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have enactes, so that not even the goVernors of the provincessent is you sussice for the hearing of the complainis against those, to whom it even is not la fui, When they are struch, not to offer themsolves for more blom, nor When defaminnot to blesst for it is not enough to be just and justies isto retum lita for likH, but it is incumbent in us to bo modand patient of ovae
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420 PLEA OF ATHENAGORASCHAP. XXXVΙ.-Bearing of the doctrine of the resurrection onthe praetiees of the Christians. Who, then, that belleves in a resurrection, Would maehimself into a tomb for bodios that will riso again Τ For itis not the part of the fame persons to bellove that our hodies will riso again, and to eat them as ii they Would nos; and to
that those whicli a man has entombed in himself Will not bodomanded bach. on the contra , it is reason te to suppose, that inoso who think they shali have no account to ove of tho present lite, ill or Weli spent, and that there is no resurrection,
but calculate on the foui perishing With tho body, and beingas it mere quenched in it, Will refrain from no deed of daring ;but as for thoso who are persuaded that nothing Will escapellio scrutiny of God, but that ovon the body Which has ministered to the irrationes impulses of tho soul, and to ita
destres, Will be punished along with it, it is not lihely thatthey wili commit even tho smallest sin. But is to any one itappears sheer nonsense that the body which has mouideredaWay, and been dissolved, and reduced to nothing, should bo
of wichedness with resoronce to thoso that belleve not, butonly of lally; for With tho opinions by which me deceive ou selves me injure no one olse. But that it is not our bellet Honothat bodies Will esse again, but that many philosophers also hold tho fame viem it is out os place to AhoW just no' testwo fhould bo thought to introduco topics irrelevant to thomatter in hand, either by speahing of tho intelligibis and tho sensibie, and the nature of these respectively, or by contend-ing that the incorporeat is older than the corporeia, and thattho intelligibio precedes the sensibie, although me becomoacquainted with the lalter earliest, since the corporeat is formed from tho incorporeat, by the combination missi it ofine intelligibio, and that tho sensibio is formod hom tho intelligibie; sor nothing hindera, according to Pythagoras and Plato, that whon the dissolution of bodies taes place, theyshould, hom the very fame elements of Which they Wero
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FOR THE CHRISTIANS 421 constructed at first, be constructed again. But let us deserthe discourse concerning the resurrection.
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somo falsehood; and it does so, not because ittines iis riso naturalty from somo fundamental principie, or irom some cause peculiar to the matter in hand, but because it is invented on purpose by men Who set a Valueon tho spurious seed, sor iis tendency to corrupi tho truth. This is apparent, in the first place, from those Who in formertimes addicted themselves to such inquiries, and their Want ofagroement With their predecessors and contemporaries, and then, not Ieast, irom the Very confusion which maris tho di Cussions that are noW going on. For such mon havs test notruth fres hom their calumnious attachs-not the being of
God, not His knowledge, not His operations, not those bookswhicli follow by a regular and strici sequence from these, and delineato for us the doctrines of pieu. on the contrarDEome of them ulterly, and Once for ali, inve up in despala thetruth concerning these things, and somo distori it to fuit theirown VieWs, and some of set purpose doubi even of thingswhicli are palpably evident. Hunco I thinh that those Whobesto attention on such subjecta should adopt two lines of argument, one in defence of the truth, another concerning the truth : that in defence of tho truth, sor disbelievera and
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424 ATHENAGORAS ON THEdo tera; that concerning the truth, sor such as are candidand receive tho truth with readinoss. Accordingly it behoves those who wish to investigate these mattera, to keep in VieWthat whicli tho necessity of tho case in each instance requires, and to regulato their discussion by this; to accommodate theorder of their treaiment of these subjecis to what is suit te toste occasion, and not for the Sahe os oppearing alWars topreserve the fame method, to disregard fitness and the placo Whicli properly belongs to each topic. For, so sar as proos and
the natural order are concerned, dissertations concerning thotruth alWays tae precedenco of thoso in defence of it; but, for the purpοse of greater utility, the order must be reversed, and arguments in delance of it precede those concerning it. For the farmer could not properly cast the seed into theground, unless he first extirpated the wild wood, and wha, ever Would bo hurisul to the good seed; nor the physicianintroduce any Wholesomo medicines into tho boo that neededitis care, is he did not previcusty remove the disease Within, or stay that Which Was approaching. Neister surely can hewho wishes to leach the truth persuade any one is speahingabout it, so long as thero is a falso opinion tuaing in themind of his hoarere, and barring the entrance of his arguments. And, therefore, hom regard to greater utilitri Imyseli somelimes place arguments in desonco of tho truthbeiore those concerning tho truth; and on the present occasion it appears to me, loohing at the requirements of thecase, not Without advantago to fossoW tho fame method intreating of the resurrection. For in regard to this subjectalso me find somo ulterly disbelieving, and some othersdo ling, and even among those Who have accepted the firstprincipies some Who are as much at a loss What to belleve asthose Who Mubi; tho most unaccount te thing of ali Minnstat in are in this stato os mind without having any ground wharaoever in the mattors themsolves for their dis- belles, Ox finding it possibie to assign any reason te cause
