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| Argument: Man Ought Indeed to Know Himself, But This Knowledge Cannot Be Attained by Him Unless He First of All Acknowledges the Entire Scope of Things, and God Himself. And from the Constitution and Furniture of the World Itself, Every One Endowed with Reason Holds that It Was Established by God, and is Governed and Administered by Him. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter XVII.—Argument: Man Ought Indeed to Know
Himself, But This Knowledge Cannot Be Attained by Him Unless He First
of All Acknowledges the Entire Scope of Things, and God Himself.
And from the Constitution and Furniture of the World Itself, Every One
Endowed with Reason Holds that It Was Established by God, and is
Governed and Administered by Him.
“Neither do I refuse to admit what
Cæcilius earnestly endeavoured to maintain among the chief
matters, that man ought to know himself, and to look around and see
what he is, whence he is, why he is; whether collected together from
the elements, or harmoniously formed of atoms, or rather made, formed,
and animated by God. And it is this very thing which we cannot
seek out and investigate without inquiry into the universe; since
things are so coherent, so linked and associated together, that unless
you diligently examine into the nature of divinity, you must be
ignorant of that of humanity. Nor can you well perform your
social duty unless you know that community of the world which is common
to all, especially since in this respect we differ from the wild
beasts, that while they are prone and tending to the earth, and are
born to look upon nothing but their food, we, whose countenance is
erect, whose look is turned towards heaven, as is our converse and
reason, whereby we recognise, feel, and imitate God,1762 have neither right nor reason to be ignorant
of the celestial glory which forms itself into our eyes and
senses. For it is as bad as the grossest sacrilege even,
to seek on the ground for
what you ought to find on high. Wherefore the rather, they who
deny that this furniture of the whole world was perfected by the divine
reason, and assert that it was heaped together by certain
fragments1763 casually adhering
to each other, seem to me not to have either mind or sense, or, in
fact, even sight itself. For what can possibly be so manifest, so
confessed, and so evident, when you lift your eyes up to heaven, and
look into the things which are below and around, than that there is
some Deity of most excellent intelligence, by whom all nature is
inspired, is moved, is nourished, is governed? Behold the heaven
itself, how broadly it is expanded, how rapidly it is whirled around,
either as it is distinguished in the night by its stars, or as it is
lightened in the day by the sun, and you will know at once how the
marvellous and divine balance of the Supreme Governor is engaged
therein. Look also on the year, how it is made by the circuit of
the sun; and look on the month, how the moon drives it around in her
increase, her decline, and decay. What shall I say of the
recurring changes of darkness and light; how there is thus provided for
us an alternate restoration of labour and rest? Truly a more
prolix discourse concerning the stars must be left to astronomers,
whether as to how they govern the course of navigation, or bring
on1764
1764 According to some,
“point out” or “indicate.” | the season of ploughing or of reaping, each
of which things not only needed a Supreme Artist and a perfect
intelligence, nor only to create, to construct, and to arrange; but,
moreover, they cannot be felt, perceived and understood without the
highest intelligence and reason. What! when the order of the
seasons and of the harvests is distinguished by stedfast variety, does
it not attest its Author and Parent? As well the spring with its
flowers, and the summer with its harvests, and the grateful maturity of
autumn, and the wintry olive-gathering,1765
1765 Olives ripen in the
month of December. |
are needful; and this order would easily be disturbed unless it were
established by the highest intelligence. Now, how great is the
providence needed, lest there should be nothing but winter to blast
with its frost, or nothing but summer to scorch with its heat, to
interpose the moderate temperature of autumn and spring, so that the
unseen and harmless transitions of the year returning on its footsteps
may glide by! Look attentively at the sea; it is bound by the law
of its shore. Wherever there are trees, look how they are
animated from the bowels of the earth! Consider the ocean; it
ebbs and flows with alternate tides. Look at the fountains, how
they gush in perpetual streams! Gaze on the rivers; they always
roll on in regular courses. Why should I speak of the aptly
ordered peaks of the mountains, the slopes of the hills, the expanses
of the plains? Wherefore should I speak of the multiform
protection provided by animated creatures against one
another?—some armed with horns, some hedged with teeth, and shod
with claws, and barbed with stings, or with freedom obtained by
swiftness of feet, or by the capacity of soaring furnished by
wings? The very beauty of our own figure especially confesses God
to be its artificer: our upright stature, our uplooking
countenance, our eyes placed at the top, as it were, for outlook; and
all the rest of our senses as if arranged in a
citadel.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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