Tag: Minucius Felix

The body will be raised just as the trees return to bloom in spring

Every body, whether it is dried up into dust, or is dissolved into moisture, or is compressed into ashes, or is attenuated into smoke, is withdrawn from us, but it is reserved for God in the custody of the elements.  Nor, as you believe, do we fear any loss from sepulture, but we adopt the ancient and better custom of burying in the earth.  See, therefore, how for our consolation all nature suggests a future resurrection.  The sun sinks down and arises, the stars pass away and return, the flowers die and revive again, after their wintry decay the shrubs resume their leaves, seeds do not flourish again. unless they are rotted: thus the body in the sepulchre is like the trees which in winter hide their verdure with a deceptive dryness.  Why are you in haste for it to revive and return, while the winter is still raw?  We must wait also for the spring-time of the body.  And I am not ignorant that many, in the consciousness of what they deserve, rather desire than believe that they shall be nothing after death; for they would prefer to be altogether extinguished, rather than to be restored for the purpose of punishment.  And their error also is enhanced, both by the liberty granted them in this life, and by God’s very great patience, whose judgment, the more tardy it is, is so much the more just.

Minucius Felix
Octavius
Chapter XXXIV

God is everywhere present and fills all things

Thou errest, O man, and art deceived; for from where is God afar off, when all things heavenly and earthly, and which are beyond this province of the universe, are known to God, are full of God?  Everywhere He is not only very near to us, but He is infused into us. Therefore once more look upon the sun:  it is fixed fast in the heaven, yet it is diffused over all lands equally; present everywhere, it is associated and mingled with all things; its brightness is never violated.  How much more God, who has made all things, and looks upon all things, from whom there can be nothing secret, is present in the darkness, is present in our thoughts, as if in the deep darkness.  Not only do we act in Him, but also, I had almost said, we live with Him.

Minucius Felix
Octavius
Chapter XXXII

The rumors spread about early Christian worship

Everywhere also there is mingled among them a certain religion of lust, and they call one another promiscuously brothers and sisters, that even a not unusual debauchery may by the intervention of that sacred name become incestuous:  it is thus that their vain and senseless superstition glories in crimes.  Nor, concerning these things, would intelligent report speak of things so great and various, and requiring to be prefaced by an apology, unless truth were at the bottom of it.  I hear that they adore the head of an ass, that basest of creatures, consecrated by I know not what silly persuasion,—a worthy and appropriate religion for such manners.  Some say that they worship the virilia of their pontiff and priest, and adore the nature, as it were, of their common parent.  I know not whether these things are false; certainly suspicion is applicable to secret and nocturnal rites; and he who explains their ceremonies by reference to a man punished by extreme suffering for his wickedness, and to the deadly wood of the cross, appropriates fitting altars for reprobate and wicked men, that they may worship what they deserve.  Now the story about the initiation of young novices is as much to be detested as it is well known.  An infant covered over with meal, that it may deceive the unwary, is placed before him who is to be stained with their rites:  this infant is slain by the young pupil, who has been urged on as if to harmless blows on the surface of the meal, with dark and secret wounds.  Thirstily—O horror!—they lick up its blood; eagerly they divide its limbs.  By this victim they are pledged together; with this consciousness of wickedness they are covenanted to mutual silence. Such sacred rites as these are more foul than any sacrileges.  And of their banqueting it is well known all men speak of it everywhere; even the speech of our Cirtensian testifies to it.  On a solemn day they assemble at the feast, with all their children, sisters, mothers, people of every sex and of every age.  There, after much feasting, when the fellowship has grown warm, and the fervour of incestuous lust has grown hot with drunkenness, a dog that has been tied to the chandelier is provoked, by throwing a small piece of offal beyond the length of a line by which he is bound, to rush and spring; and thus the conscious light being overturned and extinguished in the shameless darkness, the connections of abominable lust involve them in the uncertainty of fate.  Although not all in fact, yet in consciousness all are alike incestuous, since by the desire of all of them everything is sought for which can happen in the act of each individual.

Minucius Felix
Octavius
Chapter IX