"Foolish talking and jesting" are evidence of impure and trifling
thoughts. The mouth full of cursing and bitterness, the throat an open
sepulcher, the poison of asps under the tongue, the feet swift to shed
blood, destruction and misery in their paths, and the way of peace
unknown to them, are the clearest and amplest demonstration that men
"have gone out of the way," "have together become unprofitable." We
see the bitter fruit of the same corruption in robbery, adultery,
gluttony, drunkenness, extortion, intolerance, persecution, apostasy,
and every evil work--in all false religions; the Jew, obstinately
adhering to the carnal ceremonies of an abrogated law; the Mohammedan,
honoring an impostor, and receiving a lie for a revelation from God;
the papist, worshiping images and relics, praying to departed saints,
seeking absolution from sinful men, and trusting in the most absurd
mummeries for salvation; the pagan, attributing divinity to the works
of his own hands, adoring idols of wood and stone, sacrificing to
malignant demons, casting his children into the fire or the flood
as an offering to imaginary deities, and changing the glory of the
incorruptible God into the likeness of the beast and the worm.
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