For the sake of this holy faith the apostles were shut up in prison, received chains, were tormented with blows through the space of hours, that they might not reveal the truth to the world; and yet they refused to cease preaching, even up to the point when they should be slaughtered. And do you say that we are men of the greatest defiance, because forsooth we hold the way of the apostles, because we tell you that you have become erring? Consider what the blessed baptist John did to Herod. 'Now Herod the tetrarch, when he was reproved by him concerning Herodias his brother's wife, and concerning all the evils which Herod had done, added this above all, and shut up John in prison.' For what reason did Herod shut up John? Surely because his works were rebuked;
so too you deal thus with the servant of God, because we say to you: Do not do the things you are doing, do not be a murderer, do not persecute the Church of the Lord, do not reject the apostolic faith and approve the heretical one, do not introduce idolatry into the Church. We think we say these things especially for the sake of your own salvation, you who, if you are unwilling to restrain yourself, will without doubt seek for yourself eternal death, just as Herod also sought it—for he could not harm John, whether by casting him into prison or by killing him, since you see that John was God's friend, but Herod was God's enemy. Seeking to harm us, who desire that eternal safety be granted to you, you persecute us in every way;
but the powers of your authority will not be able to avail to harm the servants of the only Son of God, because you are found to be one of those whom He subjected to us who believe, saying: 'Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you.' You who say that I tell you true things, as which proud man do you wish me to be found? That servant who received one talent and hid it, and presented that very one alone to his lord—because he did not present it multiplied through interest, as his fellow-servants presented theirs to their lord—deserved even to lose that talent, and to hear:
'Wicked and slothful servant'—or that servant who presented the received sum multiplied tenfold, to whom it was said: 'Well done, good and faithful servant; because you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your lord'? But whence shall I be able to hear that word, if, fearing you, I do the things which have pleased you? Look in the Gospel at what the Lord willed us to do, and cease to call us arrogant: 'A certain man was rich; he went into a far country to receive a kingdom and to return. And he called ten servants and gave them ten talents, and said to them: Trade until I come. But his citizens hated him and sent a legation after him, saying: We will not have this man reign over us.'
'And it came to pass that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he commanded the servants to be called to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much each had gained by trading. Then came the first, saying: Lord, your talent has gained ten talents. And he said to him: Well done, good servant; because you have been faithful in a little, you shall have authority over ten cities. And another came, saying: Lord, your mina has made five talents. And he said to this one also: And you, be over five cities. And another came, saying: Behold your talent, which I have kept laid up in a napkin, for I feared you, because you are an austere man; you take up what you did not lay down, and reap what you did not sow. And the lord said to him: Out of your own mouth I judge you, unfaithful servant;'
'You knew that I am an austere man, taking up what I did not lay down, and reaping what I did not sow; and why then did you not put my money to the bank, that at my coming I might have exacted it with interest? And to those standing by he said: Take away from him the talent, and give it to him who has the ten talents. But I say to you: To everyone that has shall be given; but from him that has not, even what he has shall be taken away. But as for those enemies of mine who would not have me reign over them, bring them here and slay them before me.' Surely, if you do not change yourself, you will be one of those who were commanded to be slain. Do I therefore seem proud to you, because I desire that you not be slain, because I am longing that you too may be found in that sum entrusted to me, which I desire to be multiplied?
Because we wrestle with you in such a manner, we seem to you enemies—we who, holding the precept of the blessed apostle, unceasingly pour out prayer for your welfare. 'I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high station, that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life with piety and dignity. For this is good and acceptable before God our Saviour, who wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.' Do we seem to you enemies, we who desire that you attain the knowledge of the truth? You call me contemptuous, because I say the things that conduce to your salvation and mine.
But this assertion of yours too, which contends that I do you injury, shows you to be imprudent. For if you had been prudent, first you would never have been found sacrilegious; then, corrected by the authority of the sacred writings, you would have shown yourself a man already restraining himself. But now, because you are imprudent, when the bishop says to you: 'Emperor, provide for your salvation, for you are heavily weighed down with the huge burdens of your crimes,' you say: 'You do me insult.' 'I charge you before God,' says the apostle to Timothy, 'and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, that you keep these things without prejudice, doing nothing by partiality, but preserving equity.'
