駁瑟蘇斯 第 1 章 第 38/42 段

Therefore we worship one God, as we have demonstrated, the Father and the Son, and the firm argument against the others remains for us, and we do not excessively venerate the one who lately appeared as though not existing before.

For we are persuaded by Him who said:

'Before Abraham came to be, I am'; and who said:

...and none of us is so slavish as to think that the substance of truth was not before the times of the manifestation of Christ.

We therefore worship the Father of truth and the Son who is the truth, being two things in hypostasis, but one in concord and in symphony and in identity of will;

so that he who has seen the Son, who is the radiance of the glory and the express image of the hypostasis of God, has seen in Him, who is the image of God, God.

Then he thinks that from our worshipping, along with God, His Son, it follows for us that, according to us too, not only God but also His servants are worshipped.

If indeed he had meant the true servants of God after the only-begotten of God—Gabriel and Michael and the rest of the angels—and said that these too must be worshipped, perhaps, having purified the meaning of 'worship' and of the acts of the one worshipping, we would have spoken to the point, as discoursing concerning beings so great according to what we were able to understand concerning them;

but as it is, thinking the demons worshipped by the nations to be servants, he does not lead us by any consequence to the worshipping of such ones, whom the word demonstrates to be servants of the evil one and of the ruler of this age, who draws away from God whomever he can.

Therefore we decline to worship and serve all as servants whom the rest of men worship;

for we would not, having been taught that they are servants of the God over all, say that they are demons.

Wherefore we worship the one God and His one Son and Word and Image, with our supplications and petitions as far as we are able, offering our prayers to the God of all through His only-begotten;

to whom we first offer them, deeming Him worthy, being the propitiation for our sins, to bring up our prayers and sacrifices and intercessions, as a high priest, to the God who is over all.

Our faith, therefore, is towards God through His Son, who confirms this faith in us, and Celsus has no faction concerning the Son of God to show in us.

And we do indeed worship the Father, marvelling at His Son—Word and Wisdom and Truth and Righteousness and all the things which we have learned the Son of God to be—and so also Him who was begotten of such a Father.

But since Celsus again says that, 'If you should teach them that this one is not His Son, but rather that He is Father of all, whom alone one ought truly to worship,

they would no longer be willing, unless this one too were worshipped, who is for them the founder of the sedition'—

He being the unspotted [mirror] of the energy of God and the image of His goodness, we know that this one is Son from that one, and that one is Father of this one.

And there is nothing unseemly in the argument, nor unfitting to God, that He should bring into being such an only-begotten Son.

And no one could persuade us to change our mind that such a one is not Son of the unbegotten God and Father.

But if Celsus has misheard certain ones who do not confess the Son of God to be Son of Him who made this universe, he himself would know it, and those who assent to such a statement.

Jesus, then, is not the founder of sedition but of all peace, who said to the disciples:

'Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you.' Then, since He knew that the men of the world and not of God would make war against us, He added to them: 'Not as the world gives peace, do I also give peace to you.'

And we take courage through Him who, even if we are afflicted in the world, said:

'In the world you have tribulation;'

'but take courage, I have overcome the world.' And this one we say is the Son of God;

of God, namely, whom—if one must follow the words of Celsus—we exceedingly worship, and His Son we know to be exceedingly exalted by the Father.

But grant that some, as among a multitude of believers and recipients, through rashness suppose that the Saviour is the greatest God over all; yet we at any rate are not such, we who are persuaded by Him when He says:

'The Father who sent Me is greater than I;'

wherefore we would not subordinate Him whom we now call Father (as Celsus, slandering us, says) to the Son of God.

After these things Celsus says:

'But that I do not opine these things off the mark, I will use their very own utterances.'

'For somewhere in the heavenly dialogue they say, somewhere, in these very words:

If the Son is stronger than God, and the Son of Man is His lord—and who else shall rule over the God who prevails?—how is it that many are about the well, and none into the well? Why, having accomplished so great a road, are you fainthearted? You are mistaken;

for courage is present with me, and a sword.' So this is not their aim, to worship the supercelestial God, but the one whom they have posited as His father, about whom they have gathered, that under the pretext of a great God they may worship only this one whom they put forward, the Son of Man, whom they declare to be stronger and lord of the God who prevails.

