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You have desired, dearest Fortunatus, that since the weight of afflictions and persecutions presses upon us, and at the end and in the consummation of the world the hostile time of Antichrist has now begun to draw near, I should compose, from the divine Scriptures, exhortations for preparing and strengthening the minds of the brethren, by which I might animate the soldiers of Christ for the spiritual and heavenly contest. I had to comply with your desire, so necessary, that, as far as our slender ability suffices — equipped by the help of divine inspiration — there might be drawn from the Lord's precepts, as it were, certain arms and defenses for the brethren who are to fight.
For it is too little that we rouse the people of God by the war-trumpet of our voice, unless we confirm the faith of believers and the virtue dedicated and devoted to God by the divine reading. What, moreover, better befits our charge and solicitude than to prepare, by assiduous exhortations, the people committed to us by God and the army stationed in the heavenly camp against the darts and javelins of the devil? For no soldier can be fit for war who has not first been exercised on the field; nor will he who seeks to win the contender's crown be crowned in the stadium, unless he first practices the use and skill of his strength. The adversary is old, and the enemy is ancient, with whom we wage battle.
Six thousand years are now almost completed since the devil began to assail man. All kinds of tempting, and the arts and snares of casting men down, he has learned by the very practice of his antiquity. If he find the soldier of Christ unprepared, if untrained, if not watchful with anxious and whole heart, he circumvents the unwary, deceives the incautious, beguiles the inexperienced. But if anyone, keeping the Lord's precepts and bravely cleaving to Christ, stand against him, he must needs be conquered, because Christ, whom we confess, is unconquered.
And lest I extend my discourse to length, dearest brother, and weary the hearer or reader with an abundance of broader style, I have made an abridgment, so that, with titles set forth which each ought both to know and to retain, I might subjoin the Lord's chapters, and might confirm what I had set forth by the authority of the divine reading; so that I may seem to have sent you not so much a treatise of my own as material for those treating the subject. This thing avails to the use of individuals with greater benefit. For if I were to give a garment already made and prepared, the garment would be mine which another used, and perhaps it would be held to suit another less well, not being made according to the proportion of his stature and body:
but now, of the Lamb through whom we have been redeemed and made alive, I have sent the very wool and the purple, which when you have received, you will make for yourself a tunic according to your own will; and you will rejoice the more in it as in your own household and proper garment; and you will display to the rest also what we have sent, that they too may be able to make for themselves according to their own judgment; so that all, covered over from that old nakedness, may wear the garments of Christ, clothed by the sanctification of heavenly grace.
Moreover, I have foreseen this counsel also, dearest brother, as useful and salutary in an exhortation so necessary as makes martyrs — that the delays and slownesses of our words ought to be cut away, and the circumlocutions of human speech withdrawn, and that those things alone should be set down which God speaks, by which Christ exhorts His servants to martyrdom. The divine precepts themselves, like arms, are to be supplied to the combatants. Let those be the encouragements of the military trumpet, those the war-signals to the fighters. Thence let the ears be roused, thence let the minds be instructed, thence let the strength of soul and body be invigorated unto all endurance of suffering.
Let us only, who, by the Lord's permission, have given the first baptism to believers, prepare each individual for another also, instructing and teaching that this is a baptism greater in grace, more sublime in power, more precious in honor — a baptism in which angels baptize, a baptism in which God and His Christ exult, a baptism after which no one any longer sins, a baptism which consummates the increase of our faith, a baptism which, as we depart from the world, at once joins us to God. In the baptism of water is received the remission of sins; in the baptism of blood, the crown of virtues. This thing is to be embraced and desired, and to be sought after with all the prayers of our petitions, that we who have been the servants of God may also be His friends.
Inexhortandisitaqueacparandisfratribusnostrisetuirtutisacfideifirmitateadpraeconiumdominicaeconfessionisadqueadproeliumpersecutionisetpassionisarmandisprimoinlocodicendumest: I. Idoladeosnonessequaehomosibifaciat — nequeenimquaefiuntfactoresuoetfabricatoremaiorasunt, autprotegereetseruarequemquampossuntquaeipsadetemplissuispereunt, nisiabhomineseruentur — sednecelementacolendaessequaehominisecundumdispositionemetpraeceptumDeiseruiunt. II. DestructisidolisetelementorumrationemonstrataostendendumDeumsolumcolendumesse. \' III. TuncaddendumquaecomminatioDeisitaduersuseosquiidolissacrificant. IIII.
Therefore, in exhorting and preparing our brethren, and in arming them with firmness of virtue and faith for the proclamation of the Lord's confession and for the battle of persecution and suffering, it must be said in the first place: I. That idols are not gods which a man makes for himself — for neither are the things made greater than their maker and fabricator, nor can those things protect or preserve anyone which themselves perish from their own temples unless they are preserved by a man — but also that the elements are not to be worshiped, which serve man according to the disposition and precept of God. II. That, idols being destroyed and the reason of the elements shown, it must be demonstrated that God alone is to be worshiped. III. That then must be added what is the threat of God against those who sacrifice to idols. IV.
PraetereadocendumnonfacileignoscereDeumidololatris. V. EtquodsicidololatriaeindigneturDeus, utpraeceperitetiameosinterficiquisacrificareetseruireidolissuaserint. VI. SubiungendumposthaecquodredemptietuiuificatiChristisanguinenihilChristopraeponeredebeamus, quianecillequicquamnobispraeposueritetillepropternosmalabonispraetulerit, paupertatemdiuitiis, seruitutemdominationi, morteminmortalitati, noscontrainpassionibusnostrispaupertatisaeculariparadisidiuitiasetdeliciaspraeferamus, dominatumetregnumaeternumtemporariaeseruituti, immortalitatemmorti, DeumetChristumdiaboloetantichristo. VII.
Furthermore, it must be taught that God does not easily pardon idolaters. V. And that God is so indignant at idolatry that He has commanded even those to be slain who have persuaded men to sacrifice and to serve idols. VI. After these things it must be subjoined that, having been redeemed and made alive by the blood of Christ, we ought to prefer nothing to Christ, since neither did He prefer anything to us, and He preferred evils to goods for our sake — poverty to riches, servitude to dominion, death to immortality; let us, on the contrary, in our sufferings prefer to worldly poverty the riches and delights of paradise, to a temporary servitude eternal dominion and a kingdom, immortality to death, God and Christ to the devil and Antichrist. VII.
Insinuandumquoqueneereptidefaucibusdiabolietlaqueissaeculiliberati, siinangustiisetpressurisessecoeperint, regredidenuoadsaeculumuelintetperdantquodeuaserint. VIII. Insistendumpotiusesseetperseueranduminfideetuirtuteetcaelestisacspiritalisgratiaeconsummatione, utadpalmametcoronampossitperueniri. VIIII. Adhocenimpressurasetpersecutionesfieriutprobemur. X. Nectimendasesseiniuriasetpoenaspersecutionum, quiamaiorestDominusadprotegendumquamdiabolusadinpugnandum. XI.
It must also be impressed that, having been snatched from the jaws of the devil and freed from the snares of the world, men should not, if they begin to be in straits and afflictions, wish to return again to the world and to lose what they had escaped. VIII. Rather it must be insisted that they persevere in faith and virtue and in the consummation of heavenly and spiritual grace, that they may be able to attain to the palm and the crown. IX. For to this end afflictions and persecutions come about, that we may be tested. X. And that the injuries and penalties of persecutions are not to be feared, because the Lord is greater to protect than the devil to assail. XI.
Acneexpauescatquisetconturbeturadpressurasetpersecutionesquaspatimurinistomundo, probandum \'antepraedictumessequodnosmundusodiohabiturusessetetquodpersecutionesaduersumnosexcitaret, utexhocipsoquodhaecfiantmanifestasitfidesdiuinaepollicitationisinmercedibusetpraemiispostmodumsecuturis, necnouumquidaccidatchristians, quandoabinitiomundibonilaborauerintetoppressiadqueoccisisintiustiabiniustis. XII. Innouissimaparteponendumquaespesetquaemercesmaneatiustosetmartyraspostconflictationeshuiustemporisetpassiones. XIII. Etquodplusaccepturisimusinpassionisremunerationequamquodhicsustinemusinipsapassione.
