circumstances may be Punctually observed in the murder of another King 1. The base and Spitefull usage of this Good King by all his wicked Adversaries 2. How causelesly and Vnjustly they condemned and executed him 3. How Mildly and how Sweetly this King behaved and Demeaned himself towards all his enemies both at his Judgment and at his Death 4. The Speedy execution of his Sentence when these murderers had Condemned him 5. The Place of his execution and the Number of attendants that followed him to That place 6. The smal regard and Inhumane neglect of any Funerall Rites and obsequies at his Buriall And for the first 1 The base and spitefull usage of the King our Saviour fore-shewing his death unto his twelve Apostles saith that he should be delivered unto the chief Priests and unto the Scribes and they should condemn him to death and should deliver him to the Gentiles Mar. 10.33 34. and they should mock him and scourge him and spit upon him and should kill him where you may observe 1. He is twice betrayed and 2. He is three manner of wayes abused 1. Mocked 2. Scourged and 3. Spit upon 1. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Trado signifieth to deliver up or to betray from whence traditor Two sorts of Traytors that betrayed this King a traytor is derived So our Saviour being twice delivered up once by Judas to the chief Priest and Scribes and then secondly by the chief Priests and Elders and Scribes and the whole Council to Pilate You see there were two sorts of Traytors that betrayed our Saviour Christ 1. Judas that Arch traytor as being a menial servant and of his privy council Psal 55.12 13 14. Math. 26. as the Psalmist noteth and therefore to his everlasting infamy is no lesse than twelve times termed and proclaimed Traytor in the same Chapter 2. So was King Charles twice betrayed 1. To the Parliament 2. To the Souldiers A whole pack of Traytors all that conspired counselled and consented to deliver up this their King to be put to death close they were many of them and would fain seem clear from the last act which was his Execution and therefore innocent from his blood and freed from the high and loud crying Treason Yet as close as they were and because there be no accessaries in Treason the Holy Ghost finds them out and ranks them all under the same Crime of Treason and styles them by the same name of Traytors or traditors unto their King And the base and barbarous usage of this King from his first apprehension 1 How this King was mocked So was King Charles mocked in these very particulars following John 6.15 to the last moment of his execution is punctually observed by the Evangelists as that 1. They should mock him which though it be worse than death to a generous mind as you see Sampson chose rather to die than to suffer himself to be mocked and scoffed at by the Philistines yet did these trayterous rebels mock and scoffe and flout at this their King many wayes and divers times as 1. They vote to make him a glorious King that is if he will be ruled by them he shall reign over them Luke 19.38 and because he refused to be this mock-king they presently vote no more addresses unto him and cry Nolumus hunc regnare super nos We will not have him for our King any longer and yet when they hoped he would submit to their desires they cry Hosanna blessed be the King and we shall have a blessed accommodation betwixt the King and the people Jo. 19.1 But within a very few dayes after when their chief Leaders like not this but vote and declare his death then they cryed out as fiercely Justice Luc. 23.21 Justice Crucifie him Crucifie him 2. Instead of a Royal traine a Band of the rudest Souldiers must not attend him So was King Charles led to Westminster-Hall but must be sent to lead him not to his Chamber of Presence but to the common Hall there as a Malefactor and a Traytor to his people to be tryed for his life 3. Instead of his Royal Robes he shall have his own garments stripped off and he shall be clad in a Player's suite that he may be the more ridiculous unto these Raskals 4. So they must have K. Charles bend and yield to every thing that they desired Instead of a Scepter of Gold which is the Ensigne of Rule he shall have a Reed put in his hand to be bowed by every wind of their own will and to be broken in pieces when they will This is the Rule that they like of best 5. Instead of a Crown of Gold beset with the Jewels of Royal Prerogatives befitting a King they platt a crown of thorns and prick his brows and his brains So they loaded K. Charles with all disgraces with all the disgrace they could lay upon him and 6. Which a Learned Preacher well observes they invented and practised a little before a fine kind of subtile and malicious mockery upon this their King For they would have him to believe that Herod who would be soly King was purposely set to kill him and therefore Luke 13.31 So perswaded they K. Charles to save himself by retyring to the Isle of Wight out of a seeming care to his safety they perswaded him to get him out of the way and secretly to depart to some retired place when as indeed these very Counsellors were those bloody Herodians that hunted him thus into their net thereby the more readily to take away his life which was a treacherous and a bloody Mock and I wish King Charles had as well understood this Mock when he believed their false letters and thereupon conveyed himself to the Isle of Wight as this King of the Jews understood this malicious plot of these his mocking enemies 2. S. Mark saith they should scourge him severe enough no doubt of it 2 Scourged and despightfully handled And K. Charles was thus spitefully handled in 8. of the like particulars Forty stripes save one was the Jews usual manner to lay on him whom they hated but whether Pilate that now scourged him laid on more or lesse the Holy Ghost sets not down and therefore I will not presume to determine it S. Luke adds to what S. Mark saith they should despightfully intreate and handle him and so he was indeed most spightfully used as 1. When they hunted him like a partridge and left him not an house to put his head in Math. 8.20 Chap 26.55 2. When they came to take their King as against a thief with swords and staves 3. When they led him by a Band of rude Souldiers as a Traytor Luc. 23.31 to the common Judgement-hall 4. When in this Hall they caused or countenanced the scum of the people and basest of the Souldiers to call for justice and to cry Crucifie him
upon young Man or Maiden old Man or him that stooped for Age he gave them all into his Hand for that there was no Remedy 2 Chron. xxxvi 15 16 17. And of the Second the Spirit of God saith that the Lord sent against Jehoiakim bands of the Chaldees and bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the Children of Ammon and he sent them against Juda to destroy it and to remove them out of his sight for the sins of Manasses and for the innocent blood that he shed for he filled Hierusalem with innocent blood as the Judges of the Rump-Parliament did fill Ingland which the Lord would not pardon 2 Reg. xxiv 4. as if he had said though the Lord God might have been perswaded by Prayers and Tears and Sacrifices to pardon all other Sins yet this sin of shedding innocent Blood especially when it is judicially shed the Lord will no ways nor by any means pardon it and though men would fain pardon it yet God will not pardon it because God which is the God of truth and Truth it self hath said it and that we should not doubt of it he hath said Surely your blood of your Lives will I require at the hand of every Beast will I require it and at the hand of man at the hand of every man's Brother will I require the life of man And Whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the Image of God made he man Gen. ix 5 6. and see how fully and how energetically the Lord hath said and the Scripture hath set down all these things against the pardoning of them that shed innocent blood And then these things being duly weighed as Saint Ambrose said to Theodosius Quod inconsulto fecisti consultius revocetur so I believe that if any man hath inconsideratly either through ignorance corruption or partiality caused or consented to let any Agag to escape whom the Justice of God hath designed to death he would assuredly consultius errorem corrigere amend His former errour and not let the death of such a King as was worth ten thousand of us and the Blood of so many of His loyal Subjects as were judicially and unjustly condemned to death pass away unpunished and unquestioned whensoever any of the Authours or Contrivers of their death should be found out or at least wise he would be satisfied and not blame others for doing if they do what he should have done It is no matter when better late then never for Nunquam sera est ad Justitiam via The way to do Justice is never too far nor the time too late and God deserreth his Judgments for many years together when we finde Murderers flourishing in all Pomp and Power a long time as I have shewed it at large in the Tragedy of Zimri and yet at last to come to tast of their just deserved Punishment as Pilate and Herod and the rest of the Murderers of Jesus Christ were not apprehended by God's Justice some of them in fourty years after they had condemned their just and lawful King and many more such Murderers you may finde in Dr. Beard 's Theatre of God's Judgments and in other Authours to have lain secure and to have slept in their sins for a long Season before the hand of Vengeance hath rouzed them up and yet after many Ages to pay Death for Death And therefore though the Parliament and Parliaments have passed over and perhaps pardoned those whom God saith he will not pardon yet I conceive that whensoever any of them that had their hands imbrued or the least finger stayned in our King's Blood or in the Blood those His loyal Subjects that were judicially unjustly condemned shall be found out and made known to be such they should be brought unto their Trial especially when we consider that Justice donâ— upon such transcendent Malefactours that do now as yet as it is conceived wallow in those innocent Bloods that they have spilt and do jet up and down most proudly in the spoils of their Slaughtered and Beggered Brethren would as the Scripture testifieth purge the Land from the stain of that innocent Blood which they have so plentifully lost and doth still crie like Abel's Blood for Vengeance against them appease the Wrath of God for our former neglect of doing Justice increase the King's Revenues by the Forfeited estates of these Transgressours satisfie the Friends of those Murthered innocents terrifie all other Rebellious hearts from such horrible attempts and all other Judges from abusing the Laws and perverting Justice and be an excellent Example of a just and unpartial proceeding against Traitours for the Foreign Kings to applaud it and for their Subjects to fear it if ever the like thoughts should enter into their hearts of doing such things as were done by these Murtherers And truely it hath often grieved me to hear the vulgar people so generally complaining that they see divers of the late King's Enemies and Rebels that they suspect guilty some way of the Kings death so much favoured in the World and so domineering over others jetting up and down in Pride so gloriously trimmed with the spoils of the loyal Subjects and some of the King's Friends and faithfull Servants sneaking up and down wholly dejected so as if there were an Act of Oblivion past of the King's Friends and an Act of Indempnity for His Adversaries To whom I have often answered that our King is wise as the Angel of God and He knoweth best what He hath to do far better then the best of us all and they should rather remember what the Psalmist saith Fret not thy self because of the ungodly neither be thou Envious because of the wicked doers for they shall soon be cut down like the Grass and be withered like unto the green Herb especially when their Iniquitie their Treasons and Treacheries that as yet are hidden from the Eyes of men shall be found out and be made apparent unto the World And therefore though I say all this that I said before as from the straight unpartial rule of severe Justice yet as I am a Bishop of Jesus Christ and a Messenger of the God of mercy that takes no delight in the blood of his Brethren nor desireth the death of any one I am obliged most humbly and earnestly to pray and beseech Your gracious Majesty to be still gracious as You have demonstratively shewed Your Self to be hitherto unto these ungracious Offenders and when the Law of Justice hath decreed their Desert to stretch forth unto them the right Hand of Mercy and to do with them as the Wisdom of the most merciful God shall direct Your Majesty Secondly The next thing that I am bound to declare and to remonstrate unto Your Majesty and to all others is lest Your Majesty should be misinformed concerning me as I understood by Mr. Secretary Nicholas I have been misrepresented in Your Majestie 's Court most humbly to
malicious treacherous and murderous ill properties for great Courtiers that ought to be as well good as great else are they but a great shame among men and a great staine unto all their posterity 10. 10 The common people for the most part had a hand in his death by a three fold imployment As salus populi the good of the people and the liberty of the subjects was one main pretended cause why these murderers kild their King ne gens pereat lest if he lived the Nation should be destroyed so the people upon all occasion must be ready at hand to serve their turn and to do the services wherein these their grand Masters shall imploy them and this imployment we find to be three fold 1. Mar. 14.43 When their King is to be taken they must be sent armed with swords and staves to apprehend him 2. They must draw petitions for some base and unworthy thing as they did Math. 27.20 when they petitioned that Barabbas a thief and a murderer might be released and their King crucified 3. They must come to the Judgment-Hall or place of Judicature and for fear the King should find some favour from him that knew him innocent they must with loud voices cry for justice and double their desires for execution and all this saith the Evangelist was done by the multitude Math. 27.20 Hosi-anna as they were perswaded by the Priests and Presbyters Ah silly people that even now cry Hosanna serva quaeso Save Lord and now presently Crucifige that loved their King as his enemies confess and yet joyn with his enemies to kill their King and never ask What hath he done but this we will do to please them that set us on the work Who then but a