Chapter XV.

Now, then, the epistles of the apostles also are well known. And do we, (you say), in all respects guileless souls and doves merely, love to go astray? I should think from eagerness to live. But let it be so, that meaning departs from their epistles. And yet, that the apostles endured such sufferings, we know:  the teaching is clear. This only I perceive in running through the Acts.  I am not at all on the search.  The prisons there, and the bonds, and the scourges, and the big stones, and the swords, and the onsets by the Jews, and the assemblies of the heathen, and the indictments by tribunes, and the hearing of causes by kings, and the judgment-seats of proconsuls and the name of Cæsar, do not need an interpreter. That Peter is struck,109    It has been thought that the allusion is to the breaking of the legs of the crucified to hasten their death, not to the beating to which the apostles were subjected by the Jewish council: Acts v. 40.—Tr. that Stephen is overwhelmed by stones,110    Acts vii. 59. that James is slain111    James the brother of our Lord, not the James mentioned Acts xii. 2. as is a victim at the altar, that Paul is beheaded has been written in their own blood. And if a heretic wishes his confidence to rest upon a public record, the archives of the empire will speak, as would the stones of Jerusalem. We read the lives of the Cæsars: At Rome Nero was the first who stained with blood the rising faith. Then is Peter girt by another,112    John xxi. 18. when he is made fast to the cross. Then does Paul obtain a birth suited to Roman citizenship, when in Rome he springs to life again ennobled by martyrdom.  Wherever I read of these occurrences, so soon as I do so, I learn to suffer; nor does it signify to me which I follow as teachers of martyrdom, whether the declarations or the deaths of the apostles, save that in their deaths I recall their declarations also.  For they would not have suffered ought of a kind they had not previously known they had to suffer. When Agabus, making use of corresponding action too, had foretold that bonds awaited Paul, the disciples, weeping and entreating that he would not venture upon going to Jerusalem, entreated in vain.113    Acts xxi. 11. As for him, having a mind to illustrate what he had always taught, he says, “Why weep ye, and grieve my heart? But for my part, I could wish not only to suffer bonds, but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of my Lord Jesus Christ.” And so they yielded by saying, “Let the will of the Lord be done;” feeling sure, doubtless, that sufferings are included in the will of God. For they had tried to keep him back with the intention not of dissuading, but to show love for him; as yearning for (the preservation of) the apostle, not as counselling against martyrdom. And if even then a Prodicus or Valentinus stood by, suggesting that one must not confess on the earth before men, and must do so the less in truth, that God may not (seem to) thirst for blood, and Christ for a repayment of suffering, as though He besought it with the view of obtaining salvation by it for Himself also, he would have immediately heard from the servant of God what the devil had from the Lord: “Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offence unto me. It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”114    Matt. xvi. 23 and iv. 10,—a mixing up of two passages of Scripture. But even now it will be right that he hear it, seeing that, long after, he has poured forth these poisons, which not even thus are to injure readily any of the weak ones, if any one in faith will drink, before being hurt, or even immediately after, this draught of ours.

CAPUT XV.

Num ergo et Apostolorum litterae mobiles ? 0151A et nos usquequaque simplices animae, et solummodo columbae, libenter errantes? credo vivendi cupiditate. Ita vero sit, ut recedant a litteris suis sensus. Quae tamen passos Apostolos scimus, manifesta doctrina est; hanc intelligo solam Acta decurrens; nihil quaero; carceres illic, et vincula, et flagella, et saxa, et gladii, et impetus Judaeorum, et coetus nationum, et tribunorum elogia , et regum auditoria, et proconsulum tribunalia, et Caesaris nomen interpretem non habent. Quod Petrus caeditur , quod Stephanus opprimitur, quod Jacobus immolatur, quod Paulus distrahitur , ipsorum sanguine scripta sunt. Et si fidem Commentarii voluerit haereticus, instrumenta imperii loquentur, ut lapides Jerusalem. Vitas Caesarum legimus; 0151B orientem fidem Romae primus Nero cruentavit. Tunc Petrus ab altero cingitur, cum cruci adstringitur. Tunc Paulus civitatis romanae consequitur nativitatem, cum illic martyrii renascitur generositate. Haec ubicumque jam legero, pati disco; nec mea interest quos sequar martyrii magistros, sensusne an 0152A exitus Apostolorum; nisi quod et sensus in exitibus recognosco. Nihil enim passi fuissent, quod non prius patiendum esse sensissent. Cum vincula Paulo Agabus gestu quoque prophetasset, discipuli flentes et orantes ne se Jerosolyma committeret, frustra oraverunt. Ille enim, quod semper docuerat animatus: Quid fletis, inquit, et contristatis cor meum? At ego non modo vincula Jerosolymis pati optaverim, verum etiam mori pro nomine Domini mei Jesu Christi. Atque ita cesserunt, dicendo: Fiat voluntas Domini (Act. XXI, 13, 14); fidentes scilicet, passiones ad voluntatem Dei pertinere. Non enim dehortationis consilio, sed dilectionis retinere tantaverant , ut Apostolum desiderantes, non ut martyrium dissuadentes. Quod si jam tunc Prodicus aut Valentinus 0152B assisteret, suggerens, non in terris esse confitendum apud homines; minus vero, ne Deus humanum sanguinem sitiat, nec Christus vicem passionis, quasi et ipse de ea salutem consecuturus exposcat; statim audisset a servo Dei, quod audierat a Domino diabolus: Recede, Satana, scandalum 0153A mihi es; scriptum est: Dominum Deum tuum adorabis, et illi soli servies (Matt. XXVI, 23; IV, 10). Sed et nunc audire debebit, quatenus multo post, venena 0154A ista suffudit; nulli infirmorum facile nisi nocitura, si qui non hanc nostram ex fide praebiberit, vel etiam superbiberit potionem.