I've read this story, but I know not where,
Whether in Hakewill,[1] or Beard's Theatre;[2]
'A certain Spartan, whom a friend, like you,
Had trusted with a hundred pound or two,
Went to the Oracle, to know if he
With safety might the sum in trust deny.
'Twas answered, ’No, that if he durst forswear,
He should ere long for's knavery pay dear;'
Hence fear, not honesty, made him refund;
Yet to his cost the sentence true he found:
Himself, his children, all his family,
Even the remotest of his whole pedigree,
Perished,' as there 'tis told, ’in misery.'
Now to apply: if such be the sad end
Of perjury, though but in thought designed,
Thank, sir, what fate awaits your treacherous friend,
Who has not only thought, but done to you
All this, and more; think, what he suffers now,
And think, what every villain suffers else,
That dares, like him, be faithless, base, and false.
- ↑ Dr. George Hakewill. His works are enumerated by Wood.
- ↑ The Theatre of God's Judgments (1597) written, or compiled, by Dr. Thomas Beard, a puritan minister at Huntingdon, assisted by Dr. Thomas Taylor. Beard was Oliver Cromwell's schoolmaster.
children of her nephew, the famous Earl of Surrey. He never was able to discover the person to whom he was indebted for this seasonable assistance. During the latter part of the reign of Queen Mary, he was obliged to fly the kingdom, to escape the persecutions of Gardner, Bishop of Winchester; and, settling at Basle, on the Rhine, he supported himself and his family by correcting the press for Oporinus, the printer. Here he planned his great work. The History of the Acts and Monuments of the Church, better known as The Book of Martyrs. It occupied him eleven years, and amongst those who contributed to his assistance in the collection of materials was Grindal, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. On the death of Queen Mary (which he is said to have predicted), Fox returned to England, where he had many powerful friends. Cecil procured for him a prebend in the Church of Salisbury; but he refused to subscribe to the Articles of Conformity. So great was the respect, however, entertained for his character and his labours, that he was allowed to hold his prebend till his death, which occurred in 1587, in his 70th year. Fox wrote other works; but his reputation rests exclusively on The Acts and Monuments.
