good, without carnal pleasure. And they are really brethren; inasmuch as, by reason of their elect creation, and their oneness of character, and the nature of their deeds, they do, and think, and speak the same holy and good works, in accordance with the sentiments with which the Lord wished them as elect to be inspired.
For faith shows itself in their making choice of the same things; and knowledge, in learning and thinking the same things; and hope, in desiring[1] the same things.
And if, through the necessity of life, he spend a small portion of time about his sustenance, he thinks himself defrauded, being diverted by business. Thus not even in dreams does he look on aught that is unsuitable to an elect man. For thoroughly[2] a stranger and sojourner in the whole of life is every such one, who, inhabiting the city, despises the things in the city which are admired by others, and lives in the city as in a desert, so that the place may not compel him, but his mode of life show him to be just.
This Gnostic, to speak compendiously, makes up for the absence of the apostles, by the rectitude of his life, the accuracy of his knowledge, by benefiting his relations, by "removing the mountains" of his neighbours, and putting away the irregularities of their soul. Although each of us is his[3][4] own vineyard and labourer.
He, too, while doing the most excellent things, wishes to elude the notice of men, persuading the Lord along with himself that he is living in accordance with the commandments, preferring these things from believing them to exist. "For where any one's mind is, there also is his treasure."[5]
He impoverishes himself, in order that he may never overlook a brother who has been brought into affliction, through
- ↑ ποθεῖν suggested by Lowth instead of ποιεῖν.
- ↑ ἀτεχνῶς adopted instead of ἀτέχνως of the text, and transferred to the beginning of this sentence from the close of the preceding, where it appears in the text.
- ↑ Matt. xxi. 21; Mark xi. 23; 1 Cor. xiii. 2, etc. etc.
- ↑ Or His, i.e. the Lord's.
- ↑ Referring to Matt. vi. 21.
