N20568:7442
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 XIX. From Mr. BRADFORD to the Right Worshipful the Lady VANE.
THE good Spirit of God our Father be more and more plentifully perceived by your good ladyship, through the merits and mediation of our dear Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. ALTHOUGH your benefits towards me have deserved all the service I can do for you, yet (right worshipful, and dearly beloved in the Lord) the true fear of God, and the love of his truth, which I perceive to be in you, doth, in a more extraordinary manner, oblige me to respect you. This bearer hath told me that your desire is to have something sent to you concerning the usurped authority of the supremacy of the bishop of Rome (who is undoubtedly that great Antichrist, of whom the apostles do so much admonish us.) Now, to strengthen your faith, as well as to furnish you with answers, (that you may at any time be capable to render a reason of the hope that is in you) I shall write something to the purpose, which I desire you would read and mark well. THE papists do place the pope in pre-eminence over the whole church, thereby unplacing Christ, who is the only ⟨p. 686⟩head of the church, that giveth life to the whole body, and by his Spirit doth enliven every member of the same. This they do against all scriptures. For where they bring in this spoken to Peter, Feed my sheep; I would gladly know whether this was not commanded unto others also. As for that, which perchance they will urge, that he spake to Peter by name: I answer, that if they had any learning, they might easily perceive it was not for any such cause as they pretend, but rather by a threefold commandment to restore him to the honour of an apostle, which he had lost by his threefold denial. And how dare they interpret this word, My sheep, My lambs, to be the universal church of Christ? I think a man might easily by the like reason prove that Peter himself had resigned that which Christ had given to him, in exhorting his fellow-pastors to feed the flock of Christ. Is not this pretty stuff? Because Christ saith to Peter, Feed my sheep, therefore he ought to rule the universal and whole church of Christ? If Peter do truly write unto others that they should do the like, that is, feed Christ's flock, either he conferreth his right and authority committed to him upon them, or else he doth participate or communicate with them; so that foolishly they go about to establish that which hath no ground.