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But since some find fault with us for worshipping and honouring the
image of our Saviour and that of our Lady, and those, too, of the
rest of the saints and servants of Christ, let them remember that in
the beginning God created man after His own image. On what grounds,
then, do we shew reverence to each other unless because we are made
after God's image? For as Basil, that much-versed expounder of
divine things, says, the honour given to the image passes over to the
prototype. Now a prototype is that which is imaged, from which the
derivative is obtained. Why was it that the Mosaic people honoured on
all hands the tabernacle which bore an image and type of heavenly
things, or rather of the whole creation? God indeed said to Moses,
Look that thou make them after their pattern which was shewed thee in
the mount. The Cherubim, too, which o'ershadow the mercy seat,
are they not the work of men's hands? What, further, is the
celebrated temple at Jerusalem? Is it not hand-made and fashioned by
the skill of men?
Moreover the divine Scripture blames those who worship graven images,
but also those who sacrifice to demons. The Greeks sacrificed and the
Jews also sacrificed: but the Greeks to demons and the Jews to
God. And the sacrifice of the Greeks was rejected and condemned,
but the sacrifice of the just was very acceptable to God. For Noah
sacrificed, and God smelled a sweet savour, receiving the fragrance
of the right choice and good-will towards Him. And so the graven
images of the Greeks, since they were images of deities, were
rejected and forbidden.
But besides this who can make an imitation of the invisible,
incorporeal, uncircumscribed, formless God? Therefore to give form
to the Deity is the height of folly and impiety. And hence it is that
in the Old Testament the use of images was not common. But after
God in His bowels of pity became in truth man for our salvation, not
as He was seen by Abraham in the semblance of a man, nor as He was
seen by the prophets, but in being truly man, and after He lived upon
the earth and dwelt among men, worked miracles, suffered, was
crucified, rose again and was taken back to Heaven, since all these
things actually took place and were seen by men, they were written for
the remembrance and instruction of us who were not alive at that time in
order that though we saw not, we may still, hearing and believing,
obtain the blessing of the Lord. But seeing that not every one has a
knowledge of letters nor time for reading, the Fathers gave their
sanction to depicting these events on images as being acts of great
heroism, in order that they should form a concise memorial of them.
Often, doubtless, when we have not the Lord's passion in mind and
see the image of Christ's crucifixion, His saving passion is brought
back to remembrance, and we fall down and worship not the material but
that which is imaged: just as we do not worship the material of which
the Gospels are made, nor the material of the Cross, but that which
these typify. For wherein does the cross, that typifies the Lord,
differ from a cross that does not do so? It is just the same also in
the case of the Mother of the Lord. For the honour which we give to
her is referred to Him Who was made of her incarnate. And similarly
also the brave acts of holy men stir us up to be brave and to emulate
and imitate their valour and to glorify God. For as we said, the
honour that is given to the best of fellow-servants is a proof of
good-will towards our common Lady, and the honour rendered to the
image passes over to the prototype. But this is an unwritten
tradition, just as is also the worshipping towards the East and the
worship of the Cross, and very many other similar things.
A certain tale, too, is told, how that when Augarus was king over
the city of the Edessenes, he sent a portrait painter to paint a
likeness of the Lord, and when the painter could not paint because of
the brightness that shone from His countenance, the Lord Himself put
a garment over His own divine and life-giving face and impressed on it
an image of Himself and sent this to Augarus, to satisfy thus his
desire.
Moreover that the Apostles handed down much that was unwritten,
Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, tells us in these words:
Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have
been taught of us, whether by word or by epistle. And to the
Corinthians he writes, Now I praise you, brethren, that ye
remember me in all things, and keep the traditions as I have delivered
them to you."
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