Against Celsus 4.61

He says also: “Nothing born of matter is immortal.” To this it will be said that if nothing born of matter is immortal, either the whole world is immortal and not as born of matter, or it too is not an immortal thing. If, then, the world is immortal, as is held even by those who said that only the soul is the work of God and say that it came from a certain mixing bowl, let Celsus show that it did not come from matter without qualities, if he keeps to “nothing born of matter is immortal.” But if, since the world is born of matter, it is not immortal, the world is mortal: is it then also perishing, or not? If perishing, it will perish as the work of God; then, in the perishing of the world, what will the soul, the work of God, do? Let Celsus say. But if, twisting the notion of the immortal, he says that it is immortal in the sense of being perishable but not perishing, as capable of death but not actually dying, clearly there will be something, according to him, both mortal and immortal at once, by being capable of both; and it will be a mortal thing that does not die, and what is not immortal by nature will be called immortal in a special sense because it does not die. In what distinct sense, then, will he say, “Nothing born of matter is immortal”? You see that the thoughts in his writings, when pressed and examined, are refuted, not admitting what is noble and incontestable. Having said these things, he adds: “On this subject so much is enough; and if anyone is able to hear and inquire further, he will know.” Let us then, whom he considers foolish, see what has followed from our being able to hear him and inquire even a little.