N20568:9511
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.
BEGIN at his birth, and I beseech you, who ever heard of a poorer, or so poor as he was? It were too tedious to write how poor Joseph and the blessed Virgin Mary took their journey from Nazareth toward Bethlehem, in the cold and frosty winter, having nobody to wait upon them, but he both master and man, and she both mistress and maid. How vilely, thinks your grace, were they treated in the inns and lodgings by the way? and in how vile and abject a place was this poor maid, the mother of our Saviour Jesus Christ, brought to bed, without company, light, or any other thing necessary for a woman in that condition? Was not here a poor beginning, as concerning this world? Yes truly. And according to this beginning was the process and end of his life in this world, and yet he might by his godly power have had all the goods and treasures of this world at his pleasure, when and where he would.
BUT this he did to show us, that his followers and vicars should not regard and set by the riches and treasures of this world, but after the saving of David we ought to take them, which saith thus; If ⟨p. 871⟩riches, promotions, and dignity happen to a man, let him not set his affiance, pleasure, trust, and heart upon them. So that it is not against the poverty in spirit, which Christ preacheth in the gospel of St. Matthew▪ chap. v. to be rich, to be in dignity and in honour, so that their hearts be not fixed and set upon them so much, that they neither care for God nor good men. But they be enemies to this poverty in spirit, have they ever so little, that have greedy and desirous minds to the goods of this w••ld, only because they would live after their own pleasures and lusts. And they also be private enemies (and so much the worse) which have professed, as they say, wilful poverty, and will not be called worldly men, and they have lord's lands, and king's riches; yea, rather than they would lose one jot of that which they have, they will set debate between king and king, realm and realm, yea, between the king and his subjects, and cause rebellion against the temporal power, to which our Saviour Christ himself was obedient, and paid tribute, as the gospel declareth; unto whom the holy apostle St. Paul teacheth every christian man to obey. Yea, and beside all this, they will curse and censure, as much as in them lieth, even into the deep pit of hell, all that gainsay their appetite, whereby they think their goods, promotions, or dignities should decay.