48. But, says some one, you
in vain claim so much for Christ, when we now know, and have in past
times known, of other gods both giving remedies to many who were sick,
and healing the diseases and the infirmities of many men. I do
not inquire, I do not demand, what god did so, or at what time; whom he
relieved, or what shattered frame he restored to sound health:
this only I long to hear, whether, without the addition of any
substance—that is, of any medical application—he ordered
diseases to fly away from men at a touch; whether he commanded and
compelled the cause of ill health to be eradicated, and the bodies of
the weak to return to their natural strength. For it is known
that Christ, either by applying His hand to the parts affected, or by
the command of His voice only, opened the ears of the deaf, drove away
blindness from the eyes, gave speech to the dumb, loosened the rigidity
of the joints, gave the power of walking to the shrivelled,—was
wont to heal by a word and by an order, leprosies, agues, dropsies, and
all other kinds of ailments, which some fell power3334
| 3334
See book ii. chap. 36, infra. |
has willed that the bodies of men
should
endure. What act like these have all these gods done, by
whom you allege that help has been brought to the
sick and the
imperilled? for if they have at any time ordered, as is
reported,
either that medicine or a special diet be given to some,
3335
or that a
draught be drunk off, or that the juices of
plants and of blades be
placed
3336
| 3336
So all edd. except LB., which reads with the ms. superponere—“that (one) place
the juices,” etc. |
on that
which causes uneasiness or
have ordered that persons should
walk, remain at
rest, or
abstain from something hurtful,—and that
this is no great matter, and deserves no great admiration, is evident,
if you will attentively
examine it—a similar mode of treatment is
followed by
physicians also, a creature
earth-
born and not relying on
true
science, but founding on a system of conjecture, and wavering in
estimating probabilities. Now there is no
special merit in
removing by remedies those ailments which affect men: the healing
qualities
belong to the drugs—not
virtues inherent in him who
applies them; and though it is praiseworthy to know by what medicine or
by what method it may be suitable for persons to be treated, there is
room for this credit being assigned to man, but not to the
deity.
For it is,
at least, no discredit that he
3337
| 3337
That is, the physician. |
should have improved the health of
man by things taken from without: it is a disgrace to a god that
he is not able to effect it of himself, but that he gives soundness and
safety
only by the aid of external objects.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
