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Here, then, is this Roman republic, "which has changed little by
little from the fair and virtuous city it was, and has become utterly
wicked and dissolute." It is not I who am the first to say this,
but their own authors, from whom we learned it for a fee, and who
wrote it long before the coming of Christ. You see how, before the
coming of Christ, and after the destruction of Carthage, "the
primitive manners, instead of undergoing insensible alteration, as
hitherto they had done, were swept away as by a torrent; and how
depraved by luxury and avarice the youth were." Let them now, on
their part, read to us any laws given by their gods to the Roman
people, and directed against luxury and avarice. And would that they
had only been silent on the subjects of chastity and modesty, and had
not demanded from the people indecent and shameful practices, to which
they lent a pernicious patronage by their so-called divinity. Let
them read our commandments in the Prophets, Gospels, Acts of the
Apostles or Epistles; let them peruse the large number of precepts
against avarice and luxury which are everywhere read to the
congregations that meet for this purpose, and which strike the ear,
not with the uncertain sound of a philosophical discussion, but with
the thunder of God's own oracle pealing from the clouds. And yet
they do not impute to their gods the luxury and avarice, the cruel and
dissolute manners, that had rendered the republic utterly wicked and
corrupt, even before the coming of Christ; but whatever affliction
their pride and effeminacy have exposed them to in these latter days,
they furiously impute to our religion. If the kings of the earth and
all their subjects, if all princes and judges of the earth, if young
men and maidens, old and young, every age, and both sexes; if they
whom the Baptist addressed, the publicans and the soldiers, were all
together to hearken to and observe the precepts of the Christian
religion regarding a just and virtuous life, then should the republic
adorn the whole earth with its own felicity, and attain in life
everlasting to the pinnacle of kingly glory. But because this man
listens and that man scoffs, and most are enamored of the blandishments
of vice rather than the wholesome severity of virtue, the people of
Christ, whatever be their condition, whether they be kings,
princes, judges, soldiers, or provincials, rich or poor, bond or
free, male or female, are enjoined to endure this earthly republic,
wicked and dissolute as it is, that so they may by this endurance win
for themselves an eminent place in that most holy and august assembly of
angels and republic of heaven, in which the will of God is the law.
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