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Barlaam and Ioasaph by Saint John of Damascus
page 62 of 266 (23%)
safety. And yet what folly not to know that they, which be
unable to guard and aid themselves, can in no wise guard and save
others! `For' saith he, `why, on behalf of the living, should
they seek unto the dead?' They expend wealth, for to raise
statues and images to devils, and vainly boast that these give
them good gifts, and crave to receive of their hands things which
those idols never possessed, nor ever shall possess. Wherefore
it is written, `May they that make them be like unto them, and so
be all such as put their trust in them, who,' he saith, `hire a
goldsmith, and make them gods, and they fall down, yea, they
worship them. They bear them upon the shoulders, and go forward.
And if they set them in their place, they stand therein: they
shall not remove. Yea, one shall cry unto them, yet call they
not answer him, nor save him out of his trouble.' `Wherefore be
ye ashamed with everlasting shame, ye that trust in graven
images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.' `For
they sacrificed,' he saith, `unto devils, and not to God; to gods
whom their fathers knew not. There came new and fresh gods;
because it is a froward generation, and there is no faith in
them.'

"Wherefore out of this wicked and faithless generation the Lord
calleth thee to him, saying, `Come out from among them, and be
thou separate, and touch no unclean thing,' but `save thyself
from this untoward generation.' `Arise thou, and depart, for
this is not thy rest;' for that divided lordship, which your gods
hold, is a thing of confusion and strife and hath no real being
whatsoever. But with us it is not so, neither have we many gods
and lords, but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and
we unto him: and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things
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