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57You therefore, who laid the foundation of the sedition, submit to the presbyters, and receive the correction of repentance, bending the knees of your hearts. 2Learn to be submissive, putting aside the boastful and the haughty self-confidence of your tongue, for it is better for you to be found small but honourable in the flock of Christ, than to be pre eminent in repute but to be cast out from his hope. 3For “the excellent wisdom”[30] says thus:— “Behold I will bring forth to you the words of my spirit, 4and I will teach you my speech, since I called and ye did not obey, and I put forth my words and ye did not attend, but made my counsels of no effect, and disobeyed my reproofs; therefore will I also laugh at your ruin, and I will rejoice when destruction cometh upon you, and when sudden confusion overtaketh you and catastrophe cometh as a storm, or when persecution or siege cometh upon you. 5For it shall come to pass when ye call upon me, I will not hear you. The evil shall seek me and they shall not find me. For they hated wisdom and they chose not the fear of the Lord, neither would they attend to my counsels but mocked my reproofs. 6Therefore shall they eat the fruits of their own way, and shall be filled with their own wickedness; 7for because they wronged the innocent they shall be put to death, and inquisition shall destroy the wicked. But he who heareth me shall tabernacle with confidence in his hope, and shall be in rest with no fear of any evil.”
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Notes
[30] "The excellent wisdom" is a title used (a) of Proverbs, (b) of Proverbs, Ecclesiasticus, and Ecclesiastes, (c) of the third division of the O.T. (Hagiographa or "Writings") as a whole. Cf. note on p. 57.