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| Chapter XIII.—Christians serve God rationally. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter XIII.—Christians serve God
rationally.
What sober-minded man, then, will not acknowledge that
we are not atheists, worshipping as we do the Maker of this universe, and
declaring, as we have been taught, that He has no need of streams of
blood and libations and incense; whom we praise to the utmost of our
power by the exercise of prayer and thanksgiving for all things wherewith
we are supplied, as we have been taught that the only honour that is
worthy of Him is not to consume by fire what He has brought into being
for our sustenance, but to use it for ourselves and those who need, and
with gratitude to Him to offer thanks by invocations and hymns1782
1782 πομπὰς
καὶ ὕμνους. “Grabe,
and it should seem correctly, understands πομπὰς
to be solemn prayers. … He also remarks, that the ὕμνοι were either
psalms of David, or some of those psalms and songs made by the primitive
Christians, which are mentioned in Eusebius, H. E., v. 28.”
—Trollope.
| for our creation, and for all the means of health, and for the
various qualities of the different kinds of things, and for the changes
of the seasons; and to present before Him petitions for our existing
again in incorruption through faith in Him. Our teacher of these things is Jesus Christ, who
also was born for this purpose, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
procurator of Judæa, in the times of Tiberius Cæsar; and that we
reasonably worship Him, having learned that He is the Son of the true
God Himself, and holding Him in the second place, and the
prophetic Spirit in the third, we will prove. For
they proclaim our madness to consist in this, that we give to a crucified
man a place second to the unchangeable and eternal God, the Creator of
all; for they do not discern the mystery that is herein, to which, as we
make it plain to you, we pray you to give heed.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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