put to death in diuers places as well for their monstrous damnable heresies as for many mischiefes and outrages which they committed By all which things God doth exhibite and set before our eies how deare precious in his sight the purenesse of his holy word the vnion of his Church is and how carefull zealous euery one of vs ought to be in maintaining and vpholding the same when as he reuengeth himselfe so sharply vpon all those that go about to peruert and corrupt the sincerity therof or which be breeders of new sects and diuisions among his people Olympus by office bishop of Carthage but by profession a fauourer and maintainer of the Arrian heresie being vpon a time in a bath washing himselfe Paul Diac. in Anastas hist Sabel lib. 5. c. 4. Blasphemie Lib. 1. cap. 31. Atheisme Lib. 1. cap. 25. hee vttered with an impious mouth blasphemous words against the holy Trinitie but a threefold thunderbolt came from aboue and stroke him dead in the same place teaching him by his paine and all other by experience what it is to blaspheme the Lord of heauen or with polluted lippes to mention his sacred maiestie this happened in the yeere of our Lord God 510. Cyrill hath recorded vnto vs of his owne knowledge a more wonderfull and admirable wonder of God vpon an heretique then all the rest and such an one indeed as the like I dare say was neuer heard of the history is this After the decease of S. Ierome there stood vp one Sabinianus a peruerse and blasphemous fellow that denied the distinctions of persons in the Trinitie and affirmed the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost to be but one indistinct person and to giue credit to his heresie he wrote a booke of such blasphemies tending to the confirmation of the same and fathered it vpon S. Ierome as being the authour of it But Siluanus the bishop of Nazaren mightily withstood and reproued him for deprauing so worthy a man now dead and offering his life for the truth made this bargaine with Sabinianus that if S. Ierome the next day did not by some miracle testifie the falsnesse of his cause hee would offer his throat to the hangman and abide death but if he did that then he should die This was agreed vpon by each party and the day following both of them accompanied with great expectation of the people resorted into the Temple of Ierusalem to decide the controuersie Now the day was past and no miracle appeared so that Siluanus was commaunded to yeeld his necke to that punishment which himselfe was authour of which as hee most willingly and confidently did behold an Image like to Saint Ierome in shew appeared and slaied the hangmans hand which was now ready to strike and vanishing forthwith another miracle succeeded Sabinianus head fell from his shoulders no man striking at it and his carkasse remained vpon the ground dead and senselesse Whereat the people amazed praising God claue vnto Siluanus and abiured Sabinianus heresie Wherein wee may obserue the wonderfull wisdome of God both in punishing his enemies and trying his children whether they will stand to his truth or no and learne therby neither rashly to measure and limit the purposes of God nor yet timerously to despaire of helpe in a good cause though we see no meanes nor likelihood thereof Grimeald king of Lumbardie was infected with the Arrian heresie for which cause the Lord punished him with vntimely death for hauing beene let blood the eleuenth day after as he stroue to draw a bow hee opened the vaine a new and so bled to death Cabades Casp hed lib. 3. cap. 10. 15. king of Persia when hee saw his sonne Phorsuasa addicted to the Maniches he assembled as many as he could of that sect into one place and there setting his souldiers on them slew them till there was not one left Photinus a Gallograecian for renuing the heresie of Hebion Platina sub Siricio 7. and affirming Christ to be but an excellent man borne naturally by Mary after the manner of other men excelling in iustice and morall vertues was by the Emperour Valentinianus iustly banished The Emperour Iustinian Niceph. lâ—b 27. cap. 31. fauouring the heresie of the Apthardocites when as he gaue out one edict whereby Anastasius the bishop and all other that maintained the truth should be banished Zen. com 3. suddenly he was stroken with an inward and inuisible plague which tooke away his life and forestalled his wicked cruell determination from comming to the desired effect In all which examples we may see how God doth not only punish heretikes themselues but also their fauourers and supporters yea the very places cities wherin they liued broched their blasphemies Paul Diaâ— lib. 5. as by the destructioÌ„ of Antioch is seene which being a very sink of heretiks was partly coÌ„sumed with fire from heauen aboue in the seuenth yeere of Iustinus the Emperour and partly ouerthrowen with earthquakes below wherein Euphrasius the bishop and many other were destroied Moreouer besides those there were vnder Pope Innocent the third certaine heretiques celled Albigonses or Albiani which being possessed with the same spirit of fury that the Maniches were affirmed that there were two Gods one good and another euill they denied the resurrection despised the sacraments and said that the soules of men after their separation passed either into hogs oxen serpents or men according to their merits Contempt of the word Lib. 1. cap. 34. they would not spare to pollute the temples appointed for the seruice of God with their excrements and other filthy actions and to defile the holy bibles with vrine in despite and contumely This heresie like an euill weed so grew and increased that the braunches therof spred ouer almost all Europe a thousand cities were polluted therewith so that it was high time to cut it short by violence the sword as it was for they were oppressed with so huge a slaughter that an hundred thousand of them were slaine partly by warre partly by fire at one time Gregory of Tours hath recorded the life and death of an hereticall monke of Bordeaux that by the helpe of Magicke wrought miracles and tooke vpon him the name and title of Christ saying hee could cure diseases and restore those that were past helpe by phisicke vnto their healths he went attired with garments made of goar 's haire and an hood professing an austerity of life abroad whereas he plaied the glutton at home but at length his cousenage was discouered he was banished the citie as a man vnfit for ciuill societie In the yeere of our Lord God 1204 in the Empire of Otto the fourth there was one Almaricus also that denied the presence of Christ in the sacrament Atheisme Lib. 1. cap. 25. and said that God spake as well in profane Ouid as holy Augustine he scoffed at the doctrine of the resurrection and esteemed
11. and there putting in practise his magicall artes and working miracles by the deuill was reputed a god and had an image erected in his honour with this inscription To Simon the holy God besides all the Samaritanes and diuers also of other nations accounted him no lesse as appeared by the reuerence and honour which they did vnto him in so much as they called his companion or rather his whore Helena for that was her profession in Tyre a citie of Phenicia The first moouer that distilled out of Simons bosome Now hee to foster this foolish and ridiculous opinion of theirs and to eternize his name boasted that hee would at a certaine time flie vp into heauen which as hee attempted to doe by the helpe of the deuill Peter the Apostle commaunded the vncleane spirit to cast him downe againe so that he fell vpon the earth and was bruised to death and prooued himselfe thereby to be no more then a mortall wicked and detestable wretch Moreouer elsewhere wee read of Alexander the great whose courage and magnanimitie was so exceeding great that he enterprised to go out of Greece and set vpon all Asia only with an army of two and thirty thousand footmen Oros lib. 3. fiue hundred horse and an hundred and fourescore ships and in this appointment passing the seas hee conquered in short space the greatest part of the world for which cause he was represented to the Prophet Daniel in a vision by the figure of a Leopard with wings on his backe to notifie the great diligence and speedy expedition which he vsed in compassing so many sudden and great victories with pride whereof hee was so soone infected that hee would brooke no equall nor companion in his Empire but as heauen had but one sonne so hee thought the earth ought to haue but one monarch which was himselfe Iust lib. 11. which mind of his he made knowen by his answere to king Darius demaunding peace and offering him the one halfe of his kingdome to be quiet when he refused to accord thereunto saying He scorned to be a partner in the halfe and hoped to be ful possessour of the whole After his first victory had of Darius his entrance into Aegypt which he tooke without blowes as also hee did Rhodes and Cicilia he practised and suborned the priests that ministred at the Oracle of Hammon to make him be pronounced and entituled by the Oracle The sonne of Iupiter which kind of iuggling and deceit was common at that time Hauing obtained this honour forthwith he caused himselfe to be worshipped as a god Iust lib. 12. Curt. lib. 8. according to the custom of the kings of Persia neither wanted hee flatterers about him that egged him forward soothed him vp in this proud humor albeit that many of the better sort endeauoured tooth and naile to turne him from it It happened as he warred in India he receiued so sore a wound that with paine thereof hee was constrained to say Though he was the renowmed sonne of Iupiter yet hee ceased not to feele the infirmities of a