Chapter 26 [XVI.]—The Fifth Passage of Scripture Quoted by Victor.

“Learn,” says he, “for, behold the apostle teaches you.” Yes, indeed, I will learn, if the apostle teaches; since it is God alone who teaches by the apostle. But, pray, what is it which the apostle teaches? “Behold,” he adds, “how, when speaking to the men of Athens, he strongly set forth this truth, saying: ‘Seeing He giveth to all life and spirit.’” Well, who thinks of denying this? “But understand,” he says, “what it is the apostle states: He giveth; not, He hath given. He refers us to continuous and indefinite time, and does not proclaim past and completed time. Now that which he gives without cessation, He is always giving; just as He who gives is Himself ever existent.” I have quoted his words precisely as I found them in the second of the books which you sent me. First, I beg you to notice to what lengths he has gone, while endeavouring to affirm what he knows nothing about. For he has dared to say, that God, without any cessation, and not merely in the present time, but for ever and ever, gives souls to persons when they are born. “He is always giving,” says he, “just as He who gives is Himself ever existent.” Far be it from me to say that I do not understand what the apostle said, for it is plain enough. But what this man says, he even ought himself to know, is contrary to the Christian faith; and he should be on his guard against going any further in such assertions. For, of course, when the dead shall rise again, there will be no more persons to be born; therefore God will bestow no longer any souls at any birth; but those which He is now giving to men along with their bodies He will judge. So that He is not always giving, although He is ever existent, who at present is giving. Nor, indeed, is that at all derivable from the apostle’s expression, who giveth (not hath given), which this writer wishes to deduce, namely, that God does not give men souls by propagation. For souls are still given by Him, even if it be by propagation; even as bodily endowments, such as limbs, and sensations, and shape, and, in fact, the whole substance, are given by God Himself to human beings, although it be by propagation that He gives them. Nor again, because the Lord says,34    Matt. vi. 30. “If God so clothes the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven” (not using the preterite time, hath clothed, as when He first formed the material; but employing the present form, clothes, which, indeed, He still is doing), shall we on that account say, that the lilies are not produced from the original source of their own kind. What, therefore, if the soul and spirit of a human being in like manner is given by God Himself, whenever it is given; and given, too, by propagation from its own kind? Now this is a position which I neither maintain nor refute. Nevertheless, if it must be defended or confuted, I certainly recommend its being done by clear, and not doubtful proofs. Nor do I deserve to be compared with senseless cattle because I avow myself to be as yet incapable of determining the question, but rather with cautious persons, because I do not recklessly teach what I know nothing about. But I am not disposed on my own part to return railing for railing and compare this man with brutes; but I warn him as a son to acknowledge that he is really ignorant of that which he knows nothing about; nor to attempt to teach that which he has not yet learnt, lest he should deserve to be compared with those persons whom the apostle mentions as “desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm.”35    2 Tim. i. 7.

CAPUT XVI.

26. Disce, inquit, ecce Apostolus docet. Discam plane, si Apostolus docet: non enim nisi Deus per Apostolum docet. Sed quid est tandem quod docet Apostolus? Ecce, inquit, cum Atheniensibus loqueretur, hoc constanter exposuit, dicens, «Cum ipse det omnibus vitam et spiritum.» Quis enim hoc negat? Sed intellige, inquit, quod ait Apostolus: «det,» inquit; non, Dedit; ad infinitum et juge tempus revocans, non de praeterito et perfecto pronuntians. Et quod sine cessatione dat, semper dat: sicut semper est ipse qui dat. Verba ejus posui, sicut in eorum quos misisti, secundo libro ejus inveni. Ubi primum vide quo progressus fuerit, dum nititur affirmare quod nescit. Ausus est enim dicere, Deum non nunc solum atque in isto tantummodo saeculo, sed per infinitum tempus sine cessatione, atque omnino semper animas nascentibus dare. Semper, inquit, dat, sicut semper est ipse 0489 qui dat. Quid Apostolus dixerit, quia satis apertum est, me intelligere, absit ut negem: quod autem iste dicit, debet etiam ipse intelligere contra fidem esse christianam, atque ulterius cavere ne dicat. Cum enim mortui resurrexerint, jam nemo nascetur: atque ideo tunc non dabit nascentibus animas, sed eas quas dat in isto saeculo cum corporibus judicabit. Non ergo semper dat, quamvis ipse semper sit qui nunc dat. Nec tamen quoniam beatus Apostolus non dixit, Dedit; sed, det; inde conficitur quod vult iste conficere, non eum ex propagine animas dare. Ipse quippe dat, etiam si de propagine dat. Quia et corporis membra, et corporis sensus, et corporis formam, et corporis omnino substantiam ipse hominibus dat, quamvis ex propagine det. Neque enim quia Dominus ait, Si fenum agri, quod hodie est et cras in clibanum mittitur, Deus sic vestit (Matth. VI, 30); nec ait, Vestivit, sicut primum quando instituit; sed ait, vestit, quod et nunc facit; ideo negabimus lilia de origine sui generis procreari. Quid si ergo sic etiam anima et spiritus hominis et a Deo datur, quamdiu datur; et tamen ex propagine sui generis datur? Quod ego nec defendo, nec refello. Sed si defendendum est, vel refellendum, perspicuis, non ambiguis testimoniis id agendum esse commoneo. Nec propterea pecoribus insensatis sum comparandus, quia hoc me nondum scire pronuntio; sed potius cautis hominibus, quia non audeo docere quod nescio. Istum autem non ego vicissim, quasi rependens maledictum pro maledicto, pecoribus comparo; sed tanquam filium moneo, ut quod nescit, se nescire fateatur, neque id quod nondum didicit, docere moliatur: ne comparetur, non pecoribus, sed illis hominibus quos dicit Apostolus, volentes esse legis doctores, non intelligentes neque quae loquuntur, neque de quibus affirmant (I Tim. I, 7).