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Numbers, 6.

The Lord bless us, and keep us; the Lord make his face shine upon us, and be gracious unto us; the Lord lift up his countenance upon us, and give us peace.

Philippians, 4.

The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE,

Selected from the Books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Amos, &c. arranged and classed under various heads, for instruction and meditation.

St. Jerome, in his Epistle to Lata, concerning the education of her daughter, advises her first to teach her the Psalms; "and let her," says he, " be entertained with those holy songs; let her then be instructed in the common duties of life by the Proverbs of Solomon; let her learn, from Ecclesiastes, to despise worldly things; transcribe from Job the practice of patience and virtue; let her then pass to the Gospels, and never let them be out of her hand; and then imbibe with all the faculties of her mind the Acts and Epistles."

"Meditate upon these things, that thy profiting may appear to all.” 1 TIM. iv. 15.

On the power and mercy of the Almighty.

Ecclesiasticus.

He that liveth for ever created all things in general. The Lord only is righteous, and there is none other but he, who governeth the world with the palm of his hand, and all things obey his will: for he is the King of all, by his power dividing holy things among them from profane. To whom hath he given power to declare his works and who shall find out his noble acts? Who shall number the strength of his majesty? and who shall also tell out his mercies? As for the wondrous works of the Lord, there may nothing be taken from them, neither may any thing be put unto them, neither can the ground of them be found out. When a man hath done, then he beginneth; and when he leaveth off, then he shall be doubtful. What is man, and whereto serveth he? what is his good, and what is his evil? The number of a man's days at the most are an hundred years. As a drop of water unto the sea, and a gravel stone in comparison of the sand; so are a thousand years to the day of eternity. Therefore is God patient with them, and poureth out his mercy upon them. He saw

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and perceived their end to be evil; therefore he multiplied his compassion. The mercy of man is toward his neighbour; but the mercy of the Lord is upon all flesh he reproveth, and nurtureth, and teacheth, and bringeth again, as a shepherd his flock. He hath mercy on them that receive discipline, and that diligently seek after his judgments.

Book of Wisdom.

Surely vain are all men by nature, who are ignorant of God, and could not out of the good things that are seen know him that is: neither by considering the works did they acknowledge the workmaster: but deemed either fire, or wind, or the swift air, or the circle of the stars, or the violent water, or the lights of heaven, to be the gods which govern the world. 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. But if they were astonished at their power and virtue, let them understand by them, how much mightier he is that made them. For by the greatness and beauty of the

creatures proportionably the maker of them is

seen.

Isaiah.

Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counseller hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, that spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in that bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the

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