eyes; 19 Whereof not only the harm might dispatch them at once, but alfo the terrible fight utterly deftroy them. 20 Yea, and without these might they have fallen down with one blaft, being perfecuted of vengeance, and fcattered abroad through the breath of thy power: but thou haft ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight. 21 For thou canft fhew thy great ftrength at all times when thou wilt; and who may withstand the power of thine arm? 22 For the whole world before thee is as a little grain of the balance, yea, as a drop of the morning dew that falleth down upon the earth. 23 But thou haft mercy upon all; for thou canft do all things, and winkeft at the fins of men: because they fhould amend. 24 For thou loveft all the things that are, and abhorrest nothing, which thou haft made: for never wouldeft thou have made any thing, if thou hadft hated it. 25 And how could any thing have endured, if it had not been thy will? or been CHAP. XII. OR thine incorruptible F Spirit is in all things. 2 Therefore chafteneft thou them by little and little that offend, and warneft them by putting them in remembrance wherein they have offended, that, leaving their wickednefs, they may believe on thee, O Lord. 3 For it was thy will to deftroy by the hands of our fathers, both those old inhabitants of thy holy land, | 5 And alfo those mercilefs murderers of children, and devourers of man's flesh, and the feasts of blood; 6 With their priests out of the midft of their idolatrous crew, and the parents that killed with their own hands, fouls deftitute of help: 7 That the land which thou efteemedft above all others, might receive a worthy colony of God's children. 8 Nevertheless, even those thou thou fparedit as men, and ment is not unright. didft fend wafps, forerun- 14 Neither fhall king or ners of thine hoft, to destroy tyrant be able to fet his face them by little and little. against thee, for any whom 9 Not that thou waft un-thou haft punished. able to bring the ungodly 15 Forfomuch then as thou under the hand of the right-art righteous thyself, thou eous in battle, or to deftroy ordereft all things righteousthem at once with cruelly: thinking it not agreebeafts, or with one rough able with thy power to conword: demn him that hath not deferved to be punished. 10 But executing thy judgments upon them by little and little, thou gavest them place of repentance, not being ignorant that they were a naughty generation, and that their málice was bred in them, and that their cogitation would never be changed. If For it was a curfed feed from the beginning; neither didst thou, for fear of any man, give them pardon for thofe things wherein they finned. 16 For thy power is the beginning of righteousness, and because thou art the Lord of all, it maketh thee to be gracious unto all. 17 For when men will not believe that thou art of a full power, thou shewest thy ftrength, and among them that know it, thou makeft their boldness manifeft. 18 But thou, mastering thy power, judgeft with equity, and ordereft us with 12 For who fhall fay, great favour: for thou mayWhat haft thou done, or eft ufe power when thou who shall withstand thy judg-wilt. ment? or who fhall accuse 19 But by fuch works thee for the nations that perish, whom thou haft made? or who fhall come to ftand against thee to be revenged for the unrighteous men? haft thou taught thy people, that the juft man fhould be merciful, and hast made thy children to be of a good hope, that thou gavest repentance for fins. 13 For neither is there any God but thou, that car- 20 For if thou didst pueft for all, to whom thou nifh the enemies of thy chilmightest shew that thy judg-dren, and the condemned to death death with fuch deliberation, I ment worthy of God. giving them time and place, 27 For look for what whereby they might be deli- things they grudged when vered from their malice: they were punished, (that thought to be gods; [now] being punished in them, when they faw it, they acknow 21 With how great cir-is,) for them whom they cumspection didft thou judge thine own fons, unto whofe fathers thou haft fworn, and made covenants of good pro-ledged him to be the true mifes? God, whom before they de 22 Therefore, whereas nied to know, and therefore thou doft chaften us, thou came extreme damnation fcourgeft our enemies a thou- upon them. fand times more, to the intent that when we judge, we fhould carefully think of thy goodness, and when we ourfelves are judged, we should look for mercy. 23 Wherefore, whereas men have lived diffolutely and unrighteously, thou haft tormented them with their own abominations. 