A67922:726
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.
And thus much concerning the principal contents of S. Pauls doctrine. Wherein the Church of the ancient Romans first was grounded & planted, and so continued in the same, or at least did not much alter, during the primitive state of the Church. Likewise the same form of doctrine the latter Romans also that followed should have maintained,1 and not have fallen away for any mans preaching, but hold him accursed, yea if he were any Apostle or an Angel from heaven,2 teaching any other doctrine besides that institution which they have received. Gal. 1, for so were they warned before by the Apostle S Paul, to do. And yet notwithstanding all this forewarning & diligent instruction of this blessed Apostle of the Gentiles, what a defection of faith is fallen among the Gentiles, especially among the Romans, whereof the said Apostle also foretold them so long before, forepropheciyng: That the day of the Lord shall not come, 3except there come a defection before, and that the man of sin should be revealed, the proud adversary of God. &c. They. 2, meaning (no doubt) by this defection, a departing and a falling from that faith which the holy ghost had then planted by his ministry, among the Gentiles. As we see it now come to pass in the Church of Rome. Which Church is so gone from the faith that S. Paul taught, that if he were now alive, and saw these decrees and decretals of the Bishop of Rome, these heaps of ceremonies & traditions, these mass books, these Portuses, these Festivals and Legends, these Processionals, Dims and Sequences, these Beads and Graduals, & the manner of their invocation, their Canons, Censures, & latter Councils, such swarms of superstitious Monks and Friars, such sects of so many divers religions, the Testament of S. Francis, the rule of S. Benedict, of S Brigit, of S. Anthony. &c. the intricate subtleties & labyrinths of the schoolmen, the infinite cases and distinctions of the Canonists▪ 4the Sermons in Churches, the assertions in schools, the glory of the Pope, the pride of the clergy, the cruelty of persecuting Prelates with their officials and promoters: he would say this were not a defection, but rather a plain destruction and ruin of faith: