Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 3.djvu/428

416 the influence of Mercury and Venus must be wanting among them.

"The Medes alone in all the world, with the greatest care, throw men still breathing to be devoured by dogs; yet they have not Mars with the Moon placed in Cancer all through their daily genesis. The Indians burn their dead, and the wives of the dead voluntarily offer themselves, and are burned with them. But all the Indian women who are burned alive have not the Sun under the earth in nightly genesis, with Mars in the regions of Mars. Very many of the Germans end their lives by the halter; but all have not therefore the Moon with Hora begirt by Saturn and Mars. From all this it appears that the fear of the laws bears sway in every country, and the freedom of will which is implanted in man by the Spirit complies with the laws; and genesis can neither compel the Seres to commit murder, nor the Brahmans to eat flesh, nor the Persians to shun incest, nor the Indians to refrain from burning, nor the Medes from being devoured by dogs, nor the Parthians from having many wives, nor the women of Mesopotamia from preserving their chastity, nor the Greeks from athletic exercises, nor the Gallic boys from being abused; nor can it compel the barbarous nations to be instructed in the studies of the Greeks; but, as we have said, each nation observes its own laws according to free-will, and annuls the decrees of genesis by the strictness of laws.

"But some one skilled in the science of mathematics will say that genesis is divided into seven parts, which they call climates, and that over each climate one of the seven heavenly bodies bears rule; and that those diverse laws to which we have referred are not given by men, but by those dominant stars according to their will, and that that which pleases the star is observed by men as a law. To this we shall answer, in the first place, that the world is not divided into seven