The servants of God praise him who hath delivered them from idolatry;
condemning both the makers and the worshippers of idols.
15:1. But thou, our God, art gracious and true, patient, and ordering
all things in mercy.
15:2. For if we sin, we are thine, knowing thy greatness: and if we sin
not, we know that we are counted with thee.
15:3. For to know thee is perfect justice: and to know thy justice, and
thy power, is the root of immortality.
15:4. For the invention of mischievous men hath not deceived us, nor the
shadow of a picture, a fruitless labour, a graven figure with divers
colours,
15:5. The sight whereof enticeth the fool to lust after it, and he
loveth the lifeless figure of a dead image.
15:6. The lovers of evil things deserve to have no better things to
trust in, both they that make them, and they that love them, and they
that worship them.
15:7. The potter also tempering soft earth, with labour fashioneth every
vessel for our service, and of the same clay he maketh both vessels that
are for clean uses, and likewise such as serve to the contrary: but what
is the use of these vessels, the potter is the judge.
15:8. And of the same clay by a vain labour he maketh a god: he who a
little before was made of earth himself, and a little after returneth to
the same out of which he was taken, when his life, which was lent him,
shall be called for again.
15:9. But his care is, not that he shall labour, nor that his life is
short, but he striveth with the goldsmiths and silversmiths: and he
endeavoureth to do like the workers in brass, and counteth it a glory to
make vain things.
15:10. For his heart is ashes, and his hope vain earth and his life more
base than clay:
15:11. Forasmuch as he knew not his maker, and him that inspired into
him the soul that worketh, and that breathed into him a living spirit.
15:12. Yea, and they have counted our life a pastime and the business of
life to be gain, and that we must be getting every way, even out of
evil.
15:13. For that man knoweth that he offendeth above all others, who of
earthly matter maketh brittle vessels, and graven gods.
15:14. But all the enemies of thy people that hold them in subjection,
are foolish, and unhappy, and proud beyond measure:
15:15. For they have esteemed all the idols of the heathens for gods,
which neither have the use of eyes to see, nor noses to draw breath, nor
ears to hear, nor fingers of hands to handle, and as for their feet,
they are slow to walk.
15:16. For man made them: and he that borroweth his own breath,
fashioned them. For no man can make a god like to himself.
15:17. For being mortal himself, he formeth a dead thing with his wicked
hands. For he is better than they whom he worshippeth, because he indeed
hath lived, though he were mortal, but they never.
15:18. Moreover, they worship also the vilest creatures: but things
without sense, compared to these, are worse than they.
15:19. Yea, neither by sight can any man see good of these beasts. But
they have fled from the praise of God, and from his blessing.