"They are all gone aside; they are together become
filthy," Ps 14, 3. Both passages speak particularly of the sins
against the first table; that is, they accuse the apparently devoutest
saints of false worship and false doctrine, for it is impossible for a
righteous life to follow teaching that is false.

216. When Moses says the earth was corrupt before God, he clearly
points out the contrast--the hypocrites and oppressors judged Noah's
teaching and practise as wholly wrong, and their own as altogether
holy. The reverse, Moses says, was true. Mankind was assuredly corrupt
measured by the first table. They lacked the true Word and the true
worship. This distinction between the first and the second tables
commends itself strongly to my judgment and was doubtless suggested by
the Holy Spirit.

217. The additional statement--"and the earth was filled with
violence"--points to this unfailing sequence. With the Word lost, with
faith extinct, with traditions and will-worship--to use St. Paul's
phraseology (Col 2, 8)--having replaced the true cult, there results
violence and shameful living.

218. The correct significance of the word _hamas_ is violence force,
wrong, with the suspension of all law and equity, a condition where
pleasure is law and everything is done not by right, but by might. But
if such was their life, you may say, how could they maintain the
appearance and reputation of holiness and righteousness? As if we did
not really have similar instances before our eyes today. Has the world
ever seen anything more cruel than the Turks? And they adorn all their
fierceness with the name of God and religion.

219. The popes have not only seized for themselves the riches of the
earth, but have filled the Church itself with stupendous errors and
blasphemous doctrines. They live in shocking licentiousness. They
alienate at pleasure the hearts of kings. Much is done by them to
bring on bloodshed and war. And yet, with all such blasphemies and
outrages, they arrogate to themselves the name and title of the
greatest saints and boast of being vicars of Christ and successors of
Peter.

220. Thus the greatest wrong is allied to the names of Church and true
religion. Should any one offer objection, immediately is he put under
the ban and condemned as a heretic and an enemy of God and man.
Barring the Romans and their accomplices, there is no people which
plumes itself more upon religion and righteousness than the Turks. The