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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    These refuted: God has bidden his Pastors to feed his Sheep. leaf N 6] Men with no duty to stay in danger may go from it. But Ministers [= leafN 6, back are specially bound to be at the deathbeds of their flocks. Many whoVe led a wicked life 98 II. 2. The excuses of cowardly Pastors refuted. Amph'il. I can faie little to them. But onelie this, that none of all thefe reafons doe priuiledge them to difeontinue from their flockes and charges. And whereas they faie, that their ftaieng were a tempt- ing of God, it is verie vntrue, it is rather a reuerent obedience to this tripled co7nmandement, Pafee ones meas, pafee ones meas, pafee oues mens, Feede my flieepe, feede my flieepe, feede my flieepe. But indeede if it were fo that a priuate man who hath no ^kind of fun6tion nor office, neither ecclefiafticall nor temporall, feeing himfelfe if he ftaie ftil in great danger of death, & might auoid the danger by flieng, & fo by the grace of God prolong his life, and yet will not, this man, if he tarrieth, tempteth the Lord, and is a murtherer of himfelfe before God. And to fuch it is faid, ' thou ffialt keepe the whole from the ficke, & the fick from the whole.’ This is the meaning & fence of thefe words, and not that they do priuiledge any man for not doing of his dutie. But notwithftanding all that can be faid in confutacion of this great & extreeme contempt of their duties, I haue knowne and doe know fome minifters (nay, wolues in ffieepes clothing) in Dnalgne that in time of any plague, peftilence or infeftion, thogh there hath bin no gret danger at all, that haue bin fo far from continuing amongft their flock, that if any one of them were ficke, although of neuer fo co7?zmon or vfuall difeafe, yet fearing to be infefted with the contagion thereof, they haue abfented themfelues altogither, from vifiting the fick according as they ought, &: as dutie doth bind them. Yea, fome of them (fuppofe you of mercenaries, & hirelings, but not of good paftors) are fo nice, fo fine & fo feareful of death forfoth, that in no cafe they cannot abide to vifit the ficke, neither by day nor ^ by night. But in my iudgement it is as incident to their office and dutie, to vifite, to comfort, to inftruft, and relieue the ficke, at the houre of death, as it is for them to preach the word of God to their flocke al the daies of their life. And peraduenture they may doe more good in one howre at the laft gafpe, then they haue done all the daies of their life before. For he (hat in his life time hath had in fmall eftimation the blefled wwde of God, but following his owne humors in hope to Hue long, hath lead a very wicked and impenitent life, nowe through the confideration and fight* of death, which he feeth before his eie.s, togither with godly exhortations, admonitions, and confolation,s, out of the word of