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Be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. I would have you wise unto that which is

good, and simple concerning evil.

How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and fools hate knowledge.

Fools make a mock at sin. Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge.

The wise in heart will receive commandments: but a prating fool shall fall.

In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found: buta rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding.

A fool layeth open his folly. A fools voice is known by the multitude of words. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness: and the end of his talk is mischievous vanity. A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Fools die for want of wisdom.

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes. A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil : but the fool rageth, and is confident.

He that walketh with wise men shall be wise : but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.

The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.

He that winneth souls is wise.

They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

CHAP. LXXXIV.

ZEAL.

Be zealous. It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing.

As ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel.

Ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal ?

I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you. Your zeal hath provoked very many.

The Lord saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation. He was clad with zeal as a cloak.

The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. My zeal hath consumed me; because mine enemies have forgotten thy words.

The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, (while he was zealous for my sake among them,) that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy. Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace. And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.

Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you.

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I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou were cold or hot, so then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

They have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

I (Paul) am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day. And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.

Ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: and profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who called me by his grace, to reveal his son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. They had heard that he which persecuted us in times past, now preached the faith which once he destroyed. And they glorified God in me.

Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more: in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day I have been in the deep: in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen,

in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak ? whois offended, and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. The God and Father of our ord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not

CHAP. LXXXV.

MISCELLANEOUS SELECTION.

THE hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones. And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, so, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy, upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live : and I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, Io, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above : but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

I (the Lord your God) will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.

When I heard, my lips quivered at the voice; rottenness entered into my bones; and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble.

How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Atabian pitch tent there, neither shall the shepherds make their fold there but the wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the

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