Chapter II.

We give offence by proclaiming that there is one God, to whom the name of God alone belongs, from whom all things come, and who is Lord of the whole universe.1    [The student of Plato will recall such evidence, readily. See The Laws, in Jowett’s Translation, vol. iv. p. 416. Also Elucidation I.] Bear thy testimony, if thou knowest this to be the truth; for openly and with a perfect liberty, such as we do not possess, we hear thee both in private and in public exclaim, “Which may God grant,” and, “If God so will.” By expressions such as these thou declarest that there is one who is distinctively God, and thou confessest that all power belongs to him to whose will, as Sovereign, thou dost look. At the same time, too, thou deniest any others to be truly gods, in calling them by their own names of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Minerva; for thou affirmest Him to be God alone to whom thou givest no other name than God; and though thou sometimes callest these others gods, thou plainly usest the designation as one which does not really belong to them, but is, so to speak, a borrowed one. Nor is the nature of the God we declare unknown to thee: “God is good, God does good,” thou art wont to say; plainly suggesting further, “But man is evil.” In asserting an antithetic proposition, thou, in a sort of indirect and figurative way, reproachest man with his wickedness in departing from a God so good. So, again, as among us, as belonging to the God of benignity and goodness, “Blessing” is a most sacred act in our religion and our life, thou too sayest as readily as a Christian needs, “God bless thee;” and when thou turnest the blessing of God into a curse, in like manner thy very words confess with us that His power over us is absolute and entire. There are some who, though they do not deny the existence of God, hold withal that He is neither Searcher, nor Ruler, nor Judge; treating with especial disdain those of us who go over to Christ out of fear of a coming judgment, as they think, honouring God in freeing Him from the cares of keeping watch, and the trouble of taking note,—not even regarding Him as capable of anger. For if God, they say, gets angry, then He is susceptible of corruption and passion; but that of which passion and corruption can be affirmed may also perish, which God cannot do. But these very persons elsewhere, confessing that the soul is divine, and bestowed on us by God, stumble against a testimony of the soul itself, which affords an answer to these views. For if either divine or God-given, it doubtless knows its giver; and if it knows Him, it undoubtedly fears Him too, and especially as having been by Him endowed so amply. Has it no fear of Him whose favour it is so desirous to possess, and whose anger it is so anxious to avoid? Whence, then, the soul’s natural fear of God, if God cannot be angry? How is there any dread of Him whom nothing offends? What is feared but anger? Whence comes anger, but from observing what is done? What leads to watchful oversight, but judgment in prospect? Whence is judgment, but from power? To whom does supreme authority and power belong, but to God alone? So thou art always ready, O soul, from thine own knowledge, nobody casting scorn upon thee, and no one preventing, to exclaim, “God sees all,” and “I commend thee to God,” and “May God repay,” and “God shall judge between us.” How happens this, since thou art not Christian? How is it that, even with the garland of Ceres on the brow, wrapped in the purple cloak of Saturn, wearing the white robe of the goddess Isis, thou invokest God as judge? Standing under the statue of Æsculapius, adorning the brazen image of Juno, arraying the helmet of Minerva with dusky figures, thou never thinkest of appealing to any of these deities. In thine own forum thou appealest to a God who is elsewhere; thou permittest honour to be rendered in thy temples to a foreign god. Oh, striking testimony to truth, which in the very midst of demons obtains a witness for us Christians!

CAP. II. Non placemus, Dominum praedicantes hoc nomine unico unicum, a quo omnia, et sub quo universa. Dic testimonium si ita scis. Nam te quoque palam et tota libertate, qua non licet nobis, domi ac foris audimus ita pronuntiare, Quod Deus dederit, et, Si Deus voluerit, ea voce et aliquem esse significas, et omnem illi confiteris potestatem, ad cujus spectas voluntatem, simul et caeteros negas deos esse, dum suis vocabulis nuncupas, Saturnum, Jovem, Martem, Minervam. Nam solum Deum confirmas, quem tantum Deum nominas, ut et cum illos interdum deos appellas, de alieno et quasi pro mutuo usa videaris. De natura quoque Dei quem praedicamus, 0611B nec te latet: Deus bonus est , Deus benefacit, tua vox est. Plane ea dicis, sed homo malus scilicet , contraria propositione oblique et figuraliter exprobrans, ideo malum hominem, quia a Deo bono abscesserit. Etiam quod penes Deum bonitatis et benignitatis omnis benedictio inter nos summum sit disciplinae et conversationis sacramentum, Benedicat te Deus, tam facile pronuntias, quam christiano necesse est. At cum in maledictum convertis benedictionem Dei, perinde dicto omnem super nos potestatem ejus consistere secundum nos confiteris. Sunt, qui etsi Deum non negent, dispectorem plane et arbitrum, et judicem non putent: in quo utique nos maxime rejiciunt, qui ad istam disciplinam metu praedicati judicii transvolamus; sic 0611C Deum honorantes , dum curis observationis, et molestiis animadversionis absolvunt, cui ne iram quidem 0612A adscribunt. Nam si Deus (inquiunt) irascitur, corruptibilis et passionalis est. Porro quod patitur, quodque corrumpitur, etiam interitum potest capere, quem Deus non capit. At iidem alibi animam divinam et a Deo conlatam confitentes, cadunt in testimonium ipsius animae, retorquendum adversus opinionem superiorem. Si enim anima aut divina aut a Deo data est, sine dubio datorem suum novit. Et si novit, utique et timet, ut tantum postremo auctorem . An non timet, quem magis propitium velit, quam iratum? Unde igitur naturalis timor animae in Deum, si Deus non novit irasci? Quomodo timetur, qui nescit offendi? Quid timetur, nisi ira ? unde ira, nisi ex animadversione? Unde animadversio, nisi de Dei judicio? Unde judicium, nisi de potestate? Cujus 0612B potestas summa, nisi Dei solius? Hinc ergo tibi anima de conscientia suppetit domi ac foris, nullo irridente vel prohibente praedicare, Deus videt omnia, et Deo commendo, et Deus reddet, et Deus inter nos jubicabit. Unde hoc tibi non Christianae? Atque id plerumque et vitta Cereris redimita , et pallio Saturni coccinata et deae Isidis linteata ? In ipsis denique templis Deum judicem imploras, sub Esculapio stans, Junonem in aere exorans , Minervae calceans furvis galeam formis , et neminem de praesentibus deis contestaris; in tuo foro aliunde judicem appellas, in tuis templis alium deum pateris. O testimonium veritatis, quae apud ipsa daemonia testem efficit christianorum.