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| That it was before predicted that the world would hold us in abhorrence, and that it would stir up persecutions against us, and that no new thing is happening to the Christians, since from the beginning of the world the good have suffered, and the righteous have been oppressed and slain by the unrighteous.
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11. That it was before
predicted that the world would hold us in abhorrence, and that it would
stir up persecutions against us, and that no new thing is happening to
the Christians, since from the beginning of the world the good have
suffered, and the righteous have been oppressed and slain by the
unrighteous.
The Lord in the Gospel forewarns and foretells,
saying: “If the world hates you, know that it first hated
me. If ye were of the world, the world would love what is its
own: but because ye are not of the world, and I have chosen you
out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the
word that I spoke unto you, The servant is not greater than his
master. If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you
also.”3775
And
again: “The hour will come, that every one that killeth you
will think that he doeth God service; but they will do this because
they have not known the Father nor me. But these things have I
told you, that when the hour shall come ye may remember them, because I
told you.”3776
And
again: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep
and lament, but the world shall rejoice; ye shall be sorrowful, but
your sorrow shall be turned into joy.”3777
And again: “These
things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye may have peace; but in the
world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good confidence, for I
have overcome the world.”3778
And when He was interrogated
by His disciples concerning the sign of His coming, and of the
consummation of the world, He answered and said: “Take care
lest any deceive you: for many shall come in my name, saying, I
am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall begin to hear of
wars, and rumours of wars; see that ye be not troubled: for these
things must needs come to pass, but the end is not yet. For
nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:
and there shall be famines, and earthquakes, and pestilences, in every
place. But all these things are the beginnings of
travailings. Then they shall deliver you up into affliction, and
shall kill you: and ye shall be hateful to all nations for my
name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall
betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false
prophets shall arise, and shall seduce many; and because wickedness
shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he who shall
endure to the end, the same shall be saved. And this Gospel of
the kingdom shall be preached through all the world, for a testimony to
all nations; and then shall come the end. When, therefore, ye
shall see the abomination of desolation which is spoken of by Daniel
the prophet, standing in the holy place (let him who readeth
understand), then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains;
and let him which is on the house-roof not go down to take
anything from the house; and let him who is in the field not return
back to carry away his clothes. But woe to them that are
pregnant, and to those that are giving suck in those days! But
pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, nor on the Sabbath-day:
for there shall be great tribulation, such as has not arisen from the
beginning of the world until now, neither shall arise. And unless
those days should be shortened, no flesh should be saved; but for the
elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any one
shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or, Lo, there; believe him
not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and
shall show great signs and wonders, to cause error, if it be possible,
even to the elect. But take ye heed: behold, I have
foretold you all things. If, therefore, they shall say to you,
Lo, he is in the desert; go not forth: lo, he is in the sleeping
chambers; believe it not. For as the flashing of lightning goeth
forth from the east, and appeareth even to the west, so also shall the
coming of the Son of man be. Wheresoever the carcase shall be,
there shall the eagles be gathered together. But immediately
after the affliction of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the
moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven,
and the powers of heaven shall be moved: and then shall appear
the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and all the tribes of the
earth shall lament, and shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds
of heaven with great power and glory. And He shall send His
angels with a great trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect
from the four winds, from the heights of heaven, even into the farthest
bounds thereof.”3779
And these are not new or
sudden things which are now happening to Christians; since the good and
righteous, and those who are devoted to God in the law of innocence and
the fear of true religion, advance always through afflictions, and
wrongs, and the severe and manifold penalties of troubles, in the
hardship of a narrow path. Thus, at the very beginning of the
world, the righteous Abel was the first to be slain by his brother; and
Jacob was driven into exile, and Joseph was sold, and king Saul
persecuted the merciful David; and king Ahab endeavoured to oppress
Elias, who firmly and bravely asserted the majesty of God.
