Chapter 5
TERTULLIAN
you cannot say that persecution is an evil; for even in its evil aspect it is a good, while it is dictated by reason.
(3) Therefore, if persecution is an intrinsic good, since it has a natural basis, we must necessarily conclude that we ought not to flee from a good thing, because it would be a sin to refuse what is good and, more so, to shun something that God has seen. As a matter of fact, we cannot really avoid persecution, since it comes from God, and no man can escape what God has willed. Therefore, those who ad vocate flight either reproach God for perpetrating an evil, if they run from persecution as if from an evil (for no man runs from what is good)—or they consider themselves stronger than God, if they think they can avoid something that God has determined is going to take place.
Chapter 5 (1) But someone may say: 'I only flee in order to save my soul, lest I perish by denying my faith. If God wants me to be a martyr, He can bring me back before the judge, even if I run away.' First answer me this: Are you certain you will succumb, if you stay and face persecution, or are you still uncertain? If you are certain, then you have already denied the faith, because, in presuming you will fall, you have already despaired. Granted that presumption, there is no use in fleeing lest you succumb, since, if you are bound to fall, you have already fallen. If, on the other hand, you are still uncertain [whether or not you will deny the faith under fire], why not presume you could be a confessor, since there is an equal balance of fear of either alternative? In that way you would be saved, without fleeing at all. For,
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remember, that is what you had in mind when you planned to flee, lest you run the risk of falling.
(2) Either the choice lies entirely with us, or it is wholly in the power of God. And, if it is ours to decide whether we will be confessors or not, why not assume what is better, namely, that we will bravely face the persecutor? Unless you are willing to confess the faith, you do not want to suffer; and to be unwilling to confess is to deny. If, however, the matter is entirely in the hands of God, why not leave the whole affair to His judgment? Let us recognize His power and might who is equally able to bring us back to the tri bunal if we run away, just as He is able to protect us if we do not flee; yes, even living in the midst of the people.
(3) What kind of position are we in if we pretend we are paying honor to God by running away because we admit that He can bring us back, while at the same time we are do ing Him a dishonor by despairing of His power to protect us if we stand firm? Would we not be showing more strength and trust in God if we were to say: 'I will do my duty;
I will not run away; If God so wills, He will protect me?'
This, I think, is our duty, instead—to stay, leaving the matter up to God's will rather than to run away on our own choice. The holy martyr Rutilius time and again fled perse cution from place to place, even, so he thought, buying his freedom with money. While enjoying the freedom he had worked so hard to get he was unexpectedly caught, haled before the judge, and worn out with torments (which I suspect were a punishment for his flight!) and, finally, being cast into the fire, he paid to the mercy of God the suffering he had been unwilling to bear.1 Clearly, God wants us to 1 Nothing else is known of this martyr Rutilius. Mention of him is made in the Roman Martyrology for August 2nd.