Section 269
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238 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. referring their own labours to his judgment as to a master. Why should we say this, when even Porphyry, who was our contem porary, wrote books against us, and attempted to slander the sacred writings ; when he mentioned those that had expounded them, and when unable to urge any opprobrious censure against the doctrines, for want of argument, he turned to reviling, and to slander especially the commentators, among whom he is par ticularly fierce against Origen, saying that he knew him when he wras a young man. But, in fact, without knowing it, he com mends the man ; saying some things in confirmation of the truth when he could not do otherwise, and in other matters uttering falsehoods where he thought he would not be detected. Some times he accuses him as a Christian, and sometimes he admires and describes his proficiency in the branches of philosophy. Hear his owrn words : " But some," says he, " ambitious rather to find some solution to the absurdities of the Jewish writings, instead of abandoning them, have turned their minds to exposi tions, inconsistent with themselves, and inapplicable to the writings; and which, instead of furnishing a defence of these foreigners, only give us encomiums and remarks in their praise. For boasting of what Moses says plainly in his writings, as if they were dark and intricate propositions, and attaching to them divine influence, as if they were oracles replete with hidden mysteries ; and in their vanity pretending to great discrimination of mind, they thus produce their expositions." Then, again, he says : " But let us take an example of this ab surdity, from the very man whom I happened to meet when I was very young, and who was very celebrated, and is still celebrated by the writings that he has left ; I mean Origen, whose glory is very great with the teachers of these doctrines. For this man having been a hearer of Ammonlus, who had made the greatest proficiency in philosophy among those of our day, as to know ledge, derived great benefit from his master, but with regard to a correct purpose of life, he pursued a course directly opposite. For Ammonius, being a Christian, had been educated among Christians by his parents, and when he began to exercise his own understanding, and apply himself to philosophy, he immediately