GOD JUDGETH THE ASCETIC
.1. GOD said: There are such as shut themselves up in colleges (convents and nunneries), and such as retire to the forests, devoting their lives to prayers, confessions and rites and ceremonies, being most systematic in routine, and in being shut away from the Uzians.
2. And they allot certain ones as leaders and overseers, making themselves inquisitors over one another, in hope of purifying their thoughts and aspirations, constantly trapping one another for shortness, and, then, submitting to petty punishment and inflictions, hoping thereby to check evil thoughts, words and actions.
3. Judgment is rendered against all such people, be they mortals or angels.
4. For these are the methods of the imprisonment of mind. All such mortals are preparing themselves for the bondage of drujas on their entrance into the es world.
5. Yea, even in that same college (convent and nunnery), shall they be immured after death, by thousands of drujas who inhabit the place, who profess to have some scheme of projected salvation.
6. All such people are the manifestation of darkness instead of light. Jehovih created man with capacity for developing talent to do good unto others.
7. Now, behold, these ascetics labor for themselves in these foolish proceedings; they do not these things in order to meliorate the condition of their neighbors. Neither have they shown, in a single instance, where a benefit resulted to the state in consequence of their practices.
8. They call their initiations sacred, but I declare unto thee, they are a blasphemy against Jehovih. They are as a snare for the imprisonment of the mind and the soul.
9. And, after death, these people are prevented by their drujan masters from entering heavenly places of resurrection, becoming, instead, slaves in the es world, to pursue such calling and practice as may be put upon them.
10. For the same rule holdeth on earth and in heaven, as regardeth the bondage of the mind. If, by imposing rites and ceremonies, and by the strategems and cunning of mortal priests, they can be captured on earth, even so can they be retained in bondage in heaven.
11. And it happeneth with them, that even as they honestly believe they are right on earth, so will they persist they are right in heaven, even willingly submitting to cruelty and to torture, in order to prove their fidelity.
12. Be considerate, O man, of the words of thy God: He, who created p. 780 thee, gave to thee one star of light whereby thou mayst determine truth and wisdom.
13. Whatever doctrine showeth self as the chief consideration, even if it be for obtaining wisdom or supposed purity for self sake, is not of Jehovih.
14. The aborigine, that roveth foolishly in the forest, standeth higher, therefore, before thy God, than doth the nun or the ascetic. For though the former liveth for self only, yet he is not bound in spirit.
15. In all things, thou shalt weigh the object and end aimed at, and the final result; and, wherein self standeth as a part, or whole consideration, know thou such matter is not of Jehovih, but of satan.
16. It is not sufficient for the apologist of satan to say: O we dwell in the colleges (nunneries and convents), in order to pray for Uzians.
17. But thou shalt weigh their prayers also, and thou shalt estimate the value thereof by what is accomplished. And thou shalt prove whether their prayers provided harvests of wheat and corn, and food and clothing for the poor, and education for the unlearned, or any other thing that was good.
18. Be thou not put off by the cunning of satan's words in the mouths of priests or popes; but look matters in the face, and be thou a God thyself in discerning things that meliorate the condition of man.