¶ The prophet jonas/ with an introduction before teaching to understand him and the right use also of all the scripture/ and why it was written/ and what is therein to be sought/ and shewenge wherewith the scripture is locked up that he which readeth it/ can not understand it/ though he study therein never so much: and again with what keys it is so opened/ that the reader can be stopped out with no sotilte or false doctrine of man/ from the true sense and understanding thereof.   

W. T. unto the Christian reader.  
AS the envious Philistenes stopped the wesses of Abraham and filled them up with earth/ t● put the memorial out of mind/ to the intent that they might challenge the ground: even so the fleshly minded hypocrites stop up the veins of life which are in the scripture/ with the earth of their traditions/ false similitudes & lying allegories: & y● of like zeal/ to make the scripture their own possession & merchandise: and so shut up the kingdom of heaven which is God's word nether entering in themselves nor soferinge them that would.  
¶ The scripture hath a body with out/ and within a soul/ spirit & life. It hath with out a bark/ a shell and as it were an hard bone for the fleshly minded to gnaw upon. And within it hath pith/ cornel/ marry & all sweetness for Gods elect which he hath chosen to give them his spirit/ & to write his law & the faith of his son in their hearts.  
¶ The scripture containeth. iij. things in it first the law to condemn all flesh: secondarily the gospel/ that is to say/ promises of mercy for all that repent & knowledge their sins at the preaching of the law & consent in their hearts that the law is good/ & submit themselves to be scholars to learn to keep the law & to learn to believe the mercy that is promised them: & thirdly the stories & lives of those scolars/ both what chances fortuned them/ & also by what means their schoolmaster taught them and made them perfect/ & how he tried the true from the false.  
¶ When the hypocrites come to the law/ they put gloss to and make no more of it then of a worldly law which is satisfied with the outward work and which a turk may also fulfil. When yet God's law never ceaseth to condemn a man until it be written in his heart and until he keep it naturally without compulsion & all other respect save only of pure love to God and his neighbour/ as he naturally eateth when he is an hungered/ without compulsion & all other respect/ save to slake his hungers only.  
¶ And when they come to the Gospel/ there they mingle their leaven & say/ God now receiveth us no more to mercy/ but of mercy receiveth us to penance/ that is to weet/ holy deeds that make them fat bellies & us their captives/ both in soul and body. And yet they fain their Idol the Pope so merciful/ that if thou make a little money glister in his balam's eyes/ there is nether penance ner purgatory ner any fasting at all but to i'll to heaven as sweste as a thought and at the twinkelling of an eye.  
¶ And the lives stories and gests of men which are contained in the bible/ they read as things no more pertaining unto them/ then a take of Robin hood/ & as things they wot not whereto they serve/ save to fain false descant & tuglinge allegories/ to establish their kingdom with all. And one the chiefest & fleshliest study they have/ is to magnify the saints above measure & above that truth & with their poetry to make them greater than ever God make them. And if they fixed any infirmity or sin ascribe unto the saints/ that they excuse with all diligence/ diminishing the glory of the mercy of God & robbing wretched sinners of all their comfort/ & think thereby to flatter the saints and to obtain their favour & to make special advocates of them: even as a man would obtain the favour of wordly tyrants: as they also fain the saints much more cruel then ever was any heathen man & more wreakful and vengeable then the poetes feign their gods or their furies that torment the soul's in hell/ if their evens be not fasted & their images vifited & saluted with a Pater noster (which prayer only our lips be accoynted with our hearts understanding none at all) and worsheped with a candle & the offering of our devotion/ in the place which they have chosen to hear the supplications & meek petitions of their clientes therein.  
¶ But thou reader think of the law of God how that it is all together spiritual/ & so spiritual that it is never fulfilled with deeds or works/ until they flow out of thine heart with as great love toward thy neighbour/ for no deserving of his ye though he be thine enemy/ as Christ loved y● and did for thee/ for no deserting of thine/ but even when thou wast his enemy. And in the mean time/ thoroute all our infancy & childhood in Christ/ till we ●e grown up in to perfect men in the full knowledge of christ & full love of christ again & of our neighbours for his sake/ after the ensample of his love to us/ remenbir that the fulfilling of the law is/ a fastfayth in Christ's blood coupled with our profession & submyttinge ourselves to learn to do better ¶ And of the gospel or promises which thou meetest in the scripture/ believe fast that God will fulfil them unto y●/ and that unto the uttermost ●ott/ at the repentance of thine heart/ when thou turnest to him & forsakest evil/ even of his goodness & fatherly merit unto thee/ and not for thy flatterlge him with ypocritish works of thine own feigning. So that a fast faith only with out respect of all works/ is the forgiveness both of the sin which we did in time of ignorance with lust and consent to sin/ & also of all the sin which we do by chance & of frailty/ after that we are come to knowledge and have professed the law out of our hearts. And all deeds serve only for to help our neighbours & to tame our flesh that we fall not to sin again/ & to exercise our souls in virtue/ & not to make satisfaction to God ward for the sin that is once paste.  
