A67927:424
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 2] 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 2] 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.
Be strong therefore in your battle. The Lord God is on your side, and his truth is your cause: and against you be none, but the enemies of the cross of Christ,1 as the serpent and his seed, the Dragon with his tail, the marked men of the Beast, the offspring of the Pharisees, the congregation malignant, the generation of Vipers, murderers, as their father the devil hath been from the beginning. To conclude, such are they as the Lord God hath always abhorred, and in all ages resisted and overthrown. God, from whom nothing is hid,2 knoweth what they are. He that searcheth the hearts of men, he hath found them out to be crafty, subtle, full of poison, proud, disdainful, stiffenecked, devourers, raveners, and barkers against the truth, filthy & shameless- and therefore doth the spirit of God, by the mouths of his holy Prophets and Apostles,3 call them by the names of Foxes, serpents. Cockatrices, Lyons, Leopards, Bulls, Bears, Wolves, Dogs, Swine, Beasts, teaching us thereby to understand, that their natural inclination is, to deceive, poison, and destroy (as much as in them lieth) the faithful and elect of God.4 But the Lord with his right arm shall defend his little flock against the whole rabblement of these worldlings,5 which have conspired against him: he hath numbered all the hairs of his children's heads, so that not one of them shall perish without his fatherly will. He keepeth the sparrows, much more will he preserve them whom he hath purchased with the blood of the immaculate Lamb. He will keep them unto the hour appointed, wherein the name of God shall be glorified in his saints. In the mean time let them work their wills,6 let them envy, let them malign, let them blaspheme let them curse, ban, betray, whip, scourge, hang and burn: for by these means God will try his elect as gold in the furnace and by these fruits, shall they also bring themselves to be known what they be, for all their sheep's skins. For as he that in suffering patiently for the Gospel of God, is thereby known to be of Christ: