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immortal, willed that tho sout also fhould bo overtasting. Butthe contemplation os God is the reverencs and worship of tho common Parent of mankind. And ii the philosophera meredestituis of this, and in their ignoranco os divino things pr
nothing olso than the recognition os God as a parent.
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os reason aro also found in many of them. For since theydesim things useful to themselos, guard against eviis, avoiddangere, prepare sor themselves lurhingetlaces standing open in different places With various ouileis, assuredly they havssome underetanding. Can any one deny that they are possessedos reason, since they esten deceive man himself For those
there is not in them perfeci prudence. It is theretare unce lain Whether those things Which am jum to man are commonto him With other living creatures: they are certainly Without religion. I indeed thus judge, that reason is given to allanimala, but to the dumb creatures only for the protection ofisse, to man also for ita prolongation. And b auso reasonitaeit is perfeci in man, it is named Wisdom, Which rendere mandistinguished in this respeci, that in him alone it is given to comprehend divine things. And concerning this the opinion os Cicero is uno: of so many hinds os animais,' he says, thereis none excepi man whicli has any knowledgo ot God; and
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atrates himself to the ground, and, imitating the liis of the
brutes, abdicates the ossice of man. Theratore the ignorantare more mise; for although they err in choosing religion, yetthey remember their o n nature and condition.
to explain What errore ars committod on this subjact. Godwillod this in bo the naturo ot man, that he should bo destro and eager for two things, religion and wisdom. But men are
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many gods; or they devoto themsolves to misdom, but a salso Wisdom, becauso they have pald no attention to the religion of the Supreme God, Who mi t have instructed them to thoknowledgs of tho truth. Thus men who underi e eithor of these courses solioW a devious path, and one fuit of tho greatest errore, in much as the du of man, and ali truth, aro included in these two things Which ars inseparably connected. Ι Wonder, therelare, that there mas none at ali of tho philosophers who
also to man with the Masis, and has not the force of tho honoum able, and brings a Deling of satiety, and when it is in excessis injurious, and it is tessened by advanco os age, and does notsali to tho tot of many: for they Who are Without refources, ho constituto the greater part of men, must also bo Without
breauso ita ponor and nature consist in tho enduranco os evit,
no renata, and be so unproductive as to procum no advantago
rem itasti That great labour and dissiculty and strumling
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There are many things peculiar to the foui, many peculiar in the boh, many common in both, as is Viriue ilaeis; and asosten as this is referred to tho bov, it is called fortitudo for thosaho os distinction. Since, thereiare, fortitude is connected With each, a contest is proposed to eata, and victo held forinto each hom tho contest: tho bodn becaum it is solid, and capablB of being grasped, must contend With objecta Whicli are solid and can be Masped; but the wul, on the other hand, b
Uabis to fas, periis te.' Aeeording to St. Paul, man eo ista es thres paris body, mul, andapisit. Lactantiva appeam to uae ine mora Mia in the mmo aenae in Whichtho Scripturis speis es viri
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causo it is stight y and subue, and invisibis, contends With stom
lis preservation iram destruction, so the mul obtaina a continuation os ita existenco; and as tho body, When overcome istis enemies, suffers death, so the foui, When ovorpοWered by
vices, must die. What differenco, therosoro, mill there bo M- tWeen tho contest carried on by the foui and that in ed on by the bo , excepi that the body seeis for temporal, but tho muloternat lita Is, theres o, viriue is not hapy is iraeis, sincolis Wholo forco consista, as I havs said, in tho enduring ofoviis; is it neglecta ali inings Which aro destred as goods; itin iis hi est condition it is exposed to deast, in much as it
sopher, Who Was the founder of the system of the Megareans, differing hom tho othere, say that that Was ins chiet good which was uno ing and alWays the fame. m certainlyunderetood What is the naturo of ths chiet good, although hodid not explain in What it consisted; but it consista os immo talitri nor mything elso at as, in much as it Mons is incapillo
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scio ly happened to conseas that thero is no other re aes of virtus than immortali . For in pressing virtus in tho treatissmhich ho moto on ius subject of premature death, ho mys: Virtus is tho oesy thing Which can conser Mon us immo
