- ANF06. Fathers of the Third Century: Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius, and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

35. But, say my opponents, if souls are mortal and³⁶³⁹

³⁶³⁹ The ms. reading is, mortalis est qualitatis. The first five edd. merely drop est—“of mortal, of neutral,” etc.; LB. and the others read, es et, as above.
of neutral character, how can they from their neutral properties become immortal? If we should say that we do not know this, and only believe it because said by³⁶⁴⁰

³⁶⁴⁰ Lit., “heard from.”

One mightier than we, when will our readiness of belief seem mistaken if we believe³⁶⁴¹

³⁶⁴¹ So the ms., according to Crusius, the edd. reading cred-id-imus—“have believed.”
that to the almighty King nothing is hard, nothing difficult, and that³⁶⁴²

³⁶⁴² Lit., “if we believe that.”
what is impossible to us is possible to Him and at His command?³⁶⁴³

³⁶⁴³ So the ms., reading ad modum obsecutionis paratum—“prepared to the mode of compliance;” for which the edd. read adm. executioni—“quite prepared for performing,” except Hildebrand, who gives adm. obsecutioni—“for obedience.”
For is there anything which may withstand His will, or does it not follow³⁶⁴⁴

³⁶⁴⁴ So the ms., according to Crusius, but all edd. read sequ-a-tur (for i)—“Is there anything which He has willed which it does not follow,” etc.
of necessity that what He has willed must be done? Are we to infer from our distinctions what either can or cannot be done; and are we not to consider that our reason is as mortal as we ourselves are, and is of no importance with the Supreme? And yet, O ye who do not believe that the soul is of a neutral character, and that it is held on the line midway between life and death, are not all whatever whom fancy supposes to exist, gods, angels, dæmons, or whatever else is their name, themselves too of a neutral character, and liable to change³⁶⁴⁵

³⁶⁴⁵ So all edd., reading mutabiles, except the two Roman edd. and Oehler, who gives, as the reading of the ms., nu.—“tottering.”
in the uncertainty of their future?³⁶⁴⁶

³⁶⁴⁶ Lit., “in the doubtful condition of their lot.”
For if we all agree that there is one Father of all, who alone is immortal and unbegotten, and if nothing at all is found before Him which could be named,³⁶⁴⁷

³⁶⁴⁷ Lit., “which may have been of a name.”
it follows as a consequence that all these whom the imagination of men believes to be gods, have been either begotten by Him or produced at His bidding. Are they³⁶⁴⁸

³⁶⁴⁸ LB., followed by the later edd., inserted si, “if they are,” which is certainly more consistent with the rest of the sentence.
produced and begotten? they are also later in order and time: if later in order and time, they must have an origin, and beginning of birth and life; but that which has an entrance into and beginning of life in its first stages, it of necessity follows, should have an end also.
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