Chapter LX.

And as we teach, moreover, that “wisdom will not enter into the soul of a base man, nor dwell in a body that is involved in sin,”545    Wisd. Solom. i. 4. we say, Whoever has clean hands, and therefore lifts up holy hands to God, and by reason of being occupied with elevated and heavenly things, can say, “The lifting up of my hands is as the evening sacrifice,”546    Cf. Ps. cxli. 2. let him come to us; and whoever has a wise tongue through meditating on the law of the Lord day and night, and by “reason of habit has his senses exercised to discern between good and evil,” let him have no reluctance in coming to the strong and rational sustenance which is adapted to those who are athletes in piety and every virtue.  And since the grace of God is with all those who love with a pure affection the teacher of the doctrines of immortality, whoever is pure not only from all defilement, but from what are regarded as lesser transgressions, let him be boldly initiated in the mysteries of Jesus, which properly are made known only to the holy and the pure.  The initiated of Celsus accordingly says, “Let him whose soul is conscious of no evil come.”  But he who acts as initiator, according to the precepts of Jesus, will say to those who have been purified in heart, “He whose soul has, for a long time, been conscious of no evil, and especially since he yielded himself to the healing of the word, let such an one hear the doctrines which were spoken in private by Jesus to His genuine disciples.”  Therefore in the comparison which he institutes between the procedure of the initiators into the Grecian mysteries, and the teachers of the doctrine of Jesus, he does not know the difference between inviting the wicked to be healed, and initiating those already purified into the sacred mysteries!

Καὶ διδάσκοντες "ὅτι εἰς κακότεχνον ψυχὴν οὐκ εἰσελεύσεται σοφία οὐδὲ κατοικήσει ἐν σώματι κατάχρεῳ ἁμαρτίας" φαμέν· ὅστις χεῖρας καθαρὸς καὶ διὰ τοῦτ' ἐπαίρων "χεῖρας ὁσίους" τῷ θεῷ καὶ παρὰ τὸ διηρμένα καὶ οὐράνια ἐπιτελεῖν δύναται λέγειν· "Ἔπαρσις τῶν χειρῶν μου θυσία ἑσπερινή", ἡκέτω πρὸς ἡμᾶς· καὶ ὅστις φωνὴν συνετὸς τῷ μελετᾶν τὸν νόμον κυρίου "ἡμέρας καὶ νυκτὸς" καὶ τῷ "διὰ τὴν ἕξιν τὰ αἰσθητήρια γεγυμ νασμένα" ἐσχηκέναι "πρὸς διάκρισιν καλοῦ τε καὶ κακοῦ" μὴ ὀκνείτω προσιέναι στερεαῖς λογικαῖς τροφαῖς καὶ ἁρμοζούσαις ἀθληταῖς εὐσεβείας καὶ πάσης ἀρετῆς. Ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ "ἡ χάρις" τοῦ θεοῦ ἐστι "μετὰ πάντων τῶν ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ ἀγαπώντων" τὸν διδάσκαλον τῶν τῆς ἀθανασίας μαθημάτων, ὅστις ἁγνὸς οὐ μόνον ἀπὸ παντὸς μύσους ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν ἐλαττόνων εἶναι νομιζομένων ἁμαρτημάτων, θαρρῶν μυείσθω τὰ μόνοις ἁγίοις καὶ καθαροῖς εὐλόγως παραδιδόμενα μυστήρια τῆς κατὰ Ἰησοῦν θεοσεβείας. Ὁ μὲν οὖν Κέλσου μύστης φησίν· ὅτῳ οὐδὲν ἡ ψυχὴ σύνοιδε κακόν, ἡκέτω· ὁ δὲ κατὰ τὸν Ἰησοῦν μυσταγωγῶν τῷ θεῷ τοῖς κεκαθαρμένοις τὴν ψυχὴν ἐρεῖ· ὅτῳ πολλῷ χρόνῳ ἡ ψυχὴ οὐδὲν σύνοιδε κακόν, καὶ μάλιστα ἀφ' οὗ προσελήλυθε τῇ τοῦ λόγου θεραπείᾳ, οὗτος καὶ τῶν κατ' ἰδίαν λελαλημένων ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ τοῖς γνησίοις μαθηταῖς ἀκουέτω. Οὐκοῦν καὶ ἐν οἷς ἀντιπαρατίθησι τὰ τῶν μυούντων ἐν Ἕλλησι τοῖς διδάσκουσι τὰ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ οὐκ οἶδε διαφορὰν καλουμένων ἐπὶ μὲν θεραπείαν φαύλων ἐπὶ δὲ τὰ μυστικώτερα τῶν ἤδη καθαρωτάτων.