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117who fixes the web of life for men; the second, who Weaves it; tho third, who cuis and finishes it. But in the whole race of men, because the present timo only is seen, ret hom it tho pastalso, that is, the commencement, and the future, that is, thedissolution, are inferred. For since it exista, it is evident thalat some timo it began to exist for nothing can exist Without abeginning); and baca si it had a beginning, it is evident thalit will at somo timo have an end. For that cannot, as a Whole, be immortal, whicli consista os mortals. For as Wo ali die induvidually, it is possibis that, is some calamitri ali may peristi simultaneo lyr either through tho unproductivenem os insearth, Whicli somelimes happens in particular cases; or throughthe generat spread os pestilence, Whicli osten desolates separate cities and countries; or by the conflagration of the worid, as issaid to havo happened in tho case es Phaethon ; or is a deluge, as is reported in the time os Deucalion, Wheu the wholo race Was destroyed Mith tho exception of ons man. And is this deluge happened by chance, it might assuredly have happenedthat he who Was tho only furvivor ahould peristi. But is homas roserved by the will os divine providence, as it cannot bodented, to recruit manhini it is evident that the liso and thodestruction of the human race aro in the pomer os God. Andii it is possibio for it in die altogether, becauso it dies in parta, it is evident that it had an origin at some time; and as tho liabutity to decayy bespealis a beginning, so also it gives proos of anend. Αnd it these things aro true, Aristotie mill bo unable tomaintain that the world also iusti had no boginning. But is Plato and Epicurus extort this from Aristolle, yet Plato and Aristolle, who thought stat the world Would bo evertasting, Will, notWithstanding their eloquence, be deprived of this also by Epicurus, because it follows, that as it had a beginninn, it mustalso have an end. But We Will speah of these things at greater longili in tho last book. NoW let us revert to the origin os man.
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of the stare, there existed a land of maturityy for tho produstion os animati; and thus that tho noW earth, retaining the productive seed, brought sortii os itaeis certain vesseis' astor the likeneas of Wombs, respecting Whicli Lucretius' says, Wombs greW attached to tho sarth by roota; ' and that these, When they had become mature, being rent by the compulsion os nature, produced tender animais; aster ards, that thoearth itfelt abounded with a kind os moistum .hich resembled milh, and that animais Wero supportia by this nourishment. Ηο' then, Were they able to endure or avoid the forcs of thocold or of heat, or to bo bom at nil, since tho sun Would scorchinem or tho coid contraci themi But, they say, at the be- ginning of the worid thero mas no Winter nor summer, but a perpetuat spring of an equabie temperaturo. Why, then, domo see that none of these things noW happensi Because, theysay, it Was necessary that it should oncs happen, that animaismight be born; but aster they began to exist, and the poWeros generation Was given to them, the earth ceased to bring forth, and tho condition os timo ' Was changed. Oh, hoW easyit is to relato falsehoods i In the sirst place, nothing can existin this morid Which doea not continue permanent, as it began.
nor, haVing been created, Were they Without their motions; nordid that divino governinent, Whicli manages and rules theirco ses, sati to begin iis exercise) together With them. In tho nexi place, it it is as they say, there must os necessity boa providence, and they sali into that very condition whicli thoyespecialty avoid. For Whils the animais Wem yet unbore, it is plain that somo ons providen that they should bo bom, that tho Orid might not appear gloomy' Willi maste and desolation. But, stat they might bs produced iram the earth Without theossice of parenis, provision must have been made With great judment; and in the nexi place, that the moisture condensed frem the earth might bo formed into the various figures of dies; and also that, having received hom tho vesseis With hich they Were covered the poWer of life and sensation, they
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us, ho ever, Ses Whether the circumstanes itself whieli theyassert could havo taken place, that men should bo bom fremtho earth. V any one considera during hom long a timo and in What manner an infant is reared, ho Will assuredly unde stand that those earth-born children could not possibiy havo been reared mithout somo one to bring them up. For theymust havo lain for many monilis cast forth, untii thoir sineWa ero strengthened, so that they had poWer to move themselves and to chango their place, Which can scarceb happen Withintho space of ons year. NoW ses Whether an insant could havo lain through many monilis in tho fame manner and in the fame place Where it Was cast sortii, Without dying, overWhelmedand corrupted by that moisturo of ths earth whicli it supplied for the fas of nourishment, and by the excrements of iis o n
into their mind to say this. Thereiore the wholo of that method is impossibis and vain; ii stat can bo called methodis Whicli it is attempted that there stiali bo no method. Forho who says that ali inings ars produced of their own accord, and attributes nothing to divine providence, lis assuredly domnot assert, but overthrows method. But is nothing can bo donoor produced Without design, it is plain stat there is a divino providence, to Which that whicli is called design peculiarlybelongs. Thereiam God, tho Contriver of Hl things, madoman. And even Cicero, though ignorant of the sacred wri,ings, saW this, Who in his treatise on the Lams, in the fidit boo handed doWn ths samo thing as tho propheta; and I add his
Inextricabilia, ' that cannot be digent ψω.
