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not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all mistakes found.)

CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE

ON THE MORTALITY (OR PLAGUE).(1)
Translated by the Rev. Ernest Wallis, Ph.D.

ARGUMENT.--THE DEACON PONTIUS IN A FEW WORDS UNFOLDS THE BURTHEN OF THIS
TREATISE IN HIS LIFE OF CYPRIAN.(2) FIRST OF ALL, HAVING POINTED OUT THAT
AFFLICTIONS OF THIS KIND HAD BEEN FORETOLD BY CHRIST, HE TELLS THEM THAT
THE MORTALITY OR PLAGUE WAS NOT TO BE FEARED, IN THAT IT LEADS TO
IMMORTALITY, AND THAT THEREFORE, THAT MAN IS WANTING IN FAITH WHO IS NOT
EAGER FOR A BETTER WORLD. NOR IS IT WONDERFUL THAT THE EVILS OF THIS LIFE
ARE COMMON TO THE CHRISTIANS WITH THE HEATHENS, SINCE THEY HAVE TO SUFFER
MORE THAN OTHERS IN THE WORLD, AND THENCE, AFTER THE EXAMPLE OF JOB AND
TOBIAS, THERE IS NEED OF PATIENCE WITHOUT MURMURING. FOR UNLESS THE
STRUGGLE PRECEDED, THE VICTORY COULD NOT ENSUE; AND HOW MUCH SOEVER
DISEASES ARE COMMON TO THE VIRTUOUS AND VICIOUS, YET THAT DEATH IS NOT
COMMON TO THEM, FOR THAT THE RIGHTEOUS ARE TAKEN TO CONSOLATION, WHILE THE
UNRIGHTEOUS ARE TAKEN TO PUNISHMENT.(3)

   1. Although in very many of you, dearly beloved brethren, there is a
stedfast mind and a firm faith, and a devoted spirit that is not disturbed
at the frequency of this present mortality, but, like a strong and stable
rock, rather shatters the turbulent onsets of the world and the raging
waves of time, while it is not itself shattered, and is not overcome but
tried by these temptations; yet because I observe that among the people
some, either through weakness of mind, or through decay of faith, or
through the sweetness of this worldly life, or through the softness of
their sex, or what is of still greater account, through error from the
truth, are standing less steadily, and are not exerting the divine and
unvanquished vigour of their heart, the matter may not be disguised nor
kept in silence, but as far as my feeble powers suffice with my full
strength, and with a discourse gathered from the Lord's lessons, the
slothfulness of a luxurious disposition must be restrained, and he who has
begun to be already a man of God and of Christ, must be found worthy of God
and of Christ.

   2. For he who wars for God, dearest brethren, ought to acknowledge
himself as one who, placed in the heavenly camp, already hopes for(4)
divine things, so that we may have no trembling at the storms and
whirlwinds of the world, and no disturbance, since the Lord had foretold
that these would come. With the exhortation of His fore-seeing word,
instructing, and teaching, and preparing, and strengthening the people of
His Church for all endurance of things to come, He predicted and said that
wars, and famines, and earthquakes, and pestilences would arise in each
place; and lest an unexpected and new dread of mischiefs should shake us,
He previously warned us that adversity would increase more and more in the
last times. Behold, the very things occur which were spoken; and since
those occur which were foretold before, whatever things were promised will
also follow; as the Lord Himself promises, saying, "But when ye see all
these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is at hand."(5)
The kingdom of God, beloved brethren, is beginning to be at hand; the
reward of life, and the rejoicing of eternal salvation, and the perpetual
gladness(6) and possession lately lost of paradise, are now coming, with
the passing away of the world; already heavenly things are taking the place
of earthly, and great things of small, and eternal things of things that
fade away. What room is there here for anxiety and solicitude? Who, in the
midst of these things, is trembling and sad, except he who is without hope
and faith? For it is for him to fear death who is not willing to go to
Christ. It is for him to be unwilling to go to Christ who does not believe
that he is about to reign(7) with Christ.

