20. On hearing these
argumentations, the multitudes who were present were exceedingly
delighted; so much so, indeed, that they were almost laying hands on
Manes; and it was with difficulty that Archelaus restrained them, and
kept them back, and made them quiet again. The judges
said: Archelaus has given us proof sufficient of the fact
that the body and soul of man are the works of one hand; because an
object cannot subsist in any proper consonance and unison as the work
of one hand, if there is any want of harmony in the design and
plan. But if it is alleged that one could not possibly have
sufficed to develop both these objects, namely, body and soul,
this is simply to exhibit the incapacity of the artificer. For
thus, even though one should grant that the soul is the creation of a
good deity, it will be found to be but an idle work so far as the man
is concerned, unless it also takes to itself the body. And if,
again, the body is held to be the formation of an evil deity, the work
will also none the less be idle unless it receives the soul; and, in
truth, unless the soul be in unison with the body by commixture and due
introduction, so 194that
the two are in mutual connections, the man will not exist, neither can
we speak of him. Hence we are of opinion that Archelaus
has proved by a variety of illustrations that there is but one and the
same maker for the whole man. Archelaus said: I
doubt not, Manes, that you understand this, namely, that one who is
born and created16151615 is called the
son of him who begets or creates. But if the wicked one made man,
then he ought to be his father, according to nature. And to whom,
then, did the Lord Jesus address Himself, when in these terms He taught
men to pray: “When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in
heaven;”16161616 and again,
“Pray to your Father which is in secret?”16171617 But it was of Satan that He spoke
when He said, that He “beheld him as lightning fall from
heaven;”16181618 so that no
one dare say that He taught us to pray to him. And surely Jesus
did not come down from heaven with the purpose of bringing men
together, and reconciling them to Satan; but, on the contrary, He gave
him over to be bruised beneath the feet of His faithful ones.
However, for my part, I would say that those Gentiles are the more
blessed who do indeed bring in a multitude of deities, but at least
hold them all to be of one mind, and in amity with each other; whereas
this man, though he brings in but two gods, does not blush to posit
enmities and discordant sentiments between them. And, in sooth,
if these Gentiles were to bring in16191619 their counterfeit deities under conditions
of that kind, we would verily have it in our power to witness something
like a gladiatorial contest proceeding between them, with their
innumerable natures and diverse sentiments.