But what author of any sect is so approved in this demon-worshipping city, that the rest who have differed from or opposed him in opinion have been disapproved? The Epicureans asserted that human affairs were not under the providence of the gods;and the Stoics, holding the opposite opinion, agreed that they were ruled and defended by favora ble and tutelary gods.Yet were not both sects famous among the Athenians? I wonder, then, why Anaxagoras was accused of a crime for saying that the sun was a burning stone, and denying that it was a god at all; while in the same city Epicurus flourished gloriously and lived securely, although he not only did not believe that the sun or any star was a god, but contended that neither Jupiter nor any of the gods dwelt in the world at all, so that the prayers and supplications of men might reach them! Were not both Aristippus and Antisthenes there, two noble philosophers and both Socratic? yet they placed the chief end of life within bounds so diverse and contradictory, that the first made the delight of the body the chief good, while the other asserted that man was made happy mainly by the virtue of the mind.The one also said that the wise man should flee from the republic; the other, that he should administer its affairs.Yet did not each gather disciples to follow his own sect? Indeed, in the conspicuous and well-known porch, in gymnasia, in gardens, in places public and private, they openly strove in bands each for his own opinion, some asserting there was one world, others innumerable worlds; some that this world had a beginning, others that it had not; some that it would perish, others that it would exist always; some that it was governed by the divine mind, others by chance and accident; some that souls are immortal, others that they are mortal,--and of those who asserted their immortality, some said they transmigrated through beasts, others that it was by no means so;while of those who asserted their mortality, some said they perished immediately after the body, others that they survived either a little while or a longer time, but not always; some fixing supreme good in the body, some in the mind, some in both; others adding to the mind and body external good things;some thinking that the bodily senses ought to be trusted always, some not always, others never.Now what people, senate, power, or public dignity of the impious city has ever taken care to judge between all these and oilier well-nigh innumerable dissensions of the philosophers, approving and accepting some, and disapproving and rejecting others? Has it not held in its bosom at random, without any judgment, and confusedly, so many controversies of men at variance, not about fields, houses, or anything of a pecuniary nature, but about those things which make life either miserable or happy? Even if some true things were said in it, yet falsehoods were uttered with the same licence;so that such a city has not amiss received the title of the mystic Babylon.For Babylon means confusion, as we remember we have already explained.Nor does it matter to the devil, its king, how they wrangle among themselves in contradictory errors, since all alike deservedly belong to him on account of their great and varied impiety.
But that nation, that people, that city, that republic, these Israelites, to whom the oracles of God were entrusted, by no means confounded with similar licence false prophets with the true prophets;but, agreeing together, and differing in nothing, acknowledged and upheld the authentic authors of their sacred books.
These were their philosophers, these were their sages, divines, prophets, and teachers of probity and piety.Whoever was wise and lived according to them was wise and lived not according to men, but according to God who hath spoken by them.If sacrilege is forbidden there, God hath forbidden it.If it is said, "Honor thy father and thy mother,"(1) God hath commanded it.
If it is said, "Thou shall not commit adultery, Thou shall not kill, Thou shall not steal,"(2) and other similar commandments, not human lips but the divine oracles have enounced them.
Whatever truth certain philosophers, amid their false opinions, were able to see, and strove by laborious discussions to persuade men of,--such as that God had made this world, and Himself most providently governs it, or of the nobility of the virtues, of the love of country, of fidelity in friendship, of good works and everything pertaining to virtuous manners, although they knew not to what end and what rule all these things were to be referred,--all these, by words prophetic, that is, divine, although spoken by men, were commended to the people in that city, and not inculcated by contention in arguments, so that he who should know them might be afraid of contemning, not the wit of men, but the oracle of God.
CHAP.42.--BY WHAT DISPENSATION OF GOD'S PROVIDENCE THE SACRED SCRIPTURESOF THE
OLD TESTAMENT WERE, TRANSLATED OUT OF HEBREW INTO GREEK, THAT THEYMIGHT
BEMADE KNOWN TO ALL THE NATIONS.
