§5Plane impensius respondebo ad excusationes huiusmodi artificum, quos numquam in domum dei admitti oportet si quis eam disciplinam norit.
Indeed, I shall reply more eagerly to the excuses of such craftsmen, whom it is never proper to admit into the house of God if anyone knows that discipline.
iam illa obici solita uox, non habeo aliud quo uiuam, districtius repercuti potest: uiuere ergo habes? quid tibi cum deo est, si tuis legibus uiuis? tum quod et de scripturis audent argumentari, dixisse apostolum: ut quisque fuerit inuentus, ita perseueret, possumus igitur omnes in peccatis perseuerare ex ista interpretatione.
Now that voice usually objected, "I have nothing else to live on," can be parried more sharply: "Must you then live? What have you to do with God if you live by your own laws?" Then, as they dare to argue even from the Scriptures, that the Apostle said, "Let each one remain as he was found," we could therefore all remain in our sins according to that interpretation.
nec enim quisquam nostrum non peccator inuentus est, cum Christus non alia ex causa descenderit quam peccatorum liberandorum.
For indeed none of us was found without sin, since Christ descended for no other cause than that of liberating sinners.
item eundem praecepisse dicunt secundum suum exemplum, uti manibus suis unusquisque operetur ad uictum.
Likewise, they say that the same Apostle commanded, according to his own example, that each one should work with his hands for his sustenance.
si hoc: praeceptum ab omnibus manibus defenditur, credo et fures balneares manibus suis uiuere et ipsos latrones manibus agere quo uiuant, item falsarios utique non pedibus, sed manibus operari malas litteras, histriones uero non manibus solis, sed totis membris uictum elaborare.
If this command is defended by all hands, I believe that bath- thieves also live by their hands, and robbers themselves act with their hands to live, and likewise forgers operate bad writings, surely not with their feet but with their hands, and actors indeed work out their livelihood not with their hands alone but with all their members.
pateat igitur ecclesia omnibus, qui manibus et suo opere tolerant, si nulla exceptio est artium quas dei disciplina non recipit.
Let the church therefore lie open to all who support themselves by their hands and their own work, if there is no exception of arts which the discipline of God does not receive.
sed ait quidam aduersus similitudinis interdictae propositionem: cur ergo Moses in eremo simulacrum serpentis ex aere fecit? seorsum figurae, quae dispositioni alicui arcanae praestruebantur, non ad erogationem legis, sed ad exemplarium causae suae.
But someone says against the proposition of the forbidden likeness: "Why then did Moses make an image of a serpent out of bronze in the wilderness?" Apart are the figures, which were pre-established for some secret dispensation, not for the repeal of the law, but for the exemplars of their own cause.
alioquin si haec ut aduersarii legis interpretemur, numquid et nos, quod et Marcionitae, inconstantiam adscribimus omnipotenti, quem illi hoc modo destruunt ut mutabilem, dum alibi uetat, alibi mandat? si quis autem dissimulat illam effigiem aerei serpentis suspenis in modum figuram designasse dominicae crucis a sepentibus id est ab angelis diaboli liberaturae nos, dum per semetipsam diabolum id est serpentem interfectum suspendit, siue quae alia figurae istius expositio dignioribus reuelata est, dummodo. apostolus affirmet omnia tunc figurate populo accidisse.
Otherwise, if we interpret these things like the adversaries of the law, do we not also, as do the Marcionites, ascribe inconsistency to the Almighty, whom they in this way destroy as changeable, while He forbids in one place and commands in another? But if anyone dissembles that the image of that bronze serpent suspended in such a manner designated the figure of the Lord's cross, which was to deliver us from serpents, that is, from the angels of the devil, while by itself it suspended the devil, that is, the slain serpent, or whatever other exposition of this figure has been revealed to more worthy men, provided that the Apostle affirms that all things then happened to the people figuratively.
bene, quod idem deus et lege uetuit similitudinem fieri et extraordinario praecepto serpentis similitudinem indixit.
It is well that the same God both forbade a likeness to be made by law and directed the likeness of a serpent by an extraordinary command.
si eundem deum obseruas, habes legem eius, ne feceris similitudinem. si et praeceptum factae postea similitudinis respicis, et tu imitare Moysen, ne facias aduersus legem simulacrum aliquod, nisi et tibi deus iusserit.
If you observe the same God, you have His law, "You shall not make a likeness." If you also look back at the command of the likeness made afterwards, you too imitate Moses, lest you make any image against the law, unless God should command you too.
§6Si nulla lex dei prohibuisset idola fieri a nobis, nulla uox spiritus sancti fabricatoribus idolorum non minus quam cultoribus comminaretur, de ipso sacramento nostro interpretaremur nobis aduersas esse fidei eiusmodi artes.
If no law of God had forbidden idols to be made by us, if no voice of the Holy Spirit threatened the makers of idols no less than the worshipers, we would interpret for ourselves from our very sacrament that arts of this kind are hostile to faith.
quomodo enim renuntiauimus diabolo et angelis eius, si eos facimus? quod repudium diximus iis, non dico cum quibus, sed de quibus uiuimus? quam discordiam suscepimus in eos, quibus exhibitionis nostrae gratia confiteris? uerbo destruere quod facto struis? unum deum praedicare qui tantos efficis? uerum deum praedicare qui falsos facis? facio, ait quidam, sed non colo: quasi ob aliquam causam colere non audeat, nisi ob quam et facere nonn debeat, scilicet ob, dei offensam utrubique.
For how have we renounced the devil and his angels, if we make them? What repudiation have we declared to them—I do not say with whom, but from whom we live? What discord have we undertaken against those to whom you confess the favor of our maintenance? To destroy by word what you build by deed? To preach one God when you make so many? To preach the true God when you make false ones? "I make them," someone says, "but I do not worship them." As if he dared not worship for some other cause than that for which he ought also not to make, namely, because of the offense to God in both cases!
immo tu colis, qui facis, ut coli possint.
Nay rather, you worship them, you who make them so that they can be worshiped.
colis autem non spiritu uilissimi nidoris alicuius, sed tuo proprio nec anima pecudis impensa, sed anima tua.
And you worship them not with the spirit of some cheapest odor, but with your own; not with the life of a beast expended, but with your own life.
illis ingenium tuum immolas, illis sudorem tuum libas, illis prudentiam tuam accendis.
To them you immolate your genius, to them you libate your sweat, to them you kindle your prudence.
plus es illis quam sacerdos, cum per te habeant sacerdotem; diligentia tua numen illorum est.
You are more to them than a priest, since they have a priest through you; your diligence is their divinity.
negas te quod facis colere? sed illi non negant, quibus hanc saginatiorem et auratiorem et maiorem hostiam caedis, salutem tuam tota die.
Do you deny that you worship what you make? But they do not deny it, to whom you slaughter this fatter, more gilded, and greater victim, your own salvation, all day long.