Letter 146

146. To Antiochus

I cannot reproach you for sloth or negligence, that, when occasion offered, you kept silence of letters. For the greeting which you sent me by your honoured hand I count more precious than many letters. In return for it, then, I greet you, and beg you earnestly to lay hold of the salvation of your soul, schooling all the passions of the flesh by reason, and keeping the thought of God continually established in your soul as in some most holy temple; and in every action and every word to set before your eyes the tribunal of Christ, so that your particular deeds, gathered together at that exact and dreadful inquiry, may bring you glory on the day of recompense, when you are counted worthy of praise before all creation. And if the great man should consent to make the journey as far as us, it will be no small gain to see you with him in our land.