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| To the People of Thibaris, Exhorting to Martyrdom.
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Epistle LV.2595
| 2595
Oxford ed.: Ep. lviii. |
To the People of Thibaris, Exhorting to
Martyrdom.
Argument.—Cyprian First of All Excuses Himself to the Thibaritans
that He Had Not Been to Visit Them, and Gives Them Warning of the
Persecution at Hand; He Then Furnishes Inducements Readily to Undergo
Martyrdom.2596
| 2596 Hence
are suggested illustrations of good men from the beginning of the world
who have suffered martyrdom, especially that which surpasses all
examples, the passion of our Lord. What excitement is afforded to
the endurance of martyrdom by the brave and ready enduring of the
contests of the stadium and the theatre. Finally, let the reward
be considered, which now, moreover, animates and influences us to
sustain everything. |
1. Cyprian to the people abiding at
Thibaris, greeting. I had indeed thought, beloved brethren, and
prayerfully desired—if the state of things and the condition of
the times permitted, in conformity with what you frequently
desired—myself to come to you; and being present with you, then
to strengthen the brotherhood with such moderate powers of exhortation
as I possess. But since I am detained by such urgent affairs,
that I have not the power to travel far from this place, and to be long
absent from the people over whom by divine mercy I am placed, I have
written in the meantime this letter, to be to you in my stead.
For as, by the condescension of the Lord instructing me, I am very
often instigated and warned, I ought to bring unto your conscience also
the anxiety of my warning. For you ought to know and to believe,
and hold it for certain, that the day of affliction has begun to hang
over our heads, and the end2597
of the world and the time of Antichrist to draw near, so that we must
all stand prepared for the battle; nor consider anything but the glory
of life eternal, and the crown of the confession of the Lord; and not
regard those things which are coming as being such as were those which
have passed away. A severer and a fiercer fight is now
threatening, for which the soldiers of Christ ought to prepare
themselves with uncorrupted faith and robust courage, considering that
they drink the cup of Christ’s blood daily,2598
| 2598
[It has been a question whether this daily reception of
the communion was confined to times of persecution, or was more
generally the custom. It seems to me exceptional. Freeman,
vol. i. p. 383.] | for the reason that they themselves also
may be able to shed their blood for Christ. For this is to wish
to be found with Christ, to imitate that which Christ both taught and
did, according to the Apostle John, who said, “He that saith he
abideth in Christ, ought himself also so to walk even as He
walked.”2599
Moreover, the blessed Apostle Paul exhorts and teaches, saying,
“We are God’s children; but if children, then heirs of God,
and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we
may also be glorified together.”2600
2. Which things must all now be considered
by us, that no one may desire anything from the world that is now
dying, but may follow Christ, who both lives for ever, and quickens His
servants, who are established in the faith of His name. For there
comes the time, beloved brethren, which our Lord long ago foretold and
taught us was approaching, saying, “The time cometh, that
whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And
these things they will do unto you, because they have not known the
Father nor me. But these things have I told you, that when the
time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of
them.”2601
Nor let any
one wonder that we are harassed with constant persecutions, and
continually tried with increasing afflictions, when the Lord before
predicted that these things would happen in the last times, and has
instructed us for the warfare by the teaching and exhortation of His
words. Peter also, His apostle, has taught that persecutions
occur for the sake of our being proved, and that we also should, by the
example of righteous men who have gone before us, be joined to the love
of God by death and sufferings. For he wrote in his epistle, and
said, “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial
which is to try you, nor do ye fall away, as if some new
thing happened unto you; but
as often as ye partake in Christ’s sufferings, rejoice in all
things, that when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with
exceeding joy. If ye be reproached in the name of Christ, happy
are ye; for the name of the majesty and power of the Lord resteth on
you, which indeed on their part is blasphemed, but on our part is
glorified.”2602
Now the
apostles taught us those things which they themselves also learnt from
the Lord’s precepts and the heavenly commands, the Lord Himself
thus strengthening us, and saying, “There is no man that hath
left house, or land, or parents, or brethren, or sisters, or wife, or
children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, who shall not receive
sevenfold more in this present time, and in the world to come life
everlasting.”2603
And again He says, “Blessed
are ye when men shall hate you, and shall separate you from their
company, and shall cast you out, and shall reproach your name as evil
for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap
for joy; for, behold your reward is great in heaven.”2604
3. The Lord desired that we should rejoice and
leap for joy in persecutions, because, when persecutions occur, then
are given the crowns of faith, then the soldiers of God are proved,
then the heavens are opened to martyrs. For we have not in such a
way given our name to warfare that we ought only to think about peace
and draw back from and refuse war, when in this very warfare the Lord
walked first—the Teacher of humility, and endurance, and
suffering—so that what He taught to be done, He first of all did,
and what He exhorts to suffer, He Himself first suffered for us.
