Polemical Works 2 part 3/6

'All her adornment has been taken away; from a free woman she has become a slave. Behold, our holy things and our beauty and our glory are laid waste, and the nations have defiled them. Why should we still live?' And Mattathias and his sons rent their garments and covered themselves with sackcloth and mourned exceedingly. And there came those who were from the king, and they compelled apostasy in the city of Modin, that they should sacrifice. And many of Israel drew near to them. And Mattathias and his sons gathered together. And those who had been sent by the king answered and said to Mattathias, saying: 'You are a ruler and noble and great in this city and are strengthened with sons and brothers.'

'Now come first and carry out the king's command, as all the nations and the men of Judah and those who are left in Israel have done, and you and your sons shall be friends of the king, and you and your sons shall be glorified with silver and gold and many gifts.' Mattathias answered and said with a loud voice: 'If all the nations that are in the king's house obey him, so that each departs from the worship of his fathers, and they have chosen to follow his commands—yet I and my sons will walk in the covenant of our fathers. May the Lord be favourable to us; we will not forsake the law and the ordinances. We will not hear the word of the king; we will not turn aside from the service of our worship to the right hand or the left.'

When he had ceased to speak these words, a Jewish man came forward in the sight of all to sacrifice in Modin according to the king's command. And Mattathias saw it and was inflamed, and his loins trembled, and he brought forth wrath according to judgment. And running to the altar, he slew him. And the king's man who was compelling them to sacrifice he killed at that time, and he destroyed the altar. And he was zealous for the law, as Phinehas did to Zambri son of Salom. And Mattathias cried out in the city with a loud voice, saying: 'Let everyone who is zealous, establishing the covenant, come out after me.' And he fled, both he and his sons, into the mountain, and they left whatever they had in the city. What such deed have you seen done by us, that you should deign to say: 'Lucifer has done me an outrage'?

He slew with the sword the king's minister, and also him whom he had seen of his own people comply with the king's edict rather than God's; but I—because I resist you and yours with a word and say: I do not abandon the apostolic and evangelical faith, but believe as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob our fathers believed—for this I am charged with outrages before you. If you had been in the hands of that Mattathias who was zealous for God, or in the hand of Phinehas, to whom God bears witness in Numbers through Moses, and had attempted to live after the manner of foreigners, without doubt they would have slain you with the sword—they would have been your slayers by the sword. But I, because with a word I wound that soul of yours drenched with the blood of Christians, am judged guilty of outrages by you. Why,

emperor, do you not avenge yourself upon me? Why do you not deign to defend your outrages, to avenge yourself upon a beggar of a man? Why do you not act sufficiently? Not because you are unwilling, but because the power has not yet been given you by Him, whose I am confident I am, that I say to you freely these things which, according to your abominable deeds, seem to me depraved. When you have seen that we have renounced you and all the riches of your kingdom, and your father too, and have seen us pledge that we will by no means depart from the faith, you look on and marvel much that, though you are wont to devour with the edge of the sword those who displease you, you nevertheless spare us. I believe it is for piety's sake, and we can gather this from your leniency; for I could conclude from your excessive kindness that you have killed no one. You say:

'He is proud.' Whence do I seem to you to be proud? Surely because you hear from me that you do those things which the enemies of God's religion have always done. It is the duty of my office that I press these things upon you, a heretic. Or are you not a heretic? But if you are a heretic, why do you accuse me, as though I were injurious to you—I who do against you that which God would not have me fail to do? The most holy prophet Jeremiah relates that God said to him: 'And you, gird up your loins and arise and say all whatsoever I have commanded you, and fear not at their face nor be dismayed in their sight.'

