Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily X/Chapter 8

Chapter VIII.&#8212;No Gods Which are Made with Hands.

&#8220;Therefore reduce your gods of gold and silver, or any other material, to their original nature; I mean into cups and basins and all other utensils, such as may be useful to you for service; and those good things which were given you at first shall be able to be restored.&#160; But perhaps you will say, The laws of the emperors do not permit us to do this. &#160; You say well that it is the law, and not the power of the vain idols themselves, which is nothing.&#160; How, then, have ye regarded them as gods, who are avenged by human laws, guarded by dogs, kept by multitudes?&#8212;and that if they are of gold, or silver, or brass.&#160; For those of wood or earthenware are preserved by their worthlessness, because no man desires to steal a wooden or earthenware god!&#160; So that your gods are exposed to danger in proportion to the value of the material of which they are made.&#160; How, then, can they be gods, which are stolen, molten, weighed, guarded?