alks in
the simplicity of obedience is not enslaved to his passion. Use one
eucharist: for the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ is one, and the cup is
one in the unity of his blood. There is one altar, as there is one
bishop, with the college of the priesthood and the deacons, my
fellow-servants, that you may do all things according to God. My
brethren, my heart is exceedingly dilated in the tender love which I
bear you, and exulting beyond bounds, I render you secure and cautious;
not I indeed, but Jesus Christ, in whom being bound I fear the more for
myself, being yet imperfect. But your prayer with God will make me
perfect, that I may obtain the portion which his mercy assigns me."
Having cautioned them against adopting Jewish ceremonies, and against
divisions and schisms, he mentions one that had lately happened among
them, and speaks of a revelation which he had received of it as follows:
"When I was among you, I cried out with a loud voice, with the voice of
God, saying: Hearken to your bishop, and the priesthood, and the
deacons. Some suspected that I said this from a foresight of the
division which some afterwards {333} made. But He for whom I am in
chains is my witness, that I knew it not from man, but the Spirit
declared it, saying: Do ye nothing without your bishop. Keep your body
holy as the temple of God. Be lovers of unity; shun all divisions. Be ye
imitators of Jesus Christ, as he is of the Father. I therefore did what
lay in me, as one framed to maintain union. Where disagreement or anger
is found, there God never dwells. But God forgives all penitents." He
charges them to send some person of honor from their church to
congratulate with his church in Syria upon peace being restored to it,
and calls him blessed who should be honored with this commission.
Footnotes:
1. The accent placed on the penultima of [Greek: Theophoros], as the
word is written in the saint's acts, denotes it of an active
signification, _one that carrieth God_; but of the passive, _carried
of God_, if placed on the antepenultima.
2. St. Gregory tells us, (l. 4, ep. 37,) that he was a disciple of St.
Peter. The apostolic constitutions add, also of St. Paul, (l. 7, c.
46.) We are assured by St. Chrysostom (Hom. in St. Ignat.) and
Theodoret, (Dial. 1, p. 33,) that he was made bishop by the
direction of the apostles, and by the imposition of their hands. St.
Chrysostom says, that St. Peter appointed him b
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