name and title of Caesar and to oppugne the Emperor Henry by armes even by foure unjust battels in the last of which Rodolph being overcome lost his right hand and was sore wounded otherwise wherefore being ready to die when one brought unto him his hand that was cut off in the battell he in detestation of the Popes villanie burst forth into these termes many Bishops standing by Behold here the hand wherewith I swore fealtie to the Emperor this will be an argument of my breach of faith before God and of your traiterous impulsion thereunto And thus he deceased justly punished even by his owne confession for his perjurie Howbeit for all this manifest example the Pope and Bishops continued to persecute the poore Emperor yea and to stir up his owne sonnes Conrade and Henry to fight against him so hardned are their hearts against all Gods judgments Narcissus Bishop of Ierusalem a man famous for his vertues and sharpe in reproving and correcting vice was accused by three wicked wretches of unchastity and that falsly and maliciously for to prove their accusation true they bound it with oaths and curses on this wise the first said If I ly I pray God I may perish by fire The second If I speake aught but truth I pray God I may be consumed by some filthie and cruell disease The third If I accuse him falsely I pray God I may be deprived of my sight and become blinde Thus although the honesty and chastity of Narcissus was so well knowne to all the faithfull that they beleeved none of their oaths yet the good Bishop partly mooved with griefe of this false accusation and partly with desire of quietnesse from worldly affaires forsooke his bishopricke and lived in a desart for many yeares But his forsworne accusers by their death witnessed his innocencie which by their words they impugned for the first his house being set on fire extraordinarily perished in flame with all his family and progenie The second languished away with an irkesome disease that bespread his bodie all over The third seeing the wofull ends of his companions confessed all their villanie and lamenting his case and crime persisted so long weeping till both his eyes were out Thus God in his just judgement sent upon each of them their wishes and thereby cleered his servant from shame and opprobry Burghard Archbishop of Magdeburg though in regard of his place and profession he ought to have given good example of honestie in himselfe and punish perjurie in others yet he thrice broke his promise and oath with his owne Citisens the Senat and people of Magdeburg for first hee besieged them with a power of men and though they redeemed their liberty with a summe of money he swearing not to besiege them any more yet without respect of truth and credit he returned afresh to the siege but his persidie was soone tamed for they tooke him prisoner at that assault howbeit he so asswaged their angrie mindes with his humble and lowlie entreaties and counterfe it oathes never to trouble them any more but to continue their stedfast friend that they not onely freed him from imprisonment but restored him to all his dignities with solemnitie neverthelesse the traiterous Archbishop returning to his old vomit got dispensation for his oath from Pope Iohn the xxiij and began afresh to vex molest and murther them whom he had sworne to maintaine but it was the will of God that he should be once againe caught and being enclosed in prison whilest his friends sought meanes to redeeme him the gaoler beat him to death with a dore barre or as some say with an yron rod taken out of a window and so at last though long his perjurie found its desert The small successe that the Emperor Sigismund had in all his affaires after the violation of his faith given to Iohn Hus and Hierome of Prague at the Councell of Constance whom though with direct protestations and oathes he promised safe conduct and returne yet he adjudged to be burned doth testifie the odiousnesse of his sin in the sight of God But above all this one example is most worthie the marking of a fellow that hearing perjury condemned in a pulpit by a learned preacher and how it never escaped unpunished said in a braverie I have oft forsworne my selfe and yet my right hand is not a whit shorter than my left Which words he had scarce uttered when such an inflamation arose in that hand that he was constrained to go to the Chirurgion and cut it off lest it should infect his whole bodie and so his right hand became shorter than his left in recompence of his perjurie which he lightly esteemed of About the yeare of our Lord 925 when King Ethelstane otherwise called Adelstane raigned here in England there was one Elfrede a Nobleman who with a faction of seditious persons conspired against the King presently after the death of his Father and at Winchester went about to put out his eyes but the King by the good providence of God escaped that danger and Elfrede being accused thereof fled to Rome to the end to purge himself of the crime by oath before the Pope who beeing brought to the Church of Saint Peter and there swearing or rather forswearing himself to be cleere when indeed he was guilty behold the Lords hand on him suddenly as soon as his oath was pronounced he fell down in a strange sicknesse and from thence being brought to the English house in Rome within three daies after departed this life The Pope sent word hereof to King Ethelstane with demand Whither he would have him buried among Christians or no Who through the perswasions of his friends and kinsfolke granted that though he neither lived nor died like a Christian yet he should have Christian buriall In the towne of Rutlinquen a certaine passenger came into an Inne and gave a budget to his hoast to be kept in the which there was a great sum of money but when he demanded it againe at his departure the host denied it and gave him injurious words with many mocks and taunts Whereupon the passenger calleth him in question before the Iudge and because he wanted witnesses desireth to have him sworne who without all scruple offered to sweare and protest That he never received or concealed any such budget of money from him giving himselfe to the Devill if he swore falsely The passenger seeing his forwardnesse to damne himself demanded respit to consider of the matter and going out hee meets with two men who enquire the cause of his comming thither and being informed by him offer their help unto him in his cause thereupon they returne before the Iudge and these two unknowne persons justifie that the budget was delivered unto the host and that hee had hidden it in such a place whereat the host being astonished by his countenance and gesture discovered his guiltinesse the Iudge thereupon resolved to send
