{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/206/2060133.htm","path":"chr/ecf/206/2060133.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/206/2060133.htm","text":"p. 225 Letter CXXII. To Rusticus.\nRusticus and Artemia his wife having made a vow of continence broke it. Artemia proceeded to Palestine to do penance for her sin and Rusticus promised to follow her. However he failed to do so, and Jerome was asked to write this letter in the hope that it might induce him to fulfil his promise. The date is about 408 a.d.\n1. I am induced to write to you, a stranger to a stranger, by the entreaties of that holy servant of Christ Hedibia 3114 and of my daughter in the faith Artemia, once your wife but now no longer your wife but your sister and fellow-servant. Not content with assuring her own salvation she has sought yours also, in former days at home and now in the holy places. She is anxious to emulate the thoughtfulness of the apostles Andrew and Philip; who after Christ had found them, desired in their turn to find, the one his brother Simon and the other his friend Nathanael. 3115 To the former of these it was said \u201cThou art Simon, the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas which is by interpretation a stone;\u201d 3116 while the latter, whose name Nathanael means the gift of God, was comforted by Christ\u2019s witness to him: \u201cbehold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile.\u201d 3117 So of old Lot 3118 desired to rescue his wife as well as his two daughters, and refusing to leave blazing Sodom and Gomorrah until he was himself half-on-fire, tried to lead forth one who was tied and bound by her past sins. But in her despair she lost her composure, and looking back became a monument of an unbelieving soul. 3119 Yet, as if to make up for the loss of a single woman, Lot\u2019s glowing faith set free the whole city of Zoar. In fact when he left the dark valleys in which Sodom lay and came to the mountains, the sun rose upon him as he entered Zoar or the little City; so-called because the little faith that Lot possessed, though unable to save greater places, was at least able to preserve smaller ones. For one who had gone so far astray as to live in Gomorrah could not all at once reach the noonland where Abraham, the friend of God, 3120 entertained God and His angels. 3121 (For it was in Egypt that Joseph fed his brothers, and when the bride speaks to the Bridegroom her cry is: \u201ctell me where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon.\u201d 3122 ) Good men have always sorrowed for the sins of others. Samuel of old lamented for Saul 3123 because he neglected to treat the ulcers of pride with the balm of penitence. And Paul wept for the Corinthians 3124 who refused to wash out with their tears the stains of fornication. For the same reason Ezekiel swallowed the book where were written within and without song, and lamentation and woe; 3125 the song in praise of the righteous, the lamentation over the penitent, and the woe for those of whom it is written, \u201cWhen the wicked man falleth into the depths of evil, then is he filled with scorn.\u201d 3126 It is to these that Isaiah alludes when he says: \u201cin that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldness and to girding with sackcloth: and behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen; and killing sheep, eating flesh\u201d and saying, \u201clet us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.\u201d 3127 Yet of such persons Ezekiel is bidden to speak thus: \u201cO thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live? Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live,\u201d and again, \u201cturn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?\u201d 3128 Nothing makes God so angry as when men from despair of better things cleave to those which are worse; and indeed this despair in itself is a sign of unbelief. One who despairs of salvation can have no expectation of a judgment to come. For if he dreaded such, he would by doing good works prepare to meet his Judge. Let us hear what God says through Jeremiah, \u201cwithhold thy foot from a rough way and thy throat from thirst\u201d 3129 and again \u201cshall they fall, and not arise? Shall he turn away, and not return?\u201d 3130 Let us hear also what God says by Isaiah: \u201cWhen thou shalt turn and bewail thyself, then shalt thou be saved, and then shalt thou know where thou hast hitherto been.\u201d 3131 We do not realize the miseries of sickness till returning health reveals them to us. So sins serve as a foil to the blessedness of virtue; and light shines more brightly when it is relieved against darkness. Ezekiel uses language like that of the other prophets because he is animated by a similar spirit. \u201cRepent,\u201d he cries, \u201cand turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord.\u201d 3132 Wherefore in a subsequent passage p. 226 he says: \u201cAs I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked: but that the wicked turn from his way and live.\u201d 3133 These words shew us that the mind must not through disbelief in the promised blessings give way to despair; and that the soul once marked out for perdition must not refuse to apply remedies on the ground that its wounds are past curing. Ezekiel describes God as swearing, that if we refuse to believe His promise in regard to our salvation we may at least believe His oath. It is with full confidence that the righteous man prays and says, \u201cTurn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease,\u201d 3134 and again, \u201cLord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled.\u201d 3135 He means to say, \u201cwhen I forsook the foulness of my faults for the beauty of virtue, God strengthened my weakness with His grace.\u201d Lo, I hear His promise: \u201cI will pursue mine enemies and overtake them: neither will I turn again till they are consumed,\u201d 3136 so that I who was once thine enemy and a fugitive from thee, shall be laid hold of by thine hand. Cease not from pursuing me till my wickedness is consumed, and I return to my old husband who will give me my wool and my flax, my oil and my fine flour and will feed me with the richest foods. 3137 He it was who hedged up and enclosed my evil ways 3138 that I might find Him the true way who says in the gospel, \u201cI am the way, the truth, and the life.\u201d 3139 Hear the words of the prophet: \u201cthey that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.\u201d 3140 Say also with him: \u201cAll the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears\u201d 3141 : and again, \u201cAs the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night,\u201d 3142 and in another place, \u201cO God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and weary land where no water is. So have I looked upon thee in the sanctuary.\u201d 3143 For although my soul has thirsted after thee, yet much more have I sought thee by the labour of my flesh and have not been able to look upon thee in thy sanctuary; not at any rate till I have first dwelt in a land barren of sin, where the weary wayfarer is no more assailed by the adversary, and where there are no pools or rivers of lust.\nThe Saviour also wept over the city of Jerusalem because its inhabitants had not repented; 3144 and Peter washed out his triple denial with bitter tears, 3145 thus fulfilling the words of the prophet: \u201crivers of waters run down mine eyes.\u201d 3146 Jeremiah too laments over his impenitent people, saying: \u201cOh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for\u2026my people!\u201d 3147 And farther on he gives a reason for his lamentation: \u201cweep ye not for the dead,\u201d he writes, \u201cneither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more.\u201d 3148 The Jew and the Gentile therefore are not to be bemoaned, for they have never been in the Church and have died once for all (it is of these that the Saviour says: \u201clet the dead bury their dead\u201d 3149 ); weep rather for those who by reason of their crimes and sins go away from the Church, and who suffering condemnation for their faults shall no more return to it. It is in this sense that the prophet speaks to ministers of the Church, calling them its walls and towers, and saying to each in turn, \u201cO wall, let tears run down.\u201d 3150 In this way, it is prophetically implied, you will fulfil the apostolic precept: \u201crejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep,\u201d 3151 and by your tears you will melt the hard hearts of sinners till they too weep; whereas, if they persist in evil doing they will find these words applied to them, \u201cI\u2026planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?\u201d 3152 and again \u201csaying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face.\u201d 3153 He means, they would not turn towards God in penitence; but in the hardness of their hearts turned their backs upon Him to insult Him. Wherefore also the Lord says to Jeremiah: \u201chast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? She is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot. And I said after she\u201d had played the harlot and \u201chad done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not.\u201d 3154\n2. How hard hearted we are and how merciful God is! who even after our many sins urges us to seek salvation. Yet not even so are we willing to turn to better things. Hear the words of the Lord: \u201cIf a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man\u2019s and shall afterwards desire to p. 227 return to him, will he at all receive her? Will he not loathe her rather? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers: yet return again to me, saith the Lord.\u201d In place of the last clause the true Hebrew text (which is not preserved in the Greek and Latin versions) gives the following: \u201cthou hast forsaken me, yet return, and I will receive thee, saith the Lord.\u201d 3155 Isaiah also speaking in the same sense uses almost the same words: \u201cReturn,\u201d he cries, \u201cO children of Israel, ye who think deep counsel and wicked. 