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This is the religion which possesses the universal way for delivering
the soul; for except by this way, none can be delivered. This is a
kind of royal way, which alone leads to a kingdom which does not totter
like all temporal dignities, but stands firm on eternal foundations.
And when Porphyry says, towards the end of the first book De
Regressu Animoe, that no system of doctrine which furnishes the
universal way for delivering the soul has as yet been received, either
from the truest philosophy, or from the ideas and practices of the
Indians, or from the reasoning of the Chaldaeans, or from any source
whatever, and that no historical reading had made him acquainted with
that way, he manifestly acknowledges that there is such a way, but
that as yet he was not acquainted with it. Nothing of all that he had
so laboriously learned concerning the deliverance of the soul, nothing
of all that he seemed to others, if not to himself, to know and
believe, satisfied him. For he perceived that there was still wanting
a commanding authority which it might be right to follow in a matter of
such importance. And when he says that he had not learned from any
truest philosophy a system which possessed the universal way of the
soul's deliverance, he shows plainly enough, as it seems to me,
either that the philosophy of which he was a disciple was not the
truest, or that it did not comprehend such a way. And how can that be
the truest philosophy which does not possess this way? For what else
is the universal way of the soul's deliverance than that by which all
souls universally are delivered, and without which, therefore, no
soul is delivered? And when he says, in addition, "or from the
ideas and practices of the Indians, or from the reasoning of the
Chaldaeans, or from any source whatever," he declares in the most
unequivocal language that this universal way of the soul's deliverance
was not embraced in what he had learned either from the Indians or the
Chaldaeans; and yet he could not forbear stating that it was from the
Chaldaeans he had derived these divine oracles of which he makes such
frequent mention. What, therefore, does he mean by this universal
way of the soul's deliverance, which had not yet been made known by
any truest philosophy, or by the doctrinal systems of those nations
which were considered to have great insight in things divine, because
they indulged more freely in a curious and fanciful science and worship
of angels? What is this universal way of which he acknowledges his
ignorance, if not a way which does not belong to one nation as its
special property, but is common to all, and divinely bestowed?
Porphyry, a man of no mediocre abilities, does not question that such
a way exists; for he believes that Divine Providence could not have
left men destitute of this universal way of delivering the soul. For
he does not say that this way does not exist, but that this great boon
and assistance has not yet been discovered, and has not come to his
knowledge. And no wonder; for Porphyry lived in an age when this
universal way of the soul's deliverance, in other words, the
Christian religion, was exposed to the persecutions of idolaters and
demon-worshippers, and earthly rulers, that the number of martyrs or
witnesses for the truth might be completed and consecrated, and that by
them proof might be given that we must endure all bodily sufferings in
the cause of the holy faith, and for the commendation of the truth.
Porphyry, being a witness of these persecutions, concluded that this
way was destined to a speedy extinction, and that it, therefore, was
not the universal way of the soul's deliverance, and did not see that
the very thing that thus moved him, and deterred him from becoming a
Christian, contributed to the confirmation and more effectual
commendation of our religion.
This, then, is the universal way of the soul's deliverance, the way
that is granted by the divine compassion to the nations universally.
And no nation to which the knowledge of it has already come, or may
hereafter come, ought to demand, Why so soon? or, Why so late?,
for the design of Him who sends it is impenetrable by human capacity.
This was felt by Porphyry when he confined himself to saying that this
gift of God was not yet received, and had not yet come to his
knowledge. For though this was so, he did not on that account
pronounce that the way it self had no existence. This, I say, is
the universal way for the deliverance of believers, concerning which
the faithful Abraham received the divine assurance, "In thy seed
shall all nations be blessed." He, indeed, was by birth a
Chaldaean; but, that he might receive these great promises, and that
there might be propagated from him a seed "disposed by angels in the
hand of a Mediator," in whom this universal way, thrown open to all
nations for the deliverance of the soul, might be found, he was
ordered to leave his country, and kindred, and father's house. Then
was he himself, first of all, delivered from the Chaldaean
superstitions, and by his obedience worshipped the one true God,
whose promises he faithfully trusted. This is the universal way, of
which it is said in holy prophecy, "God be merciful unto us, and
bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us; that Thy way may be
known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations." And hence,
when our Saviour, so long after, had taken flesh of the seed of
Abraham, He says of Himself, "I am the way, the truth, and the
life." This is the universal way, of which so long before it had
been predicted, "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that
the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of
the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations
shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and
let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of
Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His
paths: for out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the
Lord from Jerusalem." This way, therefore, is not the property of
one, but of all nations. The law and the word of the Lord did not
remain in Zion and Jerusalem, but issued thence to be universally
diffused. And therefore the Mediator Himself, after His
resurrection, says to His alarmed disciples, "These are the words
which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must
