Proclamation for a Religious Solemn and Publick Fast. I need not tell you that the Murtherers of our Sovereign writ directly after this copy tract the same paths wrought with the same instruments and effected the same Cruelty with the very same methods of Piety and Justice Zach. 7.5.6 When ye fasted and wept every month did ye all fast unto me Even unto me Did you macerate your Bodies that your keener Stomachs might take the larger Draught of innocent Blood Thus the Cossacks a kind of mungrel Christians barbarous People and Bordering upon Muscovy living wholly upon Rapine always pray to Christ in the Morning to make them Diligent in their Callings and help them to good Booty So the wild Irish never went a Mass-trooping but with the Auspiciums of a Pater noster and Ave Maria. Thus these grand Rebels in Richard the Second's time Prefac'd all their Letters to their Confederates with whom they held Intelligence in the Conspiracy with these Heavenly words Glory be to God on high on earth peace good will towards men Strange Confidence What Glory to God when their own Consciences told them they were Contriving the Ruine of such as the Majesty of Heaven calls Gods upon Earth And peace on earth when they were Meditating a War And good will towards men when they were going about to Cut their Throats This is like Joab's Complement Art thou in Health my Brother And then follows the Kiss with a Stab Pope Alexander VI. was so known a Dissembler in his time that afterwards it became a Proverb in Rome When his Holiness Swears you may Swear 't is false England may well say that her Royal Head was then first struck at when the Executioners entred into Covenant more solemnly to Swear its Preservation as if the Breaking of former Oaths of Allegiance could not speak them sufficiently Perfidious and Disloyal but they must call Heaven and Earth to Witness afresh to redoubled Perjuries or else resolved to Contradict the Truth of that Scripture in Eccles 4.12 A threefold cord is not easily broken whereas their poor weak and tender Consciences could Snap them with ease and make nothing of them Cataline begun his Conspiracy with a Covenant and a bloody Sacrament These Judas's are then most likely to betray when they come to salute Caveatur osculum Iscarioticum The French Proverbially say when the Spaniard sends them an Ambassador for Peace Claude foras they are certain then they must Fight for 't I could apply it to as smooth a Tongu'd Generation and if not so Subtile yet they are as False and can Play with Oaths as Monkeys with their Collars can put them on and off as they list Pro Rege Lege Grege was the common Motto in those days what they meant by the first Word this Day 's Remembrance does too truly Admonish us Is this thy kindness to thy friend In which religious Treachery they did but much resemble that jugling Pope before-mentioned and his Son Caesar Borgias of whom it was said That one never spoke as he thought and the other never performed what he spake In this Sense we may say of our Martyr'd Sovereign what Seneca speaks of Caesar at his fall His pretended Friends not his Enemies tumbled him down And how many Wretches might our glorious Martyr have justly Upbraided with the same Words that Caesar in his last Words groaned out to his Son Brutus What! and thou my Son too Thou my Subject Thou that hast sworn Allegiance and confirmed it again with a Covenant of a later date Have we not Cause more than enough to use that good Man's Letany in behalf of our Sovereign and these Kingdoms Libera nos ab amicis From such Friends good Lord deliver us 'T was capital even amongst the ruder Scythians if any did Duo peccata contorquere make a Pleat of two Sins together as Lie and Swear to it The most barbarous Nations have Outvied us in Honesty For whilst such a Stir was made to make Room for Religion good Nature has been justled out and we have lost Humanity and Morals And the very Heathen shall rise up in judgment against us The Peripatetick owned more Divinity in his Ethicks where he says It is not good for a man to dissent from the Gods his Father or his Teacher Our new Gospellers thô they do not walk much like Christians yet will talk like them This lip Religion is so cheap and easie to be come by that every Hypocrite can afford to disciple himself thereunto but when it comes to Works of Charity and to Evidence a true Faith by good Works then vale lumen amicum Gospel-Light and he must shake hands and part The greatest Talkers are seldom the greatest Doers The Damask Rose is more Fragrant but not so Cordial as the Red. And those days whose bloody Hew will stain the Chronicle to all Posterity have yet been Cryed up for the Gospel-days whereas if we view but the Murthers Sacriledge and Rapine which these Gospellers did perpetrate we must say as that Learned Lanacre did comparing their straighter and directer Rules and Gospel-Lines describ'd in Christ's Sermon upon the Mount with those more crooked and perverse Draughts of the men of his times Either this is not Gospel or we are not Gospellers Sure I am that this Day 's sad Instance gives us Occasion to put it to the question as of Old to the jugling Jews that