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But in this book we have nothing to do with those who do not believe
that the divine mind made or cares for this world, As for those who
believe their own Plato, that all mortal animals, among whom man
holds the pre-eminent place, and is near to the gods themselves, were
created not by that most high God who made the world, but by other
lesser gods created by the Supreme, and exercising a delegated power
under His control, if only those persons be delivered from the
superstition which prompts them to seek a plausible reason for paying
divine honors and sacrificing to these gods as their creators, they
will easily be disentangled also from this their error. For it is
blasphemy to believe or to say (even before it can be understood) that
any other than God is creator of any nature, be it never so small and
mortal. And as for the angels, whom those Platonists prefer to call
gods, although they do, so far as they are permitted and
commissioned, aid in the production of the things around us, yet not
on that account are we to call them creators, any more than we call
gardeners the creators of fruits and trees.
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