to marry her but before night he cut off his head and gave her all his possessions Anno Christi 1056. A certain Advocate in Constance extreamly lusted after the wife of the Kings Procurator which Procuratour finding the Advocate and his wife sporting together in a Bath and afterwards in an old womans house hard by he gat him a sharp curry-comb and leaving three men at the doore to see that none should come in he so curried the Advocate that he tore out his eyes and so rent his whole body that he died within three dayes The like he would have done to his wife but that she was with childe In Germany a Gentleman of note solicited a Citizens wife to uncleannesse which her husband being informed of watched them so narrowly that finding them in bed together he first slew the adulterer and then his own wife Luther's Col. Mary of Arragon wife to the Emperour Otho the third was so unchast and lascivious a woman that she could never satisfie her lust carrying about her a young lecher in womans clothes with whom she daily committed filthinesse but this fellow being at last suspected was in the presence of many untired and found to be a man for which he was burnt to death yet did the Emperesse continue in her filthy course falling in love with the Count of Mutina a gallant young Gentleman and because she could not draw him to her lure she accused him to the Emperour for attempting to ravish her whereupon the Emperour caused his head to be cut off But by the meanes of his wife this wickednesse was discovered to the Emperour who enquiring more narrowly into the bufinesse found out his wives wickednesse and for the same caused her to be burnt at a stake Rodoaldus the eighth King of Lombardy being taken in adultery was by the husband of the adulteresse immediately slaine P. Melan. Chron. A Noble man in Thuringia being taken in adultery the husband of the adulteresse took him bound him hand and foot and cast him into prison and to quench his lust he kept him fasting and the more to augment his paine he daily set dishes of hot meat before him that the sight and smell might the more provoke his appetite In this torture the Lecher continued till he gnawed off the flesh from his own shoulders and so the eleventh day after his imprisonment ended his wretched life Luther Sergus a King of Scotland was so addicted to harlots that he neglected his own wife and drave her to such poverty that she was faine to serve another Noble-woman for her living whereupon watching her opportunity she slew her husband in his bed and her self after it Lang. Chron. Kenulphus King of the West-Saxons as he usually frequented the company of a whore that he kept at Merton was slaine by Clito the kinsman of the late King called Sigebert In the County of Fermanah in Ireland is a famous Meere called Logh-Erne stretching out fourty miles concerning which it's a common speech amongst the inhabitants that this Lake was formerly firme ground passing well husbanded with tillage and replenished with inhabitants But suddenly for their abominable Buggery committed with beasts it was overflowed with waters and turned into a Lake Camb. Brit. Irel. p. 106. Attalus who was one of Philip King of Macedonia's Courtiers Favourites Sodomitically defiled one Pausanias a Noble young man and not content therewith at a drunken feast he exposed him to be defiled by his guests also This indignity did so exasperate Pausanias that he complained to King Philip of the wrong who entertained him with scoffs and scornes in stead of punishing the offender Pausanias seeing this was so enraged against the King that on a day when he made a great feast for the Coronation of his son Alexander King of Epyrus and for the marriage of his daughter Cleopatra Pausanius watching his opportunity slew him thereby turning their melody into mourning and their joy into sorrow Diod. Sic. Nero the Emperour kept many Catamites and amongst the rest he caused the genitals of a boy called Sporus to be cut off and endeavoured to transforme him into a woman and causing him to be dressed like a woman he was solemnly married to him whereupon one said merrily That it had been well for the world if his father Domitian had had such a wife Pez Mel. Hist. Anno Christi 1120. Henry the first being King of England his two sonnes William and Richard with many Noble men Knights others coming out of Normandy towards England were shipwracked by the way and drowned all or most of them being polluted with the filthy sinne of Sodomy too rife in those dayes Henry Huntington Let not thine heart decline to the wayes of an whorish woman go not a stray in her paths For she hath cast down many wounded yea many strong men have been slaine by her Her house is the way to hell going down to the Chambers of death Prov. 7. 25 26 27. CHAP. XI Examples of Chastity and Modesty THe way to heaven is up the hill all the way and the uncleane adulterer with his rotten Lungs and wasted Loines cannot climbe up it Virgins which are not defiled with women are they which follow the Lambe in white whithersoever he goes The frequency of the sinne of uncleannesse amongst Christians brings dishonour to God scandal to their profession and a wound to their own souls and many of the Heathen will rise up in judgement in the last day against such as these following Examples will more fully declare Chastity Commended Mat. 19. 12. 1 Thes. 4. 4. 1 Pet. 3. 2. 1 Cor. 7. 37. 1 Tim. 2. 9. Commanded Tit. 2. 5. 1 Pet. 3. 3 c. Scriptural Examples Isaac Gen. 25. 20. Joseph Gen. 39. 8 12. Boaz Ruth 3. 13. Job chap. 31. 1. Tamar 2 Sam. 13. 12. Other Examples Pericles the Athenian being made Admiral of the Athenian Fleet together with Sophocles who was joyned in the commission with him as they were going towards the haven they met a beautiful young boy whom Sophocles earnestly beholding highly commended his beauty to whom Pericles answered Sophocles a Governour must not onely have his hands but also his eyes chaste and clean Plut. Agesilaus King of Sparta was a great lover of chastity and as he was a great conquerer of others so also he conquerred his own lusts In his journey he would never lodge in private houses where he might have the company of women but ever lodged either in the Temples or in the open fields making all men the witnesses of his modesty and chastity Plut. Alexander M. being in the heat of youth shewed an admirable example of chastity when having taken the mother wives and daughters of Darius which were women of admirable beauty yet he neither by word or deed proffered them the least indignity thinking it a greater honour to overcome himself then his adversaries and when he looked upon other captive Ladies that excelled in stature and beauty
second having raised a great Army against the French as he was going out of Rome with it he took his keys and threw them into the River Tibur saying That for as much as the keys of Saint Peter would not serve him to his purpose he would be take himselfe to the sword of Saint Paul Of which Pope it is observed that partly by warre partly by cursings he was the cause of the death of two hundred thousand Christians in the space of seven yeares Act. Mon. Pope Nicolas the first prohibited marriage to the Clergy saying That it was more honest to have to do with many women privately then openly to take one wife Insomuch that a Priest of Placâ—ntia being accused to have a wife and children was deprived of his benefice but proving the same woman to be wife to another man and but his Concubine he was restored againe Iohn the twenty fourth was accused before the Councel of Constance for heresie Simony murther poisonings cousenings Adulteries and Sodomy which being proved against him he was deposed and imprisoned whereupon through vexation and griefe he ended his wretched life A certain Cardinal in Rome much blamed a Painter for colouring the visages of Peter Paul too red to whom he tartly replied That he painted them so as blushing at the lives of those who stiled themselves their successors Pope Honorius the second sent one Iohn Cremensis his Legate into England to disswade the Clergy from marriage who having called a Convocation the Legate made a very accurate speech in the praise of a single life and how fit it was that Ministers should live sequestred from the cares of the world but the night following he himselfe was taken in the very act of adultery Mat. Paris Pope Iulius called for his Pork flesh which was forbidden him by his Physicians and said that he would have it Al despito de Dio in dispite of God And having appointed a cold Peacock to be reserved for him when he missed it the next meale he grew into a great rage and being requested not to be so angry for such a trifle he answered That if God was so angry for an Apple why might not he be as angry for his Peacock Act. Mon. Doctor Cranmer with the Earle of Wiltshire and some others being sent by King Henry the eighth to the Pope about his divorce from Queen Katherin when the day of hearing was come and the Pope sitting in his Pontificalibus put forth his foot to be kissed of the Ambassadors an unmannerly Spaniell of the Earles ran and caught his great Toe in his teeth so that the Ambassadors disdaining to kisse where the Dog had taken an assay let the Pope draw back his foot and so they lost the espicial favour offered unto them Speed Chron. 10. 