meant to have made so glorious a building came never to any good effect the one at Ipswich being cleane defaced the other at Oxford unfinished And thus much of sacriledge Now let us come and see the punishment of simple theft the principall cause whereof is covetousnesse which is so unruly an evill and so deep rooted in the heart of man that ever yet it hath used to encroach upon the goods of others and to keep possession of that which was none of its owne breaking all the bonds of humanity equity and right without being contained in any measure or meane whereof wee have a most notable example in the old world before the flood which by Moses report overflowed with iniquity and extortion the mighty ones oppressed the weak the greater trode under foot the lesse and the rich devoured the poore When the Lord saw the generall deluge of sin and disorder thus universally spread which indeed was a signe of great defection and contempt of him he like a just judge that could not endure these monstrous iniquities sent a deluge of waters amongst them by opening the windowes of heaven and breaking up the fountaines of the great deepes and giving passage to the waters both by heaven and earth so that it raigned forty daies and forty nights without ceasing and the waters prevailed upon the earth and overcovered the high mountaines by fifteen cubites the earth being reduced into the same estate which it had in the beginning before the waters were tooke away from the face thereof verily it was a most hideous and sad spectacle to see first the vallies then the hils and last the highest mountaines so overflowne with water that no shew or appearance of them might be perceived it was a dreadfull sight to behold whole houses tossed to and fro up and downe in the waves and at last to be shivered in pieces there was not a City nor village that perished not in the deep not a tree nor tower so high that could overpeere the waters as they increased more and more in abundance so feare horrour and despaire of safety encreased in the heart of every living soule And on this fashion did God punish those wicked rebels not at one blow but by little and little increasing their paine that as they had a long time abused his patience and made no reckoning of amendment so the punishment of their sin might be long and tedious Now in this extremity one could not help another nor one envy another but all were concluded under the same destruction all surprised assieged and environed alike as well he that roved in the fields as he that stayed in the houses he that climbed up into the mountaines as he that abode in the vallies the mercilesse waters spared none it was to no purpose that some ascended their high houses some climbed upon trees and some scaled the rockes neither one nor other found any refuge or safety in any place the rich were not saved by their riches nor the strong by the pith of their strength but all perished and were drowned together except Noah and his family which punishment was correspondent unto the worlds iniquity for as the earth was corrupted and polluted with abundance of sin so God sent abundance of water to purge and cleanse away the filthinesse thereof as at the latter day hee will send fire to purifie and refine heaven and earth from their dregs and restore them to their first and purest estate And thus God revenged the extortion and cruelty of that age But yet for all this those sins were not then so defaced and rooted up but that they be burnished againe and growne in time to as big a bulke for even at this day the greatest part of the world is given to practise fraud and deceit and by unlawfull meanes to incroach upon others goods which subtilties though they desire never so to disguise and cloke yet will they ever be condemned and reputed kindes of theft before God now as some are of greater power authority than others in the world so answerable to themselves is the quality of their sins and by consequence the punishment the greater of power the greater theeves and the greater judgment for if a poore man that through poverty and necessity cutteth a purse or stealeth any other trifle be culpable how much more culpable shall he that is rich be that usurpeth the goods of his neighbour Draco the lawgiver of Athens appointed death to be the punishment of sheft Solon mitigated that rigour and punished it with double restitution The Locrians put out his eyes that had stolne ought from his neighbour The Hetrurians stoned them to death The Scythians abhorred them more than all creatures because they had a community of all things except their cups the Vatoeiane used such severity towards this kinde of men that as 〈…〉 taken a handfull of 〈◊〉 he was sure to die for it 〈…〉 being Censor 〈◊〉 demeed his owne son Buteo to death being apprehended for theft Tiberius the Emperour punished a souldier after the time 〈◊〉 for stealing iâ—â—eacoâ—ke in summe there was no Commonwealth 〈…〉 was not highly detested and sharply 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 where it wâ—s permitted and tollerated 〈…〉 of 〈…〉 〈…〉 yet as 〈…〉 a just dead of Tamberlaine that mighty 〈◊〉 and Conquerour of Asia when a poore woman complained 〈…〉 of his souldiers that had taken from her a little milke and a 〈…〉 the caused the souldiers belly to be ripped to see that her 〈◊〉 had falsely accused him on no and finding the milke in his stomacke adjudged him worthy of that punishment for stealing from poore â—â— woman When Theophilus raigned Emperour in the East there was a certaine souldier possessed of a very gallant and brave horse which his Captaine by all meaâ—es possible sought to get from him but he would not in any case 〈…〉 he put him forth of pay and tooke his horse from him by force and sent him for a present to the Emperour Theophilus now it chanced that this poore souldier was slaine in the battell for want of his horse and his wife and children lest destitute of succour insomuch that through necessity she was constrained to flie to Constant inople and to complaine to the Emperour of the injury done unto her husband with this resolution entring the City she met the Emperour riding upon her husbands horse and catching the horse bridle challenged him not onâ—y for stealing the horse but also being the cause of her husbands death The Emperour wondring at the woman boldnesse examined her more narrowly and found out the whole practise of that wicked Captaine whom he banished presently his Empire and bestowed his possession in recommence upon the distressed widdow Ibicus the Poet being set upon by Theeves when he saw that they would not only spoile him of his money but of 〈◊〉 he also cryed for help and revenge to the cranes that flew over his head a while after
