Eusebius of Caesarea · a new plain-English translation from the Greek
1| But someone who delights in blasphemy will say that God, since he is God, could have made the will of human beings better and gentler. What better method, then, what more effective undertaking for bringing the wicked to their senses could there be than his own address to them? Did he not teach the ordered life in person, present and seen by all? If, then, the command of God achieved nothing while he was present, what good would it have done while he was absent and unheard?
2| What, then, stood in the way of that most blessed teaching? Human perversity. For whenever we take what is commanded rightly and fittingly as a cause for anger, the sobriety of the mind is darkened. And why was it that those people found it agreeable to neglect the commandments and to offer the law laid down for them ears that had no appetite for it? Had they not neglected it, they would have reaped a reward worthy of their listening, not only for the present moment but for the life that comes after, which is life in the true sense. For the wage of obedience to God is the incorruptible and everlasting life, which is within reach of those who know God and who make their own lives worthy of emulation, a kind of everlasting pattern for those who have chosen to live in rivalry with them.
3| This is why the teaching was handed down to the wise: so that whatever they command may be carefully kept by those who obey them, with a pure soul, and the keeping of God's command may be true and steadfast. For from this keeping, by a pure faith and a sincere devotion to God, springs fearlessness in the face of death as well; it stands firm against the storms of the world, fenced for martyrdom with the unconquerable … of divine virtue. Having overcome the greatest terrors through greatness of soul, it is judged worthy of a crown from him to whom it has borne noble witness.
4| Yet it takes no pride in this, for it knows, I think, that this too was given by God: the strength to endure and to carry out the divine commands with a ready heart. This life is followed by a lasting memory and everlasting glory, and very rightly so, since the martyr's life is found to have been temperate and mindful of the commandments, and his end full of greatness of soul and nobility. After these things come hymns and psalms and words of praise, and the glorifying of him who watches over all.
5| And a sacrifice of thanksgiving of this kind is offered for these men, pure of blood and pure of all violence. No smell of frankincense is wanted, no burning pyre, only clean light, enough to give those who pray their illumination. And the feasts, too, held by many, are kept with the greatest sobriety, for mercy, for the restoring of those in need, and for the help of those who have fallen. Anyone who thinks these things vulgar does not think in accordance with the divine and blessed teaching.
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