his three and thirtieth Sermon Ad fratres in eremo relateth this strange example of one Cyril a Cittizen of Hippo a man well esteemed and beloved in the Citie He having one onely sonne did so cocker him forbearing either to checke him or correct him but loving him as that holy Father saith not onely above all things but even above God himselfe that by his too much liberty and indulgence his sonne grew wonderfull debaushed and gave himselfe to filthy drunkennesse Upon a time being vilely overtaken with drinke he came home and tumbled over his mother being great with childe would have ravished his sister slew his father and wounded to death two of his other sisters O fearefull effect of drunkennesse thus God punished the father for his too much love and indulgence of his sonne and the sonne for his vile impiety Not unlike to this I finde in Philip Lonicerus Page 486. A certain man saith he that gave himselfe to the studie of Godlinesse was daily assaulted with the temptation of the Divell who perswaded him if hee would bee quiet to choose one of these three sinnes either to make himselfe drunke or to commit adulterie with his neighbours wife or to kill his neighbour himselfe The poore man thinking drunkennesse the least sinne chose that but being enraged with wine he was easily drawn to the committall of the other sinnes for being with wine enflamed with lust he feared not to vitiate his neighbours wife nor yet to kill her husband comming in the meane while seeking to be revenged of him so giving himselfe to drunkennesse hee wraps himselfe in all other wickednesse On the eighteenth of August 1629 one Thomas Wilson labourer a knowne and common blasphemer of Gods name by oathes and curses and given much to drinking to excesse upon a slight occasion moved to displeasure against his wife and not daring to doe much violence unto her turned it upon himselfe and with his knife stabbed himselfe many of his friends and neighbours being present and so he died On the 10 day of May 1629 one Iohn Bone of Ely coachman unto one Master â—aluâ—â—â— of Beenham a fellow very vitious and exceeding in those two evils of prophane swearing and drunkennesse on the Sabbath day in the Sermon-time dranke himselfe drunke so that when he was to sit in the coach-box to drive the coach he fell out thereof under the horses feet where he was trodden to death or so hurt at least that he died shortly On the six and twentieth of November 1621 one Richard Borne servant to Iaspâ—r Bâ—rch Gardiner of Ely accustomed to travell upon the Lords day and making no reckoning of the Sabbath seldome or never comming to Church on that day but went onwards to Saint Iâ—es market and so spent the day and being drunke was at length overtaken by the just judgement of God and going up the streame in his boate which he had loaden with marketable wares he fell into the river and was so drowned On the third day of August 1618 one Thomas Alred of Godmanchester in the Countie of Huntington Butcher an accustomed Drunkard being entreated by a neighbour to unpitch a load of hay and being at that very time in drinke letting his pitch-forke slip out of his hand and stooping to take it up againe slipped from the cart with his head down-wards his fork standing 〈◊〉 with the tines he fell directly upon them which it once ran into his breast and stroke his heart so that he died suddenly On the sixteenth day of July 1628 one Iohn Vintner of 〈…〉 Gardiner a knowne drunkard and one that would prophanely especially in his 〈◊〉 scoffe at religion and abuse good men fell from the top of a 〈…〉 the ground and brake his necke and so died These â—ive lust examples were reported unto me and written with his owne hand by a worthy Minister Master Goorge Nelson Preacher of the Word of God in Godmanchester CHAP. IX Of rebellious and disobedient Children to their Parents AGathias in his Booke of the Persian manners reporteth this storie That certaine Philosophers going into Aegypt and finding there a promiscuous commixture of fathers and mothers with their daughters and sonnes and a miserable neglect of children towards their parents returned speedily into Greece and in a certaine Citie there finding the dead body of a man wanting buriall they in compassion committed the same into the earth the next day comming the same way againe they found the same body digged out of the earth which whilest they went about to bury the second time a fearefull spectrum appeared unto them and forbad them to doe it saying That he was a man unworthy to be buried because he had committed incest with his mother and despised and contemned his father This narration sheweth that the very earth doth execrate and abhorre such unnaturall lust and disobedience Laâ—terbius in his Booke of the discipline of children reports a storie of a certaine young man who had a father very old that had bestowed upon him all his substance This old man being by the fault of age unmannerly at the table of his sonne his sonne caused a woodden trough to be made for his father to eate his meate in like a hogge which when his sonnes young childe perceived he asked his father for what use it should serve his father answered That it was for his Grandfather to eate his meate in and what saith the childe must I provide the like for you when you are old Whereat his father being astonished threw away the trough and ever after entertained his old father with greater reverence and obedient respect CHAP. X. Of Murtherers ROmulus having marked out with a plough the compasse of the walls of the Citie of Rome which he was a building and had forbidden that no man should leape over the same his brother Rhâ—mus in scorne leaped over the wall which Romulus taking in evill part slew his brother and reigned alone but at length being hated of the people for his insolencie he himselfe was slaine by the fathers of the Senate at Caprea Constantine the Great after he had overcome Licinius his partner in the Empire and obtained the sole Monarchie grew both insolent and cruell for he first put to death his owne sisters next his owne sonne Crispâ—â— which he had by Minervea then he slew his owne wife Fausta in the bathes and lastly a number more of his friends For which cruelty though hee was a man endued with excellent vertues yet God strucke him with a filthy Leprosie which continued upon him untill such time that he was converted to the faith of Christ and baptised by Pope Silvester after which he proved a most famous protector of the Church of Christ. Perillus that devised the brasen Bull for the Tyrant Phalaris wherein men being inclosed and scorched with the heat that was under the Bull did imâ—tate the lowing of an Oxe to the end that there should be no compassion shewed unto them by