Antonius Bonfinus Munsterus Iohan. Wierus Platina Nauclerus Vincentius Hugo Cluniacensis Benno Baleus Gagninus Paulus Aemilius Discipulus de Tempore Acts and Monuments Carion Chronicon Beza Iosephus Manlii Collectanea Stow Chronica Froyssard Enguerran de Monstrel Philip de Comines Nicholas Gilles Guicciardine Paulus Iovius Benzoin Milanois Iob. Fincelius Centuriae Magdeburg Abbas Vrispurgensis Philippus Melancthon Sleidanus Lanquet Chronica The first Booke OF THE WORTHY AND MEMORABLE HISTORIES of the great and marvellous Iudgements of God sent upon the World for their misdeeds against the Commandements of the first and second Table CHAP. 1. Touching the Corruption and Perversity of this World how great it is EVen as one that taketh pleasure to behold a pleasant and delightsome place a piece of ground covered and painted with all manner of fine flowers a garden decked and as it were cloathed with exquisite plants and fruitfull trees is much grieved so soone as he perceiveth all this beauty and pleasure suddenly to be withered and scorched by the violence of some outragious tempest or if he be constrained to cast his eyes from them upon some other place by all cragged and parched full of briers and brambles In like sort a man cannot chuse but be sore grieved and discontent when hee beholdeth on the one side the wholsome light of the Sunne whereby the heavens doe many wayes distill their favours upon this World gloriously to advance it selfe on the other side he perceiveth such an army of thicke clouds and palpable darknesse from whence such a number of disorders and hurliburlies do arise that most strangely disfigure the face of the whole World when that he which ought to be gentle and peaceable is become mischievous and quarrellous in stead of being true and single hearted disloyall and deceirfull in stead of being modest well governed and courteous is proud cruell and dissolute in stead of serving God serveth his owne humors and affections Which kinde of behaviour is too common and usuall for there is not any kind of wickednesse which is not found in this ranke Vngodlinesse vomiteth up his fury together with injustice in those men of whom it is said There is none that understandeth or secketh after God their throat is an open sepulchre they use deceit in their tongues the poyson of Aspes is under their lips they have nothing in their mouths but cursing and bitternesse their feet are swift to shed bloud destruction and misery is in their waies and they have not knowne the way of peace In summe the feare of God is not before their eyes From whence it commeth that being not restrained by any bridle like untamed colts broke loose they give the full swinge to their bold and violent affections running fiercely to all filthinesse and mischiese and being thus enraged some of them with horrible blasphemies most villanously speake and doe in despight of God and deny him that created them and sent them into the World Others are not ashamed to be open forswearers of themselves violating and breaking every promise without regard of faith or honesty Others as they are of cruell and bloudy natures so they doe not cease to exercise these their natures by outragious practises to some of them whoredomes and adulteries are no more esteemed than as sports and pastimes whereof they boast themselves to another sort cousenings extortions and robberies are ordinary exercises whereof they make their best occupations All which evils are so common and so usuall at this time amongst men that the World seemeth truly to be nothing else but an ocean full of hideous monsters or a thicke forrest full of theeves and robbers or some horrible wildernesse wherein the inhabitants of the earth being savage and unnaturall void of sence and reason are transformed into bruit beasts some like Tygres or Lyons others like Wolves or Foxes others like Dogges and Swine Oh sinfull nation would the man of God say if hee lived at this houre a people laden with iniquity a seed of the wicked corrupt children they have forsaken the Lord they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger The noble and high minded are proud to disdaine the lower and ready alwaies to smite them making their countenance pale with vices and oathes the Magistrate partiall and full of brides overthroweth equity the Merchant covetous and desirous of gaine remembreth not his integrity nor the labourer his simplicity And so vertue in most men lyeth buried piety banished justice oppressed and honesty troden under foot in such sort that all things being as it were overthrowne and turned upside downe men speake evill of good and good of evill accounting darknesse light and light darknesse sowre sweet and sweet sowre And by such disorder it commeth to passe that the most vertuous are despised whilest naughty-packs and vitious fellowes are esteemed and made much of CHAP. II. What is the cause of the great overflow of Vice in this age IF wee would consider from whence it is that this great disorder and corruption of manners doth arise we should finde especially that it is because the world every day groweth worse and worse according to the saying of our Saviour and Redeemer Christ Iesus the Sonne of God That in the latter dayes which are these wherein we live Iniquity shall be increased And herein wee shall perceive even the just vengeance of God to light upon the malice and unthankfulnesse of men to whom when hee would draw neere to doe good unto by offering them the cleere light of his favour the more they strive to alienate and keep themselves aloofe from him and are so farre from being bettered thereby that they shew themselves a great deale more malitious and obstinate than ever they did before not unlike to those who by nature being bleare eyed and tender sighted are rather dazled and dimmed by the Sunne beames than any wayes enlightened so men in stead of growing better grow worse and every adde some increase to their wickednesse to whom also many great men give elbow-roome and permission to sinne whilest justice slumbreth and the not punishing of misdeeds giveth them liberty and boldnesse to commit their wickednesse so that some of these mighty ones shew themselves but little better than the other A mischiefe to be lamented above the rest drawing after it an horrible overflow of all evils and like a violent streame spoyling every where as it goeth when as they that ought to governe the sterne of the Commonwealth let all goe at randome suffering themselves to be rocked asleep with the false and deceitfull lullaby of effeminate pleasures and delights of the flesh or at least letting themselves be carried headlong by the tempest of their owne strong and furious passions into imminent danger and shipwrackes when as their carefull watch fulnesse and modesty accompanied with the traine of other good and commendable vertues ought to serve them for saliscables ankers masts and skuttles whereby to governe and direct the
of Christ who died for me my blacke sinnes shall not be imputed to me Then he redoubling his choler cried mainly after his Clerke calling him Lutheran Huguenot Villaine At which noise his friends without rushed in to know what the matter was But hee commanded that Stephen his Clerke should presently have a paire of bolts clapt on his heeles and to be burned for an Heretique In briefe his choler and rage boyled so furiously in him that in short space he died a fearefull death with horrible howling and outcries His creditors scarse gave him respite to draw his carkasse out of his bed before they seised upon all his goods not leaving his poore wife and children so much as a bed of straw to lye in so grievous was the curse of God upon his house Another great Prince having in former time used his authority and power to the advancing of Gods kingdome afterwards being seduced by the allurements of the world renounced God and tooke part with the enemies of his Church to make warre against it in which war he was wounded to death and is one notable example of Gods just vengeance to all that shall in like manner fall away CHAP. XIX Of Heretiques AS it is a matter necessarily appertaining to the first Commandement That the purity and sinceritie of the doctrine of Gods Word be maintained by the rule whereof he would have us both know him and understand the holy mysteries which are revealed to us therein so also by the contrary whatsoever tendeth to the corrupting or falsifying of the same