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| Chapter IV.
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Chapter IV.
We who are without fear ourselves are not seeking
to frighten you, but we would save all men if possible by warning them
not to fight with God.453
You may perform the
duties of your charge, and yet remember the claims of humanity; if on
no other ground than that you are liable to punishment yourself, (you
ought to do so). For is not your commission simply to condemn those who
confess their guilt, and to give over to the torture those
who deny? You see, then, how
you trespass yourselves against your instructions to wring from the
confessing a denial. It is, in fact, an acknowledgment of our innocence
that you refuse to condemn us at once when we confess. In doing your
utmost to extirpate us, if that is your object, it is innocence you
assail. But how many rulers, men more resolute and more cruel
than you are, have contrived to get quit of such causes
altogether,—as Cincius Severus, who himself suggested the remedy
at Thysdris, pointing out how the Christians should answer that they
might secure an acquittal; as Vespronius Candidus, who dismissed from
his bar a Christian, on the ground that to satisfy his fellow-citizens
would break the peace of the community; as Asper, who, in the case of a
man who gave up his faith under slight infliction of the torture, did
not compel the offering of sacrifice, having owned before, among the
advocates and assessors of court, that he was annoyed at having had to
meddle with such a case. Pudens, too, at once dismissed a Christian who
was brought before him, perceiving from the indictment that it was a
case of vexatious accusation; tearing the document in pieces, he
refused so much as to hear him without the presence of his accuser, as
not being consistent with the imperial commands. All this might
be officially brought under your notice, and by the very advocates, who
are themselves also under obligations to us, although in court they
give their voice as it suits them. The clerk of one of them who
was liable to be thrown upon the ground by an evil spirit, was set free
from his affliction; as was also the relative of another, and the
little boy of a third. How many men of rank (to say nothing of
common people) have been delivered from devils, and healed of
diseases! Even Severus himself, the father of Antonine, was
graciously mindful of the Christians; for he sought out the Christian
Proculus, surnamed Torpacion, the steward of Euhodias, and in gratitude
for his having once cured him by anointing, he kept him in his palace
till the day of his death.454
| 454 [Another note of
time. a.d. 211. See Kaye, as
before.] | Antonine, too,
brought up as he was on Christian milk, was intimately acquainted with
this man. Both women and men of highest rank, whom Severus knew well to
be Christians, were not merely permitted by him to remain uninjured;
but he even bore distinguished testimony in their favour, and gave them
publicly back to us from the hands of a raging populace. Marcus
Aurelius also, in his expedition to Germany, by the prayers his
Christian soldiers offered to God, got rain in that well-known
thirst.455
| 455 [Compare Vol. I., p.
187, this Series.] | When, indeed, have not droughts been put away
by our kneelings and our fastings? At times like these, moreover, the
people crying to “the God of gods, the alone Omnipotent,”
under the name of Jupiter, have borne witness to our God. Then we never
deny the deposit placed in our hands; we never pollute the marriage
bed; we deal faithfully with our wards; we give aid to the needy; we
render to none evil for evil. As for those who falsely pretend to
belong to us, and whom we, too, repudiate, let them answer for
themselves. In a word, who has complaint to make against us on other
grounds? To what else does the Christian devote himself, save the
affairs of his own community, which during all the long period of its
existence no one has ever proved guilty of the incest or the cruelty
charged against it? It is for freedom from crime so singular, for
a probity so great, for righteousness, for purity, for faithfulness,
for truth, for the living God, that we are consigned to the flames; for
this is a punishment you are not wont to inflict either on the
sacrilegious, or on undoubted public enemies, or on the
treason-tainted, of whom you have so many. Nay, even now our
people are enduring persecution from the governors of Legio and
Mauritania; but it is only with the sword, as from the first it was
ordained that we should suffer. But the greater our conflicts, the
greater our rewards.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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