A Breviary of All the Greatest Persecutions, Dedication 2 – To the reader 2
To the Right Honourable, WROTH ROGERS ESQUIRE; High Sheriff, and Governour of the City and County of Hereford: AND TO THE REVEREND, Mr.
William Voyle
William Low
Samuel Smith
George Primroſe
Miniſters of Chriſts Goſpel in Hereford.
Grace and Peace be multiplied, &c.
Honoured and Reverend Sirs,
AS it is the property of generous ſpirits, not to exact an anſwerable retaliation for their afforded favours from the party whom they have engag'd: So neither are they wont to ſlight the petty preſents of a grateful heart, whoſe greateſt ambition is to be thankful. This hath emboldened me to offer you the ſmall fruits of my weak labours, or rather recreations, gathered at ſpare hours, in hope they may ſo relliſh with your palate, as to move you to honour them with a free acceptance: I doubt not then but they will paſs the better, and be entertained with more Approbation. VVhhat though the wine of aſtoniſhment (I mean the blood of Martyrs) be not ſo pleaſant, and conſequently leſs deſirable, yet my hanging out the ſignes of your hononrable names (at the Frontiſpice of my Book) will be very effectual to make it vendible. Humility in your ſelves, and charity towards me, will cover all faults. I know you are my Honourable and Reverend good Friends, and Amici omnia, amicè interpretantur, ſo will you this my good will. Now if it be your pleaſure to make uſe of me, I am here preſt for your ſmall Service, till I am able to perform greater. So praying God to fill you with as much happineſs both here and hereafter, as your hearts can hold, I take my leave of you; but ſhall alwayes, while I have a tongue and hand, acknowledge and ſubſcribe my ſelf,
Etrolog. The ſeconD of the MoVnth ApriL. MDCLVI. Your Honours humbleſt Servant; and to you my Worthy Friends very much obliged, Nicholas Billingſley.
To the ingenious Reader.
Kinde Reader,
I Call thee as I would willingly finde thee; though, I confeſs, my weak performance of this Part alſo in Verſe, which is ſo well done to thy hand in Proſe already, might juſtly occaſion thee to clothe thy brow in an angry frown, and look big upon me, with a What needs this? But I perſwade my ſelf, thou knowst a little better what belongs to humanity, then to judge too inhumanely of me; thy ſelf remembring that thou art alſo born of a woman, and art naturally proclive to ſlip, if need be, as well as another. Manſuetude ſeems firſtly to be attributed to beaſts which were made tame, and cicurated; but was afterwards us'd to expreſs the minde pliable, and pulling in the reins of her paſſion: this vertue if thou haſt, I need not adviſe thee (as Athenodorus did Auguſtus) from ſpeaking anything raſhly before thou haſt orderly repeated the Criſs-Croſs-Row. Thus do I hope well of thee. What I have done, I leave to thy good-liking; which, if I may be ſo worthy, as to obtain from thee, give God the Glory, and I am abundantly rewarded for my pains.
Yours, N. B.