 Again, as to the destruction of the world by fire, it is a mistake of the vulgar either to find it difficult to believe or to disbelieve altogether that fire can suddenly fall from heaven. Who amongst the philosophers has any doubt or is ignorant that all things that are born die, that all things that are made perish, that the heavens and all that is therein as they once came into existence, will be devoured by fire, if the water of the sea or of the spring ceases to nourish them. The Stoics firmly maintain that, when the supply of moisture is exhausted, the whole world will be consumed by fire. The Epicureans also held the same opinion about the conflagration of the elements in the destruction of the world. Plato tells us that the different parts of the world are alternately overwhelmed by flood and fire, and although he asserts that the universe itself was fashioned eternal and indissoluble, he adds that it can be dissolved and ended, but only by God who created it. So it would be nothing wonderful if this vast structure should be destroyed by him who erected it. You see that the arguments of the philosophers are the same as our own, although it is not we who have followed in their footsteps, but they who have given us a shadowy imitation, a garbled truth taken from the divine predictions of the prophets. Similarly, your most famous philosophers, Pythagoras I and especially Plato, have handed down an account of the dogma of the resurrection in a corrupt and mutilated form. According to them, after the dissolution of the body, only the soul abides forever and often passes into fresh bodies. A further distortion of the truth is that the souls of men return to the bodies of the cattle, birds and beasts. Such an idea rather deserves the ridicule of a buffoon than the serious consideration of a philosopher. However, in view of the subject before us, it is enough that even in this your philosophers are in agreement with us to a certain extent, besides, who is so foolish or so stupid as to venture to dispute that, as man could originally be made by God, so he can afterwards be remade by him. That man is nothing after death, as he was nothing before birth, that as he could be born from nothing, so he can be remade from nothing. Besides, it is easier to renew what has once existed than to call it into existence. Do you believe that whenever anything is withdrawn from our own feeble eyes, it is looked upon by God as permanently lost? The body, whether it is reduced to dust, is resolved into vapor, becomes a heap of ashes, or vanishes in smoke, is no longer visible to us, but it still exists for God who preserves its elements, nor are we, as you imagine, afraid of any injury from the manner of burial, but we practice the old and better custom of interment. Consider again how, as a consolation for us, the entire kingdom of nature foreshadows the resurrection, the sun sinks and rises again, the stars disappear and return, birds die and revive, trees decay and again put forth leaves, seeds do not come up again until they rot. The body and the grave is like a tree in winter, both concealed their new life under an apparent dryness. Why are you so anxious that it should revive and return during the cruel winter? The body also has its spring, which we must wait for. I am aware that most men, conscious of what they deserve, hope rather than believe that they will not exist after death. They prefer total annihilation to resurrection with punishments to follow. Their error is aggravated by the immunity enjoyed by them in the world and by the infinite patience of God, whose judgment the slower it is, the juster it is. And yet, in the writings of the learned and the works of the poets, we are reminded of the river of fire, of the heat of the Stygian Lake, with its nine circles prepared as an eternal punishment known from the revelations of demons and the oracles of the prophets. Hence also it is that the poets represent King Jupiter himself, swearing solemnly by the burning shores of sticks and its black abyss, aware of the punishment destined for him and his votaries. He shudders. And these torments are unending and unlimited. The fire, as if endowed with intelligence, consumes and renovates men's limbs, devours and at the same time feeds them, as the lightning flash strikes the body and does not consume it, as the fires of Ytna, Vesuvius and other volcanoes burn without being exhausted, so that avenging fire does not devour the bodies on which it feeds, but is nourished by the forms which, don't mangled, are still unconsumed. No one, except an atheist, can have any doubt that those who are ignorant of God deserve to be tortured for their impiety and injustice, since it is as great a crime to be ignorant of the Father and Lord of all as to insult him. And although ignorance of God is enough to deserve punishment, just as knowledge of him is an aid to pardon, yet if we Christians be compared with you, although the training of some is inferior to yours, on the whole we shall be found far better. You prohibit adultery and yet commit it. We are born to be the husbands of our own wives alone. You punish crimes when committed, which amongst us it is a sin even to think of. You are afraid of witnesses. We are afraid of conscience alone, which is always with us. Lastly, the prisons are crowded with your followers, while they do not contain a single Christian, unless he be a renegade or one whose religion is his crime. Nor should anyone either seek consolation or excuse his lot by an appeal to fate, granting that one's lot depends on fortune, yet the mind is free, so that it is a man's action, not his position, that is judged. For what else is fate but what God has said about each of us? Since he has a foreknowledge of our character, he can also determine the destinies of individuals according to their qualities and deserts. Thus, in our case, it is not our nativity that is punished, but our natural disposition that bears the penalty. I will say no more about fate. If, in the circumstances that is not sufficient, we will discuss the matter more fully and at greater length on another occasion. Further, as to the charge that most of us are paupers, this is no shame, but our glory. For as the mind is enervated by luxury, so it is strengthened by frugality. And yet who can be poor if he wants nothing, if he does not long for what is in others, if he is rich in the sight of God? That man, rather, is poor who, though he has great possessions, desires more. But I will tell you what I think. No one can be as poor as he was born. Birds live without possessing anything of their own, cattle obtain pasture daily, and yet they are all created for our use, and we possess all if we do not desire it. Therefore, as a man, when walking, makes the greater progress the more lightly he is burdened, so in this journey of life the man who lightens his burden by poverty is happier than one who groans beneath the weight of riches. And yet, if we thought it useful, we might ask for wealth from God, certainly he to whom all belongs could grant us a share of it. But we prefer to despise wealth than to possess it. We rather desire innocence and demand patience. We would rather be virtuous than extravagant. Our consciousness and endurance of the infirmities of our human frame are no punishment, but warfare. Courage is strengthened by infirmities and calamity as frequently the school of valor. Lastly, our powers, both mental and bodily, are impaired by lack of exercise. Thus, all your heroes, whom you commend as examples, become famous and renowned through their misfortunes. And so God is neither unable to help us, nor does he disdain to do so, since he is the ruler of all and loves his people. He thoroughly examines each one in adversity, ways each man's disposition in the balance of peril, tests his character even unto death, convinced that nothing can be lost for him. Thus says gold is tried by fire, so we are tested by dangers. Chapter 37 What a beautiful sight for God to see, when the Christian wrestles with pain, braves threats, punishment and torture, scornfully derides the din at his execution and the horrible sight of the executioner, when he uplifts the banner of freedom against kings and princes, yielding to God alone, to whom he belongs, when in triumph and victorious, he mocks the judge who is pronounced to sentence against him, for he is the conqueror who has obtained what he desires. Where is the soldier who does not face danger, more boldly under the eyes of his commander, for no one obtains a reward before he has been tested? And yet a general cannot give what he does not possess, he cannot prolong life, although he can reward service, but the soldier of God is neither abandoned in trouble nor destroyed by death, thus the Christian may appear miserable, but cannot be proved so. You yourselves extoll to the skies men sorely tried by misfortune, such as Mushi's Skiwola, who, when he had made a mistake in his attempt on the king, would have perished in the midst of the enemy had he not sacrificed his right hand. And how many of our community have suffered, without a groan, the loss not only of their right hand, but the destruction of their whole body by fire, although they had it in their power to obtain their release. Need I compare men with Mushi's, Aquilus and Regulus? Why, even our lads and women, in their inspired endurance of suffering, laugh to scorn crucifixion, tortures, wild beasts and all the terrors of punishment. And you, poor wretches, you cannot understand that there is no one who would desire to undergo punishment without reason, or could endure torture without the help of God. But perhaps you are deceived by the fact that many who know not God possess wealth and abundance, are full of honors and enjoy great authority. These unhappy men are uplifted by the hire, that their fall may be greater. They are like victims fattened for punishment or crowned for sacrifice. So it is that summer raised to the throne in absolute power, in order that, in their profligate minds, in the unrestrained exercise of their authority, may freely barter away their natural character, for without the knowledge of God what happiness can be lasting, since this is death. Like a dream it slips away before we can grasp it. Are you a king? You yourself feel as much fear as you inspire in others, however numerous your bodyguard you are left alone to face danger. Are you rich? It is dangerous to trust fortune, and great store of provisions for the brief journey of life is not a help, but a burden. Are you proud of your fassies in purple? It is a vain error of man, and an empty show of rank to shine in purple, while the mind is vile. Are you blessed with noble ancestors? Do you boast of your parents? But we are all born equal. It is a virtue alone that distinguishes us. So then we, whose reputation depends on our decent mode of life, rightly abstained from evil pleasures, from your processions and spectacles, which we know are derived from your religious rites and whose pernicious allurements we condemn. At the cural games who can help being horrified at the frenzy of the brawling populace, and at the gladiatorial shows at the training for murder? On the stage even there is the same frenzy, while the range of vice is even wider. At one time the actor describes or exemplifies adultery, at another an effeminate player inspires the passion he portrays. He dishonors your gods by investing them with every vice, adultery, love, sex, size, and hatred. In his pretended grief he calls forth your tears by his senseless nods and gestures. Thus in real life you clamor for a man's death. On the stage you weep at it. Chapter 38 As for our contempt for the sacrificial remains and the wine that has already been used in libations, it is no confession of fear but a declaration of true independence. For although everything that is created as being the imperishable gift of God is proof against corruption, we abstain from your offerings lest anyone may think that we acknowledge the demons to whom libations are poured, or are ashamed of our own religion. Who doubts that we are fond of the flowers of spring when we pluck the early rose, lily, and any other flower of delightful scent and color? For we use them free and loose or wear them round our necks as delicate garlands. You must excuse us for not crowning our heads. We are in the habit of inhaling the sweet perfume of a flower, not of using the back of the head or the hair as a means of conveying it, nor do we crown our dead. In regard to this I am the more surprised you are applying a torch to the one who still feels, or offering a garland to one who does not, since those who are happy need no flowers, while those who are unhappy take no pleasure in them. On the other hand we arrange our funerals as simply as our lives. We place no fading garland upon the grave, but await from God an undying crown of immortal flowers. Quiet, modest, confident in the generosity of our God we enliven the hope of future happiness by faith in his ever-present majesty. Thus we feel assured of our resurrection and blessedness and live in contemplation of the future. Now, let Socrates see to it the buffoon of Athens, who confessed that he knew nothing, although he boasted of the support of a spirit of lies. Let Archicelus, Carnades, Pyrrho, and all the host of Academians, argue the matter. Let Simonides shelve the question forever. We despise the superciliousness of the philosophers, whom we know as corruptors and adulterers, tyrants, and always ready to declaim against devices that are really their own. We do not show our wisdom in our dress, but in our heart we do not proclaim great things, but live them, and are proud of having obtained what philosophers have sought with their utmost efforts but have failed to find. Why should we be ungrateful? Why should we be dissatisfied, seeing that the truth about the Godhead has attained maturity in our times? Let us enjoy our happiness and avoid excess in our opinions. Let superstition be restrained. Let impiety be driven out. Let true religion be preserved. CHAPTER XXXIX After Octavius had finished, for some time we remained in amazed silence, with our eyes intently fixed upon him. As for myself I was lost in overwhelming admiration of the skill with which he backed up his principles, which can be more easily felt than expressed in words. By a wealth of argument, examples and quotations from authorities, at the manner in which he repelled the attacks of the ill disposed with their own weapons, namely those of the philosophers, and demonstrated that the truth was not only easy to discover, but also agreeable. CHAPTER XXXIX While I was silently turning over these things in my mind, Cecilius burst out, I congratulate my friend Octavius most heartily, but I also congratulate myself, nor need I wait for the verdict. I too, in like manner, am victorious, for even if it seems audacious, I also claim a victory. As he has gained the victory over me, so have I triumphed over error. As to the main questions, in regard to providence and God, I accept your belief. I recognize the purity of your sect, which is henceforth my own. Even now there remain certain points, which, although no obstacle to the truth, must be discussed to make my instruction complete. But, as the sun is already setting, we will deal with these points tomorrow. They will not detain us long. Since we are agreed upon the general issues— As for myself said I, I rejoice the more heartily on behalf of all of us, that Octavius has also conquered from my benefit, since I am relieved of the very disagreeable duty of giving a verdict. I cannot, however, adequately reward his merits by praising him in words. The testimony of one man by himself carries little weight. Octavius possesses an excellent gift of God, which inspired him when he spoke and assisted him to win his case. After this we retired, all three joyful and happy. Cecilius, because he believed, Octavius because he was victorious, and I myself because of the conversion of the one and the victory of the other. End of Section 6 End of Octavius by Minucius Felix, translated by John Henry Freese