3156 Return thou unto me and I will redeem thee. I am God, and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. 3157 Remember this and shew yourselves men: bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors. Return in heart and remember the former things of old: for I am God and there is none else.\u201d 3158 Joel also writes: \u201cturn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning: and rend your heart and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God; for he is gracious and merciful\u2026and repenteth him of the evil.\u201d 3159 How great His mercy is and how excessive\u2014if I may so say\u2014and unspeakable is His pitifulness, the prophet Hosea tells us when he speaks in the Lord\u2019s name: \u201chow shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger.\u201d 3160 David also says in a psalm: \u201cin death there is no remembrance of thee; in the grave who shall give thee thanks?\u201d 3161 and in another place: \u201cI acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.\u201d 3162\n3. Think how great that weeping must be which deserves to be compared to a flood of waters. Whosoever so weeps and says with the prophet Jeremiah \u201clet not the apple of mine eye cease\u201d 3163 shall straightway find the words fulfilled of him: \u201cmercy and truth are met together: righteousness and peace have kissed each other;\u201d 3164 so that, if righteousness and truth terrify him, mercy and peace may encourage him to seek salvation.\nThe whole repentance of a sinner is exhibited to us in the fifty-first 3165 psalm written by David after he had gone in unto Bathsheba the wife of Uriah the Hittite, 3166 and when, to the rebuke of the prophet Nathan he had replied, \u201cI have sinned.\u201d Immediately that he confessed his fault he was comforted by the words: \u201cthe Lord also hath put away thy sin.\u201d 3167 He had added murder to adultery; yet bursting into tears he says: \u201cHave mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.\u201d 3168 A sin so great needed to find great mercy. Accordingly he goes on to say: \u201cWash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only have I sinned\u201d\u2014as a king he had no one to fear but God\u2014\u201cand done this evil in thy sight; that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest.\u201d 3169 For \u201cGod hath concluded all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.\u201d 3170 And such was the progress that David made that he who had once been a sinner and a penitent afterwards became a master able to say: \u201cI will teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.\u201d 3171 For as \u201cconfession and beauty are before God,\u201d 3172 so a sinner who confesses his sins and says: \u201cmy wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness\u201d 3173 loses his foul wounds and is made whole and clean. But \u201che that covereth his sins shall not prosper.\u201d 3174\nThe ungodly king Ahab, who shed the blood of Naboth to gain his vineyard, was with Jezebel, the partner less of his bed than of his cruelty, severely rebuked by Elijah. \u201cThus saith the Lord, hast thou killed and also taken possession?\u201d and again, \u201cin the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine;\u201d and \u201cthe dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.\u201d 3175 \u201cAnd it came to pass\u201d\u2014the passage goes on\u2014\u201cwhen Ahab heard those words that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth\u2026and the word of the Lord came to Elijah saying, Because Ahab humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days.\u201d 3176 Ahab\u2019s sin and Jezebel\u2019s were the same; yet because Ahab repented, his punishment was postponed so as to fall upon his sons, while Jezebel persisting in her wickedness met her doom then and there.\np. 228 Moreover the Lord tells us in the gospel, \u201cthe men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas;\u201d 3177 and again He says \u201cI am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.\u201d 3178 The lost piece of silver is sought for until it is found in the mire. 3179 So also the ninety and nine sheep are left in the wilderness, while the shepherd carries home on his shoulders the one sheep which has gone astray. 3180 Wherefore also \u201cthere is joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repenteth.\u201d 3181 What a blessed thought it is that heavenly beings rejoice in our salvation! For it is of us that the words are said: \u201cRepent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d 3182 Death and life are contrary the one to the other; there is no middle term. Yet penitence can knit death to life. The prodigal son, we are told, wasted all his substance, and in the far country away from his father \u201cwould fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat.\u201d Yet, when he comes back to his father, the fatted calf is killed, a robe and a ring are given to him. 3183 That is to say, he receives again Christ\u2019s robe which he had before defiled, and hears to his comfort the injunction: \u201clet thy garments be always white.