And these things in Matthew, urging on to martyrdom, are spoken to none other than the twelve; and it will be needful for us too to hear them, since by hearing we shall become brothers of the apostles who heard them and shall be numbered together with the apostles. And the words are as follows: Fear not those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. And next after these the Lord teaches us that no one comes to the contest of martyrdom without providence. For it is said, Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall to the ground without your Father who is in the heavens. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. Everyone therefore who shall confess me before men, I also will confess him before my Father who is in the heavens; but whoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in the heavens. And equivalent in force to these are the words in Luke: But I say to you my friends, Fear not those who kill the body and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into Gehenna. Yes, I say to you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. And I say to you: everyone who shall confess me before men, the Son of Man also will confess him before the angels of God; but he that denies me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. And in another place: For whoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed, when he comes in his glory and that of the Father and of the holy angels. And similar to this Mark too has recorded such a thing: For whoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of the Father with the holy angels.
Those, therefore, who do away with us kill the life of the body; for such is the meaning of Fear not those who kill the body, spoken in these very words by Matthew and Luke. And after they have killed the body, even if they wish, they cannot kill the soul; nay, they have nothing more that they can do. For how is it possible for a soul to be done away with which has been made alive by the very confession? — since he who urges us on to martyrdom bears witness on its behalf in Isaiah, both he and his servant, where it is written: Become witnesses for me, and I too am a witness, says the Lord God, and the servant whom I have chosen.
And keep this in mind too, that not to the slaves of Jesus but to his friends is this commandment given: Fear not those who kill the body and after that have nothing more that they can do. One must fear, then, him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. For he alone after he has killed has authority to cast into Gehenna. And he will indeed cast in both those who feared those that kill the body and those who did not fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna and him who after he has killed has authority to cast into Gehenna. And if anyone else's hairs of the head are numbered — clearly also those who are beheaded for the sake of Jesus — we shall confess in the Son of God, and before men and not before gods; that the one confessed may requite us, having confessed us before his God and Father and having himself confessed in the heavens the one who confessed him upon earth.
[§35] And who, reckoning up such things, will not exclaim that apostolic saying: For the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us ? For how is the confession before the Father not far greater than the confession before men? And how is the confession in the heavens, made concerning the one confessed, not exceedingly superior to the confession upon earth, in which the martyrs confess the Son of God? But whoever reckons up denying before men, let him call to mind the one who spoke without falsehood: I too will deny him before my Father who is in the heavens.
And since Matthew wrote, I also will confess him before my Father who is in the heavens, while Luke wrote, and the Son of Man also will confess him before the angels of God, I give attention to this — whether perhaps the firstborn of all creation, the image of the invisible God, may confess the one who has confessed him before the Father who is in the heavens, while the one who came to be of the seed of David according to the flesh and for this reason happens to be Son of Man, and who came to be from a woman who was herself also human and for this reason is called Son of Man — that is, he who is understood as the man in respect of Jesus — may confess those who have confessed before the angels of God. And the analogous account must be rendered also concerning those who deny.
And this too must be considered, that the one who confesses in the Son before men, so far as in him lies, commends Christianity and the Father of this Christianity before those to whom he makes his confession; while the one who is confessed by the firstborn of all creation and by the Son of Man is commended, through the confession of the Son of God and the Son of Man, to the Father who is in the heavens and to the angels of God. And if indeed not he who commends himself is approved, but he whom the Lord commends, how must one not consider him to be approved who has been judged worthy of the commendation before the Father in the heavens and before the angels of God? And if this man is approved, and those like him, whom the Lord has proved as gold in the furnace by tortures and examinations and has received as a whole burnt offering of sacrifice, what must one say concerning those who were convicted in the furnace of trial and denied him, whom, as unproven, he denies before the Father who is in the heavens and before the angels of God — he who denies the one worthy of denial?
[§36] And one must struggle not only against denying, but also against being ashamed in the first place to suffer what is reckoned among those estranged from God to be worthy of shame — and this above all if, having been glorified and welcomed by so very many cities, you now, as it were, march in procession bearing the cross of Jesus, holy Ambrose, and following him as he leads you before governors and kings, so that he himself, journeying together with you, may himself give you a mouth and wisdom — you and your fellow-combatant Protoctetus, and to those who bear witness together with you, who fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ — and may come with you to the paradise of God, showing you how you may pass through the cherubim and the flaming sword, which turns about and guards the way to the tree of life. For if these two indeed guard the way to the tree of life, they guard it so that no one unworthy may be permitted, once he has passed through, to come to the tree of life. For the flaming sword will hold back those who have built upon the laid foundation, Jesus Christ, wood or hay or straw, and that most combustible wood, kindled all the more, of denial (if I may so name it); but the cherubim, taking to themselves those not liable to be seized by the flaming sword — because they have built nothing akin to it — will send them onward to the tree of life and to all the things that God planted in the east and caused to spring up out of the earth. And with Jesus traveling with you toward paradise, despise the serpent, conquered and crushed beneath the feet of Jesus, and through him beneath yours also, since he has given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, so that nothing of them shall harm you.
[§37] The Son of God, then, must not be denied, nor must one be ashamed of him or of those who belong to him or of his words; but one must give heed to this: Whoever shall deny me before men, I also will deny him before my Father who is in heaven, and to this: For whoever shall be ashamed of me and of mine, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he comes in his glory and that of the Father and of the holy angels, and to this: For whoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of the Father with the holy angels.
And Jesus too once endured a cross, despising the shame, and because of this sat down at the right hand of God; and his imitators too, despising shame, will sit together with him and will reign together with him in the heavens, with him who came not to cast peace upon the earth, but upon the soul of his own disciples, and to cast a sword upon the earth. For since the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart, this word most of all now bestows on our souls the peace that surpasses every mind, which he left to his own apostles, but has cast a sword between the image of the earthly and that of the heavenly — so that, receiving at present our heavenly part, he may afterward, when we have become worthy of not being cut in two, make us wholly heavenly.
And he came to cast not only a sword upon the earth but also fire, concerning which he says: I wish it were already kindled. Let this fire, then, be kindled in you also, doing away with every earthly and body-loving reasoning of yours; and the baptism, with which Jesus was constrained until it should be accomplished, receive now with all eagerness. And you who have a wife and children and brothers and sisters, remember this: If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, he cannot be my disciple ; and both of you remember this: If anyone comes to me and does not hate, in addition to the former, his own soul as well, he cannot be my disciple. But hate your own soul in such a way that through hating it you may keep it unto eternal life; for he who hates, he says, his own soul in this world keeps it unto eternal life. Therefore hate your soul for the sake of eternal life, being persuaded that it is a good and profitable hatred that Jesus teaches us to hate. And just as, for the sake of its being kept unto eternal life, we shall have to hate the soul, so hate wife and children and brothers and sisters, you who have these, in order that you may benefit those who are hated, by this very hating taking up boldness to do them good, having become a friend to God.
[§38] And at the same time call to mind also him who prayed in the spirit concerning the children of martyrs, left behind on account of their love toward God, and who said: Preserve the sons of those who have been put to death. Only know that the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, and that, just as it is said to those from the seed of Abraham both I know that you are Abraham's seed and If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham, so also it will be said to your children: I know that you are the seed of Ambrose, and: If you are children of Ambrose, do the works of Ambrose. And perhaps they will do them, since you will benefit them more after such a departure than if you had remained with them. For then you will love them more knowingly and pray for them more understandingly, if you learn that they are your children and not merely your seed. Have now upon your lips this: He who loves son or daughter above me is not worthy of me, and this: He who finds his soul shall lose it, and he who loses his soul for my sake shall find it.
[§39] By your eagerness for martyrdom give place to the Spirit of your Father, who speaks in those handed over for the sake of piety; if you know yourselves to be hated and abhorred and reckoned impious, then take up this: For this cause the world hates you, because you are not of this world ; for if you were of this world, the world would love its own. Having endured many reproaches for Christ's sake and many perils, from the time you believed, make progress in endurance unto the end, because he who endures to the end, this one shall be saved. Know that, according to Peter, you will rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, grieved by various trials, that the proof of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though tested by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. But understand grieved as meaning wearied with toil, as is clear also from this: In griefs you shall bear children ; for a woman does not by any means bring forth in grief as a passion, but in toil.
If it is useful for the disciples of Christ, this: Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; for all that is in the world — the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and its desire — then do not love the things that are passing away, but by doing the will of God become worthy of becoming one together with Son and Father and Holy Spirit, according to the prayer of the Savior, who says: as I and you are one, that they also may be one in us. And how many days is it possible to gain by loving the world or the things in the world while forfeiting or destroying one's own soul, and carrying about a conscience weighed down more than by a heavy burden, and weighed down by the fall of denial? Let each of us call to mind, as often as he was in danger of dying the common death, and let us reckon whether perhaps we were preserved for this: that, having been baptized in our own blood and washed clean of every sin, we might take up our abode beside the altar in heaven together with our fellow-combatants.
[§40] But if anyone, yielding out of much love of life, or out of softness toward hardships, or through the things thought to be plausibly urged by those who persuade us to the worse, should deny that there is one God and his Christ, but confess demons or Fortunes, let such a one know that he is preparing a table for the demon and filling up a mixed cup for Fortune, having forsaken the Lord and forgotten his holy mountain, and that he will be subject to these rebukes, as Isaiah recorded them in this manner: But you who have forsaken me and forgotten my holy mountain and prepare a table for the demon and fill up a mixed cup for Fortune, I will deliver you up to the sword, you shall all fall by slaughter; because I called you and you did not obey, I spoke and you did not hearken but did what was evil before me and chose the things I did not wish. Therefore thus says the Lord, the Lord: Behold, those who serve me shall eat, but you shall hunger; behold, those who serve me shall drink, but you shall thirst; behold, those who serve me shall be glad, but you shall be put to shame; behold, those who serve me shall exult in gladness, but you shall cry out because of the pain of your heart, and from brokenness of spirit shall you wail. For you shall leave your name for a satiety to my chosen ones, but you the Lord shall slay. But also, if, understanding what the Lord's table is, we should wish to partake of it, let us know this: You cannot partake of the Lord's table and the table of demons. And also, if we wish, understanding what this is: I will not drink from now on of the fruit of this vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of the heavens, to be found among those who drink with Jesus, let us give heed to this: You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons.
And who, having heard John the son of thunder saying, He who denies the Father and the Son — everyone who denies the Son has not the Father either; he who confesses the Son has the Father also — will not be afraid, by saying he is not a Christian, to deny the Son, since in denying him he will not have the Father? And who would not be urged to confess by deeds and words that he is a Christian, so that he may have the Father also? For those who confess have the Father.
[§41] If we have passed from death into life through having passed from unbelief into faith, let us not be astonished if the world hates us. For no one who has not passed from death into life, but who remains in death, is able to love those who have passed from the dark house of death — if I may so call it — to the buildings filled with living stones, of the light of life. Jesus laid down his life for us, and so let us too lay down our own life — I will not say for him, but for ourselves, and, I think, also for those who will be built up through our martyrdom. There has arrived for us Christians a season for boasting; for it says, not only so, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience, and patience experience, and experience hope; and hope does not put us to shame, provided only that the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Let Paul say, if, after the manner of men, I fought with beasts at Ephesus, and let us say, if, after the manner of men, I was put to death in Germania.
[§42] If even as the sufferings of Christ abound, so through Christ our consolation also abounds, let us most eagerly welcome the sufferings of Christ, and let them abound in us, if indeed we long for abundant consolation, in which all who mourn shall be comforted — yet perhaps not equally. For if the consolation were equal, it would not have been written, even as the sufferings of Christ abound toward us, so our consolation also abounds. Those who share in the sufferings, in proportion to the sufferings in which they are sharers with Christ, will be sharers also in the consolation; and this too you learn from him who speaks such things trustworthily; for we know, as you are sharers of the sufferings, so also of the consolation.
