all his people forsooke the law of God and gave themselves over to Idolatry and other grievous sinnes wherefore the Lord also forsooke and gave them over to the hands of Caesac King of Aegypt that raised up a mighty power of men even a thousand and two hundred chariots threescore thousand horsemen with an infinite multitude of footmen to make warre against him so that all the strong cities and fortresses of Iudah no nor Ierusalem it selfe was strong enough to repulse him from sacking and taking them and robbing the Temple of their treasures and despoyling the Kings palaces of his riches and carrying backe into Aegypt a rich prey of the best and beautifullest things that were therein And this was the first shake that ever this kingdome received since it was a kingdome whereby it began to waine and decline Notwithstanding all this yet the Lord had compassion and pitty of him and all his people and would not suffer his dignity to be troden under foot and quite suppressed but restored him once againe into an honourable estate because when he was reproved by Semeia the Prophet he humbled himselfe before the Lord and his Princes also which is a mafest signe that his sinne was not an universall Apostasie whereby hee was wholly turned aside from God and all hope of grace but it was a particular revolt such as was that of his forefathers the children of Israel when they imagined that God would be present with them in the idolatrous golden Calfe and in that figure to worship him so grosse and sencelesse were they although yet Roboams sin seemeth to exceed theirs in greatnesse and guiltinesse The Iewes that in the time of Ptolomey Philopater abode in Aegypt and willingly renounced the law and service of God in hope thereby better to provide for their worldly commodities enjoyed not long their ease and prosperity for the other Iewes which had couragiously stucke to their profession and had been miraculously delivered from their enemies being grieved and chased at their recoyle made their supplications to the King whose heart God inclined to favour their suit that he would permit them to revenge Gods quarrell upon those Apostates as they had deserved alledging that it was hard for them to be true subjects to the King who for their bellies sake had rebelled against the commandement of God The King seeing their request reasonable and their reasons which they alledged likely not onely commended them but gave authority to destroy all those that could be found in any place of his dominion without any further enquiry of the cause or intelligence of the Kings authority insomuch that they put to death all those that they knew to have defiled themselves with filthy Idols doing them before all the shame they could devise So that at that time there were dispatched above three hundred persons which when they had accomplished they rejoyced greatly CHAP XVII Of the third and worst sort of Apostates those that through malice forsake the Truth IF so be that they of whom we have spoken in the two former Chapters are in their revoltings inexcusable as indeed they are then much more worthy condemnation are they who not only in a villanous contempt cast away the grace of Gods Spirit and his holy worship but also of a purposed malice set themselves against the same yea and endeavour with all their power utterly to race and root it out and in stead thereof to plant the lies errors and illusions of Satan by all means possible Against this kinde of Monsters sentence is pronounced in the thirteenth of Deutronomy to wit That justice should be executed upon them with all extremity and no mercy and compassion shewed upon him be he Prophet or what else that goeth about to seduce others from the service of the Almighty to follow false gods This is the pitfall wherein Ieroboam the first King of Israel slipped by the perversenesse of his owne conscience who as he had by his rebellion against Rehoboam and the house of David upreared a new kingdome so by rebellion against God and his House in hope by that means to retaine his usurped state and people in subjection upreared also a new Religion for distrusting the promises of God which were made him by the Prophet Ahias as touching the Realme of Israel which he was already in possession of and despising the good counsell of God in respect of his owne inventions he was so besotted and bleared with them that just after the patterne of his idolatrous forefathers who by their Aegyptian tricks had provoked the wrath of God against themselves he set up golden calves and caused the people to worship them keeping them so from going to Ierusalem to worship God nor yet content with this hee also erected high places to set his Idols in and having restrained the Priests and Levites from the exercise of their charge hee ordained a new order of Priests to sacrifice and minister unto his gods and proclaimed a newer feast than that was in Iuda even the seventh day of the eighth moneth wherein he not onely exiled the pure service of God but also perverted and turned upside downe the Ecclesiasticall discipline and policy of Gods Church which by the Law had been instituted And that which is yet more as he was offering incense on the Altar at Bethel when the Prophet cryed out against the Altar and exclaimed against that filthy Idolatry by denouncing the vengeance of God against it and the maintainers thereof he was so desperate and sencelesse as to offer violence to him and to command that he should be attached but the power of Gods displeasure was upon him by and by for that hand which he had stretched out against the Prophet dried up so that he could not draw it backe againe and at the very instant for a manifest declaration of the wrath of God the Altar rent in pieces and the ashes that were within were dispersed abroad And although at the prayer of that holy man his hand was restored to his former strength and soundnesse yet returned not he from his unjust and disloyall dealing but obstinately continued therein till his dying day Wherefore also the fierce wrath of God hunted and pursued him continually for first of all he was robbed of his sonne Abia dying through sicknesse then he was set upon by Abia King of Iuda with an army of foure hundred thousand men of warre and though his power was double in strength and number arising to eight hundred thousand persons yet was he and his vaste army quite discomfited for he lost at that field five hundred thousand of his men beside certain cities which were yeelded to Abia in the pursuit of his victory his courage was so abated and impoverished ever after this that he could uever recover strength to resist the King of Iudah any more And so God revenged at once the Apostasie both of the King and people of Israel and last
whereof much losse and inconvenience grew unto him as well by sea as by land After the first overthrow where one of his sisters was taken prisoner when he saw himselfe in so desperate a case that no hope of helpe was left he slew two other of his sisters with two of his wives having before this warre given his foruth sister who also was his wife a dram of poyson to make up the tragedy Afterward being vanquished in the night by Pompey the Roman and put to flight with onely three of his company as he went about to gather a new supply of forces behold tydings was brought him of the revolt of many of his Provinces and countries and of the delivering up of the rest of his daughters into Pompeyes hand and of the treason of his yong sonne Pharnax the gallantest of his sonnes and whom he purposed to make his successor who had joyned himselfe to his enemy which troubled and astonished him more than all the rest so that his courage being quite dashed and all hope of bettering his estate extinguished his other two daughters he poysoned with his owne hands and sought to practise the same experiment upon himselfe but that his body was too strong for the poison and killed the operation thereof by strength of nature but that which poyson could not effect his owne sword performed Though Pompey the great was never any of the most notorious offenders in Rome yet did this staine of cruelty ambition and desire of rule cleave unto him for first he joyning himselfe to Silla dealt most cruelly and unnaturally with Carbo whom after familiar conference in shew of friendship he caused suddenly to be slain without shew of mercy And with Quintius Valerius a wise and well lettered man with whom walking but two or three turnes he committed to a cruell and unexpected slaughter He executed severe punishment upon the enemies of Sylla especially those that were most of note and reputation and unmercifully put Brutus to death that had rendered himselfe unto his mercy It was he that devised that new combat of prisoners and wilde beasts to make the people sport withall a most inhumane and bloudy pastime to see humane and manly bodies torne and dismembred by brute and senselesse creatures which if we will beleeve Plutarch was the onely cause of his destruction Now after so many brave and gallant victories so many magnificent triumphs as the taking of King Hiarbas the overthrow of Domitius the conquest of Africa the pacifying of Spaine and the overwelding of the commotions that were therein the clearing of the sea coasts from Pirates the victory over Methridates the subduing of the Arabians the reducing of Syria into a Province the conquest of Iudea Pontus Armenia Cappadocia and Paphlagonia I say after all these worthy deeds of armes and mighty victories he was shamefully overcome by Iulius Caesar in that civill warre wherein it was generally thought that he had undertaken the better cause in maintaining the authority of the Senat and defending the liberty of the people as he pretended to doe being thus put to flight and making towards Aegypt in hope the King for that before time he had beene his tutor would protect and furnish him that he might recover himselfe againe he found himselfe so farre deceived of his expectation that in stead thereof the Kings people cut him short of his purpose and of his head both at once sending it for a token to Caesar to gratifie him withall Neverthelesse for all this his murtherers and betrayers as the yong King and all others that were causers of his death were justly punished for their cruelty by the hands of him whom they thought to gratifie for as Cleopatra the Kings sister thrâ—w her selfe downe at Caesars feet to entreat her portion of the kingdome and he being willing also to shew her that favour was by that means gotten into the kings palace forthwith the murtherers of Pompey beset the palace and went about to bring him into the same snare that they had caught Pompey in But Caesar after that he had sustained their greatest brunt frustrated their purposes and recovered his forces into his hands assayled them with such valour and prowesse on all sides that in short space he overcame this wicked and traiterous nation Amongst the slaine the dead body of this young and evill advised King was found overborne with dirt Theodotus the kings schoolemaster by whose instigation and advice both Pompey was slaine and this warre undertaken being escaped and fled towards Asia for his safety found even there sufficient instruments both to abridge his journey and shorten his life As for the rest of that murthering fellowship they ended their lives some here some there in that mercilesse element the sea and by that boisterous element the wind which though senselesse yet could not suffer them to escape unpunished Although that Iulius Caesar concerning whom more occasion of speech will be given hereafter did tyrannously usurp the key of the Roman Common-wealth and intruded himselfe into the Empire against the lawes customes and authority of the people and Senate yet was it accounted a most traiterous and cruell part to massacre and kill him in the Senate as he sat in his seat misdoubting no mishap as the sequell of their severall ends which were actors in this tragedy did declare for the vengeance of God was so manifestly displayed upon them that not one of the conspirators escaped but was pursued by sea and land so eagerly till there was nor one left of that wicked crue whom revenge had not overtaken Cassius being discomfited in the battell of Philippos supposing that Brutus had beene also in the same case used the same sword against himselfe a marvellous thing wherewith before he had smitten Caesar. Brutus also a few dayes after when a fearefull vision had appeared twice unto him by night understanding thereby that his time of life was but short though he had the better of his enemies the day before yet threw himselfe desperately into the greatest danger of the battell for his speedier dispatch but he was reserved to a more shamefull end for seeing his men slaine before him he retired hastily apart from view of men and setting his sword to his breast threw himselfe upon it piercing him through the body and so ended his life And thus was Caesars death revenged by Octavius and Anthony who remained conquerors after all that bloudy crew was brought to nought betwixt whom also ere long burst out a most cruell division which grew unto a furious and cruell battell by sea wherein Anthony was overcome and sent flying into Aegypt and there taught his owne hands to be his murtherers And such was the end of his life who had beene an actor in that pernicious office of the Triumvirship and a causer of the deaths of many men And forasmuch as Cleopatra was the first motive and fetter on of Anthony to this warre
