1. But now let us bring forward the divine testimonies, as we promised. In the Acts of the Apostles the apostle Paul says to the priests: Behold, I know that you all, among whom I have walked preaching the kingdom of Jesus Christ, shall see my face no more. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am clean from the blood of all. For I have not shrunk from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as bishops to rule the Church of God, which He purchased with His own blood (Acts xx, 25 ff.). The kingdom of God, he says, I have preached while walking among you, that I might keep myself free from the perdition of all who, having heard the word of saving doctrine, are nonetheless not advanced toward salvation.
He preaches the kingdom of God who does not cease to preach of the future life which has no end; of the divine contemplation which has no wearisome satiety; of the blessedness of the saints which has no failing; of the likeness to the angels to be attained: so that, if those who hear are unwilling to be roused toward these ineffable goods, he is absolved who did not keep silent in preaching to them. And what he adds following—For I have not shrunk from declaring to you the whole counsel of God (Ibid., 27)—what else does it give us to understand, except that the ecclesiastical teacher should disclose to those whom he teaches the dispensation of God (which the Apostle calls the counsel of God)?
He therefore opens the counsel of the divine dispensation when he teaches that fathers, by showing piety to their sons, should merit it from the Lord, who is the Father of all; that sons should render due honor to their fathers, not deterred by fear of disinheritance, but provoked by desire of the reward to come: because the precept of the Lord both fathers fulfill by loving their sons, and sons by showing honor to their fathers, He having commanded that both be done; he teaches that husbands keep to their wives the fidelity of the conjugal bed; that wives delight their husbands not by employing the zeal of an alluring beauty, or by the careful choice of various garments, but by gravity of manners and holiness of works;
that masters should treat their servants mercifully as their fellow-servants in Christ, and that servants should so serve their masters from the heart that they fulfill the will not only of their masters but also of God, who commands this very thing; that among themselves citizens with citizens, friends with friends, parents with parents should keep true concord; that in no business one should deceive another by cunning fraud, nor in a common contract should anyone himself corrupt the good faith which he wishes to be kept toward himself. 3. These things and the like the priest announces by preaching, and the people, by obeying, receives the counsel of God, without which one does not arrive at the kingdom; in which the doers of the divine counsel alone are, by God's authorship, to be the partakers of the heavenly rewards.
Then, as to what the Apostle says: Take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as bishops to rule the Church of God, which He purchased with His own blood (Acts xx, 28)—who does not see that priests then take heed to themselves, when by living holily and faithfully preaching the will of the Lord they look out for the Church of God, so that it is no longer grievous to them to bear with the weak of the Church, for whose redemption the Author of life deigned to offer Himself to death? But also those who are taught, that they may grow wise; those who are rebuked, that they may at least, when chided, make progress;
those who are borne with, that they may at some time blush for their own crimes, and may show joy to their teachers, by whose patience they are gently treated, from the profit of their own correction; let these too, I say, gladly hear what the divine word, through the apostolic mouth, enjoins upon them: Obey, it says, your superiors and be subject to them. For they themselves keep watch, as those who must render an account for your souls: that they may do this with joy and not groaning; for this is profitable for you (Heb. xiii, 17). 4. Therefore those who hear ought to obey their teachers, and to be subject to them with reverence. This those do who gladly receive correction, and do not contradict those who rebuke them. But as to what he says:
For they themselves keep watch, as those who must render an account for your souls (Ibid.)—he sufficiently shows the priestly care for the people committed to them, who, being vigilant both in their own deeds and in their preachings, anxiously search out the snares of the ancient enemy, lest, as though while the shepherd sleeps, the wolf—the devil—snatch away anyone by his cunning fraud, and, having carried off the one snatched to the shepherd's loss, lead him along with himself even to everlasting torments. But since, of those who are reproved, some amend themselves obediently, while others persist in their perversity, therefore he says of the priests: That they may do this with joy and not groaning (Ibid.). The priests reprove with joy, when those corrected make progress;
and they do this sadly when they groan that they make no progress in those who despise them; and so he says this is profitable for them—that, with joy and not groaning, the priests should rebuke those who gladden their teachers by their own correction, and heap up their teachers' joys by the increase of their own advancement.