was occasioned by a Lye of David's that as we read 1 Sam. 22.18 The King i. e. Saul said to Doeg Turn thou and fall upon the Priests And Doeg went and fell upon the Priests and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linnen Ephod ver 19. And Nob the City of the Priests smote he with the edge of the sword both men and women children and sucklings and oxen asses and sheep Hear David's Confession ver 22. that it was long of him David said to Abiathar I knew it that day when Doeg was there that he would surely tell Saul I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy Fathers house Now had David been as deeply guilty of the death of so many Priests and other People as Saul was who commanded Doeg to kill them or as Doeg was who did so willingly execute that bloody command of Saul directly opposite to the Command of God 't is like he had been overwhelm'd with the sense of it but as the case stood he was not so because though he was not altogether unaccessary to the slaughter aforesaid yet he had so small a hand in it and was so very remotely indirectly and vnintentionally concern'd therein that his Conscience had not much to say to him concerning it For it fareth in such cases as these as it doth in some small and slender Errors in judgment which may be charged with dangerous Consequences at the long run they may possibly be no great prejudice to these that hold them or are deceived by them because they do utterly abhor those Consequences wherewith they are charged neither do they apprehend that they are chargeable with any such Consequences Ex. gr Suppose that be an Error that some have made such ill use of That Christ shall reign upon the earth a thousand years though Fifth monarchy-men have taken occasion from thence to raise Arms and rebel under pretence of bringing Christ to his Throne yet ought not all that ever were of that opinion or now are to be courted Rebels For there are and have been men of that perswasion who knew full well that the Kingdom of Christ upon Earth stood in no need of mens sins and Rebellion to set it up but would make way for its self when the full time was come God forbid that I should be so unjust as to charge every body with the death of the martyred King at any such rate as his Judges are charged with it but this I am bold to say viz. that the whole Nation at leastwise by deserving that so great a judgment should befal it as was the cutting off a good King or by not sufficiently bewailing that such a thing was done or notenough abhorring the tsinfulness of that fact are become so far forth accessary to it as doth give every man sufficient occasion to cast in his Lot amongst those that do fast and mourn upon every 30th day of January And now methinks I hear some people objecting against the Law which hath established a perpetual Fast upon that occasion to be celebrated every year and on such a day as if it were a thing of which no good account could be given or more than needs and concerning which the great God would say Who hath required this at your hands As if it did but kindle coals keep up revenge renew heats and animosities raise and disturb the Ghosts of the dead which should be at rest upbraid those who have received their punishment and upon the whole matter do more hurt than good Now to those who ask us Quo warranto do we keep our Anversary Fast on every 30th day of January To that I answer 1. We have frequent instances in holy Writ of Magistrates taking upon them to appoint Religious Fasts 1 Sam. 7.5 And Samuel said Gather all Israel to Mizepeh And they gathered to Mizpeh and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted all that day c. Which passage the Chaldee Paraphrase doth thus gloss upon viz. Hauserunt aquas e puteo cordis sui abunde lachrymati sunt coram Domino resipiscentes i. e. They drew waters out of the wells of their hearts and wept abundantly before the Lord but that by the way See also 2 Chron. 20.3 Jehoshaphat feared viz. because Moab and Ammon were come up against him and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a Fast throughout Judah See also Ezra 8.21 Then I proclaimed a Fast saith Ezra that we might afflict our selves before our God to seek of him a right way for us and for our little ones and for all our substance Also Esther 4.16 Go gather together all the Jews that are in Shushan said Queen Hester and fast ye for me and neither eat nor drink three days night or day I also and my maids will fast likewise and so will I go in unto the King which is not according to the Law and if I perish I perish See Jonah 3.5 So the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a Fast ver 6. For word came to the King of Nineveh and he covered him with sackcloth and sate in ashes And he caused it to be proclaimed and published thorow Nineveh by the decree of the King and his Nobles c. All these Texts do manifest beyond all contradiction That even the best of Rulers and Magistrates such as Samuel Jehoshaphat Ezra c. have taken upon them to proclaim and enjoyn Religious Fasts when they saw causes for it which doubtless so good and knowing men as these would never have done if it had not belonged to them So then there can be no fault in Magistrates assuming to themselves to appoint a Fast and Fasts upon sufficient and meet occasions though some cannot endure to hear of Civil Magistrates their medling or making more or less about matters of Religion no though it be to promote it but I think they are more nice than wise in that particular But may some say Will the occasion bear a Fast viz. The Death of the King so many years ago To which I answer Why not Surely it will Great Judgments either incumbent or but impendent have been the occasions of Fasts So of Jehoshaphat's and of Esther's Fast and why are not great sins as much and as just an occasion of a Fast for they are causes and procurers of great Judgments Have we not as much cause to fast and pray in reference to that Guilt which is upon our heads as to War or other Calamities which do but hang or hover over our heads Now whereas some may think that though such an occasion as that may well bear a day or two once for all yet an Anniversary Fast upon such an account as this is too much I am not of their mind For why not Anniversary Fasts upon great and and publick sins as well as Anniversary Feasts upon great and publick deliverances and that appointed by Magistrates too Such was
