Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter XV
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter
XV.
Celsus, in the next place, as one who has heard
the subject of humility greatly talked about,4357
| 4357 ὡς
περιηχηθεὶς
τὰ περὶ
ταπεινοφροσύνης. |
but who has not been at the pains to understand it,4358
| 4358 μὴ ἐπιμελῶς
αὐτὴν
νοήσας. | would wish to speak evil of that humility
which is practised among us, and imagines that it is borrowed from some
words of Plato imperfectly understood, where he expresses himself in
the Laws as follows: “Now God, according to the
ancient account, having in Himself both the beginning and end and
middle of all existing things, proceeds according to nature, and
marches straight on.4359
| 4359 εὐθείᾳ
περαίνει
κατὰ φύσιν
παραπορευόμενος. | He is
constantly followed by justice, which is the avenger of all breaches of
the divine law: he who is about to become happy follows her
closely in humility, and becomingly adorned.”4360
| 4360 Plato, de
Legibus, iv. p. 716. | He did not observe, however, that in
writers much older than Plato the following words occur in a
prayer: “Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes
lofty, neither do I walk in great matters, nor in things too wonderful
for me; if I had not been humble,”4361
etc. Now these words show that he who is of humble mind does not
by any means humble himself in an unseemly or inauspicious manner,
falling down upon his knees, or casting himself headlong on the ground,
putting on the dress of the miserable, or sprinkling himself with
dust. But he who is of humble mind in the sense of the prophet,
while “walking in great and wonderful things,” which are
above his capacity—viz., those doctrines that are truly great,
and those thoughts that are wonderful—“humbles himself
under the mighty hand of God.” If there are some, however,
who through their stupidity4362
have not clearly
understood the doctrine of humiliation, and act as they do, it is not
our doctrine which is to be blamed; but we must extend our forgiveness
to the stupidity4363
of those who aim at
higher things, and owing to their fatuity of mind4364
fail to attain them. He who is
“humble and becomingly adorned,” is so in a greater degree
than Plato’s “humble and becomingly adorned”
individual: for he is becomingly adorned, on the one hand,
because “he walks in things great and wonderful,” which are
beyond his capacity; and humble, on the other hand, because, while
being in the midst of such, he yet voluntarily humbles himself, not
under any one at random, but under “the mighty hand of
God,” through Jesus Christ, the teacher of such instruction,
“who did not deem equality with God a thing to be eagerly clung
to, but made Himself of no reputation, and took on Him the form of a
servant, and being found in fashion as a man, humbled Himself, and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross.”4365
And so great
is this doctrine of humiliation, that it has no ordinary individual as
its teacher; but our great Saviour Himself says: “Learn of
Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest for your
souls.”4366
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
