Exhortation to Martyrdom 47–51

Further, can a man still love life once he has become persuaded that the rational soul in its being has something akin to God? For both are intellectual and invisible and, as the prevailing argument demonstrates, incorporeal. And why would the one who fashioned us have implanted in us a longing for piety toward him and communion with him—a longing that even in those who have gone astray preserves some traces of the divine will—if it were not possible and attainable for rational beings to lay hold of what they naturally long for? And it is clear that, just as each of our members is naturally fitted to something akin to it, the eyes to what is visible and the ears to what is audible, so the mind is fitted to intelligible things and to God, who is beyond intelligible things. Why, then, do we shrink and hesitate to lay aside the hindering “corruptible body,” which weighs down the soul and burdens “the anxious mind,” this “earthly tent,” to be set free from its bonds and to depart from the waves that come with flesh and blood, so that with Christ Jesus we may rest the rest that belongs to blessedness? There we shall contemplate the Word himself, wholly and throughout alive, be nourished by him, grasp the most manifold wisdom in him, be formed by the very Truth, and have our minds illumined by the true and unceasing light of knowledge, so as to see what by nature is seen through that light by eyes enlightened by the commandment of the Lord.

Long ago we heard the words of Jesus, and we have now been disciples of the gospel for a long time, and we have all built ourselves a house. But where we have built—whether “on the rock,” having dug and gone deep, or “on the sand” “without a foundation”—the present contest will show. For a storm is upon us bringing rain and rivers and winds, or, as Luke calls it, a flood; and when these beat against the house, either they will not be strong enough “to shake it,” and for this reason the house will not fall, since it has been founded “on the rock,” Christ; or they will expose the unsoundness of the building, when it collapses under the present occasion. May this be far from our buildings! For great indeed is the fall in denial, or, as Luke says, “great is the ruin” of the building without the foundation. Therefore let us pray that we may be like “a wise man, who built his house on the rock.” Let there come upon such a building the “rain” from the spiritual forces “of wickedness” “in the heavenly places,” or the “rivers” of the rulers and authorities hostile to us, or the harsh “winds” from the world-rulers of this darkness, or the flood of the spirits under the earth, and let them beat against our building “on the rock,” so that not only does the house not fall, but it is not shaken at all, and the powers at work suffer from us rather than do anything to us. And let each of you, striking at the adversaries, say: “So I box, not as one beating the air.”

And since “the sower went out to sow,” let us show that our soul has received “his seed,” not as those “by the wayside,” nor as “the rocky places,” nor as “the thorns,” but as the good ground. That the word of Jesus did not fall “by the wayside” or “among the thorns,” so far as it depends on us, we shall boast in the Lord. For we have understood what was said; therefore “the evil one” has not snatched away “what was sown in our heart.” And that it was not sown “among the thorns,” many will bear witness for us, seeing that neither “the care of this age” nor “the deceitfulness of riches” nor the pleasures of life have been able to hinder the word of God in our souls. It remains for people to be in doubt whether the word of God came, as far as depends on us, “on the rocky places” or “on the good ground.” For affliction and persecution have arisen on account of the word, and a time of great temptation has come, when the one “sown on the rocky places” is exposed, and those who did not go deep, nor receive Jesus to the depth of the soul; while the one “who understands the word” “bears fruit,” and holds fast the word to the end, producing “a hundredfold” “in endurance.” For we hear how Scripture, presenting those who in time of “affliction or persecution” fall away after seeming to have received the holy teachings with joy, and who fall away because they have no root but believe for a time, says according to Matthew: “As for what was sown on the rocky places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when affliction or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away”; and according to Mark: “And these are the ones sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy, and they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when affliction or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away”; and according to Luke: “And those on the rock are the ones who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away.” And teaching about those who bear good fruit, it says: “As for what was sown on good ground, this is he who hears the word and understands it; he indeed bears fruit and yields, one a hundredfold, one sixty, one thirty”; or, “And those are the ones sown on the good ground, who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold”; or, “As for that on the good ground, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with endurance.” Since, then, according to the apostle, “you are God's field, God's building”—a “field” on the good ground, a “building” on the rock—let us stand unshaken against the storm as “God's building,” and as “God's field” let us give no thought to the evil one, nor to the “affliction or persecution” that arise “on account of the word,” nor to the care of this age or the deceitfulness of riches or “the pleasures of life”; but despising all these, let us take up the spirit of wisdom that is free from care, and hasten to the riches that have no deceit in them, and press on to the pleasures, if I may so call them, “of the paradise of delight,” reckoning in each of our toils that “the momentary lightness of our affliction works for us beyond all measure an eternal weight of glory, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are not seen.”

And let us know this also: that what was said about Abel, killed by the murderous and unjust Cain, applies to all whose blood has been unjustly shed. For let us consider that the words, “The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the earth,” are spoken also about each of the martyrs, the voice of whose blood cries out to God from the earth. And perhaps, just as we were bought with the “precious blood” of Jesus, when Jesus received “the name that is above every name,” so some will be bought with the “precious blood” of the martyrs, and they themselves will be exalted more than they would have been exalted had they been righteous but not martyred. For there is reason in calling death in martyrdom by the special name of “exaltation,” as is clear from the words, “If I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.” Let us too, then, glorify God, having exalted him by our own death, since the martyr “will glorify God” by his own “death”; as we have learned also from John, who said, “He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.”

These things I have dictated to you as well as I could, so far as it was possible, and I pray that they may be useful to you for the present contest. But if you, now above all, as those worthy to see more of the mysteries of God, grasp greater and richer things, more effective for the task before you, and despise these as childish and slight, I too would pray for this for you. For what lies before you is not that your affairs be accomplished through us, but that they be accomplished somehow. And may they be accomplished through words more divine and more wise, surpassing all human nature, and through the wisdom of God.