On the Two Kinds of Martyrdom

Martyr, as is known even to those who are ignorant of Greek, means witness. Although, after the light of Evangelical truth had arisen, ecclesiastical custom properly assigned the honour of this name to those who in torments persevered unto death in the profession of the name of Jesus Christ, and as it were sealed the evangelical instrument with their blood before unbelievers, yet the whole life of the pious bears testimony to God.

Not that he has need of anyone's testimony, who is of himself the fountain of eternal glory, so that he can be made neither more honoured by any honours of men, nor more obscure by any disgraces of mortals; yet it has seemed good to his eternal and divine counsel to will that his goodness, wisdom, and power be made illustrious among men through men; just as he willed the world to be governed through Angels, though he has no need of the ministry of Angels, and bestows many things upon men through men which he could have given directly, he who can accomplish whatever he wills by a nod, and for whom to have willed is to have done. And although, as I said, no disgrace reaches that ineffable majesty, yet in the Scriptures he speaks as though he were honoured through us, or brought to dishonour.

For in Deuteronomy he expostulates with Moses, because before the people who were murmuring on account of the scarcity of water at Kadesh in the desert of Zin, at the waters of strife, he did not sanctify him among the children of Israel, and on account of this offence neither he nor Aaron was permitted to enter the promised land, so long awaited, but only to look upon it from afar from the summit of the mountain.

Moreover, as to the fact that sanctify is used in place of glorify, those who are skilled in the Hebrew tongue affirm this to be a property of that language. This same thing can, however, be made clear from other passages of the Scriptures, if we trust less in their testimony, since even in the Lord's Prayer, Hallowed be thy name is said in place of glorified, or made illustrious, be thy name. So also he exhorts the Corinthians to glorify and bear God in their body. For just as the name of God is glorified by the life of pious men, in whom he himself through his Spirit works whatever good they do, so on the other side it is defiled and dishonoured by the evil deeds of those who profess themselves worshippers of God.

Just as the valour of a soldier or the uprightness of a servant redounds to the glory of the commander or master, so the cowardice of a soldier or the wickedness of a servant is a disgrace to the commander or master, because the character of these in large part depends upon the character of those in whose power they are. And even if the latter are entirely free from all fault, yet popular opinion is accustomed to judge the character of masters by the character of their servants. Hence we see also here the divine Scripture frequently speaking according to the feelings of mortals, as in Leviticus concerning one who had given of his seed to the idol Moloch, it says: Because he has defiled my holy name. But what has been sanctified by men can be defiled, whereas the name of God is in itself always glorious; it is only among men that it is contaminated, just as a lying slander does not defile an upright man.

So also in Ezekiel he cries out that his name had been defiled among the Gentiles by the impious conduct of the Israelites. Indeed, the most blessed Paul, writing to the Romans, says on the authority of the Prophet, addressing the Jews who profess the law but do the things which the law forbids: The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles. And in the Lord's Prayer, as I just touched upon, on the authority of the Redeemer, we pray that the name of God the Father may be hallowed, that is, that it may become renowned and illustrious among men, assuredly through men, or rather in men. Now it is made illustrious if his Spirit reigns in us, and if his will is obeyed on earth, just as in heaven there is no rebellion.

But since men have no strength of themselves, whatever is rightly done through us redounds to the glory of God, and therefore he sometimes brings forth the treasure of divine power from earthen vessels; so that the sublimity may be of the power of God, and not from us.

Therefore, although the whole life of the pious glorifies God and Christ his Son by its martyrdom, yet there is no testimony more illustrious among men than that of blood, that is, of life despised for God's sake and death bravely endured. Miracles also have borne testimony to the divine power, especially among unbelievers: for signs were given properly to these, as the blessed Apostle writes; but the testimony of blood poured out has always been more efficacious. How many incurable diseases had the Lord healed by a word! How many blind men had he enlightened! How many lame, paralytic, and feeble had he restored! How many lifeless persons had he called back to life! And yet few believed in him, and he heard: By Beelzebub he cast out demons. But when it came to blood, there the kingdom of Satan was cast down, there the world was subdued. John the Evangelist also records a threefold testimony on earth, of Spirit, water, and blood, placing last in the enumeration that which is most efficacious.

The Spirit descending in the form of a dove upon Jesus was seen by John the Baptist; whether others saw it is uncertain. Certainly this testimony was given to John, that he might cease to doubt concerning the Lord Jesus whether he was the one who would baptize with Spirit and fire. The testimony of water John the Evangelist saw, and it is not sufficiently established whether he saw it alone or with many. This was a great mystery of the sacred washing by which sins are blotted out: but he saw water flowing out together with blood, without which the water would have been ineffectual. For what does it profit to have sins abolished, unless the life of righteousness follows, which blood confers?

Although these three are one: for there is one God, who through Spirit, water, and blood declares his power and goodness to the human race: or they are said to be one because the testimony is consistent on every side, and in no part discordant; just as those whom the closest friendship unites are said, on account of the fullest agreement of souls, to be one soul.

And, according to the more literal sense, these three are the chief evidences and also instruments of life in man. For as long as by the function of the lungs breath is alternately drawn in and given out, it is a certain sign of life: whence in common speech those who live are said to breathe, and those who have ended life to have breathed their last. Because also the soul is called in Latin flatus, after the imitation of the Greek word, since the Greeks call wind anemos. Beyond this, there are in man himself most subtle spirits, dispersed from the heart where they have their source throughout the whole body, but travelling chiefly through the arteries, though also mingled with all other parts; if these suddenly fly out, they bring immediate death: but if they are shut in, they consume the man with a slow sickness. There is also a certain natural moisture, which, as I believe, physicians call phlegm, itself also dispersed throughout the whole body.

We never perceive its use more evidently than in the sense of taste: for unless this be intermingled between the tongue and the palate, there will be no judgment of the palate. And yet these things are so mingled in man that there is no blood without spirit and phlegm, and all together contribute equally to the preservation of life. We see any living creature die as soon as the blood has flowed out; and when the moisture which physicians call radical is consumed, man dies in no other way than a lamp is extinguished when the oil is consumed. But we linger too long in the contemplation of nature; which nevertheless I think has not been done by us without profit, so that the mystery in whose contemplation we dwell the more willingly because it is the more wholesome may become clearer to your charity.

For, according to the consideration of nature, these things have great power when they perform their functions in a living body, and, according to mystical philosophy, they avail most of all when they leave the body.

No one marvelled at the Lord breathing and drawing breath after the human manner: but when on the cross with a loud cry he had given up the spirit, it was at once understood that he had been both true man and true God: man, because in accordance with the order of nature, when he had breathed out the vital breath, he ceased to live; God, because he died together with a great cry, declaring that he was laying down his life willingly and of his own accord, which everyone knows is not within human power. The nearby Centurion felt the efficacious testimony of the spirit; for thus the blessed Mark narrates: And when the Centurion who stood over against him saw that he had so breathed his last, he said: Truly this man was the Son of God. What is more abject than death according to the flesh? But nothing is more powerful than death according to the spirit.

It was also beyond the course of nature that from the side of the lifeless body blood and water flowed out, so that the threefold testimony might be completed. He poured out all his spirit that we might breathe: whatever remained of watery moisture he expressed, that we might be washed: whatever blood had settled in the heart he sent forth, that we might be strengthened. And I know not whether I do wrong in comparing these three with one another, since they are one, not in nature, but in mystery. If there is however any distinction, blood is celebrated above all in testimony by reason of the fact that in this Scripture testifies that the life of a living creature resides, and on that account it was removed from foods by the edict of the law. Moreover, blood is more exposed to the eyes of men than spirit or water.

The life of the Lord, who was the supreme martyr, and who even today fights and conquers in very many martyrs, was a stumbling-block. I will not now speak of the Pharisees and Scribes; even to his own kinsmen and brethren he was detestable, when they said that he had gone out of his mind; but his death was admirable not only to the pious but even to the impious, and nowhere was it more true that the power of God is made perfect in weakness. There the tyranny of Satan was broken, there the underworld was conquered, there the devil was triumphed over, there hell was cast down, heaven opened. Doubtless this was what the Lord was praying for as the hour of death drew near: Father, glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee. What is more contemptible than a dead man? For who fears even a dead Caesar? But what is more efficacious than the death of Christ?

The veil of the temple was rent from top to bottom, the earth was shaken, the rocks were split, the tombs were opened, the bodies of the buried rose again, the sun at midday covered his face. Never throughout his whole life had he declared his power more fully: presently, having broken all the bars of death, he showed himself alive to his disciples. Doubtless this is that efficacious testimony of the most holy blood, which alone was able to break down the wall that separated God from the human race: alone was able with a single erasure to blot out that whole bond which was against us, and claimed for Satan his right over us. For the blood of goats or of calves could not abolish sin; those were shadows and types of things to come.

Nor could the blood of any man take away the sin of the world, save only the blood of that unique Lamb to whom the Baptist bore testimony, saying: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world.

It is a greater thing to take away sin than sins, and sin not of this man or that, but of the world. For the body of sin had occupied the whole world: that this has been taken away through Christ, the blood of him poured out for us renders clear testimony, speaking better on our behalf, as the Apostle says, than the blood of Abel. For that blood, crying from the earth, spoke of vengeance: but the blood of Christ, crying from the cross, speaks peace and reconciliation. Moreover, that same blood, since it is drunk by us—if only it is drunk worthily—cries out in our hearts words of peace and full of consolation. And there the testimony is threefold, though in a certain spiritual manner. The Spirit cries out, who has been given to us in the place of a pledge: Abba, Father, bearing witness that we are sons of God.

The water cries out, through which we have been reborn, that all our sins have been forgiven; and if anyone still doubts, the testimony of the blood is added, crying out: why do you still hesitate, why do you still fear the tyrant Satan? Behold the price by which the Son of God has redeemed you. Unless God had willed you to be saved, he would not have delivered his Only-begotten to death.

No one has greater charity than to lay down his life for his friends. If there is no greater testimony of surpassing goodwill than for someone to give his life for a friend, the testimony of the Lord's blood is weightier still, for it was poured out for enemies.

Poured out for enemies, it made them friends and sons of God: and that we might consider this friendship to be everlasting, he left us his flesh to eat, he left us his blood to drink; so that we might be nourished by the same things through which we have been redeemed. The old Testament was confirmed by the sprinkling of blood, as the most blessed Paul teaches excellently in writing to the Hebrews: the new Testament has been sealed and ratified by the blood of Christ, that is, the testament and covenant of grace and the remission of sins, through the blood of the spotless Lamb, who deigned to take upon himself the sin of the whole world, which all who come forth into this life contract from Adam, and by the contagion of which all who sin do sin.

So great, moreover, is the sublimity of Christ, that perhaps no one among the rest of men ought to be compared with him, had he not himself given us such great confidence—he who did not disdain to call his disciples friends, to call his little servants brothers and co-heirs. Just as, therefore, he by his wonderful testimony glorified the Father in this world, and also in the heavens: so his testimony is in some manner consummated by the testimony of the saints, as though the passion of the Lord and of his servants were one. Lest anyone should think this said with too little reverence, the blessed Paul is our advocate, writing thus to the Colossians: Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh for his body, which is the Church. For who does not know, brethren, what abundant harvest the field of the Church has poured forth, watered by the blood of the Apostles and the other martyrs?

The more blood was shed, the more the multitude of the faithful flourished: the more widely did that blessed vine, rising from the stock of Christ, spread its branches, and occupying the whole world, wherever it extends from East to West, from North even to South.

Behold, most beloved brethren, from the times of the Lord our Redeemer some two hundred and forty years have flowed by; and already the branches of this vine have spread themselves almost more widely than the Roman empire, making even savage nations drunk with the new wine of the Spirit, and those whom no force of iron could tame, the blood of that white Lamb softens. Those who investigate the causes of nature tell us that the diamond, yielding to no hardness of steel, when soaked in the blood of a goat, shatters at the blow of hammers: but no diamond is harder than the stony heart of sinners. This iron heart, this stony heart, this heart harder than diamond, the blood of Christ softens, and that of his martyrs, who have supplied what was lacking to his sufferings.

By this argument that supreme shepherd, and, as Peter says, the prince of shepherds, bore witness that he is the good shepherd, because he laid down his life for the sheep, giving us an example, so that those of us who in our own measure bear his office should be ready also ourselves to shed blood for the Lord's flock, unless we prefer to appear as hirelings rather than shepherds. The words of the disciple accord with the words of the Lord. For when he had said that he rejoiced in the sufferings by which he would complete the sufferings of Christ, himself also suffering on behalf of the body of Christ, which is the Church, what the Lord had suffered; he added the reason why he willingly endured them: Of which, he says, I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me towards you, that I may fulfil the word of God. And in another place he writes that he has filled up the Gospel.

As therefore the sufferings of Christ are consummated by the deaths of the martyrs, so the promises of Christ are confirmed by the blood of shepherds. For no instrument is more beyond doubt than that which has been sealed by the blood of so many martyrs. This indeed is to fulfil the word of God, this is to fill up the Gospel.

