N20568:9424
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 such manner of arguments might well serve the devil against cowards, to occasion them to wander and waver in the faith, and to be uncertain in things in which they ought to be certain: or else it may appear to make and serve against such preachers as will define great subtleties and high matters in the pulpit, which no man can be certain and sure of by God's words to be truth, unless a man had a superlative sense to discern good and evil: as whether, if Adam had not sinned, we should have had stock-fish out of Island; how many larks for a penny if every star in the element were a flickering hobby: how many years a man shall lie in purgatory for one sin, if he buy not plenty of the oil that runneth over our lamps to slake the sin with, and so forget hell which cannot be slaked, to provide for purgatory.
SUCH argumentation, I say, might appear to make well against such preachers, not against me, which simply and plainly utter true faith and the fruits of the same, which be the good works of God, which he hath prepared for us to walk in, every man to do the thing that pertaineth to his office and duty in his degree and calling, as the word appointeth; which thing a man may do with soberness, having a sense but indifferently exercised to discern good and evil. For it is but foolish humility, willingly to continue always an infant in Christ and in infirmity. In reproof of which it was said, Ye have need of milk and not of strong meat. For St. Paul saith not▪ Be ye humble, that ye be not deceived. For though he would not that we should think arrogantly of ourselves, and above what it becometh us to think of ourselves, but so to think of ourselves that we may be sober and […]; yet he biddeth us so think of ourselves. As God hath distributed to e••ry one the […] For he that may not with meekness think in himself what God hath done to him, and of himself as God hath done for him, how shall he, or when shall he give due thanks to God for his gifts? And if your friends will not allow the same, I pray you inquire of them, whether they may with sobriety and modesty follow St. Paul's advice, where he saith unto us all, Be not children in understanding, but in maliciousness be ye infants. God give us all grace to keep the mean, and to think ourselves neither too high nor too low, but so that we may restore unto him, who hath sent abroad his gifts again, with good use of the same, so that we do our part with the same, to the glory of God, Amen.