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Augustine comes now to the third kind of theology, that is, the
natural, and takes up the question, whether the worship of the gods of
the natural theology is of any avail towards securing blessedness in the
life to come. This question he prefers to discuss with the
platonists, because the platonic system is "facile princeps" among
philosophies, and makes the nearest approximation to christian truth.
In pursuing this argument, he first refutes apuleius, and all who
maintain that the demons should be worshipped as messengers and
mediators between gods and men; demonstrating that by no possibility
can men be reconciled to good gods by demons, who are the slaves of
vice, and who delight in and patronize what good and wise men abhor and
condemn, the blasphemous fictions of poets, theatrical exhibitions,
and magical arts.
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