¶ And all other stories of the bible/ with out exception/ are the practising of the law & of the Gospel/ and are true and faithful ensamples & sure earnest that God will even so deal with us/ as he did with them/ in all infirmities/ in all temptations/ & in all like cases & chances. Wherein ye see on the one side/ how fatherly & tendirly & with all compassion god entreateth his elect which submit themselves as scholars/ to learn to walk in the ways of his laws/ & to keep them of love. If they forgot themselves at a time & went astray/ he sought them out & fett them again with all mercy. If they fell & hurt themselves/ he healed them again with all compassion & tenderness of heart. He hath oft brought great tribulation & adversity upon his elect: but all of fatherly love only to teach them & to make them see their own hearts & the sin that there lay hid/ that they might afterward feal his mercy. For his mercy waited upon them/ to rid them out again/ assoon as they were learned & come to the knowledge of their own hearts: so that he never cast man away how deep so ever he had sinned/ save them only which had first cast the yoke of his laws from their necks/ with utter diffiaunce & malice of heart. Which ensamples how comfortable are they for us/ when we be fallen in to sin & God is come upon us with a storge/ that we dispeare not/ but repent with full hope of mercy after the ensamples of mercy that are gone before? And therefore they were written for our learning/ as testifieth Paul Ro. xv. to comfort us/ that we might the better put our hope & trust in God/ when we see/ how merciful he hath been in times past unto our weak brethren that are gone before/ in all their adversities/ need/ temptations/ ye & horrible sins in to which they now & then fell.  
¶ And on that other side ye see how they that hardened their hearts & sinned of malice & refused mercy that was offered them & had no power to repent/ perished at the later end with all confusion & shame mercilessely. Which ensamples are very good & necessary/ to keep us in awe & dread in time of prosperity as thou mayst see by Paul. j Cor. x. that we abide in the fear of God/ & way not wild and fall to vanities and so sin and provoke God and bring wrath upon us.  
¶ And thirdly ye see in that practice/ how as god is merciful & longesofering/ even so were all his true prophets & preachers/ bearing the infirmities of their weak brethren & their own wrongs & injuries with all patience & longesoferinge/ never casting any of them of their backs/ un till they sinned against the holygost/ maliciously persecuting the open & manifest trouch: contrary unto the ensample of the Pope/ which in sinning against God & to quench the truth of his holy spirit/ is ever chief captain and trompetblower/ to set other awerke/ and seeketh only his own freedom/ liberty/ privilege/ wealth/ prosperity/ profit/ pleasure/ pastime/ honour & glory/ with the bondage/ thraldom/ captivity/ misery/ wretchedness & vile subjection of his brethren: & in his own cause is so fervent/ so steffe & cruel/ that he will not suffer one word spoken against his false magiste/ wily inventions and juggling hypocrisy to be unaduenged/ though all christendom should be set together by the cares/ and should cost he cared not how many hundred thousand their lives.  
_●Ow that thou mayst read Jonas fruit fully & not as a poetis fable/ but as an obligation between God and thy soul/ as an ernist penny given that of God/ that he will help that in time of need/ if thou turn to him and as the word of god that only food and life of thy soul/ this mark & note. First count Jonas the friend of god and a man chosen of god to testify his name unto the world: but yet a young scolar/ weak & rude/ after the fashion of the apostles/ while Christ was yet with them bodily. Which though Christ taught them ever to be meek & to umble themselves/ yet oft strove among themselves who should be greatest. The sons of zebedee would sit/ the one on the right hand of Christ and the other on the lift. They would pray/ that fire might descend from heaven/ and consume the Samaritans.  
¶ When Christ axed who say men that I am/ Peter answered/ thou art the son of the living God/ as though Peter had been as perfect as an angel. But immediately after/ when Christ preached unto them of his death & passion/ Peter was anger & rebuked Christ & thought earnestly that he had raved & not wist what he said: as at another time/ when Christ was so fervently busied in healing the people/ that he had no leisure to eat/ they went out to hold him/ supposing that he had been beside him self. And one that cast out devils in Christ's name/ they forbade/ because he waited not on them/ so glorious were they yet.  
¶ And though christ taught all way to forgive/ yet peter after long goenge to school/ axed wether men should forgive. seven. times/ thinking thou t. viij. times had been to much. And at the last supper Peter would have died with christ/ but yet within few hours after/ he denied him/ both cowardly & shamefully. And after the same manner/ though he had so long herd that noman might avenge himself/ but rather turn that other cheek to/ than to sinyte again/ yet when Christ was in taking/ peter axed whether it were lawful to smite with the sword/ and tarried none answer/ but laid on rashly. So that though when we come first unto the knowledge of the truth/ and the peace is made between God & us/ & we love his laws & believe & trust in him/ as in our father & have good hearts unto him & be born anew in the spirit: yet we are but children and young scolars weak & foble & must have leisure to grow in the spirit/ in knowledge/ love & in the deeds thereof/ as young children must have time to grow in their bodies.  
¶ And God our father & seolemaster feedeth us & teached us according unto the capacity of our stomachs/ & maketh us to grow & wax perfect/ & fineth us & trieth us as gold/ in the fire of temptations & tribulations. As Moses wittneseth Deutero. viij. saying: Remember all the way by which the lord thy God carried that this. xl. years in the wilderness/ to umble the & to tempt or prove thee/ that it might be known what were in thine heart. He brought the in to adversity & made y● an hungered/ & then feed the with man which nether thou ner yet thy fathers ever knew of/ to teach y● that a man liveth no thy bred only/ but by all that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. For the promises of god are life unto all that cleave unto them/ much more them is bred & bodily sustenance: a● the journey of the children of Israel out of egypt in to the land promised them/ ministereth the notable ensamples & that abundantly/ a● doth all the rest of the bible also. How be it/ it is impossible for flesh to believe & to trust in the truth of gods promises/ until he have learned it in much tribulation/ after that God hath delivered him out thereof again.  
¶ God therefore to teach Jonas & to show him his own heart & to make him perfect & to instruct us also by his ensample/ sen● him out of the land of Israel where he was a prophet/ to go among the heathen people & to the greatest & mightiest city of the world than/ called Ninive: to preach that within. xl. days they should all perish for their sins & that the city should be overthrown. Which message the free-will of Jonas had as much power to do/ as the weakest hearted womanin the world hath power/ if she were commanded / to leppe in to a tobbe of living snakes & edders: as happily if God had commanded Sara to have sacrificed her son Isaac/ as he did Abraham/ she would have disputed with him yer she had done it/ or though she were sironge enough/ yet many an holy saint could not have sound in their hearts/ but would have disobeyed and have run away from the presence of that commandment of god with Jonas if they had been so sirongly tempted.  
¶ For Jonas thought of this manner: loo/ I am here a prophet unto God's people the Israelites. Which though they have gods word testified unto them daily/ yet despite it & worshepe God under the likeness of calves & after all manner fashions save after his own word/ & therefore are of all nations the worst & most worthy of punishment. And yet god for love of few that are among them & for his name's sake spareth them & defers death them. How then should god take so cruel vengeance on so great a multitude of them to whom his name was never preached to and therefore are not the tenth part so evil as these? If I shall therefore go preach so shall I lie & shame myself & God the to and make them the more to despise god and set the less by him and to be the moar● cruel unto his people.  
¶ And upon that imagination he fled from the face or presence of God: that is/ out of the country where God was worsheped in & from prosecuting of God's commandment/ and thought/ I will get me another way among the heathen people & be no more a prophet/ but live at rest & out of all cumbrance. Never the less the god of all mercy which careth for his elect children & turneth al● unto good to them & smiteth them to heal them again & killeth them to make them al●ue again/ & playeth with them (as a father doth some time with his young ignorant children) & tempteth them & proveth them to make them see their own hearts/ provided for onas/ how all thing should be.  
¶ When Jonas was entered in to the sheppe/ he laid him down to sleep and to take his rest: that is/ his conscience was tossed between the commaudement of God which sent him to Ninive/ & his fleshly wisdom that dissuaded & counseled him the contrary & at the last prevaled against the commandment & carried him another way/ as a sheppe caught between. ij. streams/ & as poets feign the mother of Meleager to be between divers affections/ while to avenge her brother's death/ she sought to slay her own son. Where upon for very pain & tediousness/ he lay down to sleep/ for to put the commandment which so gnew & fret his conscience/ out of mind/ as the nature of all wicked is/ when they have sinned a good/ to seek all means with riot/ revel & pastime/ to drive the remenbrance of sin out of their thoughts or as Adam did/ to cover their nakedness with aporns of pope holy works▪ But God awoke him out of his dream/ and set his sins before his face.  
¶ For when that Lot had caught Jonas/ them be sure that his sins came to remembrance again & that his conscience raged no less than the waves of the se. And then he thought that he only was a sinner & the heathen that ware in the shepp none in respect of him/ ●o thought also/ as verily as he was fled from god/ that as verily god had cast high away▪ for the sight of the rod mal eth the natural child not only to see & to knowledge his fault/ but also to forget all his father's old mercy & kindness. And then he confessed his sin openly & had yet sever perish alone them that that other should have perished with him for his sake: and so of very desperation to have lived any longer/ bad cast him in to the see betimes/ except they would be lost also.  
¶ To speak of lots/ how farforth they are lawful/ is a light question. First to use them for the breaking of strife/ as when partenars/ their goods as equally divided as they can/ take every man his part by lot/ to avoid all suspicion of disceytfulnesse: & as the apostles in the first of the Acts/ when they sought another to succeed judas the traitor/ &. ij. persons were presents/ them to break strife & to satisfy all parties/ did cast lott●es/ whether should be admitted/ desiring god to ●eper them & to take whom he knew most meet/ saying they witted not whether to prefer/ or haply could not all agree on either/ is lawful ad in all like cases. But to abuse them unto the tempting of God & to compel him therewith to utter things whereof we stand in doubt/ when we have no commandment of him so to do/ as these heathen here did/ though God turned it unto his glory/ can not be but evil.  
¶ The heathen s●epinē asstonied at the sight of the miracle/ feared God/ prayed to him/ offered sacrifice & vowed vows. And I doubt not/ but that some of them or haply all came thereby unto the true knowledge & true worshepinge of God & ware won to God in their souls. And thus God which is infinite merciful in all his ways/ wrought their soul's health out of the infirmity of jonas/ even of his good will & purpose & love wherewith he loved them before the world was made/ & not of chance/ as it appeareth unto the eyes of the ignorant.  
¶ And that Jonas was three days & three nights in the belly of his fish: we can not there by prove unto the Jews & infidels or unto any man/ that Christ must therefore die and be buried & rise again. But we use the ensample and likeness to strength the saith of the weak. For he that believeth the one cannot doubt in that other: in as much as the hand of God was no less mighty in preseruige Jonas alive against all natural possibility & in delivering high safe out of his fish/ then in raising up Christ again out of his sepulchre. And wemaye describe the power & virtue of the resurrection thereby/ ac Christ him self borroweth the similitude thereto Mat. xij. saying unto the Jews that came about him & desired a sign or a wonder from heaven to certify them that he was christ: this evil & wedlock-breaking nation (which break the wedlock of faith wherewith they be▪ married unto God/ and believe in their false works) seek a sign/ but there shall no sign be given them save the sign of the Prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was. iij. days and iij. nights in the belly of the whale/ even so shall the son of man be. iij. days &. iij. nights in the heart of the earth. Which was a watch word/ as we say/ & a sharp threatening unto the Jews & as much to say as thus/ ye hard hearted Jews seek a sign: loo/ this shallbe your sign/ as Jonas was raised out of the sepulchre of his fish & then sent unto the ninivites to preach that they should perish/ even so shall I rise again out of my sepulchre & come & preach repentance unto you. See therefore when ye see the sign that ye repent or else ye sha● surely perish & not escape. For though the infirmities which ye now see i my flesh be a let unto your faiths/ ye shall yet then be with out excuse/ when ye see so great a miracle & so great power of god shed out upon you. And so Christ came again after the resurrection/ in his spirit & preached repentance unto them/ by the mouth of his apostles & disciples/ & with miracles of the holy ghost. And all that repented not perished shortly after and were for the most part slain with sword and the rest carried away captive in to all quarters of the world for an ensample/ as ye see unto this day.  
¶ And in like manner since the world began/ where soever repentance was offered and not received/ there God took cruel vengeance immiediatly: as ye see in y ● ●loud of No●/ in the overthrowenge of Sodom & Gomor & all the country about: & as ye see of Egipte/ of the Amorites/ Canaanites & afterward of the very Israelites/ & then at the last of the Jews to/ and of the assyrians and Babysoniens and so thorout all the imperes of the world.  
¶ Gyldas preached repentance unto y● o● de britains that inhabited england: they repented not/ & therefore God sent in their enemies upon them on every side & destroyed them up & gave the land unto other nations And great vengeance hath been taken in that land for sin since that tyme.  
¶ Wicleffe preached repentance unto our fathers not long since: they repented not for their hearts were indurat & their eyes blinded with their own Pope holy rightwesnesse wherewith they had made their souls gay against the receiving again of the woked spirit that bringeth. seven. worse than himself with him & maketh the late ● end worse than the beginning: for in open sins there is hope of repentance/ but in holy hypocrisy none at all. But what followed? they slew their true & right king and set up▪ iij. wrong kings a-row/ under which all the noble blood was slain up and half the coniens thereto/ what in france & what with their own sword/ in fighting among themselves for the crown/ & the cities and towns decayed and the land brought half in to a wilderness in respect of that it was before.  
¶ And now Christ to preach repentance/ is risen yet once again out of his sepulchre in which the pope had buried him and kept him down with his pillars and pole-axes and all disguisings of hypocrisy/ with guile/ wife's and falsehood/ and with the sword of all princes which he had blinded with his false merchandise. And as I doubt not of the ensamples that are passed/ so am I sure that great wrath will follow/ except repentance turn it Back again and cease it.  
¶ When Jonas had been in the fishes belly a space & the rage of his conscience was somewhat quieted and suaged and he come to himself again and had received a little hope/ the qualms & pangs of desperation which went over his heart/ half overcome he prayed/ as he maketh mencionin the text saying: Jonas prayed unto the lord his god out of the belly of the fish. But the words of that prayer are not here set. The prayer that here stand th' in the text/ is the prayer of praise & thankesgevenge which he prayed and wrote when he was escaped and passed all jeopardy.  
¶ In the end of which prayer he saith/ I will sacrifice with the voice of thankesgevenge and pay that I have vowed/ that saving cometh of the lord. For verily to confess out of the heart/ that all benefits come of God/ even out of the goodness of his mercy and not deserving of our deeds/ is the only sacrifice that pleaseth God. And to believe that god only is the saver/ is the thing that all the Jews vowed in their circumcision/ as we in our baptism. Which vow Jonas now taught with experience/ promiseth to pay. For those outward sacrifices of beasts/ un to which Jonas had haply ascribe to much before/ were but feeble & childish things & not ordained/ that the works of themselves should be a service unto god/ but unto the people/ to put them in remembrance of this inward sacrifice of thanks & of faith to trust and believe in God the only saver. Which signification when was away/ they were abominable and devilish idolatry and imageservice: as our ceremonies and sacraments are become now to all that trust & believe in the work of them and are not taught the significations/ to edify their souls with knowledge and the doctrine of God.  
¶ When Jonas was cast upon land again/ then his will was free and had power to go whother God sent him & to do what God bade/ his own imaginations laid a part. For he had been at a new school/ ye and in a furnace where he was purged of much refuse & droshe of fleshly wisdom/ which resisted the wisdom of god & led Jonases will contrary unto the will of god. For as far as we be blind in Adam/ we can not but seek & will our own profit/ pleasure & glory. And as far as we be taught in the spirit/ we can not but seek & will the pleasure and glory of God only.  
¶ And as for the. iij. days journey of Ninive/ whether it were in length or to go round about it or thorough all the streets/ I commit unto the discretion of other men. But I think that it was then the greatest city of the world.  
¶ And that Jonas went a days journey in the city/ I suppose he did it not in one day: but went fair & easily preaching hear a sermon & there another & rebuked the sin of the people for which they must perish.  
¶ And when thou art come unto the repentance of the ninivites/ there hast thou sure earnest/ that how soever anger god be/ yet he remembreth mercy unto all that truly repent and believe in mercy. Which ensample our saviour Christ also casteth in the teeth of the indurat Jews saying: the ninivites shall rise in judgement with this nation and condemn them/ for they repented at the preaching of Jonas/ and behold a greater than Jonas here/ meaning of himself. At whose preaching yet/ though it were never so mighty to pierce the heart/ & for all his miracles thereto/ the hard hearted Jews could not repent: when the heathen ninivites repent at the bare preaching of Jonas rebuking their sins with out any miracle at all.  
¶ Why? For the Jews had levended the spiritual law of God and with their gloss had made it all together erthie and fleshly/ and so had set a veil or covering on Moses face/ to shodowe and darken the glorious brightness of his countenance. It was sin to steel: but to rob widows houses under a colour of long praying/ & to poll in the name of offerings/ and to snare the people with intolerable constitutions against all love/ to catch their money out of their purses/ was no sin at all.  
¶ To smite father and mother was sin: But to withdraw help from them at their need/ for blind zeal of offering/ un to the profit of the holy Pharisees/ was then as meritorious as it is now to let all thy kin chose whether they will sink or sweme/ while thou byldest and makest goodly fundations for holy people which thou hast chosen to be thy christ/ for to sowple thy soul with the oil of their sweet blessings/ & to be thy Jesus for to save thy soul from the purgatory of the blood that only purgeth sin/ with their watching/ fasting/ woolward going & rising at midnight etc. where with yet they purge not them selves from their covetousness/ pride/ lechury or any vice that thou sayst among the lay people.  
¶ It was great sin for Christ to heal the people on the sabbath day unto the glory of God his father/ but none at all for them to help their cattles unto their own profit.  
¶ It was sin to eat with unwashen hands or on an unwashen table/ or out of an unwashen dish: but to eat out of that purified dish that which came of bribery/ theft & extorsion/ was no sin at all.  
¶ It was exceeding meritorious to make many disciples: But to teach them to fear God in his ordinances/ had they no care at all.  
¶ The high prelate's so defended the right of holy church and so feared the people with the curse of God & terrible pains of hell/ that no man durst leave the vilest hark in his garden untythed. And the offering and things dedycat unto God for the profit of his holy vicars where in such estimation and reverence/ that it was much greater sin to swear truly by them/ then to for swear thyself by God: what vengeance then of God/ and how terrible and cruel damnation think ye preached they to fall on them that had stolen soch holy things? And yet saith Christ/ that ryghtwesnesse and faith in keeping promise/ mercy and indifferent judgement were utturly trodden under foot and clean despised of those blessed father's/ which so mightily maintained Aaron's patrimony and had mad it so prosperous and environed it and walled it about on every side with the fear of god/ that noman durst twech it.  
¶ It was great holiness to garnish the se pulchres of the prophets & to condemn their own fathers for slaying of them: and yet were they themselves for blind zeal of their own constitutions/ as ready as their fathers to slay whosoever testified unto them/ the same truth which the prophets testified unto their fathers. So that Christ compareth all the rightwesnesse of those holy patriarchs unto the out ward beauty of a painted sepulchre full of stench and all uncleanness within.  
¶ And finally to begyld a man's neighbour in soot bargeninge and to wrap and compass him in with cautels of the law/ was then as it is now in the kingdom of the Pope. By the reason where of they excluded the law of love out of their hearts/ and consequently all true repentance: for how could they repent of that they could not see to be sin?  
