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| Chapter XV.
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Chapter XV.
Now, then, the epistles of the apostles also are
well known. And do we, (you say), in all respects guileless
souls and doves merely, love to go astray? I should think from
eagerness to live. But let it be so, that meaning departs from their
epistles. And yet, that the apostles endured such sufferings, we
know: the teaching is clear. This only I perceive in running
through the Acts. I am not at all on the search. The
prisons there, and the bonds, and the scourges, and the big stones, and
the swords, and the onsets by the Jews, and the assemblies of the
heathen, and the indictments by tribunes, and the hearing of causes by
kings, and the judgment-seats of proconsuls and the name of Cæsar,
do not need an interpreter. That Peter is struck,8324
that Stephen is overwhelmed by
stones,8325
that James is
slain8326
as is a victim at the altar, that Paul is
beheaded has been written in their own blood. And if a heretic wishes
his confidence to rest upon a public record, the archives of the empire
will speak, as would the stones of Jerusalem. We read the lives of the
Cæsars: At Rome Nero was the first who stained with blood the
rising faith. Then is Peter girt by another,8327
when he is made fast to the cross. Then does Paul obtain a birth suited
to Roman citizenship, when in Rome he springs to life again ennobled by
martyrdom. Wherever I read of these occurrences, so soon as I do
so, I learn to suffer; nor does it signify to me which I follow as
teachers of martyrdom, whether the declarations or the deaths of the
apostles, save that in their deaths I recall their declarations
also. For they would not have suffered ought of a kind they had
not previously known they had to suffer. When Agabus, making use of
corresponding action too, had foretold that bonds awaited Paul, the
disciples, weeping and entreating that he would not venture upon going
to Jerusalem, entreated in vain.8328
As for him,
having a mind to illustrate what he had always taught, he says,
“Why weep ye, and grieve my heart? But for my part, I could wish
not only to suffer bonds, but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of
my Lord Jesus Christ.” And so they yielded by saying, “Let
the will of the Lord be done;” feeling sure, doubtless, that
sufferings are included in the will of God. For they had tried to keep
him back with the intention not of dissuading, but to show love for
him; as yearning for (the preservation of) the apostle, not as
counselling against martyrdom. And if even then a Prodicus or
Valentinus stood by, suggesting that one must not confess on the earth
before men, and must do so the less in truth, that God may not (seem
to) thirst for blood, and Christ for a repayment of suffering, as
though He besought it with the view of obtaining salvation by it for
Himself also, he would have immediately heard from the servant of God
what the devil had from the Lord: “Get thee behind me, Satan;
thou art an offence unto me. It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord
thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”8329
| 8329 Matt.
xvi. 23 and iv. 10,—a
mixing up of two passages of Scripture. |
But even now it will be right that he hear it, seeing that, long after,
he has poured forth these poisons, which not even thus are to injure
readily any of the weak ones, if any one in faith will drink, before
being hurt, or even immediately after, this draught of
ours.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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