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ANTIDOTE FOR THE SCORPION'S STING.[1]
[TRANSLATED BY REV. S. THELWALL.]
THE earth brings forth, as if by suppuration, great evil from the
diminutive scorpion. The poisons are as many as are the kinds of it,
the disasters as many as are also the species of it, the pains as many
as are also the colours of it. Nicander writes an the subject of
scorpions, and depicts them. And yet to smite with the tail—which tail
will be whatever is prolonged from the hindmost part of the body, and
scourges—is the one movement which they all use when making an
assault. Wherefore that succession of knots in the scorpion, which in
the inside is a thin poisoned veinlet, rising up with a bow-like bound,
draws tight a barbed sting at the end, after the manner of an engine
for shooting missiles. From which circumstance they also call after the
scorpion, the warlike implement which, by its being drawn back, gives
an impetus to the arrows. The point in their case is also a duct of
extreme minuteness, to inflict the wound; and where it penetrates, it
pours out poison. The usual time of danger is the summer season:
fierceness hoists the sail when the wind is from the south and the
south-west. Among cures, certain substances supplied by nature have
very great efficacy; magic also puts on some bandage; the art of
healing counteracts with lancet and cup. For some, making haste, take
also beforehand a protecting draught; but sexual intercourse drains it
off, and they are dry again. We have faith for a defence, if we are not
smitten with distrust itself also, in immediately making the sign[2]
and adjuring,[3] and besmearing the heel with the beast. Finally, we
often aid in this way even the heathen, seeing we have been endowed by
God with that power which the apostle first used when he despised the
viper's bite.[4] What, then, does this pen of yours offer, if faith is
safe by what it has of its own? That it may be safe by what it has of
its own also at other times, when it is subjected to scorpions of its
own. These, too, have a troublesome littleness, and are of different
sorts, and are armed in one manner, and are stirred up at a definite
time, and that not another than one of burning heat. This among
Christians is a season of persecution. When, therefore, faith is
greatly agitated, and the Church burning, as represented by the
bush,[5] then the Gnostics break out, then the Valentinians creep
forth, then all the opponents of martyrdom bubble up, being themselves
also hot to strike, penetrate, kill. For, because they know that many
are artless and also inexperienced, and weak moreover, that a very
great number in truth are Christians who veer about with the wind and
conform to its moods, they perceive that they are never to be
approached more than when fear has opened the entrances to the soul,
especially when some display of ferocity has already arrayed with a
crown the faith of martyrs. Therefore, drawing along the tail hitherto,
they first of all apply it to the feelings, or whip with it as if on
empty space. Innocent persons undergo such suffering. So that you may
suppose the speaker to be a brother or a heathen of the better sort. A
sect troublesome to nobody so dealt with! Then they pierce. Men are
perishing without a reason. For that they are perishing, and without a
reason, is the first insertion. Then they now strike mortally. But the
unsophisticated souls[1] know not what is written, and what meaning it
bears, where and when and before whom we must confess, or ought, save
that this, to die for God, is, since He preserves me, not even
artlessness, but folly, nay madness. If He kills me, how will it be His
duty to preserve me? Once for all Christ died for us, once for all He
was slain that we might not be slain. If He demands the like from me in
return, does He also look for salvation from my death by violence? Or
does God importune for the blood of men, especially if He refuses that
of bulls and he-goats?[2] Assuredly He had rather have the repentance
than the death of the sinner.[3] And how is He eager for the death of
those who are not sinners? Whom will not these, and perhaps other
subtle devices containing heretical poisons, pierce either for doubt if
not for destruction, or for irritation if not for death? As for you,
therefore, do you, if faith is on the alert, smite on the spot the
scorpion with a curse, so far as you can, with your sandal, and leave
it dying in its own stupefaction? But if it gluts the wound, it drives
the poison inwards, and makes it hasten into the bowels; forthwith all
the former senses become dull, the blood of the mind freezes, the flesh
of the spirit pines away, loathing for the Christian name is
accompanied by a sense of sourness. Already the understanding also
seeks for itself a place where it may throw up; and thus, once for all,
the weakness with which it has been smitten breathes out wounded faith
either in heresy or in heathenism. And now the present state of matters
is such, that we are in the midst of an intense heat, the very dog-star
of persecution,—a state originating doubtless with the dog-headed one
himself.[4] Of some Christians the fire, of others the sword, of others
the beasts, have made trial; others are hungering in prison for the
martyrdoms of which they have had a taste in the meantime by being
subjected to clubs and claws[5] besides. We ourselves, having been
appointed for pursuit, are like hares being hemmed in from a distance;
and heretics go about according to their wont. Therefore the state of
the times has prompted me to prepare by my pen, in opposition to the
little beasts which trouble our sect, our antidote against poison, that
I may thereby effect cures. You who read will at the same time drink.
Nor is the draught bitter. If the utterances of the Lord are sweeter
than honey and the honeycombs,[6] the juices are from that source. If
the promise of God flows with milk and honey,[7] the ingredients which
go to make that draught have the smack of this. "But woe to them who
turn sweet into bitter, and light into darkness."[8] For, in like
manner, they also who oppose martyrdoms, representing salvation to be
destruction, transmute sweet into bitter, as well as light into
darkness; and thus, by preferring this very wretched life to that most
blessed one, they put bitter for sweet, as well as darkness for light.
But not yet about the good to be got from martyrdom must we
learn, without our having first heard about the duty of suffering it;
nor must we learn the usefulness of it, before we have heard about the
necessity for it. The (question of the)divine warrant goes
first—whether God has willed and also commanded ought of the kind, so
that they who assert that it is not good are not plied with arguments
for thinking it profitable save when they have been subdued.[9] It is
proper that heretics be driven[10] to duty, not enticed. Obstinacy must
be conquered, not coaxed. And, certainly, that will be pronounced
beforehand quite good enough, which will be shown to have been
instituted and also enjoined by God. Let the Gospels wait a little,
while I set forth their root the Law, while I ascertain the will of God
from those writings from which I recall to mind Himself also: "I am,"
says He, "God, thy God, who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt.