Hence comes for them that precept, not to serve two masters, in order that the sedition concerning this one alone may be preserved.

And in these things again, having taken them, I know not from what most obscure sect, he charges all Christians on the basis of them;

and I say 'most obscure,' so that not even to us—who have often exercised ourselves against those of the sects—is the opinion from which Celsus has taken these things manifest;

if indeed he took it, and did not fabricate it or add the consequence.

For clearly we, who say that the Maker of all things is also the Maker of the perceptible world, say that the Son is not stronger than the Father but inferior;

And we say this, being persuaded by Him who said:

'The Father who sent Me is greater than I.' And none of us is so thunderstruck as to say:

'The Son of Man is lord of God.'

But we say that the Saviour prevails most, when we understand Him to be God, Word and Wisdom and Righteousness and Truth, prevailing over all things subjected to Him in so far as they are these, but not also over the Father and God who prevails over Him.

Then, since the Word prevails not over the unwilling, and there are still certain base ones—not only men but also angels and all demons—we say that He does not yet prevail over these, since they do not willingly yield to Him;

but according to another signification of 'to prevail,' He prevails over these too—as we say that man prevails over the irrational animals, not having subdued their ruling faculty, just as one prevails over certain lions and tamed beasts having domesticated them—; nevertheless He does all things, that, having persuaded those who now do not obey Him, He may prevail over these too.

According to us, then, what is said by Celsus, as though reported by us, is false:

he brings forward the 'How is it that many are about the well, and none into the well?' and the 'Why, having accomplished so great a road, are you fainthearted? You are mistaken,' and the 'For courage is present with me, and a sword;'

of which we, who are of the church named after Christ alone, say that none is true.

Having said these things beforehand, he thinks he says things consistent with himself, which are nothing to us.

For our aim is not to worship some god from a hypothesis, but to worship the Maker of this universe and of any other thing whatsoever that is not perceptible nor demonstrable;

but those will know it who walk another road and other paths, both denying Him and giving themselves over to a newfangled fabrication and a mere name of a god as greater than the Maker, and if indeed there is anyone saying that the Son is stronger and lord of the God who prevails.

And we have set forth the argument that appears to us regarding the not needing to serve two masters, when we also established that no faction concerning Jesus and Lord can be demonstrated among those who confess that He has soared above every lord, but that they serve as Lord only the Son of God, the Word of God.

After these things Celsus says that we flee from establishing altars and statues and temples, since he supposes the trustworthiness among us to be a token of a hidden and secret fellowship;

not seeing that our altars are the ruling faculty of each of the righteous, from which are sent up truly and intelligibly fragrant incenses, prayers from a pure conscience.

Wherefore it is said in John, in the Apocalypse:

'The incenses are the prayers of the saints'; and in the psalmist:

'Let my prayer be set forth as incense before You.' And statues and offerings fitting for God, not fashioned by vulgar craftsmen but made clear and given form in us by the Word of God—namely the virtues, which are imitations of the firstborn of all creation, in whom are the patterns of righteousness and temperance and courage and wisdom and piety and the rest of the virtues.

In all, then, who according to the divine Word have fashioned for themselves temperance and righteousness and courage and wisdom and piety and the structures of the rest of the virtues, there are statues;

by whom we are persuaded it is fitting to honour the archetype of all statues, the image of the invisible God, the only-begotten God.

But also those who put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new, who is renewed unto knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, taking up the being according to the image of Him who created him, make statues in themselves, such as the God who is over all wills, namely His.

And just as among the statue-makers some are wonderfully successful in the work—as, for instance, Pheidias or Polycleitus, and the painters Zeuxis and Apelles—while others make statues inferior to these, and still others make them inferior even to the second class, and there is simply a great difference in the fashioning of statues and images;

in the same way, some make statues of the God who is over all better and according to perfect knowledge, so that there is no comparison of the Olympian Zeus fashioned by Pheidias with the one fashioned according to the image of God the Creator;

but better and surpassing all those in the whole creation is the one in our Saviour, who says:

'The Father is in Me.' And in each of those who according to their power have imitated Him in this too, there is a statue, the one according to the image of the Creator, which they fashion by gazing upon God with a pure heart, having become imitators of God.

