the Bishop of Eureux his house which was accordingly executed This happened in the yeare 1453. In the raigne of the same King 1457 there was a certaine Curate of a village neere to Soissons who to revenge himselfe of a Farmer that retained from him the tenths which were appointed to the Knights of the Rhodes went to a Witch of whom he received in gift a fat toad in an earthen pot which she had a long while fed and brought up which she commanded him to baptise as he also did and called it by the name of Iohn albeit I tremble to recite so monstrous and vile a fact yet that every man might see how deadly besotted those sort of people are that give themselves over to Satan and with what power of errour he overwhelmeth them and beside how full of malice this uncleane spirit is that as it were in despight of God would prophane the holy Sacrament of Baptisme This good holy Curate after he had consecrated the holy host gave it also to the toade to eat and afterward restored it to the Witch again who killing the toade and cutting it in pieces with other such like sorceries caused a young wench to carry it secretly into the Farmers house and to put it under the table as they were at dinner whereupon immediately the Farmer and his children that were at the table fell suddenly sicke and three dayes after died the Witch her selfe being detected was burned but the Curate suffered onely a little imprisonment in the Bishop of Paris house and that not long for what with friendship and money he was soone delivered Froissard who was Treasurer and Canon of Chymay reporteth of another Curate in the countrey of Beare under Charles the seventh that had a familiar spirit which hee called Orthon whose helpe hee used to the disturbance of the Lord of Corosse by causing a terrible noise to bee heard every night by him and his servants in his castle because the said Lord withheld his tythes from him and converted them to his owne use In the yiare 1530 at Nuremburg a certaine Priest studied Art Magick and being very covetous of gold and silver the Devill whom hee served shed him through a Chrystall certaine treasures hidden in the city he by and by greedy of this rich prey went to that part of the city where hee supposed it to have lien buried and being arrived at the place with a companion whom he brought to this pretty pastime fell a searching and digging up a hollow pit untill he perceived a coffer that lay in the bottome of the hole with a great blacke dog lying by it whither he was no sooner entred but the earth fell downe and filled up the hole and smothered and crushed him to death So this poore Priest was entrapped and rewarded by his master no otherwise than he deserved but otherwise than he expected or looked for Howbeit they are not onely simple Priests and Friers that deale with these cursed Arts but even Popes themselves Silvester the second as Platina and others report was first a conjuring Frier and gave himselfe to the Devill upon condition he might be Pope as he was indeed and having obtained his purpose as it seemed he began earnestly to desire to know the day wherein he should die which also his Schoolmaster the Devill revealed unto him but under such doubtfull tearmes that he dreamed in his foolish conceit of immortality and that he should never die It chanced on a time as he was singing Masse at Rome in a Temple called Ierusalem which was the place assigned him to die in and not Ierusalem in Palestina as he made himselfe falsly to beleeve he heard a great noise of Devils that came to fetch him away note that this was done in Masse while whereat he being terrified and tormented and seeing himselfe not able any way to escape hee desired his people to rend his body in pieces after his death and lay it upon a charriot and let horses draw it whither they would which was accordingly performed for as soone as he was dead the pieces of his carkasse were carried out of the Church of Laterane by the wicked spirit who as he ruled him in life so he was the chiefe in his death and funerals By like means came Benedict the ninth to the Popedome for he was a detestable Magitian and in the ten yeares wherein he was Pope having committed infinite villanies and mischiefs was at last by his familiar friend the Devill strangled to death in a forrest whither he went to apply himselfe the more quieter to his conjurings Gregory the sixth scholler to Silvester as great a conjurer as his master wrought much misery in his time but was at last banished Rome and ended his life in misery in Germany Iohn the two and twentieth being of no better disposition than these we have spoken of but following judiciall astrology sed himselfe with a vain hope of long life whereof he vaunted himselfe among his familiars one day above the rest at Viterbum in a chamber which he had lately builded saying that he should live a great while he was assured of it presently the floore brake suddenly in pieces and he was found seven daies after crushed to pieces under the ruines thereof All this notwithstanding yet other Popes ceased not to suffer themselves to be infected with this execrable poison as Hildebrand who was called Gregory the seventh and Alexander the sixth of which kinde we shall see a whole legend in the next booke Doe but marke these holy Fathers how abhominable they were to be in such sort given over to Satan Cornelius Agrippa a great Student in this cursed Art and a man famous both by his owne works and others report for his Necromancy went alwaies accompanied with an evill spirit in the similitude of a blacke dogge but when his time of death drew neer and he was urged to repentance hee tooke off the inchanted collar from the dogs neck and sent him away with these termes Get thee hence thou cursed beast which hast utterly destroyed mee Neither was the dog ever after seen some say he lept into Araris and never came out againe Agrippa himselfe died at Lyons in a base and beggarly Inne Zeroastres King of Bactria is notified to have bin the inventer of Astrology and Magicke But the Devill whose ministry he used when he was too importunate with him burned him to death Charles the seventh of France put Egedius de Raxaâ— Marshall of his Kingdome to a cruell and filthy death because he practised this Art and in the same had murthered an hundred and twenty teeming women and yong infants he caused him to be hanged upon a forke by a hot fire and roasted to death Bladud the sonne of Lud King of Britaine now called England in the yeare of the World 3100 hee that builded the city of Bath as our late Histories witnesse and also
of money and sets up a shop at Roane Now this Merchant being expected at Luca a whole yeare together whither he had sent word he would shortly repaire when he came not a messenger was dispatched to seeke him out and after much enquiry at London and Roan and elsewhere he learnt at last in an Inne that a Lucquois Merchant about sixe moneths before had lodged there and was gone to Paris where also not hearing any tydings of him he suspected that he was murthered made his complaint to the Court of Parliament at Roan Which imbracing this businesse being directed by Gods providence made enquiry up and downe the Towne Whether there were any that within seven or eight moneths had set up a new shop and finding one caused him to be arrested for a supposed and a pretended debt but in the end examined him upon this murther and laid it to his charge herewith the prisoner solicited partly bythe remorse of his conscience partly by hope of freeing himselfe by a bribe confessed the fact in private to the Justice but as soone as he perceived that he went about to call in witnesses to his confession hee denyed it againe in briefe the new Merchant is committed to prison and he sueth the Justice for forgerie and false imprisonment the Justice can by no meanes cleare himselfe but onely by the assurance that all men had of his honesty The matter hangs thus in suspence till at length the dead carkasse of the Lucquois was â—eard of and the blind man also came to light who heard the noyse of the murther to make short this blind man was brought to confront the prisoner and twenty men were caused to speake one after another and still the blinde man was demaunded whether hee knew their voices and said That that was the man that answered him on the mountaine This course being ofttimes re-iterated the blind man hit alwayes on the right and never missed Whereupon the Court condemned him to death and before he dyed he confessed the fact to the great glory of Gods Justice and the great amazement and strange astonishment of all men At Paris in the yeare of our Lord 1551 a certaine young woman was brained by a man with a hammer neere unto Saint Opportunes Church as she was going to midnight Masse and all her rings and jewels taken from her This hammer was stolne from a poore Smith there by the same evening who therefore being suspected of the murder was cruelly handled and put to extraordinary torture by reason of the vehement presumptions made against him in such sort that hee was quite lamed and deprived of the meanes to get his living whereby being reduced into extreame poverty he ended his life in great misery All this while the murderer remained unknowne almost for the space of twenty yeares and the memory of the murder seemed to be buried with the poore woman in her grave now marke the justice of God who hath promised that nothing shall be so hid but shall be brought to light It hapned that one Iohn Flaming Sergeant of the Subsidies at Paris being upon occasion of businesse at S. Leups a Village by Montmorency chanced among other talke at Supper to say how he had left his wife at home sicke and no body with her but a little boy there was an old man then present named Monstier and a sonne in law of his who immediatly upon this speech went away that night with each of them a basket of cherries and a greene goose and came about ten of the clock the next morning to Flamings house where they intended to murder both the woman and the boy and to possesse themselves of all the goods that they could conveniently carrie away but the Lord prevented them of their purpose for being let in at the dores by the boy pretending that they came from the husband with thâ—se remembrances to his wife they presently slew the boy thinking also to surprise the woman but she hearing the cry of the boy lockt fast her chamber dore and cried for helpe out at her window whereupon the neighbors running to the house tooke these two villaines one hidden in the funnell of the Chimney and the other in a Well in the Cellar with nothing but his nose above water Now these two wretches being thus apprehended arraigned and condemned being on the seaffold at the place of execution the old man desired to speake with the Smithes widow whose husband was suspected for the first murder of whom when she came hee asked forgivenesse saying that it was he which had killed the young woman by S. Opportunes Church Thus the Lord discovered both the innocency of the Smith and the guiltinesse of this vile murderer and that twenty yeeres after the fact was committed Not long since the like discovery of a murderer was made here in England in Leicestershire not farre from Lutterworth almost twenty yeeres after the fact committed The murder was committed by a Miller upon one in his Mill whom he buried in the ground hard by This Miller removed unto another countrey and there dwelt a long space untill at last guided by Gods Almighty providence to the manifestation of his justice he returned unto that place to visit some of his friends Now in the meane time whilest he was there the Miller that now possessed the former Mill had occasion to dig deepe into the ground where he found the carkasse of a dead man presently it was suspected that some had beene murdered and was there buried whereupon the Lord put it into their hearts to remember how about twenty yeares before a certaine neighbour of theirs was suddenly missed and could never be heard of insomuch that all supposed him to have beene dead in some strange countrey this carkasse they suspected to be his and bethinking themselves who was then Miller of that Mill behold he was there ready in the towne not having been there for many yeares before This man was suspected nd thereupon examined and without much adoe confessed the fact and received deserved punishment Who seeth not here manifest traces and footsteps of Gods providence First in reducing the murderer to that place at that time Secondly in stirring up the Miller to digge at the same time also thirdly in putting into the hearts of the people the missing of such a man whose memory was almost forgotten and lastly in causing the murderer to confesse his deed when as no proofe nor witnesse could be brought against him but here is the justice of God against all such Vengeance will not suffer the murderer to live Henry Ranzovius Lieutenant for the King of Denmarke in the Duchie of Holsace makes relation in a letter of his of an ordinary meanes of finding out Murderers practised in the kingdome of Denmark by King Christiernus the second and permitted over all his Kingdome the occasion whereof he saith was this Certaine Gentlemen being on an evening together in a
of ours though after a corrupt and sacrilegious forme and that the Jew did not so much aime at their religion as at Christ the subject of it the Lord might shew a miracle not to establish their errour but to confound the Jews impiety especially in those young yeares of the Church In our English Chronicles are recorded many histories of the malitious practises of the Jews against Christians in hatred of Christ Jesus our Saviour whom they in contempt call our crucified God and especially this devillish practise was most frequent amongst them here in England as in Germany France and other places where they were suffered to inhabite namely every year to steale some Christian manâ— childe from the parents and on good Friday to crucifie him in despight of Christ and Christian religion Thus they served a childe at Lincolne named Hugo of nine years of age in the yeare 1255 in the reigne of Henry the third and another at Norwich about the same time having first circumcised him and detained him a whole yeare in custody In which two facts they were apprehended and at Lincolne thirty two of them put to death and at Norwich twenty But this was not all the punishment that they endured as they proceeded and increased in their malice against Christ and his religion so he proceeded in vengeance and indignation against them First therefore at the coronation of Richard the first whereas some of them presumed to enter into the Court-gate contrary to the Kings expresse commandement a great tumult arising thereupon a number of them were slaine and their houses fired in the City of London by the raging multitude and from thence the example spred into all other countries of the Land for they following the example of the Londoners havocked spoyled killed and fired as many Jewes as they could come by untill by the Kings Writs unto the Sheriffe of every County the tumult was appeased and some few of the principall authors and stirrers of this outrage punished And it is to bee noted that this yeare the Iewes held for their Iubilie but it turned to them a yeare of confusion Neither were they thus massacred onely by the Christians but they became butchers of themselves also For in the City of Yorke when as they had obtained the occupying of a certaine Castle for their preservation and afterward were not willing to restore it to the Christians againe and being ready to bee vanquished and offering much money for their lives when as that would not be accepted by the counsell of an old Jew among them every one with a sharpe rasor cut anothers throat whereby a thousand and five hundred of them were at that present destroyed At North-Hampton a number of them were burnt for enterprizing to fire the City with wilde-fire which they had prepared for that purposes besides many grievous impositions and taxes which were laid upon them At last by King Edward the first they were utterly banished this Realme of England in the yeare 1291 For which deed the Commons gave unto the King a Fifteen And about the same time also they were banished out of France for the like practices and still the wrath of God ceaseth not to punish them in all places wheresoever they inhabit But that their Impiety may bee yet more discovered I will here set downe the confession of one of their own Nation a Jew of Ratisbone converted to the Faith one very skilfull in the Hebrew tongue This man being asked many questions about their superstition and ceremonies answered very fitly and being demanded why they thirsted so after Christian mens bloud He said it was a mystery onely knowne to the Rabbines and highest persons but that this was their custome he knew when any of them was ready to dye a Rabbine anointed him with this bloud using these or such like words If hee that was promised in the Law and Prophets hath truly appeared and if this Iesus crucified bee the very Messias then let the bloud of this innocent man that diedin his Faith cleanse thee from thy sins and help thee to eternall life Nay Epiphanius affirmeth That the Jews of Tyberias did more confidently affirme it than thus for they would whisper into a dying mans eare Beleeve in Iesus of Nazareth whom our princes crucified for he shall come to judge thee in the latter day All which declareth how impious they are to goe against their owne conscience and upon how fickle ground all their Religion standeth CHAP. XII Of those that in our age have persecuted the Gospell in the person of the Faithfull AS the Religion of Christ hath beene hitherto cruelly crossed and besieged by the mightiest captaines of this world as hath been partly declared so it hath not been any better entertained by the Potentates of this age that ceased not to disturbe the quiet and pursue to death the lives of Gods children for their professions sake and to bring them utterly to ruine to addresse all the engines and subtilties of their malicious and wicked counsels without leaving any one device unthought of that their wit could imagine or their power afford they joyned craft with force and vile treason with horrible cruelty thereby to suppresse the truth and quench that faire and cleere light which God after long time of blindnesse and ignorance had caused of his infinite mercy to shine upon us There fires were kindled every where with the bones of Martyrs whilest for the space of forty yeares or thereabouts they never ceased to burne those that were followers of that way Now when they saw that all their butcheries and burnings were not able to consume this holy seed but that the more they went about to choake it the more it grew up and increased they tooke another course and raised up troubles and seditions in all quarters as if by that means they should attaine the end of their purpose Hell vomited up all her Furies of warre the whole earth was in a tumult young and old with tooth and naile were imployed to root out the Church of Christ but God stretching forth his arme against all their practises shewed himselfe not only a Conqueror but also a most sharpe revenger of all his adversaries This is most apparent in that which happened to Thomas Arondel an English man Archbishop of Canterbury an enemy and persecutor of the Truth of Christ who having put to death divers holy and upright men thinking that all he did was gain was rooted out at last himselfe by a most strange and horrible death for he that sought to stop the mouth of God in his Ministers and to hinder the passage of the Gospell had his owne tongue so swolne that it stopped his owne mouth that before his death hee could neither swallow nor speake and so through famine died in great despaire Foelix Farle of Wartemberg one of the Captaines of the Emperour Charles the fifth being at supper at Ausburg with many of
not hope for salvation or remission of his sins because that of meer malice he had resisted and made war with God Cardinall Poole an Englishman had also somtimes professed himselfe to be well seen in the sincerity of the Gospell yet contrary to his conscience he sent into his countrey the Trophies and Ensignes of Antichrist the Pope which before had been rased out and abolished the realme but he died two or three daies after Queene Mary in horrible griefes terrors and fearfulnesse without any shew of repentance Stephen Gaediner Bishop of Winchester and after Chancellor of England shewed in his young yeares some forwardnesse to withstand the Popish abuses and superstitions but as soone as he was exalted to honour he turned over a new lease and began freshly and furiously to afflict and to rend the poore faithfull servants of Christ putting them to the cruellest deaths he could devise And yet more to discover his prophanenesse and rebellion he wrote many books against the pure Religion of God and being thus swolne with venomous spight against the Sonne of God beside the extreame covetousnesse whoredomes and extortions which raigned in him behold the Lord layd his hand of wrath upon him and stroke him with so strange a malady that before his death such horrible stinke issued from him that none of his friends and servants no not himselfe could endure the savour thereof his belly was swolne like a taber his eyes distracted and sunke into his head his cheeks thin and the appearance of his whole face very terrible his breath savoured of a filthy and intolerable stinke and all his members were rotten with continuall griefes and swounings yet this vile wretch in the midst of all these torments ceased not to yell out continuall blasphemies and infamous speeches and so despighting and maugring God died Peter Castellon Bishop of Maston having attained to great riches and renowne by the means of the Gospell turned notwithstanding his backe to Christ and mightily inveyed in his sermons at Orleance against the profession of his Religion seeking to make it knowne that he had not onely abjured and denied it but also that hee was a profest adversary unto it This man sitting at a time in his chaite fell into a strange disease which no Physitian had ever seene or could search out the cause of for one halfe of his body was extreme hot and burned like fire the other extreame cold and frozen like Ice and in this torment with horrible cries and groanings he ended his life A gray Frier called Picard who once was not ashamed of the Gospell afterwards set himselfe to preach against that which he had professed and being in the pulpit at Orleance after infinite blasphemies which he had disgorged against the Truth at last said That he protested before God and the holy assembly that he would never preach more after that day because he was an Apostate which saying he by and by impudently and constantly denied to the perill and damnation of his owne soule thinking by his horrible cursings and forswearings to abuse the poore ignorant and superstitions people but he no sooner came into the field but the puissant hand of God over-reached him and stroke him speechlesse so that he was carried thence halfe dead and within short space died altogether without any appearance of repentance Among other Iudges which shewed themselves hot and rigorous in persecuting and proceeding against the faithfull prisoners of Valence in Daulphine and other Romanes at that season when two Ministers of the same city suffered Martyrdome one Lanbespin a Counsellor and Ponsenas the Kings Atturney at the Parliament of Grenoble both two having been professors in times past were not the backwardest in that action but God made them both strange examples of his wrath for Lanbespin falling in love with a young maid was so extremely passionate therein that he forewent his owne estate and all bounds of civill honesty to follow her up and down whithersoever she went and seeing his love and labour despised and set at nought he so pined away with very thought that making no reckoning of himselfe such a multitude of lice so fed upon him and tooke so good liking of their pasture that by no means he could be cleansed of them for they increased and issued out of every part of his body in such number as maggots are wont to engender in a dead and rotten carrion At length a little before his death seeing his owne misery and seeling Gods heavy vengeance upon him he began to despaire of all mercy and to the end to abridge his miserable dayes he resolved to hungerstarve himselfe to death Which purpose the lice furthered for they stucke so thicke in his throat as if they would have choaked him every moment neither could he suffer any sustenance to passe downe by reason of them They that were eye witnesses of this pittifull spectacle were wondrously moved with compassion and constrained him to eat whither he would or not And that they might make him take cullissâ—s and other stewed broaths because he refused and strove against them they bound his armes and put gagges into his mouth to keep it open whilest others poured in the food And in this wise being gagged he died like a mad beast with abundance of lice that went downe his throat insomuch that the very Papists themselves stucke not to say That as he caused the Ministers of Valence to have gagges thrust into their mouths and so put to death so likewise he himself died with a gagge in his mouth As touching Ponsenas commonly called Bourrel a very Butcher indeed of poore Christians after he had sold his owne patrimony and his wives and friends also to the end to buy out his office and had spent that which remained in house keeping hoping in short space to take up twise as much as he had scattered fell downe into a strange and unknowne disease and shortly grew in despaire of Gods succour and favour towards him by a strong remembrance of those of Valence and the other Romanes which he had put to death which would never depart out of his minde but still presented themselves before him so that as one bestraught of reason and sence he denied his Maker and called upon his destroyer the Devill with most horrible and bitter ensuings which when his Clearke perceived he layd out before him the mercies of God out of all places of the Scripture to comfort and restore his decayed sense But in stead of returning to God by repentance and prayer he continued obstinate and answered his Clerke whose name was Stephen in this wise Stephen Stephen thou art blacke So I am and it please you quoth he but I am neither Turke nor Moore nor Bohemian but a Gascoigne of red haire No no answered he not so but thou art blacke but it is with sinne That is true quoth he but I hope in the bountifull mercy of God that for the love
information of one Richard Master Parson of Aldington and Edward Bocking Doctor of Divinity a Monke of Canterbury and divers others counterfeited such manner of trances and distortions in her body with the uttering of divers counterfeit vertues and holy words tending to the rebuke of sinne and reproving such new opinions as there began to spread that shee woon great credit amongst the people and drew after her a multitude of favourites besides she would prophecy of things to come as that shee should be helped of her disease by none but the Image of our Lady in Aldington whither being brought she appeared to the people to be suddenly relieved from her sicknesse by meanes of which hypocriticall dissimulation she was brought into marvellous estimation not only with the common people but with divers great men also insomuch that a book was put in print touching her fained miracles and revelations Howbeit not content to delude the people she began also to meddle with the King himself Henry the eight saying That if he proceeded to be divorced from his wife Queene Katherine he should not remaine King one month after and in the reputation of God not one day for which and many other tricks practised by her she with her complices was arraigned of high treason and after confession of all her knavery drawn from the Tower to Tyburne and there hanged the holy maidens head being set upon London bridge and the other on certaine gates of the City The other named la Pucella de Dieu marvellously deluded with her counterfeit hypocrisie Charles the seventh King of France and all the whole French Nation in such sort that so much credit was attributed unto her that she was honoured as a Saint and thought to be sent of God to the aide of the French King By her meanes Orleance was woon from the English and many other exploits atchieved which to be short I will referre the Reader unto the French Chronicles where they shall finde her admirable knavery at large discovered But touching her end it was on this sort as she marched on horsebake to the towne of Champaigne to remove the siedge wherewith it was guirt by the Duke of Burgoine and other of the English Captaines Sir Iohn Leupembrough a Burgonian Knight tooke her alive and conveyed her to the City of Roan where she faigning her selfe with child when the contrary was knowne was condemned and burnt And thus these two holy women that in a diverse kind mocked the people of England and France by their hypocrisie by the justice of God came to deserved destructions CHAP. XXI Of Conjurers and Enchanters IF God by his first Commandement hath enjoyned every one of us to love serve and to cleave unto him alone in the conjuction and unity of a true faith and hope unremovable there is no doubt but he forbiddeth on the other side that which is contrary to this foresaid duty and herein especially that accursed familiarity which divers miserable wretches have with that lying Spirit the Father of errour by whose delusions and subtilty they busie themselves in the study of sorceries and enchantments whereupon it is forbidden the Israelites in the nineteenth of Leviticus to turne after familiar spirits or to seeke to Soothsayers to be defiled by them and the more to withdraw them from this damnable crime in the Chapter following there is a threat set downe against it in manner of a Commandement That if either man or woman have a spirit of divination or soothsaying in them they should dye the death they should stone them to death their bloud should be upon them so in the two and twentieth of Exodus the Law of God saith Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to live and Moses following the same steps giveth an expresse charge in the eighteenth of Deuteronomy against this sinne saying Let nonebe found among thee that useth witchcraft nor that regardeth the Clouds or times nor a Sorcerer or a Charmer or that counselleth with a Spirit or a teller of Fortunes or that asketh counsell of the dead for all that doe such things are abhomination unto the Lord. And therefore this sinne 1 Sam. ver 15. is reputed amongst the most hainous and enormous sinnes that can be When they shall say unto you saith the Prophet Enquire at them that have a Spirit of Divination and at the Soothsayer which whispers and murmures answer Should not a people enquire at their God from the living to the dead To the Law and to the Testimony Wherefore it was a commendable thing and worthy imitation when they that had received the Faith by Pauls preaching having used curious Arts as Magicke and such like being touched with the feare of God brought their bookes and burned them before all men although the price thereof amounted to fifty thousand pieces of silver which by Budeus his supputation ariseth to five thousand French Crownes The Councels as that of Carthage and that other of Constantinople kept the second time in the suburbs utterly condemned the practices of all Conjurers and Enchanters The twelve Tables in Rome adjudged to punishments those that bewitched the standing corne And for the Civill Law this kind is condemned both by the Law Iulia and Cornelia In like manner the wisest Emperours those I mean that attained to the honour of Christianity ordained divers Edicts and Prohibitions under very sharp and grievous punishments against all such villany as Constantine in the ninth book of the Cod. tit 18. enacted That whosoever should attempt any action by Art Magicke against the safety of any person or should bring in or stir up any man to make him fall into any mischiefe or riotous demeanour should suffer a grievous punishment in the fifth Law he forbiddeth every man to aske counsell at Witches or to use the helpe of Charmers and Sorcerers under the paine of death Let them saith he in the sixth Law be throwne to wild beasts to be devoured that by conjuring or the helpe of familiar spirits go about to kill either their enemies or any other Moreover in the seventh Law he willeth that not so much as his owne courtiers and servants if they were found faulty in this crime should be spared but severely punished yet neverthelesse many of this age gave themselves over to this filthy sinne without either feare of God or respect of Law some through a foolish and dangerous curiosity others through the overruling of their owne vile and wicked affections and a third sort troubled with the terrours of an evill conscience desire to know what shall besall and happen unto them in the end Thus Saul the first King of Israel being troubled in himselfe and terrified with the army of the Philistims that came against him would needs foreknow his owne fortune and the issue of this doubtfull warre Now whereas before whilest he performed the duty of a good King and obeyed the commandement of God hee had cleansed his Realme
and til the land Now what was the cause of this lamentable destruction of this holy City of the Temple and Sanctuary of the Lord and of his owne people it is set downe by the holy-Ghost in expresse word 2 Chro. 36. 15 16. That When the Lord sent unto them by his Messengers rising early and sending because he had compassion on them and on his habitation they mocked the Messengers of God despised his words and misused his Prophets and therefore the wrath of the Lord arose against his people and there was no remedy Behold here the grievous judgement of the Lord upon such as contemned his Word and despised his Prophets Thus was the first city and temple destroyed and did the second fare any better no verily but far worse for as their sinne was greater in that the former Iews contemned only the Word spoken by the Prophets which were but servants these despised the Word spoken by the Sonne himself which is the Lord of life so their punishment was also the greater for as the Apostle saith If they which despised Moses Law died without mercy how much sorer punishment are they worthy of which tread under foot the Sonne of God and count the bloud of the Testament as an unholy thing and neglect so great salvation which first began to be preached by the Lord himselfe and afterward was confirmed by them which heard him Therefore the destruction of the second city and temple by Titus and Vespasian Emperours of Rome was far more lamentable than that of the former yea so terrible and fearefull was the judgement of God upon that nation at this time that never the like calamitie and misery was heard or read of there at the siege of Ierusalem the famin was so great within the walls and the sword so terrible without that within they were constrained to eat not only leather and old shoo 's but horse-dung yea their owne excrements and some to devour their owne children and as many as issued out were crucified by the Romans as they had crucified the Saviour of the world till they had no more wood to naile them on So that it was most true which our Saviour foreprophesied That such should be the tribulation of that time as was not from the beginning of the world nor should be againe to the end At this destruction perished eleven hundred thousand Iewes as Historians report besides them which Vespasian slew in subduing the country of Galilee over and besides them also which were sould and sent into Aegypt and other provinces to vile slavery to the number of seventeene thousand two thousand were brought with Titus in triumph of which part he gave to be devoured of wilde beasts and part otherwise most cruelly were slaine By whose case all nations may take example what it is to reject the visitation of Gods verity being sent unto them and much more to persecute them which be sent of God for their salvation And here is diligently to be observed the great equity of this judgment they refused Christ to be their King and chose rather to be subject unto Caesar now they are by the said their owne Caesar destroyed when as Christs subjects the same time escaped the danger The like example of Gods wrathfull punishment is to be noted no lesse in the Romans also themselves for despising Christ and his Gospel for when Tiberius Nero the Emperor having received by letters from Pontius Pilat a true report of the doings of Christ Iesus of his miracles resurrection and ascention into heaven and how he was received as God of many good men was himselfe mooved with beleefe of the same and did confer thereof with the whole Senat of Rome to have Christ adored as God But they not agreeing thereunto refused him because that contrary to the law of the Romans he was consecrated said they for a God before the Senat of Rome had decreed and approved him Thus the vaine Senat which were contented with the Emperor to raign over them were not contented with the meeke King of glory the Sonne of God to be their King yea they contemned also the preaching of the two blessed Apostles Peter and Paul who were also most cruelly put to death in the later end of Domitius Nero his raigne and the yeare of Christ 69 for the testimony and saith of Christ. And therefore after much like sort to the Iews were they scourged and entrapped by the same way which they did prefer for as they preferred the Emperour and rejected Christ so did God stirre up their owne Emperours against them in such sort that both the Senators themselves were all devoured and the whole city most horribly afflicted the space almost of three hundred yeares together Neither were they only thus scourged by their Emperors but also by civill wars whereof three were sought in two yeares at Rome after Nero's death as likewise by other casualties for in Suetonius is testified five thousand were hurt and slaine by fall of a Theatre How heavy and searefull the judgement of God hath beene towards those seven famous Churches of Asia to the which the holy Ghost writeth his seven Epistles Revel 2 and 3. histories sufficiently testifie and experience sheweth for whereas in the Apostles time and long after in the dayes of persecution no Churches in the world more flourished after when they began to make light account of the word of God and to fall away from the truth to errors from godlinesse to impieties the Lord also made light account of them and removed his Candlesticke that is the ministery of his Gospell from amongst them and made them a prey unto their enemies and so they which before were subjects to Christ are now slaves to Mahomet and there where the true God was worshipped is now a filthy Idol adored and instead of the Gospel of Christ is the Turks Alcoran in stead of the seven stars and seven candlesticks are seven thousand priests of Mahomet and worshippers of him and thus for the contempt of the Gospel of Christ is the Chrurch of Christians made a cage of Divels Venerable Bede in his Ecclesticall history of England reporteth That about the yeare of our Lord 420 after that the Brittons had been long afflicted by the Irish Picts and Scots and that the Lord had given them rest from all their enemies and had blessed them with such great plenty of corn and fruits of the earth as had not been before heard of they fell into all manner of sins and vices and in stead of shewing themselves thankfull to the Lord for his great mercies provoked his indignation more fiercely against them for as he saith together with plenty grew ryot and this was accompanied with a train of many other foule enormities especially the hatred of the truth contempt of the Word and that not only in the Laity and ignorant people but even also in the Clergy and Sheepheards of the
King of England sonne of Geffrey Plantagenet and Maud the Empresse after he had raigned twenty yeares was content to admit his young sonne Henry married to Margaret the French Kings daughter into participation of his Crowne but he like an unnaturall son to requite his fathers love sought to dispossesse him of the whole for by inciting the King of France and certaine other Nobles hee tooke armes and raised warre against his owne naturall father betwixt whom divers strong battels being fought as well in England by the Deputies and friends of both parties as also in Normandy Poytou Guian and Britain the victory alwayes inclined to the father so that the rebellious son with his allies were constrained to bend to his fathers will and to desire peace which he gently granted and forgave his offence Howbeit the Lord for his disobedience did not so lightly pardon him but because his hasty mind could not tarry for the Crowne till his fathers death therefore the Lord cut him short of it altogether causing him to die six yeares before his father being yet but young and like to live long Lothair King of Soissons in France committed the rule of the province of Guian to his eldest son Cramiris who when contrary to the mind of his father he oppressed the people with exactions and was reclaimed home he like an ungratious and impious son fled to his uncle Childebert and provoked him towarre upon his owne father wherein he himselfe was by the just vengeance of God taken and burned with his wife and children to death Furthermore it is not doubtlesse but to a very good end enacted in the law of God That he which curseth his father or mother should die the death and that rebellious children and such as be incorrigible should at the instance and pursuit of their owne parents by order of law be stoned to death As children by all these examples ought not onely to learne to feare to displease and revile their parents but also to feare and reverence them lest that by disobedience they kindle the fire of Gods wrath against them so likewise on the other side parents are here advertised to have great care in bringing up and instructing their children in the feare of God and obedience to his will lest for want of instruction and correction on their part they themselves incurre a punishment of their carelesse negligence in the person of their children And this is proved by experience of the men of Bethel of whose children two and forty were torne in pieces by Beares for that they had been so evill taught as to mocke the holy Prophet Elizeus in calling him bald-pate Heli likewise the high priest was culpable of this fault for having two wicked and perverse sonnes whom no feare of God could restraine being discontent with that honourable portion of the sacrifices allotted them by God like famished and unsatiable wretches fell to share out more than was their due and by force to raven all that which by faire meanes they could not get and that which is worse to pollute the holy Tabernacle of God with their filthy whoredomes in such sort that the Religion of God grew in disgrace through their prophane dealings And albeit it may seem that their father did his duty in some sort when he admonished and reproved them yet it is manifest by the reprehension of the man of God that he did no part of that at all or if he did yet it was in so carelesse loose and cold manner using more lenity than hee ought or lesse severity than was necessary that God turned their destructions when they were slaine at the overthrow of Israel by the Philistins to be his punishment for understanding the dolefull newes of his sonnes death and the Arkes taking at once he fell backewards from his stoole and burst his necke being old and heavy even fourescore and eighteene yeares of age not able either to help or stay himselfe David also was not free from this offence for hee so much cockered some of his children that they proved the greatest plagues and scourges unto him especially Absolon and Adonijah for the one openly rebelled against him and almost drove him out of his kingdome the other usurped the title and honour of the kingdome before his fathers death of this it is recorded That David so cockered and pampered him that he would never displease him from his youth But see how he was punished in them for this too great lenity both of them came to an untimely death and proved not onely the workers of their owne destruction but also great crosses to their father Ludovicus Vives saith That in his time a certain woman in Flanders did so much pamper and cocker up two of her sonnes even against her husbands will that she would not suffer them to want money or any thing which might furnish their roiotous life both in drinking banquetting and dicing yea she would stoale from her husband to minister unto them but as soone as her husband was dead she was justly plagued in them both for they fell from royoting to robbing which two vices are commonly linked together and for the same one of them was executed by the sword and the other by the halter she her selfe looking on as a witnesse of their destructions whereof her conscience told her that her indulgence was the chiefest cause Hither may we referre that common and vulgar story and I suppose very true which is almost in every childes mouth of him that going to the gallowes desired to speake with his mother in her care ere he dyed and when she came unto him in stead of speaking bit off her care with his teeth exclaiming upon her as the causer of his death because she did not chastise him in his youth for his faults but by her flatteries established him in vice which brought him to this wofull end and herein she was doubly punished both in her sonnes destruction and her owne infamy whereof she carried about her a continuall maâ—ke This ought to be a warning to all parents to looke better to the education of their children and to root out of them in time all evill and corrupt manners lest of small sprigs they grow to branches and of qualities to habits and so either be hardly done off or at least deprave the whole body and bring it to destruction but above all to keep them from idlenesse and vaine pleasures the discommodity and mischiefe whereof this present example will declare At a towne called Hannuel in Saxony the Devill transforming himselfe into the shape of a man exercised many jugling trickes and pretty pastime to delight young men and maids withall and indeed to draw after him daily great companies one day they followed him out of the city gates unto a hill adjoyning where he played a jugling tricke indeed with them for he carried them all away with him so that they were never
together riches for he exercised his wit in devising new tributes and payments and rejoyced his heart in nothing more for which causes there arose a grievous sedition at Constantinople against him wherein not onely the excellent and famous monuments of the Empire were burned but also forty thousand men slain and this was no small punishment for his oppression At Paris there is to be seene in the corne market a certaine monument hard at the mouth of the common sinke which conveyeth away all the filth out of the City the occasion whereof is reported to be this A certaine courtier seeing the king sad and melancholly for want of treasure counselled him to exact of every countriman that brought ware into the city but one penny and that but for two yeares together which when the King put in practise and found the exceeding commodity thereof he not onely continued that tax but also invented divers others to the great dammage of the common-wealth and enriching of his owne treasurie Wherefore he that put it first into his head when hee saw that he had not so much authority in dissuading as he had in persuading it to take punishment of himselfe for that inconsiderate deed and to warne others from attempting the like he commanded by his testament that his body should be buried in that common sinke to be an example of exaction and the filthinesse thereof Barnabe Vicount of Milan by the report of Paulus Iovius was an unconscionable oppressor of his subjects and tenants for he did not onely extort of them continuall imposts and payments but enjoyned them to keepe every one a dogge which if they came to any mishap or were either too fat or too leane the keeper was sure to be beaten or at least some fine to be set on his head This Tyran was taken by Iohn Galeacius and after seven moneths imprisonment poysoned to death Archigallo brother to Gorbonianus in nature though unlike in conditions for he was a good Prince whereas this was a tyran was crowned King of Britaine in the yeare of the world 3671 we may well place him in the ranke of oppressours for he deposed the Noblemen and exalted the ignoble he extorted from men their goods to enrich his treasure for which cause the Estates of the Realme deprived him of his royall Dignity and placed his younger brother Elydurus in his room after he had raigned five yeares Hardiknitus King of Denmarke after the death of Harold was ordained King of England in the year of our Lord 1041. This King as he was somewhat cruell for he caused the body of Harold to be taken up out of the Sepulclire and smiting off his head to be cast out into the River Thames because he had injured his mother Emma when he was alive so he was burdensom to his Subjects in tributes and exaction for which cause growing into hatred with God and his Subjects he was strucken with sudden death not without suspition of poysoning after he had raigned three yeares William Rufus second son of William the Conquerour succeeded his father as in the Kingdom of England so in disposition of nature for they were both cruell inconstant and covetous aud burdened their people with unreasonable taxes insomuch that what by the murraine of men by postilence and oppressions of them by exactions the tillage of the earth was put off for one year being the year 1099 whereby ensued great scarcity the year following throughout all the Land but for the oppression William was justly punished by sudden death when being at his disport of hunting he was wounded with an arrow glauncing from the bow of Tyrill a French Knight and so his tyranny and life ended together And here is further to be noted that the place where this King was slain was called New Forest in which same place Richard the Cousin germane of King William son to Duke Robert his brother was likewise slain This New Forest was made by William the Conquerour their father who plucked downe and depopulated divers Townes and Churches the compasse of 30. miles about to make this a Forest for wilde Beasts a most beastly sin yea a bloudy crying sin too too much practised in these dayes and that by great persons that make no conscience to turne Townes into pastures and men into sheep but let all them behold the just vengeance of God upon this Kings posterity for when then either cannot or will not revenge then God revengeth either in them or their posterity In the year 1548. the Commons of Guyenne Santonge and Augoulemois fell into a great Rebellion by reason of the extortions of the Customers and Farmours of Salt the Rebels in a few weekes grew to the number of fourty thousand men armed with clubs and staves who joyning with the Islanders by a generall consent ran upon the Officers of the Custome and with extreme sury put to sword all that they could take notwithstanding the King of Navarre sought by all meanes to appease them About the same time the Commons of Gascoigne rose in divers places upon the same causes and notwithstanding all that the Lord of Monneins the Kings Lieutenant and all other Officers could do they made a great spoil of many honourable Houses and massacre of much people insomuch that the Lord of Moneins himselfe was slain by them whilest he was making an Oration to them to pacifie their rage but at length these Rebels were suppressed by Francis of Lorraine Earle of Aumale and Anne of Mommorancye high Constable of France and the chief King-leaders and Captaines of them executed according to their deserts La Vergne was drawne in pieces by four horses L'Estonnac and the two brothers of Saulx had their heads cut off Tallemoigne and Galeferâ— the two Colonels of the Commons were broken upon the Wheele being first crowned with a crowne of burning iron as a punishment of the Soveraignty which they had usurped Thus the Lord punished both the one and the other and the one by the other the exactors for their oppression and the tumultuous Commons for their Rebellion Neither doth the Lord thus punish oppressours themselves but also they that either countenance or having authority do not punish the same as it appeareth by this example following In the year of our Lord 475. there lived one Corrannus a King of Scots who though he governed the people in peace and quietnesse a long space and was indeed a good Prince yet because his Chancellour Tomset used extortion and exaction amongst his Subjects and he being advertised thereof did not punish him he was slain traiterously by his owne Subjects It is not unworthy to be noted how Edward the Third King of England prospered a long while in the warres against France and got many worthy and wonderfull victories but when Prince Edward son unto the aforesaid Edward after conditions of peace concluded began to set taxes and impositions upon the Country
under whom licence and liberty is given to every man to do what him listeth forsomuch then as this evill proceedeth from the carelesnesse and slothfulnesse of those that hold the sterne of government in their hands it cannot be but some evill must needs fall upon them for the same the truth of this may appear in the person of Philip of Macedony whom Demosthenes the Orator noteth for a treacherous and false dealing Prince after that he had subdued almost all Greece not so much by open war as by subtilty craft and surprise and that being in the top of his glory he celebrated at one time the marriage of his son Alexander whom he had lately made King of Epire and of one of his daughters with great pompe and magnificence as he was marching with all his train betwixt the two bridegroomes his own son and his son in law to see the sports and pastimes which were prepared for the solemnity of the marriage behold suddenly a young Macedonian Gentleman called Pausanias ran at him and slew him in the midst of the prease for not regarding to do him justice when he complained of an injury done unto him by one of the Peeres of the Realme Tatius the fellow King of Rome with Romulus for not doing justice in punishing certain of his friends and kinsfolkes that had robbed and murdered certain Embassadours which came to Rome and for making their impunity an example for other malefactors by deferring and protracting and disappointing their punishment was so watched by the kindred of the slain that they slew him even as he was sacrificing to his gods because they could not obtain justice at his hands What happened to the Romans for refusing to deliver an Embassadour who contrary to the law of Nations comming unto them played the part of an enemy to his own Countrey even well nigh the totall overthrow of them and their City for having by this meanes brought upon themselves the calamity of war they were at the first discomfited by the Gaules who pursuing their victory entred Rome and slew all that came in their way whether men or women infants or aged persons and after many dayes spent in the pillage and spoiling of the houses at last set fire on all and utterly destroyed the whole City Childericke King of France is notified for an extreme dullard and blockhead and such a one as had no care or regard unto his Realme but that lived idlely and slothfully without intermedling with the affaires of the Common-wealth for he laid all the charge and burden of them upon Pepin his Lieutenant Generall and therefore was by him justly deposed from his royall Dignity and mewed up in a Cloyster of Religion to become a Monke because he was unfit for any good purpose and albeit that this sudden change and mutation was very strange yet there ensued no trouble nor commotion in the Realme thereupon so odious was he become to the whole land for his drousie and idle disposition For the same cause did the Princes Electors depose Venceslaus the Emperour from the Empire and established another in his room King Richard of England among other foul faults which he was guilty of incurred greatest blame for this because he suffered many theeves and robbers to rove up and down the Land unpunished for which cause the Citizens of London commenced a high suit against him and compelled him having reigned two and twenty yeares to lay aside the Crown and resigne it to another in the presence of all the States and died prisoner in the Tower Moreover this is no small defect of justice when men of authority do not onely pardon capitall and detestable crimes but also grace and favour the doers of them and this neither ought nor can be done by a soveraigne Prince without overpassing the bounds of his limited power which can in no wayes dispence with the law of God whereunto even Kings themselves are subject for as touching the willing and considerate murderer Thou shalt plucke him from my Altar saith the Lord that he may die thy eye shall not spare him to the end it may goe well with thee which was put in practise in the death of Ioab who was slaine in the Tabernacle of God holding his hands upon the hornes of the Altar for he is no lesse abhominable before God that justifieth the wicked than he that condemneth the just and hereupon that holy King S. Lewis when he had granted pardon to a malefactor revoked it againe after better consideration of the matter saying That he would give no pardon except the case deserved pardon by the law for it was a worke of charity and pitty to punish an offendor and not to punish crimes was as much as to commit them In the yeare of our Lord 978 Egelrede the sonne of Edgare and Alphred King of England was a man of goodly outward shape and visage but wholly given to idlenesse and abhorring all Princely exercises besides he was a lover of ryot and drunkennesse and used extreame cruelty towards his subjects having his eares open to all unjust complaints in feats of armes of all men most ignorant so that his cruelty made him odious to his subjects and his cowardise encouraged strange enemies to invade his kingdome by meanes whereof England was sore afflicted with warre famine and pestilence In his time as a just plague for his negligence in Governement decayed the noble Kingdome of England and became tributary to the Danes for ever when the Danes oppressed him with warre he would hire them away with summes of money without making any resistance against them insomuch that from ten thousand pounds by the yeare the tribute arose in short space to fifty thousand wherefore he devised a new tricke and sought by treacherie to destroy them sending secret Commissioners to the Magistrates throughout the Land that upon a certaine day and houre assigned the Danes should suddenly and joyntly bee murdered Which massacre being performed turned to be the cause of greater misery for Swaine King of Denmarke hearing of the murder of his countrey-men landed with a strange army in divers parts of this Realme and so cruelly without mercy and pitty spoyled the Countrey and slew the people that the Englishmen were brought to most extreame and unspeakable misery and Egelrede the King driven to flie with his wife and children to Richard Duke of Normandie leaving the whole Kingdome to bee possessed of Swaine Edward the second of that name may well be placed in this ranke for though he was faire and well proportioned of body yet he was crooked and evill favoured in conditions for hee was so disposed to lightnesse and vanity that he refused the company of his Lords and men of honour and haunted amongst villaines and vile persons he delighted in drinking and riot and loved nothing lesse than to keep secret his owne counsailes though never so important so that he let
made therein the Bathes addicted himselfe so much to the Devillish art of Necromancy that hee wrought wonders thereby insomuch that he made himselfe wings and attempted to flee like Dedalus but the Devill as ever like a false knave forsooke him in his journey so that hee fell downe and brake his necke In the yeare of our Lord 1578 one â—â—mon Penbrooke dwelling in Saint Georges parish in London being a figure setter â—nd vehemently suspected to be a Conjurer by the commandement of the Iudge appeared in the parish Church of Saint Saviour at Court holden there where whilest he was busie in eutertaining a Proctor and leaned his head upon a pew a good space the Proctor began to lift up his head to see what he ayled and found him departing out of this life and straightwayes he fell downe ratling in the throat without speaking any one word This strange judgement happened before many witnesses who searching him found about him five devillish books of conjuration and most abhominable practises with a picture in tin of a man having three dice in his hand with this writing Chance dice fortunately and much other trash so that every one consessed it to be a just judgement against Sorcery and a great example to cause others to feare the just judgement of God Now let every one learne by these examples to feare God and to stand firme and stedfast to his holy Word without turning from it on any side so shall he be safe from such like miserable ends as these wicked varlets come unto CHAP XXII Of those that through pride and vaine-glory strove to usurpe the honour due unto God AForgetfull and unthankfull minde for the benefits which God bestoweth upon us is a branch of this first Commandement as well as those which went before And this is when we ascribe not unto God the glory of his benefits to give him thanks for them but through a foolish pride extoll our selves higher than we ought presuming above measure and reason in our owne power desire to place our selves in a higher degree than is meet With this sond and foolish affection I know not how our first fathers were tickled and tainted from the beginning to think to impaire the glory of God and they also were puffed up with the blast of ambition that I know not with what fond foolish rash and proud conceit went about after the floud to build a city and tower of exceeding height by that means to win same and reputation amongst men In stead whereof they ought rather to have praysed God by remembring his gracious goodnesse in their miraculous deliverance in their fathers persons from that generall deluge and shipwracke of the world but forasmuch as with a proud and high stomacke they lifted up themselves against God to whom all glory onely appertaineth therefore God also set himselfe against them and against their over bold practises interrupting all their determined presumptuous purposes by such a confusion and alteration of tongues which he sent among them that one could not understand another so that with shame they were constrained to leave their begun worke And besides in stead of that strong and sure habitation which they dreamed on to maintain and defend themselves by against all enemies and 〈◊〉 fortresse and castle wherby they went about to keep other in subjeâ—â—â—on to them they were forced to forsake the place by the just judgement of God who scattered and dispersed them hither and thither that he might bring them to that estate and condition which they most of all feared and strove to shun And thus God resisteth the proud and favoureth the humble loe here the punishment wherewith God punished their sin remaining still upon them this day for a chastisement of their proud spirits With the staine of this sinne most commonly the mightiest Potentates of this world are defiled who although both by word and writing avouch and confesse their power to be by the grace of God yet for the most part they are very unthankfull for the same and so proud and high minded that they shew themselves most obstinate and ungratefull of all men for oftentimes they rob him of the honour and glory which is peculiar unto himselfe and attribute it to themselves in setting forth their brave and sumptuous shewes and triumphs this is the sinne whereof Nabuchadnezzar King of Babell was reproved for God having bestowed upon him a kingdome with such pompe and renowne that he made whole nations to tremble before his face and putting many people in subjection under him he in stead of giving thanks for these great benefits exalted himselfe suffering his heart to swell and his understanding to waxe hard with pride not regarding the Lord who extolled him so high and yet notwithstanding he was constrained to confesse and acknowledge him for the true God to have an everlasting Kingdome and an infinite power as well by the forewarning of dreames which Daniel interpreted as by the miraculous deliverance of three young men out of the burning furnace therefore as he walked one day in his royall palace at Babylon and vaunted of his greatnesse and magnificence saying to himselfe Is not this great Babell which I have built for the house of the Kingdome by the might of my power and for the honour of my Majesty Now whilest the word was yet in his mouth a voyce was heard from heaven saying O King to thee it is spoken Thy Kingdome shall depart from thee and according to the tenour of the voyce hee was immediately deposed from his royall seat spoiled of all his glory driven from the society of men deprived of sense and made a companion for the bruit beasts and wilde asses eating grasse like oxen even so long untill his haire was growne stiffe like Eagles feathers and his nailes like the clawes of birds In which estate he continued the space of seven yeares even he that a little before was so proud and arrogant and he that had conquered so many kingdomes and nations that triumphed over Ierusalem with the Kings thereof This is a most excellent looking glasse for Kings to behold the ficklenesse and instability of all their power and pomp when it pleaseth God to humble and bring them under there is neither Scepter Crowne stay or strength of man that is able to hinder and turne aside the hand of the Almighty the King of Kings from abasing and weakning the most high and strong of this world let them be never so brave and jolly and bringing them into a low contemptible and brutish estate Besides this which we have already touched there is another kinde of pride and presumption most damnable and detestable of all and it is when a man doth so much forget himselfe as to seise and take upon him that honour which onely appertaineth to God ascribing to himselfe a certaine deity One would hardly thinke that there were any such in the world so proud as to commit this