#the

Cicero, in his treatise concerning the Nature of the Gods, having said that three Jupiters were enumerated by theologians, adds that the third was of Crete, the son of Saturn, and that his tomb is shown in that island. ↗

— Lactantius

#concerning #crete #enumerated #gods #having

For if God is a title of the highest power, He must be incorruptible, perfect, incapable of suffering, and subject to no other being; therefore they are not gods whom necessity compels to obey the one greatest God. ↗

— Lactantius

#compels #god #gods #greatest #highest

For if the honour paid to Him is shared by others, He altogether ceases to be worshipped, since His religion requires us to believe that He is the one and only God. ↗

— Lactantius

#believe #ceases #god #him #his

Homer was able to give us no information relating to the truth, for he wrote of human rather than divine things. ↗

— Lactantius

#divine #give #homer #human #information

Let us come to the philosophers, whose authority is of greater weight, and their judgment more to be relied on, because they are believed to have paid attention, not to matters of fiction, but to the investigation of the truth. ↗

— Lactantius

#authority #because #believed #come #fiction

Mars, when guilty of homicide, and set free from the charge of murder by the Athenians through favour, lest he should appear to be too fierce and savage, committed adultery with Venus. ↗

— Lactantius

#appear #athenians #charge #committed #favour

The poets, therefore, however much they adorned the gods in their poems, and amplified their exploits with the highest praises, yet very frequently confess that all things are held together and governed by one spirit or mind. ↗

— Lactantius

#all things #amplified #confess #exploits #frequently

There is no one, who possesses intelligence and uses reflection, who does not understand that it is one Being who both created all things and governs them with the same energy by which He created them. ↗

— Lactantius

#being #both #created #does #energy

Therefore let men withdraw themselves from errors; and laying aside corrupt superstitions, let them acknowledge their Father and Lord, whose excellence cannot be estimated, nor His greatness perceived, nor His beginning comprehended. ↗

— Lactantius

#aside #beginning #cannot #comprehended #corrupt

Therefore, if the gods are immortal and eternal, what need is there of the other sex, when they themselves do not require succession, since they are always about to exist? ↗

— Lactantius

#always #eternal #exist #gods #immortal