N20568:2726
The new and complete book of martyrs; or, An universal history of martyrdom: being…
The new and complete book of martyrs; or, An universal history of martyrdom: being Fox's Book of martyrs, revised and corrected, with additions and great improvements. : Containing an authentic account of the lives, persecutions and sufferings of the holy martyrs; and the many dreadful persecutions against the Church of Christ in all parts of the world, by pagans, Jews, Turks, papists, and others, from earliest ages of the church to the present period. ... The whole forming at once a general Christian martyrology, and a complete history of persecutions. / By the Rev. Mr. John Fox, M.A. late of Magdalen College, Oxford. ; Now revised, corrected and improved, with many additional articles, relating to the acts and monuments of the church. By Paul Wright, D.D. ; Embellished with forty elegant copper plate engravings. ; In two volumes. Vol. I[-II].The new and complete book of martyrs; or, An universal history of martyrdom: being Fox's Book of marytrs, revised and corrected, with additions and great improvements. : Containing an authentic account of the lives, persecutions and sufferings of the holy martyrs; and the many dreadful persecutions against the Church of Christ in all parts of the world, by pagans, Jews, Turks, papists, and others, from earliest ages of the church to the present period. ... The whole forming at once a general Christian martyrology, and a complete history of persecutions. / By the Rev. Mr. John Fox, M.A. late of Magdalen College, Oxford. ; Now revised, corrected and improved, with many additional articles, relating to the acts and monuments of the church. By Paul Wright, D.D. ; Embellished with forty elegant copper plate engravings. ; In two volumes. Vol. I[-II].
New-York: printed by William Durell, 1794
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
PURGATORY.] This, they say, is a certain place, in which, as in a prison, after death, those souls, by the prayers of the faithful, are purged, which in this life could not be fully cleansed; no, not by the blood of Christ: and notwithstanding it is asserted in the scriptures, that "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness," 1 John i.9. This place of purgatory is in the power of the pope, who dispenses the indulgence, and directs the treasury of his merits, by which the pains are mitigated, and the deliverance hastened. For the tormented sufferers, in this ideal inquisition, his monks and friars say masses, all of whom must be paid for their trouble; because, No penny, no pater-noster; by which bubble the church of Rome amasses great wealth.
IDOLATROUS and CREATURE-WORSHIP.] In all the Romish worship, the blessed virgin is a principal object of adoration. She is styled queen of heaven, lady of the world, the only hope of sinners, queen of angels, patroness of men, advocate for sinners, mother of mercies; under which titles they desire her, by the power of a mother, to command her son. In some prayers, they invoke God to bring them to heaven by the merits and mediation of the virgin Mary and all her saints, and that they may enjoy perpetual soundness both of body and mind, by her glorious intercession. Hence it might be imagined by a papist, that the sacred writings were full of en•omiums on this pretended mother of God; whereas, on the contrary, we do not find Christ in any part of the scripture called the Son of Mary, nor that he at any time calls her mother; and when the woman cried, "Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that thou hast sucked;" "Yea, (returns our Lord) rather blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." Nor does our Saviour own any relation but that of a disciple; for when his mother and brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him, Jesus answered, "Who are my mother and my brethren!" And looking round upon his disciples, he saith, "Behold my mother and my brethren; for whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, the same is my brother, sister, and mother." Of the like strain are also their prayers to other saints and angels, by which they derogate from the honour of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and transfer his offices to others; though the Scriptures expressly assert, there is but one mediator between God and man, who is sufficiently able to deliver and save, to the uttermost, all who by faith come unto him. Nor must we omit under this head the idolatry of the mass, in the elevation of the host, to which the poor deluded people kneel down, and which they, whatever their artful priests pretend to the contrary, solemnly adore and worship, agreeable to an express article of their creed, and the command of one of their popes, who enjoins that the host is to be worshipped in Latera, whereby the second commandment is infringed, which the Romish church have endeavoured as much as possible to suppress, and in many of their little manuals they leave it quite out.