Thou shalt have no other gods besides me. Thou shalt not make unto thee
a likeness of those things which are in heaven, and which are in the
earth beneath, and which are in the sea under the earth. Thou shalt not
worship them, nor serve them. For I am the Lord thy God."[11] Likewise
in the same book of Exodus: "Ye yourselves have seen that I have talked
with you from heaven. Ye shall not make unto you gods of silver,
neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold."[12] To the following
effect also, in Deuteromy: "Hear, O Israel; The Lord thy God is one:
and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy
might, and with all thy soul."[1] And again: "Neither do thou forget
the Lord thy God, who brought thee forth from the land of Egypt, out of
the house of bondage. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve Him
only, and cleave to Him, and swear by His name. Ye shall not go after
strange gods, and the gods of the nations which are round about you,
because the Lord thy God is also a jealous God among you, and lest His
anger should be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the
face of the earth."[2] But setting before them blessings and curses, He
also says: "Blessings shall be yours, if ye obey the commandments of
the Lord your God, whatsoever I command you this day, and do not wander
from the way which I have commanded you, to go and serve other gods
whom ye know not."[3] And as to rooting them out in every way: "Ye
shall utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations, which ye
shall possess by inheritance, served their gods, upon mountains and
hills, and under shady trees. Ye shall overthrow all their altars, ye
shall overturn and break in pieces their pillars, and cut down their
groves, and burn with fire the graven images of the gods themselves,
and destroy the names of them out of that place."[4] He further urges,
when they (the Israelites) had entered the land of promise, and driven
out its nations: "Take heed to thy self, that thou do not follow them
after they be driven out from before thee, that thou do not inquire
after their gods, saying, As the nations serve their gods, so let me do
likewise."[5] But also says He: "If there arise among you a prophet
himself, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
and it come to pass, and he say, Let us go and serve other gods, whom
ye know not, do not hearken to the words of that prophet or dreamer,
for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye fear God with all
your heart and with all your soul. After the Lord your God ye shall go,
and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and serve
Him, and cleave unto Him. But that prophet or dreamer shall die; for he
has spoken to turn thee away from the Lord thy God."[6] But also in
another section.[7] "If, however, thy brother, the son of thy father or
of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom,
or thy friend who is as thine own soul, solicit thee, saying secretly,
Let us go and serve other gods, which thou knowest not, nor did thy
fathers, of the gods of the nations which are round about thee, very
nigh unto thee or far off from thee, do not consent to go with him, and
do not hearken to him. Thine eye shall not spare him, neither shalt
thou pity, neither shalt thou preserve him; thou shall certainly inform
upon him. Thine hand shall be first upon him to kill him, and
afterwards the hand of thy people; and ye shall stone him, and he shall
die, seeing he has sought to turn thee away from the Lord thy God."[8]
He adds likewise concerning cities, that if it appeared that one of
these had, through the advice of unrighteous men, passed over to other
gods, all its inhabitants should be slain, and everything belonging to
it become accursed, and all the spoil of it be gathered together into
all its places of egress, and be, even with all the people, burned with
fire in all its streets in the sight of the Lord God; and, says He, "it
shall not be for dwelling in for ever: it shall not be built again any
more, and there shall cleave to thy hands nought of its accursed
plunder, that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of His anger."[9]
He has, from His abhorrence of idols, framed a series of curses too:
"Cursed be the man who maketh a graven or a molten image, an
abomination, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in
a secret place."[10] But in Leviticus He says: "Go not ye after idols,
nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the Lord your God."[11] And in
other passages: "The children of Israel are my household servants;
these are they whom I led forth from the land of Egypt:[12] I am the
Lord your God. Ye shall not make you idols fashioned by the hand,
neither rear you up a graven image. Nor shall ye set up a remarkable
stone in your land (to worship it): I am the Lord your God."[13] These
words indeed were first spoken by the Lord by the lips of Moses, being
applicable certainly to whomsoever the Lord God of Israel may lead
forth in like manner from the Egypt of a most superstitious world, and
from the abode of human slavery. But from the mouth of every prophet in
succession, sound forth also utterances of the same God, augmenting the
same law of His by a renewal of the same commands, and in the first
place announcing no other duty in so special a manner as the being on
guard against all making and worshipping of idols; as when by the mouth
of David He says: "The gods of the nations are silver and gold: they
have eyes, and see not; they have ears, and hear not; they have a nose,
and smell not; a mouth, and they speak not; hands, and they handle not;
feet and they walk not. Like to them shall be they who make them, and
trust in them."[1]
Nor should I think it needful to discuss whether God pursues a
worthy course in forbidding His own name and honour to be given over to
a lie, or does so in not consenting that such as He has plucked from
the maze of false religion should return again to Egypt, or does so in
not suffering to depart from Him them whom He has chosen for Himself.
Thus that, too, will not require to be treated by us, whether He has
wished to be kept the rule which He has chosen to appoint, and whether
He justly avenges the abandonment of the rule which He has wished to be
kept; since He would have appointed it to no purpose if He had not
wished it kept, and would have to no purpose wished it kept if He had
been unwilling to uphold it. My next step, indeed, is to put to the
test these appointments of God in opposition to false religions, the
completely vanquished as well as also the punished, since on these will
depend the entire argument for martyrdoms. Moses was apart with God on
the mountain, when the people, not brooking his absence, which was so
needful, seek to make gods for themselves, which, for his own part, he
will prefer to destroy.[2] Aaron is importuned, and commands that the
earrings of their women be brought together, that they may be thrown
into the fire. For the people were about to lose, as a judgment upon
themselves, the true ornaments for the ears, the words of God. The wise
fire makes for them the molten likeness of a calf, reproaching them
with having the heart where they have their treasure also,—in Egypt,
to wit, which clothed with sacredness, among the other animals, a
certain ox likewise. Therefore the slaughter of three thousand by their
nearest relatives, because they had displeased their so very near
relative God, solemnly marked both the commencement and the deserts of
the trespass. Israel having, as we are I told in Numbers,[3] turned
aside at Sethim, the people go to the daughters of Moab to gratify
their lust: they are allured to the idols, so that they committed
whoredom with the spirit also: finally, they eat of their defiled
sacrifices; then they both worship the gods of the nation, and are
admired to the rites of Beelphegor. For this lapse, too, into idolatry,
sister to adultery, it took the slaughter of twenty-three thousand by
the swords of their countrymen to appease the divine anger. After the
death of Joshua the son of Nave they forsake the God of their fathers,
and serve idols, Baalim and Ashtaroth;[4] and the Lord in anger
delivered them up to the hands of spoilers, and they continued to be
spoiled by them, and to be sold to their adversaries, and could not at
all stand before their enemies. Whithersoever they went forth, His hand
was upon them for evil, and they were greatly distressed. And after
this God sets judges (critas), the same as our censors, over them. But
not even these did they continue steadfastly to obey. So soon as one of
the judges died, they proceeded to transgress more than their fathers
had done by going after the gods of others, and serving and worshipping
them. Therefore the Lord was angry. "Since, indeed," He says, "this
nation have transgressed my covenant which I established with their
fathers, and have not hearkened to my voice, I also will give no heed
to remove from before them a man of the nations which Joshua left at
his death."[5] And thus, throughout almost all the annals of the judges
and of the kings who succeeded them, while the strength of the
surrounding nations was preserved, He meted wrath out to Israel by war
and captivity and a foreign yoke, as often as they turned aside from
Him, especially to idolatry.
If, therefore, it is evident that from the beginning this kind of
worship has both been forbidden—witness the commands so numerous and
weighty—and that it has never been engaged in without punishment
following, as examples so numerous and impressive show, and that no
offence is counted by God so presumptuous as a trespass of this sort,
we ought further to perceive the purport of both the divine
threatenings and their fulfilments, which was even then commended not
only by the not calling in question, but also by the enduring of
martyrdoms, for which certainly He had given occasion by forbidding
idolatry. For otherwise martyrdoms would not take place. And certainly
He had supplied, as a warrant for these, His own authority, willing
those events to come to pass for the occurrence of which He had given
occasion. At present (it is important), for we are getting severely
stung concerning the will of God, and the scorpion repeats the prick,
denying the existence of this will, finding fault with it, so that he
either insinuates that there is another god, such that this is not his
will, or none the less overthrows ours, seeing such is his will, or
altogether denies this will of God, if he cannot deny Himself. But,for
our part, contending elsewhere about God, and about all the rest of the
body of heretical teaching, we now draw before us definite lines[1] for
one form of encounter, maintaining that this will, such as to have
given occasion for martyrdoms, is that of not another god than the God
of Israel, on the ground of the commandments relating to an always
forbidden, as well as of the judgments upon a punished, idolatry. For
if the keeping of a command involves the suffering of violence, this
will be, so to speak, a command about keeping the command, requiring me
to suffer that through which I shall be able to keep the command,
violence namely, whatever of it threatens me when on my guard against
idolatry. And certainly (in the case supposed) the Author of the
command extorts compliance with it. He could not, therefore, have been
unwilling that those events should come to pass by means of which the
compliance will be manifest. The injunction is given me not to make
mention of any other god, not even by speaking,—as little by the
tongue as by the hand,—to fashion a god, and not to worship or in any
way show reverence to another than Him only who thus commands me, whom
I am both bid fear that I may not be forsaken by Him, and love with my
whole being, that I may die for Him. Serving as a soldier under this
oath, I am challenged by the enemy. If I surrender to them, I am as
they are. In maintaining this oath, I fight furiously in battle, am
wounded, hewn in pieces, slain. Who wished this fatal issue to his
soldier, but he who sealed him by such an oath?
