장음표시 사용
481쪽
cause the perception of the body fatis, the sensibility os thesout is extinguished and perishes. For it is not the foui thalbecomes sensetess When tho body fatis, but it is the body .hieli
draWs ali sensibility With it. But since tho sout is ita presencogives sensibility to tho body, and causes it to live, it is impossibio that it aliould not live and perceivo by itaeis, sinco it is initself both consciousneas and lite. For as to that Whicli sus, But it our mind woro immortat, it would not when dyingcomplain so much of ita dissolution as it Would rdoice in passing abroad and quitiing ita vesture like a snahe, I noversam any ono Who complained of his dissolution in death; but hoperhaps had seen soms Epicurean philosophiaing even in death, and with his latest breath discoursing about his dissolution. HOW ean it bo known whether he seela that he is in a stato os dissolution, or that he is being set freo fram tho body, When his longus grons dumb at his departure 3 For as long as hoperceives and has the poWer of speech, he is not yet dissolvod;whon lis has suffered dissolution, he is non unablo either toperceive or to Ueah, so that either he is not yet able to complain of his dissolution, or he is no longer abie. But, it is frid, lis underetands besore ho undergoes dissolution, that ho mustundergo it. Why should I mention that we με many of thedying, not complaining that they are undergoing dissolution, buttestibing that they ars passing out, and setting forin on their
482쪽
, abis, they express it also by their voice. Fromovidoni stat it is not a dissolution which tahes place,
ration; and this aho a that the foui continues toer arguments of the Epicurean system are opposed to Pythagoras, Who contenda that fouis migrate trom dies Wom out With. old age and death, and gain admission into those hich aro neW and recently bom; and that the fame fouis arealWays reproduced at ono time in a man, at another time in ash p, at another in a mild borat, at another in a bird; and thatthey are immortal on this account, because they osten changetheir abodes, consisting of various and dissimilis hodies. Andinis opinion os a sensetem man, since it is ridiculous and mora mortiis of a stag player than os a school of philosophy, ought noteven to have been resuted seriously; sor he who does this ain ars to bo afraid test any ons aliould belleus it. Therosoro me must pras by those things Which havo been discussed in bellatios falsehood against falsehood ; it is suffcient to have refutedinose things which havo been discussed against tho truth.
Ι havs made it evident, as I thinh, that tho sout is not subjectio dissolution. It romains stat Ι bring sor ard witnesses by Whose authoriu my arguments may bo confirmed. And Ι millnot noW allego sto testimony of the propheta, Whose system and divination consist in this alono, tho teaching that man was created for the worship of God, and for receiving immortali frem Him; but Ι mill rather bring torward thoso whom theywho rojoci the truth cannot but belleve. Hermes, describing the nature of man, that he might show hom ho mas made is God, introducia this statoment: -Αnd the fame out of two natures-tho immortal and the mortal-made one nature, thatos man, maring the fame partly immortal, and parily mortal; and bringing this, he placed it in the midst, betWeen that nature Which was divine and immortal, and that which was mortes and changeabie, that Meing est things, ho may admire ali inings. But some one may perhaps rechon him in the number of thophilosophors, although he has been placed among the god' and
483쪽
honoured by the Egyptians under tho name os Mercurn and may give no mors authoesty to him than to Plato or Pythagoras. Let ua thereiam feeh for greater tofumony. A certain Polites hed Apollo os Miletus whether the foui remians aster deathor goes to dissolution; and he replied in these verses: As longas tho sout is bound by fetters to the bo , perceiving co ruptibio sufferings, it yields to mortal pains; but When, after the wasting of the body, it has found a very amisi dissolution os mortali , it is altogether borne into the air, never gro ing old,
os God made this disposition.' What do tho Sibyllino poems say Do they not declare stat this is so, When they say thattho timo Wili como when God mill judgo the living and thodead' - whoso authority Wo Will hereaster bring tomata. There re the opinion enteriained by Democritus, and Epicurus, and Dicaearchus concerning the dissolution of tho sout is falso; and they Would not Venture to speah concerning the d struction os fouis, in the presence of any magician, Who kne that fouis ars called forth Dom the lower regions by cortain incantations, and that they aro at hand, and afford themselves tobe seen by human eyes, and speis, and foreteli futuro evenis;
and is thoy should thus venture, they Would bo ove o eredis ths faci ilaeis, and by proosa presented to thom. But b causo they did not comprehend tho naturo A the foui, Whichis so subito that it escapes the eyes of the human mind, theysaid that it perishes. What of Aristoxenus, Who doniod that there is any sout at all, oven Whilo it lives in ius bo But ason ths lyre harmonious Mund, and the strain Whicli musicians cali harmony, is produced by the tightening of the strings, solis thought that tho po er os perception existed in bodies homthe joining together of the vitais, and from the V our of thesimbs; than whicli nothing can bo said more sensetess. Trulyhe had his eyes uninjured, but his heari mas blind, mitti
.hieli ho did not sos that ho lived, and had tho miud by whichhe had conceived that very thought. But this has happened tomany philosophere, that they did not belleus in tho existones of any object Which is not apparent to the ves; Whemas the stolos tho mind ought to bo much clearer than stat of tho boh, for perceiving those things the torco and nature of Which are
484쪽
