Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume III/Apologetic/On Idolatry/Grief of the Faithful at the Admission of Idol-Makers into the Church; Nay, Even into the Ministry

Chapter VII.&#8212;Grief of the Faithful at the Admission of Idol-Makers into the Church; Nay, Even into the Ministry.

A whole day the zeal of faith will direct its pleadings to this quarter: bewailing that a Christian should come from idols into the Church; should come from an adversary workshop into the house of God; should raise to God the Father hands which are the mothers of idols; should pray to God with the hands which, out of doors, are prayed to in opposition to God; should apply to the Lord&#8217;s body those hands which confer bodies on demons. Nor is this sufficient. Grant that it be a small matter, if from other hands they receive what they contaminate; but even those very hands deliver to others what they have contaminated. Idol-artificers are chosen even into the ecclesiastical order. Oh wickedness! Once did the Jews lay brands on Christ; these mangle His body daily.&#160; Oh hands to be cut off! Now let the saying, &#8220;If thy hand make thee do evil, amputate it,&#8221; see to it whether it were uttered by way of similitude merely. What hands more to be amputated than those in which scandal is done to the Lord&#8217;s body?