Tertullian — Against Marcion 2.22
Accordingly also forbidding a likeness to be made of all things that are in heaven and on earth and in the waters, he also shows the causes—restraining of course the substance of idolatry. For he subjoins: You shall not adore them nor serve them. But the figure of the bronze serpent afterward commanded to Moses by the Lord did not pertain to a title of idolatry, but to remedying those who were being attacked by serpents. And I am silent about the figure of the remedy. So also the golden cherubim and seraphim into a figured example of the ark—certainly a simple ornament suited to the setting—by having causes far different from the condition of idolatry, on account of which likeness is forbidden, do not seem to oppose the law of forbidden likenesses, not caught in that status of likeness on account of which likeness is forbidden.
We have spoken of the rational institution of sacrifices, calling of course from idols to God those offices which, if he had again cast them out saying: What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?—he wanted this itself to be understood, that he had not demanded them for himself properly. For I will not drink, he says, the blood of bulls, because elsewhere too he says: The eternal God will not hunger nor thirst. For even if he turned to Abel’s offerings and gladly smelled Noah’s holocausts, what pleasantness was there of sheep’s entrails or of the reek of burning victims? But the simple mind and God-fearing of those offering what they had from God both of food and of sweet fragrance was counted as grace with God—not demanding what were being done, but that on account of which they were being done, for God’s honor of course.
If a client offers to a rich man or king who desires nothing yet some cheapest little gift, will the quantity and quality of the gift stain the rich man and king, or will the title of duty delight? But if a client offers him gifts either spontaneously or even as ordered in their turn and observes the king’s solemnities, yet not from faith nor with pure heart nor with full obedience also about the rest, does it not follow that that king or rich man cry out: What to me is the multitude of your gifts? … I am full—also saying your solemnities and feast days and sabbaths, which by celebrating according to their own lust, not according to God’s religion, they had already made theirs, not God’s. He therefore showed a conditional and rational refusal of those things which he had prescribed to be administered.
Latin
Proinde et similitudinem uetans fieri omnium. quae in caelo et in terra et in aquis. ostendit et causas. [idolatriae scilicet substantiam cohibentes.] subicit enim: non adorabitis ea neque seruietis illis. serpentis autem aenei effigies postea praecepta Moysi a domino non ad idolatriae titulum pertinebat, sed ad remediandos eos, qui a serpentibus infestabantur. et taceo de figura remedii. sic et Cherubin et Seraphin aurea in arcae figuratum exemplum; certe simplex ornamentum. adcommodata suggestui, longe diuersas habendo causas ab idolatriae condicione, ob quam\' similitudo prohibetur, non uidentur similitudinum prohibitarum legi refragari, non in eo similitudinis statu deprehensa, ob quem similitudo prohibetur. diximus de sacrificiorum rationali institutione, auocante scilicet ab idolis ad deum officia ea, quae si rursus eiecerat dicens: quo mihi multitudinem sacrificiorum uestrorum? hoc ipsum uoluit intellegi, quod non sibi ea proprie exegisset. non enim bibam, inquit, sanguinem taurorum, quia et alibi ait: deus aeternus non esuriet nec sitiet. nam etsi ad oblationes Abelis aduertit et holocausta Noe odoratus est libenter, quae iocunditas siue uiscerum berbicinorum siue nidoris ardentium uictimarum? sed animus simplex et deum metuens offerentium ea, quae a deo habebant et pabuli et suauis olentiae, gratiae apud deum deputabatur, non. quae fiebant exigentem, sed illud, propter quod fiebant, ob honorem dei scilicet. si cliens diuiti aut regi nihil desideranti tamen aliquid uilissimi munusculi obtulerit, quantitas et qualitas muneris infuscabit diuitem et regem, an delectabit titulus officii? at si cliens ei munera (uel) ultro uel etiam indicta ordine suo offerat et sollemnia regis obseruet, non ex fide tamen nec corde puro nec pleno circa cetera quoque obsequio, nonne consequens, ut rex ille uel diues exclamet: quo mihi multitudinem munerum tuorum? *** plenus sum et sollemnitates et dies festos et uestra sabbata dicendo, quae secundum libidinem suam, non secundum religionem dei celebrando sua iam, non dei fecerant. condicionalem idcirco et rationalem demonstrauit recusationem eorum. % quae administranda praescripserat.