weak diseased body finally being returned to Babylon where many embassadors of diuerse farre countries as of Carthage and other cities in Affrica Spaine France Sicilie Sardinia and certaine Citties of Italy were arriued to congratulate his good successe for the great renown which by his worthy deeds he had gotten as he lay there taking his rest many daies and bathing himselfe in all kind of pleasure one day after a great feast that lasted a whole day and a night in a banket after supper being ready to returne home he was poysoned when before he had drunke his whole draught hee gaue a deepe sigh suddenly as if he had beene thrust through with a dart and was carried away in a sowne vexed with such horrible torment that had he not beene restrained he would haue killed himselfe And on this manner he that could not content himselfe with the condition of a man but would needs clymbe aboue the clouds to goe in equipage with God drunke vp his owne death leauing as sodainly all his worldly pompe as he had sodainly gotten it which vanished like smoke none of his children being any whit the better by it There was in Siracusa a city of Sicilia which is now called Saragosse a Phisition called Menecrates whose folly and presumption was so great that hee accounted himselfe a god and desired to bee so reputed by others insomuch that he required no other wages and recompence of the patients which hee tooke in hand as Aelianus witnesseth but that they should onely acknowledge him to bee Iupiter and call him so auow themselues to his seruice Vpon a time Denis the tyrant desirous to make some pastime with him made a feast and inuited him amongst others to be his guest but because he was a god to do him honor answerable to his name hee placed him a table all alone and set before him no dishes but onely a censer with frankincense which was a proper and conuenient seruice for the gods this honourable dutie pleased the Phisitian very wel at the first so that he snuffed vp the perfume most willinglie but when this poore god saw the other guests eating and drinking indeed and himselfe not being able to bee fed with smoke readie to starue with hunger rose vp and went away all enraged in himselfe and derided of others hauing more need to purge his owne braine from their superfluous humor then others from their sicknesses Caligula the first Emperour being become an ordinarie despiser and open mocker of all religion it came presentlie in his braine to beleeue so drunken was hee with a draught of his owne foolish conceit that there was no other God but himselfe therefore he caused men to worship him to kisse his hands or his feet in token of reuerence which honor afterwards the Popes tooke vnto 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 arrogancie or rather folly there was none so timorous and fearefull as he or that would sooner vpon lighter occasion be dismaied One day as he was by mount Aetna in Cicilie hearing by chance the violent cracking of the flames which all that season ascended out of the top of the hill it stroke so soddaine and horrible a feare into him that he neuer ceased flying all night till hee came to Phar in Messina Euery little thunderclap put him in feare of death for hee would leape vp and downe like a mad man when hee heard it thunder finding himselfe not able by all his godhead to defend himselfe from the power thereof but if there chanced greater crackes then ordinarie then would not his whote bed hold him but needes must he run into the cold floure vnderneath the bed to hide himselfe Thus was hee compelled against his will to feare him whome willinglie hee would not
deigne to acknowledge And thus it falleth out with all wicked miserable Atheists whose hearts imagine there is no God and therfore haue so little assurance in themselues that there need no thunder and lightning to amase them for the shaking of euerie leafe is sufficient to make them tremble To conclude this Atheist void of religion and feare of God and full of all prophanesse was according to his due desert murthered by one of his owne seruants of the which will follow more at large in the next booke Domitian likewise was so blinded with pride that he would be called a god and worshipped Oros lib. 7. ca. 7. of whome also wee will speake in the second booke and 34 chapter To these we may adde them also Dionys Halie Lib. 1. antiq Roman that to the end to make themselues feared and reuerenced as gods haue counterfaited the lightnings and thunders of heauen as we read of one Alladius a Latin king that raigned before Romulus who being a most wicked tyrant a contemner of God inuented a trick whereby to represent to the eare and eie the rattling swift shine of both thunder lightning that by that meanes astonishing his subiects he might be guised of them for a god but it chanced that his house being