hand flew him even then when he thought he should live A little while after Goliah a gyant of the Philistims who as well through the hugenesse of his stature and strength of body as through the horrible cruelty which appeared in him seemed in mans eyes invincible proudly and presumptuously defied the army of the living God offering and daring any one man of Israel to enter combate with him This proud fellow was notwithstanding all his brags by young and unarmed David save a little sticke and a few stones which he had in his hands vanquished and trod under foot for he gave this great beast such a knocke with one of his stones on the forehead that at the first blow he tumbled him groveling on the earth and quickly leaping upon him caught hold of his huge sword and therwithall cut off his monstrous head which the Philistims perceiving turned their backes and fled and were pursued and slaine by the Israelites CHAP. VIII More Examples like unto the former IN the time of Achab Benhadad King of Syria accompanied with two and thirty Kings came very proudly against Israel as it were in despight of God to bid him battell but it turned to his owne shame and confusion being first dishonourably put to flight by 230 servants of the Princes of Israel a small handfull to encounter so mighty an army and secondly returning to seeke revenge found the losse of 100000 footmen at one clap besides 27000 which escaping by flight were crushed in pieces by the ruine of a wall in the city Aphec And so this brave gallant that erst bragged that the gold and silver of Israel yea their wives and children were his was now glad to fly for his life amongst the rest and in his returne to hide himselfe all dismaied in a little chamber and from thence being advised thereto by his servants to send to intreat Achab for his owne life which a little before thought him sure of the lives of all Israel Yet for all this ere long hee enterprised a new practise against the Prophet Elizeus and besieged also the city of Samaria so long that certaine women constrained by extreme famine devoured their children but in the end he was compelled through fearfull terror which God sent into his army by the noise of infinite Chariots and Horses which sounded in their eares as if some puissant host of men of warre had been marching towards them to forsake the siege and flee with all his forces leaving behinde them their tents horses carriages victuals and munitions to be a prey for them that pursued them not And lastly falling ficke Hazael one of his owne servants that succeeded him in the kingdome to the end hee might dispatch him quickly and without tumult early in the morning tooke a thick cloth dipt in water and spreading it over his face stifled him to death When the Moabites and Ammonites rose up in arms against Iehosaphat King of Iuda as soone as this good King humbled himselfe together with all his people before the face of God by fasting and prayer forthwith God sent such a giddinesse of spirit amongst his enemies that they killed one another and the men of Iuda without being troubled with fighting gathered the spoile which they had scattered and enriched themselves with their reliques Aman promoted in honour and credit above all the Princes of the Court of King Assuerus conceived so beastly an hatred against the poore dispersed Iewes being at that time the only Church of God that malitiously he conspired in one day to destroy and put to death the whole nation to the very women and infants and in accomplishing this his purpose he mightily abused the authority of the King whom he falsly informed That this nation would not be subject to his ordinances and lawes which his other people were subject unto and that therefore hee ought not to permit and suffer them any longer But God that carrieth alwayes a watchfull eye over his Church and knoweth how to breake and dash all the enterprises of his enemies brought all this wretches purposes to nought by preserving miraculously those whom he would have destroyed and making him doe reverence to Mordecheus whom hee specially sought to bring to infamy and for whom he had of purpose provided a gibbet to hang him on but was hanged thereon himselfe with ten of his sons beside all those which had conspired with him against the Iewes were upon the same day which they had set downe for their massacre by the kings commandement slaine by the hands of them whom they had appointed to the slaughter Balthasar King of Babylon as he was feasting among his Princes commanded amidst his cups the golden and silver Vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the Temple of Ierusalem to be brought that both he and his princes and his wives and concubines might drinke therein exalting himselfe thus against the Lord of Heaven and boasting in his idols of earth therefore God being stirred up to wrath against him appointed his destruction even whilest he thus dranke and made merry in the midst of his jollity and caused a strange and fearefull signe to appeare before his eyes a bodilesse hand writing upon the wall over against the candlesticke the words of which writing portended the destruction of his kingdome which presently ensued for the very same night hee was murthered and the Scepter seised upon by Darius King of the Medes Antiochus by sirname Epiphanes or Excellent though by truer report of people contemptuously entituled the Furious King of Asia being venomously enraged against the Iewes began at the first marvellously to oppresse them to rob and spoile their Temple and to slaughter the people About ten yeares after deceiving the poore people with faire and smooth words covers of most vile and wretched treason whilest they imagined no mischiefe hee set upon them in such cruell sort that the losse and desolation which they endured at that time was inestimable for besides the destruction of Ierusalem their City the slaughter of infinite multitudes of their people and the captivity of women and infants as if all these were not enough there was yet another misery to make up the full summe worse than all the rest which was this The cursed tyrant seeing his purpose not to take the full effect commanded every where That all his subjects I meane the Iewes should forsake and abjure the Law of God and be united into one Religion with the Infidels By means of which Edict the Religion of God was defaced the books of his Law rent and burned and those with whom any such books were found rigorously put to death Which fearefull cruelty when the Iewes perceived it caused many of them to wax faint hearted and to give themselves over to wallow in the dirty fashions of the uncircumcised Idolaters and in their madnesse to subscribe to the unjust lawes of the vile monster Now after he had
