since after the Glory of having sav'd Theodora I hope for no higher on Earth than that of dying for her Then perceiving her ready to renew the Contest he told her with a low voice that the Judge might not hear him and with a sadness in his looks which she that knew his Courage could impute to nothing but his almost boundless concern for her Madam though the Presidents impatience did not call upon us to conclude our Contest yet my condition and resolution ought to put a hasty period to it For Madam I must positively declare to you that it would be as bootless as cruel for you to think to protect my Life by the abandoning of your own Since to owe a Life to that Cause would make it not only uneasie but insupportable to me and consequently uncapable of lasting So that enjoyning me to survive you would condemn me to a Life which after the loss of yours must be spent if it could last in fruitless deploring that Loss Forbear therefore concludes he I most earnestly beseech you Madam to exact such proofs of my Obedience that 't is as little in my power to give you as it ought to be in your will to require them since for Didymus to survive Theodora is as great an impossibility as it would be an unhappiness O admirable Contest where the noble Antagonists did not strive for Victory but Death or endeavour'd to overcome each other that the Victor might perish for the Vanquish'd Where self-Self-love the most radical affection of human Nature is sacrific'd to a Love equally chast and disinteress'd And where Vertue makes each of the Contenders in geniously Solicitous to appear Criminal that the Antagonist may be treated as innocent How well does this proceeding prove that inspir'd Sentence true that Love is Stronger than Death since in this Conflict the generous Friends are by the former made Rivals for the latter CHAP. VIII THE afflicted Virgin to whom these moving things were said finding that she should but lose her diswasions on Didymus thought fit to address herself once more to the President and with humble Gestures accompany'd with Looks and with a Voice that would have soften'd any that were not invincibly Obdurate she told him Though Sir the Arguments us'd by this Gentleman had far better prov'd than they have that of us two he is the fittest person to be condemn'd yet I hope where you Preside with so much Authority he will not fare the worse for being generous and that what he has done will be more prevalent with you than what he has said Ever since he was capable of bearing Arms he employ'd them in the service of the Emperors and in their Camps chearfully follow'd the Roman Eagles where-ever they durst fly And after his having this day hazarded himself so generously out of compassion to a distress'd Virgin what examples of gallantry may not be expected from such a Courage engag'd by his Gratitude when he shall act for the acquest of Glory and the Service of his Country If a guilty intention be necessary to make an action so his will not be found to be Criminal since he did not intend the violation of any Law but to second what we are told to be the design of all just Laws which is to protect the Innocent and encourage Vertue But if by a rigid interpretation of the Law he may be brought within the reach of it I hope his Misdemeanor will not appear so great but that your Clemency may allow him all that I beg for him which is that he may be permitted to repair a mistake in the exercise of his vertue by the continuation of those Services in the Roman Army which will be far more useful to the publick than his death in his present circumstances can be To this Theodora would perhaps have added though she could scarce have done it without some reluctancy from her modesty The things Sir that he has been pleas'd to act and hazard for me may persuade you that if contrary to my prayers and hopes you should design severity towards him you may more sensibly punish him by my death than by more immediate inflictions on himself And 't is like she would have enforc'd her arguments and intreaties for a Person for whom she was so much and so justly concern'd when the President vex'd to find that both of them so little valu'd Life whose deprivation was the most formidable thing he could threaten them with prevented her by saying with a stern countenance No I will hear no more having heard but too much already It does not become a Roman Magistrate to suffer any longer with patience that Prisoners and Criminals should daringly disobey the Laws slight all their threats and glory in their violation What each of you has said to prove himself guilty affords abundant reason to condemn you both Wherefore since you cannot agree among your selves I will be your Umpire and give both of you what each desires and merits You Obstinate Maid sayes he turning to Theodora shall dye for having broken Prison You Disobedient Soldier sayes he to Didymus shall dye for having perswaded and further'd her Escape But to specifie your chiefest Crime than which there needs no other nor can