=> Query, 'Huguenot'?— G. ^ Luc. Hist., pp. 613, 519, 520. ^ Hisp. F. 184, 185.
» Speed's Hist., p. 1178; Luc. Hist., pp. 2'J8, 299. » Luc. Hist., pp. 509-511.
164 London's LAMENTATIONS ON [Isa. XlJl. 24, 25.
reli<;ion wns not to be hroiight in here by dispnting, or l)Ooks of controversy, but witli an army, and M'itli fire and sword.' l Pope ]\Iartin tlio Fifth sent Cardinal Julian, who was namesake and near of kin to Julian the apostate, with an army of fourscore thousand, to root out Hussites or protestants in Bohemia, where they burnt up their towns ; and at the same time Albertus, his assistant, burnt up five hundred of their villages. It was Philip the Second of Spain who said, [Tliuanus,] ' That he had rather lose all liis provinces than seem to grant or favour anything which might be prejudicial to the Catholic religion.' It was Cardinal Granveilamis ^ who was wont to say, [Gasper,] ' That he would reduce the Catholic religion in all places, though one hundred thousand men were to be burned in an hour.' It was the Spanish ministers of state who declared openly in the pacifica- of Colen,3 [Anno 1.58G,] ' That the Protestants would be very well served if they were stripped of all their goods, and forced to go seek new countries like Jews and Egyptians, who wander uj) and down like rogues and vagabonds.' The Duke of Alba, a bloody papist,^ sitting at his table, said, ' That he had taken diligent pains in rooting out the tares of heresies, having delivered eighteen thousand men in the space of six years only to the hands of the hangman.' From the beginning of the Jesuits to 1580, being the space of thirty years, there were almost nine hmidrcd thousand protestants put to death in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, England, and other parts of Christen- dom.5 Men of that religion, that burnt the martyrs in Queen Mary's days, are men of such bloody, desperate principles, that they will stick at nothing that may be a means to advance the Komish religion. Some men, besides the Komans, have practised most ])rodigious things, and all to raise themselves a name in the world. Scrvetus,^ at Geneva, gave all his goods to the poor, and his body to be burnt, and all for a name, for a little glory among men. The temple of the great goddess Diana, which was one of the w^orld's wonders, was set on fire when Alexander was born, by Erostratus, a base fellow ; and this he did, ' that he might be talked of when he was dead.' So Judas and Sadoc, Avith their seditious sect, burnt down the temple of Jerusalem, and all the beautiful buildings in the city.? And at another time, when the Romans had set the tem])le on fire, Titus, by entreaties and thrcatenings, did all he could to persuade the soldiers to extinguish the fire, but could not prevail with them. They, seeing the gates of the inward temple to be gates of gold, thought that the tem[)le was full of money, and that they might have a rich booty, and therefore regarded not their general's commands. Titus did all he could to quench the flames ; but a certain soldier fired the posts about the doors of the inward tem])le, and presently the flame appearing within, Titus and his ca{)tains dej)artcd ; and so every one stood looking npon it, and no man sought to extinguish it. Tims the temple was burnt by the hand of a single soldier, against Titus his
1 Compl. Hist., pp. 443, 449; Roy. Favour., pp. 64, 55 ; Rom. Mr Pecce, 3L
* Qn. • Cardinal Anthony Perrenot Uranvella' ?— G. ^ Qucrv, ' Cologne'?— G.
* Meter, lliet. de rcb. Belu:., lib. xv. [Query, 'Alva' ?— G.
' The fact of Faux wob horrid and sanc;uinary ; and you know who set him on work
* Anno 1555, Calvin. [.Misprinted Scru.stus.—G.] ^ Josephus, .\nt., lib. xviii. cap. 1, p. 103.
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 1G5
mind.i One man that is of a cruel spirit, and of cruel principles, may do a world of mischief. Take that instance of Nero, who maliciously raised the first persecution against the Christians, pretending that they were incendiaries, and authors of the burning of Kome ; whereas he himself had most wickedly done it. But this barbarous act of his was fathered upon the Christians ; and accordingly they suffered severely for it.^ Another author saith,3 Nero succeeded Caligula in the government, and in no less fierceness and cruelty, because he was a man in whom, if possible it might be, all the other cruelties were enclosed, and all else that could by men be imagined ; for, without any regard of sanctified things, or persons of like quality, private or public, he caused the city of Rome to be set on fire, with express pro- hibition not to quench it, or any man to make safety of his own goods : so the fire continued seven days and seven nights burning the city ; and he being on a high tower some small distance off, clapped his hands, and joyed to behold this dismal spectacle, so far exceeding all humanity. The wisest prince that ever swayed a sceptre hath told us, ' That one sinner destroy eth much good,' Eccles, ix. 18. Who can sum up the mischief that a few ill-minded men may do in a little time ? The same devil, the same lusts, the same wrath, the same rage, the same revenge, the same ends, the same motives that have put others upon burning work in former times, may probably have put some upon the same work in our time. Burning work is so odious and abominable, so destructive, liateful, and hurtful a thing in the eyes of all true Englishmen who have any sense of honour or con- science, that I shall never wonder to see such who have either had a head, or a hand, or a heart in it, of arts and crafts, to bury for ever the remembrance of it. Was not London the glory of England? Was not London England's treasury, and the protestants' sanctuary ? Was not London as terrible to her enemies abroad, as she was joyous to her friends at home ? Has not London been as dreadful to her foreign foes, as the hand- writing upon the wall was to Belshazzar ? Dan. V, 5, 6. Was not London the great mountain that her enemies feared would be most prejudicial to their pernicious designs? Zech, iv. 7. Was not London that great rock against which many have dashed themselves in pieces?^ Was not London as briers and thorns, as goads and gulfs and two-edged swords, to all her enemies, more remote and nearer home ? Had the French invaded us when London was in flames, as many feared they would, or had such risen up at that time, in the bowels of the nation, whose very principles lead them by fire and sword to make way for their religion, what doleful days had we seen, and to what a low ebb might the protestant interest have then been brought! What greater encouragement could be given to French, Dutch, Dane, and all of the old religion, as they call it, to make desperate attempts upon us, than the laying of the city desolate by fire ? But it is the glory of divine power to daunt and overrule all hearts and counsels, and to turn that to his people's greatest good