Ante-Nicene Fathers • VOLUME 2
Fathers of the Second Century
SECTION 241
Chapter VIII.--Women as Well as Men, Slaves as Well as Freemen, Candidates for the Martyr's Crown.
Chapter VIII.--Women as Well as Men, Slaves as Well as Freemen, Candidates for the Martyr's Crown. Since, then, not only the Æsopians, and Macedonians, and the Lacedæmonians endured when subjected to torture, as Eratosthenes says in his work, On Things Good and Evil; but also Zeno of Elea, when subjected to compulsion to divulg…
2,205 wordsSECTION 242Chapter IX.--Christ's Sayings Respecting Martyrdom.
[2770] [This vindication of the equality of the sexes is a comment on what the Gospel found woman's estate, and on what it created for her among Christians.] [2771] 1 Cor. xi. 3, 8, 11. [2772] [Gal. v. 16, 17, 19-23. S.] [2773] [The Edin. Trans. has "best at everything," but I have corrected it in closer accord with the compa…
1,383 wordsSECTION 243Chapter X.--Those Who Offered Themselves for Martyrdom Reproved.
Chapter X.--Those Who Offered Themselves for Martyrdom Reproved. When, again, He says, "When they persecute you in this city, flee ye to the other," [2792] He does not advise flight, as if persecution were an evil thing; nor does He enjoin them by flight to avoid death, as if in dread of it, but wishes us neither to be the auth…
814 wordsSECTION 244Chapter XII.--Basilides' Idea of Martyrdom Refuted.
Chapter XII.--Basilides' Idea of Martyrdom Refuted. Basilides, in the twenty-third book of the Exegetics, respecting those that are punished by martyrdom, expresses himself in the following language: "For I say this, Whosoever fall under the afflictions mentioned, in consequence of unconsciously transgressing in other matters, …
1,506 wordsSECTION 245Chapter XIII.--Valentinian's Vagaries About the Abolition of Death Refuted.
Chapter XIII.--Valentinian's Vagaries About the Abolition of Death Refuted. Valentinian, in a homily, writes in these words: "Ye are originally immortal, and children of eternal life, and ye would have death distributed to you, that ye may spend and lavish it, and that death may die in you and by you; for when we dissolve the w…
1,235 wordsSECTION 246Chapter XIV.--The Love of All, Even of Our Enemies.
Chapter XIV.--The Love of All, Even of Our Enemies. How great also is benignity! "Love your enemies," it is said, "bless them who curse you, and pray for them who despitefully use you," [2809] and the like; to which it is added, "that ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven," in allusion to resemblance to God. Ag…
844 wordsSECTION 247Chapter XVI.--Passages of Scripture Respecting the Constancy, Patience, and Love of the Martyrs.
Chapter XVI.--Passages of Scripture Respecting the Constancy, Patience, and Love of the Martyrs. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Wherefore the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed; that is, the word of faith which we preach: for …
1,130 wordsSECTION 248Chapter XVII.--Passages from Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians on Martyrdom.
Chapter XVII.--Passages from Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians on Martyrdom. Moreover, in the Epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle [2833] Clement also, drawing a picture of the Gnostic, says: [2834] "For who that has sojourned among you has not proved your perfect and firm faith? and has not admired your sound and gentle …
1,175 wordsSECTION 249Chapter XVIII.--On Love, and the Repressing of Our Desires.
Chapter XVIII.--On Love, and the Repressing of Our Desires. "The decorous tendency of our philanthropy, therefore," according to Clement, "seeks the common good;" whether by suffering martyrdom, or by teaching by deed and word,--the latter being twofold, unwritten and written. This is love, to love God and our neighbour. "This …
2,219 wordsSECTION 250Chapter XX.--A Good Wife.
It is not then possible that man or woman can be conversant with anything whatever, without the advantage of education, and application, and training; and virtue, we have said, depends not on others, but on ourselves above all. Other things one can repress, by waging war against them; but with what depends on one's self, this is…
895 wordsSECTION 251Chapter XXI.--Description of the Perfect Man, or Gnostic.
