Exhortation to Martyrdom

Greek source: Origen, Exhortation to Martyrdom (Εἰς μαρτύριον προτρεπτικός), from the public-domain critical text of Paul Koetschau, GCS 2 = Origenes Werke I (Leipzig, 1899); digital text accessed via the First1KGreek project. This English translation is released into the public domain.

[§1] You who have been weaned from milk, you who have been drawn away from the breast, expect affliction upon affliction, expect hope upon hope, yet a little, yet a little, through the contempt of lips, through another tongue.

And you too, therefore, according to Isaiah, since you are no longer fleshly nor infants in Christ, having advanced in your spiritual stature, most God-fearing Ambrose and most pious Protoctetus, and no longer having need of milk but of solid food, listen — as those weaned from milk and drawn away from the breast — in what manner it is prophesied that for athletes, for the weaned, there is not a simple affliction but a kind of affliction upon affliction. But he who does not thrust away the affliction upon affliction, but like a noble athlete welcomes it, straightway welcomes also hope upon hope, which not long after the affliction upon affliction he will enjoy; for such is the meaning of yet a little, yet a little.

[§2] But even if they revile us and treat us with contempt, calling us either impious or fools — those who are strangers to the diction of the holy Scriptures — let us remember that the hope upon hope, which yet a little will be rendered to us, will be rendered through the contempt of lips, through another tongue. And who would not welcome affliction upon affliction, that he might straightway welcome also hope upon hope, reckoning with Paul that the sufferings of the present time, by which as it were we purchase blessedness, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us from God — and especially since the momentary lightness of our affliction, light both in being and in being so called to those who are not weighed down by the things that beset them, the more it exceeds beyond measure, so much the greater and more abundant an eternal weight of glory it works for us, if, during the time of those who afflict us and who wish as it were to press hard upon our souls, we turn our governing faculty (hēgemonikon) away from the painful things and look not at the present painful things but at those things laid up by the grace of God for those who have lawfully contended in Christ, in return for their endurance in these — since God multiplies his benefactions and, beyond the worth of the toils of the one who has struggled, bestows as much as befits the God who gives magnificently, not sparingly, and who knowingly magnifies his own graces upon those who have displayed, to the utmost of their power, their love for him with the whole soul, through their having despised the earthen vessel.

[§3] Now I hold that God is loved with the whole soul by those who, out of their great eagerness to have fellowship with God, draw their soul away and separate it not only from the earthly body but also from every body; for such men it comes to pass, without distraction or any dragging away, to lay aside the body of their lowliness, whenever the time grants, through what is reckoned to be death, to strip off the body of death and to be heard when they have prayed in apostolic fashion and said: Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? For who among those who groan in the tabernacle because of being weighed down by the corruptible body will not also give thanks, having first said: who shall deliver me from the body of this death? — seeing that, delivered through his passing away from the body of death, he will in holiness cry aloud: Thanks be to God through Christ Jesus our Lord. But if to anyone such a thing seems hard, he has not thirsted for God, the mighty one, the living one, nor yearned for God in the manner that the deer yearns for the springs of the waters, nor said: when shall I come and appear before the face of God? nor reckoned within himself the things which the prophet reckoned when it was said to him, Where is your God? — who every day poured out upon himself his own soul, rebuking it while it was still, through weakness, becoming exceedingly sorrowful and troubled, and saying: for I shall pass through into the place of the wondrous tabernacle, even to the house of God, with a voice of exultation and thanksgiving, the sound of one keeping festival.

[§4] I would pray, then, that throughout the whole present contest you, mindful of the great reward laid up in the heavens for those persecuted and reproached for the sake of righteousness and for the sake of the Son of Man, may rejoice and exult and leap for joy, just as the apostles once rejoiced when they were counted worthy to be dishonored for his name's sake. And if ever you should feel a shrinking in your soul, let the mind of Christ that is in us say to that soul, when it wishes, so far as in it lies, to confound Christ himself as well: Why are you sorrowful, O soul? and why do you trouble me? Hope in God, for I shall give thanks to him — and again. Would that the soul might in no way be troubled, but that even before the very tribunals and before the bare swords brought against the neck it might be guarded by the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, and be calm, reckoning that those who depart from the body are at home with the very Lord of all things. But if we are not of such stature as always to preserve our freedom from disturbance, still let not the soul's disturbance be poured out or made manifest to those outside, that we may have room for a defense before God, saying to him: O my God, my soul was troubled within myself. And the word exhorts us to be mindful also of that which is said in this manner in Isaiah: Fear not the reproach of men, and by their contempt be not overcome. For indeed it is absurd, when God plainly presides over the motion of heaven and the things in it, and over the things accomplished on earth and sea by his divine art in the generations and constitutions and nourishings and increases of all manner of animals and plants, to close our eyes and not look upon God, but to turn our eyes toward the fear of those who a little later will die and be handed over to the judgment that is according to their desert.

[§5] To Abraham, then, it was once said by God: Go forth from your land; and to us perhaps a little later it will be said: Go forth from the whole earth. It is good to obey him, that he may quickly show us the heavens, in which is what is called the kingdom of the heavens. Now concerning many virtues one may see life filled with contests and those who contend. For it will seem that, concerning temperance, many others also, even of those not of God's portion, have contended, and that some have died bravely while keeping their resolve on behalf of the common master, and that men clever in the matters examined by argument have cultivated prudence, and that those who have set before themselves to live justly have given themselves to righteousness. And indeed against each virtue there wars either the mind of the flesh or also most of the external things; but concerning piety alone it is the chosen race that contends, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, the people for God's own possession — while the rest of mankind do not even, up to appearance, show that, if there are things that contend against the pious, they resolve to die for piety, preferring death with piety to life with impiety. And each of those who wish to be among the chosen race is persuaded to hear God speaking at every season — even when they plot against him who under the pretext of being polytheists are godless — the words: You shall have no other gods besides me, and: The name of other gods you shall not call to remembrance in your hearts, nor shall it be named from your mouth. Wherefore by such men God is believed with the heart unto righteousness, and confessed with the mouth unto salvation, since they apprehend that they will neither be justified unless they so believe in God with their heart thus disposed, nor be in salvation unless the word be such as the disposition is. For those deceive themselves who suppose that, for attaining the end in Christ, it suffices that with the heart it is believed unto righteousness, even if there be not added and with the mouth it is confessed unto salvation. And indeed one may say that it is rather to honor with the lips while keeping the heart far from God, than to honor him with the heart while the mouth does not confess unto salvation.

[§6] But if the one who says, You shall not make for yourself an idol, nor any likeness and what follows, says these things as though You shall not bow down to them and Neither shall you serve them differ from one another, then perhaps the person who is disposed toward the idols serves them, whereas the person who is not so disposed but who, out of cowardice—which he names conformity—dissembles with them so as to seem to be pious like the many, does not indeed serve, but does bow down to the idols. And I would say that those who abjure Christianity before a tribunal, or before coming to the tribunal, do not indeed serve, but do bow down to the idols, taking up the name God of the Lord God upon vain and lifeless matter. In this way, too, the people who were profaned unto the daughters of Moab bowed down and did not serve idols. For it is written in these very words that they called them to the sacrifices of their idols, and the people ate of their sacrifices, and they bowed down to their idols, and they were initiated to Beelphegor. And observe that it is not said, and they served their idols; for it was not even possible, after so many signs and wonders, in a single moment of time to be persuaded by the women with whom they committed fornication to reckon the idols to be gods. And perhaps in this way, too, at the calf-making in Exodus, they bowed down, without serving the calf which they saw coming into being.

We ought, then, to consider the trial that has come upon us to be a testing and an examining of our love toward the divine. For the Lord tests you, as it is written in Deuteronomy, to know whether you love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul. But you, being tested, shall go after the Lord your God, and him shall you fear, and his commandments shall you keep, and above all this one: There shall be for you no other gods besides me, and his voice shall you hear, and to him shall you be joined—to him who takes you up from the regions here and adds you to himself unto the, as the apostle named it, increase of God in him.

[§7] But moreover, if every evil word is an abomination to the Lord your God, how great an abomination must we reckon to be the evil word of denial, and the evil utterance of the proclamation of another god, and the evil oath by the fortune (tyche) of men—a thing without real subsistence? When this is put before us, we must remember him who taught, But I say to you, do not swear at all. For if the one who swears by heaven transgresses against the throne of God, and the one who swears by earth acts impiously in deifying what is called the footstool of the feet of God, and the one who swears by Jerusalem sins, and yet it is the city of the great King, and the one who swears by his own head offends—how great a sin must we reckon it to be to swear by anyone's fortune? And we must then also remember this: Concerning every idle word you shall give an account in the day of judgment. For what other word is so idle as the oath sworn in denial?

But it is likely that the enemy will wish to outwit us by whatever means he can, so as to make us bow down to the sun or to the moon or to all the host of heaven. But we will say that the word of God did not command these things. For the created things are by no means to be worshiped when the Creator is present, who suffices and reaches out to meet the prayer of all. And not even the sun itself would wish to be worshiped by those who belong to God's portion, and likely not by anyone else either; but imitating him who said, Why do you call me good? No one is good except one, God the Father, it would say, as it were, to the one who wishes to worship it: Why do you call me God? There is one true God; and why do you worship me? For the Lord your God shall you worship, and him only shall you serve. I too am a created being; why do you wish to worship one who himself worships? For I too worship and serve the God and Father, and, obeying his commands, I am subjected to vanity because of him who subjected it in hope, and I shall be set free from the bondage of corruption—being now myself also bound to a corruptible body—unto the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

[§8] It is to be expected that there will be some prophet of impiety too, perhaps not one but several, who will speak to us as though it were the Lord's word, which the Lord did not command, or as a word of wisdom that which is alien to wisdom, in order to slay us by the word of his mouth. But then, too, when the sinner rises up against us, let us say: But I, like a deaf man, did not hear, and like a mute man who does not open his mouth; and I became like a man who does not hear. For deafness toward impious words is a fine thing, whenever we despair of the correction of those who say the worse things.

[§9] It is useful for us to consider, in the seasons of those who summon us to the opposite courses, what God, wishing to teach, means when he says, I am the Lord your God, a jealous one. And I think indeed that, just as a bridegroom, turning his bride toward living reverently—gathering her whole self toward the bridegroom, and in every way guarding her against being poured out toward any other besides the bridegroom—would, even if he were wise, display jealousy, using such a display toward the bride as a remedy; so he who gives the oracle, and especially if he appears to be the firstborn of all creation, says to the bride-soul that he is a jealous God, drawing away those who hear from all fornication toward the demons and toward those reckoned to be gods. And as a God thus jealous he says concerning those who in whatever manner have gone whoring after other gods: They provoked me to jealousy with what is no god, they angered me with their idols; and I will provoke them to jealousy with what is no nation, with a nation without understanding I will anger them; for a fire has been kindled from my wrath, it shall burn to the lowest Hades.

[§10] And even if the bridegroom, being wise and free from passion, turns his betrothed away from every defilement not for his own sake, yet at least for her sake, seeing her defilement and abomination, he will do all the things able to heal and to turn her back, applying to her, as to a self-determining nature, words that turn her away from committing fornication. What defilement, then, could you conceive to come upon a soul worse than proclaiming some other god and not confessing the one who is truly the one and only Lord? And I think indeed that, just as the one who cleaves to the harlot is one body with her, so the one who confesses someone—and especially in the season of torture and examination of the faith—is mingled together and united with the one confessed; whereas the one who denies, by the very denial, in the manner of a knife cutting away, suffers separation from that one whom he denies, being severed from him whom he has denied. Therefore attend, lest it be as something consequent and necessary—that confession befalls the one who confesses and denial the one who denies—that this was said: Whoever confesses in me before men, I too will confess in him before my Father who is in heaven. And the Word himself and the Truth itself would say to both the one who confessed and the one who denied: With what measure you measure, it shall be measured back to you. You, then, who have measured with the measure of confession toward me and have filled up the measure of confession, shall receive a measure of the confession from me shaken together, pressed down, running over, which shall be given into your bosom; and you, on the other hand, who have measured with the measure of denial and have denied me, shall receive, in proportion to the measure of denial, a measure of the denial from me concerning you.

[§11] How the measure of confession is filled up, or is not filled but falls short, we might consider in the following way. If throughout the whole time of the examination and the trial we give no place to the devil in our hearts — the devil who wishes to defile us with wicked thoughts of denial, or of double-mindedness, or with some plausible enticement luring us toward what is hostile to martyrdom and to perfection — and if besides this we do not defile ourselves with even a word foreign to confession, and if we bear all the reproach that comes from our adversaries, and the mockery, and the laughter, and the abuse, and the pity with which they seem to pity us, supposing us to be deluded and foolish and calling us deceived; and further, if we are not dragged this way and that, distracted and pulled by our affection for our children, or their mother, or any of those things reckoned in this life to be most dear, toward the possession of this life or toward continuing to live it — but rather, turning away from all these things, we become wholly God's and wholly given to the life with him and beside him, as those who will share in his Only-begotten and in those who partake of him — then we might say that we have filled up the measure of confession. But if we fall short even in some one thing, we have not filled up but have defiled the measure of confession and have mixed into it something foreign. Therefore we shall have need of the things that those need who have built upon the foundation wood or hay or stubble.

[§12] And this too we must know: that we received what are called God's covenants upon the agreements which we made with him when we undertook to live according to Christianity. And in our agreements with God was the whole way of life according to the gospel, which says: If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and let him follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake, this one will save it. And often we have become more inspired hearing also this: For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man is about to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will repay each one according to his deed.

That one must deny himself and take up his own cross and follow Jesus was recorded not by Matthew alone, whose wording we have set down, but also by Luke and Mark. For hear Luke saying: And he said to all: If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake, this one will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world but loses or forfeits himself? And Mark: And having summoned the crowd together with his disciples he said to them: If anyone wishes to follow after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses it for the sake of the gospel will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? For what will a man give in exchange for his life?

Long ago, therefore, we ought to have denied ourselves and to have said, It is no longer I who live; and now too let it be shown whether, having taken up our cross, we have followed Jesus — which has come to pass if Christ lives in us. If we wish to save our life, then, that we may receive it back better than the life we had, let us lose it also by martyrdom. For if we lose it for the sake of Christ, casting it upon him in the death we die for his sake, we shall procure for it true salvation; but if the contrary, we shall hear that the man gains nothing who has gained the whole perceptible world through his own ruin or through forfeiting himself. And once a man has lost his life or forfeited it, even if he gains the whole world, he will not be able to give it in exchange for the perishing life. For the soul created according to the image of God is more precious than all bodies. One alone has been able to give a thing in exchange for our life that was formerly perishing — he who bought us with his own precious blood.

[§13] And according to certain deeper meanings Isaiah says: I gave Egypt as thy ransom, and Ethiopia and Syene in thy stead; from the time that thou becamest precious in my sight. But the exact account concerning this and the rest — if, being lovers of learning in Christ and now at length willing to pass beyond learning through a mirror and in a riddle, you press on toward him who has called you — very soon you shall know face to face as friends of the Father and Teacher who is in the heavens. For friends learn in the very form and not through riddles, or by the bare wisdom of sounds and words and symbols and figures, but attaining to the nature of things intelligible and to the beauty of truth. If indeed you believe that Paul was caught up to the third heaven and was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter, you will consequently know that of the unspeakable words then revealed to Paul — after which he came down from the third heaven — you will immediately come to know more and greater, and after that knowledge you will not come down, if, taking up the cross, you follow behind Jesus, whom we have as a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. And you yourselves, not departing from following behind him, will pass through the heavens, surpassing not only the earth and the mysteries concerning the earth but also the heavens and the things concerning them. For there are stored up in God spectacles far greater than these, which no nature of those in a body can contain unless it has first been released from every body. For I am persuaded that of the things which the sun and moon and the choir of stars have seen — but also the holy angels, whom God made spirit and a flame of fire — God treasures up and keeps beside himself things far greater, that he may reveal them when all creation is set free from the bondage of the enemy into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

[§14] And so, beyond even this, one who is among the foremost of martyrs, having more than many martyrs — namely the love of learning in Christ — will ascend more quickly. But to you, holy Ambrose, who have looked with careful scrutiny into the gospel utterance, it is possible to see that perhaps either no one who has ever lived, or very few, will attain a certain outpouring of blessedness that is exceptional and abundant; and among such will you also be, if you swim through the contest without wavering. The words are as follows: Peter once said to the Savior, Behold, we have left all and followed thee; what then shall there be for us? And Jesus said to them (clearly to the apostles), Amen I say to you that you who have followed me, in the regeneration, when God sits upon the throne of his glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left brothers or sisters or parents or children or fields or houses for the sake of my name shall receive many times as much and shall inherit eternal life. And for the sake of these sayings I would pray, though I possessed on earth as much as you have, or even more than this, to become a martyr in Christ God, that I might receive many times as much, or, as Mark says, a hundredfold — which are much more than the few things we shall leave behind, if we are called to martyrdom, since they are multiplied a hundredfold.

And for this reason, if I am martyred, I would wish to leave behind children too, along with fields and houses, that in the presence of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named, I might be called father of children many times more numerous and holier, or, to speak with precision, a hundredfold more. But if there are fathers concerning whom it was said to Abraham, But thou shalt go to thy fathers, nourished in a good old age, in peace, someone might say (I do not know whether he speaks truly): perhaps those are fathers who at some time bore witness and left children, and in return for this have become fathers of the fathers of the patriarch Abraham and of other such patriarchs; for it is likely that those who leave children and bear witness become fathers not of infants but of fathers.

[§15] But if someone, as it were zealously desiring the greater gifts and counting blessed the rich martyrs and the father-martyrs who will beget children a hundredfold and will receive fields and houses a hundredfold, should inquire whether with good reason those men, over and above the martyrs who were poor in life, will have their possession among things intelligible multiplied — it must be said to him that, just as those who have endured tortures and pains displayed a more brilliant virtue in their martyrdom than those not tested in these things, so those who, being lovers of the body and lovers of life, have nonetheless cut through and torn apart these so many worldly bonds, using a great love toward God and having truly taken up the living Word of God, which is effective and sharper than any two-edged sword, have been able, by cutting through these so many bonds and fashioning wings for themselves like an eagle, to turn back to the house of him who is set over them. It is fitting, then, that just as one must yield the first places to those not tested in tortures and pains in favor of those who displayed their endurance in the joint-racks and the various instruments of torment and in fire, so also for us who are poor, even if we are martyred, the word suggests that we yield the first places to you who, for the sake of the love toward God in Christ, trample upon the deceitful glory that also reaches to the many, and upon so great a possession, and upon affection toward children.

[§16] But at the same time observe also the solemnity of Scripture, which promises a manifold and a hundredfold return of brothers and children and parents and fields and houses; yet a wife is not counted among these. For it is not said: Everyone who has left brothers or sisters or parents or children or fields or houses or a wife for the sake of my name shall receive many times as much; for in the resurrection of the dead they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels in heaven.

[§17] That, then, which Joshua said to the people when he was settling them upon the holy land, this Scripture might now say to us as well. The passage runs thus: Now fear the Lord and serve him in uprightness and in righteousness. And to us, when we are being persuaded to commit idolatry, it will say what follows next, which runs thus: Put away the foreign gods, whom your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.

At the beginning, then, when you were about to be catechized, it might reasonably have been said to you: But if it does not please you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods of your fathers who were beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. And the one catechizing you would have said to you: But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, because he is holy. But now there is no place for these things to be said to you; for at that time you said: Far be it from us to forsake the Lord, so as to serve other gods. The Lord our God, he himself is God, who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, and guarded us in all the way in which we walked. But also, in the covenants concerning the fear of God, you long ago answered this to those who catechized you: And we too will serve the Lord; for he is our God. If, therefore, one who transgresses covenants made with men is a truce-breaker and estranged from salvation, what must be said of those who by denial set at nought the covenants they made with God and run back to Satan, whom in being baptized they renounced? For against such a one must be spoken the words uttered by Eli to his sons: If a man sinning sin against a man, then they shall pray for him; but if he sin against the Lord, who shall pray for him?

[§18] A great theater is assembled over you as you contend and are called to martyrdom; as if we were to say that such a thing takes place in the case of certain contestants reputed to be extraordinary, †contending together, with countless multitudes gathered to the spectacle of the contest. And you will speak no less than Paul, when you contend: We have become a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men. The whole world, then, and all the angels on the right and on the left, and all men, both those of God's portion and those of the rest, will hear us contending the contest for Christianity. And either the angels in heaven will rejoice over us, and the rivers will clap their hands together, and the mountains will exult, and all the trees of the plain will applaud with their branches; or — may it not be so — the powers below that delight in evil will rejoice. And it is not out of place to see, from the things written in Isaiah, what will be said by those in Hades to the vanquished who have fallen down from the heavenly witness, that we may still shudder at the impiety involved in denial. For I think that to the one who has denied such things will be said: Hades below was embittered at meeting you; all the giants who ruled the earth were raised up together against you, who roused from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All shall answer and say to you. And what will the vanquished powers say to the vanquished, and those captured by the devil to those captured in denial — what, then, are these words? You too were captured just as we were, and you were reckoned among us. And if someone who has attained to a great and glorious hope in God is defeated in God through cowardice or through the sufferings brought upon him, he will hear: Your glory has gone down to Hades, your great gladness; beneath you they will spread rottenness, and your covering shall be a worm. But if someone who often shone in the churches like the morning star appearing to them, his good works shining before men, and afterward, contending the great contest, has lost the crown of such a throne, he will hear: How has the morning star fallen from heaven, which rose at dawn? He was crushed to the earth. And this too will be said to him who has been made like the devil through denial: You shall be cast out on the mountains like a loathsome corpse, with many dead who have been pierced with swords, going down into Hades. As a garment defiled with blood shall not be clean, so neither shall you be clean. For how shall he be clean who is defiled with blood and murder, with the abominable fault of denial, and befouled with so great an evil?

Now let us show that we have heard the saying: He who loves son or daughter above me is not worthy of me; let us take heed, lest ever even a wavering arise in us as to whether one ought to deny or to confess; that the word of Elijah may not be said to us as well, which runs thus: How long will you go limping on both hams? If the Lord is God, go after him.

[§19] It is likely that we shall also be reproached by neighbors and mocked by some who encircle us and shake their heads at us as at fools. But when these things happen, let us say to God: You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and derision to those around us. You have made us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples. All day long my disgrace is before me, and the shame of my face has covered me, at the voice of him who reproaches and speaks against me, at the face of the enemy and the persecutor. And it is blessed, when all these things befall, to say to God, with the prophet's boldness, the utterance he brings to bear upon them: All these things came upon us. And we did not forget you, and we did not deal falsely in your covenant. And our heart did not turn back.

[§20] Let us remember that, being in this life and perceiving the ways that lie outside of life, we say to God: You have turned aside our paths from your way. Now is the time to call to mind that this place, in which we have been humbled, is a place of affliction for the soul; that in praying we may say: For you have humbled us in a place of affliction, and the shadow of death has covered us. And taking courage let us say this also: If we have forgotten the name of our God, and if we have spread out our hands to a foreign god, will not God search out these things?