¶ And on the other side they had set up a rightwesnesse of holy works/ to cleanse their souls with all: as the Pope sanctifieth us with holy oil/ holy bred/ holy salted/ holy candles/ holy doom ceremonies and holy doom blessings/ and with what soever holiness thou wilt save with the holiness of▪ Gods word which only speaketh unto the heart and showeth the soul her fi●thyne●se and uncleanness of sin/ and leadeth her by the way of repentance unto the fountain of Christ's blood to wash it away thorough faith. By the reason of which false rightwesnesse they were disobedient unto the rightwesnesse of God/ which is the forgiveness of sin in Christ's blood and could not believe it. And so thorough fleshly interpreting the law and false imagined rightwesnesse/ their hearts were hardened and made as stony as clay in an hot surnace of fire/ that they could receive nether repentance ner faith or any moister of grace at all.  
¶ But the heathen ninivites/ though they were blinded with lusts a good/ yet were in those. ij. points uncorrupt and unhardened/ & therefore with the only preaching of Jonas came unto the knowledge of their sins and confessed them & repented truly & turned every man from his evelldedes & declared their sorrow of heart & true repentance/ with their deeds which they did out of faith & hope of forgiveness/ chastising their bodies with prayer & fasting & with taking all pleasures from the flesh: trusting/ as god was anger for their were kednesse/ even so should he forgive them o● his mercy/ if they repented & forsook their miss living.  
¶ And in the last end of all/ thou hast yet a goodly ensample of learning/ to see how earth ye Jonas is still for all his trying in the whales belly. He was so sore displeased because the ninivites perished not/ that he was weary of his life and wished after the death for very sorrow & pain/ that he had lost the glory of his prophesienge/ in that his prophesy come not to pass. But god rebuked him with a likeness saying: it grieveth thine heart for the loss of a vile shrob be or spray/ whereon thou bestoweddest no loboure or cost/ neither was it thine handwerke. How much more then should grieve mine heart/ the loss of so great a multitude of innocentes as are in Ninive/ which are all mine hands work. Nay Jonas/ Jam God over all/ and father as well unto the heathen as unto the Jews and merciful to all and warn yet I smite: nether threte I so cruelly by any prophet/ but that I will forgive if they repent and axe mercy: nether on the other side/ what soever I promise/ will I fulfil it/ save for their sakes only which trust in me and submit them selves to keep my laws of very love/ as natural children.  
ON this manner to read the scripture is the right use thereof & why the holy ghost caused it to be written. That is that thou first seek out the law/ what god will have the to do/ interpreting it spiritually with cut gloze or covering the brightness of Moses face/ so that thou feel in thine heart/ how that it is damnable sin before god/ not to love they neighbour that is thine enemy/ as poorly as Christ loved thee/ and that not to love thy neighbour in thine heart/ is to have committed all ready all sin against him. And therefore unto that love become/ thou must knowledge unfeignedly that there is sin in the best deed thou dost. And it must earnestly grieve thine heart and thou must wash all thy good deeds in Christ's blood/ yet they can be pure and an acceptable sacrifice unto God/ and must desire god the father for his sake/ to take thy deeds a worth & to pardon the imperfectenesse of them/ & to give the power to do them better and with more fervent love.  
¶ And on the other side thou must search diligently for the promises of mercy which God hath promised the again. Which. ij. points/ that is to weet/ the law spiritually interpreted/ how that all is damnable sin that is not unfeigned love out of the ground and bottom of the heart after the ensample of Christ's love to us/ because we be all equally created and form of one god our father/ and indifferently bought & redeemed with one blood of our saviour Jesus Christ: and that the promises be given unto a repenting soul that thirsteth and longeth after them/ of the pure and fatherly mercy of god thorough our faith only with out all deserving of our deeds or merits of our works/ but for Christ's sake alone and for the merits and deservings of his works/ death and passions that he sofered all together for us & not for himself: which. ij. points I say/ if they be written in thine heart/ are the keys which so open all the scripture unto thee/ that no creature can lock the out/ and with which thou shalt go in and out/ and find pasture and food every where. And if these lesons be not written in thine heart/ then is all the scripture shut up/ as a cornel in the shalt/ so that thou mayst read it and comen of it and rehearse all the stories of it and dispute sotilly and be a profound sophister/ and yet understand not one jot thereof.  
¶ And thirdly that thou take the stories & lives which are contained in the bible/ for sure and undoubted ensamples/ that God so will deal with us unto the worlds end.  
¶ Here with Reader farewell and be commended unto God/ and unto the grace of his sprite. And first see that thou stop not thine ears unto the calling of god/ and that thou harden not thine heart beguiled with fleshly interpreting of the law & false imagined and ypocritish rightwesnesse/ and so the ninivites rise with the at the day of judgement & condemn the.  
¶ And secondarily if thou find aught amiss/ when thou sayst thyself in the glass of God's word/ think it compendious wisdom/ to amend the same betimes/ moneshed & warned by the ensample of other men/ rather than to tarry until thou be beaten also.  
