N20568:824
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.
ANASTASIUS, a Persian, was brought up a pagan, and bore arms as a soldier under Cosroes, king of Persia, at the time that monarch plundered Jerusalem; and, among other things, carried off the very cross on which Christ was crucified. Anastasius could not imagine why the christians had such a veneration for a person who had died so mean a death as that of being crucified; for that mode of death was, by the Persians, held in the greatest contempt, and none but the very lowest and most despicable malefactors were executed in that manner. Applying to some christian captives, he was instructed in the whole christian mystery, and being charmed with the purity of a faith which inspired such fortitude, he left the army, and retired to Syria: here he learned the trade of a goldsmith, and then going to Jerusalem, he supported himself by that business; was baptized by Modestus, vicar-general of Jerusalem: and staid a week with Elijah, his godfather.
ANASTASIUS, a Persian, was brought up a pagan, and bore arms as a soldier under Cosroes, king of Persia, at the time that monarch plundered Jerusalem; and, among other things, carried off the very cross on which Christ was crucified. Anastasius could not imagine why the christians had such a veneration for a person who had died so mean a death as that of being crucified; for that mode of death was, by the Persians, held in the greatest contempt, and none but the very lowest and most despicable malefactors were executed in that manner. Applying to some christian captives, he was instructed in the whole christian mystery, and being charmed with the purity of a faith which inspired such fortitude, he left the army, and retired to Syria: here he learned the trade of a goldsmith, and then going to Jerusalem, he supported himself by that business; was baptized by Modestus, vicar-general of Jerusalem: and staid a week with Elias, his godfather.
WHEN that time was over, and he was now to quit the white clothes which he wore at his baptism, according to the then practice of the church, he desired the priest would put him in a way of renouncing the world entirely, and fulfilling the obligations of his profession without interruption. Elijah recommended him to Justin, abbot of a seminary four miles from Jerusalem, who employed a proper person to instruct him in the Greek tongue, and to teach him the Psalms; and then admitted him into his religious community. Anastasius passed seven years in that house, where he divided his time between the most humble domestic employments, and the truly christian entertainments of the word of God, the lives of the fathers, and the acts of the martyrs. He was most sensibly affected with those monuments of pagan barbarity, and christian courage; and conceived a strong desire to lay down his life for Jesus Christ.