the siege Machabeus put fire to the towne and consumed the place with the blasphemers in it to ashes Holofernes when Achior advanced the glory of the God of Israel replyed on this fashion Since thou hast prophesied unto us that Israel shall be defended by their God thou shalt prove that there is no God but Nabuchadnezzar when the sword of mine army shall passe through thy sides and thou shalt fall among their slaine but for this blasphemy the Lord cut him short and prevented his cruell purpose by sudden death und that by the hand of a woman to his further shame Nay this sinne is so odious in the sight of God that he punisheth even them that give occasion thereof unto others yea though they be his dearest children as it appeareth by the words of the Prophet Nathan unto King David Because of this deed saith he of murthering Vriah and defiling Bathshabe thou hast made the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the childe that is borne unto thee shall surely die In the Empire of Iulian the Apostata there were divers great men that for the Emperours sake sake forsooke Christ and his religion amongst whom was one Iulian uncle to the Emperour and Governour of the East another Foelix the Emperours Treasurer the first of which two after hee had spoyled all Christian Churches and Temples pissed against the table whereon the holy Sacraments were used to be administred in contempt and strucke Euzoius on the care for reproving him for it the other beholding the holy vessels that belonged to the Church said See what pretious vessels Maries sonne is served withall After which blasphemy the Lord plagued them most strangely for Iulian fell into so strange a disease that his intrailes being rotten he voided his excrements at his mouth because when they passed naturally he abused them to the dishonour of God Foelix vomited bloud so excessively night and day at his blasphemous mouth that he died forthwith About the same time there lived a famous sophister and Epicure called Libanius who being at Antioch demanded blasphemously of a learned and godly schoolemaster What the Carpenters sonne did and how he occupied himselfe Marry quoth the schoolemaster full of the spirit of God the Creator of this world whom thou disdainfully callest the carpenters sonne is making a coffin for thee to carry thee to thy grave whereat the sophister jeasting departed and within few daies dying was buried in a coffin according to the prophesie of that holy man The Emperour Heraclius sending Embassadors to Cosroë the King of Persia to intreat of peace returned with this answer That he would never cease to trouble them with warre till he had constrained them to forsake their crucified Christ and to worship the Sunne But ere long he bore the punishment of his blasphemy for what with a domesticall calamity and a forrein overthrow by the hand of Heraclius he came to a most wofull destruction Michael that blasphemous Rabbine that was accounted of the Iewes as their Prince and Messias as he was on a time banquetting with his companions amongst other things this was chiefest sauce for their meat to blasphme Christ and his mother Mary insomuch as he boasted of a victory already gotten over the Christians God But marke the issue as he descended down the stayres his foot slipping he tumbled headlong and broke his neck wherein his late victory proved a discomfiture and overthrow to his eternall shame and confusion Three souldiers amongst the Tyrigetes a people of Sarmatia passing through a Wood there arose a tempest of thunder and lightening which though commonly it maketh the greatest Atheists to tremble yet one of them to shew his contempt of God and his judgements burst forth into blasphemy and despightings of God But the Lord soone tamed his rebellious tongue for he caused the winde to blow up by the root a huge tree that fell upon him and crushed him to pieces the other escaping to testifie to the World of his destruction At a village called Benavides in Spain two young men being together in a field there arose of a sudden a terrible tempest with such violence of weather and winde and withall so impetuous a whirlwinde that it amased those that beheld it The two young men seeing the fury thereof comming amaine towards them to avoid the danger ran away as fast as they possibly might but make what haste they could it overtooke them who fearing lest the same should swing them up into the ayre fell flatlong down upon the earth where the whirlwinde whisking about them a pretty while and then passing forth the one of them arose so altered and in such an agony that he was scarcely able to stand on his feet the other lying still and not stirring some others afarre off that stood under a hedge went to see how hee did and found him to be starke dead not without markes upon him of wonderfull admiration for all his bones were so crushed that the pipes and joynts of his legges and armes were as easie to be turned the one way as the other as though his whole body had been made of mosse and besides his tongue was pulled out by the roots which could not by any meanes be found though they sought for it most diligently And this was the miserable end of this wretched man who was noted to be a great outragious swearer blasphemer of Gods holy name the Lord therfore chose him out to make him an example to the world of his justice No lesse notable is the example of a young girle named Denis Benesield of twelve yeares of age who going to schoole amongst other girles when they fell to reason among themselves after their childish discretion about God one among the rest said that he was a good old father What hee said the foresaid Denis he is an old doting foole which being told to her mistresse she purposed to correct her the next day for it but it chanced that the next day her mother sent her to London to the market the wench greatly intreating her mother that she might not goe so that she escaped her mistresses correction But the Lord in vengeance met with her for as she returned homeward suddenly she was stricken dead all the one side of her being black and buried at Hackney the same night A terrible example no doubt both to old and young what it is for children to blaspheme the Lord and God and what it is for parents to suffer their young ones to grow up in blindnesse without nurtering them in the feare of God and reverence of his Majesty and therefore worthy to be remembred of all In the yeare 510 an Arrian Bishop called Olympius being at Carthage in the bathes reproached and blasphemed the holy and sacred Trinity and that openly but lighting fell downe from heaven upon him three times and he was burnt and consumed therewith There was also in the time
people for which cause the Lord first sent among them such a contagious plague that the living were scarce sufficient to bury the dead and when by this punishment they were not reclaimed then by their owne counsels and procurement the Lord brought upon them a fierce and mighty nation even the Saxons of Germany who albeit they came at first as helpers and succorers of them against their enemies yet ere long proved their sorest foes themselves and after much bloudshed drave them almost quite out of their Kingdome confining them into a haven nooke and corner of the same where they remaine till this day and all this came upon them saith that reverend Authour for their ingratitude for Gods mercies and contempt of the Word of God Againe we reade a little before this how that God stirred up Gildas a godly learned man to preach to the old Brittons and to exhort them to repentance and amendment of life and to forewarne them of plagues to come if they repented not but what availed it Gildas was laughed to scorne and taken for a false Prophet the Brittons with whorish faces and unrepentant hearts went forward in their sins and what followed God to punish their contempt of his Word and Ministers sent in their enemies on every side and destroying them gave their land to other nations Againe not many yeares past Almighty God seeing idolatry superstition hypocrisie and wicked living used in this land raised up that godly learned man Iohn Wickliffe to preach unto our fathers repentance and to exhort them to forsake their idolatry and superstition but his exhortations were not regarded he with his sermons was despised his bookes and himselfe after his death were burnt What ensued A most grievous and heavy vengeance they slew their lawfull King and set up three other on a row under whom all the noble bloud was slaine up and halfe the Commons destroyed what by warre in France and civile discord among themselves the cities and towns were decayed and the land brought half to a wildernesse O extrem plagues of Gods just vengeance But these examples be generall over whole nations now let us descend to particular judgments upon private persons for contemning scorning or despising the Word of God the holy Sacraments and the Ministers of the same Hemingius a learned Divine in his exposition upon the first chapter of S. Iohns Gospell reporteth That about the yere 1550 there was a certain lewd companion in Denmark who had long made profession to mocke at all Religion and at devout persons This fellow entering into a Church where there was a sermon made by the Minister of the place began contrary to all those that were present to behave himselfe most prophanely and to shew by lewd countenances and gestures his dislike and contempt of that holy exercise to whom the preacher being instant upon his businesse in hand spake not a word but only sighing praied unto God that this mocker might be suppressed who seeing that the Preacher would noâ— contest against him but contemned his unworthy behaviour goeth out of the Church but yet not out of the reach of Gods vengeance for presently as he passed out a tyle fell from the house upon his head and slew him upon the place a just judgement upon so prophane a wretch From whence all scorners and deriders of godly sermons and the preachers of the same may take example for their amendment if they have any grace in them Christopher Turke a Counsellor of Estate to a great Nobleman in Germany going one day to horse and mocking at a certaine godly Nobleman who was then prisoner in his enemies hands uttered these or such like speeches See what is become of these gallants that sung so much one with anotheâ— When any one doth wrong us God is our succor and defence but he had scarce ended his words when as a sudden griefe tooke him so that he was forced to alight from his horse and to be carried to bed where in stead of singing he dyed in dispaire drawing forth his tongue as blacke as a cole and hanging out of his mouth This happened the ninth of Iune 1547. The contempt of the Sacrament of baptisme was most notably punished in a certaine Curate of Misnia in Thuring whose custome was whensoever hee had baptised any women children in contempt of the foeminine sex and without any regard to the holy Sacrament to say That they should not carry them backe to the house but cast them into the River This prophane Curate looking one day over the bridge of Elbe which is a large and a deepe River how the boats did passe no man touching him nor his braine any way altered but by a secret judgement of God fell over the bridge into the water and was presently drowned that he which so impiously wished drowning to other and that at the Sacrament of Baptisme was drowned himselfe This happened in the yeare 1505. The contemptuous and irreverent handling of the Word of God in the pulpit together with open hatred of the Gospel was most famously revenged in one Nightingale the Parson of Gondal besides Canterbury in the raigne of Queen Mary Anno 1555. This wretched Parson upon Shrove Sunday which was the third day of the moneth of March making a Sermon to his parishioners entred beside his text into an impertinent discourse of the Articles lately set forth by the Popes authority in commendation thereof and to the disgrace of the Gospell saying more over thus unto the people My masters and neighbours rejoice and be merry for the prodigall sonne is come home for I know that the most part of you are as I am I know your hearts well enough and I shall tell you what happened to me this weeke past I was before my Lord Cardinall and he hath made me as cleane from sinne as I was at the Font-stone and he hath also appointed me to notifie unto you the Bull of the Popes pardon and so reading the same unto them he thanked God that ever he lived to see that day adding moreover that he beleeved that by the vertue of that Bull he was as cleane from sinne as that night that he was borne which words he had no sooner uttered but the Lord to shew that he lyed stroke him with sudden death and so he fel down out of the pulpit never stirring hand nor foot not speaking word but there lay an amazement and astonishment to all the people Denterius an Arrian Bishop being at Bizantium as he was about to baptise one Barbas after his blasphemous manner saying I baptise thee in the name of the Father through the Sonne in the holy Ghost which forme of words is contrary to the prescript rule of Christ that bad his disciples to baptise all nations In the Name of the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost the water suddenly vanished so that he could not then be baptised wherefore Barbas all amased
