12.  So far, my brother, as the question proposed by you is concerned, you have our opinion in answer and encouragement.  But he who inquires whether persecution ought to be shunned by us must now be prepared to consider the following question also:  Whether, if we should not flee from it, we should at least buy ourselves off from it.  Going further than you expected, therefore, I will also on this point give you my advice, distinctly affirming that persecution, from which it is evident we must not flee, must in like manner not even be bought off.  The difference lies in the payment; but as flight is a buying off without money, so buying off is money-flight.  Assuredly you have here too the counselling of fear.  Because you fear, you buy yourself off; and so you flee.  As regards your feet, you have stood; in respect of the money you have paid, you have run away.  Why, in this very standing of yours there was a fleeing from persecution, in the release from persecution which you bought; but that you should ransom with money a man whom Christ has ransomed with His blood, how unworthy is it of God and His ways of acting, who spared not His own Son for you, that He might be made a curse for us, because cursed is he that hangeth on a tree,—Him who was led as a sheep to be a sacrifice, and just as a lamb before its shearer, so opened He not His mouth; but gave His back to the scourges, nay, His cheeks to the hands of the smiter, and turned not away His face from spitting, and, being numbered with the transgressors, was delivered up to death, nay, the death of the cross.  All this took place that He might redeem us from our sins.  The sun ceded to us the day of our redemption; hell re-transferred the right it had in us, and our covenant is in heaven; the everlasting gates were lifted up, that the King of Glory, the Lord of might, might enter in, after having redeemed man from earth, nay, from hell, that he might attain to heaven.  What, now, are we to think of the man who strives against that glorious One, nay, slights and defiles His goods, obtained at so great a ransom—no less, in truth, than His most precious blood?  It appears, then, that it is better to flee than to fall in value, if a man will not lay out for himself as much as he cost Christ.  And the Lord indeed ransomed him from the angelic powers which rule the world—from the spirits of wickedness, from the darkness of this life, from eternal judgment, from everlasting death.  But you bargain for him with an informer, or a soldier or some paltry thief of a ruler—under, as they say, the folds of the tunic—as if he were stolen goods whom Christ purchased in the face of the whole world, yes, and set at liberty.  Will you value, then, this free man at any price, and possess him at any price, but the one, as we have said, it cost the Lord,—namely, His own blood?  (And if not,) why then do you purchase Christ in the man in whom He dwells, as though He were some human property?  No otherwise did Simon even try to do, when he offered the apostles money for the Spirit of Christ.  Therefore this man also, who in buying himself has bought the Spirit of Christ, will hear that word, “Your money perish with you, since you have thought that the grace of God is to be had at a price!”  Yet who will despise him for being (what he is), a denier?  For what says that extorter?  Give me money:  assuredly that he may not deliver him up, since he tries to sell you nothing else than that which he is going to give you for money.  When you put that into his hands, it is certainly your wish not to be delivered up.  But not delivered up, had you to be held up to public ridicule?  While, then, in being unwilling to be delivered up, you are not willing to be thus exposed; by this unwillingness of yours you have denied that you are what you have been unwilling to have it made public that you are.  Nay, you say, While I am unwilling to be held up to the public as being what I am, I have acknowledged that I am what I am unwilling to be so held up as being, that is, a Christian.  Can Christ, therefore, claim that you, as a witness for Him, have stedfastly shown Him forth?  He who buys himself off does nothing in that way.  Before one it might, I doubt not, be said, You have confessed Him; so also, on the account of your unwillingness to confess Him before many you have denied Him.  A man’s very safety will pronounce that he has fallen while getting out of persecution’s way.  He has fallen, therefore, whose desire has been to escape.  The refusal of martyrdom is denial.  A Christian is preserved by his wealth, and for this end has his treasures, that he may not suffer, while he will be rich toward God.  But it is the case that Christ was rich in blood for him.  Blessed therefore are the poor, because, He says, the kingdom of heaven is theirs who have the soul only treasured up.  If we cannot serve God and mammon, can we be redeemed both by God and by mammon?  For who will serve mammon more than the man whom mammon has ransomed?  Finally, of what example do you avail yourself to warrant your averting by money the giving of you up?  When did the apostles, dealing with the matter, in any time of persecution trouble, extricate themselves by money?  And money they certainly had from the prices of lands which were laid down at their feet, there being, without a doubt, many of the rich among those who believed—men, and also women, who were wont, too, to minister to their comfort.  When did Onesimus, or Aquila, or Stephen, give them aid of this kind when they were persecuted?  Paul indeed, when Felix the governor hoped that he should receive money for him from the disciples, about which matter he also dealt with the apostle in private, certainly neither paid it himself, nor did the disciples for him.  Those disciples, at any rate, who wept because he was equally persistent in his determination to go to Jerusalem, and neglectful of all means to secure himself from the persecutions which had been foretold as about to occur there, at last say, “Let the will of the Lord be done.”  What was that will?  No doubt that he should suffer for the name of the Lord, not that he should be bought off.  For as Christ laid down His life for us, so, too, we should do for Him; and not only for the Lord Himself, nay, but likewise for our brethren on His account.  This, too, is the teaching of John when he declares, not that we should pay for our brethren, but rather that we should die for them.  It makes no difference whether the thing not to be done by you is to buy off a Christian, or to buy one.  And so the will of God accords with this.  Look at the condition—certainly of God’s ordaining, in whose hand the king’s heart is—of kingdoms and empires.  For increasing the treasury there are daily provided so many appliances—registerings of property, taxes in kind benevolences, taxes in money; but never up to this time has ought of the kind been provided by bringing Christians under some purchase-money for the person and the sect, although enormous gains could be reaped from numbers too great for any to be ignorant of them.  Bought with blood, paid for with blood, we owe no money for our head, because Christ is our Head.  It is not fit that Christ should cost us money.  How could martyrdoms, too, take place to the glory of the Lord, if by tribute we should pay for the liberty of our sect?  And so he who stipulates to have it at a price, opposes the divine appointment.  Since, therefore, Cæsar has imposed nothing on us after this fashion of a tributary sect—in fact, such an imposition never can be made,—with Antichrist now close at hand, and gaping for the blood, not for the money of Christians—how can it be pointed out to me that there is the command, “Render to Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s?”  A soldier, be he an informer or an enemy, extorts money from me by threats, exacting nothing on Cæsar’s behalf; nay, doing the very opposite, when for a bribe he lets me go—Christian as I am, and by the laws of man a criminal.  Of another sort is the denarius which I owe to Cæsar, a thing belonging to him, about which the question then was started, it being a tribute coin due indeed by those subject to tribute, not by children.  Or how shall I render to God the things which are God’s,—certainly, therefore, His own likeness and money inscribed with His name, that is, a Christian man?  But what do I owe God, as I do Cæsar the denarius, but the blood which His own Son shed for me?  Now if I owe God, indeed, a human being and my own blood; but I am now in this juncture, that a demand is made upon me for the payment of that debt, I am undoubtedly guilty of cheating God if I do my best to withhold payment.  I have well kept the commandment, if, rendering to Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s, I refuse to God the things which are God’s!

CAPUT XII.

0114B Quod pertineat, frater, ad tuum problema, habes sententiae nostrae responsionem et exhortationem. Porro, qui quaerit, an persecutio fugienda sit, sequentem quoque quaestionem jam prospiciat necesse est, an, si fugienda non est, redimenda certe sit. Ultro igitur et de hoc tibi suggeram, definiens persecutionem, quam constat non esse fugiendam, proinde nec redimendam. Pretium interest. Caeterum, sicut fuga redemptio gratuita est, ita redemptio nummaria fuga est. Certe et hujus timiditatis consilium est. Quod times, redimis; ergo fugis. Pedibus stetisti, cucurristi nummis. Hoc ipsum quod stetisti ex redemptione, fugisti. Ut autem redimas hominem tuum nummis, quem sanguine suo redemit Christus, quam indignum Deo et dispositione ejus, qui Filio suo non 0114Cpepercit pro te, ut fieret maledictum pro nobis; quia maledictus qui pependerit in ligno; qui tanquam ovis ad victimam ductus est, et tanquam agnus ante tondentem, sic non aperuit os; sed posuit dorsum suum in flagella, maxillas autem in palmas, et faciem non avertit a sputaminibus, et inter iniquos deputatus est (Is. LIII), et traditus est in mortem, mortem autem crucis: totum hoc, ut nos a peccatis lucraretur! Sol cessit diem emptionis nostrae. Apud inferos emancipatio nostra est, et stipulatio nostra in coelis. Sublevatae sunt 0115Aportae sempiternae, ut introiret rex gloriae, Dominus virtutum (Ps. XXIII, 9), hominem de terris, imo ab inferis, mercatus in coelos. Quis