All glory and enlargement was given to you, and that which was written was fulfilled, “My Beloved ate and drank, and he was enlarged and waxed fat and kicked.”
From this arose jealousy and envy, strife and sedition, persecution and disorder, war and captivity.
Thus “the worthless’’ rose up “against those who were in honour,’ those of no reputation against the renowned, the foolish against the prudent, the “young against the old.”
For this cause righteousness and peace are far removed, while each deserts the fear of God and the eye of faith in him has grown dim, and men walk neither in the ordinances of his commandments nor use their citizenship worthily of Christ, but each goes according to the lusts of his wicked heart, and has revived the unrighteousness and impious envy, by which also “ death came into the world.”