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| The Changes of the Heavenly Bodies, Proof that They are Not Divine. Transition from the Physical to the Mythic Class of Gods. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter VI.—The Changes
of the Heavenly Bodies, Proof that They are Not Divine.
Transition from the Physical to the Mythic Class of Gods.
Come now, do you allow that the Divine Being not
only has nothing servile in His course, but exists in unimpaired
integrity, and ought not to be diminished, or suspended, or destroyed?
Well, then, all His blessedness872 would disappear, if
He were ever subject to change. Look, however, at the stellar bodies;
they both undergo change, and give clear evidence of the fact. The moon
tells us how great has been its loss, as it recovers its full
form;873
873 These are the
moon’s monthly changes. | its greater losses you are already accustomed
to measure in a mirror of water;874
874 Tertullian refers to the
Magian method of watching eclipses, the ἐνοπτρομαντεία. | so that I need
not any longer believe in any wise what magians have asserted. The sun,
too, is frequently put to the trial of an eclipse. Explain as best you
may the modes of these celestial casualties, it is impossible875
875 Instead of “non
valet,” there is the reading “non volet,” “God
would not consent,” etc. | for God either to become less or to cease to
exist. Vain, therefore, are876
876 Viderint igitur
“Let them look to themselves,” “never mind
them.” | those supports of
human learning, which, by their artful method of weaving conjectures,
belie both wisdom and truth. Besides,877 it so
happens, indeed, according to your natural way of thinking, that he who
has spoken the best is supposed to have spoken most truly, instead of
him who has spoken the truth being held to have spoken the best. Now
the man who shall carefully look into things, will surely allow it to
be a greater probability that those878 elements which
we have been discussing are under some rule and direction, than that
they have a motion of their own, and that being under government they
cannot be gods. If, however, one is in error in this matter, it is
better to err simply than speculatively, like your physical
philosophers. But, at the same time,879 if you consider
the character of the mythic school, (and compare it with the
physical,) the error which we have already seen frail
men880 making in the latter is really the more
respectable one, since it ascribes a divine nature to those things
which it supposes to be superhuman in their sensibility, whether
in respect of their position, their power, their magnitude, or their
divinity. For that which you suppose to be higher than man, you believe
to be very near to God.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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