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THE EPISTLES OF CYPRIAM171 not M entrealed, who Himmis declares stat Ho is angry; they interposo that Christ may not be besought mist prayers
With contumelies and with abusive wotas the confessore and Virgins, and those righteous men Who are most eminent for thepresse of the salth, and most glorious in the church. By Which
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172THE EPISTLES OF CYPRIAM things, indeed, it is not so much the modesty and tho humi
medicine to heal us. Both of theso they have lost is offend-ing God, both becausa the grace is tost Which is received Domitio sanctification os baptism, and repentance comes not to
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or those placed without should return to the church, let communion be offered to those Who are not in communion Τ
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174THE EPISTLES OF CYPRIAM persist in their Wichednem; or, it they are displeased andreueat, they know Whither they may retum. For, as it hasbeen decreed by ali of nd is inualty fair and jus that the case of every one Ahould be heard there Whors tho crime has been committia; and a portion of tho floch hasbeen assigned in each individual pastor, Which ho is to resoand govem, haring to gius account of his doing to tho Lord;
it certainly behoves those over Whom me are placed not tornn about nor in breah up the harmonious agreement of thebishops with thela crasty and deceitful rasiness, but there toplead their cause, Where they may be able is havs both accusere and Witnesses of their crinis; unless perchance thoanthori of the bis iops constituted in Africa sesms to a se. desperate and abandonia men to M too litus, Who have Hready judged concerning them, and have lately condemned, by thogravi of their judgment, their conscience bound in many bonds of sins. Already their case has been examined, Hready sentence concerning them has been pronouncia; nor is it fit-
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coived at an except With offence and rish is a great many. For neither must somo putridities be so collected and brouot together, that the paris Which are mund and whole should bo injured; nor is that pastor service te or Wise Who so minglesino dissased and affected shoep With his floch as to coni minate tho wholo floch with tho infection of the clinongerit. No not pay attention to their number. For one Who fears God is bellis than a thousand implous fons, as the Lord
brother, bo Mith us here When those evil and perverse men turn from schism, you Would see What labour is mino in persuade patience to our brethren, that they should calmtheir gries of mind, and consent to receive and heal tho iched. For as they rejoice and are glad When those Whoare endurabie and lem Milty return, so, on the oster hand, they murmur and are dissatisfied as osten as the incorrigibio and violent, and those Who are contaminated either by adulteries or by sacrifices, and who, in addition to this, aroproud besides, so return to the church, as to corrupi the good
dispositions within it. Scareely do I persuado the peoplo; nan I extori it iram them, that thoy should suffer such to boadmittod. And the nies of the fraternity is mado the more just, fram the faci that one and another Who, notwithstanding the opposition and contradiction of the people, have been received by my facili , have proved morse than they hadbeen betare, and havo not been abis to ksep tho faith of their
sent is Fortunatus the pseud bishop, bringing to you lettersas falso as he himseli is false, whoso letters they bring, as his conscienco is fuit os sius, as his life is execrabie, as it is disgracesul; so that, even ii they Wero in the church, such
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siain; he cannot be conquered. Zacharias, God's pries suggesis and furnishes to us examples of courage and faith, Who, When he could not be terrified with threais and stonium Was flain in the temple of God, at the fame time crying out
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madmen are greater than the judgments of priesis; or conceive that human endeavours can do more to attach, than divine protection avalis to defend.
18. Is the dignity of the catholic church, dearest brother, to bo laid aside, is tho faithsul and uncorrupted majesty of the peopte placed Within it, and tho priestly authority and
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that you alWays read my letters to the very distinguished clemyWho preside With you there, and to 3οur Very holy and largo congregation, yet noW Ι both warn and ask you to do by my request What at other times you do of your oWn accordand courtesy ; that so, by the reading of this my letter,it any contagion os en venomed speech and of pestilent propagation has crepi in there, it may be ali purged out of thoears and of the hearis of the brethren, and the found and sincere affection of the good may bo cieansed meW from alitho filth os heretical disparagement.
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decline, and avoid the words and conversations of thoso Whose Word creeps onWards lihe a cancer; as the apostle svs, Evil communications corrupi good manners. y And again: Α man stat is an heretic, after one admonition, rejeci;
knowing that ho that is such is subverted, and sinneth, beingcondemned of himself.' d the Ηoly Spirit speari is Solomon, saying, A perverse man carrieth perdition in his mouth; and in his lips he hideth a fire.' ' Also again, ho
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180 THE EPISTLES OF CORIAM them M rejected. I bid Du, dearest brother, ever heartily
inducementa readily to undergo martyrdom. Hence area gested illustrations of good men fram the beginning of
the worta who have si ered martyrdom, especialis that which surpasses ali Mamples, the pa8sion of Our Loia. What an inellement is assorded to the enduranee Os mam riam by the brave and ready enduring of the contesta of the stadium and the thea tre. Finalty, let the rei ard
is tho stato of things and the condition of tho times pedimittod, in conformity With What you frequently destred myself to come to Fou ; and being present With you, then tostrongilien tho brotherhood missi sucii moderato powers of exhortation as I possess. But since I am dotained by suehninent affaire, that Ι have not the poWer to travel far fromthis place, and to be long absent from the peoplo over Whomis divino mercy I am placed, I have Written in the mea timo this leuer, to be to you in my stead. For as, by the condescension of the Lord instructing me, I am very osteninstigated and warned, I ought in bring unto your conscienceatio the anxiety of my Warning. For you ought in know andio bellove, and hold it for certain, that the day os amictionhas bemn in hang over our heads, and the end oecasum) of tho worid and the time of Antichrist in draW near, so that wemust ali stand prepared for the batile; nor consider authing