N20568:9760
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.
FAREWELL, all my whole kindred and countrymen, farewell in Christ altogether. The Lord, who is the searcher of secrets, knoweth that according to my heart's desire, my hope was of late that I should have come among you, and to have brought with me abundance of Christ's blessed gospel, according to the duty of that office and ministry, whereunto among you I was chosen, named and appointed by the mouth of that late peerless prince, king Edward, and so denounced openly in his court, by his p••vy council.
FAREWEL, all my whole kindred and countrymen, farewel in Christ altogether. The Lord, who is the searcher of secrets, knoweth that according to my heart's desire, my hope was of late that I should have come among you, and to have brought with me abundance of Christ's blessed gospel, according to the duty of that office and ministry, whereunto among you I was chosen, named and appointed by the mouth of that late peerless prince, king Edward, and so denounced openly in his court, by his p••vy council.
I warn you all, my beloved kinsfolk and countrymen, that you be not amazed or astonished at the kind of my departure or dissolution; for I assure you I think it the greatest honour that ever I was called to in all my life: and therefore I heartily thank my Lord God for it, that it hath pleased him to call me of his great mercy unto this high honour, to suffer death willingly for his cause and for his sake; unto which honour he hath called the holy prophets, and dearly beloved apostles, and his blessed chosen martyrs. For know you that I doubt no more, that the causes for which I am put to death are God's causes, and the causes of the truth, than I doubt that the gospel which John wrote is the gospel of Christ, or that Paul's epistles are the very word of God. And to have a heart willing to abide, and stand in God's cause, and in Christ's quarrel even unto death, I assure thee, (O man) it is an inestimable and an honourable gift of God, given only to the true elect, and dearly beloved children of God and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. For the holy apostle, and also martyr in Christ's cause, St. Peter, saith, If ye suffer rebuke in the name of Christ, that is, in Christ's cause, and for his truth's sake, then are ye happy and blessed, for the glory of the Spirit of God resteth upon you. If for rebuke's sake suffered in Christ's name, a man is pronounced, by the mouth of that apostle, blessed and happy, how much more happy and blessed is he that hath the grace to suffer death also! Wherefore all you that be my true lovers and friends, rejoice, and rejoice with me again, and render with me hearty thanks to God our heavenly Father, that for his Son's sake my Saviour and Redeemer Christ, he hath vouchsafed to call me, being else without his gracious goodness, in myself but a sinful and vile wretch, to call me, I say, unto this high dignity of his true prophets, of his faithful apostles, and of his holy elect and chosen martyrs, that is, to die, and not to spend this temporal lie in the defence and maintenance of his eternal and everlasting truth.