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Chapter
XXIV.
In reply to these, we ask of those who accept such
aspersions as are scattered against us, Do you regard all men as a
collection of bats, or as frogs, or as worms, in consequence of the
pre-eminence of God or do you not include the rest of mankind in this
proposed comparison, but on account of their possession of reason, and
of the established laws, treat them as men, while you hold
cheap3771 Christians and Jews, because
their opinions are distasteful to you, and compare them to the animals
above mentioned? And whatever answer you may return to our
question, we shall reply by endeavouring to show that such assertions
are most unbecoming, whether spoken of all men in general, or of us in
particular. For, let it be supposed that you say justly that all
men, as compared with God, are (rightly) likened to these
worthless3772 animals, since
their littleness is not at all to be compared with the superiority of
God, what then do you mean by littleness? Answer me, good
sirs. If you refer to littleness of body, know that superiority
and inferiority, if truth is to be judge, are not determined by a
bodily standard.3773
3773 οὐκ ἐν
σώματι
κρίνεται. | For, on such
a view, vultures3774 and elephants would
be superior to us men; for they are larger, and stronger, and
longer-lived than we. But no sensible person would
maintain that these irrational creatures are superior to rational
beings, merely on account of their bodies: for the possession of
reason raises a rational being to a vast superiority over all
irrational creatures. Even the race of virtuous and blessed
beings would admit this, whether they are, as ye say, good demons, or,
as we are accustomed to call them, the angels of God, or any other
natures whatever superior to that of man, since the rational faculty
within them has been made perfect, and endowed with all virtuous
qualities.3775
3775 καὶ κατὰ
πᾶσαν ἀρετὴν
πεποίωται. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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