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| Chapter XIX.—The Philosophers Agree with the Poets Respecting the Gods.
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Chapter XIX.—The Philosophers Agree with the Poets Respecting the Gods.
Such was the beginning of the existence both of
their gods and of the universe. Now what are we to make of this? For
each of those things to which divinity is ascribed is conceived of
as having existed from the first. For, if they have come into being,
having previously had no existence, as those say who treat of the gods,
they do not exist. For, a thing is either uncreated and eternal, or
created and perishable. Nor do I think one thing and the philosophers
another. “What is that which always is, and has no origin;
or what is that which has been originated, yet never is?”760
| 760 Plat., Tim., p. 27, D. |
Discoursing of the intelligible and the sensible, Plato teaches that
that which always is, the intelligible,
is unoriginated, but that which is not, the sensible, is originated,
beginning to be and ceasing to exist. In like manner, the Stoics also
say that all things will be burnt up and will again exist, the world
receiving another beginning. But if, although there is, according to them,
a twofold cause, one active and governing, namely providence, the other
passive and changeable, namely matter, it is nevertheless impossible
for the world, even though under the care of Providence, to remain in
the same state, because it is created—how can the constitution of
these gods remain, who are not self-existent,761
but have
been originated? And in what are the gods superior to matter, since they
derive their constitution from water? But not even water, according to
them, is the beginning of all things. From simple and homogeneous elements
what could be constituted? Moreover, matter requires an artificer, and
the artificer requires matter. For how could figures be made without
matter or an artificer? Neither, again, is it reasonable that matter
should be older than God; for the efficient cause must of necessity
exist before the things that are made.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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