N20568:5563
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.
BECAUSE the good man was altogether unlearned, and withal very simple, he knew no ready way how he might satisfy his great desire. At length it came into his mind to take a special remedy to supply his necessity, which was this: He had a little boy, his own son, which child he sent to school, to learn to read English; now after the little boy could read indifferently well, his father every night after supper, summer and winter, would have the boy to read part of the holy scripture▪ and now and then of some other good book. In which kind of virtuous exercise the old man had such delight and pleasure, that, as it seemed, he rather practised himself in the study of the scripture, than in the trade or science which before time he had used: so that within a few years in the time of king Edward, through the help of his little son, and through much conference besides, he profited and went forward in such sort, that he was able not only to resolve himself touching his own former blindness and ignorance, but was also able to admonish and instruct others: and therefore when occasion served, he would go from one place to another, visiting such as he had best hope in. By which his doing, he became in that country both a notable and open professor of the truth, being at all times and in all such places, not without the company of his little boy, whom (as I have said) he used as an assistant to this good purpose. And to this his great industry and endeavour in the holy scripture, God did also add in him a singular gift of memory, so that by the benefit thereof he would and could do that in vouching and rehearsing of the text, which men of riper and more profound knowledge, by their notes and other helps of memory, could hardly accomplish. Insomuch that he would, upon the alleging of scripture, very ⟨p. 530⟩often cite the book, the leaf, yea, and the very sentence; such was the wonderful working of God in this simple and unlearned man.
BECAUSE the good man was altogether unlearned, and withal very simple, he knew no ready way how he might satisfy his great desire. At length it came into his mind to take a special remedy to supply his necessity, which was this: He had a little boy, his own son, which child he sent to school, to learn to read English; now after the little boy could read indifferently well, his father every night after supper, summer and winter, would have the boy to read part of the holy scripture▪ and now and then of some other good book. In which kind of virtuous exercise the old man had such delight and pleasure, that, as it seemed, he rather practised himself in the study of the scripture, than in the trade or science which before time he had used: so that within a few years in the time of king Edward, through the help of his little son, and through much conference besides, he profited and went forward in such sort, that he was able not only to resolve himself touching his own former blindness and ignorance, but was also able to admonish and instruct others: and therefore when occasion served, he would go from one place to another, visiting such as he had best hope in. By which his doing, he became in that country both a notable and open professor of the truth, being at all times and in all such places, not without the company of his little boy, whom (as I have said) he used as an assistant to this good purpose. And to this his great industry and endeavour in the holy scripture, God did also add in him a singular gift of memory, so that by the benefit thereof he would and could do that in vouching and rehearsing of the text, which men of riper and more profound knowledge, by their notes and other helps of memory, could hardly accomplish. Insomuch that he would, upon the alledging of scripture, very