A67926:2025
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. 2, part 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. 2, part 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
No title page in the transcription: set from the catalogue record.
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.
¶Reverendo in Christo patri D. Cutb. Tonstallo, Lond. Episcopo, T. Bilnaeus Salutem in Christo, cum omni subiectione tanto presulidebitam. HOc nomine, pater in Christo obseruande, longe beatiorem me puto, quòd ad tuae Paternitatis examinationem vocari me contigit. Ea enim eruditione es, ea vitae integ•itate (quod omnes ⟨p. 1004⟩fatentur) ut ipsemet non possis (alioqui divinarum in te dotium estimator non admodum magnificus) quoties tibi succurrit, quanta tibi gratis fecerit Deus, in illius laudes non erumpere, ac tecum in cord tacitus exclamare: Fecit mihi magna qui potens est, & sanctum nomen eius. In talem nunc me judicem incidisse gratulor, ac Deo qui moderatur omnia, gratiam pro virili habeo.1 Et quanquam (testis est mihi Deus) nullius in omnibus meis concionibus, erroris mihi conscius sum, nedum haereseos aut factionis (quod calumniantur quidam, quaestus sui quàm animarum lucri avidiores) tamen supra modum laetor, divina (haud dubiè) benignitate provisum est, ut ob veritatis testimonium, ad Tunstalli tribunal sisterer: qui, si quis alius, optimè novit, nunquam defuturos Jannes ac Jambres, qui veritatem resistant: nunquam defuturos *Elymates, qui conentur subuertere vias domini rectas: denique nunquam defuturos Demetrios *Pythonissas, Balaamos, *Nicolaitas, Caynos, Ismaeles, qui omnes, cum quae sua sunt, non quae Jesu Christi, avidissimè sectentur & quaerant, qui fieri potest ut Christum sincerè ac simpliciter annunciatum perferant. Nam si populus semel in Christum pro se passum, solidè ac purè consider occeperit, ruent mox in verè fidelium pectoribus, quaecunque hactenus pro Christo amplexi sunt. Tunc intelligent non hic aut illic Christum esse, sed regnum Dei in semetipsis esse. Tunc intelligent patrem neque in montibus Samariae, neque Hierosolymis adorandum esse, sed in omni loco, in spiritu & veritate. Quod si fit, actum de lucris suis putabunt bestiae agri, quorum interest impleri illud Ezechielis 34. Dispersae sunt oves meae,5