terrible and glorious name; whom all men fear, and tremble before thy power; for the majesty of thy glory cannot be born, and thine angry threatening towards sinners is insupportable; but thy merciful promise is unmeasurable and unsearchable; for thou art the most high Lord, of great compassion, long suffering, very merciful, and repentest of the evils of men. Thou, O Lord, according to thy great goodness, hast promised repentance and forgiveness to them that have sinned against thee; and of thine infinite mercy hast appointed repentance unto sinners, that they may be saved. Thou, therefore, O Lord, that art the God of the just, hast not appointed repentance to the just, as to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, which have not sinned against thee; but thou hast appointed repentance unto me that am a sinner; for I have sinned above the number of the sands of the sea. My transgressions, O Lord, are multiplied, my transgressions are multiplied, and I am not worthy to behold and see the height of heaven, for the multitude of mine iniquity. I am bowed down with many iron bands, that I cannot lift up my head, neither have any release; for I have provoked thy wrath, and done evil before thee. I did not thy will, neither kept I thy commandments: I have set up abominations, and have multiplied offences. Now therefore I bow the knee of mine heart, beseeching thee of grace: I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and I acknowledge mine iniquities; wherefore I humbly beseech thee forgive me, O Lord; forgive me, and destroy me not with mine iniquities. Be not angry with me for ever, by reserving evil for me; neither condemn me into the lower part of the earth. For thou art the God, even the God of them that repent, and in me thou wilt shew all thy goodness; for thou wilt save me that am unworthy, according to thy great mercy. Therefore I will praise thee for ever all the days of my life; for all the powers of the heavens do praise thee, and thine is the glory for ever and ever, Amen. And the Lord heard his voice, and had compassion upon him; and there appeared a flame of fire about him, and all the iron shackles and chains which were about him fell off; and the Lord healed Manasseh from his affliction, and brought him back to Jerusalem unto his kingdom; and Manasseh knew that the Lord, he is God alone. And he worshipped the Lord God alone, with all his heart and with all his soul, all the days of his life, and he was esteemed righteous; and he took away the strange gods, and the graven image out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars which he had built in the house of the Lord, and all the altars in Jerusalem, and he cast them out of the city. And he repaired the altar of the Lord, and sacrificed thereon peace-offerings, and thank-offerings. And he spake to Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. And he slept in peace with his fathers, and Amon his son reigned in his stead. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all things that Manasseh his father had done in the former part of his reign. And he provoked the Lord his God to anger.

Ye have heard, our beloved children, how the Lord God for awhile punished him that was addicted to idols, and had slain many innocent persons; and that yet he received him when he repented and

forgave him his offences and restored him to his kingdom. For he not only forgives the penitent, but reinstates them in their former dignity. CHAP. XXIII. There is no sin more grievous than idolatry, for it is an impiety against God; and yet even this sin has been forgiven upon sincere repentance. But if any one sin in direct opposition, and on purpose to try whether God will punish the wicked or not, such an one shall have no remission, although he say with himself—All is well, and I will walk according to the conversation of my evil heart. Such an one was Amon, the son of Massaneh. For the scripture says, “ And Amon reasoned an evil reasoning of transgression, and said, My father from his childhood was a great transgressor, and repented in his old age; and now I will walk as my soul lusteth, and afterwards I will return unto the Lord. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, above all that were before him. And the Lord God soon destroyed him utterly from his good land. And his servants conspired against him, and slew him in his own house, and he reigned two years only.

