counsel of the Learned Gamaliel and try a while whether the Protestants separation from them were of God or no. For otherwise if by force and tyranny they should compel them to profess and practice those actions in Gods Worship which they accounted abominable and should also restrain them from the practice of those Duties towards God wherein they were convinced the truth of his Service consisted their Consciences must needs be shipwrack'd and undone and so instead of making them new Converts they should leave them Atheists and Libertines A TABLE OF THE NAMES OF THE PERSECUTORS Visibly Plagued by God SAtan pag. 1 Cain pag. 2 Old World pag. 2 Ham pag. 3 Ishmael pag. 3 Pharaoh pag. 4 Saul pag. 5 Asa pag. 6 Jesabel pag. 7 Manasse pag. 7 Jewes and Pashur pag. 8 False Prophets c pag. 8 Zedekiah and his Princes pag. 9 Johanan and his Companions pag. 9 Haman pag. 10 Antiochus the Vile pag. 11 Herod the Great pag. 12 Herod the less or Antipas pag. 15 Herod Agrippa pag. 16 Jewes pag. 17 Nero pag. 21 Domitian pag. 21 Adrian pag. 22 Marcus Antonius Verus pag. 23 Commodus pag. 23 Severus pag. 23 Claudius Herminianus pag. 24 Maximianus pag. 24 Decius pag. 24 Gallus pag. 25 Valerian pag. 25 Claudius pag. 26 Aurelian pag. 26 Dioclesian pag. 26 Maximian pag. 27 Maximinus pag. ib. Galerius pag. 29 Licinius pag. 29 Antiochus pag. ib. Mamuca pag. ib. Julian Apostata pag. 31 Arius pag. ib. Constantius pag. 34 George of Alexandria pag. 35 Valence pag. ib. Constantine pag. 36 Gensericus pag. ib. Hunricus pag. ib. Anastasius pag. ib. Arcadius and Eudoxia pag. 37 Theodoricus pag. ib. Arian Vandals pag. ib. Uladislaus and his Queen pag. 38 Popish Bishops pag. ib. Popish Lords pag. 39 Dr. Austin pag. 40 Popish Monks pag. ib. Stumislaus Znoma pag. 41 Emperor Sigismund pag. ib. Doctor Knapper and some others pag. 42 Ladislaus King of Bohemia pag. 43 Minerius pag. ib. Simon Monfort pag. 44 Lewis King of France pag. ib. Truchetus pag. ib. Lord of Revest pag. 45 Bartholomew Cassinaeus pag. ib. Johannes de Roma pag. ib. John Martin pag. 46 Cardinal of Lorain pag. ib. Bellemont pag. ib. A Judge of Aix pag. 47 A chief Judge pag. ib John Craenequin pag. ib. Chancellour Prat pag. 48 John Morin pag. ib. Chancellour Oliver pag. ib. Poncher pag. 49 Lambert a Friar pag. ib. Monbrun pag. 50 Villibon with others pag. 51 Popish Witnesses pag. ib. Popish Informers pag. 52 Popish Inquisitors pag. ib. Emperour Ferdinand the Second pag. ib. Sir Thomas Moor pag. 53 Bishop Fisher pag. ib. Philips pag. ib. Pavier pag. ib. Foxford pag. 54. Rockwood pag. ib. An under Marshal pag. ib. Sir Ralph Ellerker pag. 55 Doctor Story pag. 55 John Twiford pag. ib. Kings of Spain and Portugal pag. 56 Cardinal Woolsey pag. ib. Judge Morgan pag. 57 Bishop Morgan pag. ib. Mr. Leyson pag. ib. Doctor Dunning pag. ib. Commissary Berry pag. 58 A Suffragan of Dover pag. ib. Bishop Thornton pag. ib. Doctor Jeffery pag. ib. Thomas Blaver pag. ib. Two Cardinals pag. 59 Doctor Whittington pag. 60 Bate pag. ib. Mr. Woodrose pag. 61 Thomas Mouse pag. ib. George Rivet pag. ib. William Swallow pag. 62 Robert Baldwin pag. 63 Robert Bloomfield pag. ib. Justice Leland pag. 64 Ralph Lardin pag. ib. Mr. Swingfield pag. ib. Bayliff Burton pag. 65 A Serving man pag. 66 Dale a Promoter pag. 67 Alexander a Jailor and his Son pag. 67 John Peter pag. 68 Lever pag. ib. Stepen Gardiner pag. ib. King James the Fifth of Scotland pag. 69 Sir James Hamilton pag. 70 Friar Campbel pag. 72 A Popish Persecutor pag. 73 King Henry the Second of France pag. ib. Irish Persecutors pag. 74 Maurice Duke of Saxony pag. 75 Charles the fifth Emperor pag. 76 Philip the Second King of Spain pag. 77 Rodulph the Second Emperour pag. 79 Henry the Second King of France pag. 80 French Persecutors pag. 8â— Charles the Ninth King of France pag. 83 Queen Mother of France pag. 84 French Persecutors pag. 85 Henry the Third King of France pag. 89 93 Duke of Guise pag. 90 Cardinal of Guise pag. 91 Queen Mary of England pag. 95 Thomas Arundel pag. 97 99 Henry the Fourth King of England pag. 97 James Beaton pag. 100 Escovedo pag. 102 Peter Espinac pag. 103 Cardinal Granvel pag. 103 Boidon pag. 104 Puygillard pag. 105 ERRATA IN the Epistle page 7. line 16. read they for you In the Book p. 8. l. 29. r. selves for self p. 12. l. 10. r. recover for receive p. 16. l 25. r. God immediately for Gods immutability p 19. l. 14. r. Trajan for Trojan p. 21. l. 14. r. causing for caused p. 27. l. 8. r. Thunderclap for Thunder p. 29. l. 12. r. miserably for miserable p. 32 l. 5. r. fully for full p. 34. l. 29. r. feaver for fear p. 52. l. 1. r. Charles Conink p. 7. l. 17. r. that so carnage for carriage p. 97. l 17. dele God p. 104 l. 9. dele that p. 110. l. 12. r. when for which p. 111. l. 16. r. Monluc Books Printed for and sold by William Miller at the Gilded Acorn in S. Pauls Church-yard near the little North-Door JUvenal with Cuts by Sir Robert Stapylton Knight in Large Folio Elton on Colossians Folio Cradocks Knowledge and Practice Quarto His Principles Octavo Dod on the Lords Prayer Quarto Medice Cura Teipsum or the Apothecaries Plea against Doctor Christopher Merret Quarto Richard Ward his two very useful and compendious Theological Treatises the first shewing the nature of Wit Wisdom and Folly The second describing the Nature Use and Abuse of the Tongue Speech whereby principally Wisdom and Folly are expressed wherein also are diverse Texts of Scripture touching the respective heads explained Octavo Templum Musicum or rhe Musical Synopsis Octavo Fettiplace's Christian Monitor earnestly and compassionately perswading sinners unto true and timely repentance by the serious view of the seven following weighty Considerations 1. The stupendious love of God unto man in Christ Jesus 2. The great danger of Despair and greater of Presumption 3. The sweetness easiness and pleasantness of the ways of God 4. Falshood and Flattery of the ways of sin 5. Safe joyful and blessed state of the righteous 6. Dangerous and most deplorable state of the wicked 7. Shortness and uncertainty of life terrors and amazement of an unprepared death and eternity of punishments after death Twelves Fettiplace's Souls narrow search for sin Octavo English Dictionary or Expositor Twelves Complete Bone-setter Octavo The famous Game of Chesse-play Octavo Shelton's Tachygraphia Latine Octavo Emblems Divine Moral Natural and Historical expressed in Sculpture and applyed to the several Ages Occasions and Conditions of man by a person of Quality Octavo Clark of Comfort which Gods children have or at least earnestly desire and long after whilest they are in this world together with the obstructions of comfort and the removal of them Twelves Jeofferies New-years Gift Twelves Divine Examples of Gods severe judgments upon Sabbath-breakers in their unlawful sports collected out of several Divine Subjects viz. Mr. H. B. Mr. Beard and the practice of Piety a little monument of our present times c. A brief remembrancer or the right improvement of Christ's Birth-day A second Sheet of old Mr. Dod's sayings or another Posie gathered out of Mr. Dod's Garden Hunting for Money the first part The hunting match for money the second part Bishop Hall's Sayings concerning Travellers to prevent Popish and debauched principles The whole Duty of Man containing a practical Table of the ten Commandments wherein the sins forbidden and the Duties commanded or implied are clearly discovered by famous Mr. William Perkins At which place you may be furnished with most sorts of bound or stitch'd Books as Acts of Parliament Proclamations Speeches Declarations Letters Orders Commissions Articles with other State Matters as also Books of Divinity Church-Government Sermons and most sorts of Histories Poetry Plays and such like c. Books formerly published by this Author Folio A General Martyrology containing an Historical Narration of all the chiefest Persecutions which have been in the world from the Creation to our present time whereunto are annexed the Lives of sundry eminent Divines and some others An English Martyrology of all the chiefest Persecutions which have been in England from the first plantation of the Gospel to the end of Queen Marys Reign whereunto are annexed the Lives of sundry eminent Divines The first Volume of Cases of Conscience A Mirror or Looking-Glass both for Saints and Sinners c. in two Volumes with a Geographical Description of all the known World c. Quarto The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History contained in four Volumes of Lives Diverse other single Lives in Quarto Octavo The History of Eighty Eight The Powder Plot and of the Fall of the House in Black Friars FINIS
