Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

RESURRECTION OF CULTURED HEATHENISM I 19laimed," God is unity. If there be what is supremin power, he must be one; for, were there two orm )re, he could not be mightiest and best* One Godhere is, the greatest among gods and men, like tmortals neither in shape nor understanding. Withouttoil by his mind he rules the universe. He is ally ,11 mind, all ear. Homer and Hesiod htfributed to the gods whatever is vile and blamefulmong men, theft, and adultery, and mutual deceit.ortals conceive as if the gods were born and hadclothes as we, and our voice and shape. So if oxen,lions, and horses had hands to construct works cart like men, they would make their gods such asthemselves: just as the ^Ethiopians make them bd flat-nosed, the Thracians ruddy and blue-eyedd each people after its own likeness. But it isan equal impiety to say that gods are born or thathey die, for in both cases they once were not." Andwhen his country people asked him if they shouldsacrifice to Leucothea, and if they should mourn forher, he replied, " If she be a goddess, do not mournfor her: if she be human, do not sacrifice to her;Thus clearly spoke reason as to the unity and spiritthe Godhead at the very rise of Greekphilosophy, and as clearly condemned the worshipse srods with which it was surrounded. So inthe next century Anaxagoras, the teacher of Periclesand Euripides, recognised no other God than themind which orders the universe. So Plato believedthat the causes of apparent things are the eternalIdeas, which may be referred back to three, the Ideaof the Good, of the Beautiful, and of the True, butthe highest cause and the unity of these three is God.And when reason had reached after and found such