N20568:7333
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.
Volume 1 › Book 2 › Chapter 10 › Letter 5: LETTER V. From Mr. BRADFORD to the Town of WALDEN.
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.
TO the faithful, and such as profess the true doctrine of our Saviour Jesus Christ, dwelling at Walden and thereabouts, John Bradford, a most unworthy servant of the Lord, now in bonds and condemned for the same true doctrine, wisheth grace, mercy, and peace, with the increase of all godliness in knowledge and living, from God the Father of all comfort, through the merits of our only Redeemer Jesus Christ, by the mighty working of the most Holy Spirit, the Comforter, for ever. Amen.
WHEN I remember, how that by the providence and grace of God I have been a man by whom it hath pleased him, through my ministry, to call you to repentance and amendment of life, something effectually, as it seemed, and to sow amongst you his true doctrine and religion, lest that by my affliction, and storms now arisen to try the faithful, and to conform them to the image of the Son of God, into whose company we are called, you might be faint-hearted; I could not but out of prison secretly (for my keepers must not know that I have pen and ink) write unto you a signification of the desire I have, that you should be more confirmed in the doctrine I have taught you, which I am assured is the plain and infallible truth of God, and also that you be warned to govern your lives and conversation agreeable thereto. Dearly beloved in the Lord, had I taught you fables, tales, or lies, instead of this truth, I should not so willingly seal it with my blood.
INDEED, to confess the truth to you and all the church of Christ, I do think of myself that I have […] only most justly deserved this kind of death, but also all kinds of deaths, and that eternally, for mine hypocrisy, vain-glory, uncleanness, self-love, covetousness, idleness, unthankfulness, and carnal professing of God's holy gospel, living therein not so purely and industriously as I should have done: may the God of all mercy pardon me through the merits of Christ's blood, as I hope, yea, I certainly believe he hath done. My dearly beloved, you and all the world well know, and may plainly perceive, that the prelates persecute Christ in me; they do not trouble me for the evil I have done, but for the good I have endeavoured to do, in standing up for the honour of God and his gospel; and because I cannot, dare not, and will not confess transubstantiation, and that wicked men, yea mice and dogs eating the sacrament of the altar, as they term it, (whereby they utterly overthrow Christ's holy supper) do eat the natural and real body of Christ which was born of the virgin Mary: I say, because I will not come into these absurd notions, I am deemed an heretic unworthy to live.