N20568:7274
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 I. From Mr. BRADFORD to his Mother, a pious Matron, dwelling in Manchester, and to his Brethren and Sisters, and other Friends there.
OUR dear and sweet Saviour Jesus Christ, whose prisoner at this present (praised be his name) I am, preserve and keep you, my good mother, with my brothers and sisters, my fathers John Traves, Thomas Sorrocold, Laurence and James Bradshaw, with their wives and families, &c. now and forever, Amen.
I am now in prison, secure enough from starting, to confirm what I have preached unto you, as I am ready (I thank God) to seal the same with my life and blood, if God shall vouchsafe to make me worthy of that honour. For good mother and brethren, it is a most special benefit from God, to suffer for his name's sake and gospel, as now I do: I heartily thank God for it, and am sure that with him I shall be partaker of his glory, as St. Paul saith, "If we suffer with him, we shall reign with him." Therefore be not faint-hearted, but rather rejoice, at least for my sake, who am now in the right and highway to heaven: for by many afflictions we must enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now will God make known his children. When the wind doth not blow, a man cannot know the wheat from the chaff: but when the blast cometh, then the chaff •lieth away, but the wheat remaineth, and is so far from being hurt, that by the wind it is more cleansed from the chaff, and known to be wheat. Gold, when it is cast in the fire, is the more precious: so are God's children by the cross of affliction. God always beginneth his judgment at his house. Christ and the apostles were in the most misery i the land of Jewry, but yet the whole land smarted for […] after: so now the children of God are first chastised in […] world, that they should not be damned with the world; for surely the great plagues of God hang over this realm.