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therefore, those Who disbeliove or docti concerning the resurrection, to form their opinion on the subjeci, not hom any
viem they limo hastily adopted, and from What is acceptableto profligato men, bul either to assim the origin os men tono cause a notion Whicli is very eastly refuted), or, ascribing the cause of ali things to God, to keep steadily in vie tho principio involved in this articis os belles, and from this todemonstrato that tho resurrection is ulterly unWorthy of credit. Τhis thoy Wili succoed in, it they are able to stio that it is sither impossibis for God, or contrary to His Will,
to unito and gather together again bodies that are dead, oroven enti ly dissolved into their elemenis, so as to constituto the fame persons. Is they cannot do this, let them coaso
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426 ATHENAGORAS ON THEout due consideration, he Would not accompluti his purpose. But it is not possibio for God lo bo ignorant, either of the nature of tho bodies that are to be raised, as regards both the membera eniim and the particles of Which they consis whither each of tho dissolved particles passes, and What partes tho elements has received that whicli is dissoluod and has passed into that missi Which it has affinit' although to menit may appear quiis impossibio that What has again combined according to ita nature Mith the universo aliould beseparabie hom it again. For He hom Whom, antecedentlyto the peculiar formation of each, was not concealed elaherine nature of the elements of Which the bodios of men weroto consist, or the paris of these hom Which He was about totae What foemed in Him fuit te for tho formation of thohuman bob, Wili manifestin alter the dissolution of tho Whole, not be ignorant Whither each of the particles has passod Which He toa for the construction of each. For, viswed relativoly to the order of things no obtaining amongus, and the judgment me form concerning other matters, it is a greater ining to kno beforeliand that which has not yet come to pass ; but, Vie ed relatively to the majesty and wisdom os God, both are according to nature, and it is equassye y to know besoreliand things that have not yet come into existence, and to know things which have been dissolved.
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RESURRECTION OF THE DEA D. 427 many and diverso forms, and gather into ono the severat portions of the elementa, and divido tho seed which was oneand simple into many, and organiete that Whicli mas unorganized, and givo life to that which had no lita, that famo Wer can remite What is dissolved, and raiso up What is prostrate, and restoro the deta in lite again, and put thocorruptibis into a state os incorruption. And to the fame Boing it mill belong, and to tho fame poWer and shili, toseparate that Whicli has been brohen up and distributodamong a multitude os animais os ali hinds whicli aro montio have recourae to such bodies, and glut their appetite uponthem,-to separate this, I say, and unito it again With tho proper members and paris of members, Whether it has passedinto some one of those animati, or into many, or thence intoothera, or, aiter being dissolved Hong With these, has been carried bach again to tho original elemenis, resolved into these ac ording to a natural laW-a matter this Which seemsto have exceedingly confounded some, even of those admiredior misdom, Who, I cannot teli Why, thinh thoso doubis Worthy of serious attention Which aro brought fornard by
posing them are brotan up and distributed among a great multitudo os animais, and by means os nutrition become incorporaled with the bodies of thoso that aro nourished by them, n the firat place, they say, their separation Domtheso is impossibie; and besides this, in the second place, theyadduce another circumstance more dissiculi stili. When animati of tho End fuit te sor human Aod, Which havs sed on
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428 ATHENAGORAS ON THEthe bodies of men, pras through their stomach, and hecome incorporaled with the bodies of those Who have partaen ofinem, it is an absolute necessi , they say, that the paris of the bodies of men which havo seruod as nourishment to thoanimais Which have partaken of them should pras into Otherbodies of men, since tho animais Whicli mean hilo have beennourished by them convey the nutriment derived from thoseis Whom they mere nourished into those men of Whom in become the nutriment. Then to this they tragicatly addtho devouring of ompring perpetrated by peopte in famine
and madness, and the children eaten by their οὐ parenis throuo the contrivance of enemies, and the celebratod Medianseast, and the tragic banquet of Thyestes; and they add,
the resurrection, On the ground that the fame paris cannotriso again milli one sot of bodies, and with another as weli; for that oither tho bodios of the former possessore cannot bereconstituted, the paris Whicli composed them liming passedinto othera, or that, theso having been restored to the forme tho bodios of tho last possessors mill come Shori. CHAP. V.-Referenee to the processes of digestion and
But it appears to me that such persons, in the fidit place, are ignorant of tho power aud skill of Ηim stat fashionod