Chapter LXVIII.

That philosophical discourses, however, distinguished by orderly arrangement and elegant expression,574    ᾽Αλλὰ τὴν μὲν τάξιν καὶ σύνθεσιν καὶ φράσιν τῶν ἀπὸ φιλοσοφίας λόγων. should produce such results in the case of those individuals just enumerated, and upon others575    The reading in the text is ἄλλως, for which ἄλλους has been conjectured by Ruæus and Boherellus, and which has been adopted in the translation. who have led wicked lives, is not at all to be wondered at.  But when we consider that those discourses, which Celsus terms “vulgar,”576    ιδιωτικούς. are filled with power, as if they were spells, and see that they at once convert multitudes from a life of licentiousness to one of extreme regularity,577    εὐσταθέστατον. and from a life of wickedness to a better, and from a state of cowardice or unmanliness to one of such high-toned courage as to lead men to despise even death through the piety which shows itself within them, why should we not justly admire the power which they contain?  For the words of those who at the first assumed the office of (Christian) ambassadors, and who gave their labours to rear up the Churches of God,—nay, their preaching also,—were accompanied with a persuasive power, though not like that found among those who profess the philosophy of Plato, or of any other merely human philosopher, which possesses no other qualities than those of human nature.  But the demonstration which followed the words of the apostles of Jesus was given from God, and was accredited578    πιστικὴ ἀπὸ πνεύματος. by the Spirit and by power.  And therefore their word ran swiftly and speedily, or rather the word of God through their instrumentality, transformed numbers of persons who had been sinners both by nature and habit, whom no one could have reformed by punishment, but who were changed by the word, which moulded and transformed them according to its pleasure.

Ἀλλὰ τὴν μὲν τάξιν καὶ σύνθεσιν καὶ φράσιν τῶν ἀπὸ φιλοσοφίας λόγων τοιαῦτα εἰς τοὺς προειρημένους πεποιηκέναι, καὶ ἄλλους κακῶς βεβιωκότας, οὐ πάνυ τι θαυμαστόν. Ἐπὰν δὲ οὕς φησιν εἶναι ἰδιωτικοὺς λόγους ὁ Κέλσος κατανοήσωμεν, ὡσπερεὶ ἐπῳδὰς δυνάμεως πεπλη ρωμένους, καὶ τοὺς λόγους θεωρῶμεν, ἀθρόως προτρέποντας πλήθη ἐπὶ τὸν ἐξ ἀκολάστων εἰς τὸν εὐσταθέστατον βίον καὶ τὸν ἐξ ἀδίκων εἰς τὸν χρηστότερον καὶ τὸν ἐκ δειλῶν ἢ ἀνάνδρων εἰς τὸν ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον εὔτονον, ὡς καὶ θανάτου διὰ τὴν φανεῖσαν αὐτοῖς εὐσέβειαν καταφρονεῖν· πῶς οὐχὶ δικαίως θαυμάσομεν τὴν ἐν αὐτῷ δύναμιν; "Ὁ" γὰρ "λόγος" τῶν ταῦτα τὴν ἀρχὴν πρεσβευσάντων καὶ καμόντων, ἵνα συστήσωσιν ἐκκλησίας θεοῦ, ἀλλὰ καὶ "τὸ κήρυγμα" αὐτῶν ἐν πειθοῖ μὲν γέγονεν οὐ τοιαύτῃ δέ, ὁποία ἐστὶ πειθὼ ἐν τοῖς σοφίαν Πλάτωνος ἐπαγγελλομένοις ἤ τινος τῶν φιλοσοφησάντων, ὄντων ἀνθρώπων καὶ οὐδὲν ἄλλο πλὴν ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως ἐχόντων· ἡ δ' ἀπόδειξις ἐν τοῖς Ἰησοῦ ἀποστόλοις θεόθεν δοθεῖσα πιστικὴ ἀπὸ "πνεύματος καὶ δυνάμεως". ∆ιόπερ τάχιστα καὶ ὀξύτατα ἔδραμεν ὁ λόγος αὐτῶν, μᾶλλον δὲ ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ, δι' αὐτῶν μεταβάλλων πολλοὺς τῶν ἁμαρτάνειν πεφυκότων καὶ εἰθισμένων· οὓς οὐδὲ κολάζων μὲν ἄν τις ἄνθρωπος μετέβαλεν, ὁ δὲ λόγος μετεποίησε μορφώσας καὶ τυπώσας αὐτοὺς κατὰ τὸ αὐτοῦ βούλημα.