Word rising from foolish and strange opinions of humane reason the same transgresseth the limits of this Commandement of which sort is Heresie an evill of its owne nature very pernicious and contagious and no lesse to be feared and shunned than the heat of persecution and by means whereof the whole nation of Christendome hath been heretofore tossed with many troubles and the Church of God grievously vexed But as Truth got ever the upper hand and prevailed against falshood so the broakers and upholders of falshood came ever to the worse and were confounded as well by the strength of Truth as by the speciall judgements of God sent downe upon the most part of them Theudas Iudas Galileus were two that seduced the Jews before Christ for the first of them said he was a Prophet sent from God and that he could divide the waters of Jordan by his word as Ioshuah the servant of the Lord did The other promised to deliver them from the servitude and the yoake of the Romanes And both of them by that means drew much people after them so prone is the common multitude to follow novelties and to beleeve every new sangle that is but yesterday set on broach But they came both to a deserved destruction for Fatus the Governour of Jury overtooke Theudas and sending his trunke to the grave carried his head as a monument to Jerusalem As for Iudas he perished also and all his followers were dispersed manifesting by their ends that their works were not of God but of men and therefore must needs come to naught After Christ in the Apostles time there was one Elymas a Sorcerer that mightily withstood the doctrine of Paul and Barnabas before Sergius Paulus the deputy and sowed a contrary heresie in his minde but Paul full of the Holy Ghost set his eyes on him and said O full of all subtilty and mischief the childe of the Devill and enemy of righteousnesse wilt thou not cease to pervert the strait wayes of the Lord Now therefore behold the hand of the Lord is upon thee and then shalt be blinde for season And immediately there fell upon him a mist and darknesse and hee went about to seeke some to lead him by the hand And this recompence gained hee for his erroneous and hereticall practise A while after him under the Empire of Adrian arose there another called Benchochab that professed himselfe to be the Messias and to have descended from Heaven in the likenesse of a Star for the safety and redemption of the people by which fallacy he drew after him a world of seditious disciples but at length he and many of his credulous rout were slaine and was called by the Iewes Bencozba that is the son of a lye And this was the goodly redemption which this Heretique brought upon his owne head and many of his fellowes It is reported of Cerinthus an Heretique that he denying and going about to darken the doctrine of Christs everlasting kingdome was overwhelmed by the sudden fall of an hot house which fell upon him and his associates as soone as S. Iohn was departed from it for Ireneus saith That he heard Polycarpus often report how S. Iohn being about to enter into the bathes at Ephesus when he perceived Cerinthus already within departed very hastily saying to those that bore him company that he feared that the house would fall upon their heads because of Cerinthus the heretique that was therein at that instnat Manes of whom the Maniches tooke their name and first originall forged in his foolish braine a fiction of two gods and two beginners and rejecting the old Testament and the true God which is revealed in the same published a fifth Gospell of his owne forgery yea and was so besotted with folly as Suidas testifieth of him that he reported himselfe to be the Holy Ghost when he had thus with his devillish heresies and blasphemies infected the world and was pursued by Gods just judgement at last for other wicked practises he had his skin plucked over his eares alive and so dyed in misery Montanus that blasphemous Caitise of whom came the Montanists or Pepuzian heretiques of a towne in Phrygia called Pepuza denied Christ our Saviour to be God and said he was but a man only like other men without any participation of divine Essence he called himselfe the Comforter and holy Spirit which was forepromised to come into the world and his two wives Priscilla and Maximilla he named his prophetesses and their writings prophecies howbeit all their cunning could not foretell nor prevent a wretched and desperate end which befell him for he hung himselfe after he had deluded the world a long season and proved by his end his life to have been vile and damnable according to the proverb Qualis vita finis it a A cursed life and a cursed death Of all Heretiques that ever troubled and afflicted Gods Church the Arrians were the chiefe the author and ringleader of which crue as by his vainglorious pride and ambition he sought to extoll himselfe above the clouds boasting and vaunting in his damnable errour so by the just vengeance of God he was abased lower than hell and put in everlasting shame and opprobry for he had long time as it were entred the list and combated with Christ and was condemned for an Heretique by the Nicene Councell and his bookes burned
of his children being any whit the better for it There was in Syracusa a city of Sicilia which is now called Saragosse a Physitian called Menecrates whose folly and presumption was so great that he accounted himselfe a god and desired to be so reputed by others insomuch that he required no other wages and recompence of the patients which he tooke in hand as Aelianus witnesseth but that they should onely acknowledge him to be Iupiter and call him so and avow themselves to his service Vpon a time Denis the tyrant desirous to make some pastime with him made a feast and invited him amongst others to be his guest but because he was a god to doe him honour answerable to his name he placed him at a table all alone and set before him no dishes but only a censer with frankincense which was a proper and convenient service for the gods This honourable duty pleased the Physitian very well at the first so that he shuffed up the perfume most willingly but when this poore god saw the other guests eating and drinking indeed and himselfe not being able to be fed with smoake ready to starve with hunger arose up and went away all inraged in himselfe and derided of others having more need to purge his owne braines of their superfluous humor than others from their sicknesses Caligula the first Emperor being become an ordinary despiser and open mocker of all Religion it came presently in his braine to beleeve so drunken was he with a draught of his owne foolish conceit that there was no other God but himselfe therefore he caused men to worship him and to kisse his hands or his feet in token of reverence which honour afterwards the Popes tooke upon them yea and was so besotted that he went about by certaine engines of art to counterfeit thunder and lightnings albeit in all this pride and arrogancy or rather folly there was none so timerous and fearefull as he or that could sooner upon lighter occasion be dismaied One day as he was by mount Aetna in Sicily hearing by chance the violent cracking of the flames which all that season ascended out of the top of the hill it strucke so sudden and horrible a feare into him that he never ceased flying all night till he came to Phar in Messina Every little thunderclap put him in feare of death for he would leap up and downe like a mad man when he heard it thunder finding himselfe not able by his god head to defend himselfe from the power thereof but if there chanced