Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

LECTUREXXTHE NEOPLATONIC PHILOSOPHY AND EPOCHIIN the character of Apollonius, as delineated by Philo-stratus in his pretended biography, we find a completeunion of philosophy and religion. It is not theabstract pursuit of knowledge. The philosopher'smotive is shown to be the government and directionof other lives by the principles of divine wisdom.So, again, he is represented as living in the temples,as consulting the oracles, and especially that ofTrophonius, from which he receives a sort of authenticationof his doctrine in the book of Pythagoras.Thus he acknowledges the need of a revelation for theacquisition of truth. Philostratus likewise has investedhis creature with the power to work miracles, and thispower is assigned to him as a result of his piety, and inorder to accredit his teaching. It is, moreover, an inherentpower, belonging to the soul as identical in itsnature with the one divine ethereal essence which Apol-lonius worships underneath all the various manifestationsof Hellenic or Indian or Egyptian deities. Forthe author is careful to express by the practice of hishero the notion that the unity of this god is unimpairedby the variety of rites with which these severaldeities are worshipped. And, further, union with thisgodhead is the end after which ApoUonius strives,263