[§21] Let us strive to take up perfectly not only the martyrdom that is in the open but also the one that is in secret, so that we too may cry out in apostolic fashion: For this is our boast, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity we have conducted ourselves in the world. And let us join to the apostolic saying the prophetic one: He himself knows the secrets of the heart — of our heart, and especially if we are being led away to death; when we shall say to God that which is spoken by the martyrs alone: For your sake we are put to death all the day long, we were reckoned as sheep for the slaughter. And if ever, from the mind of the flesh, a fear of the judges who threaten us with death is suggested to us, then let us say to them the word from the Proverbs: My son, honor the Lord, and you shall be strong; but apart from him fear no other.

[§22] And this too is useful for the matters before us. Solomon says in Ecclesiastes: I praised all those who had died more than the living, as many as are living until now. And who could so reasonably be praised as dead as the one who has of his own free choice accepted death for the sake of piety? Such a one was Eleazar, who accepted death with glory rather than life with defilement, and of his own free choice advanced to the rack, who, having taken up a noble resolve worthy of his ninety years of age and of the eminence of his old age and of the gray hair he had acquired and made conspicuous and of his most excellent upbringing from childhood, or rather of the holy and God-established legislation, said that it is not worthy of our age to play the hypocrite, lest many of the young, supposing that Eleazar the ninety-year-old had gone over to an alien way of life, should themselves also, on account of my dissembling and for the sake of the little and brief span of life, be led astray because of me, and I should acquire defilement and a stain upon my old age. For even if for the present I should escape the punishment of men, yet neither living nor dead shall I flee the hands of the Almighty. Wherefore, by manfully now departing from life, I shall show myself worthy of my old age, having left to the young a noble example for dying gladly and nobly on behalf of the reverend and holy laws.

And I pray that you, when you have come to the very doors of death, or rather of freedom — especially if sufferings should be brought to bear (for there is nothing to be despaired of in your suffering from the purpose of the hostile powers) — may say such things as these: To the Lord who possesses the holy knowledge it is manifest that, though able to be released from death, I endure harsh pains in my body under scourging, but in my soul I gladly suffer these things because of the fear of him. Such indeed was the death of Eleazar, so that it was said of him: Not only to the young but also to the greater part of the nation he left his own death as an example of nobility and a memorial of virtue.

[§23] And the seven brothers recorded in the books of the Maccabees, whom Antiochus tortured with scourges and cords while they remained steadfast in the reverence of God, will be able to be a most excellent paradigm of a robust martyrdom to everyone who reflects — that is, if he is to be inferior to mere children — since they endured the tortures not one by one only, but also by having beheld the torment of their brothers displayed a vigorous firmness of piety. One of their number, whom the Scripture named the spokesman, said to the tyrant: Why do you delay to question and to learn? For we are ready to die rather than to transgress the laws of our fathers. And why need one tell what sort of things they endured while pans and cauldrons were being heated to fiery heat, that they might be tortured in them, each having first suffered various torments? For the one of them who was named the spokesman had his tongue cut out first; then he was scalped upon the head, and he bore the scalping as others bore the circumcision that is for the sake of the divine law, considering that in this too he was fulfilling a word of God's covenant. And Antiochus, not even content with these things, mutilated him while the rest of the brothers and the mother looked on, chastising the brothers and the mother by the sight, and supposing that he would shake their resolve through the things thus deemed fearful. So then Antiochus, not being content with these things, when he had become useless as regards the frame of his body through the means by which he first chastised him, commanded that he be brought, while still breathing, to the fire in the pans and cauldrons, and be fried. And as the vapor was given off — the flesh of the most noble athlete of piety being roasted by the savagery of the tyrant — the rest encouraged one another together with the mother to die nobly, consoling themselves with the thought that God was watching over these things; for the persuasion that the eye of God was present with those who endured was sufficient for their endurance. And the president of the contest for the athletes of piety encouraged them, being himself encouraged and, if I may so put it, gladdened at those who rose up against pains so great. And it would be fitting for us too, when we come to be in such circumstances, to say to ourselves the words of those men, which are of this manner: The Lord God watches over us and in truth is comforted concerning us.

[§24] When the first had been tested in this manner, as gold is tested in a furnace, the second was led to the mocking; and the ministers of the tyrannical savagery, tearing off his skin together with the hair, called upon the sufferer to repent, asking whether he would eat of the things sacrificed to idols before his body was punished limb by limb. And when he refused repentance, he was brought to the next torture, keeping his resolve until his last breath. For, in no way broken nor yielding to the pains, he said these things to the impious one: You, avenging fiend, release us from the present life, but the King of the world will raise us up, who have died for the sake of his laws, to an eternal renewal of life.

[§25] And the third, counting the pains as nothing and trampling upon them because of his love toward God, when his tongue was demanded, quickly put it forth, and stretched out his hands courageously, and said: Having given these up for the sake of God's laws, I hope to receive them back from God, such as God would render to the athletes of piety toward him.

And in the same way the fourth also was tortured, bearing the torments and saying that: It is preferable, when departing from among men, to await the hopes that are from God and to be raised up again by him — a resurrection which the tyrant will not be raised to; for he will be raised not unto life but unto reproach and eternal shame.

Next he tortured the fifth, who, looking intently at Antiochus, reproached him for not curbing his arrogance over his own corruptible nature, since he supposed that the tyranny lasting a few days was a great authority. And he declared, even while in these torments, that the nation had not been forsaken by God, who before long would torture Antiochus and his seed.

After this one, the sixth, when he was near dying, said: Do not deceive yourself; we, paying the penalty for our own sins, that we may be cleansed through these pains, willingly suffer these things. And he told him that he ought not to think he would go unpunished for undertaking to fight against God; for a fighter against God is he who contends against those who have been made godlike by the Word.

[§26] Finally Antiochus took the youngest into his hands. Having become convinced that this one too was a brother of those who had reckoned such great agonies as nothing and that he held the same resolve as they did, he resorted to other means of approach, thinking that the boy would be won over by encouragements and by pledges confirmed with oaths — that he would make him rich and blessed, and that once he had turned away from his ancestral customs and been enrolled among the king's friends, he would be entrusted with royal offices. But when he was accomplishing nothing at all, since the young man from the start paid no attention to what was said, as being foreign to his own resolve, he summoned the mother and urged her to become the lad's counselor toward safety. She, however, pretending that she would persuade her son concerning the things he wished, and mocking the tyrant, roused many words in her son concerning endurance, so that the young man, not waiting for the punishment being brought upon him but anticipating it, called forth the executioners, saying: What are you waiting for, and why do you delay? For we hearken to the law given by God: no ordinance opposed to the divine words ought to be admitted. But indeed, like a king rendering a verdict against those judged under him, he pronounced the sentence against the tyrant, judging him rather than being judged; and he declared that, since he had raised his hands against the heavenly children, he would not escape the judgment of the almighty, all-seeing God.

[§27] It was possible then to see the mother of so many bearing with good courage, because of her hopes set on God, the labors and the deaths of her sons; for the dews of piety and the spirit of holiness did not allow to be kindled within her inward parts that maternal fire which in many women blazes up as at the heaviest of evils. And I think that these things too, cut short from the Scripture, have been set out as most useful for the matter before us; that we may see how much piety can do against the harshest labors and the heaviest tortures, and how the love (philtron) toward God, exceeding beyond measure every other love, is more powerful than any. And with this love toward God human weakness does not share citizenship, being driven beyond the borders away from the whole soul and not able to be active even in the least degree, where there is one such as is able to say: The Lord is my strength and my song and I can do all things in Christ Jesus our Lord who strengthens me.

