If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. (1 Cor 3:14)
Recently, O blindness, I worshiped images produced from the furnace, gods made on anvils and by hammers, the bones of elephants, paintings, wreaths on aged trees. Whenever I looked on an anointed stone daubed with olive oil, as if some power resided in it I worshiped it; I addressed myself to it and begged blessings from a senseless stock. And these very gods of whose existence I had convinced myself, I treated with gross insults, when I believed them to be wood, stone, and bones, or imagined that they dwelt in the substance of such objects. Now, having been led into the paths of truth by so great a Teacher, I know what all these things are, I entertain honorable thoughts concerning those which are worthy, I offer no insult to any divine name; and what is due to each, whether inferior or superior, I assign with clearly-defined gradations, and on distinct authority. Is Christ, then, not to be regarded by us as God? And is He, who in other respects may be deemed the very greatest, not to be honored with divine worship, from whom we have already received while alive so great gifts, and from whom we expect greater ones when “the Day” comes?
Recently, O blindness, I worshiped images produced from the furnace, gods made on anvils and by hammers, the bones of elephants, paintings, wreaths on aged trees. Whenever I looked on an anointed stone daubed with olive oil, as if some power resided in it I worshiped it; I addressed myself to it and begged blessings from a senseless stock. And these very gods of whose existence I had convinced myself, I treated with gross insults, when I believed them to be wood, stone, and bones, or imagined that they dwelt in the substance of such objects. Now, having been led into the paths of truth by so great a Teacher, I know what all these things are, I entertain honorable thoughts concerning those which are worthy, I offer no insult to any divine name; and what is due to each, whether inferior or superior, I assign with clearly-defined gradations, and on distinct authority. Is Christ, then, not to be regarded by us as God? And is He, who in other respects may be deemed the very greatest, not to be honored with divine worship, from whom we have already received while alive so great gifts, and from whom we expect greater ones when “the Day” comes?
Arnobius of Sicca, Against the Pagans I.39
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