Viou here his Shadowe whose Laborious Quill By Sacred Chymistry doth Balm Distill To Calm the Persecuting Spirits Rage And mixe Delight with Profitt in each Page Walter Binneman sculp A Looking-glass FOR PERSECUTORS CONTAINING Multitudes of EXAMPLES of God's Severe but Righteous JUDGMENTS upon bloody and merciless Haters of his Children in all Times from the beginning of the World to this present Age. COLLECTED Out of the Sacred Scriptures and other Ecclesiastical Writers both Ancient and Modern By Sam. Clarke Minister God judgeth the Righteous and God is angry with the wicked every Day If he turn not he will whet his Sword He hath bent his Bow and made it ready He hath also prepared for him the Instruments of Death He ordaineth his Arrows against the Persecutors Psal. 7. 11 12 13. London Printed for William Miller at the Sign of the Gilded Acorn near the little North Door in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1674. TO THE Christian Reader I Know well that this is a very tender Subject about which I am now writing For The Ancients made Divine Revenge to be a Child of Night Shut to the Earth but ope ' to Heavens sight There are two sorts of Persons which err about the Judgments of God The one of such who will not take any notice of them be they never so plain and conspicuous Of such the Prophet complains Esay 26. 11. Lord when thy Hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see These are stupid and blockish Persons For saith the Prophet verse 9. When thy Judgments are in the Earth the Inhabitants of the World will or at least should learn Righteousness The other sort are of such as are too Critical and censorious in judging of God's Providential Dispensations as if they were punishments for sin when God hath other excellent ends in them This was the fault of Christ's Disciples John 9. 2. When they saw a man that was blind from his Birth Master say they Who did sin This Man or his Parents that he was born blind To whom our Saviour answered Neither hath this Man sinned nor his Parents But that the Works of God should be made manifest in him But notwithstanding these Errors both on the Right and Left Hand there must be an humble sober and prudent taking notice of God's Judgments that we may make a right construction of them The Apostle St. Paul having recorded the dreadful Examples of God's wrath upon the sinful Israelites in the Wilderness 1 Cor. 10. 5. c. concludes verse 11. Now all these things happened unto them for Ensamples And they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the World are come God himself also hath appointed the recording and observation of such Judgments That all Israel may hear and fear and do no more any such wickedness Deut. 13. 11. Obj. But do we not often see that great and violent Persecutors live long and prosper in the World as if they rather merited a reward than procured God's wrath against them for it Ans. It 's true 1. God's Judgments upon many Persecutors are more spiritual and so less conspicuous and visible to the eye of the World As when God gives them up to blindness of mind hardness of heart a cauterized conscience and a reprobate sence which of all other Judgments are the most dreadful Hos. 4. 17. 2. All the while they escape with impunity they are but treasuring up wrath against the Day of wrath and revelation of the righteous Judgment of God Rom. 2. 5. For it 's a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble and persecute his People 2 Thes. 1. 6. Hence Job 31. 3. Is not destruction to the wicked And a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity God doth record and register such wicked mens sins against the Day of Judgment He writes them in a Book with a Pen of Iron and the Point of a Diamond Jer. 17. 1. He seals them up in a Bag Job 14. 17. As a Clerk of the Assizes seals up the Indictments and at the Assizes opens his Bag and produceth them Deut. 32. 34. Yet God in all Ages hath taken some of these Persecutors and hung them up in Chains as Spectacles of his wrath for a warning unto others And howsoever such by reason of God's patience and forbearance may dream of impunity yet let them know that Judgments are never nearer than when they are least feared A great CÃ lm is many times the fore-runner of a Storm when men cry Peace Peace then comes sudden and swift destruction 1 Thes. 5. 3. When Agag said in his Heart Surely the bitterness of Death is past then came Samuel and hewed him in pieces When the Old World was eating drinking buying building Persecuting and snorting in security then came the Flood and destroyed them When men be at case in Sion there is a Wo denounced against them Amos 6. 1. to the 8. When men look at Judgments as a far off then God will defer no longer Ezek. 12. 27. 28. When the Philistins met together to be merry and to sport themselves with Sampson whose eyes they had put out he brought the House upon their Heads and slew them all Now God executes Judgments upon some wicked Persecutors but these are but Praeludia futuri Judicii Tokens and fore-runners of that Great and General Judgment Some are now punished saith one as the Old World Sodom Egypt Jerusalem c. that we may know that there is a Providence taking notice of all Yet all are not punished that we may know there is a Judgment to come to which the wicked are reserved 2 Pet. 2. 10. Here God's way is in the Clouds we see not the reason of many things but then his Justice and Righteousness shall be gloriously apparent to all the World Rev. 2. 5. Here they live longest many times that deserve not to live at all Job 21. 7. The Israelites are oppressed whilst the Egyptians live at ease Good David is in want and persecuted whilst wicked Nabal abounds Sion is oft Captive to Babylon But there is another Day and another reckoning when all shall be set to Rights When the Righteous shall rejoyce and the wicked shall mourn Esay 65. 13 14. God will not alwayes suffer his Jewels to be trampled in the Dirt under the feet of Pride and Malice but he will vindicate the injuries that are now done unto them Luke 18. 7. Now men curse but Christ will then receive such with a Come ye Blessed of my Father c. Matth. 25. 34. O how singularly foolish than are you that seek to root out and to rid the Saints out of the World as the Heathen Emperors did These resemble the Stag in the Emblem that fed upon the Leaves which hid him from the Hunter And Sampson like by pulling down the Pillars they bring the House upon their own Heads But I will enlarge no further If through God's Blessing this little Book