But meanwhile a most grievous sorrow arises in my soul, beloved, when I reflect within myself that, though that fresh blood of Christ ought still to burn in the hearts of the faithful, there are so many in whom charity has grown cold: and this torments me the more grievously, that the Church has not a few such shepherds, who not only do not set their bodies against the onslaughts of wolves, but even themselves act as wolves, while they slaughter and destroy the souls of the simple, themselves serving their own belly, their gain, and their ambition, and so far from fulfilling the word of God, they rather traffic in it and adulterate it with impious doctrines; nor do they consider that that Prince of shepherds will demand back in the strictest judgment each individual sheep, for whose redemption he had shed his blood, from their hands. But their own punishment awaits them: now it is better that, setting aside complaints, we exhort one another to the duty which we owe to Christ.

We have received a threefold testimony from Christ; it is fitting that we render him a threefold testimony in return. Let us faithfully hand on the rudiments to those about to be baptized, and perfection to those already baptized. Let us confirm them by the fruits of the Spirit, calling them to the heavenly life, and if the matter demands it, let us also willingly spend our very life for the flock committed to us, and by our death in turn glorify God. And lest it should seem strange to anyone that God is glorified by the death of men, hear the blessed John speaking in the Gospel concerning Peter, to whom the Lord had foretold that when he was old, he would be girded by another and led where he would not wish to go, in these words: signifying by what death he was to glorify God. All therefore who from the foundation of the world have died for God, for justice and piety, have by their death glorified God.

For almsgiving, fasting, prayers, and the other exercises of piety are feigned even by hypocrites: but no one accepts death with cheerfulness unless he is firmly persuaded that nothing adverse can befall those who persevere in the love of God.

Yet not everyone who is killed is straightway a martyr: murderers and pirates are also killed; it is not the punishment that makes a martyr, but the cause. And if any are read of who have boldly laid violent hands upon themselves, it was either weakness seeking an end of pains through death, or ambition, or madness. Nor is it bearing testimony to God to do what both displeases God and is forbidden even by the laws of the nations. There is the greatest difference between barbaric savagery and the most modest constancy of the martyrs, weak in themselves, strong in Christ. There are those who by certain arts stupefy the body so as not to feel torments: in this way indeed malefactors fortify themselves against the hands of executioners. There are also uncontrolled passions which take away the mind's perception, so that men endure even death without fear. But that calm and gentle bearing, that humbly sublime and sublimely humble manner, we see only in the martyrs of Christ.

They do not gaze upon the executioner with fierce eyes, they do not threaten the tyrant: they grieve more over the blindness of those men than over their own afflictions. Clearly Christ cries out also in them: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. They look at nothing but heaven, where all their hope is laid up. Thus the Lord himself was led like a lamb without a voice to the slaughter: and if he uttered any voice, it declared a spirit mild and calm more than any silence could have done. With what gentle speech he addresses Judas the betrayer! How peacefully he answered when struck with a blow! How nothing more fierce does he say to Annas and Caiaphas! How tranquilly he answered Pilate! Finally, when the Pharisees, as though victors, wagged their heads at him, raging against him with most bitter insults, that most gentle one cries out: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Therefore to die in itself is not testimony; but to die in this manner is to bear testimony to God. Stephen, a young man among murderers, a lamb among wolves, stood with a calm and angelic countenance and, following the Lord's example, prayed for those who were stoning him, and had his eyes nowhere but in heaven. There he merited to see by whose protection he was superior to his persecutors. He who fears God does not dread the cruelties of men. He who from his soul loves the heavenly life easily holds his earthly life of little worth; and for him, with the blessed Paul, to live is Christ, to die is gain. Is it not an immense gain to exchange this life—both brief and defiled by countless evils—for everlasting happiness? Here the Lord, as in all other things, showed himself as our pattern.

For when the final act of martyrdom was at hand, which they say in plays ought to be the best, he withdrew, cast himself upon the ground, prayed at length and even repeatedly, and drenched with a bloody sweat, expressed in himself the weakness of our nature, having first testified to the weariness and sadness of his soul even unto death, lest we should fall into despair if, when everything threatens imminent death, we feel the horror of nature.

For unless the sense of pains were present, martyrdom would have nothing admirable: but to overcome pain is worthy of a crown. To shudder at death belongs to nature; to conquer nature by strength of soul belongs to grace. Paul can do all things, but in him who strengthens him. But by what supports is the weakness of nature overcome? If we cast ourselves wholly to the ground, that is, if we attribute nothing at all to our own strength; if we watch and pray earnestly; if we submit our will to the divine will, and say from the soul, from the whole heart: Let this cup pass, if it be possible; but be it done, not as I will, but as thou wilt.

I have known and wept over certain men endowed with great strength of soul, who, already close to the crown, failed, and denied him whom they had long professed. What was the cause? They had turned their eyes away from him who alone gives strength to the weak, they had ceased from prayer, and had begun to look to human supports. They contemplated the chains of their own nature, they considered the goads, the hooks, the glowing plates, the iron and fire, and the rest of the apparatus of torture, horrible even to look upon, and they compared the atrocity of the torments with their own strength, and therefore lost the victory from their hands. When anyone thinks thus: "This I can bear, that I cannot endure;" he will never successfully complete his martyrdom. But he who gives himself wholly to the divine will, looking nowhere but to that help, is at last firm and unconquered.

This, however, cannot come to pass unless there be present a true and living faith, doubting nothing, questioning nothing: do not consider how great is the tyrant's savagery, how great is man's weakness, but how great is the power of the Lord, who fights and conquers in his members.

Therefore, to turn back from the digression to what had been established: just as the death of the Lord was more powerful than his life, so he willed the death of his martyrs to be powerful. For what is more feeble than to be bound, condemned, beaten, tortured, killed, and to offer one's body at the executioner's discretion? This spectacle sometimes moves even the most savage tyrants to pity. But when diseases are driven away from the monuments of the martyrs, demons roar, monarchs are terrified, miracles flash forth, and idols fall: then it becomes apparent how efficacious and powerful is the blood of the martyrs. "His presence is weak, his letters weighty", the most blessed Doctor of the Gentiles heard said of himself; this too will rightly be applied to the martyrs: life weak and despised, death weighty and powerful. Now the eagerness of all martyrs in their torments is not equal, just as not all of them depart by the same kind of death.

Those three blessed youths found refreshment in the midst of the flames, and, surrounded by the harmless element, sang a hymn to the Lord as if in a chamber. Daniel likewise made use of the company of lions without harm. The blessed Andrew, as human history indeed records, but of sufficiently proven trustworthiness, went to the cross rejoicing and congratulating himself. Others die repeatedly over a longer time and under various tortures, yet death is not granted to end their pain. It belongs therefore to the true martyr to commit this also entirely to the will of God. He knows what is expedient for us and what is most conducive to his own glory. This one thing must be continually kept in mind: "Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's".

