Remembering LDS Outreach, Cyprian to the Martyrs in the Mines, Further Ken Wilson Exa

The the. And I'm not sure if he makes cards or just what, I don't know, but it's got a nice cross on the front. It says, hello, Dr. White, I wanted to send a little note and thank you for your continued work in preaching the biblical word.

About three years ago, God began to radically change my life after serving an LDS mission. Within the last couple of months, I have watched every debate you ever did with anyone LDS. Well, we don't have, since I, many of the debates that I actually had with the 5 ,000 of you guys, LDS missionaries, that I had over the years would not have happened if Jeff Durbin had been standing nearby, or more like Marcus, with a camera.

So there were a lot of those debates that will only be seen on the big screen in heaven, shall we say. But anyway, I have watched every debate you ever did with anyone LDS. I have hoped that someday God will bring my family out of the LDS church and that I can share the gospel with them, as you do, with boldness and complete Christ-centered love.

Thank you for being a positive influence in my life. May God bless you. Josh Hatch. Josh, I can't tell you what that kind of thing means. That's why we do the things we do. And it got me thinking, because I started, you start getting, Josh, you're young.

You don't, you won't understand this, but you get to my age, you start reminiscing. The wife and I actually, my wife hasn't lost her job, but she's on a month-long unpaid leave. And so we've actually had more time.

And of course, our grandkids are here now. So where is she now? She's with the grandkids. Where else? That's where Nani needs to be, is with the grandkids. But we have had more time to sit, I guess, to sit on the front porch.

It ain't a porch, but you sit out front. And did you know that you can see the White Tank Mountains now almost every single day? I'm not saying that's a good thing, because that means a lot of people are hurting as a result.

But you try to find the positive out of it. And every time I turn west on almost any road, look, there are mountains out there. In other words, you never see them. Except after a real nice rainstorm for a day or two, maybe you could.

In fact, I may put everything aside tonight. No mannequin presentation, nothing. And go by the storage room and pull my good scope out. I haven't set up a scope in a year. And what? Oh, there's still light, but it's not nearly as bad when you don't have all the dust to reflect it.

So the viewing is much better even in the city right now. And so I might see what there is to see right now. It's been a long time, and looking at the heavens is a wonderful thing. But anyways, I started reminiscing, and so the wife and I have been sitting out there talking about, well, once you get to my age, I'm not going to mention her age, but once you get to my age, there's lots of stuff to think back upon.

And so when I was looking at the card again, I ran into the room right before I got started, and I grabbed my triples. And you'll notice there's two sizes. I was noticing there's not nearly as much in the way of sizes when I was at Deseret Book up there in Salt Lake.

I'm not sure they have the—I didn't see the little mini ones. This, I could carry in a pocket, and it's a triple. Book of Mormon, Dr. Carlos Freyra Price. And you'll see it's got tabs in it. Up front, purchased May 18, 1984, at the Deseret Bookstore in Salt Lake City on my second mission trip.

So 1984, I bought this one up there. And so this would be the one. Now, even with these, this is tough. I'd have to have the proper—but, for example, if you look at the—here. If you look at the Book of Abraham section here, you see all the writing down below?

Down here is blank space, but you'll notice mine's filled with writing. And that's actually pencil, which is still readable, amazingly. But what I have there is the—and later on in the other facsimiles— I'm not sure what I've got on the pages here.

But the other facsimiles, as well, in the Book of Abraham, I've got stuff written in here as to what— like, figure number six that Smith says is Olimla, a slave belonging to the prince, is actually the god Anubis, and who Isis is, and who Maat is, and the real interpretation of the Egyptian images I have all written in there.

And unless I am forgetting something, I have a feeling—yeah, yeah, yeah— that when you go to section 84 of the Doctrine and Covenants, you'll notice I marked when it allegedly was given, September 22nd, 23rd, 1832.

And then you start seeing all this orange marking in section 84. There's some yellow in there. There's some more orange in here. And what I had done is I had marked this stuff in this little edition. And this is the one that—in fact, I remember.

