Arguments of Celsus, Porphyry and the emperor Julian against the Christians
Arguments of Celsus, porphyry, and the emperor Julian, against the Christians; also extracts from Diodorus Siculus, Josephus, and Tacitus, Relating to the Jews. Together with an appendix; containing the oration of libations in defence of the temples of the heathens, translated by Dr. Lardner; and extracts from Bingham's antiquities of the Christian church.
to see accomplished; for as he is not a divine, he has not attempted in his Notes to confute Celsus, but has confined himself solely to an illustration of his meaning, by a citation of parallel passages in other ancient authors.
As the answer, however, of Origen to the arguments of Celsus is very futile and inefficient, it would be admirable to see someone of the learned divines with which the church at present abounds leap into the arena, and by vanquishing Celsus, prove that the Christian religion is peculiarly adapted to the [Nresent times, and to the interest of die priests by whom it is processed and disseminated.
The Marquis D'Argens published a translation in French, accompanied by the Greek text, of the arguments of Emperor Julian against the Christians; and as an apology for the present work, I subjoin the following translati^a of a part of his preliminary discourse,
Father Petau also judiciously remarks, that if the times were not gone by when demons took the advantage of idolatry td seduce mankind, it would be prudent not to afford any aid, or give the benefit of any invective against Jesus, or the Christian religion to the organs of those daemons; but since by the blessing of God and the help of the cross, which have brought about our salvatkm, the monstrous dogmas of Paganism are buried in oblivion, we have nothing to fear from that pest; there is no weighty reason for our rising up against the monuments of Pagan aberration that now remain, and totally destroying them.
On the contrary, the same Father Petau says, that it is better to treat them as the ancient Christians treated the images and temples of the gods. At first, in the provinces in which they were in power, they razed them to the very foundations, that nothing might be visible to posterity that could perpetuate impiety, or the sight of which could recall mankind to abominable worship. But when the same Chris- tians had firmly established their religion, it appeared more rational to them, after destroying* the altars and statues of the gods, to preserve the temples, and by purifying them, to make them serviceable for the worship of the true God.
The same Christians also, not only dis- continued to break the statues and images of the gods, but they took the choicest of them, that were the work of the most celebrated artists, and set them up in public places to ornament their cities, as well as to recall to the memory of those who beheld them, how gross was the blindness of their ancestors had been, and how powerful the grace that had delivered them firom it."
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