were cruelly slain or as others say to avoid falling into his Enemies hands he leap'd his horse into a Whirlpit after which his body was never found 40. Presently after the death of this Tyrant a grievous Plague and Pestilence fell upon the bloody persecuting Gentiles in every of the Roman Provinces which lasting ten years together made such havock among them as is horrible to hear and almost incredible to believe And it was observed that where the Emperors Edicts had been put in Execution with most severity there it raged most insomuch that many places became utterly desolate 41. Gallus the Emperor who continued the seventh Persecution was himself with his Son slain by one of his own Captains 42. Valerian the Emperor in the beginning of his Reign was very mild towards the Christians But afterwards being stirred up by the Devil and his Instruments proved a terrible Persecutor of them in all his Dominions But not long after he was overthrown by the Persians in a bloody Battel wherein himself was taken Prisoner being seventy years old and made so vile a slave that Sapores the King of Persia used his back as a Block whereby to mount on Horse-back and afterward he caused him to be flayed alive and powdered with Salt so that he dyed in cruel torments Eusebius 43. Claudius a President and one of his Ministers of cruelty was possessed by the Devil and so grievously tormented that biting off his tongue in small bits he dyed miserably This was the eighth Persecution 44. Aurelian who raised the ninth Persecution being about to send out an Edict for renewing the Persecution against the Christians as he was about to sign it a Thunderbolt fell at his Feet which so terrified him that for the present he forbore But afterward renewing it again God stirred up his Servants to cut his throat Niceph. Eutropius 45. Dioclesian the Author of the tenth Persecution First used all Politick ways to cause all the Christians in his Armies to renounce their Faith Then by Proclamation he commanded all their Churches to be beaten down their Bibles to be burnt or torn in pieces That all Christians in any Office should be ejected That Christian Bondmen who would forsake their Profession should be made free But when notwithstanding this he saw that the number of Christians still increased being satiated with blood he resigned and gave over the Empire But shortly after God struck him with diverse and strange diseases His house was burnt down by Lightning from Heaven And himself was so affrighted with a dreadful Thunder that he ran mad and killed himself Ruffinus 46. Maximinian also his Fellow-Emperor raged exceeding cruelly and outragiously against the Christians For when twenty thousand of them upon a Solemn Festival Day were assembled in a Temple at Nicomedia to serve God he caused it to be environed with some Bands of Soldiers to be set on fire and to be burnt with all that was in it And a City of Christians in Phrygia taking it after a long Siege he caused it to be burnt and razed to the ground with all that were in it But shortly after God struck him with a grievous and incurable Disease wherein Vermin bred abundantly in his Body which was accompanied with such an horrible stink that not being able to endure it he hanged himself 47. Maximinus that next succeeded in the Eastern Empire was a cruel and implacable Persecutor of the Saints For which God struck him with an uncoth and loathsome Disease In his Privy Members there grew a sudden putrefaction and at the bottom of the same there arose a botchy corrupt Bile with a Fistula consuming and eating up his Entrails out of which came swarming and innumerable company of Lice which was attended with such a pestiferous stink as none were able to abide it And being a corpulent man all his fat so putrified and stank so horribly that some of his Physicians not being able to endure it he commanded to be slain and others of them were cruelly put to death because they could not cure him But at last being told that it was Gods just revenging hand upon him for persecuting his people he seemed to relent and commanded the Persecution to cease and God was pleased in some measure to ease him of his grievous torments But about six months after he sent forth a new Proclamation for the utter rooting out of the very name of Christians whereupon his disease returned again and assaulted him in greater extremity than before so that his body being all rotten and full of corruption and worms he dyed an accursed and miserable Death Chrysostom saith that the Apples of his eyes fell out before he dyed 48. Galerius a chief Instrument of the Persecution under Dioclesian fell into a grievous Disease in the nether part of his belly there arose a spreading sore which consumed his Privy Members from whence there crawled abundance of worms bred of the putrefaction which neither Chyrurgeons nor Physicians could cure This made him to acknowledge that it was a just hand of God upon him for his cruelty to the Christians and so he dyed miserable or as others write he flew himself Languets Chron. 49. Licinius the Eastern Emperor a bloody and merciless Enemy to the Christians was in two great Battels overthrown by Constantine the Great and slain by his Soldiers 50. Antiochus who passed sentence upon Agapetus a godly young man that was but fifteen years old fell down suddenly as he sate upon the Seat of Judicature crying out that all his bowels burned within him and so he dyed in great torment 61. Mamuca a Saracen being a cruel Persecutor of the people of God like unto Pharoah met also with the like stroke of Gods vengeance For as he was returning by Sea with his Army in a hundred Ships from the slaughter of the Christians God sent such a Storm upon them that few or none of them escaped drowning Paulus Diaconus Lib. 3. c. 12. Julian surnamed The Apostate was first a Christian yet afterward became a Heathen and proved one of the most dangerous and deadly Persecutors that ever the Christian Church had First he began to undermine the Christian Religion by Policy and afterwards proceeded to downright blows letting loose the Gentiles and his Governours upon the Christians wherein neither Arian nor Orthodox is spared from Imprisonment Banishment Tortures and what not And when complaints were made hereof to the Emperour he answered That their Religion taught them to bear all patiently He would not endure that Christians children should be trained up in humane Learning because he saw the Christians did beat the Gentiles with their own weapons and made Philosophy an Instrument to serve Divinity He took away the Ministers maintenance thereby destroying not so much Presbiters as the Presbytery But whilest he was thus busie against the Church he was called to an expedition against the Persians whereupon he made a solemn Protestation that when he returned from
Friar called Lambert a Dr. and Prior in the City of Lieg and one of the bloody Inquisitors as he was one day preaching bitterly against the Protestants was stricken speechless and being carried out of his Pulpit into his Cloister he was shortly after found drowned in a Ditch 94 Augustine Marlorat a Learned painful and holy Preacher in Roan was condemned to be hang'd and drawn on a Hurdle to the place of execution The Constable of France loaded him with a thousand reproaches and outrages as also did Monsieur Monbrun the Constables son who shortly after was slain in the battel of Dreux Also one Villibon gave him a switch with a wand adding many reproachful speeches therewith which Marlorat bore with admirable patience and meekness And when he was executed and dead the malice of his Adversaries rested not there For one of the Soldiers struck on his Legs with his Sword But speedy vengeance from God pursued his Persecntors For the Popish Captain that apprehended him was slain within three weeks after by the basest Soldier in all his Company And two of his Judges dyed very strangely soon after namely the President of the Parliament by a flux of blood which could by no art nor means be stopped The other being a Counsellor voided his Urine at his Fundament which was accompanied with such an intollerable stink that none could endure to come near him