A true and faithful NARRATIVE Of the much to be lamented death of Mr. WILLIAM TYRRELL And the more to be magnified preservation of Sr. JOHN ROUS Of Henham Baronet, And divers other Gentlemen of worth, and persons well reputed in their Country.  
PUBLISHED For the vindication of God's Truth, and those Persons honour and credit, from some foul and scandalous aspersions cast upon them, in a lying Libel Entitled, Sad and Lamentable News from Suffolk, etc.  
By LIONEL G●TFORD D. D. and Rector of Dinnington in Suffolk.  
LONDON Printed for I●nes Lawson, and sold at 〈◊〉 ●n Covent-Garden 1661.   

A true and faithful NARRATIVE OF The much to be lamented death of Mr. William Tyrrell, and the more to be magnified preservation of Sir John Rous of Henham Baronet, and divers other Gentlemen of worth, etc.  
You have heard not long since, both by Books and Ballads, (whether from the same or several hands, is somewhat doubtful, though the Title and Relations be the same, so far as the Confederates in iniquity thought fit to lay their lies and slanders together) Sad and Lamentable News from Suffolk, being (as they falsely term it) A true and perfect Relation of the great Thunderclaps, and Lightning, that fell upon the House of Mr. Absalon at Wangford, where Mr. Torrill, Mr. Brome (for so they call them) Mr. Blowgate, Mr. Lemon, and divers other Gentlemen were drinking Healths. And the manner how the said Thunderclaps, etc. as follows in their swelling Titles. And all this (say they) attested by the foreman of the Jury, Mr. John Gibson, who was summoned upon the Crowner's Quest.  
Now that God may be glorified in his wonderful works, both of mercy and judgement, his Truth magnified, the Honours and 〈…〉 Names, both of the mercifully preserved and miraculously s●in 〈…〉 hurt Gentlemen vindicated, and loud Lies, slanders and reproaches, of the Saint-seeming, Devil-imitating, and Hell-breathing fanatics, that have divulged and published those pernicious and pestiferous reports to the world, be thrown back into their own impudent faces: I shall first give you a true Narrative of that whole business, as I received it from the Pen of a Person of Honour and Integrity, who, I verily believe, abhors to tell an untruth, or speak deceitfully for God himself, as Job's expression is, cap. 13. ver. 7. much more for the salving of any man's credit: and that done, I shall give you some few animadversions thereon, and so leave the Libelers to repent of their lies and slanders, or to suffer for them, as God and the Executioners of his wrath shall think fit.  
Upon Wednesday the last of July after Dinner, Sir John Rous of Henham in the County of Suffolk, a Gentleman of known honour and honesty, and highly beloved and esteemed in his Country, and a member of this present Parliament took out with him Mr. William Tyrrell, that was (if I mistake not) a Kinsman of his, and well respected of him, to walk with him into some Grounds of his, not far from his house; where they met with Mr. Thomas Absalon of Wangford, that hired some Grounds of Sir John; and he entreated Sir John to go to his house, and the rather, for that Captain Lemon, and his Nephew Mr. John Lemon were there, and the latter of them had a desire to speak with him, being to go the next day towards London. Sir John Rous promised to call there, ere he returned home; and as he was going, he found Mr. bream, and his Brother Mr. James Breame selling of Cattles to a Butcher, and called to them; and they, together with Mr. Blowgate, Sir John's Steward, and Robert Brown another of his Servants (who had been abroad with his Gun, as he used frequently to do) went along with him. And when all, or the most part of these Persons had been in the Parlour of Mr. Absalon's house some small time, viz. about half an hour, or not so much, and had only received the civility of a Cup or two of Beer (there being nothing, no not so much as the Beer provided on purpose for them, nor the least design of any such meeting pre-determined many minutes before) on a sudden there happened a very great shower of Rain, and after the violence of that was a little over, there followed a clap of thunder, which breaking just over the said house, seemed much greater to them and the neighbours adjoining, than it did to those that were some small distance from thence, it being not taken notice of at all, by those that were within less than a mile of that house. And some people that were in the Yards belonging to that house, and to the houses near it, saw (as they affirm) a Ball of Fire fall upon the house, which raised and broke some of the Tiles, shivered a Sparre in the Garret into forty shivers, rend some of the Studds of the house, broke thorough, or otherwise found its passage into the Chamber over the Parlour, and there tore the Bedposts and back of the Bed into many