Tfhio - JScholarship - Johns Hopkins University

APOLOGETICVS 23 83
from these same gods of yours, who reveal not only this, that
neither they themselves nor any ethers are gods, you immediately
learn this also, namely who is truly God, and whether it
is he and he alone whom we Christians profess to beheve, and
whether he ought te be beheved and worshipped as the belief
and teaching of the Christians is laid down. They will say at
the same time: 'And who is that Christ with his story? was he
a man of ordinary condition ? was he a magician ? was he after
death stolen from the tomb by his disciples ? Is he now at last
among the shades below ?' Is he net rather in the heavens, and
to come thence -with a movement of the whole universe, with
trembling of the world, -with mourning of all (but not of the
Christians), as the power of God and the breath and word and
wisdom and reason of God, and the Sen of God ? Whatsoever
you laugh at, let them also (i.e. the daemons) laugh at it with
you; let them deny that Christ wiU judge every soul that has
been since the beginning of time, each ha-ving its body restored
to it. Let them say that instead of this tribunal a Minos perhaps
and a Rhadamanthus, according to the agreement of Plato and
the poets, were allotted to this duty; let them at least
repudiate the stigma of their own disgrace and condemnation.
They report that they are unclean spirits, a fact which ought
to have been understood even from their diet, blood and smoke
and the putrid sacrifices of cattle, and the polluted tongues of the
soothsayers themselves. Let them deny that on account of their
wickedness they were fore-ordained to the same day of judgment
with all their worshippers and agencies. Yet all this' rule and
power of ours over them derives its strength from the naming
of Christ, and from the mention of those things which they look
for as impending over them from God, through Christ the Judge.
Fearing Christ in God and God in Christ, they are subject te the
servants of God and Christ. Thus from our touch and from our
breath being carried away by the thought and vision of that fire,
they even leave the bodies of men at our order, unwilling and
discomfited and ashamed at your presence. Believe them when
they speak the truth about themselves, ye who believe them
when they lie. No one lies to bring disgrace, but rather to
bring honour upon himself. Credence is more readily given te
those who confess against themselves than to these who deny
in defence of themselves. Further these testimonies from your
own gods have been wont to make Christians; because, the more
we beheve them, the more we believe in Christ as Lord. They
themselves excite belief in our scriptures, they themselves build
up trust in our hope. To the best of my belief, you even propitiate
them with the blood of Christians. They would therefore