The workes of God are wonderful from the beginning, 7. and men vngrateful
13. In Abraham God chose to himself a peculiar people: who neuertheles
were froward, and obstinate. 23. He also chose Dauid, but stil the
people were sinful: 28. the Babylonians also, by whom the are afflicted,
are no lesse but rather greater sinners.
IN the thirteth yeare of the ruine of the citie I was in Babylon, and was
trubled lying in my chamber, and my cogitations came vp ouer my hart:
2 because I saw the desolation of Sion, and the abundance of them that
dwelt in Babylon. 3 And my spirit was tossed excedingly, and I began to
speake to the highest timorous wordes, 4 and sayd: O Lord dominatour
thou spakest from the beginning, when thou didst plant the earth, and
that alone, and didst rule ouer the people, (Gen 1) 5 and gauest Adam a
dead bodie: but that also was the worke of thy handes, & didst breath
into him the spirit of life, and he was made to liue before thee:
(Gen 2:7) 6 and thou broughst him into paradise, which thy right hand
had planted, before the earth came. 7 And him thou didst command to loue
thy way, and he transgressed it, & forth with thou didst institute death
in him, and in his posteritie, and there were borne nations, and tribes,
and peoples, and kindreds, wherof there is no number. 8 And euerie
nation walked in their owne wil, & they did meruelous thinges before
thee, and despised thy preceptes. 9 And agane in time thou broughst in
the floud vpon inhabitantes of the world, and didst destroy them.
(Gen 7) 10 And there was made in euery one of them, as vnto Adam to dye,
so to them the floud, 11 But thou didst leaue one of them, Noe with his
house and of him were al the iust. 12 And it came to passe, when they
began to be multiplied, that dwelt vpon the earth, & multiplied children
and peoples and manie nations: and they begane againe to doe impietie
more then the former. 13 And it came to passe when they did iniquitie
before thee, thou didst choose thee a man of them whose name was Abraham.
14 And thou didst loue him and to him onlie thou didst shew thy wil.
(Gen 12) 15 And thou didst dispose vnto him an euerlasting testament,
and toldst him that thou wouldst neuer forsake his seede. And thou
gauest him Issac, and to Isaac thou gauest Iacob and Esau. 16 And Iacob
thou didst seuer to thy selfe, but Esau thou didst separate. And Iacob
grewe to a great multitude. 17 And it came to passe when thou didst
bring forth his sede out of AEgypt, thou broughst it vpon mount Sinai.
(Ex 19) 18 And thou didst bowe the heauens, and fasten the earth, and
didst shake the world, and madest the depthes to tremble, and trubledst
the world, 19 and thy glorie passed foure gates of fire, and of
earthquake, and winde, and frost, that thou mightst geue a law to the
seede of Iacob, and to the generation of Israel diligence. 20 And thou
didst not take away from them a malignant hart, that thy law might bring
forth fruite in them. 21 For Adam the first bearing a vicious hart
transgressed and was ouercome, yea and al that were borne of him. 22 And
it was made a permanent infirmitie, and the law with the hart of the
people, with the wickednes of the roote, and that which is good departed,
and the wicked remayned. 23 And the times passed, & the yeares were
ended: and thou didst raise vp vnto thee a seruant named Dauid, 24 and
spakest vnto him to build a citie of thy name, and to offer vnto thee in
it frankencense, and oblations. 25 And this was done manie yeares, and
they that inhabited the citie forsooke thee, 26 in al things as Adam and
al his generations. For they also vsed a wicked hart. 27 And thou didst
deliuer thy citie into the hands of thyne enimies. 28 Why, doe they
better thinges, that inhabite Babylon? And for this shal she rule ouer
Sion? (Jer 12) 29 It came to passe when I was come hither, and had sene
the impieties that can not be numbred: and my soul saw manie offending
this thirteth yeare, & my hart was astonied: 30 because I saw how thou
bearest with their sinne, and didst spare them that did impiously, and
didst destroy thine owne people, and preserue thine enimies, and didst
not signifie it. 31 I nothing remember how this way should be forsaken:
doth Babylon better thinges then Sion? 32 Or hath anie nation knowen
thee beside Israel: or what tribes haue beleued thy testamentes as
Iacob? 33 Whose reward hath not appeared, nor their labour fructified.
For passing through I passed among the nations, and I saw them abound,
and not mindeful of thy commandmentes. 34 Now therfore wey our
iniquities in a ballance, and theirs that dwel in the world: & thy name
shal not be found, but in Israel. 35 Or when haue not they sinned in thy
sight, that inhabite the earth? or what nation hath so obserued thy
commandmentes? 36 These certes by their names thou shalt finde to haue
kept thy commandments, but the nations thou shalt not finde.