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 maintain, and others have done the same who are unwilling to understand the meaning of that declaration of the Lord, that they may use it as a cloak for their cowardice, although it has had its persons as well as its times and reasons to which it specially applies.  “When they begin,” He says, “to persecute you, flee from city to city.”  We maintain that this belongs specially to the persons of the apostles, and to their times and circumstances, as the following sentences will show, which are suitable only to the apostles:  “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and into a city of the Samaritans do not enter:  but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  But to us the way of the Gentiles is also open, as in it we in fact were found, and to the very last we walk; and no city has been excepted.  So we preach throughout all the world; nay, no special care even for Israel has been laid upon us, save as also we are bound to preach to all nations.  Yes, and if we are apprehended, we shall not be brought into Jewish councils, nor scourged in Jewish synagogues, but we shall certainly be cited before Roman magistrates and judgment-seats.  So, then, the circumstances of the apostles even required the injunction to flee, their mission being to preach first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  That, therefore, this preaching might be fully accomplished in the case of those among whom this behoved first of all to be carried out—that the sons might receive bread before the dogs, for that reason He commanded them to flee then for a time—not with the object of eluding danger, under the plea strictly speaking which persecution urges (rather He was in the habit of proclaiming that they would suffer persecutions, and of teaching that these must be endured); but in order to further the proclamation of the Gospel message, lest by their being at once put down, the diffusion of the Gospel too might be prevented.  Neither were they to flee to any city as if by stealth, but as if everywhere about to proclaim their message; and for this, everywhere about to undergo persecutions, until they should fulfil their teaching.  Accordingly the Saviour says, “Ye will not go over all the cities of Israel.”  So the command to flee was restricted to the limits of Judea.  But no command that shows Judea to be specially the sphere for preaching applies to us, now that the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon all flesh.  Therefore Paul and the apostles themselves, mindful of the precept of the Lord, bear this solemn testimony before Israel, which they had now filled with their doctrine—saying, “It was necessary that the word of God should have been first delivered to you; but seeing ye have rejected it, and have not thought yourselves worthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.”  And from that time they turned their steps away, as those who went before them had laid it down, and departed into the way of the Gentiles, and entered into the cities of the Samaritans; so that, in very deed, their sound went forth into all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.  If, therefore, the prohibition against setting foot in the way of the Gentiles, and entering into the cities of the Samaritans, has come to an end, why should not the command to flee, which was issued at the same time, have come also to an end?  Accordingly, from the time when, Israel having had its full measure, the apostles went over to the Gentiles, they neither fled from city to city, nor hesitated to suffer.  Nay, Paul too, who had submitted to deliverance from persecution by being let down from the wall, as to do so was at this time a matter of command, refused in like manner now at the close of his ministry, and after the injunction had come to an end, to give in to the anxieties of the disciples, eagerly entreating him that he would not risk himself at Jerusalem, because of the sufferings in store for him which Agabus had foretold; but doing the very opposite, it is thus he speaks, “What do ye, weeping and disquieting my heart?  For I could wish not only to suffer bonds, but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of my Lord Jesus Christ.”  And so they all said, “Let the will of the Lord be done.”  What was the will of the Lord?  Certainly no longer to flee from persecution.  Otherwise they who had wished him rather to avoid persecution, might also have adduced that prior will of the Lord, in which He had commanded flight.  Therefore, seeing even in the days of the apostles themselves, the command to flee was temporary, as were those also relating to the other things at the same time enjoined, that [command] cannot continue with us which ceased with our teachers, even although it had not been issued specially for them; or if the Lord wished it to continue, the apostles did wrong who were not careful to keep fleeing to the last.

CAPUT VI.