Since these things are so, and the necessity of the office imposed on us by God presses upon us, that as you act we should say whatever God has commanded to be said to you, it remains that either you obey the commands of God, being appealed to by me, His servant and priest of His clemency, or that you prove from the sacred Scriptures—perhaps because you are a king—that it is not permitted me to appeal to you in the name of the Lord that you may correct yourself. If you cannot prove that it was forbidden me, but rather begin to find it commanded me, that I should argue and rebuke and exhort and beseech and admonish you and provoke you to please God, why do you say that I do you an outrage? For to this extent He has given us, His bishops, power to rebuke and instruct you who are committed to us, that He has said:

'Fear not at their face, be not dismayed in their sight. Behold, I have set you this day as a fortified city and as a firm wall of bronze against all the kings of Judah and its princes and the people of the land. And they shall fight against you, and they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, to deliver you, says the Lord.' What were the things that Jeremiah said to the kings of Judah and its princes and the peoples of the land? Surely these, that they had forsaken the Lord and sacrificed to strange gods. These things you too have done and do: you have forsaken the apostolic and evangelical faith, you have taken up the Arian heresy, and you compel all the servants of God to become idolaters. Because you dare these things, you call proud those who desire that provision be made for your salvation. God says to Jeremiah:

'And you, gird up your loins and arise, and say all whatsoever I tell you. Fear not at their face nor be dismayed in their sight.' And you, the emperor Constantius, are indignant because we say to you, erring as you are: Return to the way that brings salvation, forsake the error devised through Arius at the devil's prompting. God commands that He alone be feared, He has ordained that none besides Himself be dreaded; and have you ordained the fulfilling of those things which take away the fear of the Lord and make you to be dreaded? God says to Jeremiah: 'Behold, I have set you this day as a fortified city and as a firm wall of bronze against all the kings of Judah and its princes and the people of the land. And they shall fight against you and shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, to deliver you, says the Lord.'

And do you suppose that you can be feared by any of the servants of God? Why do you call me arrogant and proud? Why do you name me insolent? Surely because I have found you, by your own works, to be one of those of whom the blessed John spoke: 'You have heard that antichrist is coming; and now there are many antichrists.' Thus you brand us as guilty of injuries, as though we had been the first to resist, lest you should introduce your idolatry into the Church of God. You have read in the first book of Maccabees: 'And a man said to his neighbour: If we all do as our brethren have done, and do not fight against the nations for our lives and for our ordinances, they will now the more quickly destroy us from the earth.' And they took counsel on that day, saying:

'Whatsoever man shall come against us to battle on the sabbath day, let us fight against him, and let us not all die, as our brethren died in their hiding-places.' Then there gathered together to them a company mighty in strength from Israel, every man that offered himself willingly for the law, and all who were fleeing from evils came to them, and became for them a support. And they smote the host, and they smote the sinners in their wrath, and the wicked men in their indignation.

And the rest fled to the nations, that they might save themselves. And Mattathias and his friends went about, and threw down the altars, and circumcised the uncircumcised children, as many as they found within the borders of Israel, by force; and they pursued the sons of pride, and the work prospered in their hand; and they rescued the law out of the hand of the nations and of the kings, and they did not give the horn to the sinner. What is your mind, wounded by the poisons of Arius, deigning to feel? What can your heart, cut to pieces by the serpent's bites, contrive against this our defence? When you observe that those men acted as they did, ought we to have kept quiet while by your mouth blasphemies were being uttered to wound the people divinely entrusted to us?

'And Mattathias,' it says, 'and his friends went about, and threw down the altars, and circumcised the uncircumcised children, as many as they found within the borders of Israel, by force; and they pursued the sons of pride, and the work prospered in their hand; and they rescued the law out of the hand of the nations and of the kings, and they did not give the horn to the sinner.' Since those who so acted were made most beloved of God, would it have been fitting for us, by flattering you and running along with you in your crime, to become—as you are—most hateful to God? If in this we seem injurious to you, because we could not accept your idolatry, then produce, I pray, a single one of God's worshippers who ever spared the adversaries of His religion.

In the second book of Ezra, when adversaries opposed their restoring for the Lord the house and the temple and the city in Jerusalem, he says: 'The God of heaven himself will prosper us, and we his servants will arise and build; but you have no portion nor memorial in Jerusalem.' And a little later, when the adversaries said: 'Will they sacrifice, or will they eat in their place? Will not a fox go up and pull down their walls of stone?'—to this his servant Ezra says to God: 'Hear, O our God, for we are become contemptible; and turn their reproaches upon their own heads, and give them over to be a derision and into a land of captivity; and do not cover their iniquity, and let not their sins be blotted out from before your face.'

