12. The Lord an Example of Timely Flight.
Wherefore also the Word Himself, being made man for our sakes, condescended to hide Himself when He was sought after, as we do: and also when He was persecuted, to flee and avoid the designs of His enemies. For it became Him, as by hunger and thirst and suffering, so also by hiding Himself and fleeing, to shew that He had taken our flesh, and was made man. Thus at the very first, as soon as He became man, when He was a little child, He Himself by His Angel commanded Joseph, `Arise, and take the young Child and His Mother, and flee into Egypt; for Herod will seek the young Child's life .' And when Herod was dead, we find Him withdrawing to Nazareth by reason of Archelaus his son. And when afterwards He was shewing Himself to be God, and made whole the withered hand, the Pharisees went out, and held a council against Him, how they might destroy Him; but when Jesus knew it, He withdrew Himself from thence . So also when He raised Lazarus from the dead, `from that day forth,' says the Scripture, `they took counsel for to put Him to death. Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews; but went thence into the country near to the wilderness .' Again, when our Saviour said, `Before Abraham was, I am,' `the Jews took up stones to cast at Him; but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple .' And `going through the midst of them, He went His way,' and `so passed by .'
13. Example of Our Lord.
When they see these things, or rather even hear of them, for see they do not, will they not desire, as it is written, to become `fuel of fire ,' because their counsels and their words are contrary to what the Lord both did and taught? Also when John was martyred, and his disciples buried his body, `when Jesus heard of it, He departed thence by ship into a desert place apart .' Thus the Lord acted, and thus He taught. Would that these men were even now ashamed of their conduct, and confined their rashness to man, nor proceeded to such extreme madness as even to charge our Saviour with cowardice! for it is against Him that they now utter their blasphemies. But no one will endure such madness; nay it will be seen that they do not understand the Gospels. The cause must be a reasonable and just one, which the Evangelists represent as weighing with our Saviour to withdraw and to flee; and we ought therefore to assign the same for the conduct of all the Saints. (For whatever is written concerning our Saviour in His human nature, ought to be considered as applying to the whole race of mankind ; because He took our body, and exhibited in Himself human infirmity.) Now of this cause John has written thus, `They sought to take Him: but no man laid hands on Him, because His hour was not yet come .' And before it came, He Himself said to His Mother, `Mine hour is not yet come :' and to them who were called His brethren, `My time is not yet come .' And again, when His time was come, He said to the disciples, `Sleep on now, and take your rest: for behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners .'
14. An Hour and a Time for All Men.
Now in so far as He was God and the Word of the Father, He had no time; for He is Himself the Creator of times . But being made man, He shews by speaking in this manner that there is a time allotted to every man; and that not by chance, as some of the Gentiles imagine in their fables, but a time which He, the Creator, has appointed to every one according to the will of the Father. This is written in the Scriptures, and is manifest to all men. For although it be hidden and unknown to all, what period of time is allotted to each, and how it is allotted; yet every one knows this, that as there is a time for spring and for summer, and for autumn and for winter, so, as it is written , there is a time to die, and a time to live. And so the time of the generation which lived in the days of Noah was cut short, and their years were contracted, because the time of all things was at hand. But to Hezekiah were added fifteen years. And as God promises to them that serve Him truly, `I will fulfil the number of thy days ,' Abraham dies `full of days,' and David besought God, saying, `Take me not away in the midst of my days .' And Eliphaz, one of the friends of Job, being assured of this truth, said, `Thou shall come to thy grave like ripe corn, gathered in due time, and like as, a shock of corn cometh in in his season .' And Solomon confirming his words, says, `The souls of the unrighteous are taken away untimely .' And therefore he exhorts in the book of Ecclesiastes, saying, `Be not overmuch wicked, neither be thou hard: why shouldest thou die before thy time ?'
