61. What business of yours is it, He585    i.e., Christ. says, to examine, to inquire who made man; what is the origin of souls; who devised the causes of ills; whether the sun is larger than the earth, or measures only a foot in breadth:586    As Heraclitus is reported to have said. whether the moon shines with borrowed light, or from her own brightness,—things which there is neither profit in knowing, nor loss in not knowing? Leave these things to God, and allow Him to know what is, wherefore, or whence; whether it must have been or not; whether something always existed,587    The ms., first five edd., and Oehler read supernatum, for which the other edd. read, as above, semper natum, from the margin of Ursinus. The soul is referred to. or whether it was produced at the first; whether it should be annihilated or preserved, consumed, destroyed, or restored in fresh vigour. Your reason is not permitted to involve you in such questions, and to be busied to no purpose about things so much out of reach. Your interests are in jeopardy,—the salvation, I mean,588    So the later edd., following Elmenhorst, who emended dico for the ms. dici, omitted by the first four edd. of your souls; and unless you give yourselves to seek to know the Supreme God, a cruel death awaits you when freed from the bonds of body, not bringing sudden annihilation, but destroying by the bitterness of its grievous and long-protracted punishment.

LXI. Quid est, inquit, vobis investigare, conquirere, quisnam hominem fecerit? animarum origo quae sit? quis malorum excogitaverit causas? orbe sit sol amplior, an pedis unius latitudine metiatur? alieno ex lumine, an propriis luceat fulgoribus luna? quae neque scire compendium, neque ignorare detrimentum est ullum. Remittite haec Deo, atque ipsum scire 0907B concedite, quid, quare, aut unde sit; debuerit esse, aut non esse; semper natum sit aliquid, an ortus primigenios habeat: aboleri conveniat, an reservari; 0908A exuri, dissolvi, an repetita integritate renovari. Vestris non est rationibus liberum implicare vos talibus, et tam remotas inutiliter curare res. Res vestra in ancipiti sita est, salus dico animarum vestrarum, et nisi vos applicatis Dei Principis notioni, a corporalibus vinculis exsolutos expectat mors saeva, non repentinam afferens extinctionem, sed per tractum temporis cruciabilis poenae acerbitate consumens.