Mike Balavo and I were in Motel 6, and I had these—I think I still have these, believe it or not, from 1984. The non-bleed-through color markers—orange, yellow, green, and blue were the four colors that you could buy.

You bought them at Berean Christian Bookstore at 35th Avenue in Camelback. Had them with me, bought this, and we're sitting in our luxurious suite at Motel 6 after eating at Taco Time. And I'm feverishly marking stuff in here.

And this was what I had in my hand when we went to the— there's section 114 all marked up with dates and stuff like that in there. This is what I had in my hand when we went into the Missionary Training Center in Provo.

And this is what I was showing the missionaries when President Bishop ushered us out and had us kicked off campus by the BYU police many, many years ago. This was the one that I had. And I think I had—I'm sure I had my—they both have imprints on them, I assure you.

I didn't get that done at the LDS bookstore. This I had done. Had to explain it to probably somebody at Berean Christian Bookstore why they were putting my name on something like that. But, yeah, this was put into many—.

I can't really—there's the yellow, yeah. Many a pocket for Salt Lake City, Mesa, so on and so forth. That was the carry one. And then we had the reading one. And Rich was mentioning that he ran and got his triple when I started talking about stuff.

And, of course, yeah, here's false prophecies, changes in the Book of Mormon, all stuff written. I don't—it just simply says, property of me, but it doesn't have much. But I opened it up, and lo and behold, the same stuff that Rich was playing with, that he has in his, again, the font on this stuff is absurdly small.

Absolutely absurdly small. But I've got most of the King Follett funeral discourse in here. I do remember making this one especially. These are quotes from Bruce R. McConkie on the topic of justification.

This was specifically for one general conference in Salt Lake City. We were passing out a particular tract that had to do with justification. And so here's Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, page 408.

What then is law of justification? It is simply this. All covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows, performances, connections, associations, or expectations in which men must abide to be saved and exalted must be entered into and performed in righteousness so that the Holy Spirit can justify the candidate for salvation in what has been done.

That's nowhere near what biblical justification means by a long shot. And all of these quotes just demonstrate that Mormonism really has no connection, at least historically, didn't have any connection to the biblical concept of justification at all.

And it just was not a big issue for them at all. But of course there's the translation of the facsimiles in the book of Abraham. I am Jot Bee in the house of the Ben Ben in Heliopolis, so exalted and glorious.

I am a copulating bull without equal. I am that mighty God in the house of the Ben Ben in Heliopolis, that mighty God. Just slightly different. I think the word the appears in both, but that's about it.

Left middle, O God of the sleeping ones and the time of the creation, O mighty God, Lord of heaven and earth, the netherworld and his great waters, grant that the soul of Osiris Sheshank may live. May this tomb never be desecrated.

May this soul and its possessor never be desecrated in the netherworlds. Et cetera, et cetera. And that's from Michael Dennis Rhodes. That's from BYU Studies. That's why I liked using that particular translation, because actually it's a Mormon that translated that.

But yeah, all this stuff was sitting in there. Osiris shall be conveyed in the great pool of Khans, and likewise Osiris Hor justified, born a tiki bat justified after his arms have been placed on his heart, and the breathing permit which Isis maiden has writing on his inside and outside has been wrapped in royal linen and placed under his left arm near his heart.

The rest of his mummy bandages shall be wrapped over it. The man for whom this book has been copied will breathe forever and ever as the boughs of the gods do. Klaus Baer, Dialogue, Autumn 1968. So much we could say about the book of Abraham and all that fun stuff there.

Yes? Yeah, well, no, I don't have mine here. But yeah, we had these mini carriers.

So let me wait a minute, what happened there? You went to the wrong camera. Yeah, I did. Go back to that one and then hit that one. There we go. So since he's shown off his, these little pouches you could get at Deseret along with your triple.

I don't think they have them anymore. No, no, they haven't sold these guys this size for a very long time, as I recall. That's sad. So there's mine. Now, I did have mine engraved at the LDS bookstore.

You did? I did. Braver than me. And then in here is also, this is look at how big that thing is. Oh, yeah, sure. So that was I didn't want to do a quad because it was too much to carry around. Oh, yeah, quads are huge.

And I think the quads were just coming out for the first time when I got this set. Oh, okay. I liked this better, so I did that. But what I did was I also there was room in here to have Right. Here's my little Pocket King James.

Right. And do you have Articles of Faith? Articles of Faith. Very good. James Talmadge. Okay, that was in there. And then, of course, as you're showing off the little laminates that you did way back when, I've got mine right here that I'd have handy.

I had some cardboard notes that I could use along the way that you had made up. You made all these up. And all kinds of little quote sections you wanted to refer to. Oh, yeah, yeah. I had this one. And it's like, what is this?

That! Can you see it? No. The Prophet's Letter to Governor Carlin on the John C. Bennett Affairs. Oh. Oops! That was wow.

You're carrying that around? I was carrying that around. I don't think I've ever had a conversation about that with somebody else.

Oh, wait, I wanted to be prepared for everything. I guess you were.

Well, no, what I did is I carried a camera bag. I started carrying a camera bag for a while. And literally, I'd have Mormon doctrine and teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith and a little library there.

And again, folks, the reason we did this is we didn't have smartphones back then. You didn't have something like this to be able to put all that kind of stuff on. And sometimes people would challenge what you had to say.

And it was good to be able to back it up. It was good to be able to back it up. Check this out.

Check this out. All of these things actually fit in here. It's a little snug. Yes. But it actually fit. And that's what I carried with me. And then I did my tracks somewhere. Backpacks were real handy.

Those are the days. And it is pretty amazing to be sitting here going, despite the pandemic panic and stuff, all those pageants are going away anyways. Yeah. That's what's truly amazing to me is they've stopped all that stuff.

I think about how they were so aggressive. That was the main way they got contacts for the whole year was through the Easter pageant here in the local area, the Arizona Tempe Mission. And I don't know what they're doing now.

I really don't. But, yeah, it was neat to go back. Those were big investments for us back then. I mean, you've got to understand, when this ministry started, we had nothing. And I've told a story about when I bought the Journal of Discourses, the 26 volumes in the case-bound paperback set of the Journal of Discourses, as a college student, and literally bungee corded it to the back of my motorcycle on my way back home from class.

Living in the converted garage at my parents' house, having just gotten married at 19 years of age. And how we used those for years. It was $69 .99 to buy that set. I don't know what it would cost now.

But then they went out of print for a while after that. And, man, did we use those. That was a great investment. But I was scared to tell the young wife that I had just spent a third of two weeks of our income on...

You know, you can't eat the Journal of Discourses. They're not very tasty. And then to get these things. But, yeah, we've still got them. See, that was purchased in 1984. So we're talking 36 years ago.

Got that. Still have it. It's not in bad shape. I take care of my stuff. I really do. But, yeah, it just got me thinking about all those years. And, honestly, getting a little sad that we didn't get to do what we were planning on doing in April.

Let's hope and pray we get a chance to do that again. I think a lot has fundamentally changed in how a lot of things are going to be done in the future. But we will see. We will see about all of that stuff.

So a little bit of reminiscing there as we get started. Now, let's see if I can find this here. Where did it go? There it is. I said that I would read this for you. This could technically be a part of story time with Uncle Jimmy, but it doesn't really fit into a funny parameter.

So we'll just leave that at there. But I said yesterday, I said, please make a note so I would remember to read this epistle. Let me talk to you a little bit about a great Christian man that most of you don't know anything about.

That's not meant to be insulting. It's just the reality. I think if we were to take a poll of professing Christians in the world, the number who would know of, have read anything by, and be able to place in the proper century, Cyprian of Carthage would be very small.

Very small percentage. And that is to our detriment. I'm very glad that the new president of Phoenix Seminary has written an entire book on Cyprian. In fact, I attended a lecture he gave on Cyprian along with Peter Gurry was doing some stuff on CBGM.

