66 worthy an estimate of divine power they form, who maintain that every thing returns to its original whence it proceeded, and that beyond this even Gop can do nothing but we plainly see this, that they would not have believed it possible, for beings like themselves, and for the whole world, to have existed, and to have had their origin, in the manner which their own observation now discovers. 26. We have already assumed that it is better to believe things, which in their own nature and by the power of men are impossible, than to disbelieve as others do. Since we know how our master JESUS CHRIST said, "The things which are impossible with men, are possible with God." He said also, " Fear ye not them that kill you, and after that are able to do nothing but fear him, who after death, is able to cast both soul and body into hell.”ý 27. Now hell is the place, where those shall be punished who have lived unrighteously, and have not believed that the things shall come to pass, which GoD hath taught through CHRIST. And even the Sibyl and Hystaspes declared that there should be a destruction of corruptible things by fire. And those who are styled Stoic philosophers teach, that God himself will 8 χωρῆσαν ὅθεν τὴν ἀρχὴν μηδέπω γεγονὸς ἐγεγόνει ὁ ἄνθρωπος. Adv. Hær. Lib. v. c. 3. p. 401, 32. IRENEUS, ATHENAGORAS, in his argumentative treatise on the Resurrection of the body, lays great stress upon the same reasoning. ATHENAG. de Resurrectione Carnis, p. 43, A. 59, A. See also the Apostolical Constitutions, Lib. v. Sect. 43. 7. p. 308. * Luke xviii. 27. Matt. x. 28. Luke xii. 45. CARM. SIB. Lib. iii. THEOPHILUS (ad Autolycum, Lib. ii. p. 114, D. 116, A.) appeals in like manner to the Sibyl. The author of the Quæstiones et Responsiones ad Orthodoxos, a work falsely ascribed to Justin, says that CLEMENT of Rome, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, appeals to the writings of the Sibyl, as testifying that the world should be destroyed by fire. In the present Epistle of Clement there is no such allusion. GROTIUS (de Veritate Rel. Christ. 1, 22,) has accumulated several instances of the same tradition. See Justin Martyr's Second Apology, p. 45. CICERO De Natura Deorum, ii. 46. VOL. IV.-13 be resolved into fire; and affirm that the world shall be renewed by a change. But we entertain far higher notions respecting GOD, the Creator of all things, than that he should be subject to any change. 28. If then in some things we hold the same opinions with the poets and philosophers, whom ye honor, and in others entertain views more sublime and more worthy of the divine nature, and if we alone are able to prove what we say, why are we unjustly hated above all men? For when we affirm that all things were ordered and made by GoD, we hold apparently the same doctrine as Plato: when we speak of a destruction by fire, we agree with the Stoics in maintaining that the souls of the unjust are punished, retaining their consciousness even after death, and the souls of good men live happily, free from pain, we assent to what your poets and philosophers declare: when we say that we ought not to worship the works of men's hands, we agree with Menander the comic poet, and others who hold the same opinions; for they have shown that the Creator is greater than the creature. And when we affirm that the Word, which is the firstbegotten of GOD, was born without carnal knowledge, 67 even JESUS CHRIST Our Master, and that he was crucified, and died, and rose again and ascended into heaven, we advance no new thing different from what is maintained respecting those, whom ye call the sons of Jupiter." 29. For ye well know how many sons your approved writers attribute to Jupiter: Mercury, the word of interpretation and the teacher of all men; Esculapius, who was a physician, and yet struck with lightning and taken up into heaven; Bacchus, who was torn in b THEOPHILUS of Antioch, (ad Autolycum, Lib. ii. p. 115,) and CLEMENS Alexandrinus, (Stromata, Lib. iv. p. 541,) have collected many passages of Heathen poets and philosophers, agreeing with different tenets of the Christian religion. The object which Justin has in view, in the ensuing part of his Apology, although now void of interest, was important at the time in which it was written, when the Heathen world was given up to idolatry. He endeavors to show that the Gentiles could not consistently make it a matter of accusation against the Christians, that they believed in the incarnation of JESUS CHRIST the Son of GOD, when they themselves held opinions, which were fully as incredible, respecting their false gods. pieces; Hercules, who burned himself upon the pile to escape his torments; Castor and Pollux, the sons of Leda; Perseus the son of Danäe; and Bellerophon, born of human race, and carried away upon the horse Pegasus. For why should I speak of Ariadne, and others also, like her, who were said to be raised among the stars of heaven? Nay, ye determine that the very Emperors, who die among you, shall always become. immortal; and bring forward some one to swear that he saw Cæsar, who was burnt, going up to heaven out of the funeral pile. Neither is it necessary that I should relate to you, who already know well, of what kind were the actions of each of those who were called the sons of Jupiter; I need only say, that the writings, in which they are recorded, tend only to corrupt and pervert the minds of those who learn them for all take a pride in being imitators of the gods. Now far be from every sound mind such conceptions concerning the gods, that even the very leader and father of them all, as they account Jupiter, should be a parricide, as his father also was; should be a slave of the worst and basest passions, as in