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understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures: then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God '; then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity, yea every good path. Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth'; lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel'; and thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, and say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof? and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me'? Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding". Keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother. Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee: for the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. Have not I written unto thee excellent things in counsels, and knowledge; that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee? Whoso is wise, and will observe those things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them; but the transgressor shall fall

therein".

SECT. 5. The Divine Majesty is represented as complaining of the inattention, the criminal ignorance, and folly of men.

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children,

P Prov. ii. 2-5.
• Prov. v. 9.

* Prov. vi. 20-23.

Hos, xiv. 9.

↑ Prov. ii. 9.

Prov. v. 11-13.
Prov. xxii. 20, 21.

r Prov. v. 7.
" Prov. ix. 6.
* Psalm cvii. 43.

and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. They know not, neither will they understand". For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. O Lord, are not thine eyes upon i the truth? Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return. Therefore I said, Surely these are poor, they are foolish; for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgments of their God. I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the Lord, and the judgments of their God. But these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds'. They have turned unto me the back, and not the face; though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instructions. They refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his Spirit by the former prophets". I said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways; unto whom I sware in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest'. O that they were wise! that they understood this! that they would consider their latter end! My people is destroyed for lack of knowledge'.

Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel; for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth nor mercy, nor knowledge

§ 5. Isa. i. 2.

d Psalm lxxxii. 5.
Jer. xxxii. 33.
k Deut. xxxii. 29.

b Isa. i. 3.

* Jer. iv. 22.

Zech. vii. 11, 12.
Hos. iv. 6.

e Deut. xxxii. 28.

Jer. v 3-5.

1 Psalm xcv. 10, 11.

of God in the land". I spake unto you rising up early, and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not". Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early, and sending them: yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear; but hardened their neck; they did worse than their fathers°. Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee; seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children'. Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee, I will reprove thee, and set thy doings in order before thine eyes. eyes. Because ye have set at nought my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh'. For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would none of my counsel, they despised all my reproof; therefore shall they eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices; for the turning away of the simple shall slay them; and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them'. Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people, and unwise? Is he not thy Father that hath bought thee? Hath he not made thee, and established thee'? Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee".

Wo unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight. Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord. How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribe is in vain. The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed, and taken; lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord! and what wisdom is in them'?

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Will ye not receive instruction to hearken to my words, saith the Lord? Be wise now therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way". Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might; let not the rich man glory in his riches but let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord, which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord'.

SECT. 6. And solemnly calling men to learn true wisdom.

Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the holy One of Israel, I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea. Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes, and unto the judgments which I teach you for to do them, that ye may live". Keep therefore, and do them; for this is your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the nations which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up; and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes: and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates". Hearken diligently unto me: hear, and your soul shall live®.

Z Jer. xxxv. 13. § 6. ▪ Isa. xlviii. 17, 18.

• Deut. vi. 6—9.

Psalm ii. 10, 12. b Deut. iv. 1.

Isa, iv. 2, 3.

Jer. ix. 23, 24.

c Deut. iv. 6.

SECT. 7. He is the blessed source of sound knowledge and wisdom.

Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart"? God, our Maker, who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven". There is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. The Lord giveth wisdom; out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding; he layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous *. For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom, and knowledge, and joy. For wisdom and might are his; he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding'. The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary; he wakeneth me morning by morning; he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. Good and upright is the Lord; therefore will he teach sinners in the way. The meek will he guide in judgment; and the meek will he teach his way". What man is he that feareth the Lord? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose'. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant*. Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights'. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not".

SECT. 8. While he instructed Israel by his law, he gave them the promise of greater degrees of light in the latter days.

Hearken unto me, O my people, and give ear unto me, O my nation; for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the

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