Commodian — Instructiones 55
You dissemble the law given with such heralding, while the trumpet is present and the heavenly voice cries. If a prophet had only cried out into a cloud, the Lord’s voice sent through him would surely suffice. In so many volumes of speakers the Lord’s voice proclaims; no one likewise puts malice away from the heart. You want to see good things and seek to live by frauds. Why then did the law itself go forth with such labor? You abuse the Lord’s commands and ask to be a son; if you will be such, you trust in vain, I say. The Omnipotent seeks meek sons for himself — upright, good in heart, devoted to the divine law — but the harsh, you already know where he sank them.
Latin
55 DISSIMULATORI. Dissimulas legem tanto praeconio latam In tuba praesente caeleste uoce clamante. Si propheta tantum declama<ui>sset in nubem, Sufficeret utique Domini uox missa per illum. In tot profatorum uolumina uox Domni proclamat; Malitiam nullus dimittit [ita] aeque de corde. Uis bona uidere et fraudibus uiuere quaeris. Lex ipsa cur ergo processit tanto labore? Abuteris Domini mandata et te filium inquis; Tu si talis eris, sine causa fideris, inquam. Omnipotens mites quaerit sibi filios esse, Rectos, corde bonos, deuotos legi diuinae, Inmites autem iam scitis ubi demersit.