Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume III/Apologetic/On Idolatry/Grief of the Faithful at the Admission of Idol-Makers into the Church; Nay, Even into the Ministry

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
←
Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III, Apologetic, On Idolatry
by Tertullian, translated by Sydney Thelwall
Grief of the Faithful at the Admission of Idol-Makers into the Church; Nay, Even into the Ministry
→
154952Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. III, Apologetic, On Idolatry — Grief of the Faithful at the Admission of Idol-Makers into the Church; Nay, Even into the MinistrySydney ThelwallTertullian

Chapter VII.—Grief of the Faithful at the Admission of Idol-Makers into the Church; Nay, Even into the Ministry.

A whole day the zeal of faith will direct its pleadings to this quarter: bewailing that a Christian should come from idols into the Church; should come from an adversary workshop into the house of God; should raise to God the Father hands which are the mothers of idols; should pray to God with the hands which, out of doors, are prayed to in opposition to God; should apply to the Lord’s body those hands which confer bodies on demons. Nor is this sufficient. Grant that it be a small matter, if from other hands they receive what they contaminate; but even those very hands deliver to others what they have contaminated. Idol-artificers are chosen even into the ecclesiastical order. Oh wickedness! Once did the Jews lay brands on Christ; these mangle His body daily.  Oh hands to be cut off! Now let the saying, “If thy hand make thee do evil, amputate it,”[1] see to it whether it were uttered by way of similitude merely. What hands more to be amputated than those in which scandal is done to the Lord’s body?


Footnotes[edit]

  1. ↑ Matt. xviii. 8.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Ante-Nicene_Fathers/Volume_III/Apologetic/On_Idolatry/Grief_of_the_Faithful_at_the_Admission_of_Idol-Makers_into_the_Church;_Nay,_Even_into_the_Ministry&oldid=11384715"