with other care Save of their feed within that pasture faire These Flocks a Sheepheard had of power and skill To fold and feed and save them from all ill By whose advice they liv'd whose wholsome voice They heard and fear'd with love and did rejoyce Therein with melody of song and praise And dance to magnifie his Name alwaies He is their Guide they are his Flocke and Fold Nor will they be by any else controld Well knowing that whom he takes care to feed He will preserve and save in time of need Thus liv'd this holy Flocke at hearts content Till cruell Beasts all set on ravishment Broke off their peace and ran upon with rage Themselves their Young and all their heritage Slitting their throats devoured Lambs and all And dissipating them that seap't their thrall Then did the jolly feast to fast transforme So ask't the fury of that ragefull storme Their joyfull song was turn'd to mournfull cries And all their gladnesse chang'd to well adyes Whereat Heav'n grieving clad it selfe in blacke But earth in uprore triumph't at their wracke What profits then the sheephooke of their Guide Or that he lies upon a Beacons side With watchfull eye to circumscribe their traine And hath no more regard unto their paine To save them from such dangers imminent Some say as are so often incident 'T is not for that his arme wants strength to break All proud at tempts that men of might do make Or that he will abandon unto death His Owne deare bought with exchange of his breath For must we thinke that though they dye they perish Death dyes in them and they in death reflourish And this lifes losse a better life renues Which after death eternally ensues Though then their passions never seeme so great Yet never comfort serves to swage their heat Though strength of torments be extreame in durance Yet are they guencht by Hopes and Faiths assurance For thankefull Hope if God be grounded in it Assures the heart and pacifies the spirit To them that love and reverence his Name Prosperity betides and want of shame Thus can no Tyrant pull them from the hands Of mighty God that for their safety stands Who ever sees and ever can defend Them whom he loves he loves unto the end So that the more their fury overfloweth The more each one his owne destruction soweth And as they strive with God in policy So are they sooner brought to misery Like as the savage Boare dislodg'd from den And hotly chased by pursuit of men Run's furiously on them that come him neere And goares himselfe upon the hunters speare The gentle puissant Lambe their Champion bold So help 's to conquer all that hart 's his fold That quickly they and all their Progeny Confounded is and brought to misery This is of Iudah the couragious Lion The conquering Captaine and the Rocke of Sion Whose favour is as great to Iacobs Line As is his fearefull frowne to Philistine CHAP XV. Of Apostata's and Backsliders that through infirmity and feare have fallen away IT is a kinde of Apostasie and Backsliding condemned by the first commandement of the Law when as hee that hath been once enlightened by the word of God in the knowledge of salvation and nourished and instructed therein from the cradle doth afterward cast behind his backe the grace of Gods spirit or disallow thereof and exempt himselfe from the service of God to serve Idols or make any outward shew to doe it which kinde of sinne may be committed after two sorts either through infirmity and feare or willingly and with deliberation when not being pressed or constrained thereto by any outward means a man doth cleerely and of himselfe abandon and forsake the true Religion to march under the baoner of Satan and Antichrist And this is also of two sorts either when a man doth simply forsake the profession of the Truth to follow superstition and Idolatry without attempting any thing beside the meere deniall of his Faith or when after his revolt he professeth not onely the contrary Religion but also endeavoureth himselfe by all means possible to advance it and to oppresse and lay siege to the doctrine of Gods Truth in those that maintaine the same By this it appeareth that there are three kinds of Apostasie one as it were inforced and compelled the second voluntary the last both voluntary and malitious which though they be all very hainous and offensive in the sight of God yet the second and third sort are most dangerous and of them also one more hurtfull and pernitious than the other as we shall perceive by that which followeth Now as all these kinds are different one from another so I will referre the examples of each sort to his severall place that the efficacy thereof may be the better perceived And first of those which have fallen away through feare and infirmity and afterward in order of the rest Athough that they who by the conceit and feare of tortures presented before their eyes or of speedy and cruell death threatned against them doe decline and slide backe from the profession of the Gospell may pretend for excuse the weakenesse and feeblenesse of the flesh yet doubtlesse they are found guilty before the throne of God for preferring the love of this transitory and temporary life before the zeale of his glory and the honour which is due to his onely begotten Sonne especially at that time when they are called out of purpose by their Martyrdome to witnesse his sacred truth before men and he desireth most to be glorified by their free and constant perseverance therein to the which perseverance they are exhorted by many faire promises of eternall life and happinesse and from the contrary terrified by threats of death and confusion and upon paine to be discharged from the presence of Christ before God because they have denied him before men which is the misery of all miseries and the greatest that can happen to any man for what shall become of that man whom the Sonne of God doth not acknowledge Now to prove that God is indeed highly offended at this faint hearted cowardlinesse he himself hath made knowne unto us by the punishments which divers times he hath sent upon the heads of such offendors As in the time of the Emperour Valerian the eighth persecutor of the Church under whose persecution albeit that many Champions bestirred themselves most valiantly in that combat of Faith yet there wanted not some whose hearts failing them and who in stead of maintaining and standing for their cause to the death as they ought to have done retyred and gave up themselves to the enemy at the first assault Amongst the number of which doubty souldiers there was one that went up into the Capitoll at Rome in that place where Iupiters Temple in old time stood to abjure and recant Christ and his profession which he had no sooner done but he was presently strucke dumbe and so was justly punished
THE THEATRE OF GODS JUDGEMENTS Wherein is represented the admirable Justice of GOD against all notorious sinners great and small specially against the most eminent Persons in the World whose exorbitant power had broke through the barres of Divine and Humane Law Collected out of Sacred Ecclesiasticall and Pagan Historie by two most reverend Doctors in Divinity THOMAS BEARD of Huntington and THO. TAYLOR the famous late Preacher of Mary Aldermanbury in LONDON The incomparable use of this Book for Ministers and others is largely expressed in the Preface The fourth Edition With Additions God hath Woollen feet but Iron hands Aug. LONDON Printed by S. I M. Hand are to be sold by Thomas Whitaker at the signe of the KINGS ARMES in St Pauls Churchyard MDCXLVIII To His Highnesse IAMES Duke of YORK SIR IN the lowliest posture of Humility these Historicall Examples extracted out of the choicest Authors both Ancient and Moderne by two learned Doctors are presented to Your Highnesse Neither would they presume to put themselves under so high a Patronage did I not humbly conceive that being Historicall Peeces they might be fit for Your Highnesse perusall History being the proper'st and most advantagious Study that Princes can apply themselves unto because it containes examples of all sorts In History Brave men stand as Marble Statues erected in the Temple of Immortality and Bad men as Malefactors upon Gibbets expos'd to the publick view of the world to all Posterity Although Your Highnesse hath a Royall Father for an incomparable living Patterne of all the Cardinall Vertues with their Attendants which breaking through these late Clouds of Civill Confusions shin'd with an advantage of lustre to the wonderment of the world as also against any thing that may have the least vicinity with Vice to imitate yet humbly under favour variety of Examples as of Witnesses in Law cannot doe amisse the one for confirmation of Truth the other for direction of Life In which opinion I rest Your Highnesse most Humble and most obedient Servant M. HERON THE PREFACE IF to avoid and eschew vice according to the saying of the Poet be a chiefe vertue and as it were the first degree of wisedome then it is a necessary point to know what vice and vertue is and to discerne the evill and good which either of them bring forth to the end to beware lest we dash our selves unawares against vice in stead of vertue and be caught with the deceitfull baits thereof For this cause the great and famous Philosopher about to lay open the nature of Morall vertues according to that knowledge and light which nature afforded him contented not himselfe with a simple narration of the properties essence and object of them but opposed to every vertue on each side the contrary and repugnant vice to the end that the sight of them being so out of square so hurtfull and pernicious vertue it selfe might be more admirable and in greater esteem And for this cause also God himself our soveraigne and perfect Law-giver that he might fashion and fit us to the mould of true and solid vertue useth ostner negative prohibitons then affirmative commandments in his Law to the end above all things to distract and turne us from cvill whereunto we are of our selves too too much inclined And as by this meane sin is discovered and made knowne unto us so is the pnnishment also of sin set before our eyes by those threatnings and curses which are there denounced to the end that whom the promises of life and salvation could not allure and perswade to doe well them the feare of punishment which followeth sin as a shadow doth the body might bridle and restraine from giving them over to impiety Now then if the very threatnings ought to serve for such good use shall not the execution and performance of them serve much more to wit when the tempest of Gods wrath is not onely denounced but also throwne downe effectually upon the heads of the mighty ones of the world when they are disobedient and rebellious against God And hereupon the Prophet saith That when Gods judgements are upon earth then the Inhabitants learne justice And doubtlesse it is most true that every one ought to reap profit to himself by such examples as well them which are presented daily to their view by experience as them which have been done in times past and are by benefit of History preserved from oblivion And in this regard History is accounted a very necessary and profitable thing for that in recalling to minde the truth of things past which otherwise would be buried in silence it setteth before us such effects as warnings and admonitions touching good and evill and layeth vertue and vice so naked before our eyes with the punishments or rewards inflicted or bestowed upon the followers of each of them that it may justly bee called an easie and profitable Apprentiship or Schoole for every man to learne to get wisedome at another mans cost Hence it is that History is termed of the ancient Philosophers The record and register of Time the light of Truth and the mistresse and looking-glasse of mans life insomuch as under the person of another man it teacheth and instructeth all those that apply their mindes unto it to governe and carry themselves vertuously and honestly in this life Wherefore they deserve great praise and commendation that have taken paines to inroll and put in writing the memorable acts and occurrents of their times to communicate the same to their posterity for there the high and wonderfull works of God doe most clearely and as it were to the view present themselves as his justice and providence whereby albeit hee guideth and directeth especially his owne to wit those that in a speciall and singular manner worship and trust in him as by the sacred Histories touching the state and government of the ancient and Primitive Church it may appeare yet hee ceaseth not for all that to stretch the arme of his power over all and to handle and rule the prophane and unbeleeving ones at his pleasure for he hath a soveraign Empire and predominance over all the World And unto him belongeth the direction and principall conduct of humane matters in such sort that nothing in the world commeth to passe by chance or adventure but onely and alwayes by the prescription of his will according to the which he ordereth and disposeth by a strait and direct motion as well the generall as the particular and that after a strange and admirable order And this a man may perceive if he would but mark and consider the whole body but especially the end and issue of things wherein the great and marvailous vertues of God as his bounty justice and power doe most clearely shine when he exalteth and favoureth some and debaseth and frowneth upon others blesseth and prospereth whom hee please and on the contrarie curseth and destroyeth whom he please and that deserve it It is hee also which
not respecting or beleeving there was either a God or a Devill or a hell or a Heaven and therefore he was damned there was no remedy And in this miserable case without any signe of repentance he dyed But let us come to our homebred English stories and consider the judgments of God upon the persecutors of Christs Gospell in our own countrey And first to begin with one Doctor Whittington under the raigne of King Henry the seventh who by vertue of his office being Chancellour to the Bishop had condemned most cruelly to death a certaine godly woman in a town called Chipping sadberry for the profession of the truth which the Papists then called Heresie This woman being adjudged to death by the wretched Chancellor and the time come when she should be brought to the place of her martyrdome a great concourse of people both out of towne and country was gathered to behold her end Amongst whom was also the foresaid Doctor there present to see the execution performed The godly woman and manly Martyr with great constancy gave over her life to the fire and refused no paines or torments to keep her conscience cleere and unreproveable against the day of the Lord. Now the Sacrifice being ended as the people began to returne homeward they were encountred by a mighty furious Bull which had escaped from a Butcher that was about to kill him for at the same time as they were slaying this silly Lamb at the townes end a Butcher was as busie within the towne in slaying of this Bull. But belike not so skilfull in his art of killing of beasts as the Papists be in murthering Christians the Bull broke loose as I said and ranne violently through the throng of the people without hurting either man or childe till he came to the place where the Chancellour was against whom as pricked forward with some supernaturall instinct hee ranne full butt thrusting him at the first blow through the paunch and after goaring him through and through and so killed him immediately trayling his guts with his hornes all the street over to the great admiration and wonder of all that saw it Behold here a plaine demonstration of Gods mighty power and judgement against a wretched persecutor of one of his poore flocke wherein albeit the carnall sence of man doth often impute to blinde chance that which properly pertaineth to the only power and providence of God yet none can be so dull and ignorant but must needs confesse a plaine miracle of Gods almighty power and a worke of his own finger Stephen Gardiner also was one of the grand butchers in this land what a miserable end came hee unto Even the same day that Bishop Ridley and Master Latimer were burned at Oxford he hearing newes thereof rejoyced greatly and being at dinner ate his meat merrily but ere he had eaten many bits the sudden stroke of Gods terrible hand fell upon him in such sort that immediately he was taken from the board and brought to his bed where he continued 15 dayes in intolerable anguish by reason he could not expell his urine so that his body being miserably inflamed within who had inflamed so many Godly Martyrs was brought to a wretched end with his tongue all blacke and swolne hanging out of his mouth most horribly a spectacle worthy to be beholden of all such bloudy burning persecutors Bonner Bishop of London another arch butcher though he lived long after this man and dyed also in his bed yet was it so provided of God that as he had been a persecutor of the light and a child of darknesse so his carkasse was tumbled into the earth in obscure darkenes at midnight contrary to the order of all other Christians and as he had been a most cruell murtherer so was he buried amongst theeves and murtherers a place by Gods judgement rightly appointed for him Morgan Bishop of S. Davids sitting upon the condemnation of the blessed Martyr Bishop Farrar whose roome he unjustly usurped was not long after stricken by Gods hand after such a strange sort that his meat would not go downe but rise and picke up againe sometime at his mouth sometime blowne out of his nose most horrible to behold and so continued unto his death Where note moreover that when Master Leyson being then Sheriffe at Bishop Farrars burning had fetcht away the cattell of the said Bishop from his servants house into his owne custody divers of them would never eate meat but lay bellowing and roaring and so dyed Adde unto this Bishop Morgan Iustice Morgan a Judge that sate upon the death of the Lady Iane this Iustice not long after the execution of the said Lady fell mad and being thus bereft of his wits dyed having ever in his mouth Lady Iane Lady Iane. Bishop Thornton Suffragan of Dover another grand persecutor comming upon a Saturday from the Chapter-house at Canterbury and there upon the Sunday following looking upon his men playing at bowles fell suddenly into a palsey and dyed shortly after And being exhorted to remember God in his extremity of sicknesse So I do saith he and my Lord Cardinall too c. After him succeeded another Suffragan ordained by the foresaid Cardinall and equall to his Predecessor in cruell persecuting of the Church who injoying his place but a short time fell downe a paire of staires in the Cardinals chamber at Greenwich and broke his necke and that presently let it be noted after he received the Cardinals blessing The like sudden death hapned to Doctor Dunning the bloudy and wretched Chancellour of Norwich who after he had most rigorously condemned and murthered a number of simple and faithfull servants of God was suddenly stricken with death even as he was sitting in his chaire The like also fell upon Berry Commissary of Norfolke another bloudy persecutor who foure dayes after Queene Maries death having made a great Feast whereat was present one of his concubines as he was comming home from the Church where he had ministred the Sacrament of Baptisme fell downe suddenly to the ground with a heavy groane and never stirred after thus ending his miserable life without any shew of repentance So Doctor Geffrey Chancellor of Salisbury another of the same stampe was suddenly stricken with the mighty hand of God in the midst of his buildings where he was constrained to yeeld up his life which had so little pitty of other mens lives before and it is to be noted that the day before he was thus stricken he had appointed to call before him ninety poore Christians to examine them by inquisition but the goodnesse of God and his tender providence prevented him Doctor Foxford Chancellor to Bishop Stockesley dyed also suddenly So did Iustice Lelond the persecutor of one Ieffery Hurst Alexander the Keeper of Newgate a cruell enemy to those that lay in that prison for Religion dyed very miserably being so swollen that he was more like a monster than a man and
justice and equity in all causes neither did it grieve them so to doe being perswaded that whilest they obeyed their lawes nothing could betide them but good The Lacedemonian Kings were in such bondage to the lawes of their countrey that the Ephori which were set up to none other end but to be a bridle to hold them backe from doing what they listed had absolute authority to correct them when they had committed any fault which subjection nothing displeased King Theopompus as it is apparent by the answer he made his wise that reproved him once in anger saying By his cowardise he would leave a lesse kingdome to his children than he had received of his Ancestors Nay saith he a greater forsomuch as more durable and permanent Plutarch praising the uprightnesse of King Alcamenes who for feare to breake the law refused divers presents that were sent him bursteth into this speech O heart worthy of a King that hath preferred the authority of the law before his owne profit Where are those fellowes now that cry Kings pleasures ought to be observed for Lawes and that a Prince may make a law but is not subject to it himselfe And this is that which Plutarch saith as concerning that matter who lived under Trajan the Emperor Cornelius Tacitus discovering the beginning and originall of the Romane Civill Law saith That Servius the third King of Rome after Romulus and Numa was the only man that most established those lawes whereunto Kings themselves ought to yeeld and be obedient And admit that the Emperours swayed with great power and authority almost all the world yet for all their fiercenesse and haughtinesse of minde Pliny durst tell Trajan That an Emperour ought to use to carry himselfe with such good government in his Empire as if he were sure to give up an account of all his actions Thou must not saith hee desire more liberty to follow thine owne lust than any one of us doe a Prince is not set over the law but the law placed in authority above the Prince This was the admonition of that heathen man Likewise Antonius and Severus two mighty Emperours although by reason of an opinion of their owne greatnesse and haughtinesse wherewith they flattered themselves bragged that they were not subject to any law yet they added this clause withall That notwithstanding they would live according to the direction of the law This saith Theodosius and Valentinion two no lesse mighty Emperours is a voice becomming the Royall Majesty and greatnesse of a King To confesse himselfe to live under a law and in truth it is a thing of greater importance than the imperiall dignity it selfe to put soveraignty under the authority of law Amongst many other good lessons and exhortations which Lewis that good King gave unto his sonne on his death-bed this was one worthy the remembring how he commanded him to love and feare God with all his strength and to take heed of doing any thing that should be contrary to his law whatsoever should befall him and to provide that the good lawes and statutes of his kingdome might be observed and the priviledges of his subjects maintained to forbid Iudges to favour him more than any others when any cause of his owne came in tryall Thereby giving us thus much to understand That every good King ought to submit himselfe in obedience under the hand of God and under the rule of justice and equity Wherefore there is neither King nor Keisar that can or ought to exempt himselfe from the observance of sacred and upright lawes which if they resist or disanull doubtlesse they are culpable of a most hainous crime and especially of Rebellion against the King of Kings CHAP. VII Of the punishment that seised upon Pharaoh King of Aegypt for resisting God and transgressing the first commandement of the Law WEe have sufficiently declared in the premisses that the mightiest potentates of this world are bound to range themselves under the obedience of Gods law it remaineth now that we produce examples of those punishments that have fallen upon the heads of the transgressours of the same according to the manner of their transgression of what sort soever which that we may the better describe it behooveth us to follow the order of the Commandements as the examples wee bring may be fitly referred to any of them And first we are to understand that when God said Thou shalt have none other Gods before me hee condemneth under these words the vanity of men that have forged to themselves a multitude of gods hee forbiddeth all false Religion and declareth That hee would be acknowledged to be the sole and true God and that we should serve worship love feare and obey him in and above all things and whosoever it be that doth otherwise either by hindring his worship or afflicting those that worship him the same man provoketh his heavy wrath to bee throwne upon him to his utter ruine and destruction This is the indignation that lighted upon Pharaoh King of Aegypt as wee read in the booke of God who being one of the most puissant Kings of the earth in his age God chose him for an object to shew his wonderfull power by the means of horrible plagues and scourges which hee cast upon him and by destroying him with all his armies at the length as his rebellion well deserved For he like a cruell Tyrant continuing to oppresse the children of Israel without giving them any release or breathing time from their misery or liberty to serve God although by Moses in the name and authority of God who made himselfe well enough knowne unto him without the help of any written law hee was many times instantly urged and requested thereunto so many judgements and punishments assayled him one in the necke of another in such sort that at length he was overtaken and ensnared therewith First of all the very waters of Aegypt being converted into bloud proclaimed warre against him then the frogges which covered the face of the earth climbed up even to his chamber and bed and filling every corner of his land sounded him an alarme next a muster of lice and gnats and such other troublesome and stinking creatures summoned him to combate an handfull of embers seattered in the aire by Moses were unto him as the strokes of a stone or a shaft which did wonderfully disfigure their bodies with boyles and most noysome scabbes afterward the grashoppers were put in battell array against him together with the hailestones horrible thunders and lightenings wasting and spoyling and running up and downe grievously through his whole land After all these bitter blowes the Tyrant being cut short and being so besieged on every side with hideous and palpable darknesse that he could not tell which wayes to turne himselfe yet would hee not be brought to any reason but continued obstinate and hardened against God though all the elements with heaven and earth had taken armour together
and conspired his destruction Therefore while hee remained in this wretched state Gods Angell punished him in the person of his eldest sonne which died suddenly in one night together with all the first borne of Aegypt wherewithall both hee and all his people being greatly moved and grieved at length gave the Israelites not onely leave but also hasted them to depart but anon as he saw them going like a man bestraught he ranne after them againe and pursued them with a mighty army untill God in the meane while opening a passage for his children overthwart the deep Red sea attended him in the mid way where hee surprised and ensnared him overthrew and violently overturned the wheeles of his chariots and put his whole army to a burly burly and that he might utterly destroy him caused the sea from each side to returne to his channell which drowned and devoured him and all his army And this is one of the noblest and fearfullest judgements of God that can be mentioned and therefore is very often recounted in many places of the Scripture as a thing most memorable above others Neither ought wee to marvell if so notable a History as this is not set downe among the writings of prophane authors for that besides their Histories doe not ordinarily stretch so farre as to record such antient acts there is also no doubt but the successors of that Tyrant and all the Aegyptians sought all means possible to cancell and blot out the memory of their so great and horrible ruine And if by chance any Historiographer make mention of the departure of the Israelites out of Aegypt it is done in such sort that the truth is not onely disguised but wholly perverted by them and in place thereof nothing but lies and falshood foisted in Like as Pharaoh by his unjust and outragious persecuting of the children of God made himselfe so guilty of Gods wrath that he deserved to be utterly destroyed with the greatest part of his people so also after their miraculous deliverance whosoever laboured either to hurt hinder or resist them did no lesse incurre Gods displeasure and fierce wrath against them wherewith they were consumed whereof the overthrow and discomfiture of Amalech is a plaine example who admit all the great wonders which God had done for the Israelites in Aegypt and in the red sea whereof the brute being blowne into all corners of the earth hee could not be ignorant yet was he so malitious and foolish hardy as to take up armour against them and to meet them to bid them battell but he and his wicked complices were by Ioshuah and his poore people though unwarliking and unacquainted with such actions lately crept out of bondage wherein they had been only exercised to make mortar and bricke and not to handle weapons discomfited and overthrowne for the Lord of Hosts who is the divider of victories to whom he pleaseth at the servent prayers of his servant Moses fought for them to the confusion of Amalech and all his traine and therefore he commanded Moses to put this deed of his in writing as a thing worthy to be remembred who also erected an Altar in the same place for a perpetuall monument of so noble a victory As Amalech and for the like sinne were Arad a King of the Canaanites Sehon King of Amorites and Og King of Basan with their people and cities destroyed and rased downe so the Madianites enterprising to withstand the foresaid Israelites by the wicked and pernicious counsell of Balaam were subdued and put to the sword even five Kings of them together not one escaping save the young Virgins which had never committed fornication with man After that the Children of Israel had continued a season peaceably in the Land of Canaan which the Lord had bestowed upon them then did Eglon King of Moab rise up and subdued them by warre and tyrannized over them eighteene yeares And although it was Gods will that they should be thus chastised because of their corruption and iniquity neverthelesse this Moabite his Rod hee caused in regard of his love to his people to be slaine by Ahud an Israelite as hee was taking his case in his chamber In like manner was his wrath stirred up against Iabin King of Asor who had oppressed Israel twenty yeares whose army though it was great and well appointed was notwithstanding by Baraks handfull of men under the conduct and rule of Deborah the Prophetesse wondrously discomfited in such sort that of all the multitude there remained not one that felt not the edge of the sword except Sisera their Captaine who escaping from the battell by betaking him to his heeles turned in by chance into the house of a woman called Iahel who hating him as he slept with a hammer fastened a naile into his temples and thus escaping from those whom he feared he was murthered by her whom he trusted And so this valiant warriour as he was overcome in battell by the conduct of a woman so was he put to death by the hand of a woman That which happened to the Madianites in the time of Gideon is admirable and very strange who being furnished with a mighty army of souldiers with the Amalekites and other their Allyes to destroy Israel were so scarred and scattered at the sound of the trumpets and brightnesse of torches of three hundred men at the most that were with Gideon that through the marvellous astonishment they were in they turned their blades into their owne bosomes and murthered one another till the greatest part of them were destroyed and the residue being put to flight and pursued by the men of Ephraim two of their Kings Oreb and Zeb were taken and slaine A while after it came to passe that the Princes of the Philistims who had oppressed the people of God by the space of forty yeares being assembled together with all their people in the Temple of Dagon their god even then when after their sacrifices they thought to make themselves most sport and pastime with poore Sampson whose eyes in mockery contempt they had put out were altogether massacred by the fall of the house which Sampson by his strength pulled upon their heads which was the greatest overthrow that before times by his means they had received In the raigne of Saul King of Israel Agag King of Amalech the posterity of those that laid wait for Israel in the desart as they came out of Aegypt were by Saul following the commandement of the Lord set upon who running upon him and his people made a great slaughter and butchery of them not sparing man woman nor childe but the King onely whom he tooke to mercy and led captive which he ought not to have done This Captaine being thus spared by one that was but little better than himself could not so escape for the Prophet Samuel became the executioner of Gods vengeance upon him since Saul refused it and with his own
them back homewards conducted by one appointed for the purpose who not suffering him to ride the common and beaten way but leading him a new course through uncoth paths brought him into an ambush of theeves placed there by the Bishops appointment who set upon him and murthered him at once but it is notoriously knowne that not one of that wicked rabble came to a good end but were consumed one after another In a City of Scotland called Fanum Ianius the chiefe mart Towne of that countrey soure of the chiefest citizens were accused by a Monke before the Cardinall for interrupting him in a Sermon and by him condemned to be hanged like heretickes when no other crime could bee laid to their charge save that they desired the Monke to tie himselfe to his text and not to rove up and down as he did without any certain scope or application of matter Now as they went to execution their wives fell downe at the Cardinals feet beseeching and intreating pardon for their husbands lives which he was so farre from granting that hee accused them also of heresie and especially one of them whose name was Helene for hee caused her young infant to be pulled out of her armes and her to be put to death with her husband for speaking certaine words against the Virgin Mary which by no testimonies could be proved against her Which doome the godly woman taking cheerfully and desiring to hang by her husbands side they would not doe him the least favour but drowned her in a River running by that it might be truly said that no jot of mercy or compassion remained in them But ere long the cruell Cardinall found as little favour at another Butchers hands that slewe him in his Chamber when hee dreamed of nothing lesse and in his Cardinalls robes hanged him over the wall to the view of men And thus God revenged the death of those innocents whose blouds never ceased crying for vengeance against their murtherer untill he had justly punished him in the same kinde and after the same fashion which hee had dealt with them Of this Cardinall called David Beton Buchananus reporteth many strange acts of Cruelty both in the Common-wealth of Scotland in matters of State as also in the Church in questions of Religion how he suborned a false testament in the dead Kings name whereby hee would have created himselfe chiefe Governour of the whole kingdom had not his knavery bin soon detected and how he set many together by the eares of the chiefest sort not caring which of them soonest perished so that they perished glutting himselfe thus with bloud But amongst all his cruelties the least was not extended towards the professors of the Gospell whom hee endeavoured by all means possible not to suppresse only but even utterly to extinguish Many he put to death with fire divers he forced to revolt with extreame torments and many he punished with banishment among whom was George Buchanan the reporter of this history who being taken and imprisoned escaped through a window whilest his keepers slept out of this Lions jaws Amongst the rest there was one George Sephocard a most learned and sincere Preacher of the word of God in whom his savage cruelty was most eminent This man abiding at one Iohn Cockburns house a man of no small reckoning account about 7 miles from Edenborough was first sent for by the Cardinall after being not delivered he together with the Vicegerent beset all the passages that he might not escape so that Cockburn was constrained to deliver him into their hands upon the assurance of Earl Bothuel who promised to protect him from all injuries How be it notwithstanding the Earles promise and the countermand of the Vicegerent refused to meddle with that innocent man yea and gave command That no proceedings should be made against him yet the bloudy tyrant condemned him tobe put to death also caused the condemnation to be executed and that which doth more aggravate his cruelty he caused a place to be prepared for him and his company hung with tapestry and silke very sumptuously that he might be a joyfull spectatour and eye-witnesse of his torments But marke how the just vengeancee of God shewed it selfe even in that place for as it is in the former story not long after this vile butcher was murthered in his owne house by the conspiracy of Normanus Leslius son to the Earle of Rothusia who early in a morning surprised his porters and all his servants in their sleepe and murthered him in his bed that had murthered so many Christians and to stop the rage and fury of his friends hung out his body for a spectacle unto them in the same place where a little before he had with such triumph beheld the tortures of that guiltlesse Martyr Insomuch that almost all did not only acknowledge the just view of Gods judgement herein but also remembred the last words of that constant Saint who being ready to give up the ghost urtered this speech in effect He that sitteth and beholdeth us so proudly in that high place shall within few dayes as reproachfully lye as now arrogantly he sitteth A story not much unlike in manner of punishment happened in the raign of King Henry the eighth to one Sir Ralph Ellerker Knight marshall in the towne of Calice when as Adam Damlip otherwise called George Bucker a sincere Preacher of the word of God was condemned to be executed as a traytour in pretence though indeed for nothing but defending the truth against the dregs of Popery would not suffer the innocent and godly man to declare either his faith or the cause he dyed for but said to the Executioner Dispatch the knave have done not permitting him to speake a word in his owne defence to cleere himselfe from the treason that was objected not proved against him but this cruell Tyrant swore he would not away before he saw the trayterous heart out Now this said Sir Ralph in a skirmish or road betweene the French and us at Bulloine was amongst others slaine whose only death sufficed not the enemies but after that they had stripped him starke naked they cut off his privy members and pulled the heart out of his body so lefthim a terrible example to all bloudy and mercilesse men for no cause was knowne why they should use him so rather than the rest but that it is written Faciens justitias Dominus judicia omnibus injuria pressis Thomas Bâ—aver one of the Privy Councellors of the King of Scots was a sore persecutor of the faithfull in that land for which cause lying on his death bead he fell into despaire and said he was damned and a cast-away and when the Monkes came about him to comfort him he cryed out upon them saying That their Masses and other trash would do him no good for he never beleeved them but all that he did was for love of lucre and not of Religion
so rotten within that no man could abide the smell of him His sonne called Iames after hee had spent all his fathers substance riotously fell downe suddenly in Newgate market and there wretchedly dyed Iohn Peter sonne in law to the said Alexander and no lesse cruell to the poore Christians rotted away and so dyed Cox an earnest Protestant in King Edwards dayes and in Queene Maries time a Papist and a Promoter going well and in health to bed as it seems was dead before the morning All these almost with many more which I could recite dyed suddenly being most cruell and horrible persecutors of the flocke of Christ. Many there were which though they escaped sudden death yet did not avoid a most miserable and wretched end In the number whereof I may place first Alexander the Keeper of Newgate together with his sonne in law Iohn Peter of whom mention was made before Also Master Woodroofe the Sheriffe of London who used to rejoyce at the death of the poore Saints of Christ and would not suffer Master Rogers going to his Martyrdome to speake with his children this man lay seven or eight yeares bed-rid having one halfe of his body all benummed and so continued till his dying day Also one Burton the Bayliffe of Crowland in Lincolneshire who having been a Protestant in outward shew in King Edwards dayes as soone as Queene Mary was quietly seated in the kingdome became very earnest in setting up the Masse againe and constrained the Curate by threats to leave the English Service and say Masse This blinde Bailiffe not long after as he was riding with one of his neighbours a Crow flying over his head let her excrements fall upon his face the poysoned stinke and savour whereof so annoyed his stomacke that he never lest vomiting untill he came home and there after certaine dayes with extreame paine of vomiting crying and cursing the Crow desperately he dyed without any token of repentance Also one Robert Baldwine who being stricken with lightning at the taking of William Seaman pined away and dyed Robert Blomfield also Bailiffe to Sir Iohn Ierningham after he had prosecuted one Master Browne pined away both in his goods and body by a consumption of both William Swallow the cruell tormentor of George Egles was shortly after plagued of God that all the haire of his head and nailes of his fingers and toes went off his eyes were well neere closed up that he could scant see his wife was also stricken with the falling sicknesse with the which malady she was never infected before Lastly to omit many others one Twiford is not to be forgotten who in King Henries dayes was a busie doer in setting up stakes for the burning of poore Martyrs and seeing the stakes consume so fast provided a big tree cutting off the top and set it up in Smithfield saying I will have a stake that shall hold But behold Gods hand before ever that tree was consumed the state of Religion turned and he fell into an horrible disease rotting alive above the ground before he dyed Besides these many there were that hanged themselves As for example one Clarke an open enemy to the Gospell in King Edwards dayes hanged himselfe in the Tower So did Pavier the Towne Clarke of London another bitter enemy to the Gospell So did the sonne of one Levar a husbandman that mocked and scorned at the holy Martyr Master Latimer being dead and that at the same houre as neere as could be gathered whilst his father was railing upon the dead Martyr So did Henry Smith a Lawyer who having been a Protestant became a Papist Others drowned themselves as namely Richard Long at Calice in King Henry the eights dayes Iohn Plankney a Fellow of New Colledge in Oxford in the yeare of our Lord 1566. And one Lanington a Fellow of the same Colledge in a Well at Padua or as some thinke at Rome Others were stricken with madnesse in which ranke place first Justice Morgan of whom wee made mention a little before Then a Sheriffes servant that railed upon Iames Abbes a godly Martyr as he was going to be burned saying That hee was an Heretique and a mad man but as soone as the fire was put to the Martyr such was the fearefull stroke of Gods justice upon him he was there presently in the sight of all the people stricken with a frenzy crying out aloud that Iames Abbes was saved but he was damned and so continued till his dying day So likewise one William a Student in the inner Temple in the midst of his railing against the Gospell of Christ and the Professors thereof fell starke mad Many other examples of the like kind I could here adde but he that desireth to know and read more thereof let him have recourse unto the latter end of the Acts and Monuments of the English Church where he shall find a whole Catalogue of such like examples The overthrow of many mighty ones in our Age serve for a looking glasse to represent the high exploits of the wonderfull judgements which the King of Kings hath sent upon those that have in any place or countrey whatsoever resisted and strove against the Truth whereof some after great victories which by their singular dexterity and worldly wisedome in the mannaging of their affaires have atchieved by a perverse and overthwart end contrary to their former prosperity have darkned and obscured the renowne and glory of all their brave deeds their good report dying with their bodyes and their credit impaired and buried with them in their graves Others in like manner having addressed all their forces and laid their battery and placed all their Pieces and Canons against the wals of Sion and thinking to blow it up and consume it to ashes have made many breaches into the sides thereof yea they have so bent all their strength against it and afflicted it with such outragious cruelty and unmercifull effusion of bloud that it is pitifull and lamentable to remember howbeit after all their policies and practises their courage hath been at length abated and themselves raked one after another out of this world with manifest markes of the just vengeance of God upon them For though it may seem for a time that God slepeth and regardeth not the wrongs and oppressions of his servants yet he never faileth to carry a watchfull eye upon them and in his fittest time to revenge himselfe upon their enemies CHAP. XIV A Hymne of the persecution of Gods Church and the deliverance of the same ALong the verdant fields all richly dy'd With Natures paintments and with Flora's pride Whose goodly bounds are lively Chryst all streames Begirt with bow'rs to keep backe Phoebus beames Even when the quenchlesse torch the Worlds great eye Advanc'â— his rayes orethwartly from the skie And by his power of heavenly influence Reviv'd the seeds of Springs decay'd essence Then many flockes unite in peace and love Not seeking ought but naturall behove Past quietly uncharg'a
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
then is the murdering of Parents especially detestable when a man is so possessed with the Devill or transported with a hellish fury that he lifteth up his hand against his own father or mother to put them to death this is so monstrous and inormous an impiety that the greatest Barbarians ever have had it in detestation wherefore it is also expresly commanded in the Law of God That whosoever smiteth his father or mother in what sort so ever though not to death yet he shall die the death If the disobedience unreverence and contempt of children towards their Parents are by the just judgements of God most rigorously punished as hath beene declared before in the first commandement of the second Table how much more then when violence is offered and above all when murder is committed Thus the Aegyptians punished this sinne they put the committants upon a stacke of thornes and burnt them alive having beaten their bodies beforehand with sharpe reeds made of purpose Solon being demanded why he appointed no punishment in his Lawes for Paricides answered that there was no necessity thinking that the wide world could not afford so wicked a wretch It is said that Romulus for the same cause ordained no punishment in his Common wealth for that crime but called every murderer a Paricide the one being in his opinion a thing execrable and the other impossible And in truth there was not for 600 yeeres space according to Plutarchs report found in Rome any one that had committed this execrable fact The first Paricide that Rome saw was Lucius Ostius after the first Punicke warre although other Writers affirme that M. Malliolus was the first and Lucius the second how soever it was they both underwent the punishment of the Law Pompeia which enacted That such offenders should be thrust into a sacke of Leather and an Ape a Cocke a Viper and a Dog put in to accompany them and then to be throwne into the water to the end that these beasts being enraged and animated one against another might wreke their teene upon them and so deprive them of life after a strange fashion being debarred of the use of the aire water and earth as unworthy to participate the very Elements with their deaths much lesse with their lives which kinde of punishment was after practised and confirmed by the constitution of Constantine the Great And albeit the regard of the punishment seemed terrible and the offence it selfe much more monstrous yet since that time there have beene many so perverse and exceeding wicked as to throw themselves headlong into that desperate gulfe As Cleodoricke sonne of Sigebert King of Austria who being tickled with an unsatiable lust of raigne through the deceivable perswasions of Cleodovius King of France slew his father Sigebert as he lay asleepe in his Tent in a forrest at noone time of the day who being weary with walking laid himselfe downe there to take his rest but for all that the wicked wretch was so farre from attaining his purpose that it fell out cleane contrary to his expectation for after his fathers death as he was viewing his treasures and ransacking his coffers one of Cleodovius factors strooke him suddenly and murdered him and so Cleodovius seised both upon the Crowne and Treasures After the death of Hircanus Aristobulus succeeded in the government of Judea which whilest he strove to reduce into a kingdome and to weare a crown contrary to the custome of his predecessors his mother other brethren contending with him about the same he cast in prison took Antigonus his next brother to be his associate but ere long a good gratefull son he famished her to death with hunger that had fed him to life with her teares even his naturall mother And after perswaded with false accusations caused his late best beloved Antigonus to be slaine by an ambush that lay by Strato's tower because in the time of his sicknesse he entred the Temple with pompe But the Lord called for quittance for the two bloodsheds immediately after the execution of them for his brothers blood was scarce washed off the ground ere in the extreamity of his sicknesse he was carried into the same place and there vomiting up blood at his mouth and nosthrils to be mingled with his brothers he fell downe starke dead not without horrible tokens of trembling and despaire Nero that unnaturall Tyran surpassed all that lived as in all other vices so in this for he attempted thrice by poyson to make away his mother Agrippina and when that could not prevaile by reason of her usuall Antidotes and preservatives hee assayed divers other meanes as first a devise whereby she should be crushed to death as she slept a loosened beame that should fall upon her and secondly by shipwracke both which when she escaped the one by discovery and the other by swimming he sent Anicâ—tus the Centurion to slaughter her with the sword who with his companions breaking up the gate of the City where she lay rushed into her Chamber and there murdered her It is written of her that when she saw there was no remedy but death she presented her belly unto the murderer and desired him to kill her in that part which had most deserved it by bringing into the world so vile a monster and of him that he came to view the dead carkasse of his mother and handled the members thereof commending this and discommending that as his fancy led him and in the meane time being thirsty to call for drinke so farre was he from all humanity and touch of Nature but he that spared not to embrue his hands in her blood that bred him was constrained ere long to offer violence to his own life which was most deere unto him Henry the son of Nicolotus Duke of Herulia had two wicked cruell and unkind sonnes by the yonger of whom with the consent of the elder he was traiterously murdered because he had married a third wife for which cause Nicolotus their cousin-german pursued them both with a just revenge for he deprived them of their kingdome and drove them into exile where they soon after perished Selymus the tenth Emperour of Turkes was so unnaturall a childe that he feared not to dispossesse his father Bajazet of the crown by treason and next to bereave him of his life by poyson And not satisfied therewith even to murder his two brethren and to destroy the whole stock of his own blood But when hee had raigned eight yeares vengeance found him out and being at his backe so corrupted and putrified his reins that the contagion spread it selfe over all his body so that he dyed a beast-like and irksome death and that in the same place where he had before oppressed his father Bajazet with an army to wit at Chiurle a city of Thracia in the year of our Lord 1520. in the moneth of September Charles the younger by surname called Crassus
truely is nothing else but to reject and disannull that which Saint Paul requireth as a duty of all Christians namely That fornication and all uncleannesse should not once be named amongst us neither filthinesse foolish talking or jesting which are things not comely forsomuch as no whoremonger nor unclean person can have any inheritance in the Kingdom of God Plate the Philosopher though a Panim and ignorant of the knowledge of the true God for bad expresly in his common wealth Poets and Painters to represent or set to the view any unclean and lascivious counterfeit whereby good manners might be any wayes depraved Aristotle following his masters steps ordained in his Politiques That all filthy communication should be banished out of his City How far then were they from giving leave and liberty for filthy and stinking brothel-houses to be erected and maintained In this therefore the very Heathen are a shame and reproach to those that call themselves Christians and Catholiques Besides the goodly reason which they alleage for their upholding of their Stues is so far from the truth that the contrary is ever truer namely that by their odious and dishonest liberty more evill ariseth to the world than otherwise would insomuch as it setteth open a wide door to all dissolutenesse and whoredomes and an occasion of lechery and uncleannesse even to those that otherwise would abstain from all such filthy actions How many young folke are there as well men as women that by this meanes give themselves over to loosenesse and undo themselves utterly How many murders are have been and still will be committed thereby What a disorder confusion and ignominy of nature is it for a father to lie with her with whom his son had been but a little before Or the son to come after the father and such like but by the just judgement of God it commeth to passe that that which is thought to be enclosed within the precincts of certain appointed places spreadeth it selfe at large so far that oftentimes whole streets and Cities are poysoned yea even their houses who in regard of their place either in the Law or policy ought to stop the stream of such vices nay which is more marvell they that with open mouth vaunt themselves to be Gods Lieutenants on earth Christs Vicars and Successours to his Apostles are so filthy and abhominable as to suffer publike bauds and whores to be under their noses uncontroled and which is more to enrich their treasures by their traffique Cornelius Agrippa saith That of all the â—e-bauds of his time Pope Sextus was most infamous for he builded a most glorious and stately Stues if any state or glory can abide in so bad a place as well for common Adultery as unnaturall Sodomy to be exercised in He used as Heliogabalus was wont to do to maintain whole heards of whores with whom he participated his friends and servants as they stood in need and by Adulteries reared yearly great revenues into his purse Baleus saith That at this day every whore in Rome payes tribute to the Pope a Iulle which amounted then to twenty thousand Ducats by the year at least but now the number is so encreased that it ariseth to fourty thousand I thinke there is none ignorant how Pope Paul the third had by computation five and fourty thousand whores and curtezans that paid him a monethly tribute for their whoredomes and thus also this holy Father was a protectour and upholder of the Stues and deserved by his villanous behaviour for he was one of the lewdest Adulterers of that time to bear the name of the master and erectour of these filthy places and herein both he and the rest of that crue have shewed themselves enemies to God and true Antichrists indeed and have not onely imitated but far surpassed shamelesse and wicked Caligula in all filthy and monstrous dealings Thou shalt not saith Moses bring the hire of a whore into the house of the Lord thy God for any vow by what title then can these honest men exact so great rent from their whorish Tenants seeing it is by the Law of God a thing so abhominable Truly it can no otherwise be but a kinde of art of baudery as may be gathered out of the Law which is in F. deritu nupt L. palem Qui habet mancipia c. The meaning whereof is That he which for gain prostituteth his slaves to the lust of men and draweth thereby commodity to himselfe is a Baud He is also stained with infamy by the Law Athletas that partaketh the gain or wages of a whore How much more then is that Law of Iustinian to be commended which commandeth all whores to be banished out of the confines of Cities and Commonwealths It was also a worthy and memorable act of Theodosius when he rooted the Stues out of Rome and of Saint Lewis King of France that pulled downe the Stues at Paris and chased away as neer as he could all loose and whorish women from his Dominions The antient Romans permitted no woman to become an open whore before she had made a formall declaration of her intent before the Aediles thinking by this meanes to quench their hot lust because they would be ashamed to make such an open confession And by a decree of the Senate it was enacted That no woman comming of gentile stocke should be suffered to give her selfe over to this Trade it being a stain and blot to true Nobility CHAP. XXIIII Of Whoredomes committed under colour of Marriage SEeing that oftentimes it falleth out that those which in shew seem most honest thinke it a thing lawfull to converse together as man and wife by some secret and private contract without making account of the publike celebration of Marriage as necessary but for some worldly respects according as their foolish and disordinate affections misperswadeth them to dispence therewith It shall not be impertinent as we go to give warning how unlawfull all such conversation is and how contrary to good manners and to the laudable customes of all civill and well governed people For it is so far from deserving the name of Marriage that on the other side it can be nothing but plain whoredom and fornication the which name and title Tertullian giveth to all secret and privy meeting which have not been allowed of received and blessed by the Church of God Again besides the evill examples which is exhibited there is this mischief moreover that the children of such a bed cannot be esteemed legitimate yea God himselfe accurseth such law lesse familiarity as the mischiefes that arise therefrom do declare whereof this one example which we alledge shall serve for sufficient proof In the reigne of Lewis the Ninth King of France and Iulius the Second Pope of Rome there was a Gentleman of Naples called Antonio Bologne that had been Governour of Fredericke of Arragons house when he was King of Naples and had the same
escape unpunished for his perfidie and impietie For first his warre-like affaires in the East prospered not then a little before the end of his life he grievously complained that he had innovated the faith in his kingdome At last in those sighings and complaints he parted this life with a grievous and violent disease The Unkle of Iulian the Apostata called also Iulianus at Antioch in the temple prophaned the holy table with pissing upon it And when Eusoius the Bishop rebuked him for it he stroke him with his fist Not long after he was taken with a grievous disease of his bowels putrifying and miserably died his excrements comming from him not by their ordinary passages but by his wicked mouth Under the Emperour Valence a wonderfull haile the stones being as big as a man could hold in his hand was sent upon Constantinople and slew many both men and beasts for that the Emperour had banished many famous men that would not communicate with Eudoxius the Arrian and for the same reason a great part of Germa a Citie of Hellespont was throwne downe by an earthquake and in Phrygia such a famine succeeded that the Inhabitants were faine to change their habitation and to â—lee to other places After the martyrdome of Gregory the Bishop of Spoleta Flacchus the Governour who was author thereof was strucke with an Angel and vomited out his entrailes at his mouth and died Under the Empire of Alexander Mammea Agrippitus fifteene yeares old because he would not sacrifice to their Idols was apprehended at Praeneste whipt with scourges and hanged up by the heeles and at last slaine with the sword in the middest of whose torments the Governour of the Citie fell from the Tribunall seat dead Bajazet a most cruell enemy of the Christians was taken by Tamerlane the Tartarian King and bound in golden chaines and carried about by him in an iron cage latised and shewne unto all being used for a stirrop unto Tamerlane when he got upon his horse Gensericus the King of the Vandales exercising grievous cruelty against the Orthodox Christians he himselfe being an Arrian was possessed of the Devill and died a miserable death in the yeare 477. Honoricus the second King of the Vandales having used inexplicable cruelty against the Orthodox Christians hanging up honest matrons and virgins naked burning their bodies with torches cutting off their dugges and armes because they would not subscribe to the Arrian heresie was surprised himselfe with the vengeance of God for his land was turned into barrennesse through an exceeding drought so that numbers of men women and beasts died with famine the pestilence also seised upon them and he himselfe was stricken with such a disease of his body that his members rotted off one after another Anastatius Dicorus a grievous persecutor of the Church of Christ being admonished in a dreame that he should perish with thunder built him an house wherein he might defend himselfe from that judgement but in vaine for in a great thunder he fled from chamber to chamber and at last was found dead blasted with lightning to the great horror of the beholders Chasroes the King of Persia a grievous enemy to Christ and Christians committed horrible outrages against them for first he slew at Jerusalem ninety thousand men with Zachariâ— the Patriarch of Jerusalem and also raged in like manner in Aegypt Lybia Aethiopia and would grant them no condition of peace unlesse they would forsake Christ and worship the Sunne he also put to death with most cruell torments Anastatius a godly Monke because he constantly confessed the faith of Christ. But God met with him to the full for his eldest sonne Syroes tooke him prisoner and handled him in most vile manner he hanged an iron weight upon his neck and imprisoned him in an high tower which he had built to keepe his treasure denying him food and bidding him eat the gold which he had gathered together then he slew all his children before his face and exposed him to the scoffes and railings of the people and lastly caused him to be shot to death and so that great terror of the world and shedder of Christian bloud breathed out his soule after a miserable manner Regnerus the King of Denmarke abrogating Christian Religion and setting up Idolatrie in his Kingdome anew the divine vengeance overtooke him for Helles whom he had cast out of the Kingdome returned upon him with an army of the Gaules and overcomming him in battell tooke him prisoner and shut him up in a filthie prison full of serpents which setting upon him with their venomous bitings and stings brought him to a most horrible end Lysius the Emperour gave Heriâ—a his daughter a virgin because she was a Christian to be trampled under foot of horses but he himselfe was sâ—ain by the byting of one of the same horses A Popish Magistrate having condemned a poore Protestant to death before his execution caused his tongue to be cut out because he should not confesse the truth in requitall whereof the next childe that was borne unto him was borne without a tongue CHAP. II. Of Perjurie Pâ—ilip King of Macedon who was a great contemner of all oathes and held the Religion thereof as a vain thing for this cause as all Writers affirme the vengeance of God followed him and his posteritie for when he had lived scarce forty and sixe yeares he himselfe was slain and all his whole house in short time in short time after utterly extinguished 〈◊〉 one of his sonnes was slaine by Olympias his wife Also another sonne which he had by Cleopatra the 〈◊〉 of Aâ—â—alus â—he tormented to death in a brazen vessell compassed about with fire The â—est of his sonnes periffied in like manner and at last the famous Alexander his sonne after great conquest atchieved by him in the middle course of his victories periffied miserably some thinke by poyson In the Countrey of Arbernum there was a certaine wicked man that used ordinarily to for sweare himselfe but at one time after he had thus sinned his tongue was tyed up that he could not speake but began to low like an oâ—e yet repenting and grieving for his sinne he found the bond of his tongue loosed and a readinesse of speech given unto him againe whereby we see both the Iustice of God in punishing them that sinne in this kinde and his mercy in pardoning when they truly repent At this day we have an example fresh and famous of a certaine maid that had stolne and pilfered many things away out of her mistresses house of which being examined she forswore them and wisht that she might rot if she ever touched them or knew of them but notwithstanding she was carried to prison and there presently began so to rot stink that they were forced to thrust her out of prison and to convey her to the Hospitall where she lies in lamentable miserie