Chapter LXI.

Not to participation in mysteries, then, and to fellowship in the wisdom hidden in a mystery, which God ordained before the world to the glory of His saints,547    Cf. 1 Cor. ii. 7. do we invite the wicked man, and the thief, and the housebreaker, and the poisoner, and the committer of sacrilege, and the plunderer of the dead, and all those others whom Celsus may enumerate in his exaggerating style, but such as these we invite to be healed.  For there are in the divinity of the word some helps towards the cure of those who are sick, respecting which the word says, “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick;”548    Matt. ix. 12. others, again, which to the pure in soul and body exhibit “the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest by the Scriptures of the prophets,”549    Rom. xvi. 25, 26. and “by the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,”550    Cf. 2 Tim. i. 10. which “appearing” is manifested to each one of those who are perfect, and which enlightens the reason551    τὸ ἡγεμονικόν. in the true552    ἀψευδῆ. knowledge of things.  But as he exaggerates the charges against us, adding, after his list of those vile individuals whom he has mentioned, this remark, “What other persons would a robber summon to himself by proclamation?” we answer such a question by saying that a robber summons around him individuals of such a character, in order to make use of their villainy against the men whom they desire to slay and plunder.  A Christian, on the other hand, even though he invite those whom the robber invites, invites them to a very different vocation, viz., to bind up these wounds by His word, and to apply to the soul, festering amid evils, the drugs obtained from the word, and which are analogous to the wine and oil, and plasters, and other healing appliances which belong to the art of medicine.

Οὐκ ἐπὶ μυστήρια οὖν καὶ κοινωνίαν σοφίας "ἐν μυστηρίῳ" ἀποκεκρυμμένης, "ἣν προώρισεν ὁ θεὸς πρὸ τῶν αἰώνων εἰς δόξαν" τῶν δικαίων ἑαυτοῦ, καλοῦμεν τὸν ἄδικον καὶ κλέπτην καὶ τοιχωρύχον καὶ φαρμακέα καὶ ἱερόσυλον καὶ τυμβωρύχον καὶ ὅσους ἂν ἄλλους δεινοποιῶν ὁ Κέλσος ὀνομάσαι, ἀλλ' ἐπὶ θεραπείαν. Ἔστι γὰρ ἐν τῇ τοῦ λόγου θειότητι ἄλλα μὲν τὰ θεραπευτικὰ τῶν "κακῶς" ἐχόντων βοηθήματα, περὶ ὧν εἶπεν ὁ λόγος τό· "Οὐ χρείαν ἔχουσιν οἱ ἰσχύοντες ἰατροῦ ἀλλ' οἱ κακῶς ἔχοντες", ἄλλα δὲ τὰ τοῖς καθαροῖς ψυχὴν καὶ σῶμα παραδεικνύντα "ἀποκάλυψιν μυστηρίου, χρόνοις αἰωνίοις σεσιγημένου φανερωθέντος δὲ νῦν διά τε γραφῶν προφητικῶν" καὶ "τῆς ἐπιφανείας τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ", ἑκάστῳ τῶν τελείων ἐπιφαινομένης καὶ φωτιζούσης εἰς ἀψευδῆ γνῶσιν τῶν πραγμάτων τὸ ἡγεμονικόν. Ἐπεὶ δὲ δεινοποιῶν τὰ καθ' ἡμῶν ἐγκλήματα ἐπιφέρει οἷς ὠνόμασεν ἀνθρώποις μιαρωτάτοις τὸ τίνας [ἂν] ἄλλους προκηρύττων λῃστὴς ἐκάλεσε; Καὶ πρὸς τοῦτο φήσομεν ὅτι λῃστὴς μὲν τοὺς τοιούτους καλεῖ, χρώμενος αὐτῶν τῇ πονηρίᾳ κατ' ἀνθρώπων, οὓς φονεύειν καὶ συλᾶν βούλεται· Χριστιανὸς δὲ κἂν καλῇ οὓς ὁ λῃστὴς καλεῖ, διάφορον κλῆσιν αὐτοὺς καλεῖ, ἵν' αὐτῶν καταδήσῃ "τὰ τραύματα" τῷ λόγῳ καὶ ἐπιχέῃ τῇ φλεγμαινούσῃ ἐν κακοῖς ψυχῇ τὰ ἀπὸ τοῦ λόγου φάρμακα, ἀνάλογον οἴνῳ καὶ ἐλαίῳ καὶ μαλάγματι καὶ τοῖς λοιποῖς ἀπὸ ἰατρικῆς ψυχῆς βοηθήμασιν.