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Even Porphyry asserts that it was revealed by divine oracles that we
are not purified by any sacrifices to sun or moon, meaning it to be
inferred that we are not purified by sacrificing to any gods. For what
mysteries can purify, if those of the sun and moon, which are esteemed
the chief of the celestial gods, do not purify? He says, too, in
the same place, that "principles" can purify, lest it should be
supposed, from his saying that sacrificing to the sun and moon cannot
purify, that sacrificing to some other of the host of gods might do
so. And what he as a Platonist means by "principles," we know.
For he speaks of God the Father and God the Son, whom he calls
(writing in Greek) the intellect or mind of the Father; but of the
Holy Spirit he says either nothing, or nothing plainly, for I do
not understand what other he speaks of as holding the middle place
between these two. For if, like Plotinus in his discussion regarding
the three principal substances, he wished us to understand by this
third the soul of nature, he would certainly not have given it the
middle place between these two, that is, between the Father and the
Son. For Plotinus places the soul of nature after the intellect of
the Father, while Porphyry, making it the mean, does not place it
after, but between the others. No doubt he spoke according to his
light, or as he thought expedient; but we assert that the Holy
Spirit is the Spirit not of the Father only, nor of the Son only,
but of both. For philosophers speak as they have a mind to, and in
the most difficult matters do not scruple to offend religious ears; but
we are bound to speak according to a certain rule, lest freedom of
speech beget impiety of opinion about the matters themselves of which we
speak.
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