Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

32 THE GODS OF THE NATIONSson demands imperatively the unity of the godhead,since infinite power at least enters into theconception of the godhead, and to divide or limitinfinity is an unreason. All the great works andorder of the world bore witness likewise to thisunity of the godhead, and were sufficient to proveit ;30 and even in the worst times of paganism wefind this proof exhibited with a force and lucidityto which even now little can be added. And inthe worst times, again, we find the natural witnessof the human soul breaking out in momentsof sudden trial or great anguish, and calling uponthe one God for help.31 Yet in spite of this wesee whole nations renowned for their intellectualproductions, and men among them in whom theforce of reason has rarely or never been surpassed,bowing their necks to this yoke of poly theism, andaccepting this tissue of monstrous error, payinghomage to it in their life, and dying with it ontheir lips ; as Socrates offering the cock to JEscu-lapius, and Seneca the libation to Jove the liberator.We know not how to account for this,were man's reason left alone.We can see an adequateground for it only in "men having beenmade unreasonable, and in the demoniacal errorovershadowing the earth, and concealing the knowledgeof«the true God.32m 20. See the Stoical argument for the unity of the deityin Cic. de Nat. Deor. 2.31 Tertullian de Testimonio Anima, 2.32 O#ro? roivvvvra> rr?)S