Chapter XXI.--Description of the Perfect Man, or Gnostic. Here I find perfection apprehended variously in relation to Him who excels in every virtue. Accordingly one is perfected as pious, and as patient, and as continent, and as a worker, and as a martyr, and as a Gnostic. But I know no one of men perfect in all things at once…
1,115 wordsSECTION 252Chapter XXII.--The True Gnostic Does Good, Not from Fear of Punishment or Hope of Reward, But Only for the Sake of Good Itself.
Chapter XXII.--The True Gnostic Does Good, Not from Fear of Punishment or Hope of Reward, But Only for the Sake of Good Itself. The man of understanding and perspicacity is, then, a Gnostic. And his business is not abstinence from what is evil (for this is a step to the highest perfection), or the doing of good out of fear. For…
2,208 wordsSECTION 253Chapter XXIII.--The Same Subject Continued.
[2892] Rom. xiii. 11, 12. [2893] Homer, Odyss., iv. 750, 760; xvii. 48, 58. [2894] Odyss., ii. 261. [2895] Explaining metanoeo etymologically. [2896] [[75]Elucidation IV.] [2897] Rom. v. 3-5. [2898] 1 Cor. viii. 8. Chapter XXIII.--The Same Subject Continued. For it is not suitable to the nature of the thing itself, that …
1,109 wordsSECTION 254Chapter XXIV.--The Reason and End of Divine Punishments.
Chapter XXIV.--The Reason and End of Divine Punishments. Now that is in our power, of which equally with its opposite we are masters,--as, say to philosophize or not, to believe or disbelieve. In consequence, then, of our being equally masters of each of the opposites, what depends on us is found possible. Now the commandments …
1,603 wordsSECTION 255Chapter XXVI.--How the Perfect Man Treats the Body and the Things of the World.
Chapter XXVI.--How the Perfect Man Treats the Body and the Things of the World. Those, then, who run down created existence and vilify the body are wrong; not considering that the frame of man was formed erect for the contemplation of heaven, and that the organization of the senses tends to knowledge; and that the members and p…
2,228 wordsSECTION 256III.
III. (St. Paul, [82]note 4, p. 434.) Better rendered, "Paul is more recent (or later) in respect of time." This seems a strangely apologetic way to speak of this glorious apostle; though the reference may be to his own words (1 Cor. xv. 8), "as of one born out of due time." And it suggests to me, that, among the Alexandrian Ch…
1,006 wordsSECTION 257Book V.
Book V. Chap. I.--On Faith. Of the Gnostic so much has been cursorily, as it were, written. We proceed now to the sequel, and must again contemplate faith; for there are some that draw the distinction, that faith has reference to the Son, and knowledge to the Spirit. But it has escaped their notice that, in order to believe tr…
2,547 wordsSECTION 258"What is sought may be captured,
"What is sought may be captured, But what is neglected escapes," according to Sophocles. The like also says Menander the comic poet:-- "All things sought, The wisest say, need anxious thought. But we ought to direct the visual faculty of the soul aright to discovery, and to clear away obstacles; and to cast clean away cont…
1,028 wordsSECTION 259Chapter III.--The Objects of Faith and Hope Perceived by the Mind Alone.
Chapter III.--The Objects of Faith and Hope Perceived by the Mind Alone. For he who hopes, as he who believes, sees intellectual objects and future things with the mind. If, then, we affirm that aught is just, and affirm it to be good, and we also say that truth is something, yet we have never seen any of such objects with our …
985 wordsSECTION 260Chapter IV.--Divine Things Wrapped Up in Figures Both in the Sacred and in Heathen Writers.
Chapter IV.--Divine Things Wrapped Up in Figures Both in the Sacred and in Heathen Writers. But since they will believe neither in what is good justly nor in knowledge unto salvation, we ourselves reckoning what they claim as belonging to us, because all things are God's; and especially since what is good proceeded from us to t…
1,470 wordsSECTION 261Chapter V.--On the Symbols of Pythagoras.