CHAP. XXIV. Take heed, therefore, ye of the laity, lest any one of you fix the reasoning of Amon in your heart, and be suddenly cut off and perish. In the same manner, let the bishop take all the care he can that those which are yet innocent may not fall into sin; and let him heal and receive those which turn from their sins. But if he is pitiless, and will not receive the repenting sinner, he will sin against the Lord his God, pretending to be more just than God's justice, and not receiving him whom he has received through Christ; for whose sake he sent his son upon earth to men as a man; for whose sake God was pleased that he who was the maker of man and woman, should be born of a woman; for whose sake he did not spare him from the cross, from death, and burial; but permitted him to die, who by nature could not suffer; his beloved son, God the word, the angel of his great council, that he might deliver those from death who were obnoxious to death. Him do those provoke to anger who do not receive the penitent. For he was not ashamed of me, Matthew, who had been formerly a publican; and admitted of Peter when he had, through fear, denied him three times, but had appeased him by repentance, and had wept bitterly; nay, he made him a shepherd to his own lambs. Moreover, he ordained Paul, our fellow-apostle, to be of a persecutor, an apostle, and declared him a chosen vessel, even when he had heaped many mischiefs upon us before, and had blasphemed his sacred name. He says also to another, a woman that was a sinner, "Thy sins, which are many, are forgiven, for thou lovedst much." And when the elders had set another woman which had sinned before him, and had left the sentence to him, and were gone out, our Lord, the searcher of hearts, enquiring of her whether the elders had condemned her, and being answered "No," he said unto her, "Go thy way, therefore, for neither do I condemn thee." This Jesus, O ye bishops, our saviour, our king, and our God, ought to be set before you as your pattern, and him you ought to imitate in being meek, quiet, compassionate, merciful, peaceable, without passion, apt to teach and diligent to convert, willing to receive and to comfort; not

strikers, not soon angry, not injurious, not arrogant, not supercilious, not wine bibbers, not drunkards, not vainly expensive, not lovers of delicacies, not extravagant, using the gifts of God not as another's but as their own, as good stewards appointed over them, as those who will be required by God to give an account of the same. Let the bishop esteem such food and raiment sufficient as suits necessity and decency. Let him not make use of the Lord's goods as another's, but moderately, " For the labourer is worthy of his reward." Let him not be luxurious in diet, or fond of idle furniture, but contented with so much alone as is necessary for his sustenance.

CHAP. XXV. Let him use those tenths and first-fruits which are given according to the command of God, as a man of God; as as also let him dispense in a right manner the free-will offerings which are brought in on account of the poor, the orphans, the widows, the afflicted, and strangers in distress, as having that God for the examiner of his accounts who has committed the disposition to him. Distribute to all those in want with righteousness; and yourselves use the things which belong to the Lord, but do not abuse them; eating of them, but not eating them all up by yourselves; communicate with those that are in want, and thereby show yourselves unblameable before God. For if you shall consume them by yourselves you will be reproached by God, who says to such unsatiable people, who slone devour all," Ye eat up the milk, and clothe yourselves with the wool.' And in another passage, "Must you alone live upon the earth?" Upon which account you are commanded in the law, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Now we say these things, not as if you might not partake of the fruits of your labours, for it is written, "Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox which treadeth out the corn," but that you should do it with moderation and righteousness. As, therefore, the ox that labours in the threshing-floor without a muzzle eats indeed, but does not eat all up: So do you who labour in the threshing-floor, that is, in the church of God, eat of the church; which was also the case of the Levites, who served in the tabernacle of the testimony, which was in all things a type of the church: nay, farther, its very name implied that the tabernacle was fore-appointed for a testimony of the church. Here, therefore, the Levites also who attended upon the tabernacle partook of those things that were offered to God by all the people, namely, gifts, offerings, and first-fruits, and tithes, and sacrifices, and oblations, without disturbance, they, and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters: since their employment was the ministration to the tabernacle, therefore, they had not any lot or inheritance in the land among the children of Israel, because the oblations of the people were the lot of Levi, and the inheritance of their tribe. You, therefore, O bishops, are to your people priests and Levites, ministering to the holy tabernacle, the holy catholic church; who stand at the altar of the Lord your God, and offer to him reasonable and unbloody sacrifices, through Jesus, the great high priest. You are to the laity prophets, rulers, governors, and kings; the

