WHilst Didymas and his excellent Mistress, stood waiting, till the infamous Ministers of the Presidents Cruelty, had prepar’d all things requisite to the Execution of his barbarous Sentence; among those many Roman Soldiers that were assembled there, to be spectators of the approaching Tragedy· an Officer, whom his own Gallantry had strongly inclin’d to sympathize with a Person, in whom he saw that Quality so Eminent, thought himself oblig’d to attempt the diswading him, from persisting in so fatal a Resolution as he had taken. Wherefore, approaching our Martyr, with very obliging looks and gestures, and drawing him aside, The Gods, sayes he, can bear me witness, generous Youth, that ‘tis not without some amazement, and more trouble, than any affliction of my own has been wont to give me, that I see the Possessor of so much Gallantry, upon the point to be destroy’d by an unhappy Constancy, which, though in other cases a vertue, must, being exercis’d against the Gods, become a Crime. And therefore, I cannot but ardently wish, that after having shewn so much Patience and Courage, you would at length express your Prudence too, by letting your self be perswaded to a Compliance, that may rescue you at once from Impiety and from Death.
An advice, answers Didymus, that is propos’d with so much kindness and civility, and yet press’d but by such unsatisfying Reasons, does justly deserve my thanks for it, but not my compliance with it. For the Argument you bring against my Constancy to the Truth, is only, that my persisting in it will cost me my Life; which is a proof indeed, that the Religion I profess, will lead me into Danger, but none at all, that it has misled me into Error.
‘Tis altogether extrinsick and accidental to a Religions being true or false, that its Embracers happen to be encourag’d by Preferments, or expos’d to Persecutions. Fear is but an ill Counsellor in matters of Religion, unless it be the fear of chusing a bad one, or living unworthy of a good one. He deserves not the Blessing of having made a good choice among Religions, that does more seek in his choice, the Concernments of his Life, than of his Soul. And as ‘tis only for its being the true one, that we should make choice of our Religion: So having once chosen it, nothing should make us desert it, but a conviction of its being erroneous, and consequently of its wanting that Truth, whose appearance made us embrace it. If therefore, you can shew me, that the Christian Religion is false, or that yours is better; I am not so in love with wandring, as to go on in a wrong way, because I once have, by weakness or misfortune, been misled into it. But if your Arguments be but menaces, or any thing that is of that sort, which can only manifest, that the power is on your side, but do not at all evince, that the truth is not on mine; I must look upon what you urge, as not deserving to be comply’d with, but contemn’d. And if it were not my custom never to take any thing ill, that I think is meant well, I should esteem my self not a little injur’d, by the argument you employ to make me abandon Christianity. Since, if a person less civil and gallant had made use of it, I should conclude, that he must suppose me a Coward, to hope, by such perswasions to make a Proselyte. And though I were less assur’d than I am, of the Truth of the Religion I have alwaies own’d; yet would I not for all the world, on this occasion, by professing yours, desert it: Least by forsaking it, when I am threaten’d for sticking to it; I should procure my self a disquieting temptation to suspect, that I did not deal sincerely and impartially in chusing a Religion; since I made choice of one, that I judg’d not worthy to be dy’d for.
You mistake my intentions, Generous Didymus, replies the Roman, if you think I pretended to fright you into Apostacy: my Vertue would as little allow me to have so unworthy a design, as your Courage would permit a hope, that it should be succesful. But looking upon my self, as having made a right choice in that worship of the Gods, I make profession of, I could not think it injurious to you, to perswade you, rather to Live in the profession of a true Religion, than to Dye for that of a false one. And since my concerns for your safety, and the little time you have to deliberate, oblige me to speak freely to you; I cannot but wonder, that a Person that hath courted Honour at the rate you have done, should lose himself, for One, whom the most Sacred Persons of his own Nation, crucified as a Malefactor; and who has been so ill natur’d, as to invite his Followers, both by express words, and by the nature of the Religion he fram’d, which could not but be Persecuted, to involve themselves with him in the like unhappy fate.
