64. What, then, constrains
you, what excites you to revile, to rail at, to hate implacably Him
whom no man3382
| 3382
So the edd., reading nemo h-om-i-n-um, except Hildebrand
and Oehler, who retain the ms.
om-n-i-um—“no one of all.” |
can
accuse
of any
crime?
3383
Tyrants and your kings, who, putting away
all fear of the gods,
plunder and pillage the treasuries of
temples; who by proscription,
banishment,
3384
| 3384
So Heraldus and LB., followed by later edd., reading exiliis
for the ms. ex-uis, for
which Gelenius, Canterus, and Ursinus read et
suis—“and by their slaughters.” |
and
slaughter, strip the
state of its nobles? who, with licentious
violence, undermine and wrest away the chastity of matrons and
maidens,—
these men you name
indigites and
divi; and you
worship with couches,
altars,
temples, and other
service, and by celebrating their games and
birthdays, those whom it
was fitting that you should assail with keenest
3385
| 3385
Here, as frequently in Arnobius, the comparative is used instead of the
superlative. |
hatred. And all those, too, who
by writing books assail in many forms with
biting reproaches
public
manners; who censure,
brand, and tear in pieces your luxurious
habits
and lives; who carry down to posterity
evil reports of their own
times
3386
| 3386
“To posterity evil reports of their own time”—sui
temporis posteris notas—so emended by Ursinus, followed
by Orelli and Hildebrand, for the ms.
in temporis posteri-s, retained by LB., and with the omission of
s in the 1st ed.; but this requires our looking on the passage
as defective. |
in their
enduring writings; who
seek to persuade men that the
rights of
marriage should be held in common;
3387
| 3387
The reference is clearly to the well-known passage in
Plato’s Republic. [See the sickening details, book
v. p. 282, Jowett’s trans.] |
who
lie with
boys,
beautiful,
lustful,
naked; who declare that you are
beasts, runaways, exiles, and
mad and frantic
slaves of the most worthless character,—
all
these with wonder and applause you exalt to the
stars of
heaven,
you place in the
shrines of your libraries, you present with
chariots
and statues, and as much as in you
lies,
gift with a
kind of
immortality, as it were, by the witness which
immortal titles bear to
them.
Christ alone you would tear in pieces,
3388
| 3388 So Gelenius, LB., and Orelli,
reading con-v-ell-e-refor the ms. con-p-ell-a-re, “to accost”
or “abuse,” which is out of place here. Canterus
suggested com-p-il-are, “to plunder,” which also
occurs in the sense “to cudgel.” |
you would rend asunder, if you
could
do so to a
god; nay,
Him alone you would, were it
allowed, gnaw with bloody mouths, and
break His
bones in pieces, and
devour Him like
beasts of the
field. For what that He has done,
tell, I
pray you, for what
crime?
3389
| 3389
Supply, “do you pursue Him so fiercely?” |
What has He done to turn aside
the course of
justice, and
rouse you to
hatred made
fierce by maddening
torments?
Is it because He declared that He was sent by
the only
true King
to be your
soul’s
guardian, and
to bring to you the immortality which you believe that you
already possess, relying on the assertions of a few men?
But
even if you were assured that He spoke falsely, that He even
held out hopes without the slightest
foundation, not even in this case
do I see
any reason that you should
hate and condemn Him
with
bitter reproaches. Nay, if you were
kind and
gentle in
spirit, you ought to esteem Him even for this alone, that He
promised
to you things which you might well wish and hope for; that He was the
bearer of good news; that His message was such as to trouble no
one’s mind, nay, rather to fill
all with less anxious
expectation.
3390
| 3390
These words are followed in the edition of Gelenius by ch.
2–5 of the second book, seemingly without any mark to denote
transposition; while Ursinus inserted the same
chapters—beginning, however, with the last sentence of the first
chapter (read as mentioned in the note on it)—but prefixed an
asterisk, to mark a departure from the order of the ms. The later editors have not adopted either
change. |
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