Firmament: the skye.
Fayth is the belevinge of goddes promesses & a sure trust in the
goodnesse and truth of god. Which faith iustifyeth Abraha gene .xv.
and was the mother of all his good workes which he afterward did. For
faith is the goodnesse of all workes in the sight of God. Good workes
are thinges of godes comaundem[~e]t wrought in faith. And to sow a
showe at the commaundement of god to do thy neyghboure service
withall/ with faith to be saved by Christ (as god promyseth vs.) is
moch better th[~e] to bild an abbay of thyne awne imagination/
trustinge to be saved by the fayned workes of hypocrites. Iacob robbed
Laban his vncle: Moses robbed the Egiptians: And Abraha is aboute to
slee and burne his awne sonne: And all are holye workes/ because they
were wrought in fayth at goddes commaundement. To stele/ robbe and
murther are no holye workes before worldly people: but vnto them that
haue their truste in god: they are holye when god commaundeth them.
What god commaundeth not getteth no reward with god. Holy workes of
mens imagination receave their rewarde here/ as Christ testyfyeth Math
.vj. How be it of fayth & workes I haue spoken abundantly in mammon.
Let him that desyreth more seke there.
Grace: fauoure/ As Noe founde grace/ that is to saye favoure and love.
Ham and Cam all one.
Iehovah is goddes name/ nether is any creature so called. And it is as
moch to saye as one that is of him self and dependeth of nothinge.
Moreouer as oft as thou seist LORde in great letters (excepte there
be any erroure in the pr[~e]tinge) it is in hebrewe Iehovah/ thou that
arte or he that is.
Marshall/ in hebrue he is called Sar tabaim/ as thou woldest saye/
lorde of the slaughtermen And though that Tabaim be tak[~e] for cokes
in many places/ for the cokes did sle the beastes th[~e] selues in
those dayes: yet it may be taken for them that put men to execution
also. And that me thought it shuld here best signifye in as moch as he
had the oversight of the kinges preson and the kinges presoners were
they neuer so great m[~e] were vnder his custodye. And therfore I call
him cheffe marshall an officer as is the lefetenaunte of the toure/ or
master of the marshalsye.
Slyme was their morter .xi. Chapter/ And slyme pittes .xiiij. chapter:
that slyme was a fattenesse that osed out of the erth lyke vnto tarre/
And thou mayst call it cement/ if thou wilt.
Siloh after some is as moch to saye as sent/ & after some happie/ and
after some it signifieth Mesias/ y^t is to say annoynted and that we
call Christe after the greke worde. And it is a prophesie of Christ:
For after y^t all y^e other tribes were in captiuite & their kyngdom
destroyed/ yet the tribe of Iuda had a ruler of the same bloud/ even
vnto the comynge of Christ. And aboute the com[~i]ge of Christ the
Romayns conquered them/ and the Emperoure gaue the kyngdom of tribe
Iuda vnto Herode which was a straunger/ even an Edomite of the
generacyon of Esau.
Testam[~e]t here/ is an appoyntem[~e]t made betwene god and ma/ and
goddes promyses. And sacram[~e]t is a signe representinge soch an
appoyntement and promeses: As the raynebowe representeth the promyse
made to Noe/ that god will no more drowne the worlde. And circumcision
representeth the promyses of god to Abraham on the one syde/ and that
Abraha and his seed shuld circumcyse and cut off the lustes of their
fleshe/ on the other syde/ to walke in the wayes of the lorde: As
baptysme which is come in the roume therof/ now signifieth on the one
syde/ how that all that repent and beleve are washed in Christes
bloud: And on the other syde/ how that the same must quench ad droune
the lustes of the flesh/ to folow the steppes of Christ.
There were tyrantes in the erth in those dayes/ for the sonnes of god
sawe the daughters of men. &c. The sonnes of god were the prophetes
childerne/ which (though they succeded there fathers) fell yet from
the right waye/ and thorow falsehod of hypocrysye subdued the world
vnder them and became tyrantes/ As the successours of the apostles
haue played with vs.
Vapor/ a dewymiste/ as the smoke of a sethynge pott.
To walke with god is to lyve godly and to walke in his commaundementes.
Enos walked with god and was no moare sene: that is/ he lyved godly
and dyed/ God toke him awaye: that is/ god hyd his bodye/ as he did
Moses ad Aarons: lest haplye they shuld haue made an Idoll of him/ for
he was a great preacher and an holye man.