And lest anyone be terrified and disturbed at the afflictions and persecutions which we suffer in this world, it must be proved that it was foretold beforehand that the world would hold us in hatred and would stir up persecutions against us; so that from this very thing — that these things come to pass — the faith of the divine promise in the rewards and prizes that are to follow afterward may be made manifest; and that nothing new befalls Christians, since from the beginning of the world the good have labored, and the just have been oppressed and slain by the unjust. XII. In the last part must be set what hope and what reward awaits the just and the martyrs after the conflicts and sufferings of this time. XIII. And that we shall receive more in the requital of suffering than what we here endure in the suffering itself.
THAT IDOLS ARE NOT GODS, AND THAT THE ELEMENTS ARE NOT TO BE WORSHIPED IN PLACE OF GODS. In the Psalm 135: The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have a mouth and speak not; they have eyes and see not; they have ears and hear not; for neither is there breath in their mouth. Let those who make them become like to them. Likewise in the Wisdom of Solomon: They counted all the idols of the nations gods, which have neither the sight of eyes to see, nor nostrils to draw in breath, nor ears to hear, nor fingers on their hands to handle; but even their feet are sluggish to walk. For a man made them, and he who borrowed his own breath fashioned them. But no man will be able to fashion a god like to himself:
for since he himself is mortal, he fashions a dead thing with wicked hands. Yet he himself is better than those he worships, since he indeed has lived, but they never. Likewise in Exodus: You shall not make for yourself an idol, nor any likeness of anything. Likewise in Solomon, concerning the elements: Neither, attending to the works, did they recognize who was the Artificer; but they thought either fire, or wind, or swift air, or the circle of the stars, or abundant water, or the sun, or the moon, to be gods. If, because of their beauty, they esteemed these to be gods, let them know how much more beautiful than these is the Lord; or if they admired their powers and works, let them understand from these that He who established them is mightier than they. THAT GOD ALONE IS TO BE WORSHIPED. As it is written:
You shall adore the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve. Likewise in Deuteronomy: There shall be for you no other gods beside me. Likewise there: See, see that I am, and there is no God beside me. I will slay and I will make to live; I will strike and I will heal; and there is none who can rescue out of my hands. Likewise in the Apocalypse: And I saw another angel flying through the midst of heaven, having the eternal gospel, that he might announce it over the earth to all nations and tribes and tongues and peoples, saying with a great voice: Fear rather God, and give to Him glory, for the hour of His judgment has come; and adore Him who made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are in them.
So also the Lord in the Gospel makes mention of the first and the second commandment, saying: Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord; and: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole strength. This is the first; and the second is like to it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets. And again: This, moreover, is life eternal, that they may know You, the only and true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. WHAT THE THREAT OF GOD IS AGAINST THOSE WHO SACRIFICE TO IDOLS. In Exodus: He who sacrifices to gods shall be rooted out, save to the Lord alone. Likewise in Deuteronomy: They sacrificed to demons and not to God. Likewise in Isaiah:
They worshiped those whom their fingers made, and man was bowed down and the man was humbled, and I will not release them. And again: To them you have poured out libations, and to them you have offered sacrifices. Shall I not be indignant over these things? says the Lord. Likewise in Jeremiah: Do not walk after strange gods to serve them, and do not adore them, and do not provoke me by the works of your hands, unto your own destruction. Likewise in the Apocalypse: If anyone adores the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead and on his hand, he too shall drink of the wine of God's wrath, mixed in the cup of His wrath, and shall be punished with fire and brimstone before the eyes of the holy angels and before the eyes of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torments shall ascend forever and ever:
and they who adore the beast and his image shall have no rest day or night. THAT GOD DOES NOT EASILY PARDON IDOLATERS. Moses in Exodus prays for the people and does not obtain it: I beseech You, he says, O Lord, this people has committed a great sin; they have made for themselves gods of gold and of silver. And now, if You forgive them their sin, forgive it; but if not, blot me out of the book which You have written. And the Lord said to Moses: Whoever has sinned before me, him will I blot out of my book. Likewise, when Jeremiah was making supplication for the people, the Lord speaks to him, saying: And do not pray for this people, and do not ask for them in prayer and supplication, because I will not hear in the time when they call upon me, in the time of their affliction.
