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.
5:8
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.
5:9
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.
5:10
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.
5:11
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:
but they will do this because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have spoken to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you.' And again: 'Amen, amen, I say to you, that you shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall turn into joy.' And again: 'These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace; but in the world, tribulation. But be of good courage, for I have overcome the world.' And when He was asked by His disciples about the sign of His coming and of the consummation of the world, He answered and said: 'Take heed that no one deceive you. For many will come in My name, saying, I am Christ, and will deceive many. And you shall begin to hear of wars and rumors of wars.
See that you are not troubled; for these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and earthquakes and pestilences in various places. But all these are the beginnings of birth-pangs. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and will kill you, and you shall be hated by all nations for My name's sake. And then many shall be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall arise and shall lead many astray; and because iniquity abounds, the love of many shall grow cold. But he who endures unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached throughout all the world for a testimony to all nations, and then shall the end come.
When therefore you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place—let him who reads understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of the house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to fetch his garment. But woe to those who are with child and to those who give suck in those days. Pray that your flight be not in winter, nor on the Sabbath. For there shall then be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall be; and unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if anyone shall say to you, Behold, here is Christ, or behold, there, do not believe.
For there shall arise false christs and false prophets, and shall give great signs and wonders, so as to lead into error, if it were possible, even the elect. But take heed; behold, I have foretold you all things. If therefore they shall say to you, Behold, He is in the wilderness, do not go out; behold, He is in the inner chambers, do not believe. For as the lightning comes forth from the east and appears even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the corpse shall be, there shall the eagles be gathered together. And immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give its light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with great power and glory. And He shall send His angels with a great trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from the highest heavens to their farthest bounds.' Nor are these things which now befall Christians new or sudden, since the good and the righteous have always, devoted to God by the law of innocence and by the fear of true religion, walked through tribulations and injuries and the grievous and manifold punishments of those who assailed them, by the difficulty of the narrow way.
Thus at the very origin of the world the righteous Abel is the first to be slain by his brother; and Jacob is put to flight, and Joseph is sold; and David, the merciful, King Saul persecutes; and Elijah, who steadfastly and bravely asserted the majesty of God, King Ahab attempts to crush. Zechariah the priest is killed in the midst of the temple and the altar, that he himself might there become a sacrifice, where he was wont to offer sacrifices to God. So many martyrdoms of the righteous, in short, have often been celebrated; so many examples of faith and virtue set forth for the ages to come. The three children, Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, equal in age, harmonious in love, steadfast in faith, constant in virtue, stronger than the flames and punishments that pressed upon them, proclaim that they will serve God alone, know Him alone, worship Him alone, saying:
'O King Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you concerning this matter. For there is a God whom we serve, who is able to deliver us from the furnace of burning fire; and from your hands, O king, He will deliver us. But if not, be it known to you that we do not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up.' And Daniel, devoted to God and full of the Holy Spirit, cries out and says: 'I worship nothing except the Lord my God, who founded heaven and earth.' Tobit also, although under royal and tyrannical servitude, yet free in mind and spirit, keeps his confession to God and sublimely proclaims the divine power and majesty, saying: 'In the land of my captivity I confess Him, and show forth His power in a sinful nation.'
But what of the seven brothers in the Maccabees, alike both in the lot of their birth and of their virtues, filling up the sevenfold number in the sacrament of perfect consummation? Thus the seven brothers cohere in martyrdom, as the first seven days in the divine arrangement containing seven thousand years; as the seven spirits and the seven angels who stand and abide before the face of God, and the sevenfold lamp in the tabernacle of testimony; and in the Apocalypse the seven golden candlesticks; and in Solomon the seven pillars, upon which Wisdom builds her house: so here too the number of the seven brothers, embracing in the quantity of their number the seven churches, according to what we read in the first book of Kingdoms, that the barren woman bore seven.
And in Isaiah seven women lay hold of one man, demanding that his name be invoked upon them. And the apostle Paul, who makes mention of this lawful and certain number, writes to seven churches. And in the Apocalypse the Lord directs His divine commands and heavenly precepts to seven churches and their angels. This number is now found here among the brothers, that the lawful consummation may be fulfilled. Plainly with the seven children is joined also the mother, the source and root, who afterward bore the seven churches—she herself the first and only one, founded upon the rock by the voice of the Lord. Nor is it without meaning that in the sufferings the mother alone is with her children.
