The argument which Celsus employs against us and the Jews will be turned
against himself thus: My good sir, does the God who is over all things
know what takes place among men, or does He not know? Now if you admit
the existence of a God and of providence, as your treatise indicates, He
must of necessity know. And if He does know, why does He not make [men]
better? Is it obligatory, then, on _us_ to defend God’s procedure in not
making men better, although He knows their state, but not equally
binding on _you_, who do not distinctly show by your treatise that you
are an Epicurean, but pretend to recognise a providence, to explain why
God, although knowing all that takes place among men, does not make them
better, nor by divine power liberate all men from evil? We are not
ashamed, however, to say that God is constantly sending [instructors] in
order to make men better; for there are to be found amongst men
reasons[489] given by God which exhort them to enter on a better life.
But there are many diversities amongst those who serve God, and they are
few in number who are perfect and pure ambassadors of the truth, and who
produce a complete reformation, as did Moses and the prophets. But above
all these, great was the reformation effected by Jesus, who desired to
heal not only those who lived in one corner of the world, but as far as
in Him lay, men in every country, for He came as the Saviour of _all_
men.
Footnote 489:
οἱ γὰρ ἐπὶ τὰ βέλτιστα προκαλούμενοι λόγοι, Θεοῦ αὐτοὺς δεδωκότος,
εἰσὶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις.