N20568:9854
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.
BUT peradventure (as man is ready to find, and invent some colour to cloak his conscience, to do that thing that his heart desireth) thou wilt say, though at any time I shall be forced to do any of these things, and such like, yet will I have no confidence in them, but outwardly with my body; I will keep my heart unto God, and will not do that of my own mind willingly neither, but to avoid another inconvenience: I trust therefore God will hold me excused, for he shall have my heart: what can I do more?
O my friend, beware for God's sake, and know that the subtleties of Sat•n are very deep. He that is not able by God's word to perceive them is heavily laden. Pray therefore with David; Lord, let me not have a mind to invent excuses to cloak my sin; examine, my dear friend, th•se wily ways with the word of God, and if they do agree, thou mayest use them: if not, know, though they may seem ever so fine and goodly, yet indeed they be of Satan's brood. God's word is certain, that forbiddeth to worship the creature for the Creator, for that is heinous idolatry, and against the commandment of God; and it is also against the second commandment of the first table to bow down, or to worship unto any images of God, or of any other thing; and God's word requireth not only the belief of the heart, but also the confession of the mouth; and to bear part of the charges, to the maintenance of things ungodly; what is that, but in thy so doing, a consent to the thing done? Now consen•ers and the doers, God's word accounteth to be guilty of both. And it is not lawful, by St. Paul's doctrine, which was inspired by the Spirit of God, to do ill, that thereof the thing which is good may come.
O my friend, beware for God's sake, and know that the subtilties of Sat•n are very deep. He that is not able by God's word to perceive them is heavily laden. Pray therefore with David; Lord, let me not have a mind to invent excuses to cloak my sin; examine, my dear friend, th•se wily ways with the word of God, and if they do agree, thou mayest use them: if not, know, though they may seem ever so fine and goodly, yet indeed they be of Satan's brood. God's word is certain, that forbiddeth to worship the creature for the Creator, for that is heinous idolatry, and against the commandment of God; and it is also against the second commandment of the first table to bow down, or to worship unto any images of God, or of any other thing; and God's word requireth not only the belief of the heart, but also the confession of the mouth; and to bear part of the charges, to the maint•nance of things ungodly; what is that, but in thy so doing, a consent to the thing done? Now consen•ers and the doers, God's word accounteth to be guilty of both. And it is not lawful, by St. Paul's doctrine, which was inspired by the Spirit of God, to do ill, that thereof the thing which is good may come.
THY heart, thou sayest, God shall have, and yet will suffer thy body to do the thing that God doth abhor. Beware, O man, take heed what thou sayest; man may be deceived, but no man may deceive God, for he is called, and is truly, the searcher of the heart. Now to give God thy heart, is to give him thy whole heart, to dread him, and to trust in him above all other things. "He that hath my commandments, saith Christ, and observeth and keepeth them, it is he that loveth me:" and to dread God above all others, is rather willingly to incur the danger and peril of all fearful things, than wittingly to do that thing which is contrary to his blessed will and commandment; and to trust in him above all things, is assuredly to trust to his promise of his reward, and of his tuition, and of his goodness and mercy, and to prefer that above all things in the world, seem they ever so ⟨p. 933⟩strong, so wise, or so good. Now, •how canst thou say truly, that God hath thy heart after this manner of sort, when thy deeds do declare for another thing? Thy body, O man, is God's, and all the parts thereof, even as thy soul is: he made them both, and Christ with his blood redeemed them both, for he hath bought them both dearly: and darest thou suffer any part of them to do service to Satan? Surely in so doing thou committest sacrilege, and dost rob God; thou defilest the living temple of the living God, if thou suffer thy body to do Satan service. "Do you not know, saith St. Paul, that your body is a lively temple of God?" And may a man then take and use any part thereof but in the service of God? No, surely, it is not lawful so to do for the man of God, neither with hand, tongue, nor feet, nor any part of the whole body.