with other care Save of their feed within that pasture faire These Flocks a Sheepheard had of power and skill To fold and feed and save them from all ill By whose advice they liv'd whose wholsome voice They heard and fear'd with love and did rejoyce Therein with melody of song and praise And dance to magnifie his Name alwaies He is their Guide they are his Flocke and Fold Nor will they be by any else controld Well knowing that whom he takes care to feed He will preserve and save in time of need Thus liv'd this holy Flocke at hearts content Till cruell Beasts all set on ravishment Broke off their peace and ran upon with rage Themselves their Young and all their heritage Slitting their throats devoured Lambs and all And dissipating them that seap't their thrall Then did the jolly feast to fast transforme So ask't the fury of that ragefull storme Their joyfull song was turn'd to mournfull cries And all their gladnesse chang'd to well adyes Whereat Heav'n grieving clad it selfe in blacke But earth in uprore triumph't at their wracke What profits then the sheephooke of their Guide Or that he lies upon a Beacons side With watchfull eye to circumscribe their traine And hath no more regard unto their paine To save them from such dangers imminent Some say as are so often incident 'T is not for that his arme wants strength to break All proud at tempts that men of might do make Or that he will abandon unto death His Owne deare bought with exchange of his breath For must we thinke that though they dye they perish Death dyes in them and they in death reflourish And this lifes losse a better life renues Which after death eternally ensues Though then their passions never seeme so great Yet never comfort serves to swage their heat Though strength of torments be extreame in durance Yet are they guencht by Hopes and Faiths assurance For thankefull Hope if God be grounded in it Assures the heart and pacifies the spirit To them that love and reverence his Name Prosperity betides and want of shame Thus can no Tyrant pull them from the hands Of mighty God that for their safety stands Who ever sees and ever can defend Them whom he loves he loves unto the end So that the more their fury overfloweth The more each one his owne destruction soweth And as they strive with God in policy So are they sooner brought to misery Like as the savage Boare dislodg'd from den And hotly chased by pursuit of men Run's furiously on them that come him neere And goares himselfe upon the hunters speare The gentle puissant Lambe their Champion bold So help 's to conquer all that hart 's his fold That quickly they and all their Progeny Confounded is and brought to misery This is of Iudah the couragious Lion The conquering Captaine and the Rocke of Sion Whose favour is as great to Iacobs Line As is his fearefull frowne to Philistine CHAP XV. Of Apostata's and Backsliders that through infirmity and feare have fallen away IT is a kinde of Apostasie and Backsliding condemned by the first commandement of the Law when as hee that hath been once enlightened by the word of God in the knowledge of salvation and nourished and instructed therein from the cradle doth afterward cast behind his backe the grace of Gods spirit or disallow thereof and exempt himselfe from the service of God to serve Idols or make any outward shew to doe it which kinde of sinne may be committed after two sorts either through infirmity and feare or willingly and with deliberation when not being pressed or constrained thereto by any outward means a man doth cleerely and of himselfe abandon and forsake the true Religion to march under the baoner of Satan and Antichrist And this is also of two sorts either when a man doth simply forsake the profession of the Truth to follow superstition and Idolatry without attempting any thing beside the meere deniall of his Faith or when after his revolt he professeth not onely the contrary Religion but also endeavoureth himselfe by all means possible to advance it and to oppresse and lay siege to the doctrine of Gods Truth in those that maintaine the same By this it appeareth that there are three kinds of Apostasie one as it were inforced and compelled the second voluntary the last both voluntary and malitious which though they be all very hainous and offensive in the sight of God yet the second and third sort are most dangerous and of them also one more hurtfull and pernitious than the other as we shall perceive by that which followeth Now as all these kinds are different one from another so I will referre the examples of each sort to his severall place that the efficacy thereof may be the better perceived And first of those which have fallen away through feare and infirmity and afterward in order of the rest Athough that they who by the conceit and feare of tortures presented before their eyes or of speedy and cruell death threatned against them doe decline and slide backe from the profession of the Gospell may pretend for excuse the weakenesse and feeblenesse of the flesh yet doubtlesse they are found guilty before the throne of God for preferring the love of this transitory and temporary life before the zeale of his glory and the honour which is due to his onely begotten Sonne especially at that time when they are called out of purpose by their Martyrdome to witnesse his sacred truth before men and he desireth most to be glorified by their free and constant perseverance therein to the which perseverance they are exhorted by many faire promises of eternall life and happinesse and from the contrary terrified by threats of death and confusion and upon paine to be discharged from the presence of Christ before God because they have denied him before men which is the misery of all miseries and the greatest that can happen to any man for what shall become of that man whom the Sonne of God doth not acknowledge Now to prove that God is indeed highly offended at this faint hearted cowardlinesse he himself hath made knowne unto us by the punishments which divers times he hath sent upon the heads of such offendors As in the time of the Emperour Valerian the eighth persecutor of the Church under whose persecution albeit that many Champions bestirred themselves most valiantly in that combat of Faith yet there wanted not some whose hearts failing them and who in stead of maintaining and standing for their cause to the death as they ought to have done retyred and gave up themselves to the enemy at the first assault Amongst the number of which doubty souldiers there was one that went up into the Capitoll at Rome in that place where Iupiters Temple in old time stood to abjure and recant Christ and his profession which he had no sooner done but he was presently strucke dumbe and so was justly punished
son to Lodouick the third was possessed tormented with a divell in the presence of his father the Peeres of the Realme which he openly confessed to have justly happened unto him because he had pretended in his mind to have conspired his fathers death and deposition what then are they to expect that doe not pretend but performe this monstrous enterprise A certaine degenerate and cruell son longing and gaping after the inheritance of his father which nothing but his life kept him from wrought this means to accomplish his desire he accused his father of a most filthy unnameable crime even of committing filtâ—inesse with a Cow knowing that if he were convicted therof the law would cut off his life herein he wroght a double villany in going about not only to take away his life which by the law of nature he ought to have preserved but also his good name without respecting that the stain of a father redoundeth to his posterity and that children commoÌ„ly do not only inherit the possessions but also imitate the conditions of their parents but all these supposes laid aside together with all feare of God he indicted him before the Magistrate of incest and that upon his own knowledge insomuch that they brought the poore innocent man to the rack to the end to make him confesse the crime which albeit amidst his tortures he did as soon as he was out he denyed again howbeit his extorted confession stood for evidence and he was condemned to be burned with fire as was speedily executed and constantly endured by him exclaiming still upon the false accusation of his son and his own unspotted innocency as by the issue that followed most cleerely appeared for his son not long after fell into a reprobate mind and hanged himselfe and the Judge that condemned him with the witnesses that bare record of his forced confession within one moneth died all after a most wretched and miserable sort And thus it pleased God both to revenge his death and also to quit his reputation and innocency from ignominy and discredit in this world Manfred Prince of Tarentum bastard son to Frederick the second smothered his father to death with a pillow because as some say he would not bestow the kingdome of Naples upon him and not content herewith he poisoned also the heirs of Frederick to the end he might attain unto the crown as Conrade his elder brother and his nephew the son of Henry the heir which Henry died in prison and now onely Conradinus remained betwixt him and the kingdome whom though he assayed to send after his father yet was his intention frustrate for the Pope thundered out his curses against him and instigated Charles Duke of Angiers to make war against him wherein bastard and unnaturall Manfred was discomfited and slaine and cut short of his purpose for which he had committed so many tragedies Martin Luther was wont to report of his own experience this wonderfull history of a Locksmith a yong man riotous and vicious who to find fuel for his luxury was so bewitched that he feared not to slay his own father mother with a hammer to the end to gain their mony and possessions after which cruell deed he presently went to a shoomaker and bought him new shooes leaving his old behind him by the providence of God to be his accusers for after an houre or two the slain bodies being found by the Magistrate and inquisition made for the murderer no manner of suspition being had of him he seeming to take such griefe therat But the Lord that knoweth the secrets of the heart discovered his hypocrisie and made his owne shooes which hee had left with the Shoomaker rise up to beare witnesse against him for the blood which ran from his fathers wounds besprinckled them so that thereof grew the suspition and from thence the examination and very soon the confession and last of all his worthy and lawfull execution From hence we may learne for a generall trueth that murder never so secret will ever by one means or other be discovered the Lord will not suffer it to goe unpunished so abominable it is in his sight Another son at Basil in the yeare of our Lord God 1560 bought a quantity of poyson of an Apothecary and ministred it to none but to his own father accounting him worthiest of so great a benefit which when it had effected his wish upon him the crime being detected in stead of possessing his goods which he aimed at he possessed a vile and shamefull death for he was drawne through the streets burnt with hot Irons and tormented nine houres in a wheele till his life forsooke him As it is repugnant to nature for children to deale thus cruelly with their parents so it is more against nature for parents to murder their children insomuch as naturall affection is of greater force in the descent than in the ascent the love that parents bear their children is greater than that which children redound to their Parents because the childe proceedeth from the father and not the father from the childe as part of his fathers essence and not the father of his Can a man then hate his own flesh or be a rooter out of that which himselfe planted It is rare yet sometimes it commeth to passe Howbeit as the offence is in an high degree so it is alwayes punished by some high judgement as by these examples that follow shall appeare The ancient Ammonites had an Idoll called Moloch to the which they offered their children in sacrifice this Idoll as the Jewes write was of a great stature and hollow within having seven chambers in his hollownesse whereof one was to receive meat another turtle Doves the third a sheep the fourth a ram the fifth a calfe the sixth an oxe and the seventh a childe his hands were alwayes extended to receive gifts and when a childe was offered they were made fire hot to burne it to death none must offer the childe but the father and to drowne the cries of it the Chemarims for so were the Priests of that Idoll called made a noise with bels cymbals and horns thus is it written that king Ahab offered his son yea and many of the children of Israel beside as the Prophet David affirmeth They offered saith he their sons and daughters to Divels and shed innocent blood c. this is the horrible crime Now marke the judgement concerning the Canaanites the landspued them out for their abominations Achab with his posterity was accur sed himselfe being slaine by his enemies and the crowne taken from his posterity not one being left of his off-spring to pis against the wall according to the saying of Elias as for the Jewes the Prophet David in the same place declareth their punishment when he saith That the wrath of the Lord was kindled and he abhorred his inheritance and gave them into the hands of the
