A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

§ 11. The Church and the World 39For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiarform of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by anysingularity. The course of conduct which they follow has notbeen devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitivemen; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocatesof any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well asbarbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has beendetermined, and following the customs of the natives in respectto clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, theydisplay to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method oflife. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners.As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure allthings as if foreigners. Every foreign country is to them as theirnative land, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers.They marry as do all; they beget children; but they do not commitabortion. They have a common table, but not a common bed.They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. Theypass their days on earth, but they are the citizens of heaven. Theyobey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the lawsby their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. Theyare unknown and condemned; they are put to death and restored [029]to life. They are poor, yet they make many rich; they are in lackof all things, and yet abound in all. They are dishonored, and yetin their very dishonor are glorified. They are evil-spoken of, andyet are justified. They are reviled and bless; they are insultedand repay insult with honor; they do good, yet are punished asevil-doers. When punished they rejoice as if quickened into life;they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners and are persecutedby the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign areason for their hatred.Ch. 6. What the soul is in the body, that the Christians arein the world. The soul is spread through all the members ofthe body, and Christians through the cities of the world. Thesoul dwells in the body, but is not of the body; so Christians