they might join House to House {Isa. v. 8.} and lay field to field. And now they have become great {Jer. v. 27.} and rich, and have waxed strong, because they have {Jer. ix. 3.} proceeded from Evil to Evil and have not known God. They were cast down when {Ps. lxxii. 18.} they were lifted up; they fell to the Earth before their Birth, and yet they say unto me: We are thy Friends. XIX HOW THE LADY POVERTY SORROWED OVER CERTAIN RELIGIOUS WHO WERE POOR IN THE WORLD, AND YET MORE PRONE THAN OTHERS TO SELF-INDULGENCE IN RELIGION In my Sorrow I sorrowed all the more over certain Religious who had been poor and contemptible in the World, and yet grew rich after they had come to me. And when they had waxed fat and gross {Deut. xxxii. 15.} beyond the rest, they spurned and derided me. They in the World were thought unworthy of Life, being destitute through Need and Hunger. Once they ate Grass and the Bark {Job xxx. 4.} of trees, they were disfigured {Job xxx. 31.} by their Calamity and Misery, and now they are not content with the Community Life, but separate themselves without shame, eating of special Meats. Their Example in this is hurtful to the rest, and, moreover, they aspire to Honour among the Disciples of Christ, who in this World were held most worthy of Contempt. They who often wanted for Barley-bread and Water, and were glad to lie under the Hedges, were the Sons of the Ignorant and Mean and Unknown, on a level with my own Wretchedness. Now they hate me and fly far from me, and are not ashamed to spit in my face. I have suffered Contumely and Terrors at their Hands, {Jer. xx. 10.} and those who were my Friends and stood by my side have insulted me. They grew ashamed of me, and cast me off all the more that they knew they had been enriched by my Favours, so much so that they even scorned to hear my Name. {Jer. iii. 22.} In my Sorrow I sorrowed and said unto them: Return, ye rebellious Children, and I will heal your Backslidings. Take heed and beware of {Luke xii. 15, and Ephes. v. 5.} Avarice, which is the Service of Idols, for the Avaricious Man shall not be satisfied with {Eccl. v. 9.} Silver. Call to Mind your former Days in which, being {Heb. x. 32.} illuminated, you endured a great Fight of Afflictions. Do not be of them who draw {Heb. x. 39.} back unto Perdition, but of them that believe to the Saving of the Soul. He who made void the Law of Moses died {Heb. x. 28.} without Mercy under two or three Witnesses. How much {Heb. x. 29.} more, think you, doth he deserve sorer Punishment, who hath trodden under Foot the Son of God, and hath accounted the Blood of the Covenant, by which he was sanctified, an unclean thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of Grace? Return, then, ye Transgressors, {Isa. xlvi. 8.} search your Hearts, for a Man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of Things which he possesseth.