[§28] Of what sort martyrdom is, and how great a boldness (parrhēsia) toward God it produces, is possible to learn from this too. Being one who loves honor and wishing to repay the benefits that have come to him beforehand from God, the holy man seeks what he might do for the Lord in return for all that he has received from him; and he finds nothing else that can be rendered by a well-disposed man to God as, so to speak, of equal weight to the benefits, as the end in martyrdom. For it is written in the one hundred and fifteenth psalm — the part expressing perplexity — thus: What shall I render to the Lord for all that he has rendered to me? And the part expressing the answer to it — when the speaker has asked what he shall render to the Lord for all that he has received from him — is spoken thus: I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. Now it is customary for martyrdom to be named the cup of salvation, as we find in the Gospel. For when those who wished to sit at the right hand and at the left hand of Jesus in his kingdom were reaching for a greater honor, the Lord says to them: Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? — calling martyrdom a cup. This is clear also from: Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not what I will but what you will. But we learn that the one who drinks that cup which Jesus drank will sit together with, and reign together with, and judge together with the King of those who reign. This, then, is the cup of salvation, which the one who takes it will call upon the name of the Lord; and everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

[§29] But it is likely that someone, because of the words Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, not having examined precisely the intention of the Scripture, may think that in a manner even the Savior grew fainthearted at the season of his passion; and, that one having grown fainthearted, someone might say: who then is ever noble? But first we will inquire of those who suppose such things about the Savior, whether he was less than the one who says: The Lord is my light and my savior, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defender of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? When those who do evil draw near against me to devour my flesh, those who afflict me and my enemies, they themselves were weakened and fell. Though a battle-line be arrayed against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war rise up against me, in this will I hope. And perhaps these words spoken in the prophet belong to no other than the Savior, who because of the illumination from the Father and the salvation from him fears no one, and who because of the protection with which God shielded him is afraid of nothing. His heart also in no way feared, though the whole army of Satan was arrayed against him; and his heart, filled with God's sacred teachings, hoped in God though war rose up against him. It is not, therefore, according to the same disposition and out of faintheartedness that one says: Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, and out of courage declares: Though a battle-line be arrayed against me, my heart shall not fear.

Let nothing, then, escape us in this passage, and you will fix your attention on the demonstrative word this of the cup spoken by the three. For Matthew recorded the Lord as saying: Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, but Luke: Father, if you will, take this cup away from me, and Mark: Abba, Father, all things are possible to you; take this cup away from me. See, then, whether you can — since every martyrdom accomplished on any pretext of departure is called a cup — declare that the one who said let this cup pass from me was not begging off the class of martyrdom (for he would have said: let the cup pass from me), but perhaps this particular kind. And attend, if it be possible, to the Savior looking into the kinds, so to name them, of the cups and to what would come about through each, and grasping with a certain most profound wisdom their differences, begging off this kind of departure from martyrdom, and perhaps secretly asking for another heavier one, that some more universal benefaction, reaching also to more people, might be accomplished through another cup — which was not yet the will of the Father to come about, he ordering matters more wisely than the will of the Son and than what the Savior saw, by way and order. But clearly in the Psalms the cup of salvation is the death of the martyrs. Therefore to the words I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord there is added: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his holy ones. Precious, then, does death come upon us as the holy ones of God and not the unworthy — not to die the common, so to name it, and idle death of religious observance, but a certain choice one, that which is for the sake of Christianity and piety and holiness.

[§30] Let us also call to mind the things in which we have sinned, and that it is not possible to receive forgiveness of sins apart from baptism, and that according to the evangelical laws it is not possible to be baptized again with water and spirit for the forgiveness of sins, and that the baptism of martyrdom is given to us; for so it has been named, as is clear from the fact that to the words Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? there is added: or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? And elsewhere it is said: I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I constrained until it be accomplished. And consider whether the baptism according to martyrdom, just as the Savior's baptism became a cleansing for the world, itself also comes about for the healing of many who are being cleansed. For as those who attended upon the altar according to the law of Moses seemed to minister forgiveness of sins to those people through the blood of goats and bulls, so the souls of those who have been beheaded for the sake of the testimony of Jesus, not attending in vain upon the altar in heaven, minister forgiveness of sins to those who pray. And at the same time we also know that, just as Jesus Christ the high priest offered himself as a sacrifice, so the priests, whose high priest he is, offer themselves as a sacrifice; on account of which they are seen at the altar as at their own proper place. But of the priests, those who were without blemish and offered unblemished sacrifices served the divine, while those blemished with the blemishes which Moses recorded in Leviticus were banished from the altar. And who is the unblemished priest offering an unblemished victim but the one who holds fast the confession and fulfills every number which the account of martyrdom requires? Concerning which we have spoken before in the passages above.

[§31] Let us not be surprised if so great a blessedness of the martyrs, one that will be theirs in deep peace and calm and fair weather, must begin from something reckoned rather gloomy and, so to speak, from a wintry condition. For first, while one travels the narrow and afflicted road in winter, each of the blessed must display the steersmanship he has acquired, so that afterward there may come to pass what is said in the Song of Songs to the bride who has swum through the winter; for it says, My kinsman answers and says to me: Rise up, come, my neighbor, my fair one, my dove. For behold, the winter is past, the rain is gone, it has gone its way. And you too, still remember that it is not otherwise possible to hear the words the winter is past unless you contend against the present winter stoutly and with vigor. But after the winter has passed and the rain has gone and has gone its way, the flowers will appear; for those planted in the house of the Lord, in the courts of our God, shall put forth blossoms.

[§32] And this too we know, that once we have been persuaded by Jesus to forsake the idols and the polytheistic godlessness, the enemy is unable to persuade us to idolatry, but he wishes to compel us by force; and for this reason, against those over whom he receives authority, he brings about such things, and he will make those who are tempted either martyrs or idolaters. And often even now he says, All these things I will give you, if you fall down and worship me. Let us therefore take heed, lest at any time we commit idolatry and subject ourselves to the demons; for the idols of the nations are demons. What a thing it is, having forsaken the kindly yoke of Christ and his light burden, to submit oneself again to the yoke of demons and to bear the burden of the most grievous sin, after we have come to know that the heart of those who serve idols is ashes and that their life is more worthless than clay, and after we have said, As false things did our fathers acquire idols, and there is none among them that sends rain.

[§33] Not of old only did Nebuchadnezzar set up the golden image, nor then only did he threaten Ananias and Azarias and Misael, if they would not worship, to cast them into the furnace of fire; but even now Nebuchadnezzar says the same things to us who are the pilgrim and true Hebrews. But we, that we may experience the heavenly dew which quenches every fire from us and cools our ruling faculty, let us imitate those holy men, lest even now Haman should wish us, the Mordecais, to worship him; but do you say: I will not set the glory of men above the glory of God of Israel. Let us overthrow Bel by the word of God, and let us together with Daniel slay the dragon, that when we draw near to the mouths of lions we may be able to suffer nothing from them, since those alone who are the cause of our present struggle will be devoured by the lions that cannot swallow us down. Let us hold fast to what is said also among the noble deeds of Job: If, laying my hand upon my mouth, I kissed it, may this too then be reckoned to me as the greatest lawlessness; and it is likely that they will command us to lay our hand upon our mouth and to kiss it.

[§34] And let us observe this too, that it is not in the words addressed to the multitudes that the things concerning martyrdom are prophesied by the Savior, but in those addressed to the apostles. For after it has first been said, These twelve Jesus sent forth, charging them: Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and what follows, there is added, Beware of men; for they will deliver you up to councils, and in their synagogues they will scourge you; and you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what you shall speak; for it will be given you in that hour what you shall speak; for it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you. And brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise up against parents and put them to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But he that endures to the end, this one shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee into the other, and if they persecute you from this one, flee into another; for verily I say to you, you shall not have finished the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

And Luke too records such things: But when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, take no thought how you shall make your defense or what you shall say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what things you ought to say. And after other matters: Settle it therefore in your hearts not to premeditate your defense; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or gainsay. And you will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and some of you they will put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. And not a hair of your head shall perish; in your endurance you shall gain possession of your souls. And Mark too says such things: But when they lead you away, delivering you up, take no thought beforehand nor premeditate what you shall speak, but whatever is given you in that hour, that speak; for it is not you that speak, but the Holy Spirit. And brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise up against parents and put them to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake; but he that endures to the end, this one shall be saved.

