N20568:7422
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 15: LETTER XV. From Mr. BRADFORD, to Dr. HILL, Physician.
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.
STRIVE therefore, good Mr. Doctor, now you have found it, to enter into it: and if you shall be called or pulled back, look not on this side, or behind you, as Lot's wife did; but strait forwards is the end which is set before you, (though it be to come) as even now present: like as you order your patients to do in purgations, and other your ministrations, to consider the effect that will ensue; whereby the bitterness and loathsomeness of the purgation is so overcome, and the painfulness in abiding the working of what is ministered, is so eased, that it maketh the patient willingly and joyfully to receive whatsoever is to be received, be it ever so unpleasant: so I say, set before you the end of this strait way, and then doubtless, as St. Paul saith, It shall bring with it an eternal weight of glory, whilst we look not on the thing which is not seen, for that is temporal, but on the thing which is not seen, which is eternal. So doth the husbandman in ploughing and tilling set before him the harvest-time; so doth the fisher consider the draught of his net, rather than the casting in; so doth the merchant the return of his merchandise; and so should we in these stormy days set before us not the loss of our goods, liberty, and very life; but the reaping time, the coming of our Saviour Christ to judgment, the fire that shall burn the wicked and disobedient to God's gospel, the blast of the trump, the exceeding glory prepared for us in heaven eternally, such as the eye hath not seen, the ear hath not heard, nor the heart of man can conceive. The more we lose here, the greater joy we shall have there. The more we suffer, the greater triumph. For corruptible dross we shall find incorruptible treasures; for gold, glory; for silver, joy without end; for riches royal robes; for earthly houses, eternal palaces: mirth without measure, pleasure without pain, and endless felicity. In fine, we shall have God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
STRIVE therefore, good Mr. Doctor, now you have found it, to enter into it: and if you shall be called or pulled back, look not on this side, or behind you, as Lot's wife did; but strait forwards is the end which is set before you, (though it be to come) as even now present: like as you order your patients to do in purgations, and other your ministrations, to consider the effect that will ensue; whereby the bitterness and loathsomeness of the purgation is so overcome, and the painfulness in abiding the working of what is ministered, is so eased, that it maketh the patient willingly and joyfully to receive whatsoever is to be received, be it ever so unpleasant: so I say, set before you the end of this strait way, and then doubtless, as St. Paul saith, It shall bring with it an eternal weight of glory, whilst we look not on the thing which is not seen, for that is temporal, but on the thing which is not seen, which is eternal. So doth the husbandman in plowing and tilling set before him the harvest-time; so doth the fisher consider the draught of his net, rather than the casting in; so doth the merchant the return of his merchandize; and so should we in these stormy days set before us not the loss of our goods, liberty, and very life; but the reaping time, the coming of our Saviour Christ to judgment, the fire that shall burn the wicked and disobedient to God's gospel, the blast of the trump, the exceeding glory prepared for us in heaven eternally, such as the eye hath not seen, the ear hath not heard, nor the heart of man can conceive. The more we lose here, the greater joy we shall have there. The more we suffer, the greater triumph. For corruptible dross we shall find incorruptible treasures; for gold, glory; for silver, joy without end; for riches royal robes; for earthly houses, eternal palaces: mirth without measure, pleasure without pain, and endless felicity. In fine, we shall have God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.