When the disciples were come they brought pine-cones, and by the will of God they found a good quantity of dates. So after the midday prayerthey ate with Jesus. Whereupon the apostles and disciples, seeing him that writeth of sad countenance, feared that Jesus needs must quickly depart from the world. Whereupon Jesus consoled them, saying: `Fear not, for my hour is not yet comethat I should depart from you. I shall abide with youstill for a little while. Therefore must I teach you now, in order that ye may go, as I have said, through all Israel to preach penitence; in order that God may have mercy upon the sin of Israel. Let every one therefore beware of sloth, and much morehe that doeth penance; because every tree that beareth not good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire.`There was a citizen who had a vineyard, and in the midst thereof had a garden, which had a fine fig-tree; whereon for three years when the owner came he found no fruit, and seeing every other treebare fruit there he said to his vinedresser: "Cut down this bad tree, for it cumbereth the ground."`The vinedresser answered: "Not so, my lord, for it is a beautiful tree."`"Hold thy peace," said the owner, "for I care not for useless beauties. Thou shouldest know that the palm and the balsam are nobler than the fig. But I had planted in the courtyard of my house a plant ofpalm and one of balsam, which I had surrounded with costly walls, but when these bare no fruit, but leaves which heaped themselves up and putrefied the ground in front of the house, I cause them both to be removed. And now shall I pardon a fig-tree far from the house, which cumbereth my garden andmy vineyard where every other tree beareth fruit? Assuredly I will not suffer it any longer."`Then said the vinedresser: "Lord, the soil is too rich. Wait, therefore, one year more, for I will prune the fig-plant's branches, and take away from it therichness of the soil, putting in poor soil with stones,and so shall it bear fruit."`The owner answered: "Now go and do so; for I willwait, and the fig-plant shall bear fruit." Understandye this parable?'The disciples answered: `No, Lord; therefore explain it to us.'

Jesus answered: `Verily I say unto you, the owner is God, and the vinedresser is his law. God, then, had in paradise the palm and the balsam; for Satan is the palm and the first man the balsam. Them did he cast out because they bare not fruit ofgood works, but uttered ungodly words that were the condemnation of many angels and many men. Now that God hath man in the world, in the midst of his creatures that serve God, all of them, according to his precept: and man, I say, bearing no fruit, God would cut him down and commit him to hell, seeing he pardoned not the angel and the firstman, punishing the angel eternally, and the man fora time. Whereupon the law of God saith that man hath too much good in this life, and so it is necessary that he should suffer tribulation and be deprived of earthly goods, in order that he may do good works. Therefore our God waiteth for man to be penitent. Verily I say unto you, that our God hath condemned man to work, so that, as said Job, the friend and prophet of God: "As the bird is born to fly and the fish to swim, even so is man born to work."`So also David our father, a prophet of God, saith:"Eating the labours of our hands we shall be blessed, and it shall be well with us."`Wherefore let every one work, according to his quality. Now tell me, if David our father and Solomon his son worked with their hands, what ought the sinner to do?'Said John: `Master, to work is a fitting thing, but this ought the poor to do.'Jesus answered: `Yea, for they cannot do otherwise. But knowest thou not that good, to be good, must be free from necessity? Thus the sun and the other planets are strengthened by the precepts of God so that they cannot do otherwise, wherefore they shall have no merit. Tell me, when God gave the precept to work, he said not: "A poorman shall live of the sweat of his face"? And Job did not say that: "As a bird is born to fly, so a poor man is born to work"? But God said to man:"In the sweat of thy countenance shalt thou eat bread," and Job that "Man is born to work." Therefore [only] he who is not man is free from thisprecept. Assuredly for no other reason are all things costly, but that there are a great multitude of idle folk: if these were to labour, some attending the ground and some at fishing the water, there would be the greatest plenty in the world. And of the lack thereof it will be necessary to render an account in the dreadful day of judgement.'