St. Augustine, Of the citie of God vvith the learned comments of Io. Lod. Viues. Englished by I.H.

Porphiry his relation of the Oracles touching Christ. CHAP. 23.

FOr he in his bookes which he entitleth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, The diuinity of Philo∣sopoy wherein he setteth downe the Oracles answeres in things belonging to Philosophy, hath something to this purpose, and thus it is, from the Greeke: One went (saith he) vnto the Oracle, and asked vnto what God he should sacrifice for to obtaine his wiues conuersion from Christianity: Apollo answered him thus: Thou maist sooner write legible letters vpon the water, or get thee wings to fly through ayre like a bird, then reuoke thy wife from hir polluted opinion. Let her runne after her mad opinions, as long as she list: let her honour that dead God with her false lamenta∣tions, whome the wise and well aduised iudges condemned, and whome a shamefull death vpon the crosse dispatched. Thus farre the Oracle, the Greeke is in verse but our language will not beare it. After these verses, Prophiry addeth this: Behold how re∣medylesse their erroneous beleefe is: because as Apollo said (quoth he) the Iewes do

receiue God with meanes greater then others. Heare you this? hee disgraceth and obscureth Christ, and yet saith, the Iewes receiue God, for so he interpreteth the o∣racles verses, where they say that Christ was condemned by well aduised iudges, as though hee had beene lawfully condemned and iustly executed. This lying Priests oracle let him looke vnto, and beleeue if hee like it: but it may very well bee that the Oracle gaue no such answer, but that this is a meere fiction of his. How hee reconciles the oracles, and agrees with him-selfe, wee shall see by and by. But by the way, heere hee saith, that the Iewes, as the receiuers of God, iudged aright in dooing Christ to so ignominious and cruell a death. So then to the Iewes God sayd well in saying, Hee that sacrificeth vnto many Gods shall bee rooted out, but vnto one God onely. But come on, let vs goe to more manifest mat∣ter, and heere what hee maketh of the Iewes God: Hee asked Apollo which was better, the word, or the law: And hee answered thus (saith hee) and then hee ad∣deth the answer, I will relate as much of it as needeth): Vpon God the Creator, and vpon the King before all things, who maketh heauen and earth, the sea, and hell, yea and all the Gods to tremble: the lawe is their father, whome the holy Hebrewes doe adore. This glory doth Porphyry giue the Hebrew God, from his God Apollo, that the very deities doe tremble before him. So then this God hauing sayd, Hee that sacrificeth vnto many Gods shall bee rooted out, I wonder that Porphyry was not afraide to bee rooted out for offering to so many Gods. Nay this fellow speak∣eth well of Christ afterwards, as forgetting the reproche hee offered him be∣fore: as if in their dreames, his Gods had scorned CHRIST, and beeing a∣wake, commended him, and acknowledged his goodnesse. Finally, as if hee meant to speake some maruellous matter: It may exceede all beleefe (saith hee) which I am now to deliuer: the Gods affirmed CHRIST to bee a man most godly, and •…•…ortalized for his goodnesse, giuing him great commendations: but for the Chri∣•…•…ns, they auouche them to bee persons stained with all corruption and errour: and giue them all the foule words that may bee. Then hee relateth the Oracles which blaspheme the Christian religion, and afterwards, Hecate (saith hee) being asked if Christ were GOD, replyed thus: His soule beeing seuered from his body became immortall; but it wandereth about voyde of all wisdome: it was the soule of a most worthy man, whome now those that forsake the truth, doe worship. And then hee ad∣deth his owne sayings vpon this oracle, in this manner. The goddesse therefore called him a most godly man, and that the deluded Christians doe worship his soule, bee∣ing made immortall after death, as other godly soules are. Now beeing asked why hee was condemned then? shee answered: His body was condemned to torments, but his soule sitteth aboue in heauen, and giueth all those soules vnto errour by desteny, who cannot attaine the guifts of the Gods, or come to the knowledge of immortall loue. And therefore are they hated of the Gods, because they neither acknowledge them, nor receiue their gifts, but are destin'd vnto errour by him: now hee him-selfe 〈◊〉〈◊〉 godly, and went vp to heauen as godly men doe. Therefore blaspheame not him, but pitty the poore soules whome hee hath bound in errour.

