Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

154 THE FORMATION OF CHRISTENDOMof Greece, nor of Greece only, but of all other nations,and the view would come out as we actually find it inPlutarch, who thus attempts to reduce all religions toone." God is not a lifeless thing subject to men, asthose who confounded the gifts with the giver, winewith Bacchus and wheat with Ceres, were prone toimagine. We deem them to be gods because theybestow their gifts upon us in an abundant and neverfailing stream. Nor are they different according toplace, nor barbarous and Grecian, nor of the northo the south. The sun and the moon and theheaven and the earth are common to all though theyhave different names. So there is one reason whicharranges and one providence which controls the world,and ministering powers set over every part, to whomdivers honours and appellations are assigned by thelaws in different places, and symbols are used, sometimesobscure and sometimes clear, guiding the thoughtsto divine things not without peril. " lNow let us look back for a moment to the spacewe have traversed since Philo bore part in a legationto Rome in the last year of Caligula. The ChristianChurch had not then begun to preach to the Gentiles.It is probable that most of Philo's works had then beencomposed, but we have no means of judging whetherthey were as yet known in the West. Philo himselfis supposed to have been by no means the first of hisschool, that is, the first who attempted at Alexandriato unite Jewish belief with an eclectic Greek philosophy,and who used as an instrument for that purposethe allegorical interpretation of the Old TestamentScriptures on the one hand, and the moral or physicalinterpretation of Grecian myths on the other. Fori DC hide, 67.