Chapter V.--On the Symbols of Pythagoras. Now the Pythagorean symbols were connected with the Barbarian philosophy in the most recondite way. For instance, the Samian counsels "not to have a swallow in the house;" that is, not to receive a loquacious, whispering, garrulous man, who cannot contain what has been communicated to h…
1,322 wordsSECTION 262Chapter VI.--The Mystic Meaning of the Tabernacle and Its Furniture.
Chapter VI.--The Mystic Meaning of the Tabernacle and Its Furniture. It were tedious to go over all the Prophets and the Law, specifying what is spoken in enigmas; for almost the whole Scripture gives its utterances in this way. It may suffice, I think, for any one possessed of intelligence, for the proof of the point in hand, …
2,107 wordsSECTION 263Chapter VII.--The Egyptian Symbols and Enigmas of Sacred Things.
Chapter VII.--The Egyptian Symbols and Enigmas of Sacred Things. Whence also the Egyptians did not entrust the mysteries they possessed to all and sundry, and did not divulge the knowledge of divine things to the profane; but only to those destined to ascend the throne, and those of the priests that were judged the worthiest, f…
2,374 wordsSECTION 264Thence Theognis writes:--
Thence Theognis writes:-- "For from the good you will learn good things; But if you mix with the bad, you will destroy any mind you may have." And when, again, it is said in the ode, "For He hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath He cast into the sea;" [3045] the many-limbed and brutal affection, lust, with t…
863 wordsSECTION 265Chapter IX.--Reasons for Veiling the Truth in Symbols.
Chapter IX.--Reasons for Veiling the Truth in Symbols. But, as appears, I have, in my eagerness to establish my point, insensibly gone beyond what is requisite. For life would fail me to adduce the multitude of those who philosophize in a symbolical manner. For the sake, then, of memory and brevity, and of attracting to the tru…
897 wordsSECTION 266Chapter X.--The Opinion of the Apostles on Veiling the Mysteries of the Faith.
Chapter X.--The Opinion of the Apostles on Veiling the Mysteries of the Faith. Rightly, therefore, the divine apostle says, "By revelation the mystery was made known to me (as I wrote before in brief, in accordance with which, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not ma…
1,724 wordsSECTION 267Chapter XI.--Abstraction from Material Things Necessary in Order to Attain to the True Knowledge of God.
Chapter XI.--Abstraction from Material Things Necessary in Order to Attain to the True Knowledge of God. Now the sacrifice which is acceptable to God is unswerving abstraction from the body and its passions. This is the really true piety. And is not, on this account, philosophy rightly called by Socrates the practice of Death? …
2,205 wordsSECTION 268Chapter XII.--God Cannot Be Embraced in Words or by the Mind.
[3071] [Analogies in Bunsen, Hippol., iii. 75, and notes, p. 123.] [3072] [Analogies in Bunsen, Hippol., iii. 75, and notes, [96]p. 123.] [3073] Ex. xxxiii. 18. [3074] Prov. xxx. 2. [3075] Prov. iii. 18. [3076] Deut. xxx. 15, 16, etc. [3077] Gen. xxii. 3, 4. [3078] Or, "the desire of a very good soul," according to the te…
1,422 wordsSECTION 269Chapter XIII.--The Knowledge of God a Divine Gift, According to the Philosophers.
Chapter XIII.--The Knowledge of God a Divine Gift, According to the Philosophers. Everything, then, which falls under a name, is originated, whether they will or not. Whether, then, the Father Himself draws to Himself everyone who has led a pure life, and has reached the conception of the blessed and incorruptible nature; or wh…
1,185 wordsSECTION 270Chapter XIV.--Greek Plagiarism from the Hebrews.
Chapter XIV.--Greek Plagiarism from the Hebrews. Let us add in completion what follows, and exhibit now with greater clearness the plagiarism of the Greeks from the Barbarian philosophy. Now the Stoics say that God, like the soul, is essentially body and spirit. You will find all this explicitly in their writings. Do not consi…
2,295 wordsSECTION 271Again, with the Lord's saying, "Let your yea be yea, and your nay nay," may be compared the following: "But to admit a falsehood, and destro
Again, with the Lord's saying, "Let your yea be yea, and your nay nay," may be compared the following: "But to admit a falsehood, and destroy a truth, is in nowise lawful." With the prohibition, also, against swearing agrees the saying in the tenth book of the Laws: "Let praise and an oath in everything be absent." And in gener…
2,211 wordsSECTION 272"But he nor food nor cleansing water touched,
"But he nor food nor cleansing water touched, But heart-stung went to bed, and that whole night Wantoned." But let these be resigned to the follies of the theatre. Heraclius plainly says: "But of the word which is eternal men are not able to understand, both before they have heard it, and on first hearing it." And the lyrist…
2,226 wordsSECTION 273"Demons there are--some here, some there--set over men;
"Demons there are--some here, some there--set over men; Some, on man's entrance [into life], to ward off ill." Rightly, then, also Philemon, the comic poet demolishes idolatry in these words:-- "Fortune is no divinity to us: There's no such god. But what befalls by chance And of itself to each, is Fortune called." And Soph…
2,212 wordsSECTION 274Thus, then, let our fifth Miscellany of gnostic notes in accordance with the true philosophy be brought to a close.
Thus, then, let our fifth Miscellany of gnostic notes in accordance with the true philosophy be brought to a close. [3108] Wisd. vii. 24. [3109] Ps. xxxvi. 5. [3110] Ps. civ. 4. [3111] Eusebius reads poietikos. [3112] [Guardian angels. Matt. xviii. 10.] [3113] geneton. [3114] [Compare Tayler Lewis, Plato against the Athei…
2,416 wordsSECTION 275Book VI.
IX. (Plato's Prophecy, cap. xiv. p. 470, [107]note 2.) My references at this point are worthy of being enlarged upon. I subjoin the following as additional. On this sublime passage, Jones of Nayland remarks, [3192] "The greatest moral philosopher of the Greeks declared, with a kind of prescience, that, if a man perfectly just …
847 wordsSECTION 276Chapter II.--The Subject of Plagiarisms Resumed. The Greeks Plagiarized from One Another.
Chapter II.--The Subject of Plagiarisms Resumed. The Greeks Plagiarized from One Another. Before handling the point proposed, we must, by way of preface, add to the close of the fifth book what is wanting. For since we have shown that the symbolical style was ancient, and was employed not only by our prophets, but also by the m…
2,232 wordsSECTION 277"The four roots of all things first do thou hear--
"The four roots of all things first do thou hear-- Fire, water, earth, and ether's boundless height: For of these all that was, is, shall be, comes." And Plato having said, "Wherefore also the gods, knowing men, release sooner from life those they value most," Menander wrote:-- "Whom the gods love, dies young." And Euripide…
2,203 wordsSECTION 278Chapter III.--Plagiarism by the Greeks of the Miracles Related in the Sacred Books of the Hebrews.
[3232] Grotius's correction has been adopted, enguas de zamia, instead of engua de zamias. [3233] In the text before In Hexameters we have teresei, which has occasioned much trouble to the critics. Although not entirely satisfactory, yet the most probable is the correction thelousi, as above. [3234] Iliad, xvii. 53. [3235] i.…
1,717 wordsSECTION 279Chapter IV.--The Greeks Drew Many of Their Philosophical Tenets from the Egyptian and Indian Gymnosophists.
Chapter IV.--The Greeks Drew Many of Their Philosophical Tenets from the Egyptian and Indian Gymnosophists. We shall find another testimony in confirmation, in the fact that the best of the philosophers, having appropriated their most excellent dogmas from us, boast, as it were, of certain of the tenets which pertain to each se…
900 wordsSECTION 280Chapter V.--The Greeks Had Some Knowledge of the True God.
Chapter V.--The Greeks Had Some Knowledge of the True God. And that the men of highest repute among the Greeks knew God, not by positive knowledge, but by indirect expression, [3253] Peter says in the Preaching: "Know then that there is one God, who made the beginning of all things, and holds the power of the end; and is the In…
1,024 wordsSource & rights
Historical text source: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The downloaded text itself records Public Domain.