What have we spoken of such a kind concerning you? He is my witness whom Ezra prayed to, and whom I too pray to, and whom my blessed Church, established throughout the whole world, prays to—that these are my prayers concerning you: that you may correct your errors and become one of us. Consider meanwhile how the men of God neither feared their adversaries nor ceased from pouring out prayer against the enemies of God's house—namely, that the strength of the adversaries of God's religion might be brought to nothing. For thus also the most holy Moses says in the canticle of Exodus to God: 'Let fear and trembling of the greatness of your arm fall upon them; let them become as stones, until your people pass over, until your people pass over, O Lord—this people whom you have purchased.'

Such words did they speak to God against those handed over to them; yet we, because we say to you, 'Either turn to God, or hold it for certain that God will bring to nothing all your empty pride,'—we seem to you insolent. Consider further what Mattathias, that most holy man devoted to God, did after those so illustrious deeds which he performed, and what he said at the very end of his departure to his sons; and see whether we priests do these things against you in a right ordering according to God. The holy Scripture speaks, saying: 'The days of Mattathias drew near for him to die, and he said to his sons: Now pride is strengthened, and chastisement, and the time of overthrow, and the wrath of indignation.'

'Now, my sons, be zealous for the law, and give your lives for the covenant of our fathers; and remember the works of the fathers which they did in their generations, and you shall receive great glory and an everlasting name. Was not Abraham found faithful in temptation, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness? Joseph in the time of his distress kept the commandment, and became lord of Egypt. Phinehas our father, by being zealous with zeal, received the covenant of an everlasting priesthood. Joshua, while he fulfilled the word, became a leader in Israel. Caleb, while he bore witness in the assembly, received an inheritance. David in his mercy obtained the throne of the kingdom forever. Elijah, while he was zealous with zeal for the law, was caught up into heaven.'

'Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, believing, were delivered from the flame. Daniel in his simplicity was delivered from the mouth of the lions. And so consider throughout generation and generation, that all who hope in him shall not be made weak. And do not be afraid of the words of a sinful man, for his glory is unto dung and worms. Today he is exalted, tomorrow he shall not be found, because he is turned back into his earth, and his thought shall perish. My sons, be strong and prevail in the law, for in it you shall be glorious. And behold Simeon your brother, I know that he is a man of counsel; hear him, he shall be a father to you. And let Judas Maccabaeus, strong in strength from his youth, be your commander in war, and he shall wage the battle.'

'And you shall gather to yourselves all the doers of the law, and avenge the vengeance of your people; render to the nations their recompense, and give heed to the precept of the law.' When therefore you see that he gave such precepts to his sons and commanded to be done the very things which he himself did—since he teaches that thus the patriarchs, prophets, and all the righteous pleased God—what, you man of darkness, would you have had us do, lest we should seem defiant to you? Should we, the living servants of God, have yielded to you, dead, the satellite of the devil, when you see this Mattathias saying to his sons: 'And so consider throughout generation and generation, that all who hope in him shall not be made weak; and do not be afraid of the words of a sinful man, for his glory is unto dung and worms'?

'Today he is exalted, and tomorrow he shall not be found, because he is turned back into his earth, and his thought shall perish.' Lest we should seem injurious to you, should we spare you who are destroying God's house—you who today exist and tomorrow will be in worms and dung—and draw upon ourselves this offence in God's sight, whereby we might deserve to be brought to nothing along with you? Learn after these things what the sons of this most religious Mattathias did—whether they feared the hand of your fellow-butcher, whether they held his army before their eyes rather than our Lord, whom, all-powerful as we believe him to be, believing, they raised themselves up against the enemy with all their strength. And Judas, who was called Maccabaeus, his son, arose in his stead.

