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Brachy-Martyrologia

Or, A Brewery of all the greatest Persecutions Which have befallen the Saints and People of God From the Creation to our present Times: Paraphras'd, By Nicholas Billingsly

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SECT. XV. The Persecution of the Christians in Persia, under Sapores, about the same time.
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SECT. XV. The Persecution of the Christians in Persia, under Sapores, about the same time.

And now the Persian Magicians bring
In accusations, to Sapores King,
Against the Christians, for their adhering
To Constantine the Great, (a crime past cleering.)
The King incens'd herewith, with taxes, fines,
Oppress'd them sore, and killed their Divines:
Simeon their Priest was into prison sent,
For slighting Idol-gods; and as he went,
Usthazares (a Christian of late,
Since fall'n away) who at the Court-gate sate,

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Espying him led by, obeysance did him:
But Simeon for Apostatizing chid him.
The conscious Eunuch suddenly let fall
A briny showre; his costly garments all
Laid by, he mourn'd, and with dejected face,
Deplored thus his lamentable case:
Ah me! with what a brazen brow shall I
Look upon God, see'ng Simeon doth deny
His kinde salute? He to the King must go,
Who gently ask'd him why he mourned so?
If in my Palace thou want'st any thing
Speak man, and by the honour of a King
It shall be thine: that tolerable were;
But Ah! who can a wounded spirit bear?
'Tis this (said he) that acerbates my woe;
I live, who should have dyed long agoe;
This Sun I see, to which I seem'd to bow
Thereby denying Christ, to pleasure you;
I'll take a solemn vow, for to adore
The great Creator, not the Creature more.
The King adjudged him to lose his head;
And at his death at his request 'twas spread,
Here's one that suffers not for any treason,
But for religion, and no other reason.
The Christians which disheartened had bin
By his Apostacy, he sought to win
By his profession and example too,
To take new courage, and to undergo
The like if need requir'd. Good Simeon
Rejoyc'd, and prais'd the Lord for what was don.
When the next Sun had rais'd them from their beds,
He and a hundred more all lost their heads.
The King decreed, no mercy should be us'd
To them which to adore the Sun refus'd.

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The sword rang'd over all the Persian bounds;
Devour'd whole Cities, and unpeopled towns.
In brief, in all, during Sapore's reign
Were more then sixteen thousand Christians slain.