TO THE CHRISTIAN READERS HENRY PARRIE WISHETH GRACE AND PEACE THROVGH IESV CHRIST OVR LORD

WHereas but a smal and short remnaunt of daies is alotted vnto euerie of vs to trie the hazard and aduenture of this world in Christes holy Merchandize, (yet forty yeares, and the yongest may, the oldest must depart) I beeing subiect to this common case, and most certaine vncertainty of our life; neither knowing, if perhaps at this present my staffe standeth next the doore: haue beene and am desirous and earnest in this behalfe, so to bestow all my possible endeuours and labours in this my Lord and Masters trafique, as that neither I may returne vnto him with a Talent in a napkin, and withall may leaue behind mee some poore token and testimony of my loue and duty towards him and his blessed Spouse, with future posterity.

Which my desire and earnest deliberation strugling and striuing so long within me, vntil it had gotten the conquest of such shamefast and fearful motions, wherewith men are well acquainted, who are at al acquainted with their owne infirmities: I was thereby at length drawen to this bold and hardy resolution, as to commit something to the presse, and so to the eies of them, whose great and sharp censures, I haue euer with trembling thought of heretofore, and euen now would flie them with al willingnes.

Wherefore also in respect hereof, & of the greennes of my age, so hath the flame and heat of my desire been slaked and cooled with the water as it were of fear, wherewith I shake in mine owne conceit: as I haue not presumed to draw anie shaft out of mine owne quiuer, or to present the world with an vntimely fruite of so yong a tree: but rather haue made choise of a shaft out of the Lordes armory, framed by the hand and skill of the Lords work-man, fit to make the man blessed who hath his quiuer full of them.

If yet in this I haue been presumptuous, if bolde, if vndiscreete, if foolish: my brethren, for your sakes haue I bin so: for your sakes haue I bin presumpteous, bold, vndiscreete, & foolish, euen for you and for your children. The greater is my hope and trust, that these whatsoeuer my paines and labours shall find fauor and grace in your sights, and receiue good entertainment at your hands; bicause for you they haue bin vndertaken, and the gains and commodity, that shal arise therof (if by the blessed wil of God any shal arise) shal redound vnto you and yours for euer.

It is a case lamentable, deseruing the bowels of al Christian pitty and compassion, and able to cause the teares of sorrow to gush out and streame downe the face of a man, who is not frosen too hard in security and in an vncharitable carelesnes: when he shall but lift vp his eies, and see the wast and desolation of so many distressed soules, who in so many places of this our land & country haue bin & are daily either pined away and consumed to the bone for lack of Gods susteinance, the bread of life, the word of God, the only preseruatiue of the soule; or, through the deceitful poison of that old Sorceres and Witches Children, infected and baned vnrecouerably. Alas poore soules, fain would they haue somewhat to keep life within them: and therefore as famished and starued creatures, which haue beene for a space pounded vp and pin-folded in a ground of barrennes, debarred of al succor & reliefe, when euer they may light of any thing that may go down the throat, be it as bitter as gall, and as deadly as poison, they swallowe bitternes as suger, and lick vp death as sweet honny. And yet, (I rue to speak it) such is the hard-hartednes and brutish vnnaturalnes of manie merciles men, if yet men, who haue so flinted their foreheads, seared and sealed vp their minds and consciences in al impietie: as that they haue entred as it were into a league & bond with themselues to forget Christ, neuer to knowe the man more, neuer to speake in the name of Iesus; neuer to feed the flock of Iesus, whose soules are euen as great and dear to him, as the price they cost him. For, had not these men swornlike¹ sons of the earth to possesse the earth for euer, and to leaue heauen and the heirs of heauen, euen the chosen of God, to God himself to look to: it were vncredible, naie, vnpossible were it, that after so many threats & warnings from heauen, from earth, from God, from men, from their foes abroad, and their frinds at home, they should not yet once, not once descend into a dutifull consideration of this their heauy trespasse, and so with a speedy industrie and assiduitie reenter and recouer those their forsaken charges, which a long while haue languished and worne awaie for want of pasture, and ly now (the deer lambs of Christ Iesus) stretched on the ground for faintnes, fetching their groanes deepe, and their pantes thicke, as readie to giue ouer and to yeelde vp the Ghost. O Lord, are not thine eies vpon the truth?² thou hast striken these men, but they haue not sorrowed; thou hast consumed them, but they haue refused to receiue correctiō: they haue made their faces harder thā a stone, & haue refused to return. Not the losses and vnsupportable calamities of Christs people, not the miserable apostasie & grieuous falling awaie (woe to vs therefore) of multitudes of the ignorant and vnlettered men from the Apostolicke faith and the Church of Christ, not the certaine daungers and hazards of their owne persons, Wiues, Children, and Kinsfolkes (with all which rods of his fatherly chastisement God hath latelie, in his iustice tempered with surpassing mercy, visited them) can awake or rouze them out of that dead and deadlie slumber, wherby they haue as much as in them lieth betraied to the powers and forces of Satan Gods sacred enheritance, and laid open the precious flock of Christ to the mouthes and teeth of Woolues.

