the sick man, and told him to carry his couch, and go unto his house.3734 And so too He
said to the sick of the palsy whom He cured.3735 What is it to carry our couch? The pleasure
of our flesh. Where we lie in infirmity, is as it were our bed. But they who are cured master3736
and carry it, are not by this flesh mastered. So then, thou whole one, master the frailness of
thy flesh, that in the sign of the forty days’ fast from this world, thou mayest fulfill the
number forty, for that He hath made that sick man whole, “Who came not to destroy the
Law, but to fulfil.”
11. Having heard this, direct your heart to Godward. Do not deceive yourselves. Ask
yourselves then when it is well with you in the world ; then ask yourselves, whether ye love
the world, or whether ye love it not; learn to let it go before ye are let go yourselves. What
is to let it go? Not heartily to love it. Whilst there is yet something with thee which thou
must one day lose, and either in life or death let it go, it cannot be with thee always; whilst
I say it is yet with thee, loosen thy love; be prepared for the will of God, hang upon God.
Hold thee fast to Him, whom thou canst not lose against thy will, that if it chance thee to
lose these temporal things, thou mayest say, “The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away, as
it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done, blessed be the Name of the Lord.”3737 But if it chance,
and God so wills it, that the things thou hast be with thee even to the last: for thy detachment
from this life thou receivest the denarius, the fifty, and the perfection of blessedness cometh
to pass in thee, when thou shalt sing Hallelujah. Having these things which I have now
brought forward in your memory, may they avail to overthrowing your love of the world.
Evil is its friendship, deceitful, it makes a man the enemy of God. Soon, in one single
temptation, a man offendeth God, and becometh His enemy. Nay not then becometh His
enemy; but is then discovered to have been His enemy. For when he was loving and praising
Him, he was an enemy; but he neither knew it himself, nor did others. Temptation came,
the pulse is touched, and the fever discovered. So then brethren, the love of the world, and
the friendship of the world, make men the enemies of God. And it does not make good what
it promises, it is a liar, and deceiveth. Therefore men never cease hoping in this world, and
who attains to all he hopes for? But whereunto soever he attains, what he has attained to is
forthwith disesteemed by him. Other things begin to be desired, other fond things are hoped
for; and when they come, whatsoever it is that comes to thee, is disesteemed. Hold thee fast
then to God, for He can never be of light esteem, for nothing is more beautiful than He. For
for this cause are these things disesteemed, because they cannot stand, because they are not
what He is. For nought, O soul, sufficeth thee, save He who created thee. Whatsoever else
3734 John v. 8, 9.
3735 Mark ii. 9.
3736 Continent.
3737 Job i. 21, Sept.
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Again in John v. 2, etc., on the five porches, where lay a great multitude…