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and dreams, and auguries, and oracles. And, inde , many Wondersul things may be enumeraled, and especialty this, that
Accius Navius, a consummate augur, When he was Warning Tarquinius Priscus to undertino the commencement os nothingnem without tho previous sanction os auguries, and tho hing, 'detracting hom' the credit due to his ari, tolli bim to consultthe birds, and then to announce to him Whether it Was possibie for that whicli ho himsoli had conceived in his mind to boaccomptished, and Navius Marmed that it Was possibis; then
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as an example os a miracle. For When, in accordanco mitti tho
Claudia, Who had been alWays regarded as unchasis on account of her excess in personat adorament, With bended knees en-
the strong men,' Was moved by a single Woman. It is equallywonderivi, that during the prevalence of a pestilence, Esculapius, being called hom Epidaurus, is sald to havs Disased thoci of Rome from the long-continued plague. Sacrilegious persons can also be mentioned, by the immediato punishment of Whom tho gods ars belleved to have avonged thoinjury done to them. Appius Claudius the censor haring, against
the advico of the oracle, transferred the sacred rites os Herculesto tho public claves,' Was deprived of his vesight; and the
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or ons year becamo extinct. Lihewiso tho censor Fulvius, When he had tahen away tho marbis tiles fram the templΘ of tho Lacinian Juno, to coor the templo of the equestrian Fortuna, mhich ho had bulli at Romo, mas deprived of his senses, and having lost his ino sons Who mere serving in Illyricum, Was consumed With ins greatest griet of mind. Turullius also, tho lieutonant of Μarh Antony, When lis had cutdown a grove of Esculapius in Cos,' and bulli a fleet, WasasterWarda flain at the fame placo by the soldiers of Caesar. To theso examples is added Pyrrhus, Who, haring taken aWay money hom the troasuro of the Locrian Proserpine, Was ahip-Wreched, and dashed against the. shores near to the temple of the goddess, so that nothing Was found uninjured excepi that money. Ceres of Miletus also gained for herseit great Vener
of the gods. For it is said that Iupiter presented himself to Tiberius Atinius, a plebeian, in his fleep, and enjoined him toannounco to the consula and senate, that in tho last circonstan 'games a public dancer had displeased him, because a certain Antonius Maximus had severeb scourged a flave under thes caρ in tho middie of the circus, and had ted him to punishment, and that on this account tho games ought to bo repeated. And when he had neglected this command, ho is said on thesamo day to have lost his son, and is havo been himseli seigedis a severe disease; and that When iis again perceived thesams imago ashing Whether lio had sinered sussicient punishment for the neglect oi his commani ho mas carriod on a litter
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to tho consuis; and haring explained tho wholo mattor in tho senate, ho regianed strengili os body, and roturned to his houso on foot. Αnd that dream Hso Was not less Wondersul, to Whichit is said that Augustus Caesar omed his preservation. Forwhen in the civit War With Brutus he was amicted With a severo disease, and had determined in abstain from batile, tho imageos Minerva presented itself to his physician Artorius, advisinghim that Caesar should not confine himself to tho camp on account of his bodily infirmi . He mas sterelam carried ona litter to tho army, and on the fame day the camp Was talienis Brutus. Many Other examples ot a similar nature may be
Ι .ill there oro set sortii the method os est theso things, that dissiculi and obscuro subjecis may be more eastly understood; and I mill bring to light ali theso deceptions y of the pretendeddelty, ted by Whicli men havo departed very far Dom the wayos truth. But Ι mill retraco tho matter far bach from iis sonrce; that is any, unaequainted With tho truth and ignorant,
instructed, and may underetand What can in truth bo thosourco and origin of theso eviis and having received light, may
porceivo his own errore and those of the whole human race.
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most ali his other disputations and books Was a maintainer of tho divino providence, and who used verγ acute argumenta in assailing thoso Who dented the existence of a providence, no himself, as a uiator or deserter, endemoured to tino aWayprovidence; in Whose case, is you Wish to oppose ' him, netther consideration nor labour is required: it is only necessary to
himself. But let us maho this concession to the custom and practico of the Academics,' that men ars permitted to spe vitii great Ireedom, and to enteriain What sentimenta they may
Wish. Let us examino the sentimenta themselves. It is not
iu need of it, it He can construct nothing unless He is furnishod with materials by another. But it this is tho case, it is pia in that His power is imperfeci, and he who prepared tho materiai must be judged more poWersul. ' What name, the fore, inali ho be called who exeois God in poWer' ince it is
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Without any one to produce it 3 Ιi it had sores, it took that
λ Providentia. Sibi illam dedit.' mers is another reading, illa sibi illam dedit, but it cloes not ove so good a Sense. R A proverbial expression, signisying in get out es one dissimisy bygetling into another.' The passage in the tot is a quotation hom Terence,
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matter Was never made, lihe God, who out os matter madestis Worid. In that case, it solioWs that tWo eternat principies ars est lished, and those indeed opposed to one another, which cannot happen mithout discord and destruction. Forthose things Which have a contra force and method must of necessi come into collision. In this mariner it will bo impossibio that both should bo eternat, is they aro opposed to oneanother, because one must overpoWer the other. Theresorotho naturo of that which is eternat cannot be other ise than simple, so that est things descended from that fource as froma fountain. Therelare either God proceeded from matter, or matter hom God. Whicli of theso is more true, is eastly underat d. For os these two, one is endued mitti sensibili , tho other is insensibie. The poWer of mahing anythingcannot exist, excepi in that Which has sensibility, intelligence, reflection, and the poWer of motion. Νοr can anything bo
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that fource Where there is no voluntary motion. For it every animal is possessed ot reason, it is certain stat it cannot boproduced frem that whicli is destituto os reason, nor can that which is not present in the original source bo received immany other quarter. Nor, however, let it disturb any one, that certain animais appear to be born from the earth. For tho
not arisa hom matter, becauso a being endued mitti sensibili can never spring srom one that is insensibie, a Wiso one homone that is irrationes, ono that is incapable of suffering immone that can suffer, an incorporeal being hom a corporeat One; but mattor is rather trem God. For Whatever consista ot abody solid, and capabis of being handled, admits of an externaliarce. That whicli admits of forco is capable ot dissolution;
that which is dissolved perishes; that Whicli perishes must necessarily havs had an origin; that Whieli had an Origin hada fource ' hom Whicli it originaled, that is, some mulier, Whois intelligent, fores ing, and shilled in mahing. Thero is one
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Destruitur,' pulled to jeces. The mord is thus used by Cicero. Ch. iii. and Vii. R Lactantius seema to reser nos to sis trus propheta, but to thoso otother nations, auis as Orpheus and Zoroaster, or the magi of the Persiana, the gymnosophista of the Indiana, or the Druida of tho Gaula. St. ΛΜ -