conquered by the Normans comming with a forreine King being none of their naturall countrey In the yeare of our Lord sixe hundred threescore and eighteene Childerich King of France caused a Nobleman of his Realme called Bolyde to bee bound to a stake and there beaten to death without the pretence of any just crime or accusation against him For which cruelty his Lords and Commons being grievously offended conspired together and slew him and his wife as they were hunting In the raigne of Edward the second and Edward the third Sir Roger Mortimer committed many villanous outrages in shedding much humane bloud but he was also justly recompenced in the end first he murdered King Edward the second lying in Barkeley Castle to the end he might as it was supposed enjoy Isabel his wife with whom he had very suspitious familiarity Secondly he caused Edward the third to conclude a dishonorable peace with the Scots by restoring them all their ancient writings charters and patents whereby the Kings of Scotland had bound themselves to be feudaries to the Kings of England Thirdly he accused Edmund Earle of Kent uncle to King Edward of treason and caused him unjustly to bee put to death And lastly he conspi redagainst the King to worke his destruction for which and divers other things that were laid to his charge he was worthily and justly beheaded In the reigne of Henry the sixt Humfrey the good duke of Gloucester and faithfull protectour of the King by the meanes of certaine malicious persons to wit the Queene the Cardinall of Winchester and especially the Marquesse of Suffolke as it was supposed was arrested cast into hold and strangled to death in the Abbey of Bure For which cause the Lords hand of judgement was upon them all for the Marquesse was not onely banished the land for the space of five yeares but also banished out of his life for ever for as hee sailed towards France hee was met withall by a Ship of Warre and there presently beheaded and the dead corps cast up at Dover that England wherein he had committed the crime might be a witnesse of his punishment The Queene that thought by this meanes to preserve her husband in honour and her selfe in estate thereby both lost her husband and her state her husband lost his realme and the Realme lost Anjou Normandy with all other places beyond the sea Calice onely excepted As for the Cardinall who was the principall artificer of all this mischiefe he lived not long after and being on his death bed murmured and grudged against God asking wherefore hee should die having so much wealth and riches and saying That if the whole Realme would save his life he was able either by policy to get it or by riches to buy it but death would not be bribed for all his aboundant treasure he died miserably more like a Heathen than a Christian without any shew of repentence And thus was the good Dukes death revenged upon the princiall procurers thereof As the murder of a gentleman in Kent called master Arden of Feversham was most execrable so the wonderfull discovery thereof was exceeding rare This Arden being somewhat aged had to wife a young woman no lesse faire than dishonest who being in love with one Mosbie more than her husband did not onely abuse his bed but also conspired his death with this her companion for together they hired a notorious Ruffin one Blacke Will to strangle him to death with a towell as he was playing a game at tables which though secretly done yet by her owne guilty conscience and some tokens of bloud which appeared in his house was soone discovered and confessed Wherefore she her selfe was burnt at Canterbury Michael master Ardens man was hanged in chaines at Feversham Mosbie and his sister were hanged in Smithfield Greene another partner in this bloudy action was hanged in chaines in the high way against Feversham And Blacke Will the Ruffian after his first escape was apprehended and burnt on a seaffold at Flushing in Zeeland And thus all the murderers had their deserved dues in this life and what they endured in the life to come except they obtained mercy by true repentance is easie to judge CHA. XI Of the admirable discovery of Murders AS the Lord hath shewed himselfe a most just Judge in punishing most severely this horrible sinne of shedding mans bloud so hath he alwaies declared his detestation thereof and his will to have it punished by those who are in his stead upon the earth and have the sword of vengeance committed unto them by his miraculous and superhaturall detecting of such murderers from time to time who have carried their villanies so closely as the eye of man could not espy them plainely shewing thereby that the bloud of the slaine crieth to the Lord for vengeance from the earth as Abels did upon Cain and that God will have that law stand true and firme which he made almost before all other lawes He that sheddeth mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed If I should commit to writing all the examples of this kinde which either are recorded in Authors or which dayly experience doth offer unto us it would require rather a full Booke than a short Chapter for that subject And therefore I will be content with some few and those for truth most credible and yet for strangenesse most incredible And to begin with our owne countrey About the yeare of our Lord 867 a certaine Nobleman of the Danes of the kings stock called Lothebrocus father to Inguar and Hubba entring upon a certaine time with his hawke into a cockboat alone by chance through tempest was driven with his hawke to the coast of Northfolke in England named Rodham where being found and detained he was presented to king Edmund that raigned over the East-Angles in Northfolke and Suffolke at that time The King as hee was a just and good man understanding his parentage and seeing his cause entertained him in his Court accordingly and every day more and more perceiving his activity and great dexterity in hunting and hawking bare speciall favour unto him insomuch that the Kings Faulconer bearing privy malice against him for this cause secretly as they were hunting together in a wood did murther him and threw him in a bush Lothebroke being thus murthered and shortly missed in the Kings house no tydings could be heard of him untill it pleased God to reveale the murther by his dog which continuing in the wood with the corps of his Master at sundry times came to the Court and fauned on the King so that the King suspecting some such matter at length followed the trace of the hound and was brought to the place where Lothebroke lay Whereupon inquisition being made at length by some circumstances of words and other suspitions it was knowne that he was murdered by Berikâ— the Kings Faulconer who for his punishment he was set into the same boat of Lothebroke
heathen that they that hated them were lords over them In the yeare of our Lord 1551 in a town of Hassia called Weidenhasten The twentieth day of November a cruell mother inspired with Satan shut up all her doores and began to murder her four children on this manner shee snatcht up ā sharpe axe and first set upon her eldest son being but eight yeares old searching him out with a candle behinde a hogs-head where he hid himselfe and presently notwithstanding his pitifull praiers and complaints clave his head in two pieces and chopped off both his armes Next shee killed her daughter of five yeares old after the same manner another little boy of three yeares of age seeing his mothers madnesse hid himselfe poore infant behinde the gate whom as soone as the Tygre espied shee drew out by the haire of the head into the floore and there cut off his head the yongest lay crying in the cradle but halfe a yeare old him she without all compassion pluckt out and murdered in like sort These murders being finished the Diuell incarnate for certaine no womanly nature was left in her to take punishment of her selfe for the same cut her owne throat and albeit she survived nine dayes and confessing her fault dyed with teares and repentance yet we see how it pleased God to arme her own hands against her selfe as the fittest executioners of vengeance The like tragicall accident we reade to have happened at Cutzenborff a City in Silesia in the yeare 1536 to a woman and her three children who having slain them all in her husbands absence killed her selfe in like manner also to make up the tragedy Concerning stepmothers it is a world to reade how many horrible murders they have usually practised upon their children in law to the end to bring the inheritance to their own brood or at least to revenge some injury supposed to be done unto them of which one or two examples I will subnect as a taste out of many hundred leaving the residue to the judgment and reading of the Learned Constantius the son of Heraclius having raigned Emperour but one yeere was poysoned by his stepmother Martina to the end to install her own son Heraclon in the Crown but for this cruell part becomming odious to the Senat they so much hated to have her or her son raigne over them that in stead thereof they cut off her tongue and his nose and so banished them the City Fausta the wife of Constantine the great fell in love with Constantine her sonne in Law begotten upon a Concubine whom when shee could not perswade unto her lust she accused unto the Emperour as a solicitor of her chastity for which cause he was condemned to die but after the truth knowne Constantine put her into a hot bath and suffered her not to come forth untill the heat had choaked her revenging upon her head her sonnes death and her owne unchastity CHAP. XIIII Of Subject Murtherers SEeing then they that take away their neighbours lives doe not escape unpunished as by the former examples it appeareth it must needs follow that if they to whom the sword of Justice is committed of God to represse wrongs and chastise vices do give over themselves to cruelties and to kill and slay those whom they ought in duty to protect and defend must receive a greater measure of punishment according to the measure and quality of their offence Such an one was Saul the first king of Israel who albeit he ought to have beene sufficiently instructed out of the law of God in his duty in this behalfe yet was hee so cruell and bloody-minded as contrary to all Justice to put to death Abimelech the high Priest with fourescore and five other Priests of the family of his father onely for receiving David into his house a small or rather no offence And yet not satisfied therewith he vomited out his rage also against the whole city of the Priests and put to the mercilesse sword both man woman and child without sparing any He slew many of the Gibeonites who though they were reliques of the Amorites that first inhabited that land yet because they were received into league of amity by a solemne oath and permitted of long continuance to dwell amongst them should not have beene awarded as enemies nor handled after so cruell a fashion Thus therefore hee tyrannizing and playing the Butcher amongst his own subjects for which cause his house was called the house of slaughter and practising many other foule enormities he was at the last overcome of the Philistims and sore wounded which when he saw fearing to fall alive into his enemies hands and not finding any of his owne men that would lay their hands upon him desperately slew himselfe The same day three of his sons and they that followed him of his owne houshould were all slaine The Philistims the next day finding his dead body dispoyled among the carkasses beheaded it and carried the head in triumph to the temple of their god and hung up the trunke in disgrace in one of their Cities to be seene lookt upon and pointed at And yet for all this was not the fire of Gods wrath quenched for in King Davids time there arose a famine that lasted three yeeres the cause thereof was declared by God to be the murder which Saul committed upon the Gibeonites wherefore David delivered Sauls seven sons into the Gibeonites hands that were left who put them to the most shamefull death that is even to hanging Amongst all the sins of King Achab and Iezabel which were many and great the murder of Naboth standeth in the fore front for though hee had committed no such crime as might any way deserve death yet by the subtill and wicked devise of Iezabel foolish and credulous consent of Achab and false accusation of the two suborned witnesses he was cruelly stoned to death but his innocent blood was punished first in Achab who not long after the Warre which he made with the King of Syria received so deadly a wound that he dyed thereof the dogs licking up his blood in the same place where Naboths blood was licked according to the foretelling of Elias the Prophet And secondly of Iezabel whom her own servants at the commandement of Iehu whom God had made executor of his wrath threw headlong out of an highwindow unto the ground so that the wals were dyed with her blood and the horses trampled her under their feet and dogs devoured her flesh till of all her dainty body there remained nothing saving onely her skull feet and palme of her hands Ioram sonne of Iehosaphat King of Judah being after his fathers death possessed of the Crowne and Scepter of Judah by and by exalted himselfe in tyranny and put to death sixe of his owne brethren all younger than himselfe with many Princes of the Realme for which cause God stirred up the Edomites to rebell the Philistines and
