X326 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. years ; and whether he was ever restored, is extremely doubtful. In the year 1587, he was among the suspended ministers of Essex, who, to obtain some redress of their grievances, presented a supplication to parliament, an account of which is given in another place.. Joins Fox, A. M.-This celebrated man, usually deno- minated the English Martyrologist, was born of respectable parents at Boston in Lincolnshire, in the year 1517. His father dying when he was young, and his mother marrying again, he came under the guardianship of his father-in-law. At the age of sixteen, he was sent to Brazen-nose college, Oxford ; and afterwards he became fellow of Magdalen college, in the same university. In the days of his youth, he discovered a genius and taste for poetry, and wrote several Latin comedies, upon subjects taken from the scriptures. For some time after his going to the university, Mr. Fox was strongly attached to the superstitions and errors of popery. He was not only zealous for the Romish church, and strictlymoral in his life, but rejected the doctrine of justification by faith in the imputed righteousness of Christ, and concluded himself to be sufficiently safe by trusting in the imaginary merit of his own self-denial, penances, alms- deeds, and compliance with the'ceremonies of the church. Afterwards,by the blessing of God upon his studies, he was delivered from this self-righteousness, and led to submit himself to the righteousness ofJesus Christ. And by his indefatigable researches into ecclesiastical history, together with the writings of the fathers, but especially by his thorough acquaintance with the holy scriptures, he was convinced of the immense distance to which the church of Rome had departed from the faith, and spirit, and practice of the gospel. Inorder to make himself a more competent judge of the controversy, which now began to be warmly discussed betwixt protestants and papists, he searched all the ancient and modern histories of the church with indefatigable assiduity. His labours to find out the truth were indeed so great, that, before he was thirty years of age, he read all the Greek and Latin fathers, all the schoolmen, and the decrees of councils, and made considerable progress in other See Art. George Gifford.
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