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Cyprian
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Introductory Notice to Cyprian.
[4813] [Here Cyprian sums up, and gives the sentence of the council, after the example of St. James, who presided in the Council of Jerusalem,Acts xv. 13, 19.]
[4814] See p. 522, sec. 16, supra. All this interprets the Petra, not “Petrus.”
[4815] [A strong testimony in its favour. It is quite possible that the less worthy portions are corrupt interpolations.]
[4816] [See Ben Jonson, Volpone, Ep. Dedicatory.]
[4817] Obviously imitating Tertullian’s treatise De Spectaculis. [See vol. iii. p. 79.]
[4818] He then prosecutes the subject, by going through the several kinds of public exhibitions, and sets forth, a little more diffusely than in the Epistle to Donatus, what risks are incurred by the spectators, and especially in respect of those exhibitions wherein, as he says, “representations of lust convey instruction in obscenity.” Finally, he briefly enumerates such exhibitions as are worthy of the interest of a Christian man, and in which he ought rightfully to find pleasure. [For Epistle to Donatus, see p. 275, supra.]
[4819] “In sacramento.”
[4820] Elucidation I.
[4821] “Nabla.”
[4822] [In Edin. trans. needlessly “the writings of the Scriptures.”]
[4823] “Cum persona professionis suæ loquatur.”
[4824] Baluzius reads with less probability “indecorum,” “anything unbecoming.” The reading adopted in the text is, according to Fell, “inde eorum.”
[4825] Vid. Ovid’s Fasti, lib. v.
[4826] The Oxford text here has the reading, “Why does he speak of it? why does he,” etc.
[4827] [It is painful to recognise, in the general licence of the press in our country, this very feature of a corrupt civilization,—a delight in scandal, and in the invasion of homes and private affairs, for the gratification of the popular appetite.]
[4828] [Compare Clement, vol. ii. p. 248, note 5, and p. 249, notes 2, 11.]
[4829] [This touches a point important to the modern question. It is said, “Oh! but these Fathers denounced only those heathen spectacles of which idolatry was part,” etc. The reply is sufficiently made by our author.]
[4830] There is much confusion in the reading of this passage, which in the original runs, according to Baluzius: “Nam cum mens hominis ad vitia ipsa ducatur, quid faciet, si habuerit exempla naturæ corporis lubrica quæ sparta corruit? Quid faciet si fuerit impulsa?”
[4831] [Compare Clement, vol. ii. p. 256, and note 1.]
[4832] [De Maistre, who is a Christian, with all his hereditary prejudice and enslavement, has a fine passage in the opening of his Soirées de St. Pétersbourg, which the reader will enjoy. It concludes with this saying: “Les cœurs pervers n’ont jamais de belles nuits ni de beaux jours.” P. 7. vol. i. See vol. iv. p. 173, this series.]
[4833] [Always the sacred Scriptures are held up as capable of yielding delight as well as profit to the believer. The works of God and His word go together. Col. iii. 16.]
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