Chapter XIV.—Idols Unprofitable.

“Begin,⁷⁶¹⁷⁶¹    [The parallel with Homily X. recurs at this chapter, and continues for several chapters.—R.] therefore, to cast out of your minds the vain ideas of idols, and your useless and empty fears, that at the same time you may also escape the condition of unrighteous bondage.  For those have become your lords, who could not even have been profitable servants to you.  For how should lifeless images seem fit even to serve you, when they can neither hear, nor see, nor feel anything?  Yea, even the material of which they are made, whether it be gold or silver, or even brass or wood, though it might have profited you for necessary uses, you have rendered wholly inefficient and useless by fashioning gods out of it.  We therefore declare to you the true worship of God, and at the same time warn and exhort the worshippers, that by good deeds they imitate Him whom they worship, and hasten to return to His image and likeness, as we said before.