Ezekiel also announces this same indignation of God toward those who sin against God: And the word of the Lord came to me, he says, saying: Son of man, whatever land shall sin against me, so as to commit a transgression, I will stretch out my hand against it and will break the staff of its bread, and I will send famine upon it and will cut off from it man and beast. And if these three men were in the midst of it, Noah and Daniel and Job, they shall not deliver sons or daughters; they alone shall be saved. Likewise in Kingdoms, First: If a man, by transgressing, sin against a man, they shall pray to the Lord for him; but if a man sin against God, who shall pray for him?
THAT GOD IS SO INDIGNANT AT IDOLATRY THAT HE HAS COMMANDED EVEN THOSE TO BE SLAIN WHO HAVE PERSUADED MEN TO SACRIFICE AND TO SERVE IDOLS. In Deuteronomy: But if your brother, or your son, or your daughter, or your wife who is in your bosom, or your friend who is equal to your own soul, should ask you secretly, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods, the gods of the nations,' you shall not consent to him, and you shall not hearken to him, and your eye shall not spare him, and you shall not conceal him, but reporting you shall report concerning him. Your hand shall be upon him among the first to slay him, and the hand of all the people afterward; and they shall stone him, and he shall die, because he sought to turn you away from the Lord your God.
And again the Lord speaks and says that not even a city is to be spared, even if the whole of it has consented to idolatry: 'Or if you hear in one of the cities which the Lord your God shall give you to dwell therein, men saying, Let us go and serve other gods which you have not known, you shall surely slay all who are in the city with the edge of the sword, and you shall burn the city with fire; and it shall be without dwelling forever. It shall not be rebuilt even now, that the Lord may be turned away from the indignation of His wrath. And He will give you mercy, and will have compassion on you, and will multiply you, if you hear the voice of the Lord your God and keep His commandments.' Mindful of this precept and of its rigor, Mattathias slew the man who had drawn near to sacrifice at the altar.
But if before the coming of Christ these precepts were observed concerning the worship of God and the spurning of idols, how much more are they to be observed after the coming of Christ, since when He came He exhorted us not by words only but also by deeds, having Himself, after enduring all injuries and insults, also suffered and been crucified, that by His own example He might teach us to suffer and to die; so that no man should have any excuse for not suffering on his own behalf, since He suffered for us, and since He suffered for the sins of others, much more ought each one to suffer for his own sins. And therefore He threatens in the Gospel and says: 'Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father who is in heaven.' Likewise the apostle Paul: 'For if we die together,' he says, 'we shall also live together; if we endure, we shall also reign together; if we deny Him, He also will deny us.' Likewise John: 'He who denies the Son has not the Father; he who confesses the Son has both the Son and the Father.' Hence the Lord exhorts us to the contempt of death and strengthens us, saying: 'Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.' And again: 'He who loves his life shall lose it, and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.'
THAT, BEING REDEEMED AND QUICKENED BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST, WE OUGHT TO PREFER NOTHING TO CHRIST. In the Gospel the Lord speaks and says: 'He who loves father or mother above Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter above Me is not worthy of Me; and he who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not My disciple.' As it is written in Deuteronomy: 'They who say to father and mother, I have not known you, and who have not acknowledged their own sons, these have kept Your precepts and have observed Your covenant.' Likewise the apostle Paul: 'Who,' he says, 'shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:
For Your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. But in all these things we overcome, through Him who loved us.' And again: 'You are not your own; for you have been bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body.' And again: 'He died for all, that those who live may no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.' THAT THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN SNATCHED FROM THE JAWS OF THE DEVIL AND FREED FROM THE SNARES OF THE WORLD OUGHT NOT TO RETURN AGAIN TO THE WORLD, LEST THEY LOSE WHAT THEY HAVE ESCAPED.
