Foxe - The Book of Martyrs
The mystery of history is not completely dark, since it is a veil which only partially conceals the creative activity and spiritual forces and the operation of spiritual laws. It is commonplace to say that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church yet what we are asserting is simply that individual acts of spiritual decision bear social fruit …For the great cultural changes and historic revolutions that decide the fate of nations or the character of an age is the cumulative result of a number of spiritual decisions … the faith and insight, or the refusal and blindness, of individuals. No one can put his finger on the ultimate spiritual act that tilts the balance, and makes the external order of society assume a new form… Persecution, powerless to destroy or even to shake this new community, made it only the more sensible of its own strength, and pressed it into a more compact body.
The mystery of history is not completely dark, since it is a veil which only partially conceals the creative activity and spiritual forces and the operation of spiritual laws. It is commonplace to say that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church yet what we are asserting is simply that individual acts of spiritual decision bear social fruit …For the great cultural changes and historic revolutions that decide the fate of nations or the character of an age is the cumulative result of a number of spiritual decisions … the faith and insight, or the refusal and blindness, of individuals. No one can put his finger on the ultimate spiritual act that tilts the balance, and makes the external order of society assume a new form… Persecution, powerless to destroy or even to shake this new community, made it only the more sensible of its own strength, and pressed it into a more compact body.
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<strong>Foxe</strong>’s <strong>Book</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Martyrs</strong><br />
who so builds His Church that the gates <strong>of</strong> hell shall not prevail against it. But alas! the very<br />
wife <strong>of</strong> his bosom, whose heart was hardened against the truth, and whose mind was<br />
influenced by the teachers <strong>of</strong> false doctrine, became his accuser. Brokenbery, a creature <strong>of</strong><br />
the pope, and parson <strong>of</strong> the parish, received the information <strong>of</strong> this wedded Delilah, in<br />
consequence <strong>of</strong> which the poor man was apprehended. But here the awful judgment <strong>of</strong> an<br />
ever-righteous God, who is "<strong>of</strong> purer eyes than to behold evil," fell upon this stone-hearted<br />
and perfidious woman; for no sooner was the injured husband captured by her wicked<br />
contriving, than she also was suddenly seized with madness, and exhibited an awful and<br />
awakening instance <strong>of</strong> God's power to punish the evil-doer. This dreadful circumstance had<br />
some effect upon the hearts <strong>of</strong> the ungodly hunters who had eagerly grasped their prey; but,<br />
in a relenting moment, they suffered him to remain with his unworthy wife, to return her good<br />
for evil, and to comfort two children, who, on his being sent to prison, would have been left<br />
without a protector, or have become a burden to the parish. As bad men act from little motives,<br />
we may place the indulgence shown him to the latter account.<br />
We have noticed in the former part <strong>of</strong> our narratives <strong>of</strong> the martyrs, some whose affection<br />
would have led them even to sacrifice their own lives, to preserve their husbands; but here,<br />
agreeable to Scripture language, a mother proves, indeed, a monster in nature! Neither<br />
conjugal nor maternal affection could impress the heart <strong>of</strong> this disgraceful woman.<br />
Although our afflicted Christian had experienced so much cruelty and falsehood from the<br />
woman who was bound to him by every tie both human and divine, yet, with a mild and<br />
forbearing spirit, he overlooked her misdeeds, during her calamity endeavoring all he could<br />
to procure relief for her malady, and soothing her by every possible expression <strong>of</strong> tenderness:<br />
thus she became in a few weeks nearly restored to her senses. But, alas! she returned again to<br />
her sin, "as a dog returneth to his vomit." Malice against the saints <strong>of</strong> the Most High was<br />
seated in her heart too firmly to be removed; and as her strength returned, her inclination to<br />
work wickedness returned with it. Her heart was hardened by the prince <strong>of</strong> darkness; and to<br />
her may be applied these afflicting and soul-harrowing words, "Can the Ethiopian change his<br />
skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil."<br />
Weighing this text duly with another, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy," how<br />
shall we presume to refine away the sovereignty <strong>of</strong> God by arrainging Jehovah at the bar <strong>of</strong><br />
human reason, which, in religious matters, is too <strong>of</strong>ten opposed by infinite wisdom? "Broad<br />
is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Narrow is the<br />
way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." <strong>The</strong> ways <strong>of</strong> heaven are indeed<br />
inscrutable, and it is our bounden duty to walk ever dependent on God, looking up to Him<br />
with humble confidence, and hope in His goodness, and ever confess His justice; and where<br />
we "cannot unravel, there learn to trust." This wretched woman, pursuing the horrid dictates<br />
<strong>of</strong> a heart hardened and depraved, was scarcely confirmed in her recovery, when, stifling the<br />
dictates <strong>of</strong> honor, gratitude, and every natural affection, she again accused her husband, who<br />
was once more apprehended, and taken before Sir John Mordant, knight, and one <strong>of</strong> Queen<br />
Mary's commissioners.<br />
Upon examination, his judge finding him fixed in opinions which militated against those<br />
nursed by superstition and maintained by cruelty, he was sentenced to confinement and torture<br />
in Lollard's Tower. Here he was put into the painful stocks, and had a dish <strong>of</strong> water set by<br />
him, with a stone put into it, to what purpose God knoweth,e xcept it were to show that he<br />
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