1
But Thou, O God, art gracious and true, long-suffering, and in mercy ordering all things.
2
For if we sin we are Thine, knowing Thy power; but we will not sin, knowing that we are accounted Thine.
3
For to know Thee is perfect righteousness; yea, to know Thy power is the root of immortality.
4
For neither did the evil invention of men deceive us, nor an image spotted with divers colors, the painter's fruitless labor,
5
the sight whereof enticeth fools to lust after it; and so they desire the form of a dead image, that hath no breath.
6
Both they that make them, they that desire them, and they that worship them, are lovers of evil things, and are worthy to have such things to trust upon.
7
For the potter, tempering soft earth, fashioneth every vessel with much labor for our service; yea, of the same clay he maketh both the vessels that serve for clean uses, and likewise also all such as serve to the contrary; but what is the use of either sort the potter himself is the judge.
8
And employing his labors wickedly, he maketh a vain god of the same clay--even he that a little before was made of earth himself, and within a little while after returneth to the same out of which he was taken, when his life which was lent him shall be demanded.