THY heart, thou sayest, God shall have, and yet will suffer thy body to do the thing that God doth abhor. Beware, O man, take heed what thou sayest; man may be deceived, but no man may deceive God, for he is called, and is truly, the searcher of the heart. Now to give God thy heart, is to give him thy whole heart, to dread him, and to trust in him above all other things. "He that hath my commandments, saith Christ, and observeth and keepeth them, it is he that loveth me:" and to dread God above all others, is rather willingly to incur the danger and peril of all fearful things, than wittingly to do that thing which is contrary to his blessed will and commandment; and to trust in him above all things, is assuredly to trust to his promise of his reward, and of his tuition, and of his goodness and mercy, and to prefer that above all things in the world, seem they ever so
DOTH not Paul command that to the Romans, which pertaineth to every christian soul? "As you have in times past, saith he, given your members to do service unto uncleanness and wickedness, from one wickedness to another; so now give your members to do service unto righteousness, that you may be sanctified." And I pray thee, good brother, what dost thou think it is to bear the mark of the beast in the forehead, and in the hand, that St. John speaketh of? I know we ought warily to speak of God's mysteries, which he showed by the spirit of prophesying to his servant John, yet to read them with reverence; and to pray for the same so much as God knoweth is necessary for our time to know, I think it necessary and good. Wherefore what I suppose is to bear the beast's mark, I will tell thee and commit the judgment of mine interpretation, as in all other things, to the spi•••ual man. I suppose he beareth the beast of Babylon's mark in his forehead, which is not ashamed of the beast's ways, but will profess them openly to set forth his master the beast of Abaddon. And likewise he beareth his mark in his hand, that will and doth practise the works of the beast with his power and hand. And likewise I will not forbear to tell thee, what I think to be signed in the forehead for the servant of God is, whereof John also speaketh, reckoning up many thousands so to have been signed of every tribe. I suppose he is signed in the forehead for the servant of God, whom God hath appointed of his infinit• goodness, and hath given him grace and strength stoutly to confess him, and his truth before the world. And to have grace and strength to confess Christ, and the doctrine of the cross, and to lament and mourn for the abomination of Antichrist, I suppose is to be signed TAU, whereof Ezekiel the prophet doth speak. Thus, I suppose, these prophecies are spiritually to be understood: and to look for other corporal marks, to be seen in men's foreheads, or in their hands, is nothing else but to look that there should come some brute beast ou• of Babylon, or some elephant, leopard, lion, or some such monstrous beast with ten horns, that should do all the wonderful things spoken in John:
and yet a beast speaketh John, but I understand him so to be called, not for that he shall be any such brute beast, but for that he is and shall be the child of perdition, which for his cruelty and beastly manners is well called a beast.
THE carnal Jews knew there was a promise made, that Elijah should come before Christ the Messiah, the anointed of God, to prepare his ways: they knew also there was a promise of Messiah, that he should come, and be a king, and reign in the house of David for evermore: but they understood all so grossly, and so carnally, that they neither knew Elijah, nor Messiah, when they came; for they looked for Elijah to come down from heaven in his own person, and for Messiah to come and reign in worldly pomp, power, riches, and glory, whereas the prophecies of both were spiritually to have been understood: of Elijah, that he should not come in person, but in spirit; that is, one that should be endowed with the spirit and gifts of grace of Elijah, who was indeed John Baptist, as Christ himself did declare to his apostles: and of Messiah's reign, all the prophets were to be understood of the reign of his spiritual kingdom over the house of Jacob, and the true Israelites for evermore. And so by that their gross and carnal understanding, they mistook both Elijah and the true Messiah, and when they came, knew neither of them. So likewise, I fear, nay, it is certain, the world that wanteth the light of the Spirit of God (for the world is not able to receive him, saith John) neither doth, nor shall know the beast, nor his marks, though he rage cruelly, and live ever ⟨p. 934⟩so beastly, and though his marked men be in number like the sand of the sea. The Lord therefore vouchsafe to open the eyes of the blind with the light of grace, that they may see and perceive, and understand the words of God, after the mind of his Spirit. Amen.