be a greater you both shall dye because you are Christians and consequently Enemies to the Roman Emperors and the Gods that made them so This fatal Doom being pronounc'd the Judge order'd the condemn'd Prisoners to be taken aside and strongly guarded till all things were in readiness for their Execution Which preparatives he gave order to hasten Yet finding by the discontented looks and confus'd murmurs of the by-standers that the Charms and Innocence of Theodora and the Youth Courage and Friendship of both the no less generous than unfortunate Prisoners made his Sentence o be far less lik'd than were the persons behavior of those it had pass'd upon declar'd that whilst he was dispatching other publick business he permitted any that should have Charity enough to make a hopeless Attempt to endeavour to convert those obstinate miscreants Adding withal an intimation that even they might speed in their suit if they would seasonably with incense in their hands flee to the Altars of the Gods and humbly implore of Them Pardon and Safety This respite as it expos'd the generous Couple to have their constancy assaulted by Infidels ambitious of making such illustrious Persons Proselytes so it gave them the welcom opportunity of interchanging some discourse with one another These Conferences were begun by Didymus who seeing himself upon the point of final Separation from his admirable Mistress could not forbear feeling in himself such disorders as on all other sad occasions his great Courage had kept him from resenting And this unusual commotion of mind was uneasie enough to oblige him to say to the fair Person that occasion'd it Though Madam the military course of life I have with some forwardness pursu'd has accustom'd me to
meet Death in variety of formidable Shapes and Dresses without being discompos'd by it yet when I see the world going to be rob'd of its noblest Ornament and my self to be depriv'd of the person I most love and admire in it and when I see this matchless Person ready to he ravish'd from us both in the flow'r of her age and by the infamous hand of an Executioner I think it were rather stupidness not to be afflicted than any weakness to be deeply so I was answer'd Theodora so fully satisfy'd before of your Friendship and Compassion that this new grief of yours as 't is a very needless proof of them so 't is a very unwelcom one For if I were to allow any thing to grieve me when I am entring into the fulness of Joy it ought to be that I find your good nature renders this seemingly distress'd Condition of mine very uneasie to You which through Gods assistance is very little so to me and yet will be less so if congratulating rather than deploring our Martyrdom you will ease me of the justest and greatest part of my Grief that consists in being unhappily accessory to yours and seeing you needlesly troubl'd at mine That circumstance adds she of my death which I perceive much afflicts you might in my opinion more justly lessen than aggravate your Sorrow For I look upon it rather as a Favour than an Infelicity that I am early remov'd out of the World where I see and suffer and which is worst of all do so much Ill. To be early rescu'd from the Snares of a Dangerous and Persecuting Age and preserv'd from the Evil to come is rather a Privilege than a Calamity to those that are duely sensible as I desire to be that one can never arrive unseasonably at Heaven nor be too early happy And in this persuasion continues Theodora I am confirm'd by considering that the First of those who are recorded to have religiously deceas'd in the old Testament and in the new just Abel and John the Baptist both of them dy'd young and perish'd by the hands of those that Persecuted them for their Piety And even that spotless Lamb of God who did no sin but by his Satisfaction Precepts and Example takes away the sin of the World was sacrific'd almost in the flow'r of his Age So little is it an unhappiness or a mark of Gods disfavour to escape the toyles and dangers of a troublesom Navigation by being early though by a boisterous Wind blown into the Port. And if it could become a Woman to encourage a Heroe I should exhort both you and my self too generous Didymus continues she to entertain our present Condition with Sentiments becoming Christians And as it does not trouble me directly so it ought not to trouble you upon the score of sympathy that I am secur'd from the hazards and inconveniencies of Age But be pleas'd to make use of that Courage now at the end of your daies that you have constantly express'd in the course of your life And do not I beseech you repine either that you or I is to fall by the hand of an Executioner For that seeming and but seeming Ignominy was the lot both of our Saviour's immediate Harbinger and of our Saviour himself And when we consider for whom and for what we suffer we may find reason enough to assume the sentiments of the Apostles who after having been misus'd by the Jewish Council went from their presence rejoycing that they had