Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament

³ Let the stout Martyr then, as he stands a man before another man, say; “I do not fear, because I fear.” You can not do what you are threatening, unless He will; but what He threatens, none can hinder Him from doing. And then again, what do you threaten, and what can you do, if you are permitted? Your violence extends but to the flesh, the soul is safe from you. You can not kill what you do not see: visible yourself, you threaten that which is visible in me. But we have both an invisible Creator, whom we ought both to fear; who of that which was both visible and invisible created man.

He made Him visible out of the earth, and with His Breath He breathed into Him an invisible Spirit. Therefore the invisible substance, that is, the soul, which has raised from the earth the earth as it lay, does not fear, when you assault the earth. You can strike the habitation, but can you strike him who dwells there? When the chain is broken, he escapes who before was bound, and he will now be crowned in secret. Why then do you threaten me, who canst do nothing to my soul? Through the desert of that to which you can do nothing, will that to which your power extends rise again.

For through the soul's desert, will the flesh also rise again; and will be restored to its inhabitant, now no more to fail, but to endure for ever. Behold (I am using the words of a Martyr), behold, I say, not even on account of my body do I fear your threats. My body indeed is subject to your power; but even the hairs of my head are numbered by my Creator. Why should I fear lest I lose my body, who cannot even lose a hair? How shall he not have a care of my body, to whom my meanest things are so well known?

This body which may be wounded and slain will for a time be ashes, but it will be for ever immortal. But to whom shall this be? To whom shall the body be restored for life eternal, even though it have been slain, destroyed, and scattered to the winds? To whom shall it be so restored? To him who has not been afraid to lay down his own life, since he does not fear, lest his body should be slain.