THE carnal Jews knew there was a promise made, that Elias should come before Christ the Messiah, the anointed of God, to prepare his ways: they knew also there was a promise of Messiah, that he should come, and be a king, and reign in the house of David for evermore: but they understood all so grossly, and so carnally, that they neither knew Elias, nor Messiah, when they came; for they looked for Elias to come down from heaven in his own person, and for Messiah to come and reign in worldly pomp, power, riches, and glory, whereas the prophecies of both were spiritually to have been understood: of Elias, that he should not come in person, but in spirit; that is, one that should be endowed with the spirit and gifts of grace of Elias, who was indeed John Baptist, as Christ himself did declare to his apostles: and of Messiah's reign, all the prophets were to be understood of the reign of his spiritual kingdom over the house of Jacob, and the true Israelites for evermore. And so by that their gross and carnal understanding, they mistook both Elias and the true Messiah, and when they came, knew neither of them. So likewise, I fear, nay, it is certain, the world that wanteth the light of the Spirit of God (for the world is not able to receive him, saith John) neither doth, nor shall know the beast, nor his marks, though he rage cruelly, and live ever
HERE remain two objections, which may seem weighty, and which may peradventure move many not to follow the former counsel. The former reason is, A man will say, O sir, it is no small matter you speak of, to depart from a man's own native country into a strange realm. Many men have so great hindrances, as how is it possible that they can, or may do so? Some have lands and possessions, which they cannot carry with them: some have father, mother, wife, children, and kinsfolk, from whom to depart is as hard a thing (and all one almost) as to suffer death, and to go to a strange country that thou knowest not, neither the manner of the people, nor how thou mayst away either with the people, or with the country: or what a hard thing it is to live among a strange people, whose language thou dost not understand, &c.
I grant here thou mayst heap a number of worldly disadvantages, which are surely very likely to ensue the departure out of a man's native country, I mean out of the whole realm, into a strange land: but what of all these, and a thousand more of the like sort? I will set unto them one saying of our Saviour Christ, which unto the faithful child of God, and to the true christian, is able to countervail all these, yea, and to weigh them down. Christ our Saviour saith in Luke, "If any come to me, and do not hate his father and mother, [he meaneth, and will not in his cause forsake his father and mother] his wife, children, and brethren, yea, and his life too, he cannot be my disciple: and whosoever doth not bear my cross, and come after me, he cannot be my disciple." And, in the same place, he declareth by the two parables, one of a builder, and the other of a king that is a warrior, that every man that will not, in Christ's cause, forsake all that ever he hath, he cannot be his disciple. Look the places who will; the matter is so plainly set forth, that no glosses, nor cloaking of conscience to the man of God, can serve to the contrary. Many places there be for the same purpose for the embracing of Christ's cross, when Christ and his cause layeth it upon our back; but this is so plain, that I need here rehearse no more.
THIS latter reason and objection, whereof I spake before, is of more force, and includeth a necessity, which, after the common saying▪ hat• no law, and therefore it is more hard to shape for it a good answer. This may be objected of some; Alas, sir, I grant all these things do grieve me, and because I understand they do not agree with God's word, which is the rule of my conscience, I loath either to look on them, or to hear them. But, sir, alas, I am an impotent man, an aged man, a sick man, a lame man; or I have so many small infants, and a lame wife, who all live by my labour, and by my provision: if I leave them, they will starve, and I am not able to carry them with me, such is my slate. Alas, sir, what shall I do? And these causes may chance to some men of God, whereby either it shall be for them utterly impossible to depart the country, or else in departing they shall be enforced to forsake such in extreme necessity, of whom both God and nature have committed unto them the care.
ALAS! what counsel is here to be given? O lamentable state! O sorrowful heart! that neither can depart, and without extreme danger and peril is not able to tarry still. And these are they whom our Saviour Christ saw before should be, and called them in his prophecy of the latter time, great bellied, or travailing women, and women that give, after they are brought to bed, su•k to their babes. Of the state of such as are not able to fly the infection of the pestiferous plague of Antichrist's abominations, Christ's lamenting, and not cursing, saith, "Woe be to the great bellied and travailing women, and women that give suck in those days." For these, alas, my heart mourneth the more, the less I […] able to give any comfortable counsel, but this; that always, as they look for everlasting life, they abide still in the confession of his truth, whatsoever shall befall, and for the rest, to put their trust now wholly in God, who in able to save them against all appearance; and commonly in extremities, when all worldly comfort faileth, and the danger is at the ⟨p. 935⟩highest, then unto his he is wont, after his accustomed mercy, to be most ready to put to his helping hand. God suffered Daniel to be cast into the den of lions, and the three children into the hot burning furnace, and yet he saved them all. Paul was plucked out of the mouth of the lion (as he saith himself), and in Asia he was brought into such trouble, that he looked for nothing less than present death, and yet he that raised the dead to life again, brought him out of all his troubles, and taught him and all others that be in trouble for Christ's cause, not to trust to themselves, but in Almighty God.
ALAS! what counsel is here to be given? O lamentable state! O sorrowful heart! that neither can depart, and without extreme danger and peril is not able to tarry still. And these are they whom our Saviour Christ saw before should be, and called them in his prophecy of the latter time, great bellied, or travailing women, and women that give, after they are brought to bed, su•k to their babes. Of the state of such as are not able to fly the infection of the pestiferous plague of Antichrist's abominations, Christ's lamenting, and not cursing, saith, "Woe be to the great bellied and travailing women, and women that give suck in those days." For these, alas, my heart mourneth the more, the less I 〈…〉 able to give any comfortable counsel, but this; that always, as they look for everlasting life, they abide still in the confession of his truth, whatsover shall befal, and for the rest, to put their trust now wholly in God, who in able to save them against all appearance; and commonly in extremities, when all worldly comfort faileth, and the danger is at the
OF God's gracious aid in extreme perils towards them that put their trust in him, all scripture is full both of old and new. What dangers were the patriarchs often brought into, as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but of all others Joseph, and how mercifully were they delivered again? In what perils was Moses when he was fain to fly for safeguard of his life? And when he was sent again to deliver the Israelites from their servile bondage? Not before they were brought into extreme misery. And when did the Lord mightily deliver his people from the sword of Pharaoh? Not before they were brought into such straits, that they were so encompassed on every side, the main sea on one side, and the main host on the other, that they could look for none other, (yea, what did they indeed else look for?) but either to have been drowned in the sea, or else to have fallen on the edge of Pharaoh's sword. Those judges which wrought most wonderful things in the delivery of the people, were given when the people was brought to most misery before, as Othniel, Ehud, Samgar, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson And so was Saul endued with strength and boldness from above, against the Ammonites, Philistines, and Amalekites, for the defence of the people of Gad. David likewise felt God's help most sensibly ever in his extreme persecutions. What shall I speak of the prophets of God, whom God suffered so oft to be brought into extreme perils, and so mightily delivered them again: as Elijah, Jeremiah, Daniel and Jonah, and many others, whom it were too […] to rehearse and set out at large? And did the […] use his servants otherwise in the new law after Christ's incarnation? Read the Acts of the Apostles, and you shall see no. Were not the apostles cast into prison, and brought out by the mighty hand of God? Did not the angel deliver Peter out of the strong prison, and bring him out by the iron gates of the city, and set him free? And when, I pray you? Even the same night before Herod appointed to have brought him to judgment to have slain him, as he had a little before killed James the brother of John. Paul and Silas, after they had been sore scourged, and were put into the inner prison, and there laid fast in the stocks, I pray you, what appearance was there that the magistrates should be glad to come the next day themselves to them, to desire them to be content, and to depart in peace?
OF God's gracious aid in extreme perils towards them that put their trust in him, all scripture is full both of old and new. What dangers were the patriarchs often brought into, as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but of all others Joseph, and how mercifully were they delivered again? In what perils was Moses when he was fain to fly for safeguard of his life? And when he was sent again to deliver the Israelites from their servile bondage? Not before they were brought into extreme misery. And when did the Lord mightily deliver his people from the sword of Pharaoh? Not before they were brought into such straits, that they were so encompassed on every side, the main sea on one side, and the main host on the other, that they could look for none other, (yea, what did they indeed else look for?) but either to have been drowned in the sea, or else to have fallen on the edge of Pharaoh's sword. Those judges which wrought most wonderful things in the delivery of the people, were given when the people was brought to most misery before, as Othniel, Ehud, Samgar, Gideon, Jephtha, Samson And so was Saul endued with strength and boldness from above, against the Ammonites, Philistines, and Amalekites, for the defence of the people of Gad. David likewise felt God's help most sensibly ever in his extreme persecutions. What shall I speak of the prophets of God, whom God suffered so oft to be brought into extreme perils, and so mightily delivered them again: as Elias, Jeremiah, Daniel and Jonah, and many others, whom it were too to rehearse and set out at large? And did the use his servants otherwise in the new law after Christ's incarnation? Read the Acts of the Apostles, and you shall see no. Were not the apostles cast into prison, and brought out by the mighty hand of God? Did not the angel deliver Peter out of the strong prison, and bring him out by the iron gates of the city, and set him free? And when, I pray you? Even the same night before Herod appointed to have brought him to judgment to have slain him, as he had a little before killed James the brother of John. Paul and Silas, after they had been sore scourged, and were put into the inner prison, and there laid fast in the stocks, I pray you, what appearance was there that the magistrates should be glad to come the next day themselves to them, to desire them to be content, and to depart in peace?
Who provided for Paul, that he should be safely conducted out of all danger, and brought to Felix the emperor's deputy, when as both the high-priest, the pharisees, and rulers of the Jews conspired to require judgment of death against him, he being fast in prison, and also more than forty men had sworn each one to the other, that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul? A thing wonderful, that no reason could have invented, or man could have looked for: God provided Paul his own sister's son, a young man that disappointed that conspiracy, and all their former conjuration. The manner how the thing came to pass, thou mayst read in the Acts xxiii. I will not be tedious unto thee with the rehearsal thereof.
NOW to descend from the apostles to the martyrs that followed next in Christ's church, and in them likewise to declare how gracious our good God over hath been to work wonderfully with them who in his cause have been in extreme perils, it were matter enough to write a long book. I will here name but one man and one woman, that is, Athanasius the great clerk and godly man, stoutly standing in Christ's cause against the Arians, and that holy woman Blandina, standing so constantly in all extreme pains, in the simple confession of Christ. If thou wilt have examples of more, look and thou s•alt have these and an hundred more, in Eusebius's ecclesiastical history, and in Tripartita Historia.
BUT for all these examples, both of holy scripture, and of other histories, I fear me the weak man of God, encumbered with the frailty and infirmity of the flesh, will have now and then such thoughts and ⟨p. 936⟩qualms (as they call them) to run over his heart, and to think thus: all these things which are rehearsed out of the scripture I believe to be true, and the rest truly I do think well, and can believe them also to be true; but all these we must needs grant were special miracles of God, which now in our days •re ceased, we see; and to require them at God's hands, were it not to tempt God?
BUT for all these examples, both of holy scripture, and of other histories, I fear me the weak man of God, incumbered with the frailty and infirmity of the flesh, will have now and then such thoughts and ⟨p. 936⟩qualms (as they call them) to run over his heart, and to think thus: all these things which are rehearsed out of the scripture I believe to be true, and the rest truly I do think well, and can believe them also to be true; but all these we must needs grant were special miracles of God, which now in our days •re ceased, we see; and to require them at God's hands, were it not to tempt God?
WELL, beloved brother, I grant such were great wonderful works of God, and we have not seen many such miracles in our time, either for that our sight is not clear, or else because we have not the like faith of them for whose cause God wrought such things, or because, after he had set forth the truth of his doctrine by such miracles then sufficiently, the time of so many miracles to be done was expired. Which of these is the most special cause of all other, or whether there be any other, God knoweth; I leave that to God. But know thou this, my well beloved in God, that God's hand is as strong as ever it was, he may do what his gracious pleasure is, and he is as good and gracious as ever he was. Man changeth as the garment doth; but God our heavenly Father is even the same now that he was, and shall be for evermore.
