{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>What angels, then, are we to believe in this matter of blessed\r\nand eternal life?—those who wish to be worshipped with religious\r\nrites and observances, and require that men sacrifice to them;\r\nor those who say that all this worship is due to one God, the\r\nCreator, and teach us to render it with true piety to Him, by\r\nthe vision of whom they are themselves already blessed, and\r\nin whom they promise that we shall be so? For that vision\r\nof God is the beauty of a vision so great, and is so infinitely\r\ndesirable, that Plotinus does not hesitate to say that he who\r\nenjoys all other blessings in abundance, and has not this, is\r\nsupremely miserable.<a id=\"FNanchor_405_405\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_405_405\">[405]</a> Since, therefore, miracles are wrought\r\nby some angels to induce us to worship this God, by others,\r\nto induce us to worship themselves; and since the former forbid\r\nus to worship these, while the latter dare not forbid us to\r\nworship God, which are we to listen to? Let the Platonists\r\nreply, or any philosophers, or the theurgists, or rather, <i>periurgists</i>,<a id=\"FNanchor_406_406\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_406_406\">[406]</a>—for\r\nthis name is good enough for those who practise\r\nsuch arts. In short, let all men answer,—if, at least, there\r\nsurvives in them any spark of that natural perception which,\r\nas rational beings, they possess when created,—let them, I say,\r\ntell us whether we should sacrifice to the gods or angels who<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_405\">[Pg 405]</a></span>\r\norder us to sacrifice to them, or to that One to whom we are\r\nordered to sacrifice by those who forbid us to worship either\r\nthemselves or these others. If neither the one party nor the\r\nother had wrought miracles, but had merely uttered commands,\r\nthe one to sacrifice to themselves, the other forbidding that,\r\nand ordering us to sacrifice to God, a godly mind would have\r\nbeen at no loss to discern which command proceeded from\r\nproud arrogance, and which from true religion. I will say\r\nmore. If miracles had been wrought only by those who demand\r\nsacrifice for themselves, while those who forbade this, and\r\nenjoined sacrificing to the one God only, thought fit entirely\r\nto forego the use of visible miracles, the authority of the latter\r\nwas to be preferred by all who would use, not their eyes only,\r\nbut their reason. But since God, for the sake of commending\r\nto us the oracles of His truth, has, by means of these immortal\r\nmessengers, who proclaim His majesty and not their own pride,\r\nwrought miracles of surpassing grandeur, certainty, and distinctness,\r\nin order that the weak among the godly might not\r\nbe drawn away to false religion by those who require us to\r\nsacrifice to them and endeavour to convince us by stupendous\r\nappeals to our senses, who is so utterly unreasonable as not to\r\nchoose and follow the truth, when he finds that it is heralded\r\nby even more striking evidences than falsehood?</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK TENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-713"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"0d93b5c11ff4118046d0cd8c53eed3aa0b4b98fbd63a6f5ea16d8071ba29b7da","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_405_405","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_405_405","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_405_405\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_405_405\"><span class=\"label\">[405]</span></a> <i>Ennead.</i> I. vi. 7.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_405_405","text_sha256":"a6d61aabb551d7db9d30e501d06c180b10a9c8cc3f53a4e14ea978a9575a3eed","verified":false,"work_id":null}