Nor should anyone be displeased with himself if he feels, both in body and in soul, a heavy and prolonged affliction; let him only trust in him for whom he strives: he will not suffer anyone to be tempted beyond what he is able, but will also make with the temptation a way of escape. He sometimes permits chosen ones to fail under torments, so that they may acknowledge their own weakness, and afterwards renders those same ones most steadfast in the contest. By this dispensation Peter denied the Lord three times, so that, having been taught how nothing he could do by his own strength, he might confirm his brethren. But how was he to confirm them? That, distrusting themselves, they might place all their confidence in the Lord.

But now it is time that we discourse to your charity concerning the other kind of martyrdom, about which we must also dispute more carefully, because it is hidden and common to all ages; for Neros, Diocletians, Deciuses, and Maximinuses do not always rage, yet the devil never ceases to exercise those who have professed themselves soldiers of Christ. And perhaps there will be times hereafter, Christ granting it, in which no persecutions of tyrants will afflict the Church: yet there will never be wanting contests, never martyrdoms by which devout men glorify God. The Church, still warring in this exile, applauds with particular rejoicings those who have faithfully laid down their souls in the profession of the name of Jesus, and to the memorials of these men there is a great and eager gathering: but the heavenly theatre, the myriads of Angels and the innumerable people of the just reigning with Christ, applaud all who testify to their sincere faith and unconquered charity toward the Lord Jesus by the integrity and innocence of their life.

Nor is God glorified only by the profession of faith, which according to Paul is made with the mouth unto salvation, but also by the confession of sins committed. Lest we seem to speak this rashly from ourselves, testimonies of the Scriptures must be adduced. Therefore, unless the life of the devout redounded to the glory of God, Christ would not say in the Gospel: "That they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven"; nor would the Apostle Paul write to the Galatians: "And in me they glorified God". This is confirmed also by contrast from the things we have said. For if the name of God is polluted and dishonored by the impious life of his people, assuredly it is honored by their good life. The impious wisdom of the philosophers is also condemned by the Apostle, who, "when they had known God, did not glorify him as God". They professed wisdom, and displayed the utmost folly.

And so, while they professed that God exists, yet, living shamefully and sacrificing to idols, they were in a manner obscuring the glory of God by false testimony, as though he were neither just nor truthful, or as though he were not one but many, or as though he were like unto stones. This the most blessed Paul testifies even more plainly, writing to the Corinthians: "You are bought," he says, "with a great price; glorify and carry God in your body". Therefore God redeemed us at the price of his own blood, so that, once cleansed from sins, we might henceforth lead a life worthy of him.

And we bear the seal of the emperor impressed upon our foreheads. What if one bearing the sign of Christ should perform the works of Belial? Is not he dishonored whose insignia we bear? On the other hand, just as an emperor is pleased with the most valiant soldier, reckoning that soldier's virtue to be an honor and ornament to himself: so God glories in those whom he has redeemed, whom he has washed, whom he has sanctified, whom he has deemed worthy of the gift of the Spirit, if by the holiness of their life they should declare that the grace of the Lord had not been empty in them. If Paul glories in the piety of his disciples, calling them his joy and crown—he who was nothing but a steward of another's gift—shall not the Lord glory all the more over those for whom he died?

Furthermore, that in the book of Job the Lord speaks to Satan in this manner: "Have you considered my servant Job, how there is none like him on the earth, a man simple and upright and fearing God, and departing from evil"? Does he not utter the speech of one glorying in his worshipper? But the blessed Paul used an even more splendid expression, writing the second Epistle to the Corinthians: "Now thanks be to God, who always causes us to triumph in Christ Jesus, and manifests the fragrance of his knowledge through us in every place: for we are the good fragrance of Christ unto God". "A good name is better than precious ointments". Scripture is accustomed to call glorious fame a fragrance. Yet God does not glory after the manner of men, pleased with himself and exulting, but he counts our salvation as his glory, and therefore the Apostle added: "In them that are saved, and in them that perish." How is God glorified in those who are saved? Because his mercy is made illustrious.

How in those who perish? Because his justice is declared in them.

Now the very course of our discourse has led us to the point of teaching that God is glorified also by the confession of sins. Here there immediately presents itself from the book of Joshua the case of Achan, who, because he had taken from the accursed thing, against the divine decree, a notable scarlet garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a golden wedge of fifty shekels, the people of Israel turned their backs to the enemy. And so Joshua said to Achan: "My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession, and tell me what you have done; hide it not from me". Having confessed, he paid the penalty, and the wrath of the Lord was turned away. That confession made clear the justice and wisdom of God: his wisdom, in that nothing was hidden from his eyes; his justice, in that he had not without cause suffered the enemies to prevail against Israel, and in that no man violates his laws with impunity.

What Achan had stolen away was of no great worth: yet it was a great lesson to the whole people, how great a danger it is to disregard the commands of God, and to wish to impose upon him as though anything escaped him, or as though he favored transgressors. And that man indeed, being a Jew, paid the most severe penalties for a single sin which seemed slight to himself, stoned by the whole people, redeeming the salvation of his soul by the destruction of his body. For God does not judge twice for the same thing.

But what punishment awaits those who, after so great a light and grace of the Gospel, after they have once been enlightened, have also tasted the heavenly gift, and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, have likewise tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and yet relapse into many and monstrous crimes, crucifying to themselves the Son of God and making a mockery of him? Who are all the more pitiable in that, being such as they are, they nevertheless spurn the remedy of saving penitence, and despise the Church offering her maternal bosom and inviting them to the restoration of health. What ignominy, do you think, does such a rejection brand upon the Church? Nor can that ignominy fail to pertain to Christ, who is the head of the Church, and in all things counts as his own what belongs to his body and members. On the other side, how great is the exultation of the whole Church when one who has fallen is reconciled to the Church through penitence?

And lest we suppose this joy to be only among us, let us hear the Lord speaking in the Gospel according to Luke: "I say to you, that there shall be joy in heaven over one sinner doing penance, more than over ninety-nine just persons who need not penance". For this clause closes the parable of the shepherd who, leaving ninety-nine sheep, sought with great labor the one that had strayed from the flock, and having at last found it, laid it upon his shoulders and restored it to the fold. With a like saying he closes the parable of the woman who had found the lost coin: "So, I say to you, there shall be joy before the Angels of God over one sinner doing penance".

Yet this is not to be understood as though it were more pleasing to God and his Angels that one should return to piety after a fall than to persevere in innocence without a fall: but Scripture speaks after its own manner according to human affections, wishing to testify that the conversion of sinners is most pleasing to God: "For he seeks not the death of the sinner, but rather that he be converted and live".

