Study Desk

Lo, this onely haue I founde, that God made man iust & right, but they seke dyuerse sotylties,

where as no man hath wy?dome & vnderstodinge, to geue answere there vnto. Wy?dome maketh a mas face to shyne, but malice putteth it out of fauoure.

Who so kepeth the commaundement, shall fele no harme: but a wyse mans herte discerneth tyme and maner:

But though an euell personne offende an hundreth tymes, and haue a longe life: yet am I sure, that it shal go well with the that feare God, because they haue him before their eyes.

Agayne, as for the vngodly, it shall not be well with him, nether shal he prologe his dayes: but euen as a shadowe, so shall he be that feareth not God.

for they that be lyuynge, knowe yt they shall dye: but they yt be deed, knowe nothinge, nether deserue they eny more. For their memoriall is forgotte,

Vse thy self to lyue ioyfully wt thy wife whom thou louest, all ye daies of thy life (which is but vayne) yt God hath geue the vnder the Sonne, all ye dayes of thy vanite: for yt is thy porcion in this life, of all thy labor & trauayle yt thou takest vnder the Sonne.

So I turned me vnto other thinges vnder ye Sonne, and I sawe, that in runnynge, it helpeth not to be swift: in batayll, it helpeth not to be stronge: to fedynge, it helpeth not to be wyse: to riches, it helpeth not to be sutyll: to be had in fauoure, it helpeth not to be connynge: but that all lyeth in tyme & fortune.

For a man knoweth not his tyme, but like as the fyshe are take with the angle, and as the byrdes are catched wt the snare: Eue so are men taken in the perilous tyme, when it commeth sodenly vpon them.

And in the cite there was founde a poore man (but he was wyse) which wt his wy?dome delyuered the cite: yet was there no body, yt had eny respecte vnto soch a symple man.

For wy?dome is better then harnesse: but one vnthrift alone destroyeth moch good.

A wyse mans hert is vpon the right hande, but a fooles hert is vpon the left.

But he yt dyggeth vp a pytt, shall fall therin himself: & who so breaketh downe the hedge, a serpent shal byte him.

The wordes out of a wyse mans mouth are gracious, but the lippes of a foole wil destroye himself.

Wo be vnto the (O thou realme and londe) whose kynge is but a childe, and whose prynces are early at their banckettes.

But well is the (O thou realme and londe) whose kinge is come of nobles, and whose prynces eate in due season, for strength and not for lust.

Meate maketh men to laugh, and wyne maketh them mery: but vnto money are all thinges obedient.

Yf a man lyue many yeares, and be glad in them all, let him remembre the dayes of darcknesse, which shalbe many: & when they come, all thinges shalbe but vanite.

Be glad then (O thou yonge man) in thy youth, and lat thine hert be mery in thy yonge dayes: folowe the wayes of thine owne hert, and the lust of thine eyes: but be thou sure, that God shal bringe the in to iudgment for all these thinges.

Pvt awaye displeasure out of yi hert, & remoue euell from thy body: for childehode and youth is but vanite.