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NON-CANONICAL APOCALYPSES AND REVELATORY TREATISES
anxieties upon the Lord. Your mind has been wounded and you have grown old in your sorrows.” 4 “I also want to know, Lord, why she was seated in a chair.” “Because anyone who is weak sits in a chair out of weak ness, to support the weakness of the body. Now you have the meaning the first vision. (III, 12) “And in the second vision you saw her standing, and she had a younger face and was more cheerful than before, even though her skin and hair looked older. Listen,” he said, “to this parable as well. 2 Someone who is older and has al ready given up all hope because of his bodily weakness and poverty looks for ward to nothing except the last day of his life. Then suddenly an inheritance is left to him. And when he hears about it he rises up and in his excitement grows strong. No longer does he recline, but he stands and his spirit becomes rejuvenated even though it has been wasting away because of his daily life from before; and he no longer sits, but becomes manly.h You are like this as well, when you hear what the Lord has revealed to you. 3 For he showed you compassion and rejuvenated your spirits; and you laid your feebleness to the side and strength seized you and you were empowered with faith. And when the Lord saw your renewed strength he was glad. For this reason he showed you the building of the tower, just as he will show you other things as well, if you are at peace with one another from your whole heart.
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(III, 13) “But in the third vision you saw her younger and beautiful and cheerful, and her form was beautiful. 2 For it is as when some good news comes to a person who is grieving: im
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mediately he forgets his former griefs and thinks about nothing but the news he has heard. And he is strengthened from that time on to do what is good, and his spirit is rejuvenated because of the exciting news he has received. So also your spirits have been rejuvenated from seeing these good things. 3 And you saw her seated on a couch because that is a strong position, since the couch has four legs and stands firmly. For the world is also held firm through the four elements. 4 And so, those who fully repent will become new and firmly established— those who have repented from their whole heart. Now you have the revelation complete. No longer ask anything about it; if anything is still needed, it will be revealed to you.”
Vision Four (IV, 1) This is what I saw, brothers, twenty days after the earlier vi sion, as a foreshadowing of the coming affliction. 2 I was going into the country on the Via Campania. This is just over a mile off the public road; the place is easily reached. 3 While walking alone, I was asking the Lord to complete the revelations and visions he had shown me through his holy church, that he might strengthen me and give repentance to his slaves who had stumbled, so that his great and glo rious name might be glorified, since he had considered me worthy to see his mar velous acts. 4 And while I was giving him glory and thanks, something like the sound of
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h
Or: courageous