profaned God's holy Name Ezek. 36.20 Are these the people of the Lord that came forth of his Land Do you take his Name in Vain Motley Christians Do ye take Christ's Name in Vain Such Israelites as these have too much guile in them to be Nathanaels More like that Israel mentioned by the Prophet which was but an empty Vine that only brought forth fruit unto it self Vox praeterea nihil as he said of the Nightingale nothing but a Noise The emptiest Kettle makes the greatest sound and the most lewd are usually the most loud And we may truly reprove such in the words of Diogenes to that vitious Antipater that bipedum nequissimus who wore a white Cloak in token of Innocency virtutis stragulum pudefacitis ye make Religion blush To use the words of the Prophet Micah Do ye build up Zion with blood and Religion with iniquity And yet lean upon the Lord and say Is not the Lord among us No evil can come unto us The little attendance on this Day 's Celebration in this populous City who can at other times throng in a Crowd to the want of Elbow-room makes me with grief of heart presume That the Innocent Blood shed upon this Day is but little upon the Hearts and too little a Grief of Heart to many that I say not Ministers who can not only coldly neglect their Duty herein without remorse but even dare to appear in Publick against the Celebration of this necessary Fast as if there was now no need of keeping it These are such whose Fathers acted
the Lord loveth He chasteneth and scourgeth every Son whom He receiveth If ye endure chastening GOD dealeth with you as with Sons For what Son is be whom the Father chasteneth not But if ye be without chastisement whereof all GOD's Children are Partakers then are ye Bastards and not Sons Whereas Tully upbraids the Hebrews with their often Captivity You may know by their Miseries saith he how well GOD loves them Which however Ironically by him spoken is undoubtedly a great Truth I am sure God saies so Amos 3.2 You only have I known of all the Families of the Earth therefore will I Punish you And again threatning to throw them off He tells them He will throw away the Rod and trouble Himself no more with them Hos 4.14 I will not punish your Daughters when they commit Whoredom nor your Spouses when they commit Iniquity The Muscovitish Women are jealous that their Husbands do not love them if they do not beat them a little now and then I am sure we may well be Jealous that GOD loves us not if He never beats us So Christ saith Whom I love I rebuke and chasten Success therefore and Prosperity are no infallible marks of GOD's Favour to a Cause or People if it were we must Renounce our Saviour Apostatize from Christianity and turn Renegadoes to Mahometism 'T is with a true Christian as with a Porter the more he bears and the oftener he is burthened the more is his benefit tho' the load be heavy St. Peter therefore who had his Back-burthen of Afflictions esteem'd a tempted and tryed Faith as tryed Gold the hotter the Fire the purer will be the Metal The more fiery a Believers Tryal the more splendid will be his Graces The Rustick answered Luther as Profanely as Clownishly when the good Father told him in the extremity of his Sickness That such Chastisements were Gods Love-tokens Then answered he let Him keep them to Himself for me or give them to His best friends Blessed Beza made a better use of his Sickness at Paris which he calls The cause of his Health Morbus isle sanitatis meae principium That Sickness saith he made me Well 'T is often best with the Soul when 't is worst with the Body Wounds in the Flesh may prove Vulneratives to the Conscience Thus Corrections prove Instructions We have the Wise Man's word to avouch it and he might speak Experimentally for his Prosperity did him more harm than all his Wisdom did him good Prov. 6.23 Reproofs of Instruction are the way of Life Heb. The Corrections of Instructions are the way of Life For schola Crucis est schola Lucis and Adversity the best University For two Reasons therefore to name no more The Best of Men may meet with the Worst of Usage in this Life 1. Because their Portion is not here to be Paid For tho' many times a good Joseph enjoyes eighty eight Years of Peace and Plenty for his thirteen Years Imprisonment Yet these Rewards of a Child of Gods good service are over-plus and more than Christ has obliged Himself unto in His last Will and Testament In the World ye shall have Tribulation that 's your lot here saith Christ but in Me ye shall have Peace that 's your Portion Omnis Christianus Crucianus Every good Christian must wear a Crucifix Ecclesia est Haeres Crucis The Church can claim Administration of nothing in this World but Christ's Cross Therefore it was that Ignatius when he came to Encounter the wild Beasts at Rome said Now I begin to be a Christian And Luther excellently according to his Passionate way expresses himself to this purpose I protest saith he GOD shall not put me off with a Portion in this Life David makes it the definition of a Wicked Man to have his Portion in this World Why then Repinest thou O my Soul that the Ungodly Prosper in the world and dip their Polluted Hands in the Blood of