Aurelian; or, Rome in the Third Century
and through him reformers of the world; they would speak--they would
preach and pray, though death were the immediate reward.'
In this determination I heartily agreed as both moderate and yet firm;
as showing respect for the powers that are over us, and at the same time
asserting our own rights, and declaring our purpose to stand by them.
But so thought not all. For no sooner was the opinion of the assembly
declared than Macer broke forth:
'I have heard,' said he, 'the judgment which has been pronounced. But I
like it not--I agree not to it. Shall the minister of Christ, the
ambassador of God, a messenger from Heaven to earth, hold his peace at
the behest of a man, though he be an emperor, or of ten thousand men,
were all emperors? Not though every Christian in Rome subscribed to this
judgment, not though every Christian in the world assented to it, would
I. Is Christ to receive laws of Aurelian? Is the cause of God and truth
to be postponed to that of the empire? and posterity to die of hunger
because we refuse to till the earth? We are God's spiritual
husbandmen--the heart of Rome is our field of labor--it is already the
eleventh hour--the last days are at hand--and shall we forbear our toil?
shall we withdraw our hand from the plough? shall we cease to proclaim
the glad tidings of salvation because the doors of our churches are
closed? Not so, Christians, by the blessing of God, shall it be with me.
While the streets of Rome and her door-stones will serve me for church
and pulpit, and while my tongue is left unwrenched from my mouth, will I
not cease to declare Jesus Christ and him crucified! Think you Aurelian
will abate his wrath or change his purposes of death, for all your
humble sueing? that cringing and fawning will turn aside the messengers
of death? Believe it not. Ye know not Aurelian. More would ye gain with
him, did the faith of the peace-loving Jesus allow it, if ye went forth
in battle array and disputed this great question in the streets of Rome
sword in hand! More would ye gain now, if ye sent a word of
defiance--denying his right to interpose between God and his
people--between Christ and his church--and daring him to do his worst,
than by this tame surrender of your rights--this almost base denial of
your Master. No sooner shall tomorrow's sun have risen, than on the very
steps of the capitol will I preach Christ, and hurl the damnation of God
upon this bloody Emperor and his bloody people.'
'O, Macer, Macer! cease, cease!' cried a woman's voice from the crowd.
'You know not what you say! Already have your harsh words put new
bitterness into Aurelian's heart. Forbear, as you love Christ and us.'
'Woman--' replied Macer, 'for such your voice declares you to be--I do
love both Christ and you, and it is because I love you that I aim to set
aside this faithless judgment of the Roman Christians. But when I say I
love you and the believers in Rome, I mean your souls, not your bodies.
I love not your safety, nor your peace, nor your outward comforts; your
houses, nor your wealth, nor your children, nor your lives, nor anything
that is yours which the eye can see or the hands handle. I love your
souls, and, beside them, nothing. And while it is them I love, and for
them am bound in the spirit as a minister of Christ, I may not hold my
peace, nor hide myself, for that there is a lion in the path! As a
soldier of the cross I will never flee. Though at the last day I hear no
other word of praise from Him the judge--and no other shall I hear, for
my Pagan sins weigh me down--down--help, Lord! or I perish!--' Macer's
voice here took the tone of deepest agony; he seemed for a time wholly
lost, standing still, with outstretched arms and uplifted eye. After a
long pause he suddenly resumed. 'What did I say?--It was this: though I
hear no other word of praise from my judge as I stand at his
judgment-seat, I trust I shall hear this, that I did not flee nor hide
myself, that I was no coward, but a bold and fearless soldier of the
cross, ready at any time and at all times to suffer for the souls of my
brethren.'
'Think not, Macer,' said Probus, 'that we shrink at the prospect of
danger. But we would be not only bold and unshrinking, but wise and
prudent. There is more than one virtue goes to make the Christian man.
We think it right and wise first to appeal to the Emperor's love of
justice. We think it might redound greatly to our advantage if we could
obtain a public hearing before Aurelian, so that from one of our own
side he, with all the nobility of Rome, might hear the truth in Christ,
and then judge whether to believe so was hurtful to the state, or
deserving of torture and death.'
'As well, Probus,' replied Macer, 'might you preach the faith of Christ
in the ear of the adder! to the very stones of the highways! Aurelian
turn from a settled purpose! ha! ha! you have not served, Probus, under
him in Gaul and Asia as others have. Never did the arguments of his
legions and his great officers on the other side, serve but to intrench
him the more impregnably in his own. He knows not what the word change
means. But were this possible, and of good hope, it shows not that plain
and straight path to which my spirit points, and which therefore I must
travel. Is it right to hearken to man rather than God? That to me is
the only question. Shall Aurelian silence the ambassador of God and
Christ? Shall man wrestle and dispute it with the Almighty? God, or
Aurelian, which shall it be? To me, Christians, it would be a crime of
deeper dye than the errors of my Pagan youth, did I chain my tongue,
were it but for an hour, at the command of Aurelian. I have a light
within, and it is that I must obey. I reason not--I weigh not
probabilities--I balance not argument against argument--I feel! and that
I take to be the instinct of God--the inspiration of his holy
Spirit--and as I feel so am I bound to act.'