been thought worthy to Suffer for His name for whom we are going to suffer the like things For Didymus Gods gracious Providence has not left us to perish by ling'ring or tormenting Sickness or troublesom Old Age nor yet for some common Cause or some unimportant End But all in our fate is noble And what to others is meer Death a debt due to Nature or the punishment of Sin to us is Martyrdom the noblest act of Christianity and shortest way to Everlasting Glory A Discourse that relish'd so much more of a Martyr than of a Virgin gave Didymus a rise to continue a Conversation by which he found himself as well assisted as charm'd and therefore observing the serenity of his Mistresses looks to be little inferiour to the beauty of her face and remembring what instances she had that day given of an altogether extraordinary Piety and Courage was by the sentiments these reflections produ'cd in him prompted to tell her I should be justly inconsolable Madam to see my self and the world upon the point of being depriv'd of so admirable a Person as Theodora has by this daies various Tryals manifested Her self to be if I were not confident that my Loss will be as short as great and that in the State we are now entring upon I shall be allow'd what approaching Death will deny me in this and shall find in Heaven the endearing happiness of conversing with Her more freely than our Persecutions and Her Reservedness would here permit For Madam continues He I am Friend enough to my own Felicity to believe assuredly that those who shall be happy enough to meet in Heaven will know one another there and have their joyes hightned by the remembrance of what past between them upon Earth For in the blest State we are hastening to our Faculties and consequently our memory will not only be gratify'd with Suitable Objects but be improv'd by enlarg'd Capacities And even in a condition short of that we this day expect mens knowledge has been advanc'd at least as much as is necessary for our knowing one another without the helps that are ordinarily requisite to make us do so As soon as ever Adam saw Eve he could confidently say of her that she was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh When Noah awak'd from his Sleep he could tell that during his sleep his younger Son had behav'd himself irreverently towards him When our Saviour was tranfigur'd on M. Tabor the three chos'n disciples that attended him presently knew Moses Elias whom they had never seen before in spite of the Diguise that the Glory they appear'd in put upon them St. Paul tells his Thessalonians they shall be his joy crown before their common Lord at his appearing To the truth of which it seems requisite that both the Preachers and the Converts shall be publickly known at that great appearance and Assembly of the first born whose names are written in Heaven and consequently that men there shall know one another Our Divine Redeemer continues Didymus teaches us that there is Joy in the presence of the holy Angels over a repenting Sinner which argues that whether they know of his Conversion in a more intuitive way or by the information of those Angels that are some times sent to this lower world about human affairs they yet have a knowledg of particular persons and take notice of particular things that concern them And which makes exceedingly for my present
not inflicted on him for his own was evident by his being absolv'd not only by the very Judge to whom a Criminal fear of his Accusers indicted the Sentence he pronounc'd against him but by that Supreme and Infallible Judge God himself who declar'd by astonishing Prodigies both in Heaven and Earth how much he was displeas'd with those that put his Son to Death by raising him from the Dead within three days to an Immortal Life proclaim'd how dear he was to him and gave him Power to make his Followers Partakers of that glorious condition he himself was advanc'd to So that continues Didymus those Champions of his whom he vouchsafes to single out from the rest of his Followers and call to Martyrdom have reason enough to look upon that Call as an invaluable Honour and a Priviledge Since as they are thereby made more conformable to him in chearfully dying for Truth and Constancy so they will be made more plentiful sharers in those inestimable advantages that his own meritorious Martyrdom procur'd him Yes for those to whom he vouchsafes the Power and Honour of Suffering for Him and of imitating him for the interest of Truth and Piety he does not only reserve such future Recompences to crown their Love and Fidelity but often gives them here such happy foretasts in a perfect assurance of it that I cannot but look upon it as a vast accession to that immense Love that made him dye for Us that he calls and inables us to dye for Him I confess Didymus adds in pursuit of his Discourse that as he took upon him the form of a Man so he suffer'd himself to be us'd as good Men too often are But his miraculous power and goodness sufficiently proclaim'd that he was not