mad man would repose trust in a multitude of men and relie upon a broken reed a reed that wavers with every winde And not only so but to shew the baseness of these base people for I know not how to say their envy or their malice that they should maligne their King who had done them good every way and no harm to any of them when Pilate a heathen Judge and a stranger to the Jews shall profess him to be a just person Math. 27.24 and therefore wash his hands from the blood of the innocent man this giddy multitude of rude people the generation of vipers that gnaw out the bowels of their own dams the brethren of Cain and the children of their father the Devil Joh. 8.44 that hath been a murderer from the beginning do cry out as vengeance doth require Math. 27.25 His blood be upon us and upon our children What Nefandum scelus a most fearfull thing when the blood of our own just King unjustly murdered by so many sorts of men that had their hands imbrued with his blood shall like Abels blood cry to God for vengeance against us and our children for ever O let us rather repent and desire of God that the blood of this lamb Jesus Christ may wash away these our bloody sins And thus I have shewed you the chiefest Actors in this bloody Tragedy all the whole Kingdom of Jury rebelling against their King and most Traiterously betraying him to an Ignominious death save only some few followers of Christ of whom this King foretold what should betide them some of them should be killed and some persecuted from City to City for Math. 23.34 as S. Basil said of Herod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his meat was the flesh and his drink was the blood of men so these Regicides will never leave a follower of this King untill like the Whore in the Revelations Revel 7.6 they be drunk with the blood of the Saints and thereby shew themselves as they are 1. Vnsatiable because they never leave till they be drunk 2. Vnmercifull because they will be drunk with blood and 3. Vnjust because no blood will serve them but the blood of the Saints and servants of this King the witnesses of Gods truth And therefore let all the lovers of this King look to themselves because the branches must needs wither when the root is plucked up And besides these followers of Christ that loved him we find some others that had no hand in killing him and those were the Samaritans a people as much hated by the Jews as Papists are by the Puritans and though this King confer'd upon the Jews beneficia nimis copiosa multa magna and did nothing at all for these Samaritans save only to pitty them and hinder the fiery Zâ—lots the two sons of Zebedee to destroy them by calling for fire out of Heaven to consume them as Elias did the two Captains and their fifties yet we do not read that either they hated the person or sought the life of this King no more do I find that any Papist joyned with the Parliament of England and the Conquerors of our King to put King Charles to death which I believe will be sufficient witnesses to rise in judgment to condemn them that have condemned the King at the last day Thus I have passed over all or most of the acts and scenes of this Tragedy and I might here end but that as the Prophet saith abyssus abyssum invocat and one Tragedy requires another and the destruction of this King and his followers cals for destruction upon the destroyers that like Damocles's sword hangs by a feeble thread ready to fall upon their necks for the Prophet David demands the question Shall they escape for their wickedness And he doth immediatly answer The Lord shall destroy both the blood-thirsty and deceitfull men and all these men that I have shewed being most deceitfull and very much thirsting after blood and that blood not of the basest people but of the best of men their Prophets their Preachers and their own most just and pious King it must needs pull destruction upon their heads Therefore Christ in the parable of the Vineyard saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 21.41 The Lord will miserably destroy them that is 1. Them that plotted to take away his inheritance 2. Them that consulted to take away his life 3. Them that so unjustly put him to death 4. Them that abused and wronged his servants that sought to defend his right And 5. I feare me them that might have helped to protect both their King and his servants and did not for if any where then surely here that axiome must hold good Qui non vetat peccare quum potest ipse peccat and that too-ill-applied Sentence so protect rebels assist murderers by our seducing brethren in the 5. of Judges where Debora saith Curse ye Meros curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not to the help of the Lord against the mighty must needs be applied to them that had ability to defend their King and to relieve his oppressed servants and yet suffered them to be destroyed by
seminando occidit eum Aug. super Johan not because he killeth him with weapons but because he destroyeth man by wicked counsels and by setting on others to destâ—oy him so are they murderers that take away the life of man by any of these ways and therefore proculdubiò decipiuntur saith the same Father they are far deceived that think them only to be murderers which lay violent hands upon their neighbours Idem habetâ—r de poenit dist 1. periculosè The hainousness of a judicial murder and not them also per quorum consilium fraudem hortationem homines extinguuntur by whose wicked counsels and procurements men are brought unto their death And if any other murder be odious and wicked The hainousness of a judicial murder then certainly this Judiciarie murder whereby the innocent person is condemned to death as Naboth was by the High Court of Jezreel and Christ by the Parliament at Jerusalem must needs be most transcendently abominable and wicked above all other kind of murders whatsoever for that this is not a single simple murder but it is morbus complicatus a twisted de-compound maltiplied sin of many-many branches so that neither Cains malicious killing of his brother Abel nor Joabs traiterous murdering of Amasa nor Davids crafty killing of Vrias nor Brutus and Cassius his conspiring the death of Caesar nor any other kind of murder is neer comparably so hainous and so abominable as this which uno ictu by one single sentence doth cast an infinite number of persons into sin and binds them all together to be lyable to the severe judgement of God for hereby 1. 1 In the place The Seat of Judgement is made the stool of wick ednesse the throne of Satan and the shambles and slaughter-house of innocent blood to do the greatest wrong where I should expect the greatest right 2. 2 The persons Witnesses Jury Judge Jerem. 