in my flesh, and with my eyes I shall see God my Saviour"? But believe me, this flesh of ours shall be so purified that it shall not possess a single property of those which now it has; seeing that it shall be purged of every evil desire, and God shall reduce it to such a condition as was Adam's before he sinned.
4. Two men serve one master in one and the same work. The one alone sees the work, and gives orders to the second, and the second performs all that the first commands. Seems it just to you, I say, that the master should reward only him who sees and commands, and should cast out of his house him who wearied himself in the work? Surely not. How then shall the justice of God bear this? The soul and the body with sense of man serve God: the soul only sees and commands the service, because the soul, eating no bread, fasts not, [the soul] walks not, feels not cold and heat, falls not sick, and is not slain, because the soul is immortal: it suffers not any of those corporal pains which the body suffers at the instance of the elements. Is it, then, just, I say, that the soul alone should go into paradise, and not the body, which has wearied itself so much in serving God?"
5. Peter answered: "O master, the body, having caused the soul to sin, ought not to be placed in paradise. Jesus answered: "Now how shall the body sin without the soul? Assuredly it is impossible. Therefore, in taking away God's mercy from the body, you condemns the soul to hell."
174. 1. As God lives, in whose presence my soul stands, our God promises his mercy to the sinner, saying: "In that hour that the sinner shall lament his sin, by myself, I will not remember his iniquities for ever." Now what should eat the meats of paradise, if the body go not thither? The soul? Surely not, seeing it is spirit."
2. Peter answered: "So then, the blessed shall eat in paradise;; but how shall the meat be voided without uncleanness?" Jesus answered: "Now what blessedness shall the body have if it eat not nor drink? Assuredly it is fitting to give glory in proportion to the thing glorified. But you err, Peter, in thinking that such meat should be voided in uncleanness, because this body at the present time eats corruptible meats, and thus it is that putrefaction comes forth: but in paradise the body shall be incorruptible, impassible, and immoral, and free from every misery; and the meats, which are without any defect, shall not generate any putrefaction.
175. 1. God says this in Isaiah the prophet, pouring contempt on the reprobate: My servants shall sit at my table in my house and shall feast joyfully, with gladness and with the sound of harps and organs, and I will not suffer them to have need of anything. But you that are my enemies shall be cast away from me, where you shall die in misery, while every servant of mine despises you.
176. 1. 'To what does it serve to say, "They shall feast"?' said Jesus to his disciples. 'Surely God speaks plain. But to what purpose are the four rivers of precious liquor in paradise, with so many fruits? Assuredly, God eats not;, the angels eat not, the soul eats not, the sense eats not, but rather the flesh, which is our body. Wherefore the glory of paradise is for the body the meats, and for the soul and the sense God and the conversation of angels and blessed spirits. That glory shall be better revealed by the Messenger; of God, who (seeing God has created all things for love of him) knows all things better than any other creature.'
2. Said Bartholomew;: 'O master, shall the glory of paradise be equal for every man? If it be equal, it shall not be just, and if it be not equal the lesser will envy the greater.' Jesus answered: 'It will not be equal, for that God is just; and everyone shall be content, because there is no envy there. Tell me, Bartholomew: there is a master who has many servants, and he clothes all of those his servants in the same cloth. Do then the boys, who are clothed in the garments of boys, mourn because they have not the apparel of grown men? Surely, on the contrary, if the elders desired to put on them their larger garments they would be wroth, because, the garments not being of their size, they would think themselves mocked. Now, Bartholomew, lift your heart to God in paradise, and you shall see that all one glory, although it shall be more to one and less to another, shall not produce ought of envy.'
The Sun, the Moon & the Stars
177. 1. Then said he who writes : "O master, has paradise light from the sun as this world has?" Jesus answered: 'Thus has God said to me, O Barnabas: 'The world wherein you men that are sinners dwell has the sun and the moon and the stars that adorn it, for your benefit and your gladness; for this have I created.
2. Think you, then, that the house where my faithful dwell shall not be better? Assuredly, you err, so thinking: for I, your God, am the sun of paradise;, and my Messenger ;is the moon ;who from me receives all; and the stars are my prophets which have preached to you my will. Wherefore my faithful, even as they received my word from my prophets [here] , shall in like manner obtain delight and gladness through them in the paradise of my delights."
178. 1. 'And let this suffice you,' said Jesus, 'for the knowledge of paradise.' Whereupon Bartholomew said again: 'O master, have patience with me if I ask you one word.' Jesus answered: 'Say that which you desire.' Said Bartholomew: 'Paradise is surely great: for, seeing there be in it such great goods, it needs must be great.' Jesus answered: 'Paradise is so great that no man can measure it. Truly I say to you that the heavens are nine, among which are set the planets;, that are distant one from another five hundred years' journey for a man: and the earth in like manner is distant from the first heaven five hundred years' journey.
2. But stop you at the measuring of the first heaven, which is by so much greater than the whole earth as the whole earth is greater than a grain of sand. So also the second heaven is greater than the first, and the third than the second, and so on, up to the last heaven, each one is likewise greater than the next. And truly I say to you that paradise is greater than all the earth and all the heavens [together], even as all the earth is greater than a grain of sand.' Then said Peter: 'O master, paradise must needs be greater than God, because God is seen within it.' Jesus answered: 'Hold your peace, Peter, for you unwittingly blaspheme.'
Gabriel Shows Jesus the Inscribed Mirror
179. 1. Then the angel Gabriel came to Jesus and showed him a mirror shining like the sun, in which he beheld these words written: As I live eternally, even as paradise is greater than all the heavens and the earth, and as the whole earth is greater than a grain of sand, even so am I greater than paradise; and as many times more as the sea has grains of sand, as there are drops of water upon the sea, as there are [blades of] grass upon the ground, as there are leaves upon the trees, as there are skins upon the beasts; and as many times more as the grains of sand that would go to fill the heavens and paradise and more.'
2. Then Jesus said: "Let us do reverence to our God, who is blessed for evermore." They bowed their heads a hundred times and prostrated themselves to earth upon their face in prayer. When the prayer was done, Jesus called Peter and told him and all the disciples what he had seen. And to Peter he said: "Your soul, which is greater than all the earth, sees through one eye the sun which is a thousand times greater than all the earth." "It is true," said Peter. Then Jesus said: "Even so, through [the eye of] paradise, shall you see God our Creator." And having said this, Jesus gave thanks to God our Lord, praying for the House of Israel and for the holy city. And everyone answered: "So be it, Lord."
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