And God says through the prophet, In an acceptable time I heard you, and in a day of salvation I helped you. What other acceptable time, then, is there than when, for the sake of piety toward God in Christ, we are led away under guard, paraded through the world, triumphing rather than being led in triumph? For the martyrs in Christ strip off together with him the principalities and the powers, and share in his triumph, since, becoming sharers of his sufferings, they thus become sharers also of the deeds of valor performed amid his sufferings — among which is also the triumphing over the principalities and the powers, which after a little while you shall see conquered and put to shame. What other day of salvation is there like the day of such a departure of ours from here? But I exhort you: give no occasion of stumbling in anything, that the ministry be not blamed by you, whether the presbytery or the ministry, but in everything commend yourselves as ministers of God, in much patience, saying, and now what is my patience? Is it not the Lord? — in afflictions, persuaded that many are the afflictions of the righteous ; in necessities, that we may demand blessedness as something necessary to us; in distresses, that, having journeyed without omission along the narrow and afflicted way, we may arrive at life. If it be needful, let us also commend ourselves in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings. For behold the Lord, and his reward is in his hand, to render to each according as his work is.
[§43] Now let us show that we have longed for knowledge through works befitting that knowledge. Let all purity, that from every defilement whatsoever in any sin of any kind, be made manifest in us. As sons of a long-suffering God and brothers of a long-suffering Christ, let us be long-suffering in all that befalls us; for a long-suffering man abounds in prudence, but the faint-hearted is exceedingly foolish. If one must commend oneself through the weapons of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, having commended ourselves through glory and not having grown slack because of it, let us now also endure dishonor; but if we have also conducted ourselves worthy of good report and been well spoken of, let us now also bear the evil speaking that comes from the impious. And further, if we were admired as truthful among lovers of truth, let us now laugh at being said to be deceivers. In many dangers, from which we were delivered, many said that we were acknowledged by God; now let whoever wishes say that we are ignored, when perhaps rather we are being acknowledged. Bearing, then, what befalls us, we are chastened, but not killed, and we who rejoice are made like to those who grieve.
[§44] Paul somewhere says to those who endured in the beginning, exhorting them, in accordance with their former endurance, to bear second dangers, those on account of the word: But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great contest of sufferings; partly, while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly, while you became sharers of those who were so treated. For you both had compassion on my bonds, and took with joy the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have for yourselves a better and abiding possession. Do not, therefore, cast away your confidence, which has great recompense of reward. For you have need of patience. Let us too, therefore, now endure a great contest of sufferings, in reproaches and afflictions, both made a spectacle and with joy accepting the plundering of our goods ; for we are persuaded that we have a better possession, not earthly, nor even bodily, but one that is invisible and incorporeal. For we look not at the things which are seen, seeing that these are temporal, but those are eternal.
[§45] But since some, not perceiving the doctrine concerning the demons, and, as though needing the nourishment that comes through the exhalations for the sake of remaining in this dense and earth-encircling air, watch wherever there is ever the savor of burnt fat and blood and frankincense, and make light of sacrificing as a matter of indifference — we would say against this too that, if those who furnish provisions to robbers and murderers and barbarian enemies of the great king are punished as having wronged the commonwealth, how much more justly would those be charged who, by sacrificing, give provisions to the ministers of wickedness that keep them fast in the region about the earth — and especially if, having learned the word he who sacrifices to other gods shall be utterly destroyed, save to the Lord alone, they should sacrifice to those who are the causes of the evils upon earth. And I think indeed that for the sins committed by the demons working against men, those who by sacrificing have nourished them shall be charged no less than the demons who worked the worse things; for the demons and those who held them fast upon the earth have, as it were, in common wrought the evils for men, since the demons could not have held out apart from the exhalations and the nourishment reckoned to be suited to their bodies.
