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 For consider what glory it is to set aside the lusts of this life, and to oppose a mind withdrawn from all commerce with nature and the world, to a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

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 the verdant fields the luxuriant earth clothes itself with tender grass, and is pastured with the scent of flowers; where the groves are carried up to the lofty hill-top, and where the tree clothes with a thicker foliage whatever spot the canopy, expanded by its curving branches, may have shaded. There is no excess of cold or of heat, nor is it needed that in autumn the fields should rest, or, again in the young spring, that the fruitful earth should bring forth. All things are of one season: fruits are borne of a continued summer, since there neither does the moon serve the purpose of her months, nor does the sun run his course along the moments of the hours, nor does the banishment of the light make way for night. A joyous repose possesses the people, a calm home shelters them, where a gushing fountain in the midst issues from the bosom of a broken hollow, and flows in sinuous mazes by a course deep-sounding, at intervals to be divided among the sources of rivers springing from it. Here there is the great praise of martyrs, here is the noble crown of the victors, who have the promise of greater things than those whose rewards are more abundant. And that either their body is thrown to wild beasts, or the threatening sword is not feared, is shown as the reason of their dignity, is manifested as the ground of their election. Because it would have been inconsistent, that he who had been judged equal to such a duty, should be kept among earthly vices and corruptions.

XXI. Quibus autem inquisitus semper fuit Deus aut notus, numquam excidit Christi locus; ubi jacet gratia, ubi virentibus campis terra luxurians alumno se induit gramine, et redolente pascitur flore; ubi altum nemora tolluntur in verticem, et ubi densior arborem coma vestit quicquid curvantibus ramis scena dejiciens inumbrarit. Omnia illic non frigoris, nec ardoris, nec ut in autumno arva requiescant, aut iterum vere novo tellus foecunda parturiat. Unius cuncta sunt temporis, unius poma feruntur aestatis; quippe cum nec mensibus suis tunc luna deserviat, nec per horarum sol momenta decurrat, 0799B aut in noctem lux fugata concedat. Habet populos quies laeta, sedes tenet placida, ubi fons scaturiens medius sinu alvei prorumpentis emergit, et rauco per intervalla circuitu sinuosis flexibus labitur, ut in ora nascentium sibi fluminum dividatur. Hinc ergo magna laus martyrum, hinc nobilis corona victorum, quibus majora his repromissa sunt, quibus auctiora sunt praemia. Quod vero vel feris corpus objicitur, vel imminens gladius non timetur, dignationis ostenditur ratio, manifestatur electio. Etenim incongruens fuerat ut quem aequum tanti muneris judicasset, inter terrena vitia sordesque retineret.