11. Examples of Scripture Saints in defence of flight.
Perhaps they have not read these histories; as being out of date; yet have they no recollection of what is written in the Gospel? For the disciples also withdrew and hid themselves for fear of the Jews; and Paul, when he was sought after by the governor at Damascus, was let down from the wall in a basket, and so escaped his hands. As the Scripture then relates these things of the Saints, what excuse will they be able to invent for their wickedness? To reproach them with cowardice would be an act of madness, and to accuse them of acting contrary to the will of God, would be to shew themselves entirely ignorant of the Scriptures. For there was a command under the law [1434] that cities of refuge should be appointed, in order that they who were sought after to be put to death, might at least have some means of saving themselves. And when He Who spake unto Moses, the Word of the Father, appeared in the end of the world, He also gave this commandment, saying, But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another:' and shortly after He says, When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoso readeth, let him understand); then let them which be in Judæa flee into the mountains: let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes [1435] .' Knowing these things, the Saints regulated their conduct accordingly. For what our Lord has now commanded, the same also He spoke by His Saints before His coming in the flesh: and this is the rule which is given unto men to lead them to perfection--what God commands, that to do.
[1434] Ex. xxi. 13.
[1435] Matt. x. 23; xxiv. 15.
12. The Lord an example of timely flight.
Wherefore also the Word Himself, being made man for our sakes, condescended to hide Himself when He was sought after, as we do: and also when He was persecuted, to flee and avoid the designs of His enemies. For it became Him, as by hunger and thirst and suffering, so also by hiding Himself and fleeing, to shew that He had taken our flesh, and was made man. Thus at the very first, as soon as He became man, when He was a little child, He Himself by His Angel commanded Joseph, Arise, and take the young Child and His Mother, and flee into Egypt; for Herod will seek the young Child's life [1436] .' And when Herod was dead, we find Him withdrawing to Nazareth by reason of Archelaus his son. And when afterwards He was shewing Himself to be God, and made whole the withered hand, the Pharisees went out, and held a council against Him, how they might destroy Him; but when Jesus knew it, He withdrew Himself from thence [1437] . So also when He raised Lazarus from the dead, from that day forth,' says the Scripture, they took counsel for to put Him to death. Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews; but went thence into the country near to the wilderness [1438] .' Again, when our Saviour said, Before Abraham was, I am,' the Jews took up stones to cast at Him; but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple [1439] .' And going through the midst of them, He went His way,' and so passed by [1440] .'
[1436] Matt. ii. 13.
[1437] Matt. xii. 15.
[1438] John xi. 53, 54.
[1439] John viii. 58, 59.
[1440] Luke iv. 30.
13. Example of Our Lord.
When they see these things, or rather even hear of them, for see they do not, will they not desire, as it is written, to become fuel of fire [1441] ,' because their counsels and their words are contrary to what the Lord both did and taught? Also when John was martyred, and his disciples buried his body, when Jesus heard of it, He departed thence by ship into a desert place apart [1442] .' Thus the Lord acted, and thus He taught. Would that these men were even now ashamed of their conduct, and confined their rashness to man, nor proceeded to such extreme madness as even to charge our Saviour with cowardice! for it is against Him that they now utter their blasphemies. But no one will endure such madness; nay it will be seen that they do not understand the Gospels. The cause must be a reasonable and just one, which the Evangelists represent as weighing with our Saviour to withdraw and to flee; and we ought therefore to assign the same for the conduct of all the Saints. (For whatever is written concerning our Saviour in His human nature, ought to be considered as applying to the whole race of mankind [1443] ; because He took our body, and exhibited in Himself human infirmity.) Now of this cause John has written thus, They sought to take Him: but no man laid hands on Him, because His hour was not yet come [1444] .' And before it came, He Himself said to His Mother, Mine hour is not yet come [1445] :' and to them who were called His brethren, My time is not yet come [1446] .' And again, when His time was come, He said to the disciples, Sleep on now, and take your rest: for behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners [1447] .'
[1441] Is. ix. 5.
[1442] Matt. xiv. 13.
[1443] Cf. Orat. i. 43.
[1444] John vii. 30.
[1445] John ii. 4.
[1446] John vii. 6.
[1447] Matt. xxvi. 45.
14. An hour and a time for all men.
Now in so far as He was God and the Word of the Father, He had no time; for He is Himself the Creator of times [1448] . But being made man, He shews by speaking in this manner that there is a time allotted to every man; and that not by chance, as some of the Gentiles imagine in their fables, but a time which He, the Creator, has appointed to every one according to the will of the Father. This is written in the Scriptures, and is manifest to all men. For although it be hidden and unknown to all, what period of time is allotted to each, and how it is allotted; yet every one knows this, that as there is a time for spring and for summer, and for autumn and for winter, so, as it is written [1449] , there is a time to die, and a time to live. And so the time of the generation which lived in the days of Noah was cut short, and their years were contracted, because the time of all things was at hand. But to Hezekiah were added fifteen years. And as God promises to them that serve Him truly, I will fulfil the number of thy days [1450] ,' Abraham dies full of days,' and David besought God, saying, Take me not away in the midst of my days [1451] .' And Eliphaz, one of the friends of Job, being assured of this truth, said, Thou shalt come to thy grave like ripe corn, gathered in due time, and like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season [1452] .' And Solomon confirming his words, says, The souls of the unrighteous are taken away untimely [1453] .' And therefore he exhorts in the book of Ecclesiastes, saying, Be not overmuch wicked, neither be thou hard: why shouldest thou die before thy time [1454] ?'
[1448] De Decr. 18, note 5.
[1449] Eccles. iii. 2.
[1450] Ex. xxiii. 26; Gen. xxv. 8.
[1451] Ps. cii. 24.
[1452] Job v. 26, LXX.
[1453] Vid. Prov. x. 27
[1454] Eccles. vii. 17.
15. The Lord's hour and time.
Now as these things are written in the Scriptures, the case is clear, that the saints know that a certain time is measured to every man, but that no one knows the end of that time is plainly intimated by the words of David, Declare unto me the shortness of my days [1455] .' What he did not know, that he desired to be informed of. Accordingly the rich man also, while he thought that he had yet a long time to live, heard the words, Thou fool, this night they are requiring thy soul: then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided [1456] ?' And the Preacher speaks confidently in the Holy Spirit, and says, Man also knoweth not his time [1457] .' Wherefore the Patriarch Isaac said to his son Esau, Behold, I am old, and I know not the day of my death [1458] .' Our Lord therefore, although as God, and the Word of the Father, He both knew the time measured out by Him to all, and was conscious of the time for suffering, which He Himself had appointed also to His own body; yet since He was made man for our sakes, He hid Himself when He was sought after before that time came, as we do; when He was persecuted, He fled; and avoiding the designs of His enemies He passed by, and so went through the midst of them [1459] .' But when He had brought on that time which He Himself had appointed, at which He desired to suffer in the body for all men, He announces it to the Father, saying, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son [1460] .' And then He no longer hid Himself from those who sought Him, but stood willing to be taken by them; for the Scripture says, He said to them that came unto Him, Whom seek ye [1461] ?' and when they answered, Jesus of Nazareth,' He saith unto them, I am He whom ye seek.' And this He did even more than once; and so they straightway led Him away to Pilate. He neither suffered Himself to be taken before the time came, nor did He hide Himself when it was come; but gave Himself up to them that conspired against Him, that He might shew to all men that the life and death of man depend upon the divine sentence; and that without our Father which is in heaven, neither a hair of man's head can become white or black, nor a sparrow ever fall into the snare [1462] .
[1455] Ps. cii. 23, LXX.
[1456] Luke xii. 20.
[1457] Eccles. ix. 12.
[1458] Gen. xxvii. 2.
[1459] Luke iv. 30.
[1460] John xvii. 1.
[1461] John xviii. 4, 5.
[1462] Matt. v. 36; x. 29.
6. The Lord's example followed by the Saints.
Our Lord therefore, as I said before, thus offered Himself for all; and the Saints having received this example from their Saviour (for all of them before His coming, nay always, were under His teaching), in their conflicts with their persecutors acted lawfully in flying, and hiding themselves when they were sought after. And being ignorant, as men, of the end of the time which Providence had appointed unto them, they were unwilling at once to deliver themselves up into the power of those who conspired against them. But knowing on the other hand what is written, that the portions' of man are in God's hand [1463] ,' and that the Lord killeth [1464] ,' and the Lord maketh alive,' they the rather endured unto the end, wandering about [1465] ,' as the Apostle has said, in sheepskins, and goatskins, being destitute, tormented, wandering in deserts,' and hiding themselves in dens and caves of the earth;' until either the appointed time of death arrived, or God who had appointed their time spake unto them, and stayed the designs of their enemies, or else delivered up the persecuted to their persecutors, according as it seemed to Him to be good. This we may well learn respecting all men from David: for when Joab instigated him to slay Saul, he said, As the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall descend into battle, and be delivered to the enemies; the Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the Lord's anointed [1466] .'
[1463] Ps. xxxi. 15.
[1464] 1 Sam. ii. 6.
[1465] Heb. xi. 37, 38.
[1466] 1 Sam. xxvi. 10, 11.
17. A time to flee and a time to stay.
And if ever in their flight they came unto those that sought after them, they did not do so without reason: but when the Spirit spoke unto them, then as righteous men they went and met their enemies; by which they also shewed their obedience and zeal towards God. Such was the conduct of Elijah, when, being commanded by the Spirit, he shewed himself unto Ahab [1467] ; and of Micaiah the prophet when he came to the same Ahab; and of the prophet who cried against the altar in Samaria, and rebuked Rehoboam [1468] ; and of Paul when he appealed unto Cæsar. It was not certainly through cowardice that they fled: God forbid. The flight to which they submitted was rather a conflict and war against death. For with wise caution they guarded against these two things; either that they should offer themselves up without reason (for this would have been to kill themselves, and to become guilty of death, and to transgress the saying of the Lord, What God hath joined let not man put asunder [1469] '), or that they should willingly subject themselves to the reproach of negligence, as if they were unmoved by the tribulations which they met with in their flight, and which brought with them sufferings greater and more terrible than death. For he that dies, ceases to suffer; but he that flies, while he expects daily the assaults of his enemies, esteems death lighter. They therefore whose course was consummated in their flight did not perish dishonourably, but attained as well as others the glory of martyrdom. Therefore it is that Job was accounted a man of mighty fortitude, because he endured to live under so many and such severe sufferings, of which he would have had no sense, had he come to his end. Wherefore the blessed Fathers thus regulated their conduct also; they shewed no cowardice in fleeing from the persecutor, but rather manifested their fortitude of soul in shutting themselves up in close and dark places, and living a hard life. Yet did they not desire to avoid the time of death when it arrived; for their concern was neither to shrink from it when it came, nor to forestall the sentence determined by Providence, nor to resist His dispensation, for which they knew themselves to be preserved; lest by acting hastily, they should become to themselves the cause of terror: for thus it is written, He that is hasty, with his lips, shall bring terror upon himself [1470] .'