Exhortation to Martyrdom, Addressed to Fortunatus.

 Heads of the Following Book.

 On the Exhortation to Martyrdom.

 2. That God alone must be worshipped.

 3. What is God’s threatening against those who sacrifice to idols?

 4. That God does not easily pardon idolaters.

 5. That God is so angry against idolatry, that He has even enjoined those to be slain who persuade others to sacrifice and serve idols.

 6. That, being redeemed and quickened by the blood of Christ, we ought to prefer nothing to Christ.

 7. That those who are snatched from the jaws of the devil, and delivered from the snares of this world, ought not again to return to the world, lest t

 8. That we must press on and persevere in faith and virtue, and in completion of heavenly and spiritual grace, that we may attain to the palm and the

 9. That afflictions and persecutions arise for the sake of our being proved.

 10. That injuries and penalties of persecutions are not to be feared by us, because greater is the Lord to protect than the devil to assault.

 11. That it was before predicted that the world would hold us in abhorrence, and that it would stir up persecutions against us, and that no new thing

 12. What hope and reward remains for the righteous and for martyrs after the conflicts and sufferings of this present time,

 13. That we receive more as the reward of our suffering than what we endure here in the suffering itself,

6. That, being redeemed and quickened by the blood of Christ, we ought to prefer nothing to Christ.41    The Oxford edition adds, “because neither did He account of anything before us.”

In the Gospel the Lord speaks, and says:  “He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that taketh not his cross and followeth me, is not worthy of me.”42    Matt. x. 37, 38. So also it is written in Deuteronomy: “They who say to their father and their mother, I have not known thee, and have not acknowledged their own children, these have kept Thy precepts, and have observed Thy covenant.”43    Deut. xxxiii. 9. Moreover, the Apostle Paul says: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, Because for Thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we overcome on account of Him who hath loved us.”44    Rom. viii. 35–37. And again: “Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body.”45    1 Cor. vi. 20. And again: “Christ died for all, that both they which live may not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.”46    2 Cor. v. 15.

CAP. VI.---QUOD, REDEMPTI ET VIVIFICATI CHRISTI SANGUINE, NIHIL CHRISTO PRAEPONERE DEBEAMUS.

In Evangelio Dominus loquitur et dicit: Qui diligit patrem aut matrem super me , non est me dignus. Et qui diligit filium aut filiam super me, non est me dignus . Et qui non accipit crucemsuam et sequitur me, non est me dignus (Matth. X, 37). Sic et in Deuteronomio scriptum est : Qui dicunt patri et matri, «Non novi te, «et filios suos non agnoverunt, hi custodierunt praecepta tua, et testamentumtuum servaverunt (Deut. 0660B XXXIII, 9). Item apostolus Paulus: Quis nos, inquit, separabit a charitate Christi? pressura an angustia, an persecutio, an fames, an nuditas, an periculum, an gladius? Sicut scriptum est: Quia propter te occidimur tota die, aestimati sumus ut oves victimae , sed in his omnibus superamuspropter eum qui dilexit nos (Rom. VIII, 35). Et iterum: Non estis vestri: empti enim estis pretio magno , glorificateet portate Deum in corpore vestro (I Cor. VI, 20). Et iterum: Pro omnibus mortuus estChristus, ut et qui vivunt, jam non sibi vivant, sed ei qui pro ipsis mortuus est et resurrexit (II Cor. V, 15).