THese Replies of Didymus made an end of convincing the Person, that occasion’d them, that our Martyrs resolution was not to be shaken, either by threats or perswasions.
But yet the officious Roman, cherishing some hope, that, if Didymus should see his Mistress ready to be kill’d by an infamous hand; that Beauty, which had conquered his heart, would soften it, and thereby make it capable of relenting impressions; thought fit to make him one address more, and tell him; It is not without extreme regret, that I see your inflexible obstinacy defeat all my endeavours to procure your safety. But though your mistaken gallantry, may make you think it unhandsom in a Soldier, to disclaim a threatned opinion, that he once adher’d to, lest the change should be imputed to Fear or Levity; yet I hope you will not think, that the strict rules of that destructive Gallantry, ought to oblige a young Lady, in whose Sex, Courage is, at least, an unrequired, if not an altogether improper, Vertue. And therefore, I hope you will not refuse to second my Endeavours, to perswade her, not to throw herself out of a World, of whose grandeurs and pleasures, her transcendent Beauty promises her an extraordinary share, as well as her Youth fits her to relish them perfectly, and enjoy them long.
Didymus, though at first somewhat surpriz’d at this motion, took no long time to return answer, by saying; I confess, I cannot partake of the trouble you are pleas’d to express, for the not prevailing of your Endeavours to alter my Resolutions. For though the advice you press’d upon me, was obliging in you to give, yet it would have been Criminal for me to take it.
And as for what you propose, in reference to Theodora, I must desire to be excus’d from making myself accessory to your design of tempting her. For, in my opinion, he that solicites another, to what he believeth a Crime, doth become guilty of one; so that, as to what concerns Theodora, without being at all sure of shaking her Vertue, I should most certainly ruine my own innocence. Yet I cannot think (says the Roman, interrupting him,) but if you would enforce my perswasions with yours, the Interest you have in her, would prevail to make her rather accept of Life, than deny a Person, that she owes so much to; and does not less highly, than justly, value.
If (replies Didymus) I should yield to use so Criminal means, as to give her an Example of the Apostacy, you would have me invite her to; the attempt would be less improbable: But for me to perswade her to what I am just going to give a convincing proof, that I believe to be worse than Death; would make her both hate me, and despise me. And to convince you, that such a Motion as you would have me make, would lose me all the share I may have in her good opinion; I will dare to own to you, that if I thought her capable, I say not of endeavouring to seduce me, but of being seduced by me, my esteem of her would alter upon her change: And though I could not deny my wonder to so rare a Master-piece of Nature, as is her visible part; yet there would be a vast difference betwixt a meer admiration of external Beauty, which must become the Trophy of Age or Death; and that high veneration, that I now pay to that admirable Person’s intrinsick Worth, and unconquerable Vertue.
Nor should you doubt (continues Didymus) of the Entertainment, that such a Piety as hers, would give such a Motion as you would have me make; since it would justly give her a higher resentment of my solicitations, than of all the importunities of her Heathen Persecutors: for these do but advise her to decline Danger, by embracing what they think Truth; whereas that which you would have me to perswade her to, is, to purchase her safety, by renouncing, what I, as well as She, know to be Truth: And I doubt not, that such a proceeding would so highly offend her, as to enable her, by a bare Pardon, to acquit herself of those Respects and Services of mine, to which posssibly a Person of her goodness vouchsafes some Title to her gratitude.
There is (replies the Roman) so great a difference betwixt the case of a resolv’d Soldier, that thinks himself in point of Reputation engag’d not to retreat, and that of a young Lady, from whom no Resoluteness, much less Obstinacy, can be expected, that I must yet think, our joynt perswasions, though unassisted by your Example, would with-hold her from Death, now she is near enough to it to see the horrors of it.
Nay, (rejoyns Didymus) I did not speak what I have been saying about my own aversness, that I might hinder you from trying your Fortune, if you think fit, with Theodora’s Vertue. I do not envy her Constancy (whose successes have been hitherto no fewer than its tryals) the honour of gaining more than one Victory, in one day. But what I have been saying, was, to give you one reason, of my refusing to joyn with you in your propos’d attempt: against which I shall now offer this other reason, that I think it little less than impossible it should succeed. For I thought I had already satisfied you, that as to my interest in Theodora, if it were much greater, than you, for want of knowing us both, imagine; so great a misimployment of it, would make me justly forfeit it; and perswasions that would seduce her to Apostacy, instead of making her follow the Advice, would make her but detest the Adviser. And as to the hopes, you ground on her seeing herself upon the point of passing out of the World; let me tell you, that the severe Exercises, to which her strict Piety hath long accustomed her, have so disingaged her affections from temporal things, that, being already mortified to the pleasures and vanities of the World, Death can now do no more, but free her from the troubles and persecutions of it. She hath employed a great part of her life, in preparing herself to part with it joyfully, when-ever Nature or Vertue shall require it; and she will find it very easie to lay it down for Religion, now she is in a suffering Condition, when in her most flourishing one, she found it enough to wean her from the love of the present life, that it detained her from the next. Great Vertues, such as hers, are like great Rivers, which, the nearer they come to the Sea, where they are to end their course, the greater they are wont to grow, and the more difficult the stream is to be withstood or hinder’d from its progress. Theodora now looks upon herself, as having but one step more to make, to reach that Crown she hath done and suffer’d so much for: And that glorious Object, viewed at so near a distance, so ravishes and so possesses her Eyes, that she will doubtless either not see, or not regard, any thing that would hinder or retard her taking possession of it.
Here the Roman Officer, somewhat impatient at Didymus’s Discourse, would no longer forbear interrupting it, by telling him; To hear you speak, one would imagine, that you are not talking of a young Lady, but of some ancient Heroe, that had been long accustom’d to despise the Frowns of Fortune, and keep himself from over-valuing her smiles.
Heroick Vertue (replies Didymus) does as little know Sexes, as doth the Soul wherein it properly resides. A habitude cannot always be Essential to the Nature of an Heroick Action: Since the first of that kind that one does, is not the consequent, but the beginning, of a a habitude: And a sincere and settled resolution to be highly vertuous, may make a Woman (as well as a Man) to be, that which the noblest subsequent Actions can but declare her to have been. And a Person that, like Theodora, acts by the assistance, and as in the presence, of the Deity, may, to maintain her Loyalty to God, and her Title to the inestimable Rewards he hath promis’d to persevering Piety, both act and suffer greater things, than those very Heroes you talk of were put upon, by such barely humane Motives, as Custom, Ambition, or Revenge. And particularly, as to the point of perseverance against Menaces, and Proffers; these are not like to prevail against the Constancy of Christians much less possess’d with Divine Love and Hope, than Theodora is. And indeed, there can be nothing upon Earth capable to bribe Them, to let go the Joys of Heaven, that see themselves entring upon the Possession, and find themselves sensible of the inestimable Value of them.
Wherefore (concludes Didymus) you will not, I presume, think it strange, that I refuse to joyn with you, in a Design, that I could not so much as attempt, either with Hope, or without a Crime; and that thinking it worthier of my Endeavors, to imitate Theodora’s Constancy, than to seduce her from it, I chuse rather to be a sharer in the Triumphs of her Vertue, than a Trophy.