Zaphnath paenea/ wordes of Egipte are they (as I suppose) and as moch
to saye: as a man to whome secrete thinges be opened/ or an expounder
of secrete thinges as some enterprete it.
That Ioseph brought the egiptians in to soch subiection wold seme vnto
some a very cruell deade: how be it it was a very equall waye. For
they payde by the fifte parte of that that grewe on the grounde. And
therwith were they qwytt of all duetyes/ both of rent/ custome/
tribute & toll. And the kinge therwith founde them lordes and all
ministres and defended them. We now paye half so moch vnto the prestes
only/ besyde their other craftye exactions. Then paye we rent yerely/
though there grow never so litle on the grounde/ And yet when the
kinge calleth paye we neuer the lesse. So that if we loke indifferently/
their condition was easyar th[~e] oures/ and but even a very
indiffer[~e]t waye/ both for the comen people and the kynge also.
Se therfore that thou loke not on the ensamples
of the scripture with worldly eyes: lest thou
preferre Cain before Abel/ Ismael before Isaac/
Esau before Iacob/ Ruben before Iuda/
Sarah before Pharez/ Manasses
before Ephraim. And euen
the worst before the
best/ as the maner
of the worlde
is.
¶ Emprented at Malborow in the lande
of Hesse/ by me Hans Luft/
the yere of oure Lorde
.M.CCCCC.xxx. the
.xvij. dayes of
Ianuarij.
Transcriber's Notes (continued):
In the list below biblical references are to chapters and paragraphs.
The latter usually extend over more than a single "verse".
"To the Reader": "sirt" changed to "sitt" (para 2); "cxvix" to "cxix"
(para 7).
"Prologue": "wo" changed to "we" and "arene" to "awne" (para 1); "y^e"
to "y^t" (para 9).
II: "herbee" changed to "herbes" (para 2).
IV: the text of the sidenote to para 4 is uncertain; in para 4 itself,
"hi" changed to "h[~i]".
V: "MetHusala" changed to "Methusala" (para 8).
VII: "u" removed (para 2); "he" changed to "the" (para 5).
IX: "y^t" changed to "y^e" (para 5).
X: "Mes:" changed to "Mesa" (para 6).
XIII: "fro" changed to "fro" (para 3).
XV: "oue" changed to "out" (para 2).
XIX: "he" changed to "the" (para 1).
XXI: "lamdes" changed to "lambes" (para 8).
XXII: "th" changed to "the" (para 6).
XXIV: "pither" changed to "pitcher" (para 5); "LoRDe" to "LORde" (para
8); the texts of the sidenotes to paras 10 and 17 are uncertain;
"emnies" changed to "enimes" (para 17).
XXV: "Iacksam" changed to "Iacksan" and "haue" to "gaue" (para 1);
"lyvige" to "lyv[~i]nge" (para 2).
XXVI: "Abin elech" changed to "Abimelech" and "myhhtier" to "myghtier"
(para 3).
XXVII: "lessed" changed to "blessed" (para 6).
XXIX: "boholde" changed to "beholde" (para 2) and "mayely e" to "may
lye" (para 5).
XXX: "ourney ibetwixte" changed to "iourney betwixte" (para 8).
XXXI: "y^e" changed to "y^t" (para 3); "be" to "he" (para 4); "wtih"
to "with" (para 6); "xnto" to "vnto" (para 7).
XXXII: "sayder" changed to "sayde:" (para 1).
XXXIV: hyphen omitted after "sonne" (para 6).
XXXVI: "kynreddds" changed to "kynredds" (para 12).
XXXIX: "ORde" changed to "LORde" (para 1).
XLI: "cares" changed to "eares" (twice, para 7); "asene" to "agene"
and "beiokeneth" to "betokeneth" (para 9).
XLII: "thryd" changed to "thyrd" (para 5); "countte" to "countre" and
"bretren" to "brethren" (para 9).
XLIV: "servauntes" changed to "servauntes" (para 3); "fox" to "for"
(para 9).
XLV: "m" changed to "my" (para 4).
XLVI: "C" changed to "I" (para 7).
XLVII: "exceadige" changed to "excead[~i]ge" (para 3); "latest" to
"letest" (para 5); the text of the sidenote to para 6 is uncertain.
"Table": "Ihon" changed to "Ihon" (entry for "Cain"); "baptyme"
changed to "baptysme" (entry for "Testam[~e]t").