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| Chapter XXIV
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Chapter
XXIV.
Moreover, as we have already said that for God to
desire anything unbecoming Himself would be destructive of His
existence as Deity, we will add that if man, agreeably to the
wickedness of his nature, should desire anything that is
abominable,4166
God cannot grant
it. And now it is from no spirit of contention that we answer the
assertions of Celsus; but it is in the spirit of truth that we
investigate them, as assenting to his view that “He is the God,
not of inordinate desires, nor of error and disorder, but of a nature
just and upright,” because He is the source of all that is
good. And that He is able to provide an eternal life for the soul
we acknowledge; and that He possesses not only the “power,”
but the “will.” In view, therefore, of these
considerations, we are not at all distressed by the assertion of
Heraclitus, adopted by Celsus, that “dead bodies are to be cast
out as more worthless than dung;” and yet, with reference even to
this, one might say that dung, indeed, ought to be cast out, while the
dead bodies of men, on account of the soul by which they were
inhabited, especially if it had been virtuous, ought not to be cast
out. For, in harmony with those laws which are based upon the
principles of equity, bodies are deemed worthy of sepulture, with the
honours accorded on such occasions, that no insult, so far as can be
helped, may be offered to the soul which dwelt within, by casting forth
the body (after the soul has departed) like that of the animals.
Let it not then be held, contrary to reason, that it is the will of God
to declare that the grain of wheat is not immortal, but the stalk which
springs from it, while the body which is sown in corruption is not, but
that which is raised by Him in incorruption. But according to
Celsus, God Himself is the reason of all things, while according to our
view it is His Son, of whom we say in philosophic language, “In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God;”4167
while in our
judgment also, God cannot do anything which is contrary to reason, or
contrary to Himself.4168
| 4168 [See note
infra, bk. vi. cap. xlvii. S.] | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
