Page:TheParadiseOfTheChristianSoul.djvu/708

This page needs to be proofread.

Our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we wait for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ; who will reform the body of our lowness, made like the body of his glory.

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief.

He that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved.

Be thou faithful until death, and I will give thee the crown of life.

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unjust man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he is bountiful to forgive. For my thoughts, ate not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways. For as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so are my ways exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts.

Is it my will that a sinner should die, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? Be converted and do penance for all your iniquities; and iniquity shall not be your ruin. For I desire not the death of him that dies, says the Lord God, return ye, and live.

As I live, says the Lord God, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.' Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways. And why will you die, O House of Israel?

The Lord is compassionate and merciful, long-suffering and plenteous in mercy. As a father has compassion on his children, so has the Lord compassion on them that fear him: for he knows our frame.

The Lord is sweet to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. The Lord lifts up all that fall, and sets up all that are cast down.

The Pharisees said to the disciples of Jesus: Why does your master eat with publicans and sinners? But Jesus hearing it, said: They that are in health need not a physician, but they that are sick. For I am not come to call the just, but sinners.

Come to me, all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you, and you shall find rest to your souls.

I am the good Shepherd, and I know my sheep, and mine know me; as the Fa-