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| Chapter LXXX
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Chapter
LXXX.
Those holy Scriptures, moreover, which bear the
name of Moses, introduce the first men as hearing divine voices and
oracles, and beholding sometimes the angels of God coming to visit
them.4010
| 4010 [Cf. Wordsworth,
Excursion: “He sat and talked,” etc., book
iv., circa med.] | For it was probable that in the
beginning of the world’s existence human nature would be assisted
to a greater degree (than afterwards), until progress had been made
towards the attainment of understanding and the other virtues, and the
invention of the arts, and they should thus be able to maintain life of
themselves, and no longer stand in need of superintendents, and of
those to guide them who do so with a miraculous manifestation of the
means which subserve the will of God. Now it follows from this,
that it is false that “in the beginning men were captured and
devoured by wild beasts, while wild beasts were very seldom caught by
men.” And from this, too, it is evident that the following
statement of Celsus is untrue, that “in this way God rather
subjected men to wild beasts.” For God did not subject men
to wild beasts, but gave wild beasts to be a prey to the understanding
of man, and to the arts, which are directed against them, and which are
the product of the understanding. For it was not without the help
of God4011
that men desired
for themselves the means of protection against wild beasts, and of
securing the mastery over them.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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