am the messenger of repentance, whoever of you are innocent as children,396 because your part is good, and honourable before God. Moreover, I say to you all, who have received the seal of the Son of God, be clothed with simplicity, and be not mindful of offences, nor remain in wickedness. Lay aside, therefore, the recollection of your offences and bitternesses, and you will be formed in one spirit. And heal and take away from you those wicked schisms, that if the Lord of the flocks come, He may rejoice concerning you. And He will rejoice, if He find all things sound, and none of you shall perish. But if He find any one of these sheep 54 strayed, woe to the shepherds! And if the shepherds themselves have strayed, what answer will they give Him for their flocks?397 Will they perchance say that they were harassed by their flocks? They will not be believed, for the thing is incredible that a shepherd could suffer from his flock; rather will he be punished on account of his falsehood. And I myself am a shepherd, and I am under a most stringent necessity of rendering an account of you. Chap. XXXII. “Heal yourselves, therefore, while the tower is still building. The Lord dwells in men that love peace, because He loved peace; but from the contentious and the utterly wicked He is far distant. Restore to Him, therefore, a spirit sound as ye received it. For when you have given to a fuller a new garment, and desire to receive it back entire at the end, if, then, the fuller return you a torn garment, will you take it from him, and not rather be angry, and abuse him, saying, ‘I gave you a garment that was entire: why have you rent it, and made it useless, so that it can be of no use on account of the rent which you have made in it?’ Would you not say all this to the fuller about the rent which you found in your garment? If, therefore, you grieve about your garment, and complain because you have not received it entire, what do you think the Lord will do to you, who gave you a sound spirit, which you have rendered altogether useless, so that it can be of no service to its possessor? for its use began to be un- profitable, seeing it was corrupted by you. Will not the Lord, therefore, because of this conduct of yours regarding His Spirit, act in the same way, and deliver you over to death? Assuredly, I say, he will do the same to all those whom He shall find retaining a recollection of offences.398 Do not trample His mercy under foot, He says, but rather honour Him, be- cause He is so patient with your sins, and is not as ye are. Repent, for it is useful to you.” Chap. XXXIII. “All these things which are written above, I, the Shepherd, the messenger of repentance, have showed and spoken to the servants of God.399 If therefore ye believe, and listen to my words, and walk in them, and amend your ways, you shall have it in your power to live: but 396 Matt. xviii. 3, xix. 14. 397 [Jer. xiii. 20; Zech. xi. 15–17.] 398 [Jas. v. 9. Who can fail to feel the searching spirit of the gospel here? Matt. v. 23, 24, vi. 14.] 399 Servants of God. Servant of the Lord.—Æth. 107 Similitude Ninth. The Great Mysteries in the Building of the Militant…