infirm and bedridden, and I visited him often, and spoke much with him
touching the faith of Christ; and he received me the more willingly
because he had a great love for Epictetus (who was now absent with
his master in Rome), and he was wont to say that I was now become
a second Epictetus, setting my superstition aside. He retained all
his force of mind and keenness of understanding; and still as in old
times, he would fain have judged the Faith of Christ by the weakness
of the weakest of the brethren, and not by the strength which made
them strong. For example, because certain of our church (living from
day to day in expectation of the coming of the Lord) were wont to
catch up, perhaps too greedily, every light rumor of war or famine or
earthquake, as signs of the Last Day, on this account he would call the
Christians _misanthropi_, enemies of Cæsar, and haters of the empire.
Again, because others among us gave much time to fasting and prayer,
and in that condition discerned (or in some cases perchance seemed to
discern) visions of the Lord; or because a few, more superstitious than
the rest, abstained from eating flesh; for this cause he mocked at all
the saints as dreamers of dreams and given to foolish austerity and
unprofitable abstinence.
None the less, he willingly heard me speak of the Lord Jesus, and
sometimes himself questioned me concerning him. One such conversation
I remember, a few weeks before his death, when, upon my entering his
chamber, I found him in a deep study: and, as soon as he saw me,
scarcely giving me time to salute him, “You Christians,” he said,
“believe in a good God, who is all-powerful; whence then comes evil
into the world?” “I will explain that,” replied I, “when you can
explain whence arose the atoms which, as you say, made the Universe.”
He said, “Nay, my friend, I have no theories to maintain on this
subject; but evil is opposed to your supposition of a good and powerful
God.” “Not more,” I replied, “than atoms, existing from the beginning,
are opposed to your supposition of no effect without a cause.” Then he
was silent, and said no more on that point. But producing my letters
which I had written to him from Antioch (and it was at that time that
he gave into my hands those papers the substance of which I have set
down above) he urged against me more especially that which I had myself
said, that the religion of Jesus was narrow, giving precedence to
Jews, and compelling all men to be Jews in the observing of the Law;
and he added that, however Paulus might affirm the contrary, this and
nothing else was clearly the intent of Christus himself. But it was
not difficult for me to show that, howsoever Jesus had purposed that
the Gospel should be preached to the Greeks through the Jews, yet his
doctrine and kingdom had, from the first, been intended to include all
mankind, without observance of the Law. I also repeated to him as many
of the sayings of the Lord as I had been able to collect and to commit
to memory; and hence I proved to him that he at whom Artemidorus had
been wont to scoff, was neither juggler, nor magician, nor impostor,
but a great Conqueror of the minds of men, and one whose doctrine
and practice went down to the roots of life, and to the foundations
of all things. And this indeed, when he had heard the account of his
life and doctrine, Artemidorus did not deny, admitting himself to have
misjudged in former times, and professing now to revere Christus as he
would revere Socrates, or Epicurus, or Pythagoras; “but still,” said
he, “the acknowledgment of one great and good man more in the world,
proves not that the world is divinely governed.” Then I urged him again
with a new argument, saying that it was very credulous to suppose
that this wonderful Universe had come together by chance and without
a Mind, whether the Mind had wrought through atoms or otherwise, and
that if there were such a Mind, then those things that were done and
said in accordance with that Mind would prevail (being in harmony with
the universe) but those things that were not in accordance with it
would come to nought; wherefore, since the words and deeds of Jesus of
Nazareth had been already so very powerful (and that too without aid of
force or cunning or any customary aids of great conquerors) it seemed
certain that they were indeed in harmony with that Mind of the Universe
to which Jesus had taught us to give the name of Father. To all this he
listened patiently and attentively; and that he pondered these matters
in his heart may be judged from the following rough notes which I
found among his papers in his handwriting, dated about the time of our
discourse together, that is to say a month or thereabouts before his
death.
§ 4. OF THE DOUBTINGS OF ARTEMIDORUS.
“THE PROBLEM OF THE CHRISTIANS.