And do you call him contemptuous who, having caught you in such great crimes, now rebukes you as to why you committed them, and now beseeches you that, while there is opportunity, you deliver yourself from your evils, and become such a one as God does not punish among those whom He designates as wicked and faithless, saying: 'I have begotten sons and exalted them, but they have despised me'? For this I seem proud to you, because I desire that you be found among those whom the only Son of God invites to His kingdom, saying: 'Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' You suppose that you suffer insult, because things that are true are said to you; but the glorious apostle commands the contrary, saying:
'Those who sin, reprove before all, that the rest also may have fear.' Whom ought I to hearken to? To you, who say: 'Let me destroy the religion of God, let me turn His servants to antichrist, let me establish all men in this my sacrilege'—or to the blessed apostle, who charges me to reprove you, sinning, before all? But if you think I ought to have spared you, because you are the emperor, in this too you are found imprudent. For you hear the apostle say: 'Those who sin, reprove before all, that the rest also may have fear'; and you say, 'You ought to have spared me especially, because I am king of the Roman empire.' And where was I passing over that testimony:
'I charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, that you keep these things without discrimination, doing nothing by turning aside to partiality'? For this indeed I seem contemptuous to you, because I have not set your precepts before the precepts of God. In the Acts of the Apostles I read that the blessed apostles were seized by those whose partner you are, not only in unbelief but also in cruelty, and that it was commanded them that they should not teach in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. But let us alike look at that very part of the sacred Scripture, whether the apostles restrained themselves before the precepts of the enemies of God's only Son, or whether they most insistently carried through to completion those things which they had undertaken to fulfil.
'Having summoned the apostles,' it says, 'they had them beaten and let them go, charging them not to speak in the name of Jesus to any man. They therefore departed from the presence of the council rejoicing, because they had been counted worthy to suffer reproach for the Name. And every day, in the temple and at home, they did not cease to teach and to proclaim the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Since Holy Scripture records that the blessed apostles acted thus, must we, the appointed leaders of God's churches, keep silent while you invite men's hearts to deny the Son of God and labor to establish your heresy — lest, forsooth, we be found to have shown insolence to you, a blasphemer, a murderer, a destroyer of the religion of God?
Holy Scripture tells us that the apostles feared neither the blows nor the threats of the sons of pestilence, but always continued to teach; and yet it would have been fitting that we should be broken by the might of your perishable kingdom, so that you might fulfill all your wicked designs? We are reckoned insolent by you because the truth is spoken to you by us. So too your fellow-blasphemers judged the most blessed Stephen, because he said to them: 'You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you have now become the betrayers and murderers — you who received the law by the disposition of angels and did not keep it.'
When the Jews heard these things, were they justly moved against the most holy martyr Stephen, or unjustly? If unjustly, then look also at yourself, being unjustly moved against those who desire your salvation. Observe that you stand on that side against the Church of God on which the Jews stood then and stand now; that you are thus stiff-necked, thus uncircumcised in heart and ears — whence it is that, just as they, hearing the truth, could not endure it but rushed to the slaying of God's worshipper, so you also rush to slay us who speak to you plainly and openly. 'And when they heard these things,' says the divine Scripture, 'they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed their teeth at him'; and a little further on:
'And crying out with a loud voice, they stopped their ears, and with one accord rushed upon him, and casting him out of the city, they stoned him.' So you, raging in heart, gnashing your teeth, are set against us for no other reason than that we call you the persecutor of God's house, than that we justly name you the destroyer of God's religion, the shedder of the blood of Christ's servants, a sacrilegious man — indeed a blaspheming heretic, indeed one warring against the apostolic and evangelical faith. We do nothing hateful to God if, dealing with you in the way we now contend with you, we tell you what we perceive you to be. For we find that men such as you have acted thus against the glorious ones.