thrown down from Heaven to Earth as your Vulcan is said to have been but that he descended from Heaven to make Men live an heavenly life Nor did he like many of your Deities especially your Jupiter assume an humane shape to do actions below the dignity of humane Nature but he taught Men a Doctrine worthy as well as likely to be brought from Heaven and gave them an exemplary life whose imitation would fit them to be translated thither And then submitted to the Torments and Infamy of the Cross to purchase for his followers by his Death that heavenly condition for which he had qualified them by his Spirit and his Life The Roman Officer not yet quite discourag'd by the unsuccesfulness he had hitherto met with in his attempt resolv'd to prosecute it yet further by saying The same reason that somewhat lessens my wonder at your despising Death for your erroneous Religion encreases my admiration at your unconcernedness to avoid the kind of Death that threatens your obstinacy For though the love of glory may invite a gallant Man like Didymus to part with his life for the attainment of it yet that same heroick passion ought to make those it possesses more apprehensive than others of those Extremities wherein Death is accompany'd with Infamy and made justy terrible with ignominious Circumstances of which none can be more disgraceful than the receiving it at the base hand of a common Executioner The Weakness and Examples of your Gods replies Didymus have too much seduced you to make Estimates of Good and Evil by those popular and pitiful measures that I cannot but think very unworthy to be acquiesc'd in by a Christian who to merit that Title must be somewhat more than an ordinary Man We judge of good and evil Actions by the Laws of God and right Reason not by those of Men in Power And therefore do not think that Constancy ceases to be a Vertue and consequently an honourable not a disgraceful quality because legal Tyrants will call it Obstinacy and condemn Men for it to the same Punishments that are allotted to dishonourable Actions The respect our Religion commands us to pay to a Civil Magistrate though a Persecutor permits us not by force to resist his unjust Sentences But this Submission of ours does not at all keep his Sentences from being unjust nor forbid us to think them so and consequently leaves us the inestimable satisfaction of our Consciences that inwardly absolve us when outward Judges condemn us And for proof of this you cannot but have taken notice that whereas truly Criminal Persons being conscious of their own Guilt either deny what they are accused of or endeavour by all means to palliate it and to avoid the being condem'd for it We Christians on the contrary do not only Confess what you call a Crime but Glory in It and do not deprecate the fate that attends our Constancy Nor can it fright us from undergoing Death for a glorious Cause that we must receive it from an Infamous Hand For that by which we estimate it is the quality of the action that procures it not the condition of him that is employ'd to inflict it And so we can consider with joy for what we are not much troubled to see by whom it is that we suffer being satisfied that the Executioners hand may destroy a Malefactor but cannot make one and if the Cause that brings a Man to the Scaffold be not culpable the place cannot make the Death that is there suffered infamous Nay and if Vertue leads him thither the Instruments of his Death cannot keep it from being Glorious since this demonstrates the Sufferers unshaken Constancy to be insuperable not only by Death but by that which many have embrac'd Death to shun the Contempt of the generality of Men. Your gallant Roman Commander Attilius Regulus is much less remembred and celebrated for all his Military Exploits and Attempts than for the Cruel Death he suffer'd by order of the Carthaginians to whom in performance of a Pomise he yielded himself up with expectation of some such barbarous Usage as he met with And sure as a submission to Indignities was a duty not meanly glorious in him to shun the breaking of his Word to his Enemies the like resignation of themselves will not by unbyass'd Judges be thought an Action dishonourable in Christians to prevent the violation of their Faith solemnly given not to a Savage Enemy but to a Divine Friend who has already without any obligation to do it suffered more shame for them than the sublimity of his condition leaves it possible for them to suffer for him And though that Greek Philosopher Socrates whom your own Oracles with more of Truth than they are wont to be guilty of pronounc'd the wisest of Men was by his own Fellow-Citizens condemn'd to die by Poyson brought him by the hand of an Executioner Yet since that Sentence was not occasioned by his Crimes but his Vertues the deadly draught did not destroy his Fame with his Life and poyson'd not his Reputation which it extremely heightned but that of his Accusers and his Judges whom after Ages have look'd upon as worse Criminals than ever they Condemned and more