\u201d 3184 He receives the signet of God and cries to the Lord: \u201cFather, I have sinned against heaven and before thee;\u201d and receiving the kiss of reconciliation, he says to Him: \u201cNow is the light of thy countenance sealed upon us, O Lord.\u201d 3185\nHear the words of Ezekiel: \u201cas for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth.\u201d 3186 The Lord judges every man according as he finds him. It is not the past that He looks upon but the present. Bygone sins there may be, but renewal and conversion remove them. \u201cA just man,\u201d we read \u201cfalleth seven times and riseth up again.\u201d 3187 If he falls, how is he just? and if he is just, how does he fall? The answer is that a sinner does not lose the name of just if he always repents of his sins and rises again. If a sinner repents, his sins are forgiven him not only till seven times but till seventy times seven. 3188 To whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much. 3189 The harlot washed with her tears the Saviour\u2019s feet and wiped them with her hair; and to her, as a type of the Church gathered from the nations, was the declaration made: \u201cThy sins are forgiven.\u201d 3190 The self-righteous Pharisee perished in his pride, while the humble publican was saved by his confession. 3191\nGod makes asseveration by the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah: \u201cAt what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down and to destroy it: if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom to build and to plant it; if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them.\u201d And immediately he adds: \u201cBehold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good. And they said, there is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.\u201d 3192 The righteous Simeon says in the gospel: \u201cBehold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many,\u201d 3193 for the fall, that is, of sinners and for the rising again of the penitent. So the apostle writes to the Corinthians: \u201cit is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father\u2019s wife. And ye are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.\u201d 3194 And in his second epistle to the same, \u201clest such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow,\u201d 3195 he calls him back, and begs them to confirm their love towards him, so that he who had been destroyed by incest might be saved by penitence.\n\u201cThere is no man clean from sin; even though he has lived but for one day.\u201d 3196 And the years of man\u2019s life are many in number. \u201cThe stars are not pure in his sight, 3197 and his angels he charged with folly.\u201d 3198 If there is sin in heaven, how much more must there be sin on earth? If they are stained with guilt who have no bodily temptations, how much more must we be, enveloped as we are in frail flesh and forced to cry each one of us with the apostle: \u201cO wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 3199 For in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing.\u201d 3200 For we do not what we would but what we would not; the soul desires to do one p. 229 thing, the flesh is compelled to do another. If any persons are called righteous in scripture, and not only righteous but righteous in the sight of God, they are called righteous according to that righteousness mentioned in the passage I have quoted: \u201cA just man falleth seven times and riseth up again,\u201d 3201 and on the principle laid down that the wickedness of the wicked shall not hurt him in the day that he turns to repentance. 3202 In fact Zachariah the father of John who is described as a righteous man sinned in disbelieving the message sent to him and was at once punished with dumbness. 3203 Even Job, who at the outset of his history is spoken of as perfect and upright and uncomplaining, is afterwards proved to be a sinner both by God\u2019s words and by his own confession. If Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the prophets also and the apostles were by no means free from sin and if the finest wheat had chaff mixed with it, what can be said of us of whom it is written: \u201cWhat is the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord?\u201d 3204 Yet the chaff is reserved for future burning; as also are the tares which at present are mingled with the growing corn. For one shall come whose fan is in His hand, and shall purge His floor, and shall gather His wheat into the garner, and shall burn the chaff in the fire of hell. 3205\n4. Roaming thus through the fairest fields of scripture I have culled its loveliest flowers to weave for your brows a garland of penitence; for my aim is that, flying on the wings of a dove, you may find rest 3206 and make your peace with the Father of mercy. Your former wife, who is now your sister and fellow-servant, has told me that, acting on the apostolic precept, 3207 you and she lived apart by consent that you might give yourselves to prayer; but that after a time your feet sank beneath you as if resting on water and indeed\u2014to speak plainly\u2014gave way altogether. For her part she heard the Lord saying to her as to Moses: \u201cas for thee stand thou here by me;\u201d 3208 and with the psalmist she said of Him: \u201cHe hath set my feet upon a rock.