Chapter XLIX.

What I have now said, then, is offered not for the purpose of cavilling with any right opinions or sound doctrines held even by Greeks, but with the desire of showing that the same things, and indeed much better and diviner things than these, have been said by those divine men, the prophets of God and the apostles of Jesus.  These truths are fully investigated by all who wish to attain a perfect knowledge of Christianity, and who know that “the mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment; the law of his God is in his heart.”1720    Ps. xxxvii. 30, 31.  But even in regard to those who, either from deficiency or knowledge or want of inclination, or from not having Jesus to lead them to a rational view of religion, have not gone into these deep questions, we find that they believe in the Most High God, and in His Only-begotten Son, the Word and God, and that they often exhibit in their character a high degree of gravity, of purity, and integrity; while those who call themselves wise have despised these virtues, and have wallowed in the filth of sodomy, in lawless lust, “men with men working that which is unseemly.”1721    Rom. i. 27.

Ταῦτα δὴ λέλεκταί μοι οὐ προσφιλονεικοῦντι μὲν τοῖς καλῶς καὶ παρ' Ἕλλησι νενοημένοις οὐδὲ κατηγοροῦντι τῶν ὑγιῶν δογμάτων βουλομένῳ δὲ παραστῆσαι ὅτι καὶ ταῦτα ἀλλὰ καὶ τούτων ἔτι μείζονα καὶ θειότερα λέλεκται μὲν παρὰ τοῖς θείοις ἀνδράσι, προφήταις τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ἀποστόλοις τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, ἐξετάζεται δὲ παρὰ τοῖς τελειότερον χριστιανίζειν ἐθέλουσι καὶ ἐπισταμένοις ὅτι "Στόμα δικαίου μελετήσει σοφίαν, καὶ ἡ γλῶσσα αὐτοῦ λαλήσει κρίσιν· ὁ νόμος τοῦ θεοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐν καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ." Ἀλλὰ καὶ παρ' οἷς εἴτε διὰ πολλὴν ἰδιωτείαν εἴτε δι' ἁπλότητα εἴτε καὶ δι' ἀπορίαν τῶν προτρεψάντων ἐπὶ τὴν λογικὴν εὐσέβειαν ταῦτα μὲν οὐ τετράνωται θεὸς δὲ ὁ ἐπὶ πᾶσι πιστεύεται καὶ ὁ τούτου "μονογενὴς υἱὸς" λόγος καὶ θεός, εὑρεθείη ἄν [τι] σεμνό τητος καὶ καθαρότητος καὶ ἤθους ἀφέλεια καὶ ἁπλότης πολλάκις κρείττων, ἣν οἱ "φάσκοντες εἶναι σοφοὶ" μὴ ἀνειληφότες ἐγκαλινδοῦνται μετὰ παίδων ἐν οἷς οὐ θέμις, "ἄρρενες ἐν ἄρρεσι τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην κατεργαζόμενοι".