Page:St Augustine Of the Citie of God.pdf/369

 L. VIVES. SToikes (a) indeed] Cic. pro Muren. A many come to you in distresse and misery; you shall be a villaine in taking any compassion vpon them. This in disgrace of Stoicisme hath Tully. (b) Tully] Pro Q. Ligario. (c) This now] intimating that he had more words then wisdome, as Saluste sayd of Catiline: wisdome indeed being peculiar to those that serue the true God, the Kingg of the whole vniuerse, and his wisdome, his sonne, (d) Tully saith] Crassus his words of the Greekes opinion of an oratour. De oratore lib. 1.

What passion the spirits that Apuleius maketh mediators betweene the gods and men are subiect vnto, by his owne confession. CHAP 6. BVt to deferre the question of the holy Angels awhile, let vs see how the Plato∣nists teach of their mediating spirits, in this matter of passion. If those Daemones ou•… ruled all their affects with freedome and reason, then would not Apuleius〈◊〉〈◊〉 that they are tossed in the same tempestuous cogitations that mens 〈◊〉•…eete in. So their minde then, their reasonable part, that if it had any 〈◊〉•…ted in it should be the dominator ouer these turbulent affects of the 〈◊〉 parts: this very minde floteth (say the Platonists) in this sea of pertur∣bation. Well, then the deuills mindes lye open to the passions of lust, feare, wrath, and the rest. What part then haue they free, wise, and vnaffected, whereby * to please the gods, and conuerse with good men, when as their whole minde is so •…ated vnto affects, & their vices, that their whole reason is eternally emploied vpon deceipt & illusion, as their desire to endamage all creatures is eternall?

That the Platonists doe but seeke contentions in saying the Poets defame the gods, whereas their imputations pertaine to the deuills, and not to the gods. CHAP. 7. IF any say the Poets tolerable fictions that some gods were louers or haters of 〈◊〉 men, were not spoken vniuersally but restrictiuely, respecting the euill 〈◊〉 whom Apuleius saith, doe flote in a sea of turbulent thoughts: how can this *〈◊〉 when in his placing of them in the midst betweene the gods and vs, hee sai•…〈◊〉, some, for the euill, but (a) all, because all haue ayrie bodies? for this he saith is a •…on of the Poets that make gods of those spirits, and call them so, making •…m friends to such or such men, as their owne loose affects do put in their heads to 〈◊〉: whereas indeed the gods are farre from these in place, blessednesse 〈◊〉 qualitie. This is the fiction then, to call them gods that are not so: and to set 〈◊〉 at oddes, or at amity with such or such perticular men, vnder the titles of 〈◊〉. But this fiction (saith he) was not much: for though the spirits bee cal∣•…〈◊〉 as they are not, yet they are described as they are. And thence (saith he) 〈◊〉•…ers tale of Minerua, that staide Achilles from striking in the middest of 〈◊〉〈◊〉 hoast. That this was Minerua, hee holds it false, because shee (in his *〈◊〉〈◊〉(c) a goddesse highly placed amongst the greatest deities, farre from 〈◊〉 with mortalls. Now if it were some spirit that fauoured the 〈◊〉Troy, as Troy had diuerse against them, one of whom hee calls (d)〈◊〉〈◊〉Mars, who indeed are higher gods then to meddle with such 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉 spirits contended each for his owne side, then this fiction is not 〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉〈◊〉. For it was spoken of them whome he himselfe hath testified subiect to affects, as mortall men are: so that they might vse their loues and hates not according to iustice, but euen (e) as the people doe in huntings and