mediators between God and his faithful people, who receive and declare his word, well acquainted with the scriptures; ye are the voice of God, and witnesses of his will, who bear the sins of all and intercede for all; whom, as you have heard, the word severely threatens if you hide the key of knowledge from men; who are liable to perdition if you do not declare his will to the people that are under you; who shall have a certain reward from God, and unspeakable honour and glory if you duly minister to the holy tabernacle. For as yours is the burder, so you receive as your fruit the supply of food and other necessaries. For you imitate Christ the Lord, and as he "bare the sins of us all upon the tree at his crucifixion, the innocent for those who deserved punishment, so also you ought to make the sins of the people your own. For concerning our saviour, it is said in Isaiah, "He bears our sins, and is afflicted for us." And again, "He bear the sins of many, and was delivered for our offences." As therefore, you are patterns for others, so have you Christ for your pattern. As, therefore, he is concerned for all, so be you for the laity under you: for do not thou imagine that the office of a bishop is an easy or light burden. As, therefore, you bear the weight, so have you a right to partake of the fruits before others, and to impart to those that are in want, as being to give an account to him, who, without bias, will examine your accounts for those who attend upon the church ought to be maintained by the church, as being priests, Levites, presidents and ministers of God. As it is written in the book of Numbers concerning the priests, "And the Lord said unto Aaron, Thou, and thy sons, and the house of thy family shall bear the iniquities of the holy things of your priesthood. Behold, I have given unto you the charge of the first-fruits: from all that are sanctified to me by the children of Israel, I have given them for a reward to thee, and to thy sons after thee, by an ordinance for ever. This shall be yours out of the holy things, out of the oblations, and out of the gifts, and out of all the sacrifices, and out of every trespassoffering, and sin offerings, and all that they render unto me out of all their holy things, they shall belong to thee and to thy sons. the sanctuary shall they eat them.'" And a little after, "All the first-fruits of the oil, and of the wine, and of the wheat, all which they shall give unto the Lord, to thee have I given them; and ail that is first ripe, to thee have I given it, and every devoted thing. Every first born of man and of beast, clean and unclean, and of sacrifice, with the breast, and the right shoulder, all these appertain to the priests, and to the rest of those belonging to them, even to the Levites.

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Hear this, you of the laity also, the elect church of God: for the people were formerly called "the people of God," and an holy nation." You therefore are the holy and sacred church of God, enrolled in heaven, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people," a bride adorned for the Lord God, a great church, a faithful church. Hear attentively now what was said formerly: oblations and tithes belong to Christ our high-priest, and to those who minister to him. Tenths of salvation are the first letter of the name

of Jesus. Hear, O thou holy catholic church, who hast escaped the ten plagues, and hast received the ten commandments, and hast learned the law, and hast kept the faith, and hast believed in Jesus, and art named after his name, and art established, and shinest in the consummation of his glory. Those which were then the sacrifices, now are prayers and intercessions, and thanksgivings. Those which were then first fruits, and tithes, and offerings, and gifts, now are oblations, which are presented by holy bishops to the Lord God, through Jesus Christ, who has died for them. For these are your high priests, as the presbyters are your priests, and your present deacons instead of your Levites; as are also your readers, your singers, your porters, your deaconesses, your widows, your virgins, and your orphans. But he who is above all these is the high-priest.

CHAP. XXVI. The bishop, he is the minister of the word, the keeper of knowledge, the mediator between God and you in the several parts of our divine worship: he is the teacher of piety, and next after God, he is your father, who has begotten you again to the adoption of sons by water and the spirit. He is your ruler and governor he is your king and potentate: he is next after God, your earthly God, who has a right to be honoured by you. For concerning him, and such as he, it is that God pronounces, "I have said ye are God's, and ye are all children of the most high." And "ye shall not speak evil of the gods:" for let the bishop preside over you as one honoured with the authority of God, which he is to exercise over the clergy, and by which he is to govern all the people. But let the deacon minister to him as Christ does to his father, and let him serve him unblameably in all things, as Christ does nothing of himself, but does always those things that please his father. Let also the deaconess be honoured by you in the place of the Holy Ghost; and do not do or say any thing without the deacon; as neither does the Comforter say or do anything of himself, but gives glory to Christ by waiting for his pleasure. And as we cannot believe on Christ without the teaching of the Spirit, so let not any woman address herself to the deacon or bishop without the deaconess. Let the presbyters be esteemed by you to represent us the apostles, and let them be the teachers of divine knowledge; since our Lord, when he sent us, said "Go ye, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." Let the widows and orphans be esteemed as representing the altar of burnt offering: and let the virgins be honoured as representing the altar of incense, and the incense itself.

CHAP. XXVII. As therefore it was not lawful for one of another tribe that was not a Levite, to offer anything, or to approach the altar without the priest, so also do you do nothing without the bishop for if any one does anything without the bishop, he does it to no purpose, for it will not be esteemed as of any avail to him. For as Saul when he had offered without Samuel, was told, "It will not avail for thee," so every person among the laity, doing

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