Chapter XIX.—The Proof that This God is the True God.

27. But that must have been a vain necessity and a ridiculous timidity.73    Or, Away with that vain necessity and ridiculous timidity—Sed fuerit ista vana necessitas, etc. We ask now what opinion regarding this God is formed by those men whose pleasure it is that all gods ought to be worshipped. For if He ought not to be worshipped, how are all worshipped when He is not worshipped? And if He ought to be worshipped, it cannot be that all others are to be worshipped along with Him. For unless He is worshipped alone, He is really not worshipped at all. Or may it perhaps be the case, that they will allege Him to be no God at all, while they call those gods who, as we believe, have no power to do anything except so far as permission is given them by His judgment,—have not merely no power to do good to any one, but no power even to do harm to any, except to those who are judged by Him, who possesses all power, to merit so to be harmed? But, as they themselves are compelled to admit, those deities have shown less power than He has done. For if those are held to be gods whose prophets, when consulted by men, have returned responses which, that I may not call them false, were at least most convenient for their private interests, how is not He to be regarded as God whose prophets have not only given the congruous answer on subjects regarding which they were consulted at the special time, but who also, in the case of subjects respecting which they were not consulted, and which related to the universal race of man and all nations, have announced prophetically so long time before the event those very things of which we now read, and which indeed we now behold? If they gave the name of god to that being under whose inspiration the Sibyl sung of the fates74    Reading fata. Seven mss. give facta = deeds. of the Romans, how is not He (to be called) God, who, in accordance with the announcement aforetime given, has shown us how the Romans and all nations are coming to believe in Himself through the gospel of Christ, as the one God, and to demolish all the images of their fathers? Finally, if they designate those as gods who have never dared through their prophets to say anything against this God, how is not He (to be designated) God, who not only commanded by the mouth of His prophets the destruction of their images, but who also predicted that among all the Gentiles they would be destroyed by those who should be enjoined to abandon their idols and to worship Him alone, and who, on receiving these injunctions, should be His servants?75    [This reference to the destruction of idols has been used to fix the date of the Harmony; see Introductory Notice of translator. The polemic character of the larger part of Book i. seems due to the circumstances of that particular period in North Africa.—R.]

CAPUT XIX. Hunc esse verum Deum.

27. Sed fuerit ista vana necessitas, et ridenda timiditas: nunc quaerimus quid de isto Deo sentiant homines, quibus placet omnes deos colendos esse. Si enim iste colendus non est, quomodo coluntur omnes, cum iste non colitur? si autem colendus est, non omnes colendi sunt; quia nisi solus colatur, iste non colitur. An forte dicturi sunt istum non esse Deum, cum illos deos dicant, qui, sicut nos credimus, nihil possunt, nisi quod illius judicio permittuntur; non ut alicui prosint, sed ut nec laedere valeant, nisi eos quos ita laedendos esse ille judicat, qui omnia potest? Sicut autem ipsi coguntur fateri, minora certe quam ille potuerunt. Si enim dii sunt, quorum vates consulti ab hominibus, ut non dicam fefellerunt, proxima tamen privatis negotiis responderunt; quomodo non est Deus, cujus vates non solum ea quae ad tempus consulebantur congrue responderunt, verum etiam unde non consulebantur de universo genere humano, atque omnibus gentibus ea tanto ante praedixerunt, quae nunc et legimus et videmus? Si Deum dicunt, quo impleta Sibylla fata cecinit Romanorum; quomodo non est Deus, qui et Romanos et omnes nationes in se unum Deum per Christi Evangelium credituras, et omnia patrum suorum simulacra eversuras, sicut praenuntiavit, exhibuit? Postremo, si illos deos dicunt, qui nunquam ausi sunt per vates suos contra istum Deum aliquid dicere; quomodo non est Deus qui per vates suos istorum simulacra non solum everti jussit, verum etiam in omnibus Gentibus eversum iri praedixit ab eis qui illis desertis se unum colere juberentur, et jussi famularentur?