may prove useful to the deterring of wicked and malevolent spirits from all kinds of Persecution though but in Words and Gestures Esay 57. 3 4. and to the encouraging of the Godly Persecuted to bear their sufferings meekly referring their cause wholly unto God who saith Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord Rom. 12. 19. I have mine end Who am Thy Friend and Servant to thy Faith Sam. Clarke From my Study in Hammersmith April 14. 1674. God's Judgments UPON PERSECUTORS Recorded in the Books of the Old Testament THe first Persecutor and Murtherer was the Devil as our Saviour Christ testifies John 8. 44. He was a Murtherer from the Beginning He murther'd the Souls the most Noble and Divine part of our First Parents and in them of all their Posterity had not God of his infinite goodness and mercy made a Balsom of the Blood of Christ for the healing of that deadly wound See the Devil's punishment for it Gen. 3. 15. 2. The two first men that were born into the World were Cain and Abel and long they had not lived together before Cain when they were in the Field together rose up against his Brother Abel and slew him Gen. 4. 8. And wherefore slew he him Because his own works were evil and his Brothers Righteous 1 John 3. 12. But the righteous God would not suffer him to go away with impunity For saith God to him Gen. 4. 12. When thou tillest the Ground it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength A Fugitive and a Vagabond shalt thou be in the Earth In which condition he suffered many Thousand Deaths by reason of his Horrors and terrors of Conscience before he came to die as is implied verse 14. From thy Face shall I be hid and I shall be a Fugitive and a Vagabond in the Earth and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me 3. Though the Scripture mentions particularly no other Persecution before the Flood yet Gen. 6. 11. It 's said The Earth was corrupt before God and the Earth was filled with Violence which Violence certainly was chiefly practised by the wicked Cainites against the Church of God For which Sin among others God brought that General Deluge which destroyed them all Gen. 6. 13. God said unto Noah The end of all Flesh is come before me For the Earth is filled with violence through them And behold I will destroy them with the Earth 4. When the world was reduced to a very small number yet then had Satan a wicked Ham to persecute and mock his godly aged Father for which he was cursed and his Posterity doomed to bondage and servitude Gen. 19. 25 26 27. Cursed be Canaan A Servant of Servants shall he be to his Brethren c. 5. In holy Abraham's Family there was a Persecuting Ishmael as the Apostle Paul testifies Gal. 4. 29. He that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit But though he was Abraham's Son God would not suffer this Sin to go unpunished For verse 30. What saith the Scripture Cast out the Bond-woman and her Son For the Son of the Bond-woman shall not be Heir with the Son of the Free-woman And sure it was no small punishment to be cast out of the Church of God and not to be suffered to partake of the Blessings promised thereunto 6. When the Church of God the Children of Israel were in Egypt they were Persecuted by Pharaoh King of Egypt and his People who set over them Taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens Exod. 1. 11. thinking thereby to eat them up and wear them out And when that prevailed not they made them serve with rigor and they made their Lives bitter with hard Bondage in Mortar and in Brick and in all manner of Service in the Field all the Service wherein they made them serve was with rigor verse 13. 14. And when yet they still multiplied the King commanded the Midwives Siphra and Puah when they did the Office of a Midwife to the Hebrew women and saw them upon the Stools if they were delivered of a Son they should presently kill him verse 15. 16. And when these Midwives neglected his commands he charged all his People that every Son that was born to the Israelites should be cast into the River Nilus verse 22. 7. And when God sent Moses into Egypt to deliver his People out of the House of Bondage Pharaoh raged more against them He caused Straw to be taken from them and yet the number of Bricks to be continued and when that task was not done the Officers of the Children of Israel were cruelly beaten Exod. 5. 14. But the Justice of God slept not all this while They had shed the Blood of the People of God and God turned all their Waters into Blood They had killed all the Males of the Israelites and God's destroying Angel killed all their first-born They had drowned Multitudes in the River and Pharaoh and his Army were all drowned in the Red Sea Poena venit gravior quo magè sora venit Justice though slowly yet doth surely tread And strikes with Iron though she walks with Lead 8. Saul the first King of Israel was a cruel Persecutor of David and the Priests of the Lord of whom upon a false suggestion he slew fourscore and five Persons that did wear a linnen Ephod and not satisfied with their Blood he went to Nob the City of the Priests and smote it with the Edg of the Sword both Men and Women Children and Sucklings and Oxen and Asses and Sheep 1 Sam. 22. 