3
If they, being delighted by their beauty, took them to be gods, then let them know how much better the Lord of them is; for the first Author of beauty hath created them.
4
But if they were astonished at their power and virtue, let them understand by them how much mightier He is that made them.
5
For by the greatness and beauty of the creation, proportionately the Maker of them is seen.
6
But yet for this they are the less to be blamed; for they perhaps err, seeking God and desirous to find Him.
7
For accustomed to dwelling among His works, they search Him out diligently and believe their sight, because the things are beautiful that are seen.
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;