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Chapter
VIII.
It is with a certain eloquence,3094 indeed, that he appears to advocate the
cause of those who bear witness to the truth of Christianity by their
death, in the following words: “And I do not maintain that
if a man, who has adopted a system of good doctrine, is to incur danger
from men on that account, he should either apostatize, or feign
apostasy, or openly deny his opinions.” And he condemns
those who, while holding the Christian views, either pretend that they
do not, or deny them, saying that “he who holds a certain opinion
ought not to feign recantation, or publicly disown it.” And
here Celsus must be convicted of self-contradiction. For from
other treatises of his it is ascertained that he was an Epicurean; but
here, because he thought that he could assail Christianity with better
effect by not professing the opinions of Epicurus, he pretends that
there is a something better in man than the earthly part of his nature,
which is akin to God, and says that “they in whom this element,
viz., the soul, is in a healthy condition, are ever seeking after their
kindred nature, meaning God, and are ever desiring to hear something
about Him, and to call it to remembrance.” Observe now the
insincerity of his character! Having said a little before, that
“the man who had embraced a system of good doctrine ought not,
even if exposed to danger on that account from men, to disavow it, or
pretend that he had done so, nor yet openly disown it,” he now
involves himself in all manner of contradictions. For he knew
that if he acknowledged himself an Epicurean, he would not obtain any
credit when accusing those who, in any degree, introduce the doctrine
of Providence, and who place a God over the world. And we have
heard that there were two individuals of the name of Celsus, both of
whom were Epicureans; the earlier of the two having lived in the time
of Nero, but this one in that of Adrian, and later.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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