followeth by the order of our subject now to touch the transgression of the third Commandement of the second Table which is Thou shalt not commit Adultery in which words as also in many other Texts of Scripture Adultery is forbidden and grievous threatnings denounced against all those that defile their bodies with filthy and impure actions estrange themselves from God and conjoyne themselves to whores and ribauds This sin did the Israelites commit with the woman of Madian by means whereof they were to follow strange gods and to fall into Gods heavie displeasure who by a cruell Plague destroyed 24000. of them for the same sin And forasmuch as the Madianites through the wicked and pernicious counsell of Balaam did lay this snare for them and were so villanous and shamelesse as to prostitute and be Bauds to their owne wives therefore they were by the expresse Commandement of God discomfited their Kings and false prophets with all their men and women except onely their unpolluted virgins that had knowne no man slain and all their Cities and dwellings burned and consumed to ashes As every one ought to have regard and care to their honesty so maides especially whose whole credit and reputation hangeth thereupon for they that make no account thereof but suffer themselves to be polluted with any filthinesse draw upon them not onely most vile infamy but also many great miseries as is proved by the daughter of Hippomenes Prince of Athens who being a whore her father shut up in a stable with a wilde horse giving him no provender nor other meat to eat that the horse naturally furious enough but more enraged by famine might tear her in pieces and with her carkase refresh his hunger as he did Pontus Aufidian understanding that his daughter had been betrayed and sold into a lechers hands by a slave of his that was her schoolmaster put them both to death In like manner served Pub. Atilius Falisque his daughter that fell into the same infamy Vives reporteth that in our fathers dayes two brothers of Arragon perceiving their sister whom they ever esteemed for honest to be with childe hiding their displeasure untill her delivery was past came in suddenly and stabbed her into the belly with their daggers till they killed her in the presence of a sage matron that was witnesse to their deed The same Authour saith That when he was a young man there were three in the same Countrey that conspired the death of a companion of theirs that went about to commit this villany and as they conspired so they performed it strangling him to death with a napkin as he was going to his filthinesse As for Adulterers examples are infinite both of their wicked lives and miserable ends In which number many of them may be scored that making profession of a single life and undertaking the vow of chastity shew themselves monstrous knaves and ribauds as many of the Popes themselves have done As we reade of Iohn the Eleventh bastard son to Lando his predecessour who by meanes of his Adulteries with Theodora then Governesse of Rome came by degrees to the Papacy so he passed the blessed time of his holy Popeship with this vertuous Dame to whom he served instead of a common Horse to satisfie her insatiable and disordinate lust but the good and holy father was at last taken and castin prison and there smothered to death with a pillow Benedict the Eleventh diâ—ing on a time with an Abbesse his familiar was poysoned with certain figs that he eat Clement the Fifth was reported to be a common Bawd and a protectour of whores he went apart into Avignion and there stayed of purpose to do nothing but whore-hunt he died in great torment of the bloudy flux plurisie and grief of the stomacke In our English Chronicles we reade of Sir Roger Mortimer Earl of March in the time of Edward the Third who having secret familiarity with Isabel Edward the Seconds wife was not onely the cause to stir her up to make war against her husband but also when he was vanquished by her and deposed from his Crowne his young son being installed in his Throne caused him most cruelly to be put to death by thrusting a hot spit into his body at his fundament He also procured the Earle of Kent the Kings uncle to be arraigned and beheaded at Winchester for that he withstood the Queenes and his dealings and would not suffer them to do what they listed All these mischiefes sprung out from the filthy root of Adultery But the just judgement of God not permitting such odious crimes to be unpunished nor undetected it so fell forth at the length that Isabel the old Queen was discovered to be with childe by the said Mortimer whereof complaint being made to the King as also of the killing of King Edward his father and conspiring and procuring the death of the Earle of Kent the Kings uncle he was arreigned and indicted and by verdict found guilty and suffered death accordingly like a Traitor his head being exalted upon London-bridge for a spectacle for all murderers and adulterers to behold that they might see and fear the heavy vengeance of God CHAP. XXI Of Rapes NOw if Adultery which with liking and consent of parties is committed be condemned how much more grievous and hainous is the offence and more guilty the offendour when with violence the chastity of any iâ— assailed and enforced This was the sin wherewith Sichem the son of Hemor the Levite is marked in holy Scripture for he ravished Dina Iacobs daughter for which cause Simeon and Levi revenged the injury done unto their sister upon the head of not onely him and his father but all the Males that were in the City by putting them to the sword It was a custome amongst the Spartans and Messenians during the time of peace betwixt them to send yearly to one another certain of their daughters to celebrate certain feasts and sacrifices that were amongst them now in continuance of time it chanced that fifty of the Lacedemonian virgins being come to those solemne feasts were pursued by the Messenian gallants to have their pleasures of them but they joyntly making resistance and fighting for their honesties strove so long not one yeelding themselves a prey into their hands till they all died whereupon arose so long and miserable a war that all the Countrey of Messena was destroyed thereby Aristoclides a Tyran of Orchomenus a City of Arcadia fell enamored with a maid of Stymphalis who seeing her father by him slain because he seemed to stand in his purposes light fled to the Temple of Diana to take Sanctuary neither could once be plucked from the image of the goddesse untill her life was taken from her but her death so incensed the Arcadians that they fell to Armes and sharpely revenged her cruell injury Appius a Roman a man of power and authority in the City inflamed with the love of a virgine
