On Flight during Persecution.

 1.  My brother Fabius, you very lately asked, because some news or other were communicated, whether or not we ought to flee in persecution.  For my pa

 2.  If, because injustice is not from God, but from the devil, and persecution consists of injustice (for what more unjust than that the bishops of th

 3.  Seeing therefore, too, these cases occur in persecutions more than at other times, as there is then among us more of proving or rejecting, more of

 4.  Well, then, if it is evident from whom persecution proceeds, we are able at once to satisfy your doubts, and to decide from these introductory rem

 5.  But, says some one, I flee, the thing it belongs to me to do, that I may not perish, if I deny it is for Him on His part, if He chooses, to bring

 6.  Nay, says some one, he fulfilled the command, when he fled from city to city.  For so a certain individual, but a fugitive likewise, has chosen to

 7.  Let us now see whether also the rest of our Lord’s ordinances accord with a lasting command of flight.  In the first place, indeed, if persecution

 8.  He sometimes also fled from violence Himself, but for the same reason as had led Him to command the apostles to do so:  that is, He wanted to fulf

 9.  The teaching of the apostles was surely in everything according to the mind of God:  they forgot and omitted nothing of the Gospel.  Where, then,

 10.  But some, paying no attention to the exhortations of God, are readier to apply to themselves that Greek versicle of worldly wisdom, “He who fled

 11.  Thus ought every servant of God to feel and act, even one in an inferior place, that he may come to have a more important one, if he has made som

 12.  So far, my brother, as the question proposed by you is concerned, you have our opinion in answer and encouragement.  But he who inquires whether

 13.  But also to every one who asks me I will give on the plea of charity, not under any intimidation.  Who asks? He says.  But he who uses intimidati

 14.  But how shall we assemble together? say you how shall we observe the ordinances of the Lord?  To be sure, just as the apostles also did, who wer

3.  Seeing therefore, too, these cases occur in persecutions more than at other times, as there is then among us more of proving or rejecting, more of abusing or punishing, it must be that their general occurrence is permitted or commanded by Him at whose will they happen even partially; by Him, I mean, who says, “I am He who make peace and create evil,”—that is, war, for that is the antithesis of peace.  But what other war has our peace than persecution?  If in its issues persecution emphatically brings either life or death, either wounds or healing, you have the author, too, of this.  “I will smite and heal, I will make alive and put to death.”  “I will burn them,” He says, “as gold is burned; and I will try them,” He says, “as silver is tried,” for when the flame of persecution is consuming us, then the stedfastness of our faith is proved.  These will be the fiery darts of the devil, by which faith gets a ministry of burning and kindling; yet by the will of God.  As to this I know not who can doubt, unless it be persons with frivolous and frigid faith, which seizes upon those who with trembling assemble together in the church.  For you say, seeing we assemble without order, and assemble at the same time, and flock in large numbers to the church, the heathen are led to make inquiry about us, and we are alarmed lest we awaken their anxieties.  Do ye not know that God is Lord of all?  And if it is God’s will, then you shall suffer persecution; but if it is not, the heathen will be still.  Believe it most surely, if indeed you believe in that God without whose will not even the sparrow, a penny can buy, falls to the ground.  But we, I think, are better than many sparrows.

CAPUT III.

Cum ergo et haec exempla magis in persecutionibus 0106B eveniant, siquidem magis tunc probamur vel reprobamur, et magis tunc humiliamur vel emendamur, ab eo permittatur vel imperetur necesse est catholice fieri haec, a quo et ex parte, scilicet ab illo qui dicit: Ego sum qui facio pacem, et condo mala (Is. XLV, 7), id est bellum. Hoc est enim contrarium paci. Nostrae autem paci quid est bellum, quam persecutio? Si persecutionis vel maxime exitus aut vitam afferunt aut mortem, aut plagam aut sanationem, habes auctorem ejusdem: Ego percutiam, et sanabo; ego vivificabo, et mortificabo (Deut. XXXII, 39). Uram, inquit, illos, sicut uritur argentum ; et probabo, inpuid, illos, sicut probatur aurum (Zach. XIII, 9). Cum enim exurimur persecutionis ardore, tunc probamur de fidei tenore. Haec erunt ignea jacula0106C (Eph. III) diaboli, per quae fidei ustio et conflatio administratur; ex Dei tamen voluntate. De isto quis dubitare possit ignoro, nisi plane frivola et frigida fides, deprehendens eos qui timide conveniunt in Ecclesiam. Dicitis enim , Quoniam incondite convenimus, simul convenimus, et complures concurrimus in Ecclesiam, quaerimur a nationibus, et timemus ne turbentur nationes. Annon scitis quod Deus omnium sit Dominus? Et si velit Deus, tunc persecutionem patieris; si vero noluerit, silebunt nationes. Credas utique; si tamen in eum Deum credis, sine cujus voluntate nec passer unius assis cadit in terram (Matth. X, 29). Nos autem, puto, multis passeribus antistamus.