But now to return to the words of Jesus. He ended his discourse with warning. First he warned us to beware of the common saying, “Give judgment according to the greater number”; for he said that the path to destruction is broad, and many go thereby. He bade us also try teachers and prophets by their works. Last of all, he spake very earnestly against certain which pretended to obey him but obeyed him not. We were the salt of the earth, he said, but if we lost our savour, how could the world be salted, and to what end could we serve, but to be cast out and trampled under foot? Whoso heard him and obeyed him not, such an one he likened unto a foolish shepherd (and even as he spake, there was nigh, within a bow‐shot of us, a sheep‐cote that had been cast down by the swollen waters of the brook) which built his house upon the sand, so that it fell: but whoso heard and obeyed, he likened him unto a wise shepherd, which built his house upon a rock so that it fell not. This parable Jesus did not at this time interpret to us, but afterwards he made it clear. For even as the Psalmists of Israel spake often of a certain Rock of Salvation, even so was it afterwards a common saying with Jesus both that each citizen of the New Kingdom must build his house upon a Rock, and that the Kingdom itself must be founded on a Rock, so that the gates of Hades or Destruction should not prevail against it. Howbeit what this Rock might be, we did not as yet understand; for he had not at this time revealed it unto us. CHAPTER IX When Jesus had ended all these words, he came down from the mountain, and we followed, reasoning much among ourselves. Baruch spake first, complaining that the new Law was full of hard sayings. “For,” said he, “when the Prophet proclaimed a blessing on the poor and hungry, that was easy to understand, and I rejoiced thereat: but afterwards, when he bade us bless them that cursed us, and do good to those that injured us, yea, and turn the left cheek to him that had smitten us on the right, and give our coat to him that had taken away our cloak, then indeed his doctrine seemed too wonderful for the mind of man to fathom.” Then a certain Essene (who at that time followed with us) made answer and said, “This world is but as a vestibule before the world to come: therefore the Prophet’s intent is to instruct us how to prepare ourselves at the vestibule so that we may find grace to come into the King’s presence: and his words enjoin on us to abstain from all earthly cares and pleasures, and to withdraw ourselves from the cities of men.” But to this Simon Peter made answer that Jesus had taught us to live in the sight of all men, like a city on an hill or like a candle on a candlestick: moreover, he had promised that we should inherit the earth.