CHAP. XIV.-of the μοι and last times of the trorid. Since me have spolien of tho immortality of the foui, it sol-lows that Wo teacti hoW and when it is given to man; that in thisalso they may seo the errore of their perverseneas and solly, Who imagine that somo mortals have come gods by the decrees and dogmas of morinis; either because they had invented aris, orbecauso they had taught tho uso os certain productions of the earin, or because they had discovered things usesul for the lissos men, or because they had sta in savage Masis. How sartheso things mero from deseruing immortaliu me have both shown in tho former books, and we mill non stion, stat it maybs evident that it is righteousness alone Which procures for manetornat lis' and that it is God Mone who bestoma tho re ard os eternat lila. For they who ars said to havo been immortaliae l
mortali , but deast by their sins and lusis; nor did they deservo the re ard of heaven, but the punishment of heli, which impenda Mer them, together With ait their Worshippers. Αnd Iaho. that the timo of this judment draWa near, that the duereWard may bo oven to the righteous, and the deserved punishment may bo inflicted on the wiched. Plato and many others of the philosophera, since thv Were ignorant of the origin os ali things, and of that primat period atmhich tho worid mas made, said that many thousands os agestiad passed since this beauti sui arrangement of the world was completed; and in this they perhaps solioned tho Chaldeans, who, as Cicero has related in his fini book respecting divination, seolishly say that thsy possess comprised in their memorials 470,000 years; in Whicli matter, because they thoughtthat they could not bo convicted, they belleved that they Were atliber ' to speis falsely. But we, Whom the holy Scriptures instruct to the knowledge of the truth, know the be nning and tho end of tho morid, respecting Which Wo Will noW speah intho end of our Work, since Wo have explained respecting thobeginning in tho second book. Theresors let the philosophere, ho enumerate thousanda os ages trom tho beginning of thom id, know that the fix thousandili year is not yet completed,
485쪽
and that when this number is completed the consummationmust talie place, and the condition of human affaire bo re-
received ita namo fram the number, henco sis seventh is thelegitimato and complete number. For there ars SeVen dus, by tho revolutions of Whicli in order the circles of years aremade up; and there are seven stars Which do not sol, and sevenluminaries which aro called planeta, Whose dissering and un-equat movementa are bolieved to causo the varieties of circumstances and times.
quillity and rost hom tho laboura Whicli tho morid now has longondured. But hoW that wili come to pass I Will explain in iis order. We have osten said that tesser things and things of smali importance are figures and provious shadowings forti, os great things; as this day of Ours, Which is bounded by thorising and the setting of the sun, is a representation' of that great day to whicli tho circuit os a thousand years affixes ita limita In the fame manner also the fastiloning os the earthly manheld sorth in the futuro the formation of the heavenly people.
486쪽
fastioned for righteo nem by the doctrine and precepta ofGod. d as then a mortes and imperfeci man Was formed homthe earili, that ho might live a thousand years in this World; so noW hom this earthly age is formed a perfeci man, stat ing quichened by God, he may bear rulo in this fame morid
accumulated hom ali quartere. CHAP. XV.- of the devastation of the worta and ehange of tha
It is contained in the mysteries of the sacred WHtings, that a prince of the Hebre s, compelled by Want os cora, passed into
Egypt With ali his family and relatives. And when his po texit' remianing long in Egyp had increased into a great
487쪽
comparison of that incurabis evit. For righteo nem Will sodecrease, and impietri avarice, destre, and lust Will so greatly increaso, that it there shali then happen to be any good men, they mill bo a prey to the wiched, and will bs harassed on allsides by the unrighteous; whilo tho wiched Hono will bo in opulenco, but tho good Will bo amicted in ali calumnies and in Want. Ali justice Will be confounded, and the laws wili bedestroyed. No one Will then have anything excepi that whieli has boen gained or defended by the hand: botta s and violoncewill possem ali inings. There Will bo no fiath among men, nor
488쪽
Juvenescere. Materia. R Sub ambago properly a circumlocution.'
489쪽
other names, so that no one can eastly understand them.
also, Who Was a very ancient hing of the Medes, from Whomalso the river Whicli is noW called Hydaspes received ita name, handed do n to tho memory of posteri a Wondersul dreamupon the interpretation os a boy Who ultered divinations, an- nouncing long besors the founding of tho Trojan nation, that tho Roman empiro and name mould be taen aWay hom the Worid. CHAP. XVI.- of the devastation of the woria, and iis prophetio
ariso at the fame time, Who mill divide the Worid, not to goVern, but to consume it. These, having increased their armies to animmense extent, and having deserted the cultivation of the fields, Whicli is tho beginning of overthrow and dis ter, Will lay waste and breah in pieces and consumo ait things. Then amost poWersul enemy Will suddenly arise against him hom theextreme boundaries of the northern region, Who, having d stroyed three of that number who shali then bo in possessionos Asia, shali bo admitted into alliance by the others, and shallbe constituted prince of all. Ηe shali harras the world with an intolerable rute; shali mingle things divine and human; shali contrive thinga implous to relate, and detestable; shali meditatone. designs in his breast, that he may establish the goVern-ment for himseli: hs will change tho laws, and appoint his oWn; ho mill contaminate, piunder, spoli, and put to death. And at lengili, the name being changed and tho seat of govem-ment being transferred, confusion and the disturbance of man-kind will solioW. Then. in truth, a detestabie and abominabistimo stiali come, in Which life shali be ple ant to none of men. Cities stiali be utierly overthrown, and shali peristi ; not on ly
490쪽
confound the minds of men mitti the greatest terrore, and the trains os comedi, and tho darisess of tho sun, and the colour