2. Let us now return to the
order from which we were a little ago compelled to diverge, that our
defence may not, through its being too long broken off, be said to have
given our detractors cause to triumph in the establishing of their
charge. For they propose these questions: If you are in
earnest about religion, why do you not serve and worship the other gods
with us, or share your sacred rites with your fellows, and put the
ceremonies of the different religions on an equality? We
may say for the present: In essaying to approach the divine, the
Supreme Deity suffices
us,—the Deity, I say, who is supreme, the Creator and Lord of the
universe, who orders and rules all things: in Him we serve all
that requires our service; in Him we worship all that should be
adored,—venerate that which demands the homage of our
reverence. For as we lay hold of the source of the divine itself
from which the very divinity of all gods whatever is derived, we think it an
idle task to approach each personally, since we neither know who they
are, nor the names by which they are called; and are further unable to
learn, and discover, and establish their number.