The Epistle.
BE of good cheare, * 1.1 my people. Dye prophets, comfort my people, faith your God, comfort Hierusalem at the heart, & tell her that her trauaile is at an end, that her offence is par∣doned, that she hath receiued of the Lordes hand sufficient corxectrion for all her sins. A voice cried in ye wildernes, Prepare the way of the Lord in the wildernes, make straight the path for our God in the desext. Let all valleys be exalted, and euery moun∣taine and hill be laid low. What so is crooked, let it be made straight, and let the rough be made plaine fields. For the glo∣rie of the Lord shall appeare, & all flesh shal at once see it. For why: the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The same voyce spake, Now cry. And the Prophet answered, what shall I cry: That all flesh is grasse, and that all the goodlines there∣of is as the floure of the field. The grasse is withered, t•• floure falleth away. Even so is the people as grasse, when the breath of ye Lord bloweth vpon them. Neuertheles, whether the gtrasse wither, or that the floure fade away, yet the worde of our God endureth for euer. Go vp vnto the hie hill (O Si∣on) thou that bringest good tidings, lift vp thy voice wt pow∣er, O thou preacher Hierusalem, lift it vp without feare, and