27. Therefore go on, Saints
of God, boys and girls, males and females, unmarried men, and
women; go on and persevere unto the end. Praise more sweetly the
Lord, Whom ye think on more richly: hope more happily in Him, Whom
ye serve more instantly: love more ardently Him, whom ye please
more attentively. With loins girded, and lamps burning, wait for
the Lord, when He cometh from the marriage.2075
Ye shall bring unto the
marriage
of the
Lamb a new
song, which ye shall
sing on your
harps. Not
surely such as the whole
earth singeth, unto which it is said,
“
Sing unto the
Lord a new
song;
sing unto the
Lord, the whole
earth”
2076
: but such
as no one shall be able to utter but you. For thus there saw you in
the
Apocalypse a certain one
2077
beloved above others by the
Lamb,
who had been wont to
lie on His
breast, and who used to drink in,
and
burst2078
forth, the
Word of
God above
wonders of
heaven. He saw you twelve times twelve
thousand of holy
harpers, of
undefiled virginity in body, of
inviolate
truth in
heart; and he wrote of you, that ye follow the
Lamb whithersoever He shall go. Where think we that This
Lamb
goeth, where no one either
dares or is able to follow
save you?
Where think we that He goeth? Into what glades and meadows? Where,
I think, the
grass are joys; not
vain joys of this
world,
lying
madnesses; nor joys such as shall be in the
kingdom of
God itself,
for the
rest that are not
virgins; but distinct from the portion of
joys of all the
rest.
Joy of the
virgins of
Christ, of
Christ, in
Christ, with
Christ, after
Christ, through
Christ, for
Christ. The
joys
peculiar to the
virgins of
Christ, are not the same as of such
as are not
virgins, although of
Christ. For there are to different
persons different joys, but to none such. Go (enter) into these,
follow the
Lamb, because the
Flesh of the
Lamb also is assuredly
virgin. For this He retained in Himself when grown up, which He
took not away from His Mother by His conception and
birth. Follow
Him, as ye deserve,
2079
in
virginity of
heart and
flesh,
wheresoever He shall have gone. For what is it to follow, but to
imitate? Because “
Christ hath
suffered for us,”
2080
leaving us
an example, as saith the
Apostle Peter, “that we should follow
His steps.” Him each one follows in that, wherein he
imitates
Him: not so
far forth as He is the only Son of
God, by Whom all
things were made; but so
far forth as, the Son of Man, He set forth
in Himself, what behoved for us to
imitate. And many things in Him
are set forth for all to
imitate: but virginity of the flesh not
for all; for they have not what to do in order to be virgins, in
whom it hath been already brought to pass that they be not
virgins.
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