unto To this Pope and these Cardinals let us adde an Archbishop and that of Canterbury to wit Thomas Arundel upon whom the justice of God appeared no lesse manifestly than on the former For after hee had unjustly given sentence against the Lord Cobham he died himselfe before him being so striken in his tongue that he could neither swallow nor speake for a certaine space before the time of his death Hither might be adjoyned the vengeance of God upon Justice Morgan who condemned to death the innocent Lady Iane but presently after fell madde and so dyed having nothing in his mouth but Lady Iane Lady Iane. In the reigne of King Henry the eighth one Richard Long a man of armes in Calice bore false witnesse against master Smith the Curate of our Lady Parish in Calice for eating flesh in Lent which hee never did but hee escaped not vengeance for shortly after he desperately drowned himselfe A terrible example unto all such as are ready to forsweare themselves on a Booke upon malice or some other cause a thing in these dayes over rise every where and almost of most men little or nothing regarded About the same time one Gregory Bradway committed the same crime of false accusation against one Broke whom being driven thereunto by feare and constraint he accused to have robbed the Custome-house wherein hee was a Clerke of foure groats every day and to this accusation he subscribed his hand but for the same presently felt upon him the heavy hand of God for being grieved in his consciene for his deed hee first with a knife enterprised to cut his owne throâ—t but being not altogether dispatched therewith the Gaoler comming up and preventing his purpose hee fell forthwith into a furious frenzie and in that case lived long time after Hitherto we may adde the example of one William Feming who accused an honest man called Iohn Cooper of speaking trayterous words against Queene Mary and all because he would not sell him two goodly bullockes which he much desired for which cause the poore man being arraigned at Berry in Suffolke was condemned to death by reason of two false witnesses which the said Feming had suborned for that purpose whose names were White and Greenwood so this poore man was hanged drawne and quartered and his goods taken from his poore wife and nine children which are left destitute of all helpe but as for his false accusers one of them died most miserably for in harvest time being well and lusty of a sudden his bowels fell out of his body and so he perished the other two what ends they came unto it is not reported but sure the Lord hath reserved a sufficient punishment for all such as they are Many more be the examples of this sinne and judgements upon it as the Pillories at Westminster and daily experience beareth witnesse but these that we have alledged shall suffice for this purpose because this sinne is cousin Germane unto perjury of which you may read more at large in the former booke It should now follow by course of order if wee would not pretermit any thing of the law of God to speak of such as have offended against the tenth Commandement and what punishment hath ensued the same but forsomuch as all such offences for the most part are included under the former of which wee have already spoken and that there is no adultery nor fornication nor theft nor unjust warre but it is annexed to and proceedeth from the affection and the resolution of an evill and disordinate concupiscence as the effect from the cause therefore it is not necessary to make any particular recitall of them more than may well bee collected out of the former examples added hereunto that in evill concupiscence and affection of doing evill which commeth not to act though it be in the sight of God condemned to everlasting torments yet it doth not so much incurre and provoke his indignation that a man should for that onely cause be brought to apparent destruction and be made an example to others to whom the sinne is altogether darke and unknowne therefore we will proceed in our purpose without intermeddling in speciall with this last Commandement CHAP. XLVII That Kings and Princes ought to looke to the execution of Iustice for the punishment of naughty and corrupt manners NO man ought to be ignorant of this that it is the duty of a Prince not onely to hinder the course of sin from bursting into action but also to punish the doers of the Jame making both civill justice to be administred uprightly and the law of God to be regarded and observed inviolably for to this end are they ordained of God that by their meanes every one might live a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty to the which end the maintenance and administration of justice being most necessary they ought not so to discharge themselves of it as to translate it upon their Officers and Judges but also to looke to the execution thereof themselves as it is most needfull for if law which is the foundation of justice be as Plato saith a speechlesse and dumbe Magistrate who shall give voyce and vigor unto it if not hee that is in supreame and soveraigne authority For which cause the King is commanded in Deuteronomy To have before him alwayes the Booke of the Law to the end to doe justice and judgement to every one in the feare of God And before the creation of the Kings in Israel the chiefe Captaines and Soveraignes amongst them were renowned with no other title nor quality than of Judges In the time of Deborah the Prophetesse though she was a woman the weaker vessell yet because she had the conducting and governing of the people they came unto her to seeke judgement It is said of Samuel that he judged Israel so long till being tyred with age and not able to beare that burden any longer hee appointed his sonnes for Judges in his stead who when through covetousnesse they perverted justice and did not execute judgement like their father Samuel they gave occasion to the people to demaund a King that they might be judged and governed after the manner of other Nations which things sufficiently declared that in old time the principall charge of Kings was personally to administer justice and judgement and not as now to transferre the care thereof to others The same we read of King David of whom it is said That during his reigne he executed justice and judgement among his people and in another place That men came unto him for judgement and therefore he disdained not to heare the complaint of the woman of Tekoah shewing himselfe herein a good Prince and as the Angel of God to heare good and evill for this cause Solomon desired not riches nor long life of the Lord but a wise and discreet heart to judge his people and to discerne betwixt good and
up for their deliverance some grievous punishment befell them for then being without law or government every man did that which seemed good in his owne eyes and so turned aside from the right way Now albeit these examples may seeme to have some affinity with Apostasie yet because the ignorance and rudenesse of the people was rather the cause of their falling away from God than any wilfull affection that raigned in them therefore we place them in this ranke as well as they have bin alwaies brought up and nuzled in Idolatry One of this câ—â—w was Ochosias King of Iuda sonne of Ioram who having before him an evill president of his wicked father and a worse instruction and bringing up of his mother Athaliah who together with the house of Achab pricked him forward to evill joyned himselfe to them and to their Idols and for that cause was wrapped in the same punishment and destruction with Ioram the King of Israel whom Iehu slew together with the Princes of Iuda and many of his neere kinsmen And to be short Idolatry hath been the decay and ruine of the kingdome of Iuda as at all other times so especially under Ioachas sonne of Iosias that raigned not above three moneths in Ierusalem before he was taken and led captive into Aegypt by the King thereof and there died from which time the whole land became tributary to the King of Aegypt And not long after it was utterly destroyed by the forces of Nabuchadnezzar King of Babel that came against Ierusalem and tooke it and carried King Ioachim with his mother his Princes his servants and the treasurers of the Temple and his owne house into Babylon and finally tooke Zedechias that fled away and before his eyes caused his sonnes to be slaine which as soone as he had beheld commanded them also to be pulled out and so binding him in chaines of yron carried him prisoner to Babylon putting all the Princes of Iudah to the sword consuming with fire the Temple with the Kings Palace and all the goodly buildings of Ierusalem And thus the whole kingdome though by an especiall prerogative consecrated and ordained of God himselfe ceased to be a kingdome and came to such an end that it was never re-established by God it is no marvell then if the like hapned to the kingdome of Israel which was after a sort begun and confirmed by the filthy idolatry of Ieroboams calves which as his successors maintained or favoured more or lesse so were they exposed to more or lesse plagues and incumbrances Nadab Ieroboams sonne being nuzled and nurtured up in Idoll worship after the example of his father received a condigne punishment for his iniquity for Baasa the sonne of Ahijah put both him and all the off spring of Ieroboams house to the sword and raigned in his stead who also being no whit better than those whom he had slaine was punished in the person of Ela his sonne whom Zambri also his servant slew And this againe usurping the crowne enjoyed it but seven dayes at the end whereof seeing himselfe in danger in the city of Tirza taken by Amri whom the people had chosen for their King went into the palace of the Kings house and burned himselfe As for Achab he multiplied Idolatry in Israel and committed more wickednesse than all his predecessors wherefore the wrath of God was stretched out against him and his for he himselfe was wounded to death in battell by the Syrians his son Ioram slain by Iehu and threescore and ten of his children put to death in Samaria by their governors and chiefe of the city sending their heads in baskets to Iehu Above all a most notable and manifest example of Gods judgement was seene in the death of Iezabel his wife that had been his spurre and provoker to all mischiefe when by her Eunuchs and most trusty servants at the commandement of Iehu she was throwne downe out of a window and trampled under the horse feet and last of all devoured of dogs Moreover the greatest number of the kings of Israel that succeeded him were murthered one after another so that the kingdome fell to such a low decline that it became first tributary to the King of Assyria and afterward invaded and subverted by him and the inhabitants transported into his land whence they never returned but remained scattered here and there like vagabonds and all for their abhominable Idolatry Which ought to be a lesson to all people Princes and Kings that seeing that God spared not these two Realmes of Iuda and Israel but destroyed and rooted them out from the earth much lesse will he spare any other kingdome and Monarchy which continue by their Images and Idol-worship to stirre up his indignation against them CHAP. XXV Of many evils that have come upon Christendome for Idolatry IF we consider and search out the cause of the ruine of the East Empire and of so many famous and flourishing Churches as were before time in the greatest part of Europe and namely in Greece we shall finde that Idolatry hath been the cause of all for even as it got footing and increase in their dominions so equally did the power of Saracens and Turkish tyranny take root and foundation among them and prospered so well that the rest of the world trembled at the report thereof God having raised and fortified them as before time he had done the Assyrians and Babylonians as whips and scourges to chasten the people and Nations of the world that wickedly had abused his holy Gospel and bearing the name of Christians had become Idolaters for no other name than this can be given them that in devotion doe any manner of homage to Images and pictures whatsoever may superficially be alleadged to the contrary For be it the Image either of Prophet Apostle or Christ Iesus himselfe yet it is necessary that the law of God stand whole and sound which saith Thou shalt make thy selfe no graven Image nor any likenesse of things either in heaven above or in earth beneath thou shalt not how downe to them nor worship them c. Wherefore he performed the part of a good Bishop that finding a vaile spread in the entrance of a Church dore wherein the Image of Christ or of some other Saint was pictured rent it in pieces with these words That it was against the authority of the sacred Scriptures to have any Image of Christ set up in the Church After the same manner Serenus Bishop of Marscilla beat downe and banished all Images out of his Churches as occasions of Idolatry and to shun them the more it was ordained in the Elibertine Councell that no Image nor picture should be set up in any Church for which cause also the Emperour Leo the third by an open Edict commanded his subjects to cast out of their Temples all pictures and statues of Saints Angels and whatsoever else to the intent that all occasions of Idolatry might be
