NOVATIAN ON THE JEWISH MEATS. 383 therefore,theduty which T owe,and thecharge I have under taken, and the very ministerialofficeimposed upon me, re quire of me thisnecessityof writingletters,yet you stillfur ther enhance it,by stirringme up to writethrough means of your continualcommunications; and inclinedalthoughI am to thoseperiodicalexpressionsof love,you urge me the more by showing that you stand fastcontinuallyin the gospel: whence it results,that by my lettersI am not so much instructingyou who are alreadyinformed, as incitingyou who are alreadyprepared. For you, who not only hold the gospel pure and purged from allstainof perversedoctrine, but also energeticallyteach the same, seek not man for a master, sinceyou show yourselvesby thesevery thingsto be teachers. Thereforeas you run,I exhort you ; and as you watch, I stiryou up; and as you contend against"the spiritualthingsof wickedness,"11 addressyou; and as you press "in your coursetothe prizeof your callingin Christ,"1 I urge you on,— that,treadingunder footand rejectingaswell the sacrilegiouscalumniesof hereticsasalsothe idlefablesof Jews, you may hold thesoleword3 and teachingof Christ,so as worthilytoclaimforyourselvesthe authorityof His name. But how perverseare the Jews, and remote from the under standingof theirlaw,I have fullyshown, as I believe,in two former letters,4wherein it was absolutelyproved that they are ignorantof what is the truecircumcision,and what the true Sabbath ; and theireverincreasingblindnessisconfuted in thispresentepistle,wherein I have brieflydiscoursedcon cerning theirmeats,becausethat in them they considerthat they only are holy,and thatallothersare denied. 1 Eph.ti.12. 2Phil.iii.14. 8Traditionem. 4 Theselettersarenot extant,but theyarementionedby Jerome, de vir.illustr.ch.lxx.