On the Lapsed 3

Let no one, brothers, let no one mutilate this glory; let no one weaken the incorrupt firmness of those who stood firm by malicious disparagement. When the day appointed for those who denied had passed, whoever had not come forward within the day confessed that he was a Christian. The first title of victory is to confess the Lord when seized by the hands of the Gentiles; the second step to glory is to be withdrawn by a prudent retreat and kept for God. The one is a public confession, the other private: the one conquers the judge of the world; the other, content with God as his judge, guards a pure conscience by integrity of heart. In the one there is readier courage; in the other, safer caution. The one, as his hour approached, was found already ripe; the other perhaps was put off, who left his property and withdrew precisely because he was not going to deny. He would certainly have confessed if he too had been detained.