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person of the pantomime, that he may become an actor.
The very hariola, ino, victims of the public lust, are bron tupon the stage, their misery increased as being there in tho
his vis and ears - hen eyes and ears are the immediate attendanis on the spirit; and that can never pure Whose servant in- atting are impure. You have tho theatro A
biddon, thon, in the sorbidding os immodesty. Ii, again, We
despise the teaching of secular literaturo ing foolis,nem in God's eyes, our duu is plain enouo in regard tothose spectacles, Whicli from this Murce derive the tragic orcomic play. Is tragedies and comedies are the bl dy and wanton, the implous and licentious inventore os crimes and lusis, it is not good even that there should be any calling tommembrance the atroclous or the vile. What you reject in deeri you aro not in bid melcome in in mota. 18. But is you argus that the racecourse is mentioned in Scripture, I grant it at onm. But 3 ou Will not res e to
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26 TERTULLIANUS admit that the things whicli are dono there are not for youto look upon: tho blows, and hicis, and cum, and ali therechlemness of hand, and everything like stat disfigurationos the human countenance, Which is nothing less than thedisfiguration os God's own image. You Wili never give your approvat to those foolish racing and throwing teais, and yet mors foolisti leapings ; you Wili never find pleasuro in injuria
And yet the innocent can finit no pleasure in another's su ferings : he rather mourns that a brother has sinned soheino ly as to need a punishment so dreadsul. But who is my Marantee that it is alWays the guil Who ars adjudgedio the Mid beasis, or to some other doom, and that theguilliess never suffer from the revelago of the judge, or the weakness of the defence, or the pressure of the rach Τ Howmuch betier, then, is it for me to remain ignorant of the punishment inflicted on the wiched, test Ι am obliged toknow also of the good coming to unlimely ends-is I mayspeah os goodness in the case at alii At any rate, gladiatore not chargeable missi crime are offered in sale for the games, that they may become the victims of the public pleasure. Even in the case of those ullo aro judicialty condemned tothe amphitheatre, What a monstrous thing it is, that, in
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unde Oing their punishment, they, iram some lem serious delinquency, advince to the criminality os manslayem l ButI mean these remarhs sor heathens. As to Christians, Ishali not insuit them by adding another mota as to the avem ston mith whicli they should regata this sori os exhibition; though no one is more abis than myself to set fortii sullythe Wholo subjeci, uniem it bo one who is stili in tho habitos Ming to the sho s. I Would rather Wistia be incompleto
20. HOW vain, then-nay, hoW desperate-is the reasoningos persons, Who, just because they decline to lose a pleasure, hold out that κε cannot potnt to the specific Wotas or the very place Where this abstinenco is mentioned, and where the
nowhere is it right to do What you may not do at ali times and in ali places. It is tho Deedom of the truth Domchange of opinion and varying judments which constitutes iis persection, and oves it ita claims to fuli mastery, and unchanging reverence, and salthsul obedience. That which
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28 TERTULLIANUS is reatly good or reatly evit cannot be ought else. But inali things the truth of God is immutabie. 21. The heathens, Who have not a fuit revelation of thstruth, for they are not taught of God, hold a thing evil and good as it suits seis ill and passion, mahing that whicli isgood in one place evit in another, and that whicli is evit inone place in another good. So it strangely happens, that thesame man who can scareely in public list up his tunic, evenWhen necessiu of nature presses him, inhes it ost in tho circus, as ii bent on exposing himself before eve bois; thattho father Who caresully protecta and guatas his virgindaughter's eam from every polluting Word, takes her to thotheatro himself, exposing her to ali ita vile Wotas and attitudes ; he, again, Who in the streeta lays hands on or coversWith reproaches the bramling pugilist, in the arena gives all
and managere of the spectacles, in that very respect Withreserence to Whieti they highly laud the charioiners, and actora, and wresilers, and those most loving gladiators, in Whommen prostitute their sociis, Women too their bodies, stight and
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and tho loss of their rights as citiaens, excluding them homthe Curia, iram the rostra, from senatorial and equestrianrank, and Dom ali other honours as meli as certain distinc
the ari and brand tho artist. What an ontra ous thing it is,to blachen a man on account of the very things Which mahehim meritorious in their eyes t Nari What a confession thalthe things are evit, When their authors, even When in highestiamur, are not Without a mark of disgrace umn themi 23. Seeing, then, man's οὐ reflections, even in spite of the sweetnem of plemure, lead him to thinh that peopte suetias theso fhould be condemned se a haptem tot os infamniosing ali ine advantages connected missi the possession os the dignities of lite, hoπ much more does the divino right- eousness inflici punishment on those Who ove themselves totheso aris i Will God havo any pleasure in tho charioteer Who disquieta so many fouis, Who muses up so many iurious
by the devit that he may be Whirled a way in his charies, as
pleased .ith him Who applies the ragor to himself, and completely changes his Matures; Who, With no respect sor his face, is not content With mahing it as like as possibio in Saturn and Isis and Bacchus, but gives it quietly over to contumelious blows, as is in mockery of our Lord The devit, sors th, mahes it pari, too, of his Dachinn that the chook is to bonaeekly offered to the smiter i In tho fame Way, With theirhigh shoes, ho has made the tragic actore talle cause none ean add a cubit to his stature. - Ηis destre is to mahe Christ
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that Very fame man on the arena.
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DE SPECTACULIS 31 ance to your clites: you cast in your tot for tiso or death with
25. Sinted Where there is nothing of God, mill one bothinhing of his Maheri Will there be peaco in his foui
acior is declaiming, Will ono bo oving thought in propheticappeals Amid the meas es of the esseminate player, Willhe cali up to himself a psalm And when the athletes arohard at strumle, mill he bo ready in proclaim that there mustbe no strihing again And with his eye fixed ou tho bitos
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than confession of our errore, than pardon of the sins sonumerous of our past life What greater pleasum than distaste of pleasure itself, than contempt of ali that tho moridcan give, than true liber , than a pure conscience, a contented hie, and Deedom frem ait sear of death What nobier thanto tread under foot the gods of the nations-to exorcise evit spirits-to persorm cures-to seeh divine reveHings o livoto God ' Theso ars the pleraures, these the spectacles that befit Christian men-holy, evertasting, hee. Count of theseas J0ur circus games, fix Jour ves on the courses of tho
Orid, the gliding seasons, rechon up the periods of time, long for the goal of the final consummation, defend the
λ Jota xvi. 20. 3 Phil. i. 23.
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34 TERTULLIANUSU the literaturo of the stago delight you, Ws have literatum
and ali iis many producta, sliali be consumed in one great flamel How vast a spectacle then bursis upon the eyel What there excites my admirationi What my derision Whieli si t gives me joy l whicli rouses me to exultation 'as I see so many illustrious monarchs, Whose reception into the heavens mas publicly announced, groaning noW in thelowost daanem mitti great Jove himself, and those, too, Whobore mitness of thela exaltation; goVernora os provinces, tοο, who persecuted the Christian name, in fires more ferco than