12. Pope Paul the third when his sonne Farnesis had committed an unspeakable violence on the body of Cosmus Chaerius Bishop of Fanum and then poisoned him held himselfe sufficiently excused that he could say Haec vitia me non commonstratore didicit He never learned this of me Pope Pius Quintus spake thus of himselfe Cùm essem Religiosus sperabam bene de salute animae meae Cardinalis factus extimui Pontifex creatus penè despero When I was first in orders without any other Ecclesiastical dignity I had some good hope of my salvation when I became a Cardinal I had lesse since I was made a Pope least of all Corn. è Lapi Before the Pope is set in his chair and puts on his tripple Crown a piece of Towe or Wadd of straw is set on fire before him and one is appointed to say Sic transit gloria munda The glory of the world is but a blaze Also one day in the yeare the Popes Almoner rides before him casting abroad to the poor some pieces of brasse and lead profanely abusing that Scripture saying Silver and Gold have I none but such as I have I give unto you Pope Adrian the sixth having built a faire Colledge at Lovain caused this inscription to be written upon the gates thereof in letters of Gold Trajectum plantavit Lovanium rigavit Caesar dedit incrementum Utrecht planted me there he was born Lovaine watered me there he was bred up in learning and Caefar gave the encrease for the Emperour had preferred him One to meet with his folly and forgetfulnesse wrote underneath Hic Deus nihil fecit Here God did nothing The Popes have a book called Taxa Camerae Apostolicae wherein men may know the rate of any sinne upon what termes a man may keep a whore be a Sodomite murther his father c. When the Emperour Henry the seventh having pacified Germany went into Italy to reforme the many and great abuses there A certain Monk to gratifie the Pope mixed poison with the bread of the Eucharist and gave it him whereof he died Simps Ec. Hist. King John of England having broken with the Pope was afterwards no good friend to him and his clergy especially to their loose and licentious lives whereupon as the King in his progresse rested himself for two dayes at Swinstead-Abby not far from Lincolne a Monk of that house went to his Abbat and told him that he had a purpose to poison the King saying It 's better that one man should die then that all the people should perish The Abbat wept for joy and absolved the Monk from all his sinnes Then did this varlot mixe the poison of a filthy toade with a cup of excellent wine and brought it to the King saying My Liege here is such a cup of wine as you never drank a better in all your life I trust this wassail shall make all England glad and therewithal began a good draught to him and the King pledging him shortly after died Anno Christi 1605. when the powder-plot was in agitation Catesby one of the Plotters repaired to Garnet a Popish Priest with this case of conscience Whether it was lawful in some cases to destroy the innocent with the wicked This good father so soon as he perceived the conspirators to be in good earnest peremptorily resolved that without all doubt it was when the good coming by it might make compensation for the losse of their lives Pope John the twenty third calling a Councel at Rome against the godly Christians in Bohemia when the Councel was set the Masse of the holy Ghost sung and the Pope placed in his chair there came flying in amongst them an ugly Owle with an ill-fauoured hooting and set her self upon a crosse beam just over against the Pope casting her staring eyes upon him whereupon the whole company began to marvel and whispering each to other said Behold the Spirit is come in the likenesse of an Owle The Pope himself blushed at the matter and began to sweat fret and fume and so being in great distraction dissolved the Councel for the present yet afterwards calling another Sessions when they were met in
that Sirname was so bountiful to the poore that Queen Elizabeth would merrily complaine of him that he made all the beggars and sure it 's more honourable for Noblemen to make beggars by their liberality then by their oppression Holy State p. 297. Holy Mr. Bradford in a hard time solde his chaines rings and jewels to relieve those that were in want Act. Mon. George Wisehart a Scottish Martyr forbore one meal in three one day in four that he might have wherewithal to relieve the poor He lay also hard upon straw with new course canvas sheets which when ever he changed he gave away to the poor See his Life in my General Martyrology Giles of Bruxels Martyr gave to the poore all that he had that necessity could spare and lived by his trade which was of a Cutler some he refreshed with meat some with clothing some with shooes other with housholdstuffe A poor woman being delivered and wanting a bed to lie on he brought her his own bed contenting himselfe to lie on the straw Dr. Taylour Martyr used at least once in a fourtnight to call upon Sir Henry Doile and others of the rich Clothiers in his Parish to go with him to the Almes house and there to see how the poore lived what they lacked in meat drink apparel bedding or other necessaries ministering to them himself according to his power and causing his rich neighbours to do the like See his life in my first Part. Cimon a chiefe magistate amongst the Athenians went alwayes attended with many young men that were his friends to whom as he met with any poor men he commanded either to give them money or else to change garments with them Whence Gorgias Leontinus used to say That Cimon so possessed his riches as one that knew how to use them For saith he the true use of riches is so to imploy them as may be for the owners honour Plut. He used also to entertain the poore at his table to cloath poor aged persons and by throwing down the enclosures of his lands he gave them leave freely to take of the fruits thereof Plut. Nerva the Romane Emperour though a heathen was very charitable to many who were unjustly dispossessed by Domitian he restored their goods and possessions he caused the sonnes of poor men to be educated at his charges To poor Citizens whom he knew to be in want he gave possessions which he purchased with his own money Dion King Henry the second of England sirnamed Beauclerk was very charitable and merciful to the poor And Anno Christi 1176. in a great dearth in his countreys of Anjou and Maine he fed every day with sufficient sustenance ten thousand persons from the beginning of April till the time that new corne was inned and whatsoever was laid up in his Granaries and storehouses he imployed the same for the reliefe of Religious and poore people Petrus Blesensis King Edward the sixth was as truly charitable in granting Bridewel for the punishment of sturdy Rogues as in giving Saint Thomas hospital for the relief of the poore Mr. Fox never denied to give to any one that asked for Jesus sake and being asked whether he knew a poore man that had received succour of him answered I remember him well I tell you I forget Lords and Ladies to remember such See his life in my first Part. Mr. Hooper Bishop of Worcester used every day at dinner to have a certaine number of the poore of the City by course where they were served by four at a Messe with whole and wholesome meat before himselfe would go to dinner See his Life in my first Part. Amedeus Duke of Savoy being asked by certain Ambassadours whether he had any hunting Dogs to shew them told them they should see them the next day and getting together many poor people he set them with him at his own Table on the morrow and said to the Ambassadours These be the Dogs that I keep daily and with which I use to hunt after heaven Queen Anne Bullen ever used to carry a little purse about her for the poore thinking no day well spent wherein some had not fared the better at her hand She kept her maides and such as were about her so imployed in working and sowing garments for the poore that neither was there seen any idlenesse amongst them nor any leasure to follow foolish pastimes Paulinus Bishop of Nola having consumed all his estate in Redeeming of poor Christian Captives at the length having nothing left paâ—â—ed himself for a certaine Christian widows sonnâ—… the Barbarians moved with his goodnesse and charity returned him home and many captives with him freely Paul Diac. The young Lord Harrington gave the tenth of his allowance which was one thousand pounds per annum during his minority to the poor and other good uses besides what he gave in the way as he walked which was often and much See his life in my second Part. Mr Whateley the late painful and powerful Preacher of Gods Word at Banbury for the space of many years together set apart the tenth part of his Revenues both Ecclesiastical and Temporal which he used to give to the poor See his Life in my first Part. It it storied of Stephen King of Hungary and of Oswald King of England that their right hands though dead yet never putrified because they were often ex-excised in relieving the wants of the poor Beda Hist. Ang. A certain good Bishop of Millaine journeying with his Servant was met by some poor people who begged something of him He commanded his man to give them all that little money that he had which was three Crowns the Servant gave onely two reserving the other for their own expences at night Soone after certaine Nobles meeting the Bishop and knowing him to be a good man and bountiful to the poor commanded two hundred Crowns to be delivered to the Bishops Servant for his Masters use The man having the money ran with great joy and told his Master Ah said the Bishop what wrong hast thou done both me and thy self Si enim tres dedisses trecentos accepisses If thou hadst given those three Crowns as I appointed thee thou hadst received three hundred â—â—lanc apud Job Manlium in loc com p. 360. Our General Norris never thought that he had that thing that he did not give The Emperour Tiberius the second being a valiant godly and liberal Prince the more bountiful that he was to the poor the more his riches encreased so that he had such quantities of gold silver and precious things as none of his Predecessors attained the like Plat. Titus Vespasianus though an Heathen yet was eminent for justice liberality and the love of all He was a great enemy to Promoters Petty-foggers and Extorters of penal Laws which Canker-worms of Common-wealths and Caterpillars of Courts of Justice he caused to be whipped and banished out of Rome Merciful he was to the poor and so ready to
persons in so little a time Plut. Daemaratus the Lacedemonian being at the King of Persia's Court and in favour with him the King bid him ask what he would of him Daemaratus desired him to give him leave to go up and down the City of Sardis with his Royal hat on his head as the Kings of Persia used But Mithropaustes the Kings cozen taking him by the hand said If the King should grant thy request the hat on thy head would cover but a little wit Plut. Camillus the Romane General having after ten years siege taken the strong and rich City of Veia grew very proud upon his successe and was more puffed up by reason of the praises of the people so that he rode through Rome in a triumphant Chariot drawn by four white horses which was judged a solemnity only meet for the father and chief of the gods Plut. Some Germane Ambassadours coming to Alexander M. to make peace with him he seeing them to be men of such great bodies asked them What it was that the Germanes stood in most fear of supposing that they would have said of him But they answered that the onely thing that they feared was lest the heavens should fall upon their heads Diod. Sic. Darius King of Persia hearing that Alexander M. was come over into Asia with an Army to make a conquest of it wrote to his Lieutenants wherein he stiled himself King of kings and Kinseman to the gods calling Alexander his slave and commanding them to take that Grecian boy and whip him with rods and to put a purple garment upon him and send him in chaines to him and then to drown all his ships and mariners and to transport all his souldiers beyond the red-sea