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| (For 341.) Coss. Marcellinus, Probinus; Præf. Longinus; Indict. xiv; Easter-day, xiii Kal. Maii, xxiv Pharmuthi; Æra Dioclet. 57.
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Letter XIII.—(For 341.) Coss. Marcellinus,
Probinus; Præf. Longinus; Indict. xiv; Easter-day, xiii Kal. Maii,
xxiv Pharmuthi; Æra Dioclet. 57.
Again, my beloved
brethren, I am ready to notify to you the saving feast4364
, which will take place according to annual
custom. For although the opponents of Christ4365
| 4365 The
Arians (οἱ
χριστόμαχοι). |
have oppressed you together with us with afflictions and sorrows; yet,
God having comforted us by our mutual faith4366
,
behold, I write to you even from Rome. Keeping the feast here with the
brethren, still I keep it with you also in will and in spirit, for we
send up prayers in common to God, ‘Who hath granted us not only
to believe in Him, but also now to suffer for His sake4367
.’ For troubled as we are, because we
are so far from you, He moves us to write, that by a letter we might
comfort ourselves, and provoke one another to good4368
. For, indeed, numerous afflictions and
bitter persecutions directed against the Church have been against us.
For heretics, corrupt in their mind, untried in the faith, rising
against the truth, violently persecute the Church, and of the brethren,
some are scourged and others torn with stripes, and hardest of all,
their insults reach even to the Bishops. Nevertheless, it is not
becoming, on this account, that we should neglect the feast. But we
should especially remember it, and not at all forget its commemoration
from time to time. Now the unbelievers do not consider that there is a
season for feasts, because they spend all their lives in revelling and
follies; and the feasts which they keep are an occasion of grief rather
than of joy. But to us in this present life they are above all an
uninterrupted passage [to heaven]—it is indeed our season. For
such things as these serve for exercise and trial, so that, having
approved ourselves zealous and chosen servants of Christ, we may be
fellow-heirs with the saints4369
. For thus Job:
‘The whole world is a place of trial to men upon the earth4370
.’ Nevertheless, they are proved in
this world by afflictions, labours, and sorrows, to the end that each
one may receive of God such reward as is meet for him, as He saith by
the prophet, ‘I am the Lord, Who trieth the hearts, and searcheth
the reins, to give to every one according to his ways4371
.’
2. Not that He first knows the things of a man on
his being proved (for He knows them all before they come to pass), but
because He is good and philanthropic, He distributes to each a due
reward according to his actions, so that every man may exclaim,
Righteous is the judgment of God! As the prophet says again, ‘The
Lord trieth the just, and discerneth the reins4372
.’ Again, for this cause He tries each
one of us, either that to those who know it not, virtue may be
manifested by means of those who are proved, as was said respecting
Job; ‘Thinkest thou that I was revealed to thee for any other
cause, than that thou shouldest be seen righteous4373
?’ or that, when men come to a sense of
their deeds, they may be able to know of what manner they are, and so
may either repent of their wickedness, or abide confirmed in the faith.
Now the blessed Paul, when troubled by afflictions, and persecutions,
and hunger and thirst, ‘in everything was a conqueror, through
Jesus Christ, Who loved us4374
.’ Through
suffering he was weak indeed in body, yet, believing and hoping, he was
made strong in spirit, and his
strength was made perfect in weakness4375
.
3. The other saints also, who had a like
confidence in God, accepted a like probation with gladness, as Job
said, ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord4376
.’ But the Psalmist, ‘Search me,
O Lord, and try me: prove my reins and my heart4377
.’ For since, when the strength is
proved, it convinceth the foolish, they perceiving the cleansing and
the advantage resulting from the divine fire, were not discouraged in
trials like these, but they rather delighted in them, suffering no
injury at all from the things which happened, but being seen to shine
more brightly, like gold from the fire4378
,
as he said, who was tried in such a school of discipline as this;
‘Thou hast tried my heart, Thou hast visited me in the
night-season; Thou hast proved me, and hast not found iniquity in me,
so that my mouth shall not speak of the works of men4379
.’ But those whose actions are not
restrained by law, who know of nothing beyond eating and drinking and
dying, account trials as danger. They soon stumble at them, so that,
being untried in the faith, they are given over to a reprobate mind,
and do those things which are not seemly4380
.
Therefore the blessed Paul, when urging us to such exercises as these,
and having before measured himself by them, says, ‘Therefore I
take pleasure in afflictions, in infirmities.’ And again,
‘Exercise thyself unto godliness4381
.’ For since he knew the persecutions
that befel those who chose to live in godliness, he wished his
disciples to meditate beforehand on the difficulties connected with
godliness; that when trials should come, and affliction arise, they
might be able to bear them easily, as having been exercised in these
things. For in those things wherewith a man has been conversant in
mind, he ordinarily experiences a hidden joy. In this way, the blessed
martyrs, becoming at first conversant with difficulties, were quickly
perfected in Christ, regarding as nought the injury of the body, while
they contemplated the expected rest.
4. But all those who ‘call their lands by
their own names4382
,’ and have
wood, and hay, and stubble4383
in their thoughts;
such as these, since they are strangers to difficulties, become aliens
from the kingdom of heaven. Had they however known that
‘tribulation perfecteth patience, and patience experience, and
experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed,’ they would have
exercised themselves, after the example of Paul, who said, ‘I
keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have
preached to others, I myself should be a castaway4384
.’ They would easily have borne the
afflictions which were brought upon them to prove them from time to
time, if the prophetic admonition4385
had been
listened to by them; ‘It is good for a man to take up Thy yoke in
his youth; he shall sit alone and shall be silent, because he hath
taken Thy yoke upon him. He will give his cheek to him who smiteth him;
he will be filled with reproaches. Because the Lord does not cast away
for ever; for when He abases, He is gracious, according to the
multitude of His tender mercies4386
| 4386 Cf.
