called God? Seest
thou not that the god that standeth cannot sit, and the god that
sitteth cannot stand?

"Be ashamed, thou fool, and lay thine hand upon thy mouth, thou victim
of folly, that commendest such things as these. Estranged from the
truth, thou hast been led astray by false images, fashioning statues
and attaching to the works of thine own hands the name of God. O
wretched man, return to thy senses, and learn that thou art older than
the god made by thee. This is downright madness. Being a man, thou
hast persuaded thyself that thou canst make God. How can this be?
Thou makest not God, but the likeness of a man, or of some beast, sans
tongue, sans throat, sans brains, sans inwards, so that it is the
similitude neither of a man, nor of a beast, but only a thing of no use
and sheer vanity. Why therefore flatterest thou things that cannot
feel? Why sittest thou at the feet of things that cannot move and help
thee? But for the skill of the mason, or timber-wright, or
hammer-smith, thou hadst not had a god. Had there been no warders nigh
at hand, thou hadst lost thy god. He, to whom many a populous city of
fools prayeth as God to guard it, the same hath suite of guards at hand
to save him from being stolen. And if he be of silver or gold, he is
carefully guarded; but if of stone or clay or any other less costly
ware, he guardeth himself, for with you, no doubt, a god of clay is
stronger than one of gold.

"Do we not, then, well to laugh you to scorn, or rather to weep over
you, as men blind and without understanding? Your deeds are deeds of
madness and not of piety. Your man of war maketh to himself an image
after the similitude of a warrior, and calleth it Ares. And the
lecher, making a symbol of his own soul, deifieth his vice and calleth
it Aphrodite. Another, in honour of his own love of wine, fashioneth
an idol which he calleth Dionysus. Likewise lovers of all other evil
things set up idols of their own lusts; for they name their lusts their
gods. And therefore, before their altars, there are lascivious dances,
and strains of lewd songs and mad revelries. Who could recount in
order their abominable doings? Who could endure to defile his lips by
the repeating of their filthy communications? But these are manifest
to all, even if we hold our peace. These be thine objects of worship,
O Theudas, who art more senseless than thine idols. Before these thou
biddest me fall down and worship. T