46. But, to say the same
things again and again,
3725
let this belief, so monstrous and
impious, be put far
from us
, that God, who preserves
3726
all things,
the origin of the virtues and chief in
3727
benevolence, and, to exalt Him with
human praise, most wise, just, making all things perfect, and that
permanently,
3728
either made
anything which was imperfect and not quite correct,
3729
or was the cause of misery or danger
to any being, or arranged, commanded, and enjoined the very acts in
which man’s life is passed and employed to flow from His
arrangement. These things are unworthy of
3730
Him, and weaken the force of His
greatness; and so far from His being believed to be their author,
whoever imagines that man is sprung from Him is guilty of blasphemous
impiety,
man
, a being miserable and wretched, who is sorry that
he exists, hates and laments his state, and understands that he was
produced for no other reason than lest evils should not have
something
3731
through which
to spread themselves, and that there might always be wretched ones by
whose agonies some unseen and cruel power,
3732
adverse to men, should be
gratified.
3725
Lit., “again and more frequently.”
3726
Lit., “the salvation of.”
3727
Lit., “height of.”
3728
Lit., “things perfect, and preserving the measure of their
completeness;” i.e., continuing so.
3729
So the
ms.
, LB., Oberthür and
Oehler, reading
claudum et quod minus esset a
recto
. All other edd. read
eminus
—“at a
distance from the right.”
3730
Lit., “less than.”
3731
Lit., “material.”
3732
Lit., “some power latent and cruelty.”