'And as they were ministering to the Lord and fasting,' says the Scripture, 'the Holy Spirit said: Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then, having fasted and prayed, they laid hands on them and sent them away. And they, being sent forth by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia, and from there sailed to Cyprus. And when they came to Salamis, they preached the word of the Lord in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John as their minister; and when they had passed through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a certain Jewish man, a false prophet, whose name was Bar-Jesus — which is interpreted 'Ready' — who was with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, a prudent man;'
'who, having called Barnabas and Saul, sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas the magician (for so his name is said to be interpreted) withstood them, seeking to turn away the proconsul from the faith. But Saul, who is also Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixing his eyes upon him, said: O you who are full of all guile and deceit, son of the devil, enemy of all righteousness, you do not cease to pervert the straight ways of the Lord. And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time. And immediately a mist and darkness fell upon him, and going about he sought someone to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul, seeing what had happened, believed, astonished with wonder at the doctrine of the Lord.' We believe this to have been set down as a testimony.
You will not say: 'Lucifer insults me, the emperor.' What concern of mine is it what you are, since I merely say these things which that man who was recognized to be a false prophet heard from the apostle? For do I not hold you, Constantius the emperor, to be such as the glorious Paul and Barnabas held Bar-Jesus the Jew? For you are found to be as opposed to the name of the Lord as he was; you resist the truth as he resisted; you are unwilling that men should believe in the only Son of God, just as he was — that they should believe you and that Jewish false prophet rather. Is it not because you are driven by a hostile spirit, just as he too was driven?
For when you hear that the proconsul was a prudent man and desirous of being instructed by the blessed apostles, that he might be able to grasp the way of truth, and that the man whose imitator you are withstood the apostles, lest they should lead the proconsul to believe in the Son of God, it is manifest that you are such as that Jewish false prophet was. Likewise, since Holy Scripture says that Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, uttered that rebuke, you ought to understand that the Jewish false prophet was full of an unclean spirit. Just as he, driven by a hostile spirit, contradicted, so, since you too are found to resist by the prompting of the adversary, you ought to judge yourself to be none other than Bar-Jesus the Jewish false prophet.
Therefore, since you understand yourself to be another Bar-Jesus, the Jewish false prophet, as often as it has been uttered by your sacrilegious mouth, 'God has no true Son,' do not take it ill if those things are said to you by us which were said by the apostle to your predecessor, the Jewish false prophet: 'Full of all guile and deceit, son of the devil, enemy of all righteousness, you who do not cease to pervert the straight ways of the Lord.' If you are stirred that these things are said to you which were said to him whose path of death you hold, you will show yourself exceedingly foolish, in that you wish to be that which that Jewish false prophet's son was, and yet are unwilling to be called by those very titles by which he too was called.
Again I both exhort and beseech, as I also admonish, that you be willing to take counsel for yourself, lest eternal punishment overtake you. For if that man so deserved to be blinded because he attempted to resist, consider what evils may be presented to you — a murderer, a sacrilegious man, a destroyer of God's religion — both in this life and forever. Receive still further those things which may shape you to understand that we are not insolent, but truthful. Those seven most glorious brothers withstood Antiochus, even as now we have withstood you. You have read what the fourth answered to your fellow-pestilence — you who deem me worthy to be cried out against as insolent, because I tell you that unless you are converted to God, you shall perish forever; for he says:
'It is better for those put to death by men to await the hope from God of being raised again by Him; but for you there shall be no resurrection unto life.' If you, the tyrant, hear from us that you shall not receive resurrection unto life, if you remain in this unbelief — that you shall rise not unto rest but unto everlasting punishment — what insult is this? The fifth also, when he had been brought forward and tormented, the Scripture tells us said to the king: 'You have power among men, though you are corruptible, and you do what you will; but do not think that our race has been forsaken by God. Wait patiently and see how His great power will torment you and your seed.'
What does it seem to you, that with such constancy the servant of God inveighed against your fellow-tyrant? Will you, a worshipper of the devil, judge that a worshipper of God acted injuriously? Will you deny that he who spoke the truth was proud, and yet ought you not judge me insolent, because I tell you that we are not forsaken by God — for whose sake I endure these things — while you, on the contrary, unless you are corrected, shall come to nothing together with your corruptible glory. Consider also what the sixth said, and you will find that we lean against you with the same wedge, a whirlwind against your storm, with which they leaned: 'Do not err in vain; for we suffer these things for our own sakes, having sinned against our God, and worthy things have been done as an admonition;'
'But do not you think that you shall go unpunished, since you have attempted to fight against God.' My letters, humble though they be, and my books, though written in rustic speech, prove that I have often said that our sins indeed brought it about that we came into your hands, the forerunner of Antichrist, yet that you fight against God, and therefore, unless you look ahead for yourself, you shall pass into eternal punishment like that Antiochus, while for us the Lord shall be made propitious. You are grieved that we reveal both what has been committed to us and who you are, and that it is fitting for the shadow of Antichrist to be trodden underfoot by all the soldiers of Christ. 'Who,' you say, 'have been able to tread me underfoot?'