Zacharias the priest was slain between the temple and the altar, that
himself might there become a sacrifice where he was accustomed to offer
sacrifices to God. So many martyrdoms of the righteous have, in
fact, often been celebrated; so many examples of faith and virtue have
been set forth to future generations. The three youths, Ananias,
Azarias, and Misäel, equal in age, agreeing in love, stedfast in
faith, constant in virtue, stronger than the flames and penalties that
urged them, proclaim that they only obey God, that they know Him alone,
that they worship Him alone, saying: “O king
Nebuchodonosor, there is no need for us to answer thee in this
matter. For the God whom we serve is able to deliver us out of
the furnace of burning fire; and He will deliver us from thy hands, O
king. And if not, be it known unto thee, that we do not serve thy
gods, and we do not adore the golden image which thou hast set
up.”3780
And
Daniel, devoted to God, and filled with the Holy Spirit, exclaims and
says: “I worship nothing but the Lord my God, who founded
the heaven and the earth.”3781
| 3781
Dragon 5" id="iv.v.xi.xiii-p9.1">Bel and Dragon 5. | Tobias also, although under a
royal and tyrannical slavery, yet in feeling and spirit free, maintains
his confession to God, and sublimely announces both the divine power
and majesty, saying: “In the land of my captivity I confess
to Him, and I show forth His power in a sinful nation.”3782
What,
indeed, do we find in the Maccabees of seven brethren, equals alike in
their lot of birth and virtues, filling up the number seven in the
sacrament of a perfected completion? Seven brethren were thus
associating in martyrdom. As the first seven days in the divine
arrangement containing seven thousand of years,3783
| 3783
[Irenæus, vol. i. p. 557; also p. 551, and Barnabas,
ib., p. 146.] | as the seven spirits and seven
angels which stand and go in and out before the face of God, and the
seven-branched lamp in the tabernacle of witness, and the seven golden
candlesticks in the Apocalypse, and the seven columns in Solomon upon
which Wisdom built her house; so here also the number seven of the
brethren, embracing, in the quantity of their number, the seven
churches, as likewise in the first book of Kings we read that the
barren hath borne seven. And in Isaiah seven women lay hold on
one man, whose name they ask to be called upon them. And the
Apostle Paul, who refers to this lawful and certain number, writes to
the seven churches. And in the Apocalypse the Lord directs His
divine and heavenly precepts to the seven churches and their angels,
which number is now found in this case, in the seven brethren, that a
lawful consummation may be completed. With the seven children is
manifestly associated also the mother, their origin and root, who
subsequently begat seven churches, she herself having been first, and
alone founded upon a rock3784
| 3784
“Petrum” is the reading of Migne; but by far the more
authoritative reading is “Petram,” “a
rock.” | by the voice of the Lord.3785
| 3785
[The seven churches were none of them founded by St. Peter. The
mother here referred to is therefore the Ecclesia
Catholica.] | Nor
is it of no account that in their sufferings the mother alone is with her children.
For martyrs who witness themselves as the sons of God in suffering are
now no more counted as of any father but God, as in the Gospel the Lord
teaches, saying, “Call no man your father upon earth; for one is
your Father, which is in heaven.”3786
But what utterances of confessions did they herald
forth! how illustrious, how great proofs of faith did they
afford! The king Antiochus, their enemy—yea, in Antiochus
Antichrist was set forth—sought to pollute the mouths of martyrs,
glorious and unconquered in the spirit of confession, with the
contagion of swine’s flesh; and when he had severely beaten them
with whips, and could prevail nothing, commanded iron plates to be
heated, which being heated and made to glow, he commanded him who had
first spoken, and had more provoked the king with the constancy of his
virtue and faith, to be brought up and roasted, his tongue having first
been pulled out and cut off, which had confessed God; and this happened
the more gloriously to the martyr. For the tongue which had
confessed the name of God, ought itself first to go to God. Then
in the second, sharper pains having been devised, before he tortured
the other limbs, he tore off the skin of his head with the hair,
doubtless with a purpose in his hatred. For since Christ is the
head of the man, and God is the head of Christ, he who tore the head in
the martyr was persecuting God and Christ in that head. But he,
trusting in his martyrdom, and promising to himself from the
retribution of God the reward of resurrection, exclaimed and said,
“Thou indeed impotently destroyest us out of this present life;
but the King of the world will raise us up, who die for His laws, unto
the eternal resurrection of life.”3787
The third being challenged,
quickly put forth his tongue; for he had learned from his brother to
despise the punishment of cutting off the tongue. Moreover, he
firmly held forth his hands to be cut off, greatly happy in such a mode
of punishment, since it was his lot to imitate, by stretching forth his
hands, the form of his Lord’s passion. And also the fourth,
with like virtue, despising the tortures, and answering, to restrain
the king, with a heavenly voice exclaimed, and said, “It is
better that those who are given to death by men should wait for hope
from God, to be raised up by Him again to eternal life.3788
| 3788
“To eternal life” is omitted in the Oxford edition. | For
to thee there shall be no resurrection to life.”3789
The
fifth, besides treading under foot the torments of the king, and his
severe and various tortures, by the strength of faith, animated to
prescience also and knowledge of future events by the Spirit of
divinity, foretold to the king the wrath of God, and the vengeance that
should swiftly follow. “Having power,” said he,
“among men, though thou art corruptible, thou doest what thou
wilt. But think not that our race is forsaken of God.
