N20568:6627
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.
"WHAT greater goodness can be, than that Christ is content to be captive upon the altar?"
WHEREUPON he speaketh in the person of Jeremiah, saying,
WHEREUPON he speaketh in the person of Jeremy, saying,
"BEHOLD I am in your hands, do with me as you see good, &c. Where note, saith he, that when any duke or prince is taken prisoner for his subjects, he is not let go, before he pay some great sum of money for his ransom. Even so neither we ought to let Christ go out of our hands being our prisoner and captive, except he grant to us remission of our sins and his heavenly kingdom. The priest therefore lifteth up the body of Christ upon the altar, as though he said thus, Behold him whom the whole world is not able to comprehend, he is holden here our captive, wherefore let us hold him fast, and not let him go before we obtain of him our requests," &c.
IS not here good catholic stuff, (christian reader) think you? Compare, I beseech you, this doctrine with the doctrine of the apostles, which teach us that we are fully complete in Christ, and I will refer me to no better judge than to your own conscience. And now therefore if any man has been in doubt in times past of the doctrine and proceeding of the church of Rome, whether it be rightly charged with blind errors, with blasphemy intolerable, and idolatry abominable or not, here now he may be fully certified and resolved. For where was ever idolatry or blasphemy to be sound, if it be not here in this matrixs and psalter of our lady If idolatry be to make an […] to be worshipped as God, which is no god, what do we here but make an idol of our lady […] they call her) to be worshipped with no less dignity, glory authority, revere and service, thu is the […] God himself? […] called our Lord, so she is called our Lady And if he be king, yet she is the queen of heaven. And though he have the name of God, yet she beareth so the title of the mother of God, that as mothers have the authority of their children, so she is willed to show herself to be his mother, to cause him to grant our petitions. Finally, if he be our patron, yet she is our patroness. The commandment saith, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." And what worship or service can we give to God, more than we do ascribe unto her? and what benefit is to be asked at the hands of Christ our Saviour, which is not equally asked of her? to save our soul, to give us peace to grant grace, to comfort the hopeless, to loose our captivity, to release oUr sins, to deliver from the fiend, to bring to heaven, &c. To her we pray, we cry, we weep, we sigh, we groan, we knock and kneel, to her we trust, and if we believe not also in our lady, we are no less than heretics.