11
Therefore there shall be no respect had even to the idols of the Gentiles: because the creatures of God are turned to an abomination, and a temptation to the souls of men, and a snare to the feet of the unwise.
12
For the beginning of fornication is the devising of idols: and the invention of them is the corruption of life.
13
For neither were they from the beginning, neither shall they be for ever.
14
For by the vanity of men they came into the world: and therefore they shall be found to come shortly to an end.
15
For a father being afflicted with bitter grief, made to himself the image of his son who was quickly taken away: and him who then had died as a man, he began now to worship as a god, and appointed him rites and sacrifices among his servants.
16
Then in process of time, wicked custom prevailing, this error was kept as a law, and statues were worshipped by the commandment of tyrants.
17
And those whom men could not honour in presence, because they dwelt far off, they brought their resemblance from afar, and made an express image of the king whom they had a mind to honour: that by this their diligence, they might honour as present, him that was absent.
18
And to worshipping of these, the singular diligence also of the artificer helped to set forward the ignorant.
19
For he being willing to please him that employed him, laboured with all his art to make the resemblance in the best manner.
20
And the multitude of men, carried away by the beauty of the work, took him now for a god that a little before was but honoured as a man.
21
And this was the occasion of deceiving human life: for men serving either their affection, or their kings, gave the incommunicable name to stones and wood.