장음표시 사용
481쪽
lablos But they aro at best an absurd story. In thopopular accounts This sori os opinion,' hoWMer, is onlypromiscuous' and municipat. Nom ali inings with the phil Sophera are uncertain, because of their variation; mith thopoeis ali is morthless, because immorat; mitti the nations allis irregulis and confused, because dependent on their merochoice. The nature os God, hoWevor, ii it be the trus onemith Which you aro concerned, is of so definite a character asnot to bo derived fram uncertain speculations,' nor contaminated Miu morthlem fabies, nor determined by promiscuous concella. It ought indeed in be regaesed, as it reatly is, ascertain, entire, universat, because it is in truth the proper of all. NON, What god shali I bellevet one that has bsen
But tho authority of the physical philosophera is maintained famong yovi' as the special property' of Wisdom. ou mean,J of courae, that pure and simple Wisdom of thophilosophors Which attests iis oWn weaknere mainly by that variety of opinion Whicli procetas trom an ignorance of the truth. NoW What Wise man is so devoid of truth, as notto know that God is tho Fathor and Lord of wisdom itfeliand truth Besides, there is that divino oraclo ultored by Solomon: The fear of the Lord,' says he, is the be nning of wisdom. ' But δ' fear has iis origin in knowledgo; for
482쪽
investigated the sacred Scriptures themselves, for their antiquity, and to have derived thence some of their opinions, yet because they have interpolated Jhese deductionH, theyprove that they have either despised them Wholiri or have not fully belloved them for in other cases also the simplicio of truth is shaheny by the ove scrupulousness of an irregularbelles'), and that thoy thereiore changed them, as their desimoi glory gre , into producis of their oWn mind. The consequence of this is, that ouen that Whicli they had discovereddegeneraled into uncertain ty, and there Mose frOm ono Or
liave never been up there.' Again, Whether there Were any
483쪽
gods.' Whon Croesus inquirod of Thales of Miletus whathe thought of the gods, the lalter having talion some time to consider, ans ered by the word Nothing.V Even Socrates doniod with an air of certaintyy thoso gods of yours. Yetho with a like certainu requested that a coch should be sacrificed to Esculapius. Αnd theresors When philosophy, in iis practice of defining about God, is detected in such uncertaintyand inconsistency, What fear' could it possibiy havo hados Him Whom it was not compotent' cloarly to determine ΤWo havo been taught to belleve of the worid that it is god.'For such the physical class of theologizers concludo it to be, since they have handed doWn such vie s about the gods, that Dionysius the Stoic divides them into thres hinds. Tho first, he supposes, includes those gods Whicli are most obvious, astho Sun, Moon, fandJ Stara; the nexi, those Whicli are notapparent, as Neptune; the remaining one, those Whicli arosaid is have passed from tho human state to the divine, as Hercules fandJ Amphiaraus. In lihe manner, Arcesilaus mahes a threo old form of the divinity-tho Olympian, the Astrat, tho Titanian-sprung from Coelus and Terra; fromwhieli through Saturn and ops came Neptune, Jupiter, and orcus, and their entire progeny. Xenocrates, of the Academn mahes a tWofold division-tho Olympian and tho Titanian, Whicli descend from Coelus and Terra. Most ofilio Egyptians belleus that there are four god-the Sun and the Moon, tho Heaven and the Earth. Along with ait tho
supernat firo Democritus conjectures that the gods arose.
484쪽
CRAP. III.-The physieal philosophera maintainta the diuinis of the ELEMENTs ; the absurdis of the tenet eaeposed. From these developments of opinion, Me see that youryphysical class sol philosopherH are driven to the necessi os contending that the elements are gods, since it alleges statother gods are sprung from them; sor it is only Dom goti that goti could be born. Now, although wo shali havo toexamine these other gods more fulty in the proper place, in
apply this term to the unium se in the most comprehensive sense δ') contains the elemenis, ministering to them as ita component parta for WhateVer iis oWn condition may bo, inosamo of course Will be that of ita elementa and constituent
λ Istud. M praesentem speciem fine physical ol M.' sor, clamineation.J ' Ut jam hinc praejudicatum sit.
485쪽
and theretare ought to bo accounted divine ince, as divine, it is subject neulier to a beginning nor an End of irael hoWis it that somo assign generation to the clement' Which
inoso Mings, Whom they supposo to be bom of the elemenis,to be regataed as goti, When they deny that a god can boborni π, What must hold good of tho univorso' millhavo in ba predicated of the elemenis, I mean of heaven, and of earin, and of tho stara, and of fidi, which Varro has Vainly proposed that you fhould belleve to bo gods, and tho parenis of god' contram to that generation and nativitywhich ho had declared to be impossibis in a god. Now thissame Varro had shown that the earth and the stars mero animaled.ρ But is this bo tho case, they must needa be also mortat, according to the condition ' os animaled naturo; soralthough tho soni is evidently immortat, this attributo is limited in it Hono: it is not extended to that with whicli itis associaled, that is, the bOdy. Νοbody, hoWever, mill deny that the elements have body, since me both touch them andare touched by them, and we see certain hodies sali domnhom them. Is therefore, they are animaled, laying aside the principie' of a foui, as bessis their condition as bodies,
they are mortal f course not immortal. Αnd yet whenco is it that the elements appear to Varro to be animaledi B cause, forsooth, the elementa have motion. And then, in
' frio best reading is vobis credi; ' thia is one ot Tertullianys fuat infinitives. J Compare Augustine, de civit. Dei, vii. 6, 23, 24, 28.J
486쪽
470 TERTULLIANUSorder to anticipate What may be objected on the other fide,
he belloves only such things to be animaled as move of them-selves, Without any apparent mover or impeller from Without, like the apparent mover of the wheel, or propeller of the carriage, or director of the machine. Is, then, they are notanimaled, they have no motion of themselves. NoW, Whenhe thus alleges a poWer Whicli is not apparent, lis potnis towbat it Was his duty to seeli aster, even the creator and controiter of the motion; for it does not at onoe follo that,because We do not see a thing, me bellevo that it does notexist. Rather, it is necessary the more profoundly to investigate What one does not see, in order the better to understandilio character of that Whicli is apparent. Besides, is bouadmi only the existence of those things Whicli appear andare Supposed to exist simply because they appear, hoW is it that you also admit them to be gods which do not appear Is, moreoVer, those things seem to have existence Which have none, Why may they not have existencs also whicli do notseem to have it Τ Such, for instance, as the Mover of the heavenly beings. Granted, then, that things are animaledbecause they move of themselves, and that they move of themselves When they aro not moved by another: stili it does uot follow that they must straightWay be gods, because theyare animaled, nor even because they move of themselves; else What is to provent ali animati Whatever being accounted
another basis. CHAP. IV.- mrota derivation of the word Θεός, God. Thenanae indieative of the real Deity. God Uithout ahape, and immateriai. Anecdote of Thales; ita relevancy
487쪽
it is derived hom running and motion, not irom any dominion os godhead. But in much as the Supreme God Whom we vorship is also designated Θεος, Without ho ever the appea ance of any courεe or motion in Him, because He is notvisibie to any one, it is olear that that word must have had somo oster derivation, and that the property os divinity, innato in Himself, must have been discovered. Dismissing, then, that ingenious interpretation, it is more lihely that thogods Were not callod θεοί irom running and motion, but thalthe term Was borrowed from the designation of the truo God; so that you gave the name θεοί to the gods, Whom you had in like manner forged for yourselves. No , that this is thecase, a plain proos is inorded in the faci that you actuallygive tho common appellation θεοί to ali those gods of yours,
in Whom there is no attribute of eourse or motion indicated.
But is that sacredJ namo be peculiarly significant of detinand bo simply true and not os a forcod interpretation si in thocase of the strueJ God, but transferred in a borro ed sense' to thoso other objects Which you choose to cali gods, thenyou ought to fhoW to us y that there is also a communi of charactor belWeen them, so that their common designationmay rightly depend on their union os essence. But the truo God, on the sole ground that He is not an object of sense, is incapabis of being comparod Mith those falso deities Whichare cognig le to sight and sense to sense indeod is sufficient) ; for this amounts to a cleur statement of the disserenoebetWeen an obscure proos and a manifest one. No , since
488쪽
Dom the body l But What concern have I With physiological
must confessy men were nimardly in even celestial objecis. In procem os time their ambitious conceptions advanced, and
489쪽
their studies to a Vala purpos' since they indulge a stupidcuriosity on natural objectis, Which they ought rather fintellia gently to directJ to their Creator and GoVernor.
Mithout the modification ' of tho olomonis. By this it is thattho morid is made generalty habitabie,-a result Which is harmoniousty secured' by the distribution into gones,δ' exceptWhere human residence has been rendered impracticabie is intonsity of cold or heat. on this account, men haVΘ ae- counted as νει-the sun, becauso it imparis from itself tho
the ysar Min iis stated peritas; the m n, Whicli is at orico the solaco of tho night and tho controiter of tho monilis byidi governanco; the stars also, certain indications as theyλ Cecidit turpiter. ' Scilicet. β Habituros. ε Humaniorem si Conjectura. ' Suffragio. 7 Sationem. ' Temperamento. ' Foederata. δ' Circulorum conditionibus. Djsj1jgsd by OOOle
490쪽
are of those seasons Whicli are to bo obseruod in tho illlago os cur felds ; lastly, the very heaven also under Which, and the oarth over Which, as meli as the intermediate spaco within Whicli, ali things conspire together for the good of man. Nor is it from their beneficent influencos only thata faith in their divinity has been deemed compatibio withtho elemenis, but from their opposite qualities also, such asusualty happen from What one might catly their Wrath and anger-as thunder, and hall, and drought, and pestilentiat Winds, floods also, and openings of the ground, and earth- quakes: these are ali fairly onoughy accounted gods, Whether
faet,' both of holp and of huri. But in the practical conductos sociat liso, this is tho way in Whicli men aci and feel: theydo not sho gratitude or find fauit With the very things
the stones, but the oldness of the bullding; as again alii' Wreched saliors impute their calamity not to the rocis and waves, but to the tempest. And rightly too ; for it is certain that everything Which happens must be ascribed not to the instrument With which, but to the agent by whom, it talios place; inasmuch as he is the primo cause of the occurrence,' Who appotnis both the ovent itsuis and that is vliose instru-