N20568:9386
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 12 › Letter: LETTER In answer to the foregoing, by Mr. Latimer.
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 In answer to the foregoing, by Mr. Latimer.
HEALTH to you in abundance. I do not know, worthy sir, that I am so fierce as not to bear patiently any christian admonition, or so insensible, that when slandered, admonished, confuted, condemned by calumny and lies, I should justify myself; what if I should answer your letter with the same liberty you take? But I forbear, lest instead of convincing I provoke your passion; rather God give us both wisely to know him, and to me patience worthy of a christian amidst so many afflictions, and to you a right judgment, that you be not transported too far by an over hot zeal. I thought this prayer better than any apology for answering you, being withal so busy in writing a sermon which I must preach the day after to-morrow, that I have no more leisure than there is obligation, to answer all your heap of lies; but that I may satisfy you a little, I will say a few things to a great many. And first, the thing is what I have said, and what you say I have said. And here you are so hard put to it, that, as the saying is, you are forced to skin a flint; but so it is, that through all you say there runs a continued strain of rage and malice. Suppose I said, that all popes, bishops, and priests, entering not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbing up some other way, were thieves and robbers; the stress lays on their entering and climbing up, not on their persons or titles; and I say no more than what Christ himself says: hence, you of your own head charge me with saying, that all popes, bishops, and priests, were thieves and robbers. Now (my brother) is this fairly to be collected from what I said? May not I justly apply to you that of St. Paul to the Romans, So they say we said, but they speak evil of us, and their […] is just; and yet St. Paul's adversaries […] justly draw their conclusions from what he said, than you can from what I said. If the word of God is the same as it was at first, and the ministers of that word are as acceptable to him now as they were then, doth not the same damnation remain for their calumniators? But there is a great difference, you say, between saying all that enter not by the door are thieves and robbers, and saying simply, that all were thieves and robbers. But whence comes it, I beseech you, that whilst I say all that enter not by the door, should seem to you simply to say all in general;