* ' Pikes.' — G. ^ History of France, p. 867.
« Ihid., pp. 879, 880. [Clement, not Clemmont. Aug. 1, 1589.— G.]
" History of the Council of Trent, p. 417.
8 Query, ' Blair' ? Cf. Vol. L p. 252.— G.
122 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
lie must go to hell, and in this case without a sign of repentance he died.'i
A poi)ish magistrate having condemned a poor protestant to death, before his execution he caused his tongue to be cut out, because he should not confess the truth : but the Lord did retaliate it upon him ; for the next cliild he had was born without a tongue.
Cardinal Cresccntius [Anno 1552] was a most desperate persecutor of the ])eople of God. He was the pope's ambassador to the Council of Trent, and being one night busy in Avriting to his master the pope, a huge black dog, with great flaming eyes, and long ears dangling down to the ground, appeared to him in his chamber, and went under the table where he sat. Upon which the cardinal was amazed ; but as soon as he had recovered himself, he called his servants to put out the black dog that was come into his chamber ; but they looked round about his chambers, and the next chambers, but could find no black dog : upon which the cardinal fell presently sick with a strong conceit, which never left him till his death, still crying out, Drive away the black dog, drive away the black dog, which seemed to him to be climbing up his bed ; and in that humour he died.
After the martyrdom of Gregory, the bishop of Spoleta, Flaccus the governor, who was the author thereof, was struck with an angel, 2 and vomited up his entrails at his mouth, and died.3
Mammea Agrippitus, when he was fifteen years old, because he would not sacrifice to their idols, was apprehended at Preneste, and whipped with scourges, and hanged up by the heels, and at last slain with the sword ; in the midst of whose torments the governor of the city fell doAvn dead from the tribunal-seat.*
Gensericus, king of the Vandals, an Ariau, was a most cruel perse- cutor of the orthodox Christians ; he was ]iossessed of the devil, and died a most miserable death in the year 477.^
Herod the Great, who caused the babes of Bethlehem to be slain, hoping thereby to have destroyed Christ, shortly after was plagued by God with an incurable disease, having a slow and slack fire continually tormenting of his inward parts ; he had a vehement and greedy desire to eat, and yet notliing would satisfy him ; his inward bowels rotted, his breath was short and stinking, some of his members rotted, and in all his members he had so violent a cramp, that nature was not able to bear it, and so, growing mad with pain, he died miserably.**
Herod Antipas, who beheaded John Bajjtist, not long after, falling into disgrace with the Roman emperor, with his incestuous Herodias, the suggester of that murder, they were banished, and fell into such misery and penury that they ended their wretched lives with much shame and misery.7
Herod Agrippa was a great persecutor of the saints, Acts xii. ; he was eaten up of worms in the third year of his reign, as Josephus observes. 8 He went to CfBsarea to keep certain plays in the honour of Ca3sar ; the gown he was in, as the same author relates, was a gown
1 Thcatrum Historicum. ' Query, 'ague'?— G. ^ Phil. Loniccr.
* Cent. iii. cap. 12. [Uather Agapetus : Clarke, as before, p. 30.— G.]
* Sigeb. in Chron. " Euscb. Hist. '' liUi. 8 Joseph. Antiq., lib. xi.x. cap. 7.
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 123
of silver wonderfully wrought, and the beams of tlie sun reflecting upon it, made it so glister, that it dazzled the eyes of the beholders ; and when he had made an end of his starched oration in this his bravery, his flatterers extolled him as a god, crying out, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man, Acts xii. 21-23 : whereupon he was presently smitten by the angel of the Lord, and so died with worms that ate up his entrails.^ The blow the angel gave him was an inward blow, and not so visible to others ; and his torments more and more increasing upon him, the people put on sackcloth, and made supplica- tion for him, but all in vain ; for his pains and torments growing stronger and stronger every day upon him, they separated his wretched soul from his loathsome body within the compass of five days.2
Caiaphas the high priest, who gathered the council, and suborned false witness against the Lord Christ, was shortly after put out of his office, and one Jonathan substituted in his room, whereupon he killed himself. 3
Not lorg after Pontius Pilate had condemned our Lord Christ, he lost his d^putyship and Cfesar's favour ; and being fallen into disgrace with the Koman emperor, and banished by him, he fell into such misery that he hanged himself.
Oh the dreadful judgments that were inflicted upon the chief actors in the ten persecutions ! Shall I give you a brief account of what befell them ?
Nero, that monster of men, who raised the first bloody persecution, to pick a quarrel with the Christians, he set the city of Kome on fire, and then charged it upon them ; under which pretence he exposes them to the fury of the people, who cruelly tormented them, as if they had been common burners and destroyers of cities, and the deadly enemies of mankind ; yea, Nero himself caused them to be apprehended and clad in wild beasts' skins, and torn in pieces with dogs ; others were crucified, some he made bonfires of to light him in his night- sports. To be short, such horrid cruelty he used towards them, as caused many of their enemies to pity them. But God found out tliis wretched persecutor at last ; for being adjudged by the senate an enemy to mankind, he was condemned to be whipped to death, for the prevention whereof he cut his own throat.
Domitian,the author of the second persecution against the Christians, having drawn a catalogue of such as he was to kill, in which was the name of his own wife and other friends ; upon which he was, by the consent of his wife, slain by his own household servants with daggers in his privy-chamber ; his body was buried without honour, his memory cursed to posterity, and his arms and ensigns were thrown down and defaced.
Trajan raised the third persecution against the church ; he was continually vexed with seditions, and the vengeance of God followed him close. For, first, he fell into a palsy, then lost the use of his senses ; afterwards he fell into a dropsy, and died in great anguish.
Adrian being vexed with great and perpetual commotions in his life, died with much anxiety.
^Joseph. Antiq., lib. xviii. cap. 13. ^ Euseb. Hist. ' IhicL, lib. ii. cap. 7.
124 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
Maxim iuus being declared an eucmy by the senate, was killed in his own tent.
Deciiis, by the Goths, in their first invasion of the empire, with his whole army was cut olF.