¶ And thirdly if it shall so chance/ that the wild lusts of thy flesh shall blind the and carry the clean away with them for a time: yet at the later end/ when the god of all mercy shall have compassed the in on every side with temptations/ tribulations/ adversities & cumbrance/ to bring y● home again unto thine own heart/ & to set thy sins which thou wouldest so fain cover & put out of mind with delectation of voluptuous pastimes/ before the eyes of thy conscience: then call the faithful ensample of Jonas & all lylie stories unto thy remembrance/ and with Jonas turn unto thy father that smote y●: not to cast y● away/ but to lay a corrosive and a ●eeatige playlier unto the pocke that lay ●●o & fret inward/ to draw the disease out & so make it appear/ that thou mightest feal t●y seckenes & the danger thereof & come & relieve the healing plaster of mercy.  
¶ And forget not that what soever ensample of mercy god hath showed since the beginning of the world/ the same is promised thee/ if thou wilt in like manner turn again and received it as they did. And with Jonas be a known of thy sin & confess it & knowledge it unto thy father.  
¶ And as the law which fretteth thy conscience/ is in thine heart & is none outward thige/ even so seek within in thine heart/ the plaster of mercy/ the promises of forgiveness in our saviour Jesus christ/ according unto all the ensamples of mercy that are gone before.  
¶ And with Jonas let them that wait on vanities & seek god here & there & in every temple save in their hearts go/ & seek thou the testament of god in thine heart. For in thine heart is the word of the law/ & in thine heart is the word of faith in the promises of mercy in Jesus Christ. So that if thou confess with a repenting heart & knowledge and surely believe that Jesus is lord over all sin/ thou art safe.  
¶ And finally when the rage of thy conscience ●● ceased and quieted with fast faith in the promises of mercy/ then offer with Jonas the offering of praise and thanksgiving/ & pay the vow of thy baptim/ that God only saveth/ of his only mercy & goodness: that is/ believe steadfastly & preach constantly that it is God only that smiteth/ and God only that healeth: ascribing the cause of thy tribulation unto thine own sin/ and the cause of thy deliverance unto the mercy of God.  
¶ And beware of the leaven that saith we have power in our free-will before the preaching of the gospel/ to deserve grace/ to keep the law/ of congruity/ or god to be unrightwesse. And f●ie with John in the first/ that as the law was given by Moses/ even so grace to fulfil it/ is given by christ. And when they say our deeds with grace deserve heaven/ sa●e thou with Paul Ro. vj. the everlasting life is the gift of god thorough Jesus Christ our lord/ & that we be need sons by faith John. j & therefore heirs of god with christ Ro. viij. And says that we receive all of god thorough faith that followeth repentance/ & that we do not our works unto god/ but either unto ourselves/ to flay the sin that remaineth in the flesh & to wax perfect/ either unto our neighbours which do as much for us again in some other things. And when a man exceedeth in gifts of grace/ let him understand that they be given him/ as well for his weak brethren/ as for himself: as though all the bred be committed unto the panter/ yet for his fellows with him/ which give the thanks unto their ford/ and recompense the panter again with other kind service in their offices. And when they say that Christ hath made no satisfaction for the sin we do after our baptism: say thou with the doctrine of Paul/ that in our baptism we receive the merits of Christ's death thorough repentance and faith of which two/ baptim is the sign. And though when we sin of fra●ltie after our baptism we receive the sign no more/ yet we be renewed again thorough repentance and faith in Christ's blood/ which twain/ the sign of baptism ever continued among us in baptizing our young children doth ever keep in mind and call us back again unto our profession if we be gone astray/ & promiseth us forgiveness. Nether can actual sin be washed away with our works/ but with Christ's blood: nether can there be any other sacrifice or satisfaction to Godward for them/ save Christ's blood. For as much as we can do no works unto God/ but receive only of his mercy with our repenting faith/ thorough Jesus Christ our ford and only saver: unto whom & unto God our father thorough him/ and unto his holy spirit/ that only purgeth/ sanctifieth & washeth us in the innocent blood of our redemption/ be praise for ever  
AMEN.   

¶ The Story of the prophet Jonas.  

The first Chapter.  
THe word of the lord came unto the prophet Jonas the son of Amithai saying: rise & get the to Ninive that great city & preach unto them/ how that their wickedness is come up before me.  
¶ And Jonas made high ready to i'll to Tharsis from the presence of the lord/ & got him down to Joppe/ and found there a sheppe ready to go to Tharsis/ & paid his fare/ & went aboard/ to go with them to Tharsis from the presence of the lord.  
¶ But the lord hurled a great wind in to the se/ so that there was a mighty tempest in these: in so much that the shepp was like to go in pieces. And the mariners were afraid & cried every man unto his god/ & cast out the goods that were in the sheppe in to the se/ to lighten it of them. But Jonas got him under the hatches & laid him down and ●lombrede. And the master of the sheppe came to him & said unto him/ why slomberest thou? up/ & call unto thy god/ that God may think on us/ that we perish not.  
¶ And they said one to another/ come & let us cast lots/ to know for whose cause we are thus troubled. And they cast ●ottes. And the lot fell upon jonas.  