And sometimes the falls of devout men, however grievous, are turned by divine dispensation to the highest profit of the Church. Thus fell the prince of the Apostles, thus Paul the doctor of the Gentiles, thus Mary Magdalene, in whom the Church now especially glories, whose falls redounded to the establishment and consolation of the house of God. Moreover, he does not speak here of the truly just, but of pharisaic righteousness, just as elsewhere he says: "They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick". But those to whom the Lord said this were not well; rather, puffed up by whatever observance of the Law, they seemed to themselves to be well, and therefore did not desire a physician.

Since these things stand thus, beloved brother, let us endeavor by continual exhortations to rouse the souls of the faithful, so that the whole of life also may render martyrdom, that is, testimony, to God; which is so far from being a thing to be neglected, that unless this has gone before, the martyrdom which is borne in blood is not martyrdom. For in vain will you have offered your neck to the executioner, unless you have first slain the members which are upon the earth, that is, the affections which war against the spirit: hatred, envy, avarice, lust—whoever serves these has in a manner denied God, and, professing Christ with the mouth, confesses Satan as god by his life. Nor ought this saying to seem to anyone too harsh, since it is true and salutary: whatever any man sets before God, he makes that his god, nor can we serve two masters: for there is one God who is to be loved with the whole heart, with the whole soul, with all one's strength.

Whoever therefore says with his mouth: "I believe in one God," and yet serves avarice, or lust, or luxury, lies to himself and contradicts himself, sounding one thing with his tongue while harboring another in his heart; bearing testimony to God with his voice alone, while with his life he worships Satan. The testimony of one's life is more efficacious than that of one's tongue: Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom, but he who does the will of the heavenly Father. Works too have their own eloquent tongue, even when the tongue is silent. Therefore the Lord in the Gospel according to John speaks thus: The works which the Father gave me to accomplish, those very works which I do bear testimony of me. Just as good works therefore profess God, so evil works in a certain manner speak: There is no God, nor knowledge in the highest.

Who would not tremble, who would not shudder, who would not tear his garments, who would not stop his ears, if he heard such words from a Christian? How great a horror, how great a grief seizes our souls when someone, overcome by torments, commanded to deny Christ, denies him, and burns incense before the statue of Jupiter? How we tremble, fearing lest God in his anger hurl the thunderbolt of his wrath upon us, lest the earth gape open and swallow us; so that sometimes the impiety of one person involves many in the fellowship of punishment; and there are crimes so monstrous that even to have seen or heard of them is detestable. But why in a similar crime are we elsewhere so indulgent? Why do we flatter both ourselves and others so greatly? But see what the Apostle says of such persons, writing to Titus: They profess to know God, but in their deeds they deny him.

The same, in the first letter to Timothy, concerning the widow who neglects her household: But if any one does not provide for her own, especially for those of her own household, she has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever. If she who is somewhat negligent in caring for her household has denied the faith, what do you think he would say of those who have given themselves wholly to mammon and to their belly? Of Christians certainly Paul speaks when writing to the Philippians, saying: Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly. The same persons he censures when writing to the Romans: For such do not serve Christ the Lord, but their own belly. He said serve in place of worship, according to the custom of the Scriptures. They worship their belly, since that is what they hold as their god.

Now concerning avarice he pronounces even more plainly, writing to the Colossians: Mortify, he says, your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is the service of idols.

We execrate those who prostrate themselves before the statue of Diana: how much more justly do we execrate those who with their whole heart serve mammon, who daily sacrifice to it? And if the covetous man is an idolater, who is held fast by zeal for money, who hoards what has come to him by inheritance or been acquired by industry, and does not distribute it to the needy; what is to be thought of those who accumulate wealth by pandering, by usury, by plunder, by fraud, by false accusations, by oppressing the poor? And this servitude to idols is found not only among Christians, but also, which is cause for grief, among bishops. Furthermore, drunkenness is so common in our Africa that it is regarded by nearly everyone as no crime. Do we not see at the memorials of the martyrs a Christian being compelled by a Christian to drunkenness? Do we consider this a lesser crime than sacrificing a goat to Bacchus?

It seems to me far more serious, if we wish to weigh the matter by right reason. When a tyrant says: "Deny Christ, and sacrifice to Jupiter, and be our friend; or die," the tongue often denies while the heart protests, and the hand burns incense while the mind within adores Christ: although this too is a most grievous crime, yet the weakness of human nature somewhat lessens the guilt of the impiety. There Satan speaks to you through the voice of the tyrant: but what does he say to you through your own concupiscence: "Deny Christ, and become rich; sacrifice to Mammon, and send Christ away." What does he promise? Gold and silver, useless material unless you put it to use. Nor does he say, "Die," but, "Delight your eyes;" nay rather he says this: "Gain money, to be possessed for a brief time, and lose your soul for eternity." And yet here you willingly bend your knees to Satan, and, having denied Christ, you give yourself wholly to him. But what does Christ say?

"Be mine, and live for ever; despise those temporal riches, and I will repay you a hundredfold in this age, and eternal life in the age to come. Leave the earth, and receive heaven." And God making these promises is forsaken; and the devil, promising things of such little worth and promising them falsely, is adored. O foul defection! O shameful idolatry! O unjust exchange! With what reward did he tempt the first parents of the human race? He showed a fruit, and gave death. He deceived with a lie: You shall not die, but you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And those who were deceived—what a lord they forsook, and to whom did they defect? From what happiness did they fall, and into what miseries did they cast themselves?

But that same prince of darkness who spoke to Eve through the serpent speaks to us through his satellites and ministers, through procurers and panders, through those who entice to the love of money, to ambition, to pleasure, drawing us away from the sincerity which is in Christ Jesus. That same one speaks to us through our own concupiscences, which live in our members. Nor does he say what the human tyrant says, "Either obey me, or die;" nor does he display prisons, chains, hooks, frying-pans, or burning furnaces, no crosses, nooses, or swords; but only: "Despise God, renounce the inheritance of heavenly life, and commit adultery, and you shall take pleasure." But what kind of pleasure? Momentary, and of the body only, and seasoned with how many bitternesses?—with infamy, with danger, and above all with the secret torment of conscience. This is the bait of the devil, this is his inducement. And what is the wage? Let the blessed Apostle declare it with greater authority: The wages of sin is death. What death?

The death of the body, which alone the human tyrant threatens and can inflict? No, but the death of hell, which knows no end. A human tyrant has more power than the devil. He in a certain manner compels human nature; the devil can do nothing but solicit: he cannot cast you down unless you consent; to have despised him is to have conquered him.

