Hymn XX.
1. O virgin-youth that art become
bridegroom, move to a little jealousy thy mind, towards her who is the
wife of thy youth: cut off the attachments which she had, in her
girlhood with many others; rebuke her and call together her affections,
that she may know what she is and whose she is. In thee may she
desire yea love, Christ the Bridegroom of truth.
R., Blessed
be He Who betrothes her to His Only Begotten!
2. Be jealous O husbandman against the
tares, which have sprung up and entangled themselves among the
wheat. Easy is it to root up the thicket, rather than the
despised: if a slight breeze bears it, it attacks the sowing and
conquers it. That which three husbandmen have sown, may it return
in threefold measure! thirty-fold and sixty and an hundred!
R., Blessed be He Who makes rich thine increase!
3. A new shepherd for him it is right, that
he should oversee the flock in new wise, and should know what is the
number of it, and should see what are its needs. A flock it is
that was purchased with the blood, of that chief of the
shepherds. Call thou and cause to pass each sheep by its name,
for it is a flock whereof the name is written, and its reckoning in the
Book of life.
R., Blessed be He Who will require the number
thereof!
4. Lo the spouse of thy Lord is with thee!
keep her from all harm, and from men that deal corruptly, and call the
congregations by their own names. The name of her spouse is set
on her; let her not go a whoring for another name, for she was not
baptized in the name of man; with Names wherein she was baptized let
her make confession, of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit.
R., Blessed be He by Whose Name she is
called!
5. The Apostle her betrother was jealous
over her, that she should not be corrupted by names, yet not by names
that were false, but not even by names that were true; not by Cephas
yea not by his
name
. They who were true betrothers, set
the Name of her betrothed upon her; the false
betrothers
like
whoremongers, set their own names on the flock.
R., Glory be
to Thy Name, our Creator!
6. The stamp on living creatures, O my brethren,
no man destroys openly; and a
name that is signed to a letter, no man
adds to or alters: whoso effaces the stamp is a thief; and whoso
alters the name is a falsifier. The name of Christ has been
altered; names of falsehood lo! have been set, upon the congregations
that have been corrupted.
R., Blessed be He Who has called His
flock by His Name!
7. Look at the Prophets and Apostles, how
like they are each to the other! By the Prophets the Name of God,
was set on the flock of God; and by the Apostles the Name of Christ,
was set on the Church of Christ. The false
betrothers also
are like one another for by their names are called, the congregations
who commit whoredom with them.
R., Blessed be He in Whose Name
we were sanctified!