Complete Works of Cyprian

to instruct you briefly, not to instruct you now, but to admonish those
already instructed, lest the wounds of health, because they are poorly
bound, break through the scar. For no evil is more difficult to extinguish
than that which has easy returns, while it is asserted by the consensus of
the multitude and excused by blandishment.
2 It is not shameful, I say, it is not shameful for faithful men and those
5 claiming for themselves the authority of the Christian name to defend the
vain superstitions of the Gentiles mixed with spectacles by citing the
heavenly scriptures and to confer divine authority upon idolatry. For when
that which is done by the heathens in honor of some idol is frequented by
faithful Christians, both Gentile idolatry is asserted and true and divine
10 religion is trampled for the insult of God. Shame holds me back from
reporting their arguments and patronages in this cause. "Where," they say,
"are these things written, where are they forbidden? Otherwise, Elias was
the charioteer of Israel, and David himself danced before the Ark. We read
of harps, citharas, cymbals, pipes, lutes, and choirs. The Apostle also,
15 when struggling, proposes the boxing match and the contest of our wrestling
against the spiritual forces of wickedness. Again, when he takes examples
from the stadium, he also sets out crowns as rewards. Why, therefore, should
it not be permitted for a faithful Christian man to watch what it was
permitted for divine literature to write?" In this place, I would not
20 unjustly say that it would have been far better for these people to have
known no letters than to read letters in such a way. For the words and
examples which have been placed there for the exhortation of evangelical
virtue are transferred to the patronage of vices, since they were written
not so that they might be watched...