Theophilus to Autolycus

The divine law, then, not only forbids the worshipping of idols, but also of the heavenly bodies, the sun, the moon, or the other stars; yea, not heaven, nor earth, nor the sea, nor fountains, nor rivers, must be worshipped, but we must serve in holiness of heart and sincerity of purpose only the living and true God, who also is Maker of the universe. Wherefore says the holy law: “You shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not desire your neighbour's wife.”

So also the prophets. Solomon indeed teaches us that we must not sin with so much as a turn of the eye, saying, “Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you.” And Moses, who himself also was a prophet, says, concerning the sole government of God: “Your God is He who establishes the heaven, and forms the earth, whose hands have brought forth all the host of heaven; and He has not set these things before you that you should go after them.” And Isaiah himself also says: “Thus says the Lord God who established the heavens, and founded the earth and all that is therein, and gives breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein.

This is the Lord your God.” And again, through him He says: “I have made the earth, and man upon it. I by my hand have established the heavens.” And in another chapter, “This is your God, who created the ends of the earth; He hungers not, neither is weary, and there is no searching of His understanding.” So, too, Jeremiah says: “Who has made the earth by His power, and established the world by His wisdom, and by His discretion has stretched out the heavens, and a mass of water in the heavens, and He caused the clouds to ascend from the ends of the earth; He made lightnings with rain, and brought forth winds out of His treasures.” One can see how consistently and harmoniously all the prophets spoke, having given utterance through one and the same spirit concerning the unity of God, and the creation of the world, and the formation of man.

Moreover, they were in sore travail, bewailing the godless race of men, and they reproached those, who seemed to be wise, for their error and hardness of heart. Jeremiah, indeed, said: “Every man is brutishly gone astray from the knowledge of Him; every founder is confounded by his graven images; in vain the silversmith makes his molten images; there is no breath in them: in the day of their visitation they shall perish.” The same, too, says David: “They are corrupt, they have done abominable works; there is none that does good, no, not one; they have all gone aside, they have together become profitless.” So also Habakkuk: “What profits the graven image that he has graven it a lying image?

Woe to him that says to the stone, Awake; and to the wood, Arise.” Likewise spoke the other prophets of the truth. And why should I recount the multitude of prophets, who are numerous, and said ten thousand things consistently and harmoniously? For those who desire it, can, by reading what they uttered, accurately understand the truth, and no longer be carried away by opinion and profitless labour. These, then, whom we have already mentioned, were prophets among the Hebrews,— illiterate, and shepherds, and uneducated.