The Notions (replies Didymus, somewhat nettled at this Discourse) that Idolaters frame to themselves, of the nature of the Christian Religion, are commonly as erroneous, as the ways they take to confute it, are improper, and inhumane: And they are usually no less misinform’d about the Grounds and Mysteries of our Religion, than they are mistaken about the Objects of their own Adorations. ‘Tis true, that the Divine Person I adore, being sent from God his Father, to be the great Prophet and Reformer of the World, did, with a Prophetick Freedom, as well as Authority, sharply rebuke the Superstitions of the Jewish Scribes and Pharisees, among whom he convers’d; and did not more unmask their Hypocrisie, and reproach their Practices, by the Light of his Doctrine, than by the shining actions of a most exemplary and unblemish’d Life. And his Holiness having exasperated these impious Hypocrites, that found their Authority undermin’d, and their Persons discredited by him: As their malice was too great, not to attempt the Destruction of such an Enemy; so his Constancy was too great, to suffer him to decline the greatest dangers, by declining to persist in the wonted exercise of his Vertues; whereby he thus became expos’d to a Death, which he foresaw, and frequently foretold, and which he also willingly underwent, to procure Everlasting Life, for those who should believe in him, and strive to imitate him.
And that his Death, whereunto he submitted to expiate the sins of others, was not inflicted on him for his own, was evident, by his being absolv’d, not only by the very Judge, to whom a Criminal fear of his Accusers indicted the Sentence he pronounc’d against him, but by that Supreme and Infallible Judge, God himself; who declar’d by astonishing Prodigies, both in Heaven and Earth, how much he was displeas’d with those, that put his Son to Death; & by raising him from the Dead within three days, to an Immortal Life, proclaim’d how dear he was to him, and gave him Power, to make his Followers Partakers of that glorious condition he himself was advanc’d to. So that (continues Didymus) those Champions of his, whom he vouchsafes to single out from the rest of his Followers, and call to Martyrdom, have reason enough to look upon that Call, as an invaluable Honour, and a Priviledge: Since, as they are thereby made more conformable to him, in chearfully dying for Truth and Constancy; so they will be made more plentiful sharers in those inestimable advantages, that his own meritorious Martyrdom procur’d him. Yes, for those to whom he vouchsafes the Power and Honour of Suffering for Him, and of imitating him, for the interest of Truth and Piety; he does not only reserve such future Recompences, to crown their Love and Fidelity, but often gives them here such happy foretasts, in a perfect assurance of it, that I cannot but look upon it, as a vast accession to that immense Love, that made him dye for Us, that he calls and inables us to dye for Him.
I confess, (Didymus adds in pursuit of his Discourse) that, as he took upon him the form of a Man, so he suffer’d himself to be us’d as good Men too often are. But his miraculous power and goodness, sufficiently proclaim’d, that he was not thrown down from Heaven to Earth, as your Vulcan is said to have been, but that he descended from Heaven, to make Men live an heavenly life: Nor did he, like many of your Deities, especially your Jupiter, assume an humane shape, to do actions below the dignity of humane Nature; but he taught Men a Doctrine, worthy, as well as likely, to be brought from Heaven; and gave them an exemplary life, whose imitation would fit them to be translated thither: And then submitted to the Torments and Infamy of the Cross, to purchase for his followers, by his Death, that heavenly condition, for which he had qualified them, by his Spirit and his Life.
The Roman Officer, not yet quite discourag’d, by the unsuccesfulness he had hitherto met with in his attempt, resolv’d to prosecute it yet further, by saying: The same reason, that somewhat lessens my wonder at your despising Death, for your erroneous Religion, encreases my admiration at your unconcernedness, to avoid the kind of Death that threatens your obstinacy. For though the love of glory, may invite a gallant Man, like Didymus, to part with his life for the attainment of it; yet that same heroick passion, ought to make those it possesses, more apprehensive than others of those Extremities, wherein Death is accompany’d with Infamy, and made justy terrible with ignominious Circumstances; of which, none can be more disgraceful, than the receiving it at the base hand of a common Executioner.
