A second admonition to the parliament

For in the primitive church / there was §30such care had of the poor / that there were also widows appointed and maintained / that should¹ wash / pick / and keep the things about y• pore / sweet / and clean / and intend them for their necessaries² / that should entertain the pore strangers that travailed / and were driven from place to place for then conscience / and were not sufficient to maintain their own charges / to entertain them I say / to bathe and wash their feet / ⟨p. 52⟩surbated with going / and to intend to minister to them / the necessaries there provided by that church for that use. O godly care / and very christian custom. I would / we would in some part / in this our great wealth and abundance / resemble the care for the pore (our own brethren / ou• own flesh) which the pore churches had in the time of their own trouble / for the poor y• then were amongst them / and repaired from other places to them / we should not then thus unnaturally §10/ hardly be drawn by law to pay that we are rated at / but we would willingly stretch out our purses / yea and strain our selves far / rather then either they of our own parishes / should lack any thing / or yet the afflicted churches of the strangers / which are amongst us from³ France / Flanders / Italy / Spain / or any other place should be destitute / or lack any thing for their comfort. And yet God knoweth / most unchristianly / and wickedly / many of us cry out §20against pore strangers / as though we never had been strangers / nor were never relieved by them / or that we were not all of one body. Thanks be given to God for the Queens majesty / and the counsel / and the rest of the honourable / worshipful / and others by whose means they are here supported and maintained. And I am sure of it / we all fare the better for it at God his hands. And I beseech the whole state / & beseech God / that the whole stare may bend themselves to have