Refutation of the Sects

and especially the corporeal and visible things, such as the sun and the moon and the stars, and fire and water and the earth, which are worshipped by the Magi Zoroastrian priests and the pagans.

Then, if one from such people says: "It is well, since you say there is one essence which is the cause of all." Now, if it is one essence that causes all things in all things, and there is nothing contrary to it, why do you command us to dishonor the benefactors and those who have done us good, who were appointed by Him?

Let us say that we do not command the dishonoring of the benefactors and those who have done us good who were appointed by Him; but, again, we also do not command that the worship due to the Creator be offered to created things. For there is no one who is a benefactor and a provider of good, except for the One who created and did not spare, and who keeps the rational, invisible beings alive, and is not jealous; I mean the angels and the souls of men, and the sensible, inanimate things in their respective stations.