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On the Ruin of Britain
St Gildas, tr. Williams, 1899
What severity therefore awaits those who not only do not do what ought to be fulfilled, …
What severity therefore awaits those who not only do not do what ought to be fulfilled, and turn not away from things prohibited, but even fly away from the very reading of God’s words1, even when slightly uttered in their ears, as if it were a serpent of the fiercest kind?
But let us pass on to the following words: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. We who died unto sin, how shall we any longer live therein? And after awhile: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? Shall anguish? Shall persecution? Shall famine? Shall nakedness? Shall peril? Shall sword? Who of you, may I ask, has been touched by such a feeling in the depth of your heart? You who, far from labouring to further godliness, do even suffer much in order to act unjustly and offend Christ. Or by what follows: The night is far spent, but the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light; let us walk honourably as in the day; not in revellings and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonnesses, not in strife and jealousy, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and have no care for the flesh in concupiscence.
Notes
- Sed etiam ipsam verborum Dei lectionem. These words mark the repugnance of one who loved the cloister life, in which the reading (lectio) of Scripture formed so important a part, against “secular” bishops who neglected it.