unmeasurable and unsupportable impositions As for that which the Prophet Samuel in the Name of God giveth notice to the Israelites of touching the right of a King wherein he seemeth to allow him the disposition of the goods and persons of his subjects I answer first That God being an immoveable Truth cannot contradict himselfe by commanding and forbidding the same thing and secondly that the word of the Text in the Originall signifieth nothing else but a custome or fashion as it appeareth by the 1 Sam. 11. 13. besides the speech that the Prophet useth importeth not a commandment but an advertisement of the subjection whereunto the people were about to thrust themselves by desiring a King after the manner of other Nations whose customes amongst them was to exercise authority and dominion as well over their goods as their persons for which cause God would have them forewarned that they might know how vile a yoak they put their owneneckes under and what grievous and troublesome servitude they undertook from the which they could no wayes be delivered no though they deâ—â—â—ed it with teares Furthermore that a King in Israel had no power in right and eqâ—ity to take away the possessions of any of his subjects and appropriate it to himselfe it appeareth by Naboaths refusall no King Achab to give him his vineyard though he requested it as it may seem upon very reasonable conditions either for his money or for exchange so that a man would thinke he ought not to have denied him howbeit his desire being thus crossed he could not mend himselfe by his authority but fell to vexe and grieve himselfe and to champe upon his owne bit untill by the wicked and detestable complot of Iezable poor Naboath was falsely accused unjustly condemned and cruelly murdered and then he put in possession of his vineyard which murder doubtlesse she would never have attempted nor yet Naboath ever have refused to yeeld his vineyard if by any pretence of Law they could have laid claim unto it but Naboath knowing that it was contrary to Gods Ordinance for him to part with his patrimony which he ought most carefully to preserve would not consent to sell over his vineyard neither for love nor money nor other recompence and herein he did but his duty approved by the holy Scripture Now how odious a thing before God the oppression of poor people is it is manifest by his owne words in the Prophesie of Ezechiel where he saith Let it suffice O Princes of Israel learn off cruelty and oppression and execute judgement and justice take away your exactions from my people and cease to thrust them from their goods and heritages Now concerning the law of man which all men agree unto because it is grounded upon reason and equity we finde no permission given to Kings to use the goods of other men at their pleasures for that was far from equity neither was there any such liberty bestowed upon them by those that first in the beginning exalted them to that degree of dignity but rather as divers worthy Authours avouch their owne vertues and good behaviour which woon them credit amongst the better sort installed them first unto that honour And truely there is nothing more rightfull and justin mans society than that every one should possesse and enjoy that which is his owne in peace and quietnesse without disturbance or violence in which respect also rules of justice are established called lawes which no good Kings will ever seek to stand against They are indeed Lords of the earth aâ— some say and truly but so that their Lordships stretch no further than right and passe not the rule of equity and notwithstanding the propriety of goods and possessions remaineth untouched To Kings saith Soâ—â—ca pertaineth the soveraignty over all things but to private men the propriety Tiberius Caesar being solicited by the Governours of the Provinces to lay heavier tributes and levy larger subsidies from his people made though a Painim this notable answer That a good shepherd ought to shear his sheep not to flea them Saint Lewis that good King amongst all his other wife and vertuous exhortations which he gave to his son before his death this was none of the least nor last That he should never crave any taxe or subsidie of his subjects but upon urgent necessity and very just cause and that if he did otherwise he should not be reputed for a King but for a tyran CHAP. XXXIX Of those that have used too much cruelty to wards their subjects in Taxes and Exactions IT is clear then by these foresaid assumptions that a King may not impose upon his Subjects unmeasurable taxes and subsidies least he make himselfe guilty of extortion the root and fountain many times of many great mischiefes and inconveniences and in very deed from whence oftner changes seditions and ruines of Common-wealths have proceeded than from any other cause beside What hapned to Roboam King of Israel for shewing himselfe too rigorous on this behalfe to his subjects but the defection of the greater part of his Kingdom from him for being come to the Crowne after the death of his father Solomon when the people came and made a supplication to him to be eased from his fathers burdens he despising the counsell of his sage and antient Counsellours and following the giddy advice of his young companions gave them a most sharpe and sowre reply saying That if his father had laid an heavy yoak upon them he would encrease it and if he had chastised them with rods he would correct them with scourges which when they of Israel heard they revolted from him all save the two Tribes of Iuda and Benjamin and stoned to death his Collectours and chose them another King to rule over them Thus Roboam was deprived often parts of his Kingdom thorow his owne unadvised tyranny and fled all amazed unto Jerusalem where he lived all his dayes without recovery of the same Achaeus King of Lydia was hanged up against a hill and his head throwne into a River running by because of the great subsidies which he exacted of his people Dionysius the first of that name a notorious and renowned Tyran not onely in regard of his exceeding cruelty but also of his unjust rackings and exactions was so violent in that practise of doing wrong that alboit he well knew the griefes and vexations of the people that ceased not to complain and lament their case continually yet he diminished not their burdens but multiplied them more and more and sucked and gnew out all that ever he could untill he left them naked empty and despoiled To conclude this grand theefe that durst not trust his wife nor owne daughters after he had been discomfited by the Carthaginians was slain by his servants Of the Roman Emperours that most vexed the Commonalty with tribures and taxes these three were chief Caligula Nero and Caracalla of whom this latter
containeth a description of so many miseries as this doth as it may appeare by Iosephus record of it For after that they had been afflicted in divers countries and tossed up and downe by the Deputies a long while there were slaine at Caesarea in one day twenty thousand At Alexandria another time fifty thousand at Zabulon and Joppe eight thousand and foure hundred besides the burning of the two Towns at Damascus ten thousand that had their throats cut As for Jerusalem when it had a long time endured the brunt of the warre both within and without it was pinched with so sore a famine that the dung of Oxen served some for meat others fed upon the leather of old shooes and buckles and divers women were driven to the extiemity to boyle and eat their owne children Many thinking to save their lives by flying to the Enemy were taken and slit in pieces in hope to finde gold and silver in their guts in one night two thousand were thus piteously dealt withall and at the last the whole City was by force taken and the holy Temple conslumed by fire And this in generall was the miserable issue of that lamentable warre during which fourscore and seventeen thousand Iewes were taken Prisoners and eleven hundred thousand slaine for within the city were inclosed from the beginning to the ending all those that were assembled together from all quarters of the earth to keep the Passeover as their custome was As touching the prisouers some were carried to Rome in triumph others were here and there massacred at their conquerors wils somes lot it was to be torn in pieces and devoured of wild-beasts others were constrained to march in troops against their fellowes and kill one another as if they had been enemies All which evils came upon them for the despight and fury which they used towards the Sonne of God and our Saviour and that was the cause why he foreseeing this desolation wept over Jerusalem and said That it should be besieged on every side and rased to the ground and that not one stone should be left upon another because it knew not the time of her visitation Likewise said he to the woman that bewailed him as he was led to the Crosse That they should not weep for him but for themselves and their children because of the dayes of sorrow which were to come wherein the barren and those that had no children and the dugs that never suckled should bee counted happy So horrible and pitifull was the destruction of this people that God would not suffer any of his owne children to bee wrapped in their miseries nor to perish with this perverse and unbelieving Nation for as Eusebius reporteth they were a little before the arrivall of these mischiefes advertised from heaven by the speciall providence of God to forsake the City and retire into some far Country where none of these evils might come neer them The reliques of this wretched people that remained after this mighty tempest of Gods wrath were dispersed and scattered throughout all nations under heaven beeing subject to them with whom they sojourned without King Prince Judge or Magistrate to lead and guide them or to redresse their wrongs but were altogether at the discretion and commandement of the Lords of those Countries wherein they made their abode so that their condition and kind of life is at this day so vile and contemptible as experience sheweth that no nation in the world is halfe so miserable which is a manifest badge of Gods vengeance yet abiding upon them And yet for all this these dispersed reliques ceased not to vomit out the foame of their malice against Christ it being so deep rooted an evill and so inveterate that time nor reason could revoke them from it And no marvell seeing that God useth to punish the greatest sinnes with other sinnes as with the greatest punishment so they having shut their eyes to the light when it shined among them are now given over to a reprobate and hardened sence otherwise it were not possible they should remain so obstinate And albeit God be thanked we have many converts of them yet I dare say for the most part they remain in malitious blindnesse barking against and despighting both our Saviour himselfe and all that professe his name although their punishments have been still according to