Page:Wonderful progidies (sic) of judgment and mercy.pdf/19

Rh preſently his wiſh anſwered, for his child was immediately poſſeſſed with an evil ſpirit, from which though by the fervent and continued prayers of good Chriſtians, he was at length releaſed, yet ere he had fully recovered himſelf he died.

The like we read to have happened to a woman, whom her huſband, in a great rage devoted, with bitter curſes, to the devil, upon which Satan immediately aſſaulted her, and robbed her of her wits, ſo that ſhe could never be recovered.

Another awful example, ſaith he, happened not far hence, even in this country, upon a perjurer, who foreſwore himſelf, intending thereby to prejudice and deceive another; but he had no ſooner made an end of his falſe oath, ere a grievous apoplexy ſeized upon him; ſo that without ever ſpeaking one word more, he ſoon after miſerably died.—Beza, Homiliae.

XXII. Strange and terrible is that which happened at Noeburg in Germany, to a ſon who was curſed by his mother in her anger, wiſhing, and praying to God that ſhe might never ſee him return alive; which accordingly happened; for the ſame day the young man bathing himſelf in the water, was drowned, and never returned to his mother alive, according to her ungodly wiſh.—''Theat. Hiſt.''

XXIII. Henry Earl of Schwartzenburg, through a corrupt notion, uſed commonly to wiſh he might be drowned in the privy; and as he wiſhed, ſo it happened to him; for in the year 1148, he being in St. Peter's cloiſter, in the city of Erford, with Frederick emperor of Germany; the emperor had occaſion to go to the privy, whither he was followed by ſome of his nobles, and Schwartzenburg among the reſt, when ſuddenly the floor that was