But thou, a person of liberal mind, and familiar with the...

But thou, a person of liberal mind, and familiar with the truth if thou wilt properly consider these matters, . . Believe in Him who is in reality God, and to Him lay open thy mind, and to Him commit thy soul, and He is able to give thee immortal life forever, for every thing is possible to Him; and let all other things be esteemed by thee as they are—images as images, and sculptures as sculptures; and let not that which is only made be put by thee in place of Him who is not made, but let Him, the ever-living God, be constantly present to thy mind. For thy mind itself is His likeness; for it too is invisible and impalpable, and not to be represented by any form, yet by its will is the whole bodily frame moved. Know therefore, that, if thou constantly serve Him who is immovable, even He who exists forever, so thou also, when thou shalt have put off this, which is visible and corruptible, shalt stand before Him forever, endowed with life and knowledge. . . . For every one that is severed from the knowledge of the living God is dead and buried (even while) in his body. Therefore it is that thou dost wallow on the ground before demons and shadows, and asketh vain petitions from that which has not anything to give.—Meliton (A.D. 160).