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Letter CCXIII.2804
Without address.
1. May the Lord,
Who has brought me prompt help in my afflictions, grant you the help of
the refreshment wherewith you have refreshed me by writing to me,
rewarding you for your consolation of my humble self with the real and
great gladness of the Spirit. For I was indeed downcast in soul
when I saw in a great multitude the almost brutish and unreasonable
insensibility of the people, and the inveterate and ineradicable
unsatisfactoriness of their leaders. But I saw your letter; I saw
the treasure of love which it contained; then I knew that He Who
ordains all our lives had made some sweet consolation shine on me in
the bitterness of my
life. I therefore salute your holiness in return, and exhort you,
as is my wont, not to cease to pray for my unhappy life, that I may
never, drowned in the unrealities of this world, forget God, “who
raiseth up the poor out of the dust;”2805
that I may never be lifted up with pride and fall into the condemnation
of the devil;2806
that I may never be
found by the Lord neglectful of my stewardship and asleep; never
discharging it amiss, and wounding the conscience of my
fellow-servants;2807
and, never
companying with the drunken, suffer the pains threatened in God’s
just judgment against wicked stewards. I beseech you, therefore,
in all your prayers to pray God that I may be watchful in all things;
that I may be no shame or disgrace to the name of Christ, in the
revelation of the secrets of my heart, in the great day of the
appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
2. Know then that I am expecting to be
summoned by the wickedness of the heretics to the court, in the name of
peace. Learn too that on being so informed, this
bishop2808
| 2808 Maran (Vit.
Bas. vi) conjectures this bishop to be Meletius, and
refers to the beginning of Letter ccxvi. with an expression
of astonishment that Tillemont should refer this letter to the year
373. | wrote to me to
hasten to Mesopotamia, and, after assembling together those who in
that country are of like sentiments with us, and are strengthening
the state of the Church, to travel in their company to the
emperor. But perhaps my health will not be good enough to
allow me to undertake a journey in the winter. Indeed,
hitherto I have not thought the matter pressing, unless you advise
it. I shall therefore await your counsel that my mind may be
made up. Lose no time then, I beg you, in making known to me,
by means of one of our trusty brethren, what course seems best to
the divinely guided intelligence of your
excellency.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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