2. I exhort you, therefore, not to faint in
your afflictions, but to be revived by God’s love, and to add
daily to your zeal, knowing that in you ought to be preserved that
remnant of true religion which the Lord will find when He cometh on the
earth. Even if bishops are driven from their Churches, be not
dismayed. If traitors have arisen from among the very
clergy Maran
conjectures an allusion to Fronto. themselves,
let not this undermine your confidence in God. We are saved
not by names, but by mind and purpose, and genuine love toward our
Creator. Bethink you how in the attack against our Lord,
high priests and scribes and elders devised the plot, and how few
of the people were found really receiving the word. Remember
that it is not the multitude who are being saved, but the elect of
God. Be not then affrighted at the great multitude of the
people who are carried hither and thither by winds like the waters
of the sea. If but one be saved, like Lot at Sodom, he ought
to abide in right judgment, keeping his hope in Christ unshaken,
for the Lord will not forsake His holy ones. Salute all the
brethren in Christ from me. Pray earnestly for my miserable
soul.