And all his brethren helped him, and all who had joined themselves to his father; and they fought the battle of Israel with gladness. And he enlarged the glory of his people, and put on a breastplate like a giant, and girded on his weapons of war, and set battles in array, protecting the camp with the sword. And he became like a lion in his works, and like a lion's whelp roaring in the hunt. And he pursued the wicked, searching them out, and burned up those who troubled his people. And the wicked shrank back for fear of him, and all the workers of iniquity were confounded, and salvation prospered in his hand. And he exasperated many kings, and gladdened Jacob in his works, and even to the ages his memory is in blessing.

And he went through the cities of Judah, and destroyed all the ungodly out of it, and turned away wrath from Israel. And he was renowned even to the uttermost part of the earth, and he gathered those that were perishing. Those men, kindled with such zeal, made themselves enemies against God's house of foes; but ought we not to have risen against you? Would we not have been called insolent? But you would rightly call me insolent if we had not rightly despised your sacrilegious edict. For look at what the leaders of your fellow-destroyed Jews commanded the apostles, and what the choir of the blessed apostles did against it, and you will find that we are not insolent, but desirous that it may be well both with you and with us. 'Now Peter and John were going up into the temple at the ninth hour of prayer. And

a certain man lame from his mother's womb was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, that he might ask alms of those entering into the temple. When this man saw Peter and John about to enter into the temple, he asked for alms. But Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said: Look on us. And he gave heed to them, hoping to receive something from them. But Peter said to him: Silver and gold I have none, but what I have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And taking him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankle-bones received strength, and leaping up he stood and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God.'

'And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognized that it was he who used to sit for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with dread and amazement at what had happened to him.' And a little later: 'And while they were speaking these words to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees rose up, being grieved that they taught the people and announced in Jesus the resurrection of the dead; and they laid hands on them and put them in ward.' And a little later: 'Seeing the boldness of Peter and John, and having learned that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; recognizing them also, that they had been with Jesus; and seeing also the man who had been healed

standing with them, they could say nothing against it. But when they had commanded them to withdraw outside the council, they conferred among themselves, saying: What shall we do to these men? For that indeed a notable sign has been done through them is manifest to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But that it may spread no further among the people, let us threaten them, that they speak no more in this name to any man. And when they had all consented, they called them and charged them that they should not speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answering said to them: If it is just before God to hearken to you rather than to God, judge you;'

'for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. And they, threatening them, let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people; for all glorified God for what was done. For the man on whom this sign of healing was wrought was more than forty years old. And being let go, they came to their own company and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. And they, when they heard it, with one accord lifted up their voice to the Lord and said: Lord, you are the God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are in them; who by the Holy Spirit and the mouth of our father David your servant said: Why did the nations rage, and the peoples imagine vain things?'

'The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. For truly in this city there gathered together against your holy Son Jesus, whom you anointed, Herod and Pontius Pilate with the nations and the peoples of Israel, to do whatsoever your hand and your counsel foreordained. And now, Lord, look upon their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch forth your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy Son Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken in which they were gathered, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with all boldness.'

If you have now gathered up the whole reason why we brought these things forward, if you have drunk in the entire purpose of our prescription, will you dare to say further that we are insolent? Since you see that neither did the blessed apostles restrain themselves before the leaders of the Jews, nor succumb to their threats, but rather always fearlessly carried through to effect that which was delegated to them—and that likewise the people of God were not only not terrified by the threats of the unbelievers, but even besought God that He might deign to grant to His apostles the boldness of speaking and the constancy of defending the truth.

If therefore this was done both by the blessed apostles and by the peoples dedicated to God, and they were called by God neither defiant nor insolent because they resisted His enemies, how are we said by you to be proud, insolent, and contemptuous—we who, though sinners, yet hold the holy faith of the apostles and of those peoples who had been believers in the only Son of God? Are we proud, together with the apostles, because we count your voice, O apostate, as nothing, and your terrors, O sacrilegious one, as of no account, we soldiers of Christ, because we preach the Son of God as the true Son of God, just as the most blessed apostles preached?

