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| Chapter LXV
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Chapter LXV.
In regard to the Persians, we have already said
that though they do not build temples, yet they worship the sun and the
other works of God. This is forbidden to us, for we have been
taught not to worship the creature instead of the Creator, but to know
that “the creation shall be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God;”
and “the earnest expectation of the creation is waiting for the
revelation of the sons of God;” and “the creation was made
subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who made it
subject, in hope.”4834
We believe,
therefore, that things “under the bondage of corruption,”
and “subject to vanity,” which remain in this condition
“in hope” of a better state, ought not in our worship to
hold the place of God, the all-sufficient, and of His Son, the
First-born of all creation. Let this suffice, in addition to what
we have already said of the Persians, who abhor altars and images, but
who serve the creature instead of the Creator. As to the passage
quoted by Celsus from Heraclitus, the purport of which he represents as
being, “that it is childish folly for one to offer prayers to
images, whilst he knows not who the gods and heroes are,” we may
reply that it is easy to know that God and the Only-begotten Son of
God, and those whom God has honoured with the title of God, and who
partake of His divine nature, are very different from all the gods of
the nations which are demons; but it is not possible at the same time
to know God and to address prayers to images.4835
| 4835 [Let this be noted;
and see book viii. 20, infra.] | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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