foure causes by which men are mooved to this unnaturall act and concludeth that for none of them nor for any other cause what soever a man ought to lay violent and bloudy hands upon himselfe yea concludeth peremptorily that a better life after death doth not receive such to wit that wilfully and desperately murder themselves and die without repentance as commonly they doe But here it is to be observed that many which seeme to make away themselves are murdered and made away by the Divell and not by themselves for otherwise it were not possible that then should perish so strangely as they doe as when some have beene hanged with their knees almost touching the ground others upon a weake twigge not strong enough to beare the weight of the tenth part of their body others beene drowned in a puddle of water which plainely sheweth that the Divell either as the principall actor or at least as a helper was the procurer of their murders and not alwayes themselves And therefore I must needs say with Luther That both charity and conscience inhibites resolutely to judge all such to be damned that seeme to have made havocke of their owne lives for the mercy of God is incomprehensible and why may he not save the soules of them whose bodies he gave leave to the Divell to torment yea to destroy Besides we read of many holy women who in the time of persecution cast themselves into the deep stream to preserve their chastity from the violence of the wicked persecutours and yet were reputed in the Church for holy Martyrs Saint Augustines judgement is worthy to be learned and imitated of all concerning this matter who thus defineth the case Of these saith he I dare avouch nothing rashly it may be the Church of God was perswaded by divine authority to receive them into the number of Martyrs or it may be they did this act not being deceived after the manner of men but being commanded of God not erring but obeying as also we are to judge of Sampson now when God biddeth and without all doubt makes knowne his will who can call this obedience a crime who can accuse a duety of piety But a little after he giveth a caveat Ne divina iussio ullo nutet incerto that is that we be sure God bids for often times the divell translates himself into an Angell of light and wil feine a message from God which proceedeth from his owne malice All this is to be conceived only touching that extraordinary case of those holy women that drowned themselves and yet were held for Martyrs in the Church of God as for others that shall wilfully and wofully shed their owne blouds and rob themselves of that precious jewell of life which God hath given them to keep no doubt but as they commit a horrible and hainous crime so they incurre a horrible and fearefull judgement yea the very act it selfe is both a crime and a judgment a crime deserving a further judgment even eternall damnation in hell fire and a judgement and punishment of some notable sinnes commâ—â—ed by them before and of an ungodly and wicked life unrepented of The drift therfore purpose of these examples following is this to shew how the Lord punisheth oftentimes in men an ungodly life with voluntary and wilfull murder of themselves and this wilfull murder of themselâ—es with eternall damnation after this life ended as a just recompence of their deserts and all to teach us repentance the onely means to prevent both these The first we reade of in holy Scripture that cruelly murdered himselfe with his owne hands was King Saul who as it is recorded of him was a most wicked man and a Tyran for being chosen from among all the people of Israel to be King by the Lords owne appointment and advanced as it were from the Plough to the Scepter he like a most ungratefull wretch kicked against his advancer and rebelled against his God that had done so great things for him yea hee not onely contemned his lawes and cast his commandements behind his backe but also proved a most cruell Tyran and shed much innocent blood amongst the rest of his cruelties this was the chiefe upon the false accusation of Doeg the Edomite he caused fourescore and five persons that were Priests and wore a linnen Ephod to bee staine at one time and Nob the Citie of the Priests to be smote with the edge of the sword both man and woman childe and suckling Oxe and Asse yea so wicked was he that when the Lord would not answer him neither by Prophets nor by dreames nor by any other meanes he went to take counsell of the Divell at the mouth of the Witch of Endor for all which his abominable wickednesse the Lord gave him over at last to so desperate a minde that rather than he would fall into the hands of his enemies he fell upon his owne sword and murdered himselfe Zimri also the King of Israel is set forth by the holy Ghost to be a wicked man and a traitor for he conspited against his master Ela the sonne of Baasha King of Israel and flew him as he was drinking in Tirza and proclaimed himselfe King in his roome but the army hearing thereof made Omri the Captaine of the hoste King who comming to besiege Tirza wherein Zimri was Zimri seeing that the Citie was taken went into the palace of the Kings house and there together with the house burnt himselfe rather than he would fall into the hands of his enemy Now the holy Ghost setteth it downe in plaine words that the Lord sent this judgement upon him for his sinnes which he had sinned in doing that which was evill in the of the Lord and walking in the way of Ieroboam who made Israel to sinne Achitophel that great Counsellor of State to King David of whom it is said that the counsell which he counselled was like the Oracle of God when hee saw that the counsell which hee gave was not followed but despised hee sadled his Asse and arose and went home into his owne citie and put his houshold in order and hanged himselfe And that this was Gods just vengeance upon him for his former wickednesse it may appeare both by his conspiracie with Absalom against his liege lord king David and also that wicked counsel which hee gave unto him of going in unto his fathers concubines in the sight of the people In the second booke of the Machabees is recorded a notable story of one Raz is an Elder of Jerusalem who is there set forth to bee a man of very good report constant in religion a father of the Jewes and a lover of the citie yet notwithstanding this man rather than hee would fall into the hands of Nicanor his enemy murdered himselfe after a most fearefull and savage manner for first hee fell upon his sword and when as for haste that stroke dispatched him not hee ran
is one kinde of theft to usurpe any mans goods by unlawfull meanes wherefore no such sports ought to finde any place amongst Christians especially those wherein any kinde of lot or hazard is used by the which the good blessings of God are contrary to their true and naturall use exposed to chance and fortune as they tearme it for which cause Saint Augustine is of this opinion concerning them That the gaine which ariseth to any party in play should be bestowedupon the poor to the end that both the gamesters as well the winner as the loser might be equally punished the one by not carrying the stake being won the other by being frustrated of all his hope of winning Players at dice both by the Elibertine Constantinopolitan Councell under Iustinian were punished with excommunication and by a new constitution of the said Emperour it was enacted That no man should use Dice-play either in private or publique no nor approve the same by their presence under paine of punishment and Bishops were there appointed to be overseers in this behalfe to espie if any default was made Horace an heathen Poet avouched the unlawfulnesse of this thing even in his time when he saith that Dice-playing was forbidden by their law Lewis the eighth King of France renouned for his good conditions and rare vertues amongst all the excellent laws which he made this was one That all sports should be banished the Common-wealth except shooting whether with long bow or Crosse bow and that no Cards nor Dice should be either made or sold by any to the end that all occasion of gaming might bee taken away Surely it would be very profitable and expedient for the Weale-publique that this Ordinance might stand in use at this day and that all Merchants and Mercers whatsoever especially those that follow the reformation of Religion might forbeare the sale of all such paltry Wares for the fault in selling such trash is no lesse than the abuse of them in playing at them for so much as they upon greedinesse of so small a gaine put as it were a sword into a mad mans hand by ministring to them the instruments not onely of their sports but also of those mischiefes that ensue the same There a man may heare curses as rife as words bannings swearings and blasphemies banded up and downe there men fret themselves to death and consume whole nights in darke and divelish pastimes some lose their horses others their cloakes a third sort all that ever they are worth to the undoing of their houses wives and children and some again from braulings fall to buffetings from buffets to bloudshedding from bloudshedding to hanging and these are the fruits of those gallant sports But this you shall see more plainely by a few particular examples In a towne of Campania a certaine Iew playing at dice with a Christian lost a great summe of money unto him with which great losse being enraged and almost beside himselfe as commonly men in that case are affected hee belched out most bitter curses against Christ Iesus and his mother the blessed Virgin in the midst whereof the Lord deprived him of his life and sense and strooke him dead in the place as for his companion the Christian indeed he escaped sudden death howbeit he was robbed of his wit and understanding and survived not verie long after to teach us not onely what a grievous sinne it is to blaspheme God and to accompanie such wretches and not to shun or at least reprove their outrage but also what monstrous effects proceed from such kinde of ungodly sports and how grievously the Lord punisheth them first by giving them over to blasphemy secondly to death and thirdly and lastly to eternall and irrevocable damnation Let our English gamesters consider this example and if it will not terrifie them from their sports then let them looke to this that followeth which if their hearts be not as hard as adamant will mollifie and perswade them In the yeare 1533. neere to Belissana a citie in Helvetia there were three prophane wretches that played at dice upon the Lords day without the wals of the citie one of which called Vlrich Schraelerus having lost much mony and offended God with many cursed speeches at last presaging to himselfe good lucke he burst forth into these tearmes If fortune deceive me now I will thrust my dagger into the verie body of God as farre as I can now fortune failed him as before wherefore forthwith he drew his dagger and taking it by the point threw it against heaven with all his strength behold the dagger vanished away and five drops of bloud distilled upon the table before them and without all delay the divell came in place and carried away the blasphemous wretch with such force and noyse that the whole city was amased and astonished thereat the other two halfe beside themselves with feare strove to wipe away the drops of bloud out of the table but the more they wiped it the more clearly it appeared The rumor of this accident flew into the citie and caused the people to flocke thicke and threefold unto the place where they found the other two gamesters washing the boord whom by the decree of the Senate they bound with chaines and carried towards the prison but as they passed with them through a gate of the citie one of them was stroken suddenly dead in the midst of them with such a number of lice and wormes creeping out of him that it was both wonderfull and lothsome to behold the third they themselves without any further inquisition or triall to avert the indignation which seemed to hang over their heads put incontinently to death the table they tooke and preserved it for a monument to witnesse unto posterity both how an accursed pastime dicing is and also what great inconveniencies and mischiefes grow thereby But that we may see yet more the vanitie and mischievous working of this sport I will report one storie more out of the same authour though not equall to the former in strangenesse and height of sinne yet as tragicall and no lesse pitifull In the yeare 1550 there lived in Alsatia one Adam Steckman one that got his living by tximming pruning and dressing vines this man having received his wages fell to dice and lost all that he had gotten insomuch that he had not wherewith to nourish his family so that he fell into such a griefe of minde and withall into such paines of the head that he grew almost desperate withall one day his wife being busie abroad left the care of her children unto him but he tooke such great care of them that he cut all their throats even three of them whereof one lay in the cradle and lastly would have hanged himselfe had not his wife come in the meane while who beholding this pitifull tragedie gave a great outcrie and fell downe dead whereupon the neighbours running in