Let it be before your eyes beloved brethren, that He who alone received
all judgment from the Father, and who will come to judge, has already
declared the decree of His judgment and of His future recognition,
foretelling and testifying that He will confess those before His Father
who confess Him, and will deny those who deny Him. If we could
escape death, we might reasonably fear to die. But since, on the
other hand, it is necessary that a mortal man should die, we should
embrace the occasion that comes by the divine promise and
condescension, and accomplish the ending provided by death with the
reward of immortality; nor fear to be slain, since we are sure when we
are slain to be crowned.
4. Nor let any one, beloved brethren, when
he beholds our people driven away and scattered by the fear of
persecution, be disturbed at seeing the brotherhood gathered together,
nor the bishops discoursing.2605
All are not able to be there
together, who may not kill, but who must be killed. Wherever, in
those days, each one of the brethren shall be separated from the flock
for a time, by the necessity of the season, in body, not in spirit, let
him not be moved at the terror of that flight; nor, if he withdraw and
be concealed, let him be alarmed at the solitude of the desert
place. He is not alone, whose companion in flight Christ is; he
is not alone who, keeping God’s temple wheresoever he is, is not
without God. And if a robber should fall upon you, a fugitive in
the solitude or in the mountains; if a wild beast should attack you; if
hunger, or thirst, or cold should distress you, or the tempest and the
storm should overwhelm you hastening in a rapid voyage over the seas,
Christ everywhere looks upon His soldier fighting; and for the sake of
persecution, for the honour of His name, gives a reward to him when he
dies, as He has promised that He will give in the resurrection.
Nor is the glory of martyrdom less that he has not perished publicly
and before many, since the cause of perishing is to perish for
Christ. That Witness who proves martyrs, and crowns them,
suffices for a testimony of his martyrdom.
5. Let us, beloved brethren, imitate
righteous Abel, who initiated martyrdoms, he first being slain for
righteousness’ sake. Let us imitate Abraham, the friend of
God, who did not delay to offer his son as a victim with his own hands,
obeying God with a faith of devotion. Let us imitate the three
children Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, who, neither frightened by their
youthful age nor broken down by captivity, Judea, being conquered and
Jerusalem taken, overcame the king by the power of faith in his own
kingdom; who, when bidden to worship the image which Nebuchadnezzar the
king had made, stood forth stronger both than the king’s threats
and the flames, calling out and attesting their faith by these
words: “O king Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer
thee in this matter. For the God whom we serve is able to deliver
us from the burning fiery furnace; and He will deliver us out of thine
hands, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, that we do not
serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set
up.”2606
They
believed that they might escape according to their faith, but they
added, “and if not,” that the king might know that they
could also die for the God they worshipped. For this is the
strength of courage and of faith, to believe and to know that God can
deliver from present death, and yet not to fear death nor to give way,
that faith may be the more mightily proved. The uncorrupted and
unconquered might of the Holy Spirit broke forth by their
mouth, so that the words which the Lord in His Gospel spoke are seen to
be true: “But when they shall seize you, take no thought
what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you in that hour what ye
shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your
Father which speaketh in you.”2607
He said that what we are able to
speak and to answer is given to us in that hour from heaven, and
supplied; and that it is not then we who speak, but the Spirit of God
our Father, who, as He does not depart nor is separated from those who
confess Him, Himself both speaks and is crowned in us. So Daniel,
too, when he was required to worship the idol Bel, which the people and
the king then worshipped, in asserting the honour of his God, broke
forth with full faith and freedom, saying, “I worship nothing but
the Lord my God, who created the heaven and the earth.”2608
| 2608
Dragon 5" id="iv.iv.lv-p22.1">Bel and the Dragon
5. |
6. What shall we say of the cruel tortures
of the blessed martyrs in the Maccabees,2609
| 2609
[Referred to by St. Paul, Heb.