   3. For it is written that the just lives by faith.(1) If you are just,
and live by faith, if you truly believe in Christ, why, since you are about
to be with Christ, and are secure of the Lord's promise, do you not embrace
the assurance that you are called to Christ, and rejoice that you are freed
from the devil? Certainly Simeon, that just man, who was truly just, who
kept God's commands with a full faith, when it had been pledged him from
heaven that he should not die before he had seen the Christ, and Christ had
come an infant into the temple with His mother, acknowledged in spirit that
Christ was now born, concerning whom it had before been foretold to him;
and when he had seen Him, he knew that he should soon die. Therefore,
rejoicing concerning his now approaching death, and secure of his immediate
summons, he received the child into his arms, and blessing the Lord, he
exclaimed, and said, "Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace,
according to Thy word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation;"(2) assuredly
proving and bearing witness that the servants of God then had peace, then
free, then tranquil repose, when, withdrawn from these whirlwinds of the
world, we attain the harbour of our home and eternal security, when having
accomplished this death we come to immortality. For that is our(3) peace,
that our faithful tranquillity, that our stedfast, and abiding, and
perpetual security.

   4. But for the rest, what else in the world than a battle against the
devil is daily carried on, than a struggle against his darts and weapons in
constant conflicts? Our warfare is with avarice, with immodesty, with
anger, with ambition; our diligent and toilsome wrestle with carnal vices,
with enticements of the world. The mind of man besieged, and in every
quarter invested with the onsets of the devil, scarcely in each point meets
the attack, scarcely resists it. If avarice is prostrated, lust springs up.
If lust is overcome, ambition takes its place. If ambition is despised,
anger exasperates, pride puffs up, wine-bibbing entices, envy breaks
concord, jealousy cuts friendship; you are constrained to curse, which the
divine law forbids; you are compelled to swear, which is not lawful.

   5. So many persecutions the soul suffers daily, with so many risks is
the heart wearied, and yet it delights to abide here long among the devil's
weapons, although it should rather be our craving and wish to hasten to
Christ by the aid of a quicker death; as He Himself instructs us, and says,
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the
world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be
turned into joy."(4) Who would not desire to be without sadness? who would
not hasten to attain to joy? But when our sadness shall be turned into joy,
the Lord Himself again declares, when He says, "I will see you again, and
your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you."(5)
Since, therefore, to see Christ is to rejoice, and we cannot have joy
unless when we shall see Christ, what blindness of mind or what folly is it
to love the world's afflictions, and punishments, and tears, and not rather
to hasten to the joy which can never be taken away!

   6. But, beloved brethren, this is so, because faith is lacking, because
no one believes that the things which God promises are true, although He is
true, whose word to believers is eternal and un- changeable. If a grave and
praiseworthy man should promise you anything, you would assuredly have
faith in the promiser, and would not think that you should be cheated and
deceived by him whom you knew to be stedfast in his words and his deeds.
Now God is speaking with you; and do you faithlessly waver in your
unbelieving mind? God promises to you, on your departure from this world,
immortality and eternity; and do you doubt? This is not to know God at all;
this is to offend Christ, the Teacher(6) of believers, with the sin of
incredulity; this is for one established in the Church not to have faith in
the house of faith.

   7. How great is the advantage of going out of the world, Christ
Himself, the Teacher of our salvation and of our good works, shows to us,
who, when His disciples were saddened that He said that He was soon to
depart, spoke to them, and said, "If ye loved me, ye would surely rejoice
because I go to the Father;"(7) teaching thereby, and manifesting that when
the dear ones whom we love depart from the world, we should rather rejoice
than grieve. Remembering which truth, the blessed Apostle Paul in his
epistle lays it down, saying, "To me to live is Christ, and to die is
gain;"(8) counting it the greatest gain no longer to be held by the snares
of this world, no longer to be liable to the sins and vices of the flesh,
but taken away from smarting troubles, and freed from the envenomed fangs
of the devil, to go at the call of Christ to the joy of eternal salvation.

