EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM, TO FORTUNATUS by St. Cyprian



Chapter 1

You have desired, my very dear Fortunatus, that since the weight of
afflictions and persecutions lies heavy upon us, and at the end and at the
consummation of the world the hostile time of antichrist has already begun
to draw near, I bring together from the sacred Scripture exhortations for
the preparation and strengthening of the minds of the brethren, with which
I might animate the soldiers of Christ for the spiritual and heavenly
struggle. I have felt obliged to obey your so compelling wish, so that, in
so far as our mediocrity is able, prepared with the aid of divine
inspiration, certain arms, as it were, and defenses might be brought forth
from the Lord's precepts for the brethren who are about to fight. For it
is a minor matter that we arouse the people of God with the trumpet call
of our voice, unless we confirm by divine reading the faith of believers
and their courage dedicated and devoted to God.



Chapter 2

For what more fitly or more fully befits our care and solicitude than to
prepare the people divinely committed to us and the army established in
the heavenly camp with constant exhortations against the weapons and darts
of the devil? For he cannot be a soldier fit for war who has not first
been trained in the field, nor will he who seeks to obtain the contestant
s crown be crowned in the stadium, unless he first gives thought to the
practice and skill of his powers. He is an old adversary and an ancient
enemy with whom we wage battle. Almost six thousand years are now being
fulfilled since the devil first attacked man. All kinds of tempting and
arts and plots for his overthrow has he learned by the very practice of a
long time.  If he finds a soldier of Christ unprepared, if untrained, if
he does not find him vigilant with a solicitous and whole heart, he besets
him in ignorance, he deceives him incautious, he entraps him
inexperienced. But if anyone guards the precepts of the Lord, and bravely
adhering to Christ stands against the devil, he must be conquered, since
Christ whom we confess is invincible.



Chapter 3

And not to extend my talk at length, dearest brother, and not to fatigue
my listener or reader by the abundance of a rather diffuse style, I have
made a summary, so that, after setting forth the headings first, which
each one ought to know and retain, I might add passages of the Lord, and
might establish what I had set forth by the authority of the divine words,
thus seeming not so much to have sent you a treatise of mine as to have
furnished material for those who make treatises. This plan is of greater
utility to individuals in practice. For if I gave away a garment already
finished and prepared, it would be my garment which another would use and
perhaps the thing having been made according to the contour of the stature
and the body of another would he held little fitting. But now I have sent
the very wool and purple of the lamb through whom we have been redeemed
and quickened, and when you receive it, you will make a tunic according to
your wish, and you will rejoice the more in it as in your own private and
personal garment, and you will also show others what we have sent, that
they too may be able to make garments according to their judgment; thus
covering that old nakedness, they may all bear the garments of Christ,
dressed in the sanctification of heavenly grace.



Chapter 4

Furthermore also, most beloved brother, I have viewed the plan as useful
and salutary in so necessary an exhortation as to make martyrs, that all
delays and tardiness of our words must be cut out, and that the
meanderings of human speech must be put aside, that those words alone must
be set down which God speaks, by which Christ exhorts His servants to
martyrdom. The divine precepts themselves must be supplied as arms for
those who fight. Let those be the incitements of the military trumpet; let
those be the clarion call for those who fight. By those let the ears be
made erect; by these let the minds be made ready; by these also let the
powers of mind and body be strengthened for the endurance of every
suffering. Let us only, who with the Lord's permission gave the first
baptism to believers, prepare each one for another baptism also, urging
and teaching that this baptism is greater in grace, more sublime in power,
more precious in honor, a baptism in which the angels baptize, a baptism
in which God and His Christ exult, a baptism after which no one sins
again, a baptism which brings to completion the increases of our faith, a
baptism which immediately joins us with God as we withdraw from the world.
In the baptism of water is received the remission of sins; in that of
blood the crown of virtues. This thing is to be embraced and longed for
and sought after with all entreaties of our prayers, so that we who were
servants of God may also be His friends.



Chapter 5

Thus exhorting and preparing our brethren, and in arming them with the
strength of virtue and faith for the proclaiming of their confession of
the Lord and for the battle of persecution and suffering, it must be said
in the first place:

I. That the idols which man makes for himself are not gods--for neither
are the things which are made greater than their maker and fashioner, nor
can they protect and save anyone, who themselves perish from their
temples, unless they are saved by man--but that neither are the elements
to be worshipped, which serve man according to the disposition and
precepts of God.

II. That, after the idols have been destroyed and the plan of the elements
has been demonstrated, it must be shown that God alone is to be
worshipped.

III. That then there must be added what the threat of God is against those
who sacrifice to idols.

IV. That besides it must be taught that God does not easily pardon
idolaters.

V. And that God is so angry with idolatry that He has even ordered those
to be killed who have persuaded to sacrifice to and serve idols.

VI. That after this there must be added that we, redeemed and quickened by
the blood of Christ, should place nothing before Christ, because neither
did He place anything before us and He on account of us preferred evil
things to good things, poverty to riches, servitude to domination, death
to immortality, and that we, on the other hand, in our sufferings prefer
the riches and joys of paradise to the poverty of the world, eternal
sovereignty and rule to the slavery of time, immortality to death, God and
Christ to the devil and antichrist.

VII. That it must also be insisted upon that, after being snatched from
the jaws of the devil and freed from the snares of the world, if they
begin to be in straitened circumstances and troubles, they do not wish to
return anew to the world and lose the benefit of having escaped.

VIII. That it must be urged too that they persevere in faith and virtue
and in the consummation of heavenly and spiritual grace, in order that
they may arrive at the palm and the crown.

IX. That difficulties and persecutions take place that we may be proved.

X. That the injuries and punishments of persecutions are not to be feared,
because the Lord is greater at protecting than the devil at attacking.

XI. And lest anyone become frightened and disturbed at the difficulties
and persecutions which we suffer in this world, it must be proved that it
was formerly predicted that the world would hold us in hatred and would
stir up persecutions against us, so that from the very fact that these
things happen the faith of the divine promise is manifest in the benefits
and the rewards to follow afterwards, and that whatever happens to
Christians is nothing new, since from the beginning of the world the good
have labored and the just have been oppressed and slain by the unjust.

XII. That in the last part there must be laid down what hope and what
benefit await the just and the martyrs after the conflicts and sufferings
of this time.

XIII. And that we are to receive more in the reward for our suffering than
what we endure here in the suffering itself.


I. That idols are not gods and that the elements are not to be worshipped
in place of gods. 

In Psalm 134: 'The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of
man's hands. They have a mouth but speak not; they have eyes but see not;
they have ears, but hear not; for there is no breath in their mouths. Like
unto them become all who make them.' Likewise in the Wisdom of Solomon:
'For they have esteemed all the idols of the heathens as gods, which have
neither the use of eyes to see, nor noses to draw breath, nor ears to
hear, nor fingers on the hands to handle, and as for their feet they are
slow to walk. For man made them, and he that borroweth his own breath,
fashioned them. For no man can make a god like himself. For, being a
mortal himself, he formeth a dead thing with his wicked hands. For he is
better than they whom he worshippeth, because he indeed hath lived, but
they never.' Likewise in Exodus: 'Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven
thing, nor the likeness of anything.' Likewise in Solomon (concerning the
elements): 'Neither by attending to the works have they acknowledged who
was the workman, but have imagined either the fire, or the wind, or the
swift air, or the circle of the stars, or the great water, or the sun, or
the moon to be gods. And if on account of their beauty they have thought
this, let them know how much the Lord is more beautiful than they. Or, if
they admire their power and their effects, let them understand by them
that He that made them mighty is mightier than they.'


II. That God alone is to be worshipped.

As it is written: 'Thou shalt worship the Lord Thy God, and Him only shalt
thou serve.' Likewise in Exodus: 'Thou shalt not have strange gods before
me.' Also in Deuteronomy: 'See, see that I am, and there is no God beside
me. I will kill and I will make to live. I will strike and I will heal,
and there is none who can deliver out of my hands.' Likewise in the
Apocalypse: 'And I saw another angel flying in mid heaven having an
eternal gospel to preach upon the earth to every nation and tribe and
people, saying with a loud voice: "Fear rather God, and give him honor,
for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made the heaven
and the earth and the sea, and all things that are in them." Thus also the
Lord in the Gospel makes mention of the first and second commandments,
saying: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord' and 'Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and
with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment. And the second
is like it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two
commandments depend the whole law and the prophets.' And again: 'Now this
is life everlasting, that they may know thee, the only true God, and him
whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ.'


III. What is God's threat against those who sacrifice to idols?

In Exodus: 'He that sacrificeth to gods shall be put to death, save only
to the Lord.' Likewise in Deuteronomy: 'They sacrifice to devils and not
to God.' Again in Isaias: "they have adored what their hands have made.
And man hath bowed himself down, and man hath been debased, and I shall
not forgive them.' And again: 'Thou hast poured out libations to them and
thou hast offered sacrifices to them. Shall I not be angry at these
things? says the Lord.' Likewise in Jeremias: 'And go not after strange
gods to serve them, nor to adore them, nor to provoke me by the works of
your hands to afflict you.' Also in the Apocalypse: 'If anyone worships
the beast and its image and receives a mark upon his forehead and in his
hand, he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is mixed
in the cup of his wrath; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone
in the sight of the holy angels and in the sight of the Lamb. And the
smoke of their torments goes up forever and ever. And they have rest
neither day nor night, whoever worship the beast and its image.' 


