A strange and Wonderful Example of the judgement of almighty God, showed upon two adulterous persons in London, in the parish of S. Brides, in Fleetstreet, this third of February. 1583.  
Set forth for a memorable Example before our eyes, both to make us remember the frailty of this life, and to call us unto repentance.  
By Samuel Saxey, Student in Divinity.  
¶ Imprinted at London, in Fleetstreet, beneath the Conduit, at the sign of S. john Evangelist, by H. jackson.   

The Epistle of Samuel Saxey to his loving Countrymen, the Citizens of London, concerning the strange and wonderful judgement of almighty God, given upon two adulterous persons, the third of February, being Sunday. 1583.  
dearly beloved Countrymen, both you I mean, which love and embrace righteousness with your whole hearts and souls, and you also, which open your ears, and lift up your eyes to vanities, and seek after leasings, I beseech you in God's cause, and your own behalf, to worship the holy one of Israel with a true, zealous, and sincere worship, and to repent you speedily and heartily of all your vile and abominable transgressions, committed before the face of that only wise God, who most clearly seethe all things: And then will I say unto you Londoners, as S. Paul writeth to the Romans, the Corinthians, and other nations: Grace to you and peace, from God our father, & the Lord jesus Christ. You know well enough, good Countrymen, with what notable and singular, and thrice happy blessings, the father of heaven hath blessed and endowed you, his adopted children, and inheritors: you know what great riches and treasures of body & soul he hath bestowed freely and bountifully upon you: he it is, which granteth and giveth you so joyful, so prosperous & peaceable a realm: he it is which preserveth our most virtuous and renowned Prince Elizabeth: he it is, which continuneth his careful regard and kindness daily and hourly towards you: and he it is which will not the destruction and death of a sinner, but wisheth him to become a new and regenerate man, and so consequently live. Wherefore lift up your heads and hearts, O ye good Citizens of London, remember what good commandements your godly and religious Prophets and Preachers have delivered you: remember what they have told you of the overthrow of proud Babylon, of wicked Ninive, of lascivious Sodoma, and other famous Cities, of infamous Asia, and then too, learn this lesson, or rather proviso of me your poor brother in Christ, that unless you cast away your iniquities far from you, and banish your cankered and corrupt imaginations, and circumcise the sensual appetites and unreasonable perturbations of your mortal bodies, you shallbe, (look for it) even like one of them, & then without all doubt immortal confusion will overrun and lay waste your most stately and goodly buildings. What slug and dromedary is there amongst you, that will not prepare himself lustily to the battle, when he heareth the drum or trumpet sound alarm, and proclaim open war? and shall the Lord of Hosts thunder aloud from his everlasting throne of Majesty, and will you, or dare you yet lie fast asleep in the filthy puddle of cursed Adam your forefather, and neither awake, nor arise? If the Lion roareth terribly in the wild forest, can the little beasts choose but be afraid? And shall the mighty and invincible Lion of the tribe of juda, roar over his chosen children and subjects, and shall not this same vile dust and ashes of ours fall in pieces with a sorrowful contrition? God is your good king, therefore trust in him with a true, faithful, and dutiful obedience: God is your grand captain, & under his banner you shall easily vanquish and captivate the monstrous armies of Satan: God is your loving father, take heed and beware, lest other neighbour Countries steal away your blessings from you, whilst you hunt after wandering flesh, in this worldly forest: God is your wise schoolmaster, and one while he teacheth you with gentle instructions and soft precepts, sweeter than honey, and the honey comb, another time he entreateth you sharply, and correcteth you for your manifold offences. He is both merciful & severe, he is both patiented & angry, now he appeareth unto you in white garments, and his saints rejoice about him with Olive branches in their hands, and anon he descendeth from above in a boisterous and fierce whirlwind, and in a tempest mingled with lightnings and coals of fire. What should I say more? He selleth you all goods without silver or gold, and yet you will not hearken unto my voice, saith the Lord of Hostes. How long will you flee, when I follow you, how long will you stop your ears, when I call you? saith the Lord of hosts. O London, London, London, hear