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¹ Be of good chere my people, be of good chere (saieth youre God)² Conforte Ierusalem, and tell her: that hir trauale is at an ende, that hir offence is pardoned, that she hath receaued of the LORDES honde sufficient correction for all hir synnes.

³ A voyce crieth: Prepare ye waye for the LORDE in the wyldernesse, make straight ye path for oure God in the deserte.⁴ Let all valleis be exalted, and euery mountayne and hill be layde lowe. What so is croked, let it be made straight, and let the rough places be made playne feldes.⁵ For the glory of the LORDE shal apeare, & all flesh shal se it, for why, ye mouth of the LORDE hath spoken it.⁶ The same voyce spake: Now crie. And I sayde: what shal I crie? Then spake it: that, all flesh is grasse, and that all the bewtie therof, is as the floure of the felde.⁷ When the grasse is wytthered, the floure falleth awaye. Euen so is the people as grasse, when the breath of the LORDE bloweth vpon them.⁸ Neuerthelesse whether the grasse wyther, or the floure fade awaye: Yet the worde of oure God endureth for euer. Morouer the voyce cried thus:

⁹ Go vp vnto the hill (o Sion) thou that bringest good tidinges, lift vp thy voyce with power, o thou preacher Ierusalem. Lift it vp without feare, and say vnto the cities of Iuda: Beholde, youre God:¹⁰ beholde, the LORDE, euen the almightie sha come with power, & beare rule with his arme. Beholde, he bringeth his treasure with him, and his workes go before him.¹¹ He shal fede his flock like an hirdman. He shal gather the lambes together with his arme, and carie them in his bosome, & shal kindly intreate those that beare yonge.

¹² Who hath holden the waters in his fist? Who hath measured heauen with his spanne, and hath comprehended all the earth of ye worlde in thre fyngers? Who hath weyed the mountaynes and hilles?¹³ Who hath refourmed the mynde of the LORDE? Or who is of his councel to teach him?¹⁴ At whom hath he asked coucel, to make him vnderstode, and to lerne him the waye of iudgment: to teach him science, and to enstructe him in the waye of vnderstodinge?¹⁵ Beholde, all people are in coparison of him, as a droppe to a bucketfull, and are counted as the leest thinge yt the balaunce weyeth. Beholde, ye Iles are in comparison of him, as the shadowe of the Sonne beame.¹⁶ Libanus is not sufficiet to ministre fyre for his offringe, and all the beastes therof are not ynough to one sacrifice.¹⁷ All people in comparison of him, are rekened, as nothinge, yee vayne vanite and emptynesse.

¹⁸ To whom then will ye licke God? or what similitude will ye set vp vnto him?¹⁹ Shal the caruer make him a carued ymage? and shal the goldsmyth couer him with golde, or cast him in to a fourme of syluer plates?²⁰ Morouer shal the ymage maker (yt the poore man which is disposed, maye haue somthinge to set vp also) seke out and chose a tre, that is not rotten, and carue ther out an ymage, yt moueth not?²¹ Knowe ye not this? Herde ye neuer of it? Hath it not bene preached vnto you sence the hegynnynge? Haue ye not bene enfourmed of this, sence the foundacion of ye earth was layde:²² That he sytteth vpon the Circle of the worlde, and that all the inhabitours of the worlde are in coparison of him, but as greshoppers: That he spredeth out the heaues as a coueringe, that he stretcheth them out, as. a tent to dwell in:²³ That he bringeth princes to nothinge, and the iudges of the earth to dust:²⁴ so that they be not planted nor sowen agayne, nether their stocke rooted agayne in the earth? For as soone as he bloweth vpon them, they wither & fade awaye, like the strawe in a whirle wynde.²⁵ To whom now wil ye licken me, & whom shal I be like, saieth the holy one?²⁶ Lift vp youre eyes an hie, and considre. Who hath made those thinges, which come out by so greate heapes? and he can call them all by their names. For there is nothinge hyd vnto the greatnesse of his power, strength, and might.

²⁷ How maye then Iacob thinke, or how maye Israel saye: My wayes are hyd from the LORDE, and my God knoweth not of my iudgmentes.²⁸ Knowest thou not, or hast thou not herde, that the euerlastinge God, the LORDE which made all the corners of the earth, is nether weery nor faynt, and that his wisdome can not be comprehended:²⁹ but that he geueth strength vnto the weery, and power vnto the faynte?³⁰ Children are weery and faynt, and the strongest men fall:³¹ But vnto them that haue the LORDE before their eyes, shal strength be encreased, Aegles wynges shal growe vpon them: When they runne, they shal not fall: and when they go, they shal not be weery.