XV.
And the fact that it was not said of the seventh day equally with the other days, "And there was evening, and there was morning," is a distinct indication of the consummation which is to take place in it before it is finished, as the fathers declare, especially St. Clement, and Irenæus, and Justin the martyr and philosopher, who, commenting with exceeding wisdom on the number six of the sixth day, affirms that the intelligent soul of man and his five susceptible senses were the six works of the sixth day. Whence also, having discoursed at length on the number six, he declares that all things which have been framed by God are divided into six classes,--viz., into things intelligent and immortal, such as are the angels; into things reasonable and mortal, such as mankind; into things sensitive and irrational, such as cattle, and birds, and fishes; into things that can advance, and move, and are insensible, such as the winds, and the clouds, and the waters, and the stars; into things which increase and are immoveable, such as the trees; and into things which are insensible and immoveable, such as the mountains, the earth, and such like. For all the creatures of God, in heaven and on earth, fall under one or other of these divisions, and are circumscribed by them.-- From the writings of Anastasius.
XVI.
Sound doctrine does not enter into the hard and disobedient heart; but, as if beaten back, enters anew into itself.
XVII.
As the good of the body is health, so the good of the soul is knowledge, which is indeed a kind of health of soul, by which a likeness to God is attained.--From the writings of John of Damascus.
XVIII.
To yield and give way to our passions is the lowest slavery, even as to rule over them is the only liberty.
The greatest of all good is to be free from sin, the next is to be justified; but he must be reckoned the most unfortunate of men, who, while living unrighteously, remains for a long time unpunished.
Animals in harness cannot but be carried over a precipice by the inexperience and badness of their driver, even as by his skilfulness and excellence they will be saved.
The end contemplated by a philosopher is likeness to God, so far as that is possible.--From the writings of Antonius Melissa.
XIX.
[The words] of St. Justin, philosopher and martyr, from the fifth part of his Apology: [2641] --I reckon prosperity, O men, to consist in nothing else than in living according to truth. But we do not live properly, or according to truth, unless we understand the nature of things.
It escapes them apparently, that he who has by a true faith come forth from error to the truth, has truly known himself, not, as they say, as being in a state of frenzy, but as free from the unstable and (as to every variety of error) changeable corruption, by the simple and ever identical truth.--From the writings of John of Damascus.
[2641] It is doubtful if these words are really Justin's, or, if so, from which, or what part, of his Apologies they are derived.
Introductory Note to the Martyrdom of Justin Martyr
Crescens, a cynic, has the ill-renown of stirring up the persecution in which Justin and his friends suffered for Christ. The story that he died by the hemlock seems to have originated among the Greeks, who naturally gave this turn to the sufferings of a philosopher. The following Introductory Notice of the translator supplies all that need be added.
Though nothing is known as to the date or authorship of the following narrative, it is generally reckoned among the most trustworthy of the Martyria. An absurd addition was in some copies made to it, to the effect that Justin died by means of hemlock. Some have thought it necessary, on account of this story, to conceive of two Justins, one of whom, the celebrated defender of the Christian faith whose writings are given in this volume, died through poison, while the other suffered in the way here described, along with several of his friends. But the description of Justin given in the following account, is evidently such as compels us to refer it to the famous apologist and martyr of the second century. [2642]
[2642] [See Cave, Lives of the Fathers, i. 243. Epiphanius, by fixing the martyrdom under the prefecture of Rusticus, seems to identify this history; but, then, he also connects it with the reign of Hadrian. Ed. Oehler, tom ii. 709. Berlin, 1859.]
justin_martyr martyrdom_of_justin_martyr anf01 justin_martyr-martyrdom_of_justin_martyr The First Apology http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.viii.xi.html
The Martyrdom of the Holy Martyrs Justin, Chariton, Charites, Pæon, and Liberianus, who Suffered at Rome
[Translated by the Rev. M. Dods, M.A.]