Chapter VI.

Believe, then, your own books, and as to our Scriptures so much the more believe writings which are divine, but in the witness of the soul itself give like confidence to Nature. Choose the one of these you observe to be the most faithful friend of truth. If your own writings are distrusted, neither God nor Nature lie. And if you would have faith in God and Nature, have faith in the soul; thus you will believe yourself. Certainly you value the soul as giving you your true greatness,—that to which you belong; which is all things to you; without which you can neither live nor die; on whose account you even put God away from you. Since, then, you fear to become a Christian, call the soul before you, and put her to the question. Why does she worship another? why name the name of God? Why does she speak of demons, when she means to denote spirits to be held accursed? Why does she make her protestations towards the heavens, and pronounce her ordinary execrations earthwards? Why does she render service in one place, in another invoke the Avenger? Why does she pass judgments on the dead? What Christian phrases are those she has got, though Christians she neither desires to see nor hear? Why has she either bestowed them on us, or received them from us?  Why has she either taught us them, or learned them as our scholar? Regard with suspicion this accordance in words, while there is such difference in practice. It is utter folly—denying a universal nature—to ascribe this exclusively to our language and the Greek, which are regarded among us as so near akin. The soul is not a boon from heaven to Latins and Greeks alone. Man is the one name belonging to every nation upon earth: there is one soul and many tongues, one spirit and various sounds; every country has its own speech, but the subjects of speech are common to all.  God is everywhere, and the goodness of God is everywhere; demons are everywhere, and the cursing of them is everywhere; the invocation of divine judgment is everywhere, death is everywhere, and the sense of death is everywhere, and all the world over is found the witness of the soul. There is not a soul of man that does not, from the light that is in itself, proclaim the very things we are not permitted to speak above our breath. Most justly, then, every soul is a culprit as well as a witness: in the measure that it testifies for truth, the guilt of error lies on it; and on the day of judgment it will stand before the courts of God, without a word to say.  Thou proclaimedst God, O soul, but thou didst not seek to know Him: evil spirits were detested by thee, and yet they were the objects of thy adoration; the punishments of hell were foreseen by thee, but no care was taken to avoid them; thou hadst a savour of Christianity, and withal wert the persecutor of Christians.

CAPUT VI. Crede itaque tuis, et de commentariis nostris tanto magis crede divinis, sed de animae ipsius arbitrio perinde crede naturae. Elige quam ex his fidelius sororem observes veritatis . Si de tuis litteris dubitas, neque Deus, neque natura mentitur: ut et naturae et Deo credas, crede animae; ita fiet, ut et tibi credas. Illa certe est, quam tanti facis, quantum illa te facit: cujus es totus; quae tibi omnia est; sine qua nec vivere potes nec mori; propter quam Deum negligis . Quum enim times fieri christianus, 0618A eam conveni: cur alium colens, Deum nominat? Cur, cum maledicendos spiritus denotat, daemonia pronuntiat? Cur ad coelum contestatur , et ad terram detestatur? Cur alibi servit, alibi vindicem convenit ? Cur de mortuis judicat? Cur verba habet Christianorum, quos ne auditos visosque vult? Cur aut nobis dedit ea verba, aut accepit a nobis? Cur aut docuit, aut didicit? Suspectam habe convenientiam praedicationis in tanta disconvenientia conversationis. Vanus es, si huic linguae soli aut graecae, quae propinquae inter se habentur , reputabis ejusmodi, ut neges naturae universitatem. Non Latinis nec Argivis solis anima de coelo cadit. Omnium gentium unus homo nomen est ., una anima, varia vox, unus spiritus, varius sonus; propria 0618B cuique genti loquela, sed loquelae materia communis. Deus ubique , et bonitas Dei ubique; daemonium ubique, et maledictio daemonii ubique, judicii divini invocatio ubique, mors ubique, et conscientia mortis ubique et testimonium ubique. Omnis anima suo jure proclamat, quae nobis ne mutire conceditur. Merito igitur omnis anima rea et testis est, in tantum et rea erroris, in quantum testis veritatis; et stabit ante aulas Dei die judicii, nihil habens dicere. Deum praedicabas, et non requirebas; daemonia abominabaris, et illa adorabas, judicium Dei appellabas, nec esse credebas; inferna supplicia praesumebas, et non praecavebas; Christianum nomen sapiebas et Christianum persequebaris.