Defence of His Flight 19–25

These things show neither that their earlier flight came from cowardice, nor that their present action was an ordinary one; they proclaim the great virtue of their courage. For they did not take their withdrawal as an occasion for idleness, but then stretched the tension of their discipline even more; nor were they condemned for fleeing, nor accused of cowardice by such men as these fault-finders now are; but rather they were blessed by the Lord, who says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” Nor was such toil unprofitable to them; for, tested like gold in a furnace, as Wisdom said, God found them worthy of himself. And they then shone out all the more like sparks, saved from those who persecuted them, delivered from the plots, and for this reason kept for the people as teachers; so that their flight too, and their escape from the rage of those who sought them, came about by the Lord’s ordering. For then they became dear to God in this way too, and had the finest testimony of their valor.

The patriarch Jacob, at any rate, while fleeing was granted many visions, and divine ones; and, himself rather keeping quiet, he had the Lord on his side, rebuking Laban and hindering Esau; and afterwards he became the father of Judah, from whom the Lord sprang according to the flesh, and he ministered the blessings to the patriarchs. And Moses, beloved of God, when he fled, then saw the great vision, and, preserved from his persecutors, was sent as a prophet into Egypt, and, becoming the minister of so many signs and of the law, led so great a people in the wilderness. And David, while persecuted, taught: “My heart has poured forth a good word,” and, “Our God will come openly, our God, and will not keep silence.” And he was the stronger, saying, “My eye has looked upon my enemies,” and again, “In God I have hoped; I will not fear what man can do to me.” And fleeing and escaping from the presence of Saul into the cave, he said, “He sent from heaven and saved me; he gave over to reproach those who trampled on me. God sent forth his mercy and his truth, and delivered my soul from the midst of the lions’ whelps.” So he too, preserved by God’s ordering, afterwards became king, and received the promise that our Lord would spring from his seed. And the great Elijah, withdrawing to Mount Carmel, called upon God, and destroyed at once the prophets of Baal, who were four hundred and more; and the two captains of fifty with their hundred sent against him he rebuked by this too, saying, “Let fire come down from heaven”; and he himself was preserved, so as to anoint Elisha in his own place and to become a pattern of discipline for the sons of the prophets. And the blessed Paul, writing, “What persecutions I endured, and from them all the Lord delivered me, and will deliver,” was the stronger, saying, “But in all these things we are more than conquerors, for nothing will separate us from the love of Christ.” For it was then that he was caught up even to the third heaven, and carried into paradise, where he also heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man …

The flight of the saints, then, was neither blameworthy nor idle. For if they had not avoided their persecutors, how would it have come about that the Lord sprang from the seed of David? Or who would have preached the word of truth? For the persecutors sought the saints for this very reason, that there might be no one to teach—just as the Jews charged the apostles; but they endured everything for this reason, that the Gospel might be preached. See, then: even contending thus, they did not keep the time of flight idle, nor, when persecuted, did they forget the benefit of others; but, being ministers of a good word, they did not begrudge sharing it with all. Rather, even while fleeing they preached the Gospel, and foretold the villainies of those who plotted, and strengthened the faithful by their exhortations. The blessed Paul, then, having learned by experience, foretold, “All who wish to live godly in Christ will be persecuted,” and at once anointed those who flee, saying, “Through endurance we run the race set before us.” For even if afflictions are continual, yet affliction produces endurance, and endurance proven character, and proven character hope, and hope does not put to shame. And the prophet Isaiah, when such a crisis was expected, reminded them and cried: “Go, my people, enter your chambers, shut your door, hide yourself for a little while, until the wrath passes.” And the Preacher, knowing the plots against the godly, and saying, “If you see oppression of the poor and robbery of justice and righteousness in a province, do not marvel at the matter; for one high above the high watches, and there are higher over them, and the abundance of the land,” had his father David, who had himself learned by experience what happens in persecutions, and who strengthened the sufferers by saying, “Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in the Lord.” For those who endure thus, not man, but the Lord himself, it says, will help, and will deliver them, because they hoped in him. “For I too waited patiently for the Lord, and he attended to me and heard my prayer, and brought me up out of the lowest pit and from the miry clay.” The flight of the saints, then, is shown to be profitable to the people and not fruitless, even if the Arians do not think so.

So, then, the saints, as has been said, when they fled were preserved over and above, and by God’s ordering, like physicians for the sake of those in need. But for others, and for all of us men generally, this is the law: to flee when persecuted and to hide when sought, and not to be rash in tempting the Lord, but to wait, as I said before, until the appointed time of death comes, or the Judge decides something about them, whatever seems good to him; yet to be ready, so that when the time calls, and they are seized, they may contend for the truth even to death. This the blessed martyrs too observed in the successive persecutions: when persecuted they fled, and while hidden they persevered, but when found they bore witness. And if some of them came forward of themselves to the persecutors, they did not do even this simply; for they bore witness at once, and it became plain to all that their eagerness and their so great advance came from the Spirit.

Since, then, such are the Savior’s commands and such the deeds of the saints, let these men tell us—who deserve to hear worse than anything one could say of them—from where they learned to persecute. From the saints they could not say; but from the devil—for this is all that is left to them—who says, “I will pursue and overtake.” And the Lord commanded us to flee, and the saints fled; but persecuting is a devilish enterprise, and he asks for it against all. To whom, then, must we adhere? Let them say again: to the words of the Lord, or to their fables? Whose deeds must we imitate: the saints’, or whatever they devise? But since perhaps they cannot even discern these things (for they have been maimed in mind and conscience, as Isaiah said, and think the bitter sweet and light darkness), let some Christian among us come forward and put them to shame, saying with a loud voice, “It is good to trust in the Lord” rather than to heed the follies of these men. For the words of the Lord have eternal life, but what these men utter is full of villainy and blood.

These things, then, are enough to overturn the madness of the impious and to show that they are eager for nothing else but to contend in revilings and blasphemies. But since, having once dared to be fighters against Christ, they have become busybodies too, let them nevertheless examine the manner of my withdrawal, and learn it from their own people. For there were Arians who ran together with the soldiers to incite them and to point us out to those who did not know us. And though they are so without sympathy, yet let them at least be quiet with shame when they hear it. It was already night, and some of the people were keeping vigil, a synaxis being expected; and the general Syrianus suddenly came upon us with more than five thousand soldiers, having arms, drawn swords, bows, missiles, and clubs, as was said before; and he surrounded the church, stationing the soldiers close by, so that no one leaving the church could get past them. But I, thinking it unreasonable to abandon the people in such confusion and not rather to face the danger before them, sat down on the throne and told the deacon to read a psalm and the people to respond, “For his mercy endures forever,” and all then to withdraw and go home. But when the general had at last forced his way in, and the soldiers surrounded the sanctuary in order to seize us, the clergy who were found there and those of the people cried out and begged us too to withdraw now; but I rather refused, and said I would not withdraw before all of them, one by one, … had gone out. So I stood up, had a prayer said, and in turn asked that all should leave first, saying it was better that I should be in danger than that any of you should be harmed. When, then, most had gone out and the rest were following, the monks who were with us there and some of the clergy came up and drew us out; and so, the truth being witness, while some of the soldiers stood around the sanctuary and others went round the church, we passed through …

Since, then, Providence delivered us so wonderfully, who could justly bring blame on us because we did not give ourselves up to those who sought us, or turn back and show ourselves to them? For this would be plainly to be ungrateful to the Lord, to act against his commandment, and to fight against the deeds of the saints. Or let him who blames this dare to accuse the great apostle Peter too, because, though shut in and guarded by soldiers, he followed the angel who called him, and, having gone out of the prison and been saved, did not go back and give himself up, though he heard what Herod had done; let the Arian in his madness blame Paul the apostle, because, having been let down from the wall and saved, he did not repent and go back and give himself up; or Moses, because he did not return from Midian to Egypt to be seized by those who sought him; or David, because he did not show himself to Saul in the cave; and also the sons of the prophets, because they stayed in the caves and did not give themselves up to Ahab. For this would again be to act against the commandment, since Scripture says, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” [26] Being wary of this, then, and having learned these things, I too conducted myself so, and I do not set aside the grace and help that came to me from the Lord, even if these men in their madness gnash their teeth at us. For such was the manner of our withdrawal, and I think it has no blame at all with those whose reasoning is sound, since according to the divine Scripture this pattern was handed down to us by the saints for our instruction. But these men, it seems, neither shrink from anything outrageous nor wish to leave anything out that shows their wickedness and cruelty. For their life is such as they are in their thinking and their babbling; and no one could say such and so many things against them as they themselves do without shame. For Leontius, accused over a certain younger woman named Eustolium, and forbidden to live with her, castrated himself for her sake, so that he might be free to stay with her. Yet he did not wash away the suspicion, but rather for this reason, being a presbyter, he was deposed, even though Constantius the heretic forced him to be called bishop. And Narcissus, besides having many other evils, has been deposed three times in different councils, and now he is the most wicked among them. And George, both as a presbyter was deposed for his wickedness, and, having named himself bishop, was deposed again no less at the great council of Serdica; and he has something more, that his dissolute life did not escape notice; but he is condemned even by his own people, measuring the end of life and its cheerfulness by the most shameful things. [27] Each of them, then, surpasses the other in his own vices; but the common stain upon them is that in their heresy they are fighters against Christ, and are no longer called Christians but rather Arians. See, these are the things they ought to have been accused of; for they are foreign to faith in Christ. But these they hide for their own sakes; and it is no wonder if, being such in their thinking and entangled in such evils, they persecute and seek those who do not run with them in their most impious heresy; and they rejoice when they kill, but when they do not obtain what they pray for they grieve, and think themselves wronged when, as I said before, they see alive those whom they wish to die. May they be so wronged that they themselves grow weak in their injustices, and those persecuted by them give thanks to the Lord and say the words of the twenty-sixth psalm: “The Lord is my light and my Savior; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers drew near against me to eat my flesh, those who afflict me and my enemies, they grew weak and fell”; and again in the thirtieth psalm: “You have saved my soul out of distresses, and have not shut me up into the hands of enemies; you have set my feet in a broad place.” In Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom to the Father in the Holy Spirit … Amen.