without the Holy Spirit of God Religion hath still the same Embassy and Ministration the World hath the same needs Vice and Sin hath the same baseness the Rule hath the same perfection and the Holy Ghost hath the same efficacy But I conceive the reason of the so great difference ariseth principally from these two things 1. From the different temper of the hearers then and now 2dly From the different way of working preaching and ministration then and now As for the temper of the Primitive hearers this is certain They were more simple serious and sincere Religion to them was a thing in earnest the interest of their Souls and eternal salvation or everlasting Death was that which their hearts had a most awful regard to and you meet not the sowrest knot the most neglectful unbeliever among them but when these things were urged his heart was smitten with consternation and amazement From which neither glory nor riches nor throne nor honour nor tribunal could ever shelter him St. Peter 's preaching wounds the Jews and at St. Paul 's (a) Act. 24.25 preaching Felix trembled As for the heartiness and sincerity in the Converts two things there are that put it out of all question the first is (b) Act. 4.34 The devoting of their whole Estates to the service of the Church and Religion and the other is Their free and penitent (c) cap. 19.18 confession of their sins And without all controversie He that forsakes this Worlds good that gives up his Estate for Religion and the Kingdom of God's sake and that confesseth his faults with tears in his Eyes is in earnest On the contrary the Hypocrisie of our Religion is made as conspicuous in that we are so far from parting with any thing to religious or charitable uses that we pant after the Estates that are so given by others and are so far from being ashamed of profaneness and impiety that we (d) Esa 3.9 boast and proclaim our sin as Sodom and make our (e) Phil. 3.19 glory of that which is indeed our shame The second difference the different way of preaching and ministration between them and us is as visible and conspicuous We want that heroical Spirit and courage in the cause of God that plainness and zeal in our Ministration that they always used they called incest Incest and murder Murder without mincing of crimes they most sharply reproved where the sins were great their hearts were above all base despondencies they neither feared the frowns of Greatness nor the tumults of the Multitude but spake out with all severity they were not so weak to imagine that the most head-strong Beast was to be best managed with the loosest Rain No they pleaded the cause of God with rigour and sharpness as we may see in St. Stephen's discourse with the Jews Act. 7.51 52. O ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in Heart and in Ears ye do always resist the Holy Ghost As your Fathers did so do ye 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 They feared not life they could not debase themselves to soothing and flattery because Fawning became Doggs better than Shepheards On the contrary we deal with smooth Hands and oily Tongues we reprove with Figurative weapons we use Metaphorical conviction only and then our hearers think that they have nothing to answer for but metaphorical sins and why should it then be thought strange that we should work nothing in them but a metaphorical repentance We imagine we have well performed our duty when we have done it neatly and conceive sin is duly chastised when our hearers think that we do not mean them Believe me Brethren I have too much affection for my people and particularly for this Assembly to deal so treacherously with you but am resolved that I shall then have best performed the office of this Day when I shall have left this glorious Martyr's Memory in your minds as a Miracle of Men as a Mirrour of Princes and convinced you that Charls his Blood was enough to sink a Kingdom and the least drop of it to damn this whole City 'T is the repentance of the guilty I seek and if any Man be discontented at this I have but little cause to be troubled at it If I can pronounce peace to my self Ezek. 3 19. Liberavi animam meam I have freed mine own soul The Apostle's Charge on his Auditory is couched in the 22. and 23. Verses of this Chap. Ye Men of Israel hear these words JESVS of Nazareth a Man approved of God amongst you by Miracles Signs and Wonders whâ—ch God did by him in the middest of you as ye your selves also know Him have ye taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain I will but a very-little vary the words and lay the very same Charge on the greatest part of this Assembly Ye Men of this City hear these words CHARLS the First King of England a Man approved of God amongst you by a just and righteous Title unto these Kingdoms by a Princely clemency by an incomparable piety by a most innocent and a vertuous life by a flourishing estate which God wrought by him in the middest of you as ye your selves also know Him have ye by rebellious and treacherous hands delivered and taken and in a most barbarous and cruel manner murdered and slain The least that can be said of this Wickedness is this that it is a publick and a National Sin and cannot be expiated but by a publick and a National Repentance And this the service of this Day confesseth where we deprecate this Blood from our selves and posterities for ever But because you will never be able to proportion your grief as you ought till you have a full sight of your guilt I shall endeavour to make you more sensible of that by paralleling the Sin that is before us of Murdering King Charles with this History of the Jews murdering of Christ Nor do I find in the whole Scripture any Case so neer alike as this We read indeed in some places of great Calamities and in some too of calamitous Deaths that have fallen on many eminent Persons and of some that have dyed for Righteousness sake as (g) Mat. 14.10 John the Baptist by Decollation for reproving Herod but he was a Prophet not a Prince (h) Act. 7.59 St. Stephen stoned to Death but he was a Disciple not a King Saul was a King and he dyed by the Sword but he neither lived a good life nor dyed by the hands of others David was a king and yet a man of great Sorrows a Type of Christ Himself and yet although he was a Confessor he was no Martyr but dyed in his Bed But now The Murder of King Charls is like the Murder of our Lord Jesus Christ in several Relations
SAD MEMORIALS OF THE Royal Martyr OR A Parallel betwixt the Jewes Murder of Christ and the English Murder of KING Charls the First BEING A SERMON Preached on the Solemnity of His Majestie 's Martyrdom In the Cathedral-Church of Sarum An. Dom. 1669. By T. L. M. A. Prebend of the Cathedral Church of SARVM 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jo. 19.15 LONDON Printed by Tho. Milbourn for Robert Clavel and are to be Sold at the Gun in Ludgate-Street 1670. THE PREFACE Reader WHo is there that doth not observe that store and abundance is an usual means to depreciate any thing and that that which is most frequent is generally most slighted as Common-ways are most trodden and trampled on so that there is no very great cause to wonder that Israel it self should then loath Manna when Manna lay in heaps in the Camp or that they should grow weary of Angels-food when Angels-food was their constant dish And truly this is as visible in this preaching-Age wherein to the discredit of this Nation be it spoken I know not whether is greater the industry of the Preachers to convince or the industry of the Hearers not to be convinced of their wickedness And therefore when there is on one hand a plenty to satiate and on the other corrupt humours in the Patients to make that Diet become nauseous it may be admired what there could be to invite me to put such a thing as a Sermon into the sight of the World I must confess had there not been some other kinde of inducements besides the good opinion of that City for whom it was composed and of that Congregation to whom it was preached I should hardly have inclined to have published so plain and unpolished a Discourse But this I must say that I look on that place as a Society of the greatest Loyalty and candor in the whole Kingdome and consequently although they have also their share in the guilt that most places of this Nation have much more to answer for and repent of in relation to the Blood of the Royal Martyr King Charls the First than they And I cannot doubt but that the same Spirit of God that made those so passionately resent this Charge laid on them may make the Sermon now it is written become that to others that it was to them when it was preached But one thing it was above all that tempted me to this course and that is The Hint that I have given of a great and National sin and infelicity that hath too generally passed without any notice or observation and that is the unconscionable carelesness or grounds on which the People of this Kingdom trifle away the peace and security of the Church and State in popular Elections sometimes inconsiderately siding with imposing Landlords sometimes as rashly running with an unwary rabble to depute insufficient and many times ill-principled Persons to be their Representatives in the great Councel of this Kingdome from whom what can be expected to come but desperate and mischievous or at the best crude and immature Counsels Of what consequence this very thing is to our perpetual Peace or Distractions I believe no discreet Person can doubt and I shall amply obtain my desire if any ingenuous and well affected Person that hath the leasure shall ever take the hint and bestow on his Countrey a just Discourse and state of the cases and obligations that lye on all Persons and Societies to make conscience of their proceedings in an Affair of this Importance For I think if some course be not taken to awaken the common People to consider what they ought to do and to represent unto the present Parliament in what condition several Corporations stand by means of many disaffected Persons re admission into those Societies out of which for disloyalty they were within this six or seven Years cast All the courses that this great and loyal Councel shall take to secure our prosperity will signifie nothing but that on the calling of new Councels which will surely be for the most part answerable to such Mens interests passions and Principles all shall be immediately battered down and demolished and within this ten or twenty Years this Nation must infallibly come into the same state and condition that it was in Anno 1642. For although they take the same strict and solemn Oaths and are admitted under the same conditions and subscriptions that other Men are yet I appeal to all men living that have opportunity to observe their actings whether they make any conscience at all of vow-breach and perjury and whether they become not the slie if not the open countenancers of all the factions and seditious Persons in the Nation Nor do I think that any prudent Man that hath his Eyes abroad with him can choose but see how the sottishness and poverty of some places and Persons make them easie to be imposed on and neither think nor care whom they elect to Parliament and how the faction and purse of others make them as active and powerful to pervert such Electors And is not this of a sad consideration that little Feasts and entertainments or little fears or brow-beatings should engage the majority of Burroughs for this or that Person whatever his principles or qualifications are and consequently that the foundations of our Laws should be laid on Rundlets of Wine on Barrels of Ale or on the humours of discontented Fanaticks Is it not a miserable thing that those that are honest and peaceable Men should be slack and negligent of appearing at Elections when to be sure the turbulent and seditious shall be industrious and eager I think we ought to remember that as our ill choice hath heretofore drawn so great sins and vengeances on our heads so our more faithful and careful Elections are the only means to secure and perpetuate our peace and prosperity and to keep us from such sins from such shames and from such miseries which shall for ever I hope be both the Prayer and serious endeavour of my considerate Reader and my self More than this we cannot wish and less than this our affection to our Native Countrey cannot exact at our hands SAD MEMORIALS OF THE ROYAL MARTYR c. Act. ij the xxxvij and part of the xxxviij Vers Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and to the rest to the Apostles Men and Brethren What shall we do Then Peter said unto them Repent IT hath been often my extream wonder to consider the different effects of the Apostles preaching to the first Christians and of our preaching to the last Christians the easiness and seriousness of their repentance and the difficulty and perfunctoriness of ours how easily their eyes melted into Tears and how much more readily our hearts turn into Rocks and yet all this while there are the same crying sins the same glorious Gospel the same light within us our reason and conscience and the same impulse from
the Apostle adviser others in a case not much unlike 1 Tim. 5.22 Et ubi cadem ratio idem jus other Mens sins by putting Persons of dangerous Principles in a capacity of doing publick mischief Remember the Blood of CHARLS the First and whose Delegates they were that brought his Blood on all your Heads Know that at the last Day when God shall Judge all the deeds of Men all your priviledges and your capacities and elections must be accounted for and therefore see that you use unbyassed and cleer Consciences in giving your suffrages to those that are to have hand in the Legislative Councels of this great Kingdom Let there be no (s) 2 Sam. 16.7 8. Shimei's to speak evil of Rulers no (t) Gen 9.22 cursed Cham's to pry into their Fathers nakedness no mutinous sullen and unpeaceable spirits Let there be no Men of insolent and ambitious tempers Let there be none that are greedy of innovations None that have an itch after ways unknown to the Laws under which your Fathers have for many Years flourished Let them be true old zealous Protestants that (u) 1 Pet. 2.17 love their neighbours that fear God and honor the King Then (x) Exo. 20.12 You may live long in the Land which the Lord your GOD hath given you (y) Ps 112.17 to see your Childrens Children and peace upon Israel But by the way see that you all perfectly understand the poyson and mischief of that one Antichristian practice of Dethroning Princes and (a) 2 Thes 2.4 of Mens exalting themselves above all that is called God and let this never be forgotten that whether this be practised by the Tyranny and Pride of One or Many whether by the Vsurpation of the Pope or by the Madness of Sectaries 't is justifiable in both alike that is it is in either a Character of Antichrist and a Doctrine of Devils But to conclude because it is utterly unfit that in a thing of this serious and lamentable nature and importance I should deal partially and forbear any Persons that by any means lye under the Guilt of this Crying Blood and especially now my promise hath obliged me to spare none I must be bold to affirm that which yet is a very sad thing to relate that too many of those that have cast the whole charge of the Guilt of this Blood on the Persons of others are themselves in a great measure Guilty of the Blood of this blessed Prince Many there were that gained themselves a name and honor by adhearing to his Cause that were the greatest Instruments and means of the miscarriage and unsuccessfulness of it And alas how many were there that had nothing good in them but the empty character of Loyalty and under that skreen did more mischief than the most incorrigible and furious Rebels of the whole Kingdom Nay it was impossible that ever the enemy could have studied so many advantages as you your selves gave them some by Treachery and Falshood some by Cowardice some by ambitious Mutinies and some by the most unheard of Debauches in the whole World so that they estranged the hearts of the People from that most pious Prince they made the ignorant think that the Master could never be Righteous that had such dissolute and profligate Servants that that Cause could never be of God whose Defenders carried themselves like Devils They drank the blood of the poor Souldiers whilest they spent their Pay and brake the Nerves and Sinews of the War when they spent it on their Lusts It was therefore your wickedness too that brought CHARLES to the Block and left Him naked and exposed to the force of his Enemies Nay to this Day many of you because you have not the compensations that you expected have almost cast off all sense of Religion and grown indifferent and cold in the service of God and in Reverence to that Church which formerly was your common boast But my advice must be the same to these as to the former and as the Apostles counsel was to the Jews Repent of your wickedness that your sins may be blotted out cast not all the dirt of this great Guilt on others wholly but take up your own Load and redeem your credit by new and pious lives and let it not hereafter be said that there is one of CHARLES his Souldiers but is an Imitator of CHARLES his Virtues and a stedfast Disciple to CHARLES his Religion Remember that the Blood of this most excellent Prince hath given a most ample testimony to the Protestant Cause and that this inference is most natural and undenyable That if CHARLES be a true Martyr the Church of England is the truest Church And now let us all without divided and dis-united hearts cast our selves low before GOD's Mercy Seat and Implore his Pardon for this Great and National Sin and say Deliver Vs from Blood-guiltiness O God the God of our Salvation and our Tongue shall sing aloud of thy Righteousness Remember not Lord our Offences nor the Offences of our Fore-fathers neither take thou Vengeance of our Sins Spare Vs good Lord spare thy People whom thou hast redeemed with thy most pretious Blood and be not angry with Vs for ever Let the Blood of Jesus out cry the Blood of Charles the Blood of thine innocent Son expiate the Blood of thy righteous Servant Make our hearts truly sensible of the Guilt of this great Wickedness and reconcile us to thee whom we have most highly provoked that the Army of Saints may equal the Army of Martyrs that our sinful Nation may no more feel the Scourges of thine heavy Hand that our Consciences may be healed our Transgressions pardoned in this life that we may obtain also the Mansions and Felicity of true Penitents in the life to come To which God's Grace and Infinite Mercy and Pardon bring us all for the Merits of his Son to whom with the Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God be all Honour and Glory World without end Amen FINIS