Chapter XII.
In what follows, some may imagine that he says something plausible against us. "If," says he, "these people worshipped one God alone, and no other, they would perhaps have some valid argument against the worship of others. But they pay excessive reverence to one who has but lately appeared among men, and they think it no offence against God if they worship also His servant." To this we reply, that if Celsus had known that saying, "I and My Father are one," [4860] and the words used in prayer by the Son of God, "As Thou and I are one," [4861] he would not have supposed that we worship any other besides Him who is the Supreme God. "For," says He, "My Father is in Me, and I in Him." [4862] And if any should from these words be afraid of our going over to the side of those who deny that the Father and the Son are two persons, let him weigh that passage, "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul," [4863] that he may understand the meaning of the saying, "I and My Father are one." We worship one God, the Father and the Son, therefore, as we have explained; and our argument against the worship of other gods still continues valid. And we do not "reverence beyond measure one who has but lately appeared," as though He did not exist before; [4864] for we believe Himself when He says, "Before Abraham was, I am." [4865] Again He says, "I am the truth;" [4866] and surely none of us is so simple as to suppose that truth did not exist before the time when Christ appeared. [4867] We worship, therefore, the Father of truth, and the Son, who is the truth; and these, while they are two, considered as persons or subsistences, are one in unity of thought, in harmony and in identity of will. So entirely are they one, that he who has seen the Son, "who is the brightness of God's glory, and the express image of His person," [4868] has seen in Him who is the image of God, God Himself.
[4860] John x. 30.
[4861] John xvii. 22.
[4862] John xiv. 11, and xvii. 21.
[4863] Acts iv. 32.
[4864] [See note infra, cap. xxvi. S.]
[4865] John viii. 58.
[4866] John xiv. 6.
[4867] [he tes aletheias ousia: see Neander's History of the Church, vol. ii. pp. 282, 283; also note supra, book vi. cap. lxiv. p. 603. S.]
[4868] Heb. i. 3.
Chapter XIII.
He further supposes, that "because we join along with the worship of God the worship of His Son, it follows that, in our view, not only God, but also the servants of God, are to be worshipped." If he had meant this to apply to those who are truly the servants of God, after His only-begotten Son,--to Gabriel and Michael, and the other angels and archangels, and if he had said of these that they ought to be worshipped,--if also he had clearly defined the meaning of the word "worship," and the duties of the worshippers,--we might perhaps have brought forward such thoughts as have occurred to us on so important a subject. But as he reckons among the servants of God the demons which are worshipped by the heathen, he cannot induce us, on the plea of consistency, to worship such as are declared by the word to be servants of the evil one, the prince of this world, who leads astray from God as many as he can. We decline, therefore, altogether to worship and serve those whom other men worship, for the reason that they are not servants of God. For if we had been taught to regard them as servants of the Most High, we would not have called them demons. Accordingly, we worship with all our power the one God, and His only Son, the Word and the Image of God, by prayers and supplications; and we offer our petitions to the God of the universe through His only-begotten Son. To the Son we first present them, and beseech Him, as "the propitiation for our sins," [4869] and our High Priest, to offer our desires, and sacrifices, and prayers, to the Most High. Our faith, therefore, is directed to God through His Son, who strengthens it in us; and Celsus can never show that the Son of God is the cause of any sedition or disloyalty in the kingdom of God. We honour the Father when we admire His Son, the Word, and Wisdom, and Truth, and Righteousness, and all that He who is the Son of so great a Father is said in Scripture to be. So much on this point.
[4869] 1 John ii. 2.