And do not let any one compare with the inquisitive discussions of philosophers upon the heavens, the simple and inartificial character of the utterances of the Spirit; as the beauty of chaste women surpasses that of a harlot, Fialon quotes Hor., Ep. i. 18:  “Ut matrona meretrici dispar erit atque Discolor.” so our arguments are superior to those of our opponents.  They only seek to persuade by forced reasoning.  With us truth presents itself naked and without artifice.  But why torment ourselves to refute the errors of philosophers, when it is sufficient to produce their mutually contradictory books, and, as quiet spectators, to watch the war? The well known “Per campos instructa, tua sine parte pericli suave etiam belli certamina magna tueri” (Lucr. ii. 5) may be an echo of some Greek lines in the preacher’s mind, just as the preceding “suave mari magno” is of Menander.  For those thinkers are not less numerous, nor less celebrated, nor more sober in speech in fighting their adversaries, who say that the universe is being consumed by fire, and that from the seeds which remain in the ashes of the burnt world all is being brought to life again.  Hence in the world there is destruction and palingenesis to infinity. These Stoical atheists did also agree with the generality of the other Stoical theists in supposing a successive infinity of worlds generated and corrupted” (ἀπειρία κόσμων) “by reason of intervening periodical conflagrations.”  Cudworth, I. iii. 23.  All, equally far from the truth, find each on their side by-ways which lead them to error.