Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">As there are, then, generally two laws presented to us,\r\nthe one being the law of nature, of which God would be the\r\nlegislator, and the other being the written law of cities, it is a\r\nproper thing, when the written law is not opposed to that of\r\nGod, for the citizens not to abandon it under pretext of foreign\r\ncustoms; but when the law of nature, that is, the law of God,\r\ncommands what is opposed to the written law, observe whether\r\nreason will not tell us to bid a long farewell to the written code,\r\nand to the desire of its legislators, and to give ourselves up to\r\nthe legislator God, and to choose a life agreeable to His word,\r\nalthough in doing so it may be necessary to encounter dangers,\r\nand countless labours, and even death and dishonour. For\r\nwhen there are some laws in harmony with the will of God,\r\nwhich are opposed to others which are in force in cities, and\r\nwhen it is impracticable to please God (and those who administer\r\nlaws of the kind referred to), it would be absurd to\r\ncontemn those acts by means of which we may please the\r\nCreator of all things, and to select those by which we shall\r\nbecome displeasing to God, though we may satisfy unholy laws,\r\nand those who love them. But since it is reasonable in other\r\nmatters to prefer the law of nature, which is the law of God,\r\nbefore the written law, which has been enacted by men in a\r\nspirit of opposition to the law of God, why should we not do\r\nthis still more in the case of those laws which relate to God?\r\nNeither shall we, like the Ethiopians who inhabit the parts\r\nabout Meroe, worship, as is their pleasure, Jupiter and Bacchus\r\nonly; nor shall we at all reverence Ethiopian gods in the\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_308\">308</span>Ethiopian manner; nor, like the Arabians, shall we regard\r\nUrania and Bacchus alone as divinities; nor in any degree at\r\nall deities in which the difference of sex has been a ground\r\nof distinction (as among the Arabians, who worship Urania as a\r\nfemale, and Bacchus as a male deity); nor shall we, like all the\r\nEgyptians, regard Osiris and Isis as gods; nor shall we enumerate\r\nAthena among these, as the Saïtes are pleased to do.\r\nAnd if to the ancient inhabitants of Naucratis it seemed good to\r\nworship other divinities, while their modern descendants have\r\nbegun quite recently to pay reverence to Serapis, who never was\r\na god at all, we shall not on that account assert that a new being\r\nwho was not formerly a god, nor at all known to men, is a deity.\r\nFor the Son of God, “the First-born of all creation,” although\r\nHe seemed recently to have become incarnate, is not by any\r\nmeans on that account recent. For the Holy Scriptures know\r\nHim to be the most ancient of all the works of creation;<a id=\"r971\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f971\"><sup>[971]</sup></a> for\r\nit was to Him that God said regarding the creation of man,\r\n“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”<a id=\"r972\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f972\"><sup>[972]</sup></a></p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK V.","Chapter XXXVII."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-364"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"af3c7345f1464f4734c013cf5c35d01d01de2f0f2950643ac7128ff3c094907a","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-f971","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":"f971","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f971\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r971\">971</a>.  </span><span lang=\"grc\">πρεσβύτατον πάντων τῶν δημιουργημάτων.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f971","text_sha256":"a33cbbc26141e7f1829ee172aeff115bac98d6d246c59fc53a3aedd352787037","verified":false,"work_id":null}

references: [] | work_id: | origin: existing-private-derived-record | source: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f971