\u201d 3209 But your house\u2014she went on\u2014having no sure foundation of faith fell before a whirlwind of the devil. 3210 Hers however still stands in the Lord, and does not refuse its shelter to you; you can still be joined in spirit to her to whom you were once joined in body. For, as the apostle says, \u201che that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit\u201d with him. 3211 Moreover, when the fury of the barbarians and the risk of captivity separated you again, you promised with a solemn oath that, if she made her way to the holy places, you would follow her either immediately or later, and that you would try to save your soul now that by your carelessness you had seemed to lose it. Perform, now, the vow which you then made in the presence of God. Human life is uncertain. Therefore, lest you may be snatched away before you have fulfilled your promise, imitate her whose teacher you ought to have been. For shame! the weaker vessel overcomes the world, and yet the stronger is overcome by it!\nA woman leadeth in the high emprise; 3212\nand yet you will not follow her when her salvation leads you to the threshold of the faith! Perhaps, however, you desire to save the remnants of your property and to see the last of your friends and fellow-citizens and of their cities and villas. If so, amid the horrors of captivity, in the presence of exulting foes, and in the shipwreck of the province, at least hold fast to the plank of penitence; 3213 and remember your fellow-servant 3214 who daily sighs for your salvation and never despairs of it. While you are wandering about your own country (though, indeed, you no longer have a country; that which you once had, you have lost) she is interceding for you in the venerable spots which witnessed the nativity, crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, and in the first of which He uttered His infant-cry. She draws you to her by her prayers that you may be saved, if not by your own exertions, at any rate by her faith. Of old one lay upon his bed sick of the palsy, so powerless in all his joints that he could neither move his feet to walk nor his hands to pray; yet when he was carried to our Lord by others, he was by Him so completely restored to health as to carry the bed which a little before had carried him. 3215 You too\u2014absent in the body but present to her faith\u2014your fellow-servant offers to her Lord and Saviour; and with the Canaanite woman she says of you: \u201cmy daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.\u201d 3216 Souls are of no sex; therefore I may fairly call your soul the daughter of hers. For as a mother coaxes her unweaned child which is as yet unable to take solid food; so does she call you to the milk suitable for babes and offer to you the sustenance that a nursing mother gives. Thus shall you be able to say with the prophet: \u201cI have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.\u201d 3217\nThis lady lived in Gaul and was a diligent student of scripture. Letter CXX. is address to her.\n225:3115 225:3116 225:3117 225:3118 225:3119\nCf. Wisdom x. 7.\n225:3120 225:3121 225:3122 225:3123 225:3124 225:3125\nEzek. ii. 10, LXX.\n225:3126\nProv. xviii. 3, LXX.\n225:3127\nIsa. 22:12, 13.\n225:3128 225:3129\nJer. ii. 25, LXX.\n225:3130 225:3131\nIsa. xxx. 15, LXX.\n225:3132 226:3133 226:3134 226:3135 226:3136\nPs. xviii. 37, R.V.\n226:3137 226:3138 226:3139 226:3140 226:3141 226:3142 226:3143\nPs. lxiii. 1-3 R.V.\n226:3144 226:3145 226:3146 226:3147 226:3148 226:3149 226:3150 226:3151 226:3152 226:3153 226:3154 227:3155\nJer. iii. 1, Vulg. The Hebrew contains nothing corresponding to the words \u201cand I will receive thee.\u201d The Latin Version mentioned in the text is of course the old Latin.\n227:3156\nIsa. xxxi. 6, LXX.\n227:3157\nIsa. 45:21, 22.\n227:3158 227:3159 227:3160 227:3161 227:3162 227:3163 227:3164 227:3165 227:3166\nCf. the heading of the psalm in A.V.\n227:3167 227:3168 227:3169 227:3170 227:3171 227:3172\nPs. xcvi. 6, Vulg.\n227:3173 227:3174 227:3175 227:3176 228:3177 228:3178 228:3179 228:3180 228:3181 228:3182 228:3183 228:3184 228:3185\nPs. iv. 6, acc. to the Gallican and Roman psalters. The allusions throughout are to the ritual practised in Jerome\u2019s day in connection with the reception of penitents.\n228:3186 228:3187 228:3188\nCf. Matt. 18:21, 22.\n228:3189\nCf. Luke vii. 47.\n228:3190 228:3191\nCf. Luke xviii. 14.\n228:3192 228:3193 228:3194\n1 Cor. 5:1, 2.\n228:3195 228:3196 228:3197 228:3198 228:3199 228:3200 229:3201 229:3202\nCf. Ezek. xxxiii. 12.\n229:3203 229:3204 229:3205 229:3206 229:3207 229:3208 229:3209 229:3210\nCf. Matt. vii. 24-27.\n229:3211 229:3212 229:3213\nA favourite phrase with Jerome. See Letter CXVII. \u00a7 3.\n229:3214 229:3215 229:3216 229:3217","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. VI: The Letters of St. Jerome.: Letter CXXII","type":"page"}