what the Angel of God hath written in the judgement seat of the Lamb, I have made Thamesis like unto the Rivers of Paradise, Euphrates, and Tigris are not to be compared with it, her streams are of silver, and her sands of gold, her springs are water of life, and who so drinketh of them, shall not be adry: her bathings make the blind to see, the lame to go, the dumb to speak, the deaf to hear, & I have removed all hinderances which would stay her pipes & conduits, the venomous poison of the great Dragon could not infect it, nor the hotteissuinges of any Serpents could defile it▪ my Rulers delighted to row in her with Barges, & my Seers builded their houses near unto her, she hath been Queen of all Rivers, because her virtues and effects are incomparable. Wherefore my Ministers and servants have I sent in to her, to cast their nets and catch of her fish, I longed to eat of that brood, and to be served with her young fishes at my Table, but they laboured all night, and took nothing. For Thamesis is made a dwelling place for water Snakes, she is full of infectious worms, she shall no more be called the Queen of waters, if I send once again, and receive no fish of her, she shall be made like the deadly waters of Gomorrha, sayeth the Lord of hosts. Now my good Countrymen, can you hear this Embassage and Revelation, and not mark it? Or can you mark it, and not remember it? Then lay it closely up in your breasts. Go to, for God's sake, and your own sake, let us lay our heads and join hands together, let us send our humble supplication, and letters of submission unto our merciful God, and crave a pardon of his Grace, lest he come suddenly in his wrath, and vex us in his sore displeasure. He hath sent many miracles among you, my beloved brethren, to chasten your unchaste misdemeanours. Do you not remember that horrible punishment, wherewith he punished a sister of yours in Woodstreet who very desperately forsweared herself in bargaining? For as her perjury stincked in the nostrils of the Lord, so her perjured tongue became as her fundament. A great example, and notable Admonition, for all buyers and sellers, not to lie, and forswear, and face, and gloze, to gain the frail and corruptible money, and lose the penny of eternal life. Yet for all this God's anger ceaseth not, but his hand is stretched out still. Do you not remember that Lea an old man in London, dwelling in Byshopsgate street, blasphemed the sacred name of God, and forsweared himself in the Guildhall? Which heinous trespass begat in him so forcible a compunction and remorse of conscience, that like to that mad Cain and furious fratricide he cruelly shortened his own days, and so wounded his bowels with a rusty knife, that presently without repentance he gave up the Ghost. A worthy Caveat for all such, as do profanely, and unreverently take Gods holy name in their mouths. Yet for all this God's anger ceaseth not, but his hand is stretched out still. For when Mistress Saunders a tenant of yours, had a long time acquainted herself with the conveyances and devices, wherewith unhonest Gossyps are familiarly accustomed, God would forbear her payment no longer, but brought her and her wicked complices and adherentes to the gallows, that all other amorous strumpets, and whorish bloodsuckers might see a fair warning before their eyes. Yet for all this Gods heavy wrath ceaseth not, but his hand is stretched out still. Do you not remember, what Tokens have been sent you within few years? By blazing tails of Stars in the Firmament, by fiery exhalations and excursions in the Element, by extraordinary diseses & infirmities, by shaking your Theatre, by other and other signs of disliking and rebuking your inordinate kind of living. Yet for all this Gods heavy wrath ceaseth not, but his hand is stretched out still. Do you not remember that most dreadful and tragical Earthquake, which caused the huge and solid foundation of the Earth, to shake and totter up crepple? Beware lest the same and down like a drunken man or Earth gape suddenly and swallow you up quick, as Corah, Dathan & Abyram were devoured for gainsaying the omnipotent word of God, which descended from the holy hill of Sinai. Yet for all this, gods anger ceaseth not, but his hand is stretched out still. Do you not remember the infortunate and horrible mischief, that so lately befell to them, which had more desire and delight to visit Paris garden, than Paul's Cross, & to hear the beastly cries of Bears & Dogs, rather than the comfortable voices of gods preachers, which pronounce the glad tidings of the gospel? the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play, and many men & women were partly killed, & partly maimed in one hour. Learn therefore and take