And these things in Matthew, urging on to martyrdom, are spoken to none other than the twelve; and it will be needful for us too to hear them, since by hearing we shall become brothers of the apostles who heard them and shall be numbered together with the apostles. And the words are as follows: Fear not those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. And next after these the Lord teaches us that no one comes to the contest of martyrdom without providence. For it is said, Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall to the ground without your Father who is in the heavens. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. Everyone therefore who shall confess me before men, I also will confess him before my Father who is in the heavens; but whoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in the heavens. And equivalent in force to these are the words in Luke: But I say to you my friends, Fear not those who kill the body and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into Gehenna. Yes, I say to you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. And I say to you: everyone who shall confess me before men, the Son of Man also will confess him before the angels of God; but he that denies me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. And in another place: For whoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed, when he comes in his glory and that of the Father and of the holy angels. And similar to this Mark too has recorded such a thing: For whoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of the Father with the holy angels.

Those, therefore, who do away with us kill the life of the body; for such is the meaning of Fear not those who kill the body, spoken in these very words by Matthew and Luke. And after they have killed the body, even if they wish, they cannot kill the soul; nay, they have nothing more that they can do. For how is it possible for a soul to be done away with which has been made alive by the very confession? — since he who urges us on to martyrdom bears witness on its behalf in Isaiah, both he and his servant, where it is written: Become witnesses for me, and I too am a witness, says the Lord God, and the servant whom I have chosen.

And keep this in mind too, that not to the slaves of Jesus but to his friends is this commandment given: Fear not those who kill the body and after that have nothing more that they can do. One must fear, then, him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. For he alone after he has killed has authority to cast into Gehenna. And he will indeed cast in both those who feared those that kill the body and those who did not fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna and him who after he has killed has authority to cast into Gehenna. And if anyone else's hairs of the head are numbered — clearly also those who are beheaded for the sake of Jesus — we shall confess in the Son of God, and before men and not before gods; that the one confessed may requite us, having confessed us before his God and Father and having himself confessed in the heavens the one who confessed him upon earth.

[§35] And who, reckoning up such things, will not exclaim that apostolic saying: For the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us? For how is the confession before the Father not far greater than the confession before men? And how is the confession in the heavens, made concerning the one confessed, not exceedingly superior to the confession upon earth, in which the martyrs confess the Son of God? But whoever reckons up denying before men, let him call to mind the one who spoke without falsehood: I too will deny him before my Father who is in the heavens.

And since Matthew wrote, I also will confess him before my Father who is in the heavens, while Luke wrote, and the Son of Man also will confess him before the angels of God, I give attention to this — whether perhaps the firstborn of all creation, the image of the invisible God, may confess the one who has confessed him before the Father who is in the heavens, while the one who came to be of the seed of David according to the flesh and for this reason happens to be Son of Man, and who came to be from a woman who was herself also human and for this reason is called Son of Man — that is, he who is understood as the man in respect of Jesus — may confess those who have confessed before the angels of God. And the analogous account must be rendered also concerning those who deny.

And this too must be considered, that the one who confesses in the Son before men, so far as in him lies, commends Christianity and the Father of this Christianity before those to whom he makes his confession; while the one who is confessed by the firstborn of all creation and by the Son of Man is commended, through the confession of the Son of God and the Son of Man, to the Father who is in the heavens and to the angels of God. And if indeed not he who commends himself is approved, but he whom the Lord commends, how must one not consider him to be approved who has been judged worthy of the commendation before the Father in the heavens and before the angels of God? And if this man is approved, and those like him, whom the Lord has proved as gold in the furnace by tortures and examinations and has received as a whole burnt offering of sacrifice, what must one say concerning those who were convicted in the furnace of trial and denied him, whom, as unproven, he denies before the Father who is in the heavens and before the angels of God — he who denies the one worthy of denial?

[§36] And one must struggle not only against denying, but also against being ashamed in the first place to suffer what is reckoned among those estranged from God to be worthy of shame — and this above all if, having been glorified and welcomed by so very many cities, you now, as it were, march in procession bearing the cross of Jesus, holy Ambrose, and following him as he leads you before governors and kings, so that he himself, journeying together with you, may himself give you a mouth and wisdom — you and your fellow-combatant Protoctetus, and to those who bear witness together with you, who fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ — and may come with you to the paradise of God, showing you how you may pass through the cherubim and the flaming sword, which turns about and guards the way to the tree of life. For if these two indeed guard the way to the tree of life, they guard it so that no one unworthy may be permitted, once he has passed through, to come to the tree of life. For the flaming sword will hold back those who have built upon the laid foundation, Jesus Christ, wood or hay or straw, and that most combustible wood, kindled all the more, of denial (if I may so name it); but the cherubim, taking to themselves those not liable to be seized by the flaming sword — because they have built nothing akin to it — will send them onward to the tree of life and to all the things that God planted in the east and caused to spring up out of the earth. And with Jesus traveling with you toward paradise, despise the serpent, conquered and crushed beneath the feet of Jesus, and through him beneath yours also, since he has given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, so that nothing of them shall harm you.

[§37] The Son of God, then, must not be denied, nor must one be ashamed of him or of those who belong to him or of his words; but one must give heed to this: Whoever shall deny me before men, I also will deny him before my Father who is in heaven, and to this: For whoever shall be ashamed of me and of mine, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he comes in his glory and that of the Father and of the holy angels, and to this: For whoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of the Father with the holy angels.

And Jesus too once endured a cross, despising the shame, and because of this sat down at the right hand of God; and his imitators too, despising shame, will sit together with him and will reign together with him in the heavens, with him who came not to cast peace upon the earth, but upon the soul of his own disciples, and to cast a sword upon the earth. For since the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart, this word most of all now bestows on our souls the peace that surpasses every mind, which he left to his own apostles, but has cast a sword between the image of the earthly and that of the heavenly — so that, receiving at present our heavenly part, he may afterward, when we have become worthy of not being cut in two, make us wholly heavenly.

And he came to cast not only a sword upon the earth but also fire, concerning which he says: I wish it were already kindled. Let this fire, then, be kindled in you also, doing away with every earthly and body-loving reasoning of yours; and the baptism, with which Jesus was constrained until it should be accomplished, receive now with all eagerness. And you who have a wife and children and brothers and sisters, remember this: If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, he cannot be my disciple; and both of you remember this: If anyone comes to me and does not hate, in addition to the former, his own soul as well, he cannot be my disciple. But hate your own soul in such a way that through hating it you may keep it unto eternal life; for he who hates, he says, his own soul in this world keeps it unto eternal life. Therefore hate your soul for the sake of eternal life, being persuaded that it is a good and profitable hatred that Jesus teaches us to hate. And just as, for the sake of its being kept unto eternal life, we shall have to hate the soul, so hate wife and children and brothers and sisters, you who have these, in order that you may benefit those who are hated, by this very hating taking up boldness to do them good, having become a friend to God.

[§38] And at the same time call to mind also him who prayed in the spirit concerning the children of martyrs, left behind on account of their love toward God, and who said: Preserve the sons of those who have been put to death. Only know that the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, and that, just as it is said to those from the seed of Abraham both I know that you are Abraham's seed and If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham, so also it will be said to your children: I know that you are the seed of Ambrose, and: If you are children of Ambrose, do the works of Ambrose. And perhaps they will do them, since you will benefit them more after such a departure than if you had remained with them. For then you will love them more knowingly and pray for them more understandingly, if you learn that they are your children and not merely your seed. Have now upon your lips this: He who loves son or daughter above me is not worthy of me, and this: He who finds his soul shall lose it, and he who loses his soul for my sake shall find it.

