Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Commodianus/The Instructions of Commodianus/Chapter 59

LVIII.&#8212;That the Christian Should Be Such.

When the Lord says that man should eat bread with groaning, here what art thou now doing, who desirest to live with joy?&#160; Thou seekest to rescind the judgment uttered by the highest God when He first formed man; thou wishest to abandon the curb of the law.&#160; If the Almighty God have bidden thee live with sweat, thou who art living in pleasure wilt already be a stranger to Him.&#160; The Scripture saith that the Lord was angry with the Jews.&#160; Their sons, refreshed with food, rose up to play.&#160; Now, therefore, why do we follow these circumcised men? &#160; In what respect they perished, we ought to beware; the greatest part of you, surrendered to luxuries, obey them.&#160; Thou transgressest the law in staining thyself with dyes:&#160; against thee the apostle cries out; yea, God cries out by him.&#160; Your dissoluteness, says he, in itself ruins you.&#160; Be, then, such as Christ wishes you to be, gentle, and in Him joyful, for in the world you are sad.&#160; Run, labour, sweat, fight with sadness.&#160; Hope comes with labour, and the palm is given to victory.&#160; If thou wishest to be refreshed, give help and encouragement to the martyr.&#160; Wait for the repose to come in the passage of death.