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To the Reader.
Gentle reader I thought good in this vacāt place to set down an excellent speech vttered by the Authour of this book a litle before his death: whereby thou maist clearely see and learne, that there is a sweete peace in death, to all suche as painefully serue the Lord in life. For he being raised vp in bed, and his friend requesting him to speake, the Sunne shone on his face, & thereby tooke occasion thus to say:
THere is but one Sunne that giueth light to the world: there is but one righteousnesse: there is but one Communion of Saints. If I were the excellen∣test creature in the world: If I were as righteous as Abraham, Isaac, and Iacob (for they were excellent men in the world) yet we must all confesse that we are great sinners, and that there is no saluation but in the righteousnesse of Iesus Christ. And we haue all neede of the grace of God. And for my part, as con∣cerning death, I feele such ioy of spirite, that if I should haue the sentence of life on the one side, and the sentence of death on the other side, I had rather chuse a thousand times (seeing God hath appointed the separation) the sentence of death, than the sen∣tence of life.