were eye witnesses of this wofull spectacle as for him by law he was judged to a most severe and cruell punishment and all these pitifull events arose from that cursed root of Dice-play We ought therefore to learne by all these things that have beene already spoken to abstaine not onely from this cursed pastime but also from extortion robberies deceit guile and other such naughty practices that tend to the hurt and detriment of one another and in place thereof to procure the good and welfare of each one in all kindenesse and equity following the Apostles counsell where he sayeth Let them that stole steale no more but rather travell by labouring with his hands in that which is good that he may have wherewith to succor the necessitie of others For it is not enough not to do evill to our neighbor but we are tyed to do him good or at least to endeavour to do it CHAP. XLIV Of such as have beene notorious in all kinde of sinne BY these fore placed examples we have seene how heavie the judgements of God have beene upon those that through the untamednesse of their owne lusts and affections would not submit themselves under the holy and mighty will of God but have countermanded his commandements and withstood his precepts some after one sort and some after another now because there have bin some so wicked and wretched that being wholy corrupted and depraved they have over flowed with all manner of sinne and iniquity and as it were maugred God with the multitude and hainousnesse of their offences we must therefore spend sometime also in setting forth their lives and ends as of the most vile and monstrous kinde of people that ever were In this ranke we may place the antient Inhabitants of the land of Canaan an irreligious people void of all feare and dread of God and consequently given over to all abhominabl wickednesse as to conjurings witchcrafts and unnameable adulteries for which causes the Lord abhorring and hating them did also bring them to a most strange destruction for first and formost Jericho the frontier citie of their countrey being assaulted by the Israelites for hindering their progresse into the country were all discomfited not so much by Iosuah his sword as by the huge stones which dropped from heaven upon their heads and lest the night overtaking them should breake off the finall and full destruction of this cursed people the day was miraculously prolonged and the Sunne made to rest himselfe in the middest of heaven for the space of a whole day and so these five Kings hiding themselves in a cave were brought out and their neckes made a footstoole to the captains of Israell and were hanged on five trees The tyran Pertander usurped the government over Corinth after hee had slaine the principall of the city he put to death his owne wife to the end to content and please his concubine nay and was so execrable as to lye with his owne mother he banished his naturall sonne and caused many children of his subjects to be gelded finally fearing some miserable and monstrous end and want of sepulchre in conscience of his misdeeds he gave in charge to two strong and hardy souldiers that they should gaâ—d a certain appointed place and not faile to kill the first that came in their way and to bury his body being slaine now the first that met them was himselfe who offered himselfe unto them without speaking any word and was soone dispatched and buried according to his commandement but these two were encountered with foure other whom he also had appointed to do the same to them which they had done to them In this ranke deservably we may place the second Dionysius his sonne that for his cruelties and extortions was slaine by his owne subjects who though at the first made shew of a better and milder nature than his father was of yet after he was installed in his Kingdom and growne strong his wicked nature shewd forth it selfe for first he rid out of the way his owne brethren then his neerest kindred and lastly all other that but any way displeased him using his sword not to the cutting downe of vice as it ought but to the cutting the throats of his innocent and guiltlesse subjects with which tyrannie the people being incensed began to mutinie and from mutinies fell to open rebellion persecuting him so that he was compelled to flie and take harbour in Greece where notwithstanding hee ceased not his accustomed manners but continued still freshly committing robberies and doing all manner of injuries and outrages in wronging men and forcing both women and maids to his filthie lusts untill hee was brought to so low and so base an ebbe of estate that of a King being become a beggar and a vagabond hee was glad to teach children at Corinth to get his poore living and so died in miserie Clearchus another tyran after hee had put to death the most part of the Nobles and chiefe men of account in the citie of Heraclea usurped a tyrannous authoritie over the rest amongst many of whose monstrous enormities this was one that hee constrained the widowes of those whom hee had slaine against their wils to marry those of his followers whom hee allotted them to insomuch that many of them with griefe and anger slew themselves now there were two men of stouter courage than the rest who pittying the miserable condition of the whole citie undertooke to deliver the same out of his cruell hands comming therefore accompanied with fiftie other of the same minde and resolution as though they would debate a privat quarrell before his presence as soone as convenience served they diverted their swords from themselves into the tyrans bosome and hewed him in pieces in the very midst of his guard Agathocles King or rather tyran of Sicilie from a porters sonne growing to be a man of warre tooke upon him the government of the countrey and usurped the crowne contrary to the consent of his people hee was one given to all manner of filthie and uncleane pollutions in whom treacherie crueltie and generally all kinde of vice reigned and therefore was worthily plagued by God first by a murder of his youngest sonne committed by his eldest sonnes son that aspired unto the crowne and thought that he might be an obstacle in his way for obtaining his purpose and lastly having sent his wife and children into Aegypt for safety by his owne miserable and languishing death which shortly after ensued Romulus the first King of Rome was as Florus testifieth transported by a devill out of this earth into some habitation of his owne for the monstrous superstitions conjurings thefts ravishments and murders which during his pompe hee committed and moreover he saith that Plutarch the most credible and learned Writer amongst Historiographers both Greek and Latin that ever writ avoucheth the same for true That hee was carried away one day by a