Serapion Epistola ad Monachos, in Mai Spicileg. Rom. tom.
iv. p. li. (L.) | .’ For
though all these things should proceed from the enemies, stripes,
insults, reproaches, yet shall they avail nothing against the multitude
of God’s tender mercies; for we shall quickly recover from them
since they are merely temporal, but God is always gracious, pouring out
His tender mercies on those who please [Him]. Therefore, my beloved
brethren, we should not look at these temporal things, but fix our
attention on those which are eternal. Though affliction may come, it
will have an end, though insult and persecution, yet are they nothing
to the hope which is set [before us]. For all present matters are
trifling compared with those which are future; the sufferings of this
present time not being worthy to be compared with the hope that is to
come4387
. For what can be compared with the kingdom?
or what is there in comparison with life eternal? Or what is all we
could give here, to that which we shall inherit yonder? For we are
‘heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ4388
.’ Therefore it is not right, my
beloved, to consider afflictions and persecutions, but the hopes which
are laid up for us because of persecutions.
5. Now to this the example of Issachar, the
patriarch, may persuade, as the Scripture4389
saith, ‘Issachar desires that which is good, resting between the
heritages; and when he saw that the rest was good, and the land
fertile4390
, he bowed his shoulder to labour, and
became a husbandman.’ Being consumed by divine love, like the
spouse in the Canticles, he gathered abundance from the holy
Scriptures, for his mind was captivated not by the old alone, but by
both the heritages. And hence as it were, spreading his wings, he
beheld afar off ‘the rest’ which is in heaven,
and,—since this
‘land’ consists of such beautiful works,—how much
more truly the heavenly [country] must also [consist] of such4391
| 4391 Larsow’s rendering of the above is followed. | ; for the other is ever new, and grows not
old. For this ‘land’ passes away, as the Lord said; but
that which is ready to receive the saints is immortal. Now when
Issachar, the patriarch, saw these things, he joyfully made his boast
of afflictions and toils, bowing his shoulders that he might labour.
And he did not contend with those who smote him, neither was he
disturbed by insults; but like a strong man triumphing the more by
these things, and the more earnestly tilling his land, he received
profit from it. The Word scattered the seed, but he watchfully
cultivated it, so that it brought forth fruit, even a hundred-fold.
6. Now what does this mean, my beloved, but that
we also, when the enemies are arrayed against us, should glory in
afflictions4392
, and that when we are persecuted, we
should not be discouraged, but should the rather press after the crown
of the high calling4393
in Christ Jesus our
Lord? and that being insulted, we should not be disturbed, but should
give our cheek to the smiter, and bow the shoulder? For the lovers of
pleasure and the lovers of enmity are tried, as saith the blessed
Apostle James, ‘when they are drawn away by their own lusts and
enticed4394
.’ But let us, knowing that we
suffer for the truth, and that those who deny the Lord smite and
persecute us, ‘count it all joy, my brethren,’ according to
the words of James, ‘when we fall into trials of various
temptations, knowing that the trial of our faith worketh patience4395
.’ Let us rejoice as we keep the feast,
my brethren, knowing that our salvation is ordered in the time of
affliction. For our Saviour did not redeem us by inactivity, but by
suffering for us He abolished death. And respecting this, He
intimidated to us before, saying, ‘In the world ye shall have
tribulation4396
.’ But He did not say this to
every man, but to those who diligently and faithfully perform good
service to Him, knowing beforehand, that they should be persecuted who
would live godly toward Him.
7. ‘But evil-doers and sorcerers will wax
worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived4397
.’ If therefore, like those expounders
of dreams and false prophets who professed to give signs, these
ignorant men being drunk, not with wine, but with their own wickedness,
make a profession of priesthood, and glory in their threats, believe
them not; but since we are tried, let us humble ourselves, not being
drawn away by them. For so God warned His people by Moses, saying,
‘If there shall rise up among you a prophet, or a dreamer of
dreams, and shall give signs and tokens, and the sign or the token
shall come to pass which he spake to thee, saying, Let us go and serve
strange gods, which ye have not known; ye shall not hearken unto the
words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God
trieth you, that He may know whether you will love the Lord your God
with all your heart4398
.’ So we, when
we are tried by these things, will not separate ourselves from the love
of God. But let us now keep the feast, my beloved, not as introducing a
day of suffering, but of joy in Christ, by Whom we are fed every day.
Let us be mindful of Him Who was sacrificed in the days of the
Passover; for we celebrate this, because Christ the Passover was
sacrificed4399
. He Who once brought His people out of
Egypt, and hath now abolished death, and him that had the power of
death, that is the devil4400
, will likewise now
turn him to shame, and again grant aid to those who are troubled, and
cry unto God day and night4401
.
8. We begin the fast of forty days on the
thirteenth of Phamenoth (9 Mar.), and the holy week of Easter on the
eighteenth of Pharmuthi (Apr. 13); and resting on the seventh day,
being the twenty-third (Apr. 18), and the first of the great week
having dawned on the twenty-fourth of the same month Pharmuthi (Apr.
19), let us reckon from it till Pentecost. And at all times let us sing
praises, calling on Christ, being delivered from our enemies by Christ
Jesus our Lord, through Whom to the Father be glory and dominion for
ever and ever. Amen. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All those who
are here with me salute you. I pray, my beloved brethren, that ye may
have health in the Lord.
He wrote this also from Rome. Here endeth the
thirteenth Letter. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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