And quite simply, all Christians try to establish such altars as we have described and such statues as we have set forth, not lifeless and senseless ones, nor ones receptive of greedy demons lurking about lifeless things, but of the Spirit of God, who dwells, as in His own, in the said statues of virtue and in the being according to the image of the Creator;

and so also the Spirit of Christ settles upon those who are, so to speak, conformed to Him.

'I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people'; and the Saviour [says]:

'If anyone hears My words and does them, I and My Father will come to him and make Our abode with him.' Let him therefore who wishes compare the altars I have described with those of which Celsus speaks, and the statues in the soul of those who are pious towards the God of all with the statues of Pheidias and Polycleitus and the like;

and he will clearly know that the former are both lifeless and corrupted by time, while the latter abide in the immortal soul as long as the rational soul wishes to abide in itself.

And if one must also compare temples with temples, in order to establish to those who accept the things of Celsus that we do not flee from establishing temples fitting for the said statues and altars, but we turn away from building lifeless and dead temples to the Supplier of all life;

let him who wishes hear in what manner we are taught that our bodies are the temple of God, and that if anyone through licentiousness or sin corrupts the temple of God, this one, as being truly impious, shall be destroyed in respect to the true temple.

And better and surpassing all those so-called temples was the temple, the holy and pure body of our Saviour Jesus, who, knowing that the temple of the God in Him could indeed be plotted against by the impious, yet not so that the purpose of those plotting should be stronger than the divinity building the temple, says to those men:

'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' And this He said concerning the temple of His body.

And otherwise too the divine words, teaching mystically the things concerning resurrection to those who are able to hear the words of God with a more divine hearing, say that it will be rebuilt with living and most precious stones;

hinting that each of those who breathe together, through the same word, into the piety according to Him, is a precious stone of the whole temple of God.

Accordingly it is said by Peter:

'And you, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ'; and by Paul:

'Being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself, our Lord, being the cornerstone.' And the passage in Isaiah has such a mystical sense too, being thus and spoken as to Jerusalem:

'Behold, I prepare for you carbuncle as your stone, and your foundations sapphire, and I will set your battlements jasper, and your gates crystal stones, and your enclosure choice stones, and all your sons taught of God;

and your children in much peace, and in righteousness you shall be built.' There are, then, certain of the righteous who are carbuncle stone, and others sapphire, and others jasper, and others crystal;

and so the righteous are every kind of choice and precious stones.

But to expound the sense concerning the stones and the account of their nature, and to what sorts of souls the name of each precious stone can be referred, is not for the present occasion;

only it was needful to remind briefly of the intent concerning the temples among us and of the one temple of God made of precious stones.

For just as, if at the so-called temples each city took pride against the others, those proud of the more honoured temples would adduce the special features of their own to the refutation of the more inferior;

...the perception by which one perceives God and His statues and temples and altars, fitting for God.

Not, then, for the sake of trustworthiness of a hidden and secret fellowship and such a token, do we flee from establishing altars and statues and temples, but because, having found through the teaching of Jesus the manner of piety towards the Divine, we flee from those things which, by an appearance of piety, make impious those who have fallen away from the piety that is through Jesus Christ;

who is the only way of piety, truly saying:

'I am the way and the truth and the life.' And let us see also the things said next by Celsus concerning God, and how he exhorts us to the use of things in truth offered to idols, or (so to name them) offered to demons, but which he himself would call (as not knowing what is truly sacred, and of what sort the sacrifices are with him) things offered in sacred rites.

And what he says is of this sort:

'At any rate, the God common to all is both good and without need and beyond envy;'

'what, then, hinders those most consecrated to Him from also partaking in the public festivals?' But I do not know what he has imagined that follows, from God's being good and without need and beyond envy, the conclusion that those consecrated to Him should partake in the public festivals.

And I say that it would indeed follow, from God's being good and without need and beyond envy, that one should partake in the public festivals themselves, if it were demonstrated that the public festivals have nothing erroneous and were ordained out of the contemplation concerning God as consistent with the service and piety towards Him.

If, however, the public festivals—public only in name—have no demonstrative reason as being suited to the service towards the Divine, but should be convicted of being fabrications of those who, somehow as it chanced, legislated these things on account of certain human histories, or who are thought to embrace some natural lore concerning water or earth or the fruits from it, then it is plain that those who wish to worship the Divine in a tested manner would do something reasonable in not partaking of the public festivals.