IV. It is not easy for God to pardon idolaters.

Moses in Exodus prays for the people and does not obtain his prayer. 'I
beseech thee, O Lord,' he says, 'this people hath sinned a heinous sin,
and they have made to themselves gods of gold and silver; either forgive
them this trespass, or, if thou do not, strike me out of the book that
thou hast written. And the Lord said to Moses: "If anyone sin against me,
I shall destroy him out of my book.'' Likewise when Jeremias was
interceding for the people, the Lord spoke to him saying: Do not thou pray
for this people, and do not make demands for them in praise and prayer,
for I shall not hear in the time when they cry unto me, in the time of
their affliction.' Ezechiel also denounces this same wrath of God upon
those who sin against God. He says: 'And the word of the Lord came to me
saying: 'Son of man, when a land shall sin against me so as to transgress
grievously, I will stretch forth my hand upon it, and will break the staff
of the bread thereof; and I will send famine upon it, and destroy man and
beast out of it. And if these three men, Noe, Daniel, and Job, shall be in
it, they will not deliver sons nor daughters; themselves alone shall be
saved." Likewise, in the first Book of Kings: 'If a man by sinning, sin
against a man, they will pray for him to the Lord; but if a man shall sin
against God, who will pray for him?' 


V. That God is so angry at idolatry that He has ordered those also to be
killed, who have persuaded others to sacrifice and be subservient to
idols.

In Deuteronomy: 'But if thy brother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or thy
wife that is in thy bosom, or thy friend who is as thy own soul, should
ask thee secretly saying: "let us go and serve strange gods, the gods of
the heathen," thou shalt not consent to him, nor hear him, neither shall
thine eye spare him, nor shalt thou conceal him, but thou shalt make
public announcement concerning him. Thy hand shall be upon him first to
kill him, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And they shall stone
him, and he shall die, because he sought to turn thee from the Lord thy
God.' And the Lord again speaks and says that neither must a city be
spared, even if it entirely consents to idolatry: 'Or if in one of the
cities which the Lord thy God shall give thee to dwell in, thou hear some
saying: "Let us go and serve strange gods which you know not," thou shalt
forthwith kill all who are in the city with the edge of the sword, and
shall burn the city with fire, and it shall be without habitation forever.
It shall be rebuilt no more, that the Lord may turn from the wrath of his
fury, and he will show thee mercy and will have pity on thee and will
multiply thee, if thou shalt hear the voice of the Lord thy God, and
observe his precepts.' And Mathathias, mindful of this precept and its
force, killed him who had approached the altar to sacrifice. But if before
the coming of Christ these precepts were kept with regard to the worship
of God and the spurning of idols, how much more should they be kept after
Christ's coming; since He came and exhorted us not with words but with
deeds, suffering also and being crucified after all injuries and insults,
that by His example He might teach us to suffer and to die, that man might
have no excuse for not suffering for Him, since He suffered for us; and
that, since He suffered for the sins of others, much more ought each one
to suffer for his own sins. And so He threatens in the Gospel, and says:
'Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge him
before my Father who is in heaven.  But whoever disowns me before men, I
in turn will disown before my Father who is in heaven.' Likewise the
Apostle Paul says: 'For if we die with Him, we shall also live with Him;
if we endure, we shall also reign with Him; if we disown Him, He will also
disown us.' Also John: "He who disowns the Son does not have the Father,
he who confesses the Son has both the Father and the Son.' Therefore, the
Lord urges us to contempt of death, and strengthens us by saying: 'Do not
be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. But rather
be afraid of him who is able to destroy both the soul and body in hell.'
And again: 'He who loves this life shall lose; and he who hates his life
in this world, shall keep it unto life everlasting.' 


VI. That we who have been redeemed and quickened by the blood of Christ
should place nothing before Christ.

The Lord speaks in the Gospel and says: 'He who loves father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more
than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take up his cross and
follow me is not my disciple.' As it is written in Deuteronomy: 'Who say
to their father and to their mother: "I know you not," and have not known
their own sons, these have guarded thy precepts and kept thy covenant.'
Likewise the Apostle Paul says: 'Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or hunger, or
nakedness, or danger, or the sword? Even as it is written: 'For thy sake
we are put to death all the day long. We are regarded as sheep for the
slaughter.  But in all these things we overcome because of Him who loved
us.' And again: 'You are not your own; for you have been bought at a great
price. Glorify God and bear him in your body.' And again: 'Christ died for
all, so that they who are alive may live no longer for themselves, but for
him who died for them and rose again.'


VII. That those who have been snatched from the jaws of the devil and
freed from the snares of the world should not return anew to the world
lest they lose the benefit of having escaped.

In Exodus the Jewish people prefigured in our shadow and image, when, with
God as their guardian and avenger, they escaped the very severe slavery of
Pharaoh and Egypt, that is, of the devil and the world, faithless and
ungrateful with regard to God, looking back upon the troubles of the
desert and of their labor, murmured also against Moses; and, not
understanding the divine benefits of freedom and salvation, they sought
even to return to the slavery of Egypt, that is, to the slavery of the
world, from which they had been withdrawn, when they should rather have
had faith and belief in God, since He who liberates His people from the
devil and the world protects them when liberated. 'Why have you done this
to us," they say, by throwing us out of Egypt? It was better for us to
serve the Egyptians than to die in this desert. And Moses said to the
people: "Trust and stand and see the salvation which is from the Lord,
which he will do today for us. The Lord will fight for you and you will
hold your peace.'' The Lord warning us of this in His Gospel, lest we
return to the devil again and to the world, which we have renounced, and
from which we have escaped, says: 'No one having put this hand to the plow
and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.' And again: 'And let him
who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot's wife.' And lest anyone,
either because of some desire for wealth or by the charm of his own be
regarded from following Christ, He added saying: 'He who does not renounce
all that he possesses, cannot be my disciple.'


VIII. We must press on and persevere in the faith and virtue, and in the
consummation of heavenly and spiritual grace, that we may be able to
arrive at the palm and the crown.

In Paralipomenon: 'The Lord is with you, as long as you are with him. But
if you forsake him, he will forsake you.' Likewise in Ezechiel: 'The
justice of the just shall not deliver him, in what day soever he shall
sin.' Again in the Gospel the Lord speaks and says: 'He who has persevered
to the end, will De saved.' And again: 'If you abide in my word, you shall
be my disciple indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you free.' Forewarning also that we should always be prepared and
stand firmly equipped for battle, He added, saying: 'Let your loins be
girt about and your lamps burning, and you yourselves like to men waiting
for their master's return from the wedding, so that when he comes and
knocks, they may open to him. Blessed are those servants whom the master
of his return, shall find watching.' Likewise the blessed Apostle Paul,
that our faith may prosper and increase and attain the highest, exhorts
and says: 'Do you know that those who run in a race, all indeed run, but
one receives the prize? So run as to obtain it. And they indeed to receive
a perishable crown, but we an imperishable?' And again: 'No one serving as
God's soldier entangles himself in worldly affairs, that he may please Him
whose approval he has secured. And again one who enters a contest is not
crowned unless he has competed lawfully.' And again: 'I exhort you,
therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, to present your bodies as a
sacrifice, living, holy, pleasing to God. And be not conformed to this
world, but be transformed in the newness of your mind, that you may
discern what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.' And
again: 'We are sons of God. But if sons, then we are heirs also, joint
heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be
glorified with him.' And in Apocalypse the same exhortation of the divine
preaching speaks and says: 'Hold fast what thou hast, that no one receive
thy crown.' This example of perseverance and persistence is pointed out in
Exodus, where Moses, to overcome Amalech, who bore the figure of the
devil, raised his outspread hands in the sign and sacrament of the cross,
and he was unable to overcome his adversary except after he had persevered
steadfastly in the sign with hands raised continuously. 'And it came to
pass,' it says, 'when Moses lifted up his hands, Israel prevailed, but
when he let them down Amalec overcame. So they took a stone and put it
under him, and he sat upon it. And Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands on
both sides. And the hands of Moses were made firm even to sunset. And
Josue put Amalec and all his people to flight. And the Lord said to Moses:
"Write this that it may be a memorial in a book, and deliver it to the
ears of Josue, for I shall destroy utterly the memory of Amalec from under
the sun.


IX. That troubles and persecutions take place for this purpose, that we
may be proved.

In Deuteronomy: 'The Lord your God trieth you, that He may know whether
you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your strength.' And again in Solomon: 'The furnace trieth the
potter's vessels, and trial of affliction just men.' Paul also gives like
testimony, and speaks saying: 'We glory in the hope of the glory of God.
Not only so, but we glory also in tribulations knowing that tribulation
works out endurance, and endurance tries virtue, and virtue hope. And hope
does not disappoint, because the charity of God is poured forth in our
hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.' And Peter in his
Epistle lays it down, saying: 'Beloved, do not be startled at the trial by
fire that is happening among you which is happening for your trial, and
fail not, as though a strange thing were taking place for you. But rejoice
in all things as often as you partake in the sufferings of Christ, that
you may rejoice with exultation in the revelation of his glory. If you are
upbraided for the name of Christ, blessed are you, because the name of the
glory and power of God rests upon you, which indeed according to them is
blasphemy, but according to us is an honor.'


X. That the injuries and punishments of persecutions are not to be feared,
because the Lord is greater in protecting than the devil in assaulting.

