Exhortation to Martyrdom 18

A great theater is gathered to watch you as you contend and are called to martyrdom, as if we were saying that such a thing happened in the case of some supposedly marvelous contestants, with countless thousands … to the spectacle of the contest. And when you contend, you will say no less than Paul: “We have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.” The whole world, then, and all the angels on the right and on the left, and all men, both those of God's portion and those of the others, will hear us contending in the contest for Christianity. And either the angels in heaven will rejoice over us, and “the rivers will clap their hands together, and the mountains will rejoice,” “and all the trees of the field will clap with their branches”; or, God forbid, the powers below that rejoice in evil will rejoice. And it is not out of place to see, from what is written in Isaiah, what will be said by those in Hades to those who have been defeated and have fallen from heavenly martyrdom, so that we may shudder still more at the impiety of denial. For I think that such things will be said to the one who has denied: “Hades below was embittered on meeting you; all the giants who ruled the earth were roused for you, who roused all the kings of the nations from their thrones. They will all answer and say to you.” And what will the defeated powers say to those defeated, and those captured by the devil to those captured in denial, what are these words? “You too were captured, as we were, and you have been counted among us.” And if someone who had a great and glorious hope in God is overcome, through cowardice or the pains applied to him, he will hear: “Your glory has gone down to Hades, your great joy; under you they will spread decay, and the worm will be your covering.” And if someone often shone in the churches, appearing to them like “the morning star,” as his good works shone “before men,” and afterwards, contending in the great contest, lost the crown of such a throne, he will hear: “How the morning star that rose at dawn has fallen from heaven! He has been crushed upon the earth.” And this also will be said to him, who has become like the devil through denial: “You will be cast out on the mountains like an abominable corpse, with many dead pierced by swords, going down to Hades. As a garment soaked in blood will not be clean, so neither will you be clean.” For how will he be clean who is defiled with blood and murder by the abominable fall of denial, and soaked in so great an evil? Now let us show that we have heard the saying, “He who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me”; let us take care that no hesitation arise in us even as to whether we should deny or confess, so that the word of Elijah may not be said to us too, which runs: “How long will you limp on both your hams? If the Lord is God, go after him.”