Page:Philochristus, Abbott, 1878.djvu/174

166 sacrifice, wresting to his own destruction that hard saying of the Prophet which saith, 'I will have mercy and not sacrifice,' but he also hath dared to make himself as God, forgiving sins. This he hath done publicly in the synagogue, before the face of the congregation.

"Now we would fain deal gently with the young man, because he seemed once to purpose well, and because he hath made unto himself a name for casting out unclean spirits. Moreover he is befriended not only by the rabble that knoweth not the Law, but also by a few of the wise and pious, as, for example, thyself. For this cause we are minded not at once to punish him in accordance with the law for blasphemy, but to make excuses for him by saying that he is beside himself.

"And this indeed seemeth to be not unlikely, for he is not as other men are; for oft-times he sleepeth not, but watcheth (as I am informed) whole nights together; and albeit he seeth no vision (which sheweth him to be no prophet), yet he carrieth himself in such strange fashion as if he saw visions daily; also he is wroth at small faults and at no faults (as thou thyself knowest), and yet withal easy to forgive great faults. Moreover of late he most strangely forsweareth the company of all the pious and learned, and consorteth publicly with tax-gatherers and sinners; insomuch that, but now, having called one Matthew, a tax-gatherer, to be one of his disciples, afterwards, at a feast in the house of this Matthew, amid mirth and wine-bibbing, he took upon himself to forgive the sins of that Barachiah the son of Zadok, who, as thou knowest, is by all men called the child of Satan.

"Now therefore, for the sake of the young man Jesus himself, it beseemeth thee, O Jonathan, to cause this evil to cease, and to warn his friends, if perchance they may see fit to restrain him. Write therefore, I pray thee, to