1. Although, beloved brethren, it is unfitting, while my speaking to you receives this indulgence, to profess any trepidation, and it very little beco

 2. For there is indeed, unless I am mistaken, even in the very power of conscience, a marvellous fear which at once disturbs and inflames us whose po

 3. For consider what glory it is to set aside the lusts of this life, and to oppose a mind withdrawn from all commerce with nature and the world, to a

 4. Therefore, since martyrdom is the chief thing, there are three points arising out of it on which we have proposed to ourselves to speak: What it is

 5. For what is there in these speeches other than empty discourse, and senseless talk, and a depraved pleasure in meaningless words? As it is written:

 6. The whole of this tends to the praise of martyrdom, the whole illuminates the glory of suffering wherein the hope of time future is beheld, wherein

 7. For there is no doubt how much they obtain from the Lord, who have preferred God’s name to their own safety, so that in that judgment-day their blo

 8. For what is so illustrious and sublime, as by a robust devotion to preserve all the vigour of faith in the midst of so many weapons of executioners

 9. Moreover, beloved brethren, regard, I beseech you, this consideration more fully for in it both salvation is involved, and sublimity accounted of,

 10. Thus, whenever the soldier returns from the enemy laden with triumphant spoils, he rejoices in his wounds.  Thus, whenever the sailor, long harass

 11. If you fear to lose salvation, know that you can die and, moreover, death should be contemned by you, for whom Christ was slain. Let the examples

 12. For it is a great glory, beloved brethren, to adorn the life of eternal salvation with the dignity of suffering: it is a great sublimity before th

 13. And now, beloved brethren, I shall come to that point whence I shall very easily be able to show you how highly the virtue of martyrdom is esteeme

 14. And, to pass over everything else, we ought to remember what a glory it is to come immaculate to Christ—to be a sharer in His suffering, and to re

 15. Wherefore, beloved brethren, with a firm faith, with a robust devotion, with a virtue opposed to the fierce threatenings of the world, and the sav

 16. Moreover, beloved brethren, so great is the virtue of martyrdom, that by its means even he who has wished to slay you is constrained to believe. I

 17. But if ambitious dignity deter you, and the amount of your money heaped up in your stores influence you—a cause which ever distracts the intention

 18. For Abraham also thus pleased God, in that he, when tried by God, spared not even his own son, in behalf of whom perhaps he might have been pardon

 19. It now remains, beloved brethren, that we are bound to show what is the advantage of martyrdom, and that we should teach that especially, so that

 20. A horrible place, of which the name is Gehenna, with an awful murmuring and groaning of souls bewailing, and with flames belching forth through th

 21. But those by whom God has always been sought or known, have never lost the position which Christ has given them, where grace is found, where in th

 22. For you deserve, O excellent martyrs, that nothing should be denied to you who are nourished with the hope of eternity and of light whose absolut

 23. There is nothing, then, so great and venerable as the deliverance from death, and the causing to live, and the giving to reign for ever. This is f

 24. What then, beloved brethren, shall I chiefly relate, or what shall I say? When all dignified titles thus combine in one, the mind is confused, the

 25. Let it present itself to your eyes, what a day that is, when, with the people looking on, and all men watching, an undismayed devotion is struggli

 26. Consider what it is, beloved brethren: set before your perceptions and your minds all the endurance of martyrdom. Behold, indeed, in the passion o

 27. But now, beloved brethren, lest any one should think that I have placed all salvation in no other condition than in martyrdom, let him first of al

 28. And to return to the praise of martyrdom, there is a word of the blessed Paul, who says:  “Know ye not that they who run in a race strive many, bu

 29. He said this who suffered, and who suffered for this cause, that he might imitate the Lord and assuredly he wished us also to suffer for this cau

 30. Therefore, beloved brethren, although this is altogether of the Lord’s promise and gift, and although it is given from on high, and is not receive

1. Although, beloved brethren, it is unfitting, while my speaking to you receives this indulgence, to profess any trepidation, and it very little becomes me to diminish the glory of so great a devotion by the confession of an incipient doubt; yet at the same time I say that my mind is divided by that very deliberation, being influenced by the desire of describing the glory, and restrained from speaking by the magnitude of the virtue (to be described); since it is either not becoming to be silent, or it is perilous to say too little, save that to one who is tossing in doubt this consideration alone is helpful, that it would appear easy for him to be pardoned who has not feared to dare. Wherefore, beloved brethren, although my mental capacity is burdened by the importance of the subject in such a way, that in proportion as it puts itself forth in declaring the dignity of martyrdom, in that degree it is overwhelmed by the very weight of the glory, and by its estimation of all those things concerning which, when it speaks most, it fails, by its address being weakened, and broken, and self-entangled, and does not with free and loosened reins display the might of such glory in the liberal eloquence of discourse; yet, if I am not mistaken, some power there will be in my utterance, which, when fortified by the appeal of the work itself, may here and there pour forth what the unequal consciousness of my ability withheld from my words. Since, therefore, beloved brethren, involved as we are in affairs so many and important, we are endeavouring with all eagerness and labour to confirm the excellent and most beautiful issues of salvation, I do not fear being so deterred by any slothful dread as to be withheld or rendered powerless; since, if any one should desire to look into that of which we are considering, the hope of devotion being taken into account, and the very magnitude of the thing being weighed, he would rather wonder that I could have dared at all, in a matter wherein both the vastness of the subject oppressed me, and the earnestness of its own desire drove my mind, confused with its joy, into mental difficulties. For who is there whom such a subject would not alarm? who is there whom it would not overthrow with the fear of its own wonder!

0788A I. ETSI incongruens est, fratres charissimi, in hoc favore dicendi aliquid trepidationis afferre, minimeque deceat gloriam tantae devotionis infringere ex eo quod fatear me coepisse dubitare, tamen identidem 0788B dico ipsa animum deliberatione confringi , cum exequendae laudis cupiditate succenditur, et a loquendo magnitudine virtutis inhibetur, cum aut non deceat tacere, aut periculosum sit parum dicere, nisi quod aestuanti haec res sola subvenit quod videatur ignosci ei facile posse qui non timuit audere. Quamobrem, charissimi fratres, etsi potentia rei oneratur facultas ingenii, ut, quantum se in exprimenda martyrii dignitate protulerit, tantum ipso pondere laudis oppressa atque aestimatione rerum omnium de quibus cum maxime loquitur debilitata ac fracta, intra se ipsam illaqueata oratione deficiat, nec habenis liberis ac solutis in apertum sermonis eloquium vim tantae laudis expromat , tamen erit aliqua, nisi fallor, in eloquendo 0789A facultas , quae ipsius operis oratione munita vage fundat quod a dicendo impar ingenii conscientia submovebat. Cum igitur, fratres charissimi, tot tantisque rebus impliciti, ad comprobandos salutis eximios pulcherrimosque proventus omni studio ac labore nitamur, non vereor ne quo ignaviae metu territus vel revocer vel extinguar, cum si quis ad id voluerit de quo agimus intueri, spe devotionis expensa, atque ipsa ejus magnitudine ponderata, magis miretur audere potuisse in quo me positum et amplitudo rei premeret et confusam gaudio mentem in angustias animi voti sui fervor urgeret. Nam quis est quem non ista res terreat? quis quem non admirationis suae pavore subvertat?