pieces; and fell into a hole of the boards, and broke thorough the Ceiling into the Parlour, where the Gentlemen were; Sir John Rous sitting at the end of the Table, and Mr. Tyrrell by him at the side thereof, with the Window just behind him, and Mr. bream and his Brother by Mr. Tyrrell, Captain Lemon at the other end of the Table, and Mr. Blowgate at some distance from them. And the sulphurous Vapour (like tearing Granado) or rather as much transcending it, as Nature does Art, or the more immediate work of the God of Nature, does the work of Man) dispersed itself in the Parlour, without any fire or flash of Lightning seen by any of the company; and in an instant struck Mr. Tyrrell dead as he sat, beat down one of the Breames upon the floor, and threw the other upon the Table, lifted Mr. Blowgate out of his Chair, and cast him upon the side of the Table, but did not carry him out of the Parlour to the top of the Room, and then cast him upon a Table (as the non-sensicall Pamphleteer asserts in the Title of his Libel) and him Captain Lemon helped into his Chair again, though he was not at that time sensible of that kindness; Mr. John Lemon was struck down flat upon his back as he was coming into the house, & taken up dead, but being presently carried into the open air, he soon revived, and was so well, as that, according to his intention, he began his Journey toward London the next day, but Mr. William Tyrrell never recovered. The Woman of the house, being in the next Room with her Children, saw (as she saith) a flash of fire glide thorough the Room, and shoot out at the Door, which she thought would have done much mischief in that Room also, had not the Door been open. And it is said by others that were abroad, that they saw another flash of five fly out at that Window, against which Mr. Tyrrell sat: in the Chamber there was found a corner of a Window so displaced, as if it had been forced out with some difficulty, and the end thereof, as if it had been blacked with a Candle: And there was all that Evening, a very strong smell of fire and sulphur in the house. But blessed for ever be that Almighty and most merciful God, that is slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy; yea, that in his wrath remembers mercy, Sir John Rous, the principal man aimed at by the Fanatic Libelers, and some of his company, and divers in the same house, had not, that I can hear either from their friends or enemies, the least harm; but were as miraculously preserved, as one was strangely slain, and others more gently smitten. And this is the full and clear truth of the business, so far as could be collected from persons so astonished and amazed, as those were that were most concerned; and from the testimonies of such sober and discreet persons as were either sad spectators of it, or serious enquirers into it.  
And though this bare Narrative be a sufficient discovery of the malicious Lies and Slanders of the Libelers, yet seeing they have not only published their malicious Lies and Slanders in Print, but have Commented thereon with as much artifice, as that darkness, which they call the Light within them, would give them leave to use. I hope it will not be thought unworthy of my Profession, or unbeseeming that service and gratitude, wherein I stand obliged to Sir John Rous, to make some animadversions upon the whole matter, as they have represented it, and to give Sir John, and his Friends and Servants, which were either untouched by those fiery Darts of God, that so strangely flew up and down amongst them, or were but gently smitten by them, some becoming advice for their making good use of that their miraculous deliverance.  
First then, take notice that he that attests the matter of the Libel, is ashamed of his own name, Daniel Ewin; and therefore he borrows the name of John Gibson to subscribe it. And indeed he might well be ashamed to set his own name to it, he having been such a known Liar, so notorious in that service of his Master the Devil, and such a plunderer of the Goods, such a pillager of the Estates, such a depraver of the Names, and such a persecutor of the Persons of all faithful and loyal subjects, that his hands or tongue could reach; that had the name of Daniel Ewin been set to it, all that know him would have suspected that little truth which he relates, because so lewd a Liar related it: and his many lies intermixed with it would have been immediately thrown in his face by all his neighbours about him, with such detestation and abhorrency, as that he must have fled his Country sooner than he intends (though it is believed that his place of abode will spew him out very suddenly) or else have endured a storm, as hard to be endured by him, as that which the persecuted Persons, through God's unspeakable mercy to them, were enabled to endure.  
In the next place, give me leave to inform you of the transcendent malice of this Daniel Ewin, who because Sr. John Rous, according to his duty incumbent on him, as one of the chief Commissioners in the Militia, and now one of his Majesty's Deputy Lieutenants of the County of Suffolk, had kerbed the daring insolences of the said Ewin and some of his fellow-Phanaticks, and disappointed and suppressed some of their rebellious designs, he took now this opportunity to bespatter, as much as he could, Sr. John's unspotted name, as being no other way able to asperse him. And being made foreman of the Coroners inquest, he laboured according to his little wit and superabundant Villainy, (wherein he had been a long time practised) to have made the death of Mr Tyrrell, murder: and when he found that to be too gross and ridiculous even in the apprehension of the meanest Juror, (though to the shame of those that are entrusted with impannelling of Juries, they that serve upon Juries of life and death, are too often none of the wisest of the Country) he then thought that the suggestion of intended drunkenness or excessive drinking, would be the most easily insinuated into those of his own fraternity, & stick fastest upon those of the Royal party, amongst whom Sr. John Rous was a Gentleman of no little eminency. Wherefore he adds in his information, that Sr. John Row, and Mr. Torrill, and Mr. Brome (as he miscalls them; for either he could not spell their names aright, or else his brother Fanatic, that composed his Libel for him, had not the true key or character of his lying letters) and his brother, Mr. Lemon and his brother, Mr. Blowgate and Mr. Robert Brown servants to the said Sr. John Row, with divers other Gentlemen, (that were there invisibly, for he had named the whole company, only he thought there yet wanted some more to make what follows the more probable) met on purpose to drink out a Barrel of March beer; the Kennel-defiling Rythmer scores it up a Pipe of Beer. Whereas, neither was there any meeting at all assigned many minutes before, (as was before declared by those Gentlemen but they met all accidentally, neither did they, when they met, meet with any such provision as a Barrel of March Beer or a Pipe of other Beer, but the Gentleman that gave them that little drink which they drank, did in probable civility give them the best that he had, whether it were Beer or Ale, of March or any other month; and they in good manners did not inquire into the age of it, as it seems the foreman of the Coroners Inquest thought fit to do, or rather adventured to report it, to make way for his comment of inflaming and intoxicating. Only I wonder that Ewin, the Brewer or Brewster of that Lie of March Beer, should so much forget the anagramme of his own name, as not rather to have told us of so much wine that was sent in before hand from Blithborough, from whence he borrowed the name of John Gibson, or that his Bartholomew-faire Ballad-maker should so mistake, as to call a pipe of Tobacco a pipe of Beer; But let such Liars beware that when they have thus aspersed sober and worthy persons with drinking of what and as much liquor as they please, their own tongues set on fire of hell (as St. James speaks) do not one day, when it will be too late, cry out, for a drop of cold water to cool them.  
Take one thing more from the Foreman of the Jury his attested relation. He tells us, that the force of the thunder came in at the window against which Mr. Torrill was sitting; and yet some very few lines before he saith (and it is in a manner the only truth in his relation) that the force of the thunderclap fell upon the tiles of the house and broke into the Parlour chamber and from thence fell down into the Parlour where the Gentlemen were sitting. A Liar, you see, had need to have a better memory than the foreman in this Lie, had: and he saith he was both an ear and eye witness thereunto, which I confess I do not understand how it was possible; unless he saw the Thunder that came in at the Parlour Window, and heard the Thunderclap that fell upon the Tiles, and so thorough the Parlour Chamber into the Parlour: and indeed we men of carnal Eyes and Ears do not know (as they often tell us) what such sanctified Eyes and Ears, as Ewin and such fanatics have, can see and hear. But this I am sure, Ewin did at this time very much oversee what he was summoned to view and observe; and is one, that constanly hears as ill, as any man in that County: and both he and his Pamphleter deserve to lose their eyes and ears too for abusing so many thousand eyes and ears as they have done with their Hypocritical Lies in print, which minds me of speaking something to their Hypocrisy as well as to their Lying.  
That prediction or prophecy of the spirit of God. 1 Timoth. 4. v. 2. That in the latter times some should departed from the faith, giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils, speaking Lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with an hot iron; is not more truly and exactly fulfilled in any, then in the fanatics of these times. and the hypocritical Canting of those fanatics, which I am presenting to you, will witness as much.  
The greatest thing (saith the Libeler) that we can desire (next to the glory of God) is our own salvation; and the sweetest thing we can desire, is the assurance of our salvation. And in this life we cannot get higher, then to be assured of that which in the next is to be enjoyed. These are the charming terms, with which the composer of the Libel would lull you a sleep, whilst he poisons your faith with a most venomous and false suggestion of the forenamed Gentleman's excess in drinking at their meeting. Oh the matchless boldness of fanatical impudence! could nothing, but the lifting men up with the thoughts of salvation and the assurance thereof, be thought on as a delusion strong enough to persuade them to believe a lie? Certainly where salvation is but hoped for by any, all Lying, and especially the belying and slandering of others, is abhorred and detested: for as all lying lips are an abomination to the Lord Proverbs 12.22. So he that speaks lies in the name of the Lord, is so abominable unto men as well as to the Lord, that his own father and mother that begat him, shall say unto him, thou shalt not live, Zack. 13.3. And if whosoever loveth and maketh a Lie shall not be suffered to enter into the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem Revelat. 22. v. 15 and chap. 21. 27. much less shall they be admitted to enter, that not only make lies, but make use of the talking of God's glory and the assurance of man's salvation, to make way for their Lies to enter the more smoothly and undescernably into men's hearts. Excess of drinking is exceeding sinful; and, praised be God, there are many, very many, of the King's faithful and loyal subjects, that hate it in reality, as much as any of your Fanatic crew do in pretence. But withal we acknowledge, that we think it far worse to be drunk with malice and envy, with disobedience and rebellion, with violence and blood, with oppression and sacrilege, with dissimulation and hypocrisy, with error and heresy, then with wine or beer, or any other liquor. And therefore if ye would be saints indeed, as well as so reputed, let drunkenness and other fowl scandalous sins be abhorred of you, because they are sins, and abhorred by God, and then you will abhor lying and dissembling as well as the rest; and do not think yourselves, or rather call yourselves Saints, (for surely ye cannot seriously think yourselves so) because ye abstain from those sins from which the Devils themselves abstain, and in the mean time delight in those, in which they most delight, and particularly in that sin of falsely accusing your brethren, from which the Devil hath his name Diabolus, Devil, Revelat. 12. v. 10.  
But to trace this Libeler a little further. He tells us of two heavens and that some saints enjoy a heaven while they are here on earth: and that all may enjoy two heavens, is (as he saith) the project of his discourse, and that this project may be published, he would lay down some cautionary motions for preventing excess in drinking; considering the late, sad and heavy judgements that befell divers Gentlemen in Suffolk, as they were drinking of healths etc. O rare projectour that hath found out two heavens, and that the Saints enjoy one of those heavens here on earth: I confess the Scriptures make mention of three heavens the first the aereal heaven, which is the next above the earth: and from whence the birds and fowls; that fly therein are called the birds and fowls of heaven, and the clouds, the clouds of heaven; the second the starry heaven, under which name is comprehended not only the orbs of the planets, but that orb also where the fixed stars are and so all the whole extant from above the clouds, to that which is the place provided by Christ for the blessed for ever to remain in, and from it the Stars are called the Stars of heaven etc. And then the third heaven, as St. Paul calls it 2. Cor. 12.2. and is that heaven, into which Christ is according to his body ascended, and of which he saith, that the Angels do always behold the face of my father which is in heaven; and he taught us to say. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. But all these three heavens are above the earth; only our earthly Dreamer (as S. Judas calls such) hath dreamt of another heaven upon earth, which some whom he calls Saints do enjoy: whereas those that are true real Saints indeed, do here on earth find rather an hell than a heaven, by the reason of the many temptations and persecutions, the miseries and afflictions, the fightings without and the fears within, the wrestle and other encounters, that they of all men are daily either oppressed with or exercised by: insomuch that if they had only hope in this life in Christ, they were of all men the most miserable, But it is well for such Saints as the Libeler and his fellow-brethrens, that he hath found out for himself and them an heaven on earth; for now perhaps, he and they, that have their portion in this life, may entitle themselves to that newfound heaven: for as for heaven above; if all his lying Pamphlets were made into a paper Kite (which the boys about the city, as well as they love such toys will scarce take the pains to do, knowing a more proper use for them, by throwing them downward) yet they would not mount him or his name, above the highest of a pillory, and for his poor soul God be merciful to him, unless he do in time repent of his lying and slandering, of his hypocrisy and counterfeited sanctity, it will need no other filth to clog its wings from ever soaring nearer the highest heaven, than that heaven where the Prince of the air is sometimes permitted to revel in; and such projectors as he, may for a time be allowed to breath in.  
But who told him that the Gentlemen, met at Wangford were drinking of healths, & that in excess, when the late sad & heavy judgements befell them? There is no mention of drinking healths, or drinking in excess, in all the relation attested by Gibson alias Ewin: but that they met to drink out a barrel of March Beer; which was also a loud one, as hath been already shown, but suppose they were drinking of healths, or did otherwise drink in excess, (which is the mere fiction of the Libelers own Fanatic brain and that whereby he carries away the whetstone from Ewin himself) how dares the Libeler be so bold with with God and his judgements, which are so unsearchable as well as terrible, as to apply God's judgements to any persons whatsoever, so as to say, or suggest by way of intimation, that for this or that cause, God sent such or such judgements upon such and such persons; unless God did, by those judgements upon those persons, indigitate those causes so evidently, as that their sin might be visibly read in the marks and characters of those judgements. And then too, men ought to be very wary and tender of judging others, lest God himself, who is the Judge himself of all men, Judge them also for usurping his Throne, and peculiar Prerogative, by Judging of any of his: especially so as to think them the greatest sinners, on whom God lays the sorest judgements, when he spares others. Remember those Galileans, whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices: and those eighteen upon whom the Tower of Siloe fell and slew them, Luke 13. Christ himself assures you, that they were not sinners above all the Galileans, nor above all the inhabitants of Jerusalem that escaped those judgements: but the prime use to be made by those that escape God's judgements, when others suffer under them or perish by them, is (as our Saviour there intimates) to repent of their own sins, lest they also perish. Besides, so much did God magnify his mercy at that very time, in preserving so many alive, and some of them untouched, when he took away only one of their company, and smote some of the rest with so gentle a stroke, that their very preservation rather speaks their freeness at that present from any such foul crime, as the Libeler would fain fasten upon them, than give any just occasion to any to suspect them guilty thereof.  
