Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">But as he afterwards says that “the teacher of Christianity\r\nacts like a person who promises to restore patients to bodily\r\nhealth, but who prevents them from consulting skilled physicians,\r\nby whom his ignorance would be exposed,” we shall\r\ninquire in reply, “What are the physicians to whom you refer,\r\nfrom whom we turn away ignorant individuals? For you do\r\nnot suppose that we exhort those to embrace the gospel who are\r\ndevoted to philosophy, so that you would regard the latter as\r\nthe physicians from whom we keep away such as we invite to\r\ncome to the word of God.” He indeed will make no answer,\r\nbecause he cannot name the physicians; or else he will be\r\nobliged to betake himself to those of them who are ignorant,\r\nand who of their own accord servilely yield themselves to\r\nthe worship of many gods, and to whatever other opinions\r\nare entertained by ignorant individuals. In either case, then,\r\nhe will be shown to have employed to no purpose in his\r\nargument the illustration of “one who keeps others away\r\nfrom skilled physicians.” But if, in order to preserve from\r\nthe philosophy of Epicurus, and from such as are considered\r\nphysicians after his system, those who are deceived by them,\r\nwhy should we not be acting most reasonably in keeping\r\nsuch away from a dangerous disease caused by the physicians\r\nof Celsus,—that, viz., which leads to the annihilation\r\nof providence, and the introduction of pleasure as a good?\r\nBut let it be conceded that we do keep away those whom\r\nwe encourage to become our disciples from other philosopher-physicians,—from\r\nthe Peripatetics, for example, who\r\ndeny the existence of providence and the relation of Deity to\r\nman,—why shall we not piously<a id=\"r460\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f460\"><sup>[460]</sup></a> train and heal those who have\r\nbeen thus encouraged, persuading them to devote themselves\r\nto the God of all things, and free those who yield obedience to\r\nus from the great wounds inflicted by the words of such as are\r\ndeemed to be philosophers? Nay, let it also be admitted that\r\nwe turn away from physicians of the sect of the Stoics, who\r\nintroduce a corruptible god, and assert that his essence consists\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_154\">154</span>of a body, which is capable of being changed and altered in\r\nall its parts,<a id=\"r461\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f461\"><sup>[461]</sup></a> and who also maintain that all things will one\r\nday perish, and that God alone will be left; why shall we not\r\neven thus emancipate our subjects from evils, and bring them\r\nby pious arguments to devote themselves to the Creator, and\r\nto admire the Father of the Christian system, who has so\r\narranged that instruction of the most benevolent kind, and\r\nfitted for the conversion of souls,<a id=\"r462\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f462\"><sup>[462]</sup></a> should be distributed\r\nthroughout the whole human race? Nay, if we should cure\r\nthose who have fallen into the folly of believing in the transmigration\r\nof souls through the teaching of physicians, who will\r\nhave it that the rational nature descends sometimes into all\r\nkinds of irrational animals, and sometimes into that state\r\nof being which is incapable of using the imagination,<a id=\"r463\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f463\"><sup>[463]</sup></a> why\r\nshould we not improve the souls of our subjects by means of a\r\ndoctrine which does not teach that a state of insensibility or\r\nirrationalism is produced in the wicked instead of punishment,\r\nbut which shows that the labours and chastisements inflicted\r\nupon the wicked by God are a kind of medicines leading to\r\nconversion? For those who are intelligent Christians,<a id=\"r464\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f464\"><sup>[464]</sup></a> keeping\r\nthis in view, deal with the simple-minded, as parents do with\r\nvery young<a id=\"r465\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f465\"><sup>[465]</sup></a> children. We do not betake ourselves then to\r\nyoung persons and silly rustics, saying to them, “Flee from\r\nphysicians.” Nor do we say, “See that none of you lay hold\r\nof knowledge;” nor do we assert that “knowledge is an evil;”\r\nnor are we mad enough to say that “knowledge causes men\r\nto lose their soundness of mind.” We would not even say that\r\nany one ever perished through wisdom; and although we give\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_155\">155</span>instruction, we never say, “Give heed to me,” but “Give heed\r\nto the God of all things, and to Jesus, the giver of instruction\r\nconcerning Him.” And none of us is so great a braggart<a id=\"r466\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f466\"><sup>[466]</sup></a> as\r\nto say what Celsus put in the mouth of one of our teachers to\r\nhis acquaintances, “I alone will save you.” Observe here the\r\nlies which he utters against us! Moreover, we do <i>not</i> assert that\r\n“true physicians destroy those whom they promise to cure.”</p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK III.","Chapter LXXV."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-213"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"08a0f6e154c18dc44e84af5dbdeab5cd0f327ed312aa2471f09de40c7a03efd5","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie","W. H. Cairns"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg70693-f465","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Project Gutenberg metadata: Public domain in the USA. Existing 1872 English edition; listed translators died 1889 and 1872. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"f465","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f465\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r465\">465</a>.  </span><span lang=\"grc\">τοὺς κομιδῇ νηπίους.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f465","text_sha256":"75e06d82258c88fdcb95c40e8c0fb31ea148144e640461e6eb38b088b351f697","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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