N20568:50
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.
HEROD the Great being informed that a king of the Jews should be born in Bethlehem, sent a number of troops to destroy all the children, under two years of age, in that place, and throughout the neighbouring coast. By this cruel order he hoped to have destroyed the child Jesus; but in this he was not only disappointed, but punished with such a spirit of lunacy, that he slew his own wife, children, relations, friends, &c. He was afterwards visited by the most grievous maladies, particularly an inward burning, slow, but unremitting; an uncommon appetite, continually craving, but ever unsatisfied; a cramp that racked him with pain; a flux that reduced him to weakness▪ worms that bred in him and gnawed him; vermin that engendered about him and devoured him; a general putrefaction that consumed him; and, in fine, all those complicated disorders which could possibly render him hateful to himself, and odious to others. His torments at length became so intolerable, that not having either the comforts of religion, or the support of a good conscience to sustain his sinking spirits, he attempted to lay violent hands upon himself. Being prevented in this attempt by those about him, he at last sunk under the oppression of his afflictions, and expired in the most miserable manner.
HEROD the I•ess having married the daughter of the king of Arabia, repudiated her, and espoused Herodias, his brother Philip's wife: for which marriage, full of incest and adultery, John the Baptist boldly and severely reproved him. This freedom greatly incensed Herodias; for we are informed by St. Matthew, in the xiv. chapter of his gospel, that when Herod's birth-day was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod: whereupon he promised, with an oath, to give her whatsoever she would ask. "And she being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger. And the king was sorry; nevertheless, for the oath's sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her. And he sent and beheaded John in the prison. And his head was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother." The authors of this cruelty were, however, all severely punished; for the daughter of Herodias being afterwards dancing upon the ice, it broke, and she falling in, had her head severed from her body by its again closing; and Herod, with the incestuous adultress Herodias, falling under the displeasure of the Roman emperor, were banished, and died miserably in exile.