by the hands of the Priests to demand pardon for that cruell murther that the guilt of innocent bloud might not be imputed unto them And if by oversight or negligence without any malice hatred or pretence one killed another yet was he not exempted from all punishment but suffered to fly to the city of refuge to be kept and as it were inclosed untill his innocency were made manifest or at the least untill the death of the high Priest From this it may seeme arose the custome of Painims in the like case which was that if a man had unwillingly committed murther he did presently avoid the countrey and goe unto some man of power and authority of a strange nation and present himselfe at his gate sitting with his face covered humbly intreating pardon and reconciliation for his murther and for one whole yeare he might not returne into his countrey On this manner was the sonne of a certaine King of Phrygia entertained in King Craesus court who unadvisedly had slaine his owne brother Whereby it is manifest how odious and execrable in all ages and all places and all people this murther hath been insomuch that men did shun their very meeting and company and abandon them out of their temples and publicke assemblies as people excommunicate and prophane And yet for all this mankinde for the most part like savage beasts hath by the instigation of that wicked spirit who was a murtherer from the beginning been too too addicted to this kind of cruelty not being afraid to offer violence to nature and shed innocent bloud Such was the franticke and perverse cruelty of the second man Cain when without any occasion but onely through envy he slew his brother Abel and that traiterously which deed albeit it was done in secret and without the view of men yet it could not shun the piercing eye of God who reproved him for it saying That the bloud of Abel cried for vengeance from the earth And although this cursed and wicked murtherer received not immediately a condigne punishment answerable to his crime God to the end to spare mans bloud using undeserved favour towards him yet escaped hee not scot free for he was pursued with a continuall torment and sting of confcience together with such an incessant feare that he became a vagabond and a runnagate upon the earth and seeing himselfe brought into so miserable an estate he fell to complaining that the punishment was greater than he was able to beare Thus God permitted this wretch to draw out his life in such anguish that for a greater punishment he might pine away the rest of his daies without comfort A man may find in this world many such brother murthering Cains who for no occasion sticke not to cut their throats whom for the bond of common nature wherein all men are linked together as branches to one root they ought to acknowledge for their brethren and friends upon whom the heavy hand of God hath not beene more slacke to punish either by one meanes or other than it was upon their eldest brother Cain But seeing the number of them is so great and it is not so convenient to heape up here so huge a multitude together it shall suffice onely to recount the most famous and notablest of them as of those that have beene men of note and reputation of the world or that through an ambitious desire of raigning have by armes sought to atchieve their purposes for these for the most part are the greatest murtherers and butchers of all that through their wicked affections worldly pompe or desire of revenge have no remorse of making the bloud of men run like rivers upon the earth making no more account of the life of a man than of a flie or a worme Such an one was Abimelech one of the sonnes of Gedeon who to the end to usurpe the regiment of the people which his father before him refused got together a rout of rascal and vile fellowes by whose aid comming to his fathers house he slew seventy of his brethren even all except Ioathan the yongest that stole away and hid himselfe After which massacre he raigned in jolity three yeares and at the end thereof was cut short by God together with the Sichemites his provokers and maintainers who were also guilty of all the innocent bloud which he had shed for God sent the spirit of division betwixt them so that the Sichemites began to despise him and rebell against him but they had the worst end of the staffe and were overcome by him who pursuing the victory tooke their city by force and put them all to the edge of the sword And after he had thus destroied their city put fire also to the castle wherein he consumed neere about a thousand persons of men and women that were retired thither to save their lives And thus God brought upon them the mischiefe which they had consented and put their hands unto for as they had lent him aid and furtherance to the shedding of his brethrens bloud so was their owne bloud with their wives and childrens shed by him yet this tyran not content therewith made war also with the inhabitants of Tebez and tooke their city and would have forced the tower also wherein the citisens had inclosed themselves but as he approched to the wall a woman threw downe a piece of a milstone upon his head wherewith finding himselfe hurt to death he commanded one of his soldiers to kill him outright And thus this wicked murtherer that had shed the bloud of many men yea of his owne brethren had his braines knockt out by a woman and died a most desperate death The bloudy treachery of Baana and Rechab chiefe captaines of Ishbosheth Sauls son in conspiring against and murthering their master whilest he slept abode not long unpunished for having cut off his head they presented it for a present to king David hoping to gratifie the king and to receive some recompence for their paines But David being of an upright and true kingly heart could not endure such vile treachery though against the person of his enemy but entertained them as most vile traitors and master-murtherers commanding first their hands and feet to be cut off which they had especially imployed as instruments about that villany and afterwards caused them to bee slaine and then hanged for an example to all others that should attempt the like For the like cause was Ioab Generall of king Davids host for killing Abner traiterously who forsaking Ishbosheth had yeelded himselfe to the King cursed of David with all his house with a most grievous and terrible curse And yet notwithstanding a while after he came againe to that passe as to murder Amasa one of Davids chiefe captains making shew to salute and embrace him For which cruell deed albeit that in Davids time he received no punishment yet it overtooke him at last and the same kinde of cruelty
