Section 408
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ECCLESIAS'HCAL HISTORY. 377 enlightened soul, and the pure eye of the mind. So that when ever he wished to produce any passage, whether from the law, or the prophets, or the apostles, the historical parts or the gospels, he could repeat and produce it as from a treasury of learning, whenever he pleased. I confess that I myself was astonished when I first saw the man standing in the midst of a large multitude, and repeating certain parts of the holy Scriptures. For as far as I had opportunity only to hear his voice, I thought that he was reading as is usual in the congregations, but when I came near and saw the fact, all the others standing around, with their sound eyes, and him alone raising his mind and pronouncing without any artificial means, as a kind of prophet, and far surpassing those who were robust in body, I could not but glorify and praise God. And indeed, I seemed to behold an evident and solid proof in facts, that not he who appears in the external form is the real man, but in truth that which is in the soul and mind. For he, though mutilated in body, exhibited the greater excellence of power and virtue. But as to those already mentioned, who were living in a separate place, and were engaged in performing their accustomed duties, in prayer and fasting, and other exer cises, God himself condescended to grant them a salutary issue, by extending his right arm to help them. The enemy, no longer able to bear them, armed with constant prayer to God, prepared to destroy and remove them from the earth, as troublesome to him. God granted him, also, power to do this, that at the same time he might not be restrained in his determined wickedness, and they might now receive the prizes of their varied conflicts. Thus, then, the thirty-nine, at the com mand of the most execrable Maximinus, were beheaded in one day. And these were the martyrdoms exhibited in Palestine in the space of eight years, and such was the persecution in our day. It began, indeed, with the demolition of the churches, and grew to a great height during the insurrections from time to time under the rulers. In these, many and various were the contests of the noble wrestlers in the cause of piety, who pre sented an innumerable multitude of martyrs through the whole province, among those from Libya, and through all Egypt, Syria, 3B