For the martyrs who in their passion bear witness that they are sons of God are now reckoned as having no father but God, just as the Lord teaches in the Gospel, saying: 'Call no one your father upon the earth; for one is your Father, who is in heaven.' But what proclamations of confession did they utter, what splendid, what great proofs of faith did they furnish! King Antiochus, the foe—nay, in Antiochus the very antichrist was expressed—sought to defile with the pollution of swine's flesh the glorious mouths of the martyrs, unconquered by the spirit of confession; and when he had grievously scourged them with whips and could accomplish nothing, he ordered the frying-pans to be heated:
and when these were heated and kindled, he commanded that the one who had spoken first and had the more provoked the king by the constancy of his virtue and faith should be brought forward and fried, his tongue—which had confessed God—first drawn out and cut off; which fell out the more gloriously for the martyr. For the tongue that had confessed the name of God ought itself first to go forth to God. Afterward, upon the second, having devised sharper punishments, before torturing the rest of his members, he stripped the skin from his head together with the hair—out of hatred, surely, even for this reason: for since Christ is the head of the man, and God is the head of Christ, he who mangled the head was persecuting God and Christ in the martyr's head. But he, trusting in his martyrdom, and promising himself the reward of resurrection from God's recompense, cried out and said:
'You indeed, O powerless one, destroy us out of this present life; but the King of the world will raise us up, who die for His laws, into the resurrection of eternal life.' The third, being demanded for his tongue, quickly put it forth; for he had already learned from his brother to despise the punishment of having his tongue cut out. He steadfastly stretched out his hands also to be cut off, greatly blessed in this kind of suffering, to whom it befell, with hands stretched out to punishment, to imitate the likeness of the Lord's passion. And the fourth too, with equal virtue despising the torments and answering the king with a heavenly voice to rebuke him, cried out and said: 'It is better that those given over to death by men should await hope from God, to be raised up again by Him. For you there shall be no resurrection to life.'
The fifth, besides treading down the king's butchery and the harsh and varied torments by the vigor of his faith, being also animated by the Spirit of divinity unto the foreknowledge and recognition of things to come, prophesied to the king the indignation of God and the vengeance that would swiftly follow. 'Having power,' he said, 'among men, although you are corruptible, you do what you will. But do not think that our race has been forsaken by God. Endure and see how His great power will torment you and your seed.' What an alleviation that was for the martyr, how great, how grand a solace in his torments, not to ponder his own torments, but to proclaim the punishments of his torturer!
In the sixth, however, not only virtue but also humility is to be praised: that the martyr claimed nothing for himself, nor with proud words paraded the honor of his confession, but rather ascribed to his own sins the fact that he suffered persecution from the king, and ascribed to God the fact that he would afterward be avenged. He taught that martyrs are to be modest, to trust in the vengeance, and to boast of nothing in their passion. 'Do not,' he said, 'go astray in vain. For we suffer these things on account of ourselves, sinning against our God. But as for you, do not think that you will go unpunished, having undertaken to fight against God.' Admirable too was the mother, who, neither broken by the weakness of her sex nor shaken by her manifold bereavement, watched her dying children gladly, and counted not those punishments of her pledges, but their glories.
offering to God so great a martyrdom by the virtue of her own eyes, as her sons had offered by the torments and passion of their members. When six had been punished and slain, and there remained one of the brothers, to whom the king promised riches and honors and many things, that his cruelty and fierceness might be soothed by the solace of even one man subdued; and the king begged that the mother too should join him in pleading with the son, to bring him down—she did indeed plead, but as befitted the mother of martyrs, as befitted one mindful of the law and of God, as befitted one who loved her sons not tenderly but bravely. For she pleaded, but that he might confess God.
She pleaded that the brother might not be separated from his brothers in the fellowship of praise and glory, reckoning herself then the mother of seven sons, if it should befall her to have borne seven sons rather to God than to the world. Arming him therefore and strengthening him, and bringing forth her son then by a happier birth, 'My son,' she said, 'have pity on me, who carried you in the womb for ten months and gave you milk for three years and nourished you and brought you up to this age. I beg you, my son, look upon heaven and earth, and beholding all things that are in them, understand that God made them out of nothing, and that the race of men is made thus. And do not fear this executioner, but, made worthy of your brothers, receive death, that in that compassion I may receive you again with your brothers.'
