considerate man, that hadst so much good in thy hands, and letst it be lost through thy own fault, why didst thou not finish thy building, seeing thou hadst so much aid for it? If we had been Christians we would have endeavoured to fly from the misery that now we are in. Oh, who deceived thee, and brought thee hither to us?"
iv. Finally, the soul shall be stripped naked of those moral and social virtues which it acquired in this life; it shall remain without prudence, or fortitude, or justice, or any other; [1] and if any knowledge be left it, that it got with its industry, it shall he to its greater pain, for not having purchased with it the science that might have redeemed it from all this misery. [2] In this manner shall be accomplished therein that dreadful sentence of holy Job: " His bread in his belly shall be turned into the gall of asps, the riches which he hath devoured he shall vomit out, and God shall draw them out of his belly." [3]
Colloquy. — O my soul, look that thou dost not willingly cast forth the riches of grace and charity that thou receivedst, for afterwards they will make thee of necessity cast forth faith, and the virtues that thou hast gained! And those sciences which now thou gainest with delight shall turn into the gall of asps to torment thee!
2. These are the principal fruits which I am to collect out of these considerations, endeavouring to trade with those talents that God has given me, lest at the reckoning-day God take them from me as from the slothful servant, [4] leaving me only those which, like asps and dragons, will most cruelly gnaw my heart, because I profited myself so ill with them.
