A Plea for the Christians 34

But such people (how shall I speak of things unspeakable?) make us hear the proverb, “The harlot reproaches the chaste woman.” They have set up a market for prostitution and established lawless haunts for the young, for every kind of shameful pleasure, and they do not spare even males: males with males commit shocking deeds, outraging in every way all the noblest and most comely bodies, and dishonoring the beautiful work of God (for beauty on earth is not self-made, but sent by the hand and will of God). These people, who know what they themselves do, and ascribe the same things to their own gods, boasting of them as noble and worthy of the gods, revile us for these very things: adulterers and pederasts insult the celibate and the once-married. They live like fish, which swallow whatever falls in their way, the stronger chasing the weaker. This is what it is to feed on human flesh: to do violence, against the very laws that you and your ancestors laid down after examining them for all justice, to such a degree that not even the provincial governors you send out are enough to try the cases, and to do it to people who are not allowed, when struck, to refuse to offer themselves, nor, when reviled, to refuse to bless. For it is not enough for us to be just (justice is to return like for like); we are required to be good and to bear wrong patiently.