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 jacula 0106C (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.