¶ Then they said unto him/ tell us for whose cause we are thus troubled: what is thine occupation/ whence comest thou/ how is thy country called/ & of what nation art thou?  
¶ And he answered them/ I am an Ebrue: & the lord God of heaven which made both see and dry land/ I fear. Then were the men exceedingly afraid & said unto him/ why didst thou so? For they knew that he was fled from the presence of the lord/ because he had told them.  
¶ Then they said unto him/ what shall we do unto thee/ that these mayecease from trowblinge us? For these wrought & was trowblous. And he answered them/ take me and cast me in to these/ & so shall it let you be in rest: for I wot/ it is for my sake/ that this great tempest is come upon you. Nevertheless the men assayed with rowenge to bring the sheppe to land: but it would not be/ because these so wrought & was so trowblous against them. Wherefore they cried unto the lord & said: O lord latt us not perih for this man's death/ neither lay innocent blood unto our charge: for thou lord even as thy pleasure was/ so thou hast done.  
¶ And then they took jonas/ & cast him in to the se/ & the see left raging. And the men feared the lord exceedingly: & sacrificed sacrififice unto the lord: and vowed vows.   

¶ The second Chapter.  
BUt the lord prepared a great fish/ to swallow up jonas. And so was jonas in the bowels of the fish. iij. days &. iij. nights. And jonas prayed unto the lord his god out of the bowels of the fish.  
¶ And he said: in my tribulation I called unto the lord/ and he answered me: out of the belly of hell I cried/ and thou heardest my voice. For thou haddest cast me down deep in the mids of these: & the flood compassed me about: and all thy waves & rolls of water went over me: & I thought that I had be ne cast away out of thy sight. But I will yet again look toward thy holy temple. The water compassed me even unto the very soul of me: the deep lay about me: and the weeds were wrappte about mine heed. And I went down unto the bottom of the hills/ & was barred in with earth on every side for ever. And yet thou lord my God broughtest up my life again out of corruption. When my soul fainted in me/ I thought on the lord: & my prayer came in unto thee/ even in to thy holy temple. They that observe vain vanities/ have forsaken him that was merciful unto them. But I will sacrifice unto the with the voice of thanksgiving/ & will pay that I have vowed/ that saving cometh of the lord.  
¶ And the lord spoke unto the fish: and it cast out jonas again upon the dry land.   

¶ The. iij. Chapter.  
THen came the word of the lord unto jonas again saying: up/ and get the to Ninive that great city/ & preach unto them the preaching which I bade thee. And he arose & went to Ninive at the lords commandment. Ninive was a great city unto god/ containing. iij. days journey  
¶ And jonas went to & entered in to the city even a days journey/ and cried saying: There shall not pass. xl. days but Ninive shallbe overthrown.  
¶ And the people of Ninive believed God/ and proclaimed fasiing/ and arrayed themselves in sack-cloth/ as well the great as the small of them.  
¶ And the tidings came unto the king of Ninive/ which arose out of his seat/ and did his apparel of & put on sackcloth/ & sat him down in ashes. And it was cried and commanded in Ninive by the authority of the king and of his lords saying: see that nether man or be'st/ ox or sheep taste aught at all/ & that they nether feed or drink water.  
¶ And they put on sackcloth both man and be'st/ & cried unto God mightily/ and turned every man from his wicked way/ and from doenge wrong in which they were accustomed/ saying: who can tell whether god will turn & repent/ & cease from his fierce wrath/ that we perish not? And when god saw their works/ how they turned from their wicked ways/ he repent on the evil which he said he would do unto them/ and did it not.   

¶ The. iiij. Chapter.  
Wherefore jonas was sore discontent and anger. And he prayed unto the lord and said: O lord/ was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? And therefore I hasted rather to i'll to Tharsis: for I knew well enough that thou wast a merciful god/ full of compassion/ long yet thou be anger and of great mercy and repentest when thou art come to take punishment. Now therefore take my life from me/ for I had liefer die then live. And the lord said unto jonas/ art thou so angry?  
¶ And jonas gate him out of the city and sat him down on the east side theroffe/ and made him there a both and sat thereunder in the shadow/ till he might see what should chance unto the city.  
¶ And the lord prepared as it were a wild vine which sprang up over jonas/ that he might have shadow over his heed/ to deliver him out of his pain. And jonas was exceeding glad of the wild vine.  
¶ And the lord ordained a worm against the springe of the morrow morning which smote the wild vine/ that it weathered away. And assoon as the son was up/ God prepared a fervent East wind: so that the son beat over the heed of Jonas▪ that he fainted again and wished unto his soul that he might die/ and said/ it is better for me to die then to live.  
¶ And god said unto Jonas/ art thou so anger for thy wildvine? And he said/ I am angry a good/ even on to the death. And the lord said/ thou hast compassion on a wild vine/ whereon thou bestoweddest no labour ner madest it grow/ which sprang up in one night and perished in another: and should not I have compassion on Ninive that great city/ wherein there is a multitude of people/ even above an hundred thousand that know not their right hand from the lift/ besides much cattles?