The hidden God and the busybody God
Caecilius is still attacking Christianity, now arguing that its secrecy proves its shamefulness and that its one God is either unknown, captive, or an impossible busybody.
I pass over much of this on purpose, for even these charges are too many, and the obscurity of this depraved religion itself proves that all or most of them are true. Why else do they strive so hard to hide and conceal whatever it is they worship, when what is honorable always rejoices in the open, and crimes are secret? Why do they have no altars, no temples, no known idols, never speak in public, never assemble freely, unless what they worship and suppress is either punishable or shameful?
And whence is he, who is he, and where is he? This one god, solitary, destitute, whom no free people, no kingdom, not even Roman superstition knows. Only the Jews, a single wretched nation, also worshiped one god, but openly, with temples, altars, victims, and ceremonies. Yet his power and might are so nonexistent that he is a captive, along with his own nation, to the Roman deities.
But what monsters, what portents the Christians invent! They claim that their god, whom they can neither show nor see, diligently investigates everyone's character, everyone's actions, and finally everyone's words and hidden thoughts. They want him, you see, to be a busybody, always running about and present everywhere, restless, shamelessly even curious, since he stands by every deed and wanders through every place, though he cannot attend to individuals while stretched thin across the universe, nor be sufficient for the universe while occupied with individuals.
Latin
Multa praetereo consulto: nam et haec nimis multa sunt, quae aut omnia aut pleraque [omnium] uera declarat ipsius prauae religionis obscuritas.
cur etenim occultare et abscondere quicquid illud colunt magnopere nituntur, cum honesta semper publico gaudeant, scelera secreta sint? cur nullas aras habent, templa nulla, nulla nota simulacra, numquam palam loqui, numquam libere congregari, nisi illud, quod colunt et interprimunt, aut puniendum est aut pudendum?
unde autem uel quis ille aut ubi deus unicus, solitarius, destitutus, quem non gens libera, non regna, non saltem Romana superstitio nouerunt?
Iudaeorum sola et misera gentilitas unum et ipsi deum, sed palam, sed templis, aris, uictimis caerimoniisque coluerunt, cuius adeo nulla uis nec potestas est, ut sit Romanis numinibus cum sua sibi natione captiuus.
at iam Christiani quanta monstra, quae portenta confingunt! Deum illum suum, quem nec ostendere possunt nec uidere, in omnium mores, actus omnium, uerba denique et occultas cogitationes diligenter inquirere : discurrentem scilicet atque ubique praesentem molestum illum uolunt, inquietum, inpudenter etiam curiosum, siquidem adstat factis omnibus, locis omnibus intererrat, cum nec singulis inseruire possit per uniuersa districtus nec uniuersis sufficere in singulis occupatus.