in disguising himself he was slain in that Battle verse 33. 34. 11. Jesabel his Wife slew the Prophets of the Lord 1 Kings 18. 13. and persecuted Elijah But Jehu being made King when he was come to Jezreel Jezabel painted her Face and tired her Head and looking out to Jehu said Had Zimri peace that slew his Master Jehu seeing her commanded her to be thrown down out of the window which was accordingly done by some of her own Servants By the fall she was slain and trampled under Horses feet and her Body was torn and devoured by Dogs 2 Kings 9. 30 33 35. 12. Manasse persecuted the Ancient and Noble Prophet Isaiah who probably was of the Royal Blood for his free reproofs for all his wickedness who thereupon caused him to be sawn in sunder with a wooden Saw as Josephus saith But not long after the Lord brought upon him the Captains of the Host of the King of Assyria who took Manasse among the Thorns and bound him in Fetters and carried him to Babylon where he was cast into a Dungeon 2 Chron. 33. 11. 13. The wicked Jews grievously persecuted the Prophet Jeremiah First they smote him with the Tongue Jerem. 18. 18. Come say they Let us devise devises against Jeremiah Come and let us smite him with the Tongue and let us not give heed to any of his Words Afterwards Pashur the Priest smote him and put him in the Stocks whereupon Jeremiah denounced this Judgment against him The Lord hath not called thy Name Pashur but Magor-missabib For thus saith the Lord I will make thee a terror to thy self and to all thy Friends and they shall fall by the Sword of their Enemies and their Eyes shall hehold it And thou Pashur and all that are in thine House shall go into Captivity and thou shalt come to Babylon and their thou shalt die Jerem. 20. 2 3 4 6. Which grievous threatnings were without all question performed 14. After this the Priests and the Prophets and all the People took Jeremiah and said Thou shalt surely die Jer. 26. 8. To whom Jeremiah said As for me Behold I am in your Hand Do with me as seemeth good unto you But know ye for certain that if you put me to death ye shall surely bring innocent Blood upon your self and upon this City and upon the Inhabitants thereof c. verse 14 15. 15. When Jerusalem was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar's Army King Zedekiah caused Jeremiah to be cast into Prison for foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem the Captivity of Zedekiah Jer. 32. 2 3. c. But God suffered him not to go unpunished For not long after the City according to Jeremiah's Prophecy was taken Zedekiah was in his flight overtaken and carried to the King of Babylon who slew his Sons before his eyes that that dreadful sight might be the last thing that he should ever see he immediatly put out his eyes and bound him with Chains and carried him to Babylon Jer. 39. 5 6 7. And Zedekiah's Princes Nobles who had smitten Jeremiah and put him into Prison Jer. 37. 15. did afterwards cast him into a Dungeon where he did stick in the mire Jer. 38. 6. When the City was taken they also being over-taken were carried to the King of Babylon who slew them all Jerem. 38. 6. 16. Afterwards when the People were carried into Captivity Jeremiah being according to his own desire left in the Land of Juda he with the rest of the People was carried perforce by Johanan and some other wicked Captains into Egypt unto whom he foretold that they should their perish by the Sword and by the Famine and by the Pestilence for which plain and faithful dealing they stoned him to Death as Josephus reports But it was not long before Nebuchadnezzar came and overcame the Egyptians and plundered the Country at which time those Predictions of Jeremy were fulfilled upon his Persecuting Enemies Jerem. 43. 6 7. and 44. 11 12. c. 17. And that the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonish Captivity which continued seventy Years was in a special manner inflicted upon them for their crying sin of persecuting the Ministers and People of God appears plainly 2 Chron. 16. 17. Where it is said They mocked the Messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his People till there was no remedy Therefore he brought upon them the King of the Chaldees who slew their young men with the Sword in the House of their Sanctuary and had no compassion upon Young Man or Maiden Old Man or him that stooped for Age c. 18. During the Captivity Haman the Agagite a deadly Enemy to the Church and People of God had got a Decree from King Ahasuerus upon a certain Day to destroy to kill and to cause to perish all Jews both Young and Old little Children and Womon and to take the spoil of them for a prey Esther 3. 13. But God wonderfully defeated this design preserved his People and turned the Mischief intended against them upon their Enemies Pates For this wicked Haman was himself hanged upon the Gallows fifty Cubits high which he had prepared for Mordecay Esther 7. 9. His ten Sons also were slain Esther 9. 10. And all others that rose up against them 19. Sometime after the return of the Jews from the Babylonish Captivity Antiochus Epiphanes or the Vile rather was a cruel and merciless Persecutor of the Godly among them But being in straits for want of mony he went into Persia to gather up some And being there he heard that in a wealthy City called Elymais there was a very Rich Temple dedicated to Diana Thither therefore he went and besieged it But the Inhabitants sallying out drave him away with great shame and loss And when he came back to Babylon he heard of the overthrow of his Captains and Armies in Judaea Which News together with his late defeat so wrought upon him that he fell sick and finding no hope of recovery he called his most familiar Friends unto him and told them that his Disease was violent and desperate and that he was justly Plagued by God with this grievous Sickness for that he had tormented the People of the Jews destroyed their Temple and committed horrible Sacrilege and for contemning the Majesty of of God But now he Vowed that if it would please the Lord to receive him he would become a Jew and do many great things for the People of God As also that he would go through all the known World to declare the power of God Notwithstanding which the Lord knowing his Hypocrisie continued to plague him after a very grievous and terrible manner For he had a remediless and incessant pain in his Bowels and intollerable torments in all his inward parts His Body bred abundance of Worms which continually crawled out of the same Yea he so rotted above ground that whole flakes of flesh fell from
in the mean time those very Enemies of the Truth themselves cannot deny that the lives of such as profess this Doctrine which they so hate are full of integrity and virtue And therefore although the profane and bloody Prelates could never be drawn to pity Gods Children much less to love them for their piety and innocency being therein more inhumane than diverse of the Heathen Emperors themselves who upon the information of the virtuous and harmless deportment of the Christians by their Governours of Provinces caused their Persecutions to be slacked and ceased Yet diverse Princes and moderate Pontificians have been moved by the upright and honest lives of Gods Children to further their Liberty of Conscience and to abhor the cruelties which other Papists have practised upon them 175. Maximilian the Emperour son of Ferdinand the Second and Francis the First the French King were hence perswaded to grant unto their own subjects freedom of Conscience 176. The Earl of Egmont and Horn though zealous Papists laboured with the Dutchess of Parma that the Low-Country Protestants might be free from Fines imprisonments and all other manner â—f Persecutions in respect of Religion 177. Under Francis the Second the French King Anno Christi 1560. by the excellent and learned speeches of Charles Marillack Arch-Bishop of Vienne and John de Monlu Bishop of Valence freely spoken before the King himself in behalf of the French Protestants all Persecution against them was restrained The said Bishop among other particulars affirming boldly that a great encrease of the Sectaries proceeded from the ignorance and evil lives of the Bishops who having laid aside the care of their Flocks had for many years made it their business to enhanse their Fines and Rents and to live deliciously and loosely so as there were sometimes forty of them seen at once together wasting their time in Luxury and idleness in Paris the care of their Churches being in the mean time turned over to young and ignorant Fellows And so the Bishops becoming blind and useless the Parish Priests also following the Example of their Diocesans were only intent upon spoiling and vexing their people about their Tithes but were wholly unskilful and negligent in preaching to them And that therefore it was no wonder though diverse of the Nobility as well as of the common people did so readily hearken to new Opinions and Doctrines The same Counsel that the Conscience ought not to be forced nor any to be persecuted for matters of Religion meerly did Michael Hospitalius Chancellour of France give unto Charles the Ninth the same year that he succeded to the Crown after the death of the said Francis his Brother 178. By these foregoing Examples we may plainly see that their self-love and wallowing in all manner of sensuality is the great cause of their hatred to the godly whose lives and principles oppose their wickedness and errors The persecutions of the Arrians against the Orthodox exceeded the cruelty of the Heathen Emperours but this of the Romanists far surpasseth and exceeds them both being joined together 179. Pope Paul the Third left this bloody Legacy to his Conclave when he dyed Anno Christi 1359. as is testified by Mounsieur de Thou For having called diverse of the Cardinals into his Bed-chamber he exhorted them by all means to continue and maintain the Office of the Inquisition as the only means left upon earth to establish the Romane Religion 180. It may cause wonder in any serious man to consider that amongst the Turks Jews Indians yea and the Papists themselves the most zealous strict and precise in their several Religions are the most esteemed and honoured and only in the greater part of the Protestant Churches the most knowing and resolute retainer of the truth and the most strict and godly in their lives are most hated nick-named disgraced and persecuted And Grace which should add a lustre to Learning Riches Honours Noble Extraction and all other outward endowments whether natural or acquired that alone obscures all the rest and brings the contempt not only of great ones but even of the scum and dregs of the multitude upon the persons so qualified 181. Sir John Oldcastle Lord Cobham in the Reign of our King Henry the Fifth being convented before Thomas Arundel Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and diverse other lustful and bloody Bishops spake thus unto them Whilest I was said he a Swearer a Rioter and every way else vicious you never reproved me nor questioned me But since I have embraced this despised Doctrine of John Wickliff which hath taught me how to conquer my Sins and to lead an honest and a godly life now you are enraged against me with malice and seek my destruction 182. The same observation was made by Annas du Bourg that brave Senator of Paris Anno Christi 1559. under King Henry the Second of France That there were many Adulteries Perjuries Oaths and other infamous offences dayly committed and already punishable by the Laws and yet such as were guilty of all or any of those crimes were countenanced and advanced But against the Professors of the Truth all cruelty was practised who were guilty of no other offence but of embracing the truth of the Gospel revealed unto them by the Spirit and Word of God and of discovering by the same Light the horrible vices and errors of the Popish power that so there might follow an amendment 183. Experience sufficiently manifests that Persecution hath never been a way to suppress the Truth and surely it s against the Dictates of Charity and Christianity to enforce the conscience without a full and clear conviction This was confessed by King Henry the Third of France one of the most impotent Princes saith a learned Gentleman that ever swayed that Scepter and the most inveterate Enemy that ever the Protestants had having been instructed to hate betray and persecute them by Katherine de Medices his bloody Mother even from his very cradle yet when James Clement a Jesuited Monk had sheathed a knife in his Bowels and that he saw himself near to the Minute in which he was to give an account of all his cruelties to the supreme Judge of Heaven and Earth he made an effectual speech to the chief Commanders of his Army being most of them Papists wherein he exhorted them to acknowledge and obey the King of Navar then a Protestant as their lawful Soveraign and the undoubted Heir of the French Crown and to know this undoubted truth for the future That Religion which is instilled into the Souls of men by God himself cannot be forced by man 184. The same Truth also and almost in the same words did the Lord Brederode and the other Protestants in the Low-Countries alledge for their just excuse in their joint Apology published in the year 1566 and farther added That if the Papists did conceive their Religion to be the Truth they should instead of Blood Fines Imprisonings and Banishments take the good and seasonable
may prove useful to the deterring of wicked and malevolent spirits from all kinds of Persecution though but in Words and Gestures Esay 57. 3 4. and to the encouraging of the Godly Persecuted to bear their sufferings meekly referring their cause wholly unto God who saith Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord Rom. 12. 19. I have mine end Who am Thy Friend and Servant to thy Faith Sam. Clarke From my Study in Hammersmith April 14. 1674. God's Judgments UPON PERSECUTORS Recorded in the Books of the Old Testament THe first Persecutor and Murtherer was the Devil as our Saviour Christ testifies John 8. 44. He was a Murtherer from the Beginning He murther'd the Souls the most Noble and Divine part of our First Parents and in them of all their Posterity had not God of his infinite goodness and mercy made a Balsom of the Blood of Christ for the healing of that deadly wound See the Devil's punishment for it Gen. 3. 15. 2. The two first men that were born into the World were Cain and Abel and long they had not lived together before Cain when they were in the Field together rose up against his Brother Abel and slew him Gen. 4. 8. And wherefore slew he him Because his own works were evil and his Brothers Righteous 1 John 3. 12. But the righteous God would not suffer him to go away with impunity For saith God to him Gen. 4. 12. When thou tillest the Ground it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength A Fugitive and a Vagabond shalt thou be in the Earth In which condition he suffered many Thousand Deaths by reason of his Horrors and terrors of Conscience before he came to die as is implied verse 14. From thy Face shall I be hid and I shall be a Fugitive and a Vagabond in the Earth and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me 3. Though the Scripture mentions particularly no other Persecution before the Flood yet Gen. 6. 11. It 's said The Earth was corrupt before God and the Earth was filled with Violence which Violence certainly was chiefly practised by the wicked Cainites against the Church of God For which Sin among others God brought that General Deluge which destroyed them all Gen. 6. 13. God said unto Noah The end of all Flesh is come before me For the Earth is filled with violence through them And behold I will destroy them with the Earth 4. When the world was reduced to a very small number yet then had Satan a wicked Ham to persecute and mock his godly aged Father for which he was cursed and his Posterity doomed to bondage and servitude Gen. 19. 25 26 27. Cursed be Canaan A Servant of Servants shall he be to his Brethren c. 5. In holy Abraham's Family there was a Persecuting Ishmael as the Apostle Paul testifies Gal. 4. 29. He that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit But though he was Abraham's Son God would not suffer this Sin to go unpunished For verse 30. What saith the Scripture Cast out the Bond-woman and her Son For the Son of the Bond-woman shall not be Heir with the Son of the Free-woman And sure it was no small punishment to be cast out of the Church of God and not to be suffered to partake of the Blessings promised thereunto 6. When the Church of God the Children of Israel were in Egypt they were Persecuted by Pharaoh King of Egypt and his People who set over them Taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens Exod. 1. 11. thinking thereby to eat them up and wear them out And when that prevailed not they made them serve with rigor and they made their Lives bitter with hard Bondage in Mortar and in Brick and in all manner of Service in the Field all the Service wherein they made them serve was with rigor verse 13. 14. And when yet they still multiplied the King commanded the Midwives Siphra and Puah when they did the Office of a Midwife to the Hebrew women and saw them upon the Stools if they were delivered of a Son they should presently kill him verse 15. 16. And when these Midwives neglected his commands he charged all his People that every Son that was born to the Israelites should be cast into the River Nilus verse 22. 7. And when God sent Moses into Egypt to deliver his People out of the House of Bondage Pharaoh raged more against them He caused Straw to be taken from them and yet the number of Bricks to be continued and when that task was not done the Officers of the Children of Israel were cruelly beaten Exod. 5. 14. But the Justice of God slept not all this while They had shed the Blood of the People of God and God turned all their Waters into Blood They had killed all the Males of the Israelites and God's destroying Angel killed all their first-born They had drowned Multitudes in the River and Pharaoh and his Army were all drowned in the Red Sea Poena venit gravior quo magè sora venit Justice though slowly yet doth surely tread And strikes with Iron though she walks with Lead 8. Saul the first King of Israel was a cruel Persecutor of David and the Priests of the Lord of whom upon a false suggestion he slew fourscore and five Persons that did wear a linnen Ephod and not satisfied with their Blood he went to Nob the City of the Priests and smote it with the Edg of the Sword both Men and Women Children and Sucklings and Oxen and Asses and Sheep 1 Sam. 22. 18 19. But see the end His Country being invaded by the Philistins he goes to the Witch of Endor where he complained to the Devil in Samuel's Mantle that God had forsaken him when he was sore distressed by the Philistins and answered him no more neither by Prophets nor by Dreams 1 Sam. 28. 15. And a few dayes after when he had lived to see his Army routed three of his Sons slain and himself sorely wounded in despair he fell upon his own Sword and died 1 Sam. 31. 1 2 3 4. 9. Asa though a good King being reproved by the Prophet Hanani for relying upon the King of Syria and not upon the Lord his God was wrath with him and put him in Prison and oppressed some of the People at the same time 2 Chron. 16. 7 10. But God would not suffer this Sin to go unpunished For verse 12. He was diseased in his Feet probably of the Gout and his disease was exceeding great which in the end took away his Life 10. King Ahab persecuted the Prophet Micaiah who dealt plainly and faithfully with him and sent him to Amon the Governour of the City and to Joash the King's Son saying Put this fellow in the Prison and feed him with Bread of affliction and with water of affliction until I return in Peace 2 Chron. 18. 26. But notwithstanding all his Policy
this war he would utterly root out Christianity and so proceeding in his journey he beat the Enemy to a confused retreat whereupon that he might pursue them with the more speed he threw off his Armor but as he was posting on he was met by a Dart or arrow that pierced through his arm and entred into his side and whilest he endeavoured with the other hand to draw it out he received another wound and thereupon fell from his horse and receiving his blood gushing from his wound into his hands he threw it up into the Air saying vicisti Galilaee vicisti O thou Galilaean so he called Christ in scorn thou hast overcome me and Nazianzen saith that his body was carried away in a tempest without Lamentation and without Burial Gods Judgments upon persecuting Hereticks 53. Arius the first great disturber of the peace of the Christian Church was sent for by Constantine the Great who asked him what the matter was that where-ever he went still tumults and slaughters followed him And whether he did really agree with the Nicene Faith Arius did professedly avow that he did full agree thereto The Emperor commanded him to set the same down in writing under his hand which he did in the Emperors presence Then the Emperor required his Oath to manifest that he was reall in the same and he readily made Oath that what he had written was according to the truth and that it was his reall Judgment and Opinion The Emperor now having his Subscription and Oath was satisfied and would have him first to communicate with the Orthodox Church at Constantinople that he might be the better qualified for Communion with the Church at Alexandria where Athanasius had mightily opposed him and accordingly he wrote to Alexander the Bishop of Constantinople to receive Arius into Communion 54. Alexander laying aside all further Disputes by which hitherto he had mightily opposed the Arian Party betook himself wholly to Prayer wherein he continued fervently for diverse days and nights but more especially that next day before the Lords Day wherein Arius was to be admitted to the Sacrament the Sum of which Prayer was this It must needs be thus O Lord that Arius must communicate with this People to morrow Let thy Servant O Lord now depart in peace and never see that day and destroy not thou the Righteous with the Wicked But if thou wilt spare thy Church as thou wilt spare it remember the words of Eusebius an Arian Bishop and give not over thine inheritance to destruction and contempt and take Arius out of the way lest he being admitted into Communion Heresie should seem also to be received into Communion with the Truth and wickedness be accounted Godliness This Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia at Constantinople had now the whole conduct of the matter concerning Arius and sent word to Alexander that unless he would receive Arius into Communion he would banish him from Constantinople and put another into his place that should do the Work But Eusebius for all his threats missed his expectation For the Lords Day being come Arius with the Emperors Authority marched forth in State out of the Emperors Hall with Eusebius and other Bishops in his train and passing along the Streets in Pomp a strange manner of address to the Sacrament came to the common Market Place where a sudden fear fell upon him and therewithal he was surprised with a Flux which enforced him to retire into a House appointed for such a purpose and there suddenly his Speech failed him his Excrements and Blood ran out his Belly brake his Guts fell out and his Spleen and Liver followed The people staying long in expectation of him and he not coming they entred the house and found the sad Spectacle of him lying dead in that manner Constantius one of the sons of Constantine was himself an Arian and a great favourer of diverse Arian Bishops by whom by his Countenance and Authority the Orthodox Christians were grievously persecuted And thus this Emperor who would be stiled Eternal Emperor and yet would not allow Christ to be Eternal God and instead of being exceeding Great became odious to all good men was abhorred by his own Soldiers and lastly was loathed by himself he saw his Honour buried before he dyed became a tormentor to himself by jealousies fears and vexations and these brought on a Fear which soon put a period to his life 55. In the Reign of Julian one George an Arian Bishop of Alexandria having raged exceedingly against the Orthodox yet would also shew his zeal against the Heathen Temples which did so vex and exasperate the Gentiles that they taking advantage of Julian's coming to the Crown rose in a tumult and seized upon Bishop George tyed him to a Camels tail and dragged him through the streets of Alexandria and then they burnt both Bishop and Camel in one fire And thus God rendred to this Heretical Bishop a recompence for all his villanies and outrages done to the Orthodox 56. Valence another Arian Emperor was a great countenancer and encourager of the Heresie and a Persecutor of the Orthodox insomuch as when Athanasius was dead in Alexandria the Persecution broke in like a Torrent so that no man could stand before it The Orthodox Churches both in City and Country were swallowed up and destroyed by it Yet this Flood stopped not there but brake as it were out of the world into the wilderness among the Monks where this Persecution raged most of all till the Heathen Goths paid the Debt of the people of God by the death of the Emperor Valence somewhat like that of Julian saving that after his wounds received in the Battle with much ado he got into a town for succor wherein together with the whole town he was by the pursuing Goths burnt alive 57. Another Constantine a Monothelite being a cruel Persecutor of the Orthodox was slain by one of his own servants as he was washing himself in a Bath Hist. Magd. Gensericus an Arian King of the Vandals used a great deal of cruelty against the Orthodox and in the end he was possessed by an evil Spirit and dyed miserably P. Melan. Chron. 58. Hunricus a Son to a King of the Vandals being an Arian was a merciless Persecutor of the Orthodox banishing five thousand of them at one time among whom some of them being unable to travel he caused cords to be tyed to their legs and to drag them through stony and rough places whereby many of them perished But not long after God struck him with venomous Biles all over his Body and in the end he was consumed by Lice H. Magd. Anastasius the Emperor a Patron of the Eutychian Heresie was a bloody Persecutor of godly Christians and was slain by a Thunderbolt 59. Arcadius the Emperour having by the perswasion of Eudoxia his Empress who was a violent Arian banished Chrysostom from Constantinople the very next night there was such a terrible Earthquake that the
hand and trampled it under his Feet and overthrew the Chalice For which by most exquisite torments in a horrible manner they put him to death by degrees and then burned him a Spark of whose Fire was driven by the wind a great way into one of the Kings Ships lying in the Haven and quite consumed it and within half a year after the new married Prince dyed and the year after the King himself dyed also 108. Cardinal Woolsey after much opposition against the Light of the Gospel which brake forth in his time and much cruelty used against the Professors of it fell into disgrace with King Henry the Eighth who sent for him up out of Yorkshire and in his journey suspecting the issue he took such a strong Purge as his rotten Body not being able to bear he dyed at the Abby of Lecester His dead Body was as black as Pitch and so heavy that six men could scarcely bear it and it stank so intollerably that they were fain to hasten the Burial of it in the Night at which time there was such an hiddeous Tempest as blew out all the Torches and the Storm was accomponied with such a stink that they were glad to throw him into his Grave and so to leave him 109. Judge Morgan who passed Sentence of Condemnation upon the incomparable Lady Jane Dudley shortly after ran mad and in his raving fits cryed out continually to have the Lady Jane taken away from him and so he continued till he dyed 110. Morgan Bishop of S. Davids in Wales who condemned the Blessed Martyr Mr. Ferrar and unjustly usurped his Bishoprick not long after was stricken by God in a most strange manner For his food would not go down but pick up again sometimes at his Mouth sometimes blown out at his Nose most horrible to behold and thus he continued a Spectacle of Gods displeasure till he dyed 111. Mr. Leyson also who was Sheriff at the burning of Mr. Ferrar having fetched away his Cattle and put them into his own Grounds diverse of them would never eat any meat but continued bellowing and roaring till they dyed 112. Dr. Duning Chancellour of Norwich who was a Bloody Persecutor in the Reign of Queen Mary was stricken suddenly as he sate in his Chair and dyed 113. Berry Commissary of Norfolk another Bloody Persecutor as he was walking with one of his Concubines fell down suddenly with a heavy groan and never stirr'd after 114. A persecuting Suffragan of Dover having been with Cardinal Pool for his Blessing coming out of the Cardinal's Chamber fell down the stairs and brake his Neck 115. Bishop Thornton another cruel Persecutor as he was looking upon his men at Bowls upon a Sahbath-Day fell suddenly into a Palsie and being carried to his Bed and willed to remember the Lord yea said he So I do and my Lord Cardinal too and so he dyed 116. Dr. Jeffery Chancellour of Salisbury a wretched Persecutor who had appointed to call before him ninety godly Persons and to examine them by Inquisition the Day before as he was looking upon his Buildings fell down suddenly and dyed 117. Thomas Blaver a Privy Counsellor to the King of Scots was a great Persecutor of the Faithful in that Land But being by God struck with sickness he fell into Despair crying out That he was damned and a Cast-away That he was damned without remedy In which miserable condition he dyed without any sign of true repentance 118. Henry Arch-Bishop of Mentz a godly and religious man was accused as being guilty of Heresie to the Pope who sent two of his Cardinals to examine the matter and they most unjustly deposed him and cast him out of his place whereupon he said unto them If I should from your unjust Sentence appeal unto the Pope 't is like I should find no redress from him wherefore I appeal to the Lord Jesus Christ that just and righteous Judge of all the world and cite you to answer me before his Judgment Seat for this unjust act of yours To which they scoffingly answered Go you first we will follow after Not long after this the good Arch-Bishop dyed which when the Cardinals heard of they said jestingly one to another Behold he is now gone before and we must follow after according to our Promise And indeed shortly after they both dyed upon one day The one sitting upon a Jakes voided out his Entrails The other gnawing his own Fingers and having made himself deformed with devouring himself he dyed miserably 119. About the year 1507. there was at Chipping Sadbury a godly woman convented before the Chancellour Dr. Whittington by whom she was condemned to be burnt And against the day of her Execution multitudes of people flocked to the Town and among the rest Dr. Whittington came to see her burnt At the same time there was a Butcher in another part of the Town that was killing a Bull But the Butcher somewhat missing his blow the Bull broke loose just as the people were coming from seeing the Execution of the Martyr The people seeing the Bull coming divided themselves and made a lane for him to pass through the Bull went through without hurting man woman or child till he came to the place where the Chancellour was against whom he ran very furiously and with his Horns hitting him on the Belly ran through it and tearing out his Guts with his Horns trailed them about the Streets to the great astonishment of all that beheld it 120. At the burning of Alexander Goug and Alice Driver Martyrs there was one Bate a Barber that was a very busie man about burning them but presently after Gods severe Judgment fell upon him so that within three or four weeks after he dyed in much misery 121. In the Reign of Queen Mary one of the Sheriffs of London called Mr. Woodrose used Mr. Bradford very churlishly at the time of his Execution as he had dealt with Mr. Rogers before He used also to laugh and make himself sport at the sufferings of these innocent persons and used to beat away the people who were desirous to shake them by the hand before their Death but the Lord who usually punisheth such bloody Persecutors shortly after struck him with lameness upon one side that he could never after turn him in his Bed He had also a Dog-like Appetite that could never be satisfied with Food and in this misery he continued by the space of eight years even till he dyed 122. Adam Foster of Mendlesham in Suffolk was apprehended by one Thomas Mouse and George Rivet for not coming to Mass and by them was carried before Sir John Tyrel who sent him to the Bishop of Norwich But it pleased God that Mouse was immediately after stricken with a grievous disease whereof he shortly after dyed And Rivet not warned thereby but persevering in his persecuting ways had a great swelling that rose in his Legs which grievously vexed and tormented him and at last falling into a
the Protestants began to meet more publickly and to profess the Truth more openly than before The Arch-Bishop thereupon renews his former Suit to the Son as he had before successfully pressed upon the Father In particular he first aimed at the destruction of Sir John Oldcastle See his Life in my second Volume of Lives who had most affronted him He by reason of his great Alliances and the favour of his King who called him His Knight might have expected exemption from their Tyranny But they prevailed with the King as saith Arch-Bishop Parker Rex virum clarum sibique familiarissimum Episcoporum potestati carnisioinae permisit The King gave up this famous man and who was dear to himself to the power and destruction of the Bishops And yet it pleased God that he outlived this persecuting Arch-Prelate two years at least For the Arch-Bishop having murthered many godly Saints in King Henry the Fourths time and being a great stickler in state affairs having long before procured himself to be made Lord Chancellour of England and lastly in a Synod held by himself at Rochester having forbidden the reading of the Scriptures in English and limited Preachers under an heavy censure what they should treat of in the Pulpit was soon cut off himself by the immediate hand of God after he had condemned that warlike Kinght Sir John Old-Castle Lord Cobham before he could see him executed For his Tongue was so swoln and benummed that he could neither swallow nor speak some days before his Death It being saith one the just Judgment of God upon him and may be a warning to all other wicked Popish Prelates that as he had muzled up the mouths of Preachers and kept the Scriptures from the knowledge of the people being their spiritual food So he should neither be able to swallow nor speak from that very minute that this Judgment fell upon him and so he dyed within a few days after in great torment and extremity by a languishing silence and famishment A later Example we have in the admirable punishment of James Beton Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews in Scotland who was also a member of the purpurated Conclave at Rome He had for diverse years been an inveterate Enemy to the Gospel and the Professors of it in that Kingdom under King James the Fifth And after his Death taking the advantage of the infancy of the Princess Mary the Hereditary Queen of that Realm he thought it a work worthy of himself to double die his Purple Robes in the Blood of the Saints And to make a full and clear way for that his sanguinary Project he forged a Will of the deceased King whereby he was established the chief Regent there during the young Ladies incapacity to Reign From which yet his false play being discovered he was removed and for a while imprisoned Yet was he no sooner delivered but he presently endeavoured to raise a new and a fatal war between England and Scotland and to root out the Professors of the Truth by a violent and bloody Persecution And among others whom he cited imprisoned or exiled in the year 1545. he seized upon Mr. George Wiseheart a very eloquent and learned Preacher who by the Latin writers of that age is called Sophocardius and contrary to their own Popish Canons adjudged him to present death himself which is never done except by the hellish Inquisition of Spain but by delivering the Martyrs into the power of the Civil-Magistrate And in his Court before the Castle of S. Andrews caused that bloody Sentence to be executed the said Mr. Wiseheart being first strangled and his Body afterwards burnt to Ashes The Cardinal in the mean time had a Chamber prepared for him with Carpets and Cushions in the Windows out of which he was a Triumphant Spectator of this godly mans Martyrdom From which window he departed not more delighted than as himself thought secured and presently he began to fortify his Castle against all Assaults But Gods Judgment from Eternity awarded against him for this later as well as former cruelties exercised upon his faithful Servants slep'd not For within a few weeks after the Cardinal having falsified his Promise to the Lord Norman Lesly Son of the Earl of Rothsay a zealous Romanist He upon the thirteenth day of May the same year with about fourteen resolute Gentlemen in his company entred the said Castle of S. Andrews where the Cardinal lay having had a whore with him all that night and having first assured himself of all within and the Gates without he slew the bloody Prelate by his Bed-side without Law or Justice who had but a little before most unjustly condemned and murthered the aforesaid Mr. Wiseheart and being willing to expose the dead Carcass of that cruel Persecutor all weltring and besmeared with blood unto the view of the People who abhorred his Butcheries and rejoiced at his fall casually they laid it along to be seen of all men in that very window out of which a little before leaning at his ease upon rich Cushions he had proudly beheld the death of that precious Martyr 161. It s very observable which Historians take notice of that generally the greatest Persecutors are most drenched in the sin of uncleanness and Epicurism What was Escovedo that great Instrument of the King of Spain's cruelties against the Evangelical Party in the Low-Countries but a a very Lump of Lust which in the end proved fatal to him 162. Peter Espinac A Bishop of Lions in France was a great Persecutor and one that lived in incest with his own Sister 163. John Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews in Scotland spent the greatest part of the Revenues of his See and the seisure of the Protestants Estates whose mortal Enemy he was upon his Whores and Revellings 164. The Cardinal of Granvels Veneries were so manifest and numerous as when Anno Christi 1574. the Kingdom of Tunis and the strong Fort of Gulette formerly esteemed impregnable were won by the Turks the Spaniards made a jest of it said openly That the Cardinals Breeches had occasioned that loss meaning thereby that King Philip the Second relying chiefly upon his advice in that and in most of the rest of his important affairs the Cardinals Lusts so took him up that he had not leisure to advise the King for the best 165. Cardinal Beton aforementioned wallowed at home with pollution among his Harlots and raged abroad with the blood and slaughter of the innocent Servants of Christ. 166. In that Hellish Massacre on S. Bartholomew's Day in Paris it self The Murtherers there were for the most part brutish and lustful Soldiers or profane Varlets of the scum of the City and though their Leaders were more noble yet less virtuous The Duke of Guise and Aumale Albert Gondy Earl of Rets Tavanne and others of them that were bred up in Lust Revellings and all manner of Debaucheries 167. The next place that came nearest to the cruelties exercised at Paris was the