A73023:237
M. Perkins, his Exhortation to repentance, out of Zephaniah preached in 2. sermons in…
M. Perkins, his Exhortation to repentance, out of Zephaniah preached in 2. sermons in Stourbridge Fair. Together with two treatises of the duties and dignity of the ministry: delivered publicly in the University of Cambridge. With a preface prefixed touching the publishing of all such works of his as are to be expected: with a catalogue of all the particulars [sic] of them, diligently perused and published, by a preacher of the word.M. Perkins, his Exhortation to repentance, out of Zephaniah preached in 2. sermons in Sturbridge Faire. Together with two treatises of the duties and dignitie of the ministrie: deliuered publiquely in the Vniuersitie of Cambridge. With a preface præfixed touching the publishing of all such workes of his as are to be expected: with a catalogue of all the perticulers [sic] of them, diligently perused and published, by a preacher of the word.
London: printed by T. Creede for William Welby, 1605
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.
Right worshipful, it is said in other Nations, and written in some of their books, that there are three disgraces of the English Nation: The Ignorance, or (that I may so call it) the unlearned of our Gentry & Nobility, the beggary of our poor, & the Baseness of the body of our Ministry, The first blot, our Nobility and Gentry have well wiped off, since the first days of our blessed Queen Elizabeth, partly by study at home, partly by travel abroad, and I hope they will do it more & more: The second hath been well lessened by good laws of late, and would he more, if the Execution were as good as our laws b•e, & it were much honour to our Nation, and more to our ⟨image 104⟩Religion, if it were quite taken away: for he that tells us there shall be poor ever with us, saith also, there shall not be a beggar amongst 1us; If there were no poor, what should become 2of Charity? for it is Charity, to relieve Poverty, not to maintain Beggary: Poverty may be a Cross, but it is no Curse: but Beggary is a fearful curse, threatened on the enemies of God▪ and David saith not, he never saw a righteous mans child poor, but that 3he never saw him beg his bread. The daily cries in our streets, cry for yet further reformation 4hereof, that the impotent poor may be sufficiently provided for, that he need not, and the Sturdy beggar complied to work, that he may not be suffered to beg. Happy you, or whosoever can have a hand in effecting this blessed work, we who can do little else, shall pray for it, and for them that labour in it. But now for the third, I fear none but the very hand of God, can wipe out that stain from our Church: The baseness of the general body of our Ministry, whence is it, but either from the unworthiness, or Poverty thereof: and the unworthiness, whence is it, but from the Poverty, and base maintenance of our Ministry, which was once robbed by the Abbeys, and after by some in our own State, which was then Popish, and Popery that stands so much ⟨image 105⟩