'The Lord it is; He is mighty; all things are His; wherever I shall be, I am in His hand; let Him do what He wills, I depart not; and if He shall will me to perish, let Him Himself destroy me, so long as I keep myself for Him. I would rather bring odium upon Him by perishing according to His will, than provoke His anger by escaping according to mine.' Thus ought every servant of God to feel and to act, even one of lower rank, that he may become of higher, if he shall have ascended any step in the endurance of persecution. But when the very leaders — that is, the deacons and presbyters and bishops themselves — flee, how shall the layman be able to understand in what sense it was said: 'Flee from city to city'? And so, when the commanders flee, who of the rank and file will bear to be urged to hold his ground in the battle-line?
Certainly indeed the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, as Moses — when Christ the Lord had not yet been revealed, but was already prefigured in himself — says: 'If Thou destroyest this people,' he says, 'destroy me also together with it.' But now that Christ confirms His own figures, he is a bad shepherd who, seeing the wolf, flees and abandons the sheep to be torn in pieces; such a shepherd shall be cast out of the fold, the wages of his hire shall be withheld from him in compensation — nay, even from his former private store the restitution of the Lord's loss shall be exacted: 'For to him who has, it shall be given; but from him who has not, even what he seems to have shall be taken away.' So Zechariah threatens: 'Arise, O sword, against the shepherds, and pluck out the sheep; and I will bring My hand upon the shepherds.'
Against these Ezekiel and Jeremiah too inveigh with the same threats, because the shepherds not only feed shamefully upon the flock, pasturing themselves rather, but also cause the flock to be scattered and to become a prey to all the beasts of the field, while there is no shepherd for them. And this never happens more than when, in persecution, the church is deserted by the clergy. If anyone will also acknowledge the Spirit, he will hear Him branding fugitives. Further, if it neither becomes those who preside over the flock to flee when the wolves rush in — nay, is not even lawful — for he who has pronounced such a shepherd to be bad has assuredly condemned him, and everything that is condemned has without doubt been made unlawful — therefore it will not be lawful for the presidents of the church to flee in persecution.
But if the flock ought to flee, the presidents of the flock ought not to stand, since they would be standing without cause for the protection of a flock which — being at liberty to flee — does not desire it. That which pertains, brother, to thy problem, thou hast in the answer of our opinion and its exhortation. Further, if anyone asks whether persecution is to be fled, he must of necessity look ahead also to the following question: whether, if it is not to be fled, it is at least to be bought off. Of my own accord, therefore, I will suggest something to thee on this point also, defining that a persecution which it is agreed is not to be fled is likewise not to be bought off. There is a difference of price; but just as flight is a gratuitous redemption, so a monetary redemption is a flight. Certainly this too is the counsel of timidity.
What thou fearest, thou buyest off; therefore thou fleest; thou hast stood with thy feet, but run with thy money; the very fact that thou hast stood by redemption means that thou hast fled. But that thou shouldst redeem with money a man whom Christ has redeemed with His own blood — how unworthy of God and of His dispensation, who spared not His own Son for thee, that He might be made a curse for us — since 'cursed is he who has hung upon the wood' — who as a sheep was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer so opened not His mouth, but gave His back to the scourges, His cheeks too to the palms, and turned not His face from the spittle, and was reckoned among the wicked, and was delivered up to death, even the death of the cross: all this, that He might gain us from our sins. The sun withdrew on the day of our purchase:
in the lower regions is our repurchase, and in the heavens is our covenant; the everlasting gates were lifted up, that the King of glory might enter in, the Lord of hosts, having purchased man from the earth — nay, from the lower regions — into the heavens. Who is he now who struggles against Him — nay, who cheapens His purchase, bought at so great a price, that is, with the most precious blood of the immaculate Lamb? Now, then, it is better to flee than to become of less worth, if a man shall not stand at so high a value to himself as he stood to the Lord. And the Lord indeed redeemed him from the angels that hold the world, from the powers, from the spirits of wickedness, from the darkness of this age, from eternal judgment, from perpetual death;
but thou, on His behalf, strikest a bargain with an informer or a soldier or some petty thief of a governor, under thy tunic and in thy bosom, as they say, as though for stolen goods, one whom Christ bought in the sight of the whole world — nay, even manumitted. Wilt thou then value this freedman at a price, and possess him at a price, unless at that same price, so great as, we have said, he cost the Lord — namely, His own blood? To what end, then, dost thou redeem Christ in man, by man, in whom Christ is? Simon too attempted to do nothing else, when he offered money to the apostles for the Spirit of Christ. So he too shall hear — he who, in redeeming himself, has redeemed the Spirit of Christ: 'Thy money be with thee unto perdition, since thou hast thought the grace of God to be obtained at a price.' Who would not spurn such a one as a denier? For what does that extortioner say?