5.7 The persons here offending are many-many persons the witnesses forsworn and perjured the Jury corrupted and the Judge a devill that is a liar and a murderer from the beginning and doth hereby wrong 1. The innocent person that is condemned 2. The place that is abused 3. All good people that are scandalized and offended with this unjust proceeding 4. All Light-headed credulous people that hold and believe that innocent condemned person to be a malefactor justly punished and 5. God himself that is first cast out of his throne and the devil placed in his stead 2. He is made a lyar to pronounce a false sentence 3. A murderer to kill an innocent man and so lastly a very devill for he that doth all this can be none other then the devill and the Judge stands here loco Dei as Gods Vice-gerent in Gods stead and God himself saith dixi Dei estis and commands us to reverence and honour them as Gods and therefore this judiciary condemning of the innocent unto death doth as much as lieth in man make the just God to seem to be an unjust devill And it were a lesse sin to un-god him then to make the just God seem to be so unjust a Judge for as Plutarch saith Satius est nullos Deos credere quà m Deos noxios And may not God much better say to such offendors as he doth in like case unto the Jewes onely for swearing by them that are no gods and assembling themselves in the harâ—ots houses How shall I pardon them for this As if the hainousnesse of this sin of judiciary murder went beyond the understanding of the omniscient and All-knowing God to find out a way and the means to pardon it especially if we consider 1. The persons condemned For 2. The Courts condemning them For 1. The more considerable eminent and excellent the person condemned is in respect of his calling as are Kings Priests and Prophets and the more innocent upright and religious he is in respect of his life and conversation the more odious and the more abominable is the sin 2. The more eminent and high the Court is that condemneth the innocent the more transcendent is the offence And You may more that this Judicial murder may be done either 1. By an inferiour Court of Justice as the Judges of Jezreel condemned Naboth 2. By the High Court of Iustice the highest Court of the kingdom and the Synopsis of the whole Nation as Christ was by the Sanhedrim of the Jews And I cannot remember in all the book of God of any that were thus judiciarily condemned but only two 1. The subject Naboth by the personal procurement and command of his King Ahab and 2. The King Christ Jesus by his subjects and the National malice of the Jewes And what became of these murderers how did God pardon them Elias telleth Ahab the King In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood and the blood of Jezabel and God will bring evill upon thee and will take away thy posterity and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel and so Jehu caused the Rulers of Jezreel the same town and perhaps the same Judges that condemned Naboth to cut off the heads of 70. of Ahabs children and when he came to Samaria he slew all that remained unto Ahab untill he had destroyed him according to the saying of the Lord. And how the Jewes have been destroyed by Titus and afterwards by Adrian and ever since persecuted and plagued in all Countries and by all Nations for killing their King the time would be too short and my papers too scant for me to relate And therefore if any King or Kingdom Nation or City be guilty of such a judiciarie murder as was the subject Naboth or the King Christ Jesus Let them assure themselves the heavie wrath of God like a thick cloud hangs over their heads and is ready to pour down most terrible showrs of vengeance upon them if they do not most speedily repent as I shall by and by more fully shew unto you But whether Zimri did kill his Master with his own hands But we are sure Zimri did not judicially condemn Elab to death yet he had no peaceâ— and what peace shall they have which shall judicially condemn an innocent person unto death which is so compounded a murder and far more abominable then any other sin 1 King 16.29 Acts 25.16 or by some others of his confederates for it is said that he conspired and so plotted with other companions against him or whether he alone did murder him I cannot tell but because he was the primum mobile the first and chief setter on of this murder it is here onely ascribed unto him But afore we do absolutely condemn Zimri for Elah's death we ought to hear what he can say for himself and not as some Judges that will hear no reason but condemn the innocent against all reason for as it was not
Israel and Judah yet both of them transgressed the one in shewing his Treasures to the Embassadors of the King of Babylon and the other in his confederacy with a wicked King and God justly punished every one of them Moses that he should not so much as enter into the Land of Canaan David with the loss of threescore and ten thousand of his people Ezechias to have all that he shewed transported into Babylon and Josias even with death in the Valley of Megiado so King Charles though a very good man and a most just and pious Prince and a faithful Servant of Jesus Christ and a strenuous defender of the true Faith yet because that when God for his tryal tempted him as he tempted Abraham Job and many others temptatione probationis non deceptionis to see how far he would stand unmoveable in the right way he either through fear and frailty or rather as I conceive by the deceitful perswasions of some whom he supposed to be his faithful Counsellors but were indeed seducing friends yielded and perhaps with some reluctancy against his own minde consented to the desires of some evill men to do those things that offended God therefore as he did though deceived what he should not do like the man of God in 1 King so his good God that did most truly love him did notwithstanding most justly suffer his Counsellors to become his enemies to warr against him and to punish him for what himself and his friends knew and most others conceived and do believe he never did for it is just with God to punish our sins and offences when and where and how and by whom he pleaseth as I shall declare unto you by this plain Story which may illustrate this point unto you A certain poor man had a Pick-axe wherewith he got his living and there was a certain rich man his Neighbour that coveted the same and finding it on a time left where the poor man wrought stole it from him so that the poor Labourer was fain to provide another and after many years and the memory of the Pick-axe quite forgotten the rich man driving some of his Cattel to the Market a lusty fellow that had stollen a couple of Oxen drove them among the rich mans Beasts and after a while fearing to be apprehended by the search and cry that he perceived to come after him he prayed the rich man to drive his Oxen a little way while he went a Furlong or two to deliver a Letter to such a Gentleman and the rich man suspecting no evil did so but not long after the searchers for the Oxen found them with the rich man driven towards the Fair amongst his own Beasts and apprehending him prosecuted him so eagerly and the rather because he was a rich man that he was condemned to die for stealing of those Oxen and being upon the Ladder complaining of this injustice and professing his innocency herein he spieth a Kite flying up and down over his head and crying as he conceived for the Pick-axe for the Pick-axe whereupon his Conscience accusing him he cryed out that God was just and his judgement right for though he was innocent from the Oxen yet he long agone had stolen a poor mans Pick-axe for which God now brought him to this end so no doubt many a Thief and murtherer may escape for the robbery and murders committed by them and yet may suffer for that which they never knew which is most just with God though unjustly done by men And so God might justly though most