heed, for there is a plague gone out from god, & his hand is stretched out still. For mark, I pray, what a rare and lamentable Example he showed upon two adoulterous persons the third day of February, being Sunday, in the year of Christ 1583. There was a man above three score years old, named William Brustar, who had been sometimes of a reasonable wealth, (carrying presently a great countenance of honesty) he was by occupation an Haberdasher, who either by licentious & prodigal spending or idle labouring, or gods curse (for he was by credible report lately become an usurer) fell into so low an estate, that the Parishioners where he dwelled, because he had born all offices amongst them, & had been in good countenance and credit, allotted and assigned him a chamber over the porch on the southeast part of Saint bride's church by Fleetstreet, rather than he should be destitute of a dwelling place. This Brustar had put away his own wife upon a disagreement which happened betwixt them, at two sundry times, for he would never agree with her, and oftentimes, when the neighbours reprehended him for using her so hardly, he made answer, that the end of them both should prove, which was most faulty, he or his wife, & as I am credibly informed, he retained a woman which was one Breames wife, whom he before had bailed out of Bridewell, under a pretence to reform her unnatural manners, and bring her to goodness, but it proved clean contrary, for they two oftentimes met unlawfully and ungodly together, and incurred therefore the danger of God and man. Yet nevertheless I am enforced of necessity to except that holy, holy, holy, pope of Rome, who hath neither showed himself like to God in goodness, nor to man in wisdom and government, but rather a seducing and erroneous spirit, in blazing his false and unlearned Calendars, as shall, God willing be hereafter proved more at large, & in sending his new-found pasportes, his Turkish and Mahomatical licences, his unreasonable beasts the Bulls, his fond writs (for thus it is avouched by a constant report of many) wherein he willeth and permitteth his devout shavelings, and Catholic children, and sanctified commonalty, and royal generation, to keep a wife or concubine for each hand or leg: his holiness might do well to amend this first institution, & now bequeath a maid Marrian to every member, that so he may have many sciences & goodly imps of his so godly and blessed stocks. But let him alone, he is hatching more cockatrices eggs. If Brustar had been an inhabitaunte of Rome, as he was of London, he might have received an Absoluote for all his villainies, and played the Bigamus at his pleasure by authority & privilege. Upon sunday last in the afternoon a little before evening prayer, the parish being assembled together to the service of their Lord and Master Christ jesus, espied a smoke somewhat unlike common smoke, to issue out of Brustars' chamber: they by & by suspecting some harm, made no small haste to his door, which they found fast shut: then the neighbours caused a ladder to be set to his chamber window, where they found his key, nevertheless they burst open the door: when they were entered in, behold what a grievous spectacle the Lord had laid before their eyes, to make report thereof unto their brethren & fellow citizens. Brustar that old fornicator lay stark dead on a settle by the beds side, his right thigh and right arm, which oftentimes had embraced this harlot, were burned with fire, and specially the outside of his arm, which very strange to see, was burnt up to the elbow, and yet his sleeves not perished. And the woman his companion had a semblable reward for her wanton abuses, for she also lay dead by him bending over the small pan of coals towards him, and her head on his right thigh, so that the skirts of her garments were burnt, her arms were burnt to the bones, the neither parts of her body burnt to the breast, and all her hinder parts to the shoulders, very horrible to behold: both her legs were burnt, saving her left foot from the ankle downward. A strange event that so small a fire should consume so much flesh, the tenth part whereof had been able to drench and quench every coal in the pan. (A wonder not much unlike that which happened at the burning of one Gardener in Spain, a sparkle of whose fire set on fire a goodly tall fair ship of the kings, lying then in the haven, as you may read more plentifully in Master Foxes Ecclesiastical History.) With the horror of which strange sight, was joined, so strong and stinking a scent of the consumed flesh, that those that entered the chamber were well nigh stifled therewith. Concerning these persons, you hear how lewdly and ungraciously they missused the holy Sabaoth, & what