Ethiopic Didascalia

Ethiopic Didascalia — Platt English translation page 90

X. It is the duty of Bishops to be peace-makers, merciful, pardoning him who hath transgressed against them, and that they should receive the repentance of those who return unto the Lord: and if they do not thus, they shall not be called Bishops, but they shall be called evil-doers. If the Bishop pray for peace upon others, how then shall he himself not be peaceable, that he may be called a Son of peace ? For if he himself have not peace, how can he give peace to others ? Wherefore it is requisite, before all things, that he be peaceable, without malice or hatred ; but in love and peace let him reconcile and feed the sheep of Christ ; yea moreover let him watch over them as a faithful friend, that they may be saved together, and become one flock. But evil men, who do iniquity and bring in hatred and disturbance, are far from the Lord. For the Lord is a God of mercy, who desireth to gather in men unto repentance, by the teaching of the just, even of all the generations of the Prophets. For before the Flood, the people lived walking according to the exhor- tations of Abel, and Seth, and Enoch, who was taken up into heaven. And them that were after the Flood, Noah taught ; and them of Sodom, Lot taught, the hos- pitable entertainer of strangers. And after Lot were Melchisedec, the Patriarchs, 90