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courae in these matters, me sor a long time, and indeed many of us, and, moreover, With some of the bishops who are nearto us and within rench, and somo Whom, placed alar Oft, thelieat of the persecution had driven out hom other provinces,
have thought that nothing neW was to bo done besors tho pol niment of a bishop; but Wo bellove that the caro of thel sed must be moderately dealt With, so that, in tho meantinae,
cause of such as are able to bear the delays of postponement
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92-E EPISTLES OF CYPRIAN What Way He mill examino the balance of His judment;
Cyprian to the presbyters and deacons, his brethren, greeting. That you, my beloved brethren, mi t know what letters I have sent in the clero acting at Rome, and Whatthey have replied in me, and, moreover, What Moyses and Maximus, the presbytera, and Rufinus and Nicostratus, thodeacons, and the rest of the consessors that With them arohept in prison, replied likeWise in my lettere, I havo sentyou copies in read. Do you take care, With as much diligenco as you can, that What I have written, and what they have replied, be made known to our brethren. And, momove ii any bishops iram soreim places, my colleagues, Or preM ter' or deacons, aliould be present, or should arrive amongyou, let them heis ali these mattera from you; and is in Wish to transcribe copies of tho letters and D take them totheir own people, let them have the opportunity of transcribing them ; although I have, moreover, bidden Saturus thoreader, our brother, to give liber of copying them to any individuals who Wish it; so that, in ordering, ior the present,
tho condition of the church in any manner, an agr-ment,one and salthiul, maybe observed by all. But about the oster matters which were to be deest with, as I have also Writtento severat os in collingues, we Wili more fully consider them
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1. Cyprian to the eidem and deacons, and to the wholerople, Meeting. In Ordinations os tho clero, beloved brethren, me usualty consult you beioreliand, and weigh thocharacter and deseris of individuals, with the generat advico. But human testimontes must not be matted for Whon the divine approvat precedes. Aurelius, our brother, an illu
trious youth, almady approVed by the Lord, and dear to God, in years stili Very yοung, but, in the presse of virtuo and of faith, advanced, nferior in the natural abilities of his age, but superior in the honour he has gainedJ,-has contendedhere in a doubie conflici, having twice confessed and twice been glorious in the victory of his consession, both when heconquered in the murae and was banished, and when at lennii he fought in a severer conflici, he was triumphant and vi torious in tho batile of suffering. As osten as the adVersarymished to cali fortii tho servants of God, so osten this promptand brave soldier both fought and conquer . It had been a stight matter, previousty to have engaged under the eyes ofa iam when he was banished; ho deseruod also in tho forum to engago mitti a more illustrious Viriue ; so that, after ove coming the magistrates, he might also triumph over the pr consul, and, aiter exile, mi t Vanquisii tortures also. Nor
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excellent in dignity and so lo ly in humili , that it scems
that he is divinely reserved as one Who fhould be an exampleto the rest for ecclesiastical discipline,-of the way in Whichtho servants of God should in consession conquer by theircourage, and, after consession, be conspicuous for their ch
2. Such an one, to be estimated not is his years but is his deseris, merited higher degrees of clerical ordination and largor increase. But, in the meantime, I judged it meli, thatho fhould begin with the ossice of reading; because nothingis more sultable sor the voice Whicli has confessed tho Lordin a glorious ulterance, than to found Him sortii in tho solemn repetition of the divine lessons,-than, after the sublimo mords Which spolie out the witness of Christ, to read the gospei of Christ Whence martyrs are made; to come totho desh after the scassold,-there to have been conspicuous
to the multitude of the Gentiles, here to be beheld by thobrethren,-there to have been heard with the wonder of tho
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TO THE CLERGY AND ΡΕOPLE, ABOUT THE ORDINATIONOF CELERINUS AS REA DER. AROUΜΕNT.-This letter is about the fame in purpore Uith the precedita, eaecept that he largeb commendε the constaneyos Celerinus in his confession of the faith. Moreone' thathoth of these letters were written duritis his retreat, is au eiently indicated by the very circumstances of the conteat.1. Cyprian to tho presbγters and deacons, and to the wholopeople, his brethren in the Lord, Meeting. The divino bonefita, beloved brethren, should be achnowledged and em-braced, WhereWith tho Lord has condescended to embellisliand illustrato His church in Our times by granting a respiteto His good confessors and Ηis glorious martyrs, that they whohad grandiy consessed Christ should aster ards adorn Chrises clergy in ecclesiastical ministrios. Exult, theresere, and r joice With me on receiving my letter, Wherein I and mycolleagues Who Were then present mention to Fou Celerinus, our brother, glorious althe for his courage and his character,as added to our clergy, not by human recommendation, butby divine condescension ; Who, When he hesitated to yiold tothe church, mas constrat ned by her own admonition and e hortation, in a vision by night, not to refuse our persuasions; and she had more pomer, and constrained him, becauso it Was not right, nor Was it becoming, that he should bo without ecclesiastical honour, Whom the Lord honoured With tho dip