You have therefore the will of my God. We have cured this prick.
Let us give good heed to another thrust touching the character of His
will. It would be tedious to show that my God is good,—a truth with
which the Marcionites have now been made acquainted by us. Meanwhile it
is enough that He is called God for its being necessary that He should
be believed to be good. For if any one make the supposition that God is
evil, he will not be able to take his stand on both the constituents
thereof: he will be bound either to affirm that he whom he has thought
to be evil is not God, or that he whom he has proclaimed to be God is
good. Good, therefore, will be the will also of him who, unless he is
good, will not be God. The goodness of the thing itself also which God
has willed—of martyrdom, I mean—will show this, because only one who
is good has willed what is good. I stoutly maintain that martyrdom is
good, as required by the God by whom likewise idolatry is forbidden and
punished. For martyrdom strives against and opposes idolatry. But to
strive against and oppose evil cannot be ought but good. Not as if I
denied that there is a rivalry in evil things with one another, as well
as in good also; but this ground for it requires a different state of
matters. For martyrdom contends with idolatry, not from some malice
which they share, but from its own kindness; for it delivers from
idolatry. Who will not proclaim that to be good which delivers from
idolatry? What else is the opposition between idolatry and martyrdom,
than that between life and death? Life will be counted to be martyrdom
as much as idolatry to be death. He who will call life an evil, has
death to speak of as a good. This frowardness also appertains to
men,—to discard what is wholesome, to accept what is baleful, to avoid
all dangerous cures, or, in short, to be eager to die rather than to be
healed. For they are many who flee from the aid of physic also, many in
folly, many from fear and false modesty. And the healing art has
manifestly an apparent cruelty, by reason of the lancet, and of the
burning iron, and of the great heat of the mustard; yet to be cut and
burned, and pulled and bitten, is not on that account an evil, for it
occasions helpful pains; nor will it be refused merely because it
afflicts, but because it afflicts inevitably will it be applied. The
good accruing is the apology for the frightfulness of the work. In
short, that man who is howling and groaning and bellowing in the hands
of a physician will presently load the same hands with a fee, and
proclaim that they are the best operators, and no longer affirm that
they are cruel. Thus martyrdoms also rage furiously, but for salvation.
God also will be at liberty to heal for everlasting life by means of
fires and swords, and all that is painful. But you will admire the
physician at least even in that respect, that for the most part he
employs like properties in the cures to counteract the properties of
the diseases,when he aids, as it were, the wrong way, succouring by
means of those things to which the affliction is owing. For he both
checks heat by heat, by laying on a greater load; and subdues
inflammation by leaving thirst unappeased, by tormenting rather; and
contracts the superabundance of bile by every bitter little draught,
and stops hemorrhage by opening a veinlet in addition. But you will
think that God must be found fault with, and that for being jealous, if
He has chosen to contend with a disease and to do good by imitating the
malady, to destroy death by death, to dissipate killing by killing, to
dispel tortures by tortures, to disperse[1] punishments by punishments,
to bestow life by withdrawing it, to aid the flesh by injuring it, to
preserve the soul by snatching it away. The wrongheadedness, as you
deem it to be, is reasonableness; what you count cruelty is kindness.
Thus, seeing God by brief (sufferings) effects cures for eternity,
extol your God for your prosperity; you have fallen into His hands, but
have happily fallen. He also fell into your sicknesses. Man always
first provides employment for the physician; in short, he has brought
upon himself the danger of death. He had received from his own Lord, as
from a physician, the salutary enough rule to live according to the
law, that he should eat of all indeed (that the garden produced) and
should refrain from only one little tree which in the meantime the
Physician Himself knew as a perilous one. He gave ear to him whom he
preferred, and broke through self-restraint. He ate what was forbidden,
and, surfeited by the trespass, suffered indigestion tending to death;
he certainly richly deserving to lose his life altogether who wished to
do so. But the inflamed tumour due to the trespass having been endured
until in due time the medicine might be mixed, the Lord gradually
prepared the means of healing—all the rules of faith, they also
bearing a resemblance to (the causes of) the ailment, seeing they annul
the word of death by the word of life, and diminish the
trespass-listening by a listening of allegiance. Thus, even when that
Physician commands one to die, He drives out the lethargy of death. Why
does man show reluctance to suffer now from a cure, what he was not
reluctant then to suffer from a disorder? Does he dislike being killed
for salvation, who did not dislike being killed for destruction?—Will
he feel squeamish with reference to the counter poison, who gaped for
the poison?
But if, for the contest's sake, God had appointed martrydoms for
us, that thereby we might make trial with our opponent, in order that
He may now keep bruising him by whom man chose to be bruised, here too
generosity rather than harshness in God holds sway. For He wished to
make man, now plucked from the devil's throat by faith, trample upon
him likewise by courage, that he might not merely have escaped from,
but also completely vanquished, his enemy. He who had called to
salvation has been pleased to summon to glory also, that they who were
rejoicing in consequence of their deliverance may be in transports when
they are crowned likewise. With what good-will the world celebrates
those games, the combative festivals and superstitious contests of the
Greeks, involving forms both of worship and of pleasure, has now become
clear in Africa also. As yet cities, by sending their congratulations
severally, annoy Carthage, which was presented with the Pythian game
after the racecourse had attained to an old age. Thus, by the world[2]
it has been believed to be a most proper mode of testing proficiency in
studies, to put in competition the forms of skill, to elicit the
existing condition of bodies and of voices, the reward being the
informer, the public exhibition the judge, and pleasure the decision.
Where there are mere contests, there are some wounds: fists make reel,
heels kick like butting rams, boxing-gloves mangle, whips leave gashes.
Yet there will be no one reproaching the superintendent of the contest
for exposing men to outrage. Suits for injuries lie outside the
racecourse. But to the extent that those persons deal in discoloration,
and gore, and swellings, he will design for them crowns, doubtless, and
glory, and a present, political privileges, contributions by the
citizens, images, statues, and—of such sort as the world can give—an
eternity of fame, a resurrection by being kept in remembrance. The
pugilist himself does not complain of feeling pain, for he wishes it;
the crown closes the wounds, the palm hides the blood: he is excited
more by victory than by injury. Will you count this man hurt whom you
see happy? But not even the vanquished himself will reproach the
superintendent of the contest for his misfortune. Shall it be
unbecoming in God to bring forth kinds of skill and rules of His own
into public view, into this open ground of the world, to be seen by
men, and angels, and all powers?—to test flesh and spirit as to
stedfastness and endurance?—to give to this one the palm, to this one
distinction, to that one the privilege of citizenship, to that one
pay?—to reject some also, and after punishing to remove them with
disgrace? You dictate to God, forsooth, the times, or the ways, or the
places in which to institute a trial concerning His own troop (of
competitors) as if it were not proper for the Judge to pronounce the
preliminary decision also. Well now, if He had put forth faith to
suffer martyrdoms not for the contest's sake, but for its own benefit,
ought it not to have had some store of hope, for the increase of which
it might restrain desire of its own, and check its wish in order that
it might strive to mount up, seeing they also who discharge earthly
functions are eager for promotion? Or how will there be many mansions
in our Father's house, if not to accord with a diversity of deserts?
How will one star also differ from another star in glory, unless in
virtue of disparity in their rays?[1] But further, if, on that account,
some increase of brightness also was appropriate to loftiness of faith,
that gain ought to have been of some such sort as would cost great
effort, poignant suffering, torture, death. But consider the requital,
when flesh and life are paid away—than which in man there is nought
more precious, the one from the hand of God, the other from His
breath—that the very things are paid away in obtaining the benefit of
which the benefit consists; that the very things are expended which may
be acquired; that the same things are the price which are also the
commodities. God had foreseen also other weaknesses incident to the
condition of man,—the stratagems of the enemy, the deceptive aspects
of the creatures, the snares of the world; that faith, even after
baptism, would be endangered; that the most, after attaining unto
salvation, would be lost again, through soiling the wedding-dress,
through failing to provide oil for their torchlets—would be such as
would have to be sought for over mountains and woodlands, and carried
back upon the shoulders. He therefore appointed as second supplies of
comfort, and the last means of succour, the fight of martyrdom and the
baptism—thereafter free from danger—of blood. And concerning the
happiness of the man who has partaken of these, David says: "Blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin."[2] For,
strictly speaking, there cannot any longer be reckoned ought against
the martyrs, by whom in the baptism (of blood) life itself is laid
down. Thus, "love covers the multitude of sins;"[3] and loving God, to
wit, with all its strength (by which in the endurance of martyrdom it
maintains the fight), with all its life[4] (which it lays down for
God), it makes of man a martyr. Shall you call these cures, counsels,
methods of judging, spectacles, (illustrations of) even the barbarity
of God? Does God covet man's blood? And yet I might venture to affirm
that He does, if man also covets the kingdom of heaven, if man covets a
sure salvation, if man also covets a second new birth. The exchange is
displeasing to no one, which can plead, in justification of itself,
that either benefit or injury is shared by the parties making it.
If the scorpion, swinging his tail in the air, still reproach us
with having a murderer for our God, I shall shudder at the altogether
foul breath of blasphemy which comes stinking from his heretical mouth;
but I will embrace even such a God, with assurance derived from reason,
by which reason even He Himself has, in the person of His own Wisdom,
by the lips of Solomon, proclaimed Himself to be more than a murderer:
Wisdom (Sophia), says He has slain her own children.[5] Sophia is
Wisdom. She has certainly slain them wisely if only into life, and
reasonably if only into glory. Of murder by a parent, oh the clever
form ! Oh the dexterity of crime ! Oh the proof of cruelty, which has
slain for this reason, that he whom it may have slain may not die ! And
therefore what follows? Wisdom is praised in hymns, in the places of
egress; for the death of martyrs also is praised in song. Wisdom
behaves with firmness in the streets, for with good results does she
murder her own sons.[6] Nay, on the top of the walls she speaks with
assurance, when indeed, according to Esaias, this one calls out, "I am
God's;" and this one shouts, "In the name of Jacob;" and another
writes, "In the name of Israel."[7] O good mother! I myself also wish
to be put among the number of her sons, that I may be slain by her; I
wish to be slain, that I may become a son. But does she merely murder
her sons, or also torture them? For I hear God also, in another
passage, say, "I will burn them as gold is burned, and will try them as
silver is tried."[8] Certainly by the means of torture which fires and
punishments supply, by the testing martyrdoms of faith. The apostle
also knows what kind of God he has ascribed to us, when he writes: "If
God spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us, how did He not with
Him also give us all things?"[9] You see how divine Wisdom has murdered
even her own proper, first-born and only Son, who is certainly about to
live, nay, to bring back the others also into life. I can say with the
Wisdom of God; It is Christ who gave Himself up for our offences.[1]
Already has Wisdom butchered herself also. The character of words
depends not on the sound only, but on the meaning also, and they must
be heard not merely by ears, but also by minds. He who does not
understand, believes God to be cruel; although for him also who does
not understand, an announcement has been made to restrain his harshness
in understanding otherwise than aright. "For who," says the apostle,"
has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been His counsellor, to
teach Him? or who has pointed out to Him the way of understanding?"[2]
But, indeed, the world has held it lawful for Diana of the Scythians,
or Mercury of the Gauls, or Saturn of the Africans, to be appeased by
human sacrifices; and in Latium to this day Jupiter has human blood
given him to taste in the midst of the city; and no one makes it a
matter of discussion, or imagines that it does not occur for some
reason, or that it occurs by the will of his God, without having value.
If our God, too, to have a sacrifice of His own, had required
martyrdoms for Himself, who would have reproached Him for the deadly
religion, and the mournful ceremonies, and the altar-pyre, and the
undertaker-priest, and not rather have counted happy the man whom God
should have devoured?
We keep therefore the one position, and, in respect of this
question only, summon to an encounter, whether martyrdoms have been
commanded by God, that you may believe that they have been commanded by
reason, if you know that they have been commanded by Him, because God
will not command ought without reason. Since the death of His own
saints is precious is His sight, as David sings,[3] it is not, I think,
that one which falls to the lot of men generally, and is a debt due by
all (rather is that one even disgraceful on account of the trespass,
and the desert of condemnation to which it is ta be traced), but that
other which is met in this very work—in bearing witness for religion,
and maintaining the fight of confession in behalf of righteousness and
the sacrament. As saith Esaias, "See how the righteous man perisheth,
and no one layeth it to heart; and righteous men are taken away, and no
one considereth it: for from before the face of unrighteousness the
righteous man perisheth, and he shall have honour at his burial."[4]
Here, too, you have both an announcement of martrydoms, and of the
recompense they bring. From the beginning, indeed, righteousness
suffers violence. Forthwith, as soon as God has begun to be worshipped,
religion has got ill-will for her portion. He who had pleased God is
slain, and that by his brother. Beginning with kindred blood, in order
that it might the more easily go in quest of that of strangers,
ungodliness made the object of its pursuit, finally, that not only of
righteous persons, but even of prophets also. David is persecuted;
Elias put to flight; Jeremias stoned; Esaias cut asunder; Zacharias
butchered between the altar and the temple, imparting to the hard
stones lasting marks of his blood.[5] That person himself, at the close
of the law and the prophets, and called not a prophet, but a messenger,
is, suffering an ignominious death, beheaded to reward a dancing-girl.
And certainly they who were wont to be led by the Spirit of God used to
be guided by Himself to martyrdoms; so that they had even already to
endure what they had also proclaimed as requiring to be borne.
Wherefore the brotherhood of the three also, when the dedication of the
royal image was the occasion of the citizens being pressed to offer
worship, knew well what faith, which alone in them had not been taken
captive, required,—namely, that they must resist idolatry to the
death.[6] For they remembered also the words of Jeremias writing to
those over whom that captivity was impending: "And now ye shall see
borne upon (men's) shoulders the gods of the Babylonians, of gold and
silver and wood, causing fear to the Gentiles. Beware, therefore, that
ye also do not be altogether like the foreigners, and be seized with
fear while ye behold crowds worshipping those gods before and behind,
but say in your mind, Our duty is to worship Thee, O Lord."[7]
Therefore, having got confidence from God, they said, when with
strength of mind they set at defiance the king' s threats against the
disobedient: "There is no necessity for our making answer to this
command of yours. For our God whom we worship is able to deliver us
from the furnace of fire and from your hands; and then it will be made
plain to you that we shall neither serve your idol, nor worship your
golden image which you have set up."[8] O martyrdom even without
suffering perfect! Enough did they suffer! enough were they burned,
whom on this account God shielded, that it might not seem that they had
given a false representation of His power. For forthwith, certainly,
would the lions, with their pent-up and wonted savageness, have
devoured Daniel also, a worshipper of none but God, and therefore
accused and demanded by the Chaldeans, if it had been right that the
worthy anticipation of Darius concerning God should have proved
delusive. For the rest, every preacher of God, and every worshipper
also, such as, having been summoned to the service of idolatry, had
refused compliance, ought to have suffered, agreeably to the tenor of
that argument too, by which the truth ought to have been recommended
both to those who were then living and to those following in
succession,—(namely), that the suffering of its defenders themselves
bespeak trust for it, because nobody would have been willing to be
slain but one possessing the truth. Such commands as well as instances,
remounting to earliest times, show that believers are under obligation
to suffer martyrdom.
It remains for us, lest ancient times may perhaps have had the
sacrament[1] (exclusively) their own, to review the modern Christian
system, as though, being also from God, it might be different from what
preceded, and besides, therefore, opposed thereto in its code of rules
likewise, so that its Wisdom knows not to murder her own sons!
Evidently, in the case of Christ both the divine nature and the will
and the sect are different from any previously known ! He will have
commanded either no martyrdoms at all, or those which must be
understood in a sense different from the ordinary, being such a person
as to urge no one to a risk of this kind as to promise no reward to
them who suffer for Him, because He does not wish them to suffer; and
therefore does He say, when setting forth His chief commands, "Blessed
are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven."[2] The following statement, indeed, applies first
to all without restriction, then specially to the apostles themselves:"
Blessed shall ye be when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and
shall say all manner of evil against you, for my sake. Rejoice and be
exceeding glad, since very great is your reward in heaven; for so used
their fathers to do even to the prophets." So that He likewise foretold
their having to be themselves also slain, after the example of the
prophets. Though, even if He had appointed all this persecution in case
He were obeyed for those only who were then apostles, assuredly through
them along with the entire sacrament, with the shoot of the name, with
the layer of the Holy Spirit, the rule about enduring persecution also
would have had respect to us too, as to disciples by inheritance, and,
(as it were,)bushes from the apostolic seed. For even thus again does
He address words of guidance to the apostles: "Behold, I send you forth
as sheep in the midst of wolves;" and, "Beware of men, for they will
deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their
synagogues; and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my
sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles," etc.[3] Now when
He adds, "But the brother will deliver up the brother to death, and the
father the child; and the children shall rise up against their parents,
and cause them to be put to death," He has dearly announced with
reference to the others, (that they would be subjected to) this form of
unrighteous conduct, which we do not find exemplified in the case of
the apostles. For none of them had experience of a father or a brother
as a betrayer, which very many of us have. Then He returns to the
apostles: "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake." How
much more shall we, for whom there exists the necessity of being
delivered up by parents too! Thus, by allotting this very betrayal, now
to the apostles, now to all, He pours out the same destruction upon all
the possessors of the name, on whom the name. along with the condition
that it be an object of hatred, will rest. But he who will endure on to
the end—this man will be saved. By enduring what but
persecution,—betrayal,—death? For to endure to the end is nought else
than to suffer the end. And therefore there immediately follow, "The
disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his own lord;"
because, seeing the Master and Lord Himself was stedfast in suffering
persecution, betrayal and death, much more will it be the duty of His
servants and disciples to bear the same, that they may not seem as if
superior to Him, or to have got an immunity from the assaults of
unrighteousness, since this itself should be glory enough for them, to
be conformed to the sufferings of their Lord and Master; and, preparing
them for the endurance of these, He reminds them that they must not
fear such persons as kill the body only, but are not able to destroy
the soul, but that they must dedicate fear to Him rather who has such
power that He can kill both body and soul, and destroy them in hell.
Who, pray, are these slayers of the body only, but the governors and
kings aforesaid—men, I ween? Who is the ruler of the soul also, but
God only? Who is this but the threatener of fires hereafter, He without
whose will not even one of two sparrows falls to the ground; that is,
not even one of the two substances of man, flesh or spirit, because the
number of our hairs also has been recorded before Him? Fear ye not,
therefore. When He adds, "Ye are of more value than many sparrows," He
makes promise that we shall not in vain—that is, not without
profit—fall to the ground if we choose to be killed by men rather than
by God. "Whosoever therefore will confess in me before men, in him will
I confess also before my Father who is in heaven;[1] and whosoever
shall deny me before men, him will I deny also before my Father who is
in heaven." Clear, as I think, are the terms used in announcing, and
the way to explain, the confession as well as the denial, although the
mode of putting them is different. He who confesses himself a
Christian, beareth witness that he is Christ's; he who is Christ's must
be in Christ. If he is in Christ, he certainly confesses in Christ,
when he confesses himself a Christian. For he cannot be this without
being in Christ. Besides, by confessing in Christ he confesses Christ
too: since, by virtue of being a Christian, he is in Christ, while
Christ Himself also is in him. For if you have made mention of day, you
have also held out to view the element of light which gives us day,
although you may not have made mention of light. Thus, albeit He has
not expressly said, "He who will confess me," (yet) the conduct
involved in daily confession Is not different from what is meant in our
Lord's declaration. For he who confesses himself to be what he is, that
is, a Christian, confesses that likewise by which he is it, that is,
Christ. Therefore he who has denied that he is a Christian, has denied
in Christ, by denying that he is in Christ while he denies that he is a
Christian; and, on the other hand, by denying that Christ is in him,
while He denies that he is in Christ, he will deny Christ too. Thus
both he who will deny in Christ, will deny Christ, and he who will
confess in Christ will confess Christ. It would have been enough,
therefore, though our Lord had made an announcement about confessing
merely. For, from His mode of presenting confession, it might be
decided beforehand with reference to its opposite too—denial, that
is—that denial is repaid by the Lord with denial, just as confession
is with confession. And therefore, since in the mould in which the
confession has been cast the state of (the case with reference to)
denial also may be perceived, it is evident that to another manner of
denial belongs what the Lord has announced concerning it, in terms
different from those in which He speaks of confession, when He says,
"Who will deny me," not "Who will deny in me." For He had foreseen that
this form of violence also would, for the most part, immediately follow
when any one had been forced to renounce the Christian name,—that he
who had denied that he was a Christian would be compelled to deny
Christ Himself too by blaspheming Him. As not long ago, alas, we
shuddered at the struggle waged in this way by some with their entire
faith, which had had favourable omens. Therefore it will be to no
purpose to say, "Though I shall deny that I am a Christian, I shall not
be denied by Christ, for I have not denied Himself." For even so much
will be inferred from that denial, by which, seeing he denies Christ in
him by denying that he is a Christian, he has denied Christ Himself
also. But there is more, because He threatens likewise shame with shame
(in return): "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me before men, of him will
I also be ashamed before my Father who is in heaven." For He was aware
that denial is produced even most of all by shame, that the state of
the mind appears in the forehead, and that the wound of shame precedes
that in the body.
But as to those who think that not here, that is, not within this
environment of earth, nor during this period of existence, nor before
men possessing this nature shared by us all, has confession been
appointed to be made, what a supposition is theirs, being at variance
with the whole order of things of which we have experience in these
lands, and in this life, and under human authorities! Doubtless, when
the souls have departed from their bodies, and begun to be put upon
trial in the several stories of the heavens, with reference to the
engagement (under which they have come to Jesus), and to be questioned
about those hidden mysteries of the heretics, they must then confess
before the real powers and the real men,—the Teleti,[2] to wit, and
the Abascanti,[3] and the Acineti[4] of Valentinus! For, say they, even
the Demiurge himself did not uniformly approve of the men of our world,
whom he counted as a drop of a bucket,[1] and the dust of the
threshing-floor, and spittle and locusts, and put on a level even with
brute beasts. Clearly, it is so written. Yet not therefore must we
understand that there is, besides us, another kind of man, which—for
it is evidently thus (in the case proposed)—has been able to assume
without invalidating a comparison between the two kinds, both the
characteristics of the race and a unique property. For even if the life
was tainted, so that condemned to contempt it might be likened to
objects held in contempt, the nature was not forthwith taken away, so
that there might be supposed to be another under its name. Rather is
the nature preserved, though the life blushes; nor does Christ know
other men than those with reference to whom He says, "Whom do men say
that I am?"[2] And, "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye
likewise so to, them."[3] Consider whether He may not have I preserved
a race such that He is looking for a testimony to Himself from them, as
well as l consisting of those on whom He enjoins the interchange of
righteous dealing. But if I should urgently demand that those heavenly
men be described to me, Aratus will sketch more easily Perseus and
Cepheus, and Erigone, and Ariadne, among the constellations. But who
prevented the Lord from clearly prescribing that confession by men
likewise has to be made where He plainly announced that His own would
be; so that the statement might have run thus :" Whosoever shall
confess in me before men in heaven, I also will confess in him before
my Father who is in heaven?" He ought to have saved me from this
mistake about confession on earth, which He would not have wished me to
take part in, if He had commanded one in heaven; for I knew no other
men but the inhabitants of the earth, man himself even not having up to
that time been observed in heaven. Besides, what is the credibility of
the things (alleged), that, being after death raised to heavenly
places, I should be put to the test there, whither I would not be
translated without being already tested, that I should there be tried
in reference to a command where I could not come, but to find
admittance? Heaven lies open to the Christian before the way to it
does; because there is no way to heaven, but to him to whom heaven lies
open; and he who reaches it will enter. What powers, keeping guard at
the gate, do I hear you affirm to exist in accordance with Roman
superstition, with a certain Carnus, Forculus, and Limentinus? What
powers do you set in order at the railings? If you have ever read in
David, "Lift up your gates, ye princes, and let the everlasting gates
be lifted up; and the King of glory shall enter in;"[4] if you have
also heard from Amos, "Who buildeth up to the heavens his way of
ascent, and is such as to pour forth his abundance (of waters) over the
earth;"[5] know that both that way of ascent was thereafter levelled
with the ground, by the footsteps of the Lord, and an entrance
thereafter opened up by the might of Christ, and that no delay or
inquest will meet Christians on the threshold, since they have there to
be not discriminated from one another, but owned, and not put to the
question, but received in. For though you think heaven still shut,
remember that the Lord left here to Peter and through him to the
Church, the keys of it, which every one who has been here put to the
question, and also made confession, will carry with him. But the devil
stoutly affirms that we must confess there, to persuade us that we must
deny here. I shall send before me fine documents, to be sure,[6] I
shall carry with me excellent keys, the fear of them who kill the body
only, but do nought against the soul: I shall be graced by the neglect
of this command: I shall stand with credit in heavenly places, who
could not stand in earthly: I shall hold out against the greater
powers, who yielded to the lesser: I shall deserve to be at length let
in, though now shut out. It readily occurs to one to remark further,
"If it is in heaven that men must confess, it is here too that they
must deny." For where the one is, there both are. For contraries always
go together. There will need to be carried on in heaven persecution
even, which is the occasion of confession or denial. Why, then, do you
refrain, O most presumptuous heretic, from transporting to the world
above the whole series of means proper to the intimidation of
Christians, and especially to put there the very hatred for the name,
where Christ rules at the right hand of the Father? Will you plant
there both synagogues of the Jews—fountains of persecution—before
which the apostles endured the scourge, and heathen assemblages with
their own circus, forsooth, where they readily join in the cry, Death
to the third race?[7] But ye are bound to pro- duce in the same place
both our brothers, fathers, children, mothers-in-law, daughters-in-law
and those of our household, through whose agency the betrayal has been
appointed; likewise kings, governors, and armed authorities, before
whom the matter at issue must be contested. Assuredly there will be in
heaven a prison also, destitute of the sun's rays or full of light
unthankfully, and fetters of the zones perhaps, and, for a rack-horse,
the axis itself which whirls the heavens round. Then, if a Christian is
to be stoned, hail-storms will be near; if burned, thunderbolts are at
hand; if butchered, the armed Orion will exercise his function; if put
an end to by beasts, the north will send forth the bears, the Zodiac
the bulls and the lions. He who will endure these assaults to the end,
the same shall be saved. Will there be then, in heaven, both an end,
and suffering, a killing, and the first confession? And where will be
the flesh requisite for all this? Where the body which alone has to be
killed by men? Unerring reason has commanded us to set forth these
things in even a playful manner; nor will any one thrust out the bar
consisting in this objection (we have offered), so as not to be
compelled to transfer the whole array of means proper to persecution,
all the powerful instrumentality which has been provided for dealing
with this matter, to the place where he has put the court before which
confession should be made. Since confession is elicited by persecution,
and persecution ended in confession, there cannot but be at the same
time, in attendance upon these, the instrumentality which determines
both the entrance and the exit, that is, the beginning and the end. But
both hatred for the name will be here, persecution breaks out here,
betrayal brings men forth here, examination uses force here, torture
rages here, and confession or denial completes this whole course of
procedure on the earth. Therefore, if the other things are here,
confession also is not elsewhere; if confession is elsewhere, the other
things also are not here. Certainly the other things are not elsewhere;
therefore neither is confession in heaven. Or, if they will have it
that the manner in which the heavenly examination and confession take
place is different, it will certainly be also incumbent on them to
devise a mode of procedure of their own of a very different kind, and
opposed to that method which is indicated in the Scriptures. And we may
be able to say, Let them consider (whether what they imagine to exist
does so), if so be that this course of procedure, proper to examination
and confession on earth—a course which has persecution as the source
in which it originates, and which pleads dissension in the state—is
preserved to its own faith, if so be that we must believe just as is
also written, and understand just as is spoken. Here I endure the
entire course (in question), the Lord Himself not appointing a
different quarter of the world for any doing so. For what does He add
after finishing with confession and denial? "Think not that I am come
to send peace on earth, but a sword,"—undoubtedly on the earth. "For I
am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter
against her mother, and the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law.
And a man's foes shall be they of his own household."[1] For so is it
brought to pass, that the brother delivers up the brother to death, and
the father the son: and the children rise up against the parents, and
cause them to die. And he who endureth to the end let that man be
saved.[2] So that this whole course of procedure characteristic of the
Lord's sword, which has been sent not to heaven, but to earth, makes
confession also to be there, which by enduring to the end is to issue
in the suffering of death.
In the same manner, therefore, we maintain that the other
announcements too refer to the condition of martyrdom. "He," says
Jesus, "who will value his own life also more than me, is not worthy of
me,"[3]—that is, he who will rather live by denying, than die by
confessing, me; and "he who findeth his life shall lose it; but he who
loseth it for my sake shall find it.''[4] Therefore indeed he finds it,
who, in winning life, denies; but he who thinks that he wins it by
denying, will lose it in hell. On the other hand, he who, through
confessing, is killed, will lose it for the present, but is also about
to find it unto everlasting life. In fine, governors themselves, when
they urge men to deny, say, "Save your life;" and, "Do not lose your
life." How would Christ speak, but in accordance with the treatment to
which the Christian would be subjected? But when He forbids thinking
about what answer to make at a judgment-seat,[5] He is preparing His
own servants for what awaited them, He gives the assurance that the
Holy Spirit will answer by them; and when He wishes a brother to be
visited in prison,[6] He is commanding that those about to confess be
the object of solicitude; and He is soothing their sufferings when He
asserts that God will avenge His own elect.[1] In the parable also of
the withering of the word[2] after the green blade had sprung up, He
is drawing a picture with reference to the burning heat of
persecutions. If these announcements are not understood as they are
made, without doubt they signify something else than the sound
indicates; and there will be one thing in the words, another in their
meanings, as is the case with allegories, with parables, with riddles.
Whatever wind of reasoning, therefore, these scorpions may catch (in
their sails), with whatever subtlety they may attack, there is now one
line of defence:[3] an appeal will be made to the facts themselves,
whether they occur as the Scriptures represent that they would; since
another thing will then be meant in the Scriptures if that very one
(which seems to be so) is not found in actual facts. For what is
written, must needs come to pass. Besides, what is written will then
come to pass, if something different does not. But, lo! we are both
regarded as persons to be hated by all men for the, sake of the name,
as it is written; and are delivered up by our nearest of kin also, as
it is written; and are brought before magistrates, and examined, and
tortured, and make confession, and are ruthlessly killed, as it is
written. So the Lord ordained. If He ordained these events otherwise,
why do they not come to pass otherwise than He ordained them, that is,
as He ordained them? And yet they do not come to pass otherwise than He
ordained. Therefore, as they come to pass, so He ordained; and as He
ordained, so they come to pass. For neither would they have been
permitted to occur otherwise than He ordained, nor for His part would
He have ordained otherwise than He would wish them to occur. Thus these
passages of Scripture will not mean ought else than we recognise in
actual facts; or if those events are not yet taking place which are
announced, how are those taking place which have not been announced?
For these events which are taking place have not been announced, if
those which are announced are different, and not these which are taking
place. Well now, seeing the very occurrences are met with in actual
life which are believed to have been expressed with a different meaning
in words, what would happen if they were found to have come to pass in
a different manner than had been revealed? But this will be the
waywardness of faith, not to believe what has been demonstrated, to
assume the truth of what has not been demonstrated. And to this
waywardness I will offer the following objection also, that if these
events, which occur as is written, will not be the very ones which are
announced, those too (which are meant) ought not to occur as is
written, that they themselves also may not, after the example of these
others, be in danger of exclusion, since there is one thing in the
words and another in the facts; and there remains that even the events
which have been announced are not seen when they occur, if they are
announced otherwise than they have to occur. And how will those be
believed (to have come to pass), which will not have been announced as
they come to pass? Thus heretics, by not believing what is announced as
it has been shown to have taken place, believe what has not been even
announced.
Who, now, should know better the marrow of the Scriptures than
the school of Christ itself?—the persons whom the Lord both chose for
Himself as scholars, certainly to be fully instructed in all points,
and appointed to us for masters to instruct us in all points. To whom
would He have rather made known the veiled import of His own language,
than to him to whom He disclosed the likeness of His own glory—to
Peter, John, and James, and afterwards to Paul, to whom He granted
participation in (the joys of) paradise too, prior to his martyrdom? Or
do they also write differently from what they think—teachers using
deceit, not truth? Addressing the Christians of Pontus, Peter, at all
events, says, "How great indeed is the glory, if ye suffer patiently,
without being punished as evildoers ! For this is a lovely feature, and
even hereunto were ye called, since Christ also suffered for us,
leaving you Himself as an example, that ye should follow His own
steps."[4] And again: "Beloved, be not alarmed by the fiery trial which
is taking place among you, as though some strange thing happened unto
you. For, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, do ye
rejoice; that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also
with exceeding joy. If ye are reproached for the name of Christ, happy
are ye; because glory and the Spirit of God rest upon you: if only none
of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil-doer, or as a
busybody in other men's matters; yet (if any man suffer) as a
Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this
behalf."[5] John, in fact, exhorts us to lay down our lives even for
our brethren,[1] affirming that there is no fear in love: "For perfect
love casteth out fear, since fear has punishment; and he who fears is
not perfect in love."[2] What fear would it be better to understand (as
here meant), than that which gives rise to denial? What love does he
assert to be perfect, but that which puts fear to flight, and gives
courage to confess? What penalty will he appoint as the punishment of
fear, but that which he who denies is about to pay, who has to be
slain, body and soul, in hell? And if he teaches that we must die for
the brethren, how much more for the Lord,—he being sufficiently
prepared, by his own Revelation too, forgiving such advice ! For indeed
the Spirit had sent the injunction to the angel of the church in
Smyrna: "Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye
may be tried ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give
thee a crown of life."[3] Also to the angel of the church in Pergamus
(mention was made) of Antipas,[4] the very faithful martyr, who was
slain where Satan dwelleth. Also to the angel of the church in
Philadelphia[5] (it was signified) that he who had not denied the name
of the Lord was delivered from the last trial. Then to every conqueror
the Spirit promises now the tree of life, and exemption from the second
death; now the hidden manna with the stone of glistening whiteness, and
the name unknown ( to every man save him that receiveth it); now power
to rule with a rod of iron, and the brightness of the morning star; now
the being clothed in white raiment, and not having the name blotted out
of the book of life, and being made in the temple of God a pillar with
the inscription on it of the name of God and of the Lord, and of the
heavenly Jerusalem; now a sitting with the Lord on His throne,—which
once was persistently refused to the sons of Zebedee.[6] Who, pray, are
these so blessed conquerors, but martyrs in the strict sense of the
word?For indeed theirs are the victories whose also are the fights;
theirs, however, are the fights whose also is the blood. But the souls
of the martyrs both peacefully rest in the meantime under the altar,[7]
and support their patience by the assured hope of revenge; and, clothed
in their robes, wear the dazzling halo of brightness, until others also
may fully share in their glory. For yet again a countless throng are
revealed, clothed in white and distinguished by palms of victory,
celebrating their triumph doubtless over Antichrist, since one of the
elders says, "These are they who come out of that great tribulation,
and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb."[8] For the flesh is the clothing of the soul. The uncleanness,
indeed, is washed away by baptism, but the stains are changed into
dazzling whiteness by martyrdom. For Esaias also promises, that out of
red and scarlet there will come forth the whiteness of snow and wool?
When great Babylon likewise is represented as drunk with the blood of
the saints,[10] doubtless the supplies needful for her drunkenness are
furnished by the cups of martyrdoms; and what suffering the fear of
martyrdoms will entail, is in like manner shown. For among all the
castsways, nay, taking precedence of them all, are the fearful. "But
the fearful," says John—and then come the others—" will have their
part in the lake of fire and brimstone."[11] Thus fear, which, as
stated in his epistle, love drives out, has punishment.