For a festival, as one even of the Greek sages well says, is nothing other than the doing of what one ought;

and indeed he keeps festival in truth who does what he ought, always praying, continually offering the bloodless sacrifices in his prayers to the Divine.

Wherefore it seems to me most magnificently said by Paul:

'Do you observe days and months and seasons and years? I fear for you, lest somehow I have laboured for you in vain.' But if anyone should bring back against these things the matters concerning the Lord's days among us, or the days of preparation, or the Passover, or Pentecost, observed by us through days, it must be said in answer to this too that the perfect one, ever being in the words and the works and the thoughts of the Word of God who is Lord by nature, is always in His days and always keeps the Lord's days;

but also he who always prepares himself for living truly, and abstains from the pleasures of life that deceive the many, and does not nourish the mind of the flesh but buffets his body and brings it into bondage, always keeps the days of preparation.

And further, he who has understood that 'Christ our Passover has been sacrificed,' and that one must keep festival eating of the flesh of the Word, there is no time when he does not keep the Passover—which is interpreted 'a passing over'—ever passing over in his reasoning and in every word and in every deed from the affairs of life to God, and hastening to His city.

And besides these, he who can in truth say:

'We rose together with Christ,' but also:

'He raised us up together and seated us together in the heavenly places in Christ'—such a one is always in the days of Pentecost, and especially when, having ascended like the apostles of Jesus into the upper room, he gives leisure to supplication and prayer, so as to become worthy of the violent rushing wind borne from heaven, that forces away the wickedness among men and the things from it, and worthy too of some portion of a fiery tongue from God.

But the multitude of those who seem to believe, and who are not of such a stature, needs for the sake of reminder, not wishing or not being able to keep all such days, sensible examples, lest they wholly slip away.

[I judge] that Paul understood the festival in days set apart from other days to be a part of festival, but hinted, from its being so put, that not in a part of festival but in a whole and unceasing festival is the perpetual life lived according to the divine Word.

See, then, again from the things said concerning the festivals among us, when examined together with the public festivals of Celsus and of the nations, whether these festivals are not far more venerable than the public ones, in which the mind of the flesh, keeping festival, runs riot, turning aside to drunkenness and licentiousness.

And it would now take much to say why the festivals according to the law of God teach to eat bread of affliction, or unleavened bread with bitter herbs, or why they say:

'Humble your souls,' or something like these, would take long.

For it is not possible for the composite man, in so far as still 'the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh,' to keep festival out of his whole being;

for either one keeping festival in the spirit afflicts the body, which is not by nature able to keep festival along with the spirit because of the mind of the flesh; or one keeping festival according to the flesh has no room also for the festival according to the spirit.

But indeed these things suffice for the discourse concerning festivals for the present.

And let us see the words Celsus uses, exhorting us to the use of things offered to idols and to the public sacrifices in public festivals.

And what he says is of this sort:

'If indeed these idols are nothing, what is dreadful in sharing in the feast? But if there are certain demons, clearly these too are God's, in whom one must both believe and offer fitting sacrifice according to the laws and pray, that they may be propitious.'

And it is useful for these matters to take in hand and clarify the whole discourse concerning things offered to idols, said by Paul in the first epistle to the Corinthians;

in which, even while meeting the point that an idol is nothing in the world, he established the harm from using things offered to idols, demonstrating to those who can hear the things there that the one partaking of things offered to idols does something in no way better than a murderer, destroying his own brothers, for whom Christ died.

And after this, laying down that the things sacrificed are sacrificed to demons, he establishes that those partaking of the table of demons become partakers of the demons;

and he establishes that it is impossible for the same person to partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons.

But since the exposition concerning these things into the epistle to the Corinthians needs a whole treatise to be demonstrated through many points, we shall be content with what has been rendered briefly;

in which it will appear to one examining them that, even if the idols are nothing, it is none the less and even so dreadful to share in the feast of idols.

We have spoken, then, moderately also to the point that, even if there are certain demons to whom the things sacrificed are sacrificed, we who know the difference of the table of the Lord and the table of demons must not partake of them, both because we know to do all things that we may ever share in the table of the Lord, and to guard ourselves in every way, that we may never become partakers of the table of demons.

