372 ///-43 to ///-44
control and endurance. But certainly god does not have these virtues if
there is not something hard for god to abstain from and hard for him to
bear. 153. For self-control is a disposition that prevents one from trespass-
ing against the deliverances of right reason, or a virtue making us superior
to the things that seem hard to abstain from. They say that a man is
continent if he restrains himself not from an old woman about to die,
but when, having the opportunity to enjoy Lais or Phryne or some such
woman, he restrains himself. 154. And endurance is the knowledge of
things which are to be endured and not to be endured, or a virtue making
us superior to the things that seem hard to bear. For it is the man who
bears being cut and burned who manifests endurance, not the man who
is drinking sweet wine. 155. Therefore, there will be things hard to bear
and hard to abstain from for god. For if these did not exist, he will not
have these virtues, that is, self-control and endurance. 156. And if he
does not have these virtues, since there is nothing intermediate between
virtue and vice, he will have the vices corresponding to these virtues,
for example, softness and lack of self-control. For just as one who is not
in good health is sick, so one who does not have self-control and endurance
has the corresponding vices, which are absurd to attribute to god. 157.
But if there are things hard for god to abstain from and bear, there are
things that can change him for the worse, and which can create a distur-
bance in him. But if this is so, god is subject to disturbance and change
for the worse; therefore, he is destructible. So, if god exists, he is destructi-
ble. But not the second, so not the first ....
- Further, if god has all the virtues, he has prudence. If he has
prudence,knowledge of things good, bad, and indifferent. If he
has knowledge of these, he knows what things good, bad or indifferent
are like. 163. So, since suffering is one of the indifferent things [according
to the Stoics], he knows suffering and what its nature is. If so, he has
experienced it. Had he not experienced it, he would have no conception
of it. Just as a man who was blind from birth and so had no experience
of white and black is not able to have a conception of colour, so god
would not be able to have a conception of suffering had he not experienced
it. 164. For when we, having often experienced suffering, are not able
to understand clearly the peculiar nature of the pain suffered by those
who have gout, nor to draw the proper conclusion from their descriptions,
nor to get a consistent story from those who have suffered, since they
explain it differently (some describe it as a twisting, others as a bending,
others as a stabbing), how could god, who is totally free from suffering,
be able to have a conception of it? - Yes, by Zeus! they say; god has not experienced suffering, but
rather only pleasure, and from this he derives a conception of the opposite.