mercifully too suffer the enemies of this good King to condemn him for what he never did because he might offend God in some other things for which he was never blamed by his enemies nor accused by the Parliament And let no man wonder nor blame me for saying that the King though never so good a King and so pious a man should notwithstanding fail and offend God in some things when the Apostle tells us plainly that in many things we offend all For as there is no condition of life be it never so happy but it hath his cross to shew unto us that perfect felicity is to be expected elsewhere so there is no Prince nor any man living be he never so wise but he sometimes erreth and be he never so virtuous but he will sometimes offend else should he prove himself to be more then man because as Plutarch saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is more then is in the power of man to offend nothing in great matters such as are the Affairs of Kings and Princes But what were those things wherein this good King hath failed and offended God and for which he might justly suffer his enemies to warr and to prevail against him can any man tell what they be I answer that the wisest of the Kings friends conceive them to be not those things for which his enemies warred against him and condemned him most unjustly but might be those things wherein contrary to his own free desires he yielded to the desires of his enemies and those you may finde in the Bishop of Ossory his Discovery of Mysteries to be those three principal mistakes and not denied to be so by the King himself when Secretary Falkland would for those things have suppressed that Book but the good King told him they were true and so suffered the Book to be published 1. The threefold errours of the King To yield his assent to put the Earl of Strafford to death 2. To pass the Act that excluded the Bishops from the House of Peers and the other Clergy from Civil Affairs 3. To make the Parliament perpetual and so by himself indissoluble till they consented to dissolve it These things pleased the Parliament but might displease God and might without doubt most justly move God to be offended with his Majesty and to suffer his enemies most unjustly and causelesly to rage against him for that First Touching the Earl of Strafford the King we all know loved his person and admired his worth and took indefatigable pains at his Trial to be fully certified and informed of those things whereof the Earl was accused and as the Poet saith Regia And this the King confessed at his death saying God for bid that I should be so ill a Christian as not to say that God's Judgements are just upon me when many times he doth inflict Justice by an unjust Sentence this is ordinary I will onely say that an unjust Sentence that I suffered to take effect is punished now by an unjust Sentence upon my self crede mihi res est succurrere lapsis inquirere verum This was a most royal part in him and which Moses commanded to be observed before any Idolater should be condemned but after he had so religiously and diligently searched into the depth of their malice that accused the Earl and found out the truth of his cause and his Conscience informing him that he was no ways worthy
Marble And therefore we are all obliged as specially to Your Sacred Majesty that brought our Peace and Restauration to all that we have so Secondly to the Adventurers that laid out their Moneys and to the Soldiers that ventured their Lives and endured hardship to restore us unto our Rights But if they adventured either life or money to drive out the Rebels and to get both their Lands and ours that never offended unto themselves as many of the Soldiers do about Kilkenny then we owe them no thanks and they do no better then as the Thieves robbed us so they rob the Thieves not for the love of Justice to make Restitution to the Owners but to enrich themselves and how God likes of this keeping the right Owners from their Lands and Houses let the Adventurers Soldiers and Buyers of them judge themselves the Lord will judge it at another Day All which and many more Distempers that might be seen in that unsettled Kingdom and the Distresses of many unrelieved pillaged Protestants that are continued through the unbridled Fury of the Presbyterians and the blinde illimited Zeal of the Anabaptists Quakers and other Sectaries that have swarmed in this place as appeareth by this Catalogue of them that were presented by the Church-wardens of one Parish for their unlawful Conventicles That is to say William Burgess of Kilkenny Esquire Thomas Wilson Esq Thomas Fox Gent. Thomas Fonyver Merchant John Ball Merchant Francis Mitchel Merchant Thomas Newman Esq Richard Inwood Innkeeper William Hays Gent. John Beaver Merchant Edward Evans Tanner William Waters Taylor Francis Hamblyn George Dawson William Mitchel Gardiner Charles Duke Gent. Thomas Collins Gent. I thought it my Duty in all Humbleness and Fidelity to declare and remonstrate unto Your Majesty and to Your most Honourable Parliament and all others that desire to be informed herein leaving it to Your Majestie 's most wise and pious Consideration and their religious Care of God's Service and Servants to do what to Your Majesty seemeth best herein and most humbly craving Pardon if in these things I have done any thing that in the least way might offend Your Majesty whom I so truly honour and will ever as faithfully serve as any Subject within Your Kingdoms not onely as You are my King but especially as You are the gracious Son of so glorious a Father as is that blessed King CHARLES the First whose Name and Memory shall ever be like the Composition of the most pretious Oyntment that is made by the Art of the Apothecary So I rest Your MAJESTIES most loyal faithful and obedient Subject and Oratour GR. OSSORY THE FIRST TREATISE Acts 7.52 Which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted And they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers THE occasion of this our meeting and congregating our selves together at this time in Gods House is to confess our Great sins to declare our Sorrows and to testify our Humiliation as for all Other our transgressions so Especially for the high Rebellion and malicious Deliberate murder which our Fathers our Brethren and the Rest of the people of these Dominions have committed against their Own most Pious Just and Lawfull King CHARLES the First And I know not any waies how to do the same better then by parelleling the Transcendent murder of our King with that Vnexpressible murder of the King of the Jews and our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ For the performance of which Duty I shall desire you to give Attendauce to the Word of God which you may find written in Acts 7.52 These Words that I have read unto you are the Words of the protoMartyr Saint Stephen the first Witness that lost his Life for Preaching the Truth and testifying the Faith and death of Jesus Christ And they do contain a three fold Act or three speciall steps descending down-wards towards hell which with the assistance of God I intend to handle not to direct you the way thither but to divert all men from those dangerous pathes whose ends must be so dolefull unto them without end And they are 1. Persecutio Prophetarum the persecution of the Prophets Three parts 2. Occisio