2.24. A SCOFFER PUNISHED. A presumptuous Scoffer at things sacred took a journey to Delphi, on purpose to try if he could put a trick upon Apollo. He carried a sparrow in his hand under his coat, and told the god, "I have something in my hand," says he: "Is it dead or living?"
If the oracle should say it was dead, he could show it alive; if living, it was but squeezing it, and then it was dead.
He that saw the iniquity of his heart, gave him this answer: "It shall e'en be which of the two thou pleasest: for it is in thy choice to have it either the one or the other, as to the bird, but it is not in thy power as to thyself;" and immediately struck the bold scoffer dead, for a warning to others.
Presumption naturally leads people to infidelity, and that by insensible degrees to atheism: for when men have once cast off a reverence for religion, they are come within one step of laughing at it. [more info]
If the oracle should say it was dead, he could show it alive; if living, it was but squeezing it, and then it was dead.
He that saw the iniquity of his heart, gave him this answer: "It shall e'en be which of the two thou pleasest: for it is in thy choice to have it either the one or the other, as to the bird, but it is not in thy power as to thyself;" and immediately struck the bold scoffer dead, for a warning to others.
Presumption naturally leads people to infidelity, and that by insensible degrees to atheism: for when men have once cast off a reverence for religion, they are come within one step of laughing at it. [more info]
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