Chapter VI.—Idolatry Condemned by Baptism. To Make an Idol Is, in Fact, to Worship It.

If no law of God had prohibited idols to be made by us; if no voice of the Holy Spirit uttered general menace no less against the makers than the worshippers of idols; from our sacrament itself we would draw our interpretation that arts of that kind are opposed to the faith. For how have we renounced the devil and his angels, if we make them? What divorce have we declared from them, I say not with whom, but dependent on whom, we live? What discord have we entered into with those to whom we are under obligation for the sake of our maintenance? Can you have denied with the tongue what with the hand you confess? unmake by word what by deed you make? preach one God, you who make so many? preach the true God, you who make false ones? “I make,” says one, “but I worship not;” as if there were some cause for which he dare not worship, besides that for which he ought not also to make,—the offence done to God, namely, in either case.  Nay, you who make, that they may be able to be worshipped, do worship; and you worship, not with the spirit of some worthless perfume, but with your own; nor at the expense of a beast’s soul, but of your own. To them you immolate your ingenuity; to them you make your sweat a libation; to them you kindle the torch of your forethought. More are you to them than a priest, since it is by your means they have a priest; your diligence is their divinity.37    i.e., Unless you made them, they would not exist, and therefore [would not be regarded as divinities; therefore] your diligence gives them their divinity. Do you affirm that you worship not what you make? Ah! but they affirm not so, to whom you slay this fatter, more precious and greater victim, your salvation.

CAPUT VI.

Si nulla lex Dei prohibuisset idola fieri a nobis, si nulla vox Spiritus sancti fabricatoribus idolorum 0668B non minus quam cultoribus comminaretur: de ipso sacramento nostro interpretaremur nobis adversas esse fidei ejusmodi artes. Quomodo enim renuntiavimus diabolo et angelis ejus, si eos facimus? Quod repudium diximus iis, non dico cum quibus, sed de quibus vivimus? Quam discordiam suscepimus in eos, quibus exhibitionis nostrae gratia obligati sumus? Potes lingua negasse, quod manu confiteris? verbo destruere, quod facto struis? unum Deum praedicare, qui tantos efficis? verum Deum praedicare, qui falsos facis? Facio (ait quidam), sed non colo. Quasi ob aliquam caussam colere non audeat, nisi ob quam et facere non debeat, scilicet ob Dei offensam utrobique. Imo tu colis, qui facis ut coli possint. Colis autem, non spiritu vilissimi nidoris 0668C alicujus, sed tuo proprio: nec anima pecudis impensa, sed anima tua. Illis ingenium tuum immolas, illis sudorem tuum libas, illis prudentiam tuam accendis. Plus es illis quam sacerdos, cum per te habeant sacerdotem. 0669A Diligentia tua numen illorum est. Negas te, quod facis, colere? Sed illi non negant, quibus hanc saginatiorem et auratiorem et majorem hostiam caedis, salutem tuam.