Abide, and see His great power, how He will torment thee and thy
seed.”3790
What
alleviation was that to the martyr!3791
| 3791
“How great” is added in some editions. | how substantial a comfort in his
sufferings, not to consider his own torments, but to predict the
penalties of his tormentor! But in the sixth, not his bravery
only, but also his humility, is to be set forth; that the martyr
claimed nothing to himself, nor even made an account of the honour of
his own confession with proud words, but rather ascribed it to his sins
that he was suffering persecution from the king, while he attributed to
God that afterwards he should be avenged. He taught that martyrs
are modest, that they were confident of vengeance, and boasted nothing
in their suffering. “Do not,” said he,
“needlessly err; for we on our own account suffer these things,
as sinning against our God. But think not thou that thou shalt be
unpunished, who darest to fight against God.”3792
Also the admirable mother, who,
neither broken down by the weakness of her sex, nor moved by her
manifold bereavement, looked upon her dying children with cheerfulness,
and did not reckon those things punishments of her darlings, but
glories, giving as great a witness to God by the virtue of her eyes, as
her children had given by the tortures and suffering of their limbs;
when, after the punishment and slaying of six, there remained one of
the brethren, to whom the king promised riches, and power, and many
things, that his cruelty and ferocity might be soothed by the
satisfaction of even one being subdued, and asked that the mother would
entreat that her son might be cast down with herself; she entreated,
but it was as became a mother of martyrs—as became one who was
mindful of the law and of God—as became one who loved her sons
not delicately, but bravely. For she entreated, but it was that
he would confess God. She entreated that the brother would not be
separated from his brothers in the alliance of praise and glory; then
only considering herself the mother of seven sons, if it should happen
to her to have brought forth seven sons, not to the world, but to
God. Therefore arming him, and strengthening him, and so bearing
her son by a more blessed birth, she said, “O son, pity me that
bare thee ten3793
months in the
womb, and gave thee milk for three years, and nourished
thee and brought thee up to
this age; I pray thee, O son, look upon the heaven and the earth; and
having considered all the things which are in them, understand that out
of nothing God made these things and the human race. Therefore, O
son,3794
| 3794
“Thus it shall turn out that you,” etc., is the Oxford
reading. | do not fear
that executioner; but being made worthy of thy brethren, receive death,
that in the same mercy I may receive thee with thy
brethren.”3795
The
mother’s praise was great in her exhortation to virtue, but
greater in the fear of God and in the truth of faith, that she promised
nothing to herself or her son from the honour of the six martyrs, nor
believed that the prayer of the brothers would avail3796
| 3796
[This is noteworthy, for obvious reasons.] | for the salvation of one who should
deny, but rather persuaded him to become a sharer in their suffering,
that in the day of judgment he might be found with his brethren.
After this the mother also dies with her children; for neither was
anything else becoming, than that she who had borne and made martyrs,
should be joined in the fellowship of glory with them, and that she
herself should follow those whom she had sent before to God. And
lest any, when the opportunity either of a certificate or of any such
matter is offered to him whereby he may deceive, should embrace the
wicked part of deceivers, let us not be silent, moreover, about
Eleazar, who, when an opportunity was offered him by the ministers of
the king, that having received the flesh which it was allowable for him
to partake of, he might pretend, for the misguiding of the king, that
he ate those things which were forced upon him from the sacrifices and
unlawful meats, would not consent to this deception, saying that it was
fitting neither for his age nor nobility to feign that, whereby others
would be scandalized and led into error; if they should think that
Eleazar, being ninety years old, had left and betrayed the law of God,
and had gone over to the manner of aliens; and that it was not of so
much consequence to gain the short moments of life, and so incur
eternal punishment from an offended God. And he having been long
tortured, and now at length reduced to extremity, while he was dying in
the midst of stripes and tortures, groaned and said, “O Lord,
that hast the holy knowledge, it is manifest that although I might be
delivered from death, I suffer the severest pains of body, being beaten
with scourges; but with my mind, on account of Thy fear, I willingly
suffer these things.”3797
Assuredly his faith was sincere
and his virtue sound, and abundantly pure, not to have regarded king
Antiochus, but God the Judge, and to have known that it could not avail
him for salvation if he should mock and deceive man, when God, who is
the judge of our conscience, and who only is to be feared, cannot at
all be mocked nor deceived. If, therefore, we also live as
dedicated and devoted to God—if we make our way over the ancient
and sacred footsteps of the righteous, let us go through the same
proofs of sufferings, the same testimonies of passions, considering the
glory of our time the greater on this account, that while ancient
examples may be numbered, yet that subsequently, when the abundance of
virtue and faith was in excess, the Christian martyrs cannot be
numbered, as the Apocalypse testifies and says: “After
these things I beheld a great multitude, which no man could number, of
every nation, and of every tribe, and people, and language, standing in
the sight of the throne and of the Lamb; and they were clothed in white
robes, and palms were in their hands; and they said with a loud voice,
Salvation to our God, who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the
Lamb! And one of the elders answered and said unto me, Who are
those which are arrayed in white robes, and whence come they? And
I said unto him, My lord, thou knowest. And he said unto me,
These are they who have come out of great tribulation, and have washed
their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and
night in His temple.”3798
But if the assembly of the
Christian martyrs is shown and proved to be so great, let no one think
it a hard or a difficult thing to become a martyr, when he sees that
the crowd of martyrs cannot be numbered.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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