"There is, therefore, nothing to hinder thee from changing thy evil manner of life, because thou art a free man; or from seeking and finding out who is the Lord of all; or from serving Him with all thy heart: because with Him there is no reluctance to give the knowledge of Himself to those that seek it, according to the measure of their capacity to know Him.
"Let it be thy first care not to deceive thyself. For, if thou sayest of that which is not God: This is God, thou deceivest thyself, and sinnest before the God of truth. Thou fool! is that God which is bought and sold? Is that God which is in want? Is that God which must be watched over? How buyest thou him as a slave, and servest him as a master? How askest thou of him, as of one that is rich, to give to thee, and thyself givest to him as to one that is poor? How dost thou expect of him that he will make thee victorious in battle? for, lo! when thy enemies have conquered thee, they strip him likewise.
"Perhaps one who is a king may say: I cannot behave myself aright, because I am a king; it becomes me to do the will of the many. He who speaks thus really deserves to be laughed at: for why should not the king himself lead the way [3576] to all good things, and persuade the people under his rule to behave with purity, and to know God in truth, and in his own person set before them the patterns of all things excellent--since thus it becomes him to do? For it is a shameful thing that a king, however badly he may conduct himself, should yet judge and condemn those who do amiss.
"My opinion is this: that in this' way a kingdom may be governed in peace--when the sovereign is acquainted with the God of truth, and is withheld by fear of Him from doing wrong [3577] to those who are his subjects, and judges everything with equity, as one who knows that he himself also will be judged before God; while, at the same time, those who are under his rule [3578] are withheld by the fear of God from doing wrong to their sovereign, and are restrained by the same fear from doing wrong to one another. By this knowledge of God and fear of Him all evil may be removed from the realm. For, if the sovereign abstain from doing wrong to those who are under his rule, and they abstain from doing wrong to him and to each other, it is evident that the whole country will dwell in peace. Many blessings, too, will be enjoyed there, because amongst them all the name of God will be glorified. For what blessing is greater than this, that a sovereign should deliver the people that are under his rule from error, and by this good deed render himself pleasing to God? For from error arise all those evils from which kingdoms suffer; but the greatest of all errors is this: when a man is ignorant of God, and in God's stead worships that which is not God.
"There are, however, persons who say: It is for the honour of God that we make the image: in order, that is, that we may worship the God who is concealed from our view. But they are unaware that God is in every country, and in every place, and is never absent, and that there is not anything done and He knoweth it not. Yet thou, despicable man! within whom He is, and without whom He is, and above whom He is, hast nevertheless gone and bought thee wood from the carpenter's, and it is carved and made into an image insulting to God. [3579] To this thou offerest sacrifice, and knowest not that the all-seeing eye seeth thee, and that the word of truth reproves thee, and says to thee: How can the unseen God be sculptured? Nay, it is the likeness of thyself that thou makest and worshippest. Because the wood has been sculptured, hast thou not the insight to perceive that it is still wood, or that the stone is still stone? The gold also the workman [3580] taketh according to its weight in the balance. And when thou hast had it made [3581] into an image, why dost thou weigh it? Therefore thou art a lover of gold, and not a lover of God. And art thou not ashamed, perchance it be deficient, to demand of the maker of it why he has stolen some of it? Though thou hast eyes, dose thou not see? And though thou hast intelligence, [3582] dose thou not understand? Why dost thou wallow on the ground, and offer supplication to things which are without sense? Fear Him who shaketh the earth, and maketh the heavens to revolve, and smiteth the sea, and removeth the mountain from its place--Him who can make Himself like a fire, and consume all things; and, if thou be not able to clear thyself of guilt, yet add not to thy sins; and, if thou be not able to know God, yet doubt not [3583] that He exists.
"Again, there are persons who say: Whatsoever our fathers have bequeathed to us, that we reverence. Therefore, of course, it is, that those whose fathers have bequeathed them poverty strive to become rich! and those whose fathers did not instruct them, desire to be instructed, and to learn that which their fathers knew not! And why, forsooth, do the children of the blind see, and the children of the lame walk? Nay, it is not well for a man to follow his predecessors, if they be those whose course was evil; but rather that we should turn from that path of theirs, lest that which befell our predecessors should bring disaster upon us also. Wherefore, inquire whether thy father's course was good: and, if so, do thou also follow in his steps; but, if thy father's course was very evil, let thine be good, and so let it be with thy children after thee. [3584] Be grieved also for thy father because his course is evil, so long as thy grief may avail to help him. But, as for thy children, speak to them thus: There is a God, the Father of all, who never came into being, neither was ever made, and by whose will all things subsist. He also made the luminaries, that His works may see one another; and He conceals Himself in His power from all His works: for it is not permitted to any being subject to change to see Him who changes not. But such as are mindful of His words, and are admitted into that covenant which is unchangeable, they' see God--so far as it is possible for them to see Him. These also will have power to escape destruction, when the flood of fire comes upon all the world. For there was once a flood and a wind, [3585] and the great [3586] men were swept away by a violent blast from the north, but the just were left, for a demonstration of the truth. Again, at another time there was a flood of water, and all men and animals perished in the multitude of waters, but the just were preserved in an ark of wood by the command of God. So also will it be at the last time: there shall be a flood of fire, and the earth shall be burnt up, together with its mountains; and mankind shall be burnt up, along with the idols which they have made, and the carved images which they have worshipped; and the sea shall be burnt up, together with its islands; but the just shall be preserved from wrath, like as were their fellows of the ark from the waters of the deluge. And then shall those who have not known God, and those who have made them idols, bemoan themselves, when they shall see those idols of theirs being burnt up, together with themselves, and nothing shall be found to help them.
"When thou, Antoninus [3587] Cæsar, shall become acquainted with these things, and thy children also with thee, then wilt thou bequeath to them an inheritance for ever which fadeth not away, and thou wilt deliver thy soul, and the souls of thy children also, from that which shall come upon the whole earth in the judgment of truth and of righteousness. For, according as thou hast acknowledged Him here, so will He acknowledge thee there; and, if thou account Him here superfluous, He will not account thee one of those who have known Him and confessed Him.
"These may suffice thy Majesty; and, if they be too many, yet deign to accept them." [3588]
Here endeth Melito.
[3548] "Which was delivered in the presence...and in which etc." This appears to be the sense intended, and is that given by M. Renan: "Sermo qui factus est." Cureton renders, "Who was in the presence, etc.," and supposes that Melito first saw and conversed with the emperor, and afterwards wrote this discourse. Melito speaks of it more than once as written. This view, however, does not dispose of that fact that Melito is here affirmed to have "exhorted (lit., said to) Cæsar, etc." It was clearly meant to be understood that the discourse, or speech, was spoken: the references to writing merely show that it was written, either before or after the delivery.
[3549] Cureton: "passion." The word *** takes both meanings.
[3550] Lit. "sojourn beneath it."
[3551] Cureton: "act foolishly."
[3552] Lit. "sight."
[3553] Comp. Rom. x. 18.
[3554] Cureton: "light without envy." But the expression resembles the Gk. aphthonos, ungrudgingly, without stint.
[3555] Lit. "to the ditch is his way." Comp. Matt. xv. 14.
[3556] See vol. i. p. 280, this series, where the following lines are quoted by Justin Martyr from the Sibylline Oracles:-- "But we have strayed from the Immortal's ways, And worship with a dull and senseless mind Idols, the workmanship of our own hands, And images and figures of dead men."
[3557] Cureton: "those belonging to the Cæsars." But the Cæsars themselves are clearly meant.
[3558] Cureton: "sacks full." The first word is used of a leathern pouch or wallet, as in Luke x. 4 (Peshito) for pera.
[3559] Lit., "they became."
[3560] Cureton, without necessity, reads the word "Dionysius."
[3561] Cureton renders "originally." But comp. Judith iv. 3, where the same word answers to prosphatos.
[3562] Venus.
[3563] Cureton's conjecture of *** or *** for *** has been adopted.
[3564] Some have identified it with Aphek, Josh. xix. 30. The rites observed here were specially abominable.
[3565] Cureton: "the patrician." Dr. Payne Smith, Thes. Syr. s.v., regards the word as equivalent to pater tes poleos, pater civitatis, "a title of honour found in the Byzantine writers," and is inclined to think it a term belonging to the dialect of Edessa. A similar use of the same adjective is quoted from Buxtorf, Lex. Chald. Talm., p. 12: "'vyy cognomen R. Nachmanis, qui a celebritate familiæ sic cognominatus est, quasi Patritius." This view appears to be supported by the similar use of an adjective for a substantive above: "persons of Cæsarean rank," or "Cæsars."
[3566] Lit., "be (or, get to be) with thyself." Cureton: "enter into thyself." The meaning appears to be, "think for thyself."
[3567] Cureton: "Everything cometh through His hands." It should rather be, "into His hands," i.e., "He has power to do everything." See note 7, p. 725.
[3568] Lit., "be running in thy mind."
[3569] The text has ***, which M. Renan derives from the root *** and translates "commovetur." This, although correct in grammar, does not suit the sense. The grammars recognise the form as a possible Eshtaphel of ***, "tangere," but it is not found in actual use. Dr. Payne Smith thinks the right reading to be ***, which gives the required sense.
[3570] Or, "that which is fixed and invariable." There seems to be a reference to the derivation of *** (truth) from ***, firmus (stabilis) fuit. Cureton has strangely mistranslated ***, by "that which, without having been brought into existence, does exist." The first *** is nothing but the sign of emphatic denial which is frequently appended to ***, and *** is the infinitive of emphasis belonging to the second ***.
[3571] Cureton: "materials." The printed text has *** "drugs." The correct reading, there can hardly be a doubt, is ***.
[3572] Lit., "the property of the gold or silver," if the word *** is rightly taken. Although no such derivative of *** is found in the lexicons, the form is possible from the Palel of that verb: e.g. *** from ***. See Hoffmann, Gram. Syr., sec. 87, 19.
[3573] Lit. "in one fashion."
[3574] Or, "of what pertains to it."
[3575] Lit. "many good things."
[3576] Lit. "be the beginner."
[3577] Cureton is probably right in so taking the words, although the construction is not quite the same as in the similar sentence a little below. If so, for *** we must read ***.