Arnobius — Against the Nations 2.12
You would bring us arguments and the subtleties of suspicions: if Christ himself — with his peace and pardon let me say it — used these in the assemblies of peoples, who would assent, who would hear, who would judge him to promise anything openly, or who, even if foolish and of stupid ease, would follow him tossing empty and bare claims?
Powers set under the eyes and that unheard-of force of things, either which were done by him openly or which were celebrated through the whole world by his heralds — these subjected the flames of desires and made nations and peoples and nations most unlike in customs run together with one mind to the assent of one belief. For those things done in India can be counted and come into the use of reckoning, among the Seres, Persians and Medes, in Arabia, Egypt, in Asia, Syria, among Galatians, Parthians, Phrygians, in Achaia, Macedonia, Epirus, in all islands and provinces which the rising and setting sun traverses, finally at mistress Rome herself, in which though people are occupied with King Numa’s arts and ancient superstitions, they still did not put off leaving ancestral things and coalescing with Christian truth. For they had seen Simon Magus’s chariot and fiery teams blown apart by Peter’s mouth and vanish when Christ was named; they had seen, I say, one trusting false gods and betrayed by the same who feared him cast down by his own weight and lying with broken legs, then afterwards carried to Brundisium, worn by torments and shame, again throw himself from the height of the loftiest peak.
All which things done you neither know nor have wished to know nor ever judged necessary for yourselves, and while you trust your hearts and call pride wisdom, you have given room to deceivers — those noxious ones, I say, whose interest it is that the Christian name grow obsolete — for flooding fogs and obscuring such great things, for snatching faith from you and casting contempt under, so that, because they foresee an end hanging over them for their deserts, they might also cast into you a cause through which you could enter danger and be stripped of divine kindness.
Latin
12.1. Argumenta vos nobis et suspicionum argutias proferatis: quibus ipse si Christus - cum pace hoc eius et cum venia dixerim - populorum in conventibus uteretur, quis adquiesceret, quis audiret, quis eum promittere aperte aliquid iudicaret, aut quis cassa et nuda iactantem, quamvis esset inprudens et facilitatis stolidae, sequeretur?
2. Virtutes sub oculis positae et inaudita illa vis rerum, vel quae ab ipso fiebant palam vel ab eius praeconibus celebrabantur in orbe toto, ea subdidit adpetitionum flammas et ad unius credulitatis adsensum mente una concurrere gentes et populos fecit et moribus dissimillimas nationes. 3. Enumerari enim possunt atque in usum computationis venire ea quae in India gesta sunt, apud Seras Persas et Medos, in Arabia, Aegypto, in Asia, Syria, apud Galatas Parthos Phrygas, in Achaia Macedonia Epiro, in insulis et provinciis omnibus quas sol oriens atque occidens lustrat, ipsam denique apud dominam Romam, in qua cum homines sint Numae regis artibus atque antiquis superstitionibus occupati, non distulerunt tamen res patrias linquere et veritati coalescere Christianae. 4. Viderant enim currum Simonis magi et quadrigas igneas Petri ore difflatas et nominato Christo evanuisse: viderant, inquam, fidentem dis falsis et ab eisdem metuentibus proditum pondere praecipitatum suo cruribus iacuisse praefractis, post deinde perlatum Brundam cruciatibus et pudore defessum ex altissimi culminis se rursum praecipitasse fastigio.
5. Quae omnia vos gesta neque scitis neque scire voluistis neque umquam vobis necessaria iudicastis, ac dum vestris fiditis cordibus et quod typhus est sapientiam vocatis, dedistis circumscriptoribus locum, illis, inquam, noxiis, quorum nomen interest obsolefieri Christianum, superfundendi caligines atque obscurandi res tantas, eripiendae vobis fidei subiciendique contemptus, ut, quia sibi praesentiunt finem pro meritis imminere, vobis quoque immitterent causam, per quam periculum adire possetis et viduari benignitate divina.