{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>But, in refuting these conjectures of the mathematicians, his\r\nargument is triumphant, because truly these are such as destroy\r\nand refute themselves. Nevertheless, they are far more tolerable\r\nwho assert the fatal influence of the stars than they who\r\ndeny the foreknowledge of future events. For, to confess that\r\nGod exists, and at the same time to deny that He has foreknowledge\r\nof future things, is the most manifest folly. This\r\nCicero himself saw, and therefore attempted to assert the\r\ndoctrine embodied in the words of Scripture, \"The fool hath\r\nsaid in his heart, There is no God.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_190_190\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_190_190\">[190]</a> That, however, he did\r\nnot do in his own person, for he saw how odious and offensive\r\nsuch an opinion would be; and, therefore in his book on the\r\nnature of the gods,<a id=\"FNanchor_191_191\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_191_191\">[191]</a> he makes Cotta dispute concerning this\r\nagainst the Stoics, and preferred to give his own opinion in\r\nfavour of Lucilius Balbus, to whom he assigned the defence of\r\nthe Stoical position, rather than in favour of Cotta, who maintained\r\nthat no divinity exists. However, in his book on\r\ndivination, he in his own person most openly opposes the\r\ndoctrine of the prescience of future things. But all this he\r\nseems to do in order that he may not grant the doctrine of\r\nfate, and by so doing destroy free will. For he thinks that,\r\nthe knowledge of future things being once conceded, fate follows\r\nas so necessary a consequence that it cannot be denied.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK FIFTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-367"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"5576efd503a1477becc6572c52a3b999dffcfba9ceb7099ec3bc63f64ffee62b","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume I","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Book IV)","J. J. Smith (Books V-VIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45304-Footnote_191_191","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_191_191","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_191_191\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_191_191\"><span class=\"label\">[191]</span></a> Book iii.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_191_191","text_sha256":"5bdf07ca48731491d648929817f869c256e11bec99d7a587e677dc16a542fde3","verified":false,"work_id":null}