that she may not hear the voice of the
charmers. Well, therefore, spake the prophet concerning thee, If the
Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots, then mayest
thou also do good, that hast been taught to do evil. Thou fool and
blind, why doth not the force of truth bring thee to thy senses? The
very fact that your foul idols are commended by many men of marvellous
wisdom, and established by kings, while the Gospel is preached by a few
men of no mark, sheweth the might of our religion and the weakness and
deadliness of your wicked doctrines. Because your side, despite its
having wise advocates and mighty champions, is dying down, and waxing
weak, whilst our religion, though possessed of no human help, shineth
from afar brighter than the sun, and hath won the fulness of the world.
If it had been set up by orators and philosophers, and had had kings
for its succour, thou that art evil wouldst have found occasion to
declare that it was wholly of human power. But now, seeing, as thou
dost, that the holy Gospel, though composed but by common fishermen,
and persecuted by every tyrant, hath after this won the whole world for
its sound hath gone out into all lands, and its words into the ends of
the world--what canst thou say but that it is a divine and
unconquerable power establishing its own cause for the salvation of
mankind? But what proof seekest thou, O fool, that thy prophets are
liars and ours true, better than the truths I have told thee? Except
thy cause had been vain talk and falsehood, it could not, possessing
such human support as it did, have suffered loss and decline. For he
saith, 'I have seen the ungodly in great power, and exalted like the
cedars of Libanus: and I went by and lo, he was gone: and I sought him
but his place could nowhere be found.'

"Concerning you, the defenders of idolatry, were these words spoken by
the prophet. For a very, very little while and your place shall not be
found: but, like as the smoke vanisheth, and like as wax melteth in
face of the fire, so shall ye fail. But, as touching the divine wisdom
of the Gospel, thus saith the Lord, 'Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my words shall not pass away.' And again the Psalmist saith,
'Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth;
and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou
endurest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment, and as a
vesture shalt thou fold th