set on fire with true lightning ouerthrown with the violent strength of tempestuous rain togither with the ouerflowing of a pond that stood nere he perished by fire water burnt drowned all at once Did not the king of Elide the like and to the same end also by the deuice of a chariot drawn about with foure horses wherein were certaine iron workes which with wrinching about gaue an horrible sound resembling thunder and torches and squibs which hee caused to be throwen about like lightnings in such sort that he oftentimes burnt the beholders Diod. lib. 4. in this manner hee went vp and downe brauing it especially ouer an iron bridge which hee had of purpose built to passe and repasse ouer at his pleasure vntill Gods long suffering could not endure any longer such outragious and presumptuous madnesse but sent a thunderbolt from heauen vpon 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 Sibilla setteth downe at large to this effect I saw Salmon in cruell torments lie For counterfatting thunder of the skie And Ioues cleare lightning whilst with torches bright Drawne with foure steedes and brandishing his light He rode triumphantly through Elis streats And made all Grecia wonder at his feats Thinking to win the honor of a god Mad as he was by scattertng fire abroad With brazen engines and with courses faining A noise like that which in the clouds is raining 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 euen in the same kind wherin he offended which thing though it bee found written in a Poet yet ought not be reiected for an old wiues tale seeing it is not incredible that a king might make such pastimes yron crashing noises nor that he might be iustly punished for the same and the rather because Caligula did the like as wee haue heard before And we read also that one Arthemisius in the time of the Emperour Iustinian counterfeited by certain engines and deuises in his owne house in Constantinople Agath lib. 5. bell Gothis such earthquakes lightnings and thunders that would astonish a wise braine to heare or behold them on a sodaine But aboue all others that by darkening the glorie of God to encrease their own power haue prowdly exalted theÌ„selues against him the Popes are the ringleaders whose vnbrideled boldnes hath ben so much the more impudent pernicious for that in tearming themselues the seruants of the seruants of God in word in deed take vnto them the authoritie and power of God himself as of pardoning absoluing sins creating laws ordinances at their pleasure in binding or vnbinding mens consciences which things appertain to God only nay they haue ben so brasen faced as to coÌ„mand Angels and deuils as Clement the fift did in one of his buls so impudent as to be carried like idols vpon their vassalâ— shoulders weare three crownes vpon their heads so prowd and arrogant as to constraine kings and Emperours to kisse their feet to make them their vassals to vsurpe Lordship dominion ouer them and all their lands and possessions and to dispossesse whome they like not of kingdomes enstall in their roomes whom they please and all this by the thunder of excommunication whereby they make themselues feared and stood in awe of By which dealings of theirs they verifie in themselues that which the scripture speaketh of Antichrist which is the man of sinne the sonne of perdition 2. Thes 2.3 an aduersarie and one that exalteth himselfe against all which is called God or which is worshipped till he bee set as a god in the temple of God shewing himselfe that he is God Wherefore also the heauie vengeance of God is manifest vpon them by the great and horrible punishments they haue beene tormented with for some of them haue had their eies pulled out others haue died in prisons a third sort haue beene smothered to death a fourth hath beene killed with the sword a fift hath died with hunger a sixt bene stoned a seuenth poysoned and yet there hath not wanted an eigth sort whom the deuill himselfe hath stifled This it is to ouerreach the clouds Sabel Aenead 9. lib. 7. Iohn le Maire de Besges Niâ—h Giles of the Chronicles of Fraunce and not content with earthly power to vsurpe a supremacy and praeeminence ouer kings such was the pride of Pope Boniface the eigth wheÌ„ he sent an embassage to Philip the Faire king of France to command him to take vpon him an expedition against the Sarasens beyond the sea vpon paine of forfeiting his kingdome into his hands and when hauing his sword by his side he shamed not to say that he alone and none else was Emperour and Lord of all the world in demonstration wherof he bestowed the Empire vpon Duke Albert together with the crowne of Fraunce and not content herewith his insolencie was so importunat that he charged Philip the Faire to acknowledge himselfe to bee his subiect in all causes as well spirituall as temporall and to leuie a subsidie for his holinesse out of his Clergie disabling his authority in bestowing church liuings which prerogatiue hee chalenged to his sea the conclusion of this bull was in these words Aliud credentes fatitos reputamus as much to say as whosoeuer is of another mind then this we esteeme him a foole Wherevnto