xi. 35. I say
St. Paul advisedly. See, to the contrary, Farrar, St.
Paul, p. 6.] | and the multiform sufferings of the
seven brethren, and the mother comforting her children in their
agonies, and herself dying also with her children? Do not they
witness the proofs of great courage and faith, and exhort us by their
sufferings to the triumphs of martyrdom? What of the prophets
whom the Holy Spirit quickened to the foreknowledge of future
events? What of the apostles whom the Lord chose? Since
these righteous men were slain for righteousness’ sake, have they
not taught us also to die? The nativity of Christ witnessed at
once the martyrdom of infants, so that they who were two years old and
under were slain for His name’s sake. An age not yet fitted
for the battle appeared fit for the crown. That it might be
manifest that they who are slain for Christ’s sake are innocent,
innocent infancy was put to death for His name’s sake. It
is shown that none is free from the peril of persecution, when even
these accomplished martyrdoms. But how grave is the case of a
Christian man, if he, a servant, is unwilling to suffer, when his
Master first suffered; and that we should be unwilling to suffer for
our own sins, when He who had no sin of His own suffered for us!
The Son of God suffered that He might make us sons of God, and the son
of man will not suffer that he may continue to be a son of God!
If we suffer from the world’s hatred, Christ first endured the
world’s hatred. If we suffer reproaches in this world, if
exile, if tortures, the Maker and Lord of the world experienced harder
things than these, and He also warns us, saying, “If the world
hate you, remember that it hated me before you. If ye were of the
world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of
the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant
is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they
will also persecute you.”2610
Whatever our Lord and God taught, He
also did, that the disciple might not be excused if he learns and does
not.
7. Nor let any one of you, beloved brethren,
be so terrified by the fear of future persecution, or the coming of the
threatening Antichrist, as not to be found armed for all things by the
evangelical exhortations and precepts, and by the heavenly
warnings. Antichrist is coming, but above him comes Christ
also.2611
| 2611
[Valuable note, Oxford trans., Ep. lviii. p. 142, note k.] | The enemy
goeth about and rageth, but immediately the Lord follows to avenge our
sufferings and our wounds. The adversary is enraged and
threatens, but there is One who can deliver us from his hands. He
is to be feared whose anger no one can escape, as He Himself forewarns,
and says: “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not
able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him which is able to destroy
both body and soul in hell.”2612
And again: “He that
loveth his life, shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this
world, shall keep it unto life eternal.”2613
And in the Apocalypse He instructs
and forewarns, saying, “If any man worship the beast and his
image, and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same
also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, mixed in the cup of
His indignation, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in
the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and
the smoke of their torments shall ascend up for ever and ever; and they
shall have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his
image.”2614
8. For the secular contest men are trained and
prepared, and reckon it a great glory of their honour if it should
happen to them to be crowned in the sight of the people, and in the
presence of the emperor. Behold a lofty and great contest,
glorious also with the reward of a heavenly crown, inasmuch as God
looks upon us as we struggle, and, extending His view over those whom
He has condescended to make His sons, He enjoys the spectacle of our
contest. God looks upon us in the warfare, and fighting in the
encounter of faith; His angels look on us, and Christ looks on
us. How great is the dignity, and how great the happiness of the
glory, to engage in the
presence of God, and to be crowned, with Christ for a judge! Let
us be armed, beloved brethren, with our whole strength, and let us be
prepared for the struggle with an uncorrupted mind, with a sound faith,
with a devoted courage. Let the camp of God go forth to the
battle-field which is appointed to us. Let the sound ones be
armed, lest he that is sound should lose the advantage of having lately
stood; let the lapsed also be armed, that even the lapsed may regain