be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the
prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. Then opened He their
understandings that they might understand the Scriptures, and said
unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to
suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance
and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all
nations, beginning at Jerusalem." This is the universal way of the
soul's deliverance, which the holy angels and the holy prophets
formerly disclosed where they could among the few men who found the
grace of God, and especially in the Hebrew nation, whose
commonwealth was, as it were, consecrated to prefigure and
fore-announce the city of God which was to be gathered from all
nations, by their tabernacle, and temple, and priesthood, and
sacrifices. In some explicit statements, and in many obscure
foreshadowings, this way was declared; but latterly came the Mediator
Himself in the flesh, and His blessed apostles, revealing how the
grace of the New Testament more openly explained what had been
obscurely hinted to preceding generations, in conformity with the
relation of the ages of the human race, and as it pleased God in His
wisdom to appoint, who also bore them witness with signs and miracles
some of which I have cited above. For not only were there visions of
angels, and words heard from those heavenly ministrants, but also men
of God, armed with the word of simple piety, cast out unclean spirits
from the bodies and senses of men, and healed deformities and
sicknesses; the wild beasts of earth and sea, the birds of air,
inanimate things, the elements, the stars, obeyed their divine
commands; the powers of hell gave way before them, the dead were
restored to life. I say nothing of the miracles peculiar and proper to
the Saviour's own person, especially the nativity and the
resurrection; in the one of which He wrought only the mystery of a
virgin maternity, while in the other He furnished an instance of the
resurrection which all shall at last experience. This way purifies the
whole man, and prepares the mortal in all his parts for immortality.
For, to prevent us from seeking for one purgation for the part which
Porphyry calls intellectual, and another for the part he calls
spiritual, and another for the body itself, our most mighty and
truthful Purifier and Saviour assumed the whole human nature.
Except by this way, which has been present among men both during the
period of the promises and of the proclamation of their fulfillment, no
man has been delivered, no man is delivered, no man shall be
delivered.
As to Porphyry's statement that the universal way of the soul's
deliverance had not yet come to his knowledge by any acquaintance he had
with history, I would ask, what more remarkable history can be found
than that which has taken possession of the whole world by its
authoritative voice? or what more trustworthy than that which narrates
past events, and predicts the future with equal clearness, and in the
unfulfilled predictions of which we are constrained to believe by those
that are already fulfilled? For neither Porphyry nor any Platonists
can despise divination and prediction, even of things that pertain to
this life and earthly matters, though they justly despise ordinary
soothsaying and the divination that is connected with magical arts.
They deny that these are the predictions of great men, or are to be
considered important, and they are right; for they are rounded,
either on the foresight of subsidiary causes, as to a professional eye
much of the course of a disease is foreseen by certain pre-monitory
symptoms, or the unclean demons predict what they have resolved to do,
that they may thus work upon the thoughts and desires of the wicked with
an appearance of authority, and incline human frailty to imitate their
impure actions. It is not such things that the saints who walk in the
universal way care to predict as important, although, for the purpose
of commending the faith, they knew and often predicted even such things
as could not be detected by human observation, nor be readily verified
by experience. But there were other truly important and divine events
which they predicted, in so far as it was given them to know the will
of God. For the incarnation of Christ, and all those important
marvels that were accomplished in Him, and done in His name; the
repentance of men and the conversion of their wills to God; the
remission of sins, the grace of righteousness, the faith of the
pious, and the multitudes in all parts of the world who believe in the
true divinity; the overthrow of idolatry and demon worship, and the
testing of the faithful by trials; the purification of those who
persevered, and their deliverance from all evil; the day of judgment,
the resurrection of the dead, the eternal damnation of the community of
the ungodly, and the eternal kingdom of the most glorious city of
God, ever-blessed in the enjoyment of the vision of God, these
things were predicted and promised in the Scriptures of this way; and
of these we see so many fulfilled, that we justly and piously trust
that the rest will also come to pass. As for those who do not
believe, and consequently do not understand, that this is the way
which leads straight to the vision of God and to eternal fellowship
with Him, according to the true predictions and statements of the
Holy Scriptures, they may storm at our position, but they cannot
storm it.
And therefore, in these ten books, though not meeting, I dare say,
the expectation of some, yet I have, as the true God and Lord has
vouchsafed to aid me, satisfied the desire of certain persons, by
refuting the objections of the ungodly, who prefer their own gods to
the Founder of the holy city, about which we undertook to speak. Of
these ten books, the first five were directed against those who think
we should worship the gods for the sake of the blessings of this life,
and the second five against those who think we should worship them for
the sake of the life which is to be after death. And now, in
fulfillment of the promise I made in the first book, I shall go on to
say, as God shall aid me, what I think needs to be said regarding
the origin, history, and deserved ends of the two cities, which, as
already remarked, are in this world commingled and implicated with one
another.
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