The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

"
Near
"
"
God
THEOLOGY AND RELIGION 217
proved by the Stoics in various ways. The physical
argument, drawn from the leading* doctrine of the
primitive ether or all - pervading creative and pre
servative fire, was what Cleanthes laid the stress on.
But countless other proofs were adduced by the school,
partly inductive, partly deductive. Inductively, they
reasoned from human nature, from history, from the
world ; deductively, from the a priori conception of
God, and the logic of necessity.
(i) Take, first, their inductive proofs, (a) They had
the argument from man s constitution in the form of
their doctrine of Tr/aoXiji^ct?
or common notions. God
is, they reasoned, for we have a primary notion of
Him : in other words, the notion of a God inevitably
arises in us during life s experiences. This, when
interpreted in modern language, is just the psycho
logical position that
is a necessity of human
nature." In this connexion, the Stoics, like Kant
on man s
afterwards, laid the burden of the testimony
moral nature : to them, as to him, God is a moral
necessity, a postulate that alone is
competent
to solve
the riddle and clear the mystery of human life. His
existence is thus established on the evidence of Con
science, as Cicero explicitly puts it in De Officiis, iii. 10 ;
or, as it is even more strikingly put by Seneca (Ep. 41),
to you is God He is within
; you. ... A holy
Spirit dwells within us, watcher and guardian (sacer
intra nos spirittis sedet observator et custos)"
And
how God operates through conscience is thus : He
notes conduct and keeps back from sin,
He guards us
against temptation, and He inspires us with thoughts
The distance between this
upright, just, and pure."