A Warning To Those Who Would Flee

'Sed quod meum est', inquit, 'fugio, ne peream,si negavero; illius est, si voluerit, etiam fugientem me reducere in medium.' Hoc mihi prius responde: certus es te negaturum, si non fugeris, an incertus? Si enim certus, iam negasti, quia praesumendo te negaturum id despopondisti, de quo praesumpsisti, et vane iam fugis, ne neges, qui, si negaturus es,iam negasti; si vero incertus es, cur non ex aequalitate incerti metus inter utrumque eventum etiam confiteri te posse praesumis et salvum magis fieri, quominus fugias, sicut negaturum te praesumis, ut fugias? Iam nunc aut in nobis est utrumque aut totum in deo; si in nobis aut confiteri aut negare,cur non id praesumimus, quod est melius, id est confessuros nos? nisi si vis confiteri, ne patiaris; nolle autem confiteri negare est; si vero in deo totum est, cur non totum relinquimus arbitrio eius, agnoscentes virtutem et potestatem, quod possit nos sicut fugientes educere in medium, ita et non fugientes, immo et in medio populo conversantes obumbrare? Quale est, ut ad fugiendum deo honorem reddas, qui possit te etiam fugientem producere in medium, ad constandum autem inhonores illum desperans potentiam protectionis ab illo? Quanto magis ex hac parte, constantiae et fiduciae in deum, dicis: 'Ego quod meum est facio: non discedo; deus si voluerit, ipse me proteget'! Hoc potius nostrum est, stare sub dei arbitrium quam fugere sub nostro. Rutilius sanctissimus martyr cum totiens fugisset persecutionem de loco in locum, etiam periculum, ut putabat, nummis redemisset, post totam securitatem, quam sibi prospexerat, ex inopinato apprehensus et praesidi oblatus, tormentis dissipatus credo pro fugae castigatione, dehinc ignibus datus passionem, quam vitarat, misericordiae dei rettulit. Quid aliud voluit dominus nobis demonstrare hoc documento quam fugiendum non esse, quia nihil fuga prosit, si deus nolit? Tertullianus, De Fuga in Persecutione

'But it is for me to flee,' he says, 'that I may not perish if I deny the Lord. And it is for Him, if He should so will, to bring me back into their midst.' First tell me this: Are you certain you will deny Him if you do not flee, or are you uncertain? If you are certain, you have already denied Him, because by presuming that you will deny Him, you have given yourself over to that which you have presumed, and in vain you would flee so as not to deny Him, for you have denied Him already. But if you are in doubt about the matter, why not in the uncertainty of your fear that wavers between the two outcomes presume that you are able to confess Him, and so be more secure, that you may not flee, as the presumption of denial would have you flee? Now either both outcomes are in our own power, or they wholly lie with God. If it is ours to confess or to deny, why do we not presume the better thing, that is, that we shall confess? If you are not willing to confess, nor to suffer; to be unwilling to confess is to deny. But if the matter wholly lies with God, why do we not leave it to His will, recognising His might and power, that just as He can bring back those who flee, so is He able to hide us when we do not flee, even when living in the midst of people? Is it that you give honour to God in this matter of flight because He is able to return you from flight into their midst, but as for constancy you dishonour Him by despairing of the power of his protection? Rather should you take up the part of constancy and trust in God and say, 'I do what is mine to do, I do not depart; God, if He wills, will Himself protect me.' This is better for us, that we stand in submission to the will of God, than we flee by our own will. Rutilius, a saintly martyr, after having always fled persecution from place to place, even buying himself out of peril, or so he thought, notwithstanding the complete security he had provided for himself, was then unexpectedly seized, and brought before the governor, was torn apart by torture, and I believe this was punishment for his flight, and then sent to the flames, and so he gave to the mercy of God the suffering he had avoided. What else did the Lord mean to show us by this example, than we should not flee because flight will not profit if God does not will it? Tertullian, On Flight during Persecution