Greater pardon therefore is owed to one who denies Christ under torments than to one who willingly assents to the devil, for to have believed him is to have denied Christ. He is a liar and the father of every lie; his promises, however blandly they may smile on the surface, are nothing other than illusions luring to destruction. Let no one therefore flatter himself thus: "I am a sinner, I love money, I serve lust, I am zealous for honors, I indulge revenge, I am given over to pleasures: but I have not denied Christ." Yet the Lord himself cries out against you: You cannot serve two masters. And meanwhile you shudder at the abominable name of one who has burned incense or handed in a certificate, while you yourself are perhaps worse than those who burned incense or handed in certificates.

Human fear, more violent than human nature can overcome, drove them to utter impious words with their tongue while their conscience protested; you, enticed by so paltry a reward, willingly defect to him from whose tyranny Christ redeemed you with his own blood—whose you have now wholly become, as the Apostle says: You were bought with a great price, and: You are no longer your own. You professed his service at the saving font, you gave him your name, you were initiated into his sacraments, you received the donative and the pledge of the Spirit, lest you should doubt at all concerning the promised wage, and at the same time you declared perpetual enmity against the devil, you renounced all his pomps and pleasures; you breathed out, you hissed, you swore allegiance to the Redeemer: and while you serve so many vices, you are pleased with yourself that you have not yet burned incense or handed in a certificate.

If any soldier who had sworn allegiance to Caesar were to flee to the Turk, and at his bidding were to do those things which he knew to be most displeasing to Caesar; would he not, when caught, be dragged to punishment as a deserter, as a perjurer, as a fugitive? And who would listen to him defending himself thus: "I am not a deserter, I have not denied Caesar?" Would he not immediately hear: "What does it matter if your tongue was silent? In deed you denied him, and more than denied him, for you not only deserted the service but also went over to the tyrant and irreconcilable enemy of your emperor." Rightly do the ears of the faithful abominate the word apostate: yet this is not to be execrated only there, where by burning a little incense or writing a certificate one renounces the profession of the name of Christ; but wherever, with Christ's laws despised, one obeys Satan.

For it does not matter what the tongue sounds; if it sounds Christ while the mind is given over to crimes, it is not a profession but hypocrisy, and it will deny Christ if the fear that presses those who burned incense or handed in certificates should press it. And in those matters which so conflict with each other that neither can bear the fellowship of the other, as often as we embrace the one, we have renounced the other; as often as we have rejected the one, we acknowledge the other. Such are light and darkness, war and peace, death and life, God and Belial; as the blessed Paul also testifies in the second letter to the Corinthians: For what participation has justice with iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? To have cleaved to Belial is to have denied Christ, however much you may profess Christ with your tongue or your habit.

If any of the simpler sort should doubt this, I will give a plain and evident argument. Let us imagine a tyrant speaking thus to a Christian: "Burn incense to Jupiter;" demanding nothing bold, nor requiring him to deny Christ: if he burns it, will it not be manifest to all that by this very act he has denied Christ, in that he has offered incense to Jupiter, even if he utters nothing impious against Christ? Just as those who practice magical arts (from which evil the mercy of the Lord has freed us, as from all the others by which, walking according to the old man, we were once held), silently deny Christ while they have a covenant with demons.

Now, if the Maccabean brothers together with their mother preferred to be put to death by so many tortures rather than eat swine's flesh, reckoning thus that whoever knowingly and willingly violates the precepts of the Law denies the God who is the author of the Law, how can those who grow old in luxury, drunkenness, avarice, plunder, adulteries, and other crimes—which even the laws of the gentiles refused to leave unpunished—flatter themselves? And while they deny Christ in so many ways, while they so often sacrifice to demons, do they demand to be held as Christians? And among these are some who commit these things openly, and almost even glory in the worst deeds; so little are they ashamed or sorry for what they have done! And yet they dare to come into the church of the saints, they dare to mingle with the flock of the Lord.

Such persons the Church sometimes tolerates, lest when provoked they disturb the people of God even more: but what does it profit not to be cast out from the assembly of the pious, if you have deserved to be cast out? For to be cast out is a remedy, and a step toward recovering health: to have deserved expulsion is the greatest of evils. And it is in vain that one mingles with the assembly of the saints in the temple made with hands, if one has been removed from the fellowship of God and from the whole mystical body of Christ.

It is also necessary to consider how greatly Christians shrink from things sacrificed to idols and from entering temples, and even from the idols themselves. Although the blessed Paul cries out that neither an idol is anything nor a thing sacrificed to an idol, much less is a temple built of stones anything: and yet the mind of very many is held by such scruple of conscience that they would sooner meet death than taste what has been sacrificed to idols; and they consider it an inexpiable sin if they enter the temple of Jupiter or Apollo or Diana, and think themselves gravely contaminated by contact with an idol. I indeed approve the scrupulousness of such persons, if it is consistent in all things. But now, alas! One may see some who are almost superstitiously fearful in these matters, yet in others where there was greater cause for fear, are far too secure.

Contact with an idol does not of itself defile the soul, nor does entering a temple, nor eating what has been sacrificed to idols: but love of money, incest, plunder, hypocrisy, and similar monstrosities do of themselves pollute the conscience. How fitting is it to shudder at entering a temple, yet not to shudder at sacrificing victims to demons in a temple consecrated to the Spirit?

Saint Paul cries out, writing to the Corinthians: Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy. Again in the same Epistle: Know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? But if God has consecrated the hearts of Christians to himself, that he might dwell in them through his Spirit, that he might take delight and walk therein, that he might love to have a pure victim offered to him in every place—then he who into this temple sacred to God, having driven out the Holy Spirit, introduces the abominations which Ezekiel beheld in his mystical vision; who there makes a seat for Mammon, Venus, Comus, Bacchus, and other monstrosities; who there sacrifices most foul offerings to demons—yet fears to enter the shrine of the Gentiles lest he be defiled.

Therefore let no one flatter himself in vain: God is not mocked; let our religion be consistent within itself, and let us not detest others while we ourselves are liable to graver crimes; nor let us be religiously timid in one place and shamelessly impious in another. But, having once professed Christ, let us bear witness to him throughout our whole life, and everywhere glorify him, obeying his commandments; so that men may know by this that we truly trust in him, that we love him from the heart, and that we did not bring ourselves to his sacred washing and his service in a feigned manner.

The blessed Apostle foretold that persecution would not be lacking to any who wished to live piously in Christ Jesus. If a tyrant is absent, if a torturer, if a despoiler, concupiscence will not be absent, presenting us daily with material for martyrdom. Finally, those very evils which the life of mortals brings with it, and which are common to the pious and the impious alike, will prepare for us the crown of martyrdom, if we have borne them calmly and with thanksgiving. Nor are those deprived of the glory of martyrdom who have not been consummated by a violent death. But who would dare to exclude from the number of martyrs the patriarch Abraham, or his son Isaac, or the blessed Job? What tortures ever wracked the body more grievously than the impulses of nature tormented the mind of the Patriarch, when, at God's command, he was to appear without hesitation to sacrifice his only and uniquely beloved son, in whom lay all his hope of posterity?