[§39] By your eagerness for martyrdom give place to the Spirit of your Father, who speaks in those handed over for the sake of piety; if you know yourselves to be hated and abhorred and reckoned impious, then take up this: For this cause the world hates you, because you are not of this world; for if you were of this world, the world would love its own. Having endured many reproaches for Christ's sake and many perils, from the time you believed, make progress in endurance unto the end, because he who endures to the end, this one shall be saved. Know that, according to Peter, you will rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, grieved by various trials, that the proof of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though tested by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. But understand grieved as meaning wearied with toil, as is clear also from this: In griefs you shall bear children; for a woman does not by any means bring forth in grief as a passion, but in toil.

If it is useful for the disciples of Christ, this: Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; for all that is in the world — the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and its desire — then do not love the things that are passing away, but by doing the will of God become worthy of becoming one together with Son and Father and Holy Spirit, according to the prayer of the Savior, who says: as I and you are one, that they also may be one in us. And how many days is it possible to gain by loving the world or the things in the world while forfeiting or destroying one's own soul, and carrying about a conscience weighed down more than by a heavy burden, and weighed down by the fall of denial? Let each of us call to mind, as often as he was in danger of dying the common death, and let us reckon whether perhaps we were preserved for this: that, having been baptized in our own blood and washed clean of every sin, we might take up our abode beside the altar in heaven together with our fellow-combatants.

[§40] But if anyone, yielding out of much love of life, or out of softness toward hardships, or through the things thought to be plausibly urged by those who persuade us to the worse, should deny that there is one God and his Christ, but confess demons or Fortunes, let such a one know that he is preparing a table for the demon and filling up a mixed cup for Fortune, having forsaken the Lord and forgotten his holy mountain, and that he will be subject to these rebukes, as Isaiah recorded them in this manner: But you who have forsaken me and forgotten my holy mountain and prepare a table for the demon and fill up a mixed cup for Fortune, I will deliver you up to the sword, you shall all fall by slaughter; because I called you and you did not obey, I spoke and you did not hearken but did what was evil before me and chose the things I did not wish. Therefore thus says the Lord, the Lord: Behold, those who serve me shall eat, but you shall hunger; behold, those who serve me shall drink, but you shall thirst; behold, those who serve me shall be glad, but you shall be put to shame; behold, those who serve me shall exult in gladness, but you shall cry out because of the pain of your heart, and from brokenness of spirit shall you wail. For you shall leave your name for a satiety to my chosen ones, but you the Lord shall slay. But also, if, understanding what the Lord's table is, we should wish to partake of it, let us know this: You cannot partake of the Lord's table and the table of demons. And also, if we wish, understanding what this is: I will not drink from now on of the fruit of this vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of the heavens, to be found among those who drink with Jesus, let us give heed to this: You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons.

And who, having heard John the son of thunder saying, He who denies the Father and the Son — everyone who denies the Son has not the Father either; he who confesses the Son has the Father also — will not be afraid, by saying he is not a Christian, to deny the Son, since in denying him he will not have the Father? And who would not be urged to confess by deeds and words that he is a Christian, so that he may have the Father also? For those who confess have the Father.

[§41] If we have passed from death into life through having passed from unbelief into faith, let us not be astonished if the world hates us. For no one who has not passed from death into life, but who remains in death, is able to love those who have passed from the dark house of death — if I may so call it — to the buildings filled with living stones, of the light of life. Jesus laid down his life for us, and so let us too lay down our own life — I will not say for him, but for ourselves, and, I think, also for those who will be built up through our martyrdom. There has arrived for us Christians a season for boasting; for it says, not only so, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience, and patience experience, and experience hope; and hope does not put us to shame, provided only that the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Let Paul say, if, after the manner of men, I fought with beasts at Ephesus, and let us say, if, after the manner of men, I was put to death in Germania.

[§42] If even as the sufferings of Christ abound, so through Christ our consolation also abounds, let us most eagerly welcome the sufferings of Christ, and let them abound in us, if indeed we long for abundant consolation, in which all who mourn shall be comforted — yet perhaps not equally. For if the consolation were equal, it would not have been written, even as the sufferings of Christ abound toward us, so our consolation also abounds. Those who share in the sufferings, in proportion to the sufferings in which they are sharers with Christ, will be sharers also in the consolation; and this too you learn from him who speaks such things trustworthily; for we know, as you are sharers of the sufferings, so also of the consolation.

And God says through the prophet, In an acceptable time I heard you, and in a day of salvation I helped you. What other acceptable time, then, is there than when, for the sake of piety toward God in Christ, we are led away under guard, paraded through the world, triumphing rather than being led in triumph? For the martyrs in Christ strip off together with him the principalities and the powers, and share in his triumph, since, becoming sharers of his sufferings, they thus become sharers also of the deeds of valor performed amid his sufferings — among which is also the triumphing over the principalities and the powers, which after a little while you shall see conquered and put to shame. What other day of salvation is there like the day of such a departure of ours from here? But I exhort you: give no occasion of stumbling in anything, that the ministry be not blamed by you, whether the presbytery or the ministry, but in everything commend yourselves as ministers of God, in much patience, saying, and now what is my patience? Is it not the Lord? — in afflictions, persuaded that many are the afflictions of the righteous; in necessities, that we may demand blessedness as something necessary to us; in distresses, that, having journeyed without omission along the narrow and afflicted way, we may arrive at life. If it be needful, let us also commend ourselves in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings. For behold the Lord, and his reward is in his hand, to render to each according as his work is.

[§43] Now let us show that we have longed for knowledge through works befitting that knowledge. Let all purity, that from every defilement whatsoever in any sin of any kind, be made manifest in us. As sons of a long-suffering God and brothers of a long-suffering Christ, let us be long-suffering in all that befalls us; for a long-suffering man abounds in prudence, but the faint-hearted is exceedingly foolish. If one must commend oneself through the weapons of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, having commended ourselves through glory and not having grown slack because of it, let us now also endure dishonor; but if we have also conducted ourselves worthy of good report and been well spoken of, let us now also bear the evil speaking that comes from the impious. And further, if we were admired as truthful among lovers of truth, let us now laugh at being said to be deceivers. In many dangers, from which we were delivered, many said that we were acknowledged by God; now let whoever wishes say that we are ignored, when perhaps rather we are being acknowledged. Bearing, then, what befalls us, we are chastened, but not killed, and we who rejoice are made like to those who grieve.

[§44] Paul somewhere says to those who endured in the beginning, exhorting them, in accordance with their former endurance, to bear second dangers, those on account of the word: But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great contest of sufferings; partly, while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly, while you became sharers of those who were so treated. For you both had compassion on my bonds, and took with joy the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have for yourselves a better and abiding possession. Do not, therefore, cast away your confidence, which has great recompense of reward. For you have need of patience. Let us too, therefore, now endure a great contest of sufferings, in reproaches and afflictions, both made a spectacle and with joy accepting the plundering of our goods; for we are persuaded that we have a better possession, not earthly, nor even bodily, but one that is invisible and incorporeal. For we look not at the things which are seen, seeing that these are temporal, but those are eternal.

