A67922:1587
Acts and monuments of matters most special and memorable, happening in the Church. [vol.…Actes and monuments of matters most speciall and memorable, happenyng in the Church. [vol.…
Acts and monuments of matters most special and memorable, happening in the Church. [vol. 1] with an universal history of the same, wherein is set forth at large the whole race and course of the Church, from the primitive age to these latter times of ours, with the bloody times, horrible troubles, and great persecutions against the true martyrs of Christ, sought and wrought as well by heathen emperors, as now lately practised by Romish prelates, especially in this realm of England and Scotland. Newly revised and recognised, partly also augmented, and now the fourth time again published and recommended to the studious reader, by the author (through the help of Christ our Lord) John Fox, which desireth thee good reader to help him with thy prayer.Actes and monuments of matters most speciall and memorable, happenyng in the Church. [vol. 1] with an vniuersall history of the same, wherein is set forth at large the whole race and course of the Church, from the primitiue age to these latter tymes of ours, with the bloudy times, horrible troubles, and great persecutions agaynst the true martyrs of Christ, sought and wrought as well by heathen emperours, as nowe lately practised by Romish prelates, especially in this realme of England and Scotland. Newly reuised and recognised, partly also augmented, and now the fourth time agayne published and recommended to the studious reader, by the author (through the helpe of Christ our Lord) Iohn Foxe, which desireth thee good reader to helpe him with thy prayer.
London: printed by John Daye, 1583London: printed by Iohn Daye, 1583
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The answer.
The aunswere.
This your brotherhood may soon discern,1 by the person of a thief, how it ought to be corrected. For some there be which having sufficient to live upon yet do steal. Other there be which steal of mere necessity. Wherefore considering the quality & difference of the crime, necessary it ⟨p. 117⟩is that some be corrected by loss of goods, some by stripes some other more sharply, and some more easily: yea, & when sharper correction is to be executed, yet that must be done with charity, and with no fury: for in punishing offenders this is the cause and end wherefore they are punished, because they should be saved & not perish in hell fire. And so ought discipline to proceed in correcting the faithful, as do good Fathers in punishing their children, whom both they chasten for their evil, and yet being chastened, they look to have them their heirs, and think to leave them all they have, notwithstanding they correct them sometimes in anger. Therefore this charity must be kept in mind. And in the correction there is a measure to be had, so that the mind never do any thing without the rule of reason. Ye add moreover with what recompense of measure those things ought to be required again which be stolen out of Churches. But God forbid that the Church should ever require again with increase, that which is lost in outward things, and to seek her gain by endamaging other.
This your brotherhood may soone discerne,