Epistle Dedicatory 9 



God, who was moreover a prophet filled with divine 

 inspiration, and therefore well aware of what was 

 especially necessary for a king, sought before all 

 things learning, and that of course divine, so that he 

 was unable to restrain himself from saying " Blessed 

 art thou, O Lord, teach me thy righteousness, I have 

 delighted in the way of thy commandments, as in all 

 riches : in thy statutes will I exercise myself, and 

 I will consider thy ways. Open thou mine eyes, 

 and I will consider the wonderful things of thy law. 

 Teach me goodness and instruction and learning ; but 

 with my whole heart will I examine thy command- 

 ments. Unless thy law had been my meditation, 

 then should I perchance have perished in my low 

 estate. How sweet are thy sayings to my mouth, 

 better than honey to my lips. The law of thy mouth 

 is a good to me beyond thousands of gold and silver. 

 Thy word is a lantern unto my feet, and a light unto 

 my paths. The telling of thy discourses giveth light 

 and understanding to babes." Thus far king David, 

 the most illustrious of all kings both in peace and war. 

 King Solomon, his son, the wisest of all that 

 earth ever bore, to whose single authority more 

 weight is to be given than to six hundred flatterers 

 persuading to a different course, when God the Father, 

 maker of all the world and giver of all good things, 

 of his own accord offered to him what he should 

 judge to be best for himself and for his greatest 

 advantage, and promised that he would grant it at 

 once on his request, replied in this manner, as the 

 Scriptures testify. " Now, O Lord God, thou hast 

 made me, thy servant, to reign in the room of David 

 my father, but I am a little child, and know not my 

 coming in and entering ; and thy servant is in the 

 midst of the people whom thou hast chosen, an in- 



