Moses his choice with his eye fixed upon Heaven, discovering the happy condition of…

Secondly, it is mighty bitter where it is: Psal. 7. 13. it is said, that God hath ordained his arrows against the persecutors; the word signifies, such as burn in danger and malice against the godly; and the word translated ordained, signifies God hath wrought his arrows: he doth not shoot them at random, but he works them against the wicked. Illiricus hath a story, which may be a Commentary upon this Text, in both the parts of it. One Felix Earl of Wartenburg, one of the Captains of the Emperor Charles the fifth, swore in the presence of divers at supper, that before he dyed, he would ride up to the spurs in the blood of the Lutherans; here was one that burnt in malice, but behold how God works his arrows against him: that very night the hand of God so struck him, that he was ⟨p. 34⟩strangled and choked in his own blood; so he rode not, but bathed himself, not up to the spurs, but up to the throat, not in the blood of the Lutherans, but in his own blood before he dyed. Saint Paul, Acts 26. 11. says of himself before his conversion, that he was exceeding mad against the Saints of ¹God; this bitter malice that is in the hearts of wicked men, against the godly, puts them upon ways of opposition against all reason and common sense. After John Huss was burnt, his adversaries got his heart, which was left untouched by the fire, and beat it with their staves. St. Paul in 2 Thess. 3. 2. desires the brethren to pray, That they might be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men; the word is, absurd ²men. The malice of wicked mens hearts against the godly, makes them break all bounds of humanity, and go against Laws or any thing, in way of opposition against the servants of God. In the History of the persecution of the Merindolians, we read of the Bishop of Aix, being full of rage against them, when the President Cassaneus would have allayed it a little, telling him that the arrest of Merindol was not definitive, and that the Laws and Statutes of the Realm did not permit the execution thereof without further process; then said the Bishop, If there be either Law or Statute that do hinder or let you, we carry in our sleeves to dispense therewithal: the President answered, It were a great sin to shed innocent blood; then said the Bishop, The blood of them of Merindol be upon us, and upon our successors;