On the Sole Government of God (complete)

Human nature at the beginning received a union of understanding and salvation, for the knowledge of truth and for the worship of the one Lord of all; but envy crept in and turned the surpassing greatness of men aside to the making of idols; and the superfluous custom, having lasted a long time, hands down the error to the many as if it were natural and true. It is the work of a lover of men, or rather of a lover of God, to remind those who have neglected what they ought to know. For the truth by itself was sufficient to show, from the things contained under the vault of heaven, the order of the one who created them. But forgetfulness, through the long-suffering of God, gained mastery over the minds of men and acted recklessly, transferring to mortals the name fitting only for the true God; and from a few the many caught the infection of wickedness, darkened by the custom of the crowd in their knowledge of what is firm and unchangeable. For those who at the beginning performed rites and services in honour of those who were more powerful brought forgetfulness of the universal belief upon those after them. But I, as I undertook a little before, with a God-loving mind, will use a man-loving voice, and set before those who have understanding (which all ought to have who make use of the government of the universe) that they should hold the worship of him who knows all things unchanging. This I will do not by adorning it with words, but by using proof from the ancient poetry of the whole of Greek history, from writings given to all in common. For those who handed down the worship of idols as a law to the many will be refuted as ignorant, learning it from them, by their own poets and lyric writers.

First Aeschylus, setting out the composition of his own words, also uttered this saying about the only God: "Set God apart from mortals, and do not think that he is fleshly like yourself. You do not know him: at one time he appears as fire, unapproachable in his onset, at another as water, at another he becomes like wild beasts, like wind, cloud, lightning, thunder, rain. The sea serves him, and the rocks, and every spring and gathering of water. The mountains tremble, and the earth, and the vast depth of the sea, and the great height of the hills, whenever the fearsome eye of the Master looks upon them. For he can do all things; this is the glory of the highest God." And not only was he initiated into the knowledge of God, but Sophocles too recounts the order of the only Maker of the universe, the one God, thus: "One, in truth, one is God, who made heaven and the broad earth, the grey-blue swell of the sea and the might of the winds. But we mortals, many of us straying in heart, set up as consolations for our pains images of gods of stone or bronze, or figures wrought of gold or ivory; and furnishing these with sacrifices and fine festivals, we think we are pious so." And Philemon too, well versed in setting out ancient things, shares in the knowledge of what truly is, as he writes: "What kind of God, tell me, must we hold? The one who sees all things but is himself unseen." And Orpheus too, who introduces the three hundred and sixty gods, will bear witness for me in the book entitled Testaments, where he evidently repents of this, from what he writes: "I will speak to those for whom it is lawful; shut the doors, you profane, all alike; but you, hear, Musaeus, child of the light-bearing Moon; for I will declare the truth; and let not what appeared before in your breast rob you of your dear life; but looking to the divine Word, attend to it, directing the intelligent vessel of your heart; walk well on the path, and look only to the King of the world. He is one, self-begotten; all things are born, offspring of the one; and he himself goes about among them; nor does any mortal see him, but he sees all. He gives to mortals evil after good, and chilling war and tearful pains; nor is there any other besides the great King. Him I do not see, for a cloud is set about him; for in all mortals there are mortal pupils in their eyes, too weak to see Zeus who rules all. For he is established in the bronze heaven on a golden throne, and treads the earth with his feet; and he has stretched out his right hand over all the bounds of Ocean; and around him the great mountains tremble, and the rivers, and the depth of the grey-blue sea." And he speaks thus as if he had been an eyewitness of the greatness of God. And Pythagoras too agrees with him, when he writes: "If anyone says, I am God, besides the One, he ought to set up a world equal to this one and say, This is mine; and not only set it up and say, Mine, but also dwell in it himself, in what he has made; and it has been made by him."

And concerning this, that he alone is able to institute judgment both on the deeds done in life and on ignorance concerning the divine, I can set witnesses of your own around me; and first Sophocles, who says also about this: "For there will come, there will come that span of the ages, when the golden-faced ether will open its treasure filled with fire, and the flame, feeding on it, will rage and burn all things on earth and in the heights. And when the universe fails, the whole depth of the waves will be gone, the earth will be bare of trees, and the air, set on fire, will no longer bear the winged tribes. For we think there are two paths in Hades, one the road of the righteous, the other of the unrighteous. … he will save … what he destroyed before." And Philemon again: "Do you think, Nicostratus, that the dead, who shared every luxury in life, (expect) the earth to cover them … for all time, (and) to have escaped the divine notice, as though they had lain hidden? There is an eye of Justice, which sees all things. For if the righteous and the ungodly are to have one (end), go off and seize, steal, rob, stir things up. Make no mistake: there is judgment in Hades too, which God, the master of all, will execute, whose name is fearful, and I would not even name it." And Euripides: "… he gives an ungrudging length of life for judgment. And whoever of mortals thinks that, doing some evil day by day, he escapes God's notice, thinks wickedly and, so thinking, is caught, when Justice happens to be at leisure. See, you who think there is no God, sinning doubly and without good sense: for there is, there is (a God); and if someone who is evil by nature prospers, let him make gain of the time; for in time he will later pay the penalty."