But how Paul, an apostle, from being a persecutor, who first of
all shed the blood of the church, though afterwards he exchanged the
sword for the pen, and turned the dagger into a plough, being first a
ravening wolf of Benjamin, then himself supplying food as did
Jacob,[12]—how he, (I say,) speaks in favour of martyrdoms, now to be
chosen by himself also, when, rejoicing over the Thessalonians, he
says, "So that we glory in you in the churches of God, for your
patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations, in which
ye endure a manifestation of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may
be accounted worthy of His kingdom, for which ye also suffer ![13] As
also in his Epistle to the Romans: "And not only so, but we glory in
tribulations also, being sure that tribulation worketh patience, and
patience experience, and experience hope; and hope maketh not
ashamed."[14] And again: "And if children, then heirs, heirs indeed of
God, and joint-heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with Him,
that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the
sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed in us."[15] And therefore he afterward says:
"Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (As it is
written: For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we have been
counted as sheep for the slaughter,) Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors, through Him who loved us. For we are persuaded,
that neither death, nor life, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."[1] But further, in recounting his
own sufferings to the Corinthians, he certainly decided that suffering
must be borne: "In labours, (he says,) more abundant, in prisons very
frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty
stripes, save one; thrice was I beaten with rods; once was I
stoned,"[2] and the rest. And if these severities will seem to be more
grievous than martyrdoms, yet once more he says: "Therefore I take
pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in
persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake."[3] He also says, in
verses occurring in a previous part of the epistle: "Our condition is
such, that we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; and are
in need, but not in utter want; since we are harassed by persecutions,
but not forsaken; it is such that we are east down, but not destroyed;
always bearing about in our body the dying of Christ."[4] "But though,"
says he, "our outward man perisheth"—the flesh doubtless, by the
violence of persecutions-"yet the inward man is renewed day by
day"—the soul, doubtless, by hope in the promises. "For our light
affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal"—he is speaking of troubles;" but the
things which are not seen are eternal"—he is promising rewards. But
writing in bonds to the Thessalonians,[5] he certainly affirmed that
they were blessed, since to them it had been given not only to believe
on Christ, but also to suffer for His sake. "Having," says he, "the
same conflier which ye both saw in me, and now hear to be in me."[6]
"For though I are offered upon the sacrifice, I joy and rejoice with
you all; in like manner do ye also joy and rejoice with me." You see
what he decides the bliss of martyrdom to be, in honour of which he is
providing a festival of mutual joy. When at length he had come to be
very near the attainment of his desire, greatly rejoicing in what he
saw before him, he writes in these terms to Timothy: "For I am already
being offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought
the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; there
is laid up for me the crown which the Lord will give me on that
day"[7]—doubtless of his suffering. Admonition enough did he for his
part also give in preceding passages: "It is a faithful saying: For if
we are dead with Christ, we shall also live with Him; if we suffer, we
shall also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us; if we
believe not, yet He is faithful: He cannot deny Himself."[8] "Be not
thou, therefore, ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His
prisoner;"[9] for he had said before: "For God hath not given us the
spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."[10]
For we suffer with power from love toward God, and with a sound mind,
when we suffer for our blamelessness. But further, if He anywhere
enjoins endurance, for what more than for sufferings is He providing
it? If anywhere He tears men away from idolatry, what more than
martyrdoms takes the lead, in tearing them away to its injury?
No doubt the apostle admonishes the Romans[11] to be subject to
all power, because there is no power but of God, and because (the
ruler) does not carry the sword without reason, and is the servant of
God, nay also, says he, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth
evil. For he had also previously spoken thus: "For rulers are not a
terror to a good work, but to an evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of
the power? Do that which is good, and thou shall have praise of it.
Therefore he is a minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that
which is evil, be afraid." Thus he bids you be subject to the powers,
not on an opportunity occurring for his avoiding martyrdom, but when he
is making an appeal in behalf of a good life, under the view also of
their being as it were assistants bestowed upon righteousness, as it
were handmaids of the divine court of justice, which even here
pronounces sentence beforehand upon the guilty. Then he goes on also to
show how he wishes you to be subject to the powers, bidding you pay
"tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom,"[12] that is,
the things which are Caesar's to Caesar, and the things which are God's
to God;[1] but man is the property of God alone. Peter,[2] no doubt,
had likewise said that the king indeed must be honoured, yet so that
the king be honoured only when he keeps to his own sphere, when he is
far from assuming divine honours; because both father and mother will
be loved along with God, not put on an equality with Him. Besides, one
will not be permitted to love even life more than God.
Now, then, the epistles of the apostles also are well known. And
do we, (you say), in all respects guileless souls and doves merely,
love to go astray? I should think from eagerness to live. But let it be
so, that meaning departs from their epistles. And yet, that the
apostles endured such sufferings, we know: the teaching is clear. This
only I perceive in running through the Acts. I am not at all on the
search. The prisons there, and the bonds, and the scourges, and the big
stones, and the swords, and the onsets by the Jews, and the assemblies
of the heathen, and the indictments by tribunes, and the hearing of
causes by kings, and the judgment-seats of proconsuls and the name of
Caesar, do not need an interpreter. That Peter is struck,[3] that
Stephen is overwhelmed by stones,[4] that James is slain[5] as is a
victim at the altar, that Paul is beheaded has been written in their
own blood. And if a heretic wishes his confidence to rest upon a public
record, the archives of the empire will speak, as would the stones of
Jerusalem. We read the lives of the Caesars: At Rome Nero was the first
who stained with blood the rising faith. Then is Peter girt by
another,[6] when he is made fast to the cross. Then does Paul obtain a
birth suited to Roman citizenship, when in Rome he springs to life
again ennobled by martyrdom. Wherever I read of these occurrencer so
soon as I do so, I learn to suffer; nor does it signify to me which I
follow as teachers of martyrdom, whether the declarations or the deaths
of the apostles, save that in their deaths I recall their declarations
also. For they would not have suffered ought of a kind they had not
previously known they had to suffer. When Agabus, making use of
corresponding action too, had foretold that bonds awaited Paul, the
disciples, weeping and entreating that he would not venture upon going
to Jerusalem, entreated in vain.[7] As for him, having a mind to
illustrate what he had always taught, he says, "Why weep ye, and grieve
my heart? But for my part, I could wish not only to suffer bonds, but
also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of my Lord Jesus Christ." And so
they yielded by saying, "Let the will of the Lord be done;" feeling
sure, doubtless, that sufferings are included in the will of God. For
they had tried to keep him back with the intention not of dissuading,
but to show love for him; as yearning for (the preservation of) the
apostle, not as counselling against martyrdom. And if even then a
Prodicus or Valentinus stood by, suggesting that one must not confess
on the earth before men, and must do so the less in truth, that God may
not (seem to) thirst for blood, and Christ for a repayment of
suffering, as though He besought it with the view of obtaining
salvation by it for Himself also, he would have immediately heard from
the servant of God what the devil had from the Lord: "Get thee behind
me, Satan; thou art an offence unto me. It is written, Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve."[8] But even
now it will be right that he hear it, seeing that, long after, he has
poured forth these poisons, which not even thus are to injure readily
any of the weak ones, if any one in faith will drink, before being
hurt, or even immediately after, this draught of ours.
IX.
APPENDIX.