A67926:2031
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.
years vexed with the bloody flux, had consumed all that she had, and felt no help, but was still worse and worse, until such time as at the last, she came unto Christ, and after she had once touched the hem of his vesture through faith, she was so healed that by and by, she felt the same in her body. O mighty power of the most highest: which I also miserable sinner, have often tasted and felt. Which before that I could come unto Christ, had even likewise spent all that I had upon those ignorant Physicians, that is to say, unlearned hearers of confession so that there was but small force of strength left in me, (which of nature was but weak) small store of money, and very little wit or understanding: for they appointed me fastings, watching, buying of pardons, and Masses: in all which things (as I now understand) they sought rather their own g•yne,1 then the salvation of my sick and languishing soul. But at the last I heard speak of Jesus, even then when the new Testament was first set forth by Erasmus. Which, when I understood to be eloquently done by him, being allured rather for the Latin, then for the word of God (for at that time,2 I knew not what it meant) I bought it even by the providence of God, as I do now well understand and perceive: And at the first reading, as I remember I chanced upon this sentence of S. Paul (O most sweet and comfortable sentence to my soul) in his first Epistle to Timothy and first chapter: It is a true saying and worthy of all men to be embraced, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief and principal. This our sentence, through Gods instruction and inward working, which I did not then perceive, did so exhilarate my hart, being before wounded with the guilt of my sins and being almost in despair, that immediately, I felt a marvellous comfort and quietness, in so much,3 that my bruised bones leapt for joy. After this, the Scripture began to be more pleasant unto me than the honey or the honey comb: wherein I learned that all my travels, all my fasting and watching, all the redemption of Masses and pardons, being done without trust in Christ, which only saveth his people from their sins: these (I say) I learned to be nothing else but even (as S.