Chapter 11

§ 1.

And whereas on the one hand they refuse to believe that He Who is God over all did in the regions which belong to Him make by His Word at His own will things various and unlike,¹ He being the Maker of all, as a wise Master builder, and very mighty King, while on the other hand, they believe that Angels, or some Virtue separate from God, and ignorant of Him, made this Universe:—in this way, you see, disbelieving the truth and wallowing in a lie, they have lost the Bread of true life, falling into a void and depth of shadow; like Æsop’s dog, which let go his bread, but rushed on the shadow of it, and lost his morsel. Now it is easy, even from our Lord’s very words, Who confesses one Father, and Maker of the world, and Framer of man, proclaimed also by the Law and the Prophets, and Who knows no other, to shew that the same is God over all: Who teaches also, and by Himself bestows on all just men, the adoption of sons to the Father, which is eternal life.

§ 2.

Since however they love to find fault, and things which admit of no cavil they as cavillers disturb, bringing in upon us a multitude of Parables and Questions: we have thought it well in the first place to interrogate them in our turn concerning their doctrines, and to exhibit their want of probability and quite do away with their rashness: then afterwards to bring in the Lord’s discourses; that they be not simply amusing their leisure with statements, but upon their inability to answer orderly to the questions asked of them, seeing their own reasoning overthrown, may either return to the Truth, and humble themselves, and cease from their manifold imaginations, and so appeasing God for their blasphemies against Him, may be saved: or if they persevere in the vain boasting which has got hold of their minds, may change their way of reasoning.