to be without the reach of danger seeing hee was not assailed but did assaile was guarded with so mighty an army that assured him to make him lord of Ierusalem in short space yet the Lord ouerthrew his power destroied of his men in one night by the hand of his Angell 185 thousand men so that he was faine to raise his siege returne into his own kingdome where finally he was slain by his own sonnes as he was worshipping on his knees in the temple of his God In the time of the Machabees those men that were in the strong hold called Gazara 2. Mach. 10. fighting against the Iews trusting to the strength of the place wherein they were vttered forth most infamous speeches against God but ere long their blasphemous mouths were encountred by a cōdigne punishmēt for the first day of the siege Machabeus put fire to the towne consumed the place with the blasphemers in it to ashes Holofernes when Achior aduanced the glory of the God of Israel Iudith 6.7 replied on this fashion Since thou hast prophesied vnto vs that Israel shall be defended by their god thou shalt prooue that there is no God but Nabuchadonosor 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 preuented his cruell purpose by sudden death and 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 euen them that giue occasion therof vnto others yea though they be his dearest children as it appeareth by the words of the Prophet Nathan vnto king Dauid 2. King 12. Because of this deed saith he of murdering Vriah and defiling Bathshabe thou hast made the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child that is borne vnto thee shall surely die In the Empire of Iulian the Apostata there were diuers great men that for the Emperors sake forsooke Christ abiured his religion Theod. llb. 3. cap. 11 12. Contempt of holy things Lib. 1. cap. 3 4. amongst whom was one Iulian vncle to the Emperor gouernor of the East another Faelix the Emperors treasurer the first of which two after he had spoiled all Christian Churches and temples pissed against the table whereon the holy sacraments were vsed to be administred in contempt and stroke Euzoius on the eare for reproouing him for it the other beholding the holy vessels that belonged to the Church said See what precious vessels Maries sonne is serued withall After which blasphemie the Lord plagued them most strangely for Iulian fell into so strange a disease that his entrails beeing rotten hee voided his excrements at his mouth because when they passed naturally hee abused them to the dishonour of God Foelix vomited blood so excessiuely night and day at his blasphemous mouth that hee died forthwith About the same time there liued a famous sophister Epicure called Libanius who beeing at Antioch Theatr. hist demaunded blasphemously of a learned godly schoolmaster what the Carpenters sonne did and how he occupied himselfe Mary quoth the schoolmaster full of the spirit of God the creator of this world whome thou disdainfully callest the carpenters sonne is making a coffin for thee to carry thee to thy graue whereat the sophister iesting departed and within few daies dying was buried in a coffin according to the prophesie of that holy man Vide lib. 1. c. 21. Heres Philip. Chron. Abb. Vrusperg The Emperour Heraclius sending Embassadours to Cosroe the king of Persia to entreat of peace returned with this answer that he would neuer 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 blasphemie for what with a domesticall calamitie a forraine ouerthrow 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 Fincelius de miraculis lib. 2. as he was on a time banketting with his companions amongst other things this was chiefest sauce for their meat to blaspheme Christ his mother Mary insomuch as he boasted of a victory alreadie gotten ouer the Christians God But marke the issue as hee descended downe the staires his foot slipping hee tumbled headlong broke his neck wherin his late victory proued a discomfiture ouerthrow to his eternal shame confusion Three soldiers amongst the Tyrigetes a people of Sarmatia passing through a wood there arose a tempest of thunder and lightning which though commonly it maketh the greatest Atheists to tremble yet one of them to shew his contempt of God and his iudgements burst forth into blasphemie despitings of God But the Lord soone tamed his rebellious tongue for he caused the wind to blow vp by the root a huge tree that fell vpon him crushed him to pieces the other escaping to testifie to the world of his destruction No lesse notable