Arnobius — Against the Nations 2.72
72.1. “But your religions precede ours by many years, and for that reason are truer because they are fortified by the authority of antiquity.” — And what does it profit them to go before by as many years as you like, when they began from a fixed time—or what space are two thousand years of ages compared with so many thousands?
2. And yet, lest we seem to betray the cause by such long concealment, tell us, if it is not troublesome: does almighty and first God seem to you a novel thing, and do those who honor and cultivate Him stir up and introduce unheard-of, unknown, sudden religions?
3. Is there anything older than He, or can anything be found that precedes Him in thing, time, or name? Is He not alone unbegotten, alone immortal and perpetual? Who is the head and fountain of things if not He Himself? To whom does eternity owe this very thing that it is called eternity if not to Him? That infinite ages go forth—is it not accomplished from His perpetuity? That is undoubted and true.
4. Therefore what we follow is not new, but we learned late what ought to be followed and cultivated, or where it was fitting to fix the hope of salvation and place saving helps. For He had not yet shone who would show the way to wanderers and to those set in deepest fog, send in the light of knowledge, and scatter the blindness of ignorance.
Latin
72.1. ''At religiones vestrae multis annis praecedunt nostram, et eo sunt veriores quod vetustatis auctoritate munitae sunt''. | f. 61? / - Et quid eas prodest annis quam plurimis anteire, cum a certo coeperint tempore, autspatii cuius sunt milia annorum duo saeculorum tantis comparata cum milibus?
2. Ac tamen ne causam tam longa prodere dissimulatione videamur, nisi molestum est, dicite, omnipotens et primus deus novella vobis videtur res esse, et qui eum venerantes colunt, inauditas incognitas repentinas agitare atque inducere religiones?
3. Estne illo antiquius quicquam, aut quod eum praecedat re tempore nomine potest aliquid inveniri? Nonne solus ingenitus, immortalis et perpetuus solus est? quis caput ac fons rerum ests non ipse? cui debet aeternitas hoc ipsum quod nuncupatur aeternitas? non ipsi? infinita ut prodeant saecula, non ex eius perpetuitate perficitur? Indubitabile istud et verum.
4. Non ergo quod sequimur novum est, sed nos sero addidicimus quidnam sequi oporteat <ac>colere aut ubinam conveniret spem salutis adfigere et salutaria subsidia conlocare. Nondum enim adfulserat qui viam monstraret errantibus et caligine in altissima constitutis cognitionis lumen inmitteret et ignorationis discuteret caecitatem.