A67926:3773
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.
And cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord negligently, that is, not carefully and with a willing mind.1 Wherefore, as the Lord willeth us not to offer any thing to him against our wills: so doth he forbid us to compel any man to offer any thing against their wills by the foresaid Moses where he saith: Thou shalt not do thy neighbour wrong, neither oppress him with violence. To do wrong to thy neighbour, is to correct him for his sin not of any compassion or mercy towards him, but to re, prove him and to cause him in disdaining, upbraiding,2 […] rebuking him: not to inform him in the spirit of lenity: but to destroy him in the spirit of bitterness and rigour, as the Apostle saith: If a man be taken in any fault,3 you that are spiritual inform such in the spirit of lenity, considering thy self least thou also be tempted. To oppress our neighbour with violence, is to exact any thing of him above his power, & to lay upon him more then he is able to bear, an• more peradventure then they themselves are able to wield, which lay it upon him. Where as the Lord speaking of the Pharisees to his disciples,4 forbiddeth them the same, saying: The Scribes and Pharisees do sit upon the chair of Moses. &c. And the Apostle Peter: Feed (saith he) as much as in you lieth, the Lords flock, providing for them, not by constraint, but willingly after a godly sort, and not for filthy lucre, but of a ready a mind: not as though ye were Lords over the Clergy, but be you as an example to the flock of good will. This shepherd of shepherds and Prince of the Apostles doth plainly and evidently declare and insinuate what all other Pastors and Apostles ought to do: how to entreat the flock of the Lord committed unto them,5 and what great care and compassion of mind they ought to have towards their Cure: and removeth far out of their harts all power of Tyrannical Lordship and all ambition, which some do exercise with greediness upon those that are committed to their charge, and pronounceth that they ought not to be Lords, but fathers over their flock: