On Flight during Persecution.

 1.  My brother Fabius, you very lately asked, because some news or other were communicated, whether or not we ought to flee in persecution.  For my pa

 2.  If, because injustice is not from God, but from the devil, and persecution consists of injustice (for what more unjust than that the bishops of th

 3.  Seeing therefore, too, these cases occur in persecutions more than at other times, as there is then among us more of proving or rejecting, more of

 4.  Well, then, if it is evident from whom persecution proceeds, we are able at once to satisfy your doubts, and to decide from these introductory rem

 5.  But, says some one, I flee, the thing it belongs to me to do, that I may not perish, if I deny it is for Him on His part, if He chooses, to bring

 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

 7.  Let us now see whether also the rest of our Lord’s ordinances accord with a lasting command of flight.  In the first place, indeed, if persecution

 8.  He sometimes also fled from violence Himself, but for the same reason as had led Him to command the apostles to do so:  that is, He wanted to fulf

 9.  The teaching of the apostles was surely in everything according to the mind of God:  they forgot and omitted nothing of the Gospel.  Where, then,

 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

 11.  Thus ought every servant of God to feel and act, even one in an inferior place, that he may come to have a more important one, if he has made som

 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

 13.  But also to every one who asks me I will give on the plea of charity, not under any intimidation.  Who asks? He says.  But he who uses intimidati

 14.  But how shall we assemble together? say you how shall we observe the ordinances of the Lord?  To be sure, just as the apostles also did, who wer

13.  But also to every one who asks me I will give on the plea of charity, not under any intimidation.  Who asks? He says.  But he who uses intimidation does not ask.  One who threatens if he does not receive, does not crave, but compels.  It is not alms he looks for, who comes not to be pitied, but to be feared.  I will give, therefore, because I pity, not because I fear, when the recipient honours God and returns me his blessing; not when rather he both believes that he has conferred a favour on me, and, beholding his plunder, says, “Guilt money.”  Shall I be angry even with an enemy?  But enmities have also other grounds.  Yet withal he did not say a betrayer, or persecutor, or one seeking to terrify you by his threats.  For how much more shall I heap coals upon the head of a man of this sort, if I do not redeem myself by money?  “In like manner,” says Jesus, “to him who has taken away your coat, grant even your cloak also.”  But that refers to him who has sought to take away my property, not my faith.  The cloak, too, I will grant, if I am not threatened with betrayal.  If he threatens, I will demand even my coat back again.  Even now, the declarations of the Lord have reasons and laws of their own.  They are not of unlimited or universal application.  And so He commands us to give to every one who asks, yet He Himself does not give to those who ask a sign.  Otherwise, if you think that we should give indiscriminately to all who ask, that seems to me to mean that you would give, I say not wine to him who has a fever, but even poison or a sword to him who longs for death.  But how we are to understand, “Make to yourselves friends of mammon,” let the previous parable teach you.  The saying was addressed to the Jewish people; inasmuch as, having managed ill the business of the Lord which had been entrusted to them, they ought to have provided for themselves out of the men of mammon, which we then were, friends rather than enemies, and to have delivered us from the dues of sins which kept us from God, if they bestowed the blessing upon us, for the reason given by the Lord, that when grace began to depart from them, they, betaking themselves to our faith, might be admitted into everlasting habitations.  Hold now any other explanation of this parable and saying you like, if only you clearly see that there is no likelihood of our opposers, should we make them friends with mammon, then receiving us into everlasting abodes.  But of what will not cowardice convince men?  As if Scripture both allowed them to flee, and commanded them to buy off!  Finally, it is not enough if one or another is so rescued.  Whole Churches have imposed tribute en masse on themselves.  I know not whether it is matter for grief or shame when among hucksters, and pickpockets, and bath-thieves, and gamesters, and pimps, Christians too are included as taxpayers in the lists of free soldiers and spies.  Did the apostles, with so much foresight, make the office of overseer of this type, that the occupants might be able to enjoy their rule free from anxiety, under colour of providing (a like freedom for their flocks)?  For such a peace, forsooth, Christ, returning to His Father, commanded to be bought from the soldiers by gifts like those you have in the Saturnalia!

CAPUT XIII.

Sed et omni petenti me dabo (Matth., V, 42). In caussa eleemosynae, non in concussurae, Petenti, inquit. Porro, qui concutit , non petit. Qui comminatur, si non acceperit, non postulat, sed extorquet. Non eleemosynam exspectat, qui non miserandus, 0117C sed timendus venit. Dabo igitur misericordiae , non timiditatis meae nomine; ubi qui accepit, Deum honorat, et benedictionem mihi reddit; non ubi amplius se benefactum praestitisse credit, et praedam suam aspiciens dicit: «De reatu est.» Pascam 0118Aet inimicum . Sed inimicitiae alios habent titulos. Non tamen dixit traditorem, aut persecutorem, aut concussorem. Nam huic quanto magis carbones acervabo super caput, si non me redemero? Proinde, inquit, qui tibi tunicam sustulerit, vel etiam pallium concede, ad eum pertinet, qui rem, non qui fidem meam eripere quaesierit. Concedam et pallium non minanti traditionem. Si minatus fuerit, etiam tunicam reposcam, Omnium jam nunc dominicarum pronuntiationum sui sunt et caussae et regulae termini, non in infinitum, nec ad omnia spectant. Atque adeo qui omni petenti dari jubet, ipse signum petentibus non dat. Alioquin si omnibus passim petentibus dandum putas, tu mihi videris, non dico vinum febricitanti, sed etiam venenum, aut gladium mortem desideranti 0118B daturus. Facite autem vobis amicos de mammona (Luc. XVI), quomodo intelligendum sit, parabola praemissa doceat, ad populum judaicum dicta, qui commissam sibi rationem Domini cum male administrasset, deberet de mammonae hominibus, quod nos eramus, amicos sibi potius prospicere, quam inimicos; et revelare nos a debitis peccatorum, quibus Deo detinebamur, si nobis de dominica ratione conferrent; ut cum coepisset ab hujus deficere gratia, ad nostram fidem refugientes, reciperentur in tabernacula aeterna. Quamvis nunc puta aliam interpretationem parabolae et sententiae istius, dum scias verisimile non esse ut concussores nostri in amicitiam redacti per mammonam, recipiant tunc nos in tabernacula aeterna. Sed quid non timiditas persuadebit? 0118C quasi et fugere Scriptura permittat, et redimere praecipiat. Parum denique est, si unus aut alius ita eruitur. Massaliter totae ecclesiae tributum sibi irrogaverunt. Nescio dolendum an erubescendum sit, cum in matricibus beneficiariorum et curiosorum, 0119A inter tabernarios, et lanios, et fures balnearum, et aleones, et lenones, Christiani quoque vectigales continentur. Hanc episcopatui formam Apostoli providentius condiderunt ut regno suo securi frui possent sub obtentu procurandi . Scilicet enim talem pacem Christus ad Patrem regrediens, mandavit a militibus per saturnalitia redimendam.