27. Therefore go on, Saints
of God, boys and girls, males and females, unmarried men, and
women; go on and persevere unto the end. Praise more sweetly the
Lord, Whom ye think on more richly: hope more happily in Him, Whom
ye serve more instantly: love more ardently Him, whom ye please
more attentively. With loins girded, and lamps burning, wait for
the Lord, when He cometh from the marriage.20752075 Ye shall bring unto the marriage
of the Lamb a new song, which ye shall sing on your harps. Not
surely such as the whole earth singeth, unto which it is said,
“Sing unto the Lord a new song; sing unto the Lord, the whole
earth”20762076: but such
as no one shall be able to utter but you. For thus there saw you in
the Apocalypse a certain one20772077 beloved above others by the Lamb,
who had been wont to lie on His breast, and who used to drink in,
and burst20782078 forth, the
Word of God above wonders of heaven. He saw you twelve times twelve
thousand of holy harpers, of undefiled virginity in body, of
inviolate truth in heart; and he wrote of you, that ye follow the
Lamb whithersoever He shall go. Where think we that This Lamb
goeth, where no one either dares or is able to follow save you?
Where think we that He goeth? Into what glades and meadows? Where,
I think, the grass are joys; not vain joys of this world, lying
madnesses; nor joys such as shall be in the kingdom of God itself,
for the rest that are not virgins; but distinct from the portion of
joys of all the rest. Joy of the virgins of Christ, of Christ, in
Christ, with Christ, after Christ, through Christ, for Christ. The
joys peculiar to the virgins of Christ, are not the same as of such
as are not virgins, although of Christ. For there are to different
persons different joys, but to none such. Go (enter) into these,
follow the Lamb, because the Flesh of the Lamb also is assuredly
virgin. For this He retained in Himself when grown up, which He
took not away from His Mother by His conception and birth. Follow
Him, as ye deserve,20792079 in virginity of heart and flesh,
wheresoever He shall have gone. For what is it to follow, but to
imitate? Because “Christ hath suffered for us,”20802080 leaving us
an example, as saith the Apostle Peter, “that we should follow
His steps.” Him each one follows in that, wherein he imitates
Him: not so far forth as He is the only Son of God, by Whom all
things were made; but so far forth as, the Son of Man, He set forth
in Himself, what behoved for us to imitate. And many things in Him
are set forth for all to imitate: but virginity of the flesh not
for all; for they have not what to do in order to be virgins, in
whom it hath been already brought to pass that they be not
virgins.