busy in prosecuting an indictment against his minister at a quarter sessions, for omitting the cross in baptism ; and being a man in high favour with the justices, he made no question of prevailing. At night, according to his usual manner, he falls to drinking, till he was so extreme drunk that he was fain to be carried home ; in the morning his wife began mildly to blame him for his acting against the minister the day before, at which he with fearful oaths swore that ' he would soon rid the town of that Puritan ; ' but behold the hand of God, for as this wretched man was about to rise, and having put one arm in his doublet, even as the oaths were uttering, he was taken speechless, yea, and senseless, and so died.2 To conclude, the judgments of God upon the persecutors of the saints in Bohemia was such, that it was used as a proverb among the adversaries themselves, ' that if any man were weary of his life, let him but attempt against the Piccardines ' 3 — for so they called the saints — ' and he should not live a year to an end.' And thus you see by these instances, that most severe judg- ments have still followed the persecutors of the people of God. Let me close up this argument thus : look, as in princes' courts they are judged but silly, shallow-brained men that profess open and mortal hatred to the greatest favourites of the king, because in so doing they take the right and ready way to ruin themselves and families ; so they are doubtless the most silly, shallow-brained men in the world, how
1 [Foxe] Acts and Mon., 1911. 2 jjj. Grove's Glcaniugs, pp. Il.5, 156.
^ From ' Picardy,' — G.
274 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.
wise soever they may be in their own eyes, or in others' eyes who are like unto themselves, who persecute the favourites of the King of kings, that being the ready way to their own ruin and destruction. But, [4.] Fourthly, It ivill appear that persecutors are in the most sad and deplorable condition, if you do but consider that there is a day a-coming luherein God iv ill fully reckon ivith all persecutors for their persecuting of his saints : Ps. ix. 12, ' When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them ; he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.' There is a time when God will make inquisition for inno- cent blood. The Hebrew word doresh, from darash, that is here ren- dered inquisition, signifies not barely to seek, to search, but to seek, search, and inquire with all diligence and care imaginable. i Oh, there is a time a-coming, when the Lord will make a very diligent and careful search and inquiry after all the innocent blood of his afilicted and persecuted people, wliich persecutors and tyrants have spilt as water upon the ground; and woe to persecutors when God shall make a more strict, critical, and careful inquiry after the blood of his people than ever was made in the Inquisition of Spain, where all things are carried with the greatest diligence, subtlety, secrecy, and severity. 0 persecutors, there is a time a-coming, when God will make a strict inquiry after the blood of Hooper, Bradford, Latimer, Taylor, Kidley, &c. There is a time a-coming, wherein God will inquire who silenced and suspended such and such ministers, and who stopped the mouths of such and such, and who imprisoned, confined, and banished such and such, who were once burning and shining lights, and who were willing to spend and be spent, that sinners might be saved, and that Christ might be glorified. There is a time when the Lord will make a very narrow inquiry into all the actions and practices of ecclesiastical courts, high commissions, committees, assizes, sessions, &c., and deal with persecutors as they have dealt with his people : Ps. xii. 5, ' For the opprcvssion of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise,' saith the Lord ; ' I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.' When oppressors and persecutors do snuff and puff at the people of God, when they defy them, and scorn them, and think that they can with a blast of their breath blow them away, then God will arise to judgment, as the Chaldee has it ; at that very nick of time when all seems to be lost, and when the poor oppressed and afflicted people of God can do nothing but sigh and weep, and weep and sigh, then the Lord will arise and ease them of their oppressions, and make their day of extremity a glorious opportunity to work for his own glory, and his people's good : Mat. xxii. 6, 7, ' And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them: but when the king heard thereof, he was wroth ; and he sent for his armies, and de- stroyed those murderers, and burnt up their city.' Christ sent his apostles and disciples to invite the Jews to a marriage-feast, to a stately feast, to a feast made by a king, upon the account of his son, of his only son, of his beloved son, of his Son that is King of kings and Lord of lords, but they entreated them spitefully, calling them
' D^O"T> Damim, bloods, in the plural ; it notes the killings and murderings of God's afflicted ones, Gen. iv. 10 ; 1 Kings ix. 26 j 2 Chron. xxiv. and xxii.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS.. 275