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Christian churches were completely free from visible representations,
i dont think this is true. mayne the first decades afted Jesus ressurection, but not the first 500 years
Augustine in these words, (Ep. 49. See also De Civit. Dei, lib 4 c. 31) "When images are thus placed aloft in seats of honour, to be beheld by those who are praying or sacrificing, though they have neither sense nor life, yet from appearing as if they had both, they affect weak minds just as if they lived and breathed,"
we know too well from experience that the moment images appear in churches, idolatry has as it were raised its banner;
because the folly of manhood cannot moderate itself,
This Council decreed not only that images were to be used in churches, but also that they were to be worshipped.
Bishop Theodore was equally acute: "God," says he, "is to be admired in his saints;" and it is elsewhere said, "To the saints who are on earth;" therefore this must refer to images. In short, their absurdities are so extreme that it is painful even to quote them.
this is so foolish it is funny
Scripture, in teaching that there is but one God, does not make a dispute about words, but attributes all honour and religious worship to him alone.
that unless everything peculiar to divinity is confined to God alone, he is robbed of his honour, and his worship is violated.
For it were often a hard thing to serve him whom you would not refuse to reverence.
True, we often read that men were worshipped; but that was, if I may so speak, civil honour.
a distinction between civil honor and honor of God
The case is different with religious honour, which, the moment it is conjoined with worship, carries profanation of the divine honour along with it. The
That it is not a foreign term, but is employed for the explanation of sacred mysteries.
The orthodox compelled to use the terms, Trinity, Subsistence, and Person. Examples from the case of the Asians and Sabellians.
Manichees
Anthropomorphites.
And here we have a refutation of the error of the Manichees, who, by adopting two first principles, made the devil almost the equal of God.
The Anthropomorphites also, who dreamed of a corporeal God, because mouth, ears, eyes, hands, and feet, are often ascribed to him in Scripture, are easily refuted.
used "consubstantialis" (consubstantial) intimating that there was one substance of the Father and the Son, and thus using the word Substance for Essence.
For he is not called God simply, but also the eternal Ruler.
This Angel claims for himself the name of the Eternal God.
Hence it follows, that he is the God who was always worshipped by the Jews.
Nor does he merely share the government of the world with the Father, but also each of the other offices, which cannot be communicated to creatures.
Again, if out of God there is no salvation, no righteousness, no life, Christ, having all these in himself, is certainly God. Let
But the name of Christ is invoked for salvation, and therefore it follows that he is Jehovah. Moreover,
Now, many passages of Scripture show that he is the author of regeneration, not by a borrowed, but by an intrinsic energy; and
Paul connects together these three, God, Faith, and Baptism,
But is this any thing else than to declare that the Father, Son, and Spirit, are one God?[5]
The passages we have already quoted show that the Son has a distinct subsistence from the Father, because the Word could not have been with God unless he were distinct from the Father;
nor but for this could he have had his glory with the Father.
This distinction is, that to the Father is attributed the beginning of action, the fountain and source of all things; to the Son, wisdom, counsel, and arrangement in action, while the energy and efficacy of action is assigned to the Spirit.
econmies of the God head
For the mind of every man naturally inclines to consider, first, God, secondly, the wisdom emerging from him, and, lastly, the energy by which he executes the purposes of his counsel.
In each hypostasis the whole nature is understood the only difference being that each has his own peculiar subsistence.
"By those names which denote distinctions" says Augustine "is meant the relation which they mutually bear to each other,
"Christ, as to himself, is called God, as to the Father he is called Son." And again, "The Father, as to himself, is called God, as to the Son he is called Father.
we correctly make the Father the beginning of the Son.
never to attempt to search after God anywhere but in his sacred word, and never to speak or think of him farther than we have it for our guide.
let us remember that the human mind enters a labyrinth whenever it indulges its curiosity, and thus submit to be guided by the divine oracles, how much soever the mystery may be beyond our reach.
that there were indeed three Persons, but added, as a reason, that the Father, who alone is truly and properly God, transfused his Divinity into the Son and Spirit when he formed them.
The assumption, that whenever God is mentioned absolutely, the Father only is meant, may be proved erroneous by many passages.
Now then, unless they concede that the power of creating was common to the Father, Son, and Spirit, and the power of commanding common, it
the name God is not used indefinitely, but is restricted to the Father, regarded as the beginning of the Godhead, not by essentiating, as fanatics absurdly express it, but in respect of order.
Accordingly, John, declaring that he is the true God, has no idea of placing him beneath the Father in a subordinate rank of divinity.
He says indeed that he holds the Son to be second to the Father; but he means that the only difference is by distinction.
Let them object that, by him and others, the Father of Christ is called the one God.
God with idleness in not having pleased them by creating the world countless ages sooner than he did create it. In
diligently to ponder on the paternal goodness of God toward the human race, in not creating Adam until he had liberally enriched the earth with all good things.
and the sins thence resulting, being not from nature, but from the corruption of nature; nor, at first, did anything whatever exist that did not exhibit some manifestation of the divine wisdom and justice.
namely, that angels are the ministers and dispensers of the divine bounty towards us.
"He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
By these passages the Lord shows that the protection of those whom he has undertaken to defend he has delegated to his angels.
