A mirrour or looking-glasse both for saints and sinners held forth in about two thousand examples wherein is presented as Gods wonderful mercies to the one, so his severe judgments against the other collected out of the most classique authors both ancient and modern with some late examples observed by my self : whereunto are added the wonders of nature and the rare ... / by Sa. Clark ...

CHAP. LXXI. Examples of terrible Famines.

IT's one of Gods terrible rods wherewith he scourges a sinful people, Psal. 105. 16. Isai. 14. 30. & 51. 19. Jer. 14. 15. &c. & 15. 2. & 18. 21. & 24. 10. & 27. 8. & 29. 17, 18. & 34. 17. & 42. 16. Ezek. 5. 16. 17. & 14. 13, 21.

Prayer, and repentance the means to remove it, 1 King 8. 37. 2 Chron. 20. 9.

God can preserve his in Famine, Job 5. 20▪ 22. Psal. 33. 19. & 37. 19.

The Miseries of it described, Lam. 4. 3. &c. and 5. 6, 9, 10.

It's at Gods command, 2 King 8. 1. Psal. 105. 16. Jer. 24. 10. & 29. 17.

Famine of the Word, Amos 8. 11.

Scriptural Examples, In Abrahams time, Gen. 12. 10. & 26. 1. In Egypt, Gen. 41. 56.

In Canaan, Gen. 42. 5. & 47. 4. In Israel, Ruth 1. 1. In Davids dayes, 2 Sam. 21. 1.

In Samaria, 2 King 6. 25. In Jerusalem, 2 King 25. 3. Jer. 14. 18. & 34. 17. & 52. 6.

The Athenians besieging Sestus, brought the in∣habitants [ 1] to such extremity for want of food, that having eaten up all other things, they were fain to boile their Bed-cords, and live upon them. Herod.

Whilest King Demetrius besieged Athens, the [ 2] Citizens sustained a grievous Famine, insomuch as

a man and his Son sitting in a house, there fell a dead mouse from the top of the house, and they fell together by the ears about it, whilest they strove which should have it: and Epicurus the Philosopher was forc'd to preserve his own, and the lives of his family, by giving them a few Beans every day. Diod. Sic.

About the year 1595. there fell out so great [ 3] a famine amongst the Turks in Hungary, that the Tartar women that followed the Camp, were fain to roast their own children, and eat them. Turk Hist. p. 1060.

In the reign of Maximinus the Roman Emperour, [ 4] there was such a cruel Famine that multitudes died through hunger in the Cities; but more in the Villages: Divers brought out their best treasure, and gave it for any kind of sustinance, though ne∣ver so little: Others by selling their possessions for food, fell into extreme misery. Some did eat grasse, others fell upon unwholesome herbs, where∣by they hurt, or poisoned their bodies: Many were driven to leave the Cities, and to beg up, and down the Countries: Some through faintnesse fell down in the streets, and holding up their hands cryed miserably for some scraps, or fragments of bread, being ready to give up the ghost, and able to say no more then hung••••, hungry.

In the siege of Harlem under the D. De Alva, their [ 5] provisions being spent, they were forced to make bread of Linseed, and Turneps, and lived upon the flesh of Horses, Dogs, Cats, &c.

See in my General Martyrologie divers remarkable stories which fell out in the time of a terrible Fa∣mine in the siege of Sancerre in France. Pap. 320. &c.

In the late Massacre in Ireland one Mary Barlow [ 6] with her six Children were all stripped stark naked, and turned out of doors, and being forced to shel∣ter themselves in a Cave, they had nothing to eat for three weeks space, but two old Calves-skins which they beat with stones, and so eat them hair and all, her children crying out to her, rather to go out, and be killed by the Irish, then to famish there.

VVhilest the Saxons here were heathens, God [ 7] plagued them with such a cruel Famine, that in Sussex, many were so tormented with it, that some∣times by fourty together they would get upon the rocks by the Sea-side, and throwing themselves from thence, drown themselves in the Sea.

Pegu, one of the richest, and fruitfullest Coun∣tries [ 8] in the world (whence probably Solomon fetched his Gold) for it yields three harvests in the year: yet by reason of VVars, Anno Christi 1598. the City of Pegu formerly replenished with Millions of Inhabitants was so wasted by a terrible Famine that there were scarce 7000. persons, men, women, and children left therein, and those feeding on mans flesh, the Parents requiring of their children that life which not long before they gave them, and now laid them, not in their bosomes, but in their bowels: The children became living Sepulchres of their scarce dead Parents: The stronger preyed up∣on the weaker: and if the Famine had left on them nothing but skin and bones for those hungry ra∣veners, they ripped up their bellies and devoured their inward parts, and breaking the skull, sucked out their brains raw. Yea, the weaker sex was by the strength of Famine armed with no lesse cruel despite against whomsoever they could meet in the

streets of the City with their knives which they carried about them as harbingers to their teeth in these inhumane▪humane banquets. Pur. Pilgrimag. p. 464.

About the year 1604. the Wars in Transylvania [ 9] had brought such a Famine, that roots, herbs, and leaves of trees were their usual food: Horses, Dogs, Cats, Rats, &c. were rarities to the poor, and dainties beyond their reach: yea, a Mother brought back into her womb (by unnatural means satisfy∣ing nature) her six Children, and two men a••e their own Mothers; Others cut down Malefactors from the Gallowes, and did eat them. Idem. p. 289.

The Spaniards in their first Plantation of Dari∣ena [ 10] in the West-Indes, though they met with Gold enough, yet were afflicted with such a Famine that one sold an old lean mangie Dog to his fellowes for many pieces of Gold: These flayed the Dog, and cast his mangie skin, and bones of his head amongst the bushes: The next day another finds these full of Magots, and stinking: But hunger had neither eies nor sent: he brought it home, sod, and ate it, and found many customers that gave him a piece of gold for a dish of that mangie broth. Another found two Frogs, and sod them, which a sick man bought for two fine shirts curiously wrought with gold: others found a dead man, ••o••∣ten and stinking, which putrifyed carcase they did rost, and eat: So that of 770. men, scarce 40. (sha∣dowes of men) remained. Idem. p. 817.

See more in my two Martyrologies.

They that be slain with the sword are better then they that be slain with hungar: for these pine away stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.

Lam. 4. 9.