is the example of a young gyrle named Denis Benifield of twelue yeres of age Acts and Monuments of the Church who going to schoole amongst other gyrles when they fell to reason among themselues after their childish discretion about God one among the rest said that he was a good old father what hee said the foresaid Denyse he is an old doting foole which being told to her mistresse shee 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 entreating her mother that shee might not goe so that she escaped her mistrisses correction But the Lord in vengeance met with her for as she returned homeward sodainly she was so stricken dead all the one side of her being blacke 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 yoong ones to grow vp in blindnesse without nurturing them in the feare of God and reuerence of his maiesty and therfore worthy to be remembred of all In the yeare 510 an Arrian bishop called Olimpius being at Carthage in the bathes reproched and blasphemed the holy and sacred trinitie and that openly Paul Diacon in the historie of Anastatius Sabell Aenead 8. lib. 2. Anton. Panor of the acts of Alphonsus Aeneas Siluius of the acts of Alphonsus but lightning fell downe from heauen vpon him three times and he was burnt and consumed therewith There was also in the time of Alphonsus king of Arragon and Sicily in an Isle towards Affrica a certaine Hermite called Antonius a monstrous and prophane hypocrite that had so wicked a heart to deuise and so filthy a throat to belch out vile and iniurious speeches against Christ Iesus
heauen with all his strength behold the dagger vanished away and fiue drops of blood distilled vpon the table before them and without all delay the deuill came in place and carried away that blasphemous wretch with such force and noise that the whole citie was amazed and astonished thereat the other two halfe beside themselues with feare stroue to wipe away the drops of blood out of the table but the more they wiped it the more clearely it appeared the rumour of this accident flew into the city and caused the people to flocke thicke and threefold vnto the place where they found the other two gamsters washing the boord whome by the decree of the Senat 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 themselues without any further inquisition or triall to auert the indignation which seemed to hang ouer their heads put incontinently to death the table they tooke and preserued it for a monument to witnes vnto posterity both how an accursed a pastime dicing is and also what great inconueniences and mischiefes grow thereby But that wee may see yet more the vanity mischieuous working of this sport I will report one story more out of the same author though not equall to the former in strangenesse and height of sinne yet as tragicall and no lesse pitifull Iob. â—incel lib. 2. In the yeere 1550 their liued in Alsatia one AdaÌ„ Steckman one that got his liuing by trimming pruning dressing vines this man hauing receiued his wages fell to dice lost all that he had gotten insomuch that he had not wherwith to norish his family so that he fell into such a griefe of mind withall into such paines of the head that hee grew almost desperate withall one day his wife beeing busie abroad left the care of her children vnto him but he tooke such great care of them that he cut all their throats euen three of them whereof one lay in the cradle and lastly would haue hanged himselfe had not his wife come in in the meane while who beholding this pitifull tragedy gaue a great outcry and fell downe dead whereupon the neighbours running in were eie witnesses of this wofull spectacle as for him by law hee was iudged to a most seuere and cruell punishment and all these pitiful euents arose from that cursed root of dice-play Wee ought therefore to learne by all these things that haue bene already spoken to abstaine not only from this cursed pastime but also from extortion robberies deceit guile and other such naughty practises 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 kindnes and equitie following the Apostles counsel where he saith Let them that stole steale no more Ephes 4.28 but rather trauaile by labouring with his hands in that which is good that hee may haue wherewith to succour the necessitie of others for it is not enough not to do euill to our neighbour but we are tied to doe him good or at least to endeauour to doe it CHAP. XLII Of such as haue bene notorious in all kind of sinne WEe haue seene by these foreplaced examples These exaÌ„ples of this chapter may be referred to all the commaundements for the most part how heauy the iudgements of God haue beene vpon those that through the vntamednesse of their owne lusts and affections would not submit themselues vnder the holy and mighty will of God but haue countremanded his commandements and