to another till at last some of his disciples which were called Circumcellions grew to that height of madnesse that running up and down when they met with any passengers by the way they would force them to kill them others of them by leaping from rocks and high places would break their own necks or burne themselves in the fire that so they might die Martyrs August A certaine Anabaptist in the field of Sancto Galli by the instigation of the Devil having his sword under his cloake called his brother nothing aware of his bloody intent before his father mother sisters and the whole family commanding him to kneele down before them and suddenly whips out his sword and cuts off his head throwing it at the feet of his parents whereat they were so affrighted that they died mad the murtherer himselfe defended the fact saying Voluntas Dâ—i impleta est The will of the Lord is fulfilled Gastius John Matthias one of the Prophets of the Anabaptists in Germany being vexed with a disgracefull scoffe which was given him by a blacksmith procured him to be condemned to death by some of his own rabble and himselfe would needs be the executioner wounding him first with an Halberd and that wound not proving mortal he after shot him through with a Pistoll Then shedding some Crocodile-teares he pardoned him for his rash speech saying That God was reconciled to him and that he had a revelation from Heaven that the man should not die of his wounds yet he proved a false Prophet the man dying within a few dayes after Hist. of the Anabap. John of Leiden a Taylor whom the Anabaptists in Germany chose for their King presently after his Coronation made a great feast inviting at least foure thousand men and women to it and between the first and second course he accuseth a man of high Treason and cuts off his head with his own hands and returnes merry to supper and after supper with the same bloody hands he administers the Lords Supper Not long after though there was a great famine in the City of Munster where they were yet he and his Courtiers abated nothing of their full dishes But one of his fifteen wives for so many he had somewhat more consciencious then the rest said That she thought God was not well pleased with their feasting and rioting when the other people pined with hunger and so were famished to death in the streets This mock-King being told of this speech of hers brought her into the market-place with other of his wives and making her kneel down cut off her head commanding his other wives to sing and give praise for it to their heavenly Father Hist. Anabap. Within the space of two years wherein this Sect of the Anabaptists by their fanaticall opinions and practices disturbed the peace of Germany and much hindred the Reformation of Religion begun by Luther and others it pleased God by eminent visible judgments to punish the prime actors fomentors of the same For Thomas Muncer was put to the rack by George Duke of Saxony where he roared most fearfully and in the end had his head cut off and put upon an high pole in the fields Three hundred Anabaptists that fell upon a Monastery in Friesland and rifled it were most of them either killed by the ruines of the Monastery or put to death by the hangman John of Leiden and their Consul Bernard Knipperdoling were tied to a stake and together with their great Prophet had their flesh torne off with hot pinchers and in the end being slaine had their bodies put into iron Cages and hanged on the steeple of Saint Lambert Sleid. Com. Lib. 10. There was in the yeare 1647. one Quarterman who had sometimes lived in Oxford and been a zealous professor of Religion and one that had suffered under the Tyranny of the Bishops At the beginning of the difference between the King and Parliament he was chosen Marshal of the City of London and continued some yeares in that imployment afterwards he turned a violent Sectarie and being discarded by the City he went to the Army where he found countenance and imployment But withall he sucked in errors so fast that in Southwark before a godly Minister he said That there was no more holinesse in the Scriptures then in a dogs taile which afterwards he againe affirmed before the said Minister and many of his Congregation whereupon the Minister went forth fearing as he professed lest the house should fall upon his head wherein such a blasphemous wretch was and within few dayes after it pleased God to strike the said Quarterman with a violent disease viz. upon February the eleventh where of he presently died and was buried February the sixteenth 1647. In the same year there were in York-shire certaine seduced Sectaries who pretended that they had a revelation to sacrifice unto God certaine creatures and amongst the rest their aged mother whom accordingly they slew perswading her that she should rise againe the third day for which they were apprehended and afterwards hanged at York Anno Christi 1648. there lived in Southwark one Gunne a Sectarian Preacher who lived in adultery with another mans wife for about