Tuesday, May 12, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Devotion and Religious Prose
✦ ─── ⟐ ─── ✦
Texts
Devotions Upon Emergent OccasionsJohn Donne's meditations on illness and mortality, composed on what he believed to be his deathbed in 1623, together with his final sermon preached at Whitehall weeks before his death in 1631.Foxs Book of MartyrsThe most influential martyrology in the English language — a history of Christian persecution from the apostolic age through the Reformation, compiled from John Foxe's Acts and Monuments (1563) and later sources. This edition, published by the John C. Winston Company, condenses Foxe's massive original into a single readable volume covering twenty-three chapters of trial, suffering, and defiance.Grace Abounding to the Chief of SinnersJohn Bunyan's spiritual autobiography, written from Bedford gaol in 1666 — the raw, hallucinatory inner life of a Puritan dissenter imprisoned for unlicensed preaching.Religio MediciSir Thomas Browne's personal confession of faith — the religion of a physician who traveled through Catholic and Protestant Europe and emerged with charity broad enough for all. First published 1643.Silex ScintillansThe sacred poems of Henry Vaughan (1621–1695), first published in two parts (1650 and 1655). Devotional verse from the Welsh metaphysical poet, deeply influenced by George Herbert.The Bloody Theater or Martyrs MirrorThe foundational text of the Anabaptist and Mennonite traditions — a chronicle of Christian martyrdom from the time of Christ to 1660, compiled by Thieleman J. van Braght from authentic chronicles and testimonies.The Bloody Theater or Martyrs Mirror — Part OneThe Anabaptist book of martyrs. A thousand-page chronicle of those who were baptized upon confession of faith and suffered for the testimony of Jesus, from the time of Christ to A.D. 1660. Part One covers the first fifteen centuries.The Bloody Theater or Martyrs Mirror — Part TwoPart Two of the Anabaptist book of martyrs. The heart of the Martyrs Mirror — detailed accounts of Anabaptist martyrdoms from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, including letters from prison, trial transcripts, and confessions of faith.The Pilgrims ProgressJohn Bunyan's immortal allegory of the Christian life, written in Bedford Gaol and published in 1678 — the most widely read work of religious fiction in the English language.The Rule and Exercises of Holy DyingJeremy Taylor's masterwork on the art of dying well — a guide to preparing the soul for death through the practice of virtue, patience, and faith, written in the shadow of his patron's bereavement during the English Civil War.The Rule and Exercises of Holy LivingJeremy Taylor's comprehensive guide to Christian virtue — a manual for living well through care of time, sobriety, justice, and religion. The companion volume to Holy Dying, and one of the supreme achievements of English devotional prose.The TempleGeorge Herbert's masterwork of English devotional verse — 164 sacred poems exploring the architecture of faith, doubt, and surrender, published posthumously in 1633.