John in his Epistle approves, saying: 'Greater is he who is in you than he
who is in the world.' Likewise in Psalm 117: 'I shall not fear what man
does to me; the Lord is my helper.' And again: 'Those are strong in
chariots, these in horses, but we, in the name of our God. They with their
feet bound have fallen, but we are risen up and stand erect.' And still
more strongly the Holy Spirit, teaching and showing that the army of the
devil is not to be feared, and, if the enemy should declare war on us, our
hope consists rather in that war itself, and that this conflict of the
just arrives at the reward of the divine abode and of eternal salvation,
lays down in Psalm 26, saying: 'If a camp be pitched against me; my heart
shall not fear; if a war shall arise against me, in this do I hope. One
thing I have sought of the Lord, this I shall seek after, that I may dwell
in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.' Likewise in Exodus holy
Scripture declares that we are rather multiplied and increased, saying:
'The more they oppressed them, the more they were multiplied and
increased.' And in the Apocalypse divine protection is promised in our
sufferings. 'Fear none of these things,' it says, 'that thou art about to
suffer.' Nor does any other promise us security and protection than He who
speaks through Isaias the prophet saying: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed
thee, and called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. When thou shalt pass
through the waters, I am with thee, and the rivers shall not cover thee.
When thou shalt walk through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt; the flame
shall not burn thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel who
shall save thee.' And He also in the Gospel promises that divine aid will
not be lacking to God's servants in persecutions, saying: 'But when they
deliver you up, do not be anxious how or what you shall speak; for what
you are to speak will be given you in that hour. For it is not you who are
speaking, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks through you.' And
again: 'Resolve in your hearts not to mediate beforehand to make excuse.
For I shall give to you utterance and wisdom which your adversaries shall
not be able to resist.' Just as in Exodus God speaks to Moses, when he
delays and fears to go to the people, saying: 'Who gave a mouth to man and
who made the dumb and the deaf, the seeing and the blind? Did not I the
Lord God? Go now, and I shall open thy mouth and I will teach thee what
thou shalt speak.' It is not difficult for God to open the mouth of a man
devoted to Him, and to inspire constancy and confidence in speaking in one
who confesses Him, who in the book of Numbers made even a female ass speak
against Balaam, the prophet. Therefore, let no one consider in
persecutions what danger the devil brings, but rather let him bear in mind
what assistance God affords; and let not the disturbances of men weaken
the mind, but let divine protection strengthen the faith, since each one
according to the Lord's promises and the merits of his faith, receives so
much of God's help as he thinks he receives, and since there is nothing
which the Almighty cannot grant, except if the frail faith of the
recipient be deficient.


IX. That it was formerly predicted that the world hold us in hatred, and
that it would stir up persecutions against us, and that nothing new
happens to the Christians, since from the beginning of the world the good
have labored and been oppressed, and the just have been slain by the
unjust.

The Lord in the Gospel forewarns and predicts, saying: 'If the world hate
you, know that it hates me first. If you were of the world, the world
would love what is its own; but since you are not of the world, but I have
chosen you out of the world; therefore the world hates you. Remember the
word that I have spoken to you: "the servant is not greater than this
master." If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you also.' And
again: 'The hour will come for anyone who slays you to think that he does
God a service. And this they will do because they do not know the Father
nor me. But these things I have spoken to you, so that when the time comes
for them you may remember that I told you.' And again: 'Amen, amen, I say
to you that you shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and
you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.' And
again: 'These things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace.
In the world you will have affliction. But take courage, for I have
overcome the world.' But when He was asked by His disciples about a sign
of His coming and of the consummation of the world, He answered and said:
'Take care that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name,
saying: "I am the Christ" and they will lead many astray.  Moreover, you
shall begin to hear of wars and rumors of wars. Take care that you do not
be alarmed; for these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there
will be famines and earthquakes and pestilence in various places. But all
these things are the beginnings of sorrows. Then they will deliver you up
to tribulation and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all
nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall away and will arise
and will lead many astray. And because iniquity will abound, the charity
of many will grow cold. But whoever perseveres to the end, he shall be
saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole
world, for a witness to all nations, and then will come the end.
Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of
by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place--let him who reads
understand--then, let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; and
let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything from his
house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak.
But woe to those who are with child, or have infants at the breast in
those days. But pray that your flight may not be in the winter, or on the
sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation such as has not been
from the beginning of the world until now, nor will be. And unless those
days had been shortened, no living creature would be freed. But for the
sake of the elect those days will be shortened. Then if anyone say to you:
"Behold, here is the Christ," or, "There he is," do not believe it. For
false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show great signs and
wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.  But do yet
take care. Behold I have told all things to you beforehand. If, therefore,
they say to you: "Behold, he is in the desert," do not go forth; "Behold,
he is in the inner chamber," do not believe it. For just as the lighting
which goes forth from the east and shines even to the west, so also will
the coming of the Son of man be.  Wherever the body is, there will be
gathered together the eagles. But immediately after the tribulation of
those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give her
light, and the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens
will be shaken. And then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven;
and then will all the tribes of the earth mourn and they will see the Son
of man coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and majesty. And he
will send forth his angels with a great trumpet and they will gather his
elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.' 

And these are not new or sudden things which are now happening to
Christians, since the good and the just, who are always devoted to God by
the law of innocence and by the fear of the true religion, always walk
through afflictions, and injuries, and the severe and manifold punishments
of attackers in the difficulty of a narrow road. Thus at the very
beginning of the world, the just Abel is the first to be killed by his
brother, and Jacob is sent into exile, and Joseph is sold, and King Saul
persecutes merciful David, and King Achab tries to oppress Elias who
constantly and courageously declares the majesty of God. The priest
Zacharias is killed between the temple and the altar, that he himself may
become a sacrifice there where he was accustomed to offer sacrifices to
God. Finally so many martyrdoms of the just have often been celebrated; so
many examples of faith and of virtue have been set forth for posterity.
The three youths, Ananias, Azarias, Misahel, equal in age, harmonious in
love, stable in faith, constant in virtue, stronger than the flames and
punishments that oppressed them, proclaim that they serve God alone, know
Him alone, and worship Him alone, saying: 'King Nabuchodonosor, we have no
occasion to answer thee concerning this matter. For our God whom we
worship, is able to save us from the furnace of the burning fire, and to
deliver us out of your hands, O King. But if he will not, be it known to
thee, that we will not serve thy gods and shall not adore the gods and the
golden image that you have set up.' And Daniel, devoted to God and full of
the Holy Spirit, exclaims saying: 'Nothing do I worship except the Lord my
God who made heaven and earth.' Tobias, although under a royal and
tyrannical slavery, yet in feeling and spirit free, preserves his
confession to God, and sublimely proclaims the divine power and majesty
saying: 'In the land of my captivity I praise him and show forth His power
in a sinful nation.'

Now what as to the seven brothers in Machabees, alike in their lot of
birth and virtues, fulfilling the number seven in the sacrament of a
perfect fulfillment? Thus the seven brothers, united in martyrdom, just as
the first seven days in the divine plan containing seven thousand years;
as the seven spirits and the seven angels who stand and go in and out
before the face of God, and the seven-branched lamp in the tabernacle of
witness, and the seven golden candlesticks in the Apocalypse, and the
seven columns in Solomon, upon which Wisdom builds her house, thus also
here the number of seven brothers embracing in the quantity of its number
seven churches, according as we read in the first book of Kings that the
barren woman bore seven. And in Isaias seven women lay hold of one man,
whose name they demand be invoked upon them. And the Apostle Paul, who is
mindful of this lawful and certain number, writes to seven churches. And
in the Apocalypse the Lord directs His divine mandates and heavenly
precepts to seven churches and their angels. This number is now found here
in the brothers, that a lawful consummation may be fulfilled. With the
seven children is clearly joined the mother also, their origin and root,
who later bore seven churches, herself the first and only one founded by
the Lord's voice upon a rock. Nor it is without significance that the
mother alone is with her children in their sufferings. For the martyrs,
who in their suffering bear witness to themselves as sons of God, are not
considered as of any father other than God, just as the Lord teaches in
the Gospel saying: 'And you shall call no one your father on earth. One is
your Father who is in heaven.' 

What proclaimings of confessions have they given forth! How glorious and
how great proofs of faith have they furnished! Hostile King Antiochus,
rather, antichrist represented in Antiochus, sought to contaminate the
mouths of the martyrs, glorious and invincible in the spirit of
confession, with the contagion of swine's flesh, and when he had beaten
them severely with rods and had been able to move them not at all, he
ordered irons to be heated. When these had been heated and made to glow,
he ordered him who had been the first to speak and had provoked the king
the more by the constancy of his virtues and faith to be brought up and to
be roasted, after having pulled out and cut off the tongue which had
confessed God. And this happened the more gloriously for the martyrs. For
the tongue which confessed the name of God ought itself to have proceeded
first to God. Then in the second case, when more severe punishments were
devised, before he tortured the other members, he tore away the skin of
the head with the hair, out of hatred, namely of a certainty on this
account: for, since the head of man is Christ, and the head of Christ is
God, he who tore the head on a martyr persecuted God and Christ in the
head. But trusting in his martyrdom and promising himself the reward of
resurrection from God's recompense he exclaimed and said: 'Thou indeed,
impotent one, destroyest us out of this present life; but the King of the
world will raise up into the resurrection of eternal life us who have died
for His laws.' The third, on being ordered, put forth his tongue. For he
had now learned from his brother to despise the punishment of having his
tongue cut out. He also steadily extended his hands to be cut off, happy
with this kind of punishment, whose lot it was to imitate the manner of
the Lord's passion. The fourth also with like virtue, despising the
torments and replying with the heavenly voice to restrain the king,
exclaimed saying: 'It is better, being put to death by men, to look for
hope from God, to be raised up again by Him. For, to thee there shall be
no resurrection unto life.' The fifth, besides trampling under foot with
the vigor of faith the torments of the king and the severe and various
tortures, inspired by the Spirit of divinity to prescience also and a
knowledge of the future, prophesied to the king that God's wrath and
vengeance would follow swiftly. He said: 'Whereas thou hast power among
men and though you are corruptible, thou dost what thou wilt, but think
not that our nation is forsaken by God. But stay and see in what manner
his great power will torment thee and thy seed.' What a consolation that
was for the martyr! How grand a solace it was not to consider his own
torments in his sufferings but to predict the punishments of his
tormentors! But in the sixth not virtue alone but also humility is to be
proclaimed; that the martyr claimed nothing for himself and ;lid not bring
forward the honor of his confession with proud words; rather he ascribed
his suffering persecution at the hands of the king to his own sins, but
that he would later be avenged he attributed to God. He taught that
martyrs are modest, have confidence in their being avenged, and boasted
not at all in their passion. He said: 'Be not deceived without cause, for
we suffer these things for ourselves in that we sin against our God. But
we do not think that thou shalt go unpunished to fight against God.'
Admirable also was the mother who, neither broken by the weakness of her
sex nor moved by her manifold bereavement, gazed upon her dying children
cheerfully and did not compute the punishments of her children but the
glories, furnishing as grand a martyrdom to God by virtue of her eyes as
her sons had furnished by the torments and sufferings of their limbs.
When, after six had been punished and killed, one of the brothers
survived, to whom he promised riches and power and many things that his
cruelty and fierceness might be favored by the solace of at least one
being subdued, and when he asked that the mother also entreat the son to
cast himself down with herself, she entreated, but as befitted the mother
of martyrs, as befitted one mindful of the law and of God, as befitted one
who loved her sons not lightly but strongly. For she entreated, but that
he confess God. She entreated that the brother be not separated from his
brothers in the communion of praise and glory, then accounting herself the
mother of seven sons, if it should happen that she had borne seven sons
rather to God, not to the world.  So arming him and strengthening and
bearing her son then by a happier birth, she said: 'Son, have pity on me
who bore you in my womb ten months and gave you suck three years, and
nourished you and brought you up unto this age. I beseech thee, my son,
look upon heaven and earth and when you have looked upon all things that
are in them you may know that from nothing God made them and so the race
of men came to be. And do not fear that tormentor, but may you become
worthy of your brothers and receive death, that in that mercy I may
receive thee with thy brethren.' Great was the praise of the mother in her
exhortation to virtue, but greater in her fear of the Lord and in the
truth of faith, because she claimed nothing for herself or her son from
the honor of six martyrs, nor did she believe that the prayer of the
brothers would avail for the salvation of a denier; rather she persuaded
him to become a sharer in their suffering, so that on the day of judgment
he could be found with his brothers. After this the mother also died with
her children; for now nothing else was fitting than that she, who had both
borne and made martyrs, should be joined in the companionship of their
glory, and that she herself should also follow those whom she had sent on
ahead to God.