prisoners to Affrica amongst the which was Eudoxia the Empresse with her two daughters Eudocia and Placidia who was the cause of all this calamity but her trechery saved not her self nor them from thraldome And thus was Rome sacked and destroyed more than ever it was before insomuch that the Romane Empire could never after recover it selfe but decayed every day and grew worse and worse These were the calamities which the adultery of Valeutinian brought upon himselfe and many others to his owne destruction and the utter ruine of the whole Empire Childericke King of France son to Merouce for laying siege to the chastity of many great Ladies of his Realme the Princes and Barons conspired against him and drove him to flie for his life Eleonor the wife to King Lewis of France he that first cut through the sea surrowes towards Jerusalem against the Turkes and Saracens would needs couragiously follow her husband in that long and dangerous voyage but how Marrie whilest he travailed night and day in perill of his life she lay at Antioch bathing her selfe in all delights and that more licentiously than the reputation or duty of a married woman required wherefore being had in suspition and evill reported of for her lewd behaviour it was thought meet that she should be divorced from the King under pretence of consanguinity to the end she should not altogether be defamed The faire daughters of Philip the faire King of France escaped not at so good a rate for the King as soone as he smelt out the haunt of their unchastity caused them to be apprehended and imprisoned presently howbeit one of them namely the Countesse of Poictiers her innocency being knowne was set at liberty and the other two to wit the Queen of Navarre and the wife of Iohn de le March being found guilty by proofe were adjudged to perpetuall imprisonment and the Adulterers two brethren of the countrey of Anjou with whom these Ladies had often lyen were first cruelly flaine and after hanged Charles son of the aforesaid Philip the faire had to wife the daughter of the Earle of Artois that also offended in the like case and in recompence received this dishonour and ignominie to be divorced and put in prison and to see him married to another before her face In the reigne of Charles the sixth there befell a notable and memorable accident which was this one Iaques le Gris of the Countrey of Alanson being enamoured with a Lady no lesse faire than honourable the wife of the Lord of Carouge came upon a day when he knew her husband to bee from home to her house and faining as if he had some secret message to unfold unto her on her husbands behalfe for their familiarity was so great entred with her all alone into a most secret chamber where as soone as he had gotten her he locked the doore and throwing himselfe upon her forced her unto his lust and afterward saved himselfe by speedy flight Her husband at his returne understanding the injury and wrong which was done him by this vile miscreant sought first to revenge himselfe by justice and therefore put his cause to be heard by the Parliament of Paris where being debated it could not well be decided because he wanted witnesses to convince the crime except his owne wives words which could not be accepted so that the Court to the end that there might some end be made of their quarrell ordained a combate betwixt them which was forthwith performed for the two duellists entering the lists fell presently to strokes and that so eagerly that in short space the quarrell was decided the Lord of Carouge husband of the wronged Lady remained conquerour after he had slaine his enemy that had wronged him so wickedly and disloyally the vanquished was forthwith delivered to the hangman of Paris who dragged him to mount Falcon and there hanged him Now albeit this forme and custome of deciding controversies hath no ground nor warrant either from humane or divine Law God having ordained only an Oath to end doubts where proofes and witnesses faile yet doubtlesse the Lord used this as an instrument to bring the treacherous and cruell Adulterer to the deserved punishment and shame which by deniall he thought to escape A certaine Seneschall of Normandy perceiving the vicious and suspitious behaviour of his wife with the Steward of his house watched them so narrowly that he tooke them in bed together he slew the Adulterer first and after his wife for not all her pittifull cryings for mercy with innumerable teares for this one fault and holding up in her armes the children which she had borne unto him no nor her house and parentage being sister to Lewis the eleventh then King could not withhold him from killing her with her companion Howbeit King Lewis never made shew of anger or offence for her death Mâ—sselâ—na the wife of Claudius the Emperour was a woman of so notable incontinency that the would contend with the common harlots in filthy pleasure at last she fell in love with a faire young Gentleman called Silius and to obtaine more commodiously her desire she caused his wife Sillana to be divorced and notwithstanding she was wife to the Emperour then living yet she openly married him for which cause after great complaint made to the Emperour by the Nobles she was worthily put to death Abusahed King of Fez was with six of his children murdered at once by his Secretary for his wives sake whom he had abused And it is not long sithence the two Cities Dalmendine and Delmedine were taken from the King of Fez and brought uâ—der the Portugals dominion only for the ravishment of a woman whom the Governour violently took from her husband to abuse and was slain for his labour CHAP. XXIX Other examples like unto the former MArie of Arragon wife to Otho the third was so unchast and lascious a woman and withall barren for they commonly goe together that she could never satisfie her unsatiable lust she carried about with her continually a young lecher in womans clothes to attend upon her person with whom she daily committed filthinesse who being suspected was in the presence of many untyred and found to be a man for which villany hee was burnt to death Howbeit the Empresse though pardoned for her fault returned to her old vomit and continued her wanton traffique with more than either desired or loved her company at last she fell in love with the County of Mutina a gallant man in personage and too honest to be allured with her stale though he was often solicited by her wherefore like a Tvgre she accused him to the Emperour for extreame love converts to extreame hatred if it be crossed of offering to ravish her against her will for which cause the Emperour Otho caused him to lose his head but his wife being privy to the innocency of her husband traversed his cause