Diod. Sic. Q. Curtius Alexander M. going out of Egypt to the Temple of Jupiter Hammon at his coming thither the Priest being suborned thereunto saluted him as the son of Jupiter which so puffed him up with pride that he commanded himself to be worshipped with divine honours and to be called Jupiters son Q. Cur. Darius King of Persia being overcome in a second battel by Alexander M. sent Ambassadours to him wherin he gave him thanks for his courtesie to his mother wives and children proffered him the greatest part of his dominions if he would marry his daughter and one thousand Talents for the ransome of the other Captives Parmenio told Alexander that if he were Alexander he would accept of those termes And I said Alexander if I were Parmenio would rather have the money then glory But now said he I am secure from poverty and must remember that I am a King and not a Merchant and so he returned this proud answer Tell faith he Darius that it 's superfluous to returne thanks to his enemy and wherein I have dealt mildly and liberally with his family it proceeds from my good nature and not to curry favour with him I would do what he desires if he would be my inferiour but not if he would be my equal for as the world cannot have two Suns neither can it containe two Emperors therfore let him either yield up himself to me to day or expect the fortune of Warre to morrow Q. Cur. Plut. See the example of S. Tullius in Parricide John Cappadox Bishop of Constantinople and John sirnamed Jeninator out of their ambition obtained that they should be stiled vniversal Bishops which Gregory the Great earnestly opposed Theat vitae hum Julius Caesar earnestly affecting the office of High Priest wherein he had Quintus Catulus a worthy man for his competitour said unto his mother when they were going to the choice O mother this day you shall have your son either High Priest or an exile Plut. Pompey the Great being sent with a great Navy against the Pirats and hearing that Metellus Praetor of Crete had begun the Warre against them he with his Navy assisted them against Metullus so ambitious he was that he would endure no competitour in conquering those Pirates Fulgos. Lib. 8. Phidias that made a curious shield for Minerva was so ambitiously desirous of glory thereby that he so wrought in his own name that it could not be defaced without spoiling the shield Val. Max. Themistocles was so ambitious of honour as that he could not sleep in the night and being asked the reason of it he answered Because the Trophies of Miltiades run so in my head that they will not suffer me to rest And being asked in the Theater whose voice pleased him best he answered Of them that most sing my praise Plut. Cicero Alexander the Great when he was young hearing his Master Democritus affirming that there were many worlds cried out Heu me miserum quod ne uno quidem adhuc potitus sum Wo is me that have not yet gotten the dominion of one of them Val. Max. Xerxes having made a bridge of boats over the Helespont for the transportation of his huge Army out of Asia into Europe there arose a great tempest which brake his bridge in sunder wherewith he was so enraged that he caused his men to give the sea three hundred stripes and to throw fetters into it to binde it to its good behaviour his officers performing his command cried O unruly water thy Lord hath appointed thee this punishment for that thou hast wronged him that deserved it not from thee but whether thou wilt or no he is resolved to passe over thee Herod Themistocles was exceeding ambitious of popular applause and for that end he gat all the names of the Citizens of Athens by heart that when he met them he might salute them by name And after his great victories against the Persians he went to the Oympick Games where all the people gave over beholding the sports that they might look upon him which so pleased his ambitious humour that he said to his friends That now he reaped the fruit of all the dangers and labours that he had gone throw for the safety of Greece Also after the great overthrow given to the Persians by sea he with one of his friends walking by the sea-side and seeing many dead bodies cast up he shewed his friend the bracelets and chaines of gold which they had upon them saying to him Ea tibi accipe tu enim non es Themistocles Take thou those things for thou art not Themistocles Plut. Pericles the Athenian a little before his death in an oration which he made to the people tolde them that he was second to none in knowing and speaking those things which were necessary to be known and spoken and that he so loved his countrey that he would never suffer himself to be corrupted with money to speak or do any thing to the prejudice of it Plut. King Henry the second of England AnnoChristi 1170. in his life-time caused his son young Henry to be crowned King and on his Coronation-day for honours sake placed the first dish upon the table himself Whereupon the Arch-bishop of York
Asse The Queen-Mother of Scotland having received aid from France forced the Protestants for a while to retire towards the High-lands whereupon she scoffingly said Where is now John Knox his God My God is now stronger then his yea even in Fife but her brags lasted not long For within a few dayes six hundred Protestants beat above four thousand French and Scots c. See Master Knox his Life in my first Part. The same Queen-Mother when some English Scots attempted to take Leith by storme and many of them were slaine by reason that the scaling ladders proved too short beholding it from Edenborough Castle where she was burst out into a great laughter saying Now will I go to Masse and praise God for that which mine eyes have seen And when the French had stripped the slaine and laid the naked bodies along the walls the Queen looking on them said scoffingly Yonder are the fairest Tapestries that ever mine eyes beheld I would that the whole fields which are betwixt Leith and this place were all strewed with the same stuffe But this joy lasted not long For presently after a fire kindled in Leith which burnt up their store-houses and provision for the Army and the Queen-Mother fell sick and died Eodem When Christians complained to Julian the Apostate of the abuse and wrongs which his officers did to them he used scoffingly to answer It 's your part when you are injured to take it patiently for so your God commandeth you See my General Martyrology p. 86. In the late Persecution in Bohemia some godly Martyrs in Prague as they were at supper being to suffer the next day comforted themselves saying that this was their last supper upon earth that to morrow they should feast with Christ in heaven whereupon a great Papist flouted them saying Hath Christ Cooks for you in Heaven Eodem p. 170. Now therefore be no more mockers lest your bands be made strong Isa. 28. 22. CHAP. XXIV Examples of Gods judgements against Perjury SWearing Cursing and Perjury are such God-provoking and Heaven-outfacing sinnes that the Lord doth not only reserve wrath for these his enemies in the world to come but many times also even in this world he takes some of the eminentest of these sinners and as it were hangs them up in Gibbets to be monuments of his heavy wrath and indignation for the terrour of others that they may hear and fear and do no more so wickedly as these ensuing Examples may sufficiently evince It 's a great sinne 1 Tim. 1. 9. 10. Lev. 6. 3. Jer. 23. 10 Hos. 10. 4. Forbidden Lev. 19. 12. Mat. 5. 33. Threatened Jer. 5. 2 and 7. 9. Mal. 3. 5. Zach. 5. 3 4 Hos. 10. 4. Scriptural examples Princes and people Jer. 34 10 11 17. Zedekiah Ezek. 17. 18 19. Saul 2 Sam. 21. 1 2. Agesilaus being sent with a great Army from Sparta into Asia Minor against Tissaphernes the King of Persiu's Leiutenant there Tissaphernes desired to know the reason of his coming Agesilaus answered that it was to let the Grecian Cities free Tissaphernes intreated him to make a truce with him till he had sent to the King of Persia to know his pleasure therein Agesilaus consented and so a truce was made with solemne oaths on both sides but Tissaphernes dealt deceitfully and sent to the King for a great Army which being come to him he sent an Herauld to Agesilaus to command him presently to depart out of Asia Agesilaus being nothing daunted with the newes returned this answer That he gave him no small thanks for that by his perjury he had made the gods angry with the Persians and favourable to the Grecians and accordingly it so fell out for coming to a battel he gave the Persians a great overthrow Xenophon Lysander King of Sparta though otherwise a gallant man yet made no conscience of his oaths using to say that boyes used to be deceived with false dice and men with oaths Plut. Eumenes being made General of an Army against Antigonus by the young King of Macedonia Alexander M. his sonne and his protectour they wrote to the two Colonells of the Argyraspides to adjoyne themselves to him These were Alexanders old souldiers whom when he took them with him into India he made them silver shields and called them Argyraspides These Colonells obeying the command went with him into Asia and after some lesser conflicts the two armies met at last in Media where these silvershields of whom none were under sixty and most of them were seventy years old took in such scorne that their sonnes and boyes should fight against them that they charged them with such fury that after the slaughter of many they made Antigonus his infantry wholly to run away but in the mean time Antigonus his Cavalry had routed the Cavalry of Eumenes and seizing upon their carriges had driven them away the Silver shields hearing of it sent presently to Antigonus desiring him to restore them their carriages againe who answered that if they would deliver up Eumenes bound into his hands he would not only restore their carriages but greatly preferre them also Hereupon most treacherously they ran upon Eumenes took away his sword and bound his hands behinde him so that he could scarce get leave to speake before they carried him away but at last having obtained leave he thus spake O my souldiers ye see the habit and ornaments of your General not imposed upon him by his enemies but you your selves of a Conquerer have made him a Captive You that within one yeares space have bound your selves foure times to me by oath do now to redeem your carriages betray me to mine enemies therefore I desire you rather to kill me your selves for Antigonus desires not to have me living but dead and if you will but herein gratifie me I freely absolve you from all the oaths wherewith you have bound your selves to me or if you will not shew me so much favour then loose one of my bands and give me a sword that I may kill my selfe or if you dare not trust me with a sword cast me to the Elephants to be destroyed by them But when he saw that they would gratifie him in none of these he grew into a passion and said Ye cursed villaines I pray the gods who are the revengers of perjury to send you such ends as ye have brought your Generals unto for I am not the first whom you have thus betrayed c. And so being delivered to Antigonus he was shortly after murthered by him But withal he so hated these perjured Silver shields that he burned one of their Colonells and slew the other the rest of them he sent into remote Countreys and put them upon such desperate services that by degrees they were all cut off and never any one of them returned into his own Countrey againe Plut. King Henry the first of England in the twenty seventh year of his reigne caused the Bishops Abbats and Nobles
to sweare allegiance to his daughter Maud and that she should succeed in his Kingdome they which swore were first William Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the rest of the Bishops and Abbats then David King of Scotland Uncle to Maud now married to the Emperesse of Germany then Stephen Earle of Mortaigne and Bulloigne Nephew to the King c. But so soon as King Henry was dead in Normandy Stephen hasted into England and by the help especially of the Bishops was made King and the Emperesse put by but behold the revenging hand of God following their Perjury Stephen though otherwise a gallant Prince yet found his Crowne to be but a glorious misery Mars and Vulcan never suffering him to be at quiet and as he would not suffer the right heire to inherit so God would not suffer him to have an heire to inherit for his sonne was put by the Crowne which was conferred upon Henry sonne to the Emperesse the rightfull heire Also William Arch-bishop of Canterbury never prospered after his perjury but died within that yeare Roger Bishop of Salisbury fell into displeasure with King Stephen who took him prisoner seized upon his Castles and treasures and so used him that he died for very griefe Alexander Bishop of Lincolne was also taken by the King and led in a rope to the Castle of Newark upon Trent the King swearing that the Bishop should neither eat nor drink till his Castle was surrendered so that there he gat all the Bishops treasure and as for Hugh Bigot he also escaped not long unpunished saith Fabian Rodulph Duke of Sweveh provoked by the Pope rebelled against his Sovereigne the Emperour Henry the fourth but in a battel which he fought against him he lost his right arme whereof he shortly after died acknowledging Gods justice for his disloyalty punishing him in that arme which before was lift up to sweare the oath of allegiance to his Master Act. Mon. Narcissus a godly Bishop of Ierusalem was falsly accused by three men of many foule matters who sealed up with oathes and imprecations their false testimonies But shortly after one of them with his whole family and substance was burnt with fire another of them was stricken with a grievous disease such as in his imprecation he had wished to himselfe the third terrified with the sight of Gods judgements upon the former became very panitent and poured out the griefe of his heart in such aboundance of teares that thereby he became blinde Euseb. The Arians hired a woman to accuse Eustatius a godly Bishop of committing whoredome with her thereby procuring his banishment But shortly after the Lord struck her with a grievous disease whereupon she confessed her perjury the childe being begotten by Eustatius a Smith and not Eustatius the Bishop and so presently after she died Euseb. The Emperour Albert having made a truce with the great Turke and solemnly sworne to the same Pope Eugenius the fourth sent him a dispensation from his oath and excited him to renew the warre against them but in the first battel he was discomfited and slaine to the great shame of Christianity the infidels justly accusing them of Perjury and Covenant breaking sealed by the Name of Christ whom they professe to be their Saviour Turk Hist. Almerick King of Ierusalem having entred into League with the Caliph of Egypt and confirmed the same by an oath afterwards warred upon him contrary to his promise whereupon God raised him up many enemies who miserably wasted the Kingdome of Ierusalem himselfe was beaten out of Egypt and all hopes of succour failing him being wearied with whole volleys of miseries he ended his life of a bloody Flux Hist. holy Warres The Egyptians reputed perjury so capital a crime that whosoever was convinced thereof was punished with death Pausanias noteth this to be one chiefe cause why Philip King of Macedon with all his posterity were so quickly destroyed because he made no account of keeping his oathes but sware and unswere as might stand best with his interest Gregory of Tours makes mention of a wicked varlet in France among the people called Averni that forswearing himselfe in an unjust-cause had his tongue presently so tied that he could not speake but roare till by his inward prayer and repentance the Lord restored him the use of that unruly member Theodor Beza recordeth what befell a perjured person who forswore himselfe to the prejudice of his neighbour He had no sooner made an end of his oath but being suddenly stricken with an Apoplexie he never spake word more till he died Cleomenes King of Lacedemonia making truce with the Argives for seven dayes oppressed them in the third night unawares thinking thereby to avoid perjury But the Argive women their husbands being slaine took up armes like so many Amazones and repelled Cleomenes who afterwards was banished into Egypt where desperately he slew himselfe Plut. Uladislaus King of Hungary having contracted a League with Amurath the great Turke and bound himselfe to it by an oath the Pope sent a Legat to absolve him from his oath and provoke him to warre which he undertaking with a very great Army the victory stood doubtfull a great while together but Amurath seeing a Crucifix in the Christians Ensigne pluckt the writing wherein the late League was contained out of his bosome and with his eyes and hands cast up to heaven said O thou crucified Christ behold this is the League thy Christians in thy Name made with me which they have causelesly violated If thou be a God as they say thou art and as we dream revenge the wrong now done unto thy Name and me and shew thy power upon thy perjured people who in their deeds deny thee their God Immediately afterward the King in the middest of his enemies was slaine and the Christians fled very few ever returning to their own homes but perished miserably Turk Hist. When Harold King of England was ready to joyne in battel with William the Conquerer and his Normans Gyth a younger brother of his advised him that in case he had made promise unto William of the Kingdome he should for his own person withdraw himselfe out of the battel for surely all his forces could not secure him against God and his own conscience who no doubt would require punishment for breach offaith and promise withall assuring him that if he would commit the fortune of that battel into his hands he would not faile to performe the part of a good brother and valiant Captaine but the King contemning this wholesome counsel would needs joyne battel himselfe wherein he lost his Army Kingdome and his own life Camb Brit. p. 149 150. Henry Falmer being accused by his own brother of Heresie as they call it suffered Martyrdome for the same but shortly after his said brother who had borne false witnesse against him was pressed for a Pioner in the voyage to Bulloine where within three dayes as he was exonerating nature a Gun took him and
One who for twelve or sixteen years together used to sweare by Gods Armes In the end his own arme being hurt with a knife could not be healed by any means but wrankled and festered from day to day and at last so rotted that it fell away peece-meale and himself through anguish and paine thereof died Phil. Stubs I my selfe saith a godly Divine that wrote lately knew two most notorious swearers that brake their necks the one with a fall down a paire of staires the other from his horse Another relates of a swearing Courtier at Mansfield who in the middest of his blasphemous oaths was taken up and carried away by the devil At a Village called Benevides in Spaine two young men being together in the field there suddenly arose a terrible tempest and withal so violent a whirlewinde that it amazed the beholders The two young men seeing the fury of it coming towards them ran as fast as possibly they might but yet it overtook them and they fearing to be hoisted up into the Aire by it fell down flat upon the earth where the Whirlewinde whisked round about them for a pretty while and then passed forwards the one of them arose in such an agony that he was scarce able to stand the other lying still and not stirring some other that stood under an hedge a far off went to see how he did and found him stark dead with his bones so crushed that the joynts of his armes and legges turned every way as though his body had been made of Mosse his tongue also was pulled out by the roots and could never be found which was the more remarkable because he was noted to have been an outragious swearer and blasphemer of Gods holy Name Anth. de Torquem At Tubing in Germany a desperate boy used to invent such new oaths as were not common but the Lord sent a Canker or some worse disease that did eat out his tongue the instrument wherewith he blasphemed Gâ—â—m Hist. A certain man who in his life-time was given exceedingly to the fearful sinne of swearing had his heart on his death-bed so exceedingly filled with enraged greedinesse after it that he desperately desired the standers by to help him with oaths and to sweare for him though himself in the mean time swore as fast and furiously as he could Mr. Bolton Destructorium viâ—iorum tells of an Harlot who had three sonnes and told her husband that only one of them was his whereupon at his death he bequeathed his estate to him that should be found to be his true son Upon this the sons contend the Judges to decide it commanded the fathers dead body to be set up against a tree and that he of the three that could shoot nearest to his heart should be his heire The two bastards shot the third refused and was offended with the other for doing it By which natural love they concluded him to be the natural son and gave him the inheritance Surely they are bastards and no sonnes that wound God at heart and teare him in peeces by oaths c. Charilaus a Pagan being asked why the Images of the gods in Sparta were armed To the end saith he that men may fear to blaspheme the gods knowing that are armed to take vengeance upon their enemies Chrysostome whilest he was at Antioch spent most of his Sermons against swearing that if not the fear of God yet his importunity might make them a weary of that sin Philip King of France ordained that whosoever by swearing blasphemed God though in a Tavern yet he should be straightway drowned Maximilian the Emperour decreed that every vain swearer should pay thirteen shillings and four pence which who so refused to pay and repented not of his wickednesse should lose his head Henry the first King of England appointed the payment of fourty shillings twenty shillings ten shillings and three shillings four pence according to the degree of the swearer to be given to the poore Christiâ—649 â—649 about the end of June there was a souldier at Ware going with some others to wash himself in the river but finding the water shallow he asked if there was no deeper a place for him to swim in Some told him that there was not farre off a deep pit but that it was very dangerous and therefore advised him to take heed how he went into it to whom he answered God damn me if it be as deep as hell I will go into it which accordingly he did but immediately sunk to the bottome never rising again but was there drowned To swear by their Faith was the Romanes greatest oath which they kept inviolably Plut. King Charles the ninth of France entertained into his favour one Albertus Tuâ—â—us an Hucksâ—ers sonne to whom in five years space besides other honoures he gave six hundred thousand crownes though all the good the King gat by him was to learn to swear by the Name of God Camerar med Hist. c. 4. But above all things my brethren swear not neither by heaven neither by the earth neither by any other oath But let your Yea be yea and your Nayâ— nay lest ye fall into condemnation Jam. 5. 12. CHAP. XXVI Examples of Gods judgements upon Cursers IN France a man of good parts and well instructed in Religion yet in his passion cursing and bidding the devil take one of his children the childe was immediately possessed with an evil spirit from which though by the fervent and continual prayers of the Church he was at length released yet ere he had fully recovered his health he died Beza Anno 15â—7 at Forchenum in the Bishoprick of Bamburg a Priest preaching about the Sacrament used these and such like blasphemous speeches O Paul Paul if thy Doctrine touching the receiving of the Sacrament in both kindes be true and if it be a wicked thing to receive it otherwise then let the devil take me and if the Popes Doctrine concerning this point be false then am I the devils bondslave neither do I fear to pawn my soul upon it Presently the devil came indeed in the shape of a tall man black and terrible with a fearful noise and roaring winde took away the old Priest that he was never after heard of Fincelius In Helvetia Anno 1556. a certaine man that earned his living by making cleane foule linnen in his drunkennesse used horrible cursings wishing that the devil might break his neck if he ever went to his old occupation again yet the next day when he was sober he went into the field again about it where the devil attended him in the likenesse of a big swarthy man asking him if he remembred his wish and withal struck him over the shoulders so that his feet and hands presently dried yet the Lord gave not the devil power to do him so much hurt as he wisht to himself Fincelius Henry Earle of Schwartburg used commonly to wish that he might be drowned in a Privy if such and such things
Greg. of Tour. lib. 4. Anno Christi 1461. there was in Juchi neere Cambray an unnatural son that in a fury threw his mother out of his doores thrice in one day telling her that he had rather see his house on fire and burned to coles then that she should remaine in it one day longer and accordingly the very same day his house was fired and wholly burned down with all that was in it none knowing how or by what meanes the fire came Enguer de Monst v. 2. The Emperor Henry the fifth being provoked thereto by the Pope rose up in rebellion and made cruel War against his father Henry the fourth not ceasing till he had despoiled him of his Empire But the Lord presently after plagued him for it making him and his Army a prey to his enemies the Saxons stirring up the Pope to be as grievous a scourge to him also as he had been to his father P. Melanct. Chron. l. 4. Manlius relateth a story of an old man crooked with age very poore and almost pined with hunger who having a rich and wealthy sonne went to him only for some food for his belly clothes for his back but this proud young man thinking that it would be a dishonour to him to be borne of such parents drave him away denying not only to give him sustenance but disclaiming him from being his father giving him bitter and reproachful speeches which made the poore old man to go away with an heavy heart and teares flowing from his eyes which the Lord beholding struck his unnatural son with madnesse of which he could never be cured till his death The same author relates another story of another man that kept his father in his old age but used him very currishly as if he had been his slave thinking every thing too good for him and on a time coming in found a good dish set on the table for his father which he took away and set courser meat in the roome but a while after sending his servant to fetch out that dish for himself he found the meat turned into snakes and the sauce into serpents one of which leaping up caught this unnatural sonne by his lip from which it could never be pulled to his dying day so that he could never feed himselfe but he must feed the serpent also At Millane there was a wicked and dissolute young man who when he was admonished by his mother of some fault which he had committed made a wry mouth and pointed at her with his finger in scorne and derision whereupon his mother being angry wished that he might make such a mouth upon the Gallowes which not long after came to passe for being apprehended for felony and condemned to be hanged being upon the ladder he was observed to writhe his mouth in grief as he had formerly done to his mother in derision Theat hist. Henry the second King of England son to Jeffery Plantaginet and Maud the Emperesse after he had reigned twenty yeares made his young son Henry who had married Margaret the French Kings daughter King in his life-time but like an unnatural son he sought to dispossesse his father of the whole and by the instigation of the King of France and some others he took Armes and fought often with his father who still put him to the worst So that this rebellious son at last was fain to stoop and ask forgivenesse of his father which he gently granted and forgave his offence Howbeit the Lord plagued him for his disobedience striking him with sicknesse in the flower of his youth whereof he died six years before his father Speed Anno Christi 1071. Diogenes Romanus Emperour of the Greekes having led an Army against the Turkes as far as the River Euphrates where he was like to have prevailed but by the treason of his Son in Law Andronicus his Army was routed and himself taken prisoner yet the Turkes used him honourably and after a while sent him home But in the mean season they of Constantinople had chosen Michael Ducas for their Emperour who hearing of Diogenes his returne sent Andronicus to meet him who unnaturally plucked out his fathers eyes and applying no medecines thereto wormes bred in the holes which eating into his braines killed him Zonaras Adolf son of Arnold Duke of Guelders repining at his fathers long life one night as he was going to bed came upon him suddenly and took him prisoner and bare-legged as he was made him go on foot in a cold season five Germane leagues and then shut him up a close prisoner for six months in a dark dungeon but the Lord suffered not such disobedience and cruelty to go long unpunished For shortly after the son was apprehended and long inprisoned and after his release was slaine in a sight against the French History of the Netherlands One Garret a Frenchman and a Protestant by profession but given to all manner of vices was by his father cast off for his wickednesse yet found entertainment in a Gentlemans house of good note in whose family he became sworn brother to a young Gentleman that was a Protestant But afterwards coming to his estate he turned Papist of whose constancy because the Papists could hardly be assured he promised his Confessor to prove himself an undoubted Catholick by setting a sure seal to his profession whereupon he plotted the death of his dearest Protestant friends and thus effected it He invited his Father Monsieur Seamats his sworn brother and six other Genlemen of his acquaintance to dinner and all dinner time intertained them with protestations of his great obligements to them But the bloody Catastrophe was this dinner being ended sixteen armed men came up into the roome and laid hold on all the guests and this wicked Parricide laid hold on his Father willing the rest to hold his hands till he had dispatched him he stabbed the old Gentleman crying to the Lord for mercy foure times to the heart the young Gentleman his sworne brother he dragged to a window and there caused him to sing which he could dovery sweetly though then no doubt he did it with a very heavy heart and towards the end of the Ditty he stabbed him first into the throat and then to the heart and so with his Poiniard stabbed all the rest but three who were dispatched by those armed Ruffians at their first entrance and so they flung all the dead bodies out at a window into a ditch Oubig Hist. France The base son of Scipio Africanus the Conquerour of Hannibal and Africk so ill imitated his father that for his viciousnesse he received many disgracefull repulses from the people of Rome the fragrant smell of his fathers memory making him to stinke the more in their nostriles yea they forced him to pluck off from his finger a signet-ring wherin the face of his father was engraven as counting him unworthy to wear his picture whose vertue he would not imitate Val. Maxi. Tarpeia the