that they applaud and crown even in Soldiers But now continues Diydmus I must address my self to you O Theodora And must complain of or at least deplore my infelicity that after I had done and suffer'd all that I could though 't was much less than I would For the preservation of so dear a Life as yours you come now to hazard it to make mine end with sorrow But granting you should prevail in the no less unwelcom than generous Attempt you are pleas'd to make how cruel were you to envy me at once the two highest Honors that my Ambition aspir'd to the Glory of Martyrdom and that of Theodoras Rescue Had I as many lives as you have vertues I should esteem them all but a cheap ransom for a few hours of yours So unlikely I am and ought to be to be either capable or desirous of being preserv'd by your suffering for my actions And therefore Madam if you think my little Services deserve some recompence since my highest contentments on earth terminate in your happiness there is no other way left you to reward them but the care of your own preservation It being the only return that I expect or desire of my Services that you will not by your inflexibleness finally make them fruitless but be content to live for his sake that will rejoyce to dye for yours All the while this noble Dispute lasted the Judge was though not an unconcern'd yet a silent Hearer of it The strange novelty of the contest and no less extraordinary generosity and gracefulness of the Contenders having given him an attention that kept him from interrupting them But when their debate had proceeded thus far his stern nature whose actings had been but suspended by his curiosity prompted him to tell the generous Couple I know not what presumption makes you plead as if each of you were the others only Judge and had the Supreme Authority of condemning or absolving you and I were only an unconcern'd auditor or at least sate here to ratifie the Sentence you shall agree upon between your selves But you will quickly find to your cost that the Roman Laws and Magistrates are not to be trifled with Great Sir replies Didymus you much misapprehend our Conduct if you think your self slighted by it For 't was not want of respect to your Authority and Power that made us discourse as we did but a supposition not injurious to you that you would in the exercise of that Power manifest that you deserve it by tempering it with two excellent vertues that best become a Magistrate Equity and Clemency This presumption Sir and not any disrespectful one was that upon which we proceeded in our discourse still taking it for granted that you would not punish two for that which was indeed but the fault of one and that if either of us were by the others consent to suffer your Equity or your Clemency would prevail with you to release the other Though Didymus had worded what he said so cautiously that a discerning hearer might perceive that his expressions related to the Judges Dignity not his person yet that self-flattery which is but too common an attendant on Men in Power making the President take all these respectful words to himself made him allow Didymus without interruption to proceed in his discourse and say you will easily grant Sir that Goodness whereof Clemency is a noble part may bring a Magistrate who is Heavens Vice-gerent upon Earth as high a Veneration as Power or Greatness does if you please to consider that those of your Religion when they would with the most deference speak of God give the Title of Most Good the preference to that of Most Great styling him as the Christians likewise often do Deus Optimus maximus Certainly Clemency is never more a vertue nor less grudg'd at by Justice than when 't is exercis'd towards Vertuous Persons by rescuing them from the persecutions of Fortune and the unintended rigour of the Laws I say unintended rigour sayes Didymus for I cannot think that the Roman Legislators that have honor'd injur'd Chastity so much in Lucretia and encourag'd Gallantry and other Vertues by no less than Crowns and Triumphs meant to make the productions of Chastity Constancy and Gratitude Criminal things And tho' Christians dissent from others in matters of Religion yet those moral Vertues that were so esteem'd by the Romans do not lose their nature when practis'd by Christians And those brave men whose love to Vertue made them Masters of the World did not scruple to honour it in their very Enemies and did it so much even in the most irreconcilable of them that more than one or two Statues of Hannibal were erected at Rome to which Triumphant City 't is perhaps more glorious to have thus honor'd him than vanquish'd him And sure they that thought Lucretias Chastity merited so many Statues would not think that Theodoras deserv'd a Stake or a Scaffold This Ladies actions and mine are not so hainous but that in happier persons and milder times they have been look'd on under a notion very differing from that of criminal ones But Sir continues Didymus addressing himself to