withstood his precepts some after one sort and some after another now because there haue beene some so wicked and wretched that being wholly corrupted and depraued they haue ouerflowed with all maner of sinne and iniquitie and as it were maugred God with the multitude and hainousnesse of their offences wee must therefore spend some time also in setting forth their liues and ends as of the most vile and monstrous kind of people that euer were In this ranke wee may place the ancient inhabitants of the land of Canaan an irreligious people void of all feare and dread of God and consequently giuen ouer to all abominable wickednesse as to couiurings witchcrafts and vnnameable adulteries for which causes the Lord abhorring and hating them did also bring them to a most strange destruction for first and formost Iericho the frontier citie of their country being assaulted by the Israelites for bindering their progresse into the countrey were all discomfited not so much by Iosuah his sword as by the huge stones which dropped from heauen vpon their heads and least the night ouerraking them should breake off the small and full destruction of this cursed people the day was miraculously prolonged the sunne made to rest himselfe in the midst of heauen the space of a whole day so these fiue kings hiding themselues in a caue were brought but their necks made a footstoole to the captains of Israel were hanged on fiue trees Semiramis queene of Assyria was a woman of an ambitious spirit Sabell who through her thirst of raigning counterfaited her sexe and attired her selfe like a man to get more authority and reuerence to her selfe shee was the destruction of many thousand people by the vniust warre which the stirred vp besides that shee was a notorious strumpet and withall a murderer of those that satisfied her lust for still as they came from her bed some lay priuily in watch to kill them least they should bewray her villany yea and it is reported that shee was so vile and past shame that shee sollicited her owne soone to commit incest with her who in detestation of her filthinesse raised a power against her and conquering her in one great battaile caused her to be put to death The tyrant Periander vsurped the gouernment ouer Corinth Sabell after he had slaine the principall of the city hee put to death his owne wife to the end to content and please his concubine nay and was so execrable as to lie with his owne mother he banished his naturall sonne and caused many children of his subiects to be gelded finally fearing some miserable and monstrous end and want of sepulchre in conscience of his misdeeds hee gaue in charge to two strong and hardie souldiers that they should guard a certaine 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 vnto them without speaking any word and was soone dispatched and buried according to his commaundement but these two were encountred with foure other whome hee also had appointed to doe the same to them which they had done to him
heauen and hell but as an old wiues fable hee beeing dead his disciples were brought forth into a large field neere Paris and there in the presence of the French king degraded and burnt the dead carkasse of Almaricus being taken out of the sepulchre and burnt amongst them It fell out that whilst they were in burning there arose so huge a tempest that heauen and earth seemed to mooue out of their places wherein doubtlesse the soules of these wicked men felt by experience that hell was no fable but a thing and such a thing as waited for all such rebels against God as they were Anastasius Emperour of Constantinople being corrupted with the heresie of Eutiches published an edict wherein all men were commanded to worship God not vnder three persons as a trinity but as a quaternitie containing in it foure persons and could not by any counsell be brought from that deuilish errour but repelled from him diuers bishops with great reproch which came to perswade him to the contrary for which cause not long after a flash of lightning from heauen suddenly seazed vpon him and so he perished when hee had reigned eight and twentie yeeres Iustinus the second also who after the death of Iustinian obtained the Imperiall crowne was a man of exceeding pride and crueltie contemning pouertie and murdering the nobilitie for the most part In auarice his desire was so insatiate that he caused iron chests to be prepared wherein hee might locke vp that treasure which by vniust exactions hee had extorted of the people Notwithstanding all this hee prospered well enough vntill he fell into the heresie of Pelagian soone after which the Lord bereft him of his wits and shortly after of his life also when he had reigned eleuen yeeres Mahomet by birth an Arabian and by profession one of the most monstrous heretikes that euer liued began his heresie in