18 19. But see the end His Country being invaded by the Philistins he goes to the Witch of Endor where he complained to the Devil in Samuel's Mantle that God had forsaken him when he was sore distressed by the Philistins and answered him no more neither by Prophets nor by Dreams 1 Sam. 28. 15. And a few dayes after when he had lived to see his Army routed three of his Sons slain and himself sorely wounded in despair he fell upon his own Sword and died 1 Sam. 31. 1 2 3 4. 9. Asa though a good King being reproved by the Prophet Hanani for relying upon the King of Syria and not upon the Lord his God was wrath with him and put him in Prison and oppressed some of the People at the same time 2 Chron. 16. 7 10. But God would not suffer this Sin to go unpunished For verse 12. He was diseased in his Feet probably of the Gout and his disease was exceeding great which in the end took away his Life 10. King Ahab persecuted the Prophet Micaiah who dealt plainly and faithfully with him and sent him to Amon the Governour of the City and to Joash the King's Son saying Put this fellow in the Prison and feed him with Bread of affliction and with water of affliction until I return in Peace 2 Chron. 18. 26. But notwithstanding all his Policy
in disguising himself he was slain in that Battle verse 33. 34. 11. Jesabel his Wife slew the Prophets of the Lord 1 Kings 18. 13. and persecuted Elijah But Jehu being made King when he was come to Jezreel Jezabel painted her Face and tired her Head and looking out to Jehu said Had Zimri peace that slew his Master Jehu seeing her commanded her to be thrown down out of the window which was accordingly done by some of her own Servants By the fall she was slain and trampled under Horses feet and her Body was torn and devoured by Dogs 2 Kings 9. 30 33 35. 12. Manasse persecuted the Ancient and Noble Prophet Isaiah who probably was of the Royal Blood for his free reproofs for all his wickedness who thereupon caused him to be sawn in sunder with a wooden Saw as Josephus saith But not long after the Lord brought upon him the Captains of the Host of the King of Assyria who took Manasse among the Thorns and bound him in Fetters and carried him to Babylon where he was cast into a Dungeon 2 Chron. 33. 11. 13. The wicked Jews grievously persecuted the Prophet Jeremiah First they smote him with the Tongue Jerem. 18. 18. Come say they Let us devise devises against Jeremiah Come and let us smite him with the Tongue and let us not give heed to any of his Words Afterwards Pashur the Priest smote him and put him in the Stocks whereupon Jeremiah denounced this Judgment against him The Lord hath not called thy Name Pashur but Magor-missabib For thus saith the Lord I will make thee a terror to thy self and to all thy Friends and they shall fall by the Sword of their Enemies and their Eyes shall hehold it And thou Pashur and all that are in thine House shall go into Captivity and thou shalt come to Babylon and their thou shalt die Jerem. 20. 2 3 4 6. Which grievous threatnings were without all question performed 14. After this the Priests and the Prophets and all the People took Jeremiah and said Thou shalt surely die Jer. 26. 8. To whom Jeremiah said As for me Behold I am in your Hand Do with me as seemeth good unto you But know ye for certain that if you put me to death ye shall surely bring innocent Blood upon your self and upon this City and upon the Inhabitants thereof c. verse 14 15. 15. When Jerusalem was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar's Army King Zedekiah caused Jeremiah to be cast into Prison for foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem the Captivity of Zedekiah Jer. 32. 2 3. c. But God suffered him not to go unpunished For not long after the City according to Jeremiah's Prophecy was taken Zedekiah was in his flight overtaken and carried to the King of Babylon who slew his Sons before his eyes that that dreadful sight might be the last thing that he should ever see he immediatly put out his eyes and bound him with Chains and carried him to Babylon Jer. 39. 5 6 7. And Zedekiah's Princes Nobles who had smitten Jeremiah and put him into Prison Jer. 37. 15. did afterwards cast him into a Dungeon where he did stick in the mire Jer. 38. 6. When the City was taken they also being over-taken were carried to the King of Babylon who slew them all Jerem. 38. 6. 16. Afterwards when the People were carried into Captivity Jeremiah being according to his own desire left in the Land of Juda he with the rest of the People was carried perforce by Johanan and some other wicked Captains into Egypt unto whom he foretold that they should their perish by the Sword and by the Famine and by the Pestilence for which plain and faithful dealing they stoned him to Death as Josephus reports But it was not long before Nebuchadnezzar came and overcame the Egyptians and plundered the Country at which time those Predictions of Jeremy were fulfilled upon his Persecuting Enemies Jerem. 43. 6 7. and 44. 11 12. c. 17. And that the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonish Captivity which continued seventy Years was in a special manner inflicted upon them for their crying sin of persecuting the Ministers and People of God appears plainly 2 Chron. 16. 