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To Scapula

Chapter I.

We are not in any great perturbation or alarm about the persecutions we suffer from the ignorance of men; for we have attached ourselves to this sect, fully accepting the terms of its covenant, so that, as men whose very lives are not their own, we engage in these conflicts, our desire being to obtain God's promised rewards, and our dread lest the woes with which He threatens an unchristian life should overtake us. Hence we shrink not from the grapple with your utmost rage, coming even forth of our own accord to the contest; and condemnation gives us more pleasure than acquittal. We have sent, therefore, this tract to you in no alarm about ourselves, but in much concern for you and for all our enemies, to say nothing of our friends. For our religion commands us to love even our enemies, and to pray for those who persecute us, aiming at a perfection all its own, and seeking in its disciples something of a higher type than the commonplace goodness of the world. For all love those who love them; it is peculiar to Christians alone to love those that hate them. Therefore mourning over your ignorance, and compassionating human error, and looking on to that future of which every day shows threatening signs, necessity is laid on us to come forth in this way also, that we may set before you the truths you will not listen to openly.

Edition Hide
Ad Scapulam

I.

[1] Nos quidem neque expauescimus, neque pertimescimus ea quae ab ignorantibus patimur, cum ad hanc sectam, utique suscepta condicione eius pacti, uenerimus, ut etiam animas nostras exauctorati in has pugnas accedamus, ea quae Deus repromittit consequi optantes, et ea quae diuersae uitae comminatur pati timentes. [2] Denique cum omni saeuitia uestra concertamus, etiam ultro erumpentes, magisque damnati quam absoluti gaudemus. Itaque hunc libellum non nobis timentes misimus, sed uobis et omnibus inimicis nostris, nedum amicis. [3] Ita enim disciplina iubemur diligere inimicos quoque et orare pro iis qui nos persequuntur, ut haec sit perfecta et propria bonitas nostra, non communis. Amicos enim diligere omnium est, inimicos autem solorum Christianorum. [4] Qui ergo dolemus de ignorantia uestra, et miseremur erroris humani, et futura prospicimus, et signa eorum cottidie intentari uidemus, necesse est uel hoc modo erumpere ad proponenda uobis ea quae palam non uultis audire.