And that God is not won over by the libation and incense of evildoers, but assigns punishments to each in uprightness, Philemon again will bear witness for me: "If anyone, Pamphilus, offering sacrifice, a multitude of bulls or kids, or, by Zeus, of other such things, or works of art, making golden or purple robes, or figures of ivory or emerald, thinks that God has become well disposed, he is mistaken and has a light mind. For a man must be useful, not corrupting virgins and committing adultery, stealing and slaughtering for money's sake, looking at what belongs to others and coveting … a wife, a costly house, property, a boy or a slave girl, in short, horses, oxen, or any beasts. What, then? Do not desire even a needle's thread, Pamphilus; for God sees you, being near; he delights in righteous deeds, not unrighteous ones, and lets the one who labours raise up his own life, ploughing the earth night and day. Sacrifice to God continually by being righteous, splendid not in your robes but in your heart. When you hear thunder, do not flee far away, master, being conscious of nothing against yourself; for God sees you, being near." And again Plato in the Timaeus: "But if anyone, examining these things by deed, should put them to the test, he would be ignorant of the difference between human and divine nature: that God is able to mix many things into one and again to dissolve one into many, as having knowledge and power together; but no man is able to do either of these, either now or ever hereafter."

And about those who seem to some to share in the holy and perfect name, which some have carried off for themselves by a vain tradition as if they were God, Menander in the Charioteer says: "No god pleases me who walks about outside with an old woman, or enters houses on a little board; the righteous God must stay at home, saving those who have set him up." The same Menander in the Priestess: "No god, woman, saves one man through another; for if one draws the god with cymbals where he wishes, the one who does this is greater than the god. But these, Rhode, are instruments of daring and of livelihood invented by shameless men, fashioned to be a laughing-stock in life." And again in the Hated Man, the same Menander, declaring the opinions of those who are taken as gods, or rather proving that they are not: "For if I saw this, I would take back my soul again. For now where, Getas, can one find gods so just?" And in the Deposit: "There is unjust judgment, it seems, even among the gods." And Euripides the tragic poet in the Orestes: "Phoebus, who commanded me to do my mother's murder … ; we are slaves to the gods, whatever the gods are … You see Apollo, who dwells in the seat at the navel of the earth and gives mortals the clearest oracle, whom we obey in whatever he says; obeying him I killed her who bore me. Consider him unholy, and kill him; he sinned, not I. What should I do? Is not the god … able to remove the defilement?" And the same in the Hippolytus: "But the gods do not judge these things rightly." And in the Ion: "But what is the daughter of Erechtheus to me? She is nothing to me. But going with golden pitchers to the sprinklers I will pour the water. I must admonish Phoebus: what is he doing? Does he force maidens and betray them? Begetting children in secret, does he neglect them as they die? Not so; but since you have power, pursue virtue. For whatever mortal is bad, the gods punish him. How, then, is it just that you, who wrote laws for mortals, should yourselves incur the charge of lawlessness? But if (it will not happen, but I will use the argument) you shall pay penalties to men for violent unions, you and Poseidon, and Zeus who rules heaven, you will empty your temples paying for your wrongs. For in pursuing your pleasures beyond forethought you do wrong. It is no longer right to call men bad, if we imitate the evils of the gods, but those who taught them these things." And in …: "Much, O stranger, do the gods trip men up." And in the Bellerophon: "If gods do anything base, they are not gods." And again in the same: "Does someone say there are gods in heaven? There are not, there are not, if a man will not foolishly use the old argument. Consider it yourselves, not resting on my words. I say that tyranny kills very many and robs them of possessions, and that oath-breakers sack cities; and doing these things they are happier than those who live piously and quietly day by day. And I know small cities that honour the gods, which are subject to greater, more impious ones, overpowered by a greater number of spears. I think that if one of you, being idle, prayed to the gods and did not gather his living by his hand, … ; it is evil misfortunes that build up (reverence for) the divine." And Menander in the Diphilus: "Therefore (honour) the one who is always lord of all, and father, him alone to the end, the inventor and maker of so many goods." The same in the Fishermen: "What nourishes me, this I judge to be God …" The same in the Brothers: "God is always with the good; for mind, it seems, (is God) for the wisest." And in the Flute-girls: "Everything is sacred to the good word; for mind is the god who will speak." In the Phrixus the tragic poet: "If the pious … fared the same as the most impious, how would this be well, if Zeus, the most just, does not think justly?" In the Philoctetes: "You see how among the gods gain is admired, and the one who has most gold in the temples is admired. What then prevents you too from taking gain, when it is possible to be made like the gods?" In the Hecuba: "Zeus, whoever you are, Zeus, for I do not know you except by report, whether necessity of nature or mind of mortals, I have prayed to you."

Here, then, is the test of virtue and of a mind that loves understanding: to run back to the fellowship of the original union, to attach oneself to understanding for salvation, and to choose the better choice, as befits the free will that lies in man; not considering those who are subject to human passions to be lords of the universe, when they will not even appear to be equal to men. For in Homer Demodocus says that he is self-taught, "and God put songs into my heart," though he is mortal. Asclepius and Apollo are taught to heal by Chiron the centaur, a most novel thing, gods taught by a man. Why should I go on about Dionysus, whom the poet calls mad, or Heracles, whom he also calls wretched? And why should I proclaim Ares and Aphrodite, the leaders in adultery, and bring judgment from all these upon those who are put on show? For if anyone, not having learned it, should imitate the deeds told of the so-called gods, he would be reckoned among the counterfeits, alien to life and humanity; but if he knew it, he will have a plausible escape from punishment, showing that the imitation of the gods' bold deeds is not lawlessness. But if anyone should blame the deeds, he will do away also with the names known from them, and will not cover them with plausible and glib speeches. One must embrace the true and unchangeable name, proclaimed not only by my voice but also by those who introduced us to the beginning of education, so that, having idly finished our time of life here, we may not render our account to the Judge not only as ignorant of the heavenly glory but also as ungrateful.