his three and thirtieth Sermon Ad fratres in eremo relateth this strange example of one Cyril a Cittizen of Hippo a man well esteemed and beloved in the Citie He having one onely sonne did so cocker him forbearing either to checke him or correct him but loving him as that holy Father saith not onely above all things but even above God himselfe that by his too much liberty and indulgence his sonne grew wonderfull debaushed and gave himselfe to filthy drunkennesse Upon a time being vilely overtaken with drinke he came home and tumbled over his mother being great with childe would have ravished his sister slew his father and wounded to death two of his other sisters O fearefull effect of drunkennesse thus God punished the father for his too much love and indulgence of his sonne and the sonne for his vile impiety Not unlike to this I finde in Philip Lonicerus Page 486. A certain man saith he that gave himselfe to the studie of Godlinesse was daily assaulted with the temptation of the Divell who perswaded him if hee would bee quiet to choose one of these three sinnes either to make himselfe drunke or to commit adulterie with his neighbours wife or to kill his neighbour himselfe The poore man thinking drunkennesse the least sinne chose that but being enraged with wine he was easily drawn to the committall of the other sinnes for being with wine enflamed with lust he feared not to vitiate his neighbours wife nor yet to kill her husband comming in the meane while seeking to be revenged of him so giving himselfe to drunkennesse hee wraps himselfe in all other wickednesse On the eighteenth of August 1629 one Thomas Wilson labourer a knowne and common blasphemer of Gods name by oathes and curses and given much to drinking to excesse upon a slight occasion moved to displeasure against his wife and not daring to doe much violence unto her turned it upon himselfe and with his knife stabbed himselfe many of his friends and neighbours being present and so he died On the 10 day of May 1629 one Iohn Bone of Ely coachman unto one Master â—aluâ—â—â— of Beenham a fellow very vitious and exceeding in those two evils of prophane swearing and drunkennesse on the Sabbath day in the Sermon-time dranke himselfe drunke so that when he was to sit in the coach-box to drive the coach he fell out thereof under the horses feet where he was trodden to death or so hurt at least that he died shortly On the six and twentieth of November 1621 one Richard Borne servant to Iaspâ—r Bâ—rch Gardiner of Ely accustomed to travell upon the Lords day and making no reckoning of the Sabbath seldome or never comming to Church on that day but went onwards to Saint Iâ—es market and so spent the day and being drunke was at length overtaken by the just judgement of God and going up the streame in his boate which he had loaden with marketable wares he fell into the river and was so drowned On the third day of August 1618 one Thomas Alred of Godmanchester in the Countie of Huntington Butcher an accustomed Drunkard being entreated by a neighbour to unpitch a load of hay and being at that very time in drinke letting his pitch-forke slip out of his hand and stooping to take it up againe slipped from the cart with his head down-wards his fork standing 〈◊〉 with the tines he fell directly upon them which it once ran into his breast and stroke his heart so that he died suddenly On the sixteenth day of July 1628 one Iohn Vintner of 〈…〉 Gardiner a knowne drunkard and one that would prophanely especially in his 〈◊〉 scoffe at religion and abuse good men fell from the top of a 〈…〉 the ground and brake his necke and so died These â—ive lust examples were reported unto me and written with his owne hand by a worthy Minister Master Goorge Nelson Preacher of the Word of God in Godmanchester CHAP. IX Of rebellious and disobedient Children to their Parents AGathias in his Booke of the Persian manners reporteth this storie That certaine Philosophers going into Aegypt and finding there a promiscuous commixture of fathers and mothers with their daughters and sonnes and a miserable neglect of children towards their parents returned speedily into Greece and in a certaine Citie there finding the dead body of a man wanting buriall they in compassion committed the same into the earth the next day comming the same way againe they found the same body digged out of the earth which whilest they went about to bury the second time a fearefull spectrum appeared unto them and forbad them to doe it saying That he was a man unworthy to be buried because he had committed incest with his mother and despised and contemned his father This narration sheweth that the very earth doth execrate and abhorre such unnaturall lust and disobedience Laâ—terbius in his Booke of the discipline of children reports a storie of a certaine young man who had a father very old that had bestowed upon him all his substance This old man being by the fault of age unmannerly at the table of his sonne his sonne caused a woodden trough to be made for his father to eate his meate in like a hogge which when his sonnes young childe perceived he asked his father for what use it should serve his father answered That it was for his Grandfather to eate his meate in and what saith the childe must I provide the like for you when you are old Whereat his father being astonished threw away the trough and ever after entertained his old father with greater reverence and obedient respect CHAP. X. Of Murtherers ROmulus having marked out with a plough the compasse of the walls of the Citie of Rome which he was a building and had forbidden that no man should leape over the same his brother Rhâ—mus in scorne leaped over the wall which Romulus taking in evill part slew his brother and reigned alone but at length being hated of the people for his insolencie he himselfe was slaine by the fathers of the Senate at Caprea Constantine the Great after he had overcome Licinius his partner in the Empire and obtained the sole Monarchie grew both insolent and cruell for he first put to death his owne sisters next his owne sonne Crispâ—â— which he had by Minervea then he slew his owne wife Fausta in the bathes and lastly a number more of his friends For which cruelty though hee was a man endued with excellent vertues yet God strucke him with a filthy Leprosie which continued upon him untill such time that he was converted to the faith of Christ and baptised by Pope Silvester after which he proved a most famous protector of the Church of Christ. Perillus that devised the brasen Bull for the Tyrant Phalaris wherein men being inclosed and scorched with the heat that was under the Bull did imâ—tate the lowing of an Oxe to the end that there should be no compassion shewed unto them by