In Exodus the Jewish people, prefigured as a shadow and image of us, when by God their protector and avenger they had escaped the most cruel servitude of Pharaoh and of Egypt—that is, of the devil and of the world—being faithless and ungrateful toward God, murmured against Moses, looking back at the hardships of the wilderness and of toil, and not understanding the divine benefits of liberty and salvation; and they sought to return to the servitude of Egypt, that is, of the world, from which they had been stripped, whereas they ought rather to trust in God and to believe, since He who frees His people from the devil and the world also protects them when freed. 'What is this,' they say, 'that you have done to us in casting us out of Egypt? It was better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in this wilderness.' And Moses said to the people:
'Trust, stand firm, and behold the salvation which is from the Lord, which He will work for us today. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.' Admonishing us of this in His Gospel, the Lord, that we may not return again to the devil and to the world which we have renounced and from which we have escaped, says: 'No man putting his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.' And again: 'And let him who is in the field not return back. Remember Lot's wife.' And lest anyone be hindered, either by some greed for possessions or by the sweetness of his own people, from following Christ, He added and said: 'He who does not renounce all that he has cannot be My disciple.'
THAT WE MUST PERSIST AND PERSEVERE IN FAITH AND VIRTUE AND IN THE CONSUMMATION OF HEAVENLY AND SPIRITUAL GRACE, THAT WE MAY ATTAIN TO THE PALM AND THE CROWN. In Chronicles: 'The Lord is with you, as long as you are with Him; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.' Likewise in Ezekiel: 'The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in whatever day he goes astray.' Likewise in the Gospel the Lord speaks and says: 'He who shall persevere unto the end, the same shall be saved.' And again: 'If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.' Forewarning us also that we ought always to be ready and prepared, standing firmly in array, He added and said:
'Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning, and you yourselves like men waiting for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks, they may open to him. Blessed are those servants whom the lord, when he comes, shall find watching.' Likewise the blessed apostle Paul, that our faith may advance and grow and reach its summit, exhorts and says: 'Do you not know that those who run in a race all run indeed, but one receives the palm? So run that you may obtain. And they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but you an incorruptible one.' And again: 'No one warring for God entangles himself in worldly business, that he may please Him who has approved him. But even if a man strives, he is not crowned, unless he strives lawfully.'
And again: 'I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God; and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed in the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and pleasing and perfect will of God.' And again: 'We are the sons of God; and if sons, then heirs—heirs indeed of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer together, that we may also be glorified together.' And in the Apocalypse the same exhortation of divine preaching speaks, saying: 'Hold fast what you have, lest another take your crown.'
Of this an example of persevering and abiding is set forth in Exodus, where Moses, to overcome Amalek—who bore the figure of the devil—lifted up his outspread hands in the sign and sacrament of the cross, and could not overcome the adversary except after he had persevered, firm and steadfast, with his hands lifted up continually in the sign. 'And it came to pass,' it says, 'that when Moses lifted up his hands, Israel prevailed; but when he let down his hands, Amalek grew strong. And taking a stone they put it under him, and he sat upon it; and Aaron and Hur held up his hands on this side and on that, and the hands of Moses were made steady until the setting of the sun. And Joshua put Amalek to flight, and all his people.' And the Lord said to Moses:
'Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, for with utter destruction I will blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.' THAT TRIBULATIONS AND PERSECUTIONS COME TO PASS FOR THIS PURPOSE, THAT WE MAY BE PROVED. In Deuteronomy: 'The Lord your God tests you, that He may know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.' And again in Solomon: 'The furnace tests the potter's vessels, and the trial of tribulation tests righteous men.' Paul also testifies and speaks the same, saying: 'We glory in the hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory also in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works endurance, and endurance trial, and trial hope:
and hope does not put us to shame, because the love of God is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.' And Peter sets it down in his epistle and says: 'Beloved, do not marvel at the fiery trial which befalls you, which comes for your testing, nor fall away, as though some new thing happened to you. But as often as you share in the sufferings of Christ, rejoice in all things, that you may also rejoice and exult when the revelation of His glory is made. If you are reproached in the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the name of the majesty and power of the Lord rests upon you, which indeed is blasphemed according to them, but according to us is honored.'