Thus do we seem to you brazen, insolent, and proud, just as the most holy apostles seemed so to the Jews—to whom, if they were today in their bodies, you could have said these very things which you deign to say to us. For we find that a precept was always given to them by the mouth of your fellow-blasphemers, the scribes, the Pharisees, the rulers and the high priest of the Jews, that they should not teach nor preach the only Son of God; yet receive still what is written of what they did, lest perchance your heart, fattened with darkness, might at some time be brought to see the truth: 'By the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch, but of the rest no one dared to join them; yet the people magnified them.'

'And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and pallets, that at least the shadow of Peter, as he passed by, might overshadow some of them, and they were freed from their infirmity. And there came together also the multitude from the neighbouring cities to Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those who were vexed by unclean spirits, and they were all healed. But the chief priest rose up, and all who were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees, and were filled with envy, and laid hands on the apostles, and put them in the public ward. But an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison by night, and brought them out, saying: Go, and standing in the temple, speak to the people all the words of this life.'

'And when they had heard this, they entered at daybreak into the temple and taught. But the chief priest coming, and those who were with him, called together the council and all the assembly of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison; and returning they reported, saying: We found the prison indeed shut with all diligence and the keepers standing at the doors; but when we had opened, we found no one within. Now when the rulers and the high priest of the priests heard these words, they were perplexed concerning them as to what this might be. But someone coming reported to them, saying:'

'Behold, the men whom you put in ward are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Then the captain went with the officers and brought them, but not by force, for they feared the people, lest they should be stoned. And when they had brought them, they set them in the council. And the priest asked them, saying: With strict charge we charged you not to teach in this name, and behold you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and you wish to bring upon us the blood of that man. But Peter and the apostles answering said: Whether ought we to obey God or men?' If therefore God must be obeyed and not men, why do you call us defiant, why do you call us injurious—us whom you see obeying the precepts of God?

'But hearing this, they were furious,' says the Scripture, 'and took counsel to kill them.' So you too hold us in wards, threaten to slay us, because you are possessed by the same spirit by which the Jews were held captive, and are still held. If you are not held captive by that unclean spirit, why do you forbid us to confess and preach the only Son of God? The angel of God, bringing the apostles out of the prison of your fellow-desperate Jews: 'Go, teach in the temple the words of this life'; and you, taking priests from the Church of God, have thought to cast them into prison, lest we should preach the word of life. Meanwhile, I pray you, answer: what is there between you and your fellow, whom by an inverted order the men of Sirmium call Photinus?

You are asked to distinguish what is the difference, what stands between you. Behold, if then the rulers and the high priest and the whole council of the Jews said to the apostles: 'You wish to bring upon us the blood of that man,' Photinus also professes the Son of God to be a mere man, saying that he did not exist before the blessed Mary. This too is your own profession—that he is indeed the Son of God before all things, that is, before the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all things in them, but that he came into being out of nothing, that he is a creature. What difference do you think there is between you and Paul of Samosata, or that disciple of his, your fellow, except that you say 'before all things,' while he says 'after all things'?

For the rest, you have one and the same mind of cruelty and unbelief, so that you would say that God does not have a true Son. Against this, see how the holy Church is believing.

We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, born of the Father, that is, of the substance of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, born not made, of one substance with the Father, which the Greeks call homoousion, through whom all things were made, whether the things in heaven or the things on earth; who for us men and for our salvation came down, was incarnate, was made man, suffered, rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven, and shall come to judge the living and the dead; and we believe also in the Holy Spirit.

You perceive that this is the apostolic and evangelic faith, which maintains that the Son has always reigned and reigns together with the Father, which confesses that the divine Trinity is perfect and has one substance. For the rest, what difference would there be between the Church and you heretics or the Jews, if the blessed Church did not so believe? What holy faith! That you might know how the Church of the Lord punishes what is in you, it said and says concerning you: 'But those who say, There was a time when he was not, and Before he was born he was not, and that he was made out of things nonexistent or out of another substance, saying that the Son of God is mutable and changeable—these the catholic and apostolic Church anathematizes.'