Chapter XIV.—Polytheistic Illustration.

“Again, the terrible serpent suggests this supposition to you, to think and to say that very thing which most of you do say; viz., We know that there is one Lord of all, but there also are gods.  For in like manner as there is one Cæsar, but he has under him procurators, proconsuls, prefects, commanders of thousands, and of hundreds, and of tens; in the same way, there being one great God, as there is one Cæsar, there also, after the manner of inferior powers, are gods, inferior indeed to Him, but ruling over us.  Hear, therefore, ye who have been led away by this conception as by a terrible poison—I mean the evil conception of this illustration—that you may know what is good and what is evil.  For you do not yet see it, nor do you look into the things that you utter.