What man is there so fond that cannot obserue that these oracles are either directly faigned by this craftie foe of Christianity, or else the Deuills owne •…•…kes to this end, that in praysing of Christ, they might seeme truely to repre∣•…•…d the Christian profession? and so if they could; to stop mans entrance into Christianity, the sole way vnto saluation? for they thinke it no preiudice to their •…•…y-formed deceipt, to be beleeued in praising of Christ as long as they be be∣l•…•…ed also in dispraysing the Christian, so that he that beleeueth them, must be a

commender of Christ, and yet a contemner of his religion. And thus although hee honour Christ, yet shall not Christ free him from the clutches of the Deuill, because they giue Christ such a kinde of praise, as who so beleeueth to bee true, shall be farre from true Christianity, and rather then other-wise, of (b) Photinus his heresie, who held Christ to be but onely man, and no God at all: so that such a beleeuer should neuer bee saued by Christ, nor cleared of the deuils fowling nettes.

But we will neither beleeue Apollo in his deprauation, nor Hecate in her commen∣dation of Christ. He will haue Christ a wicked man, and iustly condemned, she will haue him a most godly man, and yet but onely man. But both agree in this, they would haue no christians, because all but christians are in their clutches. But let this Philosopher, or they that giue credence to those oracles against christianity, if they can reconcile Apollo and Hecate, and make them both tell one tale, either in Christs praise or dispraise. Which if they could do, yet would we auoide them, as deceitfull deuills both in their good words and in their bad. But seeing this God & this goddesse cannot agree about Christ, truly men haue no reason to beleeue or obey them in forbidding christianity. Truly either Porphyry or Hecate in these commendations of Christ, affirming that he destinied the christians to error, yet goeth about to shew the causes of this error; which before I relate, I will aske him this one question: If Christ did predestinate all christians vnto error, whe∣ther did hee this wittingly, or against his will? If hee did it wittingly, how then can hee bee iust? if it were against his will, how can hee then bee happy? But now to the causes of this errour. There are some spirits of the earth, (saith hee) which are vnder the rule of the euill Daemones. These, the Hebrewes wise men, (whereof IESVS was one, as the diuine Oracle, declared before, doth testifie) forbad the religious persons to meddle with-all, aduising them to attend the celestiall powers, and especially God the Father, with all the reuerence they possi∣bly could. And this (saith hee) the Gods also doe command vs, as wee haue al∣ready shewen, how they admonish vs to reuerence GOD in all places. But the ignorant and wicked, hauing no diuine guift, nor any knowledge of that great and immortall Ioue, nor following the precepts of the gods or good men, haue cast all the deities at their heeles, choosing not onely to respect, but euen to reuerence those depraued Daemones. And where-as they professe the seruice of GOD, they doe nothing belonging to his seruice. For GOD is the father of all things, and stands not in neede of anything: and it is well for vs to exhibite him his worship in chastitie, iustice, and the other vertues, making our whole life a continuall prayer vnto him, by our search and imitation of him. (c) For our search of him (quoth hee) purifieth vs, and our imitation of him, deifieth the effects in our selues. Thus well hath hee taught God the Fa∣ther vnto vs, and vs how to offer our seruice vnto him. The Hebrew Prophets are full of such holy precepts, concerning both the commendation and refor∣mation of the Saints liues. But as concerning Christianity, there hee erreth, and slandereth, as farre as his deuills pleasure is, whome hee holdeth dei∣ties: as though it were so hard a matter, out of the obscenities practised and published in their Temples, and the true worship and doctrine presented be fore GOD in our Churches, to discerne where manners were reformed and where they were ruined. Who but the deuill him-selfe could inspire him with so shamelesse a falsification, as to say, that the Christians doe rather honour then detest the Deuills whose adoration was forbidden by the Hebrewes? No,

that God whome the Hebrewes adored, will not allow any sacrifice vnto his ho∣liest Angels, (whome wee that are pilgrims on earth, doe not-with-standing loue and reuerence as most sanctified members of the Citty of heauen) but forbiddeth it directly in this thundring threate: Hee that sacrificeth vnto Gods, shall be rooted 〈◊〉〈◊〉, and least it should be thought hee meant onely of the earthly spirits, whome this fellow calles the lesser powers, (d) and whome the scripture also calleth gods, (not of the Hebrews, but the Heathens) as is euident in that one place, Psal. 96. verse 5. For all the Gods of the Heathen, are Diuels: least any should imagine that the fore-said prohibition extended no further then these deuills, or that it con∣cerned not the offring to the celestiall spirits, he addeth: but vnto the Lord alone, but vnto one God onely: Some may take the words, nisi domino soli, to bee vnto the Lord, the sunne: and so vnderstand the place to bee meant of Apollo, but [the ori∣•…•… •…•…nd] the (e) Greeke translations doe subuert all such misprision. So then the Hebrew God, so highly commended by this Philosopher, gaue the Hebrewes a •…•…awe in their owne language, not obscure or vncertaine, but already disper∣sed through-out all the world, wherein this clause was literally conteined. Hee that sacrificeth vnto Gods shall bee rooted out, but vnto the Lord alone. What neede wee make any further search into the law and the Prophets concerning this? nay what need wee search at all, they are so plaine and so manifold, that what neede I stand aggrauating my disputation with any multitudes of those places, that exclude all powers of heauen and earth from perticipating of the honors due vnto God alone? Behold this one place, spoaken in briefe, but in powerfull manner by the mouth of that GOD whome the wisest Ethnicks doe so highly extoll; let vs marke it, feare it, and obserue it, least our eradication ensue. Hee that sacrificeth vnto more gods then that true and onely LORD, shall bee rooted out: yet God him-selfe is farre from needing any of our seruices, but (f) all that wee doe herein is for the good of our owne soules. Here-vpon the Hebrewes say in their holy Psalmes▪ I haue sayd vnto the Lord, thou art my GOD, my well-dooing •…•…th not vnto thee: No, wee our selues are the best and most excellent sacri∣fice that hee can haue offered him. It is his Citty whose mystery wee celebrate 〈◊〉〈◊〉 •…•…ch oblations as the faithfull doe full well vnderstand, as I sayd once already. For the ceasing of all the typicall offrings that were exhibited by the Iewes, a•…•…d the ordeyning of one sacrifice, to bee offered through the whole world from East to West (as now wee see it is) was prophecied long before, from GOD, by the mouthes of holy Hebrewes: whome wee haue cited, as much as needed, in conuenient places of this our worke.

Therefore, to conclude, where there is not this iustice that GOD ruleth all alone ouer the society that obeyeth him by grace, and yeeldeth to his pro∣•…•…tion of sacrifice vnto all but him-selfe, and where in euery member belong∣•…•… to this heauenly society, the soule is lord ouer the body, and all the bad af∣•…•… thereof, in the obedience of GOD, and an orderly forme, so that all the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 (as well as one) liue according▪ to faith (g) which worketh by loue, in •…•…ch a man loueth GOD as hee should, and his neighbour as him-selfe: 〈◊〉〈◊〉 this iustice is not, is no societie of men combined in one vniformity of 〈◊〉〈◊〉 and profite: consequently, no true state popular, (if that definition holde •…•…ch) and finally no common-wealth; for where the people haue no certaine 〈◊〉〈◊〉, the generall hath no exact forme.

L. VIVES.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.] That is of Oraculous Phisosophy, in which worke hee recites Apollos Or∣racles, and others, part whereof wee haue cited before. (b) Photinus.] Hee was condemned by the counsell of Syrmium, being confuted by Sabinus Bishoppe of Ancyra. Cassiod. Hist tri∣part. He followed the positions of Samosatenus, so that many accompted of both these here∣sies all as one. (c) For our search.] Search is here a mentall inquisition, whereby the mind is illustrate, and purged from darke ignorance, and after it hath found God, studieth how to grow pur•…•…, and diuine, like him. (d) And whome the scripture.] The name of God, is principally his, of whome, by whome, and in whome, al things haue their existence: shewing (in part) the nature and vertue of that incomprehensible Trine. Secondly and (as one may say) abusiue∣ly, the Scripture calleth them, gods, vnto whome the word is giuen, as our Sauiour testifieth in the Gospell: and so are the Heauenly powers also called, as seemeth by that place of the Psalme: God standeth in the assembly of the gods. &c. Thirdly and (not abusiuely but) falsely, the Deuills are called gods also. All the gods of the heathen, are Deuills. Origen, in Cantie. This last question Augustine taketh from the seauenty, for Hierome translateth it from the Hebrew, Idols, and not Diuells. Psa 96. 5. (e) The Greeke.] Where wee read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 nor is this superfluously added of Augustine, for many Philosophers, and many nations both held and honored the Sunne onely for God, and referred the power of all the rest vnto it alone, Macrob. (f) All that we do.] Our well doing benefiteth not God, nor betters him, so that there is nothing due vnto vs for being good: but wee our selues owe God for all, by whose grace it is that wee are good. (g) Which worketh by.] It is dead, and lacketh all the power, and vigour, when it proceedeth not in the workes of charity.

Notes

• Psal. 16. 2.