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Apologia of St John Damascene Against those who Decry Holy Images Part I
With the ever-present conviction of my own unworthiness, I ought to have kept silence and confessed my shortcomings before God, but all things are good at the right time. I see the Church which God founded on the Apostles and Prophets, its corner-stone being Christ His Son, tossed on an angry sea, beaten by rushing waves, shaken and troubled by the assaults of evil spirits. I see rents in the seamless robe of Christ, which impious men have sought to part asunder, and His body cut into pieces, that is, the word of God and the ancient tradition of the Church.
Recognising the power
Therefore I have judged it unreasonable to keep silence and to hold my tongue, bearing in mind the Scripture warning:–“If thou withdrawest thyself, my soul shall not delight in thee,” (Heb. 10.38) and “If thou seest the sword coming and dost not warn thy brother, I shall require his blood at thy hand.” (cf. Ez. 33.8) Fear, then, compelled me to speak; the truth was stronger than the majesty of kings. “I bore testimony to Thee before kings,” I heard the royal David saying, “and I was not ashamed.” (Ps. 119.46) No, I was the more incited to speak. The King’s command is all powerful over his subjects. For few men have hitherto been found who, whilst recognising the power of the earthly king to come from above, have resisted his unlawful demands.

In the first place, grasping as a kind of pillar, or foundation, the teaching of the Church, which is our salvation, I have opened out its meaning, giving, as it were, the reins to a well caparisoned charger. For I look upon it as a great calamity that the Church, adorned with her great privileges and the holiest examples of saints in the past, should go back to the first rudiments, and fear where there is no fear.

Apologia of St John Damascene Against those who Decry Holy Images Part 48

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The Son of God in person did not take the nature of the angels: He took the nature of man. The angels did not participate in the divine nature, but in working and in...

Apologia of St John Damascene Against those who Decry Holy Images Part 47

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Who first made an Image.In the beginning God begot His only begotten Son, His word, the living image of Himself, the natural and unchangeable image of His eternity. And He made man after His...

Apologia of St John Damascene Against those who Decry Holy Images Part 46

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Fourth Chapter. What an Image is, what it is not; and how each Image is to be set forth.Bodies as having form and shape and colour, may properly be represented in image. Now if...

Apologia of St John Damascene Against those who Decry Holy Images Part 45

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Anyone would say that our incapacity for reaching the contemplation of intellectual things, and our need of familiar and cognate mediums, make it necessary that immaterial things should be clothed in form and shape....

Apologia of St John Damascene Against those who Decry Holy Images Part 44

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The Father begets, being unbegotten. The Son is begotten, and is not the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the image of the Son. For no one can say the Lord Jesus, except in...

Apologia of St John Damascene Against those who Decry Holy Images Part 43

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1st Point.–What is an Image?An image is a likeness and representation of some one, containing in itself the person who is imaged. The image is not wont to be an exact reproduction of the...

Apologia of St John Damascene Against those who Decry Holy Images Part 42

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And baptism likewise is double, of water and the spirit. So is communion and prayer and psalmody; everything has a double signification, a corporeal and a spiritual. Thus again, with lights and incense. The...

Apologia of St John Damascene Against those who Decry Holy Images Part 41

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Where do you find in the Old Testament or in the Gospel the Trinity, or consubstantiality, or one Godhead, or three persons, or the one substance of Christ, or His two natures, expressed in...

Apologia of St John Damascene Against those who Decry Holy Images Part 40

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St Maximus, Philosopher and Confessor. From his “Acts” and those of Bishop Theodosius.And after this all rose with tears of devotion, and kneeling down, prayed. And every one kissed the holy Gospels, and the...

Apologia of St John Damascene Against those who Decry Holy Images Part 39

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And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the Holy of Holies; having a golden censer, and the ark of the testament covered about on every part with gold, in which was...

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