To Magnus Antoninus the Presbyter.

CXXIX. To Magnus Antoninus the Presbyter. ¹⁹³⁵

Sailors at night are cheered by the sight of the harbour lights, and so are they who are in peril for the sake of the apostolic faith by the zeal of them that share the faith. We have great comfort in what we hear of your godliness’s efforts on behalf of the divine doctrines, for this mind has been given you by the Giver of all good gifts and for the safe keeping of these doctrines you undergo every toil. Now I, comforted by your zeal, make an insignificant return, calling on you to persevere in your divine labours, to despise your adversaries as an easy prey, (for what is weaker than they who are destitute of the truth?) and to trust in Him who said “I will not fail thee nor forsake thee,” ¹⁹³⁶ and “Lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the world.” ¹⁹³⁷ Help me too with your prayers that I may confidently say “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?” ¹⁹³⁸

Footnotes

301:1935

Garnerius supposes that this Antoninus is the same as the Antoninus mentioned as living in Theodoret’s Religious History and thinks that the Solitary may have become an Archimandrite after 445 when the Religious History was written, but the mss. vary as to the superscription of the letter, which may be addressed to Magnus, Antonius and others.

301:1936

Joshua i. 5

301:1937

Matthew xxviii. 20

301:1938

Psalm cxviii. 6