N20568:7827
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 11 › Letter 1: LTTER I. From Mr. SHETERDEN to his MOTHER.
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.
BUT (I thank God) I know their craftiness herein, who will say, Where went he to school? Is he wiser than our great doctors that studied all their lives? And lo, they say that it is good hay; although we smell it musty ourselves, yet we must believe it sweet, and then pay them well for their so saying, and all is safe. But I might say again, What, sir, be you wiser than Christ, and God his Father, and the Holy Ghost? What, wiser than the prophets, and the holy apostles, and all the holy martyrs? I pray you, sir, where had you your high learning? Is it higher than God (being in heaven) is able to teach, or have you set it lower in hell, than ever Christ durst to venture? For methinks it is some strange learning, that Christ and his apostles could never attain to the knowledge of it. But vain men are ⟨p. 720⟩never without some shift: for peradventure they will not be ashamed to say, that Christ coming on his Father's message, did forget half his errand by the way: for I dare say, that the greater half of their ceremonies were never commanded by Christ▪ yea, I doubt it would be hard to find one in the church, perfectly as he left: so Romishly hath Antichrist turned the church upside down for lucre's sake.
BELOVED mother, as I have oftentimes said unto you, even so now I beseech you from my very heart in Christ, to consider your own soul's health is offered to you, do not cast it off: we have not long time here. Why should we deceive ourselves either for ease of our flesh, or for gaining the treasures of this world: I know that some will say to you, Why should we condemn our fathers who lived thus? God forbid that we should condemn any that did according to their knowledge. But let us take heed that they condemn not us, for if they heard the word as we have, and had been warned as we have been, it is to be thought that they would more thankfully have received it than we do: yea, they were more faithful in what they knew, than many now are. Therefore they shall be our condemnation, if we do not embrace this grace that is now offered to us. And surely look how many of them God will accept and save, those shall we never see, nor have any part among them; for our disobedience is greater than was their ignorance. Wherefore if we will meet our fathers in bliss and joy, let us not refuse his mercy offered to us more largely than to them, even according to Christ's promise, which said, after such great ignorance as to seek him from country to country, and find him not; yet shall the gospel, saith he, be preached in all the world, and then shall the end come.