The fortress of the faithful against [the] cruel assaults of poverty and hunger newly…The fortresse of the faythfull agaynst [ye] cruel assautes of pouertie and honger newlye…

Phil. That ye may be thoroughly persuaded of God's liberality toward his faithful servants, I pray you first of all consider gods order in the provision for his creatures. Before god made man, whom he was determined to make the high ruler under him over all things in this world, he made and prepared every thing necessary for him, and for the conservation of his body, y• he might abundantly have, what soever is expedient for him, and by no means perish for hunger and lack of food. First placing him in paradise ⟨image 46⟩that garden of pleasure, he gave man liberty to eat of all the fruit that grew in the garden,¹ except the tree of knowledge of good and •uel. After the transgression of gods commandment, when man was justly driven out of paradise, and worthy for his disobedience not only to starve for hunger, but also to be condemned for ever, if god for his mercies sake, promised in that blessed seed Christ Jesus, had not favoured & forgiven him.² God sending forth man into this vale of misery, did not leave him comfortless and without provision for his bodily sustenance, neither sent he him into a barren, desert or •alte ground void of all fruit, but into this world, where he found plenty and abundance of all things, and gave him liberty to eat of all fruits and seeds growing in it. Increase, ⟨image 46⟩sayeth he, and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it and have dominion of the fish of the sea,³ and the foul of the air and of every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And god said: Behold, I have given you every herb, sowing seed, which is in the upper face of all the earth, and in every tree in the which is the fruit of the tree, and that soweth seed, that they may be meat unto yo•. With this kind of food was Adam and his posterity content until the flood of Nohe. After the flood, God purposing as it were, to repair man kind, and to be mans good and merciful lord, & no less but much more bounteous to him, then he was aforesaid: bring ye forth, and multiply and replenish the earth.