their labour, and to help them onward in this good work, it is supposed these observations may be very instrumental.

Now of all the Catechisms I have seen, in this one thing I must give the prerogative to this of our Church, and commend it to babes in Christ, for whose sake it was composed; that in the entrance into it the child is put in mind of his solemn vow and promise made unto God in his Baptism, which consists in his abrenunciation, the profession of his faith, and observation of the commandments; and after to give hearty thanks for his matriculation, or engrafting into Christ, in which most Catechisms are altogether defective. Further, all the answers following are brief, but full, and fitted for weaker memories, requiring only explication, but not addition. Quintilian was wont to say that they who [Instit. were to bring up children must deal by them as men do with Lib. 1. § 2.] narrow-mouthed bottles, instil their principles, as they do the water, by little and little, for if it be over-hastily done, more will flush over and be lost than poured into the vessel.

This I have endeavoured here, and if well, I implore your lordship's countenance; if short of your expectation, I humbly beg your lordship's candour to bring your mantle and cast over and cover my defects. And of this I have good hope, because since the first hour that it was my happiness to be known to your honour, you have been pleased to look upon me with a fatherly eye. That eye which you cast upon all men that are worthy of your favour. These live in you, and live by you, among which you have set me up to be a prime example. In all gratitude I do acknowledge, that next to His Majesty, for whose goodness to me I can never return sufficient thanks, your endeavours from an obscure man have advanced me to a place of honour and dignity in the Church, which, that I may manage with prudence and sobriety, to the honour of God, the good of His people, the peace and re-union of this distracted Church, God Almighty assist me with His grace, and you and all good men with their prayers. Did I intend to run out into encomiums, I have an ample field, this one may suffice for a large testimony of your sufficiency, wisdom, sincerity, and piety, that the most excellent of princes, and the best of men shines upon you in so full a lustre, as if he hoped by you and those he hath chosen to

Orat.

assist you, to dispel all the clouds that have darkened the face of our Church these twenty years. The burden is both weighty and troublesome, which that it may be undergone with prudence, and borne with patience, is the hearty prayer of him who is

Your Lordship's, in all due observance,

WILL. GLOCESTER.

London, June 20, 1661.

TO ALL HIS

LOVING PARISHIONERS

OF

LLANDILO-VAWR,

THE AUTHOR PRAYETH INCREASE OF GRACE, KNOWLEDGE, HEALTH, AND FUTURE HAPPINESS.

Ir may seem strange to wise and learned men, that after the exact pains by great divines taken in the exposition of the Church Catechism, either in whole or in part, I should offer to the public view these my less polished conceptions. But before I be utterly condemned for the undertaking of a needless labour, my desire is, that these reasons which have moved me to it, be fully weighed, as my apology, which I hope may prove so just, that at least I shall deserve excuse, for more I expect not.

The labours of those learned men, I gratefully and ingenuously acknowledge, are far beyond any thing I can do; but withal, either for phrase or matter, so high, so absolute, that they are in many expressions beyond the vulgar capacity whom chiefly I intend to inform, and therefore have expressed myself in the easiest and most familiar language I could invent, and inserted no more than I held requisite for all to know all superfluities and quaint or long discourses, being purposely omitted.

Besides, those excellent endeavours of other learned men are come to knowledge, much less to the hands, of few men in these parts, where I have been resident more than twenty years, and therefore may presume that look into many may

these principles of divinity, delivered by one who is well known among them, and cast as kind an eye upon the work as they have always done upon the author; who, although no native, yet he acknowledgeth himself for very many civilities, much indebted to the whole people of these ancient Britons.

But that which hath most of all prevailed with me, is the sad face of religion we behold and condole here, ever since the act of propagation of the Gospel hath been put in execution in those parts. For the itinerants are so few, so ignorant, so mean, that I say no worse; that as it was in the days of Eli, so now, for their sakes, the sacrifice of the Lord is abhorred, and the people are scattered upon those mountains without a shepherd.

It was written by Hippolytus, who lived above 1,300 years since, that in the last times of Antichrist the holy houses (of God he means) shall be like a cottage; the precious Body of Christ and His Blood shall not be extant; the Liturgy shall be extinguished; the singing of Psalms shall cease; the reading of the Scriptures shall not be heard.

Truth they say is the child of time, and time hath presented unto us so sad a spectacle in these parts, that there is not one syllable of all this which is not verified. The holy houses of God, (for in relation to the service of God in them heretofore performed, I will yet so call them) these holy houses, I say, are become like the Prophet's lodge in a garden of cucumbers, deserted, ruined; no cottage on a hill more desolate, more defaced, the people having no encouragement to resort to that place where they have neither minister to pray with, or for them, or to sing praises to God with them, nor any at all in many places, no, not so much as a gifted man (as they use to gloss it) to instruct them. For these are not ubiquitaries, and consequently are forced to be

a Ad Antichristi novissima tempora Ecclesiarum ædes sacræ tugurii instar erunt, preciosum Corpus Christi et Sanguis non extabit; Liturgia extinguetur; Psalmorum decantatio cessabit; Scripturarum recitatio non audietur. [De Consummatione Mundi, § 7.] This testimony is cited by Claud. Sainctes in his Tract before the Liturgies, tom. 4. Biblioth. Patrum out of

St. Hierom upon Daniel, and by Mr. Mede in his Antiquity of Churches. And that which is delivered by Suarez, Pererius, Ovandus, Acosta, Aquipontanus, and Bozius, learned men of the Romish party, concerning the suppression of religion in the time of Antichrist, is every way consonant to the judgment of Hippolytus.

non-residents, that you may know this was not the sin alone of the now vilified and dejected clergy.

Farther, the precious Body and Blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, exhibited in the Sacrament, hath been prohibited to be administered in public assemblies, and the ministers imprisoned and punished for doing their duty. That the Liturgy is extinguished, singing of Psalms ceased, the reading of the Scriptures utterly by our new teachers neglected and cast aside, I need not say, since it is notoriously known to you, and all other in these parts, that no service nor Psalm, nor reading of the sacred text, hath been in public use, ever since these novelists have set footing amongst us. I leave it now to all judicious men to judge what a near resemblance there is betwixt these our times and those of Antichrist, of which Hippolytus gave us those former characters.

Lest, then, the foundations of religion, which are so much shaken, should perish together with the practice of it, and be buried under so much rubbish which is cast upon it, I have taken this pains to preserve its lustre and integrity in the memories of all those who bear any love to substantial, confessed, and ancient truths.

New light is a notion of a hot brain, and will easily, like an ignis fatuus, or Will with the Wisp, carry a man out of the safe and straight way, and thereby endanger the man; but the ancient light established and received in the Church of England, is a secure guide to direct you, that you neither incline to the cunningly composed charms of Popery on the right hand, nor the brainsick imaginations of men of unstable minds on the left.

That truth which this my once glorious mother taught me, and by a sad search I found consonant to the Word of God, I always held forth unto you, for those many years I was permitted to be your pastor, being all that time your catechist; and what I then opened at large, that in a short sum, my dear Parishioners, I here present unto you, and all other Christian people, as a memorial and legacy of my love and desire, that they and you should live and die good Christians.

Above these three years, by the severity of these times, as