On the Unchangeableness of God (16-18)

But some persons, through their self-love, have incurred not only defeat but even death also. At all events Onan, "knowing that the seed should not be his," [*] did not desist from injuring the rational principle, which is the best thing in kind of all existing things, until he himself met with utter destruction. And this, too, very properly and deservedly;

for if some men do all things for the sake of themselves alone, not with a view to the honour of their parents, or the proper regulation of their children, or the salvation of their country, or the guardianship of the laws, or the preservation of good morals, or with a view to the due performance of any public or private duty, or of a proper celebration of sacred rites, or the pious worship due to the gods, they will be deservedly miserable.

For the sake of one of the objects which I have mentioned, it is glorious even to quit life itself. But these men say that, unless they are likely to gain some pleasure by the pursuit of them, they would disregard the whole lot of them— glorious objects as they are. Therefore, the incorruptible God banishes the wicked exposition of unnatural opinion, which is named Onan.