But since Celsus says in these passages that the demons too are God's, and that for this reason one must believe in them and offer fitting sacrifice according to the laws and pray, that they may be propitious, it must be taught also concerning this, to those who wish, that the Word of God does not will to proclaim any of the base ones to be a possession of God, judging it unworthy of so great a Lord.

Wherefore not all men are styled men of God, but only those worthy of God;

such as were Moses and Elijah, and any other who is recorded as a man of God or is like those recorded.

And so likewise not all angels are said to be angels of God, but only the blessed ones, while those who have turned aside to wickedness are named angels of the devil, just as the base men are men of sin, or sons of pestilence, or sons of unrighteousness.

for this reason we shall say that the statement of Celsus is false, when he says:

'But if there are certain demons, clearly these too are God's;'

let him who wishes either demonstrate that the distinction concerning men and angels is not a sound argument, or that, holding a like argument, it can also be demonstrated in the case of demons.

But if this is impossible, it is plain that the demons are not God's;

for God is not their ruler, but, as the divine words say, Beelzebul;

nor must one believe in demons, even if Celsus calls us to these, but one must die before being persuaded by demons; nay, one must endure anything whatsoever in obedience to God.

And so neither must one offer fitting sacrifice to demons;

for it is impossible to offer good sacrifice to the base ones and the harmers of men.

But also according to what laws does Celsus wish us to offer fitting sacrifice to the demons? For if according to those laid down in the cities, let him establish that they harmonize with the divine laws;

but if he cannot do this—for the laws of the many cities do not even say the same things to one another—clearly they are not laws in the proper sense, or are laws of base men, in which one must not believe;

for one must obey God rather than men.

Away, then, with the counsel of Celsus, who says one must pray to demons, and one must not listen to it even to the slightest degree;

for one must pray only to the God who is over all, and one must pray indeed to the only-begotten and firstborn of all creation, the Word of God, and must ask Him, as a high priest, to bring up our prayer, which has reached Him, to His God and our God, and His Father and the Father of those who live according to the Word of God.

And just as we would not wish to have men propitious to us who wish us to live according to their own wickedness, if they happen to be propitious to none of those who choose the things contrary to them—since their good will makes us enemies to God, who perhaps would not be propitious to those who wish to have such men propitious—;

in the same way, those who have understood the nature and choice and wickedness of demons would never wish to have the demons propitious.

For not even, though the demons be not propitious to them, could they suffer anything from them, being guarded by the God who is propitious to them through their piety towards the God over all, and who sets His divine angels over those worthy of being guarded, that they may suffer nothing from the demons.

And he who has the God over all propitious through his piety towards Him, and through having received the Angel of the great counsel of God, the Lord Jesus, being content with the propitiousness of God through Christ Jesus, would say with confidence, as one who will suffer nothing from the whole army of demons:

'The Lord is my light and my saviour; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defender of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?' And he will say also:

'If an army should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.' So much, then, also against the saying 'But if there are certain demons, clearly these too are God's, in whom one must both believe and offer fitting sacrifice according to the laws and pray, that they may be propitious.'

And having set out the next passage as well, come, let us again examine it according to our power, it being as follows:

'If indeed, according to some ancestral custom, they abstain from certain such sacrificial victims, they ought wholly to abstain from the eating of all animals;

as also seems good to Pythagoras, who honours the soul and its instruments.'

'But if it is, as they say, in order that they may not feast together with demons, I congratulate them on their wisdom, that they slowly come to understand that they are ever fellow-feasters of demons;'

'and only then do they guard against this, whenever they see a sacrificial victim being slaughtered;

but when they eat grain and drink wine and taste fruits and drink the very water and breathe the very air, do they not then receive each of these from certain demons, to whom by parts the care of each has been assigned?' I do not know how it seemed to him, in these matters, that those whom he named as abstaining, according to some ancestral custom, from certain sacrificial victims, must consistently abstain from the eating of all animals.

And we do not say this as though the divine word did not suggest such things, having said also, for the sake of a safer and purer life:

'by which your brother stumbles'; and again:

'Do not by your food destroy that one for whom Christ died'; and again: