N20568:7339
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.
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.
REMEMBER, that before you learned ABC, your […] was Christ's cross. Forget not that Christ will have […] disciples, but such as will promise to deny themselves, and take up their cross, (mark, take it up) and follow him, and not the multitude, custom, &c. Consider for God's […], that if we gather not with Christ, we scatter abroad. Wh•• should it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose […] own soul? We must not forget that this life is a wild•• ness, and not a paradise: here is not our home; we are now in warfare: we must needs fight, or else be taken prison••. Of all the things we have in this life, we shall carry nothing with us. If Christ be our captain, we must follow him. I we keep company with him in affliction, we shall be […] of his society in glory everlasting. If we forsake not hi•, he will never forsake us; but if we deny him, he will deny us. If we be ashamed of him, he will be ashamed of us. Wherefore, as he forsook his Father and ven, and all the glory thereof, to come to us, to suffer poverty, torments, and death for our sakes, surely the […] that we can do, is to forsake all the trifles here below, and go to him, especially when by so doing we make […] eternal interest. Whatsoever you lose for the Lord's […] shall be restored three-fold to your children: and you […] find peace of conscience and friendship with God, which is infinitely more worth than all the kingdoms of this […] and the glory thereof.