«The earth with its store of wonders untold,/ Almighty! thy power hath founded of old; / Hath 'stablished it fast by a changeless decree, / And round it hath cast like a mantle the sea.»

«The laws of God, the laws of man he may keep that will and can; not I: let God and man decree laws for themselves and not for me.»

«When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: / When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: / When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: / Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; / Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.»

«Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; / To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! / And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory? / Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.»

«Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.»

«When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder: / Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out.»

«The brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree.»