But would God the burden of this sin rested onelie on the neckes of these rechlesse persons, whose extreme barbaritie yet in letting, through their profane absence, their harmlesse sheepe to drop awaie by famine of the word, hath raised a louder cried and clamour against them in the eares of God, than any we are able to make by our most iust cōplaint in the eares of men. Another swarme of Caterpillers there are, the very trash and rifraffe of our nation: who deeming it a more easie life to say seruice in the church, than do seruice in the house, and to stand at the altar of God, than to followe the plough of their Master, haue, like men of idle & dissolute quality, only moued thereto in a lazie speculation, laide their wicked & sacrilegious hands on the Lords Arke, vnreuerently entred, with shooes and all, into his Temple, taken his vndefiled Testimonies in their defiled mouthes, disgraced, defaced, and diffamed the glorie & maiesty of diuine rites and mysteries, through their beggarly entring into, & base demeaning thēselues in so high an office. Gape not these men, trow you, for new miracles to rain out of heauen? As if Christ must needs for their sakes lay the foundation of his Church again, & cal again from the net, & the receit of custom, and other trades of this world such as hee would dispatch abroad for this holy Message, that so these artisans might be inuested with Apostleships, Doctorships, and the rooms of Prophets, as ready men after a nights sleepe, or an hours trance to turn the book of God, & menage the keies of Heauen. But my frind, be not deceiued: awake out of sleep, & dream no more.³ Thou art no Prophet; thou art an husbandman, & taught to be an heardman from thy youth vp. Get away therefore with speed from the Lords house, if thou be a cleauer, to thy wedge and ax if a hind, to thy Masters plough; but meddle not with Gods affaires, least he break out vpon thee and destroy thee.

But in vain spend I words to brasse and Iron: who, though the Lord hath held in his hand for a long time the ful viol of his wrath, and is now wearie with holding it any longer, and about to poure it out vpon them for this their horrible transgression; yet staggar they not a whit at it, but run on like hūgry cōpanions with an eie only to the flesh pots, and so sel both themselues & their people for a morsel of bread, & a messe of pottage to the diuel. Shal I not visit for these things, saith the Lord?⁴ Or shal not my soule be auenged on such a nation as this? Yes doubtlesse, hee, who is able to muster the cloudes and winds, and to fight with heauenly powers against vs, shal and wil, if wee leaue not off to make such hauok of his children, be auenged on vs; he shal raise vp the standard, and make the trumpet blow, nether shal suffer the sight of the one to passe our eies, nor the soūd of the other to forsake our ears, vntil destruction come vpon destruction, death vpon death, plague vpon famine, and sword vpon both, to the vtter ouerthrow both of our selues & Country perpetually. Nay rather, O God, if there bee any place for mercy, (and why should wee doubt of mercy with thee the God of mercy?) looke not vpon this drosse and filth wherewith thy holy house hath bin polluted, but sweep them out; but looke, O Lorde, with thy tender eie of compassion vppon thy silly people (for what haue they done?) and stirre them vp daiely for Pastors and Prophetes wise and skilfull men, whose lips may keepe knowledge, and whose hands may break vnto them the bread of life.

Now, that this may haue a more mature & happy successe, I am humbly to beseech and solicite (if so this my simple work come vnto their hands) the Reuerend Fathers of this Land, to whom I acknowledge al duty & submission in the Lord, & whom with al reuerence I solicit in this the Lords cause, that if their authority be not able to stretch so far as to the throwing out of these dum, deafe, and blind watch-men out of Gods tabernacle, into which they haue been shuffled (against manie of their Honors wils) by those accursed Simoniacal Patrons, who haue sodred & simoned the wals of their houses with the verie bloud of soules: yet it may please their wisedoms to constraine and compell these, wheresoeuer they shal find them in any of their Dioceses, to the reading and diligent studying of those books which their owne country-men, moued with mere pittie towardes them and their flocks, haue painfully deliuered vnto them in a tongue familiar and common to them all.

And if it shal seeme so good and expedient to their Honours, to adioine these my labours vnto the paines and trauels of many the seruants of God who haue with great praise endeuored in the like matter on the like respects heretofore: I make no doubt, but that out of this short, yet ful Summe of Christian Religion, God adding his blessing thereunto, they may in short time receiue such furniture and instruction, as they shal saue both themselues and others, who both else are in case to perish euerlastingly. But if their feete wil walke on in the way of blindnes, and themselues refuse to come out of the darknes of ignorance into the bright light of Gods knowledge: yet wil I not faint in hope for Israel but wil looke when yet once againe God himselfe shal smite on rockes, and water shal flowe out of them, that his people in this time of drought maie drinke.

Euen so, O God, for thy promise sake, and for thy troth of ould plighted in thy beloued Sonne vnto thy chosen, open the rock of stone againe, let againe the waters, the liuing waters of thy word flow out, and let the sauing riuers of thy Gospell runne, and stop not, through al drie places of our Land, that men and Angels may see the felicity of thy Chosen, and reioice in the gladnes of thy people, and giue thanks, and praise, and glory, and honour, with thine inheritance, vnto thy blessed name for euer.

Footnotes

1. Of Valennus the Cardinals religion, who (graceles man) abiur his ecclesiasticall vocation, to bee lifted vp to temporall Dukedome Sabellic. Ennead. 10. lib ↩

2. Ierem. 5.3 ↩

3. Zach. 13.5 ↩

4. Ierem. 9.9 ↩