the President in a very humble manner if there must needs be offer'd up some sacrifice to appease the angry Laws I beseech you to let their rigour be satisfied with my Blood and spare this harmless Lady to whom if your compassion be needful I hope you will not want it for an object whose Excellencies cannot only make it reasonable but meritorious For it will preserve to Antioch its fairest Ornament and a Life so Exemplary that to give it an untimely period for actions which being laudable in their own nature nothing but a rigid interpretation of the Law can make criminal would be to make the Laws a terror rather to the good than to the wicked It would be thought inhumane to treat her as a delinquent whom you may justly wish your daughters should resemble when by the Grant of what I implore you will be sure to receive both the thanks of her Sex and the applause of ours and what out values both the satisfaction of having sav'd and oblig'd one of the most admirable Persons in the world Didymus now perceiving that the person he pleaded for was preparing herself to interrupt him readdress'd himself to her and told her do not Madam I beseech you require of my obsequiousness proofs inconsistent with my love and add not to my infelicity by putting me in so uneasie a condition as to find it my duty to oppose your desires Ah! refuse not to oblige the world by preserving the most accomplish'd it can glory in Deny me not the satisfaction whereof I am so ambitious of being the happy instrument of your deliverance and then I may say that I never could justly dye more seasonably than now when being at the height of all my joyes my longer life must of necessity give an ebb to my felicity
and persecutions of it She hath employed a great part of her life in preparing herself to part with it joyfully when-ever Nature or Vertue shall require it and she will find it very easie to lay it down for Religion now she is in a suffering Condition when in her most flourishing one she found it enough to wean her from the love of the present life that it detained her from the next Great Vertues such as hers are like great Rivers which the nearer they come to the Sea where they are to end their course the greater they are wont to grow and the more difficult the stream is to be withstood or hinder'd from its progress Theodora now looks upon herself as having but one step more to make to reach that Crown she hath done and suffer'd so much for And that glorious Object viewed at so near a distance so ravishes and so possesses her Eyes that she will doubtless either not see or not regard any thing that would hinder or retard her taking possession of it Here the Roman Officer somewhat impatient at Didymus's Discourse would no longer forbear interrupting it by telling him To hear you speak one would imagine that you are not talking of a young Lady but of some ancient Heroe that had been long accustom'd to despise the Frowns of Fortune and keep himself from over-valuing her smiles Heroick Vertue replies Didymus does as little know Sexes as doth the Soul wherein it properly resides A habitude cannot always be Essential to the Nature of an Heroick Action Since the first of that kind that one does is not the consequent but the beginning of a a habitude And a sincere and settled resolution to be highly vertuous may make a Woman as well as a Man to be that which the noblest subsequent Actions can but declare her to have been And a Person that like Theodora acts by the assistance and as in the presence of the Deity may to maintain her Loyalty to God and her Title to the inestimable Rewards he hath promis'd to persevering Piety both act and suffer greater things than those very Heroes you talk of were put upon by such barely humane Motives as Custom Ambition or Revenge And particularly as to the point of perseverance against Menaces and Proffers these are not like to prevail against the Constancy of Christians much less possess'd with Divine Love and Hope than Theodora is And indeed there can be nothing upon Earth capable to bribe Them to let go the Joys of Heaven that see themselves entring upon the Possession and find themselves sensible of the inestimable Value of them Wherefore concludes Didymus you will not I presume think it strange that I refuse to joyn with you in a Design that I could not so much as attempt either with Hope or without a Crime and that thinking it worthier of my Endeavors to imitate Theodora's Constancy than to seduce her from it I chuse rather to be a sharer in the Triumphs of her Vertue than a Trophy CHAP. XI THis resolute Conclusion oblig'd the Roman Officer to break off a Conversation whereby he plainly saw there was no cause to hope he could shake the Constancy of Didymus and much cause to fear that Didymus's Constancy and his Discourses would stagger many of the Heathen Auditors And therefore withdrawing himself much discontented at the unsuccesfulness of his perswasions he thought it would be impious to make any intercession for Persons he judg'd