Phillip Stubbes's Anatomy of the abuses in England in Shakspere's youth, A.D. 1583 / edited by Frederick J. Furnivall.

  • Stubbs, Philip, active 1581-1593.
Date:
1877-1882
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Phillip Stubbes's Anatomy of the abuses in England in Shakspere's youth, A.D. 1583 / edited by Frederick J. Furnivall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Our churches don't bring forth fruit because they’re not tilld with preaching. God's Word should be preacht night and day with* out ceasing. L® Sig. L- 3.] Woe to Minis- ters who won’t preach it! rho there's a law against Pluralism) 78 II. 2. The shameful neglect of Preaching. is not plowed, furowed, & tilled al togither as it ought to be. So for that they are not furrowed, manured, and tilled, as they ought, and bicaufe the word of God is not preached vnto them, and as it were braied, punned, interpreted, and expounded, that it, finking down into the good ground of their harts, might bring forth fruit to eternal life. If the flrongefl; mans body that liueth vpon the earth fliould be nouriflied with nothing for a whole quarter of a yeeres fpace, but onely with two or three drops of aqua vite, aqua angelica, or the like, euery day, and at euery quarters end fliould be fed with all manner of dainties, I am perfwaded that his bodie notwithftanding would foone be weake inough. Nay, do you thinke it were poffible to Hue one quarter of a yeere ? Euen fo falleth out in this cafe. For although our foules (which Hue by the word of God, as our bodies doe by meate) be daily fedde with hearring the word read as it were with aqua vite, or fweet ne6fer, and at euerie quarters ende, haue a moft excellent & fumptuous banquet to pray vpow, yet may they macerate and pyne away notwithftanding, for lacke of the continuance of the fame. And therfore the worde of God is to be preached night and day, in time, and out of time, in feafon and out of feafon, and that without ceafing, or intermiflion. And if that faieng of the prophet be^true (as without all controuerfie it is moft true) that he is accurfed, Qui fecerit opus douiini negligenter, That doth the worke of the Lord negligently, or fraudulently, then muft it needs be, that thofe who hauing cure of foules, and doe feldome, or neuer preach, are within the compafle of this curfe. Let them take heede to it. The apoftle Paule faid of himfelfe, Vce mihi nifi euangelixauero, Woe be to me if I preach not the gofpel j and doe they thinke that the fame wo is not proper to them if they prech not? Haue they a greater priui- ledge than the blefled apoftle faint Paule had ? No, no, thefe vaine excufes will not feme them j therfore, as they tender the faluation of their owne foules, and many others, I wifli them to take heede, and to fliew themfelues painefull laborers in the Lords harueft. Theod. As far as I remember, by the lawes of Dnalgne there is a reftraint, that none lhall haue no more benefices at once than one : how is it then, that they can holde fo manie a peece, without danger of the law ?