Exhortation to Martyrdom 7

Moreover, if “every” evil “word is an abomination to the Lord” your God, how great an “abomination” must we consider the evil word of denial, and the evil speech that proclaims another god, and the evil oath by the Fortune of men, a thing without real existence? When it is put to us, we must remember him who taught, “But I say to you, do not swear at all.” For if he who swears by heaven transgresses against the throne of God, and he who swears by the earth commits impiety by deifying what is called “the footstool of God's feet,” and he who swears by Jerusalem sins, although it is the city of the great King, and he who swears by his own head offends, how great a sin must we consider it to swear by anyone's Fortune? At that time we must remember also this: for every idle word you will give “account on the day of judgment.” For what other word is so idle as the oath in denial? But the enemy will probably wish to outwit us by whatever means he can, so that we bow down “to the sun or the moon or all the host of heaven.” But we shall say that the word of God “did not command” these things. For created things must by no means be worshiped when the Creator is present, sufficient, and reaching to hear the prayer of all. Nor would the sun himself wish to be worshiped by those who belong to God's portion, and probably not by anyone else; but imitating him who said, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, God the Father,” he would, as it were, say to anyone wishing to worship him: “Why do you call me god? There is one true God. And why do you worship me? ‘For you shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’ I too am created; why would you worship one who worships? For I too worship and serve God the Father, and obeying his commands I am subjected ‘to futility because of him who subjected me in hope,’ and I too, though now bound to a corruptible body, shall be set free ‘from the bondage of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.’”