Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter XXXII.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter
XXXII.
There is also another and a greater necessity for our
offering prayer in behalf of the emperors, nay, for the complete
stability of the empire, and for Roman interests in general. For we
know that a mighty shock impending over the whole earth—in
fact, the very end of all things threatening dreadful woes—is
only retarded by the continued existence of the Roman empire.122
| 122 [Cap. xxxix.
infra. And see Kaye, pp. 20, 348. A subject of which more
hereafter.] | We have no desire, then, to be overtaken by
these dire events; and in praying that their coming may be delayed, we
are lending our aid to Rome’s duration. More than this, though we
decline to swear by the genii of the Cæsars, we swear by their
safety, which is worth far more than all your genii. Are you ignorant
that these genii are called “Dæmones,” and thence the
diminutive name “Dæmonia” is applied to them? We
respect in the emperors the ordinance of God, who has set them over the
nations. We know that there is that in them which God has willed;
and to what God has willed we desire all safety, and we count an oath
by it a great oath. But as for demons, that is, your genii, we have
been in the habit of exorcising them, not of swearing by them, and
thereby conferring on them divine honour.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
