To Fortunatus: Exhortation to Martyrdom

Contents

Reading pages: 0.1–10 · 11–13

1. 0.1Cyprian explains that Fortunatus asked him for Scripture passages to strengthen believers for persecution as the time of Antichrist approaches.
2. 0.2The devil is an ancient enemy with six thousand years of practice, but a Christian trained in the Lord's precepts and clinging to Christ will defeat him.
3. 0.3Cyprian explains that he gives headings with Scripture passages, like wool and purple from which each reader can make his own garment.
4. 0.4Cyprian will let God's own words speak, and he teaches that martyrdom is a second baptism, of blood, greater than the baptism of water.
5. 0.5Cyprian lists the thirteen headings of the work, from the folly of idols to the rewards awaiting martyrs.
6. 1Scripture shows that idols are lifeless works of human hands and that the elements are God's creatures, not gods.
7. 2Scripture teaches that God alone is to be worshiped and loved.
8. 3Scripture threatens destruction and eternal punishment for those who sacrifice to idols.
9. 4Scripture shows God refusing to pardon idolatry even at the prayers of Moses and Jeremiah, since sin against God has no one to intercede for it.
10. 5The Law commanded death for those who lure others to idolatry; since Christ suffered for us, Christians must all the more be ready to confess him and die rather than deny him.
11. 6Because Christ redeemed us with his blood, nothing, not even family or life itself, may be put before him.
12. 7Like Israel longing to return to Egypt, Christians freed from the devil and the world must not turn back to them.
13. 8Only perseverance to the end wins the crown, as Moses' raised hands, a figure of the cross, won the victory over Amalek only while they stayed lifted.
14. 9Scripture teaches that afflictions and persecutions are sent to test and prove believers.
15. 10Persecution is not to be feared, because God, who is greater than the devil, protects his servants and gives them words to speak before their judges.
16. 11Christ foretold that the world would hate and persecute his followers, and the righteous have always suffered, from Abel to the three youths, the seven Maccabean brothers and their mother, and Eleazar.
17. 12Scripture promises the righteous and the martyrs immortality, vindication, and a share in Christ's reign, and the same reward awaits those who stayed faithful without being killed.
18. 13The glory to come far outweighs present suffering, and even those who die in peace with a faith prepared for martyrdom will be rewarded.