Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">Now here Celsus appears to me to have committed a great\r\nerror, in refusing to those who are sinners by nature, and also\r\nby habit, the possibility of a complete transformation, alleging\r\nthat they cannot be cured even by punishment. For it clearly\r\nappears that all men are inclined to sin by nature, and some\r\nnot only by nature but by practice, while not all men are incapable\r\nof an entire transformation. For there are found in every\r\nphilosophical sect, and in the word of God, persons who are\r\nrelated to have undergone so great a change that they may be\r\nproposed as a model of excellence of life. Among the names\r\nof the heroic age some mention Hercules and Ulysses, among\r\nthose of later times, Socrates, and of those who have lived very\r\nrecently, Musonius.<a id=\"r437\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f437\"><sup>[437]</sup></a> Not only against us, then, did Celsus\r\nutter the calumny, when he said that “it was manifest to every\r\none that those who were given to sin by nature and habit\r\ncould not by any means—even by punishments—be completely\r\nchanged for the better,” but also against the noblest names in\r\nphilosophy, who have not denied that the recovery of virtue was\r\na possible thing for men. But although he did not express his\r\nmeaning with exactness, we shall nevertheless, though giving his\r\nwords a more favourable construction, convict him of unsound\r\nreasoning. For his words were: “Those who are inclined to\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_146\">146</span>sin by nature and habit, no one could completely reform even\r\nby chastisement;” and his words, as we understood them, we\r\nrefuted to the best of our ability.<a id=\"r438\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f438\"><sup>[438]</sup></a></p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK III.","Chapter LXVI."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-203"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"3c51d8b10badc109cb8699326974478f06f986a927ff1b9481121cb145fb21d9","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-f437","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":"f437","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f437\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r437\">437</a>.  </span>He is said to have been either a Babylonian or Tyrrhenian, and to have\r\nlived in the reign of Nero. <abbr class=\"spell\">Cf.</abbr> Philostratus, <abbr title=\"four\">iv.</abbr> 12.—<span class=\"sc\">Ruæus.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f437","text_sha256":"c4f4695536cb66f610d030f278b1df4932ffdd053793382a4bfdffcb22df1768","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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