N20568:8908
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.
AND this I mention not to open his wound and expose his misfortunes, but to encourage all good men by his example to glorify the Son of God, who suffereth none to be tempted above his strength, but so tempereth and seasoneth the asperity of evils, that what seemeth to us intolerable, he doth not alleviate that we may bear it, but also turneth i• more to our advantage than we can imagine▪ which manifestly appeared in this good servant of God, and in no man more. And although (as we have said) he suffered many years these sharp temptations and strong buffetings of Satan; yet the Lord, who graciously preserved him all the while, did not only rid him out of all discomfort, but also framed him thereby to such mortification of life, as the like probably hath not been seen, in such sort as he being like one placed in heaven already, and dead to this world, both in word and meditation led a life altogether celestial, abhorring in his mind all profane doings. Neither was his talk any thing different from the fruits of his life, never throwing out an idle, vile, or vain word. The most part of his lands he distributed to the use of his brethren, and committed the rest to the guiding of his servants and officers whereby he might the more quietly give up himself his godly study, as to a continual Sabbath rest. This was about the latter end of king Henry's reign, and continued in the time of king Edward VI.
AFTER this, in the persecuting days of queen Mary, as soon as the bishop of Coventry heard of his fame, and of his being so ardent and zealous in the gospel of Christ, he immediately wrote a letter to the mayor and officers of Coventry, ⟨p. 771⟩to apprehend him as soon as possible. But by the good providence of God, it happened otherwise: for God disposeth all things after his own secret pleasure, who seeing his old trusty servant so many years with so extreme and many torments broken and dried up, would in no wise heap too many sorrows upon one poor silly wretch: neither would he commit him to the flames of fire, who had been already baked and scorched with the sharp fires of inward affliction, and had sustained so many burning darts and conflicts of Satan so many years God therefore, of his divine providence, thinking it too much that one man should be so overcharged with so many plagues and torments, did graciously provide, that Robert his brother being both stronger in body, and also better furnished with helps of learning to answer the adversaries, (being a Master of Arts in Cambridge) should sustain that conflict, and even so it came to pass.