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De Fuga in Persecutione

VII.

[1] Videamus nunc, an et cetera domini edita congruant perpetuo fugae praecepto. Primo quidem, si a deo persecutio est, quale est, ut idem fugiendam eam mandet, qui et infert? Quam si evadi vellet, melius non immitteret, ne voluntatem suam alia voluntate praevaricare videretur; aut pati enim nos voluit persecutionem aut fugere: si fugere, quomodo pati? si pati, quomodo fugere? Iam vero quanta inaequalitas sententiarum iubentis fugere et invitantis ad passionem (quae) contraria[m] fugae! [quae]. [2] Qui confessus fuerit me, et ego confitebor illum coram patre meo: quomodo confitebitur fugiens? quomodo fugiet confitens? Qui mei confusus fuerit, et ego confundar eius coram patre meo: devito passionem, confundo confessionem. Felices, qui persecutionem passi fuerint causa nominis mei: infelices ergo, qui fugiendo ex praecepto non erunt passi. Qui sustinuerit in finem, iste salvabitur: quid ergo me iubens fugere vis in finem sustinere? Tanta diversitas sententiarum si non congruit divinae gravitati, apparet ex his quoque praeceptum fugae suam tunc habuisse rationem, quam ostendimus.

[3] 'Sed infirmitatem', inquit, 'quorundam prospiciens dominus per suam humanitatem nihilominus et portum fugae demonstravit.' Non enim idoneus erat etiam sine fuga, tam turpi et indigno et servili praesidio, salvos facere, in persecutione quos sciret infirmos. Atquin non fovet, sed recusat semper infirmos, primum docens non fugiendos esse persecutores, sed potius non timendos: Nolite timere eos, inquit, qui corpus occidunt, animae autem nihil valent facere, sed timete eum, qui et corpus et animam perdere potest in gehennam.

[4] Atque exinde quae timidis praefinit? Qui pluris fecerit animam suam quam me, non est me dignus, et qui non tollit crucem suam et sequitur me, non potest esse meus discipulus. Postremo in Apocalypsin non fugam timidis offert, sed inter ceteros reprobos particulam in stagnum sulphuris et ignis, quod est mors secunda.

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De Fuga in Persecutione

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 is from God, what are we to think of our being ordered to take ourselves out of its way, by the very party who brings it on us? For if He wanted it to be evaded, He had better not have sent it, that there might not be the appearance of His will being thwarted by another will.

For He wished us either to suffer persecution or to flee from it. If to flee, how to suffer? If to suffer, how to flee? In fact, what utter inconsistency in the decrees of One who commands to flee, and yet urges to suffer, which is the very opposite! "Him who will confess Me, I also will confess before My Father." ¹ How will he confess, fleeing? How flee, confessing? "Of him who shall be ashamed of Me, will I also be ashamed before My Father." ² If I avoid suffering, I am ashamed to confess. "Happy they who suffer persecution for My name's sake." ³ Unhappy, therefore, they who, by running away, will not suffer according to the divine command. "He who shall endure to the end shall be saved." ⁴ How then, when you bid me flee, do you wish me to endure to the end? If views so opposed to each other do not comport with the divine dignity, they clearly prove that the command to flee had, at the time it was given, a reason of its own, which we have pointed out. But it is said, the Lord, providing for the weakness of some of His people, nevertheless, in His kindness, suggested also the haven of flight to them. For He was not able even without flight--a protection so base, and unworthy, and servile--to preserve in persecution such as He knew to be weak! Whereas in fact He does not cherish, but ever rejects the weak, teaching first, not that we are to fly from our persecutors, but rather that we are not to fear them. "Fear not them who are able to kill the body, but are unable to do ought against the soul; but fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell." ⁵ And then what does He allot to the fearful? "He who will value his life more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he who takes not up his cross and follows Me, cannot be My disciple." ⁶ Last of all, in the Revelation, He does not propose flight to the "fearful," ⁷ but a miserable portion among the rest of the outcast, in the lake of brimstone and fire, which is the second death.