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| To the magistrates of Nicopolis.
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Letter
CCXXX.2937
| 2937 Of the same
date as the preceding. |
To the magistrates of Nicopolis.
The government of the Churches
is carried on by those to whom the chief offices in them have been
entrusted, but their hands are strengthened by the laity. The
measures which lay with the God-beloved bishops have been taken.
The rest concerns you, if you deign to accord a hearty reception to the
bishop who has been given you, and to make a vigorous resistance to
attacks from outside. For nothing is so likely to cause
discouragement to all, whether rulers or the rest who envy your
peaceful position, as agreement in affection to the appointed bishop,
and firmness in maintaining your ground. They are
likely to despair of
every evil attempt, if they see that their counsels are accepted
neither by clergy nor by laity. Bring it about then that
your own sentiments as to the right2938
| 2938 τοῦ
καλοῦ, or “the good
man:” i.e. Euphronius. | may be shared by all the city, and so
speak to the citizens, and to all the inhabitants of the
district, in confirmation of their good sentiments, that the
genuineness of your love to God may be everywhere known. I
trust that it may be permitted me one day to visit and inspect a
Church which is the nursing mother of true religion, honoured by
me as a metropolis of orthodoxy, because it has from of old been
under the government of men right honourable and the elect of
God, who have held fast to “the faithful word as we have
been taught.”2939
| 2939
Tit. i. 9. cf.
1 Tim. i. 15; 1 Tim. iii. 1; 2 Tim. ii.
11; and Tit. iii. 8. | You
have approved him who has just been appointed as worthy of these
predecessors, and I have agreed. May you be preserved by
God’s grace. May He scatter the evil counsels of our
enemies, and fix in your souls strength and constancy to preserve
what has been rightly determined on.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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