Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Origen/Origen Against Celsus/Book VII/Chapter L

Chapter L.

Celsus has not explained how error accompanies the &#8220;becoming,&#8221; or product of generation; nor has he expressed himself with sufficient clearness to enable us to compare his ideas with ours, and to pass judgment on them.&#160; But the prophets, who have given some wise suggestions on the subject of things produced by generation, tell us that a sacrifice for sin was offered even for new-born infants, as not being free from sin. &#160; They say, &#8220;I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me;&#8221; also, &#8220;They are estranged from the womb;&#8221; which is followed by the singular expression, &#8220;They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.&#8221; &#160; Besides, our wise men have such a contempt for all sensible objects, that sometimes they speak of all material things as vanity:&#160; thus, &#8220;For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him that subjected the same in hope;&#8221; at other times as vanity of vanities, &#8220;Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, all is vanity.&#8221; &#160; Who has given so severe an estimate of the life of the human soul here on earth, as he who says:&#160; &#8220;Verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity?&#8221; &#160; He does not hesitate at all as to the difference between the present life of the soul and that which it is to lead hereafter.&#160; He does not say, &#8220;Who knows if to die is not to live, and if to live is not death&#8221; &#160; But he boldly proclaims the truth, and says, &#8220;Our soul is bowed down to the dust;&#8221; and, &#8220;Thou hast brought me into the dust of death;&#8221; and similarly, &#8220;Who will deliver me from the body of this death?&#8221; also, &#8220;Who will change the body of our humiliation.&#8221; &#160; It is a prophet also who says, &#8220;Thou hast brought us down in a place of affliction;&#8221; meaning by the &#8220;place of affliction&#8221; this earthly region, to which Adam, that is to say, man, came after he was driven out of paradise for sin.&#160; Observe also how well the different life of the soul here and hereafter has been recognised by him who says, &#8220;Now we see in a glass, obscurely, but then face to face;&#8221; and, &#8220;Whilst we are in our home in the body, we are away from our home in the Lord;&#8221; wherefore &#8220;we are well content to go from our home in the body, and to come to our home with the Lord.&#8221;