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amount of Wounds, but triumphant by a miracle, mitti thetonyabiding and permanent penalties of a tedious conflict. For nineleen days, shut up in the close Mard os a dungeon, he was racked and in irons; but although his body was laidin chains, his spirit remained Deo and at liber . His fleshWasted a V by the long endurance of hunger and thirst; but God sed his foui, that lived in faith and virtve, Mithspiritual nourishmenta. He lay in punishmenta, the strongerior his punishmenis; imprisoned, greater than stose that imprisoned him; lying prostrate, but loliter stan those Whostood; as bouiad, and firmor than the links which bound him; judged, and more sublime than those who judged him; andalthough his Det were bound on the rach, yet tho serpent Was trodden on and ground down and vanquished. In his glorious body shine tho bright evidelices of his Wounds; their
brotherhood may bear of his viriues and of his pruises. And should any one appear liko Thomas, who has littio faith in What ho hears, tho faith of tho eyes is not Wanting, so
his parenis and relations in equat honoura os divine condescension. His grandmother, Celerina, Was somo time since crowned With martyrdom. Moreover, his paternat and maternat unctes, Laurentius and Egnatius, Who themselvesulso mere once Warring in the camps of the worid, but meretrue and spirituat soldiers of God, casting down the devit by
the confession os Christ, merited palma and crowns hom the Lord by their illustrious passion. We alWays offer sacrifices
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tion. Nor could he, theresore, be degenerate and interior si hom this fataly dignity and a generous nobility provohed, bydomestic examples of virtuo and faith. But is in a worldlytamily it is a matter of heraldry and of presse to bo a patri
brightens thela crown, so the sublimi of his ancestry illuminates his ψοπ.4. When this man, beloved brethren, came to us With such condescension of the Lord, illustrious by the testimony and wonder of the very man who had persecuted him, What elso belloved to bo done excepi that he should be placed on thedesh, that is, on the tribunal of the church; that, resting onthe lostiness of a higher station, and conspicuous to the wholopeoplo sor the brightness of his honour, he should read tho precepta and gospei of the Lord, whicli ho so bravely and faithiully followst Let the voice that has confessed the Lord datly bo heard in those things whicli the Lord spine. Lot it be foen Whether there is any surther degree to whicli hecan be advanced in tho church. There is nothing in Whicha consessor can do more good to the brethren than that,
one Who hoars should imitato the faith of tho reader. Heshould have been associaled with Aurelius in reading; With vhom, moreoVer, he was associaled in the alliance of divino
honour; mitti Whom, in ali the insignia os virtve and praise, ho had beon united. Equat both, and each like to the other, in proportion as they Were sublime in glo , in that proportionthey mero humbio in modesty. As they were litted up bydivine condescension, so they Were loWly in their oWn peac fulness and tranquillity, and equalty assording examples tomery one of virtves and character, and fitted both for conflici and for peace,-presse orthy in the former for strength, in the lauer for modes .
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5. In suta servanta the Lord rejoicos; in consessors of this End He glories,-Whose Way and conversation is so adva lageous to the anno cement of their glory, that it allotas toothere a reaching of discipline. For this p pose Christ has milled them in remain long here in the church; for this pu pose He has hept them sate, snalched from tho mitit of death, -a kind of resurrection, so in s ah, being Wrought on their hali; so that, While nothing is seen by the brothren lostior in hono , nothing more lowly in humili , the way of life of
it was fitting that the candie should be placed in a candie-stich, Whenm it may give light to all, and that their glorious countenances should bo established in a higher place, Where, beheld by ali the surrounding brotherhood, they may give an incitement of glory to the belloidors. But know that I havo Hready purposed the honour os the presbytery for them, that so they may be honoured mitti the fame presenta af tho presbytera, and may share the monthly divisions in equaliodquantities, in sit mitti us hereastor in their advanced and strengthened years; although in nothing can he seem to boinferior in the qualities of ago who has consummated his age
TO THE SAME, ABOUT THE ORDINATION OF NUMIDICUSAS PRESBYTER. GUMENT.-Cyprian telis the clamy and peopte inae Numiadisus has beem or ined by him presbyter; and brisimeommenda his isoria.
Cyprian to the presbyters and deacon' and to tho wholopeople, his brethren, very dear and longe&ior, greeting.
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mat whicli belων, dearest brethren, both to tho commonjoy and to the greatest glory Oi our church ought to bo toldio you; sor you must know that I have been admonishodand instructed by divine condescension, that Numidicus the presbyter Ahould be appotnted in the number of Carthaginianpresbyters, and should sit With us among the clerin,-a manillustrious by the brightest light os confession, exalted in thohonour both of virtus and of faith; who by his exhortation sent besore himself an abundant number os martyre,
this: that tho Lord might add him to our clero, and might adorn with glorious priesis the number of our presbyterastat had beon desolated by the lapso of some. And when God permira, he shali be advanced is a larger ossice in his region, When, by the Lord's protection, me have come into
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behoves me also, hoWever, to have regard to the common
care os the widou s, and of the sich, and of ali the poor. Mor OVer, Fou may supply the expenses sor strangera, ii any shouldbe indigent, froni my oWn portion, Whicli I have lost mitti Rogatianus, our felloΠ-presbyter; Which portion, test itshould bo ali approprialed, I have supplemented by sendingto the fame by Naricus the acolyte another aliare, so that the sufferers may be more largely and promptly dealt with. I bid you, beloved brethren, ever heartily fare eli; and havemo in remembrance. Greet yοur brotherii d in my name, and teli them to bo mindiui os me.