What was lacking to the martyrdom of Isaac, who, without a murmur, suffered himself to be bound and laid upon the pyre, and did not shrink from the sword brandished at his neck? And whose martyrdom shall we dare to compare with what Job suffered?

But if anyone still distrusts our words, he certainly will not be able to distrust the words of the blessed Paul. Writing to the Hebrews, beginning from Abel down to Gideon, he reviews a vast catalogue of saints, in which there are more who did not die a violent death; indeed, few are those who died in that manner; and yet of all of them he pronounces: And all these, being approved by the testimony of faith, plainly declaring that the martyrdom of faith is accomplished also by a good life.

The usage of the Church indeed distinguishes them, calling by special names those who departed by a violent death; confessors, those who steadfastly in torments and under threats of death professed the name of the Lord Jesus, ready to meet death, or rather seeking the supreme crown of martyrdom. Yet before God, all who have crucified their flesh with its vices and concupiscences, all who have truly died with Christ and been buried with him in Baptism, so that they no longer live for themselves, nor for the world to which they have once died, but for him who died for them—these are martyrs, and they shall not be defrauded of the crown of martyrs: and chiefly among them monks who are truly monks, and virgins who are truly virgins. For neither a desert place, nor sackcloth for clothing, nor legumes for food, nor fasts, nor sleeping on the ground absolve one as a monk; beneath these coverings there sometimes lurks a mind that is thoroughly worldly.

This is detected in the following way: if they are called to some ecclesiastical office—there you may see some of them most easily overcome by pleasures, more impatient of injuries, more eager for revenge than any person from the common people. What is the reason? Because they have exercised the body more than the mind; whereas the blessed Paul teaches that bodily exercise is profitable for little, but godliness is profitable for all things.

I would not say these things to condemn those who in such ways chastise their body and bring it into subjection; but because Satan, equipped with a thousand arts, sometimes deludes the unwary, transforming himself into an angel of light, and from such bodily exercises induces in them a false persuasion of holiness; and while they are inwardly soaked in spiritual vices, they are held to be pious both by themselves and by others. Such was the righteousness of the Pharisees, which, by the judgment of Christ, was surpassed by the unrighteousness of the Publican. So too there are foolish virgins, who consider it solid piety to keep the body untouched by a man, while the mind is utterly corrupted by avarice, pride, envy, and detraction. There are also falsely named widows, who, while they live in pleasures, are dead to Christ.

In sum, however, whoever is truly a Christian, of whatever state or order, has his own struggles, has his own cross; which if he bears patiently, if he sustains it steadfastly, he glorifies the Lord by his testimony—only let him not claim for himself the praise of good works: for this is not to glorify God, but to glorify oneself.

Each of the faithful has his own contests, has the devil as his adversary, has God as his umpire, has as his theater not only the Church and the Angels, but also unbelievers; as Paul says to the Corinthians: We are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men.

If we conquer, the Angels rejoice, and the Churches of the faithful rejoice, and Christ himself rejoices in his members. But if we are conquered, our cowardice gives Satan triumph with his angels, unbelievers insult us, and they heap reproaches upon God, saying: "Behold those who boast that they have been redeemed from the tyranny of Satan, who proclaim themselves dead to the world—they are no less overcome by their desires than we are, whom they say are still held under the kingdom of Satan. What profits them Baptism, by which they say the old man is put off with his deeds, and the new man is put on, who is created according to God? What profits them the Holy Spirit, by whose governance they say they are ruled?

Why do they always have on their lips: the Gospel, the Gospel; when their whole life is at variance with the precepts of the Gospel?" How great a shame, do you think, suffuses the Church when these things are cast at her by enemies, and she has no means to refute the reproaches! Do we not see the whole assembly of the Church cast down their faces and blush, whenever some virgin who had been wedded to Christ, slipping from her angelic fellowship, has fallen into fornication or marriage? How great a grief seizes the minds of us all, but especially of the pastors, if at any time a soldier of Christ, overcome by torments, has renounced his emperor! And how great, on the other side, is the triumph of Satan!

Therefore, most beloved brethren, if we truly love God, if we daily pray from the heart: Hallowed be thy name; let us watch with the utmost diligence, not where we may defile his name, but let us glorify him both in death and in life, according to the admonitions of the blessed Paul: Living blamelessly as simple children of God, without reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom we shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life, to the glory of Christ Jesus our king and umpire, who counts as his own whatever is done in his members. Let us suffer with him, that we may be glorified with him in the day of the Lord. Let us here glorify him before men, that he may glorify us with his own glory before his Angels, when, as the blessed Paul says, he shall come to be glorified in his saints. No one is crowned unless he has striven lawfully.

And those who seek a corruptible crown abstain from all things, doing everything that conduces to victory: what ought we to do in order to obtain that crown of immortal life, incorruptible and unfading in the heavens?

Here if someone asks in what way a person can be a martyr without the shedding of blood: whoever follows justice with such a disposition that he would sooner accept death than be willing to turn aside from justice, for such a one his ready will shall be counted in place of martyrdom. For God does not judge anyone by the outcome of events, but by the disposition of the heart.

For why should he be defrauded of the glory of martyrdom, through whom it did not fail that martyrdom was accomplished? As, on the contrary, whoever lives with such a disposition that he would deny Christ if loss of honors, or bodily torments, or death were to be accepted, shall receive the reward of an apostate. He who perjures himself for a little money—will he fear to deny Christ if his whole estate is at stake, if infamy, prison, and death are threatened? He who for a slight fever flees to the remedies of sorceresses—will he prefer to endure torments more dreadful than death rather than renounce Christ? Nay, he who so often falls away from Christ for a brief fleshly pleasure, for a momentary glory—will he hold his life cheap for Christ's sake? No tyrant made this man an apostate; rather, he came to the tyrant already an apostate.

But as the manner of striving is similar, so by the same arms must the minds of the brethren be strengthened for these battles, by which we have shown they are to be confirmed unto martyrdom. It is faith that fights and conquers in martyrs: and no one has failed under torments except through failure of faith.