“This Christus lived in Syria less than forty years, and, after doing
nothing worthy of mention, was put to death upon the cross by Pontius
Pilatus, governor of Judea. He made no conquests, no laws, and few
disciples; and, of these few, one betrayed him. He wrought, it may be,
some cures of a kind to startle the multitude (doubtless in accordance
with nature, by working on the imaginations of men); but in any case
none marvellous enough to persuade men that he was a prophet; for it is
not denied that his own countrymen delivered him to execution. After
his death, his disciples constantly affirmed that he had appeared to
them, and in one case this was confessed by an enemy; but (saving this
belief in his resurrection, and some kind of expectation that he would
always be present with them as an ally) he bequeathed to his followers
nothing except a policy that was no policy, but rather a dream,
somewhat after this fashion:—
“THE DREAM OF CHRISTUS.
“The world is to be a commonwealth wherein the Supreme God is to be
King, and all mankind the citizens. But God being the Father of men,
mankind are to be to him as children, and to one another as brethren.
Of this commonwealth the laws are to be as follows:—
“1. _The Law of Love._ Love (and not Force nor Cunning) is the
strongest power in the world; and as little children take captive the
hearts of their parents by force of love, so are the Christians to
take captive the world by becoming as little children, loving all men
and thereby constraining all men to love them in return. [Surely the
vainest of vain dreams! In the fulfilment of which I will then believe
when I see the sheep loving the wolf and thereby constraining the wolf
to love them in return.]
“2. _The Law of Giving and Receiving._ As by giving to Nature the
husbandman receives a manifold return, so by giving to the Unseen
Nature and Spiritual Harmony which Christus believed to exist, men
shall receive an abundant harvest in return. Thus, by giving love, a
man is to receive a return of love; or giving pity, a return of pity;
or service, a return of service. [All this may be, and yet there
may be no God. For doubtless, if a man give love to his fellow men,
even though they love him not in return, yet he thereby enlarges his
imagination of the Divine Love, and warms his heart with the fancy
that he is now more perfectly loved by that Divine Person whom he has
painted for himself out of the colors of his own mind. This dream
may make some men happy, and more women; but though a dream may give
pleasure, it does not cease to be a dream.]
“3. _The Law of Sacrificing._ All sacrifices of beasts are to be done
away, the only true sacrifice being the sacrifice of the will, whereof
the sacrifices of beasts are but as emblems. In the life and death
of Christus (being a perfect sacrifice of the will) these Christians
suppose the perfect sacrifice to have been offered up. Hence they
regard Christus as the High Priest of mankind offering himself up for
all men; supposing that by force of sympathy with him, which they
call ‘faith,’ they are able to be united with him and so to take unto
themselves his sacrifice. [I deny not this doctrine of sacrifice to be
less ignoble and superstitious than the notions of the common sort; who
vainly imagine that they can bribe the Supreme by sheep and oxen. But,
even were it true, it seems too high and unsubstantial for the minds
of the common people. Besides, as there is no God, there can be no
sacrifice, so that this also is a dream, like all the rest.]
“4. _The Law of Forgiving._ It is supposed that, by force of sympathy,
every disciple of Christus has a power of raising up men beneath him
in goodness, whom they call sinners. This ‘sympathy’ they call bearing
the sins of others, and the result of it is forgiveness; and Christus
is said by them to have brought this power into the world and to
have bequeathed it to his disciples. It differs, they say, from our
‘forgiveness,’ in that it means not the mere remission of punishment,
but the putting away of sin itself. [All this is simply natural, and
may be seen in any family or assembly of human beings; wherein the
better always have a power of raising up the worse, and those who
are injured have power to set at rest the minds of their injurers by
forgiving them. Therefore all that they can claim for Christus is, that
he possessed this power perchance in a singular degree, and discerned
how great a force it had over the minds of men; and perhaps also
that he (by some special and peculiar influence) imparted it to his
disciples.]
“5. _The Law of Faith and Trust._ No man, said Christus, could be
forgiven sins by him, except he had ‘faith;’ and in the same way his
followers maintain that without ‘faith,’ it is impossible to obtain
the forgiveness of sins, but by faith the worst of sinners can be
forgiven.” [This again, so far as it is true, is merely natural;
because no offender can so much as imagine himself freed from the
consciousness of his wrong-doing by the forgiveness of the man
injured, if he distrust the latter and esteem him as an hypocrite.
And without doubt this “faith”—as one may see even in a dog that
has faith or trust in his master—has not a little power to confer
magnanimity on men by raising their minds to the level of a high idea
of God, even though that idea be but an empty imagination. But here,
as elsewhere, there is a deficiency of proof; for what is wanted is,
not superstructure, but foundation; for I will not dispute the power of
faith, if these Christians will first give me somewhat certain to have
faith in.]
“ANSWER TO THE PROBLEM.
“This being the commonwealth and these the Laws of Christus, the
problem is, whence comes it that so many thousands of men are drawn
towards him, and thereby led out of evil and vile courses into lives of
virtue? For other religions (and Onesimus justly urges this argument)
hold out similar hopes of Elysian fields, and terrors of Hades, and
purifications from sin; and some also, like the religion of Pythagoras,
pretend to join men into brotherhoods; and almost all afford portents
sufficient to satisfy the natural credulity of men; yet do they not
succeed in persuading their votaries to lead virtuous lives.
“The answer is, in my judgment, two-fold; first that the laws of
Christus are in accordance with the Harmony of things—by which however
I am far from meaning that there are gods, or any such things as sin,
forgiveness and the like, for all these things are probably mere
imaginations—but I mean that human nature is so framed as to be turned
from the imagination of sin by the imagination of forgiveness and
these other imaginations which Christus has devised; secondly, Christus
himself appears to have been of a nature to imprint himself upon others
to a degree much above the common; and his power over the minds of
his disciples (as has been sometimes seen in the case of others, both
teachers and law-givers and private men) instead of being diminished
after death, was greatly increased.
“A third cause may be alleged by some, namely, that his disciples
believed and cause others to believe, that he rose from the dead. But
is this a cause, and not rather an effect? For we must surely ask,
what caused his first disciples to believe that he had risen from the
dead? Perhaps they did not believe it, but pretended to believe it,
and deceived others. But this I do not think to be true in the case of
Paulus; who was changed from an enemy to a friend by an apparition of
Christus at the time when he was persecuting his followers. For this
reason, and for others, I incline to believe that the first disciples
did not deceive others, but were themselves deceived by apparitions,
naturally arising from affection and imagination. Yet can I not deny
that, on this supposition, the influence of Christus, being supposed
to be so powerful over the minds of men as to force even an enemy to
become a friend by the apparition of him whom he had persecuted, far
exceeds anything that I have witnessed, or heard, or read; and it
raises Christus to something almost above the nature of man.
“The sum of all is, that this commonwealth of Christus appears to me
but a dream, though, I deny not, a noble dream. And even were it to
prosper beyond expectation in the future, as it has already prospered
in the past, yet could I not entertain it, having no belief in a god or
gods. Yet thus much I admit, that, if I were able to believe in gods of
any kind, I know not where among gods or men I could find anything more
worthy of worship than this Christus, reasonably worshipped, without
violence to nature; for if Plato was right in saying that ‘there is
nothing more like god than the man who is as just as man may be,’ then
certainly Artemidorus may say that ‘if there were a god, there would be
nothing more like god than Christus.’”
§ 5. OF THE LAST WORDS AND DEATH OF ARTEMIDORUS.
Thus wrote Artemidorus three or four weeks before his death; and from
certain words that fell from his lips afterwards, I have hope that he
came yet nearer to the Truth than this. However in his case I perceived
(not indeed for the first time, but more clearly then than ever before)
that it is not argument nor force of philosophy that brings into the
Church of Christ them that are without, but it is rather the Spirit of
Christ in the Church. For this Spirit, the Spirit of loving-kindness,
and justice, and purity, and patience, not only binds us that are in
the Church close together, but also causes them that are without to
desire to enter in, while they wonder and admire at the concord of the
brethren. In this way the common people of Colossæ—rich as well as
poor, though more often the poor—coming by twos and by threes to our
assembly were daily converted; but Artemidorus, being (as I have said)
bedridden, could neither know how great a change had been wrought by
Christ in the lives of the brethren, nor what a spirit of power reigned
over us in the meetings of the congregation, with which perchance he
himself might have been imbued had he been present among us. Therefore
when I urged him a few days before his death, to believe and to be
baptized, though he was neither amazed nor indignant, as of old, yet he
shook his head, saying that he was now too old and too sick to leap, at
so short notice, into a new philosophy. “Nor,” said he, “could the gods
themselves, if there be gods, take it in good part that I, who have
been, all my life through, a perfect Mezentius, not merely offering no
libations to them but even denying their existence, should now present
to them as it were the dregs of the cup of this life.” In this mood
he continued even till his death. Some of the brethren rebuked me
afterwards because I had not warned him of the fiery wrath that awaits
them that harden their hearts against the Lord. But I was not unmoved
by the old man’s answer to Archippus, who had made some mention to him
of the terrors of hell. To which Artemidorus replied that if Christus
were indeed a lover of truth, then he would of a surety make some
allowance for one who, all his life long, had sought such truth as he
could find, however imperfectly, and who now, in his old age, was loth
for shame to say, “I will believe Christus to be god because, if there
be no gods, I thereby lose nothing; and if he be god, I thereby gain
much.” These words the old man spoke to Archippus in my presence, when
he was now in extreme weakness, so that he could scarce move his hand
to bid me farewell; and on the morrow he died, without making any sign
at all of faith; only he whispered to his secretary, a few minutes
before his death, to tell me this as his last message, that, whereas he
had charged me always to bear in mind the proverb that “incredulity is
security,” now he perceived that there was room for trust as well as
distrust in the life of man.
THE END OF THE SIXTH BOOK.
THE SEVENTH BOOK.
§ 1. HOW I CAME TO ROME TO SEE THE BLESSED APOSTLE.
About six months after the death of Philemon, which took place in
the same week as the Great Fire in Rome, word came to us that our
brethren in the city were being called in question for their faith,
having been falsely accused of many monstrous crimes and especially of
having set the city on fire. Soon afterwards, in the month of January,
we received most grievous tidings concerning them, how some had been
cast into prison, and others slain with all manner of insults and
tortures. The infection of this suspicion soon spread to Asia, first
indeed to Ephesus, where it was soon allayed, but afterwards even to
Colossæ, so that tumults were raised against us; the more because
of the earthquake which, in the summer of that same year, utterly
destroyed Laodicea; and in Hierapolis also and Colossæ many houses were
cast down and many slain; which calamities the common people imputed
to us, the Christians, as if the gods had sent this plague on them
because sacrifices had been withheld by our impiety. All that year I
remained at Colossæ striving to confirm the brethren in the faith and
to encourage the weak; for though the magistrates were not against us
but rather for us (knowing that we obeyed the laws) yet could they
not altogether resist the vehemence of the common people, especially
now that the fury of the multitude had some pretext in the example of
the Emperor. Wherefore even against the will of the governors of the
city, ten or twelve of the brethren, having violent hands laid on them
by the rabble, bore witness to the Lord with their blood. But, towards
the end of the year, the cooler weather setting in, and the memory of
the earthquake a little abating, the multitude began to cease from the
first heat of their fury; when, behold, we received of the brethren of
Rome a truly piteous report, how the Emperor was more incensed against
us than ever, causing such as were citizens to be beheaded; but as to
the rest, crucifying some, burying others alive, casting others to the
wild beasts, or burning them, besmeared with pitch, like torches. While
we were all mourning for their tribulation, there fell on us two blows
of heavy tidings, first that the blessed Apostle Petrus had been taken
and crucified, and then that Paulus also had been put in bonds and was
under accusation, and like to be put to death. Then I could no longer
restrain myself; so finding that all things in Colossæ now tended
towards peace, I left Apphia with Archippus (who had come to lodge with
us for a season, his house in Hierapolis being quite cast down by the
earthquake while ours was standing and not greatly damaged), and I made
all haste to Rome, hoping to find Paulus still alive, and at least to
have some speech with him before he died.
