Chapter III. The necessity of curtailing extravagance in dress, &c.

How is it then with you ? Are you not yet awake, and on your guard against those who have surrounded you with the snares of death ? Pray bear with me yet a little while. Nay, rather, pardon me when I say these things with less temerity than timidity. 1 am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, and I would it were as profitable as it is strong. I know where you dwell ; unbelievers and subverters are with you. They are wolves, not sheep ; but you are the shepherd of these as well as of the rest. The consideration will be profitable if it leads you to the discovery of some means of converting them lest they subvert you. They were sheep and turned into wolves ; why despair of their turning back again into sheep ? Here, here, I do not spare you, so that God may spare you. At least cither deny that you are shepherd over this people, or showjthat you are. You will not deny it, lest he, whose chair you fill, deny that you are his heir. I mean, of course, Peter, who never, so far as can be ascer tained, i araded himself decked with gems, or robed in silks ; he was not covered with gold, he did not ride on a white steed, he was not surrounded by soldiers, nor fenced off from his flock by noisy attendants. He thought that without all this he could amply fulfil the salutary command, 'If you love me, feed my sheep.' * In all this painted pomp you are not Peter's successor, but Constantinc's. What I insist on is that while you may tolerate such pomp and glory to suit the time, you must not claim it as a debt due to you. I rather urge you to consider those things which are a debt due from you. If on state occasions you are robed in purple and decked with gold, I am sure this does not mean that you, the shepherd's heir, shrink from the shepherd's toil, or the shepherd's care ; it does not imply that you are ashamed of the Gospel. Albeit, if you willingly preach the Gospel, you, too, have a glorious place among the apostles. To preach the Gospel is to feed the sheep. Do the work of an evangelist, and you have done the work of a shepherd.

forth from Ur of the Chaldees, and say, ' I must preach the Gospel also to other cities.' 2 I think you will not regret your exile if you exchange Rome for the world.