Chapter 2
FLIGHT IN TIME OF PERSECUTION
provides the crown and the prizes? You will find this contest decreed in the Apocalypse where He proclaims the rewards of victory, especially for those who really come through per secution victorious,0 and in their victorious struggle have fought not merely against flesh and blood, but against the spirits of wickedness.5 6 Obviously, then, the superintendent of the games and the one who sets the prize is the one who decides who is the winner of the contest. The essence, then, of a persecution is the glory of God, whether He approves or condemns, raises up or casts down. And whatever concerns the glory of God will certainly flow from the Will of God.
But, when is God more sincerely believed than when He is more feared, than in time of persecution?
(6) [When persecution strikes,] the Church is mightily stirred; then the faithful are more careful in their prepara tions, greater attention is given to fasts and station days, to prayers and humility, to mutual charity and love, to holiness and temperance. Men have time for nothing but fear and hope. Therefore, it is clear that persecution, which works for the improvement of the servants of God, cannot be blamed on the Devil.
Chapter 2 (1) On the other hand, it might seem that persecution stems from the Devil, who commits the evil acts which make up the persecution, if we reason as follows: Evil is not from God but from the Devil, and a persecution is made up of evil actions (for, what could be more evil than to treat the 5 Cf. Apoc. 2.7,10,11,17,26-28; 3.5,12,21.
6 Cf. Eph, 6.12.
TERTULLIAN
bishops of the true God and all the followers of truth as if they were the vilest criminals?). Still, we must realize that, as you cannot have a persecution without evil on the part of the Devil, nor a trial of faith without a persecution, the evil that seems required for the trial of faith is not the cause of persecution, but only its instrument. The real cause of the persecution is the act of God's will, choosing that there be a trial of faith; then there follows evil on the part of the Devil as the chosen instrument of persecution which is the proxi mate cause of the trial of faith. For, in other respects, too, in so far as evil is the rival of justice, to that extent it provides material to give testimony of that of which it is a rival, and so, justice may be said to be perfected in injustice, as strength is perfected in weakness.1 For the weak things of the world are chosen by God that the strong may be put to shame, and the foolish things of this world to put to shame its wisdom.2
Thus, even evil may be used that justice may be glorified when evil is put to shame.
(2) However, this instrument in the hands of the Devil does not make him a master, but really a servant; it is the will of the Lord that chooses persecution as a means to the trial of faith, and the Devil is only an instrument to be used so that persecution can take place. Thus, we believe that a persecution happens through the Devil, but not by him.
Satan can have no power over the servants of the living God, unless the Lord permits it, either in order that the Devil may be destroyed by the victory of the faith of the elect in over coming temptation, or that some men be shown by their defection under fire, to have long since belonged to Satan.
(3) For this we have the example of Job, to whom the 1 2 Cor. 12.9.
2 1 Cor. 1.27.
FLIGHT IN TIME OF PERSECUTION
Devil never could have sent a temptation unless he had re ceived the power from God to do so; nor could he have laid a hand on Job's property unless God had said: 'Behold, I give into your hands all things that are his, but on himself, do not lay a hand.' And the Devil never would have done even that unless, when he asked for this power afterwards,
God had said: 'I hand him over to you, only, save his life.'3
(4) So also, the Devil asked for the power to tempt the Apostles, since he did not have it except with divine per mission. Thus, in the Gospel, the Lord said to Peter: 'Behold,
Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith may not fail.'4
That is to say, the Devil could not have so much power as to be able to endanger the faith of Peter. Thus we see that both the threat to our faith as well as its protection are in the power of God, when both are asked of Him—the threat by the Devil and the protection by the Son of God.
(5) And surely, when the Son of God has the protection of our faith in His power, since He asked it of the Father from whom He received all power in heaven and on earth,5 how could the Devil ever have it in his own power, independently, to pose a threat to our faith? On the other hand, when we say to His Father in the prayer that He has enjoined on us,
'Lead us not into temptation'6 (and what greater temptation can there be than persecution?), we are effectively admitting that temptation is permitted by Him from whom we are asking help. This is clear from what follows: 'But deliver us from evil.'7 That is, do not lead us into temptation so 3 Job 2.6.
4 Luke 22.31,32.
5 Matt. 28.18.
6 Matt. 6.13.
7 Ibid.
TERTULLIAN
that we might fall into the hands of the Devil. For then are we truly snatched from the hands of the Devil, when we are not even exposed to him to be tempted at all.
(6) The Devil and his host would not have had power even over the herd of swine had it not been given them by God;8 so much the less do they have it over the flock of God.
I would go so far as to say that the bristles on the hide of the swine were numbered by God, not less than the hairs on the head of the saints.9 The Devil has power that might be called his own, only over such as no longer belong to God, the heathen whom He considers once for all as a drop in a bucket,10 as dust on the threshing floor, as spittle in the mouth
—and, as such, totally handed over to the Devil as a quite useless possession.
(7) Otherwise, he may do nothing by his own right, against those who dwell in the house of God, because the cases that are noted in Scripture show us when—that is, for what reasons—he may touch them. The right to tempt a man is granted to the Devil, either for the sake of a trial, as in the texts cited above, whether God or the Devil initiates the plan, or for the purpose of the reprobation of a sinner, who is handed over to the Devil as to an executioner. This was the case with Saul. 'The spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled and stifled him.'* 11
Again, it may happen in order to humble a man, as St.
Paul tells us that there was given him a thorn, a messenger of Satan, to buffet him,12 and even this sort of thing is not permitted for the humiliation of holy men through torment of 8 Matt. 8.31,32.
9 Matt. 10.30.
10 Cf. Isa. 40.15.
II 1 Kings 16.14.
12 2 Cor. 12.7.
FLIGHT IN TIME OF PERSECUTION
the flesh, unless it be done so that their power to resist may be perfected in weakness. The Apostle himself handed
Phigellus and Hermogenes over to Satan so that by being chastised they might not blaspheme.13 And so you see that, far from possessing power in his own right, the Devil can more easily be granted it by the servants of God.
Chapter 3 (1) Now, since it is clear that cases such as these occur in time of persecutions more than at other times (for, it is then that we are approved or condemned, humbled or corrected), it can only be that their general occurrence is permitted or decreed by Him at whose will they happen even partially; in a word, by Him who says: 'I am He who makes peace and creates evil.'1 And, by 'evil' here is meant 'war,' the antithesis of peace. For persecution is surely the 'war' which destroys our 'peace.' If, indeed, the most striking out come of persecution is to bring life or death, harm or health, then its author will surely be He who says: 'I will strike and I will heal; I will bring life and I will cause death.'2 Again,
He tells us: 'I will refine them as gold is refined, and I will try them as silver is tried.'3 For when we are tried in the flame of persecution, then it is that we are tested for the steadfastness of our faith.
(2) These will be the fiery darts of the Devil,4 by which 13 Cf. 2 Tim. 1.15; 1 Tim. 1.20.
1 Isa. 45.7.
2 Deut. 32.39.
3 Zach. 13.9.
4 Cf. Eph. 6.16.