24 For they went aftray very far in the ways of error, and held them for gods, which even amongst the beasts of their enemies were defpifed, being deceived as children of no understanding. 25 Therefore unto them, as to children without the use of reason, thou didst fend a judgment to mock them. SUR CHAP. XIII. URELY vain are all men by nature, who are ignorant of God, and could not out of the good things that are feen know him that is: neither by confidering the works, did they acknowledge the Workmafter 2 But deemed either fire, or wind, or the swift air, or the circle of the ftars, or the violent water, or the lights of heaven, to be the gods which govern the world. 3 With whose beauty, if they, being delighted, took them to be gods; let them know how much better the Lord of them is for the first Author of beauty hath created them. 4 But if they were astonifhed at their power and 26 But they that would not be reformed by that correction wherein he dallied with them, fhall feel a judg-virtue, let them understand br by them, how much might-fel thereof fit for the service ier he is that made them. of man's life; 5 For by the greatnefs and beauty of the creatures, proportionably the maker of them is seen. 6 But yet for this they are the lefs to be blamed for they, peradventure, err feeking God, and defirous to find him. 7 For being converfant in his works, they fearch him diligently, and believe their fight because the things are beautiful that are feen. 8 Howbeit, neither are they to be pardoned. 9 For if they were able to know fo much, that they could aim at the world; how did they not fooner find out the Lord thereof? 10 But miferable are they, and in dead things is their hope, who called them gods which are the works of men's hands, gold and filver to fhew art in, and refemblances of beafts, or a ftone good for nothing, the work of an ancient hand. 11 Now a carpenter that felleth timber, after he hath fawn down a tree meet for the purpose, and taken off all the bark fkilfully round about, and hath wrought it handfomely, and made a vef 12 And after spending the refuse of his work to dress his meat, hath filled himfelf: 13 And taking the very refufe among those which ferved to no ufe, (being a crooked piece of wood, and full of knots,) hath carved it diligently, when he had nothing elfe to do, and formed it by the skill of his underftanding, and fashioned it to the image of a man; 14 Or made it like fome vile beaft, laying it over with vermilion, and with paint, colouring it red, and covering every fpot therein; 15 And when he had made a convenient room for it, fet it in a wall, and made it faft with iron: 16 For he provided for it that it might not fall, knowing that it was unable to help itself; (for it is an image, and hath need of help ;) 17 Then maketh he prayer for his goods, for his wife and children, and is not afhamed to speak to that which hath no life. 18 For health he calleth upon that which is weak: for life, prayeth to that which is dead for aid humbly befeecheth that which hath leaft means GAIN, one preparing himself to fail, and about to pass through the raging waves, calleth upon a piece of wood, more rotten than the veffel that carrieth him. fo, when the proud giants perifhed, the hope of the world, governed by thy hand, efcaped in a weak veffel, and left to all ages a feed of generation. 7 For bleffed is the wood whereby righteousness cometh. 8 But that which is made with hands is curfed, as well it, as he that made it: he, because he made it; and it, because being corruptible, it was called god. 9 For the ungodly, and his ungodlinefs, are both alike hateful unto God. IO For that which is 2 For verily defire of gain made, fhall be punished todevised that, and the work-gether with him that made man built it by his skill. 3 But thy providence, O Father, governeth it for thou haft made a way in the sea, and a safe path in the waves: 4 Shewing that thou canft fave from all danger: yea, though a man went to fea without art. 5 ¶ Nevertheless, thou wouldeft not that the works of thy wisdom should be idle, and therefore do men commit their lives to a fmall piece of wood, and paffing the rough fea in a weak veffel, are faved. 6 For in the old time al it. II Therefore, even upon the idols of the Gentiles fhall there be a visitation: because in the creature of God they are become an abomination, and ftumbling-blocks to the fouls of men, and a fnare to the feet of the unwife. 12 For the devifing of idols was the beginning of fpiritual fornication, and the invention of them the corruption of life. 13 For neither were they from the beginning, neither fhall they be for ever. 14 For by the vain glory of men they entered into the world, |