millions of their subjects unto whom both defensive offensive Iron was unknown which made the deadly impressions of their Enemies weapons and the inefficacy of their own surprising to amazement It is to be noted that the Pots wherein they boiled their fish and flesh c. were made of earth as also innumerable other vessels most were enjoind to use no other By this means the Potters trade was in principal demand among them which renders this Metaphor very agreeable In the computation of Time made by the Mexican Nation their greatest Period consisted of Fifty two Years which they call'd a VVheel Upon the last night of every Wheel they used to break all their Vessels and stuff and put out their fire saying that the World should end at the finishing of one of these Wheels and it might be at that time Upon this conceipt they passed the night in great fear and watched very carefully for the day But when they saw the day begin to break they presently beat many Drumms sounded Cornets Flutes and other Instruments of Joy saying that God did yet prolong the time with another Age. And then began another Wheel on the first day whereof they went to the high priest and took new fire and bought new Vessels Joseph Accsta lib. 6. cap. 2. When the Spaniards came they took these miserable Potters themselves and dash'd them in pieces one against another Holy Hilary in his Exposition of the second Psalm is exceedingly concernd lest there should be any imputation of Ingratitude to our LORD upon the account of his seising upon his Inheritance in such a manner as presently to break it in pieces with an iron Rod. But he quiets himself in this that it is in order to Restauration and Reformation Be wise now therefore O ye kings be instructed ye judges of the earth Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling Kiss the Son c. They who will not take warning by Beishazzar and Motezuma and will not learn in all their Administrations to glorifie the God in whose hand their breath is and whose are all their ways they must expect to come to worse ends than they did Great Motezuma who laboured to be worshiped as a god No plebeian might look him in the face if he did he was punished with death He did never set his soot on the ground but was always carried on the shoulders of Noblemen and if he lighted they laid rich Tapestry whereon he might go When he made any Voyage he and the Noblemen went as it were in a Park compassed in for the nonce and the rest of the people went without the Park He never put on a Garment twice nor did eat or drink in one Vessel or Dish above once all must be new He used to be attended by Noblemen barefoot This Motezuma of whose bloody Pride and Luxury he knew no bounds was at last imprisoned in his own Palace by his unwelcom Guests was hated by his subjects covertly and basely slain so that t is yet controverted whether Spaniards or Indians were the authors of his death But howsoever Motezuma died miserably and paid his deserts to the just judgment of our Lord of heaven for his Pride and Tyranny His body falling into the Indians power they would make him no Obsequies of a King no not of an ordinary person but cast it away in great disdain and rage A servant of his having pity of this king's misery made a fire thereof put the ashes in a contemptible place Acosta lib. 7. cap. 22 26. Some judicious and learned Divines have conjectured that America is prophesied of in the thirty seventh of Ezekiel under the denomination of a Valley Certainly no part of the habitable World can shew more Bones or bones more dry than these vast Regions do Mr. Downam thinks that Mr. Eliot's taking his Text from thence when he first preached to the Indians has its weight His Appendix to the Letters from New-England is well worth the reading The Prophet is said to be carried out in the spirit and for ought I know he might be carried beyond the limits of the then known World Dan. 11.45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy Mountain yet he shall come to his end and none shall help him The complexion of this portion of Scripture is such as constrains me to imagin that the place designed by the Holy Spirit is no other than America Every word almost has an emphasis carrying in it to me the perswasion of this sence They who remove from one Land to another there to dwell that settlement of theirs is call'd a Plantation Especially when a Land before rude and unfurnish'd is by the New-comers replenished with usefull Arts Vegetables Animals Thus when in the year 1492. Christopher Columbus had opened the way the Spaniards planted themselves in the spatious Regions of America and too much planted Antichristianisme in the room of Heathenisme Tabernacles So called from the movableness of their condition and shortness of their continuance As Tents they were lately set up and notwithstanding all their Praemunitions so far as they are Antichristian they shall be taken down before it be long by the immovable Counsel and Providence of God Palace The Extent Riches and Pomp of the Mexican and Peruvian Empires are very great Bellarmin 〈◊〉 notis Ecclesi ad Notam Quartam ◠Nonam Insomuch that when the Church of Rome met with Losses in Europe they pleased themselves with their Gains in the New-World They glory in the many Churches they have planted there which are they say without all mixture of Hereticks If with Mr. Nicholas Fuller Miscel sacr lib. 5. cap. 18. we take this word to signifie Equile Regium Horse Guards It will still look upon America The Reputation the Spaniards Horses gave them did much contribute towards their prodigious Conquests And after above threescore dangerous battels Mexico was at last taken upon Hippolytus day August 13. 1521. Since which time Horses that were never seen there before are one of the four Fair Things of that Citie Between the Seas The middle Provinces of the New World governed by the Vice Roys of Mexico and Peru are known to lye between two of the most wide and famous Seas of the whole World The American Inhmus respecting its own narrowness and the bold approaches of the huge Ocean on either side does command the title of Nonsuch America it self and they who pass thether are so much concernd with the Sea that Peter Martyr stiled his History Decads of the Ocean And in the general History of Spain part of the King's Title is The Islands and firm Land of the Ocean Sea Grimeston p. 1234. in the glerious holy Mountain Ingenious Joseph Accsta lib. 3. cap. 19. speaking of New-Spain hath these words Which without douct is the best Province the Sun doth circle And Mr. Gage in his faithfull Relations cap. 12. p. 134 speaks of
Isabella Queen of Castile From the death of this gracious Queen which fell out Anno 1504. the American Destructions are observed to bear Date Hell followed c. This is added by way of horrid Aggravation being a most dismal Exemplification of that Proverb Where there is no Vision the people perish Dr. Fulk in his Praelections published 1573. speaks thus Sequitur autem mortem Infernus â—ne Corporum tantum haec lues esse censeatur sed quam aeterna Animae mors tormenta Inferm consequantur Et corporis quidem mortem Infernus semper sequitur nisi in ijs solum quibus morte Christi retusus est aculeus mortis Mr. Arthur Dent Anno. 1603. For assuredly Hell doth always follow the death of the body excepting those only whom Christ hath delivered from Hell and Damnation by the power of his Death All these perished without Faith and without Sacraments is the dolefull Epiphonema which Bartholomew de las Casas often makes where he gives an account of Twenty Millions Slain Lestroyd and sent to Hell by Spanish Cruelties The Grave has nothing to do here Multitudes of the slaughtered Indians had no other Grave than the Bellies of Men Spanish Dogs and wild Beasts In several places of this very Province 〈◊〉 One in 〈◊〉 left a 〈◊〉 N. Engl â—â—rial p 23 about the Year 1618. there was such a Plague among the Natives that the living were not able to bury the dead by which means the ground became strawed with their Bones Fourth part It is the Field and not the Proportion of the slain that is here designd the Jurisdiction of the Destroyers is delineated in those words Upon the Fourth part of the Earth i. e. Upon or over America What ever Variation there may be in reckoning the other parts of the World yet America always obtains the Fourth place as not only last but very lately discovered to the rest The Quaternion of Evils here specified are notoriously known to have Ranged over this Earth Dr. Whitaker affirms that no Histories make mention of so great Tyranny Besides the own bloody Massacres Wars Sacrifices as the Spaniards exercised over the Indians De notis Ecclesiae p. 505. And Amandus Polanus in his Commentary upon Daniel doth very largely and pathetically describe this Desolating Abomination Vide cap. 11. 31. p. 1067 68 69 70. Neither need one salve the last Instance by a Metaphor the Indians to shun the Spaniards fled from their delightfull habitations by the Seaside and betook themselves to the mountainous Deserts where the Tigers met with them and devourd them And the Spanish Dogs killd and eat Multitudes of them which might help to sharpen Mr. Mede's Pen and cause him to say Christ our Lord sends his Mastives the Spaniards to hunt them out and worry them which they did in so hideous a manner as the like thereunto scarce ever was done since the Sons of Noah came out of the Ark. Epist 43. The following Seal did for many Years seem to make against the forementioned Applications as altogether out of Time But within these few Months It seemd rather to offer Arguments for them For the Prophesie doth not say when the Martyrs were slain but when they were seen Now if the Fifth Seal be concluded with the Year 311 or 325. the Antichristian Persecution the longest and most grievous of all will be wholly excluded Whereas John was so posted as that he might look backward all along to the beginning and forward all along to the end of Martyrdom The eleventh Verse also seems to intimate that measuring from this Moment much more of the time of Persecution was past than was now to come Yet for a little season may be understood in Comparison with what was already past Upon the whole I humbly crave leave to offer whether the Year 1572 or 1573. may not be the Article of Time intended for this Prospect Upon the supposition that Four of the Seals are Local t was most orderly and methodical to place them all together tho some passages of the Fifth might have an earlier commencement than some of them The Four Parts of the World are as so many Colledges founded endowed for the setting forth of the Glory of God Christ had bespoke Witnesses in every one of them and therefore New-Colledge also is first mentioned before the Fifth Seal bring in the whole University of Martyrs under the altar It is to be noted that in the Year 1554. the Sacrament of the Altar began to kindle Fires upon the English Altars and there Christ in his Members was by Authority Tried Condemned and publickly crucified to a degree scarce equalled in any other Nation The Excellency and Preciousness of so many Voluntary Whole bornt Offerings made the Pillars of Smoke and Fire to ascend on high and to be taken notice of all the World over And Mr. Fox prepared such a golden Oyl to seed those Flames that they â—â—ill do and always will mount up in perpetuam Rei memoriam The London Fashion was not approved of at Paris neither indeed could it be follow'd besides that so long and tedious a Process was a thing of too slow and dull a temper for that Climat Bartholomaeus de las Casas writ in the Year 1542. fearing lest he should incur guilt in concealing the Loss of an infinite number both of Souls and Bodies Polanus saith his Book was printed in Spanish at Sevil apud Sebastianum Trugillium Anno 1552. He did with such irresistible Importunity represent the Outrages committed in the New World as prevaild with the Emperour to send over Commissioners on purpose to See whether it was so or no and upon their Report took a better Order both for their temporal and spiritual Estate notwithstanding a strong Interest made against said Casas in the Court of Spain T is possible these extraordinary Efforts both in Speaking Writing and Printing may be signified by a more express attribution of a Voice to the Fourth Animal In the Year 1572. Paris it self and the Prisons in Lions and over the Kingdom were made the King's Slaughter-Houses They of the Reformd Religion were commanded thither under a pretence of keeping them out of Harms way And there within the Courts of the Prisons the Butchers Ax and Knife and Streams of Blood too as much as might be were kept out of sight of the common people for fear lest Humanity should have got the upper hand and Roman-Catholicks should have rescud their Neighbours of the Reformation from that monstrous Excess of Barbarity At Lions the publick Executioner and the Garrison Souldiers innobled themselves by refusing to kill these Sheep thus brought into the Butchers Pen tho commanded by the Governour As Saul's Guard of old so their Unfading Honour shall never be in danger of being out of Mind by being out of Sight so long as any Compositors and Press men shall be left alive In this Massacre the Place and Means of the Trepan were so
according to the measure and portion of Faith which God hath given us Let Him be pleased to cause that it may not dye in us but may produce fruits worthy of his Children He giving us Perseverance in the same we will ascribe Praise and Thanks unto Him to all Eternity Amen JEAN du BORDEL MATTHIEU VERMEIL PIERRE BOURDON ANDRE la FON When their Orthodox Confession was sent to Villagagnon he declared them Hereticks upon the Articles relating to the Sacrament of the Altar and Vows and said t was unlawfull for them to live any longer lest the Company should be infected with their Poison Yet his resolution to put them to death he kept as privat as he could till Friday the 9th of February 1558. on which day he orderd them to be brought from the Continent Their friends with tears disswaded them from going to their slaughter But they considering that God might have brought them into those parts and preserved them in millions of dangers for this end could not find in their hearts to desert the Cause of their dear Lord Jesus So John Bordel Matthew Vermeil and Andrew la Fon went into the boat But Peter Bourdon was left behind very sick Being come to the Island Villagagnon commanded that they should be brought before him who holding their Confession of Faith in his hand asked if they made and signed it They answered that they made it and signd it every one owning his Hand and seeing it was according to the Confession of the holy Apostles and Martyrs of the primitive Church they were resolved by the Grace of God to maintain it Their words were scarce out before Villagagnon discoverd a furious countenance threatening to put them to death if they continued in their damnable Opinion And presently commanded his Executioner to put Irons on their Legs and to every Chain to hang fifty or sixty pound weight and orderd them to be shut up in a nasty dark Prison and set a Guard of armed men upon them They comforted one another in Prayer singing of Psalms All the Company of the Island was very much troubled at this action and secretly comforted the Prisoners and gave them provisions which they stood in need of The next day in the morning he went well armd with a page into a little Hall whither he sent for John Bordel in his Irons of whom he demanded an explanation of the article of the Sacrament He confessed that the Bread and Wine were Signs of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ confirming it by the saying of St Augustin Villag in a great passion gave him a blow on the face with his fist whereupon much blood flowed from his nose and mouth To the blow he added words agreeable You have lyed Villain St Austin never said so Before I eat I will reward the fruits of your Obstinacy As some tears fell with the blood Vil. upbraided him calling him a puny fresh water souldier that would cry for a fillip Then he asked him if he would maintain what he had writ and signd Bordel answered Yes untill by Authority of the holy Scriptures I am otherwise taught V. seeing the stedfastness of the man commanded his Executioner to bind him and carry him to a Rock which the water coverd twice a day three foot He and his page being armd attended the poor Sufferer to the place appointed Bordel passing by the prison where his companions were cryed out to them with a loud Voice Be of good Courage you will quickly be delivered from this miserable life As he went along he sung Psalms to the astonishment of bloody V. and his Executioner Being upon the Rock t was with much adoe that he got leave to commend himself to God in prayer before he went out of the world The Executioner being too slow for furious V. he threatend him with a cat of nine tails if he did not make haste therefore he immediatly threw him into the Sea where he rendred to God his Spirit calling upon the Name of our Lord Jesus till he was drownd Matthew Vermeil was brought next being greatly astonished at the death of his companion he pleaded with V. for his life with such Expostulations Have we robbed you or evilly entreated the least of your servants Have we plotted your death or done any thing to your dishonour No Villain said he you and your companions dye for no such things as these but because you are a most dangerous Pest to be separated from the Church lest you spoil the rest of my company The Martyr answered Eight moneths are not passed since you made an ample confession of the Points for which you make us dye this day Afterward he petitioned him again for his life offering to become his servant V. said he had nothing for him to do but he would think of it if he would recant his Error Vermeil seeing no hope given him but what was destructive to his Salvation became thereby resolv'd in his mind and Cryed out with a loud Voice I had rather dye to live eternally with the LORD than to live a little while and dye for ever with Satan After he had made his Prayer upon the Rock and commended his Soul to the Care of God he freely delivered himself into the hands of the Executioner and Crying out with a loud Voice Lord Jesus have mercy on me He gave up the ghost Andrew la Fon had not strength enough to climb up into this Rock of Martyrdom but by Promises Threatenings was drawn to some degree of Recantation Or else was favoured by Villagagnon for the sake of his Trade of a Tailor which was very necessary And so his life was spared But the bloody Sacrifice of Vil. is not yet ended One Victim remains viz. Peter Bourdon who was left very sick on the Continent Villagagnon went himself thither took one ashoar with him His first salutation to the poor sick man was that he must get up and go into the boat Bourdon would have excused himself from his inability to do him any service by reason of sickness Villagagnon told him this was to cure him The poor man not being able to stand much less go he caused him to be carried aboard Villagagnon asked whether he would stand to the Confession he had signd He answered he would consider of it As soon as they came ashoar the Executioner bound him without any more adoe advertising him to have a care of his Conscience Bourdon supposing that to be the place where his companions obtained the Victory over death he recommended his soul to God and Cryed with a loud Voice Lord God! I am of the same Paste with my Companions who maintained the Combat for thy Name with glory and honour I pray Thee shew me Favour that I may not succumb amidst the Allurements of Satan the World and the Flesh I pray Thee pardon all my Transgressions Offences that I have committed against thy Majesty and this in the