{"author":"Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)","date_end":1885,"date_label":"1885 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain)","date_start":1885,"edition_year":1885,"edition_year_basis":"Original ANF II title and imprint 1885; physical transcription printing date uncertain; original credit allocation and transcription differences remain qualified","id":"ws-library-full-note:df486eac2fb8911ff1f8:cite_note-153","is_genuine_commentary_verified":false,"license_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:Reusing_Wikisource_content","public_import_allowed":true,"publication_location":"source-library","record_type":"editorial-footnote","references":[],"rights_approved":true,"section":"Chapter XI.—How Great are the Benefits Conferred on Man Through the Advent of Christ., editorial note cite_note-153","semantic_kind_reviewed":false,"source_context":["for fuel to the flames), was as a child seduced by lusts, and grew old in disobedience; and by disobeying his Father, dishonoured God. Such was the influence of pleasure. Man, that had been free by reason of simplicity, was found fettered to sins. The Lord then wished to release him from his bonds, and clothing Himself with flesh—O divine mystery!—vanquished the serpent, and enslaved the tyrant death; and, most marvellous of all, man that had been deceived by pleasure, and bound fast by corruption, had his hands unloosed, and was set free. O mystic wonder! The Lord was laid low, and man rose up; and he that fell from Paradise receives as the reward of obedience something greater [than Paradise]—namely, heaven itself. Wherefore, since the Word Himself has come to us from heaven, we need not, I reckon, go any more in search of human learning to Athens and the rest of Greece, and to Ionia. For if we have as our teacher Him that filled the universe with His holy energies in creation, salvation, beneficence, legislation, prophecy, teaching, we have the Teacher from whom all instruction comes; and the whole world, with Athens and Greece, has already become the domain of the Word. For you, who believed the poetical fable which designated Minos the Cretan as the bosom friend of Zeus, will not refuse to believe that we who have become the disciples of God have received the only true wisdom; and that which the chiefs of philosophy only guessed at, the disciples of Christ have both apprehended and proclaimed. And the one whole Christ is not divided: “There is neither barbarian, nor Jew, nor Greek, neither male nor female, but a new man,” transformed by God’s Holy Spirit. Further, the other counsels and precepts are unimportant, and respect particular things,—as, for example, if one may marry, take part in public affairs, beget children; but the only command that is universal, and over the whole course of existence, at all times and in all circumstances, tends to the highest end, viz., life, is piety,—all that is necessary, in order that we may live for ever, being that we live in accordance with it. Philosophy, however, as the ancients say, is “a long-lived exhortation, wooing the eternal love of wisdom;” while the commandment of the Lord is far-shining, “enlightening the eyes.” Receive Christ, receive sight, receive thy light,"],"source_library_url":"/library/df486eac2fb8911ff1f8/#ws-library-full-note:df486eac2fb8911ff1f8:cite_note-153","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ante-Nicene_Fathers/Volume_II/Exhortation_to_the_Heathen#cite_note-153","translator":"William Wilson (original ANF II translator credit), Alexander Roberts (Edinburgh series editor), James Donaldson (Edinburgh series editor), Arthur Cleveland Coxe (American revision with prefaces and notes), Jesse Ames Spencer (typographical and Scripture-reference corrections)","verification":{"proof_file":"raw/review/source-library-note-batch-0056/proof-records.jsonl","proof_file_sha256":"e0df170d421dcd73bd0a76f61768b09f25dd2e36668f01c873ba3f2300ffa8a2","proof_record_id":"ws-library-full-note:df486eac2fb8911ff1f8:cite_note-153"},"verified":true,"work":"Exhortation to the Heathen","work_id":"ws-anf2-remaining-1885-df486eac2fb8911ff1f8"}