their deserts as by these examples following shall appeare The Jewes of Inmester a Towne lying betwixt Calchis and Antioch being upon a time celebrating their accustomed playes and feasts in the midst of their jollity as their use is they contumeliously reviled not only Christians but even Christ himselfe for they got a Christian childe and hung him upon a Crosse and after many mocks and taunts making themselves merry at him they whipt him to death What greater villany could there be than this Or wherein could these Devils incarnate shew forth their malice more apparently than thus not content once to have crucified Christ the Saviour of the World but by imitation to performe it againe and as it were to make knowne that if it were undone they would doe it So also handled they a boy called Simeon of two years and an halfe old in the yeare of our Lord 1476. and an another in Fretulium five years after that But above all they massacred a poore Carpenters son in Hungary in hatred of Christ whom they falsly supposed to bee a Carpenters son for they cut in two all his veines and suckt out his blóud with quills And being apprehended and tortured they confessed that they had done the like at Thirna foure yeares before and that they could not be without Christià n bloud for therewithall they anointed their Priests But at all these times they suffered just punishment for being still taken they were either hanged burned murthered or put to some other cruell death at the discretion of â—he Magistrates Moreover they would at divers times buy the Host of some Popish Priest and thrust it through with their knives and use it most despightfully This did one Bleazarus in the yeare of our Lord 1492 the 22 of October but was burnt for his labour and eight and thirty at another time for the same villanie by the Marquesse Ioachinus for the caitifes would suffer themselves to be baptised for none other end but more securely to exercise their villanies Another Jew is recorded in the yeare of our Lord 147 to have stoln the picture of Christ out of a Church to have thrust it through many times with his sword whereout when bloud miraculously issued hee amazed would have burned it but being taken in the manner the Christians stoned him to death The truth of which story though I will not stand to avow yet I doubt not but it might be true considering that either the Devill might by his cunning so foster and confirme their superstition or rather that seeing Christ is the subject of their religion as well as
with other care Save of their feed within that pasture faire These Flocks a Sheepheard had of power and skill To fold and feed and save them from all ill By whose advice they liv'd whose wholsome voice They heard and fear'd with love and did rejoyce Therein with melody of song and praise And dance to magnifie his Name alwaies He is their Guide they are his Flocke and Fold Nor will they be by any else controld Well knowing that whom he takes care to feed He will preserve and save in time of need Thus liv'd this holy Flocke at hearts content Till cruell Beasts all set on ravishment Broke off their peace and ran upon with rage Themselves their Young and all their heritage Slitting their throats devoured Lambs and all And dissipating them that seap't their thrall Then did the jolly feast to fast transforme So ask't the fury of that ragefull storme Their joyfull song was turn'd to mournfull cries And all their gladnesse chang'd to well adyes Whereat Heav'n grieving clad it selfe in blacke But earth in uprore triumph't at their wracke What profits then the sheephooke of their Guide Or that he lies upon a Beacons side With watchfull eye to circumscribe their traine And hath no more regard unto their paine To save them from such dangers imminent Some say as are so often incident 'T is not for that his arme wants strength to break All proud at tempts that men of might do make Or that he will abandon unto death His Owne deare bought with exchange of his breath For must we thinke that though they dye they perish Death dyes in them and they in death reflourish And this lifes losse a better life renues Which after death eternally ensues Though then their passions never seeme so great Yet never comfort serves to swage their heat Though strength of torments be extreame in durance Yet are they guencht by Hopes and Faiths assurance For thankefull Hope if God be grounded in it Assures the heart and pacifies the spirit To them that love and reverence his Name Prosperity betides and want of shame Thus can no Tyrant pull them from the hands Of mighty God that for their safety stands Who ever sees and ever can defend Them whom he loves he loves unto the end So that the more their fury overfloweth The more each one his owne destruction soweth And as they strive with God in policy So are they sooner brought to misery Like as the savage Boare dislodg'd from den And hotly chased by pursuit of men Run's furiously on them that come him neere And goares himselfe upon the hunters speare The gentle puissant Lambe their Champion bold So help 's to conquer all that hart 's his fold That quickly they and all their Progeny Confounded is and brought to misery This is of Iudah the couragious Lion The conquering Captaine and the Rocke of Sion Whose favour is as great to Iacobs Line As is his fearefull frowne to Philistine CHAP XV. Of Apostata's and Backsliders that through infirmity and feare have fallen away IT is a kinde of Apostasie and Backsliding condemned by the first commandement of the Law when as hee that hath been once enlightened by the word of God in the knowledge of salvation and nourished and instructed therein from the cradle doth afterward cast behind his backe the grace of Gods spirit or disallow thereof and exempt himselfe from the service of God to serve Idols or make any outward shew to doe it which kinde of sinne may be committed after two sorts either through infirmity and feare or willingly and with deliberation when not being pressed or constrained thereto by any outward means a man doth cleerely and of himselfe abandon and forsake the true Religion to march under the baoner of Satan and Antichrist And this is also of two sorts either when a man doth simply forsake the profession of the Truth to follow superstition and Idolatry without attempting any thing beside the meere deniall of his Faith or when after his revolt he professeth not onely the contrary Religion but also endeavoureth himselfe by all means possible to advance it and to oppresse and lay siege to the doctrine of Gods Truth in those that maintaine the same By this it appeareth that there are three kinds of Apostasie one as it were inforced and compelled the second voluntary the last both voluntary and malitious which though they be all very hainous and offensive in the sight of God yet the second and third sort are most dangerous and of them also one more hurtfull and pernitious than the other as we shall perceive by that which followeth Now as all these kinds are different one from another so I will referre the examples of each sort to his severall place that the efficacy thereof may be the better perceived And first of those which have fallen away through feare and infirmity and afterward in order of the rest Athough that they who by the conceit and feare of tortures presented before their eyes or of speedy and cruell death threatned against them doe decline and slide backe from the profession of the Gospell may pretend for excuse the weakenesse and feeblenesse of the flesh yet doubtlesse they are found guilty before the throne of God for preferring the love of this transitory and temporary life before the zeale of his glory and the honour which is due to his onely begotten Sonne especially at that time when they are called out of purpose by their Martyrdome to witnesse his sacred truth before men and he desireth most to be glorified by their free and constant perseverance therein to the which perseverance they are exhorted by many faire promises of eternall life and happinesse and from the contrary terrified by threats of death and confusion and upon paine to be discharged from the presence of Christ before God because they have denied him before men which is the misery of all miseries and the greatest that can happen to any man for what shall become of that man whom the Sonne of God doth not acknowledge Now to prove that God is indeed highly offended at this faint hearted cowardlinesse he himself hath made knowne unto us by the punishments which divers times he hath sent upon the heads of such offendors As in the time of the Emperour Valerian the eighth persecutor of the Church under whose persecution albeit that many Champions bestirred themselves most valiantly in that combat of Faith yet there wanted not some whose hearts failing them and who in stead of maintaining and standing for their cause to the death as they ought to have done retyred and gave up themselves to the enemy at the first assault Amongst the number of which doubty souldiers there was one that went up into the Capitoll at Rome in that place where Iupiters Temple in old time stood to abjure and recant Christ and his profession which he had no sooner done but he was presently strucke dumbe and so was justly punished
those Truce-breaking Varlets He had scarce ended these speeches but the Christians battell and courage began to rebate Vladislaus himselfe was slaine by the Iâ—nizaries his horse being first hurt his whole Army was discomfited and all his people put to the sword saving a few that fled amongst whom was the right reverend Embassador of the Pope who as soone as he had thrust in over the eares withdrew himselfe forsooth farre enough from blowes or danger Then followed a horrible butchery of people and a lamentable noyse of poore soules ready to be slaughtered for they spared none but haled them miserably in pieces and executed a just and rigorous judgement of God for that vile treachery and perjury which was committed CHAP. XXVIII More examples of the like subject BVt let us adde a few more examples of fresher memory as touching this ungodly Perjury And first King Philip of Macedony who never made reckoning of keeping his oathes but swore and unswore them at his pleasure and for his commodity doubtlesse it was one of the chiefest causes why he and his whole Progeny came quickly to destruction as testifieth Pausanias for hee himselfe being 46 yeeres old was slaine by one of his owne servants after which Olympias his wife made away two of his sonnes Anideus and another which he had by Cleopatra Attalus his neece whom she sod to death in a Cauldron his daughter Thessalonicaes children likewise all perished and lastly Alexander after all his great victories in the middest of his pompe was poysoned at Babylon Gregorie Tours maketh mention of a wicked Varlet in France among the people called Averni that forswearing himselfe in an unjust cause had his tongue so presently tyed that he could not speake but roare and so continued till by his earnest prayers and repentance the Lord restored to himselfe the use of that unruly member There were in old time certaine people of Italy called Aequi whereof the memory remaineth onely at this day for they were utterly destroyed by Q. Cincinnatus These having solemnely made a league with the Romanes and sworne unto it with one consent afterward chose Gracchus Cluilius for their Captaine and under his conduct spoyled the Fields and Territories of the Romanes contrary to the former league and oath Wherupon the Romans sent Q. Fabius P. Volumnius and A. Posthumius Embassadors to them to complaine of their wrongs and demand satisfaction but their Captaine so little esteemed them that he bad them deliver their message to an Oake standing thereby whilest hee attended other businesse Then one of the three turning himselfe towards the Oake spake on this manner Thou hallowed oake and whatsoever else belongeth to the gods in this place heare and beare witnes of this disloyall part and favor our iust complaints that with the assistance of the gods wee may bee revenged on this injury This done they returned home and shortly after gathering a power of men set upon and over came that truce-breaking Nation In the yeer of Rome built 317 the Fidenates revolted from the friendship and league of the Romans to Toluminus the king of the Veyans and adding cruelty to treason killed foure of their embassadours that came to know the cause of their defection which disloyalty the Romans not brooking undertooke war against them and notwithstanding all their private and forrein strength overthrew and slew them In this battell it is said that a Tribune of the souldiers seeing Toluminus bravely galloping up and down and incouraging his souldiers and the Romans trembling at his approch said Is this the breaker of leagues and violater of the law of nations If there be any holinesse on earth my sword shall sacrifice him to the soules of our slaine embassadours and therewithall setting spurres to his horse he unhorst him and fastening him to the earth with his speare cut off his perfidious head whereat his army dismaied retired and became a slaughter to the enemies Albertus Duke of Franconia having slaine Conrade the Earle of Lotharingia brother to Lewis the fourth then Emperor and finding the Emperors wrath incensed against him for the same betooke himselfe to a strong castle at Bamberg from whence the Emperour neither by force nor policie could remove him for seven yeares space untill Atto the Bishop of Mentz by trecherie delivered him into his hands This Atto under shew of friendship repaired to the castle and gave his faith unto the earle that if he would come downe to parle with the Emperor he should safely return into his hold the Earle mistrusting no fraud went out of the castle gates with the Bishop towards the Emperour but Atto as it were suddenly remembring himselfe when indeed it was his devised plot desireth to returne back and dine ere he went because it was somewhat late so they do dine and returne Now the Earle was no sooner come to the Emperor but he caused to be presently put to death notwithstanding he urged the Bishops promise and oath for his returne for it was answered that his oath was quit by returning backe to dine as he had promised And thus the Earle was wickedly betrayed though justly punished As for Atto the subtill traitor indeed he possessod himselfe by this meanes of the Earles lands but withall the justice of God seised upon him for within a while after he was stricken with a thunderbolt and as some say carried into mount Aetna with this noyse Sicpeccatalues atque ruendorues Cleomenes King of Lacedemonia making warre upon the Argives surprised them by this subtilty he tooke truce with them for seven dayes and the third night whilest they lay secure and unwarie in their truce he oppressed them with a great slaughter saying to excuse his trecherie though no excuse could cleare him from the shame thereof that the truce which he made was for seven dayes onely without any mention of nights howbeit for all this it prospered not so well with him as he wished for the Argie vwomen their husbands slaine tooke armes like Amasons Tolesilla being their captainesse and compassing the citie walls repelled Cleomenes halfe amased with the strangenesse of the sight After which he was banished into Aegypt and there miserably and desperatly slew himselfe The Pope of Rome with all his heard of Bishops opposed himselfe against the Emperor Henry the fourth for he banished him by excommunication from the society of the Catholike Church discharged his subjects from the oath of fealty and sent a crowne of gold to Rodolph king of Suevia to canonize him Emperor the crowne had this inscription Petra dedit Petro Petrus diadema Rodulpho that is The Rocke gave unto Peter and Peter gave unto Rodolph the crown Notwithstanding Rodolph remembring his oath to the Emperour and how vile a part it was to betray him whom he had sworne to obey and defend at first refused the Popes offer howbeit by the persuasion of the Bishops sophistrie he was induced to undertake the
who having conspired treacherously and raised warre against his father together with the Earle of Brittaine his supporter were both vanquished and put to flight but the Earle was slaine in the pursuit The Prince himselfe also thinking to escape by sea where lay provided certaine ships ready to receive him was in the mid way overtaken together with his wife and children whom he purposed to make partakers of his fortune and were altogether by the expresse commandement of his father shut up in a little house and there burned together In this wise did Clotarius revenge the treachery and rebellion of his sonne after a more severe cruell and fierce manner than King David did who would have saved his sonne Absolons life notwithstanding all his wickednesse and malitious and furious rebellion but this man contrariwise being bereft of all fatherly affection would use no compassion towards his sonne but commanded so cruell an execution to bee performed not onely upon him but upon his daughter in law also and their children perchance altogether innocent and guiltlesse of that crime A very rare and strange example seeing it is commonly seene that grandfathers use more to cherish and cocker their childrens children than their own Therefore we must think that it was the providence of God to leave behind a notable example of his most just and righteous severity against disobedient and rebellious children to the end to amase and feare all others from enterprising the like Philip Comineus hath recorded the treacherous tragedy of a most wicked and cruell sonne called Adolphus for the world waxeth every day worse than other that came in an evening suddenly to take his father the Duke of Gilderland prisoner even as he was going to bed and would not give him so much liberty as to pull on his hose for he was bare legged but carried him away in all haste making him march on foot without breeches five long Almaine miles in a most cold weather and then clapt him up in the bottome of a deep tower where there was no light save by a little window and there kept him close prisoner six moneths together After which cruell fact he himselfe was taken prisoner in like manner and carried bound to Namur where he lay a long time untill the Gaunts reprived him forthwith and led him with them against Tournay where he was slain in the while of his imprisonment his father yeelding to nature disinherited him of all his goods for his vile ingratitude and unnaturall cruelty and left the succession of his dukedome to the Duke of Bourgondy In the yeare of our Lord 1461 in a village called Iuchi neere to Cambray there dwelt a certaine man or rather a beast that in a great rage threw his owne mother out of his doores thrice in one day and the third time told her in fury That hee had rather see his house on fire and burnt to coles than that she should abide there but one day longer It happened that the very same day according to his cursed speech his house was indeed fired but how or whence no man could judge and the fire was so fierce that it consumed to ashes not only that house but also twelve other houses adjoyning which was an evident figure of Gods just judgement in punishing so vile and unnaturall a deed by fire seeing he deserved at the least to lose his house for banishing her out of it that had borne him in her belly and nourished him with the milke of her paps In this place I may fitly insert two memorable examples of the same subject gathered by an author of credit and fame sufficient to this effect It is not long saith he since a friend of mine a man of a great spirit and worthy to be beleeved recounted to me a very strange accident which he said hapned to himselfe and proved his saying by the testimony of many witnesses which was this That being upon a time at Naples at a kinsmans and familiars house of his he heard by night the voice of a man crying in the street for aid which caused him to rise and light a candle and run out to see what the matter was being come out of the doores he perceived a cruell and ougly shaped divell striving with all his force to catch and get into his clouches a yong man that strove on the other side to defend himselfe and for feare raised that outcry which he had before heard the yong man seeing him ran to him forthwith and catching fast hold by his cloathes and pitifully crying to God would in no case let go his hold untill his cruell enemy forsooke him and being brought into the house all dismaied and beside himselfe would not let go his hold untill he came to his sences againe out of that exceeding feare The cause of which assault was he had led all his time a most wicked life and had been a contemner of God and a Rebell against his parents using vile railing and bitter speeches against them in such sort that in stead of blessing they had layd a curse upon him And this is the first example Concerning the second I will also set downe the Authors owne words as followeth Of all the strange things saith he that ever I heard report of that which happened not long since at Rome is most worthy to be remembred of a certaine yong man of Gabia borne of a base and poore family but endued with terrible and furious nature and addicted to a loose and disordinate life This gallant picking a quarrell with his owne father in his anger reviled him with most grosse and reprochfull tearmes In which mad fits as one wholly given over to the Divell he purposely departed to Rome to practise some naughty device against his father but his ghostly father the Divell met him in the way under the shape of a cruell and ougly fellow with a thicke bushie beard and haire hanging disorderly and cloathes all rent and tattered who as they walked together enquired of him why he was so sad He answered that there had passed some bitter speeches betwixt his father and him and now he devised to work him some mischiefe The Divell by and by like a crafty knave soothed him up said that he also upon the like occasion went about the same practise and desired that they might pursue both their voyage and enterprise together it was soone agreed upon betwixt them being like to like as the proverbe goeth Therefore being arrived at Rome and lodged at the same Inne one bed did serve them both where whilest the yong man securely and soundly slept the old malicious knave watching his opprtunity caught him by the throat to strangle him whereat the poore wretch awoke and cried for help to God so that the wicked spirit was constrained to forsake him without performing his purpose and to flee out at the chamber with such force and violence that the house roofe crackt and the tyles
any good end but ever some notable judgement or other fell upon them CHAP. XV. Of those that are both cruell and disloyall NOw if it be a thing so unworthy and evill beseeming a Prince as nothing more to be stayned with the note of cruelty how much more dishonourable is it when with cruelty disloyalty and falshood is coupled and when he is not ashamed not onely to play the Tyran but also the traitour dissembler and hypocrite to the end hee may more freely poure out the â—ome of his rage against those that put confidence in him This is one of the foulest and vilest blots that can be wherewith the honour and reputation of a man is not onely stayned but blasted and blotted out not ever to be recovered for what perswasion can one have of such Or who is so fond as to put affiance in them This was one of the notorious vices of King Saul when maligning the prosperity of David he cunningly promoted him to be Generall of his Army and married him to one of his daughters to this end that by exposing him to the hazards perils of warre he might bring him to speedy destruction seeking besides other unlawfull means to put him to death by but what was the end of this unjust murderer we have declared in the former Chapter But above all that by treason and deceit made way unto their cruelty the Emperour Antonius surnamed Caracalla was the chiefe who to revenge himselfe more at full upon the Citizens of Alexandria in Aegypt feyned as if he would come see their City built by Alexander and receive an Oracle from their god Which when he approached neere unto the Alexandrians prepared to entertain him most honourably and being entred he went first to visite their Temples where to cast more colours upon his treachery hee offered many sacrifices in the mean while perceiving the people gathered together from all quarters to bid him welcome finding opportunity fitting his wicked and traiterous enterprise he gave commandement that all the young men of the Citie should assemble together at one place saying That hee would acquaint them to range themselves in battell after the manner of the Macedonians in honour of King Alexander But whilest they thus assembled together in mirth and bravery hee making as though he would bring them in array by going up and down amongst them and holding them in talke his army enclosed them on all sides then with drawing himselfe with Kis guard he gave the watch-word that they should rush upon them which was performed with such outrage that the poor credulous people being surprised at unawares were all most cruelly massacred There might you see the most horrible barbarous and incredible butchery of men that ever was heard of for besides those that were actors in this bloody tragedy there were others that drew the slaine bodies into great ditches and very often haled in them that were scarce dead yea and sometimes that were altogether alive which was the cause that divers souldiers perished at the same time when those that having some strength of life left being haled to the ditch held so fast by the halers that divers times both fell in together The bloud that was shed at this massacre was so much that the mouth of the River Nilus and the sea shore were died with the streams thereof that ran downe by smaller Rivers into those plain places Furthermore being desirous to obtain a victory over the Parthians that he might get himselfe fame and reputation thereby he passed not at what rate he bought it he sent therefore Embassadours with Letters and Presents to the King of Parthia to demand his daughter in marriage though he never intended any such thing and being non-suted at the first with a deniall yet pursued he his counterfeit purpose with much earnestnes and with solemne Oath protested his singular good affection and love that he bore unto her so that in the end the match was condescended unto by all parties whereof the Parthian people were not a little glad in hope of so durable a peace which by this marriage was like to be established betwixt them The King therefore with all his subjects being ready to entertain this new Bridegroom went out with one consent to meet him in the mid-way their encounter was in a fair plain where the Parthians having sent backe their horses being unarmed and prepared not for a day of battle but of marriage and disport gave him the most honourable welcome they could but the wicked varlet finding opportunity so fit set his armed souldiers upon the naked multitude and hewed in pieces the most part of them and had not the King with a few followers bestirred him well he had been served with the like sauce After which worthy exploit and bloudy stratagem he took his voyage backeward burning and spoiling the townes and villages as he went till he arrived at Charam a City in Mesopotamia where making his abode a while he had a fancy to walke one day into the fields and going apart from his company to unburden nature attended upon by one onely servant as he was putting downe his breeches another of his company ran in and strucke him through with his dagger Thus God blessed the World by taking out of it this wicked Tyran who by treason and treachery had spilt so much innocent bloud Seturus Galba another bird of the same feather exercised no lesse perfidious cruelty upon the people of three Cities in Lusitania for hee assembled them together in colour of providing for their common affaires but when hee had gotten them into his hands unarmed and weaponlesse he took nine thousand of the flower of their youth and partly committed them to the sword and partly sold them for bondslaves The disloyall and treacherous dealing of Stilico towards the Gothes how dear it cost him and all Italie beside Histories do sufficiently testifie for it fell out that the Gothes under the conduct of Allaricus entered Italie with a puissant and fearfull Army to know the cause why the Emperor Honorius with-held the pension which by vertue of a league and in recompence of their aid to the Empire in time of war was due unto them which by riper judgement and deliberation of the Councell was quieted and to preserve their Countrey from so imminent a tempest offer was made unto them of the Spaniards and French-men if they could recover them out of the hands of the Vandales which usurped over them so that incontinently they should take their journey over the Alpes towards them and depart their Coasts Which offer and gift the Gothes accepting did accordingly fulfill the condition and passed away without commiting any riot or any damages in their passages But as they were upon mount Cinis making toward France behold Stilico Honorius his father in law a man of a stirring stubborne and rash spirit pursueth and chargeth them with battell unawares and
and the whole Army of threescore thousand men by bare eight thousand English discomfited divers great Lords were found slain in the field and divers others with the King himselfe carried Prisoners into England which was a great shake to the whole Realme and the occasion of many tumults and disorders that ensued afterwards Moreover as it is a rash part to hazard the doubtfull event of battell indiscreetly and without cause so it is a point of no lesse folly to thrust ones selfe voluntarily into any action of war without charge not being particularly called and bound thereunto or having a body unsufficient and unfit for the same And this was also one of the warlike points of Discipline which the antient Romans used That none should presume to fight for his Countrey before he had been admitted by some Captain by a solemne Oath Of all the Histories that I ever read I know none more strange in matter of war than this which I now go about to recite of Henry of Luxenbourg Emperour of Germany who when he heard that his son Charles King of Bohemia was in the French Army and that Philip of Valois King of France was ready to give battell to the English albeit he was blinde and consequently unfit for war yet would needs take part with the French and therefore commanded his men at Armes to guide him into the place where the Field was to be fought that he might strike one blow They as foolish as himselfe not willing to crosse his minde and fearing to lose him in the prease tied him faste to the raines of their bridles being by this meanes so coupled together as if they meant all to perish together if need were as indeed they did for they were overcome in battell and the next day found all dead horse and men faste bound together This accident befell at Crecy neer Abrevile in which journey the French King sustained an inestimable damage for he lost fifteen of his chiefest Princes fourscore Ensignes twelve hundred Knights and about thirty thousand men In the yeer 1455. the Hungarians without any just cause or pretence made war upon the Emperour Otto onely moved with a desire of bringing under their subjection the Germane powers and the rather at this time because they supposed the Emperours strength of war to be weakened and his power of men lessened by those continuall troubles and wars which he had been daily occupied in notwithstanding Otto as by his former deeds of Armes he deserved the sirname of Great so in this exploit especially for he conscribed eight Legions of men out of Franconia Bavaria and Bohemia and with that small valiant handfull overturned and destroyed the huge unchristened multitude of his enemies for albeit the Bohemians being placed in the Rereward were as suddenly and unexpectedly assaulted by the enemy that craftily passed over the River Lycus to set upon them behinde as unhappily put to flight with the losse of the carriages and victuals which they were set to protect yet Otto with his other Legions renuing the battell and encouraging his souldiers gave the enemy such an encounter and repulse that he put them to flight and slew them with a miserable slaughter three of their Kings he took Prisoners and few of that vaste Army escaped with their lives On the Emperours side died many worthy men among whom Conrade the Emperours son in law and Burghard Duke of Suevia were two beside many other In this successive battell it is to be noted above the rest how religiously the Emperour both began and finished it the day before the Fight he enjoyned a Faste in his Army and directed his prayers to the Almighty relying more upon the presence of Gods helpe than his owne power after the Conquest gotten he caused solemne thankes to be given in all Churches to God for the great deliverance I would our moderne Generals and Captaines would learne by this example to follow his footsteps and not to make their prayers quaffings and their thanksgiving carousings as they use to do even as it were purposely to tempt the Lord and to stir up his wrath against them Penda King of middle England making war upon Anna King of East Angles slew him in open field with which victory being puffed up by pride he sent defiance to Osway King of Northumberland also who hearing of his approach proffered him great gifts and fair conditions of peace which when Penda obstinately refused he was slain in battell with thirty of his most noble Captaines although he had thrice the number of people which Osway had And thus the heathen and bloudy Pagan ended his cruelty and paid dear for his too much forwardnesse in war CHAP. XVIII Of such as please themselves overmuch in seeing Cruelties THe Romanes were so accustomed by long use of war to behold fightings and bloudshed that in time of peace also they would make themselves sports and pastimes therewith for they would compell poor captives and bondslaves either to kill one another by mutuall blowes or to enter combate with savage and cruell beasts to be torne in pieces by them The first according to Seneca that devised and put in practice this unkindely Combate of Beasts and Malefactours was Pompey who provided an Army of eighteen Elephants to fight with men and thought it a notable and commendable spectacle to put men to death after this new and strange fashion Oh how mens mindes are blinded with over much prosperity He esteemed himselfe at that time to be higher in dignity than all other when he thus threw to wilde beasts people of farre Countries and in the presence of the people caused so much bloud to be shed but not long after himselfe was betrayed by the treachery of the Alexandrians and slain by a bondslave a just quittance for murdering so many of that condition thus much of Seneca Now it is manifest that this was an ordinary pastime among the Romans albelt it is strange that any pastime or pleasure could arise by seeing poor Creatures interchangeably strike one another to death and humane bloud to run like water along the streets It was not then without cause but by a speciall will of God to revenge cruelty that the bondslaves conducted by Spartacus the Fencer rebelled against their masters in Rome after they had broken through the guards of Lentulus his house and issuing out of Capua gathered together above ten thousand fighting men and encamped themselves in mount Vesuvius where being besieged by Clodâ—us Glaber they sallied so rudely and boisterously upon him that the victory and spoil of their enemies tents remained on their sides after this they ran over all the Land forraged the Countrey and destroyed many Villages and Townes but especially these four Nola Nocera Terrenevae and Metaponte were by them sacked and spoiled with a strange and bloudy overthrow after all which having encountred two Consuls they overcame Lentulus on mount Appennine and discomfited Gaiuâ—
followeth by the order of our subject now to touch the transgression of the third Commandement of the second Table which is Thou shalt not commit Adultery in which words as also in many other Texts of Scripture Adultery is forbidden and grievous threatnings denounced against all those that defile their bodies with filthy and impure actions estrange themselves from God and conjoyne themselves to whores and ribauds This sin did the Israelites commit with the woman of Madian by means whereof they were to follow strange gods and to fall into Gods heavie displeasure who by a cruell Plague destroyed 24000. of them for the same sin And forasmuch as the Madianites through the wicked and pernicious counsell of Balaam did lay this snare for them and were so villanous and shamelesse as to prostitute and be Bauds to their owne wives therefore they were by the expresse Commandement of God discomfited their Kings and false prophets with all their men and women except onely their unpolluted virgins that had knowne no man slain and all their Cities and dwellings burned and consumed to ashes As every one ought to have regard and care to their honesty so maides especially whose whole credit and reputation hangeth thereupon for they that make no account thereof but suffer themselves to be polluted with any filthinesse draw upon them not onely most vile infamy but also many great miseries as is proved by the daughter of Hippomenes Prince of Athens who being a whore her father shut up in a stable with a wilde horse giving him no provender nor other meat to eat that the horse naturally furious enough but more enraged by famine might tear her in pieces and with her carkase refresh his hunger as he did Pontus Aufidian understanding that his daughter had been betrayed and sold into a lechers hands by a slave of his that was her schoolmaster put them both to death In like manner served Pub. Atilius Falisque his daughter that fell into the same infamy Vives reporteth that in our fathers dayes two brothers of Arragon perceiving their sister whom they ever esteemed for honest to be with childe hiding their displeasure untill her delivery was past came in suddenly and stabbed her into the belly with their daggers till they killed her in the presence of a sage matron that was witnesse to their deed The same Authour saith That when he was a young man there were three in the same Countrey that conspired the death of a companion of theirs that went about to commit this villany and as they conspired so they performed it strangling him to death with a napkin as he was going to his filthinesse As for Adulterers examples are infinite both of their wicked lives and miserable ends In which number many of them may be scored that making profession of a single life and undertaking the vow of chastity shew themselves monstrous knaves and ribauds as many of the Popes themselves have done As we reade of Iohn the Eleventh bastard son to Lando his predecessour who by meanes of his Adulteries with Theodora then Governesse of Rome came by degrees to the Papacy so he passed the blessed time of his holy Popeship with this vertuous Dame to whom he served instead of a common Horse to satisfie her insatiable and disordinate lust but the good and holy father was at last taken and castin prison and there smothered to death with a pillow Benedict the Eleventh diâ—ing on a time with an Abbesse his familiar was poysoned with certain figs that he eat Clement the Fifth was reported to be a common Bawd and a protectour of whores he went apart into Avignion and there stayed of purpose to do nothing but whore-hunt he died in great torment of the bloudy flux plurisie and grief of the stomacke In our English Chronicles we reade of Sir Roger Mortimer Earl of March in the time of Edward the Third who having secret familiarity with Isabel Edward the Seconds wife was not onely the cause to stir her up to make war against her husband but also when he was vanquished by her and deposed from his Crowne his young son being installed in his Throne caused him most cruelly to be put to death by thrusting a hot spit into his body at his fundament He also procured the Earle of Kent the Kings uncle to be arraigned and beheaded at Winchester for that he withstood the Queenes and his dealings and would not suffer them to do what they listed All these mischiefes sprung out from the filthy root of Adultery But the just judgement of God not permitting such odious crimes to be unpunished nor undetected it so fell forth at the length that Isabel the old Queen was discovered to be with childe by the said Mortimer whereof complaint being made to the King as also of the killing of King Edward his father and conspiring and procuring the death of the Earle of Kent the Kings uncle he was arreigned and indicted and by verdict found guilty and suffered death accordingly like a Traitor his head being exalted upon London-bridge for a spectacle for all murderers and adulterers to behold that they might see and fear the heavy vengeance of God CHAP. XXI Of Rapes NOw if Adultery which with liking and consent of parties is committed be condemned how much more grievous and hainous is the offence and more guilty the offendour when with violence the chastity of any iâ— assailed and enforced This was the sin wherewith Sichem the son of Hemor the Levite is marked in holy Scripture for he ravished Dina Iacobs daughter for which cause Simeon and Levi revenged the injury done unto their sister upon the head of not onely him and his father but all the Males that were in the City by putting them to the sword It was a custome amongst the Spartans and Messenians during the time of peace betwixt them to send yearly to one another certain of their daughters to celebrate certain feasts and sacrifices that were amongst them now in continuance of time it chanced that fifty of the Lacedemonian virgins being come to those solemne feasts were pursued by the Messenian gallants to have their pleasures of them but they joyntly making resistance and fighting for their honesties strove so long not one yeelding themselves a prey into their hands till they all died whereupon arose so long and miserable a war that all the Countrey of Messena was destroyed thereby Aristoclides a Tyran of Orchomenus a City of Arcadia fell enamored with a maid of Stymphalis who seeing her father by him slain because he seemed to stand in his purposes light fled to the Temple of Diana to take Sanctuary neither could once be plucked from the image of the goddesse untill her life was taken from her but her death so incensed the Arcadians that they fell to Armes and sharpely revenged her cruell injury Appius a Roman a man of power and authority in the City inflamed with the love of a virgine
escape unpunished for his perfidie and impietie For first his warre-like affaires in the East prospered not then a little before the end of his life he grievously complained that he had innovated the faith in his kingdome At last in those sighings and complaints he parted this life with a grievous and violent disease The Unkle of Iulian the Apostata called also Iulianus at Antioch in the temple prophaned the holy table with pissing upon it And when Eusoius the Bishop rebuked him for it he stroke him with his fist Not long after he was taken with a grievous disease of his bowels putrifying and miserably died his excrements comming from him not by their ordinary passages but by his wicked mouth Under the Emperour Valence a wonderfull haile the stones being as big as a man could hold in his hand was sent upon Constantinople and slew many both men and beasts for that the Emperour had banished many famous men that would not communicate with Eudoxius the Arrian and for the same reason a great part of Germa a Citie of Hellespont was throwne downe by an earthquake and in Phrygia such a famine succeeded that the Inhabitants were faine to change their habitation and to â—lee to other places After the martyrdome of Gregory the Bishop of Spoleta Flacchus the Governour who was author thereof was strucke with an Angel and vomited out his entrailes at his mouth and died Under the Empire of Alexander Mammea Agrippitus fifteene yeares old because he would not sacrifice to their Idols was apprehended at Praeneste whipt with scourges and hanged up by the heeles and at last slaine with the sword in the middest of whose torments the Governour of the Citie fell from the Tribunall seat dead Bajazet a most cruell enemy of the Christians was taken by Tamerlane the Tartarian King and bound in golden chaines and carried about by him in an iron cage latised and shewne unto all being used for a stirrop unto Tamerlane when he got upon his horse Gensericus the King of the Vandales exercising grievous cruelty against the Orthodox Christians he himselfe being an Arrian was possessed of the Devill and died a miserable death in the yeare 477. Honoricus the second King of the Vandales having used inexplicable cruelty against the Orthodox Christians hanging up honest matrons and virgins naked burning their bodies with torches cutting off their dugges and armes because they would not subscribe to the Arrian heresie was surprised himselfe with the vengeance of God for his land was turned into barrennesse through an exceeding drought so that numbers of men women and beasts died with famine the pestilence also seised upon them and he himselfe was stricken with such a disease of his body that his members rotted off one after another Anastatius Dicorus a grievous persecutor of the Church of Christ being admonished in a dreame that he should perish with thunder built him an house wherein he might defend himselfe from that judgement but in vaine for in a great thunder he fled from chamber to chamber and at last was found dead blasted with lightning to the great horror of the beholders Chasroes the King of Persia a grievous enemy to Christ and Christians committed horrible outrages against them for first he slew at Jerusalem ninety thousand men with Zachariâ— the Patriarch of Jerusalem and also raged in like manner in Aegypt Lybia Aethiopia and would grant them no condition of peace unlesse they would forsake Christ and worship the Sunne he also put to death with most cruell torments Anastatius a godly Monke because he constantly confessed the faith of Christ. But God met with him to the full for his eldest sonne Syroes tooke him prisoner and handled him in most vile manner he hanged an iron weight upon his neck and imprisoned him in an high tower which he had built to keepe his treasure denying him food and bidding him eat the gold which he had gathered together then he slew all his children before his face and exposed him to the scoffes and railings of the people and lastly caused him to be shot to death and so that great terror of the world and shedder of Christian bloud breathed out his soule after a miserable manner Regnerus the King of Denmarke abrogating Christian Religion and setting up Idolatrie in his Kingdome anew the divine vengeance overtooke him for Helles whom he had cast out of the Kingdome returned upon him with an army of the Gaules and overcomming him in battell tooke him prisoner and shut him up in a filthie prison full of serpents which setting upon him with their venomous bitings and stings brought him to a most horrible end Lysius the Emperour gave Heriâ—a his daughter a virgin because she was a Christian to be trampled under foot of horses but he himselfe was sâ—ain by the byting of one of the same horses A Popish Magistrate having condemned a poore Protestant to death before his execution caused his tongue to be cut out because he should not confesse the truth in requitall whereof the next childe that was borne unto him was borne without a tongue CHAP. II. Of Perjurie Pâ—ilip King of Macedon who was a great contemner of all oathes and held the Religion thereof as a vain thing for this cause as all Writers affirme the vengeance of God followed him and his posteritie for when he had lived scarce forty and sixe yeares he himselfe was slain and all his whole house in short time in short time after utterly extinguished 〈◊〉 one of his sonnes was slaine by Olympias his wife Also another sonne which he had by Cleopatra the 〈◊〉 of Aâ—â—alus â—he tormented to death in a brazen vessell compassed about with fire The â—est of his sonnes periffied in like manner and at last the famous Alexander his sonne after great conquest atchieved by him in the middle course of his victories periffied miserably some thinke by poyson In the Countrey of Arbernum there was a certaine wicked man that used ordinarily to for sweare himselfe but at one time after he had thus sinned his tongue was tyed up that he could not speake but began to low like an oâ—e yet repenting and grieving for his sinne he found the bond of his tongue loosed and a readinesse of speech given unto him againe whereby we see both the Iustice of God in punishing them that sinne in this kinde and his mercy in pardoning when they truly repent At this day we have an example fresh and famous of a certaine maid that had stolne and pilfered many things away out of her mistresses house of which being examined she forswore them and wisht that she might rot if she ever touched them or knew of them but notwithstanding she was carried to prison and there presently began so to rot stink that they were forced to thrust her out of prison and to convey her to the Hospitall where she lies in lamentable miserie
whereas David was by the Prophet Nathan reproved for the adultery and murder which he had committed he neither used any excuse nor alledged any priviledge whereby he was exempted from the rigour of the law to justifie his fact but freely confessed without any cloake that he had sinned Whereby it appeareth of how small strength and authority their opinion and words be which thinke or affirme that a Prince may dispense with the lawes at his pleasure by this opinion was the mother in law of Antonius Caracalla seduced who having by her lascivious and filthy allurements enticed her sonne in law to lust and love her and to desire her for his wife perswaded him that he might bring his purpose to passe and that it was lawfull enough for him if hee would though for other it was unlawfull seeing that hee was Emperour and that it belongeth not to him to receive but to give lawes by which perswasion that brave marriage was concluded and made up contrary to the law of nature and nations and to all honesty and vertue So it was reported how Cambyses tooke his owne sister to wife whom notwithstanding a little after hee put to death which thing being not usuall then among the Persians not daring to enterprise it although hee was a most wicked man without the advice of the Magistrates and Counsellors of his Realme he called them together and demanded whether it was lawfull for him to make such a marriage or no to whom they answered freely That there was no prescript law which did allow of it yet that they might sooth him up fearing to incurre his displeasure they said further that though there was no law to command it yet such a mighty King as hee might doe what he pleased In like manner the trencher Philosopher Anaxarchus after that he had told Alexander the Great with a loud voice that hee ought not to feare the penalty of any law nor the reproach nor blame of any man because it belonged onely to his office to create lawes for all other to live by and to prescribe the limits of lawfull and lawlesse things and that it became him being a conquerour to rule like a lord and a master and not to obey any vaine conceit of law whatsoever and that what thing soever the King did the same was sacred just and lawful without exception And by this means made his proceedings farre more dissolute and outragious in many things than ever they were before Dion in the Epitome of Xiphiline reporteth how the Emperours were wont to usurpe this priviledge to be exempted from all law that they might not be tyed to any necessity of doing or leaving undone any thing and how in no case they would endure to be subject to any written ordinances the which thing is manifest even in the behaviour of the chiefest of them as well in regard of their life and manners as of the government that they used in their Common-wealths For first of all Augustus Caesar having kept in his owne hand the office of the Triumvir ten yeares as Suetonius testifieth hee also usurped the Tribunes office and authority and that till his dying day and likewise tooke upon him the Censorship namely the office of correcting and governing manners and lawes if need required whose successors a man may truly say for the most part trampled under their feet all sincere and sacred lawes by their notorious intemperance dissolutenesse and cruelties And yet for all this there wanted not a parasiticall Lawyer who to please the Emperor his lord and master the better and to underprop and as it were seele over with a faire shew that tyrannicall government used by other Emperours foisted in this as a law amongst the rest Princeps legibus solutus est That the Prince was exempted from all law As for that which they alleadge out of Aristotles Politiques it maketh nothing to set a colour upon this counterfeit for saith Aristotle If there be any man that excelleth so in vertue above all others that none is able to compare with him that man is to be accounted as a God amongst men to whom no law may be prescribed because he is a law unto himselfe all which I grant to be true if that which was presupposed could take place for where no transgression is found there no law is necessary according as Saint Paul said The law was not given for the just but for the unjust and offendors but where is it possible to find such a Prince so excellent and so vertuous that standeth not in need of some law to be ruled by Of the like force and strength is that which is written in the first booke of Institutions tit 2. the words are these The Princes pleasure serveth for a law because the whole body of the people hath translated all their authority power and jurisdiction unto him This is spoken of the Romane Emperours but upon the ground of so slender and silly reason that upon so weake a foundation it can never stand for if it be demanded whether this action of the people of giving over their right and prerogative to their Prince be willing or constrained what answer will they make If it be by constraint and feare as it is indeed who will not judge this usurping of their liberty utterly unjust and tyrannicall when one man shall arrogate that to himselfe which pertaineth to many yea to the whole body of the people And admit that this reason was effectuall yet the glosse upon the place saith very notably That the Princes pleasure may be held for a law so farre forth as that which pleaseth him be just and honest giving us to know thus much thereby That every will and pleasure of a Prince may not indifferently be allowed for a law if it be an unjust and dishonest action and contrary to the rule of good manners Moreover it appeareth by the Customes of many antient people and Realmes That Princes had never this license given them to doe what they listed for let them be never so mighty yea as mighty as Darius under whose raigne the Persian Monarchy was abolished yet hee must be content acording to the law of the Medes and Persians not to be able to infringe that law which was by the advice of his Peers and Privy Councell enacted and by his owne consent and authority established no though for Daniels deliverance sake whom he loved he greatly desired and tooke paines either to disannull or at least to give a favourable interpretation of it Such in old time was the custome of the Kings of Aegypt not to follow their owne affections in any actions they went about but to be directed by the advice of their lawes for they had not so much authority as to judge betwixt man and man or to levy subsidies and such like by their owne powers neither to punish any man through choler or any overweening conceit but were alwayes tyed to observe
justice and equity in all causes neither did it grieve them so to doe being perswaded that whilest they obeyed their lawes nothing could betide them but good The Lacedemonian Kings were in such bondage to the lawes of their countrey that the Ephori which were set up to none other end but to be a bridle to hold them backe from doing what they listed had absolute authority to correct them when they had committed any fault which subjection nothing displeased King Theopompus as it is apparent by the answer he made his wise that reproved him once in anger saying By his cowardise he would leave a lesse kingdome to his children than he had received of his Ancestors Nay saith he a greater forsomuch as more durable and permanent Plutarch praising the uprightnesse of King Alcamenes who for feare to breake the law refused divers presents that were sent him bursteth into this speech O heart worthy of a King that hath preferred the authority of the law before his owne profit Where are those fellowes now that cry Kings pleasures ought to be observed for Lawes and that a Prince may make a law but is not subject to it himselfe And this is that which Plutarch saith as concerning that matter who lived under Trajan the Emperor Cornelius Tacitus discovering the beginning and originall of the Romane Civill Law saith That Servius the third King of Rome after Romulus and Numa was the only man that most established those lawes whereunto Kings themselves ought to yeeld and be obedient And admit that the Emperours swayed with great power and authority almost all the world yet for all their fiercenesse and haughtinesse of minde Pliny durst tell Trajan That an Emperour ought to use to carry himselfe with such good government in his Empire as if he were sure to give up an account of all his actions Thou must not saith hee desire more liberty to follow thine owne lust than any one of us doe a Prince is not set over the law but the law placed in authority above the Prince This was the admonition of that heathen man Likewise Antonius and Severus two mighty Emperours although by reason of an opinion of their owne greatnesse and haughtinesse wherewith they flattered themselves bragged that they were not subject to any law yet they added this clause withall That notwithstanding they would live according to the direction of the law This saith Theodosius and Valentinion two no lesse mighty Emperours is a voice becomming the Royall Majesty and greatnesse of a King To confesse himselfe to live under a law and in truth it is a thing of greater importance than the imperiall dignity it selfe to put soveraignty under the authority of law Amongst many other good lessons and exhortations which Lewis that good King gave unto his sonne on his death-bed this was one worthy the remembring how he commanded him to love and feare God with all his strength and to take heed of doing any thing that should be contrary to his law whatsoever should befall him and to provide that the good lawes and statutes of his kingdome might be observed and the priviledges of his subjects maintained to forbid Iudges to favour him more than any others when any cause of his owne came in tryall Thereby giving us thus much to understand That every good King ought to submit himselfe in obedience under the hand of God and under the rule of justice and equity Wherefore there is neither King nor Keisar that can or ought to exempt himselfe from the observance of sacred and upright lawes which if they resist or disanull doubtlesse they are culpable of a most hainous crime and especially of Rebellion against the King of Kings CHAP. VII Of the punishment that seised upon Pharaoh King of Aegypt for resisting God and transgressing the first commandement of the Law WEe have sufficiently declared in the premisses that the mightiest potentates of this world are bound to range themselves under the obedience of Gods law it remaineth now that we produce examples of those punishments that have fallen upon the heads of the transgressours of the same according to the manner of their transgression of what sort soever which that we may the better describe it behooveth us to follow the order of the Commandements as the examples wee bring may be fitly referred to any of them And first we are to understand that when God said Thou shalt have none other Gods before me hee condemneth under these words the vanity of men that have forged to themselves a multitude of gods hee forbiddeth all false Religion and declareth That hee would be acknowledged to be the sole and true God and that we should serve worship love feare and obey him in and above all things and whosoever it be that doth otherwise either by hindring his worship or afflicting those that worship him the same man provoketh his heavy wrath to bee throwne upon him to his utter ruine and destruction This is the indignation that lighted upon Pharaoh King of Aegypt as wee read in the booke of God who being one of the most puissant Kings of the earth in his age God chose him for an object to shew his wonderfull power by the means of horrible plagues and scourges which hee cast upon him and by destroying him with all his armies at the length as his rebellion well deserved For he like a cruell Tyrant continuing to oppresse the children of Israel without giving them any release or breathing time from their misery or liberty to serve God although by Moses in the name and authority of God who made himselfe well enough knowne unto him without the help of any written law hee was many times instantly urged and requested thereunto so many judgements and punishments assayled him one in the necke of another in such sort that at length he was overtaken and ensnared therewith First of all the very waters of Aegypt being converted into bloud proclaimed warre against him then the frogges which covered the face of the earth climbed up even to his chamber and bed and filling every corner of his land sounded him an alarme next a muster of lice and gnats and such other troublesome and stinking creatures summoned him to combate an handfull of embers seattered in the aire by Moses were unto him as the strokes of a stone or a shaft which did wonderfully disfigure their bodies with boyles and most noysome scabbes afterward the grashoppers were put in battell array against him together with the hailestones horrible thunders and lightenings wasting and spoyling and running up and downe grievously through his whole land After all these bitter blowes the Tyrant being cut short and being so besieged on every side with hideous and palpable darknesse that he could not tell which wayes to turne himselfe yet would hee not be brought to any reason but continued obstinate and hardened against God though all the elements with heaven and earth had taken armour together