Minucius Felix — Octavius 32
Do you think we hide what we worship because we have no shrines and altars? What image should I fashion for God, when — if you judge rightly — the human being is himself God’s image? What temple should I raise for him, when this whole world, made by his work, cannot contain him? And when I, a human, am more spacious still, should I shut the force of such majesty inside one little chapel? Is he not better dedicated in our mind, consecrated in our inmost heart?
Should I offer God victims and sacrifices that he brought forth for my use, so as to throw his own gift back at him? That is thankless, when the acceptable victim is a good spirit, a pure mind, and a sincere judgment. So the one who cultivates innocence prays to God; the one who cultivates justice pours him a libation; the one who keeps from fraud propitiates God; the one who snatches a human from danger slays the best victim. These are our sacrifices; these are God’s sacred rites: among us the more just person is the more religious.
But, you say, the God we worship we neither display nor see. On the contrary: we believe God precisely because we can perceive him and cannot see him. In his works and in all the motions of the world we always behold his power present — when it thunders, flashes, strikes, when the sky clears. Do not wonder that you do not see God: wind and blasts drive, shake, and agitate all things, yet wind and blast do not come under the eyes.
But, you say, God does not know human action, and set in heaven he cannot either go about to all or know each one. You err, O human, and are deceived. How is God far off, when all things heavenly and earthly — and what lies beyond this province of the world — are full of God? Everywhere he is not only nearest to us, but poured into us.
Latin
XXXII. "Putatis autem nos occultare quod colimus, si delubra et aras non habemus? Quod enim simulacrum deo fingam, cum, si recte existimes, sit dei homo ipse simulacrum? Templum quod ei extruam, cum totus hic mundus eius opere fabricatus eum capere non possit? Et cum homo latius maneam, intra unam aediculam vim tantae maiestatis includam? Nonne melius in nostra dedicandus est mente? in nostro intimo consecrandus est pectore? Hostias et victimas deo offeram, quas in usum mei protulit, ut reiciam ei suum munus? Ingratum est, cum sit litabilis hostia bonus animus et pura mens et sincera sententia. Igitur qui innocentiam colit, deo supplicat; qui iustitiam, deo libat; qui fraudibus abstinet, propitiat deum; qui hominem periculo subripit, optimam victimam caedit. Haec nostra sacrificia, haec dei sacra sunt: sic apud nos religiosior est ille qui iustior. "At enim quem colimus deum, nec ostendimus nec videmus. Immo ex hoc deum credimus, quod eum sentire possumus, videre non possumus. In operibus enim eius et in mundi omnibus motibus virtutem eius semper praesentem aspicimus, cum tonat, fulgurat, fulminat, cum serenat. Nec mireris, si deum non vides: vento et flatibus omnia impelluntur, vibrantur, agitantur, et sub oculis tamen non venit ventus et flatus. In solem adeo, qui videndi omnibus causa est, videre non possumus: radiis acies submovetur, obtutus intuentis hebetatur, et si diutius inspicias, omnis visus extinguitur. Quid? ipsum solis artificem, illum luminis fontem possis sustinere, cum te ab eius fulgoribus avertas, a fulminibus abscondas? Deum oculis carnalibus vis videre, cum ipsam animam tuam, qua vivificaris et loqueris, nec aspicere possis nec tenere? "Sed enim deus actum hominis ignorat et in caelo constitutus non potest aut omnes obire aut singulos nosse. Erras, o homo, et falleris: unde enim deus longe est, cum omnia caelestia terrenaque et quae extra istam orbis provinciam sunt, deo plena sint? Ubique non tantum nobis proximus, sed infusus est.