34. Since this is the case, what, pray, is so unfair as that we should be looked on by you as silly in that readiness of belief at which you scoff, while we see that you both have like beliefs, and entertain the same hopes? If we are thought deserving of ridicule because we hold out to ourselves such a hope, the same ridicule awaits you too, who claim for yourselves the hope of immortality. If you hold and follow a rational course, grant to us also a share in it. If Plato in the Phædrus,397 Here, as in c. 7, p. 436, n. 3, the edd. read Phædone, with the exception of the first ed., LB., Hildebrand, and Oehler, who follow the ms. as above. or another of this band of philosophers, had promised these joys to us—that is, a way to escape death, or were able to provide it and bring us to the end which he had promised,398 Lit., “to the end of promising.” it would have been fitting that we should seek to honour him from whom we look for so great a gift and favour. Now, since Christ has not only promised it, but also shown by His virtues, which were so great, that it can be made good, what strange thing do we do, and on what grounds are we charged with folly, if we bow down and worship His name399 Meursius suggests numini, “deity,” on which it may be well to remark once for all, that nomen and numen are in innumerable places interchanged in one or other of the edd. The change, however, is usually of so little moment, that no further notice will be taken of it. and majesty from whom we expect to receive both these blessings, that we may at once escape a death of suffering, and be enriched with eternal life?400 So the ms., according to Rigaltius and Hildebrand, reading vitæ æternitate, while Crusius asserts that the ms. gives vita et—“with life and eternity.”
0863A XXXIV. Cum igitur haec ita sint, quaenam injustitia tanta est, ut fatui vobis credulitate in ista videamur; cum vos et similia credere, et in eadem videamus expectatione versari? Si irrisione existimamur digni, quod spem nobis hujusmodi pollicemur, et vos eadem expectat irrisio, qui spem vobis immortalitatis adsciscitis. Si tenetis aliquam sequiminique rationem, et nobis aliquam portionem ex ista ratione concedite. Si nobis haec gaudia, hoc est viam fugiendae mortis, Plato in Phaedone promisisset, aliusve ex hoc choro, possetque eam praestare, atque ad finem pollicitationis adducere, consentaneum fuerat ejus suscipere nos cultus, a quo tantum doni expectaremus et muneris. Nunc cum eam Christus non tantum promiserit, verum etiam virtutibus tantis manifestaverit 0863B posse compleri: quid alienum facimus, aut stultitiae crimen quibus rationibus sustinemus, si ejus nomini majestatique substernimur, a quo speramus utrumque, et mortem cruciabilem fugere, et vitae aeternitate donari?