And so it's good that there are people who know, you know, obviously historians know, but I'm really of the opinion here at the Dividing Lines Seminary. We're gonna have to do something with that. That all of us as believers would be enriched if we were to know better those in whom the Holy Spirit has worked in the past.

It does not mean you exalt them. I don't agree with everything Cyprian said. But unlike so many people, and I have especially in mind there people like Dave Hunt, who was so vitriolic and nasty toward people of the past, because that's the fundamentalist mindset.

The fundamentalist mindset is I will only honor those in the past who look like me and dressed like me, which is why fundamentalist church history pretty much ends with, you know, the last century, because you're not going to find much before then of anybody who looked like a modern-day fundamentalist.

So when you look back at those who came before us, and if you don't know what their context was, it's very easy to anachronistically judge them upon what they should have known rather than what they actually did know.

At the same time, I'll be honest with you, I think a lot of the Christians of the past would have good reason to look at us with raised eyebrows. How much in love we are with the things of the world, how attached we are to the things of this life.

And I think they could say some pretty strong things to us. And if you don't know about them, you can never have that dialogue. You can never even think those thoughts, even have... One of the beautiful things about church history is that it's the conflicts in our own experiences, our current experience and what's going on with a particular virus and things like that.

We get so focused upon the minutia of right now that having any means of having perspective and stepping back and seeing things in the long term is just lost. Church history is the one time when you can actually hold a mirror up to yourself in a certain sense and have some perspective.

Cyprian really helps us a lot in this way. I could not help but thinking... I mentioned, what was it about... I'm not sure it was a full two years yet, but not the last time. I popped up to Inverness just a couple of months ago.

Thankfully, you still had the ability to do that kind of thing. But about a year before that or so, I was up there and I team taught a class on Cyprian with my dear friend Nick Needham, who is a church historian par excellence.

I think that's one of the reasons he and I get along. We can throw out all sorts of strange references to obscure weirdness in church history. And the other one goes, Oh, everybody else in the restaurant is looking at us like, Who are those people?

But anyway, he and I team taught a class on Cyprian. It was one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done. I think he enjoyed it as well. The students seemed to really enjoy the interplay between the two of us.

And I have threatened to have Nick on, and we could do that again, but for you all. And maybe we'll really need to... It's not like Nick has a lot to be doing right now. So we might be able to ask him to join us in that way.

But looking at Cyprian reminded me of one particular thing. Cyprian was only a Christian for 12 years. Maybe 11, depending on where you put the conversions. Conversion dates are always notoriously difficult.

But just over a decade, Cyprian was a Christian. And I could not help but think of a modern day Christian that reminds me in many ways of Cyprian. Not in his theology, writing books, but in having been such a shining, brief star.

A meteorite flashing across the sky for just a brief period of time. And one of my heroes of the faith, Keith Green, who was a Christian for only seven years before his tragic death. Cyprian did not die a natural death.

Just some background here. Cyprian was probably born around the year 200. He was a wealthy Roman, well-trained, well-educated. He speaks in one place of the wearing of purple clothes. Now, purple linen, silks and things like this in purple were extremely expensive and were a sign of high social standing.

And Cyprian knew what it was to wear these things. He was a wealthy man. He had position and status in the Roman community there in Carthage. Now, of course, he had traveled. And, of course, the history of the Roman Carthage wars is fascinating.

I really want to spend some more time on that because I've not read as deeply into that period as I would like. But when he is converted, he's really converted. And, you know, in our day, when someone's converted, it's like, well, give them a few years to get started, you know.

And there's not much expected. Life expectancy wasn't as long back then. There were diseases and plagues. And people died much younger on average than they do today. And you didn't have as much time. Cyprian used his physical wealth to bless the church.

Not by building buildings. You were taking care of people. He was converted right at the time when the greatest period of persecution was beginning in the history of the church. I've mentioned it many times before, but you need to be aware of the fact that from Nero on, you have intermittent periods and localized periods of persecution of the Christian church.

Then, starting in the middle of the third century, you have empire-wide, imperially mandated persecution of Christians that lasts for over six decades until the peace of the church in 313. Cyprian is converted right at the beginning of this time period.

Just before it starts. And in those days, in light of the social situation and how many Christians would be not of the higher classes, they'd be of lower classes, whatever it might be, his ability at rhetoric, speaking, reading, led very quickly to his elevation to the position of bishop there in Carthage, which was a very important position.

When that first wave of persecution hit, he chose to follow Jesus' advice and he left Carthage and he sought to govern the church by epistle from hiding. And of course, and I wasn't intending to get into all this, but as a background, it is important.

My lectures on church history are available online. They're available at Sermon Audio, at the Phoenix Foreign Baptist Church website. They're part of the Sermon Audio thing. So there's a whole lesson on all of this.

But one of the greatest forces that tore at the very fabric of the ancient church was how to deal with apostasy. You had people who had been beaten, tortured, imprisoned. They were missing an eye, a limb.

Their bodies were scarred with lashes and they had not denied Christ. They were called confessors and martyrs. Martyr doesn't mean you just have to die. Martyreo means to give witness. And so sometimes living people would be called martyrs as well.

But then you had people who did give up the scriptures, who did commit types of acts of apostasy. And the church struggled mightily what to do with someone who repented and came back to the fellowship after the period of persecution had ended.

This had been tearing at the church for a great, for a long period of time. You had the Novatian Schism now, you had the Dante Schism which was developing at this time. These schisms were extremely...

This was what took up the vast majority of social media. The emails of the day, obviously had no E in them, but the emails of the day were taken up with these things. The issue of re-baptism, baptism of heretics, all of these things were central.

Cyprian inherited all this stuff. Remember, he's a Christian for maybe at most 12 years. 12 years. You think you can find in your heart some place to be at least somewhat gracious toward where someone ends up when they're only a Christian for 12 years.

And I'm not talking about he had been a Christian for 12 years and became a bishop. No, he had been a Christian for 12 years when he was executed as bishop. Became a martyr. He had only been a Christian for a few years when he became bishop.

So it's not like he could go to the library and get all sorts of different perspectives and get taught all the biblical backgrounds and all the rest of that kind of stuff. He had to come at it at high speed.

And I think you might want to cut the guy some slack as a result when it comes to a number of different things. But the point is he tried to run the church and that's why we have so many of his epistles is he tried to run the church through epistles.

That first wave died down a little bit. He returned and when the second wave came he decided he couldn't leave again. He had to stay. He was, of course, criticized for leaving. And maybe because of that criticism who knows he does not flee at the second rising of persecution.

He is in 258 arrested and he is executed. He is brought before the proconsul. He confesses to all of his crimes of following Jesus and believing in him and refusing to recant and he is taken and he encourages the poor centurion whose job it was to execute him and he is beheaded by the Roman state and becomes one of the most famous martyr bishops in the early church and just in passing I wasn't intending to do this but just in passing you need to recognize that because he was a martyr bishop his views on sacramentology became very important in North Africa and so when Augustine comes along approximately a little over a hundred and a couple decades later as Augustine struggles with the Donatist controversy he has to very carefully disagree with Cyprian's formulation in regards to ex opera operato and ex opera operante and he really had to walk a very very careful line at that point because Cyprian's memory was held in very high esteem and because he had been faithful unto death, Cyprian then what he wrote is given a higher status of authority in the minds of the Christians there in North Africa for obvious reasons so that has an impact upon how Augustine has to deal with issues and things that he faces as well because even though Augustine is a hippo, it's not like it's on another planet from Carthage still North Africa and therefore it's still very very important in his development too.

So the point is that Cyprian is ministering in Carthage at the beginning of a six decade period of time of imperial persecution of Christians many Christians lost their lives many a church was, many a church then experienced what churches in China are experiencing now, being razed to the ground being dynamited, whatever else you might want to say this is a very difficult time the church has experienced this many times before we might want to be reading more about how Christians have handled this in the past and one of the epistles that he wrote I don't remember when I first read this I don't remember what prompted it but one of the epistles he wrote was to Nemesianus, Felix, Lucius another Felix Lydias, Polyanus, Victor Yader and Dativas, his fellow bishops also his fellow presbyters and deacons and the rest of the brethren in the mines martyrs of God the father almighty and of Jesus Christ our Lord and of God our preserver everlasting greeting in the mines.