sors, is no they say, to bo fought On iis oWn account, buton account of a happy lue, Which necessarily follows virtus. And this argument might have taught them in What tho chios Mod consisted. But this present and corporeia lito cannot behapta, because it is subjected in evila through tho bo . Epicurus calis God happy and incorruptibis, becaum m iaevertasting. For a state of happineas ought to bs perfeci, sothat iners may be nothing Which can haras' or tessen, or Gangeit. Nor can anything bo judged happy in other respecti, unlessit bo incorruptibio. But nothing is incorruptibia but that
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never mould have been any one Who Would despise this lite, honever inori it is, or undergo death, untem through ths hopsos a longer ilia. For those Who voluntarily offered themselvesto death for the in ty of theis munirmen, as Menoeceus didat Thebes, Codrus at Athens, Curtius and tho tWo Mures at me, Would nover have preferred death in tho advantages ostile, uniem they had thought that they should attain to immo tali throno the estimation of their counumen; and althoughthey mers ignorant of the liso os immortalitri yet tho realityitsoli did not escapo their nolics. For is viriue despises opulence and riches because they are traii, and plemures becausethey aro os briet continuance, it thereiare despises a liso .hichis finii and bries, that it may obtain ono which is substantialand lasting. Therefore reflection iraeis, advancing is regularorder, and Weighing everything, leads us to that excellent anilsurpassing good, on account os Which wo aro bom. And is
would undoubtedly have arrived at this truth, as I havo latelyshown. And it this mas not the part of those Who extinguishtho heavenly fovis together With tho body, yet inoso Who di cum the immortali of tho Qui ought to havo underatota that virtus is set besore us on this account, that, lusis having been subduod, and tho destre os earthly things overcome, our muls, pure and victorious, may retum to God, that is, to their originalsource. For it is on thia account that me Mons os livingcreatures are mised to the sight of the heaven, that κε may bellovo that our chiet good is in the highest place. Theredire κε alone receive religion, that me may know hom this fourco
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ths enticements of pleas es, and giving o selves to the se vice of virtuo onin me livo in ali labours and miseries, whicharo sto means os exercising and strengthening virtus; is, in ishori, - heep to that rugged and dissiculi path whieli has besnopened for us to happineas. The clites Mod therofore whichmatas men hapy cannot exist, uniem it bo in that religion and doctrine to vhich is annexed the hopo os immortali . CHAP. XIII.- of the immortali of the foui, and of inadom, philoaophy, and eloquenoe. The subjeci seems to require in this place, stat since Wo havstaught that immortaliu is ins chisi good, We should provo inisatio, that tho sout is immortal. On which subjeet thero is great disputation among philosophera; nor havs Qv .ho holdtruo opiniona respecting the foui been able to explain or prove
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method os speining ars contained. Divine learning does notatand in nred of this, because the seat os Wisdom is not thotongue, but tho heari; and it mahas no dissereneo What hindos language yοu employ, sor ins question is not about wotas but facta. And ws are not disputing about the grammarianor the orator, Whom isoni ge is concerned With tho propermanner os speiaing, but a ut the Wiso man, Whose learningis concernin With tho right manner of living. But is that system os natural philosophy before mentioned is not necessarn
happy, it remains that the whole force of philosophy is contained in tho ethical part alone, to Whicli Socrates is said tohavs applied himself, laying aside the ostera. And since Ιhavs inoWn that philosophere erred in this part also, Whο didnot grasp the chiei good, for the salie of gaining vhich Woare bom; it appears that philosophy is altogether falso indemptri since it does not prepare us for tho duties of justice, nor strengthen ilis obligations and fetuod courso of man's liso. Let them know, therefore, that they are in error Who imagine
authori of any ono; but raster let them incline to tho truth, and approach it. Τhere is no mom for rashness here; me must Enduro the punishment of our folly to ali elemi , ismo shali bo deceived sither by an empty character or a false opinion. But man, such as he is, ii ho trusis in himself, thatis, is hs trusis in man, is *οt D say foesisti, in that ho does not seo his oWn error) undoubi ly arrogant, in venturing toesiam for himself that which tho condition ot man does notadmit os. d hoπ much that greatest author of the Roman language
Thero is a memorabio Mory related by eccleaisaucia historiana, a ut a Very cloer disputant, Whoae sophistriea covid not M a vered by his fessoW-disputanta, but vho mas completely sile ed by the simple ans ereos a Christian othemiso uisno n. men queationed a ut his auddenailance, ine sophist replied that othera ocha in morda tor morda, but thatthia simpla Christian tought With virine.' There Mema to bo a referance to a passage Ol Terenee, in viain tha