   8. But nevertheless it disturbs some that the power of this Disease
attacks our people equally with the heathens, as if the Christian believed
for this purpose, that he might have the enjoyment of the world and this
life free from the contact of ills; and not as one who undergoes all
adverse things here and is reserved for future joy. It disturbs some that
this mortality is common to us with others; and yet what is there in this
world which is not common to us with others, so long as this flesh of ours
still remains, according to the law of our first birth, common to us with
them? So long as we are here in the world, we are associated with the human
race in fleshly equality,(1) but are separated in spirit. Therefore until
this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal receive
immortality, and the Spirit(2) lead us to God the Father, whatsoever are
the disadvantages of the flesh are common to us with the human race. Thus,
when the earth is barren with an unproductive harvest, famine makes no
distinction; thus, when with  the invasion of an enemy any city is taken,
captivity at once desolates all; and when the serene  clouds withhold the
rain, the drought is alike to  all; and when the jagged rocks rend the
ship, the shipwreck is common without exception to all that sail in her;
and the disease of the eyes, and the attack of fevers, and the feebleness
of all the limbs is common to us with others, so long as this common flesh
of ours is borne by us in the world.

   9. Moreover, if the Christian know and keep fast under what condition
and what law he has believed, he will be aware that he must suffer more
than others in the world, since he must struggle more with the attacks of
the devil. Holy Scripture teaches and forewarns, saying, "My son, when thou
comest to the service of God, stand in righteousness and fear, and prepare
thy soul for temptation."(3) And again: "In pain endure, and in thy
humility have patience; for gold and silver is tried in the fire, but
acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation."(4)

   10. Thus Job, after the loss of his wealth, after the death of his
children, grievously afflicted, moreover, with sores and worms, was not
overcome, but proved; since in his very struggles and anguish, showing
forth the patience of a religious mind, he says, "Naked came I out of my
mother's womb, naked also I shall go under the earth: the Lord gave, the
Lord hath taken away; as it seemed fit to the Lord, so it hath been done.
Blessed be the name of the Lord."(5) And when his wife also urged him, in
his impatience at the acuteness of his pain, to speak something against God
with a complaining and envious voice, he answered and said, "Thou speakest
as one of the foolish women. If we have received good from the hand of the
Lord, why shall we not suffer evil? In all these things which befell him,
Job sinned not with his lips in the sight of the Lord."(6) Therefore the
Lord God gives him a testimony, saying, "Hast thou considered my servant
Job? for there is none like him in all the earth, a man without complaint,
a true worshipper of God."(7) And Tobias, after his excellent works, after
the many and glorious illustrations of his merciful spirit, having suffered
the loss of his sight, fearing and blessing God in his adversity, by his
very bodily affliction increased in praise; and even him also his wife
tried to pervert, saying, "Where are thy righteousnesses? Behold what thou
sufferest!"(8) But he, stedfast and firm in respect of the fear of God, and
armed by the faith of his religion to all endurance of suffering, yielded
not to the temptation of his weak wife in his trouble, but rather deserved
better from God by his greater patience; and afterwards Raphael the angel
praises him, saying, "It is honourable to show forth and to confess the
works of God. For when thou didst pray, and Sara thy daughter-in-law, I did
offer the remembrance of your prayer in the presence of the glory of God.
And when thou didst bury the dead in singleness of heart, and because thou
didst not delay to rise up and leave thy dinner, and wentest and didst bury
the dead, I was sent to make proof of thee. And God again hath sent me to
heal thee and Sara thy daughter-in-law. For I am Raphael, one of the seven
holy angels, who are present, and go in and out before the glory of
God."(9)

   11. Righteous men have ever possessed this endurance. The apostles
maintained this discipline from the law of the Lord, not to murmur in
adversity, but to accept bravely and patiently whatever things happen in
the world; since the people of the Jews in this matter always offended,
that they constantly murmured against God, as the Lord God bears witness in
the book of Numbers, saying, "Let their murmuring cease from me, and they
shall not die."(10) We must not murmur in adversity, beloved brethren, but
we must bear with patience and courage whatever happens, since it is
written, "The sacrifice to God is a broken spirit; a contrite and humbled
heart God does not despise;"(11) since also in Deuteronomy the Holy Spirit
warns by Moses. and says, "The Lord thy God will vex thee, and will bring
hunger upon thee; and it shall be known in thine heart if thou hast well
kept His commandments or no."(12) And again: "The Lord your God proveth
you, that He may know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your
heart, and with all your soul."(1)

   12. Thus Abraham pleased God, who, that he might please God, did not
shrink even from losing his son, or from doing an act of parricide. You,
who cannot endure to lose your son by the law and lot of mortality, what
would you do if you were bidden to slay your son? The fear and faith of God
ought to make you prepared for everything, although it should be the loss
of private estate, although the constant and cruel harassment of your limbs
by agonizing disorders, although the deadly and mournful wrench from wife,
from children, from departing dear ones; Let not these things be offences
to you, but battles: nor let them weaken nor break the Christian's faith,
but rather show forth his strength in the struggle, since all the injury
inflicted by present troubles is to be despised in the assurance of future
blessings. Unless the battle has preceded, there cannot be a victory: when
there shall have been, in the onset of battle, the victory, then also the
crown is given to the victors. For the helmsman(2) is recognised in the
tempest; in the warfare the soldier is proved. It is a wanton display when
there is no danger. Struggle in adversity is the trial of the truth.(3) The
tree which is deeply founded in its root is not moved by the onset of
winds, and the ship which is compacted of solid timbers is beaten by the
waves and is not shattered; and when the threshing-floor brings out the
corn, the strong and robust grains despise the winds, while the empty chaff
is carried away by the blast that falls upon it.

   13. Thus, moreover, the Apostle Paul, after shipwrecks, after
scourgings, after many and grievous tortures of the flesh and body, says
that he is not grieved, but benefited by his adversity, in order that while
he is sorely afflicted he might more truly be proved. "There was given to
me," he says, "a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me,
that I should not be lifted up: for which thing I besought the Lord thrice,
that it might depart from me; and He said unto me, My grace is sufficient
for thee, for strength is made perfect in weakness."(4) When, therefore,
weakness and inefficiency and any destruction seize us, then our strength
is made perfect; then our faith, if when tried it shall stand fast, is
crowned; as it is written, "The furnace trieth the vessels of the potter,
and the trial of tribulation just men."(5) This, in short, is the
difference between us and others who know not God, that in misfortune they
complain and murmur, while adversity does not call us away from the truth
of virtue and faith, but strengthens us by its suffering.

   14. This trial, that now the bowels, relaxed into a constant flux,
discharge the bodily strength; that a fire originated in the marrow
ferments into wounds of the fauces; that the intestines are shaken with a
continual vomiting; that the eyes are on fire with the injected blood; that
in some cases the feet or some parts of the limbs are taken off by the
contagion of diseased putrefaction; that from the weakness arising by the
maiming and loss of the body, either the gait is enfeebled, or the hearing
is obstructed, or the sight darkened;--is profitable as a proof of faith.
What a grandeur of spirit it is to struggle with all the powers of an
unshaken mind against so many onsets of devastation and death! what
sublimity, to stand erect amid the desolation of the human race, and not to
lie prostrate with those who have no hope in God; but rather to rejoice,(6)
and to embrace the benefit of the occasion; that in thus bravely showing
forth our faith, and by suffering endured, going forward to Christ by the
narrow way that Christ trod, we may receive the reward of His life(7) and
faith according to His own judgment! Assuredly he may fear to die, who, not
being regenerated of water and the Spirit, is delivered over to the fires
of Gehenna; he may fear to die who is not enrolled in the cross and passion
of Christ; he may fear to die, who from this death shall pass over to a
second death; he may fear to die, whom on his departure from this world
eternal flame shall torment with never-ending punishments; he may fear to
die who has this advantage in a lengthened delay, that in the meanwhile his
groanings and his anguish are being postponed.

