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

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 the true God, that all the followers of the truth, should be dealt with after the manner of the vilest criminals?), persecution therefore seems to proceed from the devil, by whom the injustice which constitutes persecution is perpetrated, we ought to know, as you have neither persecution without the injustice of the devil, nor the trial of faith without persecution, that the injustice necessary for the trial of faith does not give a warrant for persecution, but supplies an agency; that in reality, in reference to the trial of faith, which is the reason of persecution, the will of God goes first, but that as the instrument of persecution, which is the way of trial, the injustice of the devil follows.  For in other respects, too, injustice in proportion to the enmity it displays against righteousness affords occasion for attestations of that to which it is opposed as an enemy, that so righteousness may be perfected in injustice, as strength is perfected in weakness.  For the weak things of the world have been chosen by God to confound the strong, and the foolish things of the world to confound its wisdom.  Thus even injustice is employed, that righteousness may be approved in putting unrighteousness to shame.  Therefore, since the service is not of free-will, but of subjection (for persecution is the appointment of the Lord for the trial of faith, but its ministry is the injustice of the devil, supplied that persecution may be got up), we believe that persecution comes to pass, no question, by the devil’s agency, but not by the devil’s origination.  Satan will not be at liberty to do anything against the servants of the living God unless the Lord grant leave, either that He may overthrow Satan himself by the faith of the elect which proves victorious in the trial, or in the face of the world show that apostatizers to the devil’s cause have been in reality His servants.  You have the case of Job, whom the devil, unless he had received authority from God, could not have visited with trial, not even, in fact, in his property, unless the Lord had said, “Behold, all that he has I put at your disposal; but do not stretch out your hand against himself.”  In short, he would not even have stretched it out, unless afterwards, at his request, the Lord had granted him this permission also, saying, “Behold, I deliver him to you; only preserve his life.”  So he asked in the case of the apostles likewise an opportunity to tempt them, having it only by special allowance, since the Lord in the Gospel says to Peter, “Behold, Satan asked that he might sift you as grain; but I have prayed for you that your faith fail not;” that is, that the devil should not have power granted him sufficient to endanger his faith.  Whence it is manifest that both things belong to God, the shaking of faith as well as the shielding of it, when both are sought from Him—the shaking by the devil, the shielding by the Son.  And certainly, when the Son of God has faith’s protection absolutely committed to Him, beseeching it of the Father, from whom He receives all power in heaven and on earth, how entirely out of the question is it that the devil should have the assailing of it in his own power!  But in the prayer prescribed to us, when we say to our Father, “Lead us not into temptation” (now what greater temptation is there than persecution?), we acknowledge that that comes to pass by His will whom we beseech to exempt us from it.  For this is what follows, “But deliver us from the wicked one,” that is, do not lead us into temptation by giving us up to the wicked one, for then are we delivered from the power of the devil, when we are not handed over to him to be tempted.  Nor would the devil’s legion have had power over the herd of swine unless they had got it from God; so far are they from having power over the sheep of God.  I may say that the bristles of the swine, too, were then counted by God, not to speak of the hairs of holy men.  The devil, it must be owned, seems indeed to have power—in this case really his own—over those who do not belong to God, the nations being once for all counted by God as a drop of the bucket, and as the dust of the threshing-floor, and as the spittle of the mouth, and so thrown open to the devil as, in a sense, a free possession.  But against those who belong to the household of God he may not do ought as by any right of his own, because the cases marked out in Scripture show when—that is, for what reasons—he may touch them.  For either, with a view to their being approved, the power of trial is granted to him, challenged or challenging, as in the instances already referred to, or, to secure an opposite result, the sinner is handed over to him, as though he were an executioner to whom belonged the inflicting of punishment, as in the case of Saul.  “And the Spirit of the Lord,” says Scripture, “departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled and stifled him;” or the design is to humble, as the apostle tells us, that there was given him a stake, the messenger of Satan, to buffet him; and even this sort of thing is not permitted in the case of holy men, unless it be that at the same time strength of endurance may be perfected in weakness.  For the apostle likewise delivered Phygellus and Hermogenes over to Satan that by chastening they might be taught not to blaspheme.  You see, then, that the devil receives more suitably power even from the servants of God; so far is he from having it by any right of his own.

CAPUT II.

Si quod iniquitas a Deo non est, sed a diabolo, persecutio autem ex iniquitate consistit (quid enim iniquius quam veri Dei antistites, omnis sectatores veritatis, nocentissimorum more tractari?), ideo videtur persecutio a diabolo evenire, a quo iniquitas agitur, ex qua constat persecutio: seire debemus, quatenus nec persecutio est sine iniquitate diaboli, nec probatio fidei sine persecutione, propter probationem fidei necessariam iniquitatem, non patrocinium praestare persecutioni, sed ministerium; praecedere enim Dei voluntatem circa fidei probationem, quae est ratio persecutionis, sequi autem 0104C diaboli iniquitatem ad instrumentum persecutionis, quae ratio est probationis. Nam et alias, in quantum justitiae iniquitas aemula est, in tantum materia est ad testimonia ejus, cujus est aemula; ut sic justitia in iniquitate perficiatur, quomodo virtus in infirmitate perficitur (II Cor., XII, 9). Nam infirma mundi electa sunt a Deo, ut confundantur fortia; et stulta ejus, ut confundantur sapientia (I Cor., I, 27). Ita et iniquitas adhibetur ut justitia probetur, confundens iniquitatem. Igitur quod ministerium non est arbitrii, sed servitii (arbitrium enim Domini, persecutio, propter fidei probationem, ministerium autem iniquitas diaboli, propter persecutionis instructionem); ita eam per diabolum, si forte, non a diabolo evenire credimus. 0104D Nihil Satanae in servos Dei vivi licebit, nisi permiserit 0105A Dominus, ut aut ipsum destruat per fidem electorum in tentatione victricem : aut homines ejus fuisse traducat, qui defecerint ad illum. Habes exemplum Job, cui diabolus nullam potuit incutere tentationem, nisi a Deo accepisset potestatem, nec in substantiam quidem ejus, nisi Dominus, Ecce, dixisset, omnia quae sunt ei, in manu tua do, in ipsum autem ne extenderis manum (Job, I, 12). Denique nec extendit, nisi posteaquam et hoc postulanti Dominus, Ecce, dixisset, trado tibi illum, tantum animam ejus custodi (Job, II, 6). Sic et in Apostolos facultatem tentationis postulavit, non habens eam nisi ex permissu. Siquidem Dominus in Evangelio ad Petrum: Ecce, inquit, postulavit Satanas uti cerneret vos velut frumentum: verum ego rogavi pro te, ne 0105Bdeficeret fides tua (Luc, XXII, 31): id est, ne tantum diabolo permitteretur, ut fides periclitaretur. Quo ostenditur, utrumque apud Deum esse, et concussionem fidei, et protectionem, cum utrumque ab eo petitur, concussio a diabolo, protectio a Filio. Et utique cum Filius Dei protectionem fidei habet in sua potestate quam a Patre postulat, a quo omnem accipit potestatem in coelis et in terris (Matth. XXVIII, 18), quale est ut concussionem fidei diabolus in manu sua habeat? Sed in legitima Oratione cum dicimus ad Patrem: Ne nos inducas in tentationem (Matth. VI, 13) (quae aut major tentatio quam persecutio?); ab eo illam profitemur accidere, a quo veniam ejus deprecamur: hoc est enim quod sequitur: Sed erue nos a maligno (ibid.); id est, ne nos induxeris in tentationem, 0105C permittendo nos maligno. Tunc enim eruimur diaboli manibus, cum illi non tradimur in tentationem. Nec in porcorum gregem diaboli legio habuit potestatem, nisi eam de Deo impetrasset, tantum abest ut in oves Dei habeat. Possum dicere, porcorum quoque setas tunc numeratas apud Deum fuisse; nedum capillos sanctorum. Habere videtur diabolus propriam jam potestatem, si forte in eos qui ad Deum non pertinent, semel in stillam situtae (Is. XL, 15), et in pulverem areae , et in salivam nationibus deputatis a Deo, ac per hoc diabolo expositis in vacuam quodammodo possessionem. Caeterum, in domesticos Dei nihil illi licet ex propria potestate; quia quando liceat, id est, ex quibus caussis, exempla in Scripturis signata demonstrant. Aut enim ex caussa probationis 0105D conceditur ei jus tentationis provocato vel provocanti, ut in superioribus: aut ex caussa reprobationis 0106A traditur ei peccator quasi carnifici in poenam, ut Saul: Et abscessit, inquit, spiritus Domini a Saule, et concutiebat eum spiritus nequam a Domino, et suffocabat (II Reg. XVI, 2). Aut ex caussa cohibitionis , ut Apostolus refert (II Cor. 17, 7) datum sibi sudem angelum Satanae ut colaphizetur: nec hanc speciem permitti diabolo in sanctos humiliandos per carnis vexationem, nisi simul ut et virtus tolerantiae scilicet in infirmitate perfici possit; nam et ipse Apostolus Phigellum et Hermogenem tradidit Satanae, uti emendentur, ne blasphement (II Tim. I, 15). Vides jam et a servis Dei facilius diabolum accipere potestatem, tanto abest ut eam ex proprietate possideat.