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❧ THE PREFACE OF MASTER BEZA BE∣fore his readings vpon IOB be∣gunne the 23. of Ia∣nuarie. 1587.
SEeing the troubles of these times and the daungers wherein this common wealth now standeth, haue to our no small griefe, beene an occasi∣on that the voice of other my fellow readers & deare com∣panions in this schoole, may not be heard; I thought it my duetie, so much as lay in me, to supplie this wante, till it might please God of his goodnes to restore this place to the former quiet and florishing estate. I am therefore minded to expound the historie of Job, in which, as in other bookes of the holie Scripture, ••••••re are many darke and hard pla∣ces, insomuch that I must h••re of necessitie sometime sayle, as it were, amongst the rocks: and yet I hope I shal not make any shipwracke, trusting first in Gods gracious assistance, and then in your prayers, and moreover vsing the helpe of the most learned, both old and especiallie new writers, who haue beaten the way before me. Amongst whome I may reckon in the chiefest place those three Divines of most hap∣pie memorie, whom God hath raised vp in these latter daies, I meane John Oecolampadius, John Calvin, and lastlie John Mercer, whose learned Commentaries I haue caused to be published and set foorth in this Church, from whence I would wish you to take whatsoeuer belongeth to the Gram∣maticall sence and construction of the Hebrue text, But this