[§46] Again, on the other hand, certain people, supposing that names exist by convention and that they have no natural relation to the things underlying them, of which they are the names, think it makes no difference whether one says, I worship the first God, or Zeus, or Zen, and whether one declares, I honor and accept the sun, or Apollo, and the moon, or Artemis, and the spirit in the earth, or Demeter, and all the other things the wise men of the Greeks say. To these it must be said that there is a certain study concerning names that is very profound and recondite, which one who understands it will see that, if names existed by convention, the so-called demons or certain other powers invisible to us would not obey those who understand them but name them as though the names had been assigned; but as it is, certain sounds and syllables, and appellations pronounced with aspiration or smooth breathing, or with lengthening or shortening, lead—perhaps by some nature unobservable to us—the beings that are called upon. And if this is so, and names do not exist by convention, then the first God is to be called by no name except those by which his servant and the prophets and the Savior himself and our Lord name him, such as Sabaoth, Adonai, Shaddai, and again the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; for this, he says, is an eternal name and a memorial to generations of generations. And it is no wonder if the demons refer their own appellations to the first God, so that they may be worshiped as the first God. But this is not ancestral to our servant and the prophets and to Christ, the fulfillment of the law, and to his apostles. And we have set these things down of necessity, lest anyone should outwit us or even to some degree defile our reasoning; to which things careful attention must be paid, since they give no place of interference to the adversaries.
[§47] And further, a man loves life once he has gained conviction concerning the essence of the rational soul, that it has something akin to God. For both are intellectual and invisible and, as the prevailing argument demonstrates, incorporeal. And why did he who fashioned us implant a longing for piety toward him and for communion with him—he who even among those who have gone astray preserves certain traces of the divine will—unless it were possible and attainable for rational beings to grasp what is naturally longed for? And it is clear that, just as each of our members has been fashioned to preserve a certain affinity toward something—the eyes toward things visible and the ears toward things audible—so the mind toward things intelligible and toward the God who is beyond the intelligibles. Why then do we hesitate and waver, when we have laid aside the corruptible body that hinders us, weighing down the soul, that earthly tent that presses down the mind full of cares, to be released from the bonds and to depart from the waves that come with flesh and blood? That we may rest, together with Christ Jesus, the rest that belongs to blessedness—beholding the whole, living Word through the whole of himself, and being nourished by him, and grasping the most manifold wisdom in him, and being stamped by very Truth itself, and having the mind illumined in the true and unceasing light of knowledge, unto the contemplation of those things which are by nature beheld through that light by eyes enlightened by the commandment of the Lord.
[§48] Long ago we heard the words of Jesus, and already for a long time we have been made disciples to the gospel, and we have all built ourselves a house. But where we have built—whether upon the rock, having dug and gone deep, or upon the sand without a foundation —the present contest will show. For a storm has come, bringing rain and rivers and winds, or, as Luke names it, a flood; and these, having beaten against the house, either will not be able to shake it, and for this reason the house will not fall, since it is founded upon the rock that is Christ, or will expose the unsoundness of the building, which will collapse through the occasion that has now arisen. May this be far from our buildings; for great indeed is the fall in denial, or, as Luke says, great is the ruin of the building without a foundation. Therefore let us pray that we may be likened to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock. For let there come upon such a building the rain from the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places, or the rivers of the principalities and powers hostile to us, or the harsh winds from the world-rulers of this darkness, or the flood of the spirits beneath the earth, and let them beat themselves against our building that is upon the rock ; so that not only with respect to not falling but even with respect to not being shaken at all may the house suffer, and rather may the forces at work be acted upon by us than themselves do anything. And let each of you say, as he strikes the adversaries, So I box, as not beating the air.
[§49] But since also the sower went out to sow, let us show that our soul received his seed —not as those beside the road, nor as the rocky ground, nor as the thorns, but as the good earth. That, then, the word of Jesus came neither beside the road nor upon the thorns —so far as it lies with us, we will boast in the Lord. For we understood what was said; wherefore the evil one did not snatch away what was sown in our heart. And that it was not sown upon the thorns either, many will bear witness for us, seeing that neither the care of this age nor the deceitfulness of riches nor the pleasures of life have been able to hinder the word of God in our souls. It remains for men to be in doubt whether upon the rocky ground or upon the good earth the word of God came, so far as it lies with us. For there has come tribulation and persecution on account of the word, and the season of great trial has arrived, when the one sown upon the rocky ground is exposed, and those who did not go deep nor received Jesus even to the depth of the soul; but the one who understands the word bears fruit and holds fast the word to the end in endurance, producing a hundredfold.