§2Non placemus deum praedicantes hoc nomine unico unicum, a quo omnia et sub quo uniuersa.
We do not please [people] when we preach God as unique under this unique name, from whom all things [come] and under whom are all things.
dic testimonium, si ita scis.
Give testimony, if you know it to be so.
nam te quoque palam et tota libertate, qua non licet nobis, domi ac foris audimus ita pronuntiare, quod deus dederit, et, si deus uoluerit. ea uoce et aliquem esse significas et omnem illi confiteris potestatem, ad cuius spectas uoluntatem, simul et ceteros negas deos esse, dum suis uocabulis nuncupas, Saturnum, Iouem, Martem, Mineruam.
For we hear you too, openly and with all liberty which is not permitted to us, at home and abroad, pronouncing thus: 'What God has given,' and, 'If God wills.' By this expression you both signify that someone exists and confess that all power belongs to him, to whose will you look, and at the same time you deny that the others are gods, while you call them by their own names: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Minerva.
nam solum deum confirmas quem tantum deum nominas, ut, cum et illos interdum deos appellas, de alieno et quasi pro mutuo usa uidearis.
For you confirm that he alone is God whom you call only 'God', so that, when you sometimes call those others 'gods', you seem to use [the word] as a borrowed one and as if on loan.
de natura quoque dei, quem praedicamus, nec te latet.
Nor is the nature of the God whom we preach hidden from you.
deus bonus, deus benefacit tua uox est.
'God is good', 'God does good' is your own voice.
plane, adicis, sed homo malus, scilicet contraria propositione oblique et figuraliter exprobrans ideo malum hominemnem, quia a deo bono abscesserit.
Clearly, you add, 'but man is evil,' namely, by a contrary proposition obliquely and figuratively reproaching man as evil for this reason, because he has departed from the good God.
etiam, quod penes deum bobonitatis et benignitatis omnis benedictio inter nos summum sit disdisciplinae et conuersationis sacramentum, benedicatt te deus tam facile pronuntias quam Christiano necesse est, at cum in maledictum conuertis benedictionem dei, perinde dicto omnem super nos potestatem eius consistere secundum nos confiteris.
Furthermore, as to the fact that with God [the source] of all goodness and kindness, blessing is among us the highest sacrament of our discipline and life, you pronounce 'May God bless you' as easily as is necessary for a Christian; but when you turn the blessing of God into a curse, you likewise confess by that saying, in agreement with us, that his entire power over us exists.
sunt qui etsi deum non negent, dispectorem plane et arbitrum et iudicem non putenttent, in quo utique nos maxime reiciunt, qui ad istam disciplinam metu praedicati iudicii transuolamus, sic deum honorantesrantes, dum curis obseruationis et molestiis animaduersionis absoluunt, cui ne iram quidem adscribunt.
There are some who, though they do not deny God, clearly do not think him an observer, arbiter, and judge—in which point indeed they especially reject us, who fly over to this discipline through fear of the preached judgment— thus honoring God, while they absolve him from the cares of supervision and the troubles of punishment, to whom they do not even ascribe anger.
nam si deus, inquiunt, irascitur, corruptibilis et passionalis est: porro quod patitur quodque corrumpitur etiam interitum potest capere, quem deus non capit.
For if God, they say, is angry, he is corruptible and subject to passion; furthermore, that which suffers and which is corrupted can also receive destruction, which God does not receive.
at idem alibi animam diuinam et a deo conlatam confitentes cadunt in testimonium ipsius animae retorquendum aduersus opinionem superiorem.
But these same people, confessing elsewhere that the soul is divine and bestowed by God, fall into a testimony of the soul itself which must be twisted back against their own former opinion.
si eenim anima aut diuina aut a deo data est, sine dubio datorem suum nouit, et si nouit, utique et timet, et tantum postremo adauctorem.
For if the soul is either divine or given by God, without doubt she knows her giver; and if she knows him, she surely also fears him, and that finally as her great creator.
an non timet quem magis propitium uelit quam iratum? unde igitur naturalis timor animae in deum, si deus non nouit irasci? quomodo timetur qui nescit offendi? quid timetur, nisi ira? unde ira, nisi ex animaduersione? unde animaduersio, nisi de iudicio? undede iudicium, nisi de potestate? cuius potestas summa, nisi dei solius? hinc ergo tibi, anima, de conscientia suppetit domi ac foris nullo irridente, uel prohibente praedicare, deus uidet omnia, et deo commendo, et deus reddet, et deus inter nos iudicabit.
Or does she not fear him whom she would wish to be propitious rather than angry? Whence then is the natural fear of the soul toward God, if God does not know how to be angry? How is he feared who does not know how to be offended? What is feared, if not anger? Whence is anger, if not from punishment? Whence is punishment, if not from judgment? Whence is judgment, if not from power? Whose is the supreme power, if not of God alone? Hence therefore, O soul, it is supplied to you from your conscience, at home and abroad, with no one mocking or preventing, to preach: 'God sees all things,' and 'I commend to God,' and 'God will repay,' and 'God will judge between us.' Whence have you this, you who are not a Christian?
unde tibi hoc non Christianae? atque adeo plerumque et uitta Cereris redimita, et pallio Saturniturni coccinata, et deae Isidis linteata, in ipsis denique temtemplis deum iudicem imploras.
And even, for the most part, though crowned with the fillet of Ceres, clothed in the scarlet cloak of Saturn, and wrapped in the linen of the goddess Isis, finally in the very temples themselves you implore God as judge.
sub Aesculapio stas, Iunonemnonem in aere exornas, Mineruam † calcias furuis galeam formis, et neminemem de praesentibus deis contestaris.
You stand under Aesculapius, you deck out Juno in bronze, you shoe Minerva with dark-colored helmet shapes, and yet you call as witness none of these present gods.
in tuo foro aliunde iudicem appellas, in tuis templis alium deum pateris.
In your own forum you call a judge from elsewhere, in your own temples you suffer another God.
o testimoniumnium ueritueritatis, quae apud ipsa daemonia te testem efficit Christianorum!
O testimony of truth, which in the presence of the very demons makes you a witness for the Christians!
§3Enimero cum daemonia affirmamus esse, sane, quasi non et probemuss, qui ea solis de corporibus exigimus, aliqui Chrysippi adsentator inludit.
Indeed, when we affirm that demons exist, as if indeed we do not also prove it—we who drive them out of bodies alone—some flatterer of Chrysippus mocks us.
ea et esse et abominationem sustinere execrationes tuae respondent.
That they both exist and bear abomination, your own curses answer.
daemonium uocas hominem aut immundiimmunditia aut malitia aut insolentia aut quacumque macula quam nos daemoniis deputamus ad necessitatem odiiii inportunum.
You call a man a 'demon' who is troublesome, whether by uncleanness or malice or insolence or any stain which we impute to demons, to the necessity of hatred.
Satanan denique in omni uexatione et aspernatione et detestatione pronuntias, quem nos dicimus malitiae angelum, totius erroris artificem, totius saeculi interpolatorem, per quem homo a priprimordio circumuentus, ut praeceptum dei excederet, et propterea in mortem datus exinde totum genus de suo semine infectum suae etiam damnationis traducem fecit.
Finally, in every vexation, aversion, and detestation, you pronounce 'Satan', whom we call the angel of malice, the author of all error, the corrupter of the whole world, through whom man from the beginning was circumvented so that he transgressed the command of God, and being therefore given over to death, from then on made the whole race, infected from his seed, the transmitter of his own condemnation.
sentis igitur perditoremtorem tuum, et licet soli illum nouerint Christiani uel quaecumque apud dominum secta, et tu tamen eum nosti, dum odisti.
You feel, therefore, your destroyer; and although only Christians or whatever sect is with the Lord know him, yet you also know him, while you hate him.