For since we are
connected
with body, it is also
* i.
* i.
Tacitus
Many more, not to be prolix, I omit.
But
those blessings which the apparent gods bestow in common every day, not
on one family, nor on a single city, but on the whole world, why do you
not acknowledge? Are you alone insensible of the splendour that flows
from the sun? Are you alone ignorant that summer and winter are produced
by him, and that all things are alone vivified and alone germinate from
him? Do you not, also, perceive the great advantages that accrue to your
city from the moon, from him and by him the fabricator of all things?
Yet you dare not worship either of these deities; but this Jesus, whom
neither you nor your fathers have seen, you think must necessarily be
God the word, while him, whom from eternity every generation of mankind
has seen, and sees and venerates, and by venerating lives happily, I
mean the mighty sun, a living, animated, intellectual, and beneficent
image of the intelligible Father, you despise. If, however, you listen
to my admonitions, you will by degrees return to truth. You will not
wander from the right path, if you will be guided by him, who to the
twentieth year of his age pursued that road, but has now worshiped the
gods for near twelve years. "
{62}
EXTRACTS FROM THE FRAGMENT OF AN ORATION OR EPISTLE ON THE DUTIES OF A
PRIEST.
"If any are detected behaving disorderly to their prince, they are
immediately punished; but those who refuse to approach the gods, are
possessed by a tribe of evil dæmons, who driving many of the atheists
[i. e. of the Christians] to distraction, make them think death
desirable, that they may fly up into heaven, after having forcibly
dislodged their souls. Some of them prefer deserts to towns; but man,
being by nature a gentle and social animal, they also are abandoned to
evil dæmons, who urge them to this misanthropy; and many of them*
have had recourse to chains and collars. Thus, on all sides, they are
impelled by an evil dæmons, to whom they have voluntarily surrendered
themselves, by forsaking the eternal and saviour gods.
"Statues and altars, and the preservation of the unextinguished fire,
and in short all such particulars, have been established by our fathers,
as symbols of the presence of the gods; not that we should believe that
these symbols are gods, but that through these we should worship the
gods.
For since we are connected with body, it is also
* i. e. The Cappadocian monks and hermits.
{63}
necessary that our worship of the gods should be performed in a
corporeal manner; but they are incorporeal. And they, indeed, have
exhibited to us as the first of statues, that which ranks as the second
genus of gods from the first, and which circularly revolves round the
whole of heaven*. Since, however, a corporeal worship cannot even be
paid to these, because they are naturally unindigent, a third kind of
statues was devised in the earth, by the worship of which we render the
gods propitious to us. For as those who reverence the images of kings,
who are not in want of any such reverence, at the same time attract to
themselves their benevolence; thus, also, those who venerate the statues
of the gods, who are not in want of any thing, persuade the gods by
this veneration to assist and be favourable to them. For alacrity in the
performance of things in our power is a document of true sanctity;
and it is very evident that he who accomplishes the former, will in a
greater degree possess the latter. But he who despises things in his
power, and afterwards pretends to desire impossibilities, evidently does
not pursue the
* Meaning those divine bodies the celestial orbs, which in
consequence of participating a divine life from the
incorporeal powers from which they are suspended, may be
very properly called secondary gods.
{64}
latter, but overlooks the former. For though divinity is not in want
of any thing, it does not follow that on this account nothing is to be
offered to him. For neither is he in want of celebration through the
ministry of _words_. What then? Is it, therefore, reasonable that he
should also be deprived of this? By no means. Neither, therefore, is he
to be deprived of the honour which is paid him through _works_; which
honour has been legally established, not for three or for three thousand
years, but in all preceding ages, among all nations of the earth.
those blessings which the apparent gods bestow in common every day, not
on one family, nor on a single city, but on the whole world, why do you
not acknowledge? Are you alone insensible of the splendour that flows
from the sun? Are you alone ignorant that summer and winter are produced
by him, and that all things are alone vivified and alone germinate from
him? Do you not, also, perceive the great advantages that accrue to your
city from the moon, from him and by him the fabricator of all things?
Yet you dare not worship either of these deities; but this Jesus, whom
neither you nor your fathers have seen, you think must necessarily be
God the word, while him, whom from eternity every generation of mankind
has seen, and sees and venerates, and by venerating lives happily, I
mean the mighty sun, a living, animated, intellectual, and beneficent
image of the intelligible Father, you despise. If, however, you listen
to my admonitions, you will by degrees return to truth. You will not
wander from the right path, if you will be guided by him, who to the
twentieth year of his age pursued that road, but has now worshiped the
gods for near twelve years. "
{62}
EXTRACTS FROM THE FRAGMENT OF AN ORATION OR EPISTLE ON THE DUTIES OF A
PRIEST.
"If any are detected behaving disorderly to their prince, they are
immediately punished; but those who refuse to approach the gods, are
possessed by a tribe of evil dæmons, who driving many of the atheists
[i. e. of the Christians] to distraction, make them think death
desirable, that they may fly up into heaven, after having forcibly
dislodged their souls. Some of them prefer deserts to towns; but man,
being by nature a gentle and social animal, they also are abandoned to
evil dæmons, who urge them to this misanthropy; and many of them*
have had recourse to chains and collars. Thus, on all sides, they are
impelled by an evil dæmons, to whom they have voluntarily surrendered
themselves, by forsaking the eternal and saviour gods.
"Statues and altars, and the preservation of the unextinguished fire,
and in short all such particulars, have been established by our fathers,
as symbols of the presence of the gods; not that we should believe that
these symbols are gods, but that through these we should worship the
gods.
For since we are connected with body, it is also
* i. e. The Cappadocian monks and hermits.
{63}
necessary that our worship of the gods should be performed in a
corporeal manner; but they are incorporeal. And they, indeed, have
exhibited to us as the first of statues, that which ranks as the second
genus of gods from the first, and which circularly revolves round the
whole of heaven*. Since, however, a corporeal worship cannot even be
paid to these, because they are naturally unindigent, a third kind of
statues was devised in the earth, by the worship of which we render the
gods propitious to us. For as those who reverence the images of kings,
who are not in want of any such reverence, at the same time attract to
themselves their benevolence; thus, also, those who venerate the statues
of the gods, who are not in want of any thing, persuade the gods by
this veneration to assist and be favourable to them. For alacrity in the
performance of things in our power is a document of true sanctity;
and it is very evident that he who accomplishes the former, will in a
greater degree possess the latter. But he who despises things in his
power, and afterwards pretends to desire impossibilities, evidently does
not pursue the
* Meaning those divine bodies the celestial orbs, which in
consequence of participating a divine life from the
incorporeal powers from which they are suspended, may be
very properly called secondary gods.
{64}
latter, but overlooks the former. For though divinity is not in want
of any thing, it does not follow that on this account nothing is to be
offered to him. For neither is he in want of celebration through the
ministry of _words_. What then? Is it, therefore, reasonable that he
should also be deprived of this? By no means. Neither, therefore, is he
to be deprived of the honour which is paid him through _works_; which
honour has been legally established, not for three or for three thousand
years, but in all preceding ages, among all nations of the earth.
