Chapter 25.—Concerning the One
God Only to Be Worshipped, Who, Although His Name is Unknown, is
Yet Deemed to Be the Giver of Felicity.
Having had that reason rendered to
us, we shall perhaps much more easily persuade, as we wish, those
whose heart has not become too much hardened. For if now human
infirmity has perceived that felicity cannot be given except by
some god; if this was perceived by those who worshipped so many
gods, at whose head they set Jupiter himself; if, in their
ignorance of the name of Him by whom felicity was given, they
agreed to call Him by the name of that very thing which they
believed He gave;—then it follows that they thought that felicity
could not be given even by Jupiter himself, whom they already
worshipped, but certainly by him whom they thought fit to worship
under the name of Felicity itself. I thoroughly affirm the
statement that they believed felicity to be given by a certain God
whom they knew not: let Him therefore be sought after, let Him be
worshipped, and it is enough. Let the train of innumerable demons
be repudiated, and let this God suffice every man whom his gift
suffices. For him, I say, God the giver of felicity will not be
enough to worship, for whom felicity itself is not enough to
receive. But let him for whom it suffices (and man has nothing
more he ought to wish for) serve the one God, the giver of
felicity. This God is not he whom they call Jupiter. For if
they acknowledged him to be the giver of felicity, they would not
seek, under the name of Felicity itself, for another god or goddess
by whom felicity might be given; nor could they tolerate that
Jupiter himself should be worshipped with such infamous
attributes. For he is said to be the debaucher of the wives of
others; he is the shameless lover and ravisher of a beautiful
boy.