honestate quà m sol à cursu suo averti potest It's easier to turne the Sun out of his course then Fabricius from his honesty Eutropius Marcus Attilius Regulus a Romane Consull fighting in Affrica against the Carthaginians was at last by subtility taken prisoner Yet was sent to Rome for the exchange of prisoners upon his oath that in case he prevailed not he should return and yield up himself prisoner to them again when he came to Rome he made a speech in the Senate-house to disswade them from accepting of the conditions and so without respecting his wife and children he returned to Carthage where he was grievously tormented in a Little-Ease knocked full of nailes that he could neither leane sit nor lie till he died Cicero When the Corps of Thomas Howard second Duke of Norfolk was carried to be interred in the Abbey of Thetford Anno 1524. No person could demand of him one groat for debt or restitution for any injury done by him Weav Fun. Mon. p. 839. It was said of the famous Lawyer Andreas Taraquillus that singulis annis singulos libros liberos Reipublicae dedit Thuanus Obit Doct. vir anno 1558. In the dayes of Queen Mary Judge Morgan chief Justice of the Common Pleas refusing to admit any witnesse to speak or any other matter to be heard in favour of the adversary her Majesty being party the Queen declared that her pleasure was that whatsoever could be brought in favour of the Subject should be admitted and heard Qui pro veritate est pro Rege est Holinsh. in Q. Mary p. 1112. A certaine Lawyer in France was so much delighted in Law-sport that when Lewis the King offered to ease him of a number of suits he earnestly besought his Highnesse to leave him some twenty or thirty behinde wherewith he might merrily passe away the time we have too many such that love to fish in troubled waters Bassanus King of the Sicambrians was so severe in the execution of his laws that he executed his own sonne for adultery and being reviled by his wife for it he put her away sending her back to her father who was King of the Orcades Isac Chron. p. 152. Henry the fourth King of England when his eldest sonne the Prince of Wales was by the Lord chief Justice committed to prison for affronting him on the bench gave thanks to God for that he had a Judge so impartial in executing justice and a sonne so obedient as to submit to such a punishment Speed A Judge in Germany aggravating the fault of a murtherer that was before him told him that he deserved no favour for that he had killed six men No my Lerd said an Advocate that stood by he killed but one and you are guilty of the blood of the other five because you let him escape upon the murther of the first The Egyptian Kings usually and solemnly presented this oath to their Judges Not to swarve from their consciences no though they should receive a command from themselves to the contrary It 's a principle in moral policy That an ill executor of the Laws is worse in a State then a great breaker of them Pericles a famous Oratour of Greece who for the excellency of his speech and mightinesse of his eloquence was said to thunder and lighten at the Barre from the Principles of nature ever before he pleaded a cause intreated his gods that not a word should fall from him besides his cause An old woman complaining to the Emperour Adrian of some wrong that was done her her he told her that he was not at leasure to heare her suit to whom she plainly replied That then he ought not to be at leasure to be Emperour which came so to the quick that he was ever after more facile to suitours Fulgâ— Lewis the first King of France used three dayes in the week publickly to hear the complaints and grievances of his people and to right their wrongs A Macedonian Gentleman called Pausanias ran at King Philip and slew him because he had refused to do him justice when he complained against a Peer of the Realme Some of the kindred of Tatius King of the Romans robbed and murthered certain Ambassadours that were going to Rome for which their â—â—â—â—olk demanded justice of Tatius but he connâ—ving at the wrong because of his relation to them the kindred of the slaine watched their opportunity and slew him as he was sacrificing to his gods Plut. Lewis called Saint Lewis of France having given a pardon to a Malefactor upon second thoughts revoked it again saying That he would give no pardon where the Law did not pardon For that it was a work of mercy and charity to punish an offendor and not to punish crimes was as much as to commit them A certaine husbandman coming to Robert Grosthead Bishop of Lincolne challenged kindred of him and thereupon desired him to preferre him to such an office Cousen quoth the Bishop if your cart be broken I will mend it If your plâ—ugh be old I will give you a new one or seed to sowe your land But an husbandman I found you and an husbandman I will leave you Domitius the Emperour used to say that he had rather seem cruel in punishing then to be dissolute in sparing It was said of Chilperick King of France that he was Titularis non Tutelaris Rex Defuit Reipublicae non praefuit Cambyses King of Persia dying without issue his Nobles agreed that his horse that should first neigh at the place where they appointed to meet the next morning he should be their King Whereupon Ocbares Gentleman of the horse to Darius led his horse over-night to that place and let him there cover a Mare and the next morning when they were all met Darius his horse knowing the place and missing the Mare neighed and so Darius was presently saluted for King Herod l. 5. St. Bernards counsel to Eugenius was that he should so rule the people as that they might prosper and grow rich under him and not he be wealthy by the people It was observed of Varus Governour of Syria that he came poore into the Countrey and found it rich but departed thence rich and left the Countrey poore Ptolomaeus Lagi though a great King yet never had but little of his own and his usual saying was That it was fit for a King rather to make others rich then to be rich himselfe Plut. Tiberius Caesar being solicited by the Governours of his Provinces to lay greater taxes and subsidies upon his people answered That a good shepherd ought to sheare his sheep not flay them St. Lewis King of France on his death-bed advised his sonne never to lay any taxe upon his subjects but when necessity urged him and when there was just cause for it Otherwise saith he you will not be reputed for a King but a Tyrant The Emperour Theodosius was wont to say That he accounted it a greater honour to be a member
18. 7 12. Without it repentance is not accepted Num. 5. 6 7. Scriptural examples Josephs brethren Gen. 43. 12. 44. 8. Micha Iugdes 17. 3. David 2 Sam. 9. 7. Benhadad 1 King 20. 34. Jehoram 2 King 8 6. Iewish Nobles Neh. 5. 12. Cyrus Ezra 1. 7 8. Darius Ezra 6. 5. Judas Mat. 27. 3. Samuel proffered it 1 Sam. 12. 3. Zacheus Luk. 19. 8. King of Israel 2 King 8. 6. Examples of restitution When Selymus the great Turke lay upon his death-bed being moved by Pyrrhus his great Bashaw to bestow that abundance of wealth which he had taken wrongfully from the Persian Merchants upon some notable Hospitall for relief of the poore he commanded it rather to be restored to the right owners which was forthwith effected Turk Hist. p. 561. King Henry the third of England who was a great oppressor of his Subjects in their liberties and estates having upon a time sent a load of Freese to the Friars Minors to clothe them they returned back the same with this message That he ought not to give almes of that that he had rent from the poor neither would they accept of that abominable gift Dan. Chron. Pliny an Heathen tells us that the poore are not to be fed like the Whelps of wilde beasts with blood and murther rapine and spoile but that which is most acceptable to the receivers they should know that that which is given unto them is not taken from any body else In Cant. Ser. 71. Bernard saith that God receives not any Almes at the hands of an oppressor or Usurer In Ca. Ezek. 18. Hierome saith that no man should turne bread gotten by oppression and usury into a work of mercy Augustine saith that when God shall judge those that live now by fraud and give almes of the spoiles of the oppressed he will say unto them You tell me what you have given but you tell me not what you have taken away You recount whom you have fed but remember not whom you have undone They rejoyce whom you have clothed but they lament whom you have spoiled Tom. 10. Hom. 47. Augustine in another place saith Non remittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum Sinne is not forgiven till the thing taken away be restored Quest. Is restitution so absolutely necessary Answ. Yea quoad affectum though not quoad effectum If we are not able If there be a willing minde it is accepted c. 2 Cor. 8. 12. God accepts of that quod quisquam verè voluit tametsi adimplere non valuit which a man faithfully would do though he cannot CHAP. L. Law Law-givers MOses was the Law-giver to the Israelites Num. 21. 18. Deut. 33. 21. Amongst the Lacedemonians Law-suites were not heard of because amongst them there was neither covetousnesse nor poverty but equality with abundance and a quiet life with sobriety Plut. Lycurgus was the Law-giver to the Lacedemonians and to gaine more credit to his Lawes he went to Delphos to the Oracle of Apollo to consult therewith about the successe of his enterprize Plut. He would have none of his Lawes written but commanded parents by the virtuous education of their children and youth to implant them in their hearts and lives Plut. When by experience he saw his Lawes well approved of and the Common-wealth to flourish under them he had a great desire to make them immortal for which end he assembled all the people together and told them that he thought his civil Policy was already sufficiently established to make them happy yet one thing of the greatest importance was still behinde which he could not reveale till he had first consulted with the Oracle of Apollo and in the meane time he desired them to observe his Laws inviolably without altering any thing untill his returne this they all promised him faithfully yet for the greater security he took an oath of the Kings Senators and all the people to make good their promise to him and so went to Delphos where he sacrificed to Apollo and asked him if his Lawes were sufficient to make a people happy the Oracle answered that they were and that his Citizens observing them should be the most renowned in all the world This answer Lycurgus wrote and sent to Sparta and then taking his leave of his sonne and friends he pined himself tò death commanding his friends to burne his body and to throw his ashes into the sea lest any part of him being carried into Sparta his Citizens should say that he was returned again and so think themselves absolved from their oath According to his expectation whilest Lacedemon observed his Lawes it flourished in wonderful prosperity and honour for five hundred yeeres together till King Agis his time in whose reigne gold and silver began to be in request and so pride covetousnesse and curiosity crept in which by degrees wrought their ruine Plut. Numa Pompilius the first Law-giver amongst the Romanes gave out that he conversed in the woods with the goodesse Egeria that so he might procure the greater esteeme to himself and to the Lawes which he enacted Plut. Solon the Law-giver to the Athenians collecting and writing down many excellent Lawes Anacharsis a very wise man laughed at him saying Thinkest thou by written Lawes to bridle the covetousnesse and injustice of men Knowest thou not that Lawes are like cobwebs that catch little flies but the rich and mighty will break through them at their pleasure Plut. Draco that first gave Lawes to the Athenians punished idlenesse and almost all offences with death whence his Lawes were said to be written in blood But when Solon reformed them he made them more milde and moderate Plut. CHAP. LI. Tyrants Tyranny THey shall not live out half their dayes Ps. 55. 25. Forbidden Lev. 25. 43 46 53. Scriptural Examples Adonibezeck Jud. 1. Abimelech Jud. 9. Athaliah 2 King 11. Jezebel 1 King 21. Manahem 2 King 15. Saul 1 Sam. 22. Ahaz 2 King 17. Manasseh 2 Chron. 22. Nebuchadnezzar Jer. 39. Herod Mat. 2. Pharaoh Exod. 1. Ishmael Ier. 41. Pilate Luk. 13. 1. See in Reproofe the examples of Cambyses Darius going to warre against the Scythians would take along with him the three sons of Deobaces one of his Noble men that was very old whereupon Deobaces requested him to leave one of his sonnes at home to be a solace to his old age Yea said Darius I will leave them all three and so he caused them to be all slaine and thrown into their fathers presence Pez Mel Hist. The Lacedemonians having in divers battels by sea and land overthrown the Athenians they at last set thirty Tyrants over them which exercised extreme cruelty towards them The honest Citizens whom they either feared or hated or that excelled in wealth they either banished or slew them and Teized upon their estates Whereupon one of them somewhat better then the rest called Theramenes spake against this cruelty which caused another called Critias to accuse him of treason and so to
them for succour they sent some to meet him to charge him that he should not come neere their coasts for that they had made a decree that no King should come into Athens Plut. Justin. Caius Caligula the Romane Emperour was of such an inconstant nature that none knew how to carry themselves towards him Sometimes he delighted in multitude of society other sometimes in solitarinesse Sometimes he used to be angry when any thing was begged of him other times because nothing Many wicked men he suffered to go unpunished when in the meane time he was extreme cruel to the good and innocent To his enemies he would be merciful and to his friends inexorable c. Sueto Ratholdus Captaine of the Frisons being converted to the knowledge of the truth by the Ministery of Wolfranius Bistop of Seanes was contented to be baptized by him But when he had one foot in the Font He asked the Bishop where his ancestors were whether in heaven or hell the Bishop answered that no doubt they were in hell for that none of them had the knowledge of Christ Hereupon Wolfranius pulled his foot out of the Font saying I also will then go to hell where my predecessors are choosing rather to be in that place where are most then where are fewest Fulgos. Tertullian who had been famous both for his life and learning and had written many things excellently in defence of the truth At the last being disgraced by some of the Romane Clergy took such offence at it that he forsook the truth and imbraced the Heresie of Montanus and wrote against the truth See his life in my first Part. See the example of Pendleton in my English Martyrology And of Doctor Perne Pausanias King of the Lacedemonians fought many succesful battels in Asia against Xerxes yet at last through inconstancy degenerated into the Asian luxury and proffered to deliver up the government of Sparta into Xerxes his hands if he would give him his daughter in marriage Val. Max. M. Otho the Emperour in his younger dayes was given to all manner of loosenesse and licentiousnesse But when he was made Governour of Lusitania he ruled it with admirable justice which made all men to wonder at him But afterwards being chosen Emperour he returned to his former debauchery yet before his death reformed it again Fulgos. Seneca that wrote so excellently in the commendation of moral virtues yet himself allowed his Scholar Nero to commit incest with his own mother Agrippina And when he wrote against Tyranny himselfe was Schoolmaster to a Tyrant And when he reproved others for frequenting the Emperours Court himself was scarce ever out of it And when he reproached flatterers himself practised it in a shameful manner towards the Queens and Freedmen whilst he inveighed against riches and rich men he heaped together infinite riches by usury and unjust dealings And whilst he condemned Luxury in others himself had five hundred costly chaires made of Cedar their feet of Ivory and all other things answerable Xiphil in vita Neromis CHAP. LIX Examples of such as have been hard Students SOcrates used to stand many times plodding upon points of Philosophy in the same posture of body for divers houres together being all that while unsensible of any thing that was done about him Chrysippus was sometimes so transported at his study that he had perished with hunger if his maide had not thrust meat into his mouth Alphonsus King of Spaine and Naples was wont to bewaile the case of Kings for that hearing with other mens eares they could seldome heare the truth and therefore he held himselfe happy in his Muti Magistri his Books especially his Bible which he read over fourteen times with Lyra's and other mens notes upon the Text. Archimedes a famous Mathematician of Syracuse in the Isle of Sicily when the City was besieged by the Romanes by his rare Engins annoyed the Romanes more then all the men in the City yet at last through treachery the Romanes entred and Archimedes being drawing Mathematical Figures in his study heard not the noise yea his study was broken open by a rude souldier yet he heeded it not so that the souldier thinking that he slighted him ran him through with his sword This Archimedes was he that said If you would give him a place whereon to fix it he could make an Engin that would remove the whole earth Theodosius the Emperour wrote out the whole New Testament with his own hand accounted it a great Jewell and read part of it every day Henry the first King of England was bread up in learning and such a prizer of it that he often said that he esteemed an unlearned King but as a crowned Asse Speed Themistocles from his child-hood much affected learning and was so studious that when his fellows were at play he would never be idle but was alwayes either making or conning Orations either to defend or accuse some of his companions which his Master observing used to say That he was borne either to do some great good or some extreme mischief to the Common-wealth Plut. Alexander the Great was by his father Philip placed under Aristotle to be brought up in learning who carefully instructed him in most of the liberal sciences in the study whereof Alexander took such delight that he used to say that he had rather have knowledge then to excell in power He so prized Homers Iliads that during all his Wars he alwayes carried it in his pocket and laid it under his pillow anights He loved his Master Aristotle as if he had been his father and used to say that as we have our being from our Parents so we have our well being from our School-masters Just. Q. Curtius Solon a very wise man and great Scholar amongst the Athenians used to say I grow old learning still Plut. Vespasian the Romane Emperour was a great friend to learning and learned men giving them large pensions out of his Exchequer besides other favours and notable rewards â—mp Hist. Nicostratus the Athenian Painrer standing with admiration whilst he beheld the picture of Helena drawn by Zeuxis one asked him the cause of his wondring To whom he answered Friend if you had mine eyes you would not have asked me this question but rather have admired it as I do Plin. Endymion was so affected with the study of Astronomy that he spent whole nights upon rocks and mountaines in contemplating the motions of the stars whence the Poets feigned that the Moon was in love with c. Atlas the Lybian was so delighted with observing the motions of the heavens that leaving the society of men he went and lived upon the highest mountaine of Affrica whence that mountaine was called by his name and for his singular knowledge in Astronomy the Poets feigned that he bore up the heavens with his shoulders The Indian Gymnosophists used to stand upon the hot sands from the rising to the setting of the Sunne sometimes upon one leg
past I denied it to your Father and therefore it would not be just to grant that to the son which I refused to the father Imp. Hist. Apollonius being asked as to entrap him what he thought of Nero's singing fearlesly answered the bloody Tigellinus Nero's favourite I think said he far better then you for you repute him worthy to sing but I to hold his peace And so truly it was for his voice was but weak and hollow and therefore to help it he used to lie on his back with a leaden plate on his breast and to fast certain daies in every moneth with nothing but oyl Plinie At the Battel of Newport the Prince of Orange having the Spanish Army before him and the Sea behind him spake thus to his Souldiers If you will live you must either eat up these Spaniards or drink up this Sea When Luther first appeared against the Pope Albertus Crantzius a Bishop that approved of his project but thought it impossible to be brought to passe wrote thus unto him Frater Frater Abi in Cellam dic Miserere mei Deus Frier Frier go into thy Cloister and follow thy beads This businesse is too hard for thee to undertake When amongst many Articles exhibited to our King Henry the 7th by the Irish against the Earl of Kildare the last was Finally all Ireland cannot rule this Earl Then quoth the King this Earl shall rule all Ireland and so made him Deputy thereof Camb. Remaines p. 271. King John of England being perswaded by one of his Courtiers to untomb the bones of one who whilest he lived had been his great enemy O no quoth the King would to God that all mine enemies were as honourably buried A little before the Spanish Invasion in eighty eight the Spanish Ambassadour after a large recital of his Masters demands to Queen Elizabeth summed up the effect of it in this Tetrastich Te veto ne pergas bello defendere Belgas Quae Dracus eripuit nunc restituantur oportet Quas Pater evertit jubeo te Condere cellas Religio Papae fac restituatur ad unguem i. e. These to you are our Commands Send no help to th'Netherlands Of the Treasure took by Drake Restitution you must make And those Abbies build anew Which your fathers overthrew If for any Peace you hope In all points restore the Pope The Queen smiling at these demands returned this sudden answer Ad Graecas bone Rex fient mandata Calendas Worthy King know this your will At latter Lammas wee 'l fulfill See her Life in my second Part. John Duke of Bedford being entombed in the chief Church of Roan afterwards a foolish Courtier perswaded Charles the eighth King of France to deface his Monument to whom the King answered God defend that I should wrong him dead whom whilest he was living all the force of France could not resist Queen Elizabeth coming into a Free-School had an Oration made to her by one of the boyes whom afterwards she jestingly asked How often his Master had whipped him To whom he readily and wittily answered with the words of AEneas to Queen Dido Infandum Regina jubes renovare dolorem At another time having an Oration made to her by a poor boy she understanding his quality said merrily to him Pauper ubique jacet But the boy as confidently and wittily answered In thalamis regina tuis hac nocte jacerem Si verum hoc esset Pauper ubique jacet CHAP. LXXXIII Poverty Poor NOt to be oppressed Exod. 22. 