¶ And in the last ende of all / thou hast yet a goodly ensample of lernynge / to se how erthye Ionas is styll for all hys tryenge in the whales bely. He was so sore displeased because the Niniuites perished not / that he was wery of hys lyfe and wished after the deeth for very sorow & payne / that he had loost the glorie of his prophesienge / in that his prophesie come not to passe. But god rebuked him with a likenesse sayenge: it greueth thyne hert for the losse of a vile shrobbe or spraye / wheron thou bestoweddest no loboure or cost / nether was it thyne handwerke. How moch moare then shuld greue myne herte / the losse of so greate a multitude of innocētes as are in Niniue / which are all myne handes werke. Nay Ionas / I am God ouer all / and father as well vn to the hethen as vn to the Iewes ād mercifull to all and warne yer I smyte: nether threte I so cruelly by any prophete / but that I wyll forgeue yf they repent ād ax mercie: nether on the other syde / what soeuer I promyse / wyll I fulfyll it / saue for theyr sakes only whych trust in me and submitte them selues to kepe my lawes of very loue / as naturall chyldern.
On thys maner to read ye scripture is ye right vse therof & why ye holy gost caused it to be writtē. That is yt thou first seke out ye law / what god will haue the to doo / interpretinge it spiritually with out glose or coueringe the brightnesse of Moses face / so yt thou fele in thyne hert / how that it is damnable synne before god / not to loue [they] neyboure that is thyne enimie / as puerly as Christ loued the / and yt not to loue thy neyboure in thyne herte / is to haue cōmitted all ready all synne agenst him. And therfore vn tyll that loue become / thou must knowlege vnfaynedly that there is synne in the best dede thou doest. And it must ernestly greue thyne hert and thou must washe all thy good dedes in christes bloude / yer they can be pure and an acceptable sacrifice vn to God / and must desire god ye father for his sake / to take thi dedes aworth & to pardō ye imperfectenesse of them / & to geue the power to doo thē better and with moare feruent loue.
¶ And on the other syde thou must serch diligently for the promises of mercie which God hath promised the agayne. Which .ii. poyntes / that is to wete / ye lawe spiritually interpreted / how that all is dānable synne that is not vnfayned loue out of the grownde and botom of the herte after the ensample of Christes loue to vs / because we be all equally created ād formed of one god oure father / and indifferently bought & redemed with one bloud of oure sauioure Iesus Christe: ād that the promises be geuen vn to a repentynge soule that thursteth and longeth after them / of the pure and fatherly mercie of god thorow oure faith onely with oute al deseruinge of oure dedes or merites of oure werkes / but for Christes sake alone and for the merites ād deseruinges of his werkes / deth and passions that he sofered all to gether for vs & not for him selfe: whych .ii. poyntes I saye / if they be written in thine herte / are the keyes which so open all the scripture vn to the / that no creature can locke the out / and with which thou shalt goo in and out / and finde pasture and fode euery where. And yf these lesons be not [writtten] in thyne herte / then is all the scripture shutt vpp / as a cornell in the shale / so that thou mayst read it and comen of it and reherse all the stories of it and dispute sotilly and be a profounde sophister / and yet vnderstond not one Iot therof.
¶ And thridly that thou take the stories & liues which are cōteyned in the bible / for sure ād vndowted ensamples / yt God so will deale with vs vn to the worldes ende.
¶ Here with Reader farewell and be commended vn to God / and vn to the grace of hys spryte. And first se that thou stoppe not thyne eares vn to the callynge of god / and that thou harden not thine herte begyled with fleshly interpretinge of the law & false imagined and ypocritish rightwesnesse / and so the Niniuites ryse with the at ye day of iudgement & condemne the.
¶ And secōdarily if thou finde ought amisse / when thou seyst thy selfe in the glasse of Gods worde / thynke it cōpendious wisdome / to amende ye same betymes / moneshed & warned by the ensample of other men / rather thē to tary vntill thou be beten also.
¶ And thridly if it shall so chaunce / that ye wild lustes of thy flesh shall blynd the and carie the cleane awaye with them for a tyme: yet at the later ende / when ye god of all mercie shall haue compased the in on euery syde with tēptaciōs / tribulacions / aduersities & cōbraunce / to bringe ye home agayne vn to thyne awne herte / & to set thy sinnes wich thou woldest so fayne couer & put out of mynd with delectaciō of voluptuous pastymes / before ye eyes of thy cōscience: then call ye faithfull ensample of Ionas & all lyke stories vn to thy remēbraunce / ād with Ionas turne vn to thi father that smote ye: not to cast ye awaye / but to laye a corosie ād a freatīge playster vn to ye pocke that laye hid & fret inwarde / to draw ye disease out & to make it appere / yt thou mightest feale thy seckenes & ye daunger therof & come & receaue the healynge playster of mercie.
¶ And forget not yt what soeuer ensample of mercie god hath shewed sens ye beginninge of ye world / the same is promised the / yf thou wilt in like maner turne agayne and receaued it as they dyd. And with Ionas be aknowen of thy synne & cōfesse it & knowlege it vn to thy father.
¶ And as ye law which freteth thy cōscience / is in thyne herte & is none outwarde thīge / evē so seke within in thine herte / ye playster of mercie / the promyses of forgeuenesse in oure sauioure Iesus Christe / accordinge vn to all the ensamples of mercie that are gonne before.
¶ And with Ionas let thē that wayte on vanities & seke god here & there & in euery tēple saue in their hertes goo / & seke thou ye testamēt of god in thyne hert. For in thyne hert is the worde of ye law / & in thyne hert is ye worde of fayth in the promises of mercie in Iesus Christe. So that yf thou cōfesse with a repentynge herte & knowlege ād surely beleue yt Iesus is lorde ouer all synne / thou art saffe.