Villebon also who switched him sped no better For a while after the Marshal Vielle Ville coming to Roan about publick Affairs invited Villebon to dinner and in discourse lamenting the miseries of that City he exhorted him to reform many abuses seeing he was the Kings Lievtenant there Villebon took this so ill that he said If any man dare tax me for not behaving my self as I ought in my place I would tell him to his face that he lyed These words he repeated over so often that the Marshal being much urged struck at him with his Sword with such violence that had he not received the blow with his Arm his head had been clest to the Teeth Thus for the present he escaped with the loss of that hand wherewith he had stricken Marlorat in so disgraceful a manner at the place of Execution 95. A young Gentlewoman of about three and twenty years old came from Gascoine to Paris to join her-self to the Protestant Church there And after a while she among others was apprehended imprisoned and condemned to be burnt which she endured with admirable patience and constancy but presently two of them that bore witness against her falling out the one slew the other with a knife 96. Gharles Cominck who had been a Friar in the City of Gaunt after his conversion was apprehended and condemned but after his execution one of his greatest Adversaries who had a chief hand in his Death fell into such grievous horrors and terrors of Conscience that he dyed within a few days 97. Dr. Aegidio a godly Preacher in Sevil being brought into the Inquisition and used miserably by them before they proceeded to condemn him it pleased God that three of the Inquisitors who were his greatest adversaries dyed by which good Providence he was released and lived some years after 98. The Emperor Ferdinand the second was a great Persecutor of the Protestants in Bohemia and Germany who after his Victory over Frederick Prince Palatine and the Bohemian States made it his work to root out the Protestant Religion in those Countries and turned them into a very shambles of Blood sparing neither Age Sex nor Rank that refused to abjure the Truth But whilest he was in his full Carier God brought in against him a contemptible people the Swedes under whose Swords most of those bloody wretches fell who were the Bohemian Scourges so that much of Germany and of the Emperors Country was a very Aceldama a Field of Blood The Emperor 's great Army consisting of twenty four thousand that had given Laws to Germany for many years together and were looked upon as so many Captains by reason of their long practice and experience was broken in the plain Field And the Emperor himself being broken with breach upon breach was forced to such terms as the Enemies could be drawn to Examples of Gods Judgments upon Popish Persecutors in England and Scotland 99. Sir Thomas Moor and Fisher Bishop of Rochester who were great Persecutors of the Protestants in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth were themselves not long after condemned for Treason and beheaded 100. Philips who betrayed Mr. Tindal to the Emperors Secretary fell into a grievous Disease and was caten up of Lice 101. Pavier The Town-clerk of London a cruel Enemy to the true Professors of the Gospel swore a great Oath that if he thought the King would set forth the Scriptures in English rather than he would live to see it he would cut his own Throat But he brake Promise saith the Author for instead thereof he hanged himself Foxford Chancellour to Stokesley Bishop of London a bloody Persecutor and the common Butcher of Gods Saints dyed suddenly sitting in his Chair his Belly breaking and his Guts falling out before him 102. Rockwood who was a great stirrer up of the Persecution against Gods people in Calis suddenly fell sick staring raging and crying out All to late For I have maliciously sought the Death of many godly Persons and that against mine own Conscience and therefore all to late All to late and thus he continued unto his end 103. The under Marshal also who at the same time was a Persecutor fell down dead in the Council Chamber and never spake word after 104. Adam Damlip a godly Preacher in Calis was falsly accused of Treason for which he was condemned and executed and when he would have purged himself Sir Ralph Ellerker would not suffer him to speak but commanded him to be carried away to execution saying That he would not depart till he saw the Traitors heart out But shortly after in a skirmish against the French this Ellerker was slain and after they had stripped him naked they cut off his Privy Members and pulled out his Heart which they did not to any other of the slain 105. Dr. Story a Bloody Persecutor in Queen Marys Days when Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown could not forbear to curse her dayly in his Grace at Board for which trayterous practice he was deservedly hanged 106. John Twiford a furious Papist that used to set up Stakes for them that were burnt in Smithfield dyed rotting above ground so that none could endure to come near unto him by reason of his horrible stink 107. William Gardiner an English Merchant being present in Lisbon at the marriage of the King of Portugal's Son with the King of Spain's Daughter and seeing the abominable Idolatry then used in the presence of the King and of all the States there assembled he stepped to the Cardinal who was celebrating of Mass and plucked the Cake out of his
in Prison And God paid him home in his own coin For according to his Imprecation his Body rottted away by piece-meal till he dyed 133. One Lever of Brightwel in Barkshire jeeringly said That he saw that ill-favoured Knave Latimer when he was burned at Oxford and that he had Teeth like an Horse But the Lord suffered not this profane scoff to go unpunished For about that very same Hour wherein Lever spake those words his Son hanged himself 134. All ages have cause to admire and adore the Exemplary Judgments of God poured out upon Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester in Queen Marys days who upon the day wherein Reverend Latimer and Learned Ridley were to be burnt at Oxford though some great Peers came to dine with him that day yet would not sit down to dinner till one of his Servants about four a Clock in the Afternoon coming Post from Oxford brought word that Execution was done upon them Then did he hast to Dinner and was very merry but ere he had eaten many bits a sudden stroke of Gods hand fell upon him so that he was carried immediately to his Bed in which he continued for fifteen days in intollerable anguish and torments rotting above ground during all which time he could void nothing that he received neither by Stool nor Urine his Tongue also hung out of his mouth swoln and black and so he languished and pined away in great anguish and misery 135. King James the Fifth of Scotland by the instigation of the Popish Clergy was a great Persecutor of the Truth that then brake forth in that Kingdom and for that end he gave Commission to Sir James Hamilton natural Brother to the Earl of Arran who was his Treasurer to call and convent all that were suspected of Heresie and to inflict upon them the punishment which after tryal they should be found to deserve In Execution of which Commissiion he was most fierce and cruel not sparing some that were of his near Kindred But when he was in his greatest heighth and made it his work to suppress the Gospel one of his own Friends whom he pursued upon the account of Religion accused him of Treason and notwithstanding the mediation of the Popish Clergy for him as their greatest Patron he was arraigned condemned executed and quartered in the streets of Edenburg This King James also was heard to say that none of that way should expect any favour at his hands nay nor his own Sons if they