This is an epistle that Cyprian writes to believers who have been instead of executed by Rome, they have been enslaved by Rome and forced to work in the mines, now if you think working in mines today is dangerous and deadly to your health try it in the middle of the 3rd century without oxygen without lights without all the safety stuff that is at least far more prevalent today than it was only 200 years ago.

It was a death sentence without being a direct death sentence. And of course you were bound. You had chains. You weren't going to live long. Let's put it that way you are a living martyr. So Cyprian would have had in his church the family members of some of these people who were in mines working in mines.

Some might eventually be released others would never see their families again. This was a situation that you are facing as Cyprian writes to those who were in the mines. And so if you really want to enter into this then think about what it would be like to be chained to have wooden stocks to be caused to work for 12 hours a day in stifling heat or cold depending on the season smoke from the lamps choking your lungs.

No safety equipment no breathing equipment. Always every swing of your pickaxe could result in your death as something might collapse on top of you. And you are there because you refused to deny the name of Christ.

Do we have fellow believers in situations like this? There are many today who are facing situations because they will not deny the name of Christ. They could have freedom in China in certain Muslim countries if they would but give in.

And there were those who did but many others did not. And so Cyprian writes this epistle. It is epistle number 76. If you want to look it up I'm sure it's on CCEL ccel .org. If you want to look it up it's in the 5th volume of the Antonicean Fathers set the old Erdmann's current Hendrickson set.

If you want to want to grab it there your glory indeed would demand most blessed and beloved brethren that I myself should come to see and to embrace you. If the limits of place appointed me did not restrain me banished as I am for the sake of the confession of the name.

So I stopped just for a moment to say that would seem to indicate that this is written while Cyprian himself is in hiding in banishment away from Carthage during that first period of persecution. But in what way I can I bring myself into your presence.

And even though it is not permitted me to come to you in body and in movement yet in love and in spirit I come expressing my mind in my letter. In which mind I joyfully exult in those virtues and praises of yours counting myself a partaker with you although not in bodily suffering yet in community of love.

Could I be silent and restrain my voice in stillness when I am made aware of so many and such glorious things concerning my dearest friends things with which the divine condescension has honored you so that part of you have already gone before by the consummation of their martyrdom to receive from their lord the crown of their desserts part still abide in the dungeons of the prison or in the mines and in chains exhibiting by the very delays of their punishments greater examples for the strengthening and arming of the brethren advancing by the tediousness of their tortures to the more ample titles of merit to receive as many payments and heavenly rewards as days are now counted in their punishments.

I do not marvel most brave and blessed brethren that these things have happened to you in consideration of the desert of your religion and your faith that the lord should thus have lifted you to the lofty height of glory by the honor of his glorification seeing that you have always flourished in his church guarding the tenor of the faith keeping firmly the lord's commands in simplicity innocence in charity concord modesty in humility diligence in administration watchfulness in helping those that suffer mercy in cherishing the poor constancy in defending the truth judgment in severity of discipline.

And that nothing should be wanting to the example of good deeds in you even now in the confession of your voice and the suffering of your body you provoke the minds of your brethren to divine martyrdom by exhibiting yourselves as leaders of virtue.

That while the flock follows its pastors and imitates what it sees to be done by those set over it it may be crowned with the like merits of obedience by the lord. But that being first severely beaten with clubs and ill used you have begun by sufferings of that kind the glorious firstlings of your confession is not a matter to be execrated by us.

For a christian body is not very greatly terrified at clubs seeing all its hope is in the wood. The servant of christ acknowledges the sacrament of his salvation redeemed by wood to life eternal. He is advanced by wood to the crown.

But what wonder if as golden and silver vessels you have been committed to the mine that is the home of gold and silver. Except that now the nature of the mines is changed and the places which previously have been accustomed to yield gold and silver have begun to receive them.