Praedicatorum the killing of the Preachers 3. Perditio interfectio justi Regis the betraying and murdering of a most just and the most righteous King the King of the Jews The three fowlest facts that could be acted by any men and would never have been done by any but by Jews or worse than Jews 1. The wisest amongst the sons of men saith Surely that you need not doubt it Eccles 7.7 oppression maketh a wise man mad and therefore likely it maketh simple men and fooles more mad and oppression which the Grecians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is nothing else but violenta pressura a violent pressure and a pinching of their bodies or a sore pressing upon their estates and impoverishing them by Taxes impositions and services more than by the Laws ought to be imposed or that they be well able to bear And yet as the Poet saith Clamitat ad Coelum Vox oppressorum mercesque retenta laborum This oppression of the poor crieth loud in the eares of God for vengeance against the oppressors Psal 9.9 Prov. 22.23 Amos 5.21 and God promiseth to be a refuge for the oppressed and He threatneth to punish all the oppressors of the poor yea and to spoyle the soul of those that spoyle them and therefore the great men of this world should take heed that they oppress not the poor the fatherless and the widow that have least shelter to preserve them from oppression But if Oppression be so haynous a vice and so loud a crying sin what shall we think of Persecution for persecution that is derived of persequor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth ad extremum usque sequi to follow and pursue his desire to the uttermost execution is of a far higher strain and a close following after the person of any one to do him some great and apparant mischief either to take away his Liberty or to bereave him of his Life as Cain did to Abel Gent 4.8 1 Sam. 13.14 and as Saul persecuted David and hunted after him even as a Patridge is hunted upon the mountain from place to place And thus did the Fathers of these Jews persecute the Prophets For the better understanding of which point Three things observable in the 1. part i.e. The persecution of the Prophets I humbly beseech you to observe these three things 1. The persecutors their Fathers 2. The persecuted the Prophets 3. The extent and generality of their persecution Quem Prophetarum 1. 1 The persecutors The persecutors are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their fathers and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicitur quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex se genitos servans the keeper and preserver of those that are
save us from all our sins And thus the true Saints that do hate their sins and lay hold on Christ do only love the Lord and the wicked that delight in sin and perceive not the sweetness of their Saviour cannot be said to love God for as the whole have no need of the Physitian and give no thanks for his Physick so they that feel not the sense of their own miseries and perceive not their Obligation to their Deliverer can have no love to God their Saviour Therefore seeing as the Poet saith Quod latet ignotum est ignoti nulla cupido And as S. Bern. saith non potes aut amare quem non noveris aut habere quem non amaveris we cannot love whom we know not nor enjoy whom we love not it behoveth us to search into our spirits to look into our own states to consider the multitude of our own sins and to bethink our selves in what need we stand of a Deliverer to see if this will not bring us in love with God our Saviour And then I beseech you Two special Points to be considered let us consider 1. What manner of Love we ought to have 2. How great a love it ought to be towards him And 1. I presume theâ—e is no man in this Assembly but he would think himself much injured 1 What manner of Lovewe ought to have if it were but imagined that he did not love God his Saviour and iâ— is not my desire to dishearten any when I wish from my heart that every the least sparke of your love to God might prove a Glorious Flame Yet I fear there be very many men that come into the world they know not why and live therein they care not how and go out of it again they cannot tell where but do live in it without a God and then die without any hope And others there be that dream of happiness and their hopes being but dreams they do therein but deceive themselves like those that dream they are at a pleasant Banquet yet when they awake their soul is hungry For as the Jews in our Saviours time did indeed persecute him because they were so blinded that they could not apprehend him to be the Son of God but for God himself they made full account that they alone and none but they did love him and for Moses vvhose very Name vvas the Glory of their Nation they professed to love him beyond measure so that vvhosoever spake any blasphemous vvords against Moses vvas thought vvorthy to be stoned to death Acts 6.11 John 5.42 V. 45. And yet our Saviour tels them I know you that you have not the love of God in you and that Moses in vvhom they trusted should accuse them before God So many Christians at the last day shall profess that they have prophesied in Christ's Name cast out Devils done many wonderful works in his Name rebelled against their ovvn King and killed their own Brethren and starved their own Shepherds and hazarded their own Lives for his sake and yet he shall protest unto them I never knew you i. e. to love me or to do these things for my sake but for your own ends and to satisfie your own desires and therefore depart from me ye Workers of Iniquity And the reason is Two sorts of the Lovers of Christ 1. Formal 2. Real that there are two sorts of the lovers of Christ and two kinds of professors of Christianity 1. General 2. Special That formal this real that in shew this in deed that ingendred by Education by Country by Custome by conformity to the Laws and Fashions of them with whom they live and by a common sence of Gods outward favours for Christ his sake unto them and this infused by an inward operation of Gods Spirit in the heart in all sincerity and truth and is continually preserved and encreased by a lively sence of Gods special favour unto them through Jesus Christ And you know that S. Paul tells us he is not a Jew which is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that which appeareth outwardly in the flesh i.e. which is but only born and bred a Jew of the seed of Abraham of the visible Synagogue and partaker of all the external Covenants of grace but he only is the right Jew which is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inwardly in the secrets of the heart so he is not a Christian that is but only born a Christian and doth but outwardly profess Christianity to come to the Church to hear Sermons to receive the Sacraments Who is the true Christian and to accustome himself to all the outward formalities of Christianity but he is the true Christian that is so made by his second birth and by that internal grace which is indeed invisible unto others but most sensible unto himself and who as the Evangelist saith John 1.13 is born not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God And therefore seeing God is not mocked and that he requireth truth in the inward parts and the exactest kind of love that can be imagined