I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.
Ver. 27. That this epistle be read] It is a matter of greatest necessity and importance that the Holy Scriptures be daily and duly read by all. A sad complaint it is, which Reverend Moulin makes of his countrymen the French Protestants: While they burned us, saith he, for reading the Scriptures, we burnt with zeal to be reading of them. Now, with our liberty is bred also negligence and disesteem of God's word. (Moulin's Theophilus.) And is it not so with us at this day? Our ancestors in Henry VIII's time would sit up all night in reading and hearing, and were at great charges. Some gave five marks for a Bible, that we may have for five shillings.