17. Where it is said They mocked the Messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his People till there was no remedy Therefore he brought upon them the King of the Chaldees who slew their young men with the Sword in the House of their Sanctuary and had no compassion upon Young Man or Maiden Old Man or him that stooped for Age c. 18. During the Captivity Haman the Agagite a deadly Enemy to the Church and People of God had got a Decree from King Ahasuerus upon a certain Day to destroy to kill and to cause to perish all Jews both Young and Old little Children and Womon and to take the spoil of them for a prey Esther 3. 13. But God wonderfully defeated this design preserved his People and turned the Mischief intended against them upon their Enemies Pates For this wicked Haman was himself hanged upon the Gallows fifty Cubits high which he had prepared for Mordecay Esther 7. 9. His ten Sons also were slain Esther 9. 10. And all others that rose up against them 19. Sometime after the return of the Jews from the Babylonish Captivity Antiochus Epiphanes or the Vile rather was a cruel and merciless Persecutor of the Godly among them But being in straits for want of mony he went into Persia to gather up some And being there he heard that in a wealthy City called Elymais there was a very Rich Temple dedicated to Diana Thither therefore he went and besieged it But the Inhabitants sallying out drave him away with great shame and loss And when he came back to Babylon he heard of the overthrow of his Captains and Armies in Judaea Which News together with his late defeat so wrought upon him that he fell sick and finding no hope of recovery he called his most familiar Friends unto him and told them that his Disease was violent and desperate and that he was justly Plagued by God with this grievous Sickness for that he had tormented the People of the Jews destroyed their Temple and committed horrible Sacrilege and for contemning the Majesty of of God But now he Vowed that if it would please the Lord to receive him he would become a Jew and do many great things for the People of God As also that he would go through all the known World to declare the power of God Notwithstanding which the Lord knowing his Hypocrisie continued to plague him after a very grievous and terrible manner For he had a remediless and incessant pain in his Bowels and intollerable torments in all his inward parts His Body bred abundance of Worms which continually crawled out of the same Yea he so rotted above ground that whole flakes of flesh fell from
this war he would utterly root out Christianity and so proceeding in his journey he beat the Enemy to a confused retreat whereupon that he might pursue them with the more speed he threw off his Armor but as he was posting on he was met by a Dart or arrow that pierced through his arm and entred into his side and whilest he endeavoured with the other hand to draw it out he received another wound and thereupon fell from his horse and receiving his blood gushing from his wound into his hands he threw it up into the Air saying vicisti Galilaee vicisti O thou Galilaean so he called Christ in scorn thou hast overcome me and Nazianzen saith that his body was carried away in a tempest without Lamentation and without Burial Gods Judgments upon persecuting Hereticks 53. Arius the first great disturber of the peace of the Christian Church was sent for by Constantine the Great who asked him what the matter was that where-ever he went still tumults and slaughters followed him And whether he did really agree with the Nicene Faith Arius did professedly avow that he did full agree thereto The Emperor commanded him to set the same down in writing under his hand which he did in the Emperors presence Then the Emperor required his Oath to manifest that he was reall in the same and he readily made Oath that what he had written was according to the truth and that it was his reall Judgment and Opinion The Emperor now having his Subscription and Oath was satisfied and would have him first to communicate with the Orthodox Church at Constantinople that he might be the better qualified for Communion with the Church at Alexandria where Athanasius had mightily opposed him and accordingly he wrote to Alexander the Bishop of Constantinople to receive Arius into Communion 54. Alexander laying aside all further Disputes by which hitherto he had mightily opposed the Arian Party betook himself wholly to Prayer wherein he continued fervently for diverse days and nights but more especially that next day before the Lords Day wherein Arius was to be admitted to the Sacrament the Sum of which Prayer was this It must needs be thus O Lord that Arius must communicate with this People to morrow Let thy Servant O Lord now depart in peace and never see that day and destroy not thou the Righteous with the Wicked But if thou wilt spare thy Church as thou wilt spare it remember the words of Eusebius an Arian Bishop and give not over thine inheritance to destruction and contempt and take Arius out of the way lest he being admitted into Communion Heresie should seem also to be received into Communion with the Truth and wickedness be accounted Godliness This Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia at Constantinople had now the whole conduct of the matter concerning Arius and sent word to Alexander that unless he would receive Arius into Communion he would banish him from Constantinople and put another into his place that should do the Work But Eusebius for all his threats missed his expectation For the Lords Day being come Arius with the Emperors Authority marched forth in State out of the Emperors Hall with Eusebius and other Bishops in his train and passing along the Streets in Pomp a strange manner of address to the Sacrament came to the common Market Place where a sudden fear fell upon him and therewithal he was surprised with a Flux which enforced him to retire into a House appointed for such a purpose and there suddenly his Speech failed him his Excrements and Blood ran out his Belly brake his Guts fell out and his Spleen and Liver followed The people staying long in expectation of him and he not coming they entred the house and found the sad Spectacle of him lying dead in that manner Constantius one of the sons of Constantine was himself an Arian and a great favourer of diverse Arian Bishops by whom by his Countenance and Authority the Orthodox Christians were grievously persecuted And thus this Emperor who would be stiled Eternal Emperor and yet would not allow Christ to be Eternal God and instead of being exceeding Great became odious to all good men was abhorred by his own Soldiers and lastly was loathed by himself he saw his Honour buried before he dyed became a tormentor to himself by jealousies fears and vexations and these brought on a Fear which soon put a period to his life 55. In the Reign of Julian one George an Arian Bishop of Alexandria having raged exceedingly against the Orthodox yet would also shew his zeal against the Heathen Temples which did so vex and exasperate the Gentiles that they taking advantage of Julian's coming to the Crown rose in a tumult and seized upon Bishop George tyed him to a Camels tail and dragged him through the streets of Alexandria and then they burnt both Bishop and Camel in one fire And thus God rendred to this Heretical Bishop a recompence for all his villanies and outrages done to the Orthodox 56. Valence another Arian Emperor was a great countenancer and encourager of the Heresie and a Persecutor of the Orthodox insomuch as when Athanasius was dead in Alexandria the Persecution broke in like a Torrent so that no man could stand before it The Orthodox Churches both in City and Country were swallowed up and destroyed by it Yet this Flood stopped not there but brake as it were out of the world into the wilderness among the Monks where this Persecution raged most of all till the Heathen Goths paid the Debt of the people of God by the death of the Emperor Valence somewhat like that of Julian saving that after his wounds received in the Battle with much ado he got into a town for succor wherein together with the whole town he was by the pursuing Goths burnt alive 57. Another Constantine a Monothelite being a cruel Persecutor of the Orthodox was slain by one of his own servants as he was washing himself in a Bath Hist. Magd. Gensericus an Arian King of the Vandals used a great deal of cruelty against the Orthodox and in the end he was possessed by an evil Spirit and dyed miserably P. Melan. Chron. 58. Hunricus a Son to a King of the Vandals being an Arian was a merciless Persecutor of the Orthodox banishing five thousand of them at one time among whom some of them being unable to travel he caused cords to be tyed to their legs and to drag them through stony and rough places whereby many of them perished But not long after God struck him with venomous Biles all over his Body and in the end he was consumed by Lice H. Magd. Anastasius the Emperor a Patron of the Eutychian Heresie was a bloody Persecutor of godly Christians and was slain by a Thunderbolt 59. Arcadius the Emperour having by the perswasion of Eudoxia his Empress who was a violent Arian banished Chrysostom from Constantinople the very next night there was such a terrible Earthquake that the
City of Lions where the numbers of the slain and massacred was so great that their Bodies being thrown into the river Rhodanus or Rosne stained and corrupted the water the violence of which stream carrying them down by heaps to Tornou where the Inhabitants not knowing what they were but fearing that it proceeded from invasion by Enemies and Robbers assembled themselves in Arms together for their mutual defence The chief Ring-leaders and Abettors of which Butchery Monsieur de Thou a Papist yet an incomparable Historian confesseth to have been Boidon Mormieu and Clou three of the most wicked and vilest Varlets that a Kingdom could harbour which Boidon was afterwards executed at Clermont in Auvergne And if Mormieu escaped a shameful end yet surely he deserved it as well as his Fellow Persecutor having before as Semanus confesseth procured the murther of his own Father At Tholous also a few days after a great slaughter of the godly was committed not by the better sort of Citizens or sober or morally virtuous Papists but by one Turry and a number of other infamous and lewd persons like himself who joined themselves together for the effecting of that bloody execution The like Villany was perpetrated and done at the great City of Roan in Normandy by one Maronie a most infamous Ruffian and a great many of other base Varlets who flocked to him as to their chief Ringleader 168. But in none of them were these two hellish sins of Adultery and Blood more eminently coupled together than in Paygillard the Master Butcher at Angiers who having long continued in the sin of Adultery was at last enticed by his Harlot to murther his own wife 169. In France after this barbarous and cruel Massacre the eighth day of November following there appeared a dreadful Comet concerning which a Learned Protestant presently after published an elaborate Poem wherein he presaged that it was Gods Herald or Messenger to denounce his Judgment quickly to ensue upon that Kingdom for their late inhumane Butcheries These Verses were scarcely come abroad when there suddenly broke out in Poictou a new dreadful and before unknown Disease commonly called the PoictovinChollick which miserably wasted that goodly Kingdom for above thirty years after This Disease was accompanied with many extreme pains and torments not only in the outward Parts of the Body but also in the inward and Vitals insomuch as it drew on diverse horrid Convulsions and in many blindness before it killed them The strange Original the hidden nature and those unparallel'd torments which it produced sometimes resembling the very stabs and gashes made with Swords and Ponyards gave all impartial judgments just ground to conclude that it was the finger of God himself in punishing the merciless Murthers of his Dear Saints 170. But though the brutish goatish Papists were so cruel and inhumane yet others there were of more moral and moderate Princiciples who in their very Souls abhorred and detested those barbarous practices Monsieur de Thou in his unparallel'd History tells us that himself was about nineteen years old when that horrible and Hellish Massacre was committed in Paris on S. Bartholomews Day which fell out that year on the Lords Day and did in his very soul abhor the cruelty and savageness thereof when in his passage through the streets to Mattins that Morning he met with diverse Villains dragging along the dead Body of Hierom Grolet late Governour of Orleance all weltring with gastly wounds in his own Blood At which sight his Heart relenting and mourning inwardly not daring to shed tears publickly he hastened home to the House of Christopher de Thou his Father who at that time was the chief President of the Parliament in Paris there freely to deplore that execrable Butchery as did also the said Christopher his Father 171. Vidus Faber Pibratius John Merviller Belleureu all eminent men with all the judicious and morally virtuous Papists in that City did Christianly hide and so preserved many Protestants from a wretchless massacring Nay Arman Guntald the old Marshal Biron Father of Charles Duke of Biron that was beheaded in King Henry the Fourth's time when the Deputies of Rochel came to him some few weeks after that bloody Execution to treat of a peaceable accomodation of their affairs he shed many tears in their presence upon his execrating the Authors of that Cruelty and acknowledged the great Mercy of God to him that he neither knew of it nor had any hand in it At the City of Lions also where the inhumanity of the Murtherers almost equalled that of Paris Mandelot the Governor there did his best to have prevented it and in his Heart with many other grave and sober Gitizens of the Romish Religion utterly detested it And when the slaughtered Bodies that were tumbled into the River of Rosne were carried down with the stream to Tornou Valence Vienne and Burg contiguous to the same River the Papists there generally detested the cruelty thereof And at Arles where for want of Springs and Ponds they had most use of that River water yet they so much abhorred that Butchery as they would neither drink thereof nor yet eat any of the Fish taken therein for diverse days after And generally in all Provence those of the Romish Religion drew the mangled Bodies out of the water and with great humanity interred them 172. Monsieur Carragie a Noble Gentleman who was Governour of the great City of Roan in Normandy did likewise oppose the Massacres there to the utmost of his power As did also James Benedict Largahaston the Prime Senator of Burdeaux who thereby became himself in danger to have been slain by those seditious Varlets who at first had been stirred up to commit those outrages by the seditious Sermons of a lustful Jesuite called Eminund Auger 173. Claudus Earl of Tende a Descendant of the illustrious House of Savoy Governour of Provence Monsieur de Gordes Governour of Daulpbany Monsieur Sauteran Governour of Auvergne and Francis Duke of Memorancy absolutely refused to suffer any Massacres to be committed in such places as were under any of their Governments So as the Rochellers in their Declaration set out the same year do acknowledge that all such Romanists who had but any humanity left in them did in their Hearts abhor and with their Mouths detest those abominable outrages and hellish cruelties 174. And as the soberer and modester sort of Papists abhorred such brutishness so also they disswaded from the same That Noble Gentleman David Hamilton gave this advice to James Earl of Arran then Regent of Scotland Anno 1545. when Cardinal Beton would have perswaded him to have joined with him in the Persecution and Slaughter of the godly in that Kingdom I cannot but wonder said he that you should give up the innocent Servants of God against whom no Crime is objected but the Preaching of the Gospel into the hands and power of men most infamous for Lust Cruelty and all other wickedness which