Book VII.

Chapter I.

In the six former books we have endeavoured, reverend brother Ambrosius, according to our ability to meet the charges brought by Celsus against the Christians, and have as far as possible passed over nothing without first subjecting it to a full and close examination.  And now, while we enter upon the seventh book, we call upon God through Jesus Christ, whom Celsus accuses, that He who is the truth of God would shed light into our hearts and scatter the darkness of error, in accordance with that saying of the prophet which we now offer as our prayer, “Destroy them by Thy truth.”1607    κατέρχεσθαι.    ἐνεῖδον.    Ps. liv. 5.  For it is evidently the words and reasonings opposed to the truth that God destroys by His truth; so that when these are destroyed, all who are delivered from deception may go on with the prophet to say, “I will freely sacrifice unto Thee,”1608    [See Dr. Burton’s Bampton Lectures On the Heresies of the Apostolic Age, pp. 198, 529.  S.]    Ps. liv. 6. and may offer to the Most High a reasonable and smokeless sacrifice.

Ἐν ἓξ τοῖς πρὸ τούτων, ἱερὲ ἀδελφὲ Ἀμβρόσιε, ἀγωνισάμενοι κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν ἡμῖν βιβλίοις πρὸς τὰς Κέλσου κατὰ Χριστιανῶν κατηγορίας καὶ μηδὲν ὅση δύναμις ἀβασάνιστον καὶ ἀνεξέταστον ἐάσαντες μηδὲ παρελθόντες, πρὸς ὃ [οὐχ] ὡς οἷόν τε ἡμῖν ἀπηντήσαμεν, θεὸν ἐπικαλε σάμενοι δι' αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, τοῦ κατηγορουμένου ὑπὸ Κέλσου, ἵν' ἡμῶν ἐλλάμψῃ ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ ἀλήθεια τυγχάνων τὰ ἀνατρεπτικὰ τοῦ ψεύδους, ἀρχόμεθα καὶ ἑβδόμου συγγράμματος, τὸ προφητικὸν ἐκεῖνο ἐν τῇ πρὸς θεὸν λέγοντες εὐχῇ τό· "Ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ σου ἐξολόθρευσον αὐτούς", δῆλον δ' ὅτι τοὺς ἐναντίους "τῇ ἀληθείᾳ" λόγους· οὗτοι γὰρ ἀληθείᾳ θεοῦ ἐξολοθρεύονται, ἵν' ἐξολο θρευθέντων αὐτῶν οἱ παντὸς περισπασμοῦ ἀπολυθέντες εἴπωσι τὸ ἑξῆς ἐκείνῳ τό· "Ἑκουσίως θύσω σοι", λογικὴν καὶ ἄκαπνον θυσίαν προσφέροντες τῷ θεῷ τῶν ὅλων.