Cyprian & Lactantius · a new plain-English translation from the original language
It would take long to set forth every kind of virtue one by one and show how necessary it is for the wise and just man to hold himself far from those goods which the unjust enjoy, and by which the worship of the gods is falsely believed to be true and effective. For the question now before us, it is enough if we prove our point from a single virtue. Patience, surely, is a great and outstanding virtue, one that the common voice of the people, the philosophers, and the orators alike celebrate with the highest praise. But if it cannot be denied that patience is a supreme virtue, then it necessarily follows that the just and wise man must lie within the power of the unjust man, in order that he may practice patience. For patience is the bearing, with an even mind, of evils that are either inflicted on us or simply happen to us. The just and wise man, then, since he possesses virtue, has patience in himself; but he would be entirely without it if he suffered nothing adverse. By contrast, prosperity itself renders a man impatient and strips him of this greatest of virtues; impatient, that is, simply because he has nothing to endure. Nor can he keep innocence, which is likewise a virtue proper to the just and wise man; instead he often does harm, covets what belongs to others, and seizes by injury whatever he desires, because, void of virtue, he is subject to vice and sin, and, forgetting his own frailty, swells with a mind puffed up in arrogance. That is why the unjust, who know nothing of God, flourish in riches, power, and honors. Such rewards all belong to injustice, since none of them can endure forever, and all are pursued only through greed and violence. The just and wise man, however, since — as Laelius once said — he judges all those things human, and his own goods divine, covets nothing belonging to another, lest he wrong anyone against the law of humanity in any way; nor does he desire any power or honor, lest he do injury to someone — for he knows that all people, begotten by the same God and under the same condition, are joined by the bond of brotherhood. Content with what is his own, however small, mindful of his own frailty, he seeks nothing more than the means to sustain his life, and from what little he has he shares even with one who has nothing, because he is devout; and devotion is the highest virtue. Furthermore, he despises fleeting and corrupting pleasures, for whose sake wealth is pursued, since he is self-controlled and master of his desires. Bearing no arrogance or pride, he does not exalt himself or lift up a proud head, but is calm, agreeable, sociable, and unassuming, because he knows his own condition. This is a man who harms nobody, wants nothing that belongs to another, and will not even fight back to keep what is his when it is taken by force — his virtue teaches him to absorb an injury calmly. From such a disposition it inevitably follows that the fool gets to abuse the wise, and injustice gets to trample justice: the fool sins because injustice is his nature, while the wise man, precisely because he is just, discovers his virtue only in how he endures it. But if anyone wishes to know more fully why God allows the wicked and unjust to become powerful, blessed, and rich, while he permits the devout, by contrast, to be lowly, wretched, and poor, let him take up that book of Seneca entitled 'Why Many Evils Befall Good Men, though Providence Exists.' In it Seneca says much that is spoken not with worldly ignorance at all, but wisely, and almost as if by divine inspiration. As Seneca puts it, God treats humanity as his own children, yet lets the depraved and corrupt indulge a life of luxury and excess, since he judges them unworthy of correction. The good, however, whom he loves, he chastises more often and trains through constant hardships in the practice of virtue, and he does not allow them to be corrupted and depraved by fleeting, mortal goods. Hence no one should find it strange that God so frequently chastises us on account of our own wrongdoing. Indeed, it is precisely when we are troubled and weighed down that gratitude is most owed to our Father in his great indulgence, since he refuses to let our corruption spread any further and instead corrects it through blows and lashes. From this we understand that we are objects of God's care, since he grows angry with us because we sin. For although he could have granted his people both wealth and kingdoms, as he had earlier given to the Jews, whose successors and descendants we are, he chose instead that his people should live under the rule and authority of another, lest, corrupted by the happiness of prosperous circumstances, they slip into luxury and come to despise God's commandments, just as our ancestors did, who, often weakened by these earthly and fragile goods, strayed from discipline and broke the bonds of the law. He therefore arranged matters so that his worshippers would receive rest for keeping his commands, while correction would follow should his precepts go unheeded. And so, lest they be corrupted by ease as much as their fathers had been by license, he chose to have them pressed by those into whose hands he had placed them, so that he might strengthen those who were faltering, restore the corrupted to fortitude, and test and prove the faithful. For how can a general demonstrate the courage of his soldiers unless he has an enemy? Yet for him the adversary rises up unwilling, since he is mortal and can be conquered; but since no one can resist God, he himself raises up adversaries against his own name — opponents who wage war not on God directly, but on his soldiers — so that he may either test or strengthen the devotion and faith of his own people, until, through the lashes of affliction, he corrects a discipline grown slack. There is also another reason he permits persecutions against us: so that God's people may grow. How or why this comes about is not difficult to demonstrate. First, very many are driven away from the worship of the gods by hatred of such cruelty — for who would not shudder at such sacrifices? Then, some are drawn simply by virtue and good faith itself. Still others suppose there must be good grounds for so many people to condemn the worship of the gods as an evil, given that they would rather die than do what others do merely to go on living. Someone is led to want to know what that good thing is which is defended even unto death, which is preferred above all the pleasant and dear things of this life, and from which neither the loss of possessions, nor the loss of light, nor bodily pain, nor the torture of the inward parts can deter them. These considerations carry great weight; but the greatest causes of all have always been these: even amid their own torments, the surrounding crowd hears them declare that they sacrifice not to stones shaped by human hands, but to the God who lives in heaven — a truth many grasp and take to heart. Then, as commonly happens in matters of uncertainty, while people ask one another what the cause of such perseverance might be, many things pertaining to religion, once spread abroad, are learned in turn as they are caught up by rumor; and since these things are good, they cannot help but please. Besides, the vengeance that follows, as always happens, powerfully drives people toward belief. Nor is this a slight cause either: that unclean spirits of demons, having gained license, plunge themselves into the bodies of many people; and once these spirits are driven out, those restored to health remain devoted ever after to the faith whose power they experienced. All these many causes, gathered together into one, wonderfully gain for God a great multitude.
Whatever evil, then, the wicked rulers contrive against us, God himself permits to happen. And yet let not the most unjust persecutors, for whom the name of God has been a matter of insult and mockery, suppose that they will go unpunished, since they acted, so to speak, merely as tools carrying out his wrath toward us. God's own judgment will punish them regardless — those who, once granted power, abused it beyond what is humanly tolerable and, in their arrogance, insulted God himself, casting his eternal name impiously and wickedly beneath their feet to be trampled. For this reason God promises that he will swiftly take vengeance upon them and will wipe out the evil beasts from the earth. Yet although he is accustomed even now, in the present, to avenge the afflictions of his people, still he bids us await patiently that day of heavenly judgment, on which he himself will either honor or punish each person according to their own deserts. Wherefore let not sacrilegious souls hope that those whom they so trample down will go despised and unavenged. Those greedy, ravenous wolves who tormented righteous, guiltless souls that had committed no crime will meet the reward that is owed to them. Let us only strive that nothing but righteousness alone be punished in us by men, and let us apply ourselves with all our strength to deserve from God both vengeance for our suffering and its reward.