Moreover they have put fetters on your feet and have bound your blessed limbs and the temples of god with disgraceful change as if the chains as if the spirit also could be bound with the body or your gold could be stained by the contact of iron.

To men who are dedicated to god and attesting their faith with religious courage such things are ornaments not chains. Nor they bind the feet of the christian for infamy but glorify them for a crown. Oh feet blessedly bound which are loosed not by the smith but by the lord.

Oh feet blessedly bound which are guided to paradise in the way of salvation. Oh feet bound for the present time in the world that they may be always free with the lord. Oh feet lingering for a while among the fetters and crossbars.

But to run quickly to christ on a glorious road. Let cruelty either enviance or malignant hold you here in its bonds and chains as long as it will from this earth. And from these sufferings you shall speedily come to the kingdom of heaven.

The body is not cherished in the minds with couch and cushions but it is cherished with the refreshment and solace of christ. The frame wearied with labors lies prostrate on the ground. But it is no penalty to lie down with christ.

Your limbs unbathed are foul and disfigured with filth and dirt. But within they are spiritually cleansed. Although without the flesh although without the flesh is defiled there the bread is scarce. But man liveth not by bread alone but by the word of god shivering.

You want clothing. But he who puts on christ is both abundantly clothed and adorned. The hair of your half shorn beard seems repulsive. But since christ is the head of the man anything whatever must needs become that head which is illustrious on account of christ's name.

All that deformity detestable and foul to gentiles. With what splendor shall it be recompensed. This temporal and brief suffering how shall it be exchanged for the reward of a bright and eternal honor when according to the word of the blessed apostle the lord shall change the body of our humiliation that it may be fashioned like to the body of his brightness.

But there cannot be felt any loss of either religion or faith. Most beloved brethren in the fact that now there is given no opportunity there to god's priest for offering and celebrating the divine sacrifices.

Yea you celebrate and offer a sacrifice to god equally precious and glorious and that will greatly profit you for the retribution of heavenly rewards. Since the sacred scripture speaks saying the sacrifice of god is a broken spirit a contrite and humbled heart god doth not despise you offer this sacrifice to god.

You celebrate this sacrifice without intermission day and night being made victims to god and exhibiting yourselves as holy and unspotted offerings as the apostle exhorts and says i beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of god that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto god and do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

That you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of god. For this it is which especially pleases god. It is this wherein our works with greater desserts are successful in earning god's good will.

This it is which alone the obedience of our faith and devotion can render to the lord for his great and saving benefits as the holy spirit declares and witnesses in the psalms. What shall i render says he to the lord for all his benefits toward me i will take the cup of salvation and i will call upon the name of the lord.

Precious in the sight of the lord is the death of his saints who would not gladly and readily receive the cup of salvation. Who would not with joy and gladness desire that in which he himself also may render somewhat unto his lord who would not bravely and unfalteringly receive a death precious in the sight of the lord to please his eyes.

Who looking down from above upon us who are placed in the conflict for his name approves the willing assists the struggling crowns the conquering with the recompense of patience goodness and affection rewarding in us whatever he himself has bestowed and honoring what he has accomplished.

For that is for that it is his doing that we conquer that we attain by the subduing of the adversary to the palm of the greatest contest the lord declares and teaches in his gospel saying. But when they deliver you up take no thought how or what you shall speak for it shall be given you in the same hour.

What you shall speak for it is not you that speak but the spirit of your father's which speaks in you and again settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate before what you shall answer for I will give you a month.

I should be a mouth and wisdom which your adversary shall not be able to resist. In which indeed is both the great confidence of believers and the gravest fault of the faithless that they do not trust him.

Who promises to give his help to those who confess him and do not on the other hand fear him. Who threatens eternal punishment to those who deny him all which things most brave and faithful soldiers of christ you have suggested to your brethren fulfilling in deeds what you previously taught in words hereafter to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven as the lord promises and says whosoever shall do and teach shall be called the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.