'Give me money.' Certainly, that he may not hand thee over; since he sells nothing else than what he was going to provide as thy reward. When thou givest, thou surely didst wish not to be handed over; but if not handed over, wast thou to be denounced? Therefore, while by being unwilling to be handed over thou art unwilling to be denounced, by being unwilling thou hast denied thyself to be that which thou wast unwilling to have denounced. 'Nay,' thou sayest, 'while I am unwilling to be denounced for what I am, I have confessed myself to be that for which I am unwilling to be denounced — that is, a Christian.' Thou canst therefore claim thyself a martyr, if thou hast steadfastly shown Christ; but in redeeming, thou hast not shown Him. If perhaps thou hast confessed before one, yet before many, by being unwilling to confess, thou hast denied. Salvation itself shall judge that a man has fallen away, while he escapes; he has fallen away, then, who chose rather to have escaped. A refusal of martyrdom is also a denial.
Is a Christian saved by money, and does he keep coins for this — that he may not suffer — while he shall be rich against God? But Christ was rich in blood for him. Blessed therefore are the poor, for theirs, He says, is the kingdom of heaven — those who have their soul alone in their confiscated possession. If we cannot serve God and mammon, can we be redeemed both by God and by mammon? For who will serve mammon more than he whom mammon has redeemed? Lastly, what example dost thou use for the redemption of betrayal? When did the apostles, in their dealings, harried by persecutions, ever free themselves by money — which was assuredly not lacking to them from the prices of estates laid at their feet?
Certainly, when many wealthy men and women believed, who even ministered refreshments to these, when did an Onesiphorus or an Aquila or a Stephanas thus come to their aid in persecution in this manner? Paul indeed, when Felix the governor had hoped that he would receive money for him from the disciples — a matter of which he himself also treated with him in secret — neither did Paul himself pay anything for himself, nor the disciples for him; those disciples, assuredly, who, weeping because he persisted in pressing on to Jerusalem and did not guard against the persecutions foretold there, at last said: 'The will of God be done.' What was that will? Assuredly, that he should suffer for the name of the Lord, not that he should be ransomed.
For it behooves us that, just as Christ laid down His soul for us, so it should be done for Him also by us — and not only for Him, but even for the brethren on His account. And John too, teaching this, pronounced that it is not to be reckoned up for the brethren, but rather that we must die for them. It makes no difference whether it is another Christian or thyself whom thou oughtest not to redeem. And indeed the will of God is thus: behold the state of kingdoms and empires, disposed assuredly by God, in whose hand is the heart of the king:
so many remedies for augmenting the treasury are daily provided by way of assessments, taxes, contributions, and levies; and yet never up to now has any such thing been contemplated in respect of Christians, by way of some ransom of the person and the reducing of the sect, although from so great a multitude, unknown to no one, an immense revenue might be reaped. Bought with blood, counted out with blood, we owe not a single coin for our person, because our Head is Christ: it does not befit Christ to be procured with money. How, too, could martyrdoms come to pass unto the glory of the Lord, if by tribute we should purchase license for the sect? And so, whoever bargains for it with a bribe sets himself against the divine dispensation.
Since, then, Caesar has laid nothing upon us in the way of such a tributary sect — nor could any such thing ever be laid, now that Antichrist presses on and gapes for the blood, not the money, of Christians — how can it be alleged to me that Scripture says: 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's'? A soldier or an informer or an enemy shakes me down, demanding nothing for Caesar — nay, acting rather against right, when he dismisses for a bribe a Christian who is guilty under human laws. It is another denarius which I owe to Caesar, one that pertains to him, that tribute-money concerning which the matter was then in question, owed indeed by tributaries, not by the free. Or how shall I render to God the things that are God's — namely, His image and coin, stamped with His name, that is, the Christian man?
But what do I owe to God, as a denarius to Caesar, except the blood which His own Son shed for me? Now if indeed I owe to God both my manhood and my blood, and am now at that very time in which what I owe to God is demanded of me, then assuredly I commit a fraud against God by acting so that I may not pay what I owe. Nicely have I observed the precept, rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, but denying to God the things that are God's! 'But,' says he, 'I will give to everyone who asks me': in the case of alms, not of extortion. 'To him who asks,' He says; but he who assaults does not ask; he who threatens, if he shall not have received, does not request but extorts; he does not await an alms who comes not to be pitied but to be feared.
