[ed. Isho'yahb of Adiabene, letter 1]
To my God-loving brothers, caste clergy and faithful people and all those in the holy Church of city Bet-Lapat, of the metropolis for the Huzaye, Isho'yahb your brother salutes in the name of our Lord.
A work of envy worthy of the fear of God which is in you, beloved brethren, now it happens: but truly it has not happened except that it was well administered by divine providence to incite the common faith and strengthen the hope of those who wait for the Lord. For since this holy and venerated father, a sincere portrait of the priestly life, beloved of memory, father Mar John, bishop, great metropolitan, the way of universal nature you sent to heaven, and you have mingled spiritually in the highest ranks above the body, then you would not have allowed human thoughts to prevail like other men, to a good invention, which by its excellence may keep you the rest of hope in all good commemorations, the things that are stuck in you by him who works beautifully, he shone and departed to heaven. Therefore, you did not explore the earth to find the heir to his piety, but when you directed the hope of your faith toward heaven, you considered worthy of the Lord's right hand to receive the most precious gift and equal to the praise of your faith.
For you have most wisely placed the consent of your will in the hands of the fountain of piety, the man of God, our father the most holy Catholic patriarch, and from him, as if from the tree of life you meant to pick off the life-giving fruit. But by the motion of the Spirit of God he had turned the branches of his thoughts from our Sinai that is, from the habitation of spiritual struggles, from the midst of the fire of the heavenly life, from the first order of the Lord of hosts, approved in due time and honored in order of those who are beautifully completed in perfections sweet fruit and adorned with pleasant beauty he plucked them and stretched them out with his father's hand to you at a distance. Therefore, disregarding the care and honor of all of us, he made a gift so precious to you that we envy you. He deprived the great seat of our region from future hope, and left he who is now captivated by desire mourning over this thing.
Is he perhaps your only father, he who has been trained to foster all the wings of his kindness? But lest we be envious in this wonderful man. It was necessary that the fair demand be sufficient to allow the fair demand; that is, to you who flew afar off through the wings of your god you raped his most beloved sons by him, and by the unseen hands you dragged him to an unaccustomed distance. The leaders of the regiment of spiritual fighters have left our country in misery. However, with the help of God, we may look at the beauty of your faith beautifully. And yet we have the opportunity to rejoice in your joy when you excel in the Lord. However, what we see is better in spirit when the Assyrians and 'Elam are united in one body as if in one mystical spirit.
With our hands and tongues, then, we grant to you the love of our soul while we entrust this brother as consecrated to our Lord and by the word of his grace that in spiritual harmony you may receive a spiritual man, whose maternal honor was painted in his name, which he raised a little higher by the will of the prophet. One of the sons of the Church promised to raise him up to the universal mother. The other figures in the prophetic name to be the lord of his mother. But what is our difference to examine the types of names and to give the allegorical name to the name of Maremmeh, since he himself possesses the ecclesiastical elements and the first principles from which the priestly body is composed; which proof will he show you when it will please the Lord.
For you know, brothers and friends, that the priestly body is composed entirely of four virtues, as though it were the four former principles: faith, morals, doctrine, mind. Virtually all these have within themselves the whole sum of virtues and they pour out the spiritual life, as it were, the soul into the ecclesiastical body. For faith is the foundation of spiritual life, when it fails We can neither live nor share in the hope of heavenly promises. But morals are spiritual nourishment, which guards the life of faith in the spiritual mind; And just as we can neither live without nourishment nor be nourished without life, so also neither can faith be without morals mores can live by faith. But again it is absolutely necessary for a faithful man and possessing spiritual morals that by opening his mouth he may send out the word of truth (orthodox) which is collected from the spiritual theorizing of all the divine books and from the whole doctrine of the saints then he will collect all the subtleties of his thoughts in the snare of these things. I am, and will bind under the heel of his tongue all the glory of the imposters, that what is written may happen to him at all times "Let him have a sound and blameless word". Again, the perfection of a man is most fitting in these virtues, the great principle of perfect perfection which adorns all speeds; which, according to the norm of the divine type, arranges the entire ministry of outstanding works. But who does not know that the ordering of all the rational faculties is to receive the honor which befits the mind? But in the mind I say which, if he agrees with the most remarkable achievements, he can make them more distinguished; but if he adheres to the lesser, he can acquire the appearance of honor and he always repulses the contempt for which he confers on a most honorable good a place.
These, therefore, are the elements of a letter honoring the priestly body in whom, as in a fair balance friends and brothers, the priest whom you have acquired is beautifully perfect. Possess and retain a divine gift corresponding to it with praise and zealous love. Bless the steward of this gift, as the great prefect of the great house of God, who sent to you from the flesh Seraphim who are within the Holy of Holies a diligent minister to be likened to charity. When you are worthy to prove his virtues, There will be little programs that I wanted to show you in a letter with the hope of a demonstration. Neither the letter nor the word nor are any other persuasions of this kind breath equal to his excellence alone, when it will please the Lord to offer his proof to your eagerness.
So it would be a beautiful thing, friends and brothers, a beautiful thing so that when in the spirit of your faith you will enjoy such communion you receive the mystery offer thanksgiving to the helper of all in the understanding of your mind, and the prince of holiness, who "took away the rest from the spirit upon him" as it is written, and he completed his spiritual prefect anointed and sent, you may receive blessing in remembrance of your prayers; so that I may choose to place me in the lowest part of those who are well recounted by you in the common speech, so that perhaps I may find mercy in the sight of God, and may be worthy of salvation by grace.
Please, I beg you, your love, so that not long after the accomplishment of your hope and after you have received this gift from the right hand of divine mercy, and you will enjoy it You write that what is becoming spiritual charity is becoming a weakness; apprised I will rejoice and thank God.
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