28. For with us the prince of the evil spirits is called a End of
Vices falsely charged on Christians opf-.nhj practised.
27. We however, to avoid bringing oppression on any one', Apol. or sinning ourselves, are tauglit that it is unlawful to expose',—r^* even new-born children; in the first place, because we seetiarn almost all those that are so, not only the females, but also p^|.'j^[j_ the males, trained to purposes of prostitution, and as tlietutiou. ancients are said to have kept herds of oxen, or goats, or sheep, or grazing horses, so you now use boys only for this shameful purpose ; and there are in ever}^ nation herds of females, hermaphrodites, and unnatural persons, waiting for hire to this pollution ; from whom you accept wages, offering, and tribute, when you ought to root them out of our land ; any one of those too who hire them, in addition to his godless, unhallowed, and impure intercourse, may chance to be connected with his own child, relative, or " brother; and on the other hand there are those who prostitute even their own children and wives : some too are mutilated openly for purposes of sodomy, and these mysteries they refer to the mother of the gods.
Moreover, by the side of each of those whom you consider gods, the serpent is painted, a great symbol and mystery.
\\\ fact, the things that you yourselves do openly, and hold in honour, as if the Divine light were overthrown and removed", you ascribe to us.
This, to us who are wholly innocent of committing any such crimes, does no manner of harm, but rather to those who commit them, and falsely accuse us of them.
28. For with us the prince of the evil spirits is called a End of serpent, and Satan, and the devil, as you may learn eveUj^^jhis from an examination of our writings. (^He will be sent into abettors. fire with his host, and the men who are his followers, there to be tormented to an endless eternity, as Christ has foretold.
The delay of God in not yet having brought this to pass, is for the sake of the human race ; for He foreknows that some will be saved by repentance, some even that are not yet perhaps born ; for in the beginr.ing he made man with * Bringing oppression on any one, being done by their not being found* 5tcoKw/iei/" Grabe and otliers would subor, if found, of their being brought up stitute d5i«:a>^e;/ ; but the Benedictine, to flagitious courses, which he shews whom we follow in the test, thinks that to be a probable result.
Note c. p. GO.
SiuKc!}fj.ev should be retained, as better " The Ben. Editor takes these words expressing St. Justin's meaning, which as connected with the following, reis, that Christians hold it unlawful to ferring to the alleged extinction of expose their chil dren, lest they should lights.
There is aliusion to this, but be the cause of wrong or oppression probably of a more distant kind.
Judgment to come.
Purity of Christians.
Ju^T. understanding, and with the power of choosing the truth, and ^ of acting uprightly, in order that all men might be without excuse before Him, for they were created with reason, and contemplation.
If, therefore, any one shall not believe that God regards these things, or conclude indirectly that He has no existence, or affirm that He is, but takes pleasure in evil, or that He resembles a stone, and that neither virtue, nor vice, are any thing, but men consider them to be good or bad in opinion only, this is the greatest impiety and injustice.
Conti29. And again, another reason against exposing infants is, cliris-^^^^^* any one of them may not be found, but may perish, and tians. we be homicides.
But we either do not marry at first, unless to bring up children ; or, declining it, we live in continence and to prove to you that promiscuous connection is not a mystery of ours, one of our number presented a petition to Felix the Prefect of Alexandria, to entreat permission to be made an eunuch y, for, without the sanction of that officer, the physicians of the place said that they were prohibited from performing the operation ; and when Felix would by no means consent to sign his petition, the young man remained single, and was satisfied with his own conscience, and the consciences of those who were of the same
« " Conclude indirectly." OjUo\o7^(r€i of the Arian Leontius, then a presZih rexi'^s.
The Benedictine explains byter, but afterwards uneanonically this of " the asserting a tiling not promoted by his party to the see of openly and plainly, but with a sort of Antioch.
The common law prohibited artifice," Justin urging his opponents the practice under pain of death both not with what they directly stated, but to subject and operator.
Cabassutius with what necessarily followed from on the 1st Canon of Nice, their assertions.
So, in the Dialogue "We learn from St. Augustine, Her. with Trypho, §. 54. he uses the same xxxvii. and St. Epiphanius, Her. Iviii. expression in reference to Genesis that there was a body of heretics in xlix.ll. The doctrine which he educes the second century termed Valesians, from that passage of Holy Scripture whom a literal interpretation of St.
(viz. that Christ's blood, like the blood Matthew xix. 12. led, as with Origen, of the grape, was formed by God alone) to the commission of this act.
Eusedoes not immediately follow therefrom, bius vi. 8. but may be concluded Sto t^s re'xj'Tjs.
The case of Leontius was a clear Bened. note a. page 61. infraction of Ecclesiastical law, and, y The 22d, 23d, and 24th, of the as such, it was protested against by Apostolic Canons treat of this subject, the Church; but it is not quite certain The 22d forbids the self-mutilated from whether the Apostolical Canons were being received into the ranks of the in existence when Origen fell into the Clergy. The 23d directs those already same snare, or whether they were ordained who are guilty of this offence, framed in consequence of his act, to to be deprived; and the 24th orders meet such a case in future.
See Bevelaymen to be excommunicated for three ridge's Pandect, ii. p. 24. and Codex years.
Canonum, cap. iv. §. 1. The author of The first' Canon of the Council of the piece De Virginitate, ascribed to Nice repeats the rule of the 22d and St. Basil, speaks as if the custom ex23d of the Canons of the Apostles : no isted to a considerable extent in his day. doubt with reference to the recent case St. Basil, vol. iii. §. 62. page 647 A.