It was felt to be useless to reason with this impetuous and self-willed
man. He must be left to work out his own path through the surrounding
perils, and bear whatever evil his violent rashness might draw upon his
head. Yet his are those extreme and violent opinions and feelings which
are so apt to carry away the multitude, and it was easy to see that a
large proportion of the assembly went with him. Another occasion was
given for their expression.
When it had been determined that the edicts should be observed so far as
to refrain from all public preaching and all assembling together, till
the Emperor had been first appealed to, it then became a question in
what manner he should be approached, and by whom, in behalf of the whole
body. And no sooner had Macer ceased, than the same voice which had
first brought those charges against Probus was again heard--the voice as
I have since learned of a friend of Felix, and an exorcist.
'If it be now determined,' said the voice, 'that we appeal to the
clemency of the Emperor in order to avert from our heads the evil that
seems to be more than threatened, let it be done by some one who in his
faith may nay represent the great body of Christ's followers. Whether
the Emperor shall feel well inclined toward us or not, will it not
greatly depend upon the manner in which the truth in Christ shall be set
forth, and whether by means of the principles and doctrines that shall
be shown to belong to it and constitute it, it shall be judged by him to
be of hurtful or beneficial tendency? Now it is well known to all how
variously Christ is received and interpreted in Rome. As received by
some, his gospel is one thing; as received by others, it is another and
quite a different thing. Who can doubt that our prospect of a favorable
hearing with Aurelian will be an encouraging one in the proportion that
he shall perceive our opinions to agree with those which have already
been advanced in the schools of philosophy--especially in that of the
divine Plato. This agreement and almost identity has, ever since the
time of Justin, been pointed out and learnedly defended. They who
perceive this agreement, and rest in it as their faith, now constitute
the greater part of the Christian world. Let him then who is to bespeak
for us the Emperor's good-will be, as in good sooth he ought to be, of
these opinions. As to the declaration that has been made that one is as
much a Christian as another, whatever the difference of faith may be, I
cannot receive it; and he who made the declaration, I doubt would scarce
abide by it, since as I learn he is a worshipper and follower of that
false-hearted interloper Novatian. The puritans least of all are apt to
regard with favor those who hold not with them. Let Felix then, who, if
any now living in Rome may stand forward as a specimen of what Christ's
religion is in both its doctrine and its life--let Felix plead our cause
with Aurelian.'
The same difference of feeling and opinion manifested itself as before.
Many voices immediately cried out, 'Yes, yes, Felix, let Felix speak for
us.' While others from every part of the room were heard shouting out,
'Probus, Probus, let Probus be our advocate!'
At length the confusion subsided as a single voice made itself heard
above the others and caught their attention, saying,
'If Felix, O Christians, as has just been affirmed, represents the
opinions which are now most popular in the Christian world, at least
here in Rome, Probus represents those which are more ancient--' He was
instantly interrupted.
'How long ago,' cried another, 'lived Paul of Samosata?'
'When died the heretic Sabellius?' added still another.
'Or Praxeas?' said a third, 'or Theodotos? or Artemon?'
'These,' replied the first, soon as he could find room for
utterance--'these are indeed not of the earliest age, but they from whom
they learned their faith are of that age, namely, the apostles and the
great master of all.'
'Heresy,' cried out one who had spoken before, 'always dates from the
oldest; it never has less age nor authority than that of Christ.'
'Christians! Christians!' Macer's stentorian voice was now heard
towering above the tumult, 'what is it ye would have? What are these
distinctions about which ye dispute? What have they to do with the
matter now in hand? How would one doctrine or the other in such matters
weigh with Aurelian more than straws or feathers? But if these are stark
naught, and less than naught, there are other questions pertinent to the
time, nay, which the time forces upon us, and about which we should be
well agreed. A new age of persecution has arisen, and the church is
about to be sifted, and the wheat separated from the chaff--the first to
be gathered into the garners of God, the last to be burnt up in fire
unquenchable. Now is it to be proved who are Christ's, and who are
not--who will follow him bearing their cross to some new Calvary, and
who, saving their lives, shall yet lose them. Who knows not the evil
that, in the time of Decius, yes, and before and since too, fell upon
the church from the so easy reception and restoration of those who, in
an hour of weakness and fear, denied their master and his faith, and
bowed the knee to the gods of Rome? Here is the danger against which we
are to guard; from this quarter--not from any other of vain jargon
concerning natures, essences, and modes of being--are we to look for
those fatal inroads to be made upon the purity of the gospel, that
cannot but draw along with them corruption and ruin. Of what stuff will
the church then be made, when they who are its ministers, deacons and
bishops, shall be such as, when danger showed itself, relapsed into
idolatry, and, soon as the clouds had drifted by, and the winds blew
soft, came forth again into the calm sunshine, renounced their idolatry,