should be found guilty But shortly after War breaking forth with England he found his Nobility averse to those Incursions which he intended to make into England which much vexed him These thoughts and some fearful Visions which he had by Night terrified him exceedingly For at Linlithgow on a night as he slept it seemed to him that Thomas Scot Justice Clerk came unto him with a company of Devils crying Wo worth the day that ever I knew thee or thy Service For serving thee against God and his Servants I am now adjudged to Hell torments Hereupon awaking he called for Lights and told his Servants what he had heard and seen The next morrow by the light of day news was brought him of the death of the said Justice Clerk which fell out just at the same time when the King had this Vision and almost in the same manner For he dyed in great horror often reiterating those words By the righteous Judgment of God I am condemned And this manner of his death answering so exactly to the Kings Dream made it the more terrible The King also had another Dream in the same place a few nights after which did more affright him Whilest he lay sleeping he thought that Sir James Hamilton aforesaid came unto him with a naked Sword in his Hand and therewith cut off both his Arms threatening to return within a short time and to deprive him of his life With this he awaked and as he lay musing what this Dream should import news was brought him of the death of his two Sons James and Arthur the one dying at S. Andrews the other at Strivling at one and the very same hour The next year which was 1542. being overwhelmed with grief he dyed at Falkland in the two and thirtieth year of his Age. A little before he dyed word was brought him that his Queen was delivered of a Daughter whereupon he brake forth into a Passion saying It came with a Lass meaning the Crown and will go with a Lass. Fie upon it 136. One Friar Campbell in Scotland did bitterly rail upon that man of God Mr. Patrick Hamilton whilest he was burning at S. Andrews to whom Mr. Hamilton said with much earnestness Thou wicked man thou knowest the contrary and hast sometime made a Profession of the truth I appeal thee to answer it before the Judgment Seat of Christ A few days after Campbel fell sick and in great horror of Conscience dyed distracted 137. Anno 1568. There was in Breda one Peter Coulogue a godly man who by his Popish Adversaries was cast into Prison and his Maid-servant daily carried him his Food confirming and comforting him out of the word of God as well as she was able for which they imprisoned her also Not long after Peter was put to the torment of the Rack which he endured patiently After him the Maid was fetch'd to be racked whereupon she said My Masters wherefrre will ye put me to this torture seeing I have no way offended you If it be for my Faith-sake ye need not torment me For as I was never ashamed to make a Confession thereof no more will I now be at this present before you but will if you please freely shew you my mind therein Yet for all this they would have her to the Rack whereupon she again said If I must needs suffer this pain pray you give me leave to call upon my God first This they assented to and whilest she was fervently pouring out her Soul unto God by Prayer one of the Commissioners was surprised with such fear and terror that he fell into a swoon out of which he could never be recovered by which means the poor Maid escaped racking 138. In the Reign of King Henry the Second of France there was a godly Tailor condemned to be burnt for Religion and some about the King would needs perswade him to be present and to see the Execution himself And God gave the Tailor such strength and conrage in the fire as astonished the King to behold it And the poor Tailor having espied the King in a window where he sate fixed his Eyes so stedfastly upon him as they were never off and the King was thereby constrained to leave the window and to retire into his Chamber and was so affected therewith that he confessed the shadow of the Taylor followed him whither soever he went and for many Nights after he was so terrified with the Apparitions of the Taylor that he protested with an
Oath that he would never hear nor see any more of those Lutherans burned 139. In the late Rebellion and Persecution of Ireland John Nicholson and Anne his wife were received into the Protection of one Fitz-Patrick who would have perswaded them to change their Religion and to go to Mass But they professed that before they would do that they would dye upon the Swords point Then he laboured to prevail with the woman to burn her Bible but she said that before she would do it she would dye the death whereupon the Sabbath morning following they were both of them cruelly murthered But he that acted that villany was so tormented in Conscience and dogged with their Apparitions that he pined away and dyed 140. In the late Irish Massacre wherein the bloody Papists spared none of what Age Sex or quality soever O! how visibly did the Judgments of God follow them And for that savage Blood-shed gave them Blood to drink in great measure For Mac-Guir Mac-Mahun and Sir Philem Oneal being taken Prisoners were publickly executed Most of the rest were consumed by the Sword either in their own Countrey or in Foreign parts and their spirits were generally so debased and their courage emasculated that a few English or Scottish Soldiers would chase multitudes of them and Gods Judgments did so eminently follow them that within a few years most of that cruel Generation were rooted out Of Gods Judgments upon Persecutors in Germany Spain and France 141. The Electoral House of Saxony upon the devesting of that brave and pious Prince John Frederick the true Heir by the Emperor Charles the Fifth and the investing the younger House to usurp that Honour hath ever since proved a greater Friend to the Popish Party than to the purer Church of the French and Helvetick Confession Maurice that usurped the Dutchy and Electorate upon the captivating of the said John Frederick his Cousin first ruined the Princes of the Smalcaldick Union to which himself had subscribed and then casting an ambitious eye upon the Empire it self broke his Faith with the Emperor that had raised him and having patched up the defection by the help of Ferdinand of Austria King of Bohemia afterwards Emperor he lastly perished by a violent death in a pitch'd Battel fought against his Fellow-Protestants A just Judgment of God upon him 142. Charles the Fifth having obtained the Empire by the help and monies of our King Henry the Eighth was the most potent Emperor that ever Germany had as long as he maintained the peace of Religion But having yielded to the Popes instigations and prospered a while in his intended extirpation of the Truth he found at last by sad experience what his brave and valiant General Castaldus had foretold him that these violent proceedings would in the end prove fatal to himself For having first fled away at Midnight in a cold and rainy season from Onspurch for fear of the Protestant Army he was afterward instead of setling his Son Philip in his Imperial Throne as he had intended forced to surrender the Empire to his Brother Ferdinand who diverse years before had entred into a secret League with the Protestant Princes of Germany and so having lived a few years in a despised and disconsolate condition he at last ended his life most ingloriously in a Monastery 143. His Son Philip the Second King of Spain the most inveterate Enemy of the Gospel that ever lived did not only erect Shambles for Gods Saints in most of his large Dominions by his bloody Inquisitors but still aided the Rebels in France England and Ireland against their lawful Sovereigns and plotted to invade all other Protestant Dominions in Christendom