IV.
Ad Martyras.8961
| 8961 Written in his
early ministry, and strict orthodoxy. [It may be dated circa
a.d. 197, as external evidence will
shew.] |
[Translated by the Rev. S.
Thelwall.]
————————————
Chapter I.
Blessed Martyrs
Designate,—Along with the provision which our lady mother the
Church from her bountiful breasts, and each brother out of his private
means, makes for your bodily wants in the prison, accept also from me
some contribution to your spiritual sustenance; for it is not good that
the flesh be feasted and the spirit starve: nay, if that which is weak
be carefully looked to, it is but right that that which is still weaker
should not be neglected. Not that I am specially entitled to exhort
you; yet not only the trainers and overseers, but even the unskilled,
nay, all who choose, without the slightest need for it, are wont to
animate from afar by their cries the most accomplished gladiators, and
from the mere throng of onlookers useful suggestions have sometimes
come; first, then, O blessed, grieve not the Holy Spirit,8962
| 8962 Eph. iv. 30. [Some differences had risen between
these holy sufferers, as to the personal merits of offenders who had
appealed to them for their interest in restoring them to communion. |
who has entered the
prison with you; for if
He had not gone with you there, you would not have been there this day.
Do you give all endeavour, therefore, to retain Him; so let Him lead
you thence to your
Lord. The
prison, indeed, is the
devil’s
house
as well, wherein he keeps his
family. But you have come within its
walls for the very purpose of trampling the
wicked one under
foot in
his chosen abode. You had already in pitched
battle outside utterly
overcome him; let him have no reason, then, to say to himself,
“They are now in my domain; with
vile hatreds I shall tempt them,
with defections or
dissensions among themselves.” Let him
fly
from your presence, and skulk away into his own abysses, shrunken and
torpid, as though he were an outcharmed or smoked-out snake. Give him
not the success in his own
kingdom of setting you at variance with each
other, but let him find you armed and fortified with
concord; for
peace
among you is
battle with him. Some, not able to find this
peace in the
Church, have been used to
seek it from the
imprisoned martyrs.
8963
| 8963 [He favours this
resource as sanctioned by custom, and gently persuades them, by
agreeing as to its propriety, to bestow peace upon others. But,
the foresight of those who objected was afterwards justified, for in
Cyprian’s day this practice led to greater evils, and he was
obliged to discourage it (ep. xi.) in an epistle to confessors.] |
And so you ought to have it dwelling with
you, and to cherish it, and to guard it, that you may be able perhaps
to bestow it upon others.
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