MINUCIVS FELIX. 465 are kept secret? Why have they no altars,no temples,no acknowledged images?1 Why do they never speak openly, never congregatefreely,unlessforthe reasonthatwhat they adore and concealis eitherworthy of punishment,or some thing to be ashamed of? Moreover, whence or who is he, or where is the one God, solitary,desolate,whom no free people,no kingdoms, and not even Roman superstition,have known? The lonelyand miserablenationalityof the Jews worshipped one God, and one peculiarto itself; but they worshipped him openly, with temples, with altars,with victims,and with ceremonies; and he has so littleforceor power, thathe isenslaved,with hisown specialnation,to the Roman deities.But the Christians,moreover,what wonders, what monstrositiesdo they feign!— thathe who istheirGod, whom they can neithershow nor behold,inquiresdiligently into the characterof all,the acts of all,and, in fine,into theirwords and secretthoughts; that he runs about every where, and is everywhere present: they make him out to be troublesome,restless,even shamelesslyinquisitive,sincehe ispresentat everythingthat isdone,wanders in and out in all places,although,being occupiedwith the whole,he can not give attentionto particulars,nor can he be sufficientfor the whole while he is busied with particulars.What ! be cause they threatenconflagrationto the whole world,and to the universeitself,with allitsstars,are they meditatingits destruction?— as ifeithertheeternalorderconstitutedby the divine laws of nature would be disturbed,or the leagueof allthe elementswould be broken up,and the heavenlystruc ture dissolved,and that fabricin which it iscontainedand bound together*would be overthrown. 1 Otherwise," no consecratedimages." 2 Otherwise,"we arecontainedandboundtogether." CTP.— VOL. II.