so at last by one general Carriage of them all he and his holy Father the Pope might have shared the Christian World by a double Monarchy of the Church and Empire between them But did this bloody Prince prosper in these his ambitious and cruel Designs Nothing less For what got he by his invading France by Land and England and Ireland by Sea and by his large Pensions conferred upon the Traitors and secret Enemies of either States Truly nothing For having wasted about thirty millions of Money upon those fruitless Designs and not gained a Foot of Land in any of those Realms but the loss of a great part of the seventeen Provinces with whom having broken his Oath solemnly sworn to them in his Inauguration they by the Aid of England and France freed themselves from his unjust Oppression and Tyranny Neither did the Divine Justice suffer him so to escape but raised a Fire in his own House For whereas he had Issue by his first Wife Mary the Daughter of John the Third King of Portugal one only Son called Charles a Prince of admirable towardliness He during the Life of our Queen Mary his second Wife treated a Marriage for his Son with Elizabeth the eldest Daughter of Henry the Second King of France during which Treaty our Queen Mary dying he himself married her who was designed for his Son a Lady of admirable Beauty and Parts They often in private never forgetting their old affections lamented their unhappy loss each of other The Son also detested his Fathers cruelty and butchery by the merciless Inquisitors This so enraged his jealous Father that he imprison'd him and delivered him over into the Inquisitors Hands by whom he was condemned Anno Christi 1568. and a few days after he sent to him to choose his own Death who in a warm Bath caused his Veins to be opened and so dyed A while after though she was great with child he caused his Queen to drink a Cup of poison which soon dispatched her 144. King Philip's fourth Wife was Anne the Daughter of Mary the Empress his own natural Sister by whom he had Issue Ferdinand and James both cut off by Death in their Infancy and Philip who being the only surviving Issue of this incestuous match succeeded his Father in his Dominions but not altogether in his cruelties 145. Rodulph the Second Emperor of Germany not following the steps of the wise Maximilian his Father but of the aforesaid Philip his Brother in Law sought by all secret and hostile means to enervate and root out Religion in the Empire What got he by it but to have Gods curse denounced in Scripture fulfilled upon him That the elder should serve the younger For Mathias the Arch-Duke of Austria raising an Army in the year 1608. and joining his Forces with those of the oppressed Protestant in Bohemia hem'd up his Brother Rodulph in Prague got the Kingdom of Hungary from him in present possession and the Empire in reversion leaving him nothing but the complement of Majesty which he did not long survive and could never revenge that affront 146. We need not look into ancient Histories of Gods Judgments upon Heathen persecuting Emperors we may see the sad successes of the Princes of the house of Valois in France King Henry the
Second of France was meanly married to Katherine de Medices the Niece of Pope Clement the Seventh during the Life of the Dolphin his elder Brother who was afterwards poisoned And Francis the first his Father deceasing he succeeded and swayd the French Scepter for diverse years with much Tranquility and happiness till loathing the Coiture of his Queen unfit indeed for a Princes bed he grew highly enamoured on Piciavia of Valence a woman of exquisite Beauty and good extraction with whom he long after lived in continual Adultery and was by her enticed to persecute and slay the Protestants Anno Ghristi 1553. that so by the confiscation of their Lands and Goods she might enrich her self and her Kindred This Persecution put a Period to all his former Victories and the next year was followed with the loss of the City of Seins in Italy to the Spaniard The Death of the old gallant General Leo Strozzi by a base hand and the overthrow of his French Army by James de Medices 147. Anno Christi 1556. The violence of persecution was again renewed against the Protestants and the very next year after as before God again gave up the French Army to the slaughter of the Spaniards and Dutch at the Siege and Battel of S. Quintins in which were above three thousand slain upon the place and many of them men of note and soon after the Town was taken by Storm Also Annas Duke de Memorancy himself the Constable of France The Marshal of S. Andrew the Duke of Longevile Gaspar de Coligne Earl of Castilion and Admiral of France and a number others of the great Peers were all taken Prisoners In sum the loss and slaughter was so great and fatal to the French as it well-near equalled that Victory obtained by the Duke of Bourbon at the Battel of Pavia in Italy against Francis the first his Father Yet Henry the Second still shut his eyes against the cause of these losses and having his heart cauterized by his Lusts he not only caused the godly to be committed to the Flames but himself would needs be a Spectator of their Torments as a pleasing sight and had combined with Philip King of Spain his new Son in Law for the utter ruine and final subversion of Geneva Nay but a few hours before his Death Anno 1559. Lodovick Faber and Annas Burgus two Senators of Paris because they had spoken a little freely in defence of the innocency and piety of the Protestants in the open Senate were cast into Prison by his special Command in the Bastile of the same City by Gabriel Earl of Mongomery one of the Captains of his Guard And the persecution of all others of the same Profession grew so hot and furious when the King June the nine and twentieth the same year running at Tilt with the very same Earl of Mongomery and near the very Bastile where the said Senators were Prisoners was struck with a splinter of Mongomery's Spear through the Eye into his Brain and never had the happiness to speak one word after though he survived the wound a few days Nor to acknowledge his former Lust and Cruelty 148. And if we farther look to Gods Hand that followed this Prince in his Posterity it will yet seem the greater miracle For of five Sons that he had all save one dyed without lawful Issue to survive them ad three of them by violent Deaths and in his Posterity ended the Valetian Line the Crown thereupon devolving to the Royal Branch of Cleremont commonly called Bourbon whom his Sons had most bitterly hated and persecuted And of all his five Daughters three dyed issueless and the eldest the Queen of Spain aforementioned that had Issue was cut off by poison Nay his very Bastard Son Henry of Engolism a great Actor in the Parisian Massacre perished also by the stab of Philip Altovit a Florentine his old and mortal Enemy Anno Christi 1586. during the Reign of Henry the Third his Brother 149. Charles the Ninth third Son of the said Henry the Second who succeeded his Brother Francis the Second Anno Christi 1560. had he continued his Reign with as much Mercy and Wilsdom as he began it when he followed the grave and seasonable advise of Michael Hospitalius his Chancellor probably he had lived more virtuously and dyed less miserably But he had scarce raigned two years in Peace and Plenty when Katherine de Medices his Mother desiring to get the Regency into her own Hands by raising combustions in the Kingdom perswaded this her Son to revive those Persecutions against the Protestants which his Father had begun She also reconciled Her self to Charles Lorainer Duke of Guise whom a little before she had feared and hated being a secret Enemy to Lewis de Cleremont Prince of Conde He and the Marshal of S. Andrew having gained Annas Momorancy Constable of France to their party they all conspired together for the ruine of the Truth The Protestants in the mean time seeing the King in his minority held as it were captivated by this Triumvirate took up Arms by the Queen-Mothers own instigation to maintain the Kings Edict of Pacification which was published Anno Christi 1561. commonly called The Edict of January The year following by the instigation of the said Triumvirate not only the Queen-Mother but Anthony de Cleremont King of Navar also who yet dyed a Protestant was drawn on to assail those of the Religion with open force they in the mean time filling the Queen-Mothers ear with these vain Flatteries that she should soon see the utter ruine of all the Hereticks in France From which time that goodly rich peaceable and flourishing Kingdom for almost forty years together some short pauses excepted was filled with Cruelties Ravages Ravishments Murthers Battles Fires Slaughters and all other calamities that attend a civil War In the end of all which the Protestants being increased in their strength and numbers obtained a more firm and advantagious peace than ever they had before whereas those three incendiaries who had been the Authors of all these miseries perished within a few years after by the just Judgment of God in the very act when they were pursuing the godly party For the Marshal of S. Andrew was slain in the Battle of Dreux Annas de Momorancy under the very walls of Paris and Francis Lorainer Duke of Guise was pistoled by John Poltrot whilest he besieged Orleans King Charles seeing that by open force he could not eradicate and destroy the truth nor root out the Professors of it about two years before the hellish Massacre begun at Paris and prosecuted to the perpetual infamy of France in diverse other Cities held a secret Council in the Castle of Blois with Katherine de Medices his Mother Alexander and Hercules called also Henry and Francis his Brothers and Henry Lorainer Heir to the said Duke Francis aforementioned by what means they might best draw the Protestants into their toil to murther
and destroy them The same Council was again held in the house of Hieronimo de Gondy at S. Clou and the time and order of the bloody Marriage Banquet to be served in at the Nuptials of the King of Navar with the Lady Margaret the French Kings Sister almost in the same manner and order as it was afterwards put in execution on Bartholomews Day Anno Christi 1572. In which were most inhumanely murthered of men women and children many also of them being great and honourable Personages of either Sex about thirty thousand And while the Duke of Guise was prosecuting that most inhumane Butchery a Cabinet Council was held in the Queen-Mothers Chamber whether it were not necessary that both the Duke and the rest of his Family who were then present should not be dispatched at the same time in that disorderly tumult King Charles himself never saw good day after this bloody Massacre though the Court-Sycophants had promised him that it should prove the first happy day of his absolute Monarchy For though he had been long drenched in Lust a sin seldom separated from a Persecutor by his ordinary Adultery with a mean Wench of Orleance of whom he begat Charles of Engolism afterwards Earl of Auvern And though he had been trained up by his Mother to see the slaughter of Beasts and ever in his Chases had been accustomed to bath his hands in the Blood of the slain Game which might have served to stupifie his Conscience as they did inflame his fierce and cruel nature yet a very stinging remorse in his Conscience did ever pursue and haunt him after that merciless slaughter brought about chiefly by his own swearing and forswearing by which the King of Navar and the Admiral Coligni were deceived His eyes ever rolled up and down uncertainly in the Day-time with fear and suspition and his sleep was usually interrupted in the night with dismal Dreams and Apparitions like our King Richard the Third of England after he had murthered his two Nephews in the Tower Nay though he survived that Massacre not fully two years yet had he in that time plotted the death of the said Henry Duke of Guise and the removal of the Queen-Mother and her Instruments from the Helm of State But as he a little before the Massacre had poisoned that incomparable Princess for Learning and Piety Joan Queen of Navar So did his Mother or the Duke of Guise by way of prevention or anticipation minister to him his fatal sharp Phisick of which after many and grievous torments he deceased upon Whitsunday Anno Christi 1574. being not full twenty five years old 150. The Queen-Mother the Kings two Brethren the Cardinal and the Duke of Guise that had not only joined with him in his Persecution but encouraged him to it they still survived and for ought men saw were firmly setled in Peace and Prosperity Though Guise might have taken warning by the Death of Claude Duke of Aumal his Brother slain with a Musket-Bullet from the walls of Rochel as he lay in Siege before it Anno Christi 1573. 151. Henry his Brother who succeeded King Charles was not long before chosen King of Poland where he then was but hearing of the Death of his Brother he clandestinly stole away from that Kingdom to return to France In his return the good Emperor Maximilian the Second and the Venetian State earnestly advised him to maintain the former Edicts of Pacification inviolably and not force the Consciences of men in matters of Religion Of the same Opinion also were all his wisest Councellors who saw plainly that the encreasing of the Protestants was the only means now left under Heaven to draw the Pope and his Conclave to yield some Reformation of the Church which it needed exceedingly But his Mother advised him by all means to root out the Professors of the truth by Fire and Sword And others there were of loose and Atheistical Lives as Henry Duke of Guise Lewis the Cardinal of Guise Renalt Villoclare A man saith the incomparable Monsieur de Thou fatally preferr'd to be an attendant upon this King by his Mother and diverse others who perswaded the King to break the aforesaid Edicts for Pacification and never to sheath his Sword till he had utterly ruined all the Protestants in France And the King being of a weak and degenerate Spirit the House of Guise being the Arch-enemies of the Gospel became at length so potent and triumphed so notoriously over the impotency of the King that at last they forced him to seek to those very Protestants for support against whom he had taken a Solemn Oath for their utter destruction Infinite almost were the Treasures which he spent upon his Minions and Pleasures His expenses upon his Dogs only amounted in those times to twenty thousand pounds yearly at the least but most was exhausted in the prosecution of his Wars against the Protestants 152. Guise and his Faction now grown strong and assured of support from King Philip the Second of Spain after he had expelled his King out of Paris and heaped a world of other insolent affronts upon him was drawn by him Anno Christi 1588. to the Assembly then held at Blois He came thither with his Brother Lewis Lorainer Cardinal of Guise and Charles Prince of Ionvile his Son upon the same Royal Assurance of safety with which Charles the Ninth had by his advise deceived the Protestants before the abhorred Massacre in the year 1572. But during this Assembly this Duke of Guise was slain against the Publick Faith given him not only within the Castle of Blois but in that very room wherein sixteen years before he had advised the bloody Massacre of Paris to be executed Two circumstances also do add much horror to the punishment it self One was that he was but newly risen from the bed of his adulterate Lust having not been able before this night to conquer the chastity of a Gentlewoman that waited on the Queen-Mother and therefore was so eager in reaping the fruits of his long Siege that he came not to the Council Chamber till he was oft sent for and even then scarcely ready The other was in the manner of his first wound which was given him in his Throat and immediately caused the Blood so abundantly to stream out of his Mouth as he never had time so much as to call upon God for mercy or forgiveness but spent his last minute in endeavouring to revenge himself upon his Murtherers 153. A while after the Cardinal of Guise his Brother who had been a great Gamester at Cards and Dice perished also in the same Castle of Blois by a violent Death Katherine de Medices the Queen-Mother who had been the chief cause for thirty years together of the shedding of so much innocent Blood being present at the same time in the said Castle stormed secretly that so great an action should be entred into and effected without her advice And when she heard that
