6. Seeing then that many have gone astray in
divers ways from the One God, some having deified the sun, that when
the sun sets they may abide in the night season without God; others the
moon, to have no God by day Job xxxi. 26, 27. The worship of Sun and Moon under
various names was almost universal.; others the other
parts of the world Gaea or Tellus, the
earth; Zeus or Jupiter, the sky; rivers, fountains, &c.; others the
arts Music, Medicine,
Hunting, War, Agriculture, Metallurgy, &c., represented by Apollo,
Æsculapius, Diana, Mars, Ceres, Vulcan.; others their various kinds of food Herodotus, Book II.,
describes the Egyptian worship of various birds, fishes, and
quadrupeds. Leeks and onions also were held sacred: Porrum
et caepe nefas violare, Juv. Sat. xv. 9. Compare
Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. c. ii. § 39,
Klotz.; others their pleasures Eros, Dionysus.;
while some, mad after women, have set up on high an image of a naked
woman, and called it Aphrodite Clement of Alexandria
(Protrept. c. iv. § 53, Klotz) states that the
courtesan Phryne was taken as a model for Aphrodite.
“Praxiteles when fashioning the statue of Aphrodite of Cnidus
made it like the form of Cratine his paramour.”
Ibid., and worshipped their
own lust in a visible form; and others dazzled by the brightness of
gold have deified it Plutus. and the other kinds
of matter;—whereas if one lay as a first foundation in his heart
the doctrine of the unity τῆς
μοναρχίας
τοῦ θεοῦ. See note on
the title of Cat. VI. Praxeas made use of the term
“Monarchy” to exclude the Son (and the Spirit) from the
Godhead. Tertullian in his treatise against Praxeas maintains the
true doctrine that the Son is no obstacle to the
“Monarchy,” because He is of the substance of the Father,
does nothing without the Father’s will, and has received all
power from the Father, to Whom He will in the end deliver up the
kingdom. In this sense Dionysius, Bishop of Rome, speaks of the
Divine Monarchy as “that most sacred doctrine of the Church of
God.” Compare Athanas. de Decretis, Nic. Syn. c. vi.
§ 3 and Dr. Newman’s note. In Orat. iv.
c. Arian. p 606 (617), Athanasius derives the term
from ἀρχή, in the sense of
“beginning:” οὕτως μία
ἀρχὴ
θεότητος καὶ
οὐ δύο ἀρχαί,
ὅθεν κυρίως
καὶ μοναρχία
ἐστίν. See the full discussion
of Monarchianism in Athanasius, p. xxiii. ff. in this series,
and Newman’s Introduction to Athan. Or. iv. of God, and trust to
Him, he roots out at once the whole crop For φοράν (Bened.) many
mss. read φθοράν,
“corruption.” of
the evils of idolatry, and of the error of the heretics: lay
thou, therefore, this first doctrine of religion as a foundation in thy
soul by faith.