the Innocent Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted within me when the Rod of the Wicked doth rest on the Back of the Righteous Art thou so Covetous that nothing will Content thee but Two Heavens Wicked Men make a shift to be satisfied with their momentany Delusions their Bird in Hand their flitting Pleasures that yet take themselves Wings and fly away And art not thou Contented with the Permanent Incomes of God and Christ and Heaven Sure thou art not content to change thy Portion for such brittle Ware as the World affords why then not Content with thy Portion Greedy Miser thou wouldst have all and yet canst Enjoy nothing 'T is so Well then good God continue me thy Peace and Food and Rayment and then I will not Envy Caesar 2. Because the Best of Men have need of such hard usage to bring their Sins to remembrance to rub off the contracted rust they must be sometimes Scoured David about to be Expell'd from his Kingdoms gave a better answer to Cursing Shimei then at his Return to Good Mephibosheth To be a Captive makes man pitiful to Captives Israels Bondage should make them liberal to Bondmen whereas Liberty and Fulness breeds Forgetfulness and therefore God will Exercise his People with a Paroxisme a fit or two of distress to be their Remembrancers The best Clothes had need some times to be Shaken or they will be Dusty Lessons set on with a Whipping are best remembred and God never Whips his Children but when no saying will serve Ictus piscator sapit even good Men like the Wallnut-Tree will not be fruitful except sometimes beaten Good David grew almost wild for want of pruning Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word But to Apply this to the present Occasion 1. This may serve to state our Judgments aright in the construction of Cross Providences I call them Cross-Providences not that any Providence can possibly be really cross or adverse either to a Child of God or Gods Glory who alwayes makes even and smooth work in conclusion tho' he may seem to work with a crooked Tool but because it may seem cross to us thro' our short and dim-sightedness or because they are represented to us by a false Medium as a Stick half in the water that seems crooked but is not really so and that you will know if you either thrust all the Stick into the water or pull it out So when Men see Gods Dispensations but by halves they think them cross and crooked tho' they are not really so and that they will find in the issue What was more likely to cross Joseph in his promised Advancement than to be Sold for a Bond-Slave Yet that prov'd the fittest and readiest means thereto Thus the Wheels of Providence like the Wheels of a Clock may move counter yet each Motion concur to make it go the better Let us not therefore charge God foolishly when he permits a Slave to lash his Children
in its Face God avert the Crisis and fatal Paroxisme Shall I not visit for these things Shall not my Soul be Avenged on such a Nation as this God's will be done it may be more Miseries may do us more God and English Men like the Athenians may look best in Black England never looks well but when in a Weeping Posture Mourning Habits do best become her In their Affliction they will seek me Early 'T is possible we may then be best when 't is worst with us and Thrive like Camomile the better for being sat upon The State of a good Man in this Life being very well Emblematically Resemble to that of the Palm-Tree with this Motto Depressa Resurgo The Weights that are hung upon him makes him Grow the Better Indeed no Chastisement for the present seemeth Joyous but Grievous nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the Peaceable Fruit of Righteousness to them that are Exercised thereby What matter tho' the Storm be Violent so it speed us the sooner to our Port What though you be washed in the Jordan of Affliction seven times so you be Cured of your Leprosie Wormwood is wholesome though it be Bitter He that Sowes in Tears shall Reap in Joy Tears are the best Holy Water to drive away the Devil It is good for me that I have been Afflicted saith holy David repeating his experiences Almond Trees are made more Fruitful by driving Nails into them which lets out a Noxious Gum which would otherwise hinder its Fruitfulness Some such advantage Saint Paul found by the Pricks in the Flesh on which account it is that Saint Austin Triumphs in his as Scars of Honour Oh Felices Tribulos Tribulationum Oh happy Thorns of Tribulation that lets out my Impostumes The Shower of Stones sent St. Stephen faster to Heaven Enemies may Kill but cannot Hurt And though the Children of Belial depriv'd our Blessed Martyr of His Head they could not Rob Him of His Crown To use His own Heavenly Words I shall not want Heavy and Envyed Crowns of this World when My God hath Mercifully Crown'd and Consummated His Graces with Glory and Exchang'd the Shadows of My Earthly Kingdomes among Men for the Substance of that Heavenly Kingdom with Himself God never strikes down his People but as we do a Tennis-Ball upon the Pavement that it may Mount and Rebound the higher Thus he permitted Wicked Men to strike at and strike down our Blessed Martyr'd