But the Libeler goes on, You must, you'll say drink the King's health; and to show his Logic as well as his Rhetoric, he refutes the doing so, thus: Is it congruous in cups of excess to drink the King's health, when he preserves his health by little drinking? surely the man thinks, that they who drink the King's health, do not only wish or pray for his health, or otherwise honourably speak of him; but they mingle his health in their Cups, as they do Sugar, or some other ingredients: or else what congruity is there in that pretty knacking saying of his? But who (I beseech him) are they, that say, they must drink the King's health? did those Gentlemen say so? The Foreman himself affirms no such thing: and if they did drink his Majesty's health, might they not do it without drinking it in Cups of excess, and so preserve their own health as well as drink his? It is beyond the limits of my vindication, to determine the lawfulness or unlawfulness of drinking the King's health; for the Libeler quarrels only at the drinking of it in Cups of excess, and so far all sober men concur with him: but it may well be suspected, that if he loved the King or his health so well as he should, he would not have crowded that passage into his Pamphlet so incongruously & impertinently: but calumny knows nothing of congruity or pertinency. The thing that he aims at, is questionless this, To have the world believe that such a sad and lamentable judgement fell such a time, upon such and such Gentlemen for drinking of the King's health. And whether this does not smell strongly of the Fanatic humour, let himself judge; though I presume the fanatics will not thank him for one observation of his a little before, viz. That Wine or Beer in a drunken excess, inflames the heart, intoxicate the brain, and turns all fanatics: But truly I thank him for that saying; for, by this I conjecture, how he himself became so inflamed as he is, & his brain crows so much as it does, and so he is turned all Fanatic; the poor man had taken a cup or two of excess. Alas poor heart & weak brain, beware how you meddle any more either with drinking or scribbling a little too much: for you then throw about your Ink, you care not how, nor upon whom, but bespatter those whom either you know, or at least dare not let them know your Name.  
He gives you a caution also against Oaths and Execrations; which he forceth into his Libel by head and shoulders, and all to throw more dirt into those faces, which either he never saw, or knows them to be such, that the least spot cannot stick upon them, especially them that he chief aimed at.  
At the last he whines out something that might from another mouth, be thought to savour of Loyalty; and therefore as the Philosopher, when he heard a very bad man speak a very good sentence, entreated an honest man that stood by, to speak that sentence over again, for that it would sound much better out of a better mouth: So I could wish, that those good words, which this wicked Libeler hath let fall concerning our Gracious and Dread Sovereign, and the temperance and devotion, with which his good Subjects should as good Christians rejoice, for his return and reestablishment amongst us (which I understand by that expression of his, Let us all heighten the joyful shout of a King amongst us) I could wish, I say, that some honest & cordial Loyalist had uttered those words, & they would have souned much sweeter, and not so hollow & cracked as they do. But Saint James hath much abated the wonder of an evil tongue speaking sometimes good words; when he saith, James 3. Therewith bless we God even the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. And so this Libeler might by chance at the last speak well of the King, though he had all along spoken evil, and that most maliciously, of some that are his most faithful Subjects.  
And to those faithful Subjects do I now for a conclusion of all address myself, humbly beseeching, & earnestly entreating both you my most honoured Patron, and the rest of those Gentlemen, that were so mercifully & miraculously preserved, to spend your preserved lives the more piously and religiously in God's service, because they were so precious in his sight, as to work so wonderfully and graciously in the preservation of them, when they were so near unto destruction. It is the Lord that giveth life unto all, Act. 17.25. And it is the same Lord that hath redeemed your lives from destruction, and crowned you with loving kindness and tender mercies, Psal. 103.4. And therefore what can each of you say less, then that which that Psalmist there saith, in contemplation of those mercies, ver. 1.2. Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy Name. Bless the Lord, O my soul: and forget not all his benefits. And what can ye do less, to show that you forget them not, then that the remaining course of your preserved lives be answerable in some good measure to the mercies and miracles of their preservation. And to mind you the more of God's mercies and your duties, let me beg of you, what I hope you are already resolved on before I mention it to you; That you would not fail to observe the last day of July, as a solemn day of Thanksgiving unto the Lord all your lives through; it being a day, wherein God (as Lot said when he was delivered from the Brimstone & Fire of Sodom, Gen. 19) did magnify his mercy which he shown you in saving your lives; and that too, from the unspeakable violence, and irresistible force of the most dreadful instruments of his wrath and fury, his right-aiming Thunderbolts, that from the clouds, as from a well-drawn bow, fly to the mark, as they are elegantly described, Wisdom 5.21. as also from those mixed sulphurous, fuliginous, conglutinous, fiery vapours, that they were, and constantly are wrapped up in; and which are Gods Arrows as well as the Thunderbolts, Psal. 77. v. 17. Here both Philosophy and History would furnish me with a very large discourse of the nature and effects of Thunder; But Job's Question takes me off from meddling much with the nature of Thunder, by saying, The Thunder of hi● power who can understand? Job. 26.14. Let it therefore 〈◊〉 you, that it is the Thunder of his power; and remember, as oft●● you hear it, or aught spoken of it, that on the last of July 1661. God himself, by his own power, and of his own free mercy, delivered you from that otherwise merciless power of his Thunder, that passeth all man's understanding; and that will help you the better to understand the loving kindness of the Lord in your deliverance, and provoke you to be the more thankful to him for it. And for the effects of Thunder, you have seen and felt so much, that I presume, you need not to be informed of any more, for the inciting you to that duty, which I am now minding you of. I shall therefore as to this particular, refer you only to what holy David hath left recorded concerning the effects of Thunder, Psal, 18. and 29. where Thunder is called the voice of the Lord, and that voice is said to be powerful, or (as others read the places) mighty in operation. And some of those mighty effects are there named, and the lesson recommended to all men from the consideration thereof, is the same that I am now recommending to you. Namely, Therefore to give unto the Lord glory and strength: yea, to give unto the Lord the glory due unto his Name, and to worship him in the beauty of holiness, or, as it is in the margin, in his glorious Sanctuary.  
In the next and last place, When you are praising God for his delivering you from the power of his terrible Thunder, forget not to give him thanks also, for his delivering you in his due time, from the power of a malicious and slanderous hypocritical tongue; which, as it does in many respects resemble Thunder, viz. in its irresistible smiting, indiscernible piercing, and visible besooting of those persons it lights on, according as they are tempered or disposed, as also in the nimble flying, and sudden and unwarned hitting, wounding, and killing, and the like: So it doth in divers respects transcend it: For Thunder falls most upon Beasts, and Trees, and Buildings, & seldom upon Men, as Pliny & Scaliger have observed, & our own experience witnesseth: But an evil tongue falls wholly upon Men, and often upon the best of Men. Again, Thunder, when it does light upon Men, it spares often times their lives, and when it does kill, it kills only their bodies; but the lying malicious hypocritical tongue, spares nothing that it can hurt, and strikes both bodies and souls, and endeavours often times to take away men's goods also, and what is more precious, their good Names as well as their lives. Besides (as the same Scaliger and Casaubon have from others, that are far more ancient, tell us) when Thunder have slain any man, All men did generally carry some sacred, though superstitious kind of Reverence to such a body, and would neither bury, nor burn it, nor take it from the place where it was smitten, but there entomb it, and thought the very place sacred, and accounted the body so smitten to be void of corruption. But the lying, malicious, slanderous tongue, so smites and kills, as that it rests not there, but labours to render those, whom it so deals with, most odious and contemptible to all men: and then it pursues them to their graves, and will not suffer them to remain quiet there, but spits its poison into their very ashes. And therefore, if when any such tongue hath smitten any of you, whom God himself hath spared, or shall further persecute those whom God hath smitten, and talk to the grief of those whom he hath wounded (which is a true mark of a merciless wicked man, Psal. 69. v. 26.) God shall then please, by any unworthy Servant of his to vindicate your Honours and Credit. Let the Son of Syrach's Eucharistical expressions upon a very suitable occasion, Ecclesiasticus 51. ver. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. be each of yours, and say with him, I will thank thee O Lord and King, and praise thee, O God my Saviour, I do give praise unto thy Name. For thou art my defender and helper, and hast preserved my body from destruction, and from the snare of a slanderous tongue, and from the lips that forge lies, and hast been mine helper against mine adversaries, And hast delivered me according to the multitude of thy mercies, and greatness of thy Name, from the teeth of them that were ready to devour me, and out of the hands of such that sought after my life, and from the manifold afflictions which I had, and from the choking of fire on every side, and from the depth of the belly of hell, and from an unclean tongue, and from lying words. And this will be amongst many other comforts to yourselves, an ample reward to him that hath adventured the censure of malicious evil tongues, to vindicate you from the malice and evil of the tongue.  
FINIS.