1. Although, beloved brethren, it is unfitting, while my speaking to you receives this indulgence, to profess any trepidation, and it very little beco

 2. For there is indeed, unless I am mistaken, even in the very power of conscience, a marvellous fear which at once disturbs and inflames us whose po

 3. For consider what glory it is to set aside the lusts of this life, and to oppose a mind withdrawn from all commerce with nature and the world, to a

 4. Therefore, since martyrdom is the chief thing, there are three points arising out of it on which we have proposed to ourselves to speak: What it is

 5. For what is there in these speeches other than empty discourse, and senseless talk, and a depraved pleasure in meaningless words? As it is written:

 6. The whole of this tends to the praise of martyrdom, the whole illuminates the glory of suffering wherein the hope of time future is beheld, wherein

 7. For there is no doubt how much they obtain from the Lord, who have preferred God’s name to their own safety, so that in that judgment-day their blo

 8. For what is so illustrious and sublime, as by a robust devotion to preserve all the vigour of faith in the midst of so many weapons of executioners

 9. Moreover, beloved brethren, regard, I beseech you, this consideration more fully for in it both salvation is involved, and sublimity accounted of,

 10. Thus, whenever the soldier returns from the enemy laden with triumphant spoils, he rejoices in his wounds.  Thus, whenever the sailor, long harass

 11. If you fear to lose salvation, know that you can die and, moreover, death should be contemned by you, for whom Christ was slain. Let the examples

 12. For it is a great glory, beloved brethren, to adorn the life of eternal salvation with the dignity of suffering: it is a great sublimity before th

 13. And now, beloved brethren, I shall come to that point whence I shall very easily be able to show you how highly the virtue of martyrdom is esteeme

 14. And, to pass over everything else, we ought to remember what a glory it is to come immaculate to Christ—to be a sharer in His suffering, and to re

 15. Wherefore, beloved brethren, with a firm faith, with a robust devotion, with a virtue opposed to the fierce threatenings of the world, and the sav

 16. Moreover, beloved brethren, so great is the virtue of martyrdom, that by its means even he who has wished to slay you is constrained to believe. I

 17. But if ambitious dignity deter you, and the amount of your money heaped up in your stores influence you—a cause which ever distracts the intention

 18. For Abraham also thus pleased God, in that he, when tried by God, spared not even his own son, in behalf of whom perhaps he might have been pardon

 19. It now remains, beloved brethren, that we are bound to show what is the advantage of martyrdom, and that we should teach that especially, so that

 20. A horrible place, of which the name is Gehenna, with an awful murmuring and groaning of souls bewailing, and with flames belching forth through th

 21. But those by whom God has always been sought or known, have never lost the position which Christ has given them, where grace is found, where in th

 22. For you deserve, O excellent martyrs, that nothing should be denied to you who are nourished with the hope of eternity and of light whose absolut

 23. There is nothing, then, so great and venerable as the deliverance from death, and the causing to live, and the giving to reign for ever. This is f

 24. What then, beloved brethren, shall I chiefly relate, or what shall I say? When all dignified titles thus combine in one, the mind is confused, the

 25. Let it present itself to your eyes, what a day that is, when, with the people looking on, and all men watching, an undismayed devotion is struggli

 26. Consider what it is, beloved brethren: set before your perceptions and your minds all the endurance of martyrdom. Behold, indeed, in the passion o

 27. But now, beloved brethren, lest any one should think that I have placed all salvation in no other condition than in martyrdom, let him first of al

 28. And to return to the praise of martyrdom, there is a word of the blessed Paul, who says:  “Know ye not that they who run in a race strive many, bu

 29. He said this who suffered, and who suffered for this cause, that he might imitate the Lord and assuredly he wished us also to suffer for this cau

 30. Therefore, beloved brethren, although this is altogether of the Lord’s promise and gift, and although it is given from on high, and is not receive

23. There is nothing, then, so great and venerable as the deliverance from death, and the causing to live, and the giving to reign for ever. This is fitting for the saints, needful for the wretched, pleasing to all, in which the good rejoice, the abject are lifted up, the elect are crowned. Assuredly God, who cares for all, gave to life a certain medicine as it were in martyrdom, when to some He assigned it on account of their deserving, to others He gave it on account of His mercy. We have assuredly seen very many distinguished by their faith, come to claim this illustrious name, that death might ennoble the obedience of their devotion. Moreover, also, we have frequently beheld others stand undismayed, that they might redeem their sins committed, and be regarded as washed in their gore by His blood; and so being slain they might live again, who when alive were counted slain.  Death assuredly makes life more complete, death finds the glory that was lost. For in this the hope once lost is regained, in this all salvation is restored. Thus, when the seed-times shall fail on the withering plains, and the earth shall be parched with its dying grass, the river has delighted to spring forth from the sloping hills, and to soothe the thirsty fields with its gushing streams, so that the vanquished poverty of the land might be dissolved into fruitful wheat-stems, and the corn-field might bristle up the thicker for the counterfeited showers of rain.

XXIII. Nihil itaque tam magnum atque venerandum quam quod liberat a morte et facit vivere et dat perpetuo regnare. Sanctis Dei hoc aptum, miseris necessarium, omnibus gratum, quo laetantur boni, relevantur abjecti, coronantur electi. Etenim 0799D Deus omnium cultor velut quoddam martyrio remedium vitae dedit quando aliis illud pro merito eorum tribuit, aliis pro misericordia sua tradidit. Vidimus quippe ad hunc nominis titulum fide nobiles venisse plerosque ut devotionis obsequium mors honestaret. Sed et alios frequenter aspeximus interritos stetisse, ut admissa peccata redimentes, cruore suo loti haberentur in sanguine, et reviviscerent 0800A interempti qui viventes computabantur occisi. Mors quippe integriorem facit vitam, mors amissam invenit gloriam. Nam hoc spes jam amissa percipitur, hoc salus cuncta reparatur. Sic cum arentibus campis sementa defecerint, et herbis terra morientibus aestuarit, supinis e collibus fluvium juvit elicere et scaturientibus rivis arva sitientia temperare, quo se in uberes culmos victa agri jejunitas funderet, et pluviali imbre mentito seges densior inhorreret.