Lactantius — Divine Institutes 2.2
What madness is it either to fashion those things which they themselves afterward fear, or to fear what they have fashioned? "We do not fear them," they say, "but Him whose image they are, and who is in heaven." Therefore you do not fear what you see, but what you do not see; and while images are before your eyes, fear is turned elsewhere. But what need is there of images if God is to be worshiped? Are the gods so far from you that they are not known except through images? But if they are present, why do you not worship them present? If absent, why through images as if present? For if they can do everything, they need no help of images; if they can do nothing without them, they are not gods.
But they say images are made so that through them divinity may be approached. What then? Can divinity be shut in wood or stone? Or rather is it not a crime that the human, who ought to look to heaven, bends himself to earth and seeks God in dirt? For whatever is fashioned by human hand of fragile matter is mortal; nor can it ever happen that that which is born from earth should be of heavenly power. But it is said the image is not worshiped, but the god who is worshiped through the image. I do not worship, you say, the stone or wood, but I worship the gods through them. Therefore you worship gods through that which is perishable; and you think the immortal is aided by the mortal, the heavenly by the earthly, the strong by the weak.
Why then do you not rather look to heaven, where you believe the gods are? Why to walls, wood, stone—unless because you yourselves know that nothing is in those images? For so the poet: for I have always thought these things of the gods, that they need nothing—and yet they worship them with incense and wine. But if they need nothing, why worship them? If they are to be worshiped, they need something. So their reasoning fights itself. And yet they do not blush to say they worship the elements: some fire, some water, some air, some earth. Which if they worship as gods, why fashion images? If images, why elements? Unless perhaps they think the elements themselves are contained in images—which is ridiculous.
For what is so empty as to worship the world's members and despise Him who made them? For if you admire the sun's brightness, look how much more admirable is He who made that brightness. If you are delighted by the earth's fruitfulness, praise the Author who wished the earth to be fruitful. If you are moved by mountains' height, rivers' vastness, sea's breadth, wonder at the Maker who made these under this greatness. For the craftsman is always greater than the work. Therefore those who worship the elements or images of the elements are not wise, because they prefer the work to the craftsman, the creature to the Creator—when the human himself, for whose sake these were made, ought to worship only God who made both the human and those things for the human.
Latin
Quae igitur amentia est aut ea fingere quae ipsi postmodum timeant aut timere quae finxerint? \'non ipsa\' inquiunt \'timemus, sed eos ad quorum imaginem ficta et quorum nominibus consecrata sunt.\' nempe ideo timetis, quod eos in caelo esse arbitramini: neque enim, si dii sunt, aliter fieri potest. cur igitur oculos non in caelum tollitis et aduocatis eorum nominibus in aperto sacrificia celebratis? cur ad parietes et ligna et lapides potissimum quam illo spectetis, ubi eos esse credatis? quid sibi templa, quid arae uolunt, quid denique ipsa simulacra, quae aut mortuorum aut absentium monumenta sunt? nam omnino fingendarum similitudinum ratio idcirco ab hominibus inuenta est, ut posset eorum memoria retineri qui uel morte subtracti uel absentia fuerant separati. deos igitur in quorum numero reponemus? si in mortuorum, quis tam stultus ut colat? si in absentium, colendi ergo non sunt, si nec uident quae facimus nec audiunt quae precamur. si autem dii absentes esse non possunt, qui quoniam diuini sunt, in quacumque parte mundi fuerint, uident et audiunt uniuersa, superuacua sunt ergo simulacra illis ubique praesentibus, cum satis sit audientium nomina precibus aduocare. at enim praesentes non nisi ad imagines suas adsunt. ita plane: quemadmodum uulgus existimat mortuorum animas circa tumulos et corporum suorum reliquias oberrare. set tamen postquam deus ille praesto esse coepit, iam simulacro eius opus non est. quaero enim, si quis imaginem hominis peregre constituti contempletur saepius, ut ex ea solacium capiat absentis, num idem sanus esse uideatur, si eo reuerso atque praesente in contemplanda imagine perseueret eaque potius quam ipsius hominis aspectu frui uelit? minime profecto. et tamen hominis imago necessaria tum uidetur, cum procul abest, superuacua futura, cum praesto est, dei autem, cuius numen ac spiritus ubique diffusus abesse numquam potest, semper utique superuacua est. sed uerentur ne omnis illorum religio inanis sit et uana, si nihil in praesenti uideant quod adorent, et ideo simulacra constituunt, quae quia mortuorum sunt imagines, similia sunt mortuis: omni enim sensu carent. dei autem m aeternum umentis uiuum et sensibile debet esse simulacrum. quod si a similitudine id nomen accepit, qui possunt ista simulacra deo similia iudicari quae nec sentiunt nec mouentur? itaque simulacrum dei non illut est quod, digitis hominis ex lapide aut aere aliaue materia fabricatur, sed ipse homo, quoniam et sentit et mouetur et multas magnasque actiones habet. nec intellegunt homines ineptissimi quod, si sentire simulacra et moueri possent, ultro adoratura hominem fuissent a quo sunt expolita: quae essent aut incultus et horridus lapis ant materia informis ac rudis, nisi fuissent ab homine formata. homo igitur illorum quasi parens putandus est, per cuius manus nata sunt, per quem figuram speciem pulchritudinem habere coeperunt, et ideo melior qui fecit quam illa quae facta sunt. et tamen factorem ipsum nemo suspicit aut ueretur: quae fecit timent, tamquam possit plus esse in opere quam in opifice. recte igitur Seneca in libris moralibus simulacra inquit deorum uenerantur, illis supplicant genu posito, illa adorant, illis per totum adsident diem aut adstant, illis stipem iaciunt, uictimas caedunt: et cum haec tanto opere suspiciant, fabros qui illa fecere contemnunt. quid inter se tam contrarium quam statuarium despicere, statuam adorare et eum ne in conuictum quidem admittere qui tibi deos faciat? quam ergo uim, quam potestatem habere possunt, cum ipse qui fecit illa non habeat? sed ne haec quidem dare iis potuit quae habebat, uidere audire loqui moueri. quisquamne igitur tam ineptus est, ut putet aliquid esse in simulacro dei, in quo ne hominis quidem quicquam est praeter umbram ? sed haec nemo considerat: infecti sunt enim persuasione (uana) ac mentes eorum penitus sucum stultitiae perbiberunt. adorant ergo insensibilia qui sentiunt, inrationabilia qui sapiunt, exanima qui uiuunt, terrena qui oriuntur a caelo. iuuat igitur uelut in aliqua sublimi specula constitutum, unde uniuersi exaudire possint, Persianum illud proclamare : o curuae in terris animae et caelestium inanes ! caelum potius intuemini, ad cuius spectaculum uos excitauit ille artifex uester deus. ille uobis sublimem uultum dedit, uos in terram curuamini, uos altas mentes et ad parentem suum cum corporibus suis erectas ad inferiora deprimitis tamquam uos paeniteat non quadrupedes esse natos. tas non est caeleste animal cum terrenis in terramque uergentibus coaequari. quid uos beneficiis caelestibus orbatis pronique in humum uestra sponte procumbitis? humi enim miseri uolutamini, cum deorsum quaeritis quod in sublimi quaerere debuistis. nam ista mortalium digitorum ludicra et fragilia figmenta ex quolibet materiae genere formata quid aliut sunt nisi terra ex qua nata sunt? quid ergo rebus inferioribus subiacetis? quid capitibus uestris terram superponitis? cum enim uos terrae submittitis humilioresque facitis, ipsi uos ultro ad inferos mergitis ad mortemque damnatis, quia nihil est inferius et humilius terra nisi mors et inferi. quae si effugere uelletis, subiectam pedibus uestris terram contemneretis corporis statu saluo, quod idcirco rectum accepistis, quo oculos atque mentem cum eo qui fecit conferre possetis. contemnere autem et calcare terram nihil aliut est quam simulacra non adorare, quia de terra ficta sunt, item diuitias non concupiscere, uoluptates corporis spernere, quia opes et corpus ipsum cuius hospitio utimur terra est. uiuum colite, ut uiuatis: moriatur enim necesse est qui se suamque animam mortuis adiudicauit.