Common place

Which miſerable and deceiued ſort (but yet truly moſt wilfull & froward people) that I might by the mercye of God in ſome meaſure perſwade, if not wholy conuert to the truth, I haue the rather employed my diligence in collecting theſe common places (ſincerely expoũded by the authors themſelues) that in the reading and earneſt ſtudy therof, there may ſome ſparke of Gods true knowledge, kindle aright vnderſtanding in them, which the Lord graunt, that his onely praiſe & glory may therein be ſhewed.

But as every man is moſt concerned for himſelf, I, who am of a Saturnine and melancholy complexion, cannot but murmur, that there is not an equal invitation to write Tragedies; having by me, in my book of common places, enough to enable me to finiſh a very ſad one by the fifth of the next month.

The only common places of his memory are his meals; and if you aſk him at what time an event happened, he conſiders whether he heard it after a dinner of turbot, or of veniſon.