Exhortation to Martyrdom 4

So I would pray that throughout the whole present contest you would remember the great reward laid up in heaven for those who are persecuted and reviled “for righteousness' sake” and for the sake of the Son of Man, and would rejoice and be glad and leap for joy, as the apostles once rejoiced that they were counted worthy “to be dishonored for his name.” And if you should ever feel your soul shrinking back, let the mind of Christ that is in us say to it, when it wishes, as far as it can, to throw him too into confusion: “Why are you very sorrowful, my soul, and why do you trouble me? Hope in God, for I will give thanks to him,” and so on. Would that the soul might never be troubled at all, but even before the courts themselves and before the naked swords brought down on the neck might be guarded by the peace of God that surpasses “all understanding,” and be calm, reckoning that those who are away “from the body” are at home with the Lord of all himself. But if we are not so great as always to keep our calm, at least let the trouble of the soul not pour out or show itself to those outside, so that we may have room for a defense before God, saying to him, “My God, my soul is troubled within me.” And the word urges us to remember also what is said in Isaiah in this way: “Do not fear the reproach of men, and do not be overcome by their contempt.” For it is absurd, when God is so plainly present in the motion of heaven and of the things in it, and in what is accomplished on land and sea by his divine art in the births, constitutions, nourishment, and growth of animals and plants of every kind, to shut our eyes and not look to God, and to turn our eyes instead to the fear of people who will shortly die and be handed over to the judgment they deserve.