Chapter LXI.
From these remarks it is evident, that when Jesus
said “coarsely,” as Celsus terms it, “To him who
shall strike thee on the one cheek, turn the other also; and if any man
be minded to sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have
thy cloak also,” He expressed
Himself in such a way as to make the precept have more practical effect
than the words of Plato in the Crito; for the latter is so far
from being intelligible to ordinary persons, that even those have a
difficulty in understanding him, who have been brought up in the
schools of learning, and have been initiated into the famous philosophy
of Greece. It may also be observed, that the precept enjoining
patience under injuries is in no way corrupted or degraded by the plain
and simple language which our Lord employs, but that in this, as in
other cases, it is a mere calumny against our religion which he utters
when he says: “But let this suffice as one example of the
way in which this and other truths have been borrowed and
corrupted. Any one who wishes can easily by searching find more
of them.”