15. The Lord's Hour and Time.
Now as these things are written in the Scriptures, the case is clear, that the saints know that a certain time is measured to every man, but that no one knows the end of that time is plainly intimated by the words of David, `Declare unto me the shortness of my days .' What he did not know, that he desired to be informed of. Accordingly the rich man also, while he thought that he had yet a long time to live, heard the words, `Thou fool, this night they are requiring thy soul: then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided ?' And the Preacher speaks confidently in the Holy Spirit, and says, `Man also knoweth not his time .' Wherefore the Patriarch Isaac said to his son Esau, `Behold, I am old, and I know not the day of my death .' Our Lord therefore, although as God, and the Word of the Father, He both knew the time measured out by Him to all, and was conscious of the time for suffering, which He Himself had appointed also to His own body; yet since He was made man for our sakes, He hid Himself when He was sought after before that time came, as we do; when He was persecuted, He fled; and avoiding the designs of His enemies He passed by, and `so went through the midst of them .' But when He had brought on that time which He Himself had appointed, at which He desired to suffer in the body for all men, He announces it to the Father, saying, `Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son .' And then He no longer hid Himself from those who sought Him, but stood willing to be taken by them; for the Scripture says, He said to them that came unto Him, `Whom seek ye ?' and when they answered, `Jesus of Nazareth,' He saith unto them, `I am He whom ye seek.' And this He did even more than once; and so they straightway led Him away to Pilate. He neither suffered Himself to be taken before the time came, nor did He hide Himself when it was come; but gave Himself up to them that conspired against Him, that He might shew to all men that the life and death of man depend upon the divine sentence; and that without our Father which is in heaven, neither a hair of man's head can become white or black, nor a sparrow ever fall into the snare .
16. The Lord's Example Followed by the Saints.
Our Lord therefore, as I said before, thus offered Himself for all; and the Saints having received this example from their Saviour (for all of them before His coming, nay always, were under His teaching), in their conflicts with their persecutors acted lawfully in flying, and hiding themselves when they were sought after. And being ignorant, as men, of the end of the time which Providence had appointed unto them, they were unwilling at once to deliver themselves up into the power of those who conspired against them. But knowing on the other hand what is written, that `the portions' of man `are in God's hand ,' and that `the Lord killeth ,' and the Lord `maketh alive,' they the rather endured unto the end, `wandering about ,' as the Apostle has said, `in sheepskins, and goatskins, being destitute, tormented, wandering in deserts,' and hiding themselves `in dens and caves of the earth;' until either the appointed time of death arrived, or God who had appointed their time spake unto them, and stayed the designs of their enemies, or else delivered up the persecuted to their persecutors, according as it seemed to Him to be good. This we may well learn respecting all men from David: for when Joab instigated him to slay Saul, he said, `As the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall descend into battle, and be delivered to the enemies; the Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the Lord's anointed .'
17. A Time to Flee and a Time to Stay.
And if ever in their flight they came unto those that sought after them, they did not do so without reason: but when the Spirit spoke unto them, then as righteous men they went and met their enemies; by which they also shewed their obedience and zeal towards God. Such was the conduct of Elijah, when, being commanded by the Spirit, he shewed himself unto Ahab ; and of Micaiah the prophet when he came to the same Ahab; and of the prophet who cried against the altar in Samaria, and rebuked Rehoboam ; and of Paul when he appealed unto Caesar. It was not certainly through cowardice that they fled: God forbid. The flight to which they submitted was rather a conflict and war against death. For with wise caution they guarded against these two things; either that they should offer themselves up without reason (for this would have been to kill themselves, and to become guilty of death, and to transgress the saying of the Lord, `What God hath joined let not man put asunder '), or that they should willingly subject themselves to the reproach of negligence, as if they were unmoved by the tribulations which they met with in their flight, and which brought with them sufferings greater and more terrible than death. For he that dies, ceases to suffer; but he that flies, while he expects daily the assaults of his enemies, esteems death lighter. They therefore whose course was consummated in their flight did not perish dishonourably, but attained as well as others the glory of martyrdom. Therefore it is that Job was accounted a man of mighty fortitude, because he endured to live under so many and such severe sufferings, of which he would have had no sense, had he come to his end. Wherefore the blessed Fathers thus regulated their conduct also; they shewed no cowardice in fleeing from the persecutor, but rather manifested their fortitude of soul in shutting themselves up in close and dark places, and living a hard life. Yet did they not desire to avoid the time of death when it arrived; for their concern was neither to shrink from it when it came, nor to forestall the sentence determined by Providence, nor to resist His dispensation, for which they knew themselves to be preserved; lest by acting hastily, they should become to themselves the cause of terror: for thus it is written, `He that is hasty, with his lips, shall bring terror upon himself .'
18. The Saints Who Fled Were No Cowards.
Of a truth no one can possibly doubt that they were well furnished with the virtue of fortitude. For the Patriarch Jacob who had before fled from Esau, feared not death when it came, but at that very time blessed the Patriarchs, each according to his deserts. And the great Moses, who previously had hid himself from Pharaoh, and had withdrawn into Midian for fear of him, when he received the commandment, `Return into Egypt ,' feared not to do so. And again, when he was bidden to go up into the mountain Abarim and die, he delayed not through cowardice, but even joyfully proceeded thither. And David, who had before fled from Saul, feared not to risk his life in war in defence of his people; but having the choice of death or of flight set before him, when he might have fled and lived, he wisely preferred death. And the great Elijah, who had at a former time hid himself from Jezebel, shewed no cowardice when he was commanded by the Spirit to meet Ahab, and to reprove Ahaziah. And Peter, who had hid himself for fear of the Jews, and the Apostle Paul who was let down in a basket, and fled, when they were told, `Ye must bear witness at Rome ,' deferred not the journey; yea, rather, they departed rejoicing ; the one as hastening to meet his friends, received his death with exultation; and the other shrunk not from the time when it came, but gloried in it, saying, `For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand .'
19. The Saints Courageous in Their Flight, and Divinely Favoured.
These things both prove that their previous flight was not the effect of cowardice; and testify that their after conduct also was of no ordinary character: and they loudly proclaim that they possessed in a high degree the virtue of fortitude. For neither did they withdraw themselves on account of a slothful timidity, on the contrary, they were at such times under the practice of a severer discipline than at others; nor were they condemned for their flight, or charged with cowardice, by such as are now so fond of criminating others. Nay they were blessed through that declaration of our Lord, `Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sakes. ' Nor yet were these their sufferings without profit to themselves; for having tried them as `gold in the furnace,' as Wisdom has said, God found them worthy of Himself . And then they shone the more `like sparks,' being saved from them that persecuted them, and delivered from the designs of their enemies, and preserved to the end that they might teach the people; so that their flight and escape from the rage of them that sought after them, was according to the dispensation of the Lord. And so they became dear in the sight of God, and had the most glorious testimony to their fortitude.
20. Same Subject Continued.
Thus, for example, the Patriarch Jacob was favoured in his flight with many, even divine visions, and remaining quiet himself, he had the Lord on his side, rebuking Laban, and hindering the designs of Esau; and afterwards he became the Father of Judah, of whom sprang the Lord according to the flesh; and he dispensed the blessings to the Patriarchs. And when Moses the beloved of God was in exile, then it was that he saw that great sight, and being preserved from his persecutors, was sent as a prophet into Egypt, and being made the minister of those mighty wonders and of the Law, he led that great people in the wilderness. And David when he was persecuted wrote the Psalm, `My heart uttered a good word ;' and, `Our God shall come even visibly, and shall not keep silence .' And again he speaks more confidently, saying, `Mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies ;' and again, `In God have I put my trust; I will not be afraid what man can do unto me .' And when he fled and escaped from the face of Saul `to the cave,' he said, `He hath sent from heaven and hath saved me. He hath given them to reproach that would tread me under their feet. God hath sent His mercy and truth, and hath delivered my soul from the midst of lions .' Thus he too was saved according to the dispensation of God, and afterwards became king, and received the promise, that from his seed our Lord should issue. And the great Elijah, when he withdrew to mount Carmel, called upon God, and destroyed at once more than four hundred prophets of Baal; and when there were sent to take him two captains of fifty with their hundred men, he said, `Let fire come down from heaven ,' and thus rebuked them. And he too was preserved, so that he anointed Elisha in his own stead, and became a pattern of discipline for the sons of the prophets. And the blessed Paul, after writing these words, `what persecutions I endured; but out of them all the Lord delivered me, and will deliver ;' could speak more confidently and say, `But in all these things we are more than conquerors, for nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ .' For then it was that he was caught up to the third heaven, and admitted into paradise, where he heard `unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter .' And for this end was he then preserved, that `from Jerusalem even unto Illyricum' he might `fully preach the Gospel .'
