1   Doth not wisdom crie, and prudence geue her voice?

2   Standing ^note in the high & loftie toppes ouer the way, in the middes of the pathes,

3   beside the gates of the citie in

the verie doores she speaketh, saying:

4   O men, to you I crie, and my voice is to the children of men.

5   O litle ones vnderstand subtiltie, and ye vnwise marke.

6   Heare ye, because I wil speake of great thinges: and my lippes shal be opened to preach right thinges.

7   My throte shal meditate truth, and my lippes shal detest the impious.

8   Al my wordes are iust, there is no wicked, nor peruerse thing in them.

9   They are right to them that vnderstand, and iust to them that finde knowlege.

10   Receiue ye discipline, & not money: choose doctrine rather then gold.

11   For wisdom is better then al most precious riches: and whatsoeuer is to be desired can not be compared to it.

12   I ^note wisdome dwel in counsel, and am present in lerned cogitations.

13   The feare of our Lord hateth euil: arrogance, and pride, and wicked way, and a duble toungued mouth I doe detest.

14   Myne is counsel & equitie, prudence is mine, strength is mine.

15   By me kinges doe reigne, and the makers of law decree iust thinges.

16   By me princes rule, and the mightie decree iustice.

17   I loue them that loue me: and they that watch toward me shal finde me.

18   With me are riches, and glorie, glorious riches, and iustice.

19   For my fruite is better then gold, and precious stone, and my blosomes then chosen siluer.

20   I Walke in the wayes of iustice, in the middes of the pathes of iudgement,

21   that I may enriche them that loue me, and may replenish their treasures.

22   Our Lord possessed me in the beginning of his wayes, before he had made any thing from the beginning.

23   From eternitie I was ordayned & of old before the earth was made.

24   The depthes were not as yet, and I was now conceiued, neither had the fountaines of waters as yet gushed forth:

25   the mountaines with heauie hugenesse stoode not as yet: before the litle hilles I was brought forth:

26   he had not yet made the earrh, and the riuers, and the poles of the round world.

27   When he prepared the heauens, I was present: when with a certaine law, and circuite he compassed the depthes:

28   When he established the firmament aboue, & poysed the fountaines of waters:

29   when he compassed the sea with her limites, and set a law to the waters that they should not passe their boundes: when he hanged the foundations of the earth.

30   I was with him framing al thinges: and was delighted euerie day, playing before him at al time;

31   playing in the world: & ^note my delights to be with the children of men.

32   Now therfore children heare me:

blessed are they, that keepe my wayes.

33   Heare ye discipline, and be wise, and reiect it not.

34   Blessed is the man that heareth me, & that watcheth at my doores dayly, & wayteth at the postes of my doore.

35   He that shal finde me, shal finde life, and shal draw saluation of our Lord:

36   but he that shal sinne against me, shal hurt his owne soule. Al that hate me, loue death.

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