Arnobius — Against the Nations 2.65
“Rather,” he says, “if God is a powerful, merciful keeper, let him turn our minds and make us believe his promises even unwilling.” That, then, is force, not grace, nor the liberality of the leading God, but a childish contest of a mind eager to win. For what is so unjust as to wrench resisting, unwilling wills the other way, to force in what they do not want and what their minds flee, to harm first before you help, and, the earlier state stripped away, to translate them into an alien habit and opinion? You who want to be turned and to suffer force so as to do what you do not want and seize it under compulsion — why do you refuse to take by will what, once turned and changed, you desire to do? “I do not want,” he says, “and I have no will.” Why then do you accuse God as if he fails to bring help to one who desires aid — you who not only scorn and flee his gifts and favors, but also nickname them empty words and chase them with joking jests?
“So unless I become a Christian, I cannot have hope of salvation?” It is so, as you yourself propose. For the parts of giving salvation and of applying to souls what it is fitting and necessary to bestow rest on one alone, enjoined and handed down by God the Father — the remoter and inner causes standing as they do. Just as among you certain gods have certain guardianships, licenses, and powers, and you do not ask of any of them what is not of his power and license, so it is the sole pontificate of Christ to give salvation to souls and to set the spirit of perpetuity upon them. If you believe Father Liber can give a vintage but not medicine, Ceres grain, Aesculapius health, Neptune one thing and Juno another, and Fortune, Mercury, Vulcan each givers of single definite things — then you must also accept this from us: that souls can receive the force of life and safety from no one except from him whom the highest king has set over this gift and office.
This the almighty emperor willed to be the way of salvation, this — so to speak — the door of life; through this alone is the entrance to light, and it is not given otherwise to creep in or break in, all other ways shut and fortified with an impregnable citadel.
Latin
65.1. ''Immo, inquit, si deus est potens misericors conservator, convertat nobis mentes et invitos faciat suis pollicitationibus credere''. - Vis ergo est ista, non gratia nec dei liberalitas principis, sed ad vincendi studium puerilis atque <vani> animi contentio. 2. Quid est enim tam iniustum, quam repugnantibus, quam invitis extorquere in contrarium voluntates, inculcare quod nolint et quo refugiant animis, prius nocere quam prosis et priore detracto in alienum habitum sententiamque traducere? 3. Tu qui te verti et vim desideras perpeti, ut id quod nolis efficias atque arripias coactus, cur respuis adsumere voluntate id quod versus desideras atque immutatus efficere? ''Nolo, inquit, et voluntatem non habeo''. - Quid ergo criminaris deum tamquam tibi desit opem desideranti ferre? cuius dona et munera non tantum asperneris et fugias, verum inania verba cognomines et iocularibus facetiis prosequaris.
4. ''Christianus ergo ni fuero, spem salutis habere non potero?''. - Ita est, ut ipse proponis. Partes enim salutis dandae conferendi que animis quod tribui convenit necessariumque est adplicari, solus ab deo patre iniunctum habet et traditum, ita se habentibus semotis atque interioribus causis. Ut enim dii certi certas apud vos habent tutelas licentias potestates neque eorum ab aliquo id quod eius non sit potestatis ac licentiae postulatis, ita unius pontificium Christi est dare animis salutem et spiritum perpetuitatis adponere. 5. Si enim patrem creditis Liberum dare posse vindemiam, medicinam non posse, si Cererem fruges, si Aesculapium sanitatem, si Neptunum aliud, aliud posse Iunonem, Fortunam Mercurium Vulcanum rerum esse singulos certarum ac singularum datores: et hoc necesse a nobis est ut debeatis accipere, ab nullo animas posse vim vitae atque incolumitatis accipere nisi ab eo quem rex summus huic muneri officioque praefecit.
6. Hanc omnipotens imperator esse voluit salutis viam, hanc vitae ut ita dixerim ianuam, per hanc solum est ingressus ad lucem neque alias datum est vel inrepere vel invadere ceteris omnibus clausis atque inexpugnabili arce munitis.