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| To Bishop Irenæus.
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III. To Bishop
Irenæus.1610
| 1610 Irenæus, Count of the Empire and afterwards bishop of Tyre,
was a friend and frequent correspondent of Theodoret. He was deposed at
the Latrocinium in 449. cf. Epp. XII, XVI, XXXV. |
Comparisons of this kind are
forbidden by the divine Apostle. In his Epistle to the Romans he writes
“Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who
both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make
manifest the counsels of the heart: and then shall every man have
praise of God.”1611
And he is quite
right; for we can see only outward deeds, but the God of all knows also
the intention of the doers, and when He delivers his sentence judges
not so much the work as the will. So He will crown the divine Apostle
who became to the Jews as a Jew, to them that were under the law as
under the law, and to them that were without law as without law1612
for his object in thus assuming an
actor’s mask was that he might do good to mankind. His was no
time-server’s career. The gain he got was loss, but he secured
the good of them whom he taught. As I said, then, the divine Paul bids
us wait for the judgment of God. But we are venturing on high themes;
we are handling a theology passing understanding and words; not, like
the unholy heretics, seeking blasphemous positions, but endeavouring to
confute their impiety, and as far as in us lies to give praise to the
Creator; we shall therefore do nothing unreasonable in attempting to
reply to your enquiry.
You have suggested the case of
an impious judge giving to two athletes of piety the alternative of
sacrificing to demons, or flinging themselves into the sea. You
describe the one as choosing the latter and plunging without hesitation
into the deep, while the other, refusing both, shews quite as much
abhorrence of the worship of idols as his companion, but declines to
commit himself to the waves, and waits for this fate to be violently
forced upon him. You have suggested these circumstances, and you ask
which of these two took the better course. I think that you will agree
with me that the latter was the more praiseworthy. No one ought to
withdraw himself from life unbidden, but should await either a natural
or a violent death. Our Lord gave us this lesson when He bade those
that are persecuted in one city flee to another and again commanded
them to quit even this and depart to another.1613
In obedience to this teaching the divine Apostle escaped the
violence of
the governor of the city, and had no hesitation in speaking of the
manner of his flight, but spoke of the basket, the wall, and the
window, and boasted and glorified in the act.1614
For what looks discreditable is made honourable by the divine command.
In the same manner the Apostle called himself at one time a Pharisee1615
and at another a Roman,1616
not because he was afraid of death, but
acting quite fairly in fight.1617
| 1617 “Dolus an virtus quis in hoste requirat?”
Virg Æn. ii. 390. | In the same way
when he had learnt the Jews’ plot against him he appealed to
Cæsar1618
and sent his sister’s son to
the chief captain to report the designs hatched against him, not
because he clung to this present life, but in obedience to the divine
law. For assuredly our Lord does not wish us to throw ourselves into
obvious peril; and this is taught us by deed as well as by word, for
more than once He avoided the murderous violence of the Jews. And the
great Peter, first of the Apostles, when he was loosed from his chains
and had escaped from the hands of Herod, came to the house of John, who
was surnamed Mark, and after removing the anxiety of his friends by his
visit and bidding them maintain silence, betook himself to another
house in the endeavour to conceal himself more effectually by the
removal.1619
And we shall find just the same kind
of wisdom in the old Testament, for the famous Moses, after playing the
man in his struggle with the Egyptian and finding out the next day that
the homicide had become known, ran away, travelled a long journey, and
arrived at the land of Midian.1620
In like manner the
great Elias when he had learnt Jezebel’s threats did not give
himself up to them which wished to kill him, but left the world and
hurried to the desert.1621
And if it is
right and agreeable to God to escape the violence of our enemies,
surely it is much more right to refuse to obey them when they order a
man to become his own murderer. Our Lord did not give in to the devil
when he bade Him throw Himself down,1622
and when he
had armed against Him the hands of the Jews by means of the scourge and
the thorns and the nails, and the creature was urging Him to bring
wholesale destruction on His wicked foes, the Lord Himself forbade,
because He knew that His Passion was bringing salvation to the world,
and it was for this reason that just before His Passion He said to His
Apostles “Pray that ye enter not into temptation,”1623
and taught us to pray “Lead us not
into temptation.”1624
Now let us shift
our ground a little, and we shall see our way more clearly. Let us
eliminate the sea from the argument, and suppose the judge to have
given each of the martyrs a sword, and ordered the one who refused to
sacrifice to cut off his own head; who in his senses would have endured
to redden his hand with his own blood, become his own headsman, lift
his hand against himself, in obedience to the judge’s
order?
Clearly your second martyr
deserves the higher praise. The former indeed deserves credit for his
zeal, but the latter is adorned by right judgment as well.
I have answered you according to
the measure of the wisdom given me; He who knows thoughts as well as
acts, will shew which of the two was right in the day of His
appearing. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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