Quod Deus Sit Immutabilis

Philo Judaeus

The works of Philo Judaeus, the contemporary of Josephus, volume 1. Yonge, C. D., translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854.

For it follows of necessity that those persons who, being by nature unfitted for the comprehension of arts, if by making violent efforts they do something in them, [*](Deuteronomy vi. 11. ) [*](Deuteronomy i. 43. )

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not only fail of attaining their end, but also incur disgrace; and those who voluntarily, but still without any deliberate consent of their mind, do something that they ought to do, putting a sort of constraint on their own voluntary principle, do not succeed, but are wounded and harassed by their own consciences.

So also those who restore deposits of small value in the hope of having larger deposits entrusted to them, which they may be able to appropriate, you would call men of good faith; and yet even when they are restoring the deposits, they put a great constraint on their natural faithlessness, by which it is to be hoped, they will be unceasingly tormented.

And do not all those who offer but a spurious kind of worship to the only wise God, putting on a profession of a rigid life like a dress on a magnificent stage, merely with the object of making a display before the assembled spectators, having imposture rather than piety in their souls, do not they, I say, stretch themselves on the rack as it were, and torment themselves, compelling even the truth itself to assume a false appearance.