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| Chapter XXXIX
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Chapter
XXXIX.
We must therefore inquire what may be fittingly
eaten or not by the rational and gentle4212
animal, which acts always in conformity with reason; and not worship at
random, sheep, or goats, or kine; to abstain from which is an act of
moderation,4213
for much advantage
is derived by men from these animals. Whereas, is it not the most
foolish of all things to spare crocodiles, and to treat them as
sacred to some fabulous divinity or other? For it is a mark of
exceeding stupidity to spare those animals which do not spare us, and
to bestow care on those which make a prey of human beings. But
Celsus approves of those who, in keeping with the laws of their
country, worship and tend crocodiles, and not a word does he say
against them, while the Christians appear deserving of censure, who
have been taught to loath evil, and to turn away from wicked works, and
to reverence and honour virtue as being generated by God, and as being
His Son. For we must not, on account of their feminine name and
nature, regard wisdom and righteousness as females;4214
| 4214 οὐ γὰρ παρὰ
τὸ θηλυκὸν
ὄνομα, καὶ τῇ
οὐσίᾳ
θήλειαν
νομιστέον
εἶναι τὴν
σοφίαν, καὶ
τὴν
δικαιοσύνην. | for these things are in our view the Son of
God, as His genuine disciple has shown, when he said of Him, “Who
of God is made to us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption.”4215
And although
we may call Him a “second” God, let men know that by the
term “second God” we mean nothing else than a virtue
capable of including all other virtues, and a reason capable of
containing all reason whatsoever which exists in all things, which have
arisen naturally, directly, and for the general advantage, and which
“reason,” we say, dwelt in the soul of Jesus, and was
united to Him in a degree far above all other souls, seeing He alone
was enabled completely to receive the highest share in the absolute
reason, and the absolute wisdom, and the absolute
righteousness.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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