invincibly obstinate or divert the fatal Proceedings of the Judge who having by this time made an end of those other Affairs whose dispatch Theodora's respite was not to outlast call'd for the innocent Criminals and with a stern Countenance and Voice demanded whether they were yet willing to appease the Deities they had provok'd and by burning Incense to them endeavour to attone for the Affronts they had offer'd them Adding that there was now no more time left for deliberating but that they must immediately renounce thir Impious Religion or suffer Death for it But this could not shake the illustrious Prisoners Constancy which prompted them to make with as much haste as the President could desire an answer that consisted but of a short and resolute declaration That they had liv'd Worshippers of Christ and had a thousand times rather die than cease to be or to profess themselves such And that for the false Gods the President would have them adore they had rather be their Victims than their Suppliants and fall Sacrifices to them than offer them any This bold profession so incens'd the person 't was made to that he immediately gave order that the Prisoners should be led away to the place of Execution and that the Ministers of Justice as he misnamed his Cruelty should without delay go on with the preparations that were making to destroy them But while these Officers were solicitous to obey those Commands Theodora took the opportunity to tell the generous Companion of her Sufferings It was fit I confess when we discours'd with Infidels to recommend the Objects of our hopes by giving them the glorious Titles of Crowns and Triumphs since being to defend the reasonableness of our Constancy by the greatness of the rewards we expect for it 't was very proper to represent those Coelestial Recompences under the notion of such Goods as those we argued with acknowledged to be the most noble and desirable But continues she when we speak of Heaven among our selves give me leave to tell you that I think we should look upon it under a very differing notion and make a wide disparity betwixt the Christians Paradise and the Poets Elysium The Triumphs we should most desire in Heaven should be not over our outward Enemies or personal Sufferings but over Sin and Ignorance and the frailties of our Natures and the imperfections of our Vertues And the positive Blessings that should most endear Heaven to us should be not so much that we shall there be Crown'd by Christ as that we shall live with him and follow that spotless Lamb where ever he goes That our gratitude it self shall be perfect as well as the Blessings that engage it shall be compleat and That we shall have an eternal Day to contemplate that Sun of Righteousness without having that glorious Object veil'd by any interposing Cloud much less hid from us by the vicissitudes of day and night In short I think Devotion should in our future State aspire to other things than those that may be the Objects of meer Ambition And now generous Didymus adds Theodora since we are entering upon the last scene of our mortal Life let us I beseech you summon together and rouse up all the Graces and Vertues we have receiv'd from Heaven and fervently implore both an encrease of them and a supply of any that our present Circumstances require That we may go off the Stage Piously as well as Handsomly and both act and suffer as becomes Christian Martyrs Let not any
unworthy Persons than those they employed to execute their Sentence And for my part continues Didymus some passages of our sacred Records encourage me to expect that if a Posthume Fame be such a Blessing as many imagine the Indignities we suffer now will hereafter procure it us For I cannot but hope and methinks I foresee that the Roman Eagles will one day stoop to the Cross of Christ And the Temples of your False Deities will be consecrated to the Service of the True God The Sword of the Civil Magistrate which is now the great and only successful Argument on your side will be then in Christian hands which I wish may never employ it against your Religion whose ruine will not require the active opposition of Power but the bare withdrawing of its preserving Support And then posterity more enlightned and more just will read the History of those Destroyers of the Baptized which is at least the innocenter part of Mankind with the same resentments with which they will read the havocks made by Wars Plagues Massacres and other publick Calamities CHAP. X. THese Replies of Didymus made an end of convincing the Person that occasion'd them that our Martyrs resolution was not to be shaken either by threats or perswasions But yet the officious Roman cherishing some hope that if Didymus should see his Mistress ready to be kill'd by an infamous hand that Beauty which had conquered his heart would soften it and thereby make it capable of relenting impressions thought fit to make him one address more and tell him It is not without extreme regret that I see your inflexible obstinacy defeat