Chapter LII.

And let not Celsus be angry if we describe as lame and mutilated in soul those who run to the temples as to places having a real sacredness and who cannot see that no mere mechanical work of man can be truly sacred.  Those whose piety is grounded on the teaching of Jesus also run until they come to the end of their course, when they can say in all truth and confidence:  “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.”1741    2 Tim. iv. 7.  And each of us runs “not as uncertain,” and he so fights with evil “not as one beating the air,”1742    1 Cor. ix. 26. but as against those who are subject to “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.”1743    Eph. ii. 2.  Celsus may indeed say of us that we “live with the body which is a dead thing;” but we have learnt, “If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye by the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live;”1744    Rom. viii. 13. and, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”1745    Gal. v. 25.  Would that we might convince him by our actions that he did us wrong, when he said that we “live with the body which is dead!”

Μὴ ἀγανακτείτω δὲ Κέλσος, ἐπὰν χωλοὺς λέγωμεν καὶ τὰς βάσεις τῆς ψυχῆς πεπηρωμένους τοὺς ἐπὶ τὰ νομι ζόμενα ἱερὰ ὡς ἀληθινὰ ἱερὰ σπεύδοντας καὶ μὴ ὁρῶντας ὅτι οὐδὲν βαναύσων ἔργον δύναται εἶναι ἱερόν. Τρέχουσι δὲ καὶ οἱ κατὰ τὴν διδασκαλίαν Ἰησοῦ εὐσεβοῦντες, ἕως ἐπὶ τὸ τέλος φθάσαντες δρόμου εἴπωσιν ἐρρωμένῃ καὶ ἀληθευούσῃ τῇ διαθέσει· "Τὸν ἀγῶνα τὸν καλὸν ἠγώνισμαι, τὸν δρόμον τετέλεκα, τὴν πίστιν τετήρηκα· λοιπὸν ἀπόκειταί μοι ὁ τῆς δικαιοσύνης στέφανος." Καὶ ἕκαστός γε ἡμῶν "οὕτως" τρέχει "ὡς οὐκ ἀδήλως" καὶ "οὕτω" πρὸς τὴν κακίαν πυκτεύει "ὡς οὐκ ἀέρα δέρων" ἀλλὰ τοὺς ὑπὸ "τὸν ἄρχοντα τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ ἀέρος, τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ νῦν ἐνεργοῦντος ἐν τοῖς υἱοῖς τῆς ἀπειθείας". Λεγέτω δ' ἡμᾶς ὁ Κέλσος σώματι τῷ νεκρῷ ζῶντας, ἀκούοντας· "Εἰ κατὰ σάρκα ζῆτε, μέλλετε ἀποθνῄσκειν· εἰ δὲ πνεύματι τὰς πράξεις τοῦ σώματος θανατοῦτε, ζήσεσθε", καὶ μανθάνοντας τὸ "Εἰ πνεύματι ζῶμεν, πνεύματι καὶ στοιχῶμεν"· εἴη τε τοῖς ἔργοις ἡμᾶς δεικνύναι ψευδόμενον τὸν λέγοντα περὶ ἡμῶν ὅτι τῷ σώματι ζῶμεν τῷ νεκρῷ.