On Idolatry 22

Likewise one initiated into Christ will not endure being blessed by the gods of the nations without always rejecting the unclean blessing and cleansing it by turning it toward God. To be blessed by the gods of the nations is to be cursed by God. If I give alms to someone, or confer some benefit, and he prays that his gods or the genius of the colony may be propitious to me, then my offering or deed will become an honor to the idols through which he repays the favor with a blessing. But why should he not know that I did it for God's sake, so that God rather may be glorified and demons not be honored in what I did for God? If God sees that I did it for his sake, he equally sees that I did not want to show that I did it for his sake; and in a way I have made his precept an offering to idols. Many say that no one ought to publish himself; but I think, nor to deny himself either. For whoever disguises himself in any matter and is taken for a heathen denies; and surely every denial is idolatry, just as all idolatry is denial, whether in deeds or in words.