   15. Many of our people die in this mortality, that is, many of our
people are liberated from this world. This mortality, as it is a plague to
Jews and Gentiles, and enemies of Christ, so it is a departure to salvation
to God's servants. The fact that, without any difference made between one
ant another, the righteous die as well as the unrighteous, is no reason for
you to suppose that it is a common death for the good and evil alike. The
righteous are called to their place of refreshing, the unrighteous are
snatched away to punishment; safety is the more speedily given to the
faithful, penalty to the unbelieving. We are thoughtless and ungrateful,
beloved brethren, for the divine benefits, and do not acknowledge what is
conferred upon us. Lo, virgins depart in peace, safe with their glory, not
fearing the threats of the coming Antichrist, and his corruptions and his
brothels. Boys escape the peril of their unstable age, and in happiness
attain the reward of continence and innocence. Now the delicate matron does
not fear the tortures; for she has escaped by a rapid death the fear of
persecution, and the hands and the torments of the executioner. By the
dread of the mortality and of the time the lukewarm are inflamed, the slack
are nerved up, the slothful are stimulated, the deserters are compelled to
return, the heathens are constrained to believe, the ancient congregation
of the faithful is called to rest, the new and abundant army is gathered to
the battle with a braver vigour, to fight without fear of death when the
battle shall come, because it comes to the warfare in the time of the
mortality.

   16. And further, beloved brethren, what is it, what a great thing is
it, how pertinent, how necessary, that pestilence and plague which seems
horrible and deadly, searches out the righteousness of each one, and
examines the minds of the human race, to see whether they who are in health
tend the sick; whether relations affectionately love their kindred; whether
masters pity their languishing servants; whether physicians do not forsake
the beseeching patients; whether the fierce suppress their violence;
whether the rapacious can quench the ever insatiable ardour of their raging
avarice even by the fear of death; whether the haughty bend their neck;
whether the wicked soften their boldness; whether, when their dear ones
perish, the rich, even then bestow anything,(1) and give, when they are to
die without heirs. Even although this mortality conferred nothing else, it
has done this benefit to Christians and to God's servants that we begin
gladly to desire martyrdom as we learn not to fear death. These are
trainings for us, not deaths: they give the mind the glory of fortitude; by
contempt of death they prepare for the crown.

   17. But perchance some one may object, and say, "It is this, then, that
saddens me in the present mortality, that I, who had been prepared for
confession, and had devoted myself to the endurance of suffering with my
whole heart and with abundant courage, am deprived of martyrdom, in that I
am anticipated by death." In the first place, martyrdom is not in your
power, but in the condescension of God; neither can you say that you have
lost what you do not know whether you would deserve to receive. Then,
besides, God the searcher of the reins and heart, and the investigator and
knower of secret things, sees you, and praises and approves you; and He who
sees that your virtue was ready in you, will give you a reward for your
virtue. Had Cain, when he offered his gift to God, already slain his
brother? And yet God, foreseeing the fratricide conceived in his mind,
anticipated its condemnation. As in that case the evil thought and
mischievous intention were foreseen(2) by a foreseeing God, so also in
God's servants, among whom confession is purposed and martyrdom conceived
in the mind, the intention dedicated to good is crowned by God the judge.
It is one thing for the spirit to be wanting for martyrdom, and another for
martyrdom to have been wanting for the spirit. Such as the Lord finds you
when He calls you, such also He judges you; since He Himself bears witness,
and says, "And all the churches shall know that I am the searcher of the
reins and heart."(3) For God does not ask for our blood, but for our
faith.(4) For neither Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob were slain; and yet,
being honoured by the deserts of faith and righteousness, they deserved to
be first among the patriarchs, to whose feast is collected every one that
is found faithful, and righteous, and praiseworthy.

   18. We ought to remember that we should do not our own will, but God's,
in accordance with what our Lord has bidden us daily to pray. How
preposterous and absurd it is, that while we ask that the will of God
should be done, yet when God calls and summons us from this world, we
should not at once obey the command of His will! We struggle and resist,
and after the manner of froward servants we are dragged to the presence of
the Lord with sadness and grief, departing hence under the bondage of
necessity, not with the obedience of free will; and we wish to be honoured
with heavenly rewards by Him to whom we come unwillingly. Why, then, do we
pray and ask that the kingdom of heaven may come, if the captivity of earth
delights us? Why with frequently repeated prayers do we entreat and beg
that the day of His kingdom may hasten, if our greater desires and stronger
wishes are to obey the devil here, rather than to reign with Christ?

