Chapter XXXIV.—Epilogue to the Preceding.

52. Much more might I say on this subject, were it not that the requirements of the task which I have undertaken compel me to conclude this book, and revert to the object originally proposed. When, indeed, I took it in hand to solve those problems of the Gospels which meet us where the four evangelists, as it seems to certain critics, fail to harmonize with each other, by setting forth to the best of my ability the particular designs which they severally have in view, I was met first by the necessity of discussing a question which some are accustomed to bring before us,—the question, namely, as to the reason why we cannot produce any writings composed by Christ Himself. For their aim is to get Him credited with the writing of some other composition, I know not of what sort, which may be suitable to their inclinations, and with having indulged in no sentiments of antagonism to their gods, but rather with having paid respect to them in a kind of magical worship; and their wish is also to get it believed that His disciples not only gave a false account of Him when they declared Him to be the God by whom all things were made, while He was really nothing more than a man, although certainly a man of the most exalted wisdom, but also that they taught with regard to these gods of theirs something different from what they had themselves learned from Him. This is how it happens that we have been engaged preferentially in pressing them with arguments concerning the God of Israel, who is now worshipped by all nations through the medium of the Church of the Christians, who is also subverting their sacrilegious vanities the whole world over, exactly as He announced by the mouth of the prophets so long ago, and who has now fulfilled those predictions by the name of Christ, in whom He had promised that all nations should be blessed. And from all this they ought to understand that Christ could neither have known nor taught anything else with regard to their gods than what was enjoined and foretold by the God of Israel through the agency of these prophets of His by whom He promised, and ultimately sent, this very Christ, in whose name, according to the promise given to the fathers, when all nations were pronounced blessed, it has come to pass that this same God of Israel should be called the God of the whole earth. By this, too, they ought to see that His disciples did not depart from the doctrine of their Master when they forbade the worship of the gods of the Gentiles, with the view of preventing us from addressing our supplications to insensate images, or from having fellowship with demons, or from serving the creature rather than the Creator with the homage of religious worship.

CAPUT XXXIV. Epilogus superiorum.

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52. Multa hinc dicerem, nisi me jam librum istum concludere, atque ad propositam intentionem redire, suscepti operis necessitas cogeret. Cum enim evangelicas quaestiones, ubi videntur quibusdam quatuor Evangelistae non inter se constare, solvere aggrederer, ut potui expositis intentionibus singulorum, primo mihi discutiendum occurrit, quod nonnulli quaerere solent, cur ipsius Christi nulla scripta proferamus. Ita enim volunt et ipsum credi nescio quid aliud scripsisse quod diligunt, nihilque sensisse contra deos suos, sed eos potius magico ritu coluisse: et discipulos ejus non solum de illo fuisse mentitos, dicendo illum Deum per quem facta sunt omnia, cum aliud nihil quam homo fuerit, quamvis excellentissimae sapientiae; verum etiam de diis eorum non hoc docuisse quod ab illo didicissent. Unde factum est ut eos de Deo Israel potius urgeremus, qui per Ecclesiam Christianorum ab omnibus gentibus colitur, et istorum sacrilegas vanitates ubique jam evertit, sicut per Prophetas suos tanto ante praedixit, et per Christi nomen, in quo benedici omnes gentes promiserat, ea quae praedixit, implevit. Ex quo intelligere debent nec Christum aliud de diis eorum vel nosse vel docere potuisse, quam Deus Israel per Prophetas suos jussit atque praedixit, per quos ipsum Christum promisit et misit; in cujus nomine secundum pollicitationem quam Patribus fecit, cum benedicerentur omnes gentes, factum est ut et ipse Deus Israel, universae terrae vocaretur: nec discipulos ejus a sui magistri doctrina deviasse, cum deos Gentium coli prohiberent, ne vel insensatis simulacris supplicaremus, vel societatem cum daemoniis haberemus, vel creaturae potius quam Creatori religionis obsequio serviremus.