Wisdom:11

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* She prospered their works in the hand of the holy prophet . * They went through the wilderness that was not inhabited , and pitched tents in places where there lay no way . * They stood against their enemies , and were avenged of their adversaries . * When they were thirsty , they called upon thee , and water was given them out of the flinty rock , and their thirst was quenched out of the hard stone . * For by what things their enemies were punished , by the same they in their need were benefited . * For instead of of a perpetual running river troubled with foul blood , * For a manifest reproof of that commandment , whereby the infants were slain , thou gavest unto them abundance of water by a means which they hoped not for : * Declaring by that thirst then how thou hadst punished their adversaries . * For when they were tried albeit but in mercy chastised , they knew how the ungodly were judged in wrath and tormented , thirsting in another manner than the just . * For these thou didst admonish and try , as a father : but the other , as a severe king , thou didst condemn and punish . * Whether they were absent or present , they were vexed alike . * For a double grief came upon them , and a groaning for the remembrance of things past . * For when they heard by their own punishments the other to be benefited , they had some feeling of the Lord . * For whom they respected with scorn , when he was long before thrown out at the casting forth of the infants , him in the end , when they saw what came to pass , they admired . * But for the foolish devices of their wickedness , wherewith being deceived they worshipped serpents void of reason , and vile beasts , thou didst send a multitude of unreasonable beasts upon them for vengeance ; * That they might know , that wherewithal a man sinneth , by the same also shall he be punished . * For thy Almighty hand , that made the world of matter without form , wanted not means to send among them a multitude of bears or fierce lions , * Or unknown wild beasts , full of rage , newly created , breathing out either a fiery vapour , or filthy scents of scattered smoke , or shooting horrible sparkles out of their eyes : * Whereof not only the harm might dispatch them at once , but also the terrible sight utterly destroy them . * Yea , and without these might they have fallen down with one blast , being persecuted of vengeance , and scattered abroad through the breath of thy power : but thou hast ordered all things in measure and number and weight . * For thou canst shew thy great strength at all times when thou wilt ; and who may withstand the power of thine arm ? * 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 . * But thou hast mercy upon all ; for thou canst do all things , and winkest at the sins of men , because they should amend . * For thou lovest all the things that are , and abhorrest nothing which thou hast made : for never wouldest thou have made any thing , if thou hadst hated it . * And how could any thing have endured , if it had not been thy will ? or been preserved , if not called by thee ? * But thou sparest all : for they are thine , O Lord , thou lover of souls .

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