they and their wives and their sons and daughters, because their work
was the service of the Tabernacle alone. Therefore they received no
inheritance of land among the children of Israel, for the inheritance of
Levi and of his tribe was the inheritance1 of the people. Therefore
ye also to-day, O Bishops, are priests to your people, and Levites
who serve in the house of God, the Holy Catholic Church, those who
remain continually before the Lord God. Therefore ye are to your people
priests and prophets and chiefs and governors and teachers and mediators
between God and the believers, receivers of the Word, preachers of it,
evangelists of it, knowers of the Scriptures and of the words of God,
witnesses of His will, ye who bear the sins of all men, and who will
give account concerning all men ; ye who hear how that word is
kindled hardly against you, if ye despise, and do not preach the will
of God, ye are they who are in grave danger of perdition, if ye despise
your people. Ye again are those to whom is promised by God
a great reward that will not disappoint nor be snatched away, and
unspeakable grace in that great glory, if ye serve well the Tabernacle
of God, the Catholic Church. Therefore as ye bear the burden of all
men, thus also it is required of you that ye receive from all who are
f. 30 a with you the service of food and clothing, and other things, such as
are necessary. It is required also that ye take from the gifts that are given
you by the people who are under your hands, and provide for the deacons
and the widows and the orphans, and those that are in want. For it is
required of thee, Bishop, that thou care for all men as a faithful steward,
for as thou earnest the weight of all those who are under thy hands, thus,
and more than all men, thou shalt receive the glory of excellency from
God ; for thou art the propitiator2 of the Christ ; and as He has
borne the sins of us all, thus it is required of thee that thou carry the
sins of all those who are under thy hands. For thus it is written in
is. liii. 2 Isaiah about our Saviour, " We have seen Him, that He had no splendour
in. w and no beauty, but His visage was more shamed and humiliated than
liii. 3 men, and that He was a man of suffering ; and knoweth 3[how] to under-