A Looking Glass for Persecutors, Part 1
Of God's Judgments upon Persecutors under the New Testament.
Herod, surnamed the Great, hearing by the Wise men that came out of the East, that there was one, who was born King of the Jews, and being informed by the Chief Priests and the Scribes that the place of his Birth should be Bethlem of Judah, he sent forth his Soldiers, and (to make sure work) he slew all the Children that were in Bethlem, and in all the Coasts thereof, from two years old and under, hoping thereby to have destroyed Christ. But presently after, the Lord gave him over to a Spirit of Phrensie, that he slew Maryamne, his Beloved Wife, and his Children (which made Augustus Caesar say, That it was better to be Herod's Dog than his Son) and his nearest Kinsfolk, and familiar Friends. And shortly after, God's terrible Judgment fell upon him by a grievous Disease, which was a slack and slow Fire in his inward parts: He had also a greedy and Dog like appetite after Food, which yet was insatiable: He had also a rotting in his Bowels, and a grievous Flux in his Fundament: A moist and running humor in his Feet, and the like Malady vexed him about his Bladder: His Privy Members putrified, engendring abundance of Worms, which continually crawled and swarmed out of the same. He had a short and a stinking Breath, with a great pain in breathing: And through all the parts of his Body such a violent Cramp, as no human strength was able to endure. Yet longing after Life, he sent for Physicians from all parts, by whose advice he went to the hot Baths at Calliroe: But finding no ease by the use thereof, and his torments still encreasing, he endeavoured to lay violent Hands upon himself, had he not been prevented by his Friends about him; and so at last (having had some foretastes of the torments of Hell) in extream anguish he ended his wretched Life.
22. Herod the Less, surnamed Antipas, having married the Daughter of Aretas, King of Arabia, after a while, put her away, and took Herodias, who had forsaken her Husband Philip, Herod's Brother: For which Incestuous, and Adulterous Marriage, John the Baptist plainly reproved him, saying, It is not lawful for thee to have her, Matth. 14. 4. Hereupon, at the instigation of Herodias, he first cast John into Prison, and afterwards cut off his Head. But the Lord suffered not this wicked Murther to go long unpunished: For Aretas, raising an Army against Herod, for his ignominious dealing with his Daughter, in a pitch'd Battle, wholly overthrew him, and cut off his whole Host. And not long after Herod falling into disgrace with Augustus, the Roman Emperor, he, together with his Incestuous Herodias, were banished to Vienne in France, where they ended their wretched lives with much shame and misery.
23. After this there arose a third Herod, surnamed Agrippa, who (not taking warning by his Predecessors calamities) fell to Persecuting the Church of Christ, and conventing James the Brother of John, before him, he condemned him to be beheaded: And seeing the Death of James pleased the Jews, he took Peter also, and delivered him to four Quaternians of Soldiers to keep him in Prison, intending after the Passover to put him to Death, Acts 12. 1. &c. But neither did this Bloody Persecuting Herod escape any better than his Predecessors had done: For upon a great Festival day, he being arraied in glittering and Royal Apparel, Sat upon his Throne, and made an Oration to the People, which being ended, the People gave a shout, saying, It is the Voice of a God, and not of a Man: Whereupon the Angel of God's Immutability smote him, and he was eaten of Worms, and gave up the Ghost, in the fifty fourth year of his Age, and the Seventh of his Reign under Claudius Caesar.
24. Now the Sins of the Jews being ripe, especially that heynous Sin of Persecuting the Prophets, and Messengers of God; cried aloud for Judgment (according as Christ had foretold them) Matth. 23. 34, 35, 36. &c. Behold (saith he) I send unto you Prophets, and Wise men, and Scribes, and some of them you shall kill and crucifie, and some of them ye shall scourge in your Synagogues, and persecute them from City to City, that upon you may come all the righteous Blood shed upon the Earth from the Blood of the Righteous Abel, unto the Blood of Zacharias, Son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the Temple and the Altar: Verily I say unto you all these things shall come upon this Generation. And that you may know more particularly what those Judgments were, our Saviour Christ sets them down, Matth. 23, 38. Your House is left unto you desolate: And more plainly, Chap. 24. 21, 22. Then shall be great Tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the World to this time: No, nor ever shall be: And except those Dayes should be shortened, their should no Flesh (to wit, of the Jews) be saved: But for the Elects sake those Dayes shall be shortened.
25. These Predictions of our Saviour were fulfilled by the Roman Armies under Vespasian, and Titus his Son: For besides the Afflictions which befel them in divers other Countries, being tossed up and down by the Roman Deputies, there were slain in Caesarea twenty thousand in one day: At Alexandria fifty Thousand another Day: At Zabulon and Joppa eight Thousand and four Hundred: At Damascus ten Thousand had their Throats cut. In the Siege of Jerusalem, they were so miserably pinched with Famine, that Oxen's Dung was accounted good meat: Others fed upon old Leather, and some Women boiled their own Children, and did eat them. Many hoping to save their Lives by flying to the Romans, had their Bowels ript up, to search for Gold and Jewels in their Stomacks and Guts: Two Thousand of them thus perished in one Night. Ninty seven Thousand of them were taken Prisoners (besides what fell under the Sword) when Jerusalem was taken by Storm, and eleven Hundred Thousand perished by the Sword, Famine, and Pestilence, during the Siege, and at the taking of the City. Some of the Prisoners were carried to Rome to grace their Triumph: Others were slain in divers Places at the Conquerors Will: Some were torn in pieces and devoured by wild Beasts: Others were compelled to march in Troops against their Fellows, and to kill one another to make the Spectators sport. The Reliques of this wretched People were dispersed into all Nations under Heaven, having no Magistrates of their own to protect them; but were, and still are altogether at the will and discretion of the Lords of those Countries where they sojourn: So that no Nation under Heaven is so vile and contemtible as the Jews.
26. Yet here was not an end of their misery: For in the Reign of the Emperor Trojan, these wretched People rebelled against the Romans in Egypt and Cyprus, and falling upon the Inhabitants, used unheardof cruelties towards them; whereupon Trajan sent against them Martius Turbo, who slew many Thousands of them. And fearing lest the Jews in Mesopotamia should break forth into the like Outrages, he commanded Lucius Quintus to destroy them utterly, who so diligently executed his Will, that the Emperor, to recompence his service, made him President of Judaea. Dion.
27. After him Adrian the Emperour sent Severus his General against these wretched Jews, who (by reason of their multitude) would not trie it out in a pitched Battle, but proceeding more warily, and taking his opportunities, he by degrees, took fifty of their Strong Castles, razed nine Hundred and fourscore of their best Towns, and slew five Hundred and eighty Thousand of them: Besides multitudes that perished by Famine, Diseases and Fire, so that almost all Judea was made desolate: He also by an Edict prohibited the Jews from coming near to Jerusalem, or from any high place to look towards the same. Dion.
28. Salmaticensis testifieth that this Adrian destroyed twice as many Jews as Moses brought out of Egypt. That he razed Jerusalem, and not far from it, built another City, which after his own Name he called Aelia, and over the Gates of it he placed Statues of Swine, which were faithful Porters to prohibit the Superstitious Jews from entrance.
29. St. Hierom tells us, that in his time, on that Day wherein Jerusalem was taken by the Romans, you might see decrepit women, and old ragged Women, and old ragged men, and many wretched People (but pitied of none) with blubbered cheeks, black Arms, dishivelled Hair, howling, and lamenting for the desolations of their Sanctuary, in their Bodies and Habits, bearing and wearing the sad Characters of Divine Vengeance, of whom also the Soldiers exacted their Fees for granting them liberty of farther weeping: So that they who formerly sold the Blood of Christ and his Members, were then fain to buy their own Tears.