N20568:7338
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.
YOU know that we were gospellers in lips and not in life. We were glutted with, and tired of the word of God: ⟨p. 670⟩yea, we loathed it, as the children of Israel did the manna in the wilderness; and therefore as the Lord's wrath waxed hot with them, so it doth with us. So that there is no other remedy, but that (for it is better late to turn, than never to turn) we confess our faults even from the bottom of our hearts, and with hearty repentance, (which God grant to us all) we run unto the Lord our God, who is exorable, merciful, and sorry for the evil poured out upon us; and cry unto him with Daniel, saying, We have sinned, we have grievously sinned, O Lord God, against thy majesty; we have heaped iniquity upon iniquity: the measure of our transgressions floweth over, so that thy vengeance and wrath is justly fallen upon us. For we are very miserable, for we have contemned thy long suffering, we have not hearkened to thy voice. When thou hast called us by preachers, we hardened our hearts, and therefore now we justly deserve to have our hearts hardened like Pharaoh, to have eyes and see not, ears and hear not, hearts and understand not, lest we should turn and be saved. O be merciful unto us; spare us, good Lord, and all thy people whom thou hast dearly bought. Let not thine enemies triumph altogether, and always against thee, for then they will be puffed up. Look down and behold the pitiful complaint of the poor; let the sorrowful sighing of the simple come into thy sight, and be not angry with us for ever. Turn us, O Lord God of hosts, unto thee, and turn thou unto us, that thou mayest be justified in thy sweet sentences, and overcome when thou art judged, as now thou art by our adversaries. For they say, Where is their God? Can God deliver them now? Can their gospel serve them? O Lord, how long? for thy honour's sake, in the bowels and blood of Jesus Christ, we humbly beseech thee, come and help us, for we are very miserable.
IN this manner let us publicly and privately bewail our sins; and at the same time endeavour to avoid them as much as possible, especially all wilful and habitual sins; for if we nourish them in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us, for the prayer of the wicked is abominable in the sight of God, saith the prophet. And in St. John it is written, The impenitent sinners God heareth not; and they are impenitent who purpose not to amend their lives. Those who, for fear or favour of men, worship God in a false manner, and contrary to their own consciences consent to the Romish rags, and resort to the rotten religion, communicating in service and ceremonies with the papists, thereby declaring, in effect, that they love the world more than God, and fear men more than Christ, and dread the loss of temporal things more than spiritual; I say, such men do sin as presumptuously as those who are wilfully guilty of the greatest immorality; for it is evident that the love of God abideth not in them. He that loveth the world, hath not God's word abiding in him, saith St. John: therefore my dear brethren in the Lord, remember what you have professed, Christ's name and religion, and the renouncing the devil, sin, and the world.