14. For by the great emptiness of men they came into the world, and therefore their end is soon discovered.
15. For a father, embittered with the suffering of grief, made an image of his son, who had been suddenly taken away from him, and then, he who had died as a man, now begins to be worshiped as if a god, and so rites and sacrifices are established among his servants.
16. Then, in the course of time, iniquity gains strength within this erroneous custom, so that this error has been observed as if it were a law, and this figment has been worshiped at the command of tyrants.
17. And those, whom men could not openly honor because they were far off, a likeness of them was carried from far off, and from it they made a similar image of the king that they wanted to honor, so that, by their solicitude, they might worship he who was absent, just as if he were present.
18. Yet, it passes into their care, and those whom they did not know, they love because of the excellence of the artist.
19. For he, wishing to please the one who hired him, embellished his art, so as to fashion a better likeness.
20. But the multitude of men, brought together by the beauty of the work, now considered him to be a god, whom they had formerly honored as a man.
21. And this was the deception of human life: that men, serving either their own inclination or their kings, assigned the unutterable name to stones and wood.
22. And it was not enough for them to go astray concerning the knowledge of God, but also, while living in a great war of ignorance, they call so many and such great evils 'peace.'
23. For either they sacrifice their own sons, or they make dark sacrifices, or they hold vigils full of madness,
24. so that now they neither protect life, nor preserve a clean marriage, but one kills another through envy, or grieves him by adultery.
25. And all things are mixed together: blood, murder, theft and fraud, corruption and infidelity, disturbances and perjury, disorder within good things,
26. forgetfulness of God, pollution of souls, alteration of procreation, inconstancy of marriage, unnatural adultery and homosexuality.
27. For the worship of unspeakable idols is the cause, and the beginning and the end, of all evil.
28. For they either act with madness while happy, or they insistently speak wild lies, or they live unjustly, or they are quick to commit perjury.
29. For, while they trust in idols, which are without a soul, vowing evil, they hope not to be harmed themselves.