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on account of their inexperience and their corruption towards the sheep, that is, I will judge bishop against bishop and layman against layman and ruler against ruler. For these sheep and rams are rational, but not irrational, lest the layman should ever say: I am a sheep and not a shepherd. And just as the sheep that does not follow the good shepherd is exposed to wolves for destruction, so the one that follows the evil shepherd has a manifest death, because it will be devoured by him. Therefore, one must flee from the corrupting shepherds. However, let the layman honor, love, fear the good shepherd as a father, as a lord, as a master, as a high priest of God, as a teacher of piety; for he who hears him hears Christ, and he who rejects him rejects Christ, and he who does not receive Christ does not receive his God and Father. “For,” he says, “he who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects the one who sent me.” Likewise, let the bishop love the laity as children, charming and warming them with the earnestness of love as eggs for the care of chicks or embracing them as chicks for the care of birds, admonishing all, rebuking all those in need of reproof, but not striking, subduing unto shame, but not unto overthrow, admonishing unto conversion, rebuking unto correction and straightness of path. Guarding what is strong, that is, keeping secure what is steadfast in the faith, shepherding the people peacefully; strengthening what is troubled, that is, making firm through admonition what is tempted; healing what is sick, that is, curing through teaching what is ailing from the faith in discord. Binding up what is broken, that is, bandaging through comforting admonition what has gone astray or is crushed or is broken in sins into a lameness of path, lightening from transgressions and making hopeful, thus restoring him whole in the Church, leading him back into the flock; bring back what has been driven out, that is, not allowing the one who has been in sins and cast out for censure to remain outside, but receiving him and turning him back, restore him in the flock, that is, in the people of the blameless Church, Seek out what is lost, that is, do not allow the one who has despaired of his own salvation on account of a multitude of transgressions to perish completely, the one who has become very sleepy from much coldness and sluggishness and through a deep sleep has forgotten his own life and has wandered far away

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ἕνεκεν τῆς ἀπειρίας αὑτῶν καὶ τῆς εἰς τὰ πρόβατα διαφθορᾶς, τοῦτ' ἔστιν ἐπίσκοπον πρὸς ἐπίσκοπον κρινῶ καὶ λαϊκὸν πρὸς λαϊκὸν καὶ ἄρχοντα πρὸς ἄρχοντα. Λογικὰ γὰρ τὰ πρόβατα καὶ οἱ κριοὶ οὗτοι, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἄλογα, ἵνα μήποτε εἴπῃ ὁ λαϊκός· ἐγὼ πρόβατόν εἰμι καὶ οὐ ποιμήν. Ὥσπερ δὲ τῷ καλῷ ποιμένι τὸ μὴ ἀκολουθοῦν πρόβατον λύκοις ἔκκειται εἰς διαφθοράν, οὕτως τῷ πονηρῷ ποιμένι τὸ ἀκολουθοῦν πρόδηλον ἔχει τὸν θάνατον, ὅτι κατατρώξεται αὐτό. ∆ιὸ φευκτέον ἀπὸ τῶν φθοροποιῶν ποιμένων. Τὸν μέντοι ποιμένα τὸν ἀγαθὸν ὁ λαϊκὸς τιμάτω, ἀγαπάτω, φοβείσθω ὡς πατέρα, ὡς κύριον, ὡς δεσπότην, ὡς ἀρχιερέα Θεοῦ, ὡς διδάσκαλον εὐσεβείας· ὁ γὰρ αὐτοῦ ἀκούων Χριστοῦ ἀκούει, καὶ ὁ αὐτὸν ἀθετῶν Χριστὸν ἀθετεῖ, καὶ ὁ τὸν Χριστὸν μὴ δεχόμενος οὐ δέχεται τὸν αὐτοῦ Θεὸν καὶ Πατέρα. «Ὁ ὑμῶν γάρ, φησίν, ἀκούων ἐμοῦ ἀκούει, καὶ ὁ ὑμᾶς ἀθετῶν ἐμὲ ἀθετεῖ, καὶ ὁ ἐμὲ ἀθετῶν ἀθετεῖ τὸν ἀποστείλαντά με.» Ὁμοίως ὁ ἐπίσκοπος τοὺς λαϊκοὺς ὡς τέκνα ἀγαπάτω, θέλγων καὶ θερμαίνων τῇ σπουδῇ τῆς ἀγάπης ὡς ὠὰ εἰς περιποίησιν νοσσίων ἢ ὡς νοσσία ἀγκαλιζόμενος εἰς περιποίησιν ὀρνίθων, πάντας νουθετῶν, πᾶσι τοῖς πληκτισμοῦ δεομένοις ἐπιπλήσσων, ἀλλὰ μὴ πλήσσων, ὑποπιέζων εἰς ἐντροπήν, ἀλλὰ μὴ εἰς ἀνατροπήν, νουθετῶν εἰς ἐπιστροφήν, ἐπιτιμῶν εἰς διόρθωσιν καὶ εὐθύτητα πορείας. Τὸ ἰσχυρὸν φυλάσσων, τοῦτ' ἔστι τὸ ἑδραῖον τῇ πίστει ἀσφαλὲς τηρῶν, τὸν λαὸν εἰρηνικῶς ποιμαίνων· τὸ ἐνοχλούμενον ἐνισχύων, τοῦτ' ἔστι τὸ πειραζόμενον τῇ νουθεσίᾳ στερροποιῶν· τὸ ἀρρωστοῦν ἰώμενος, τοῦτ' ἔστι τὸ νοσοῦν ἐκ τῆς πίστεως ἐν διχονοίᾳ διὰ τῆς διδασκα λίας θεραπεύων. Τὸ συντετριμμένον καταδεσμῶν, τοῦτ' ἔστι τὸ πεπλανημένον ἢ τὸ τεθραυσμένον ἢ τὸ κατεαγμένον ἐν ἁμαρτίαις εἰς χωλείαν ὁδοῦ ἐπιδεσμῶν διὰ παρακλητικῆς νουθεσίας, ἐλαφρύνων ἀπὸ παραπτωμάτων καὶ εὔελπιν ποιῶν, οὕτως ·ωμαλέον ἐν τῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ ἀποκαθίστα, ἐπα νάγων ἐν τῇ ποίμνῃ· τὸ ἐξωσμένον ἐπίστρεφε, τοῦτ' ἔστι τὸ ἐν ἁμαρτίαις γενόμενον καὶ εἰς ἐπιτίμησιν ἐκβεβλημένον μὴ ἐῶν ἔξω διαμένειν, ἀλλὰ προσλαμβανόμενος καὶ ἐπι στρέφων ἀποκαθίστα ἐν τῇ ποίμνῃ, τοῦτ' ἔστιν ἐν τῷ λαῷ τῆς ἀμώμου Ἐκκλησίας, Τὸ ἀπολωλὸς ἐκζήτει, τοῦτ' ἔστι τὸ ὑπὸ πλήθους παραπτωμάτων ἑαυτοῦ ἀπελπίσαν τῆς σωτηρίας μὴ ἐάσῃς τελέως ἀπολέσθαι, τὸ ὑπὸ πολλῆς ψύξεως καὶ νωχελίας κάθυπνον γενόμενον καὶ διὰ βαρέος ὕπνου τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ζωῆς ἐπιλαθόμενον καὶ μακρὰν ἀποστα