Chapter Xi: :
ano, oe ee eS Sse ae
Tertullian's Apology for the Christians. the son of a man, and consequently the whole swarm of divinities mortal, and like father like son.
CHAPTER XI:
THAT THE FANCY OF MAKING GODS OF DEAD MEN IS A VERY
FOOLISH FANCY.
Anp. because you have not the hardiness to deny but that your gods were once men, and yet stand up for posthumous divinities, or dead men turned into gods, I shall now consider the reasons -for such an imagination.
In the first place, then, you will be forced to grant some superior God who auctions! out His divinity, and upon good consideration makes gods of men; for men cannot naturalize themselves into gods; nor can any one else bestow the divine nature upon them, but him who is the proprietor of it.
But now, if the supreme power itself cannot make gods, you then presume in vain upon made gods without a maker.
Certainly if men could deify themselves, they would never have ae up beings when a Wn one was in FS, t dim.
But, first, it is ths most iabecomene idea of Almighty power, to think it wants the help of a man, much less of a dead one. 'And it is as unbecoming infinite wisdom, which could not but foresee its wants, not to have made an assistant deity fromthe beginning, rather than to tarry to the end of a man's life before he can supply his necessities.
But I can see no room for any help-meet for, God; for whether you consider this great machine of the world as eternal with Pythagoras, or made in time with Plato, you will find it from its structure framed with all materials and movements necessary for the order and government of this vast body ; and He who gave this
1 Mancipem quendam Divinitatis, These mancipes were the chief among the. publicans, or the principal farmers of the public revenues.
Vid. Cic. de ee vespons., et Alex. ab Alex, os ii, p. 520.
Tertullian's A 'pology for the Christians.
perfection to everything could not want it 'Himself, or stand in need of an assistant.
He did not wait fora Saturn, or any of the Saturnian race, to work under Him in the ordering of His world.
For men must be vain to the last degree to think that it did not always rain, and the stars dart their rays, and the sun and moon
~shine perpetually in their orbs, and the thunder bellow, and poor Jove himself, in whose hands now you put the bolts, tremble at the clap ; and likewise that the fruits of the earth were not in being before Bacchus, and Ceres, and Minerva, and even the first man was formed out of it; because the world must be made and provided with all the necessaries of life before man can come to live in it.. Lastly, your gods are reputed to be the inventors, and not the creators of these supports of life; but that which is found out must have a being before it can be found, and that which is thus
- in being cannot properly be said to be his who found it, but his who made it ; because it was in existence before it was found out.
But if Bacchus was consecrated for the discovery of vines, Lucullus, _-methinks, had hard usage to miss of a consecration for the planta-. tion of cherry-trees in Italy; for he is celebrated as the author of this new fruit, because he first brought it over with him from Pontus,
Wherefore, if the universe was well appointed with all its furniture from the beginning, and everything was posted in its proper station, and adjusted with proper powers for the execution of its office, without any foreign assistance, this reason of yours for making of gods falls to the ground; because the places and functions you assign to them are supplied by nature, and all things would have always been just as they are, whether you had created any gods or* no.
But you turn over to another reason, and say that this conferring of godships was intended for the rewarding of virtue.
From hence, I suppose, you will grant the god-making God Himself to be virtuous in perfection, and consequently not to. dispense these divine honours at sixes and sevens, without having any respect to the merits of the persons.
I desire you therefore to sum up the _ merits of those you worship for gods, and judge whether they are likely to lift men up into heaven, or not rather press them down to the very bottom of hell, which when the fit is upon you, you call the prison of the damned.
This is the dungeon where you thrust the undutiful and incestuous, the adulterers, and ravishers of virgins, and abusers of themselves with mankind, the savage and the 'murderer, thieves and cheats, and whoever resembles some one god or other of yours; for you cannot name one without a fault, unless you disown him to have been a man,
But they have left too -