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ISAAC: We need not be surprised that a really simple man who had never
received any instruction on the substance and nature of the Godhead could
still be entangled and deceived by an error of simplicity and the habit of
a longstanding mistake, and (to speak more truly) continue in the original
error which is brought about, not as you suppose by a new illusion of the
demons, but by the ignorance of the ancient heathen world, while in
accordance with the custom of that erroneous notion, by which they used to
worship devils formed in the figure of men, they even now think that the
incomprehensible and ineffable glory of the true Deity should be worshipped
under the limitations of some figure, as they believe that they can grasp
and hold nothing if they have not some image set before them, which they
can continually address while they are at their devotions, and which they
can carry about in their mind and have always fixed before their eyes. And
against this mistake of theirs this text may be used: "And they changed the
glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of
corruptible man." Jeremiah also says: "My people have changed their
glory for an idol. Which error although by this its origin, of which we
have spoken, it is engrained in the notions of some, yet none the less is
it contracted in the hearts also of those who have never been stained with
the superstition of the heathen world, under the colour of this passage
where it is said "Let us make man after our image and our likeness,"
ignorance and simplicity being its authors, so that actually there has
arisen owing to this hateful interpretation a heresy called that of the
Anthropomorphites, which maintains with obstinate perverseness that the
infinite and simple substance of the Godhead is fashioned in our lineaments
and human configuration. Which however any one who has been taught the
Catholic doctrine will abhor as heathenish blasphemy, and so will arrive at
that perfectly pure condition in prayer which will not only not connect
with its prayers any figure of the Godhead or bodily lineaments (which it
is a sin even to speak of), but will not even allow in itself even the
memory of a name, or the appearance of an action, or an outline of any
character.
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