God must therefore be prayed to without ceasing, that he may increase faith in us: for it is the gift of God, to him is owed all the glory of victory. Let us instill into their minds and fix there how dreadful a crime is all idolatry, how severely it was punished by God under the old Law: how many thousands Moses slew on account of the golden calf. Then let there be set forth a comparison between manifest idolatry, when sacrifice is offered to images, and hidden idolatry, when, with God despised, obedience is rendered to Satan through concupiscence. Then let God, the fountain of all good, be compared with the devil, the prince of all malice. Let the inequality of fellowship also be shown: on one side are the sons of God, fellow-citizens of the Angels, and heirs of blessed immortality; on the other, the sons of Belial, the company of all demons, and heirs of gehenna. Let also the unequal kind of wickedness be compared, let the different wages be set side by side.

If these things shall first have been persuaded and fixed in the inmost heart, victory will be easy. Now faith floats on the lips of many, while in the heart it is either nonexistent or very faint. For who does not profess what we read in Deuteronomy: Hear, the Lord thy God is one Lord. And: Thou shalt adore the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve? Who does not daily recite with his mouth: I believe in God the Father almighty? But he does not believe in God who does not place in him alone all the confidence of his happiness; nor does he have one God and Lord who through fornication, through luxury and avarice does the bidding of Satan; nor does he serve him alone who serves his belly, who is given over to this world, who is set in wickedness.

The Gentiles think there are many gods, and does it seem to you a great thing to be a perfect Christian because you are persuaded that there is one God? What great thing do you do? The Jews believe the same, who daily blaspheme in their synagogues: the demons believe the same and tremble. If you truly believe in God, believe him to be just and truthful: just in rewarding the pious and punishing the impious, truthful in his promises. Believe that there is no hope of salvation except through his Son, whom he delivered up to death for us all: believe that nothing evil can befall those who have surrendered themselves wholly to his will and persevere in him. This is to believe in God the Father, this is to believe in his Son, this is to believe in the Holy Spirit, one God, and the holy Church, the mystical body of Christ, outside of which there is no salvation, and within which there is no perdition.

Whoever has fixed the feet of his soul upon such a rock will stand immovable against all the assaults of temptations. By way of example: you have been provoked by insult; the flesh suggests to you a desire for revenge; before you answer, think thus within yourself: The devil has suborned this abusive man to cast me down, and having cast me down, to destroy me; but hearken to what your emperor, whom you serve, counsels: Blessed, he says, are the meek, for they shall possess the earth. And: Vengeance is mine, and I will repay. What does that most valiant leader of Christ, Paul, counsel: Not avenging yourselves, dearly beloved, but give place unto wrath. The devil says: "Enjoy revenge, and lose eternal life." God says: "Overcome evil with good, and resist not evil: and receive together with my Son the possession of the heavenly kingdom." Straightway consider which of the two it is more expedient to obey.

The devil says to you through your concupiscence: "Commit adultery, and enjoy the fleeting pleasure of the body, and be my servant and co-heir of gehenna." Hear rather what God says to you: "Despise the fleeting pleasure, and receive a hundredfold, the joy of a good conscience in this age, and eternal life in the age to come: and weigh which of the two is rather to be hearkened to." Satan suggests to you through the affection of the flesh, as it were through Eve: "Live pleasurably." On the other side Christ says: Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall receive consolation. In the same manner concerning the other temptations, oppose to the tempter the shield of the Scriptures, in which God speaks to you with no less faith than if he were speaking to you face to face in person. From these torrents take for yourself stones with which to cast down the proud Goliath.

You have the example from your Lord; thus he laid the devil low: and do not cast down your spirit if he attacks more frequently, and presently assails with greater engines; he can do nothing against him who is with you. Speak that word of John: Greater is he who is in us than he who is in this world. Let that saying of the Lord come to your aid: Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. If the soldier of Christ has been exercised in these prayers for the conflict, he will find day by day that his adversary grows weaker.

Yet the watches are not to be relaxed if at any time the enemy feigns tranquility; but observing his snares, let him say with blessed Habakkuk: I will stand upon my watch, and fix my step upon the rock, keeping my heart with all keeping, lest any entrance be open to him who walks about seeking whom he may devour. The safest fortification of the heart is sobriety together with instant prayer and continual meditation on the Scriptures: For all Scripture divinely inspired is profitable for teaching, for reproving, for correcting, for instructing in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, instructed unto every good work. From this source, therefore, sentences are to be gathered, which you may have at hand and as it were in readiness, so that with these you may straightway cast down the serpent as it raises its head. For there is no disease of souls for which the divine Scripture would not supply a present remedy.

From hence are to be drawn examples of the pious, but especially of Christ, by which each person may either encourage or console himself.

I come now to those evils which either accompany human nature itself, or seem to be inflicted by chance. These also a pious soul, equipped for the fight, will turn into material for a crown. I will make what I say clearer by example. Someone is stripped of his possessions, whether by war, or shipwreck, or robbery. Let him not straightway think of the noose, or of a scheme to repair what is lost by wicked arts; but let him speak thus within himself: "It is the Lord who tests me, whether I love him with my whole heart. He gave, he has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." Let him give thanks for what he received from the Lord's bounty, let him give thanks for what he has lost as a trial of faith. If he has said these things in the spirit in which holy Job said them, he will receive his reward together with him.

The Lord esteems not how much one loses, but how patiently: just as he does not regard how much one bestows upon the needy, but in what spirit. Someone has a son uniquely dear to him; death bereaves you of him before his time; pestilence despoils you of those most dear, of a spouse, children, friends; bear it patiently, and say: "So it seemed good to the Lord, and thus perhaps it was expedient both for us and for ours: blessed be the name of the Lord." There are also diseases which have torments no less fierce than any cruelty of torturers can inflict, such as pleurisy, sciatica, gout, paralysis, the stone, ulceration of the kidneys and bladder. If any such thing befalls, let not the mind be exasperated to impatience, let not the tongue break forth into blasphemous words, but let him say with blessed David and the priest Eli: It is the Lord; let him do what is good in his own eyes.

Thus the evils which are not inflicted on account of the profession of Christ we will turn into a crown for ourselves, and into glory for Christ. And it will perhaps come to pass that the Lord, appeased by our endurance, will either take away the afflictions or mitigate them; but if this does not happen, yet by this means we will bring it about that what would have been intolerable to an impatient soul becomes milder through patience. By these and similar arguments we will not cease to exhort one another, to the end of illustrating the glory of the Lord, whose title and insignia we bear. Let us render to him martyrdom, each in his own state and order, not only in adversity but also in prosperity. In adversity let us acknowledge the love of a father chastising us for correction, and give thanks for the charity with which he loves us as sons, whom he does not wish to disown, but to receive back when amended.

In prosperity let us equally give thanks to his goodness, by which he consoles us so that we may be able to sustain the weight of temptations: so it will come to pass that our whole life is nothing other than a testimony, declaring among believers and unbelievers the wisdom, goodness, mercy, and truth of God the Father, and of his Son Jesus, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.