THE world without doubt (this I believe, and therefore I say) draweth towards an end, and in all ages God hath had his own manner, after his secret and unsearchable wisdom, to use his elect, sometimes to suffer them to drink of Christ's cup, that is, to feel the smart, and to feel of the whip. And though the flesh smarteth at the one, and feeleth ease in the other, is glad of the one, and sore vexed in the other; yet the Lord is all one towards them in both, and loveth them no less when he suffereth them to be beaten, yea, and to be put to bodily death, than when he worketh wonders for their marvellous delivery. Nay, he doth rather more for them, when in an anguish of the torments he standeth by them, and strengtheneth them in their faith, to suffer in the confession of the truth and his faith, the bitter pangs of death, than when he openeth the prison door and letteth them go loose: for here he doth but respite them to another time, and leaveth them in danger to fall in like peril again; and there he maketh them perfect, to be without danger, pain or peril, after that for evermore. But this his love towards them, howsoever the world doth judge of it, i• all one, both when he delivereth, and when he suffereth them to be put to death. He loved as well Peter and Paul, when (after they had, according to his blessed will, pleasure and providence, finished their courses, and done their services appointed them by him here in preaching of his gospel) the one was beheaded, and the other was hanged and crucified by the cruel tyrant Nero, as the ecclesiastical history saith, as when he sent the angel to bring Peter out of prison, and for Paul's delivery he made all the doors of the prison to f•y wide open, and the foundation of the same, like an earthquake, to tremble and shake.
THE world without doubt (this I believe, and therefore I say) draweth towards an end, and in all ages God hath had his own manner, after his secret and unsearchable wisdom, to use his elect, sometimes to suffer them to drink of Christ's cup, that is, to feel the smart, and to feel of the whip. And though the flesh smarteth at the one, and feeleth ease in the other, is glad of the one, and sore vexed in the other; yet the Lord is all one towards them in both, and loveth them no less when he suffereth them to be beaten, yea, and to be put to bodily death, than when he worketh wonders for their marvellous delivery. Nay, he doth rather more for them, when in an anguish of the torments he standeth by them, and strengtheneth them in their faith, to suffer in the confession of the truth and his faith, the bitter pangs of death, than when he openeth the prison door and letteth them go loose: for here he doth but respite them to another time, and leaveth them in danger to fall in like peril again; and there he maketh them perfect, to be without danger, pain or peril, after that for evermore. But this his love towards them, howsoever the world doth judge of it, i all one, both when he delivereth, and when he suffereth them to be put to death. He loved as well Peter and Paul, when (after they had, according to his blessed will, pleasure and providence, finished their courses, and done their services appointed them by him here in preaching of his gospel) the one was beheaded, and the other was hanged and crucified by the cruel tyrant Nero, as the ecclesiastical history saith, as when he sent the angel to bring Petr out of prison, and for Paul's delivery he made all the doors of the prison to fy wide open, and the foundtion of the same, like an earthquake, to tremble and shake.
DOTH not Paul command that to the Romans, which pertaineth to every christian soul? "As you have in times past, saith he, given your members to do service unto uncleanness and wickedness, from one wickedness to another; so now give your members to do service unto righteousness, that you may be sanctified." And I pray thee, good brother, what dost thou think it is to bear the mark of the beast in the forehead, and in the hand, that St. John speaketh of? I know we ought warily to speak of God's mysteries, which he shewed by the spirit of prophesying to his servant John, yet to read them with reverence; and to pray for the same so much as God knoweth is necessary for our time to know, I think it necessary and good. Wherefore what I suppose is to bear the beast's mark, I will tell thee and commit the judgment of mine interpretation, as in all other things, to the spi•••ual man. I suppose he beareth the beast of Babylon's mark in his forehead, which is not ashamed of the beast's ways, but will profess them openly to set forth his master the beast of Abaddon. And likewise he beareth his mark in his hand, that will and doth practise the works of the beast with his power and hand. And likewise I will not forbear to tell thee, what I think to be signed in the forehead for the servant of God is, whereof John also speaketh, reckoning up many thousands so to have been signed of every tribe. I suppose he is signed in the forehead for the servant of God, whom God hath appointed of his infinit• goodness, and hath given him grace and strength stoutly to confess him, and his truth before the world. And to have grace and strength to confess Christ, and the doctrine of the cross, and to lament and mourn for the abomination of Antichrist, I suppose is to be signed TAU, whereof Ezekiel the prophet doth speak. Thus, I suppose, these prophecies are spiritually to be understood: and to look for other corporal marks, to be seen in men's foreheads, or in their hands, is nothing else but to look that there should come some brute beast ou• of Babylon, or some elephant, leopard, lion, or some such monstrous beast with ten horns, that should do all the wonderful things spoken in John:
