The preface of the aucthor to them that shal rede these sermons folowinge.

IT is honourable
and worthye
praise, to confesse
and declare the
woorkes of almightie
GOD, as
the blessed Angell
sayd vnto holye
Thoby. And
therfore they that
sawe the miracle
done by our sauioure
Christ vpon
the man that was both deafe and do~me, and was restored
vnto his sight, and also to his speach, although
they were bidde to make no wordes thereof, yet
they consideringe the excellencie of the miracle, and
perceiuinge the humilitie of the doer of the same, as
intendinge more the occultation of his facte, for the
auoidinge of worldlie praise, to geue vs example of
like humilitie, then to hide his gratious cure, as thinkinge
they shoulde not haue done well to let suche
a marueilous worke vanish to obliuion, were the busier
to diuulge and publishe, not onelie that miracle,
but others withall, sayinge: Bene omnia fecit, & surdus fecit
audire, & mutos loqui. This man hath done all thinges

ii.

1

wel, he hath made the deafe to heare, and the do~me
to speake. So I co~sidering that it hath pleased almightie
God of his plentuous mercie and goodnes, to open
my mouth, and to make me occupied in preachinge
his holie worde nowe by the space of fortie
yeares and more, I thoughte it not good to permitte
such matters as I haue throughe Goddes helpe set
forth in my sermons, vtterly to rotte and perishe, and
lest as the morall Poete saieth Deferar in uicum, uendente~
thus & arhoma, I haue therfore perusing, yea rather superficiallie
runninge ouer suche sermons as I haue
preached in times past, founde much good matter in
them, right worthie to be had in memorie, and so
compact and set together, that nowe in my olde age
I reioyce in God that gaue me his gratious gift, so to
trauayle in suche studie while I was yonge and lustie.
These my longe labours hath be in the mooste
troubleous time, and moste cumbarde with errours
and heresies, chaunge of mindes and scismes that euer
was in this realme for so longe time together,
that any man can rede of. While I was a yonge student
in diuinitie, Luthers heresies rose and were scattered
here in this realme, whiche in lesse space then
a man woulde thinke, had so sore infected the christen
flocke, first the youth, and consequentlie the elders,
where the children coulde sette the fathers to
scole, that the kinges maiestie, and all the catholike
clerkes in the realme had muche a do to extinguishe
them, which yet they could not so perfitlie quenche,
but that euer still when they might haue any maintenaunce
by men or women of greate power, they
burste out a freshe, euen like fire hidde vnder chaffe,
whiche sometimes amonge will flame oute and do
hurt if it be not loked to. Against such errours with
their appe~deceis I haue inuehied ernestlie and oft in
my sermons in disputations and reasoninge with
the protestauntes, vntill I haue be put to silence, either
by general prohibitions to preache, or by name,
or by captiuitie and imprisonment, of all whiche I
thanke God I haue had my parte. And yet euer whe~
I might haue any clere time, I haue retourned to the
same exercise more vehementlie then afore, and so
will do while I may haue strength to speake. And
because these sermons were made in Englishe, and
toucheth sometimes amonge, suche heresies as hath
troubled English folke, I thought it best to set them
forth in suche language as might presentlie best edifie
the multitude. Moreouer pleaseth you to be aduertised,
that when I shoulde preache in any sole~pne
and learned audience, I euer fearinge the labilitie of
my remembraunce, vsed to pen my sermons muche
like as I entended to vtter them to the audience: others
I scribled vp not so perfitlie, yet sufficientlie for
me to perceiue my matter and my processe. And of
these two sortes I haue kept as grace was a greate
multitude, whiche nowe helpeth me in this my enterprise
of imprintinge a boke of my saide exhortations.
Moreouer I haue made innumerable exhortations
at my cures, and in other places where I haue
dwelled, and in the countreis there aboute, and in my
iourneis, where it hath chaunced me to be on
sondaies, or other holie daies, of whiche I haue no
signes remaininge in writinge, althoughe I thinke
verelie some of them were as fruitfull, as others in
whiche I toke more labours, I praye God they maye
be written and registred in the boke of life euerlastinge.
And when I shoulde preache oftentimes in
one place, I vsed not to take euery day a distinct epistle
or gospell, or other text, but to take some proces
of scripture, and to prosecute the same, part one day
and parte another daye, and so you shall perceiue by
my declaration of the .vii. giftes of the holy Gooste,
whiche I preached at Redcliffe crosse, in the good
and worshipfull citie of Bristow, in sundry sermons,
although I was interrupted many yeares by the confederacie
of Hughe Lathamer, then aspiringe to a
bisshopriche, and after beinge bishop of worceter,
and ordinary of the greatest part of the sayd Bristow,
and infecting the whole. And so by the exposition
of the first epistle of S. Peter, whiche I preached also
in manye sermons at the cathedrall Churche there,
where I am one of the Canons, in this also I was manie
times and longe disco~tinued by the odious scisme
that was nowe lately, and by the doers of the same.
And in like maner in the Cathedrall Churche of
welles, on the first and second sondaies of Aduent, on
Axewednisdaye, and others, and there I lacked no
trouble by bishop Barlowe and his officers, of which
suche as be not perfourmed, I intend if it shall please
God to perfourme and finishe hereafter.

Of all my saied sermons you shall now receiue
in this boke, as hereafter foloweth,
A Declaration of the seuen giftes of the holy gost
in syxe sermons.

An homilie of the articles of our Christen faith.

An homilie of Ceremonies, and of mans lawes.

A parfite exposition of S. Peters fyrst epistle, in
twentie treatises or sermons.

I haue besyde these many sermons, made in verie
solempne audiences on the dominicall epistles and
gospelles, some in the vniuersitie of Oxforde, some
at Paules crosse in London: some in the courte afore
my mooste honourable Lorde and Maister kinge
Henry the eighte: some in the cathedrall churche
of welles, where hath ben euer sith I knew
it a solempne and a well learned audience,
whiche I purpose God willinge
to set forth hereafter, as
I maye haue oportunitie.