Lactantius — Divine Institutes 7.6
Now let us mark the whole account with a short outline. For this reason the world was made: that we might be born. For this we are born: that we might acknowledge God, the maker of the world and of us. For this we acknowledge him: that we might worship. For this we worship: that we might receive immortality as the wage of labors, since the worship of God consists in the greatest labors. For this we are granted the prize of immortality: that, made like the angels, we might serve the highest Father and Lord forever and be an everlasting kingdom for God. This is the sum of things, this God's secret, this the mystery of the world — from which those are alien who, following present pleasure, have bound themselves to earthly and fragile goods and have sunk souls born for heavenly things in death-bearing sweetnesses as in mud and filth.
Let us ask in turn whether any account stands in the worship of the gods. If they are many, if they are worshiped by humans only so that they grant them wealth, victories, honors, and other things that avail only for the present, if we are generated without cause, if no providence is engaged in begetting humans, if by chance we are born for ourselves and for our pleasure, if after death we are nothing — what can be so superfluous, so empty, so vain as the human matter and as the world itself, which, though of unbelievable size and built with wondrous account, would nevertheless be vacant for foolish things? For why do the winds' breaths stir the clouds? Why do lightnings flash, thunders roar, rains fall? Why does the earth bring forth crops and nourish various offspring? Why, finally, does all the nature of things labor lest anything be lacking of those things by which human life is sustained, if it is empty, if we perish into nothing, if there is in us nothing of greater gain for God? But if that is unspeakable to say, and it must not be thought possible that what you see stands by the greatest account was not set up for some greatest account — what account can there be in these errors of crooked religions and in this persuasion of the philosophers by which they think souls perish? Surely none. For what do they have to say why the gods so carefully furnish humans each thing in its seasons? That we may give them grain and wine and the scent of incense and the blood of cattle? Things which cannot be pleasing to immortals, because they are fragile, nor of use to those without bodies, because these were given for the use of bodily beings — and yet if they desired them, they could furnish them for themselves when they wished. Whether, then, souls perish or remain forever, what account does the worship of the gods contain, or by whom was the world set up? Why, or when, or how far, to what end humans, or for what reason were they generated? Why are they born, die, succeed, are renewed? What do the gods gain from their cults for those who will be nothing after death? What do they grant, what promise, what threaten that is worthy of humans or of gods? Or if souls remain after death, what do they do with them or will they do? What need have they of a treasury of souls? From what source do those very ones arise? How or why or from where are they many? So it happens that if you have wandered from that sum of things which we comprehended above, every account dies and all things roll back into nothing.
Latin
Nunc totam rationem breui circumscriptione signemus. idcirco mundus factus est, ut nascamur: ideo nascimur, ut adgnoscamus factorem mundi ac nostri deum: ideo adgnoscimus, ut colamus: ideo colimus, ut immortalitatem pro laborum mercede capiamus, quoniam maximis laboribus cultus dei constat: ideo praemio immortalitatis adficimur, ut similes angelis effecti summo patri ac domino in perpetuum seruiamus et simus aeternum deo regnum. haec summa rerum est, hoc arcanum dei, hoc mysterium mundi, a quo sunt alieni qui sequentes praesentem uoluptatem terrestribus et fragilibus se bonis addixerunt et animas ad caelestia genitas suauitatibus mortiferis tamquam luto caenoue demerserunt.
quaeramus nunc uicissim an in cultu deorum ratio ulla subsistat. qui si multi sunt, si ideo tantum ab hominibus coluntur, ut praestent illis opes uictorias honores quaeque alia non nisi ad praesens ualent, si sine causa gignimur, si in hominibus procreandis prouidentia nulla uersatur, si casu nobismet ipsis ac uoluptatis nostrae gratia nascimur, si nihil post mortem sumus, quid potest esse tam superuacuum, tam inane, tam uanum quam humana res et quam mundus ipse, qui cum sit incredibili magnitudine, tum mirabili ratione constructus, tamen rebus ineptis uacet? cur etenim uentorum spiritus citent nubes? cur emicent fulgura, tonitrua mugiant, imbres cadant? cur fruges terra producat, uarios fetus alat? cur denique omnis natura rerum laboret, ne quid desit earum rerum quibus uita hominis sustinetur, si est inanis, si ad nihilum interimus, si nihil est in nobis maioris emolumenti deo? quod si est dictu nefas nec putandum est fieri posse ut non ob aliquam maximam rationem fuerit constitutum quod uideas maxima ratione constare, quae potest esse ratio in his erroribus prauarum religionum et in hac persuasione philosophorum qua putant animas interire? profecto nulla. quid enim habent dicere cur dii hominibus tam diligenter suis quaeque temporibus exhibeant? an ut illis far et merum demus et odorem turis et sanguinem pecudum? quae neque inmortalibus grata esse possunt, quia sunt fragilia, neque usui esse expertibus corporum, quia haec ad usum corporalium data sunt: et tamen si ea desiderarent, sibi ipsi possent exhibere, cum uellent. siue igitur intereunt animae siue in aeternum manent, quam rationem continet cultus deorum aut a quo mundus constitutus est? cur aut quando aut quousque, quatenus homines aut quam ob rem procreati? cur nascuntur intereunt succedunt renouantur? quid dii ex cultibus eorum adsecuntur qui post mortem nihil futuri sunt? quid praestant, quid pollicentur, quid minantur aut hominibus aut diis dignum? uel si manent animae post obitum, quid de iis faciunt facturiue sunt? quid illis opus est thesauro animarum? ipsi illi ex quo fonte oriuntur? quomodo aut quare aut unde multi sunt? ita fit ut si ab illa rerum summa quam superius conprehendimus aberraueris, omnis ratio intereat et ad nihilum omnia reuoluantur.