greater cracks than ordinary then would not his hot bed hold him but needs must he run into the cold floore underneath the bed to hide himselfe Thus was hee compelled against his will to feare him whom willingly he would not deigne to acknowledge And thus it falleth out with all wicked miserable Atheists whose hearts imagine there is no God and therefore have so little assurance in themselves that there need no thunder and lightening to amase them for the shaking of every leafe is sufficient to make them tremble To conclude this Atheist void of all Religion and feare of God and full of all prophanenesse was according to his due desert murthered by one of his servants of the which will follow more at large in the next booke Domitian likewise was so blinded with pride that hee would be called a god and worshipped of whom also wee will speake in the second booke To these we may adde them also that to the end to make themselves feared and reverenced as gods have counterfeited the lightnings and thunders of heaven as we read of one Alladius a Latine King that raigned before Romulus who being a most wicked Tyrant and a contemner of God invented a tricke whereby to present to the eare and eye the ratling and swift shine of both thunder and lightning that by that means astonishing his subjects he might be esteemed of them for a god but it chanced that his house being set on fire by true lightning and overthrowne with the violent strength of tempestuous rain together with the overflowing of a pond that stood neer he perished by fire and water burnt and drowned and all at once Did not the King of Elide the like and to the same end also by the devise of a charâ—t drawne about with foure horses wherein were certain yron-works which with wrinching about gave an horrible sound resembling thunder and torches and squibs which hee caused to be throwne about like lightnings in such sort that hee oftentimes burnt the beholders and in this manner he went up and downe braving it especially over an yron bridge which he had of purpose built to passe and repasse over at his pleasure untill Gods long suffering could not endure any longer such outragious and presumptuous madnesse but sent a thunderbolt from heaven upon his head that all the world might see by his destruction the exceeding folly and vaine pride which bewitched him in his life time which history the Poet in the person of Sibylla setteth downe to this effect I saw Salmon in cruell torments lie For counterfeiting thunder of the skie And Ioves cleere lightning whilst with torches bright Drawne with foure steeds and brandished his light He rode triumphantly through Elis streats And made all Grecia wonder at his feats Thinking to win the honour of a god Mad as he was by scattering fire abroad With brazen engines and with courses faigning A noyse like that which in the clouds is raigning And no where else but God from thickest skie No torch but such a thunderbolt let flie At him that headlong whirld him from his Cell And tumbled downe into the deepest Hell Thus this arrogant King was punished according to the quality of his offence even in the same kinde wherein he offended which thing though it be found written in a Poet yet ought not be rejected for an old wives tale seeing it is not incredible that a King might make such pastimes and yron-crashing noises nor that he might be justly punished for the same and the rather because Caligula did the like as we have heard before And wee read also that one Arthemesius in the time of the Emperour Iustinian counterfeited by certain engines and devises in his owne house in Constantinople such earthquakes lightenings and thunders that would astonish a wise braine to heare or behold them on a sudden But above all others that by darkning the glory of God to increase their own power have proudly exalted themselves against him the Popes are the ring-leaders whose unbridled boldnes hath bin so much the more impudent and pernitious for that in terming themselves the servants of the servants of God in word in deed take unto them the authority and power of God himselfe as of pardoning and absolving sinnes creating lawes and ordinances at their pleasure in binding or unbinding mens consciences which things appertaine to God onely Nay they have been
in broidered worke but this goodly banner as it was carried about in procession was rent in pieces by a tempestuous storme that arose suddenly God thereby manifesting how odious and displeasant both this new and old superstition was in his sight besides that doe but consider the laudable vertues that so commended this new god Demetrius to make them honour him in such sort they were violence and cruelties intemperance with all inordinate lasciviousnesse villanies and whoredomes so that it was no marvell if they had made him a god being unworthy altogether of humane society This new found god having gotten a great victory by sea as he triumphed and braved it with ships after the same was so shattered with a sudden tempest that the greatest part of his navy went to wrecke and afterwards was vanquished by Seleuchus in a battell wherein his father Antigonus was slaine and when he thought to returne to Athens they shut their gates upon him whom a little before they had canonized for a god for which cause he raised war against them and so wearied them with onsets on each side and so inclosed them both by sea and land that being brought to extreame famine and necessity they were compelled to entertain him again and to behold the horrible outrages of their owne made god to their griefe and confusion But not long after Seleuchus once againe damped his courage insomuch that having lived three yeares in a countrey of Syria like a banished outlaw for feare to be delivered into his hands and weary of his owne life he stuffed himselfe so with food that he burst in pieces Therefore let every man learne by these examples not to translate the honour and majesty of God to any creature but to leave it to him alone who is jealous thereof and will not as the Prophet saith give his glory unto another CHAP. XXIII Of Epicures and Atheists AS touching voluptuous Epicures and cursed Atheists that deny the providence of God beleeve not the immortality of the soule think there is no such thing as life to come and consequently impugn all divinity living in this world like bruit beasts and like dogs and swine wallowing in all sensuality they doe also strike themselves against this commandement by going about to wipe out and deface the knowledge of God and if it were possible to extinguish his very Essence wherein they shew themselves more than mad and brutish whereas notwithstanding all the evident testimonies of the vertue bounty wisedome and eternall power of God which they dayly see with their eyes and feele in themselves doe neverthelesse strive to quench his light of nature which enlighteneth and perswadeth them and all Nations of this There is a God by whom we live move and have our being who although in his Essence is invisible yet maketh he himselfe knowne and as it were seene by his works and creatures and mighty government of the world that he that would seeke after him may as one might say handle and feele him Therefore they that would perswade themselves that this glorious heaven and massy earth wanted a guider and a governour have their understanding blinded from fight of things manifest and their hearts perverted from all shew of reason for is there any substance in this world that bath no cause of his subsisting Is there a day without a Sun Are there fruit and no trees Plants and no seeds Can it raine without a cloud Be a tempest without winde Can a ship sayle without a Pylot Or a house be built without a Carpenter or builder If then every part of this world hath his particular cause of being and dependance is it likely that the whole is without cause to be to it a furnishing and government Say you hogs and dogs doe you not beleeve that which you see or if your eyes be bored out that you cannot see must you thinke there is no Sunne nor light because your eyes are in darknesse and blindnesse Can you behold all the secrets of nature Is there nothing but a voice a singing of birds or an harmonious consort of musicall instruments in the world And yet who perceiveth these small things Can you behold the winde Can you see the sweet smell of fragrant flowers along the fields Can you see the secrets of your owne bodies your entrailes your heart and your braine And yet you cease not to beleeve that there are such things except you be heartlesse and brainlesse indeed Why then doe you measure God by your own sight and doe not beleeve there is a God because he is invisible since that he manifesteth himselfe more apparently both to understanding and sence than either voice smell or winde Doe not your owne oathes blasphemies and horrible cursings beare witnesse against you when you sweare by despight and maugre him whom you deny to be Doth not every thunderclap constraine you to tremble at the blast of his voyce If any calamity approach neere unto or light upon you or if death be threatned or set before your eyes doe not you then feele in spight of all your reason that the severe judgement of God doth waken up your dull and sleepy conscience to come to his tryall There was never yet any nation or people so barbarous which by the perswasion and instinct of nature hath not alwayes beleeved a certaine deity and to thinke otherwise is not only a derestable thing but also most absurd and so contrary to humane reason that the very Paynims have very little tolerated such horrible blasphemy The Athenians are witnesses hereof who banished Protagoras their city and countrey because in the beginning of one of his books he called in question the deity and caused his books to be burned openly Neither shewed they any lesse severity towards Diagoras sirnamed the Atheist when being as some say injuriously and falsly accused of this crime and for feare of punishment fled away they proclaimed that whosoever did kill him should have a talent of silver in recompence which in value is as much as six hundred crowns after the rate of five and thirty shillings French to the crowne How much more then is the state of Christendome at this day to be lamented which we see in many places infected with such a contagious pestilence that divers men invenomed with this deadly poison are so mischievous and wretched as to make roome for Atheisme by forbidding and hindering by all means possible the course of the Gospell wherein they make known what they are and what zeale they beare to the religion and service of God and with what affection they are led towards the good and safety of the commonwealth and what hereafter is to be hoped of him for where there is no knowledge nor feare of God there also is no bridle nor bond to restraine and hold men backe from doing evill whereupon they grow to that passe to be most insolent and prophane This is the Divinity and goodly instruction
that could get out first neither durst they plead any more causes in that place untill it were mended Thus much reporteth Enguerran without mention of any decision of that matter Now forasmuch as nothing happeneth by chance it is most likely that God by that accident would give us to understand both how monstrous and detestable all such speeches are as also how men ought to feare and abhorre them seeing that the dumbe and sencelesse creatures and wood beams planks and stones and the earth it self by nature stedfast and fixed are so far from enduring them that they are moved withall There was a certaine blasphemous wretch that on a time being with his companions in a common lnne carowsing and making merry asked them if they thought a man was possessed with a soule or no Whereunto when some replyed That the soules of men were immortall and that some of them after release from the body lived in heaven others in Hell for so the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles instructed them hee answered and swore that he thought it nothing so but rather that there was no soule in man to survive the body but that heaven and hell were meere fables and inventions of Priests to get gaine by and for himselfe he was ready to sell his soule to any that would buy it then one of his companions tooke up a cup of wine and said Sell me thy soule for this cup of wine Which he receiving bad him take his soule and dranke up the wine Now Satan himselfe was there in a mans shape as commonly he is never far from such meetings and bought it againe of the other at the same price and by and by bad him give him his soule the whole company affirming it was meet he should have it since he had bought it not perceiving the Devill but presently he laying hold of this souleseller carried him into the aire before them all toward his own habitation to the great astonishment and amasement of the beholders and from that day to this he was never heard of but tryed to his pain that men had soules and that hell was no fable according to his godlesse and prophane opinion Pherecides by birth a Syrian a tragicall Poet and a Philosopher by profession boasted impudently against his schollers of his prosperity learning and wisedome saying that although he offered no sacrifices unto the gods yet he led a more quiet and prosperous life than those that were addicted to Religion and therefore he passed not for any such vanity But ere long his impiety was justly revenged for the Lord struck him with such a strange disease that out of his body issued such a slimy and filthy sweat and engendred such a number of lice and wormes that his bowels being consumed by them he died most miserably At Hambourgh not long since there lived an impious wretch that despised the preaching of the Gospell and the Ministers thereof accounting it as a vaine thing not worthy the beleeving of any man neither did he thus himself only but also seduced many others bringing them all to Atheisme and ungodlinesse Wherefore the Lord justly recompenced him for his impiety for he that before had no sence nor feeling of God in his conscience being touched with the finger of the Almighty grew to the contrary even to too much feeling and knowledge of God that he fell into extreme despaire affirming now his sinnes to be past forgivenesse because he had withdrawne others from the truth as well as himselfe whereas before he thought himselfe guilty of no sinne and that God was so just that he would not forgive him whereas before he thought there was no God so mighty is the operation of the Lord when he pleaseth to touch the conscience of man finally continuing in this desperate case he threw himselfe from the roofe of a house into a well and not finding water enough to drowne him he thrust his head into the bottome thereof till he had made an end of his life In the yeare of our Lord 1502 there lived one Hermannus Biswicke a grand Atheist and a notable instrument of Satan who affirmed that the world never had beginning as foolish Moses dreamed and that there was neither Angels nor devils nor hell nor future life but that the soules of men perished with their bodies besides that Christ Iesus was nothing