{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">But if it is on account of those opinions of the Christians\r\nand Jews which displease Celsus (and which he does not at all\r\nappear to understand) that they are to be regarded as worms\r\nand ants, and the rest of mankind as different, let us examine\r\nthe acknowledged opinions of Christians and Jews,<a id=\"r564\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f564\"><sup>[564]</sup></a> and compare\r\nthem with those of the rest of mankind, and see whether\r\nit will not appear to those who have once admitted that certain\r\nmen are worms and ants, that <i>they</i> are the worms and ants and\r\nfrogs who have fallen away from sound views of God, and,\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_186\">186</span>under a vain appearance of piety,<a id=\"r565\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f565\"><sup>[565]</sup></a> worship either irrational\r\nanimals, or images, or other objects, the works of men’s hands;<a id=\"r566\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f566\"><sup>[566]</sup></a>\r\nwhereas, from the beauty of such, they ought to admire the\r\nMaker of them, and worship Him: while those are indeed men,\r\nand more honourable than men (if there be anything that is\r\nso), who, in obedience to their reason, are able to ascend from\r\nstocks and stones,<a id=\"r567\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f567\"><sup>[567]</sup></a> nay, even from what is reckoned the most\r\nprecious of all matter—silver and gold; and who ascend up\r\nalso from the beautiful things in the world to the Maker of all,\r\nand entrust themselves to Him who alone is able to satisfy<a id=\"r568\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f568\"><sup>[568]</sup></a> all\r\nexisting things, and to overlook the thoughts of all, and to hear\r\nthe prayers of all; who send up their prayers to Him, and do\r\nall things as in the presence of Him who beholds everything,\r\nand who are careful, as in the presence of the Hearer of all\r\nthings, to say nothing which might not with propriety be reported\r\nto God. Will not such piety as this—which can be overcome\r\nneither by labours, nor by the dangers of death, nor by logical\r\nplausibilities<a id=\"r569\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f569\"><sup>[569]</sup></a>—be of no avail in preventing those who have\r\nobtained it from being any longer compared to worms, even if\r\nthey had been so represented before their assumption of a piety\r\nso remarkable? Will they who subdue that fierce longing for\r\nsexual pleasures which has reduced the souls of many to a weak\r\nand feeble condition, and who subdue it because they are persuaded\r\nthat they cannot otherwise have communion with God,\r\nunless they ascend to Him through the exercise of temperance,\r\nappear to you to be the brothers of worms, and relatives of\r\nants, and to bear a likeness to frogs? What! is the brilliant\r\nquality of justice, which keeps inviolate the rights common to\r\nour neighbour, and our kindred, and which observes fairness,\r\nand benevolence, and goodness, of no avail in saving him who\r\npractises it from being termed a bird of the night? And are\r\nnot they who wallow in dissoluteness, as do the majority of\r\nmankind, and they who associate promiscuously with common\r\nharlots, and who teach that such practices are not wholly contrary\r\nto propriety, worms who roll in mire?—especially when\r\nthey are compared with those who have been taught not to take\r\nthe “members of Christ,” and the body inhabited by the Word,\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_187\">187</span>and make them the “members of a harlot;” and who have\r\nalready learned that the body of the rational being, as consecrated\r\nto the God of all things, is the temple of the God whom\r\nthey worship, becoming such from the pure conceptions which\r\nthey entertain of the Creator, and who also, being careful not\r\nto corrupt the temple of God by unlawful pleasure, practise\r\ntemperance as constituting piety towards God!</p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK IV.","Chapter XXVI."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-245"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"aab7588ecbe2fee0f2e490751b251a6bbc1ab813cca58d7890f9f3233ad97515","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-f566","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":"f566","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f566\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r566\">566</a>. </span><span lang=\"grc\">ἢ καὶ τὰ δημιουργήματα.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f566","text_sha256":"3939ff12dee5ae229dcc8cac6ad303baf8efdd87121909a45125e12a2905d968","verified":false,"work_id":null}