[§45] But since some, not perceiving the doctrine concerning the demons, and, as though needing the nourishment that comes through the exhalations for the sake of remaining in this dense and earth-encircling air, watch wherever there is ever the savor of burnt fat and blood and frankincense, and make light of sacrificing as a matter of indifference — we would say against this too that, if those who furnish provisions to robbers and murderers and barbarian enemies of the great king are punished as having wronged the commonwealth, how much more justly would those be charged who, by sacrificing, give provisions to the ministers of wickedness that keep them fast in the region about the earth — and especially if, having learned the word he who sacrifices to other gods shall be utterly destroyed, save to the Lord alone, they should sacrifice to those who are the causes of the evils upon earth. And I think indeed that for the sins committed by the demons working against men, those who by sacrificing have nourished them shall be charged no less than the demons who worked the worse things; for the demons and those who held them fast upon the earth have, as it were, in common wrought the evils for men, since the demons could not have held out apart from the exhalations and the nourishment reckoned to be suited to their bodies.

[§46] Again, on the other hand, certain people, supposing that names exist by convention and that they have no natural relation to the things underlying them, of which they are the names, think it makes no difference whether one says, I worship the first God, or Zeus, or Zen, and whether one declares, I honor and accept the sun, or Apollo, and the moon, or Artemis, and the spirit in the earth, or Demeter, and all the other things the wise men of the Greeks say. To these it must be said that there is a certain study concerning names that is very profound and recondite, which one who understands it will see that, if names existed by convention, the so-called demons or certain other powers invisible to us would not obey those who understand them but name them as though the names had been assigned; but as it is, certain sounds and syllables, and appellations pronounced with aspiration or smooth breathing, or with lengthening or shortening, lead—perhaps by some nature unobservable to us—the beings that are called upon. And if this is so, and names do not exist by convention, then the first God is to be called by no name except those by which his servant and the prophets and the Savior himself and our Lord name him, such as Sabaoth, Adonai, Shaddai, and again the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; for this, he says, is an eternal name and a memorial to generations of generations. And it is no wonder if the demons refer their own appellations to the first God, so that they may be worshiped as the first God. But this is not ancestral to our servant and the prophets and to Christ, the fulfillment of the law, and to his apostles. And we have set these things down of necessity, lest anyone should outwit us or even to some degree defile our reasoning; to which things careful attention must be paid, since they give no place of interference to the adversaries.

[§47] And further, a man loves life once he has gained conviction concerning the essence of the rational soul, that it has something akin to God. For both are intellectual and invisible and, as the prevailing argument demonstrates, incorporeal. And why did he who fashioned us implant a longing for piety toward him and for communion with him—he who even among those who have gone astray preserves certain traces of the divine will—unless it were possible and attainable for rational beings to grasp what is naturally longed for? And it is clear that, just as each of our members has been fashioned to preserve a certain affinity toward something—the eyes toward things visible and the ears toward things audible—so the mind toward things intelligible and toward the God who is beyond the intelligibles. Why then do we hesitate and waver, when we have laid aside the corruptible body that hinders us, weighing down the soul, that earthly tent that presses down the mind full of cares, to be released from the bonds and to depart from the waves that come with flesh and blood? That we may rest, together with Christ Jesus, the rest that belongs to blessedness—beholding the whole, living Word through the whole of himself, and being nourished by him, and grasping the most manifold wisdom in him, and being stamped by very Truth itself, and having the mind illumined in the true and unceasing light of knowledge, unto the contemplation of those things which are by nature beheld through that light by eyes enlightened by the commandment of the Lord.

[§48] Long ago we heard the words of Jesus, and already for a long time we have been made disciples to the gospel, and we have all built ourselves a house. But where we have built—whether upon the rock, having dug and gone deep, or upon the sand without a foundation—the present contest will show. For a storm has come, bringing rain and rivers and winds, or, as Luke names it, a flood; and these, having beaten against the house, either will not be able to shake it, and for this reason the house will not fall, since it is founded upon the rock that is Christ, or will expose the unsoundness of the building, which will collapse through the occasion that has now arisen. May this be far from our buildings; for great indeed is the fall in denial, or, as Luke says, great is the ruin of the building without a foundation. Therefore let us pray that we may be likened to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock. For let there come upon such a building the rain from the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places, or the rivers of the principalities and powers hostile to us, or the harsh winds from the world-rulers of this darkness, or the flood of the spirits beneath the earth, and let them beat themselves against our building that is upon the rock; so that not only with respect to not falling but even with respect to not being shaken at all may the house suffer, and rather may the forces at work be acted upon by us than themselves do anything. And let each of you say, as he strikes the adversaries, So I box, as not beating the air.

[§49] But since also the sower went out to sow, let us show that our soul received his seed—not as those beside the road, nor as the rocky ground, nor as the thorns, but as the good earth. That, then, the word of Jesus came neither beside the road nor upon the thorns—so far as it lies with us, we will boast in the Lord. For we understood what was said; wherefore the evil one did not snatch away what was sown in our heart. And that it was not sown upon the thorns either, many will bear witness for us, seeing that neither the care of this age nor the deceitfulness of riches nor the pleasures of life have been able to hinder the word of God in our souls. It remains for men to be in doubt whether upon the rocky ground or upon the good earth the word of God came, so far as it lies with us. For there has come tribulation and persecution on account of the word, and the season of great trial has arrived, when the one sown upon the rocky ground is exposed, and those who did not go deep nor received Jesus even to the depth of the soul; but the one who understands the word bears fruit and holds fast the word to the end in endurance, producing a hundredfold.

For we hear in what manner the Scripture, presenting those who in a time of tribulation or persecution are made to stumble—after seeming to have received the holy teachings with joy, and being made to stumble because they have no root but believe only for a season—says, according to Matthew: But the one sown upon the rocky ground, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself but is temporary, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, he is immediately made to stumble; and according to Mark: These are the ones sown upon the rocky ground, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy, and they have no root in themselves but are temporary, and then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they are made to stumble; and according to Luke: But those upon the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, and these have no root, who believe for a season and in a time of trial fall away; but concerning those who bear fruit well, teaching, it says: But the one sown upon the good earth, this is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces, one a hundred, one sixty, one thirty, or: And those are the ones sown upon the good earth, who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit in thirty and in sixty and in a hundred, or: But that upon the good earth, these are they who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, hold it fast and bear fruit in endurance.

According to the apostle, then, since you are God's field, God's building, a field in the good earth, a building in the rock: as God's building let us stand unshaken against the storm, and as God's field let us take no thought either of the evil one, nor of tribulation or persecution arising on account of the word, nor of the care of this age, nor of the deceitfulness of riches, nor of the pleasures of life, but, despising all these, let us take up the untroubled spirit of wisdom, and let us hasten toward the riches that in no way possess deceit, and let us press on toward the, so to name them, pleasures of the paradise of delight, reckoning in each of our toils that the present lightness of our tribulation works for us, in surpassing measure unto surpassing measure, an eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen.

[§50] And let us also know this, that what was said concerning Abel, slain by the murderous and unjust Cain, applies to all whose blood has been unjustly poured out. For the words, The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the earth, let us consider to be spoken also concerning each of the martyrs, whose blood's voice cries out to God from the earth.

And perhaps, just as we were purchased by the precious blood of Jesus, Jesus having received the name that is above every name, so by the precious blood of the martyrs some will be purchased, they themselves being exalted more than they would have been exalted had they become righteous but not borne witness; for it stands to reason that death in martyrdom is properly called an exaltation, as is clear from the words, If I be exalted from the earth, I will draw all men to myself. Let us too, then, glorify God, exalting him by our own death, since he who bears witness by his own death will glorify God; which very thing we have also learned from John, who said, This he said, signifying by what death he would glorify God.

[§51] These things have been dictated to you by me as best I could, in the way that was possible, and I pray that they may prove useful to you for the present contest. But if you, being now especially worthy to behold more of God's mysteries, should grasp things greater and richer and more effective toward the goal that lies before you, and should therefore look down on these words of mine as childish and cheap, then I too would pray that this be so concerning you. For what lies before you is not that your affairs be accomplished through us, but that they be accomplished in whatever way. And would that they might indeed be accomplished through words more divine and more understanding and surpassing all human nature, and through the wisdom of God.