Those whom, because they confess themselves Christians, you keep shut up in prisons, deprive of their patrimony, drive into exile, torture, and put to death. From this you reckon us insolent, because we entreat all who are entrusted to us to tread underfoot the head of the devil, to bring your sacrilegious attempts to nothing by the power of the sufferings brought upon them for the sake of Christ, the only Son of God. Let even that most glorious mother of these seven sons be insolent to you, because to overcome your co-madman Antiochus she deigned to entice her own sons, saying: 'I know not how you appeared in my womb, nor did I give you the spirit and life, nor did I frame the members of each one of you;'
'but indeed the Creator of the world, who fashioned the birth of man and who searches out the origin of all things, will in His mercy restore to you again both the spirit and the life, even as you now despise your own selves for the sake of His laws.' The religious mother did not cease to say these things to her sons, bravely loving her sons, until she saw them all slain. But should it have been fitting for us, on the contrary — whom He foretold through the mouth of the prophet would be shepherds to His flock, saying, 'And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, and they shall feed you, feeding you with discipline' — to be silent, lest we should seem insolent to you, coming as a ravening wolf to slaughter the sheep of God? A woman kindled the hearts of her sons so far with the love of God that by their destruction by the sword she gained the prize of victories;
and do you judge it would have been fitting for us to say to the soldiers of Christ: 'Do not take up arms against Constantius, the henchman of the devil; do not resist the temple of all the demons; but rather do whatever he has commanded to be done'? What obstinacy of ours is this, if we strive to fulfill the office committed to us by God, if in short we are found to be imitators of that woman? You wish to please the devil, whose work you are found to celebrate; we by no means wish that you, by doing these things against God, should become most acceptable. If it still moves you why you are called by us what she was, receive also what was thus cried out against Antiochus by that seventh son of this woman:
'But Antiochus, thinking himself despised and scorning the voice of her who upbraided him, since the youngest still remained, not only exhorted him with words, but also with an oath affirmed that he would make him rich and blessed, would transfer him from his ancestral estate, would hold him as a guest and friend, and would entrust to him the necessary means. But when the youth paid no heed to these things, he summoned the mother and urged that she should become to the youth a means of safety. And when he had exhorted her at length, she undertook to persuade her son. And so, bending toward him, she mocked the cruel tyrant and said in her native tongue: Son, have pity on me, who carried you in my womb for ten months and gave you milk for three years, and nourished you, and brought you to this age.
'I beseech you, my child, look up to heaven and to earth, and beholding all that is in them, understand that God made them out of nothing, and that the race of men is likewise so made; that you may not fear this executioner, but, being made worthy of your brothers, accept death, that in that mercy He may receive you together with your brothers.' When she had said these things, the youth said: 'Whom are you waiting for? I do not obey the king's command, but I hearken to the precept of the law which was given to us through Moses; but you, who have become the inventor of all malice against the Hebrews, shall not escape the hand of God. For if, on account of chastisement and reproof, our Lord has been a little angered with us who are alive, yet He will again be reconciled to His own servants;'
'but you, O wicked one and most abominable of all men, do not vainly exalt yourself, puffed up with empty hopes against His servants; for you have not yet escaped the judgment of the Almighty God who beholds all things. For our brothers, having now borne a little pain, have fallen back under God's covenant into eternal life; but you, by the judgment of God, shall pay the penalties of your pride. But I, like my brothers, surrender both soul and body for our ancestral laws, calling upon God speedily to become propitious to our nation, and to make you, with torments and scourgings, confess that He alone is God.'
