He answered me, and said, This present world is not the end; the full glory abides not therein: therefore have they who were able prayed for the weak. But the day of judgement shall be the end of this time, and the beginning of the immortality for to come, wherein corruption is passed away, Intemperance is at an end, infidelity is cut off, but righteousness is grown, and truth is sprung up. Then shall no man be able to have mercy on him that is cast in judgement, nor to thrust down him that has gotten the victory. I answered then and said, This is my first and last saying, that it had been better that the earth had not given you Adam: or else, when it had given him, to have restrained him from sinning. For what profit is it for all that are in this present time to live in heaviness, and after death to look for punishment? O you Adam, what have you done? For though it was you that sinned, the evil is not fallen on you alone, but upon all of us that come of you. For what profit is it unto us, if there be promised us an immortal time, whereas we have done the works that bring death? And that there is promised us an everlasting hope, whereas ourselves most miserably are become vain? And that there are reserved habitations of health and safety, whereas we have lived wickedly? And that the glory of the Most High shall defend them which have led a pure life, whereas we have walked in the most wicked ways of all? And that there shall be shown a paradise, whose fruit endures without decay, wherein is abundance and healing, but we shall not enter into it, For we have walked in unpleasant places? And that the faces of them which have used abstinence shall shine above the stars, whereas our faces shall be blacker than darkness? For while we lived and committed iniquity, we considered not what we should have to suffer after death. Then he answered and said, This is the condition of the battle, which man that is born upon the earth shall fight; That, if he be overcome, he shall suffer as you have said: but if he get the victory, he shall receive the thing that I say. For this is the way whereof Moses spoke unto the people while he lived, saying, Choose you life, that you may live. Nevertheless they believed not him, nor yet the prophets after him, no, nor me which have spoken unto them; So that there shall not be such heaviness in their destruction, as there shall be joy over them that are persuaded to salvation. I answered then and said, I know, Lord, that the Most High is now called merciful, in that he has mercy upon them which are not yet come into the world; And compassionate, in that he has compassion upon those that turn to his law; And longsuffering, for that he long suffers those that have sinned, as his creatures; And bountiful, for that he is ready to give rather than to exact; And of great mercy, for that he multiplies more and more mercies to them that are present, and that are past, and also to them which are to come; For if he multiplied not his mercies, the world would not continue with them that dwell therein; And one that forgives, for if he did not forgive of his goodness, that they which have committed iniquities might be eased of them, the ten thousandth part of men would not remain living; And a judge, for if he did not pardon them that were created by his word, and blot out the multitude of offences, There would peradventure be very few left in an innumerable multitude.