   19. Besides, that the indications of the divine providence may be more
evidently manifest, proving that the Lord, prescient of the future, takes
counsel for the true salvation of His people, when one of our colleagues
and fellow-priests, wearied out with infirmity, and anxious about the
present approach of death, prayed for a respite to himself; there stood by
him as he prayed, and when he was now at the point of death, a youth,
venerable in honour and majesty, lofty in stature and shining in aspect,
and on whom, as he stood by him, the human glance could scarcely look with
fleshly eyes, except that he who was about to depart from the world could
already behold such a one. And he, not without a certain indignation of
mind and voice, rebuked him, and said, You fear to suffer, you  do not wish
to depart; what shall t do to you? It was the word of one rebuking and
warning, one who, when men are anxious about persecution, and indifferent
concerning their summons, consents not to their present desire, but
consults for the future. Our dying brother and colleague heard what he was
to say to others. For he who heard when he was dying, heard for the very
purpose that he might tell it; he heard not for himself, but for us. For
what could he, who was already on the eve of departure, learn for himself?
Yea, doubtless, he learnt it for us who remain, in order that, when we find
the priest who sought for delay rebuked, we might acknowledge what is
beneficial for all.

   20. To myself also, the very least and last, how often has it been
revealed, how frequently and manifestly has it been commanded by the
condescension of God, that I should diligently bear witness and publicly
declare that our brethren who are freed from this world by the Lord's
summons are not to be lamented, since we know that they are not lost, but
sent before;(1) that, departing from us, they precede us as travellers, as
navigators are accustomed to do; that they should be desired, but not
bewailed; that the black garments should not be taken upon us here,(2) when
they have already taken upon them white raiment there; that occasion should
not be given to the Gentiles for them deservedly and rightly to reprehend
us, that we mourn for those, who, we say, are alive with God, as if they
were extinct and lost; and that we do not approve wills the testimony of
the heart and breast the faith which we express with speech and word. We
are prevaricators of our hope and faith: what we say appears to be
simulated, feigned, counterfeit. There is no advantage in setting forth
virtue by our words, and destroying the truth by our deeds.

   21. Finally, the Apostle Paul reproaches, and rebukes, and blames any
who are in sorrow at the departure of their friends. "I would not," says
he, have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye
sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so them which are asleep in Jesus Will God bring
with Him."(3) He says that those have sorrow in the departure of their
friends who have no hope. But we who live in hope, and believe in God, and
trust that Christ suffered for us and rose again, abiding in Christ, and
through Him and in Him rising again, why either are we ourselves unwilling
to depart hence from this life, or do we bewail and grieve for our friends
when they depart as if they were lost, when Christ Himself, our Lord and
God, encourages us and says, "I am the resurrection and the life: he that
believeth in me, though he die, yet shall live; and whosoever liveth and
believeth in me shall not die eternally?"(4) If we believe in Christ, let
us have faith in His words and promises; and since we shall not die
eternally, let us come with a glad security unto Christ, with whom we are
both to conquer and to reign for ever.

   22. That in the meantime we die, we are passing over to immortality by
death; nor can eternal life follow, unless it should befall us to depart
from this life. That is not an ending, but a transit, and, this journey of
time being traversed, a passage to eternity. Who would not hasten to better
things? Who would not crave to be changed and renewed(5) into the likeness
of Christ, and to arrive more quickly to the dignity of heavenly glory,
since Paul the apostle announces and says, "For our conversation is in
heaven, from whence also we look for the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall
change the body of our humiliation, and conform it to the body of His
glory?"(6) Christ the Lord also promises that we shall be such, when, that
we may be with Him, and that we may live with Him in eternal mansions, and
may rejoice in heavenly kingdoms, He prays the Father for us, saying,
"Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given me be with me where I
am, and may see the glory which Thou hast given me before the world was
made."(7) He who is to attain to the throne of Christ, to the glory of the
heavenly kingdoms, ought not to mourn nor lament, but rather, in accordance
with the Lord's promise, in accordance with his faith in the truth, to
rejoice in this his departure and translation.

