you the knowledge of him selfe, & lighten the eyes of your vnderstanding, that ye may know what is the hope of your calling, & what the riches of his glorious inheritāce is vpō þ^e saåctes. Marginalia1. Pet. 2For ye are the chosen generation, the kynglye priesthod, that holy nation, that peculiar people, that should shew the vertues of him which hath called you out of darkenes into his maruelous light, that is to saye, to feare God & to worke righteousnes, & so to receiue the ende of your faith, the saluation of your soules. This is a true saying: if we be dead with Christe, we shal liue with him also. Marginalia2 Tim. 2.If we be patient, we shall also reigne with him. If we denie him, he also shal denie vs. If we beleue not, yet he abideth faithfull, he can not denie him selfe. Marginalia2. Tes. 5The very God of peace sanctifie you throughout, & I pray God that your whole spirite, soule, & bodies be kept blameles vnto the cōming of oure lord Iesus. Faithful is he that hath called you, which wil also do it. Brethrē, pray for vs, and grete all the brethren among you.

By me your brother in our Lord and sauiour Christ
Iohn Alcock prisoner in the Lord, at Newgate.

MarginaliaA godly exhortation to al english men.GOd be merciful to the O England, & send the great nōber of such faithfull fathers & godly pastours, as D. Taylour was, to guyde the, feade the, & cōfort thee, after thy great miseries & troubles, that thou hast suffered vnder the tyranouse captiuitie & rage of the Romaine Antichrist, & suche rauening wolfes, as haue without all mercy murdered thy godly & learned prachers, and giue all men grace to consider, that suche horrible plagues & mutations, haue iustlye fallen vpon this Realme for sinne, & with vnfained hartes to turne to God, who as he hathe scourged vs with lesse plagues then we deserued: so calleth vs again by his vndeserued and vnspeakeable mercy vnto repentance & amendement of oure liuing. It is doubtles now high time to turne vnfaynedly to God, and to correct our sinful liuinges, and to remember what S. Iohn Baptist said. The axe is now set to the roote of the tree, and euery tree that bringeth not foorth good frute,MarginaliaMath. 3. shalbe hewen down & cast into the fyre. For this may all men assure them selues of, both rich and poore, high & low, old & yong, that the almightie, zelous, & righteous God, will not suffer the sinful & wicked life of the vngodly, vnrepentant, that contēpne his mercy now profered vnto them, to be vnpunished, but as he hath from the beginning of þ^e world shewed him selfe a righteous Iudge, & punysher of wickednes, euen so wil he do stil nowe. MarginaliaGen. 3.God expulsed our first parentes Adam & Heua from paradise, and layd vpon them and vpon vs al these myseries, sicknesses, calamities and death, that we daily fele, and miserably are oppressed withal. MarginaliaGen. 8. 9God in Noahs dayes drowned the whole world, only viii. persones were pre-

serued. MarginaliaGen. 18.God brent vp Sodom and Ghomor, w^t fyre and brymstone from heauen, and destroied those cities and al the coūtrie about. God gaue ouer Hierusalem called the holy citie of God, MarginaliaLuc. 19.& deliuered his own people the Iewes into perpetuall captiuitie. If we seake þ^e cause of these punishmentes, was it not sinful liuing and vnrepentant hertes? What should I recite the calamities of other lādes, seing Gods iudgemēts hath not been vnexecuted vpon this realme of England for sinfull liuing? MarginaliaRede Bede and our Englysh cronicles.The old Brytains were with Cadwallader their king, cōstrained to flie, and leaue this land, because of pestilēce & famine. what miseries & destructions brought the Danes in with thē? and what troubles susteined the inhabitauntes of this realme afore the same were again driuē out? what bloudshed was here in king Williā cōquerors days? wer not the noble men slaine, & gentlemen brought into bondage? were not their matrons defiled, and their doughters geuen to be kitchen drudges vnder the Normandes proud Ladies? wer not their landes, houses and possessiōs diuided by lote vnto straūgers? Their gold and siluer wherein they trusted, was the bayte that their enemies hunted after. what a plague was the ciuill warre betwene the kynges and Barōs? what horrible bloudshed was in this Realme, till at the last Gods mercifull prouidēce ended those myseries by the happie ioyning of the ii. regall houses together in the mariage of king Henrie the vii? What miseries haue chaunced in our tyme, we haue not only sene and heard, but we haue felt thē, and God be praysed, had our partes of thē. MarginaliaSinnne is the cause of plagues.Doubtles this al hath chaūced for the sinnes of the people, as the Prophet IeremieMarginaliaIerem. 6. plainly teacheth, saying: who is a wise man that vnderstandeth this? And to whome shall the word of the Lordes mouth come, that he may preache it furth? why hath the land peryshed, and is burnt like a wyldernes, so that no man may passe through it? And the Lorde sayth: because they haue forsakē my law, which I haue geuen them, and they haue not herd my voyce, and haue not walked in them, and haue gone after þ^e vanitie of their own hertes. And after Baalim the images of Baal, which they haue learned of their fathers. we see here plainly that contempt of Gods word, and of the preachers of þ^e same, walking after their couetous myndes and leudnesse of their hartes, and following of their idolatrous inuentiōs, brought the wrath of God vpō the people, as witnessed also Iesus Syrach,MarginaliaEccle. 10. saying: because of vnrighteouse dealing, wrōg, blasphemies, and diuers disceites, a Realme shalbe translated from one people to an other. And a litle after he sayth: the Lorde hath brought the congregations of the wycked to dishonour, and destroyed them vnto the ende. God hath destroied the seates of proude Princes, and set vp the meke in theyr