THAT THE INJURIES AND PUNISHMENTS OF PERSECUTIONS ARE NOT TO BE FEARED, BECAUSE THE LORD IS GREATER TO PROTECT THAN THE DEVIL TO ASSAIL. John in his epistle proves it, saying: 'Greater is He who is in you than he who is in this world.' Likewise in Psalm 117: 'I will not fear what man may do to me; the Lord is my helper.' And again: 'Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will be magnified in the name of our God. They are bound hand and foot and have fallen, but we have risen and are set upright.'
And teaching yet more forcibly and showing that the camp of the devil is not to be feared, and that even if the enemy declares war against us, our hope rather rests in that very war, and that the contest of the righteous attains to the reward of the divine throne and of eternal salvation, the Holy Spirit sets it down in Psalm 26 and says: 'If an army should be drawn up against me, my heart shall not fear; and if war should rise up against me, in this will I hope. One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.' Likewise in Exodus the divine Scripture declares that we are rather multiplied and increased by tribulations, saying: 'And the more they oppressed them, the more they became and grew strong.'
And in the Apocalypse divine protection in our sufferings is promised: 'Fear none,' it says, 'of those things which you shall suffer.' Nor does any other promise us security and protection than He who also speaks through the prophet Isaiah, saying: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you and called you by your name; you are Mine. And if you pass through water, I am with you, and the rivers shall not overwhelm you; and if you pass through fire, you shall not be burned, the flame shall not burn you, for I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, who saves you.' He who in the Gospel also promises that divine help to the servants of God shall not be lacking in persecutions, saying: 'But when they deliver you up, do not think how or what you shall speak.
For it shall be given you in that hour what you shall speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.' And again: 'Settle it in your hearts not to premeditate how to make your defense; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which your adversaries shall not be able to resist.' Just as in Exodus God speaks to Moses, who hesitated and was afraid to go to the people, saying: 'Who gave a mouth to man, and who made him slow of speech, and deaf, and seeing, and blind? Was it not I, the Lord God? And now go, and I will open your mouth and instruct you what you shall say.'
Nor is it hard for God to open the mouth of a man devoted to Him, and to inspire constancy and confidence in speaking to His confessor—He who in Numbers, against the prophet Balaam, even made a she-ass to speak. Wherefore in persecutions let no one consider what peril the devil may bring, but rather let him consider what aid God supplies; and let no human assault shake the mind, but let divine protection strengthen the faith, since each one, according to the Lord's promises and the merits of his own faith, receives just so much of God's aid as he believes he receives; nor is there anything which the Almighty cannot supply, unless the faith of the receiver fails and falters.
THAT IT WAS FORETOLD BEFOREHAND THAT THE WORLD WOULD HOLD US IN HATRED, AND THAT IT WOULD STIR UP PERSECUTIONS AGAINST US, AND THAT NOTHING NEW HAPPENS TO CHRISTIANS, SINCE FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD THE GOOD HAVE LABORED, AND THE RIGHTEOUS HAVE BEEN OPPRESSED AND SLAIN BY THE UNRIGHTEOUS. The Lord in the Gospel forewarns and foretells, saying: 'If the world hates you, know that it hated Me first. If you were of the world, the world would love what was its own; but because you are not of the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will persecute you also.' And again: 'The hour will come, when everyone who kills you will think he does a service to God: