3. Behold the wealthy of this world shall consume away like smoke, and there shall be no memory of their past joys.
Yea, even while they are yet alive, they do not rest in them without bitterness, and weariness, and fear.
For from the self-same thing in which they delight they oftentimes receive the penalty of sorrow.
For it is but just that having inordinately sought and followed after pleasures, they should enjoy them not without shame and bitterness.
4. O how brief, how false, how inordinate, how base, are all those pleasures.
Yet so drunken and blind are men, that they understand it not: but like dumb beasts, for the poor enjoyment of this corruptible life, they incur the death of the soul.
Thou therefore, my son, "go not after thy lusts, but refrain thyself from thine appetites." "Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart."
5. For if thou desire true delight, and to be more plentifully comforted by Me; behold, in the contempt of all worldly things, and in the cutting off all base delights, shall be thy blessing, and abundant comfort shall be thine.
And the more thou withdraw thyself from all solace of creatures, so much the sweeter and so much the more consolation shalt thou find in Me.
But at the first, thou shalt not attain unto them, without some sadness, nor without a laborious conflict.
