1. Behold, beloved brethren, peace is restored to the Church and although it lately seemed to incredulous people difficult, and to traitors impossibl

 2. We look with glad countenances upon confessors illustrious with the heraldry of a good name, and glorious with the praises of virtue and of faith

 3. Let none, my beloved brethren, let none depreciate this glory let none by malignant dispraise detract from the uncorrupted stedfastness of those w

 4. One cause of grief saddens these heavenly crowns of martyrs, these glorious spiritual confessions, these very great and illustrious virtues of the

 5. Yet, beloved brethren, the cause of truth is to be had in view nor ought the gloomy darkness of the terrible persecution so to have blinded the mi

 6. Each one was desirous of increasing his estate and forgetful of what believers had either done before in the times of the apostles, or always ough

 7. These things were before declared to us, and predicted. But we, forgetful of the law and obedience required of us, have so acted by our sins, that

 8. From some—ah, misery!—all these things have fallen away, and have passed from memory. They indeed did not wait to be apprehended ere they ascended,

 9. But to many their own destruction was not sufficient. With mutual exhortations, people were urged to their ruin death was pledged by turns in the

 10. Nor is there, alas, any just and weighty reason which excuses such a crime. One’s country was to be left, and loss of one’s estate was to be suffe

 11. The truth, brethren, must not be disguised nor must the matter and cause of our wound be concealed. A blind love of one’s own property has deceiv

 12. But how can they follow Christ, who are held back by the chain of their wealth? Or how can they seek heaven, and climb to sublime and lofty height

 13. But (say they) subsequently tortures had come, and severe sufferings were threatening those who resisted. He may complain of tortures who has been

 14. But now, what wounds can those who are overcome show? what gashes of gaping entrails, what tortures of the limbs, in cases where it was not faith

 15. Moreover, beloved brethren, a new kind of devastation has appeared and, as if the storm of persecution had raged too little, there has been added

 16. All these warnings being scorned and contemned,—before their sin is expiated, before confession has been made of their crime, before their conscie

 17. Let no one cheat himself, let no one deceive himself. The Lord alone can have mercy. He alone can bestow pardon for sins which have been committed

 18. But if any one, by an overhurried haste, rashly thinks that he can give remission of sins to all, or dares to rescind the Lord’s precepts, not onl

 19. For Moses also besought for the sins of the people and yet, when he had sought pardon for these sinners, he did not receive it. “I pray Thee,” sa

 20. In the Gospel the Lord speaks, and says, “Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father which is in heaven: but

 21. Unless, perchance, these things have been done without God’s knowledge, or all these things have happened without His permission although Holy Sc

 22. What good can you think of him, what fear can you suppose to have been with him, or what faith, whom neither fear could correct nor persecution it

 23. Receive rather, and admit what we say. Why do your deaf ears not hear the salutary precepts with which we warn you? Why do your blind eyes not see

 24. One of those who of his own will ascended the Capitol to make denial, after he had denied Christ, became dumb. The punishment began from that poin

 25. Learn what occurred when I myself was present and a witness. Some parents who by chance were escaping, being little careful

 26. This much about an infant, which was not yet of an age to speak of the crime committed by others in respect of herself. But the woman who in advan

 27. Nor let those persons flatter themselves that they need repent the less, who, although they have not polluted their hands with abominable sacrific

 28. Moreover, how much are they both greater in faith and better in their fear, who, although bound by no crime of sacrifice to idols or of certificat

 29. I entreat you, beloved brethren, that each one should confess his own sin, while he who has sinned is still in this world, while his confession ma

 30. Do we believe that a man is lamenting with his whole heart, that he is entreating the Lord with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning, who

 31. Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, the illustrious and noble youths, even amid the flames and the ardours of a raging furnace, did not desist from maki

 32. These things were done by men, meek, simple, innocent, in deserving well of the majesty of God and now those who have denied the Lord refuse to m

