Why, O men of Greece, do you wish, as in a boxing-match, to pit the polities against us? And if I am unwilling to make use of the customs of certain people, why am I hated like the foulest of men? Does the emperor command the paying of taxes? I am ready to render them. Does the master bid me serve and minister? I acknowledge servitude. For man must be honored as a man, but God alone must be feared—he who is not visible to human eyes, nor comprehended by any art. Him alone, when I am commanded to deny, I will not be persuaded, but will rather die, that I may not be shown to be a liar and ungrateful. Our God has no beginning in time, being alone without origin and himself the beginning of all things. God is spirit, not pervading matter, but the maker of material spirits and of the forms within it; invisible and intangible, he himself having become the Father of things both sensible and invisible. Him we know through his creation, and we apprehend the invisibility of his power by his works. I refuse to worship the workmanship that was made by him for our sake. The sun and moon came into being for us; how then shall I worship my own servants? How shall I declare wood and stones to be gods? For the spirit that pervades matter is inferior to the more divine spirit; and this, being likened to soul, must not be honored equally with the perfect God. But neither must the God who is beyond naming be bribed; for he who is in need of nothing must not be slandered by us as needy. But I will set forth our teaching more plainly.