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| Chapter VIII. The heretics attribute to Christ only the shadow of Divinity, and so assert that he is to be worshipped together with God but not as God. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter VIII.
The heretics attribute to Christ only the shadow of
Divinity, and so assert that he is to be worshipped together with God
but not as God.
But still in order to
avoid thinking of the Lord Jesus as one of the whole mass of people,
you have given to Him some glory, by attributing to Him honour as a
saint, but not Deity as true man and true God. For what do you say?
“God brought about the Lord’s Incarnation. Let us honour
the form of the Theodochos2614 together with
God, as one form of Godhead, as a figure that cannot be severed from
the Divine link, as an image of the unseen
God.” Above you said that Adam was
the image of God, here you call Christ the image: the one you speak of
as a statue, and the other also as a statue. But I suppose we ought for
God’s honour to be grateful to you, because you grant that the
form of the Theodochos should be worshipped together with God: in which
you wrong Him rather than honour Him. For in this you do not attribute
to the Lord Jesus Christ the glory of Deity, but you deny it. By a
subtle and wicked art you say that He is to be worshipped together with
God in order that you may not have to confess that He is God, and by
the very statement in which you seem deceitfully to join Him with God,
you really sever Him from God. For when you blasphemously say that He
is certainly not to be adored as God, but to be worshipped together
with God, you thus grant to Him an union of nearness to Divinity, in
order to get rid of the truth of His Divinity. Oh, you most wicked and
crafty enemy of God, you want to perpetrate the crime of denying God
under pretext of confessing Him. You say: Let us worship Him as a
figure that cannot be severed from the Divine will, as an image of the
unseen God. It is I suppose, then, owing to His kind acts that our Lord
Jesus Christ has obtained among us honour as Creator and Redeemer. If
then we were redeemed by Him from eternal destruction, in calling our
Redeemer a figure we are endeavouring indeed to respond to His kindness
and goodness, by a worthy service and a worthy allegiance, if we try to
get rid of that glory which He did not refuse to bring low for our
sakes.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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