I will give, therefore, in the name of my mercy, not of my timidity, where he who receives honours God and returns me a blessing — not where he believes himself to have rendered something more and a benefaction besides, and, gazing at his booty, says: 'A bribe, and an enemy too, for the charge against him!' But even if enmities have other titles as well, He nonetheless did not say 'betrayer' or 'persecutor' or 'extortioner'; for upon this man how much more shall I heap coals upon his head, if I do not redeem myself! 'Likewise,' He says, 'to him who takes away thy coat, yield thy cloak also.' This pertains to him who has sought to snatch my property, not my faith; I will yield my cloak to one who makes no threat; but if he threatens betrayal, I will demand back even my coat.
All the Lord's sentences now have both their occasions and their rules; their bounds do not look to the infinite nor to all things; and indeed, though He bids us give to everyone who asks, He Himself gives no sign to those who ask. Otherwise, if thou thinkest one must give indiscriminately to all who ask, thou seemest to me a man who would give — I do not say wine to a fevered patient — but even poison or a sword to one who longs for death.
As for 'Make yourselves friends of mammon,' how it is to be understood the parable set forth may teach thee — spoken to the Jewish people, who, having ill administered the reckoning of the Lord committed to them, ought, out of the men of mammon (which we were), to provide themselves friends rather than enemies, and to relieve us of the debts of our sins, by which we were held to God, if they should confer this upon us by the Lord's reckoning; so that, when grace should begin to fail them, they, taking refuge in our faith, might be received into the eternal tabernacles. But now suppose another interpretation of that parable and sentence, provided thou knowest that it is not likely that our extortioners, brought into friendship through mammon, should then receive us into the eternal tabernacles.
But what will timidity not persuade a man to? As though Scripture both permitted flight and enjoined ransom! In short, it is a small matter if one man or another is thus rescued: whole churches, wholesale, have imposed a tribute upon themselves! I know not whether one should grieve or blush, when in the registers of the beneficiaries and inspectors, among tavern-keepers and butchers and bath-thieves and gamblers and pimps, Christians too are entered as taxpayers. Was it this form of episcopate that the apostles more providently founded, that they might enjoy their rule in security under the pretext of procuring salvation? Forsooth, it was such a peace that Christ, returning to the Father, commanded to be bought from the soldiers by Saturnalian bribes!
'But how shall we assemble?' thou sayest; 'how shall we celebrate the Lord's solemnities?' Assuredly, just as the apostles did — safe by faith, not by money; which faith, if it can remove a mountain, much more can it remove a soldier. Be cautious by wisdom, not by a bribe! For thou wilt not straightway be safe even from the populace, if thou hast bought off military offices. One faith, then, and wisdom for protection is what thou needest; and if these be not employed, thy very ransom too can be lost, but if they be employed, thou wilt not even desire a ransom. Lastly, if thou canst not assemble by day, thou hast the night, luminous with the light of Christ against it. Canst thou not run about to each in turn? If thou hast a church in three persons, it is well; better that thou shouldst sometimes not see thy crowds, than that thou shouldst sell them.
Keep the virgin bride for Christ; let no one make gain of her. These things, brother, may perhaps seem to thee harsh and intolerable; but recite that God has said: 'Let him who can receive it, receive it' — that is, let him who cannot receive it depart. He who fears to suffer cannot belong to Him who suffered; but he who does not fear to suffer, he shall be perfect in love — the love of God, assuredly; for perfect love casts out fear. And therefore many are called, but few chosen; it is not sought who is ready to follow the broad way, but who the narrow; and therefore the Paraclete is necessary, the leader into all truths, the exhorter to all endurances.
凡接受了祂的人，既不懂得逃避迫害，也不懂得贖免迫害，因為他們擁有那位要為我們的主——祂既要在審問中為我們說話，也要在受苦中援助我們。本文由 V. Bulhart 校訂（1957年）。由 Roger Pearse 掃描，英格蘭伊普斯威奇，2003年。
Those who have received Him have learned neither to flee persecution nor to buy it off, having Him who will be for us — as He is about to speak in the interrogation, so is He about to help in the suffering. Text edited by V. Bulhart (1957). Scanned by Roger Pearse, Ipswich, 2003.