the space of nine yeares and afterwards solicited and lay with one Greens widow whereupon it pleased God to strike him with such horror of conscience that he ran mad and continued raving and raging in a fearfull manner till at the length having an opportunity he murthered himselfe and the woman with whom he lay being examined about it acknowledged the fact saying That she did it to cure her brother of his burnings Bolton one that by Separation made the first schisme here in England first through the stirring of his conscience made a publick Recantation of his errors at Pauls Crosse and yet afterward was so dogged with a desperate remorse that he rested not till that by hanging himselfe he had ended his miserable life Robins Justif. See more of these in Mr. Baylies disswasive page 13 c. Anno Christi 1647. there was at Newbery some she Anabaptists that took upon them to have revelations and therein to see and know such glorious things as could not be imagined and one of them had such strange gestures and fits as the like was seldome seen This woman gave forth that she had a revelation that such a night she should be taken up into heaven against which time many of them assembled together took their solemne leaves of her with tears and the time being come out they go to see her ascension The night was a Moonshiny night and as they expected when an Angel should come to fetch her up in a Chariot a cloud comes and covers the face of the Moone whereupon they all cry out Behold he comes in the clouds but presently the cloud vanisheth whereupon their hopes being frustrate they still expect his coming And after a while comes a flock of wilde geese a good way off whereupon again
whereupon he was deposed and banished from his Bishoprick But shortly after Gods heavy judgement falling upon the woman in her sicknesse she confessed that she was suborned by the Arians to accuse this holy man and that it was one Eustathius a Tradesman that had gotten that childe Niceph. l. 8. c. 46. See the like practice against Athanatius in his Life In my first Part of the Marrow of Ecclesiastical History In the reigne of King Canutus at a Parliament held at London the King asked the Lords and Nobles whether in the Agreement made betwixt King Edmund and him there was any mention made of the children or brethren of Edmund to have any part of the land divided to them The Lords flatteringly answered That there was none Yea they confirmed their false words with an oath thinking thereby to have procured great favour with the King But he on the contrary ever after mistrusted and disdained them especially such as had sworne fealty to King Edmund Yea some of them he exiled many he beheaded and divers of them by Gods just judgement died suddenly Speed In the Reigne of King Henry the eighth one Richard Long bore false witnesse against a Minister in Calice falsly accusing him for eating meat in Lent But shortly after Gods wrath did lie so heavy upon his conscience that he desperately drowned himselfe Aze Mon. About the same time Gregory Bradway accused one Brook falsly for stealth but shortly after through terrors of conscience he sought to cut his own throat but being prevented he fell mad In Queen Maries dayes one William Feming accused an honest man called John Cooper because he would not fell him two bullocks as if he had spoken traiterous words against the Queen and suborned two false witnesses to depose it Cooper was hanged and quartered and all his goods taken from his wife and nine children but shortly after one of these false witnesses being well and at harvest-work was stricken by God so that his bowels fell out and he died miserably See My English Martyrology The Egyptians had no punishment for lying and therefore no measure in lying One Thespis a Poet in Athens made a play wherewith the Citizens were much delighted and grave Solon himselfe went to see it but when the play was ended wherein Thespis himselfe acted a part Solon called him to him and asked him if he were not ashamed to lie so openly in the face of all the City Thespis answered that it made no matter so long as it was but in sport But Solon beating the ground with his staffe said If we commend or allow lying in sport we shall shortly finde it used in good earnest in all our bargaines and dealings Plut. Artaxerxes M. having found one of his souldiers in a lie caused his tongue to be thrust through with three needles Plut. Putting away lying speake every man the truth with his neighbour for we are members one of an other Eph. 4. 25. CHAP. XXIX Examples of Childrens Obedience and Love to their Parents COmmanded Eph. 6. 1. and why v. 2. Col 3. 20. Prov. 4. 1. 6. 20. Exod. 20. 12. Deut. 5. 16. Mat. 15. 4. 19. 19. Mark 7. 10. 10. 19. Luk. 18. 20. Commended Mal. 1. 6. Scriptural Examples Shem and Japhet Gen. 9. 23. Isaac Gen. 22. 6 c. Jacob Gen. 28. 1 5. Ioseph Gen. 37. 13. Ruth Chap. 1. 16 17. Solomon 1 King 2. 19. Other examples Pomponius Atticus making the funeral Oration at his mothers death protested that having lived with her sixty and seven years he was never reconciled to her Because said he there never happened betwixt us the least jarre which needed reconciliation In vita Attici Cyrus King of Persia having overcome Croesus King of Lydia in battel Croesus fled into the City of Sardis but Cyrus following took the City by storme and a souldier running after Croesus with his sword Croesus his sonne that had been dumb all his life-time before with the violence of natural affection seeing his father in such danger suddenly cryed out O man kill not Croesus and so continued to speak all his life after Pez Mel. Hist. Miltiades a famous Captaine of the Athenians died in prison for debt his sonne Cimon to redeeme his fathers body for burial voluntarily went into the prison and submitted to be cast into chaines there till the debt was paid Iustin. Cleobis and Biton two brethren in Greece loved their mother dearly insomuch as she being to go to Juno's Temple in her coach drawn by two oxen the oxen being out of the way they willingly harnessed themselves and drew her thither she much rejoycing that she had borne two such sonnes Plut. Olympias the mother of Alexander M. was very severe and morose in her carriage towards him and once Antipater Alexanders deputy in Europe wrote large letters of complaint against her to whom he returned this answer Knowest thou not that one little teare of my mothers will blot out a thousand of thy letters of complaint Plut. King Demetrius being overcome by Seleucus and taken prisoner his sonne Antigonus hearing of it mourned exceedingly and wrote lamentably to Seleucus in the behalfe of his father proffering to deliver up into his hands all the Countreys which he yet held and to become a pledge himselfe for his father so that he might be delivered out of captivity Diod. Sic. The carriage of Master Herbert Palmer towards his parents was very dutifull and obsequious not only during his minority but even afterwards which was very evident in that honour and respect which he continued to expresse to his aged mother to the day of her death being also a special help to her in the wayes of holinesse See his Life at the end of my General Martyrology Honour thy father and thy mother that thy dayes may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee Exod. 20. 12. CHAP. XXX Examples of Gods judgements upon Unnatural and rebellious children Such were to be punished with death Exod. 21. 17. Levit. 20. 9. Mat. 15. 4. Mark 7. 10. Prov. 20. 20. Deut. 21. 18. c. Such are cursed Deut. 27. 16. It 's a damnable sinne 1 Tim. 1. 9. Rom. 1. 31. 2 Tim. 3. 3. Prov. 30. 11. Scriptural examples Simeon and Levi Gen. 34. 30. Elies sons 1 Sam. 2. 25. C ham for mocking the nakednesse of his father Noah was cursed by him Gen. 9. 25. Absalom for rebelling against his father David was hanged by his head and thrust through by Joab 2 Sam. 18. Adramelech and Sharaser that slew their father Sennacherib to enjoy his Kingdome were banished into Armenia and Esarhaddon succeeded his father 2 King 19. ult Crannius the son of Clotharius King of France conspired treacherously and raised warre against his father but being vanquished as together with his wife and children he was flying thinking to escape by sea being overtaken by the command of his father they were all shut up in a little house and so burned
there appeared a dreadful fiery impression in the air in fashion much like a Rainbowe of a fiery red colour which beginning over Cockera and arising higher over Strigonium at length vanished away over the Fort of St. Thomas Turk Hist. p. 1223. About the same time also the City of Constantinople and the Countreys thereabouts were so plagued with clouds of Grashoppers that they shadowed the very Sun-Beames they left not a green herb or leaf in all the Countrey yea they entred into their very bed-Chambers where they annoyed them mâ—â—â— being almost as big as Dormice with red wings Turk Hist. p. 1308. In the year 1611. there appeared over Prague in Bohemiah about the middest of October a Crown in the air giving a very great light and about it Armies of men fighting as if it were who should have it Turk Hist. p. 1310. Also not long after three Suns were seen in the firmament over Vienna p. 1311. In the year 1614. over the same Town the heavens grew so red and fearfully dark on a sudden that the Inhabitants feared that either the last day was come or else that there would follow some horrible effusion of blood p. 1334. In the year 1618. there appeared in the night over Constantinople a Comet in the form of a crooked sword it was of a vast bignesse at the first appearing it was somewhat whitish but the more it rose the redder it was and like unto blood p. 1379. In the year 1625. on Munday the 29th of June at Constantinople there began a most terrible tempest with so violent and continual thunder and lightening that all the City shewed as if it had been on fire at the end whereof fell a storm of hail that brake tiles and glasses so that stones were taken up of an hundred and fifty