else but a seducer of the people and that the faith of Christians and whatsoever else is contained in holy writs was meere vanity These articles full of impiety and blasphemy he constantly avouched to the death and for the same cause was together with his books burnt in Holland A certaine rich man at Holberstadium abounding with all manner of earthly commodities gave himselfe so much to his pleasure that he became besotted therewith in such sort that he made no reckoning of Religion nor any good thing but dared to say that if he might lead such a life continually upon earth he would not envy heaven nor desire any exchange Notwithstanding ere long contrary to his expectation the Lord cut him off by death and so his desired pleasure came to an end but after his death there appeared such diabolicall apparitions in his house that no man daring to inhabite it it became desolate for every day there appeared the Image of this Epicure sitting at a board with a number of his ghests drinking carousing and making good cheare and his table furnished with delicates and attended on by many that ministred necessaries unto them beside with minstrels trumpetters and such like In summe whatsoever he delighted in in his life time was there to be seene every day The Lord permitting Satan to bleare mens eyes with such strange shewes to the end that others might be terrified from such Epicurisme and impiety Not inferior to any of the former in Atheisme and impiety and equall to all in manner of punishment was one of our owne nation of fresh and late memory called Marlin by profession a scholler brought up from his youth in the Vniversity of Cambridge but by practise a Play-maker and a Poet of scurrility who by giving too large a swing to his owne wit and suffering his lust to have the full reines fell not without just desert to that great outrage and extremity that he denied God and his sonne Christ and not onely in word blasphemed the Trinity but also as it is credibly reported wrote books against it affirming our Saviour to be but a deceiver and Moses to be but a seducer of the people and the holy Bible to be but vaine and idle stories and all Religion but a device of policy But see what a hooke the Lord put in the nostrils of this barking dogge so it fell out that as he purposed to stab one whom he ought a grudge unto with his dagger the other party perceiving so avoyded the stroke that withall catching hold of his wrest he stabbed his owne
dagger into his own head in such sort that notwithstanding all the means of surgery that could be wrought he shortly after died thereof the manner of his death being so terrible for he even cursed and blasphemed to his last gaspe and together with his breath an oath flew out of his mouth that it was not onely a manifest signe of Gods judgement but also an horrible and fearefull terrour to all that beheld him But herein did the justice of God most notably appeare in that he compelled his own hand which had written those blasphemies to be the instrument to punish him and that in his braine which had devised the same Another also of our owne nation is not to be overpassed who for an Atheist and an Epicure might compare with any of the former and for the judgement of God upon him doth give place to none It was a gentleman of Barkshire whose name I forbeare to expresse a man of great possessions This man was an open contemner of God and all Religion a profest Atheist and a scorner of the Word of God and Sacraments insomuch as I have heard reported of very credible persons being a witnesse at the baptising of a childe he would needs have it called Beelzebub Besides this he was given over to all sensuality of the flesh keeping in his house continually notorious strumpets and that openly without shame his mouth was so accustomed to swearing that he could scarse speake without an oath This miserable man or rather beast having continued long in this damnable course of life at last Gods heavy vengeance found him out for upon a certain day riding abroad a hunting with another companion as they were discoursing of many vaine matters it pleased Almighty God of a sudden to strike him with sudden death for falling suddenly to the crupper of his horse backward he was taken downe starke dead with his tongue hanging out of his mouth after a fearfull manner and became a terrible example to all wicked Atheists of Gods justice Hither I might adde the examples of others who having been in high places of favour in former times are fallen like Lucifer from their heaven that is their worldly felicity and live like him in chaines of imprisonments These had wont being in their bravery to mocke at all Religion and to make themselves merry with scoffing at the holy Scripture but the Lord hath brought them downe and plucked the feathers of their pride to teach them to know there is a God and that Religion is no matter of policy but Gods owne ordinance to bring men to blessednesse and let them be assured if they repent not the Lord will yet further execute his vengeance upon them and make them more manifest spectacles of his justice Many more moderne and home-bred examples I could adde of some that were hanged some that died desperate some that were deprived of their senses having been notorious Atheists and Epicures in their lives but I hope these already named are sufficient to prove that the Lord of heaven observeth the wayes of men and rewardeth every man according to his works especially such as strive to deny his Essence-or his sonne Christ. I would to God and I pray it from my heart that all Atheists in this Realme and in the world beside would by the remembrance and consideration of these examples either forsake their horrible impiety or that they might in like manner come to destruction and so that abominable sin which so flourisheth amongst men of greatest name might either be quite extinguished and rooted out or at least smothered and kept under that iâ— durst not shew it head any more in the worlds eye CHAP XXII Touching the transgressors of the second Commandement by Idolatry WE have hitherto seene how and in what sort they that either by malice or impiety or Apostasie or heresie or otherwise have transgressed the first Commandement have been punished Let us now consider the judgements that have befallen Idolaters the breakers of the second Commandement But before we proceed wee must know that as it is required of us by the first Commandement to hold God for our true and onely God to repose all our whole trust and confidence in him and call upon him serve and worship him alone so in the second to this the contrary to this is forbidden which is to doe any manner of service honour and reverence by devotion to Idols forasmuch he is a Spirit that is to say of a spirituall nature and Essence which is infinite and incomprehensible so loveth he a spirituall worship and service which is answerable to his nature and not by Images and pictures and such other outward and corruptible means which he hath in no wise commanded wherefore Isaiah the Prophet reproving the folly and vanity of Idolaters saith To whom will you liken God or what similitude will you set up unto him Therefore if it be not Gods will that under pretence and colour of his owne name any Image or picture should be adored being a thing not only inconvenient but also absurd and unseemly much lesse can hee abide to have them worshipped under the name and title of any creature whatsoever And for this cause gave he the second Commandement Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any graven Image c. which prohibition the Israelites brake in the desart when they set up a golden calfe and bowed themselves before it after the manner of the Paynims giving it the honour which was onely due to God whereby they incurred the indignation of Almighty God who is strong and jealous of suffeâ—ing any such slander to be done unto his name wherefore he caused thâ—â—e thousand of them to be stroken and wounded to death by the hand of the Levites at the commandement of Moses to make his anger against Idolatry more manifest by causing them to be executioners of his revenge who were ordained for the ministry of his Church and the service of the Altar and Tabernacle Howbeit for all this the same people not long after fell back into the same sin and bowed themselves befere strange gods and through the allurements of the daughters of Moab joyned themselves to Belphegor for which cause the Lord being insenced stroke them with so grievous a plague that there died of them in one day about twenty and foure thousand persons And albeit that after all this being brought by him into the land of promise he had forbidden and threatned them for cleaving to the Idols of the nations whose land they possessed yet were they so prone to Idolatry that notwithstanding all this they fell to serve Baal and Astaroth wherefore the fire of Gods wrath was inflamed against them and he gave them over to be a spoyle and prey unto their enemies on every side so that for many yeares sometimes the Moabites oppressed them otherwhiles the Madianites and ever after the death of any of their Iudges and Rulers which God raised
justice and judgement upon the earth a God that loveth not iniquity â— with whom the wicked cannot dwell nor the fooles stand before his presence It is hee that huteth the workers of unrighteousnesse and that destroyeth the lyers and abhorreth all deceitfull disloyall perjurous and murdering persons as with him there is no exception of persons so none of what estate or condition soever bee they rich or poore noble or ignoble gentle or carter-like can exempt themselves from his wrath and indignation when it is kindled but a little if they delight and continue in their sinnes for as S. Paul saith Tribulation and anguish upon the soule of every man that doth evill Now according to the variety and diversity of mens offences the Lord in his most just and admirable judgement useth diversity of punishments sometimes correcting them one by one particular otherwhiles altogether in a heap sometimes by stormes and tempests both by sea and land other times by lightning haile and deluge of waters often by overflowing and breaking out of rivers and of the sea also and not seldome by remedilesse and sudden fires heaven and earth and all the elements being armed with an invincible force to take vengeance upon such as are traytors and rebels against God â— sundry times hee scourgeth the world as it well deserveth with his usuall and accustomed plagues namely of warre and famine and pestilence which are evident signes of his anger according to the threats denounced in the law tâ—â—â—hing the same and therefore if at any time hee deferre the punishment of the wicked it is for no other end but to expect the fulnesse of their sinne and to make them more inexcusable when contrary to his bountifulnesse and long suffering which inviteth and calleth them to repentance they harden themselves and grow more obstinate in their vices and rebellion drawing upon their heads the whole heape of wrath the more grievously to assaile them And thus the vengeance of God marcheth but a soft pace as saith Valerius Maximus to the end to double and aggravate the punishment for the slacknesse thereof CHAP. LII That the greatest punishments are reserved and layed up for the wicked in the world to come NOtwithstanding all which hath beene spoken and howsoever sinners are punished in this life it is certaine that the greatest and terriblest punishments are kept in store for them in another world And albeit that during this transitory pilgrimage they seeme to themselves oftentimes to live at their ease and enjoy their pleasures and pastimes to their hearts contentment yet doubtlesse it is so that they are indeed in a continuall prison and in a dungeon of darkenesse bound and chained with fetters of their owne sinne and very often turmoyled and but chered with their owne guilty conscience overcharged with the multitude of offences and fore-feeling the approach of hell And in this case many languish away with feare care and terror being toyled and tyred with uncessant and unsupportable disquietnesse and tossed and distracted with despaire untill by death they be brought unto their last irrevokable punishment which punishment is not to endure for a time and then to end but is eternall and everlastingly inherent both in body and soule I say in the body after the resurrection of the dead and in soule after the departure out of this life till all eternity for it is just and equall that they which have offended and dishonoured God in their bodies in this life should be punished also in their bodies in the world to come with endlesse torments of which torments when mention is made in the holy Scripture they are for our weake capacity sake called Gehenna or a place of torment utter darkenesse and hell fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth c. againe eternall fire a poole and pit of fire and brimstone which is prepared for the devill and his darlings and how miserable their estate is that fall therein our Saviour Christ giveth us to know in the person of the rich glutton who having bathed himselfe in the pleasures and delights of this world without once regarding or pittying the poore was after cast into the torments of hell and there burneth in quenchlesse flames without any ceasing or allaying of his griefes therefore whatsoever punishments the wicked suffer before they die they are not quitted by them from this other but must descend into the appointed place to receive the surplus of their payments which is due unto them For what were it for a notorious and cruell Tyran that had committed many foule and wicked deeds or had most villanously murdered many good men to have no other punishment but to be slaine and to endure in the houre of death some extraordinary paine could such a punishment ballance with his so many and great offences Whereas therefore many such wretches suffer punishment in this world we must thinke that this is but a taste and scantling of those torments and punishments which are prepared and made ready for them in the world to come And therefore it often commeth to passe that they passe out of this life most quietly without the disturbance of any crosse or punishment but it is that they might be more strangely tormented in another world Some not considering this point nor stretching the view of their understanding beyond the aspect of their carnall eyes have fallen into this foolish opinion to thinke that there is neither justice nor judgement in heaven nor respect of equity with the Highest when they see the wicked to flourish in prosperity and the good and innocent to bee overwhelmed with adversity yea and many holy men have fallen into this temptation as Iob and David did who when they considered the condition of the wicked and unjust how they lived in this world at their hearts ease compassed about with pleasures and delights and waxing old in the same were carried to their sepulchres in peace they were somewhat troubled and perplexed within themselves untill being instructed and resolved by the Word of God they marked their finall end and issue and the everlasting perdition which was prepared for them and by no means could be escaped And thus it commeth to passe saith S. Augustine that many sinnes are punished in this world that the providence of God might be more apparant and many yea most reserved to be punished in the world to come that we might know that there is yet judgement behinde CHAP. LIII How the afflictions of the godly and the punishment of the wicked differ WHich seeing it is so it is necessary that the wicked and perverse ones should feele the rigor of Gods wrath for the presumption and rebellion wherewith they daily provoke him against them and although with those that feare God and strive to keepe themselves from evill and take paines to live peaceably and quietly it oftentimes goeth worse here below than with others being laid open to millions