'But upon me and my brothers let the wrath of the Almighty come to rest, which has been justly brought upon our whole race.' What, Constantius, have you heard from us more than these things which were spoken by this faithful servant of God? If he said to Antiochus's henchmen, 'Whom are you waiting for? I do not obey the king's command, but I hearken to the precept of the law which was given to us through Moses'; so we too say to your men: 'What is this that you Arians suppose we can do toward the will of Constantius, the forerunner of Antichrist? As we are Christians, so we shall always be.' If he said to Antiochus, 'But you, who have become the inventor of all malice against the Hebrew, shall not escape the hand of God';
we too have said to you and do say the same, namely because no persecutor of the sacred law of God has ever been mightier than you, therefore you shall not escape the hand of God. If Antiochus hears that for the sake of rebuke the Lord was then angered with His own, and that He would again be reconciled to His servants, this too you hear us say. If it was said to that king, 'And you, O wicked one and most abominable of all men, do not vainly exalt yourself, puffed up with empty hope against His servants;'
'for you have not yet escaped the judgment of the Almighty God who beholds all things' — these things too you hear from us: namely that you are wicked, the most abominable of all men, who commit these things in order to make us your fellow-apostates, yet that you are exalted in vain, puffed up by the prompting of the devil with an empty hope against us, the servants of God, because you can neither fulfill your malicious designs nor escape the judgment of God who beholds all things and is all-powerful. You hear from us, just as Antiochus hears through that illustrious youth: namely that our brothers, having suffered a little, have fallen back under God's covenant into eternal life, but you shall pay the just penalties of your pride by the judgment of God.
You hear also from us that we are thus prepared to be slain by you, the executioner, for God, just as you have already slain our brothers — that we are prepared to surrender our souls and bodies for Jesus Christ, the true and only Son of God; and moreover that we trust in His untiring mercy, namely that He shall speedily snatch His whole flock from you, the ravening wolf, from you, the raging dog; but that you, unless you take counsel for yourself, shall go forever into torments. Whatever more I may have said to you, whether through Scripture or in person, I wish you to refute it, you, the tyrant of our time. If I have called you an executioner, not only did this most righteous youth so call, but also his mother called your co-madman Antiochus so;
if you have been called by me the inventor of all malice, if I have said that you shall not escape the hand of God, if I have called you wicked and the most abominable of all men, because you shall not escape the judgment of the all-powerful, all-beholding One, but by the judgment of God you shall pay just penalties — all these things had already been said by that religious youth to your colleague Antiochus. You cry out that I am insolent, because you see titles worthy of your deeds imposed upon you, those very titles which our predecessors, worshippers of the living God, already imposed upon your fellow-tyrants.
The blessed apostle Peter says: 'Be sober, be watchful; your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour; resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are being accomplished in your brotherhood throughout all this world.' If you think that I am insolent because you hear that the deeds you do are evil, in what am I found to resist the devil according to the apostle's precept? For behold, this dragon, leading you to every drunkenness with his wine, has sent you against the whole flock of God, that by employing your royal aid you may make all men drunk as you yourself are — that is, mad, senseless, and demented.
For, since he has so made you drunk from the vine of Sodom, from the vineyard of Gomorrah, that you did not see yourself committing fornication, just as the Jews committed fornication? In what, I say, shall we resist the devil, if we do not go to meet you, through whom he has armed himself to devour us? If it is not said to you — drunken, by the sober; sick, by the healthy; wounded, by the whole; blind, by those who see; struck down, by those who stand; impious, by the pious; a ravening wolf, by the sheep of God; a cruel executioner, by the most kind who love mercy; a savage murderer, a blasphemer, by those who glorify God; a sacrilegious man, by the worshippers of God; a heretic Haman, by Christians — if it is not said to you by us: 'Depart, minister of our adversary; give glory to God'?
In what shall we resist the devil, if we spare you, the net of his will; if your drunkenness — that is, your madness — is not made manifest to all; if, in short, you are not shown to the whole world through your savagery against us, so that by these deeds you cannot be perceived as a servant of Christ, but plainly as the bondslave of him who is like a roaring lion against us? From this we seem to you to be wanton, because we tell you that you have been made drunk with that wine, by which those too were led to every madness of drunkenness — those of whom, or on account of whom, it is said: 'His sons, defiled, have sinned against Him; a crooked and perverse generation; is this how you have repaid the Lord? So foolish and unwise a people?' And a little further on: