{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>When Porphyry or Hecate praises Christ, and adds that He\r\ngave Himself to the Christians as a fatal gift, that they might\r\nbe involved in error, he exposes, as he thinks, the causes of\r\nthis error. But before I cite his words to that purpose, I\r\nwould ask, If Christ did thus give Himself to the Christians\r\nto involve them in error, did He do so willingly, or against\r\nHis will? If willingly, how is He righteous? If against\r\nHis will, how is He blessed? However, let us hear the\r\ncauses of this error. \"There are,\" he says, \"in a certain\r\nplace very small earthly spirits, subject to the power of evil\r\ndemons. The wise men of the Hebrews, among whom was\r\nthis Jesus, as you have heard from the oracles of Apollo cited\r\nabove, turned religious persons from these very wicked demons\r\nand minor spirits, and taught them rather to worship the\r\ncelestial gods, and especially to adore God the Father. This,\"\r\nhe said, \"the gods enjoin; and we have already shown how\r\nthey admonish the soul to turn to God, and command it to\r\nworship Him. But the ignorant and the ungodly, who are\r\nnot destined to receive favours from the gods, nor to know the\r\nimmortal Jupiter, not listening to the gods and their messages,\r\nhave turned away from all gods, and have not only refused to\r\nhate, but have venerated the prohibited demons. Professing\r\nto worship God, they refuse to do those things by which alone\r\nGod is worshipped. For God, indeed, being the Father of all,\r\nis in need of nothing; but for us it is good to adore Him by\r\nmeans of justice, chastity, and other virtues, and thus to make\r\nlife itself a prayer to Him, by inquiring into and imitating His\r\nnature. For inquiry,\" says he, \"purifies and imitation deifies\r\nus, by moving us nearer to Him.\" He is right in so far as\r\nhe proclaims God the Father, and the conduct by which we\r\nshould worship Him. Of such precepts the prophetic books\r\nof the Hebrews are full, when they praise or blame the life of\r\nthe saints. But in speaking of the Christians he is in error,<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_338\">[Pg 338]</a></span>\r\nand calumniates them as much as is desired by the demons\r\nwhom he takes for gods, as if it were difficult for any man to\r\nrecollect the disgraceful and shameful actions which used to\r\nbe done in the theatres and temples to please the gods, and\r\nto compare with these things what is heard in our churches,\r\nand what is offered to the true God, and from this comparison\r\nto conclude where character is edified, and where it is ruined.\r\nBut who but a diabolical spirit has told or suggested to this\r\nman so manifest and vain a lie, as that the Christians reverenced\r\nrather than hated the demons, whose worship the Hebrews\r\nprohibited? But that God, whom the Hebrew sages worshipped,\r\nforbids sacrifice to be offered even to the holy angels\r\nof heaven and divine powers, whom we, in this our pilgrimage,\r\nvenerate and love as our most blessed fellow-citizens. For in\r\nthe law which God gave to His Hebrew people He utters\r\nthis menace, as in a voice of thunder: \"He that sacrificeth\r\nunto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly\r\ndestroyed.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_659_659\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_659_659\">[659]</a> And that no one might suppose that this prohibition\r\nextends only to the very wicked demons and earthly\r\nspirits, whom this philosopher calls very small and inferior,—for\r\neven these are in the Scripture called gods, not of the\r\nHebrews, but of the nations, as the Septuagint translators have\r\nshown in the psalm where it is said, \"For all the gods of the\r\nnations are demons,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_660_660\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_660_660\">[660]</a>—that no one might suppose, I say, that\r\nsacrifice to these demons was prohibited, but that sacrifice\r\nmight be offered to all or some of the celestials, it was immediately\r\nadded, \"save unto the Lord alone.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_661_661\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_661_661\">[661]</a> The God of\r\nthe Hebrews, then, to whom this renowned philosopher bears\r\nthis signal testimony, gave to His Hebrew people a law,\r\ncomposed in the Hebrew language, and not obscure and\r\nunknown, but published now in every nation, and in this\r\nlaw it is written, \"He that sacrificeth unto any god, save\r\nunto the Lord alone, he shall be utterly destroyed.\" What\r\nneed is there to seek further proofs in the law or the prophets\r\nof this same thing? <i>Seek</i>, we need not say, for the passages\r\nare neither few nor difficult to find; but what need to collect<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_339\">[Pg 339]</a></span>\r\nand apply to my argument the proofs which are thickly sown\r\nand obvious, and by which it appears clear as day that sacrifice\r\nmay be paid to none but the supreme and true God? Here\r\nis one brief but decided, even menacing, and certainly true\r\nutterance of that God whom the wisest of our adversaries so\r\nhighly extol. Let this be listened to, feared, fulfilled, that\r\nthere may be no disobedient soul cut off. \"He that sacrifices,\"\r\nHe says, not because He needs anything, but because it behoves\r\nus to be His possession. Hence the Psalmist in the Hebrew\r\nScriptures sings, \"I have said to the Lord, Thou art my God,\r\nfor Thou needest not my good.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_662_662\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_662_662\">[662]</a> For we ourselves, who are\r\nHis own city, are His most noble and worthy sacrifice, and it\r\nis this mystery we celebrate in our sacrifices, which are well\r\nknown to the faithful, as we have explained in the preceding\r\nbooks. For through the prophets the oracles of God declared\r\nthat the sacrifices which the Jews offered as a shadow of that\r\nwhich was to be would cease, and that the nations, from the\r\nrising to the setting of the sun, would offer one sacrifice.\r\nFrom these oracles, which we now see accomplished, we have\r\nmade such selections as seemed suitable to our purpose in this\r\nwork. And therefore, where there is not this righteousness\r\nwhereby the one supreme God rules the obedient city according\r\nto His grace, so that it sacrifices to none but Him, and\r\nwhereby, in all the citizens of this obedient city, the soul consequently\r\nrules the body and reason the vices in the rightful\r\norder, so that, as the individual just man, so also the community\r\nand people of the just, live by faith, which works by\r\nlove, that love whereby man loves God as He ought to be\r\nloved, and his neighbour as himself,—there, I say, there is\r\nnot an assemblage associated by a common acknowledgment\r\nof right, and by a community of interests. But if there is\r\nnot this, there is not a people, if our definition be true, and\r\ntherefore there is no republic; for where there is no people\r\nthere can be no republic.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK NINETEENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-545"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"488a00b34593cfacd31309ccff3cfdd71a4475001285fcd171029b7ad0cf141d","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_659_659","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_659_659","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_659_659\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_659_659\"><span class=\"label\">[659]</span></a> Ex. xxii. 20.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_659_659","text_sha256":"a36a1f5bb4914936b714ac6e3d92e6ee12f5c1dc061c971968d0254ca25d29c1","verified":false,"work_id":null}