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Apocrypha. 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.

For thine incorruptible Spirit is in all things.

Therefore chastenest thou them by little and little that offend, and warnest them by putting them in remembrance wherein they have offended, that leaving their wickedness they may believe on thee, O Lord.

For it was thy will to destroy by the hands of our fathers both those old inhabitants of thy holy land,

Whom thou hatedst for doing most odious works of witchcrafts, and wicked sacrifices;

And also those merciless murderers of children, and devourers of man's flesh, and the feasts of blood,

With their priests out of the midst of their idolatrous crew, and the parents, that killed with their own hands souls destitute of help:

That the land, which thou esteemedst above all other, might receive a worthy colony of God's children.

Nevertheless even those thou sparedst as men, and didst send wasps, forerunners of thine host, to destroy them by little and little.

Not that thou wast unable to bring the ungodly under the hand of the righteous in battle, or to destroy them at once with cruel beasts, or with one rough word:

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 malice was bred in them, and that their cogitation would never be changed.

For it was a cursed seed from the beginning; neither didst thou for fear of any man give them pardon for those things wherein they sinned.

For who shall say, What hast thou done? or who shall withstand thy judgment? or who shall accuse thee for the nations that perish, whom thou made? or who shall come to stand against thee, to be revenged for the unrighteous men?

For neither is there any God but thou that careth for all, to whom thou mightest shew that thy judgment is not unright.

Neither shall king or tyrant be able to set his face against thee for any whom thou hast punished.

Forsomuch then as thou art righteous thyself, thou orderest all things righteously: thinking it not agreeable with thy power to condemn him that hath not deserved to be punished.

For thy power is the beginning of righteousness, and because thou art the Lord of all, it maketh thee to be gracious unto all.

For when men will not believe that thou art of a full power, thou shewest thy strength, and among them that know it thou makest their boldness manifest.

But thou, mastering thy power, judgest with equity, and orderest us with great favour: for thou mayest use power when thou wilt.

But by such works hast thou taught thy people that the just man should be merciful, and hast made thy children to be of a good hope that thou givest repentance for sins.

For if thou didst punish the enemies of thy children, and the condemned to death, with such deliberation, giving them time and place, whereby they might be delivered from their malice:

With how great circumspection didst thou judge thine own sons, unto whose