N20568:3486
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.
"BY the which will (saith the apostle) we are sanctified, by the offering up of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." And in the same place, "But this man, after that he had offered one sacrifice for sin, sitteth forever at the right hand of God, &c. For with one offering hath he made perfect for ever them that are sanctified, and by himself hath he purged our sins." I beseech you to mark these words, [by him,] the which, well weighed, will without doubt put an end to all controversy. See Heb. chap. x.
THE apostle plainly denieth any other sacrifice to remain for him that treadeth under his feet the blood of the testament, by the which he was made holy. Christ will not be crucified again, he will not his death to be had in derision. "He hath reconciled ⟨p. 336⟩us in the body of his flesh." Mark, I beseech you, he saith not, in the mystery of his body; but in the body of his flesh." See Coloss. chap. i.
"If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world," 1 John, chap. ii.
I know that all these places of the scripture are avoided by two manner of subtle evasions: the one is, by the distinction of the bloody and unbloody sacrifice; as though our unbloody sacrifice of the church were any other than the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; than a commemoration, a showing forth, and a sacramental representation of that one only bloody sacrifice, offered up once for all.
I know that all these places of the scripture are avoided by two manner of subtle evasions: the one is, by the distinction of the bloody and unbloody sacrifice; as though our unbloody sacrifice of the church were any other than the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; than a commemoration, a shewing forth, and a sacramental representation of that one only bloody sacrifice, offered up once for all.
THE other is, by depraving and wresting the sayings of the ancient fathers unto such a strange kind of sense, as the fathers themselves indeed never meant. For what the meaning of the fathers was, is evident by that which St. Augustine writeth in his epistle to Boniface, and in the 83d chapter of his ninth book against Faustus the Manichee, besides many other places; likewise by Eusebius, Emisene, Cyprian, Chrysostom, Fulgentius, Bertram, and others, who do wholly agree together in this unity in the Lord, that the redemption, once made in verity for the salvation of men, continueth in full effect for ever, and worketh without ceasing unto the end of the world; that the sacrifice once offered cannot be consumed; that the Lord's death and passion is as effectual, the virtue of that blood once shed, as fresh at this day for the washing away of sins, as it was even the same day that it flowed out of the blessed side of our Saviour: and finally, that the whole substance of our sacrifice, which is frequented of the church in the Lord's supper, consisteth in prayers, praise, and giving of thanks, and in remembering and showing forth of that sacrifice once offered upon the altar of the cross: that the same might continually be had in reverence by mystery, which once only, and no more, was offered for the price of our redemption.
THE other is, by depraving and wresting the sayings of the ancient fathers unto such a strange kind of sense, as the fathers themselves indeed never meant. For what the meaning of the fathers was, is evident by that which St. Augustine writeth in his epistle to Boniface, and in the 83d chapter of his ninth book against Faustus the Manichee, besides many other places; likewise by Eusebius, Emisene, Cyprian, Chrysostom, Fulgentius, Bertram, and others, who do wholly agree together in this unity in the Lord, that the redemption, once made in verity for the salvation of men, continueth in full effect for ever, and worketh without ceasing unto the end of the world; that the sacrifice once offered cannot be consumed; that the Lord's death and passion is as effectual, the virtue of that blood once shed, as fresh at this day for the washing away of sins, as it was even the same day that it flowed out of the blessed side of our Saviour: and finally, that the whole substance of our sacrifice, which is frequented of the church in the Lord's supper, consisteth in prayers, praise, and giving of thanks, and in remembering and shewing forth of that sacrifice once offered upon the altar of the cross: that the same might continually be had in reverence by mystery, which once only, and no more, was offered for the price of our redemption.
THESE are things (right worshipful Mr. Prolocutor, and ye the rest of the commissioners) which I could presently prepare, to the answering of your three propositions, being destitute of all help in this shortness of time, sudden warning, and want of books. Wherefore I appeal to my first protestation, most humbly desiring the help of the same (as much as may be) to be granted unto me. And because ye have lately given most unjust and cruel sentence against me, I do here appeal (so far forth as I may) to a more indifferent and just censure and judgment of some other superior competent, and lawful judge, and that accor•••g to the approved state of the church of England. Howbeit, I confess, that I am ignorant what that is at this present, through the trouble and alteration of the state of the realm. But if this appeal may not be granted to me upon earth, then do I ••y (even as to my only refuge and alone haven of health) […] the sentence of the eternal judge, that is, of the Almighty God, to whose most merciful justice towards us, and most just mercifulness, I do wholly commit myself and my cause, nothing at all despairing of the defence of mine advocate and alone Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom, with the everlasting Father, and the Holy Spirit, the sanctifier of us all, be now and for ever all honour and glory. Amen.
THESE are things (right worshipful Mr. Prolocutor, and ye the rest of the commissioners) which I could presently prepare, to the answering of your three propositions, being destitute of all help in this shortness of time, sudden warning, and want of books. Wherefore I appeal to my first protestation, most humbly desiring the help of the same (as much as may be) to be granted unto me. And because ye have lately given most unjust and cruel sentence against me, I do here appeal (so far forth as I may) to a more indifferent and just censure and judgment of some other superior competent, and lawful judge, and that accor•••g to the approved state of the church of England. Howbeit, I confess, that I am ignorant what that is at this present, through the trouble and alteration of the state of the realm. But if this appeal may not be granted to me upon earth, then do I ••y (even as to my only refuge and alone haven of health) 〈…〉 the sentence of the eternal judge, that is, of the Almighty God, to whose most merciful justice towards us, and most just mercifulness, I do wholly commit myself and my cause, nothing at all despairing of the defence of mine advocate and alone Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom, with the everlasting Father, and the Holy Spirit, the sanctifier of us all, be now and for ever all honour and glory. Amen.
WE shall now proceed to the
DR. SMITH. You have occasioned me to go otherwise to work with you, than I had thought to have done. Methinks, in your supposition, you did abuse the testimonies of scripture concerning the ascension of Christ, to take away his presence in the sacrament, as though this were a strong argument in your favour. CHRIST did ascend into heaven. ERGO, He is not in the sacrament. NOW therefore I will go about to disprove this reason of your's. CHRIST'S ascension is no bar to his real presence in the sacrament. ⟨p. 337⟩ERGO, You are deceived, whereas you do ground yourself upon those places.
RID. You import as though I had made a strong argument by Christ's going up into heaven. But howsoever mine argument is made, you collect it not rightly. For it doth not only stay upon his ascension, but upon his abiding there also.
SMITH. Christ's going […] to heaven, and his abiding there, hinder not his real presence in the sacrament. ERGO, You are deceived.
SMITH. Christ's going 〈…〉 to heaven, and his abiding there, hinder not his real presence in the sacrament. ERGO, You are deceived.
RID. Of Christ's real presence there may be a double understanding: if you take the real presence of Christ according to the real and corporeal substance which he took of the virgin, that presence being in heaven, cannot be on the earth also. But if you mean a real presence, according to some thing that appertaineth to Christ's body, certainly the ascension and abiding in heaven hinder not at all that presence. Wherefore Christ's body after that manner is here present to us in the Lord's supper; by grace I say, as Epiphanius speaketh it.
WEST. I will cut off from henceforth all equivocation and doubt. For whensoever we speak of Christ's body, we mean that which he took of the virgin.
RID. Christ's ascension and abiding in heaven cannot stand with his presence.
SMITH. Christ appeared corporally and really on the earth, for all his ascension and continual abode in heaven unto the day of doom. ERGO, His ascension and abiding in heaven, are no bar to his real presence in the sacrament.
