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| Chapter XCVI
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Chapter
XCVI.
We ought to take note, however, that the power of
foreknowing the future is by no means a proof of divinity; for in
itself it is a thing indifferent, and is found occurring amongst both
good and bad. Physicians, at any rate, by means of their
professional skill foreknow certain things, although their character
may happen to be bad. And in the same way also pilots, although
perhaps wicked men, are able to foretell the signs4061
(of good or bad weather), and the approach
of violent tempests of wind, and atmospheric changes,4062
because they gather this knowledge from
experience and observation, although I do not suppose that on that
account any one would term them “gods” if their
characters happened to be bad. The assertion, then, of Celsus is
false, when he says: “What could be called more divine than
the power of foreknowing and foretelling the future?” And
so also is this, that “many of the animals claim to have ideas of
God;” for none of the irrational animals possess any idea of
God. And wholly false, too, is his assertion, that “the
irrational animals are nearer the society of God (than men),”
when even men who are still in a state of wickedness, however great
their progress in knowledge, are far removed from that society.
It is, then, those alone who are truly wise and sincerely religious who
are nearer to God’s society; such persons as were our prophets,
and Moses, to the latter of whom, on account of his exceeding purity,
the Scripture said: “Moses alone shall come near the
Lord, but the rest shall not come
nigh.”4063
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