rs.' How then deem they their creators
those which have been formed and fashioned by themselves? Nay more,
they safeguard their gods, lest they be stolen by thieves, and yet they
call them guardians of their safety. And yet what folly not to know
that they, which be unable to guard and aid themselves, can in no wise
guard and save others! 'For' saith he, 'why, on behalf of the living,
should they seek unto the dead?' They expend wealth, for to raise
statues and images to devils, and vainly boast that these give them
good gifts, and crave to receive of their hands things which those
idols never possessed, nor ever shall possess. Wherefore it is
written, 'May they that make them be like unto them, and so be all such
as put their trust in them, who,' he saith, 'hire a goldsmith, and make
them gods, and they fall down, yea, they worship them. They bear them
upon the shoulders, and go forward. And if they set them in their
place, they stand therein: they shall not remove. Yea, one shall cry
unto them, yet call they not answer him, nor save him out of his
trouble.' 'Wherefore be ye ashamed with everlasting shame, ye that
trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our
gods.' 'For they sacrificed,' he saith, 'unto devils, and not to God;
to gods whom their fathers knew not. There came new and fresh gods;
because it is a froward generation, and there is no faith in them.'

"Wherefore out of this wicked and faithless generation the Lord calleth
thee to him, saying, 'Come out from among them, and be thou separate,
and touch no unclean thing,' but 'save thyself from this untoward
generation.' 'Arise thou, and depart, for this is not thy rest;' for
that divided lordship, which your gods hold, is a thing of confusion
and strife and hath no real being whatsoever. But with us it is not
so, neither have we many gods and lords, but one God, the Father, of
whom are all things, and we unto him: and one Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom are all things and we by him, 'who is the image of the invisible
God, the first born of every creature' and of all ages, 'for in him
were all things created that are in the heavens and that are upon the
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or
principalities, or powers.' 'All things were made by him, and without
him was not anything made that was made:' and one Holy Ghost, in whom
are all things, 'the Lord and Giver of life,' God and making God, the
go