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 will fight again;” perhaps also in the battle to flee again.  And when will he who, as a fugitive, is a defeated man, be conqueror?  A worthy soldier he furnishes to his commander Christ, who, so amply armed by the apostle, as soon as he hears persecution’s trumpet, runs off from the day of persecution.  I also will produce in answer a quotation taken from the world:  “Is it a thing so very sad to die?”  He must die, in whatever way of it, either as conquered or as conqueror.  But although he has succumbed in denying, he has yet faced and battled with the torture.  I had rather be one to be pitied than to be blushed for.  More glorious is the soldier pierced with a javelin in battle, than he who has a safe skin as a fugitive.  Do you fear man, O Christian?—you who ought to be feared by the angels, since you are to judge angels; who ought to be feared by evil spirits, since you have received power also over evil spirits; who ought to be feared by the whole world, since by you, too, the world is judged.  You are Christ-clothed, you who flee before the devil, since into Christ you have been baptized.  Christ, who is in you, is treated as of small account when you give yourself back to the devil, by becoming a fugitive before him.  But, seeing it is from the Lord you flee, you taunt all runaways with the futility of their purpose.  A certain bold prophet also had fled from the Lord, he had crossed over from Joppa in the direction of Tarsus, as if he could as easily transport himself away from God; but I find him, I do not say in the sea and on the land, but, in fact, in the belly even of a beast, in which he was confined for the space of three days, unable either to find death or even thus escape from God.  How much better the conduct of the man who, though he fears the enemy of God, does not flee from, but rather despises him, relying on the protection of the Lord; or, if you will, having an awe of God all the greater, the more that he has stood in His presence, says, “It is the Lord, He is mighty.  All things belong to Him; wherever I am, I am in His hand:  let Him do as He wills, I go not away; and if it be His pleasure that I die, let Him destroy me Himself, while I save myself for Him.  I had rather bring odium upon Him by dying by His will, than by escaping through my own anger.”

CAPUT X.

Sed omissis quidam divinis exhortationibus, illum 0112C magis Graecum versiculum saecularis sententiae sibi adhibent: Qui fugiebat, rursus praeliabitur ; ut et rursus forsitan fugiat. Et quando vincet, qui, cum fugerit, victus est? Bonum militem Christo imperatori suo praestat, qui tam plene ab Apostolo armatus, tuba persecutionis audita, diem deserit persecutionis? Respondebo et ego de saeculo aliquid: Usque adeone mori miserum est? (Virg. Aen. XII, 646.)Moriatur quoquo modo, aut victus, aut victor. Nam etsi negando ceciderit, cum tormentis tamen praeliatus. Malo miserandum quam erubescendum. Pulchrior est miles in praelio amissus, quam in fuga salvus. Times hominem, christiane, quem timeri oportet ab angelis, siquidem angelos judicaturus es; quem timeri oportet a daemoniis, siquidem et in daemonas 0112D accepisti potestatem; quem timeri oportet ab universo mundo, siquidem et in te mundus judicatur. Christum indutus es, siquidem in Christum tinctus es. Qui fugis diabolum, depreciasti Christum, qui in te est. Fugitivum cum diabolo te reddidisti. Sed Dominum fugiens, exprobras omnibus fugitivis sui vanitatem consilii. Fugerat et quidam animosus prophetes 0113A Dominum, trajecerat ab Joppe Tarsum, quasi a Deo transfretaret; sed illum non dico in mari et in terra, verum in utero etiam bestiae invenio, in quo nec mori per triduum potuit, nec vel sic Deum evadere. Quanto melius Dei servus? qui sive inimicus Dei imminet, non fugit eum; sed potius contemnit, confidens scilicet de tutela Domini; sive Deum reformidat, quanto magis sub oculis ejus astitit, dicens: Dominus est, potens est: omnia illius sunt: ubi ubi fuero, in manu ejus sum; faciat quod vult, non discedo; et si perire me volet, ipse me perdat, dum me ego servo illi. Malo invidiam ei facere per voluntatem ipsius pereundo, quam bilem, per meam evadendo.