writeth of him That the apple of his eye fell out before he died Maxentius and Licinius the one Emperour of Italy the other of the East perceiving how the Emperour Constantine that raigned in the West was had in great reputation for maintaining the cause of the Christians began also to doe the like but by and by their malice and hypocrisie discovered it selfe when they undertook to trouble and afflict those whom before they seemed to favour For which cause Constantine taking arms against them destroyed them both one after another for Maxentius thinking to save himselfe upon a Bridge on Tyber was deceived by the breaking of the Bridge and so drenched and drowned in the water Licinius was taken and put to death And thus two Tyrants ended their dayes for persecuting the Church of Christ. In the tenth yeare of the persecution of Dioclesian Galerius his chiefe minister and instrument in that practise fell into a grievous sicknesse having a sore risen in the neither part of his belly which consumed his privy members from whence swarmed great plenty of wormes engendred by the putrefaction This disease could not be holpen by any Chirurgery or Physick wherefore he confessed that it justly happened unto him for his monstrous cruelty towards the Christians and called in his proclamations which he had published against them Howbeit notwithstanding he died miserably and as some write slew himselfe CHAP. X. More examples of Persecutors SAint Bartholomew one of the twelve Apostles after hee had preached Christ Jesus unto the Indians and delivered them the Gospell written by Saint Mathew and had converted many unto the Faith albeit the miracles which he wrought were strange and supernatural for hee restored many diseased persons to their health and clensed King Polemius his daughter from an unclean spirit wherewith she was possessed yet in regard that he destroyed their Idoll Astaroth and bewraied the subtilties of Satan he was by Astyages Polemius younger brother at the instigation of the Idolatrous Priests first cruell beaten with clubs after fleyed and last of all beheaded But within thirty dayes after both the wicked King and the sacrilegious Priests were poffessed with devills and brought to a wretched and miserable death Aphraats that heavenly Philosopher going out of his Cloyster towards the Temple to feed the flocke of Christ with some wholesome food of sound Doctrine and being perceived by the Emperour Valeus and demanded whither he went he answered To pray for him and his kingdome Yea but said the Emperour it were more convenient for thee that professest thy selfe a Monke to remaine at home in contemplation than to stray abroad True answered this holy man if Christs sheep enjoyed peace but as it becommeth an honest Matron to sit still within doors nevertheles if her house were on fire and the flame inviâ—oned her should she not stirre to helpe to quench it And should I lye still and see my Countrey set on fire by the persecution Whereat the Emperour being netled threatned him with death and one of his chamberlaines taunting him for his boldnesse used him most currishly But presently as he went to the Baths to make them ready for the Emperour the hand of God stroke him with an Apoplexy that he fell downe dead into the waters Under the Empire of Iulian the Apostate all they that either conspired or practised the death of Cyrillus a Deacon of Heliopolis scituate neer to Libanus came to a miserable end for after that Constantine was deceased by whose authority the holy Martyr had broken downe many of their Images and Idoils the abhominable Idolaters did not onely murther him but also devoured his liver with bread as if it had been the sweetest morsell of meat in the world But the all-seeing eye of God saw their villany and his revengefull rod bruised them in peeces for their teeth wherewith they chewed that unnaturall food fell all out of their heads and their tongues wherewith they tasted it rotted and consumed to nothing and lastly their eyes which beheld it failed them and they became blinde And thus were they all served not one excepted bearing justly the markes of Gods wrath for so inhumane and unnaturall a deed At Tyre a City of Phoenicia under the raigne of Dioclesian many Christians that stoutly professed and maintained the Faith and Religion of Christ Jesus were after many tortures and destructions exposed to wilde beasts to be devoured as Beares Libards wilde Boares and Buls the savage basts though made fierce and furious by fires and swords yet I know not by what secret instinct resused once to touch them or to come neere them but turned their teeth upon the Infidels that were without and came to set them on upon the Saints and tore many of them in pieces in their steads Howbeit although they escaped the jawes of wilde beasts yet they escaped not the swords of them that were more savage than any beasts and though the bowels of Beares refused to entombe them yet were they intombed in the flouds and crowned with the Crowne of sacred martyrdome Processus and Martianus Keeper of the Prison wherein the Apostles Peter and Paul were inclosed at Rome seeing the miracles which were wrought by their hands believed in Christ and together with seven and forty other prisoners were baptized Which when Paulinus the Judge perceived hee injoyned them to lay aside their conscience and offer sacrifice to Idols But they readier to obey God than man could neither by threats nor violence bee brought to it but chose rather to bee beaten with clubs or consumed with fire or scourged with Scorpions as they were than to yeeld to deny their Maker by doing worship to devilish and monstrous Idols But that Judge the procurer of their martyrdomes shortly after became himselfe an object of Gods wrath when his eye-sight failed him and an evill spirit so possessed and tormented him that in the extremity of terrours and griefe he breathed out ere long his last and miserable breath Nicephorus reporteth How the Emperour Trajan having caused five holy Virgins to be burned for standing in the profession of the Truth commanded certaine Vessells to be made of their ashes mingled with brasse and dedicated them to the service of a publique Bath but the Bath that before time instilled a wholesome and healthfull vapour into mens bodies now became pernitious and fatall unto them for all that washed themselves therein felt presently such a giddinesse in their braines and such a dimnesse of sight that they fell downe dead forthwith The cause of which mischiefe being perceived by Trajan he melted againe the Virgin-moulded Vessells and erected five statues to the honour of them so choaking as it were one superstition with another to his owne eternall infamy and disgrace Agapitus a youngman of fifteene yeares of age being apprehended by the inhabitants of Preneste and grievously tormented for refusing to offer sacrifice to their Idols and when
authority to doe the like mischiefe And that which is yet more and worst of all he made no account nor reckoning of the admonitions of the Prophets but the rather and the more hardened his heart to runne out into all manner of cruelty and wickednesse that his sinnes might have their full measure For the very stones of the streets of Ierusalem were stained from one corner to another with the guiltlesse and innocent bloud of those that either for disswading him from or not yeelding unto his abhominable and detestable Idolatry were cruelly murthered Amongst the number of which slaine innocents many suppose that the Prophet Esayas although he was of the bloud-royall was with a strange manner of torment put to death Wherefore the flame of Gods ire was kindled against him and his people so that he stirred up the Assyrians against them whose power and force they being not able to resist were subdued and the King himselfe taken and put in fetters and bound in chaines carried captive to Babylon but being there in tribulation hee humbled his soule and prayed unto the Lord his God who for all his wicked cruell and abhominable Apostasie was intreated of him and received him to mercy yea and brought him againe to Ierusalem into his unhoped for kingdome Then was he no more unthankfull to the Lord for his wonderfull deliverance but being touched with true repentance for his former life abolished the strange gods broke downe their Altars and restored againe the true Religion of God and gave strait commandement to his people to doe the like Wherein it was the pleasure of the Highest to leave a notable memoriall unto all posterity of his great and infinite mercy towards poore and miserable sinners to the end that no man be his sinnes never so hainous should at any time despaire for Where sin aboundeth there grace aboundeth much more Admit that this revolt of Manasses was farre greater and more outragious than was Solomons yet his true repentance found the grace to be raised up from that 〈◊〉 â—ull downefall for God hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and compassion on whom he will have compassion O the profound riches of the wisedome and knowledge of God! How unspeakable are his judgements and his wayes pâ—st finding out Amon the wicked sonne of this repentant â—ather committed also the like offence in serving strange gods but recanted not by like repentance and therefore God gave his owne servants both will to conspire and power to execute his destruction after hee had swayed the kingdome but two yeares CHAP. XVIII Of the third and worst sort of Apostata's BY how much the more God hath in these latter daies poured forth more plentifully his graces upon the sonnes of men by the manifestations of his Sonne Christ Iesus in the flesh and sent forth a more cleere light by the preaching of his Gospell into the world than was before times by so much the more culpable before God and guilty of eternall damnation are they who being once enlightened and made partakers of those excellent graces come afterwards either to despise or make light account of them or goe about to suppresse the truth and quench the spirit which instructed them therein This is the Sinne against the Holy Ghost which is mentioned in the sixth and tenth chapter to the Hebrewes and in the twelfth of Luke and in another place it is called a Sinne unto death because it is impardonable by reason that no excuse of ignorance can be pleaded nor any plaister of true repentance applyed unto it The Apostata's of the old Testament under the Law were not guilty of this sinne for although there were many that willingly and malitiously revolted and set themselves against the Prophets of God making warre as it were with the Holy Ghost yet seeing they had no such cleere testimonies of Christ Iesus and declaration of Gods Spirit as we have their sinne cannot be properly said directly to be against the Holy Ghost and so never to be remitted according to the description of this sinne in those passages of Scripture which were before recited as it may manifestly appeare by the former example of King Manasses The Apostle himselfe likewise doth averre the truth hereof when he saith If we sinne willingly after that we have received the knowledge of the Truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sinnes but a fearefull looking for of judgement and violent fire which shall devoure the adversaries If any man despised Moses Law he died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be worthy which treadeth under foot the Sonne of God and counteth the bloud of the new Testament as a prophane thing whereby he was sanctified and doth despight to the Spirit of Grace Here we may see that this sinne is proper to those onely that lived under the Gospell and have tasted of the comfort and knowledge of Christ. Iudas Iscariot that wicked and accursed Varlet committed the deed and feeles the scourge of this great sinne for he being a Disciple nay an Apostle of Christ Iesus moved with covetousnesse after he had devised and concluded of the manner and complot of his treason with the enemie sold his Lord and Master the Savior of the World for thirty pieces of silver and betrayed him into the bands of theeves and murtherers who sought nothing but his destruction After this vile traitour had performed this execrable purpose by reason whereof he is called the sonne of perdition he could finde no rest nor repose in his guilty conscience but was horribly troubled and tormented with remorse of his wickednesse judging himselfe worthy of a thousand deaths for betraying that innocent and guiltlesse bloud If hee looked up he saw the vengeance of God ready to fall upon him and insnare him if hee looked downe he saw nothing but hell gaping to swallow him up the light of this world was odious to him and his own life displeased him so that being plunged into the bottomlesse pit of despaire he at last strangled himselfe and burst in twaine in the midst and all his bowels gushed out There is a notable example of Lucian who having professed Christianity for a season under the Emperour Trajan fell away afterwards and became so prophane and impious as to make a mocke at Religion and Divinity whereupon his sirname was called Atheist This wretch as he barked out like a foule mouthed dog bitter taunts against the religion of Christ seeking to rend and abolish it so he was himselfe in Gods vengeance torne in pieces and devoured of dogs Porphyrie also a whelp of the same litter after he had received the knowledge of the truth for despight and anger that he was reproved of his faults by the Christians set himselfe against them and published books full of horrible blasphemies to discredit and overthrow the Christian Faith But when he perceived how fully
boldly or rather furiously to the wall and cast himselfe downe headlong after which yet breathing hee got up on a steepe rocke and rending out his bowels with his owne hands threw them amongst the people calling upon the Lord of life that hee would restore them againe unto him The author of that booke commendeth this fact for a valiant and noble deed but surely wee are taught out of the booke of God by Gods spirit that it was a most bloudy barbarous and irreligious act for rather should a man endure all the reproaches and torments of an enemy than embrue his owne hands in his owne bloud and therefore if he were not extraordinarily stirred up hereunto by the spirit of God this must needs bee a just punishment of some former sinne wherein hee lay without repentance and a forerunner of an eternall punishment after this life Let us joyne Iudas and Pilate together the one being the betrayer of his Lord and Master Jesus Christ our Saviour the other the condemner of him and that against his conscience as they both agreed in one malicious practise against the life of Christ so they disagreed not in offering violence to their owne lives for Iudas hanged himselfe and his bowels gushed out and Pilat being banished to Vienna and oppressed with the torment of conscience and feare of punishment for his misdeeds to prevent all killed himselfe and so became a notable spectacle of Gods justice and Christs innocencie The Jewes as they are recorded in Scripture to bee a stiffe-necked and stubborne Nation above all the Nations under the Sunne so none were ever more hardy and daring in this bloudy practise of selfe-murther than they were which may bee thought a portion of Gods just judgement upon them for their sinnes three examples of greatest note I will propound which I thinke can hardly bee matched When the City of Jerusalem was taken by Herod and Sosius there was a certaine Jew that had hidden himselfe in a denne with his wife and seven children to whom Herod offered both life and liberty if hee would come forth but the stiffe-hearted wretch had rather die than bee captive to the Romanes therefore refusing Herods offer hee first threw downe his children headlong from a high rocke and burst their neckes next hee sent his wife after them and lastly tumbled himselfe upon their carkasses to make up the tragedie a horrible and lamentable spectacle of a proud and desperate minde The second example is nothing inferior to the former After the siege and sacking of Jotapata by the Romanes forty Jewes among whom was Iosephus the writer of this story having hid themselves in a cave by mutuall consent killed one another rather than they would fall into the hands of the Romanes Iosephus onely with one other by his persuasion by great art and industry after the other were slain proceeded not in that bloudy enterprise but yeelded themselves to the mercy of the enemies and so escaped with their lives This fearefull obstinacy may well be imputed to the justice of God upon them as for their other sinnes so especially for crucifying the Lord of life whose bloud they imprecated might fall on them and on their children The third example surpasseth both the former both in cruelty and obstinacy Eleazer the Jew after the taking of Jerusalem fled into the tower of Messada with nine hundred followers being besieged there by Sabinus Flavius a Roman Captaine when he saw that the walls were almost beaten downe and that there was no hope of escaping he persuaded his companions by a pithy and vehement Oration and drew them to this resolution that tenne should be chosen by lot which should kill all the rest together with their wives and children and that afterward they themselves should kill each other The former part of this Tragedy being performed the surviving tenne first set on fire the Tower that no prey might come unto the enemy the victuals only preserved to the end it might be knowne that not hunger but desperate valour drew them to this bloudy massacre then according to their appoyntment by mutuall wounds they dispatched one another and of so great a number not one remained besides one woman with her five children who hearing the horriblenesse of their determination hid her selfe in a cave in the ground and so escaped with the life of her selfe and her children and became a reporter of this whole story The like story is recorded by Livie touching the Campagnians who being besieged by the Romanes and constrained to yeeld up their City unto them upon composition Vibius a chiefe nobleman of the City with seven and twenty other Senatours that they might not fall into their enemies hands after they had glutted themselves with wine and good cheere dranke all of them poyson and so bewayling the state of their countrey and embracing each other and taking their last farewell died ere the enemies were received into the city Buthes otherwise called Boges by Herodotus Governor of Thracia being besieged in the city Eion by Cymon the Athenian captaine to the end that the enemy might receive no benefit nor great glory by his victory first caused the city to be fired and then by one consent they all killed themselves So likewise did Ariarathes king of Capadocia when he was besieged by Perdicca Cato Vticensis rather than he would fall into the hands of Iulius Caesar his enemy after his victory over Pompey fell upon his owne sword and slew himselfe having first read Plato's booke of the immortality of the soule So likewise did Marcus Antonius after that he was over come by Augustus And Cleopatra the Aegyptian Queene when as by her allurements she could not intice Augustus to her lust as she had done Anthony but perceived that she was reserved for triumph escaping out of prison and placing her selfe in her sumptuous sepulchre neere to the body of her dead paramour set an Aspe to her left arme by the venome whereof she died as it were in a sleepe Thus the Lord doth infatuate the mindes of wicked and ungodly persons and such as have no true knowledge nor feare of the true God in their hearts making them instruments of his vengeance and executioners of his wrath upon themselves Hannibal the sonne of Amilchar after many victories and much bloodshed of the Romans at last being overcome and doubting of the faith of Prusia the King of Bythinia to whom he was fled for succour poysoned himselfe with poyson which he alwayes carried in a Ring to that purpose At the destruction of Carthage when as Asdrubal the chiefe Captaine submitted himselfe to the mercy of Scipio his wife cursing and railing on him for his base mind threw her children into the midst of a fire and there ended her dayes and Asdrubal himselfe not long after followed her by a voluntary and violent death When Cinna besieged the city of Rome two brothers chanced to encounter
were beaten downe at Hay and shamefully put to flight neither was his anger appeased untill that the offendant being divinely and miraculously descryed was stoned to death and burnt with his children and all his substance But to come unto prophane stories let us begin with Heliodorus Treasurer of Seleuchus King of Asia who by the Kings commandement and suggestion of one Simon Governour of the Temple came to take away the gold and silver which was kept in the Treasury of the Temple and to transport it unto the Kings Treasury whereat the whole City of Jerusalem put on sackeloth and poured out prayers unto the Lord so that when Heliodorus was present in the Temple with his soldiers ready to seise upon the treasure the Lord of all spirits and power shewed so great a vision that he fell suddenly into extreame feare and trembling for there appeared unto him an horse with a terrible man sitting upon him most richly barbed which came fiercely and smote at him with his forefeet moreover there appeared two yong men notable in strength excellent in beauty and comely in apparell which stood by him on either side and scourged him with many stripes so that Heliodorus that came in with so great a company of souldiers and attendants was strucken dumbe and carried out in a litter upon mens shoulders for his strength was so abated that he could not help himselfe but lay destitute of all hope of recovery so heavy was the hand of God upon him untill by the prayers of Onias the high Priest he was restored then loe he confessed that he which dwelt in heaven had his eye on that place and defended it from all those that came to hurt and spoile it Another of this crue was in Crassus the Romane who entering Jerusalem robbed the Temple of two thousand talents of silver and gold beside the rich ornaments which amounted in worth to eight thousand Talents and a beame of beaten gold containing three hundred pound in weight for which sacriledge the vengeance of God so pursued him that within a while after he was overcome by the Parthians and together with his son slain his evill gotten goods being dispersed and the skull of his head being made a ladle to melt gold in that it might be glutted with that being dead which alive it could be never satisfied with Herod following the steps of Hircanus his predecessor that tooke out of the sepulchre of King David three thousand talents of money thinking to finde the like treasure broke up the sepulchre in the night and found no money but rich ornaments of gold which he tooke away with him howbeit to his cost for two of his servants perished in the vault by a divine fire as it is reported and he himselfe had small successe in his worldly affaires ever after Iulian the Apostata robbed the Church of the revenues thereof and took away all benevolences and contributions to schooles of learning to the end the children might not be instructed in the liberall Arts nor in any other good literature He exaggerated also his sacriledge with scornfull jeasts saying That he did further their salvation by making them poore seeing it was written in their owne Bibles Blessed are the poore for theirs is the kingdome of heaven but how this sacrilegious theefe was punished is already declared in the former booke Leo Groponymus took out of the Temple of Constantinople an excellent crowne of gold beset with precious stones which Mauritius had dedicated to the Lord but as soon as he had set it on his head a cruell fever seised upon him that he dyed very shortly The punishment of the sacriledge of Queen Vrraca in Spaine was most wonderfull and speedy for when in her war against her son Alphonsus shee wanted money she robbed the Church dedicated to S. Isidore and tooke with her owne hands the treasures up which her souldiers refused to do but ere she departed out of the Church vengeance overtooke her and strooke her dead in the place Moreover the Lord so hateth this irreligious sin that he permitteth the devill to exercise his cruelty upon the spoilers of prophane and Idolatrous temples as he did upon Dyonisius the Tyran of Syracusa who after many robberies of holy things and spoiling the Churches dyed suddenly with extreame joy as authors report He spoiled the Temple of Proserpina at Locris and shaved off the golden beard of Aesculapius at Epidamnum saying It was an unseemly thing for Apollo to be beardlesse and his son bearded he deprived Iupiter Olympus of his golden raâ—ment and gave him a woollen coat instead thereof saying it was too heavy for him in the Summer and too cold in winter and this was more convenient for both seasons The pretext of all his sacriledge was this That seeing the gods were good why should not he be partaker of their goodnesse Such another was Cambyses King of Persia who sent fifty thousand men to rob and destroy the temple of Iupiter Ammon but in their journey so mighty a tempest arose that they were overwhelmed with the sand not one of them remaining to carry newes of their successe Brennus was constrained to slay himselfe for enterprising to rob the Temple of Apollo at Delphos Philomelus Onomarchus and Phayllus went about the same practise and indeed robbed the Temple of all the treasures therein but one of them was burned another drowned and the third broke his neck to conclude the Athenians put to death a yong childe for taking but a golden plate out of Diana's Temple but first they offered him other jewels and trinkets which when he despised in respect of the plate they rigorously punished him as guilty of sacriledge Cardinall Wolsey being determined to erect two new Colledges one at Oxford and the other at Ipswich obtained licence and authority of Pope Clement the seventh to suppresse about the number of forty monasteries to furnish and set forward the building of his said Colledge which irreligious sacriledge I call it sacriledge both because he was perswaded in conscience that those goods belonged to the Church and so to him it was sacriledge as also for that he did it in pride of his heart was furthered by five persons who were the chiefe instruments of the dissolution of Daintry Monastery because the Prior and Covent would not grant them certaine lands in farme at their owne price But what punishment ensued upon them at Gods hand the world was witnesse of for of these five persons two fell at discord amongst themselves and the one slew the other for the which the survivor was hanged the third drowned himselfe in a well the fourth being then worth two hundred pounds within three yeares became so poore that he begged untill his dying day and the fifth called Doctor Allen was cruelly maimed in Ireland The Cardinall himselfe falling into the Kings displeasure was deposed from his bishoprick and dyed miserably the Colledges which he
Lonicerus in his Historicall Theatre reporteth that in a great plague one carkasse was seene to devoure it selfe in a grave which the people being superstitious thought it was a presage of the continuance of the pestilence whereupon they sent unto Wittenberge to Luther and other godly Ministers for their advise and counsell he answered that it was a delusion of the Devill and if they gave credit thereunto the sicknesse would increase and therefore advised them that despising this delusion of the Devill they should joyne together in prayer in Gods holy Temple to represse the furie and malice of the old Serpent which by that meanes they obtained At Rotingburge an honest and worthy Citizen having a beautifull daughter to whom many Sutors frequented there came also one in gallant apparrell and two men attending upon him to be a Sutor unto that beautifull maide but her father being displeased at his importunitie invited the godly Minister of the Town and some other good men to supper where entring into conference of divine matters this gallant abhorring the same desired them to talke of some other merry matters which they refusing to doe he shewed himselfe what he was and with his companions disparished into the aire leaving a filthy stinke behinde him thus the Devill doth go about to delude both men and women Manlius in Col. A certaine man abounding with wealth invited to supper a company of his neighbours and friends who when they refused to come upon occasions hee wished that all the Devils in Hell would come which wishes were not in vaine for presently great troopes of Devils came unto his house which hee entertained at the first and afterward as my Authour saith perceiving by their fingers and feet to be infernall Spirits he with his wife trembling ranne out of the house leaving a young infant in a cradle and a foole rocking of it both which were preserved alive after the departure of the Devils Iob. Fincel The Devill also appeared unto a Souldier that was given to play swearing and drinking and having played with him all night and woon his money hee told him it was time to depart and carryed him away with him into the aire whither God knowes for hee never was seene after In the yeare of our Lord 1536 there was at Franckford a maide grievously tormented with a paine in her head and a kinde of frenzie at the last she came to that passe that it was manifest that she was possessed with the Devill for if she touched any thing of any mans either head garment or anything else she drew money out of it of the usuall coyne of that countrey and presently put it into her mouth and swallowed it but sometimes they caught her hand and wrung their money from her and shewed it up and downe as a great wonder Shee also in her fits spake the high Dutch tongue perfectly which she never learned not heard of with many other things of great admiration Luther being demanded What course was to be taken to dispossesse her of this evill Spirit advised that shee should duely be brought unto the Church to heare Sermons and to bee prayed for publiquely in the Congregation by which meanes shortly after shee was delivered from Sathan and restored to her former health this relation the wise Senatours of Frankeford caused to bee published in Print Anno 1538. Certaine learned men in the Counsell of Basil went into a wood for recreation sake friendly to conferre about the controversies of that time Whilest they were there walking they heard a bird like unto a nightingall singing most sweetly above any Nightingall in the World and also sâ—w a bird upon an arme of a tree not like unto any bird one of the companie more hearty than the other said thus unto her I abjure thee in the name of the Lord Iesus Christ to tell us what thou art to whom the bird answered That she was one of the damned soules and appointed to stay in that place untill the last day and then to endure everlasting punishments whereupon she flue from the tree and cried O perpetuall and infinite 〈◊〉 Mâ—lâ—ncthon judged this to bee an evill spirit and so the event prooved for all that were present at this abjuration fell presently very sicke and shortly after died Manl. Collecta A certaine panish Clerke as Câ—sariuâ— reporteth exâ—elled all men in sweetnesse of singing whom when at a time a godly and holy man heard he said This is the voice not of a man but of the Divell 〈…〉 he had abjured in the name of Christ the Divell departed out of the bodie of the Clerke and the bodie fell downe into a dead carkasse Discip. de tempore Paulus Diaconius in his sixteenth Booke witnesseth That in the reigne of Anastasius the Emperour there were in Alexandria many women and children possessed of the Divell which being taken with furie uttered no other voice but like the barking of a dog In the yeare of our Lord 1545 an evill spirit haunted the Citie Rotuill sometimes in the shape of an hare sometimes of a Weesell sometimes of a Gâ—ose and with a cleere voice threatened that he would fire the Citie which malice of his though God prevented yet it strooke great terror into the minds of the people Iob. Finc lib. 1. In the Dukedome of Luneberge a certaine woman possessed of the Divel used to speake in her fits most pure Latine and Greeke to the great admiration of all that heard her Man in Collect. At Fribuge in Misnia a certaine man of great pietie and holinesse lying sicke and neere unto death the Divell came unto him in the habite of a Bishop hee being alone and exhorted the man to confesse all his sinnes which hee had committed in his life time and that having peâ—ne and Inkehorne he would write them downe in order but the old man being importuned by him answered Seeing thou urgest this write downe first this sentence The seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head which the Divell-Bishop no sooner heard but he vanished away leaving a filthie savour behinde him and the man died in peace Manl. in Collect. Iob Fincelius in his third booke of miracles writeth a strange storie of a godly young maide infested long and possessed at length by the Divell who in her acted strange things to the admiration of all men but at length shee was freed from his malicious molestation by the earnest prayers of godly Ministers in the Church the Divell flying out of her in the forme of a swarme of flies out of a window This storie is at large related with many strange circumstances by Philippus Lonicerus in his Historicall Theatre Page a hundred twenty and six The same Author relateth a storie of a maide of excellent beauty whom the Priest of the towne so induced and inveigled by his perswasions saying that the Pope had pardoned him for all such offences that shee became his Concubine Now when hee had invited many of
his companions to a feast together with his Concubine the Divell entered in amongst the guests snatching away the young woman and saying Thou art mine neither could the Priest or any of the companie deliver her out of his hands And thou also sayeth the Divell to the Priest and I meane to fetch thee shortly Martin Luther reporteth this storie out of the mouth of Doctor Gregorius Pontanus how two Noblemen falling out in the Court of the Emperour Maximilian vowed each others death Now the Divell taking occasion out of this malicious vow slew the one of the Noblemen in the night with a sword taken out of the others sheath into the which hee put the same againe all bloudie whereupon this Nobleman was arraigned of this murther and had bin condemned but that it was prooved that he stirred not out of his chamber all that night and therefore they concluded that it was the malicious fact of Sathan And yet the Nobleman because hee intended this murther though hee acted it not was condemned by the Emperour to perpetuall banishment And thus much concerning persons infested by the Divell Now a word or two for places Saint Augustine in his two and twentieth Booke De Civitate Dei chapter the eighth reporteth of a certaine Gentleman that lived not far from him in Affrica who had his house so infested with evill Spirits that both his servants and his Cattell died frequently This man getting unto him the company of the Priests offering up the sacrifice of the body and bloud of Christ in his house with servent prayers unto God against these evill Spirits was thereby freed from any further molestation by them as this holy Father writeth Saint Gregorie telleth us of the Spirit of one Paschasius that haunted the Bathes and was seene by Sermanus the Bishop of Capua by whose meanes and prayers the place was freed from that Ghost or rather the Ghost was freed from that place Greg. lib. 4. Dialog Cap 39. Gregorie Nissen writes also of a certaine Bath which was grievously infested by evill Spirits wherein they tooke away the lives of many men The like whereof is reported by Georgius Presbyter of another house thus molested where the evill Spirits would throw stones upon the table while they were at dinner and filled the house with myce and Serpents so that no man durst dwell therein The like storie reporteth mataphrastes in the life of Saint Pautheneus and Lycas in the life of the Emperor Anastasius Pliny in his seventh Booke the twentie seventh Epistle telleth us that in an house in Athens there appeared continually a tall and leane shape of a man drawing chaines after him which when it was seene to sinke downe and vanish into a certaine place of the ground they digged and found the dead body of a man which being removed the house was freed from the molestation What should I speake of the house of Eubatis in Corinth written by Lucian or of Pausanias the King of the Spartans whose house was haunted by an evil spirit presently after he had slain his wife Cleonice as Plutarch writeth Or of the evil spirits that haunted the grave of that cruel Tyrant Caesar Caligula Suet. Or of Nero that slew his mother Agrippina who was continually after pursued with a spirit in his mothers shape or of Otto that slew his predecessor Galba after which he never ceased to be molestred with fearful and terrible visions Or a number more which I might insert but these shal suffice as a taste of a number more that Tyraeus the Iesuite hath set down in his Book De infestis Locis I adde onely two or three and so an end Alexander of Alexandro dwelling in Rome in an house so infamous for strange sights that no man durst dwell therein reporteth that beside the night tumults and horrible and fearefull noyses there appeared unto him the shape of a map of a filthie looke threatening countenance and blacke and fearfull in bodie from which the house could by no meanes be set free Cardanus Lib. 26. c. 93. De rerum varietate reporteth the like to haye happened to an house of a certaine Nobleman in Parma In which house alwaies before the death of some of the family an old woman of an hundred yeares old appeared sitting in the chimney corner In an Island neere unto the Articke Pole there is an hill out of the which like mount Aetna there bursteth out continually fire and smoake There everie night appeareth a companie of evill Spirits representing perfectly the shape of some friends which they know whom when they go to speake unto they presently vanish out of their sight Olaus magnus But enough enough of this unsaverie subject onely let us learne hereby to beware of this ambitious enemie of mankinde who as Saint Peter sayeth Goeth about somtime like a Lion to devour us Other times like a subtill Serpent to molest us but all with a desire of our destruction I may be thought too prolix in this Argument of Gods Iudgements but considering the fiercenesse of Gods wrath against notorious sinners and the hardnesse of mens hearts to be drawne to repentance nothing I thinke can be judged too much But yet to sweeten these soure pills let me cover them a little with the sugar of Gods mercifull protection of his children by his holy Angels CHAP. XV. The conclusion concerning the protection of holy angels over such as feare God NOtwithstanding all these Judgements upon the wicked yet God is good unto Israel even to those that are of an upright heart Psalme seventie three Verse the first for as he executeth his Judgements upon the one so hee defendeth the other by his mightie providence especially by the protection of Angels Of which I purpose to give you many examples in this place and first out of the holy Scriptures Two Angels came to Lâ—t in Sodome strooke the inhabitants with blindnesse and led Lot by the hand out of Sodom readie to be destroyed by fire and brimstone Genesis the nineteenth When Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac an Angell held his hand and forbad him to kill his sonne promising him from God a blessing for his obedience Genesis 22. Iacob in his returne homeward was comforted and strengthened against his brother Esau by the blessed Angels Genesis the two and thirtieth An Angell of the Lord when the children of Israel came out of Aegypt stood betwixt the campe of the Aegyptians and the Israelites in a pillar of clouds by day to protect the Israelites against the Aegyptians Exodus 14. Balaam when being sent for by Balaac King of Moab to curse the Israelites an Angell with a sword drawne in his hand withstood him in the way and commanded him to speake nothing but what the Lord should put into his mouth Numbers 22. An Angel of the Lord apeared unto Gedeon comforted him and appointed him captain over the people to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Madianites Iudges