takīge / peter axed whether   it were lawfull to smyte with y^e swerde / ād taried none answere / but layed on rashly. So that though when we come first vn to y^e knowlege of the trueth / and the peace is made betwene God & vs / & we loue his lawes & beleue & trust in hym / as in oure father & haue good hertes vn to him & be born anew in y^e sprite: yet we are but childern ād younge scolars weake & foble & must have leysar to grow in y^e spirite / in knowlege / loue & in y^e dedes therof / as younge childern must have tyme to grow in their bodies.

¶ And God oure father & scolemaster fedeth vs & teached vs accordinge vn to the capacite of oure stomakes / & maketh vs to grow & waxe perfecte / & fineth vs & trieth vs as gold / in y^e fire of temptaciōs & tribulations. As Moses wittneseth Deutero. viij. sayēge: Remēber all y^e waye by which y^e lord thy God caried y^e this .xl. yeres in y^e wildernesse / to vmble the & to tēpte or proue the / y^t it might be knowen what were in thine hert. He brougt the in to aduersite & made y^e an hongred / & then feed y^e with mā which nether thou ner yet thi fathers euer   knew of / to teach y^e that a mā liueth not by bred only / but by all that proceadeth out of the mouth of God. For y^e promises of god are life vn to all y^t cleaue vn to thē / moch moare thē is bred & bodyly sustinaunce: as y^e iourney of y^e childern of Israel out of egypte in to y^e londe promised them / ministreth the notable ensamples & y^t aboundātly / as doeth all y^e rest of the bible also. How be it / it is impossible for flesh to beleue & to trust in y^e trueth of gods promises / vntyll he haue lerned it in moch tribulacion / after that God hath deliuered hī out therof agayne.

¶ God therfore to teach Ionas & to shew him his awne hert & to make him perfecte & to enstructe vs also bi his ensample / sent him out of y^e lande of Israel where he was a prophete / to goo amonge y^e heathē people & to y^e greatest & mightiest citie of y^e world thē / called Niniue: to preache y^t within .xl. dayes they shuld all perish for their sinnes & that y^e citie shuld be ouerthrowē. Which message y^e frewil of Ionas had as moch power to doo / as the weakest herted womā in the world hath power / if she were cōmaunded /   to leppe in to a tobbe of lyuinge snakes & edders: as happely if God had cōmaunded Sara to haue sacrificed hir sonne Isaac / as he did Abrahā / she wold haue disputed with hī yer she had done it / or though she were strōge ynough / yet many an holy seint coud not haue found in their hertes / but wold haue disobeyed ād haue runne awaye frō y^e presens of y^e cōmaūdemēt of god w^t Ionas if thei had bene so strōgly tēpted.

¶ For Ionas thought of this maner: loo / I am here a prophete vn to Gods people the Israelites. Which though they haue gods word testified vn to them dayly / yet dispice it & worshepe God vnder y^e likenesse of calues & after all maner facions saue after his awne worde / & therfore are of all naciōs y^e worst & most worthy of punishment. And yet god for loue of few y^t are amonge them & for his names sake spareth them & defendeth them. How thē shuld god take so cruell vengeaunce on so greate a multitude of them to whome his name was neuer preached to ād therfore are not y^e tenth parte so euel as these? If I shal therfore goo preach   so shall I lye & shame my selfe & God therto and make them the moare to dispice god and sett the lesse by him ād to be the moare cruell vn to his people.

¶ And vppon that imaginaciō he fled frō the face or presens of God: that is / out of y^e contre where God was worsheped in & frō prosecutynge of Gods cōmaundemēt / and thought / I wyll gett me a nother waye amonge y^e hethen people & be no moare a prophete / but lyue at rest & out of all cōbraunce. Neuer y^e lesse the god of all mercie which careth for his electe childern & turneth all vn to good to them & smiteth thē to heale them agayne & killeth thē to make thē aliue agayne / & playeth with thē (as a father doth some tyme with his yoūge ignoraunt childern) & tempteth them & proueth them to make them se theyr awne hertes / prouided for Ionas / how all thinge shuld be.

¶ When Ionas was entered in to the sheppe / he layed him downe to slepe ād to take his rest: that is / his cōscience was tossed betwene the cōmaudemēt of God which sent him to Niniue / & his fleshly wisdome that     dissuaded & counseled hym y^e cōtrary & at y^e last preualed agēst y^e cōmaundemēt & caried hym a nother waye / as a sheppe caught betwene .ii. streames / & as poetes faine the mother of Meliager to be betwene diuers affectiōs / while to aduēge hir brothers deeth / she sought to sle hir awne sonne. Where vppon for very payne & tediousnesse / he laye downe to slepe / for to put y^e cōmaundement which so gnew & freate his cōscience / out of minde / as y^e nature of all weked is / whē they haue sinned a good / to seke al meanes with riot / reuell & pastyme / to driue y^e remenbraunce of synne out of their thoughtes or as Adā did / to couer their nakednesse with aporns of pope holy workes. But God awoke hym out of his dreame / and sett his synnes before his face.

¶ For when y^e Lott had caught Ionas / thē be sure y^t his synnes came to remēbraunce agayne & that his conscience raged no lesse thē y^e waues of the se. And thē he thought that he only was a sinner & y^e hethen that ware in y^e shepp none in respecte of him / ad thought also / as veryly as he was fled frō   god / that as verily god had cast hī awaye: for y^e sight of y^e rod maketh y^e natural child not ōly to se & to knowlege his faulte / but also to forgett all his fathers olde mercie & kindnesse. And then he cōfessed his synne openly & had yet leuer perish alone thē y^t y^e other shuld haue perished with him for his sake: and so of very desperacion to haue liued any lenger / bad cast him in to y^e see betymes / excepte they wold be lost also.

¶ To speake of lottes / how ferforth they are