For, Christ alone has had given into his charge and entrusted to him by God the Father to bring salvation and impart to souls what should be bestowed and must be added—based on reasons too profound to understand. For, as with you, certain gods have fixed offices, privileges, powers, and you do not ask from any of them what is not in his power and permitted to him, so it is the right of Christ alone to give salvation to souls, and assign them everlasting life. For if you believe that father Bacchus can give a good vintage, but cannot give relief from sickness; if you believe that Ceres can give good crops, Aesculapius health, Neptune one thing, Juno another, that Fortuna, Mercury, Vulcan, are each the giver of a fixed and particular thing,—this, too, you must also receive from us, that souls can receive from no one life and salvation, except from him to whom the Supreme Ruler gave this charge and duty. The Almighty Master of the world has determined that this should be the way of salvation,—this the door, so to say, of life; by him alone is there access to the light: nor may men either creep in or enter elsewhere, all other ways being shut up and secured by an impenetrable barrier.
Arnobius of Sicca, The Case against the Pagans, Book II, cap. 65
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