let us not mock our selves by any presumptuous conceits of our love to God and so deceive our own hearts and betray our own souls which is the usual practice of too too many men for if we love God as we ought then our love must be as the Apostle speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in purity in simplicity or as the word signifieth in incorruption i.e. such as neither the most honourable nor the most profitable nor the most delectable things in this world can ever be able to lessen or diminish the least jot of our love to God when with the Apostle we disesteem our preferments and our honours and whatsoever else the world could confer upon us and account them all but as dung in comparison of our love to God and the discharging of that duty which we owe unto him for so Abraham forsook his Country neglected his honour and was ready to facrifice his only Son in obedience to the commands of God and so will all they do that do truly love the Lord as they out to love him 2. For the extent and quantity of our love to God S. Augustine saith Aug. de moribus Ecclesiae that Modus diligendi Deum est ut diligatur quantum potest diligi quanto plus diligitur tanto est dilectio melior And St. Bernard saith that Modus diligendi Deum est sine modo The measure of our love to God should be beyond measure so much that we should prefer his Love his Honour and his Service before our Father or Mother or Wife or Husband or Children or Pleasure or Profit or any other thing in this World yea before our own life which we should be ready and willing to lay down for the love of him and the defence of his truth and service Qui
of death for the King then to be perswaded for what pretense of good soever and by whomsoever were it an Angel out of Heaven to consent unto his death is to become guilty of a great fault and to say that he was perswaded thereunto by the Bishops whose fault was therefore greater then his Majestie 's can no more excuse him then for the man of God to say that he was seduced by the old Prophet And therefore this might be a just cause with God to suffer him that to satisfie sinful men would offend his good God by giving way to them to take away the life of an innocent man to have his own life taken from him even by those men to whom he had yielded to take away the life of another man which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conformity of our punishment to our offence and is nothing else but lex talionis an eye for an eye a tooth for tooth and death for death which was the first Law that God published after the Deluge saying Whosoever sheddeth man's blood that is either per se as Cain did Abel or per alium as David did Vriah's and Ahab Naboth by Act or it may be by consent by man shall his blood be shed Secondly touching the Bishops my self knoweth that he loved them all and honoured their Calling very much being fully satisfied of the truth of their Divine and Apostolical Institution as appeareth by that learned and exquisite defence that himself most graciously made against the Presbyterians of the Episcopal Order and he was indeed a right Constantine to all the Bishops rather hiding their infirmities if he spyed any fault in them with the Lap of his Garment then any ways multiplying or publishing the same unto the People And this was a most Christian course in him for I may justly say Victima sacra Deo res est succurrere Cleris And as our Saviour saith of them He that receiveth you receiveth me And the Bishops of all other his Subjects were his most loyal Servants and most faithful Oratours never thwarting their King nor crossing any of his just Designs but ever cleaving unto his Cause and voting on his side so far as truth and right and a good Conscience would give them leave contrary to which his Majesty never desired any thing And therefore when the King saw the malice of most wicked men qui oderunt eos gratis and did bear an intestine hatred against these true Servants of God and did strive manibus pedibúsque with all their might against all justice to thrust them out of their undoubted Right by the favour we confess of our most pious Princes for him as we conceive against his own mind and to his own prejudice to please and satisfie the implacable hatred of his and their enemies to pass an Act to exclude the Bishops out of his Great Council the Parliament when above thirty Acts of Parliament had confirmed their right Interest therein since the confirmation of Magna Charta was an errour as I conceive not salvable and a fault that cannot be justly excused by his best Friends and therefore God might justly suffer all his Counsels to fail and his Counsellours to become perfidi familiares his familiar Traytours such as the Poet speaks of Saepe sub agnina latet hirtus pelle Lycaon Subque Catone pio perfidus ille Nero. And though I do not nor dare not say it was so yet I may say that for this God might so give way to his Enemies to prevail against him and to thrust him out of his Kingdom when he gave way to thrust his Embassadours out of his house which is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and even as Solomon divided God's Service betwixt God and the Idols of Zidon Moab and Ammon 1 Reg. 11. c. 12. so God divided his Kingdom betwixt his Son Rehoboam and his Servant Jeroboam so might he deal with King Charles when he yielded to expel the Bishops that were his true Friends and God's Servants out of his Council to suffer his Enemies to exclude him out of his Kingdom and not unjustly or without cause neither as the same proceeds from God whose ways are always just for who could better declare the right and truth of things unto the King then the Expounders of the Book of Truth Who could advise and direct him to make better and juster Laws then the Teachers of the Law of God and who fitter to judge of right and to require Justice to be enjoyned and practised by all People then they whose Calling is continually to call upon all men to live godly and soberly and justly in this present World Why then should they be excluded from the Seat of Justice either in the making of Laws or to see those Laws executed unless it were that the Lay-Justices might do what they would without shame and what they pleased without controul when as heretofore the reverend Presence of the Bishops and grave Divines and their sage Counsel did oftentimes stop the Current of Injustice and made some ashamed of some gross dealings that in their absence they were not ashamed to have effected and therefore I suppose I may justly say that as it was said of the Emperour Justinian when he caused Aetius his brave General to be cut off he had cut off his right Arm with his left Hand so did King Charles when he pâ—ssed that Act that prejudiced himself more then the Bishops Thirdly touching the Parliament we must understand that Parliaments were first instiâ—uted by the Kings of this Nation to inform them of the Abuses Dangers and Defects which the Lords and Peers and the wiser sort of their Subjects which each Countrey had elected and the chief Cities had chosen for that purpose had observed and to advise and consult with their King de arduis rebus Regni of these and all other difficult and great Affairs of the Kingdom as the Writs that call them together do declare and then to consider by what good means the Dangers of the Kingdom might be prevented by what Laws ' the abuses might be redressed and which ways the peace of the People might be preserved and the happiness of all his Subjects continued and enlarged and if they understood of any sorreign dangers invasions or injuries to consult how the same might be prevented and rectified And when the King understood what his Lords and Commons conceived fitting to be done He with the Advice of His Council ratified what he approved and rejected what he disliked with the usual phrase in that kind But in process of time the Parliament-men as I heard wise men say began to incroach more and more upon the Rights of Majesty upon the Power and Authority of the King especially of those Kings that either had no Right or at the best but doubtful Titles unto the Crown or those that were of less Abilities or of an easie and facile disposition and would soon be perswaded