est nunc qui adversus illum reluctatur, imo dopretiat , et mercedem ejus tam magno comparatam, pretiosissimo scilicet sanguine, commaculat? Jam ergo melius fugere quam fieri viliorem, si non tanto sibi constabit homo, quanti constitit Domino. Et Dominus quidem illum redemit, ab angelis munditenentibus potestatibus, a spiritalibus nequitiae, a tenebris hujus aevi, a judicio aeterno, a morte perpetua. Tu autem pro eo pacisceris cum delatore, vel milite, vel furunculo aliquo praeside, sub tunica et sinu (quod aiunt) ut furtivo, quem coram toto mundo Christus emit, imo et manu misit! Hunc ergo liberum pretio aestimabis, et pretio 0115B possidebis, nisi eodem, quanto (ut diximus) Domino constitit, sanguine suo scilicet? Ut quid ergo de homine Christum redimis in homine, in quo Christus est? Non aliter et Simon facere tentavit, cum pecuniam Apostolis obtulit pro spiritu Christi. Audiet ergo et iste, qui se redimens, Christi spiritum redemit: Pecunia tua tecum sit in interitum, quoniam gratiam Dei pretio consequendam putasti (Act. ap. VIII, 20). Quis talem abnegatorem spernat ? Quid enim dicit ille concussor? Da mihi pecuniam. Certe ne eum tradat; siquidem non aliud venditat, quam quod praestaturus est praemio tuo. Cum das, utique ne tradaris voluisti. Non traditus autem , traduci habebas. Ergo dum nolendo tradi non vis traduci, nolendo negasti, quod te esse traduci noluisti. Imo, inquis, dum nolo traduci 0115C quod sum, sum confessus id esse quod nolo traduci, id est, christianum. Potes itaque te martyrem vindicare? constanter ostendisse Christum? Redimens, non ostendisti. Apud unum si forte confessus es, ergo et apud plures nolendo confiteri, negasti. Ipsa salus judicabit hominem excidisse, dum evadit. Excidit ergo qui maluit evasisse. Negatio est etiam martyrii recusatio. Christianus pecunia salvus est; et in hoc nummos habet ne patiatur, dum adversus Deum erit dives. Atenim Christus sanguine fuit dives pro illo: Felices itaque pauperes, quia illorum est, inquit 0116A (Matth. V), regnum coelorum, qui animam solam in confiscato habent. Si non possumus Deo servire et mammonae, possumus a Deo redimi et a mammona? Quis enim magis serviet mammonae, quam quem mammonas redemit? Postremo, quo exemplo uteris in redemptionem traditionis? Apostoli persecutionibus agitati , quando se pecunia tractantes liberaverunt? quae illis utique non deerat, ex praediorum pretiis ad pedes eorum depositis; certe multis locupletibus credentibus viris ac foeminis, qui his etiam refrigeria subministrabant. Quando Onesiphorus, aut Aquila, aut Stephanus, hoc modo eis in persecutione succurrerunt? Paulus quidem, cum Felix praeses pecunias accepturum se pro eo a discipulis sperasset, de quo 0116B et ipse in secreto tractavit cum ipso, neque ipse pro se, neque discipuli pro eo numerarunt. Illi utique discipuli, qui flentes quod Hierosolymam tendere perseveraret, et persecutiones praedicatas illic non praecaveret, postremo inquiunt: Fiat voluntas Dei (Act. XXI, 14). Quae ista voluntas? Utique ut pateretur pro nomine Domini, non ut redimeretur. Oportet enim, quomodo Christus animam suam posuit pro nobis (I Joann. III, 16), ita fieri pro eo et a nobis; nec tantum pro ipso, imo etiam pro fratribus propter ipsum. Quod Joannes docens, non et fratribus numerandum, sed moriendum potius pronuntiavit. Nihil interest, si quem christianum redimere non debeas, aut emere. Et adeo voluntas Dei sic est. Aspice regnorum et imperiorum utique a Deo 0116C dispositum statum , in cujus manu cor regis (Prov., XXI, 1): tanta quotidie aerario augendo prospiciuntur remedia censuum, vectigalium, collationum, stipendiorum: nec unquam usque adhuc ex Christianis tale aliquid prospectum est, sub aliquam redemptionem capitis et sectae redigendis, cum tantae multitudinis nemini ignotae fructus ingens meti posset. Sanguine empti, sanguine munerati , nullum nummum pro capite debemus; quia caput nostrum Christus est. Non decet Christum pecunia constare. Quomodo et martyria fieri possent in gloriam 0117A Domini, si tributo licentiam sectae compensaremus? Itaque qui eam praemio paciscitur, dispositioni divinae adversatur. Cum igitur nihil nobis Caesar indixerit in hunc modum stipendiariae sectae, sed nec indici unquam tale quid possit, Antichristo jam instante, et in sanguinem, non in pecunias hiante Christianorum, quomodo mihi proponere potest Scripturam esse: Reddite quae sunt Caesaris Caesari? Miles me, vel delator, vel inimicus concutit, nihil Caesari exigens, imo contra faciens, cum christianum, legibus humanis reum, mercede dimittit. Alius est denarius, quem Caesari debeo, qui ad eum pertinet, de quo tunc agebatur, tributarius; a tributariis scilicet, non a liberis debitus. Aut quomodo reddam quae sunt Dei Deo? Utique proinde imaginem et monetam 0117B ipsius, inscriptam nomine ejus, id est, hominem christianum. Quid autem Deo debeo, sicut denarium Caesari, nisi sanguinem, quem pro me Filius fudit ipsius? Quod si Deo quidem hominem, et sanguinem meum debeo; nunc vero in eo sum tempore, ut quod Deo debeo expostuler; utique fraudem Deo facio, id agens, ne quod debeo solvam. Bene observavi praeceptum, Caesari reddens quae sunt Caesaris, Deo vero quae sunt Dei abnegans?