1. Although, beloved brethren, it is unfitting, while my speaking to you receives this indulgence, to profess any trepidation, and it very little becomes me to diminish the glory of so great a devotion by the confession of an incipient doubt; yet at the same time I say that my mind is divided by that very deliberation, being influenced by the desire of describing the glory, and restrained from speaking by the magnitude of the virtue (to be described); since it is either not becoming to be silent, or it is perilous to say too little, save that to one who is tossing in doubt this consideration alone is helpful, that it would appear easy for him to be pardoned who has not feared to dare. Wherefore, beloved brethren, although my mental capacity is burdened by the importance of the subject in such a way, that in proportion as it puts itself forth in declaring the dignity of martyrdom, in that degree it is overwhelmed by the very weight of the glory, and by its estimation of all those things concerning which, when it speaks most, it fails, by its address being weakened, and broken, and self-entangled, and does not with free and loosened reins display the might of such glory in the liberal eloquence of discourse; yet, if I am not mistaken, some power there will be in my utterance, which, when fortified by the appeal of the work itself, may here and there pour forth what the unequal consciousness of my ability withheld from my words. Since, therefore, beloved brethren, involved as we are in affairs so many and important, we are endeavouring with all eagerness and labour to confirm the excellent and most beautiful issues of salvation, I do not fear being so deterred by any slothful dread as to be withheld or rendered powerless; since, if any one should desire to look into that of which we are considering, the hope of devotion being taken into account, and the very magnitude of the thing being weighed, he would rather wonder that I could have dared at all, in a matter wherein both the vastness of the subject oppressed me, and the earnestness of its own desire drove my mind, confused with its joy, into mental difficulties. For who is there whom such a subject would not alarm? who is there whom it would not overthrow with the fear of its own wonder!

0788A I. ETSI incongruens est, fratres charissimi, in hoc favore dicendi aliquid trepidationis afferre, minimeque deceat gloriam tantae devotionis infringere ex eo quod fatear me coepisse dubitare, tamen identidem 0788B dico ipsa animum deliberatione confringi , cum exequendae laudis cupiditate succenditur, et a loquendo magnitudine virtutis inhibetur, cum aut non deceat tacere, aut periculosum sit parum dicere, nisi quod aestuanti haec res sola subvenit quod videatur ignosci ei facile posse qui non timuit audere. Quamobrem, charissimi fratres, etsi potentia rei oneratur facultas ingenii, ut, quantum se in exprimenda martyrii dignitate protulerit, tantum ipso pondere laudis oppressa atque aestimatione rerum omnium de quibus cum maxime loquitur debilitata ac fracta, intra se ipsam illaqueata oratione deficiat, nec habenis liberis ac solutis in apertum sermonis eloquium vim tantae laudis expromat , tamen erit aliqua, nisi fallor, in eloquendo 0789A facultas , quae ipsius operis oratione munita vage fundat quod a dicendo impar ingenii conscientia submovebat. Cum igitur, fratres charissimi, tot tantisque rebus impliciti, ad comprobandos salutis eximios pulcherrimosque proventus omni studio ac labore nitamur, non vereor ne quo ignaviae metu territus vel revocer vel extinguar, cum si quis ad id voluerit de quo agimus intueri, spe devotionis expensa, atque ipsa ejus magnitudine ponderata, magis miretur audere potuisse in quo me positum et amplitudo rei premeret et confusam gaudio mentem in angustias animi voti sui fervor urgeret. Nam quis est quem non ista res terreat? quis quem non admirationis suae pavore subvertat?