as Justin saith it did in Semiramis Cicero pro Cor. or if not yet as Cicero saith Cùm mors extinxit invidiamres gestae sempiterna nominis gloria nituntur when death slayeth envy the virtuous Acts of good men will shine to the eternal praise and glory of their good name for as the Rain or Dew will not stick upon a Sea-gulls back so the reproaches and imputations of the malicious cannot prejudice the honour and good name of the godly quia ut malam conscientiam laudantis praeconium non sanat ita bonam non vulnerat convitium because that as no praise nor flattery can heal a bad Conscience nor make a wicked man good so no slander nor dispraise can wound a good Conscience or make a good man wicked nor diminish any of his deserved honour but as Christ Laudatur ab his ut culpatur ab illis though he be blasphemed of the Jews yet is he truly honoured of all Christians and all Saints in all Nations that do him service and sing with St. Ambrose Thou art the King of glory O Christ thou art the everlasting Son of the Father that sitteth on the right hand of God in the glory of the Father so our late good King Charles notwithstanding that false In the Royal Exchange and infamous Inscription set up where his Picture and Statue stood and notwithstanding all that the venomous mouths of malice can vomit out against him which shall vanish like the Summer's Snow or the grass upon the House-top that withereth before it be plucked up shall have his virtues his goodness and his godliness Chronicled fama perennis erit and so long as we shall be able to speak or write we shall leave it recorded as in Marble to the eternal honour of this good King and the everlasting shame of his malicious enemies both which Nec ira nec ignis Nec poterit abolere vetustas Thirdly In his Posterity For his Posterity God said not of him as he did of Coniah Write this man childless but he gave him a numerous and a glorious off-spring and as Moses saith of the first Fathers and replenishers of the World He begat Sons and Daughters and he needed not to say of them as Clytemnestra said of her Children Ista Clytemnestra digna quevela foret For when my Nuts are ripe and brown My leaves boughs are beaten down Certè ego si nunquam peperissem tutior essem Nor with the Nut-tree In felix fructus in mea damna fero But the world seeth he was most happy in them all in whom he still liveth and shall live though his enemies studied their death manibus pedibusqúe laborârunt and have used all machinations and all plots and devices that either subtlety or cruelty could invent to cut them off but God preserved them and his Providence watched over them and especially his eldest Son after a strange and almost miraculous manner from the last Fight at Worcester where through the cowardize of some the over-sight of others and as they say the treachery of some chief Commanders in his own Army and by the prudent Carriage of a brave and valiant General to give the Devil his right as the Proverb goeth such as this Age will scarce equal he had been taken or swallowed had not he that dwelleth in the Heavens most graciously preserved him in a manner as he preserved Daniel from the Lions mouths and sent his Angel as he did to Tobias to direct him in his Journey and to carry him safe through Sea and Land which is wonderful in our eyes and doth sufficiently presage that God hath kept him for some great work that in his divine wisdom he intendeth to effect by him as now we see the same begun to his great honour and our unspeakable comfort And as God hath thus mercifully preserved his Eldest Son so he hath made his second and his third Son the Duke of York and the Duke of Gloucester famous for their excellent parts and Heroical Exploits like their Brother and Ascanius-like followers of their Father's Vertues passibus aequis Neither may I here omit that Virtuous and Heroick Lady the Princess of Orange that with her Brothers and as her Brothers will perpetuate the blessed memory of that blessed King for ever who is herein not like King Henry the 8th that notwithstanding his six Wives besides all his Concubines hath not a branch of his Body that we know of remaining under the Cope of Heaven nor like Ahab and other Tyrants and wicked men whose seed for their sins God rooteth out but as God hath promised and since performed unto Abraham that his Seed should be as the Stars of Heaven for number that is innumerable and hath likewise promised to all the faithful Children of Abraham that their Generation should be blessed so he hath done it and no doubt but he will perform it to this good King to muliply his seed and to bless them for ever even as the Prophet Esay saith of all God's people Their seed shall be known among the Gentiles and their offspring among the People all that see them shall acknowledg them that they are the seed Esay lxi 9. So shall the seed of King Charles be which the Lord hath blessed Fourthly The Prophet saith the age of man is but seventy years and Pindarus saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 umbrae somnium homo man is but the shadow of a man a thing of nothing Sicque in non hominem vertitur omnis homo In his eternal selicity Man's life is but a shadow that soon vanisheth and Job saith he hath but a short time to live and that short time is full of misery interminabilis labor even an endless toyl like the tumbling of a Sysiphus stone or the filling of the fatal Tunn by King Danaus daughters where the water run out as fast as they poured it in or as the Poet saith most truly Passibus ambiguis fortuna volubilis errat Et manet in nullo certa tenáxque loco Sed modò laeta manet vultus modò sumit acerbos Et tantum constans in levitate sua est And when the affairs of this world are best and our happiness at the highest then as the very Heathens have observed they presently decline and begin to turn like the Cart wheel Res humanae in summo declinant Which warneth all on Fortune's wheel that clime To bear in minde that they have but a time And such was the time of King Charles of whom I cannot say with him that wrote A short view of the long life and reign of Henry the third A dainty piece of story presented to King James Es liii 8. but I must say the short life and reign and long troubles of Charles the First for as the Prophet saith of Christ non dimidiavit dies suos he hath not lived out half his daies being cut off è terra viventium from the land of the living at a few moneths