many more whose hearts are passionate with love are blindfolded after the same sort like as poeticall Cupid is fained to be that not knowing what they take in hand they fall headlong into destruction ere they be aware Let us then be here advertised to pray unto God that he would purifie our drossie hearts and divert our wandring eyes from beholding vanity to be seduced thereby CHAP. XXXVI Of unlawfull gestures Idlenesse Gluttony Drunkennesse Dancing and other such like dissolutenesse LIke as if we would carry our selves chastly and uprightly before God it behoveth us to avoid all filthinesse and adultery so we must abstain from uncivill and dishonest gestures which are as it were badges of concupiscence and coales to set lust on fire and instruments to injure others withall From hence it was that Pompey caused one of his souldiers eyes to be put out in Spaine for thrusting his hand under a womans garment that was a Spaniard and for the same or like offence did Sertorius command a footman of his band to be cut in pieces O that we had in these daies such minded captaines that would sharply represse the wrongs and ravishments which are so common and usuall amongst men of war at this day and so uncontrolled they would not then doubtlesse be so rise and common as in these daies they are Kissing is no lesse to be eschewed than the former if it be not betwixt those that are tyed together by some bond of kindred or affinity as it was by antient custome of the Medes and Persians and Romanes also according to the report of Plutarch and Seneca and that which is more Tiberius Caesar forbad the often and daily practise thereof in that kinde as a thing not to be freqented but rather utterly abhorred though it be amongst kinsfolkes themselves It was esteemed an indignity among the Graecians to kisse any maid that was not in blood or assinity allyed unto them as it manifestly appeareth by the earnest suit and request of the wife of Pisistratus the Tyran of Athens to put to death a young man for kissing her daughter in the streets as he met her although it was nothing but love that moved him thereto Saint Augustine also affirmeth That he which wantonly kisseth a woman that is not his wife deserveth the whip It is true that the holy Scripture often mentioneth kissing but either betwixt father and childe or brethren or kinsfolkes or at least in a manner of salutation betwixt one another of acquaintance according to the custome of the people of God and sometimes also it is mentioned as a token of honour and reverence which the subject performeth to his superiour in this action In the former ages Christians used to kisse also but so that it was ever betwixt parties of acquaintance and in such sort that by this manner of greeting they testified to each other their true and sincere charity peace and union of heart and soule in the Lord. Such chearings and loving embracings were pure and holy not lascivious and wanton like the kisses of prophane and leacherous wretches and strumpets whereof Solomon maketh mention Furthermore every man ought to shun all meanes and occasions which may induce or entice them to uncleanenesse and amongst the rest especially Idlenesse which cannot chuse but be as it were a wide doore and passage for many vices to enter by as by experience we see in those that occupy themselves about no good nor profitable exercises but mispend their time in trifling and doing nothing and their wits either upon vaine and foolish conceit to the hurt of others or upon lascivious and unchaste thoughts to their owne overthrow whereas on the contrary to them that are well employed either in body or minde no such thing betideth wherefore wee ought to be here advertised every one of us to apply our selves to some honest and seemly trade answerable to our divers and severall estates and conditions and not to suffer our selves to be overgrowne with Idlenesse lest thereby we fall into mischiefe for whom the adversary that malicious and wicked one findeth in that case he knowes well how to fit them to his purpose and to set them about filthy and pernitious services Next to idlenesse the too much pampering the body with dainty and much food is to be eschewed for like as a fat and well fed horse winceth and kicketh against his rider so the pampered flesh rebelleth against God and a mans owne selfe This fulnesse of bread and abundance of â—â—shly delights was the cause of the destruction of Sodome and Gomorrah and therefore our Saviour to good purpose warneth us to take heed to our selves that we be not oppressed with surfetting and drunkennesse and the Apostle to take no thought for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof but to walke honestly not being given to gluttony and drunkennesse chambering and wantonnesse and in another place not to be drunke with wine wherein is excesse for besides the losse of time and mispence of goods the grievous diseases and pangs of the body and dulling and besotting of the wit which spring from intemperance many other great evils depend and wait thereon as whoredomes adulteries uncleannesses quarrels debates murders with many other such like disorders and mischiefes Noah that holy Patriarch by drinking too much wine not only discovered his owne shame but also was the occasion of that cruell curse which the Lord sent upon the posterity of Cham which even to this day lyeth heavy upon them Lot though he hated the sin of Sodome and escaped the punishment of Sodome yet being overcome with the wine of the mountaines he committed incest with his owne daughters and made a new Sodome of his owne family Balthasar rioting and revelling amongst his pots had the end both of life and kingdome denounced against him by a bodilesse hand-writing upon the wall the Lords decree Whilest Holofernes besotted his sences with excesse of wine and good cheare Iudith found meanes to cut off his head The Emperours Septimius Severus and Iovinianus dyed with eating and drinking too much Likewise a certaine African called Donitius overcharged his stomacke with so much food at supper that he dyed therewith Gregory of Tours reporteth of Childericke a Saxon that glutted himselfe so full of meat and drink over night that in the morning he was found choked in his bed In our memory there was a Priest in Rovergne neare Milan that dining with a rich farmer for his yeares dinner cheared himselfe so well and filled his belly so full that it burst in two and he dyed suddenly Alexander the great having invited many of his favourites and captaines to supper propounded a crowne in reward to him that should drinke most now the greatest drinker swallowed up foure steanes of wine and woon the prize being in value worth six hundred crownes but lost his life a jewell of greater
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