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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 Theodochos 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.
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