a requiem god gave them for their labour. You see the guerdon of carnal concupiscence: you see how the lord of heaven and earth maketh the same element to secure the good, and consume the evil: you see, I believe, as significant & clear an instant against whorehunting, as any age, or time, or place can afourde you: yea though you consider the fire of Sodom, of Nadab and Abiahu, who offered strange incense before the Lord, of Elias which consumed two chieftains with their fifties, of Ananias, Azarias, and Mizael, which consumed their tyrannous persecutors in the flame. And will you yet return back to your beastly and filthy lusts, as the dog doth to his vomit, o ye sons & daughters of London? will you not yet leave to foster and entertain those tripping dames, those pery wigged prickmidainties, those sodomitical libertines, those ruffian bawds, those curled masking roisters which run like untamed heifers through hedge and ditch, and overrun other men's grounds and gardens, which live by the spoil and havoc of sobriety and continency, which care for nothing more than their bellies, & things belonging to the belly, well seen in secrets and privities of states, as your thrice excellent English poet hath truly reported of you in his Speculum Tuscanismi, wherein is contained a perfect resemblance of harebrained natures & omnisidian counterfeits, which run eftsoons into all regions, to buy extremities, to borrow new fangled qualities, & bear about them at once the head of a Numidian Tuscan or wild Irish, the breast of a savage Bear and Leopard, the arms and wing of those Manucodiata, which birds as Cardane reporteth, do fly continually in the air, hoping at the last to make their nests in the sun, but they are feign to build them in their own backs▪ and fall down to the earth without feet, when they have done. Let all such lose from among you, Oh my people, saith the Lord of hosts: away with them, either bend them to virtue, or break them in their vices sayeth the Lord of hosts. For what agreement hath sin with righteousness, or God with Belial, or heaven with hell? know you not that your bodies are the temples of the holy Ghost, and will you suffer them to be made, nay but will you yourselves make them the sanctuaries of harlots? understand you not that commandment, which was sent from GOD, Thou shalt not commit adultery? And again, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours wife? will you learn still, and be never the wiser? will you needs be like darnel, and wild oats in the Wheat field of God, and be thrown into that unquenchable lake of brimstone, and endless misery? for persuade yourselves, that neither whoremasters, nor fornicators, nor incestuous people shall be made partakers of the heavenly Jerusalem. You see that God would have this harlot's pranks known: for neither her face, nor the attire of her head was so much as once scorched, that it might the more certainly be reported in London: see how such a man's daughter, such a man's wife, such a man's concubine came to her end, unless we repent, we shall likewise all perish, every mother's child of us, every unhonest liver of us, every dallying Dalila of us shall come to nought. Why might not GOD as justly have executed his rigorous sentence upon us miserable sinners that we are, as upon this neighbour of ours? for we are all gone out of the way, we are all become unprofitable, there is none of us that doth good, no not one.  
Let us call to mind, how the widow Barnes in Cornhill, intending to defeat an orphan of his right, in a rage by God's secret determination, threw her self headlong out of a window, & cruelly ended her devilish life: let us take heed, by prayer & fasting, least the devil provoke us to madness, as he did one Berrie in the Counter of the Poultry. It was that Satan, that devouring Lion, which incited one R. Tod to slay Mistress Skinner at saint Katherine's: and Mistress Amye Middleton to martyr & kill her maid with overmuch beating and with heavy cudgelles.  
Let us imprint these fearful examples in our mind, and think not within yourselves, that they were greatest offenders, upon whom the tower of Silo fell, for except we repent, we shall all like wise perish: Let us not say among ourselves: rush, all is well, peace, peace, we saw when God's wrath took the wings of the wind, and flew into the uttermost parts of the world: for he will come in a day, when we are not aware of him, and in a moment will he come, and find us beating our fellow servants, and give us a portion in the land of the dead. My people of London is like to a child, yea, even that goodly people, the people of London, is like a dead block upon the mountains, saith the Lord of hosts. For if I beat them with my iron rod. they forget it, and when I strike, they feel me not. How long shall I forbear my vengeance, and bear with your infinite enormities, which daily come before my presence, saith the Lord of hosts? My house is called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a Tabernacle and inn of Gomorrheans, saith the Lord of Hostes. I sent my Angel with a sling and two stones, to scare you in my son Christ's Church, saith the Lord of hosts. But if you will yet remain like uncircumcised Philistines, I will send a two edged sword, to strike of the heads of your proud and disdainful Goliahs', saith the Lord of hosts. And because I could not find one Phinches among you, I was constrained to be both judge and tormentor myself, and I smote Brustar and his Concubine with fire, wherewith they would have warmed themselves, as sometimes I did choke the Israelites with quails, when they would have slaked their hunger, saith the Lord of hosts. Thus I have turned their mirth to mourning, their joy to annoy, their pleasure to pain, and will you not yet hearken to my call, saith the Lord of hosts? wherefore I will yet punish you seven times more for your manifold iniquities and treasons, which you have rebelliously raised against me: so that you shall fetch no more of the gold of India and Ophir, you shall not have your ships fraughted with the sweet spices of Arabia any more, you shall have many losses by land and by sea, many submersions and shipwreck shall impoverish you, and he that escapeth the waves, shall be taken of the pestilence, and he that avoideth the plague, shall be apprehended of the enemy, and one neighbour shall spoil and endamage another, one friend shall betray an other, & there shall reign a great desolation over you, saith the Lord of hosts. But if you will take the tokens for a fair warning, and worship toward my holy temple, and lay aside your proud flesh, and put of your gorgeous apparel, and send away your cawls, your Moonlike tires, your perfumes, bracelets, muffiers, bonnets, tablets, earrings, veils, wimples, codpeesed doublets, crisping pings, glasses, lawns, and other allurements and lullabies of folly and incontinency, which are snares of foreign nations to entrap you withal, and keep my holidays aright, and learn my testimonies to observe and follow them, and worship my preachers as you ought to do, nothing shall be too dear for you, your houses shall be filled with all manner of store, your oxen shall be strong to labour, there shall be no decay, no leading into captivity, nor no complaining in your bounds: then ask and have, then knock, and it shall be opened: I will prevent the treacheries of untrusty nations, I will tame the stiff necks of the haughty magnificoes, the north wind shall not hurt you, nor the soldan shall do you harm, your foes round about you shall behold your prosperous estate, they shall gnash with their teeth, & pine away, the desire of the ungodly shall be like the grass on the house top, which withereth before it is plurked up, Themesis shall be better esteemed than Tyberis, and I will bless her island with all increase and I will satisfy her poor with bread, and her Saints shall dwell with me, & feed at mine own Table, & sing Alleluia in all her circuits and dominions, saith he which is, which was, and is to come. What say you, brethren and fathers? whether had you rather live with quiet consciences, and to keep house with GOD, than to waste your bodies, your substance, and souls in wantonness, and repent when all is gone. You know the old proverb, Too late to spare, when all is spent, and who counteth not him a fool, that shutteth the stable door, when the steed is stolen? which of you hath not heard how that Ovid the poet was banished as far as Moscovy, by Octavius Augustus an heathen Emperor, for writing his books, of the Art of Love: and will you, which are Christians, suffer so many youths under your noses to practise continual experiments & interluds of the Art of bawdry? I perceive it is too too true, which your English Homer hath written: 
No man, but minion: stout, lout: plain, swain, quoth a Lording,  
No words but valorous, no works but womanish always.   
Good God what a vile indignity is this, that Archelaus a miscreant in a grave and politic regard should burn all books and Epigrams of love, which he could come by: and that you which bear the titles of christians, and yet scarce have one spark or title of christianity, will permit sycophantical Applesquires, and brothely baskets to warm them at your fires. He that toucheth Pitch shall be defiled with it, one ill sheep infecteth the whole flock: 
Si cum bonis viwnt boni, utrique fiunt optimi,  
Si cum malis viwnt mali, utrique fiunt pessimi.   