Imo, inquit, quia praeceptum adimplevit, fugiens de civitate in civitatem. Sic enim voluit quidam, sed et ipse fugitivus, argumentari, et qui proinde nolunt intelligere sensum Domini illius pronuntiationis, ut eam ad velamentum timiditatis suae utantur, cum 0109A et personas suas habuerit et tempora et caussas: Cum coeperint, inquit, persequi vos, fugite de civitate in civitatem (Matth. X, 23). Hoc in personas proprie Apostolorum, et in tempora, et in caussas eorum pertinere defendimus, sicut (praecedentes et) subsequentes sensus probabunt, qui nonnisi in Apostolos competunt: In viam nationum ne ieritis, et in civitatem Samaritanorum ne introieritis; sed ite potius ad oves perditas domus Israelis (Matth. X, 5, 6). Nobis autem et via nationum patet, in qua et inventi sumus, et usque in finem incedimus; et nulla civitas excepta est, qua per totum orbem praedicamus; sed nec cura nobis Israelis injuncta est extra ordinem, nisi qua et omnibus gentibus praedicare debemus. Etiamsi apprehendamur, non in concilia eorum perducemur, nec in 0109B synagogis illorum flagellabimur, sed Romanis utique potestatibus et tribunalibus objiciemur. Sic igitur et fugae praeceptum Apostolorum conditio desiderabat, quoniam primo praedicandum erat ad oves perditas domus Israelis. Ut ergo perficeretur praedicatio, apud quos priores perfici oportebat, uti panem ante filii quam canes sumerent, ideo illis fugere tunc ad tempus praecipit: non propter eludendum periculum proprio nomine persecutionis (atquin persecutiones eos passuros praedicabat, et tolerandas docebat); sed propter profectum annuntiationis, ne, statim oppressis, Evangelii quoque disseminatio perimeretur. Neque enim quasi tacite in aliquam civitatem transfugiendum erat, sed quasi ubique annuntiaturis, et ex hoc ubique persecutiones subituris, 0109C donec replerent doctrina sua . Denique (Matth. X, 33): Non consummabitis, inquit, civitates Israelis. Adeo intra terminos Judaeae praeceptum fugae continebatur. Nobis autem nulla Judaeae praefinitio competit praedicationis, in omnem jam carnem effuso Spiritu Sancto. Itaque Paulus, et Apostoli ipsi, memores praecepti dominici, contestantur illud apud Israel, quem jam doctrina sua impleverant: Vobis oportuit imprimis sermonem Dei tradi. Sed quoniam repulistis eum, nec dignos vos aeterna vita existimastis, ecce convertimus nos ad nationes (Act. XIII, 46). Atque exinde conversi et ipsi, sicut antecessores instituerant, in viam nationum abierunt, et in civitates Samaritanorum introierunt; ut in totam scilicet terram exiret sonus eorum, et in terminos orbis voces 0109D eorum (Ps. XVIII, 1). Si ergo cessavit exceptio viae nationum, et introitus in civitates Samaritanorum, cur non cessaverit et fugae praeceptum pariter emissum? Denique ex quo saturato Israele Apostoli in nationes transierunt, nec fugerunt de civitate in civitatem, nec pati dubitaverunt. Atquin et Paulus, qui se per murum concesserat expediri de persecutione, qua ad hoc tempus erat praecepti; idem jam in clausula officii, et in consummatione praecepti, 0110A discipulis magnopere deprecantibus, ne se Hierosolyma committeret, passurus illic quae Agabus prophetaverat, sollicitudini eorum non subscripsit; sed e contrario: Quid, inquit, facitis lacrymantes et conturbantes cor meum? Ego enim non modo vincula pati optaverim, sed etiam mori Hierosolymis pro nomine Domini mei Jesu Christi. Atque ita omnes aierunt: Fiat voluntas Domini (Act. XXI, 17). Quae erat voluntas Domini? utique non fugiendi jam persecutionem. Caeterum, poterant et priorem Domini voluntatem proposuisse qua fugere mandaverat, qui illum persecutionem vitasse maluerant. Igitur, cum etiam sub Apostolis ipsis temporale fuit fugae praeceptum, sicut et reliquorum praescriptorum, non potest apud nos perseverare quod apud doctores nostros 0110B concessavit, etsi non proprie ad illos fuisset emissum: aut si perseverare illud Dominus voluit, deliquerunt Apostoli qui non usque in finem fugere curaverunt.