Epistle to Diognetus

Come, then, after you have freed yourself from all biases clouding your mind, and set aside what you have been used to, as it may mislead you. Become, as if from the beginning, a new person, since, according to your own admission, you are to be the listener of a new doctrine. Come and consider, not with your eyes only, but with your understanding, the substance and form of those you declare and consider to be gods. Isn't one of them a stone similar to the one we walk on? Isn't a second brass, no better than those vessels we use daily? Isn't a third wood, and already decaying? Isn't a fourth silver, needing a watchman to prevent theft? Isn't a fifth iron, consumed by rust? Isn't a sixth earthenware, no more valuable than that made for the simplest purposes? Aren't all these made of corruptible matter? Aren't they fabricated using iron and fire? Didn't the sculptor craft one of them, the brazier another, the silversmith a third, and the potter a fourth? Weren't each of them, before being shaped by these craftsmen into these gods, subject to change in their own way? Wouldn't those things that are now vessels, made of the same materials, become like these if they encountered the same artisans? Couldn't these, which you now worship, be made again by people into vessels similar to others? Aren't they all deaf? Aren't they blind? Aren't they lifeless? Aren't they devoid of feeling? Aren't they incapable of movement? Aren't they all prone to decay? Aren't they all corruptible? These things you call gods; these you serve; these you worship; and you become entirely like them.

For this reason, you hate the Christians, because they do not regard these as gods.

But don't you yourselves, who now believe and assume such to be gods, show much more contempt for them than the Christians do? Don't you mock and insult them more when you worship those made of stone and clay without assigning anyone to guard them, but those made of silver and gold you lock up at night and appoint guards during the day to prevent theft? And with the gifts you intend to offer them, don't you, if they possess sense, actually punish them rather than honor them? But if they lack sense, don't you prove this fact by worshipping them with blood and the smoke of sacrifices? Would any one of you endure such indignities? Would any one of you tolerate such treatment to yourself? Yet no human being will, unless forced, endure such treatment, since they are endowed with sense and reason.

A stone, however, readily bears it, seeing it is insensible.

Certainly, your conduct does not show that your god is possessed of sense. As for the fact that Christians are not accustomed to serve such gods, I could easily find many other arguments to make; but if what has been said doesn't seem sufficient to anyone, I consider it pointless to say anything further.