Sovereign that he might Exalt Him in His own Throne and in the Hearts and Memory of all that are truly Pious Pungit Deinde Vngit God first let Afflictions close up to the Swords Point before he did Anoint him with the Oyl of gladness above his Fellows The Second Observation is THAT the Rabble and Multitude are many times thro' Zeal for Religion and Justice Guilty of horrid Impieties As in the Text They Stoned him Where the word They Concords with the foregoing word the People the unjust Judges Condemn Innocent Naboth in the Presence of the People and they the People turn Executioners and hurry him away without any more ado out of the City and Stoned him with Stones that he Died. Thus the Rabble in a Tumult like Dogs in a chafe Bite and Bark at their Masters and Friends as well as at their Foes All 's alike as here Naboth hurt them not had given no just Offence but that 's all one he was Accus'd for Blasphemy and they took it for granted to be true being Gull'd by Politick Statesmen with the Pretences of Justice and Devotion Thus Zeal Misguided like a Horse without a Bridle may run fast enough but out of the Way making more Haste then good Speed Or like Fire out of the Hearth which usually does harm Warms not but Consumes Thus Politicians that Plot Rebellion and Mutiny do but give out a Religious Watch-Word and the People straight give the Word about and are up in Arms for God and his Cause Thus when a wicked Grandee begins a Health some or other of the Rabble will Pledge it tho' it be Blood As in this woful instance of the Text and the Day Sons of Belial do Strenue Calumniari accuse falsly and impudently and Swear hard and the People believe them and cry as in St. Paul's case Away with such a Fellow from the Earth for it is not fit that he should Live And why They knew not for the most of them knew not why they were met together indocible Crew that lest Equity and Justice should carry it at a fair hearing they stop their Ears as they did at St. Stephens Tryal and run upon him with one accord Thus did they furiously noise it against our Saviour Crucifie Him Crucifie Him and tho' Pontius Pilate who was more Sober would have them make a Halt and tell first what Evil hath he done Yet they cryed out the more like an Impetuous Torrent that swells when 't is Damm'd right or wrong Let Him be Crucified let him be Crucified How soon were the Fickle Jews weary of John the Baptist that at first flock'd to him All Hierusalem and all Judea saith the Text Matth. 3.5 We 'll have a King say the People to Samuel and then presently after the same People change their Notes We have added to our Iniquity this more in asking us a King 1 Sam. 12.19 The present Government is always Grievous to them like Weathercocks who tho' always mutable yet always set their Faces against and brave that Wind that is most Potent The Vulgar Reuben like are Unstable as water and one day cry Hosanna to Christ and the next day Crucifie Him In the Morning ready to fall down adore and deifie Paul and Barnabas Acts 14.18 And in v. 19. Being tickled in the Ear with another Story that certain Jews that came from Antioch They stoned Paul and drew him out of the City supposing he had been dead Subtile Usurpers thus like Jeroboam make Israel to Sin and by pretending a Cheaper way of Devotion and a nearer cut then going up to Jerusalem entice them to worship their Golden Calves in Dan and Bethel thô the lowest of the people be the Priests and to countenance the Abomination the Usurper himself became one of the Priests of the high places Thus these impetuous Torrents like the Tydes by the paler Moon are Influenced and led about to and fro as their pious Sheba's that Head them shall Animate and Direct but are especially Charm'd like Bees when they are up in a Swarm by the tinckling Noise of Reformation and Liberty Yet many times when these Swarms are up no body knows where they will alight nor they themselves well the Fiends sometimes for want of work falls upon the Conjurers that rais'd them And 't is but just that these Bearwards should sometimes for Example sake be worried by their own Whelps and they are but right served 't is Good enough for so Bad a Trade 'T was this tumultuous Wild-fire that first set our flourishing
applause of Justice and Devotion Herod who at one Draught quaff'd the blood of 14000 Infant Bethlemites and his own Sons among the rest lest the bloody cup should not be a brim-full potion of Horror Tyberius Nero Caligula Otho the second Julian Commodus cunctis Incommodus Domitian Dioclesian Charles the 9th of France and all those Monsters of Men that ever lived might here dull Truants in murdering Proficienties have gone to School and learnt new Lectures of Cruelty and Barbarism 'T was an Inhumane speech of Hannibal if true what 's storied of him that no Prospect did ever so much delight him as a Ditch which he once saw running over with Man's blood But it is too true that no Sight could please some Wretches but that of the effusion of an Innocent Man's Blood yea an Innocent King's Blood as if they did make choice of their Bits in their cruel Boulimy's The Blood of Goats will soften Adamants but the precious Royal blood did not has not and I fear does not yet Oh unhallowed Saints molisy your more Adamantine Hearts and seared Consciences 'T is Just with God to give you blood to drink for you are worthy Satia te sanguine quem sitisti would be but a due Retaliation to use David's words Scatter thou the People that delight in War What! Is not your insatiable Thirsts yet satisfied but as if the Sins that you have done were not Scarlet enough do you yet endeavour by more blood to crimson them to a deeper dye Nothing would satisfie Faresius the Pope's Champion but to ride his Horse up to the Saddle skirts in the blood of the Lutherans and do you cry down the Pope and yet avouch the cruelty of the worst of Popes by more dismal Paralells Do you make a Jest at Murder as that Queen Mother of France who viewing the fatal Landskip of the dead Carcases of her Protestant Subjects smiled and said It was the handsomest Piece of Tapistry she ever beheld 'T is a sad Conscience that can Joy at the thoughts of this days Mournful Remembrance otherwise than from the sense of Godly Sorrow at this days Sad Remembrance no good Man can Repent such a Repentance Have you no way to be Villanous enough except ye call Heaven to Witness and assist at such Unheard of Villanies Ye Sons of Cain must ye yet kill your Brethren and that for Devotion-sake Or with wicked Herod Pretend to Worship Mat. 2.8 when ye Intend to Murder him Cur bonificas why Trimmest thou thy way to seck Love and why dost thou yet Teach the wicked ones thy Ways Are you afraid that Dull Posterity should turn Truants to your skillful Massacres and not get your bloody Manuscripts by Heart that you even yet under the notion of Purity teach the wicked ones and the Innocent ones your ways when for all your Gospel sayings we know too well ye intend to practice no saying in the Gospel but that in Mat 21.38 This is the Heir come let us kill him and sieze upon his Inheritance How then canst thou say I am polluted Behold thy way in the Valley in the Golgotha to which these once flourishing Kingdoms have been reduced Let this Day reprove thee know what thou hast done For in thy skirts is found the blood of the Souls of the poor Innocents Jer. 2.34 I have not sound it upon secret search but upon all these yet thou sayest Because I am Innocent Behold the Revenger of the blood of his Martyrs will yet plead with thee because thou sayest I am Innocent Jer. 2.35 Nothing but Death could under the Law expiate Sins committed presumptuously Hebrew With a High hand Numb 15.30 Such as was this Concatenation of Villanies that fought neither with small nor great but only with the King of Israel Hunc ipsum Petimus as that Russian cryed who flew the great Gustavus Adolphus Oh Restore Restore your forfeited Loyalty Talk not of Reformation of the Church and State till you have first reformed your own disobedient and stubborn hearts first wash your bloody hands and gargle your slanderous Throats and then you need not blush when you speak of Reformation 'till this be done He is unpardonably credulous that will lend an Ear to your noise of the Gospel the Gospel Good Hearts It were very pretty if it were not painted but in earnest we may say by woful experience of your Cause as Salust says of Amelia Amelia Orestilla Praeter formam nihil unquam bonus laudavit There 's nothing skin-deep praise-worthy in it Bull-rush-like or Sepulchrelike or a Rose-tree in Autumn cecidit Rosa manet Spina when the flower is off how pitifully it looks Oh quantum haec Niobe Oh then every one that hears me this day upon this occasion of Lamentation rehearsing to us that of Lam. 5.16 The Crown is fallen from our Heads wo unto us that we have Sinned lay your Hands upon your Hearts and seriously empannel your Thoughts in this grand Inquest Have I so much as consented to the shedding the Blood of this Innocent Martyr or have I in any-wise approved of it or justified those that did it since tho' perhaps then unborn The very concealment of a Cheat was miraculously punished with Death Act. 5.10 and yet the Text does not say that Sapphira consented to it but only was Privy to it ver 2. and did not do her best to prevent It sure I am then this bloody Butchery must upon this Account be filed up for a National Sin as God has in Justice scored upon us for this Blood many National Plagues And if that be Scripture in Revel 9.21 God will yet appear rendring Vengeance to all such who have not repented of their Murthers nor of their Sorceries nor of their Fornications nor of their Thefts Oh that you that hear me this Day may be as the Posts of the Doors were by the Blood of the Paschal Lamb in that day of Slaughter so Washed by unfeigned Contrition in the Blood of the Lamb that when the destroying Angel shall yet make Inquisition for this Royal Blood he may pass over us Talk not of Religion 'till this be Done Pray no more 'till this be done bring no more vain Oblations 'till this be done For when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you saith the Lord yea when ye make many prayers I will not hear your hands are full of blood Isa 1.13 15. But deliver us from Blood-guiltiness O God thou God of our Salvation FINIS