(4.) None considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say: I have burned part of it in the fire; yea also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination; shall I fall down to the stock of a tree? [51d]
(5.) What profiteth the graven image, that the maker thereof hath graven it: the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein to make dumb idols? Woe unto him that saith to the wood; Awake: to the dumb stone; Arise, it shall teach. Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver; and there is no breath at all in the midst of it. [51e]
(6.) Then said Jesus unto him: Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written; Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. [51f]
(7.) Let no man beguile you of your reward, in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. [52a]
(8.) When I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. Then saith he unto me: See thou do it not; for I am thy fellow-servant and of thy brethren the prophets and of them which keep the sayings of this book. Worship God. [52b]
(9.) When the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia: The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. And they called Barnabas Jupiter; and Paul Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker. Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people. When the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out and saying: Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you; and preach unto you, that ye should turn away from these vanities unto the living God. [52c]
III. We may now profitably hear the testimony of the early ecclesiastical writers.
1. The Epistle of the Church of Smyrna, relative to the martyrdom of Polycarp, was written about the middle of the second century.
Nicetas was urged by the envious and the wicked to intercede with the governor, that the remains of Polycarp should not be delivered for sepulture: lest, leaving him that was crucified, the Christians, it was suggested, should begin to worship this person. These things they said, at the instigation of the Jews: because they were ignorant; that neither can we ever forsake Christ who suffered for the salvation of the saved throughout the whole world, nor that we can ever worship any other. For him, being the Son of God, we adore: but the martyrs, as disciples and imitators of the Lord, we worthily love on account of their special affection to their own King and Master. [53a]
2. Clement of Alexandria flourished in the second century.