{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">But when we refuse to serve any other than God through\r\nHis word and wisdom, we do so, not as though we would thereby\r\nbe doing any harm or injury to God, in the same way as\r\ninjury would be done to a man by his servant entering into\r\nthe service of another, but we fear that we ourselves should\r\nsuffer harm by depriving ourselves of our portion in God,\r\nthrough which we live in the participation of the divine\r\nblessedness, and are imbued with that excellent spirit of\r\nadoption which in the sons of the heavenly Father cries, not\r\nwith words, but with deep effect in the inmost heart, “Abba,\r\nFather.” The Lacedæmonian ambassadors, when brought before\r\nthe king of Persia, refused to prostrate themselves before him,\r\nwhen the attendants endeavoured to compel them to do so, out\r\nof respect for that which alone had authority and lordship over\r\nthem, namely, the law of Lycurgus.<a id=\"r1576\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1576\"><sup>[1576]</sup></a> But they who have a much\r\ngreater and diviner embassy in “being ambassadors for Christ”\r\nshould not worship any ruler among Persians, or Greeks, or\r\nEgyptians, or of any nation whatever, even although their\r\nofficers and ministers, demons and angels of the devil, should\r\nseek to compel them to do so, and should urge them to set at\r\nnought a law which is mightier than all the laws upon earth.\r\nFor the Lord of those who are “ambassadors for Christ” is\r\nChrist Himself, whose ambassadors they are, and who is “the\r\nWord, who was in the beginning, was with God, and was God.”<a id=\"r1577\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f1577\"><sup>[1577]</sup></a></p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK VIII.","Chapter VI."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-553"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"cce41413296d61d667249495f28edcb2f74e1c966e28f6299c34d42ce1f87be4","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie","W. H. Cairns"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg70693-f1576","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Project Gutenberg metadata: Public domain in the USA. Existing 1872 English edition; listed translators died 1889 and 1872. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"f1576","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f1576\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r1576\">1576</a>. </span><abbr title=\"Herodotus\">Herod.</abbr> <abbr title=\"seven\">vii.</abbr> 136.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f1576","text_sha256":"cd326e9de0f08e27182fd185bec86151c72b5fb8375360d6aae5ea349e156df4","verified":false,"work_id":null}