Athenagoras, Plea for the Christians 15

But let the accusers remain as they are. What then? Since the many cannot distinguish what is matter, what is God, or how much lies between them, they approach idols made of matter. Shall we, who distinguish and separate the uncreated from the created, true being from non-being, the intelligible from the sensible, and assign to each its proper name, also approach and worship statues? If matter and God are identical—two names for one thing—then by refusing to regard stones, wood, gold, and silver as gods we are impious. But if they stand far apart, as far as a craftsman stands from the preparation for his craft, what are we accused of? Just as the potter is the craftsman and the clay is the matter, so God is the Creator and matter obeys Him for the craft. Yet just as clay by itself cannot become vessels without craft, so the all-receiving matter, without the Creator God, did not receive distinction, shape, and order. We do not value the clay above the potter who worked it, nor the cups and golden ornaments above the smith who molded them; rather, if we praise the craftsman for the skill shown in them, he is the one who receives the glory for what appears on the vessels. Likewise, concerning the matter and the arrangement of adorned things, the matter does not possess the due glory and honor, but the Creator God does. Therefore, if we treated the forms of matter as gods, we would appear ignorant of the true God's glory, equating perishable, corruptible things with the eternal.