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| Chapter XXX.
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Chapter XXX.
For we offer prayer for the safety of our princes
to the eternal, the true, the living God, whose favour, beyond all
others, they must themselves desire. They know from whom they
have obtained their power; they know, as they are men, from whom they
have received life itself; they are convinced that He is God alone, on
whose power alone they are entirely dependent, to whom they are second,
after whom they occupy the highest places, before and above all the
gods. Why not, since they are above all living men, and the living, as
living, are superior to the dead? They reflect upon the extent of their
power, and so they come to understand the highest; they acknowledge
that they have all their might from Him against whom their might is
nought. Let the emperor make war on heaven; let him lead heaven captive
in his triumph; let him put guards on heaven; let him impose taxes on
heaven! He cannot. Just because he is less than heaven, he is great.
For he himself is His to whom heaven and every creature appertains. He
gets his sceptre where he first got his humanity; his power where he
got the breath of life. Thither we lift our eyes, with hands
outstretched, because free from sin; with head uncovered, for we have
nothing whereof to be ashamed; finally, without a monitor, because it
is from the heart we supplicate. Without ceasing, for all our emperors
we offer prayer. We pray for life prolonged; for security to the
empire; for protection to the imperial house; for brave armies, a
faithful senate, a virtuous people, the world at rest, whatever, as man
or Cæsar, an emperor would wish. These things I cannot ask from
any but the God from whom I know I shall obtain them, both because He
alone bestows them and because I have claims upon Him for their gift,
as being a servant of His, rendering homage to Him alone, persecuted
for His doctrine, offering to Him, at His own requirement, that costly
and noble sacrifice of prayer117
despatched from the
chaste body, an unstained soul, a sanctified spirit, not the few grains
of incense a farthing buys118
| 118 [Once more this
reflection on the use of material incense, which is common to early
Christians, as in former volumes noted.] | —tears of an
Arabian tree,—not a few drops of wine,—not the blood of
some worthless ox to which death is a relief, and, in addition to other
offensive things, a polluted conscience, so that one wonders, when your
victims are examined by these vile priests, why the examination is not
rather of the sacrificers than the sacrifices. With our hands thus
stretched out and up to God, rend us with your iron claws, hang us up
on crosses, wrap us in flames, take our heads from us with the sword,
let loose the wild beasts on us,—the very attitude of a Christian
praying is one of preparation for all punishment.119
| 119 [A reference to
kneeling, which see the de Corona cap. 3, infra.
Christians are represented as standing at prayer, in the delineations
of the Catacombs. But, see Nicene Canon, xx.] |
Let this, good rulers, be your work: wring from us the soul, beseeching
God on the emperor’s behalf. Upon the truth of God, and devotion
to His name, put the brand of crime.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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