And lest anyone, when the occasion has been presented to him of a
certificate or something else, whereby he may deceive, embrace the evil
role of deceivers, Eleazar must not be passed over in silence. This man,
when the opportunity was given him by the servants of the king to take
flesh which it was lawful for him to eat and, to circumvent the king, to
pretend that he was eating what was handed him from the sacrifices and the
forbidden foods, refused to consent to this deception, saying that to do
this was becoming neither to his age nor his dignity, for others would be
scandalized thereby and led into error, thinking that Eleazar, who was
ninety years old, had gone over to the custom of strangers after
abandoning and betraying the law of God; that it was not worthwhile so to
barter the brief torments of life as to offend God and incur eternal
punishments. And, after he had been tormented for a long time and was now
at the end of his life, as he died in the midst of lashes and torments, he
groaned and said: 'O Lord, who hast the holy knowledge, it is manifest
that, although I might be freed from death, I endure most severe pains of
the body as I am beaten with stripes, yet I endure these things freely in
soul because of fear of thee.' Certainly it was a sincere faith and a
sound and quite pure virtue not to have considered King Antiochus but God
the judge, and to have realized that it could not profit him for
salvation, if he derided and deceived man, when God, who is the judge of
our conscience and is alone to be feared, can neither be derided in any
way at all or be deceived.

If then we too live dedicated and devoted to God, if we make our way over
the very tracks, ancient and holy, of the just, let us proceed though the
same evidences of punishments, through the same testimonies of sufferings,
considering the glory of our time greater by this: that, although your
examples are numbered, as the abundance of virtue and faith later comes
forth, the Christian martyrs cannot be numbered, as the Apocalypse bears
witness, saying: 'After this I saw a great multitude which no man could
number out of every nation and out of every tribe and tongue standing in
the sight of the throne and of the Lamb; and they were clothed in white
robes, and there were palms in their hands, and they were saying with a
loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne and to
the Lamb." And one of the elders spoke and said to me: "These who are
clothed in the white robes, who are they and whence have they come?" And I
said to him: "My Lord, you know." And He said to me: "These are they who
have come out of the great tribulation and have washed their robes and
made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they are in the sight
of the throne of God, and serve him in his temple." But if the assembly of
the Christian martyrs is shown and proved to be so great, no one should
think that it is difficult or hard to become a martyr, when he sees that
the people of the martyrs cannot be numbered.


XII. What hope and reward awaits the just and the martyrs after the
conflicts and sufferings of this time.

The Holy Spirit shows and predicts through Solomon, saying: 'And though in
the sight of men they suffered torments, their hope is full of
immortality. Afflicted in few things in many they shall be well rewarded
because God hath tried them, and found them worthy of himself. As gold in
the furnace he has proved them and as victim of a holocaust he hath
received them, and in time there shall be respect had to them. They shall
judge nations, and rule over peoples, and their Lord shall reign forever.'
Likewise in the same our vindication is described, and the repentance of
those who persecute and harass us is declared. He says: 'Then shall the
just stand with great constancy against those who have afflicted them and
taken away their labors. These seeing it shall be troubled with terrible
fear, and shall be amazed at the suddenness of their unexpected salvation,
saying within themselves, repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit.
These are they whom we had some time in derision, and for a parable of
reproach. We fools esteemed their life madness, and their life without
honor. How are they numbered among the children of God, and their lot is
among the saints? Wherefore, we have erred from the way of truth, and the
light of justice has not shined on us, and the sun has not risen upon us.
We have wearied ourselves in the way of iniquity and destruction, and have
walked through hard ways, but the way of the Lord we have not known. What
has pride profited us? Or, what advantage has the boasting of riches
brought us? All those things are passed away like a shadow.' The price and
reward of suffering is likewise indicated in Psalm 115. It says: 'Precious
in the sight of God is the death of His saints.' Likewise in Psalm 125 the
sadness of conflict and the joy of retribution is expressed. It says:
'They who sow in tears shall reap in joy. Going they went and wept sowing
the seed; but coming they shall come, with exultation carrying their
sheaves.' And again in Psalm 118: 'Blessed are they whose way of life is
spotless, who walk in the light of the Lord. Blessed are they who search
His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart.' Likewise the Lord in
the Gospel, Himself the avenger of our persecution and the rewarder of
suffering, says: 'Blessed are they who have suffered persecution for
justice sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' And again: 'Blessed
shall you be, when man shall hate you and when they shall shut you out and
reproach you and shall rewrite your name as evil because of the Son of
man. Rejoice in that day, and exult, for behold your reward is great in
heaven.' And again: 'He who loses his soul on account of me shall save
it.' Nor do the rewards of divine promise await only the persecuted and
the slain, but, if the passion be wanting to the faithful, yet if the
faith has remained sound and unconquered, and, after forsaking and
continuing all his possessions, shows that he follows Christ, he also is
honored among the martyrs by Christ, as He Himself promises and says.
There is no one who leaves house, or land, or parents, or brothers, or
wife or children for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive
much more in the present time, and in the age to come life everlasting.'
Likewise in the Apocalypse He says this same thing: 'And I saw the souls
of those who had been beheaded because of the name of Jesus and the Word
of God.' And when he had put those beheaded in the first place, he added
saying: 'And who did not worship the image of the beast, and did not
accept his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands.' And all these he
joins together as seen by him in the same place and says: 'And they came
to life and reigned with Christ.' He says that all live and reign with
Christ, not only those who have been slain, but whoever standing in the
firmness of their faith and in the fear of God have not adored the image
of a beast and have not consented to his deadly sacrilegious edicts.


XIII. That we receive more as reward of suffering than that which we
endure in this world in the suffering itself.

The blessed Apostle Paul proves this, who, on being caught up by the
divine esteem, even into the third heaven and into paradise, testifies
that he heard unspeakable words, who boasts that with a visible faith that
he saw Jesus Christ, who professes that which he both learned and saw with
the truth of a greater conscience. He says: 'The sufferings of the present
time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that will be
revealed in us.' Who then does not labor in every way to arrive at such a
glory as to become a friend of God, as to rejoice at once with Christ, as
to receive the divine rewards after earthly torments and punishments? If
it is glorious for the soldiers of the world to return to their fatherland
triumphant after vanquishing the enemy, how much better and greater is the
glory for one, after overcoming the devil, to return to heaven triumphant,
and, after laying him low who had formerly deceived us, to bring back the
trophies of victory there whence Adam the sinner had been ejected, to
offer the Lord the most acceptable gift an incorrupted faith, an unshaken
virtue of the mind an illustrious praise of devotion, to accompany Him
when He begins to come to receive vengeance on the enemies, to stand at
His side when He sits to judge, to become co-heir of Christ, to be made
equal to the angels, to rejoice with the patriarchs, with the apostles,
with the prophets in the possession of the heavenly kingdom? What
persecution can conquer these thoughts, what torments can overcome them?
The brave and stable mind founded on religious meditations endures, and
the spirit persists unmoved against all the terrors of the devil and the
threats of the world, which a certain and strong faith in the future makes
strong. The lands are shut off in persecutions, heaven is open; Antichrist
threatens, but Christ protects; death is brought on, but immortality
follows; the world is snatched from him who has been killed, but paradise
is displayed to him who has been restored; temporal life is extinguished,
but eternity is exhibited. How great a dignity and, how great a security
it is to go forth hence happy, to go forth glorious in the midst of
difficulties and affliction, in a moment to shut the eyes with which men
and the world were seen, to open them immediately that God and Christ may
be seen. How great is the swiftness of so happy a departure! You will be
withdrawn suddenly from earth, that you may be replaced in the heavenly
kingdom. These things should be grasped by your mind and thinking; these
should be meditated upon day and night. If persecution should come upon
such a soldier of God, virtue made ready for battle will not be able to be
overcome. Or if the summons should come beforehand, the faith which was
prepared for martyrdom will not be without its reward; without loss of
time with God as judge reward is rendered; in persecution loyal military
service, in peace purity of conscience is crowned.