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| Chapter XVI.—Passages of Scripture Respecting the Constancy, Patience, and Love of the Martyrs.
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Chapter XVI.—Passages of Scripture Respecting the Constancy, Patience, and Love of the Martyrs.
“With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation. Wherefore the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him
shall not be ashamed; that is, the word of faith which we preach:
for if thou confess the word with thy mouth that Jesus is Lord, and
believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved.”2818
| 2818 Rom. x. 10,
11, 8, 9. | There is clearly described the perfect righteousness,
fulfilled both in practice and contemplation. Wherefore we are “to
bless those who persecute us. Bless, and curse not.”2819
“For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of a good conscience,
that in holiness and sincerity we know God” by this inconsiderable
instance exhibiting the work of love, that “not in fleshly
wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in
the world.”2820
So far the apostle respecting knowledge;
and in the second Epistle to the Corinthians he calls the common
“teaching of faith” the savour of knowledge. “For
unto this day the same veil remains on many in the reading of the Old
Testament,”2821
not being uncovered by turning to the Lord.
Wherefore also to those capable of perceiving he showed resurrection,
that of the life still in the flesh, creeping on its belly. Whence also
he applied the name “brood of vipers” to the voluptuous,
who serve the belly and the pudenda, and cut off one another’s
heads for the sake of worldly pleasures. “Little children, let us
not love in word, or in tongue,” says John, teaching them to be
perfect, “but in deed and in truth; hereby shall we know that we
are of the truth.”2822
And if “God be love,” piety
also is love: “there is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth
out fear.”2823
“This is the love of God, that we keep His
commandments.”2824
And again, to him who desires to become a
Gnostic, it is written, “But be thou an example of the believers,
in word, in conversation, in love, in faith, in purity.”2825
For perfection in faith differs, I think, from ordinary faith. And
the divine apostle furnishes the rule for the Gnostic in these words,
writing as follows: “For I have learned, in whatsoever state
I am, to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to
abound. Everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full
and to be hungry, both to abound and to lack. I can do all things
through Him who strengtheneth me.”2826
And also when
discussing with others in order to put them, to shame, he does not
shrink from saying, “But call to mind the former days, in which,
after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of
afflictions; partly, whilst ye were
made a gazing-stock, both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly,
whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. For ye had
compassion of me in my bonds, and took with joy the spoiling of your
goods, knowing that you have a better and enduring substance. Cast not
away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For
ye have need of patience, that, after doing the will of God, ye may obtain
the promise. For yet a little while, and He that cometh will come, and
will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: and if any man draw
back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them
that draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving
of the soul.”2827
He then brings forward a swarm of divine
examples. For was it not “by faith,” he says, this endurance,
that they acted nobly who “had trial of mockeries and scourgings,
and, moreover, of bonds and imprisonments? They were stoned, they were
tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheep-skins
and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the
world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts, in mountains, in dens,
and caves of the earth. And all having received a good report, through
faith, received not the promise of God” (what is expressed by a
parasiopesis is left to be understood, viz., “alone”). He
adds accordingly, “God having provided some better thing for us (for
He was good), that they should not without us be made perfect. Wherefore
also, having encompassing us such a cloud,” holy and transparent,
“of witnesses, laying aside every weight, and the sin which doth
so easily beset us, let us run with patience the race set before us,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”2828
Since, then, he specifies one salvation in Christ of the
righteous,2829
and of us he has
expressed the former unambiguously, and saying nothing less respecting
Moses, adds, “Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches
than the treasures of Egypt: for he had respect to the recompense
of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of
the king: for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.”2830
The
divine Wisdom says of the martyrs, “They seemed in the eyes
of the foolish to die, and their departure was reckoned a calamity,
and their migration from us an affliction. But they are in peace. For
though in the sight of men they were punished, their hope was full of
immortality.”2831
He then adds, teaching martyrdom to be a
glorious purification, “And being chastened a little, they shall be
benefited much; because God proved them,” that is, suffered them
to be tried, to put them to the proof, and to put to shame the author
of their trial, “and found them worthy of Himself,” plainly
to be called sons. “As gold in the furnace He proved them, and as
a whole burned-offering of sacrifice He accepted them. And in the time
of their visitation they will shine forth, even as sparks run along the
stubble. They shall judge the nations, and rule over the peoples, and the
Lord shall reign over them forever.”2832
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