The Weakness and Examples of your Gods (replies Didymus) have too much seduced you, to make Estimates of Good and Evil, by those popular and pitiful measures, that I cannot but think very unworthy to be acquiesc’d in by a Christian; who, to merit that Title, must be somewhat more than an ordinary Man. We judge of good and evil Actions, by the Laws of God, and right Reason, not by those of Men in Power. And therefore do not think, that Constancy ceases to be a Vertue, and consequently an honourable, not a disgraceful quality, because legal Tyrants will call it Obstinacy, and condemn Men for it, to the same Punishments that are allotted to dishonourable Actions. The respect our Religion commands us to pay to a Civil Magistrate, though a Persecutor, permits us not by force to resist his unjust Sentences. But this Submission of ours, does not at all keep his Sentences from being unjust, nor forbid us to think them so; and consequently leaves us the inestimable satisfaction of our Consciences, that inwardly absolve us, when outward Judges condemn us. And for proof of this, you cannot but have taken notice, that, whereas truly Criminal, Persons being conscious of their own Guilt, either deny what they are accused of, or endeavour by all means, to palliate it, and to avoid the being condem’d for it. We Christians, on the contrary, do not only Confess what you call a Crime, but Glory in It; and do not deprecate the fate, that attends our Constancy. Nor can it fright us from undergoing Death, for a glorious Cause, that we must receive it from an Infamous Hand. For that by which we estimate it, is, the quality of the action that procures it, not the condition of him that is employ’d to inflict it: And, so we can consider with joy, for what, we are not much troubled to see, by whom, it is that we suffer; being satisfied, that the Executioners hand may destroy a Malefactor, but cannot make one; and if the Cause that brings a Man to the Scaffold, be not culpable, the place cannot make the Death that is there suffered, infamous: Nay, and if Vertue leads him thither, the Instruments of his Death, cannot keep it from being Glorious; since this demonstrates the Sufferers unshaken Constancy to be insuperable, not only by Death, but by that which many have embrac’d Death to shun, the Contempt of the generality of Men. Your gallant Roman Commander (Attilius Regulus) is much less remembred and celebrated, for all his Military Exploits and Attempts, than for the Cruel Death he suffer’d, by order of the Carthaginians, to whom, in performance of a Pomise, he yielded himself up, with expectation of some such barbarous Usage as he met with. And sure, as a submission to Indignities, was a duty not meanly glorious in him, to shun the breaking of his Word to his Enemies; the like resignation of themselves, will not, by unbyass’d Judges, be thought an Action dishonourable in Christians, to prevent the violation of their Faith, solemnly given, not to a Savage Enemy, but to a Divine Friend, who has already, without any obligation to do it, suffered more shame for them, than the sublimity of his condition leaves it possible for them to suffer for him. And though that Greek Philosopher, Socrates, whom your own Oracles, with more of Truth than they are wont to be guilty of, pronounc’d the wisest of Men, was by his own Fellow-Citizens condemn’d to die by Poyson, brought him by the hand of an Executioner: Yet, since that Sentence was not occasioned by his Crimes, but his Vertues, the deadly draught did not destroy his Fame with his Life; and poyson’d not his Reputation, which it extremely heightned, but that of his Accusers, and his Judges; whom after Ages have look’d upon, as worse Criminals than ever they Condemned, and more unworthy Persons, than those they employed to execute their Sentence. And for my part, (continues Didymus) some passages of our sacred Records encourage me to expect, that, if a Posthume Fame be such a Blessing, as many imagine, the Indignities we suffer now, will hereafter procure it us. For I cannot but hope, and methinks I foresee, that the Roman Eagles will one day stoop to the Cross of Christ: And the Temples of your False Deities, will be consecrated to the Service of the True God. The Sword of the Civil Magistrate, which is now the great and only successful Argument on your side, will be then in Christian hands, which I wish may never employ it against your Religion; whose ruine will not require the active opposition of Power, but the bare withdrawing of its preserving Support. And then posterity, more enlightned and more just, will read the History of those Destroyers of the Baptized (which is, at least, the innocenter) part of Mankind, with the same resentments, with which they will read the havocks made by Wars, Plagues, Massacres, and other publick Calamities.