Page:Wonderful progidies (sic) of judgment and mercy.pdf/18

18 muſt name him, who is both an enemy to God and man, inſtead of commending themſelves to God, and praying for his grace and aſſiſtance.—John Wierus de Spirit.

XX. Martin Luther in his table-talk mentions this remarkable hiſtory: There was a Popiſh prieſt, who had formerly been a Proteſtant, and apoſtatized to Popery, as Adam Budiſſina teſtifies: this prieſt thundered out moſt bitter curſes againſt Luther in the pulpit, preaching at a town called Ruthnerwald; and among the reſt he wiſhed, That if Luther's doctrine were true, a thunderblotthunderbolt [sic] might ſtrike him to death: now about three days after, there aroſe a mighty tempeſt with thunder and lightning, whereat this curſed prieſt was extremely afraid, his guilty conſcience accuſing him, that he had ſpoken moſt falſely and maliciouſly againſt the truth, and thereupon he ran with all ſpeed into the church, and there fell to his prayers before the altar; but the vengeance of heaven ſoon found out and puniſhed his hypocriſy; for he was there ſtruck with lightning, and though they with much difficulty recovered life in him, yet as he was led homeward thro' the church-yard, another flaſh fell upon him in ſuch a manner, that he was burnt from the crown of the head to the ſole of the foot, as black as a ſhoe, dying with a manifeſt mark of the divine juſtice upon him.—Luther's Col. Men.

XXI. Theodorus Beza gives an account of two notable inſtances of the ſeverity of God's judgment upon a curſer, and a perjured perſon, of his own knowledge. I knew, ſaid he, a man in France, of good underſtanding, well inſtructed in religion, and a maſter of a family, who in his anger curſing, and bidding the devil take one of his children, had