what he has lost: let honour provoke the whole; let sorrow
provoke the lapsed to the battle. The Apostle Paul teaches us to
be armed and prepared, saying, “We wrestle not against flesh and
blood, but against powers, and the princes of this world and of this
darkness, against spirits of wickedness in high places. Wherefore
put on the whole armour, that ye may be able to withstand in the most
evil day, that when ye have done all ye may stand; having your loins
girt about with truth, and having put on the breastplate of
righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of
peace; taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench
all the fiery darts of the wicked one; and the helmet of salvation, and
the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”2615
9. Let us take these arms, let us fortify
ourselves with these spiritual and heavenly safeguards, that in the
most evil day we may be able to withstand, and to resist the threats of
the devil: let us put on the breastplate of righteousness, that
our breast may be fortified and safe against the darts of the
enemy: let our feet be shod with evangelical teaching, and armed,
so that when the serpent shall begin to be trodden and crushed by us,
he may not be able to bite and trip us up: let us bravely bear
the shield of faith, by the protection of which, whatever the enemy
darts at us may be extinguished: let us take also for protection
of our head the helmet of salvation, that our ears may be guarded from
hearing the deadly edicts; that our eyes may be fortified, that they
may not see the odious images; that our brow may be fortified, so as to
keep safe the sign of God;2616
that our mouth may be fortified, that the conquering tongue may confess
Christ its Lord: let us also arm the right hand with the sword of
the Spirit, that it may bravely reject the deadly sacrifices; that,
mindful of the Eucharist, the hand which has received the Lord’s
body2617
| 2617
It is observed here that the Eucharist was at this time received
by the hand of the communicant, and not placed in his mouth by the
minister, as some have pretended was the original mode of
administration. [See Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagog., v. p.
1126, Migne.] | may embrace the
Lord Himself, hereafter to receive from the Lord the reward of heavenly
crowns.
10. Oh, what and how great will that day be
at its coming, beloved brethren, when the Lord shall begin to count up
His people, and to recognise the deservings of each one by the
inspection of His divine knowledge, to send the guilty to Gehenna, and
to set on fire our persecutors with the perpetual burning of a penal
fire, but to pay to us the reward of our faith and devotion! What
will be the glory and how great the joy to be admitted to see God, to
be honoured to receive with Christ, thy Lord God, the joy of eternal
salvation and light—to greet Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and
all the patriarchs, and prophets, and apostles, and martyrs—to
rejoice with the righteous and the friends of God in the kingdom of
heaven, with the pleasure of immortality given to us—to receive
there what neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered
into the heart of man! For the apostle announces that we shall
receive greater things than anything that we here either do or suffer,
saying, “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be
compared with the glory to come hereafter which shall be revealed in
us.”2618
When that
revelation shall come, when that glory of God shall shine upon us, we
shall be as happy and joyful, honoured with the condescension of God,
as they will remain guilty and wretched, who, either as deserters from
God or rebels against Him, have done the will of the devil, so that it
is necessary for them to be tormented with the devil himself in
unquenchable fire.
11. Let these things, beloved brethren, take hold
of our hearts; let this be the preparation of our arms, this our daily
and nightly meditation, to have before our eyes and ever to revolve in
our thoughts and feelings the punishments of the wicked and the rewards
and the deservings of the righteous: what the Lord threatens by
way of punishment against those that deny Him; what, on the other hand,
He promises by way of glory to those that confess Him. If, while
we think and meditate on these things, there should come to us a day of
persecution, the soldier of Christ instructed in His precepts and
warnings is not fearful for the battle, but is prepared for the
crown. I bid you, dearest brethren, ever heartily
farewell. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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