Bethink you therefore, my loving Countrymen, and remember, that the haughty mind of Alcibiades marred all Athens: that the fond lovetrickes of Alexander brought Troy to an overthrow: that for the fornication of the sons of Seth with the daughters of Cain, well-near all mankind was destroyed by the universal deluge: that for the outrage of concupiscence, both Sichem, and the house of Emor, and almost all the tribe of Benjamin was brought to utter ruin and subversion, that the people of Israel were stricken, and carried into captivity for coupling with strange women, that great mortality happened by pestilence, by famine, and by sword, for the only adultery of king David: and let this example of William Brustar and his lewd Woman, be as effectually weighed and scanned of us, as for the rareness it ought to be: & God who hath always blessed your City hitherto, will bless it still: to whose gracious & fatherly protection I commend you. Now, if all these prodigious Events may not move you to turn over a leaf, and take a new lesson, hearken I pray what Religion herself speaketh unto you from her high Tribunal seat. Come unto me, ye children of Thamesis and Britain, my arms you see are open to entertain you, my head is inclined to kiss you, come, and you shall possess me in peace. Oh that you would give love for love, for your good will is better than Nectar, & Britannia her name is unto me, as a most pleasant ointment. Thus it is meet that I your Lord and saviours spouse should be welcome unto you, with timbrels and flutes, and cymbals, & a Venite exultemus. The vocie of your hosanna maketh me heartily to rejoice, the gladsome salutations of your lips, sound sweeter in mine ears, than any instruments of Music in your Land. As the rose is among the thorns, so is my beloved Albion among all genealogies of men. Lay thy right hand under my head, and let thy left arm hold me: for my delight is to sit under thy healthful shadows, and the pomegranates which grow in thy garden are my best comfort. I traveled many years and indictions about the Countries of Bohemia, and Praga: I sojourned in the shore of the German sea, I walked through the regions about Nilus, and passed by Sicily, and by Venice, and visited all the daughters of Europa. Yet none is so toothesome to my mouth, nor so favourable in mine eye, as the youngest sister Albion is. We will build a silver bulwark upon her walls, we will fasten her doors, with boards of Cedar trees. I have set my seal upon her heart, because she is a well locked garden, and a lively fountain runneth from her. I am black with journeying in many Kingdoms, but I am not ill favoured O ye offspring of Zion: I come to you with Happiness in one hand, and Eternity in another, take not one but both of these and we will keep together for evermore. Make our foundations of Marble, our playstering of Gold, and our pillars of ivory, so shall the King rejoice in thy beauty for he is thy Lord from above, and obey thou him. Build up our Gates of Brass, and let Verity keep the entrance: let Charity be our Schoolemaistresse: and let Humility sing Hymns and spiritual Songs: let Patience bear the burden of the Cross before us: let Prayer be watchman in our strong Towers: and then Magnificat, shall daily be sung of us, and he only shall be glorified, which ruleth above: let us for the instruction of our children have the Acts and Monuments of the holy Woorthyes, portrayted even upon our Palace walls: and then also the destruction of Saul will terrify them from covetousness, the magnificence of josua and David will also hearten them in the way of godliness, the blessing of Gideon will likewise exhort them to destroy all profane & Madianitish idolaters, the fortitude of Samson will emboulden them against millions of enemies, the zeal of john will teach them to hinder the increase of the ungodly rout of Baal, the courage of jonathan will bid them never to fly touch in God's cause, the faith of Abraham will exhort them to trust in God's promises, the miracles of Moses will make them worship the power of God, the virtues of job, of Noah, of Daniel, of joseph, of jacob, of judas Machabeus, of Deborah, of judith, of Aquila and Priscilla, will inform them of patient, provident, manly, wise, and honest proceed, and teach them the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of perfect wisdom. And to withdraw them from the footsteps of transgressors, the picture of Cain's autophonie, of Antiochus & Herodes Pthiriasy, Ananias perjury, Pharaohs obstinacy, Simon Magus sorcery, Dives his gluttony, with many other notable narrations should be set forth before their eyes. So the vanity of Sciences Magical could not delude them, nor yet all julianistes, all Lucianistes, all heretics should once remove them from their assured hope in Christ. For he that keepeth Israel shall not slumber nor sleep. They should be builded upon the rock which neither stormy winds, nor great floods, neither earthquakes, nor pyrotechnies may undermine and overcast. We will keep them from gadding Dinah's, from muffled Thamar's, from ambitious Nimrods', from adulterous Absoloms, from holowharted Achitophel's, from traitorous Iscariot's, and from the whole train and troop of wicked offenders. And as for this example of Brustar, it shall be registered in the chronicles of Gods just judgements, which teacheth us to detest and abhor the licentious excursions of the body, and to hate that preternatural lust of old age, and to pray against sudden death. And now let us humbly beseech our sovereign king of heaven and earth, to look on us with the eyes of his mercy: not to cut us off so shortly, that all time of remembrance be denied us: to grant us his grace in such measure, that we may be ready with our lamps, when the bridegroom cometh, & enter with him into eternal joys, which God for his Christ's sake accomplish in due season, to whom all wisdom and power and goodness be ascribed for evermore. Amen.  
FINIS.