all my endeavours to procure your safety But though your mistaken gallantry may make you think it unhandsom in a Soldier to disclaim a threatned opinion that he once adher'd to lest the change should be imputed to Fear or Levity yet I hope you will not think that the strict rules of that destructive Gallantry ought to oblige a young Lady in whose Sex Courage is at least an unrequired if not an altogether improper Vertue And therefore I hope you will not refuse to second my Endeavours to perswade her not to throw herself out of a World of whose grandeurs and pleasures her transcendent Beauty promises her an extraordinary share as well as her Youth fits her to relish them perfectly and enjoy them long Didymus though at first somewhat surpriz'd at this motion took no long time to return answer by saying I confess I cannot partake of the trouble you are pleas'd to express for the not prevailing of your Endeavours to alter my Resolutions For though the advice you press'd upon me was obliging in you to give yet it would have been Criminal for me to take it And as for what you propose in reference to Theodora I must desire to be excus'd from making myself accessory to your design of tempting her For in my opinion he that solicites another to what he believeth a Crime doth become guilty of one so that as to what concerns Theodora without being at all sure of shaking her Vertue I should most certainly ruine my own innocence Yet I cannot think says the Roman interrupting him but if you would enforce my perswasions with yours the Interest you have in her would prevail to make her rather accept of Life than deny a Person that she owes so much to and does not less highly than justly value If replies Didymus I should yield to use so Criminal means as to give her an Example of the Apostacy you would have me invite her to the attempt would be less improbable But for me to perswade her to what I am just going to give a convincing proof that I believe to be worse than Death would make her both hate me and despise me And to convince you that such a Motion as you would have me make would lose me all the share I may have in her good opinion I will dare to own to you that if I thought her capable I say not of endeavouring to seduce me but of being seduced by me my esteem of her would alter upon her change And though I could not deny my wonder to so rare a Master-piece of Nature as is her visible part yet there would be a vast difference betwixt a meer admiration of external Beauty which must become the Trophy of Age or Death and that high veneration that I now pay to that admirable Person 's intrinsick Worth and unconquerable Vertue Nor should you doubt continues Didymus of the Entertainment that such a Piety as hers would give such a Motion as you would have me make since it would justly give her a higher resentment of my solicitations than of all the importunities of her Heathen Persecutors for these do but advise her to decline Danger by embracing what they think Truth whereas that which you would have me to perswade her to is to purchase her safety by renouncing what I as well as She know to be Truth And I doubt not that such a proceeding would so highly offend her as to enable her by a bare Pardon to acquit herself of those Respects and Services of mine to which posssibly a Person of her goodness vouchsafes some Title to her gratitude There is replies the Roman so great a difference betwixt the case of a resolv'd Soldier that thinks himself in point of Reputation engag'd not to retreat and that of a young Lady from whom no Resoluteness much less Obstinacy can be expected that I must yet think our joynt perswasions though unassisted by your Example would with-hold her from Death now she is near enough to it to see the horrors of it Nay rejoyns Didymus I did not speak what I have been saying about my own aversness that I might hinder you from trying your Fortune if you think fit with Theodora's Vertue I do not envy her Constancy whose successes have been hitherto no fewer than its tryals the honour of gaining more than one Victory in one day But what I have been saying was to give you one reason of my refusing to joyn with you in your propos'd attempt against which I shall now offer this other reason that I think it little less than impossible it should succeed For I thought I had already satisfied you that as to my interest in Theodora if it were much greater than you for want of knowing us both imagine so great a misimployment of it would make me justly forfeit it and perswasions that would seduce her to Apostacy instead of making her follow the Advice would make her but detest the Adviser And as to the hopes you ground on her seeing herself upon the point of passing out of the World let me tell you that the severe Exercises to which her strict Piety hath long accustomed her have so disingaged her affections from temporal things that being already mortified to the pleasures and vanities of the World Death can now do no more but free her from the troubles