25. Deut. 24. 14. Prov. 22. 16 22. 28. 3 15. 14. 31. 30. 14. Eccles. 5. 8. Isa. 3. 14 15. 10. 2. 11. 4 32. 7. 58. 7. Jer. 2. 32. Ezek. 18. 12. Amos 2. 6. 4. 1. Job 31. 16 c. Psal. 10. 2 c. 12. 5. To be relieved Exod. 23. 11. Lev. 19. 20. 23. 22. 25. 25 35 c. Deut. 15. 7 c. 24. 12. Job 30. 25. Prov. 14. 21. 22. 9. 28. 27. 31. 20. Dan. 4. 27. Mar. 14. 7. Matth. 19. 21. Rom. 15. 26. Gal. 2. 10. Luk. 19. 8. 2 Cor. 9. 9. What brings Poverty Prov. 6. 11. 11. 24. 13. 18. 20. 13. 23. 21. 24. 34. 28. 19 22. Alexander the Great having taken the Kingdome of Sidon gave it to Hephaestion to dispose of it to whom he pleased Hephaestion to shew his gratitude proffered it to his host with whom he quartered but he not being of the Kingly family refused it saying It is not our Countrey fashion that any one should be King but such as are of the King's line and such an one saith he lives hard by a good and a wise man but very poor and one that lives by his hard labour then Hephaestion taking Kingly apparrel with him went to this poor man and saluted him King bidding him wash off his dirt and put off his rags and put on that Kingly apparel the poor mans name was Abdolonimus who thought he had been in a dream but being by the standers by washed and adorned Hephaestion led him into the Palace saying When thou sittest on thy Throne and hast power over the lives of all thy Subjects forget not thy former condition Alexander hearing of it sent for him and asked him with what patience he being of such a noble extraction could bear his former poverty To whom Abdolonimus answered I pray God that I may bear the Kingdome with the same mind for said he these hands provided for my necessity and as I had nothing so I wanted nothing Just. Cur. Diod. Sic. CHAP. LXXXIV Peace Peace makers GOd is the God of Peace Heb. 13. 20. Christ the Prince of Peace Isa. 9. 6. Gods Word the glad tydings of Peace Rom. 10 15. Isa. 52. 7. Gods children are Peace-makers Matth. 5. 9. the Angels singers of Peace Luk 2. 13. Good men are Counsellors of Peace Prov. 12. 20. Gods Kingdome the Kingdome of Peace Rom. 14. 17. Church-Officers Officers of Peace Isa. 60. 17. Hierusalem the City of Peace Psal. 122. 3 7. It 's to be sought after Heb. 14. 14. Rom. 14. 19. 1 Cor. 7. 15. Phil. 4. 7. Psal. 34. 14. Jer. 29. 7. Mar. 5. 50. Ephes. 4. 3. 1 Thess. 5. 13. We must pray for Peace Psal. 122. 6. No peace to the wicked Isa. 48. 22. Scriptural Examples Abraham for peace sake yielded to Lot Gen. 13. 8. Abimelech covenants with Isaac Gen. 26. 28 c. Joseph commands it to his Brethren Gen. 45. 24. Melchisedeck and Salomon were Kings of peace Jacob and his sons Gen. 34. 21. the Primitive Christians Act. 4. 32. David Psal. 120. 7. Numa Pompilius instituted the Priests called Feciales whose office was to preserve peace between the Romans and their neighbouring Nations and if any quarrels did arise they were to pacifie them by reason and not suffer them to come to violence till all hope of peace was past and if the Feciales did not consent
Earth-quake wherewith the people were so affrighted that many of them forsook their houses and some houses were so shaken that the Chimnies fell down In January Anno Christi 1648. there was seen a great fiery meteor in the air near Bristow on the South-side of the City for divers nights together in form long with fiery streames shooting out East and West which was the week before the beheading of the late King eye-witnesse Also the day before he was beheaded a great Whale ran himself on shore three miles from Dover where he died He was 66 foot long A thing rarely seen in this Island November the 30th Anno Christi 1650. being St. Andrews day a little before or about Sun-rising the skie opened in a fearful manner in the Southwest over Standish a Town five miles from Gloucester and there appeared a terrible fearful fiery shaking sword with the hilt upwards towards the heavens the point downwards towards the earth the hilt seemed to be blue the Sword was of a great length shaking hither and thither and comming lower towards the earth There was a long flame of fire towards the point sparkling and flaming in a fearful manner to the great astonishment of the Spectators who were many At last the heaven closing the Sword vanished and the fire fell to the earth and ran upon the ground This I had from an eye-witnesse In June Anno Christi 1653. a black cloud was seen over the Town of Pool which a while after was dissolved into a showr of blood that fell warm upon mens hands some green leaves with those drops of blood upon them were sent up to London A little before the Civil broiles between the houses of York and Lancaster wherewith England for a long time was rent in pieces the River Ouse in Bedfordshire stood still and by reason that the waters gave back on both sides men might passe on foot in the very chanel for three miles together not without the astonishment of all that saw it who took it as a presage of the divisions ensuing Camb. Brit. p. 399. Not long before the contention between Galba Otho and Vitellius about the Roman Empire there appeared three Suns as it were pointing out that tripatite contention for the Imperial Diadem April the 7th Anno Christi 1233. there appeared here in England four Suns besides the natural Sun and presently afrer fell out the great contention between our King Henry the third and his Barons and the year after England was wasted with fire snd sword from Wales to Salisbury there ensued also a great drought and Pestilence Stow. Anno Christi 1460. three Suns appeared the very day before the three Earles viz. Edward Earl of March with the Earl of Pembrook and the Earl of Wiltshire fought that great battel in Wales at Mortimer's Crosse where the Earl of March put the other two to flight and slew many of their men Idem Anno Christi 1233. a little before the Warres brake forth between King Henry the third and his Barons there appeared in April in Hereford and VVorcestershire five Suns at once and a certain great circle of a Crystal colour of about two foot in breadth as it were compassing all England Matth. Paris CHAP. XCI Remuneration Retaliation Requital COmmanded sometime by God Gen 9. 6. Exod. 21. 23 c. Lev. 24. 19 c. Matth. 5. 38. Psal. 137. 8. Jer. 50. 15. Rev. 18. 6. Thus God threatens to the enemies of his Church Jer. 30. 16. 48. 26 27. 49. 2. Rev. 13. 10. Jer. 51. 49. Ezek. 35. 5 6. 39. 30. Hab. 2. 8. Joel 3. 6 7 8. 1 Thess. 1. 6. To those that sin in his Church Pit for pit Psal. 7. 15 16. Idolatry for Idolatry Jer. 5. 19. Spoil for spoil Isa. 33. 1. Prov 22. 23. Treachery for treachery Isa. 33. 1. Harlots hire for harlots hire Mich. 1. 7. Not to hear shall not be heard Prov. 1. 28. Zach. 7. 13. Altars for sin with Altars to sin Hos. 8. 11. they that judge shall be judged Matth. 7. 2. Scriptural Examples Pharaoh drowned others and was drowned himself Exod. 1. 22. with 14. 27. 30. Abimelech and the Sechemites Judg. 9. 24 56 57. Adonibezek Judg. 1. 7. Levites Concubine Judg. 19. 2 25. Ahab and Jesabel 1 King 21. 19. with 22. 34 38. 18. 13. 22. 23. 2 King 9. 33 36 37. Kings which were traytors and slew others were slain themselves 2 King 15. 10 14 23 25 30. Agag 1 Sam. 15. 33. Joab 1 King 2. 32. Daniel's enemies Dan. 6. 7 12 15 24. Other Examples Orodes King of Parthia who had overcome and slain Crassus the Roman Consul in his old age fell desperately sick for grief at the losse of his son Pacones slain by Venticius yet his younger son Phraates had not patience to expect his death but gave him poison to accelerate it But behold Gods providence the poison proving a strong purge wrought out not onely it self but the disease too so that Orodes recovered beyond expectation which Phraates seeing strangled him and to settle him the surer in his Kingdome obtained by Parricide he entred into league with the Romans sending back the Ensigns of Crassus and other Presents the Romans to requite him sent him great gifts and amongst the rest a beautiful Italian strumpet by whom he had a son which being grown up by the advice and help of his mother poisoned his father to get his Crown Tulit quae meruit et quae docuit Lipsius Mithridates King of Pontus to get the Crown slew his mother brother and her three sons and as many daughters but in his old age his own son Phanacus slow him for the same cause Lipsius Ptolemaeus one of Alexander's Successours expelling Antigonus seizeth upon Macedonia makes peace with Antiochus enters into league and affinity with Pyrrhus now all things were sure but onelyfor his sister Arsinoe and her sons who had been married to Lysimachus King of Macedonia therefore intending to entrap her he sent Ambassadours to her pretending love promising to marry her to make her partner with him in the Kingdom and her sons his heires protesting that he took up armes for no other end proffering to swear upon the holy Altars when and where she pleased that all this was in good faith The poor Lady deceived hereby sent some of her friends to take his oath before whom he went into the most ancient Temple and there touching the gods and the Altar swears That he sincerely purposed to marry her to make her his Queen and her children his heires otherwise he prayes for vengeance upon himself c. Upon this Arsinoe comes to him is married and crowned Queen of Macedonia then she delivers up to him Cassandrea a most strong City where her children and all her treasures were he having now his desire sends men that slew her children in their mothers lap and drave her into exile but God suffered not this wickednesse to go long unrevenged