III.
The Shows, or De Spectaculis.
347
| 347 [It is the opinion
of Dr. Neander that this treatise proceeded from our author before his
lapse: but Bp. Kaye (p. xvi.) finds some exaggerated expressions in it,
concerning the military life, which savour of Montanism. Probably they
do, but had he written the tract as a professed Montanist, they would
have been much less ambiguous, in all probability. At all events, a
work so colourless that doctors can disagree about even its shading,
must be regarded as practically orthodox. Exaggerated expressions
are but the characteristics of the author’s genius. We find the
like in all writers of strongly marked individuality. Neander
dates this treatise circa a.d. 197. That
it was written at Carthage is the conviction of Kaye and Dr. Allix; see
Kaye, p. 55.] |
[Translated by the Rev. S.
Thelwall.]
————————————
Chapter I.
Ye Servants of God, about to draw near to God,
that you may make solemn consecration of yourselves to Him,348
| 348 [He speaks of
Catechumens, called elsewhere Novitioli. See Bunsen, Hippol.
III. Church and House-book, p. 5.] |
seek well to understand the condition of
faith, the reasons of the
Truth, the
laws of
Christian Discipline,
which forbid among other
sins of the
world, the
pleasures of the
public
shows. Ye who have testified and confessed
349
| 349 [Here he addresses the
Fideles or Communicants, as we call
them.] |
that
you have done so already, review the subject, that there may be no
sinning whether through real or wilful ignorance. For such is the
power of earthly
pleasures, that, to retain the opportunity of still
partaking of them, it contrives to
prolong a willing ignorance, and
bribes
knowledge into playing a
dishonest part. To both things,
perhaps, some among you are allured by the views of the heathens who in
this matter are wont to press us with arguments, such as these: (1)
That the exquisite enjoyments of
ear and
eye we have in things external
are not in the least opposed to
religion in the
mind and conscience;
and (2) That surely no
offence is offered to
God, in any human
enjoyment, by any of our
pleasures, which it is not
sinful to partake
of in its own time and place, with all due honour and
reverence secured
to Him. But this is precisely what we are ready to
prove: That
these things are not consistent with true
religion and true obedience
to the true
God. There are some who
imagine that
Christians, a sort of
people ever ready to
die, are trained into the
abstinence they
practise, with no other object than that of making it less difficult to
despise life, the fastenings to it being severed as it were.
They
regard it as an art of quenching all desire for that which, so
far
as they are concerned, they have emptied of all that is desirable; and
so it is thought to be rather a thing of human planning and foresight,
than clearly laid down by
divine command. It were a grievous thing,
forsooth, for
Christians, while continuing in the enjoyment of
pleasures so great, to die for God! It is not as they say; though, if
it were, even Christian obstinacy might well give all submission to a
plan so suitable, to a rule so excellent.
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