{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">Notwithstanding, those who have written in this manner\r\nregarding the “chief good” will go down to the Piræus and\r\noffer prayer to Artemis, as if she were God, and will look\r\n[with approval] upon the solemn assembly held by ignorant\r\nmen; and after giving utterance to philosophical remarks of\r\nsuch profundity regarding the soul, and describing its passage\r\n[to a happier world] after a virtuous life, they pass from those\r\ngreat topics which God has revealed to them, and adopt mean\r\nand trifling thoughts, and offer a cock to Esculapius!<a id=\"r1046\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1046\"><sup>[1046]</sup></a> And\r\nalthough they had been enabled to form representations both\r\nof the “invisible things” of God and of the “archetypal\r\nforms” of things from the creation of the world, and from [the\r\ncontemplation of] sensible things, from which they ascend to\r\nthose objects which are comprehended by the understanding\r\nalone,—and although they had no mean glimpses of His\r\n“eternal power and Godhead,”<a id=\"r1047\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1047\"><sup>[1047]</sup></a> they nevertheless became\r\n“foolish in their imaginations,” and their “foolish heart” was\r\ninvolved in darkness and ignorance as to the [true] worship of\r\nGod. Moreover, we may see those who greatly pride themselves\r\nupon their wisdom and theology worshipping the image\r\nof a corruptible man, <i>in honour</i>, they say, of Him, and sometimes\r\neven descending, with the Egyptians, to the worship of\r\nbirds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things! And\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_340\">340</span>although some may appear to have risen above such practices,\r\nnevertheless they will be found to have changed the truth of\r\nGod into a lie, and to worship and serve the “creature more\r\nthan the Creator.”<a id=\"r1048\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1048\"><sup>[1048]</sup></a> As the wise and learned among the Greeks,\r\nthen, commit errors in the service which they render to God,\r\nGod “chose the foolish things of the world to confound the\r\nwise; and base things of the world, and things that are weak,\r\nand things which are despised, and things which are not, to\r\nbring to nought things that are;”<a id=\"r1049\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1049\"><sup>[1049]</sup></a> and this, truly, “that no\r\nflesh should glory in the presence of God.” <i>Our</i> wise men,\r\nhowever,—Moses, the most ancient of them all, and the prophets\r\nwho followed him,—knowing that the chief good could\r\nby no means be described in words, were the first who wrote\r\nthat, as God manifests Himself to the deserving, and to those\r\nwho are qualified to behold Him,<a id=\"r1050\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1050\"><sup>[1050]</sup></a> He appeared to Abraham,\r\nor to Isaac, or to Jacob. But who He was that appeared, and\r\nof what form, and in what manner, and like to which of mortal\r\nbeings,<a id=\"r1051\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1051\"><sup>[1051]</sup></a> they have left to be investigated by those who are\r\nable to show that they resemble those persons to whom God\r\nshowed Himself: for He was seen not by their bodily eyes,\r\nbut by the pure heart. For, according to the declaration of\r\nour Jesus, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see\r\nGod.”<a id=\"r1052\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1052\"><sup>[1052]</sup></a></p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK VI.","Chapter IV."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-397"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"49db0008172a3c685e9a31f16b894064a7487afdb2220dc9b48e6cef4bedb700","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-f1046","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":"f1046","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f1046\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r1046\">1046</a>. </span><abbr class=\"spell\">Cf.</abbr> Plato, <i>Phædo</i>.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f1046","text_sha256":"dfece87a1fe50761452d8d3460c4d21555d3339f0679a532762ea6d6041582cb","verified":false,"work_id":null}