[Footnote 1:  The early Fathers, in their defence of the Christian doctrine of one God, against the objections of the pagan advocate of the popular mythologies, contend that the better pagan writers themselves agree with the new religion, in teaching that there is one Supreme Being.  LACTANTIUS (Institutiones i. 5), after quoting the Orphic poets, Hesiod, Virgil, and Ovid, in proof that the heathen poets taught the unity of the Supreme Deity, proceeds to show that the better pagan philosophers, also, agree with them in this.  “Aristotle,” he says, “although he disagrees with himself, and says many things that are self-contradictory, yet testifies that one Supreme Mind rules over the world.  Plato, who is regarded as the wisest philosopher of them all, plainly and openly defends the doctrine of a divine monarchy, and denominates the Supreme Being; not ether, nor reason, nor nature, but, as he is, God; and asserts that by him this perfect and admirable world was made.  And Cicero follows Plato, frequently confessing the Deity, and calls him the Supreme Being, in his treatise on the Laws.”  TERTULLIAN (De Test.  An. c. 1; Adv.  Marc. i. 10; Ad.  Scap. c. 2; Apol. c. 17), than whom no one of the Christian Fathers was more vehemently opposed to the philosophizing of the schools, earnestly contends that the doctrine of the unity of God is constitutional to the human mind.  “God,” he says, “proves himself to be God, and the one only God, by the very fact that He is known to all nations; for the existence of any other deity than He would first have to be demonstrated.  The God of the Jews is the one whom the souls of men call their God.  We worship one God, the one whom ye all naturally know, at whose lightnings and thunders ye tremble, at whose benefits ye rejoice.  Will ye that we prove the Divine existence by the witness of the soul itself, which, although confined by the prison of the body, although circumscribed by bad training, although enervated by lusts and passions, although made the servant of false gods, yet when it recovers itself as from a surfeit, as from a slumber, as from some infirmity, and is in its proper condition of soundness, calls God by this name only, because it is the proper name of the true God.  ‘Great God,’ ‘good God,’ and ’God grant’ [deus, not dii], are words in every mouth.  The soul also witnesses that He is its judge, when it says, ‘God sees,’ ‘I commend to God,’ ’God shall recompense me.’  O testimony of a soul naturally Christian [i.e., monotheistic]!  Finally, in pronouncing these words, it looks not to the Roman capitol, but to heaven; for it knows the dwelling-place of the true God:  from Him and from thence it descended.”  CALVIN (Inst. i. 10) seems to have had these statements in his eye, in the following remarks:  “In almost all ages, religion has been generally corrupted.  It is true, indeed, that the name of one Supreme God has been universally known and celebrated.  For those who used to worship a multitude of deities,