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Chapter
LXXXI.
And do not suppose that it is not in keeping with
the Christian religion for me to have accepted, against Celsus, the
opinions of those philosophers who have treated of the immortality or
after-duration of the soul; for, holding certain views in common with
them, we shall more conveniently establish our position, that the
future life of blessedness shall be for those only who have accepted
the religion which is according to Jesus, and that devotion towards the
Creator of all things which is pure and sincere, and unmingled with any
created thing whatever. And let him who likes show what
“better things” we persuade men to despise, and let him
compare the blessed end with God in Christ,—that is, the word,
and the wisdom, and all virtue;—which, according to our view,
shall be bestowed, by the gift of God, on those who have lived a pure
and blameless life, and who have felt a single and undivided love for
the God of all things, with that end which is to follow according to
the teaching of each philosophic sect, whether it be Greek or
Barbarian, or according to the professions of religious
mysteries;3680
3680 τῷ καθ᾽
ἑκάστην
φιλοσόφων
αἵρεσιν ἐν
῞Ελλησιν ἢ
βαρβάροις, ἢ
μυστηριώδη
ἐπαγγελίαν,
τέλει. | and let him prove
that the end which is predicted by any of the others is superior to
that which we promise, and consequently that that is true, and ours not
befitting the gift of God, nor those who have lived a good life; or let
him prove that these words were not spoken by the divine Spirit, who
filled the souls of the holy prophets. And let him who likes show
that those words which are acknowledged among all men to be human, are
superior to those which are proved to be divine, and uttered by
inspiration.3681 And what are
the “better” things from which we teach those who receive
them that it would be better to abstain? For if it be not
arrogant so to speak, it is self-evident that nothing can be denied
which is better than to entrust oneself to the God of all, and yield
oneself up to the doctrine which raises us above all created things,
and brings us, through the animate and living word—which is also
living wisdom and the Son of God—to God who is over all.
However, as the third book of our answers to the treatise of Celsus has
extended to a sufficient length, we shall here bring our present
remarks to a close, and in what is to follow shall meet what Celsus has
subsequently written.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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