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De Testimonio Animae

VI.

[1] Crede itaque tuis et de commentariis nostris tanto magis crede diuinis, sed de animae ipsius arbitrio perinde crede naturae. Elige quam ex his fidelius sororem obserues ueritatis. Si tu tuis litteris dubitas, neque deus neque natura mentitur. Ut et naturae et deo credas, crede animae, ita fiet ut et tibi credas. Illa certe est quam tanti facis, quantum illa te facit, cuius es totus, quae tibi omnia est, sine qua nec uiuere potes nec mori, propter quam deum neglegis. [2] Cum enim times fieri Christianus, eam conueni. Cur alium colens deum nominat? Cur, cum maledicendo spiritus denotat daemonia pronuntiat? Cur ad caelum contestatur et ad terram detestatur? Cur alibi seruit, alibi uindicem conuenit? Cur de mortuis iudicat? Cur uerba habet Christianorum, quos nec auditos uisosque uult? Cur aut nobis dedit ea uerba, aut accepit a nobis? Cur aut docuit aut didicit? Suspectam habes conuenientiam praedicationis in tanta disconuenientia conuersationis. [3] Vanus es, si huic linguae soli aut Graecae, quae propinquae inter se habentur, reputabis eiusmodi, ut neges naturae uniuersitatem. Non Latinis nec Argiuis solis anima de caelo cadit. Omnium gentium unus homo, uarium nomen est, una anima, uaria uox, unus spiritus, uarius sonus, propria cuique genti loquella, sed loquellae materia communis. [4] Deus ubique et bonitas dei ubique, daemonium ubique et maledictio daemonii ubique, iudicii diuini inuocatio ubique, mors ubique et conscientia mortis ubique, et testimonium ubique. [5] Omnis anima suo iure proclamat quae nobis nec mutire conceditur. Merito igitur omnis anima et rea et testis est, in tantum et rea erroris, in quantum et testis ueritatis, et stabit ante aulas dei die iudicii nihil habens dicere. [6] Deum praedicabas et non requirebas, daemonia abominabaris et illa adorabas, iudicium dei appellabas nec esse credebas, inferna supplicia praesumebas et non praecauebas, Christianum nomen sapiebas et Christianum nomen persequebaris.

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The Soul's Testimony

Chapter VI.

Believe, then, your own books, and as to our Scriptures so much the more believe writings which are divine, but in the witness of the soul itself give like confidence to Nature. Choose the one of these you observe to be the most faithful friend of truth. If your own writings are distrusted, neither God nor Nature lie. And if you would have faith in God and Nature, have faith in the soul; thus you will believe yourself. Certainly you value the soul as giving you your true greatness,--that to which you belong; which is all things to you; without which you can neither live nor die; on whose account you even put God away from you. Since, then, you fear to become a Christian, call the soul before you, and put her to the question. Why does she worship another? why name the name of God? Why does she speak of demons, when she means to denote spirits to be held accursed? Why does she make her protestations towards the heavens, and pronounce her ordinary execrations earthwards? Why does she render service in one place, in another invoke the Avenger? Why does she pass judgments on the dead? What Christian phrases are those she has got, though Christians she neither desires to see nor hear? Why has she either bestowed them on us, or received them from us? Why has she either taught us them, or learned them as our scholar? Regard with suspicion this accordance in words, while there is such difference in practice. It is utter folly--denying a universal nature--to ascribe this exclusively to our language and the Greek, which are regarded among us as so near akin. The soul is not a boon from heaven to Latins and Greeks alone. Man is the one name belonging to every nation upon earth: there is one soul and many tongues, one spirit and various sounds; every country has its own speech, but the subjects of speech are common to all. God is everywhere, and the goodness of God is everywhere; demons are everywhere, and the cursing of them is everywhere; the invocation of divine judgment is everywhere, death is everywhere, and the sense of death is everywhere, and all the world over is found the witness of the soul. There is not a soul of man that does not, from the light that is in itself, proclaim the very things we are not permitted to speak above our breath. Most justly, then, every soul is a culprit as well as a witness: in the measure that it testifies for truth, the guilt of error lies on it; and on the day of judgment it will stand before the courts of God, without a word to say. Thou proclaimedst God, O soul, but thou didst not seek to know Him: evil spirits were detested by thee, and yet they were the objects of thy adoration; the punishments of hell were foreseen by thee, but no care was taken to avoid them; thou hadst a savour of Christianity, and withal wert the persecutor of Christians.