Chapter II.—Philosophers Had Not Succeeded in Discovering God. The Uncertainty and Confusion of Their Speculations.

But the authority of the physical philosophers is maintained among you340    Comp. The Apology, cc. i. and ii.    Patrocinatur. as the special property341    Adeo si.    Mancipium. of wisdom. You mean of course, that pure and simple wisdom of the philosophers which attests its own weakness mainly by that variety of opinion which proceeds from an ignorance of the truth. Now what wise man is so devoid of truth, as not to know that God is the Father and Lord of wisdom itself and truth? Besides, there is that divine oracle uttered by Solomon:  “The fear of the Lord,” says he, “is the beginning of wisdom.”342    Si accommodarent.    Prov. ix. 10; Ps. cxi. 10. But343    Porro.    Porro. fear has its origin in knowledge; for how will a man fear that of which he knows nothing? Therefore he who shall have the fear of God, even if he be ignorant of all things else, if he has attained to the knowledge and truth of God,344    Hæc ratio est.    Deum omnium notititam et veritatem adsecutus, i.e., “following the God of all as knowledge and truth.” will possess full and perfect wisdom.  This, however, is what philosophy has not clearly realized. For although, in their inquisitive disposition to search into all kinds of learning, the philosophers may seem to have investigated the sacred Scriptures themselves for their antiquity, and to have derived thence some of their opinions; yet because they have interpolated these deductions they prove that they have either despised them wholly or have not fully believed them, for in other cases also the simplicity of truth is shaken345    Reprobentur.    Nutat. by the over-scrupulousness of an irregular belief,346    Impunitate.    Passivæ fidei. and that they therefore changed them, as their desire of glory grew, into products of their own mind. The consequence of this is, that even that which they had discovered degenerated into uncertainty, and there arose from one or two drops of truth a perfect flood of argumentation. For after they had simply347    i.e., the name “Christians.”    Solummodo. found God, they did not expound Him as they found Him, but rather disputed about His quality, and His nature, and even about His abode. The Platonists, indeed, (held) Him to care about worldly things, both as the disposer and judge thereof. The Epicureans regarded Him as apathetic348    By the “suo loco,” Tertullian refers to The Apology.    Otiosum. and inert, and (so to say) a non-entity.349    Præscribitur vobis.    “A nobody.” The Stoics believed Him to be outside of the world; the Platonists, within the world.  The God whom they had so imperfectly admitted, they could neither know nor fear; and therefore they could not be wise, since they wandered away indeed from the beginning of wisdom,” that is, “the fear of God.” Proofs are not wanting that among the philosophers there was not only an ignorance, but actual doubt, about the divinity. Diogenes, when asked what was taking place in heaven, answered by saying, “I have never been up there.” Again, whether there were any gods, he replied, “I do not know; only there ought to be gods.”350    Præsidi.    Nisi ut sint expedire. When Crœsus inquired of Thales of Miletus what he thought of the gods, the latter having taken some time351    Ego.    Aliquot commeatus. to consider, answered by the word “Nothing.”  Even Socrates denied with an air of certainty352    Χρηστός means both “pleasant” and “good;” and the heathen founded this word with the sacred name Χριστός.    Quasi certus. those gods of yours.353    Detinetis.    Istos deos. Yet he with a like certainty requested that a cock should be sacrificed to Æsculapius.  And therefore when philosophy, in its practice of defining about God, is detected in such uncertainty and inconsistency, what “fear” could it possibly have had of Him whom it was not competent354    Et utique.    Non tenebat. clearly to determine? We have been taught to believe of the world that it is god.355    De mundo deo didicimus. For such the physical class of theologizers conclude it to be, since they have handed down such views about the gods that Dionysius the Stoic divides them into three kinds. The first, he supposes, includes those gods which are most obvious, as the Sun, Moon, and Stars; the next, those which are not apparent, as Neptune; the remaining one, those which are said to have passed from the human state to the divine, as Hercules and Amphiaraus. In like manner, Arcesilaus makes a threefold form of the divinity—the Olympian, the Astral, the Titanian—sprung from Cœlus and Terra; from which through Saturn and Ops came Neptune, Jupiter, and Orcus, and their entire progeny. Xenocrates, of the Academy, makes a twofold division—the Olympian and the Titanian, which descend from Cœlus and Terra. Most of the Egyptians believe that there are four gods—the Sun and the Moon, the Heaven and the Earth. Along with all the supernal fire Democritus conjectures that the gods arose. Zeno, too, will have it that their nature resembles it. Whence Varro also makes fire to be the soul of the world, that in the world fire governs all things, just as the soul does in ourselves. But all this is most absurd. For he says, Whilst it is in us, we have existence; but as soon as it has left us, we die. Therefore, when fire quits the world in lightning, the world comes to its end.

2. Sed physicorum auctoritas philosophorum ut mancipium sapientiae patrocinatur. Sane mera sapientia philosophorum , cujus infirmitatem prima haec contestatur varietas opinionum, veniens de ignorantia veritatis. Quis autem sapiens expers veritatis, qui ipsius sapientiae ac veritatis patrem et dominum deum ignoret? . . . . divina alias enuntiatio Salomonis (Prov. IX. 10; Ps. XI. 10): Initium, inquit, sapientiae metus in Deum. Porro timoris origo notitia est ; quis enim timebitquod ignorat? Ita qui Deum timuerit, 0588B omnium notitiam et veritatem assecutus, plenam atque perfectam sapientiam obtinebit. Hoc autem philosophiae non liquido successit. Licet enim per curiositatem omnimodae litteraturae inspiciendae, divinis quoque scripturis ut antiquioribus possint videri incursasse, et inde nonnulla dempsisse, cum tamen . . . . ut , probant sese aut omnia despexisse aut non omnibus . . . . Nam et alias veritatis simplicitas per scrupulositatem . . . . ve fide nutat, et ita accedente libidine gloriae ad proprii ingenii opera mutasse, per quod in incertum abiit etiam quod invenerant, et facta est argumentationum inundatio de stillicidio uno atque alio veritatis; invento enim solummodo eo, non ut invenerant, exposuerunt, ut de qualitate ejus et de natura et jam de sede disceptent: Platonici quidem 0588C curantem rerum et arbitrum et judicem; Epicurei otiosum et inexercitum, et ut ita dixerim, neminem; positum vero extra mundum, Stoici; intra mundum, Platonici. Quem non penitus admiserant, neque nosse potuerunt, neque timere, nec inde sapere, exorbitantes scilicet ab initio sapientiae, id est, metu in Deum. Exstant testimonia tam ignoratae quam dubitatae inter philosophos Divinitatis. Diogenes consultus, quid in coelis agatur: Nunquam, inquit, ascendi. 0589A Item, an dei essent? Nescio, inquit, nisi ut sint expedire. Thales Milesius, Croeso sciscitanti, quid de deis arbitraretur, post aliquot deliberandi commeatus, nihil renuntiavit. Socrates ipse deos istos quasi certus negabat. Idem Aesculapio gallinaceum secari quasi certus jubebat. Et ideo cum tam incerta et inconstans definiendi de Deo philosophia deprehenditur, quem potuit . . . . . . re ejus, quem non liquido tenebat determinare? De mundo . . . . dicimus. Hunc enim physicum theologiae genus cogunt: q . . . . . ta deos tradiderunt, ut Dionysius stoicus trifariam deos dividat, unam vult speciem, quae in promptu sit, ut solem, lunam . . . . . aliam, quae non compareat, ut Neptunum, reliquam, quae de hominibus ad divinitatem transisse dicitur, ut Herculem, Amphiaram. 0589B Aeque Arcesilaüs trinam formam divinitatis ducit, Olympios, Astra, Titaneos; de Coelo et Terra, ex his, Saturno et Ope, Neptunum, Jovem et Orcum et caeteram successionem. Xenocrates Academicus bifariam facit, Olympios et Titanios, qui de Coelo et Terra. Aegyptiorum plerique quatuor deos credunt, Solem et Lunam, Coelum ac Terram. Cum reliquo igni superno deos ortos Democritus suspicatur, cujus instar vult esse naturam Zeno. Unde et Varro ignem mundi animum facit, ut perinde in mundo ignis omnia gubernet, sicut animus in nobis. Atqui vanissime. Nam cum est, inquit, in nobis, ipsi sumus; cum exivit, emorimur. Ergo et ignis cum de mundo per fulgura proficiscitur, mundus emoritur.