   23. Thus, moreover, we find that Enoch also was translated, who pleased
God, as in Genesis the Holy Scripture bears witness, and says, "And Enoch
pleased God; and afterwards he was not found, because God translated
him."(8) To have been pleasing in the sight of God was thus to  have
merited to be translated from this contagion of the world. And moreover,
also, the Holy Spirit teaches by Solomon, that they who please God are more
early taken hence, and are more quickly set free, lest while they are
delaying longer in this world they should be polluted with the contagions
of the world. "He was taken away," says he, "lest wickedness should change
his understanding. For his soul was pleasing to God; wherefore hasted He to
take him away from the midst of wickedness."(1) So also in the Psalms, the
soul that is devoted to its God in spiritual faith hastens to the Lord,
saying, "How amiable are thy dwellings, O God of hosts! My soul longeth,
and hasteth unto the courts of God."(2)

   24. It is for him to wish to remain long in the   world whom the world
delights, whom this life, flattering and deceiving, invites by the
enticements of earthly pleasure. Again, since the world hates the
Christian, why do you love that which hates you? and why do you not rather
follow Christ, who both redeemed you and loves you? John in his epistle
cries and says, exhorting that we should not follow carnal desires and love
the world. "Love not the world," says he, "neither the things which are in
the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but of the lust of
the world. And the world shall pass away, and the lust thereof; but he who
doeth the will of God abideth for ever, even as God abideth for ever."(3)
Rather, beloved brethren, with a sound mind, with a firm faith, with a
robust virtue, let us be prepared for the  whole will of God: laying aside
the fear of death, let us think on the immortality which follows. By this
let us show ourselves to be what we believe, that we do not grieve over the
departure of those dear to us, and that when the day of our summons shall
arrive, we come without delay and without resistance to the Lord when He
Himself calls us.

   25. And this, as it ought always to be done by God's servants, much
more ought to be done now--now that the world is collapsing and is
oppressed with the tempests of mischievous ills; in order that we who see
that terrible things have begun, and know that still more terrible things
are imminent, may regard it as the greatest advantage to depart from it as
quickly as  possible. If in your dwelling the walls were  shaking with age,
the roofs above you were trembling, and the house, now worn out and
wearied, were threatening an immediate destruction to its structure
crumbling with age, would you not with all speed depart? If, when you were
on a voyage, an angry and raging tempest, by the waves violently aroused,
foretold the coming shipwreck, would you not quickly seek the harbour? Lo,
the world is changing and passing away, and witnesses to its ruin not now
by its age, but by the end of things. And do you not give God thanks, do
you not congratulate yourself, that by an earlier departure you are taken
away, and delivered from the shipwrecks and disasters that are imminent?

   26. We should consider, dearly beloved brethren--we should ever and
anon reflect that we have renounced the world, and are in the meantime
living here as guests and strangers. Let us greet the day which assigns
each of us to his own home, which snatches us hence, and sets us free from
the snares of the world, and restores us to paradise and the(4) kingdom.
Who that has been placed in foreign lands would not hasten to return to his
own country? Who that is hastening to return to his friends would not
eagerly desire a prosperous gale, that he might the sooner embrace those
dear to him? We regard paradise as our country--we already begin to
consider the patriarchs as our parents: why do we not hasten and run, that
we may behold our country, that we may greet our parents? There a great
number of our dear ones is awaiting us, and a dense crowd of parents,
brothers, children, is longing for us, already assured of their own safety,
and still solicitous for our salvation. To attain to their presence and
their embrace, what a gladness both for them and for us in common! What a
pleasure is there in the heavenly kingdom, without fear of death; and how
lofty and perpetual a happiness with eternity of living! There the glorious
company of the apostles(5)--there the host of the rejoicing prophets--there
the innumerable multitude of martyrs, crowned for the victory of their
struggle and passion--there the triumphant virgins, who subdued the lust of
the flesh and of the body by the strength of their continency--there are
merciful men rewarded, who by feeding and helping the poor have done the
works of righteousness--who, keeping the Lord's precepts, have transferred
their earthly patrimonies to the heavenly treasuries. To these, beloved
brethren, let us hasten with an eager desire; let us crave  quickly to be
with them, and quickly to come to   Christ. May God behold this our eager
desire; may the Lord Christ look upon this purpose of our mind and faith,
He who will give the larger rewards of His glory to those whose desires in
respect of Himself were greater!


Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland beginning in
1867. (ANF 5, Roberts and Donaldson). The digital version is by The
Electronic Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

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