8
However, neither are they to be pardoned.
9
For if they were able to know so much that they could contemplate the world, how did they not sooner find out the Lord thereof?
10
But miserable are they, and in dead things is their hope, who called them gods which are the works of men's hands, gold and silver, artfully wrought, and resemblances of beasts or a stone good for nothing, the work of an ancient hand. Œ
11
Now a carpenter who felleth timber, after he hath sawn down a tree meet for the purpose, and taken off all the bark skillfully round about, and hath wrought it handsomely and made a vessel thereof fit for the service of man's life;
12
and, after spending the refuse of his work to dress his meat, hath filled himself;
13
and, taking the very refuse among those which served to no use (being a crooked piece of wood and full of knots), hath carved it diligently when he had nothing else to do, and formed it by the skill of his understanding, and fashioned it to the image of a man;
14
or made it like some vile beast, laying it over with vermilion, and with paint coloring it red and covering every spot therein;
15
and, when he had made a convenient room for it, set it in a wall and made it fast with iron
16
(for he provided for it that it might not fall, knowing that it was unable to help itself, for it is an image and hath need of help)--
17
then maketh he prayer for his goods, for his wife and children, and is not ashamed to speak to that which hath no life.
18
For health, he calleth upon that which is weak; for life, prayeth to that which is dead; for aid, humbly beseecheth that which hath least means to help; and for a good journey, he asketh of that which cannot set a foot forward;