An explanation of the parables

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the command of the Lord, to lead thee on in this simple manner, than the enemy to the lady would believe it was her lover went on in that disguise with him, to bring the mysteries all to light. The one appears as simple to mankind as the other: and so my Death appeared simple to the JEWS referring to those who rejected Christ in the biblical era; they could not believe the Son of God would suffer such shame and reproach for man; and give up my Life to their malice in the end; my Gospel appears more foolish to them than thy Books of Parables can appear to mankind: but how could I bring men to my Gospel, and point out my Love to men, what I suffered for their sakes, to fulfil my Father’s will, and destroy the works of the devil, to bring men back to our likeness? All my sufferings, and all my life, appear to them weak and simple, not consistent with the wisdom and power of a God; but how could I convince men of the whole, if I did not come in the Spirit, in the same simple way, to mankind, and choose a weak foolish instrument to work by, that had no wisdom of her own to frustrate my designs, that all may be brought forward as simply as my Gospel appears to them? — And here, I tell thee, is the Hermit in Disguise, to see the wisdom of a God act in so simple a way with man: but where is the man that can any more look into the wisdom of a God, than ye can look into the fervent sun? Clouds I have told thee must cover the one, as its dazzling brightness in all its splendour is too strong for your eyes to look into; perfectly so are my ways and wisdom too dazzlingly bright for your understanding, which no man living could bear or understand, was I to appear in my full splendour of wisdom, without putting a veil between. Therefore all men will find the parable true, that my dealing with man is like the Hermit in Disguise, before I have destroyed my rival foe; then will the veil of the covering fall, and men will discern