N20568:4948
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.
LETTER IV. From the Bishop to his Wife ANNE HOOPER, whereby all the true Members of Christ may take Comfort and Courage to suffer Affliction for the Profession of his holy Gospel.
OUR Saviour Jesus Christ (dearly beloved, and my godly wife) in St. Matthew's gospel said unto his disciples, that it was necessary scandals should come: and that they could not be avoided, he perceived as well by the condition of those that should perish and be lost for ever in the world to come, as also by their affliction that should be saved. For he saw the greatest part at the people would contemn and neglect whatsoever true doctrine or godly ways should be showed unto them, or else receive and us• it as they thought good to serve their pleasures, without any profit to their souls, not caring whether they lived as they were commanded by God's word or not; but would think it sufficient to be counted to have the name of a christian man, with such works and fruits of his profession and christianity, as his fathers and elders, after their custom and manner, esteem and take to be good fruits and faithful works, and will not try them by the word of God. These men, by the just judgment of God, be delivered unto the craft and subtlety of the devil, that they may be kept by one scandalous stumbling-block or other, that they never come unto Christ, who came to save those that were •o•t, as you may see how God delivereth wicked men up unto their own ⟨p. 468⟩lusts, to do one mischief after another, careless, until they come into a reprobate mind, that forgetteth itself, and cannot know what is expedient to be done, or to be left undone, because they close their eyes, and will not see the light of God's word offered unto them: and being thus blinded, they prefer their own vanities before the truth of God's word. Where such corrupt minds be, there are also corrupt notions and choice of God's honour: so that the mind of man taketh falsehood for truth, superstition for true religion, death for life, damnation for salvation, hell for heaven, and persecution of Christ's members for God's service and honour. And as these men wilfully and voluntarily reject the word of God; even so God most justly delivereth them up to blindness of mind and hardness of heart, that they cannot understand, nor yet consent to any thing that God would have preached, and set forth to his glory, after his own will and word: wherefore they hate it mortally, and of all things most detest God's holy word.