21. The Saints Fled for Our Sakes.
The flight of the saints therefore was neither blameable nor unprofitable. If they had not avoided their persecutors, how would it have come to pass that the Lord should spring from the seed of David? Or who would have preached the glad tidings of the word of truth? It was for this that the persecutors sought after the saints, that there might be no one to teach, as the Jews charged the Apostles; but for this cause they endured all things, that the Gospel might be preached. Behold, therefore, in that they were thus engaged in conflict with their enemies, they passed not the time of their flight unprofitably, nor while they were persecuted, did they forget the welfare of others: but as being ministers of the good word, they grudged not to communicate it to all men; so that even while they fled, they preached the Gospel, and gave warning of the wickedness of those who conspired against them, and confirmed the faithful by their exhortations. Thus the blessed Paul, having found it so by experience, declared beforehand, `As many as will live godly in Christ, shall suffer persecution .' And so he straightway prepared them that fled for the trial, saying, `Let us run with patience the race that is set before us ;' for although there be continual tribulations, `yet tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed .' And the Prophet Isaiah when such-like affliction was expected, exhorted and cried aloud, `Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors; hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast .' And so also the Preacher, who knew the conspiracies against the righteous, and said, `If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for He that is higher than the highest regardeth, and there be higher than they: moreover there is the profit of the earth .' He had his own father David for an example, who had himself experienced the sufferings of persecution, and who supports them that suffer by the words, `Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that put your trust in the Lord ;' for them that so endure, not man, but the Lord Himself (he says), `shall help them, and deliver them, because they put their trust in Him:' for I also `waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me, and heard my calling; He brought me up also out of the lowest pit, and out of the mire and clay .' Thus is shewn how profitable to the people and productive of good is the flight of the Saints, howsoever the Arians may think otherwise.
22. Same Subject Concluded.
Thus the Saints, as I said before, were abundantly preserved in their flight by the Providence of God, as physicians for the sake of them that had need. And to all men generally, even to us, is this law given, to flee when persecuted, and to hide when sought after, and not rashly tempt the Lord, but wait, as I said above, until the appointed time of death arrive, or the Judge determine something concerning them, according as it shall seem to Him to be good: that men should be ready, that, when the time calls, or when they are taken, they may contend for the truth even unto death. This rule the blessed Martyrs observed in their several persecutions. When persecuted they fled, while concealing themselves they shewed fortitude, and when discovered they submitted to martyrdom. And if some of them came and presented themselves to their persecutors , they did not do so without reason; for immediately in that case they were martyred, and thus made it evident to all that their zeal, and this offering up of themselves to their enemies, were from the Spirit.
23. Persecution is from the Devil.
Seeing therefore that such are the commands of our Saviour, and that such is the conduct of the Saints, let these persons, to whom one cannot give a name suitable to their character,-let them, I say, tell us, from whom they learnt to persecute? They cannot say, from the Saints . No, but from the Devil (that is the only answer which is left to them);-from him who says, `I will persue, I will overtake .' Our Lord commanded to flee, and the saints fled: but persecution is a device of the Devil, and one which he desires to exercise against all. Let them say then, to which we ought to submit ourselves; to the words of the Lord, or to their fabrications? Whose conduct ought we to imitate, that of the Saints, or that of those whose example these men have adopted? But since it is likely they cannot determine this question (for, as Esaias said, their minds and their consciences are blinded, and they think `bitter to be sweet,' and `light darkness ') let some one come forth from among us Christians, and put them to rebuke, and cry with a loud voice, `It is better to trust in the Lord, than to attend to the foolish sayings of these men; for the "words" of the Lord have "eternal life ," but the things which these utter are full of iniquity and blood.'
24. Irruption of Syrianus.