[402] Revelation,
however, is necessary because this wisdom of the philosophers and poets
is really demon wisdom, for they were inspired by devils.[403] Thus the
most extreme contrasts appear to exist here. Still, Theophilus is
constrained to confess that truth was not only announced by the Sibyl,
to whom his remarks do not apply, for she is (II. 36): [Greek: en
Ellesin kai en tois loipois ethnetin genomene prophetis], but that poets
and philosophers, "though against their will," also gave clear
utterances regarding the justice, the judgment, and the punishments of
God, as well as regarding his providence in respect to the living and
the dead, or, in other words, about the most important points (II. 37,
38, 8 fin.). Theophilus gives a double explanation of this fact. On the
one hand he ascribes it to the imitation of holy writings (II. 12, 37:
I. 14), and on the other he admits that those writers, when the demons
abandoned them ([Greek: te psyche eknepsantes ex auton]), of themselves
displayed a knowledge of the divine sovereignty, the judgment etc.,
which agrees with the teachings of the prophets (II. 8). This admission
need not cause astonishment; for the freedom and control of his own
destiny with which man is endowed (II. 27) must infallibly lead him to
correct knowledge and obedience to God, as soon as he is no longer under
the sway of the demons. Theophilus did not apply the title of philosophy
to Christian truth, this title being in his view discredited; but
Christianity is to him the "wisdom of God," which by luminous proofs
convinces the men who reflect on their own nature.[404]

_Tertullian and Minucius Felix._[405] Whilst, in the case of the Greek
Apologists, the acknowledgment of revelation appears conditioned by
philosophical scepticism on the one hand, and by the strong impression
of the dominion of the demons on the other, the sceptical element is not
only wanting in the Latin Apologists, but the Christian truth is even
placed in direct opposition to the sceptical philosophy and on the side
of philosophical dogmatism, i.e., Stoicism.[406] Nevertheless the
observations of Tertullian and Minucius Felix with regard to the essence
of Christianity, viewed as philosophy and as revelation, are at bottom
completely identical with the conception of the Greek Apologists,
although it is undeniable that in the former case the revealed character
of Christianity is placed in the background.[407] The recognition of
this