the yeere 625 his offspring was but out of a base stocke for being fatherlesse one Abdemonoples a man of the house of Ismael bought him for his slaue and loued him greatly for his fauour and wit for which cause he made him ruler ouer his marchandize and other businesse Now in the meane while one Sergius a monke flying for heresie into Arabia instructed him in the heresie of Nestorius a while after his master died without children and left behind him much riches and his wife a widow of fifty yeeres of age whome Mahomet married and when shee died was made heire vnto all her riches So that now what for his wealth and cunning in magicke he was had in high honour among the common people Wherefore by the counsell of Sergius he called himselfe The great Prophet of God And shortly after when his fame was published hee deuised a law and kind of religion called Alcaron wherein he borrowed something almost of all the heresies that were before his time with the Sabellians he denied the Trinitie with the Maniclies he said there was but two persons in the Deity hee denied the equalitie of the Father with the Sonne with Eunomius and said with Macedone that the Holy Ghost was a creature and approoued the community of women with the Nicholaits hee borrowed of the Iewes circumcision and of the Gentiles much superstition and somewhat he tooke of the Christian verity besides many deuilish fantasies inuented of his owne braine those that obeied his law he called Sarazins Now after he had liued in these monstrous abuses fourty yeeres the Lord cut him off by the falling sicknesse which he had dissembled a long time saying when hee was taken therewith that the Angell Gabriel appeared vnto him whose brightnesse hee could not behold but the Lord made that his destruction which he imagined would be for his honour and setting forth his sect Stow Chron. Infinite be the examples of the destruction iudgement of priuat heretikes in all ages therfore we will content our selues with them that be most famous In the yeere of our Lord 1561 and the third yere of the reigne of Q. Elizabeth there was in London one William Geffery that constantly auouched a companion of his called Iohn Moore to be Christ our Sauiour and could not be reclaimed from this mad perswasion vntill he was whipped from Southwarke to Bedlam where the said Moore meeting him was whipped also vntill they both confessed Christ to be in heauen and themselues to be sinfull and wicked men But most strange it is The same how diuers sensible wise meÌ„ were deluded caried beside themselues by the subtilty of Satan in the yeere 1591 the reigne of Q. Elizabeth 33 the memory thereof is yet fresh in euery mans head and mouth and therfore I will but briefly touch the same Edmond Coppinger Henry Arthington two gentlemen being associated with one William Hacket somtimes a profane very leud person but now coÌ„uerted in outward shew though not in inward affection were so seduced by his hypocriticall behauiour the deuils extraordinary deuices that from one point to another they came at last to thinke that this Hacket was anointed to be the Iudge of the world therfore comming on a day to Hackeâ—s lodging in London Hypocrisie in regard of Hacket lib. 1. c. 22. he told them that he had bin annointed of the H. ghost then Coppinger asked him what his pleasure was to be done Go your way saith he proclaime in the city that Christ Iesus is come with his fan in his hand to iudge the earth if they wil not beleeue it let them come kill me if they can Then Coppinger answered it should be don forthwith therupon like mad men he Arthington ran into the streets proclaimed their message aforesaid wheÌ„ by reason of the concourse of people they could not proceed any further they got vp into two empty carts in Cheap crying Repent repent for Christ Iesus is come to iudge the world then pulling a paper out of his bosom he read out of it many things touching the office calling of Hacket how he represented Christ by partaking part of his glorified body c. besides they called themselues his prophets one of Iustice another of mercy And thus these simple men were strangely deceiued by a miraculous illusion of Satan who no doubt by strange apparitions had brought them into this vain conceit But let vs obserue the end of it it was thus The whole citie being in a maze tooke Hacket the breeder of this deuise and arraigning him before the Maior other Iustices found him guilty as well of this seditious practise as of speaking traiterous words against the Queene Wherefore hee was shortly after hanged on a gibbet in Cheape-side counterfaiting to his last his old deuises and at length vttering horrible blasphemies against the maiestie of God As for his Prophets Coppinger died the next day in Bridewell and Arthington was kept in prison vpon hope of repentance This though it be no