Bishops(i)
1 Agayne, another man purposing to sayle, and beginning to take his iourney thorowe the raging sea, calleth for helpe vnto a stocke that is farre weaker then the vessell that beareth hym.
2 For as for it, couetousnesse of money hath founde it out, and the craftes man made it with his cunning.
3 But thy prouidence O father gouerneth it: For thou hast made a way euen in the sea, and a sure path in the middest of the waues,
4 Declaring therby that thou hast power to helpe in all thinges, yea though a man went to the sea without ship.
5 Neuerthelesse thou wouldest not that the workes of thy wysdome shoulde be in vayne: and therefore do men commit their liues to a small peece of wood, passing ouer the stormie sea in a ship, and are saued.
6 For in the olde tyme also when the proude giauntes perished, he in whom the hope was left to increase the world, went into the ship whiche was gouerned thorowe thy hand, and so left seede behynde hym vnto the worlde.
7 For happy is the tree, wherthrough righteousnesse commeth:
8 But cursed is [the idoll] that is made with handes, yea both it and he that made it: He, because he made it: and it, because it was called God, whereas it is but a frayle thing.
9 For the vngodly and his vngodlynesse, are both like abhominable vnto God.
10 [Euen so] the worke and he that made it also, shalbe punished together.
11 Therefore shall there a plague come vpon the idols of the heathen: for out of the creature of God they are become an abhomination, a temptation vnto the soules of men, and a snare for the feete of the vnwyse.
12 For why, the seeking out of idols, is the beginning of whordome, and the bringing vp of them, is the destruction of lyfe.
13 For they were not from the beginning, neither shall they continue for euer.
14 The vayne glory of men hath founde them out vpon earth, therfore shal they come shortly to an ende.
15 For when a father mourned heauyly for his sonne sodainely taken away from hym, he made hym an image: and hym whiche then was but a dead man, he now began to worship as a god, and ordayned for his seruauntes ceremonies and sacrifices.
16 Thus by processe of time this vngracious custome being waxen strong was kept as a lawe, and images were worshipped by commaundement of tirauntes.
17 As for those that were so farre of that men might not worship them present, their visage beyng drawne out from farre of, was made as the cleare image of an honourable king, that they might with affection flatter aswell the absent as the present.
18 Agayne, the singuler ambition of the craftes man gaue the ignoraunt also a great occasion to increase the superstition.
19 For he willing to please one peraduenture that bare rule, laboured with all his cunning to make the image of the best fashion.
20 And so thorowe the beautie of the worke, the common people being therto allured, toke hym nowe for a god, whiche a litle before was but honoured as a man.
21 And this was to the deceauing of mans life, when men either with calamitie or tirannie oppressed, ascribed vnto stones and stockes that name [of God] whiche ought not to be geuen vnto any thing [els.]
22 Moreouer, this was not inough for them, that they erred in the knowledge of God: but where as they liued in the great warre of ignoraunce, those so [many and] great plagues called they peace.
23 For either they slue their owne chyldren and offred them in sacrifice, or vsed secrete ceremonies, or folowed madde drunken dissolutenesse of rites in sacrifice:
24 So that they kept neither life nor mariage cleane: but either one slue another traytorously, or greeued hym by adulterie.
25 So that there raigned in al men without exception, blood, manslaughter, theft, dissimulation, corruption, vnfaythfulnesse, sedition, periurie,
26 Disquieting of good men, vnthankefulnesse, defiling of soules, chaunging of byrth, disordering of mariages, adulterie, and vncleanenesse.
27 For why, the honouring of abhominable images, is the beginning, the cause and ende of all euill.
28 For [they that worship idols] eyther they are madde when they be merie, or prophesie lies, or liue vngodly, or els lightly forsweare them selues.
29 For insomuche as their trust is in the idols whiche haue no soule, though they sweare falsely, yet they thinke it shall not hurt them.
30 Therefore commeth a great plague vpon them, and that worthyly for both causes: for they haue an euyll opinion of God that geue heede vnto idols, and they sweare vniustly in deceipt, despising holynes.
31 For it is not the power of them by whom they sweare: but it is the iust vengeaunce of sinners that punisheth alwayes the offence of the vngodly doers.