Great is the mother's praise in her exhortation to virtue, but greater in her fear of God and in the truth of her faith, in that she promised nothing to herself or to her son from the honor of the six martyrs, nor believed that the prayer of the brothers would avail unto the salvation of one who denied; she rather persuaded him to become a partaker of the passion, that on the day of judgment he might be found with his brothers. After these things the mother also dies together with her children; for now nothing else was fitting than that she who had both borne and made martyrs should be joined with them in the fellowship of glory, and should herself also follow those whom she had sent before her to God. And lest anyone, on the occasion offered him of a certificate or of any other thing, should embrace the evil gift of the deceivers whereby they ensnare, Eleazar too is not to be passed over in silence.
When the opportunity was offered him by the king's ministers, that having received flesh which it was lawful for him to eat, he should, in order to circumvent the king, pretend to be eating those things which were brought from the sacrifices and from unlawful foods, he refused to consent to this deception, saying that it befitted neither his age nor his nobility to feign such a thing, whereby others would be scandalized and led into error, supposing that Eleazar, ninety years old, had gone over to the custom of the foreigners, having abandoned and betrayed the law of God; nor was it worth gaining the brief torments of life, so as by offending God to incur eternal punishments. And he, tortured a long while and now set at the very end, while he was dying amid the lashes and torments, groaning, said:
'O Lord, who possess holy knowledge, it is manifest that, although I might be freed from death, I endure the most cruel pains of the body, being beaten with scourges; yet in soul, for the fear of Him, I gladly suffer these things.' A sincere faith indeed, and a virtue entire and quite pure, that he thought not of King Antiochus but of God the judge, and knew that it could profit him nothing unto salvation if he should mock and deceive a man, since God, who is the judge of our conscience and alone to be feared, can in no wise be either mocked or deceived.
If therefore we too live dedicated and devoted to God, if we make our journey above those very ancient and holy footsteps of the righteous, let us proceed through the same proofs of punishments, through the same martyrdoms of passions, reckoning this the greater glory of our own time: that whereas the ancient examples can be numbered, by the abounding fullness of virtue and faith that afterward followed, the Christian martyrs cannot be numbered—the Apocalypse bearing witness and saying: 'After these things I saw a great multitude, which no one could number, out of every nation and out of every tribe and people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb; and they were clothed with white robes, and palms were in their hands, and with a great voice they cried, saying: Salvation to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb.'
And one of the elders answered and said to me: 'These who are clothed in white robes, who are they, and whence did they come?' And I said to him: 'My Lord, you know.' And he said to me: 'These are they who came out of great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God's honor and serve Him in His temple.' But if so great a people of Christian martyrs is shown and proved, let no one think it hard or arduous to become a martyr, when he sees that the people of the martyrs cannot be numbered. WHAT HOPE AND REWARD AWAIT THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE MARTYRS AFTER THE CONFLICTS AND SUFFERINGS OF THIS TIME. Through Solomon the Holy Spirit shows and foretells, saying:
And though in the sight of men they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality; and having been afflicted in a few things, in many they shall be well rewarded, because God tried them and found them worthy of Himself. As gold in the furnace He proved them, and as a whole burnt sacrifice He received them; and in the time of their visitation they shall shine. They shall judge the nations and shall have dominion over the peoples, and their Lord shall reign forever. Likewise in the same author our vindication is described, and the repentance of those who persecute and harass us is foretold. 'Then,' he says, 'shall the righteous stand in great boldness against those who afflicted them and who took away their labors:'
Seeing it, they shall be troubled with horrible fear, and shall marvel at the suddenness of unhoped-for salvation, saying among themselves, repenting and groaning through anguish of spirit: 'These are they whom we once held in derision and as a byword of reproach. We fools counted their life madness, and their end without honor. How are they reckoned among the sons of God, and their lot is among the saints? Therefore we erred from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness shone not for us, and the sun rose not upon us. We were wearied in the way of iniquity and perdition, and we walked through difficult wildernesses, but the way of the Lord we knew not. What did our pride profit us, or what did the boasting of riches confer upon us?'
All these things passed away like a shadow. Likewise in Psalm 116 the price and reward of suffering is shown: 'Precious,' he says, 'in the sight of God is the death of His saints.' Likewise in Psalm 126 the sorrow of the struggle and the gladness of the recompense are expressed: 'They that sow,' he says, 'in tears shall reap in joy. Going they went and wept, casting their seeds; but coming they shall come with exultation, bearing their sheaves.' And again in Psalm 119: 'Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the light of the Lord. Blessed are they who search out His testimonies; with their whole heart they seek Him.'
Likewise the Lord in the Gospel, Himself the avenger of our persecution and the bestower of reward for suffering: 'Blessed,' He says, 'are they who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' And again: 'Blessed shall you be when men hate you, and separate you, and cast you out, and revile your name as evil for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice in that day and be exceeding glad, for behold, your reward is great in heaven.' And again: 'He who loses his life for My sake shall save it.'
Nor do the rewards of the divine promise await only those who are condemned and slain; but even if suffering be lacking to the faithful, yet if the faith remain whole and unconquered, and if, despising and forsaking all his possessions, the Christian show that he follows Christ, he too is honored by Christ among the martyrs, since He Himself promises and says: 'There is no one who leaves house, or field, or parents, or brothers, or wife, or children for the kingdom of God's sake, and does not receive sevenfold as much in this present time, and in the world to come life eternal.' Likewise in the Apocalypse He speaks this same thing: 'And I saw,' he says, 'the souls of those slain for the name of Jesus and the word of God.' And when he had first set the slain in the first place, he added, saying:
'And whosoever did not worship the image of the beast, nor receive its inscription on their forehead or on their hand.' All of these, seen together in the same place with Himself, He joins together and says: 'And they lived and reigned with Christ.' He says that all live and reign with Christ, not only those who have been slain, but also whosoever, standing firm in the steadfastness of their faith and in the fear of God, have not worshiped the image of the beast nor consented to its deadly and sacrilegious decrees. THAT WE RECEIVE MORE IN THE REWARD OF SUFFERING THAN WHAT WE ENDURE HERE IN THE SUFFERING ITSELF.
The blessed apostle Paul proves it, who by divine favor was caught up even to the third heaven and into paradise, and testifies that he heard things unspeakable; who glories that by the eyewitness of faith he beheld Christ as his law; who professes what he both learned and saw with the truth of a greater consciousness. 'The sufferings of this present time,' he says, 'are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that shall be revealed in us.' Who then would not labor by every means to attain to so great a brightness, that he may become the friend of God, that he may rejoice at once with Christ, that after the torments and torments of earth he may receive divine rewards?
If for worldly soldiers it is glorious to return triumphant to their fatherland after the foe is conquered, how much greater and more excellent is the glory, after the devil is conquered, to return triumphant to paradise, and to carry back victorious trophies to that very place from which Adam the sinner was cast out, having laid low him who had before deceived us; to offer to the Lord the most acceptable gift of an uncorrupted faith, an unimpaired strength of mind, an illustrious praise of devotion; to accompany Him when He shall come to receive vengeance upon His enemies, to stand at His side when He shall sit in judgment, to become a coheir of Christ, to be made equal to the angels, to rejoice in the possession of the heavenly kingdom with the patriarchs, with the apostles, with the prophets.
What persecution can conquer these thoughts? What torments can overcome them? The mind, founded upon religious meditations, endures strong and steadfast, and against all the terrors of the devil and the threats of the world the soul stands unmoved, which a sure and solid faith in things to come strengthens. In persecutions the earth is shut off, but heaven lies open; Antichrist threatens, but Christ protects; death is brought in, but immortality follows; the world is taken from one who is slain, but paradise is set before one who is restored; temporal life is extinguished, but eternity is presented.
How great the dignity and how great the security to go forth from here joyful, to go forth glorious amid pressures and straits, to close in a moment the eyes by which men and the world were seen, and at once to open the same, that God and Christ may be seen! What swiftness of so blessed a departure! You are suddenly withdrawn from the earth, that you may be placed in the heavenly kingdoms. These things must be embraced with mind and thought, these meditated on day and night. If persecution find God's soldier such a one, his valor, ready for the battle, cannot be conquered. Or if his summoning come before, the faith that was prepared for martyrdom shall not be without reward: without loss of time the reward is rendered by God the Judge. In persecution the warfare, in peace the conscience is crowned.