the instance of Ganymede and his adulteries with many women, and receive with approbation his sons who acted in like manner. But, as we have before said, the evil spirits did these things. And we have been taught that they only are immortalized, who live holily and virtuously before GoD: believing also that they who live an unjust life, and repent not, shall be punished in eternal fire. 30. But JESUS, who is called the Son of God, even if he had been but a man, in the ordinary sense, would yet by his wisdom have deserved to be called the Son of GOD; for all writers call Him GoD, who is the Father of gods and men: but if we say that he was begotten of GoD, in a manner far different from ordi a JUSTIN alludes to the same story respecting Bellerophon in Sect. 71. The mythological history was not, however, that Bellerophon was carried to heaven on Pegasus, but that he made the attempt and failed. · εἰς διαφθορὰν καὶ παρατροπήν. The word "parricide" does not always strictly mean the murderer of a parent. Jupiter was said to have dethroned, and, by some, to have imprisoned Saturn; and Saturn was accused of using still greater violence to his own father, Coelus or Uranus, nary generation, being the Word of God, as we have before said, let this be considered a correspondence with your own tenets, when ye call Mercury the word who bears messages from GOD. And if any one 68 objects to us, that he was crucified; this too is a point of correspondence with those whom ye call the sons of Jupiter, and yet allow to have suffered, as we before stated. For the sufferings of their deaths are related to have been not similar to his, but different ; so that he seems not to have been inferior to them even in the peculiar manner of his death: nay, in the progress of our address we shall show, as we promised, that he is even superior: or rather this is already shown; for he that is superior appears to be so from his deeds. Again, if we affirm that he was born of a virgin; let this be considered a point in which he agrees with what you (fabulously) ascribe to Perseus. And whereas we say that he made those whole, who were lame, palsied, and blind from their birth, and raised the dead; in this too we ascribe to him actions similar to those which are said to have been performed by Esculapius. h 31. We desire also to make it fully apparent to you, that those things only which we affirm, and have learned from CHRIST and the prophets who went before him, are the truth, and more ancient than (what is recorded by) all other writers; and we do not require to be believed, because in some particulars we agree with them, but because we say the truth; and JESUS CHRIST, who alone was properly born the Son of Gon, being his Word, and First-begotten and Power, and by his counsel made man, hath taught us these things, for the reformation and improvement of the human race. Before he was made man and dwelt among men, some, In Sect. 72, Justin argues that the mystery of the cross was never imitated by any of the false gods. Η πηρούς. This seems a better reading than πονηρούς. THIRLEY shows that the word is used by Justin to signify "the blind" as in Trypho, p. 295. · φθάσαντές τινες διὰ τοὺς προειρημένους κάκους δαίμονας, διὰ τῶν ποιητῶν ὡς γενόμενα εἶπον, ἃ μυθοποιήσαντες ἔφησαν· ὃν τρόπον καὶ τὰ καθ' ἡμῶν λεγόμενα δύσφημα καὶ ἀσεβῆ ἔργα ενήργησαν.-There is probably some omission or error in the Greek text. The assertion of Justin seems to be, that the demons, whom he supposes to have inspired the Heathen at the instigation of those evil spirits of which we have spoken, declared through the fictions which the poets uttered, that these events had already happened; as also they have fabricated those infamous and impious actions which are reported of us, without witness or proof. Of this our refutation follows. 32. In the first place, we alone, although we express nothing but what is similar to the professions of the Greeks, are hated on account of the name of CHRIST, and, although innocent, are put to death as transgressors: whereas other persons, in different places, worship trees and rivers, and mice, and cats, and crocodiles, and (many) other brute beasts. Yet the same animals are not held sacred by all, but some in one place and some in another; so that all are accounted impious one to the other, for not worshipping the same objects. And this is the only thing of which ye can accuse us, that we worship not the same gods which ye worship, and offer not libations, and the perfume of the fat of beasts, to the dead, nor crowns and sacrifices to images.* -or ye well know that the same things are regarded by some as gods, by others as beasts, and by others again as victims. 69 33. In the second place, we out of every nation, who formerly worshipped Bacchus the son of Semele, and Apollo the son of Latona, whose infamous abominations it is a shame even to mention, together with Proserpine and Venus, who were inflamed with passion for Adonis, and whose mysteries ye celebrate, or any others of those who are called gods, do now for the sake of JESUS CHRIST despise all these, even under the threat of death: and dedicate ourselves to God who is unbegotten and without passions; of whom we believe not (as ye believe of Jupiter) that under the influence of base passion he followed Antiope, or others in like manner, or Ganymede, nor that he was loosed from poets and mythologists, had obtained some imperfect knowledge of the actions which CHRIST should perform, and purposely framed the stories of the false gods so as to anticipate them. κ ἐν γραφαῖς στεφάνους, SALMASIUS reads iv papaïs arepávovs, crowns sewed together. 1 ayεvvýтw. See note (q) on IGNATIUS' Epistle to the Ephesians, Sect. 7, p. 58. |