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¹ Comfort my people [O ye prophetes] comfort my people, saith your God,² Comfort Hierusalem at the heart, and tell her, that her trauayle is at an ende, that her offence is pardoned, that she hath receaued at the Lordes hande sufficient correction for all her sinnes.

³ A voyce crieth in wildernesse: Prepare the way of the Lorde, make strayght the path of our God in the desert.⁴ All valleys shalbe exalted, and euery mountayne and hyll layde lowe: what so is croked shalbe made strayght, and the rough shalbe made playne.⁵ For the glorie of the Lorde shall appeare, for all fleshe shall at once see that the mouth of the Lorde hath spoken it.⁶ The same voyce spake: Nowe crye. And the prophete aunswered, What shall I crye? That all fleshe is grasse, and that all the goodlinesse therof is as the floure of the fielde.⁷ The grasse is withered, the floure falleth away, for the breath of the Lord bloweth vpon them: of a trueth the people are grasse.⁸ The grasse withereth, and the floure fadeth away: yet the worde of our God endureth for euer.

⁹ Go vp vnto the hye hyll O Sion thou that bryngest good tidinges, lyft vp thy voyce with power O thou preacher Hierusalem, lyft vp without feare, & say vnto the cities of Iuda: Beholde your God,¹⁰ Beholde ye Lorde God shal come with power, and shall of him selfe beare rule with his arme: beholde his rewarde with hym, and his workes before hym.¹¹ He shall feede his flocke like an heardman, he shall gather the lambes together with his arme, and cary them in his bosome, and shall kyndly intreate those that beare young.

¹² Who hath measured the waters in his fist? who hath measured heauen with his spanne, and hath comprehended all the earth of the worlde in three measures? who hath wayed the mountaynes and hylles in a ballaunce?¹³ Who hath directed the spirite of the Lorde? or who gaue hym counsayle, and shewed hym?¹⁴ Who is of his counsayle, and geueth hym vnderstandyng, and hath taught hym the path of iudgement? who taught hym cunnyng, and opened to hym the way of vnderstandyng?¹⁵ Beholde, all people are in comparison of hym as a droppe of a bucket full, and are counted as the least thyng that the ballaunce wayeth: yea and the Isles he taketh vp as a very litle thyng.¹⁶ Libanus is not sufficient to minister fire to his offeryng, and all the beastes therof are not inough for one sacrifice.¹⁷ All people in comparison of hym are reckened as nothyng: yf they be compared with hym, lesse then nothyng, and as it that is not.

¹⁸ To whom then wyll ye lyken God? or what similitude will ye set vp to him?¹⁹ Shall the caruer make hym a carued image? and shall the goldesmith couer hym with golde, or cast hym into a fourme of siluer plates?²⁰ Moreouer, shal the image maker that the poore man which is disposed may haue some thyng to set vp also, seeke out and choose a tree that is not rotten, and carue thereout an image that moueth not?²¹ Knowe ye nothyng? hearde ye neuer of it? hath it not ben preached vnto you since the beginning? haue ye not ben enfourmed of this by the foundation of the earth?²² It is he that sitteth vpon the circle of the world, whose inhabiters are [in comparison of him] but as grashoppers: he spreadeth out the heauens as a couering, he stretcheth them out as a tent to dwell in.²³ He bringeth princes to nothing, and the iudges of the earth as though they were not.²⁴ So that of them it may be sayde, they be not planted nor sowne agayne, neither their stocke rooted agayne in the earth: for assoone as he bloweth vpon them, they wither and fade away lyke the strawe in a whirle winde.²⁵ To whom nowe will ye liken me, and whom shall I be lyke, saith the holy one?²⁶ Lift vp your eyes on high, and consider who hath made those thinges which come out by so great heapes, and he calleth them al by their names: there is nothing hid from the greatnesse of his power, strength, and might.

²⁷ Howe may then Iacob thinke, or may Israel say, My wayes are hid from the Lord, and my God knoweth not of my iudgementes?²⁸ Knowest thou not, or hast thou not hearde that the euerlasting God, the Lorde whiche made all the corners of the earth, is neither weerie nor fainte? and that his wysdome can not be comprehended?²⁹ It is he that geueth strength vnto the weerie, and power vnto the faint.³⁰ Children are weerie and faint, and the strongest men fall:³¹ But vnto them that haue their trust in the Lorde, shall strength be increased: Egles winges shall growe vpon them, when they runne they shall not fall, and when they go they shall not be weerie.