11.

These foolish men who refuse to be changed for the better have no reason, however, to imagine that worship is due to those heavenly luminaries because a similitude is occasionally borrowed from them for the representation of divine mysteries; for such are borrowed from every created thing. Nor is there any reason for our incurring the sentence of condemnation which is pronounced by the apostle on some who worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. ¹ We do not adore sheep or cattle, although Christ is called both a Lamb, ² and by the prophet a young bullock; ³ nor any beast of prey, though He is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah; ⁴ nor a stone, although Christ is called a Rock; ⁵ nor Mount Zion, though in it there was a type of the Church. ⁶ And, in like manner, we do not adore the sun or the moon, although, in order to convey instruction in holy mysteries, figures of sacred things are borrowed from these celestial works of the Creator, as they are also from many of the things which He hath made on earth.