To Florus 5.4

Although it is established that we have achieved this abundantly, our work nevertheless grows long. Let the wise reader understand that brevity was indeed desirable to us, but the needs of the case demanded that error spread more widely by the world’s favor be defeated by a broader battle line of truth. Our discourse therefore extends for a reason. With Christ’s help, I trust that no part of the impiety against which we contend will be judged carelessly investigated, insufficiently discovered, or only moderately battered. We therefore neither can nor should despair that, as time advances, the storm that has arisen may subside and the authority of the wise correct the cowardly crowd now making its uproar. But our wish matters less than our settled judgment. Whatever outcome the state of affairs receives, our grounds of goodwill and faith will stand. We do not depend on the outcome of popular success. We know the declaration of the three young men in Babylon. When a most arrogant king tried to compel them to worship a statue, they resisted with complete faithfulness, undeterred by the panting furnace lit to devour the devout. They answered as faith and steadfastness required: ‘Our God is able, O king, to free us from this furnace. But even if he does not free us, know that we do not worship your gods or adore the statue you have set up’ (Daniel 3:17–18). How reverently they mingled desire with judgment, without letting desire weaken the weight of their resolve! They neither cast faith’s courage down through despair nor suspend it on craving. They include their wishes, but do not abandon the proper order; they comfort endurance, but subordinate gentler outcomes to just ones. ‘It is certain,’ they say, ‘that our God can free us; whether he wills to do so is uncertain. Therefore, amid the uncertain outcome of events, the devout hold to a certain resolution: to reject idols and endure punishments. Let God consider what good our deliverance may bring to others. Meanwhile,’ they say, ‘let undefeated faith preserve our true happiness.’ One whose adversity trades for his glory has no excessive need to indulge easier outcomes. From this discipline left by illustrious teachers, we too understand that we must maintain moderation in our wishes for prosperity, but permanence in our decisions about the doctrines of faith. We desire, with the swelling of persecution restrained, to help the peoples too. But if that does not happen, our resolution stands: to endure every bitterness of insult and danger rather than fail to reject Manichaean filth and pollution.