Charles Lorainer Duke of Main was escaped being the younger Brother to the murthered Duke of Guise she presaged to the King her Son the sad Issue of that rash attempt which he as it seems interpreting to be rather the expression of her wishes than her fears and having by many woful experiences seen the effects of her revengful Italian Spirit took a course to pacify her wrath For not long after she there ended her unhappy Life by poison saith Elias Reusner in the same Castle also where she held the first secret and bloody Council for the execution of the aforesaid bloody Massacre Francis her youngest Son dyed before her June the tenth Anno 1584. in the one and thirtieth year of his Age of a violent poison probably ministred to him by some of the Hispaniolized Guisards so that it caused very much Blood to issue out of his Body in several places the sight of which purple streams might well call upon him to remember with what inhumane Pride he trampled upon the bloody streets of Paris in the great slaughter committed upon Gods Saints and Martyrs about twelve years before 154. There now only remained Henry the Third the French King alive of all the first contrivers and principal Executioners of that inhumane Massacre which no Age no Time no Action of the most Barbarous Nations of the world could ever parallel till that horrid Massacre of the bloody Irish upon the English Protestants in the year 1641. October 23. wherin above one hundred and fifty thousand perished in one of the four Provinces of that Kingdom after the most savage and barbarous manner that ever was read of 155. Charles Lorainer Duke of Main was presently upon the death of his Brother made General of the Holy League as they stiled it And Paris it self and in a manner all the Popish Cities beyond the Loiâ— giving up their Names and Forces to that Faction supported from Rome by Pope Sixtus the Fifth and from Spain by Philip the Second 156. When the King saw that neither his acting the Monk with the Flagellators nor his playing the Devil against the Prostants could secure him from a speedy ruine by the violent hands of Rebels He sent to the victorious King of Navar his Brother in Law and to the Protestant Army before whose known valour the Popish Forces hastened back from the Loyer to the Seine Henry the Third pursued them and pitched his Royal Pavilion at S. Clou not far from the Gates of Paris But his former cruelties and persecutions of the godly were doubtless the hinderances of his new expected Victories and the Divine Providence so ordered it that in the very place where the last resolution was taken by himself his Mother his Brethren and others for the speedy Execution of that brutish Massacre about seventeen years before nay in the very same House of Jerom de Gondy and in the very same Room and Chamber saith John de Serres was murthered by James Clement a Jesuited Monk Anno Christi 1589. and in the nine and thirtieth year of his Age. This Assasination was promoted by Pope Sixtus the Fifth by the seditious Sermons of Jesuits Priests and Friars and by the persecution of Katherine Mary Duchess of Mompensier Sister of the slain Duke of Guise who was so horribly transported with malice against the Protestants and with desire of revenge upon the King as she prostitued her Body to that Jesuited Goat to encourage him the more to that horrid murther and by that means to stupify and harden his Soul by his filthy Lust that it might not startle at any other wickedness whatsoever Yet as this King some Months before his Death had altered his former bloody resolution against the Protestants so did the Divine Providence at his Death afford him some hours of Repentance after the bloody knife had been sheathed in his Belly in which time he acknowledged his sin and his error in having been so long miss-lead by his ambitious and malicious Counsellors and his sin in having persecuted his Protestant Subjects and for having enforced the Conscience of many to submit to Popery against the known Truth by threats and cruelty 157. Our Queen Mary began her Reign with the breach of her Publick Faith For whereas the Crown was set upon her head by the Gentry and Commons of Suffolk although they knew her to be a Papist which shews that the godly Protestants whatsoever is suggested to the contrary by Lustful Prophane and Popishly affected Persons are the best Subjects that any Sovereign can be happy in yet she in one of her first Acts of Council took order for their restraint long before the Mass and Latine Service were generally received in London and caused that Diocess to tast the sharpest Inquisition and Persecution that raged during her Reign which was happily shortened by her Husbands contemning her Person and her Enemies conquering her Dominions neither of which she had power either to recover or revenge So that though she dyed not by any outward violence yet was her end as inglorious and miserable as her Reign had been turbulent and bloody She might have taken warning by the sudden and immature Death of King James the Fifth of Scotland her Cousin German who raising a persecution there against his Loyal and innocent Subjects that were Protestants Anno Christi 1539. burning some exiling and imprisoning others and forcing many to blaspheme in abjuring the known truth and all by advice and procurement of James Beaton Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews and David Beaton Abbot of Arbroth his Brother never saw good day after For two brave young Princes his Sons were the year following cut off by untimely ends in their Cradles Wars to his great disadvantage and loss were raised between him and our King Henry the Eighth his Uncle and all things fell out so cross to his haughty and vast mind as that it hastened his Death which fell out Anno Christi 1542. See more of him before Many also are the Examples of Gods severe but righteous Judgments of God upon Popish persecuting Prelates whereof you have store of instances in my two Martyrologies and in my two Vollumes of Examples I shall content my self for the present with two or three which though briefly set down there yet here more largely 158. Thomas Arundal Arch-Bishop of Canterbury having been the successful Traytor by the help of his Reverend Follow-Bishops to estabish Henry the Fourth in the Throne of King Richard the Second his Liege Lord and Cousin German pressed the new King whose broken Title needed the supportments of his Prelates to use his temporal Sword for the destruction of the Disciples of John Wickliff whose numbers at that time were so encreased that they even filled the Kingdom The King assented and having by their cruel instigation shed the blood of many of Gods Saints his Reign proved neither long nor prosperous 159. King Henry the Fifth his Son a brave and marshal Prince succeeding him