of injuries reproches and cruelties and as it were sheepe appointed to the slaughter whereof some are massacred some hanged some headed some drowned some burned or put to some other cruell death yet notwithstanding their estate and condition is farre happier than that of the wicked for somuch as all their sufferings and adversities are blessed and sanctified unto them of God who turneth them to their advantage according to the saying of S. Paul That all things worke for the good to them that feare God for whatsoever tribulation befalleth them they cannot be separated from the love of God which he beareth unto them in his welbeloved son Christ Jesus be it then that God visiteth them for their faults for there is none that is clear of sin it is a fatherly chastisement to bring them to amendment be it that hee exerciseth them by many afflictions as hee did Iob it is to prove their faith and patience to the end they may be better purified like gold in the furnace and serve for example to others If it bee for the truth of the Gospell that they suffer then they are blessed because they are conformed to the image of the sonne of God that they might also be partakers of his glory for they that suffer with him are assured to reignâ— with him hence it is that in the midst of their torments and oppressions in the midst of fires and fagots flaming about them being comforted with the consolations of Gods spirit through a sure hope of their happy repose and incorruptible crowne which is prepared for them in the heavens they rejoyce and are so chearefull contrariwise the wicked seeing themselves ensnared in the evils which their owne sinnes brought upon them gnash their teeth fret themselves murmur against God and blaspheme him like wretches to their endlesse perdition There is therefore great difference betwixt the punishments of each of these for the one tendeth to honour and life the other to shame and confusion and even as it is not the greatnesse of torments that maketh the martyr but the goodnesse of the cause so the infliction of punishment unjustly neither maketh the party afflicted guilty nor any whit diminisheth his reputation whereas the wicked that are justly tormented for their sinnes are so marked with infamie and dishonour that the staine thereof can never be wiped out Let every one therefore learne to keepe himselfe from evill and to containe himselfe in a kinde of modesty and integrity of life seeing that by the plagues and scourges wherewith the world is ordinarily afflicted Gods fierce wrath is clearely revealed from heaven upon all impiety and injustice of men to consume all those that rebell against him Thinke upon this you inhabitants of the earth small and great of what qualitie or condition soever you be If you be mighty puissant and fearefull know that the Lord is greater than you for he is almighty all-terrible and all-fearefull in what place soever you are he is alwayes above you ready to hurle you down and overturne you to breake quash and crush you in peeces as pots of earth hee is armed with thunder fire and a bloudy sword to destroy consume and cut you in pieces heaven threatneth from above and the earth which you trample on from below shaking under your feet and being ready to spue you out from her face or swallow you up in her bowels in briefe all the elements and creatures of God looke askew at you in disdaine and set themselves against you in hatred if you feare not your Creator your Lord and Master of whom you have received your Scepters and Crownes and who is able when he please to bring Princes to nothing and make the Rulers of the earth a thing of nought Forsake therefore if you tender the good honour and repose of your selves and yours the evill and corrupt fashions of the world and submit your selves in obedience under the Scepter of Gods Law and Gospell fearing the just retribution of vengeance upon all them that doe the contrary for it is a horrible thing to fall into the hands of the Lord. And you which honour and reverence God already be now more quickned and stirred up to his love and obedience and to a more diligent practising of his will and following his commandements to the end to glorifie him by your lives looking for the happie end of your hope reserved in the heavens for you by Christ Jâ—sus our Lord to whom 〈…〉 everlasting Amen A briefe Summarie of more Examples annexed to the former by the same Author CHAP. I. Of such as have persecuted the Church of Christ. ZAcharias the sonne of Barachias of whom S. Mathew speaketh in the three and twentieth chapter and Saint Augustine in the 242 Sermon de Tempore in these words Zacharie the high-Priest reproving the rebellious people for the neglect of the worship of God and the sacred lawes was slaine of the people and the detestable band of the Jewes dyed the pavement with his bloud in the ninth yeare of the reigne of Ioas King of Judah which cruelty against this good man the whole nation of the Jewes payed deare for for when a yeare was past an armie of the Syrians came up against Ioas and slew all the Princes of the people in Judah and Hierusalem and there being but a small number of the Syrians God delivered into their hands the whole multitude of the Jewes Rabbi Iohosua reporteth that two hundred and eleven thousand were slaine in the field and ninetie foure thousand in the Citie for the expiation of the bloud of Zacharias which bloud boyled out of the earth till that day as it were out of a seething Caldron Egâ—as Patrensis a Prefect of the Emperor in Achaia when he had crucified Saint Andrew was possessed of Sathan and slaine Incommodous Emperour Commodus which was judged by the Senate more cruell than Domitian and more impure than Nero had a tragicall end both for his other vices and principally for persecuting the Church of Christ. In the time of Constantine one Teredates a great man in Armenia grievously persecuted the Church at which time Gregorie the Great famous for miracles suffered many indignities from him and at the last was shut up into a darke and muddie pit for the space of fourteene years But Teredates the Prince of that nation felt the horrible vengeance of God upon himselfe his houshold and his Nobles for they were all transformed into swine and lived like swine together and devoured one another Whether this storie be true or fabulous let the Reader judge But it is reported by Nicephorus lib. 8. cap. 35. In the reigne of Constantius after the Antiochian Synod in the which great Athanasius was condemned the Easterne Cities and especially Antioch were shaken and quashed with wonderfull Earthquakes in revenge of the injuries done to that good man Neither did Constantius the Emperour an assertor and maintainer of the Arrian heresie