Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
[1] Likewise, one initiated into Christ will not endure being wished well upon by invoking the deities of the heathen nations, without always rejecting so tainted a blessing and, redirecting it back to God on his own behalf, cleansing it. To have the heathens' gods invoke good things on you is, in truth, to be cursed by God. [2] If
I give someone alms or render some other kindness, and he invokes upon me the goodwill of his own deities, or the tutelary spirit of the colony, then my offering, or my good work, becomes an honor paid to idols — the means by which he repays me the favor of a blessing. [3] But why shouldn't he know that I did it for God's sake, so that God rather is glorified, and the demons not honored in what I did on God's account? If God sees that I did it for his sake, he sees equally that I refused to make that plain — and I have, in a sense, turned his own commandment into meat offered to idols. [4] Many say that no one is obliged to advertise himself; but I think he is equally not permitted to deny himself. For whoever conceals himself, in whatever matter, so as to pass for a pagan, is denying — and every denial, without question, is idolatry, just as every idolatry, whether in deed or in word, is denial.
XXIII.