When I came to Rome, I went first to the house where the Apostle had
been wont to lodge in times past, to make inquiry concerning him; but
it was not to be found, nor any of the houses near it, having been
burned down in the Great Fire. Then I turned my steps to that part of
the palace wherein I had first had speech of him; but that also was
burned down. For the whole of the former palace had been consumed by
the fire; and the Emperor was even then building for himself his new
Golden Palace (as it is now called) on the Cœlian and Esquiline hills.
Then I made endeavor to find the house of Tryphœna and Tryphosa where
the church had been wont to meet; but that also was not to be found.
For indeed the fire had been far greater than I had conceived, and
greater also (as I should judge) than any other fire within the memory
of man, having wholly consumed four of the city wards, and partly
destroyed seven more, leaving only three of the fourteen altogether
untouched. So, what with the fire and the informers, the brethren had
been driven out of the city; and among these, Clemens and Linus. But,
meeting at last with Asyncritus, I understood from him that the holy
Apostle was in close keeping, in one of the dungeons of the New Palace.
But whether his cause had been heard or not, and (if tried) what the
issue had been, of this he was altogether ignorant. To the palace
therefore I straightway betook myself, and finding there my old friend
the actor Aliturius I frankly avowed to him that I was a Christian and
that I was ready to die if I could but have speech with one of their
number, named Paulus; who then lay in one of the dungeons of the New
Palace. He chid me for my rashness saying that, if he himself had been
such as he was when we were last together, I had been a dead man;
for what prevented him from informing against me and gaining a great
reward? “But now,” said he, “I also have known something of this Paulus
and (albeit I am myself no Christian) I would fain do what may be done
to aid him and do you a pleasure.” Then he took me to the chief jailer,
and by fair words, and large gifts, and promises of close secrecy, I
won him to consent that if I would come thither on the morrow in the
dress of an actor as in old times, I should have speech with Paulus.
§ 2. HOW I SAW PAULUS IN PRISON.
On the morrow, having gone to the palace, I was straightway led down
to the dungeon, and thence from the outer prison into the innermost
of all—rather a barathrum, or pit, than fit to be called prison. As
we went down the steps, I questioned the jailer, touching the other
Christians, whether any had been of late condemned to the beasts, and
whether the Apostle stood in this peril. He replied that the prisoner
was a Roman citizen so that he was free from that death; “and besides,”
said he, “the Roman people will not have any presented before them to
do battle with beasts, except they be proper men and able to fight for
their lives, but this man was from the first lean and sorry-looking,
and now belike he is so worn with imprisonment in the inner dungeon,
and scant food to boot, that I doubt we shall not find him alive.” By
this time the man had descended the lowest step and stood on the floor
of the pit, turning his lamp on every side, but making visible naught
save pools of water, and filth, and mire, and darkness without end.
But presently, stumbling against something, I called to the jailer,
“Paulus is here;” and he, bringing the lamp, turned it so as to see
more clearly, and said, “There is no life in him.”
Then I cried unto the Lord in my soul for mercy; for indeed, when the
light of the lamp shone upon his face, he neither spoke nor moved hand
nor foot, and his eyes were fast closed. But when I raised up his head,
and called him by his name, he opened his eyes and looked on me, and
I perceived he knew me. Then I persuaded the jailer to take him out
of this horrible pit into the outer dungeon; and we brought him out
into the court-yard, and the jailer departed, leaving us alone, saying
only to Paulus as he went forth, that it was the last watch of the
night and that the tenth day was at hand; which words I could not then
understand. When we were together, I took out bread and wine mixed
with water, which I had brought with me, and besought him to eat and
drink. He seemed loth at first, but afterwards tasted a little, and his
spirit was revived, and strength came back to him, and he praised God
that he had vouchsafed to refresh him with the sight of me once again.
And turning to me with a smile he said—playing on my name Onesimus,
which being interpreted means “profitable”—“Truly thou hast been a
profitable child unto me, and by this thy kindness thou hast repaid him
who begot thee in Christ; and yet I know not whether I should thank
thee or blame thee; for I was in the spirit when thou camest, and the
Lord had sent unto me a vision full of delight in which methinks my
soul would have passed away but for thy coming, so that by this time I
would have been with Christ. Yet doubtless it is the will of the Lord
that I should be with thee a little longer.”