drammes and the next morning some of them being weighed they were of about seven and eight ounces apiece wherewith many were sore wounded and the third of July after there fell out another tempest of thunder and lightning which burned a woman and child and slew much Cattel in the field p. 1452 1453. Anno Christi 1096. in the Reign of William the Conquerour a Well of blood sprang out of the ground for fifteen daies together at Finchamsted in Barkshire Isac Chron. p. 316. Anno Christi 1176. in the Isle of Wight it rained blood the shower continuing for the space of two houres together to the great wonder and astonishment of the beholders Speed's Isle ef Wight Anno Christi 1586. the fourth day of August at Mottingham in Kent eight miles from London suddenly the ground began to sink and three great Elmes that grew thereon were carried so deep into the bowels of the earth that no part of them could any more be seen the hole that was left was in compasse eighty yards about and a line of fifty fathoms plummed into it could find no bottom Speed in Kent J. Stow. Strange and wonderfull Apparitions at Portendown Bridge within the Province of Ulster in Ireland as it was given in Anno 1642. upon oath by sundry persons examined about the same The Irish Inhabitants thereabout were so affrighted with cryes and noises made there by some spirits or visions for revenge that they were enforced to remove their habitations not daring to return thither again Also the blood of some of those innocents that were knocked on the head there remained long upon the Bridge and could not be washed out Also there often appeared visions or apparitions sometimes of men sometimes of women breast-high above the water which did most extreamly and fearfully scriech and cry out for vengeance against the Irish that had murthered their bodies there Also about the 20th of Decemb. 1641. the bloody Rebels having at one time drowned 180 Protestants men women and children in the River by the Bridge about nine daies after a spirit in the shape of a man appeared in that place bolt upright breast-high above the water with his hands lifted up standing in that posture till the latter end of Lent next following and was seen so by very many Also a Mother of some of those children that were drowned there going one evening to the bridge with some other women whose husbands had likewise been drowned upon a sudden there appeared unto them a vision of a woman waste-high in the water naked with elevated and closed hands her hair hanging down very white her eyes seeming to twinkle and her skin as white as snow often repeating the word Revenge Revenge Revenge Also thirty women and young children and seven men were flung by those barbarous Rebels into the River of Belterbet and when some of them swam for their lives towards the bank they were knocked on the head with poles by those mercilesse Tygers after which their bodies appeared not in the River till about six weeks after at which time one Mulmore O Rely who had commanded their murthering coming to the place all the bodies came floating up to the Bridge Sir Con Mac Gennis with his Souldiers murthered one Mr. Truge Minister of the Neury but shortly after falling sick upon his death-bed he was terribly affrighted seeming alwaies to see the same Mr. Truge in his presence Also Robert Maxwell Arch-Deacon of Down testified upon oath that the Rebels themselves assured him that most of those which were thrown from that bridge were daily and nightly seen to walk upon the River sometimes singing of Psalmes Sometimes brandishing of Swords Sometimes scrieching in a most hideous and fearful manner p. 126. Examples of sundry Prodigies seen in England since the beginning of our late wars Presently after the Scotish Army came into Enggland to assist the Parliament it rained Blood which covered the Church and Church-yard of Beucastle in Cumberland The day before Edg-hill Battel three Suns were seen in the North. A little before Marquesse Hambleton came with his Army into England two Armies were seen in Yorkshire in the air discharging and shooting one against the other and after a long fight the Army which rose out of the North vanished January the 18th 1650. In the night-time was a terrible storme and Armies and Armed Troops in every Town for 12. miles compasse about Molton in Yorkshire were heard to ride and march thorow the Towns the Cattel and Beasts in these places were so frighted that most of them brake out of their pastures some by leaping brake their necks and some their legs some ran away four miles and some more who when they were found were extreamly heated One Oxe that lay in a stack-yard lame and could not rise without help in this fright brake forth and was found a mile off and was fain to be brought home on a sled In March following three glorious Suns were seen at once in Cumberland to the astonishment of many thousands which beheld them In April the same year about five a clock in the afternoon in the Countries of Cumberland and Westmoreland was a general