A Plea for the Christians 8

That there has been from the beginning one God, the Maker of this universe, consider in this way, so that you may also have the reasoning behind our faith. If there were two or more gods from the beginning, either they were in one and the same place, or each of them was on his own. Now they could not be in one and the same. For it does not follow that, being gods, they are alike; rather, because they are uncreated, they are unlike. Things created are like their models, but things uncreated are unlike, having come into being neither from anything nor after the pattern of anything. Or is God one in the way that hand, eye, and foot are parts belonging to one body, together making up one whole? But Socrates, because he is created and perishable, is composite and can be divided into parts; God is uncreated, impassible, and indivisible, and so is not made up of parts. But if each of them is on his own, since the one who made the world is above the things he made and around what he made and set in order, where is the other god, or the rest? For if the world, made in the shape of a sphere, is enclosed within the circles of heaven, and the Maker of the world is above the things he made, controlling it by his providence over them, what place is there for the other god or the rest? He is not in the world, because it belongs to another; nor around the world, for above it is God, the Maker of the world. If he is neither in the world nor around the world (for everything around it is held by the Maker), where is he? Above the world and God? In another world, or around another? But if he is in another world or around another, then he no longer has anything to do with us (for he does not rule our world), nor is he great in power (for he is in a limited place). But if he is neither in another world (for all things are filled by the Maker) nor around another (for all things are held by him), then he does not exist, since there is nothing for him to be in. Or what does he do, if the world belongs to another, and he is above the Maker of the world, and yet is neither in the world nor around it? Is there some other thing, so that he may stand somewhere? But above it is God and the things of God. And what place will there be, when God has filled everything beyond the world? Does he exercise providence, then? But if he does not exercise providence, he has made nothing. If he neither makes anything nor exercises providence, and there is no other place for him to be in, then this is the one and only God from the beginning, the Maker of the world.