 33. Neither let that imprudent error or vain stupor of some move you, who, although they are involved in so grave a crime, are struck with blindness o

 34. Flee from such men as much as you can avoid with a wholesome caution those who adhere to their mischievous contact. Their word doth eat as doth a

 35. But you, beloved brethren, whose fear is ready towards God, and whose mind, although it is placed in the midst of lapse, is mindful of its misery,

 36. If a man make prayer with his whole heart, if he groan with the true lamentations and tears of repentance, if he incline the Lord to pardon of his

7. These things were before declared to us, and predicted. But we, forgetful of the law and obedience required of us, have so acted by our sins, that while we despise the Lord’s commandments, we have come by severer remedies to the correction of our sin and probation of our faith. Nor indeed have we at last been converted to the fear of the Lord, so as to undergo patiently and courageously this our correction and divine proof. Immediately at the first words of the threatening foe, the greatest number of the brethren betrayed their faith, and were cast down, not by the onset of persecution, but cast themselves down by voluntary lapse. What unheard-of thing, I beg of you, what new thing had happened, that, as if on the occurrence of things unknown and unexpected, the obligation to11    “Christi sacramentum.” [Like a panic in an undisciplined army.] Christ should be dissolved with headlong rashness? Have not prophets aforetime, and subsequently apostles, told of these things? Have not they, full of the Holy Spirit, predicted the afflictions of the righteous, and always the injuries of the heathens? Does not the sacred Scripture, which ever arms our faith and strengthens with a voice from heaven the servants of God, say, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve?”12    Deut. vi. 13. Does it not again show the anger of the divine indignation, and warn of the fear of punishment beforehand, when it says, “They worshipped them whom their fingers have made; and the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself, and I will forgive them not?”13    Isa. ii. 8, 9. And again, God speaks, and says, “He that sacrifices unto any gods, save unto the Lord only, shall be destroyed.”14    Ex. xxii. 20. In the Gospel also subsequently, the Lord, who instructs by His words and fulfils by His deeds, teaching what should be done, and doing whatever He had taught, did He not before admonish us of whatever is now done and shall be done? Did He not before ordain both for those who deny Him eternal punishments, and for those that confess Him saving rewards?

VII. Praenuntiata sunt ista nobis et ante praedicta. Sed nos, datae legis et observationis immemores, id egimus per nostra peccata, ut, dum Domini mandata contemnimus, ad correctionem delicti et probationem fidei remediis severioribus veniremus. Nec saltem sero conversi ad Domini timorem sumus, ut hanc correptionem nostram probationemque divinam patienter 0471B et fortiter subiremus . Ad prima statim verba minantis inimici maximus fratrum numerus fidem suam prodidit; nec prostratus est persecutionis impetu, sed voluntario lapsu se ipse prostravit. Quid oro inauditum, quid novum venerat, ut, velut incognitis atque inopinatis rebus exortis, Christi sacramentum temeritate praecipiti solveretur? Nonne haec et Prophetae ante et Apostoli postmodum nuntiaverunt? nonne justorum pressuras et gentilium semper injurias pleni sancto Spiritu praedicaverunt? nonne fidem nostram semper armans et Dei servos coelesti voce corroborans dicit Scriptura divina: Dominum Deum tuum adorabis, et illi soli servies (Deut. VI, 13; Matth. 0472A IV, 10). Nonne, iram divinae indignationis ostendens et poenae metum praemonens, denuo dicit: Adoraverunt eosquos fecerunt digiti eorum; et curvatus est homo et humilitatus est vir, et non laxabo illis (Isa. II, 8). Et iterum Deus loquitur dicens: Sacrificans diis eradicabitur, nisi Domino soli (Exod. XXII, 19). In Evangelio quoque postmodum Dominus, in verbis doctor et consummator in factis, docens quid fieret, et faciens quodcumque docuisset, quicquid nunc geritur et geretur nonne ante praemonuit? Nonne et negantibus aeterna supplicia et salutaria confitentibus praemia ante constituit?