The tran&esset;latoure vnto the reader.

These bokes (good reader) which be called Apocrypha, are not iudged amonge the doctours to be of like reputacion with the other scripture, as thou mayest perceaue by S. Ierome in epistola ad Paulinum. And the chefe cause therof is this: there be many places in them, that seme to be repugnaunt vnto the open and manyfest trueth in the other bokes of the byble. Neuertheles I haue not gathered them together to the intent that I wolde haue them despysed, or litle sett by, or that I shulde thinke them false, for I am not able to proue it: Yee I doute not verely, yf they were equally conferred with the other open scripture (tyme, place, and circumstaunce in all thinges considered) they shulde nether seme contrary, ner be vntruly ∧ peruersly aledged. Treuth it is: A m&abar;s face can not be sene so wel in a water, as in a fayre glasse: nether c&abar; it be shewed so clearly in a water that is stered or moued, as in a styll water. These ∧ many other darck places of scripture haue bene sore stered and myxte with blynde and cuvetous opynions of men, which haue cast soch a myst afore the eyes of þe; symple, that as longe as they be not c&obar;ferred with the other places of scripture, they shall not seme other wyse to be vnderstonde, then as cuvetousnes expoundeth them. But who so euer thou be that readest scripture, let the holy goost be thy teacher, and let one text expounde another vnto the: As for soch dreames, visions and darck sentences as be hyd from thy vnderstondinge, commytte them vnto God, and make no articles of them: But let the playne text be thy gyde, and the sprete of God (which is the author therof) shal lede the in all trueth.

As for the prayer of Salom&obar; (which thou findest not herin) þe; prayer of Azarias, and the swete songe that he and his two felowes songe in the fyre: the first (namely the prayer of Salomon) readest thou in the eight chapter of the thirde boke of the kynges, so that it appeareth not to be Apocryphum: The other prayer and songe (namely of the thre children) haue I not founde amonge eny of the interpreters, but onely in the olde latyn texte, which reporteth it to be of Theodotios translacion. Neuertheles, both because of those þt; be weake and scrupulous, and for their sakes also that loue soch swete songes of thankesgeuinge: I haue not left them out: to the intent that the one shulde haue no cause to complayne, and that the other also might haue the more occasion to geue thankes vnto God in aduersite, as the thre children dyd in the fyre. Grace be with the. Amen.