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man, Was produced by the supremo Deity under remarhablocircumstances; sor this alone of so many hinci and natures os animais, partahes os judgment and reflection, When ali oster animais ars destitute os them ' Do you seo that the man,
Tho sacred Writings contain statementa in the fame effeci.
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THE DIUINE INSTITUTES 121 live, has ita origin, as it mere, out of heaven hom God, thebody out of the earth, os tho dust os Which wo havo said that
ing the natum os uaings, as did Lucretius and Varro among the Romans determined that there Were laur elementi, statis, sis, air, mater, and Barth; perhaps fosso ing Trumegistus, who said that our bodies mero composed of theso four olements
in man : so that is tho foui, Which has ita origin irom God, gainatho maste , it is immortal, and lives in perpetuat light; ii, ontho other hand, tho body inali ove o or the foui, and subjectit in iis dominion, it is in overtasting darkness and death. And tha fores of this is not that it altogether annihilates' thesouis of the unrighteo , but subjecis them to evertastingpunishment.
We term that punishment tho second death, which is iuellatio perpetuat, as also is immortali . Wo thus defino thsfidit death: Death is ius dissolution of tho naturo os living
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aamuch as it mas extended to a thonsand y years. And when Varro mas nos ignorant of this, handed do- as it is in thesacred Writings, and spreta abroad by the knowledge of ali, heendeavoured to giis reasons Why the ancients Were supposedio have lived a thousand years. For lio sus that among the Egyptians monilis are accounted' as years: so that tho circuitos the sun through the twelvo signa of tho zodiac) does notmaho a year, but the moon, Whicli traverses that signinearing circle in tho space of thiru dus; Whicli argument is manifestly false. For no one then exceeded tho thousandili year. Butno they Who attain to tho hundriath year, Whicli frequentlyhappens, undoubtedly lius a thousand and two hundred monilis. And competent' authorities repori that men are accustomed tomach ono hundred and twenty years. But bemum Varro didnot know Why or When the liis of man was shortened, he himself shortened it, since hs knew that it mas possibis sor man totius a thousand and four hundred monilis.
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THE DIVINE INSTITUTES 125 dry, God, execrating the wichedness of the former ago, that thelennh of lita might not again be a cause of meditating eviis, gradually diminished tho age of man by each successise gen ration, and placed a limit at a hundred and t enly years, which it might not be permitted to exceed. But he, When ho sint fortii frem the ais, as tho sacred Writings insom us, diligently cultivaled the earin, and planted a vineyard with his
him Chanaan, and his posteri Chanaanites. This Was thofirst nation which Was ignorant of God, since ita prince and launder did not receive hom his fallier tho morship of God,
ing cursed by him; and thus he lest in his descendanis
ignorance of the divino nature. From this nation ali the nearest peoplo fio od as sto multitude increased. But the descendanis of his sather mero called HebreWs, among Whom the religion of the trus God was est -
ueneo on account of the injury received, but by the prophetio imputas ottas divine Spirit.
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the stem os their sacred mot, they establisbed for themselves attheir own discretion nem customs and institutions. But they
shelter themselves in houses on account of the quality of the atmosphere, and the heaven is not overspread With any eloudsin stat count , they observed the murses os the stare, and their obscurations,' Whilo in their frequent adorations they more
presently disclose. But ths others, Who mere scattered overtho earth, admiring the elements of the worid, Myn to Worshipthe heaven, tho sun, the earili, the sea, Without any images and templos, and offered sacrifices to them in the open air, untilin process os timo thsy erected temples and statues to the most
When, sterelare, the number of men had bemn to incream, God in His rarothought, test tho devit, in Whom hom tho b ginning m had oven poWer over the earth, should is his subtilty either corrupi or dest y men, as he had dono at fidit, sent angeis for the protection and improvement' of the human