was demollished Were ever any Temples build with Stone or Brick so sacred to God as he was Did the great God ever dwell so eminently so sensibly in any Temple madâ— with hands as he useth to do in all Christian Princes who are the Temples of the Living God in a more noble sense than any thing without Life and Reason ever was or could be Could ever dead Temple be as it were a nursing Father to God Israel which Christian Princes are said to be Some have charged Belshazzer with Sacriledge for alienating the Vessels of the Temple only so far forth as to drink in them when he feasted a thousand of his Nobles at one time others have called the sin of Annanias and Saphira Sacriledge and so it was to keep back any part of that which they had dedicated to God and to his Church but sith the two first instances of Sacriledge are much more notorious than these two latter if I shall prove that Murthering of King Charles the First was greater Sacriledge than either of them viz. Than that of Eli's Sons and that of Achan by proving the greater I have certainly prov'd the less for Omne majus in se continet minus As for the Sacriledge of Eli's Sons it was but this They took a part of Gods Meat for so were Sacrifices as the Altar was Gods Table and whereas it should have been boil'd for Gods use they caused it to be rosted for their own They rob'd him of part of his Meat who if he were hungry would not tell us for his are the Beasts upon a thousand Mountains Psal 50.12 The World is his and the fulness thereof c. They were over-kind to themselves and over-bold with God which cost them dear as you have read but what is all that in comparison of being cruel to the Life of a Man a Christian a Prince and our own Prince The Sacriledge of Eli's Sons compared with that of Murthering the King seems if I may so speak to have been lighter than vanity and nothing Nay doubtless it did far exceed that Sacriledge of Achan which was greater than that of Eli's Sons For what was it that that Achan who for his sin was stoned to death and burn'd and called the troubler of Israel because of the sad consequence of it did steal from God Was it not only a Garment some Silver and one wedge of Gold Now what trifles what meer bawbles are all those things if weighed in a ballance against the Life of the King I thought to have wholly passed by the instance of of Annanias and Saphirah their Sacriledge which together with the lie that attended it was punished with present death How much less was their Sacriledge than theirs who put the late King to death They rob'd the Church but of a sacred estate if I may so call it because devoted to God but these of a sacred Life nay they stole away but part of an estate these destroyed a precious Life not in part but in whole They with-held but what themselves had given and might have chosen whither they would have given and could give again but the Murtherers of our King withdrew that which they never did or could give and which when they had once withdrawn they nor all the World could never give again They destroyed but one small sinew of the Church if money may be so called as it is called the sinew of War yea did but strike that one little sinew but these cut off the temporal Head of the Church for so we own the King of England to be next and immediately under God Supream Head and Governor How great then was that Sacriledge which hath clearly outdone that of Annanias and Saphirah that of Eli's Sons that of Achan yea the most notorious of all the Sacriledges recorded in Scripture if not all those Sacriledges put together Who now cryes not out as the Prophet Jer. 9.1 Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain c. slain with the Aggravations of multiplied perjury high Treason horrid Rebellion transcendent Sacriledge And so I have made good the four first Articles exhibited against the Murtherers of King Charles the First c. 5. The putting of the late King to death was Homicidium i. e. down right Murther I need not fear to say greater than that of David in the matter of Uriah For there a King murthered a Subject but in this case Subjects murthered their King and Servants their Master What is Murther but taking away the Life of Man without just cause and without a just authority If so to do be not murther I wonder what is If either of these be in the case it is single murther as I may call it but if both do meet it is murther upon murther if I may so phraise it or redoubled Murther Now they both meet in the case of King Charles the First For First If he had done any thing worthy of death who but the King of Kings had authority to punish him for it or to inflict upon him the death which he had deserved If equals have no power of each other as the Law tells us that Par in pares non habet potestatem What power can Inferiors have upon their Superior Now he must needs be Superior to all the people of England and they all his Inferiors whom the Nation sweareth to own as the Supreme The Law of England being such as alloweth of no man to be put to death but by his Peers whither Lords or Commons doth surely suppose that no man hath any legal authority to put a King of England to death for what Fact soever sith he hath no Peers as that word signifieth equals for every body else in and of the Kingdom is his Subject Flagitious Princes such as Nero whatsoever become of their evil Servants and Counsellers must be left to the justice and judgment of God but our hand must not be upon them Did not Saul by the hand of Doeg whom he imployed for that purpose kill in one day 85 persons wearing Linnen Ephods 1 Sam. 22.18 for which and for many other things he had well deserved to die Yet I no where find David who of all men was most provokt to do it attempting upon his Life yea I hear him saying The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hands against him seeing he is the anointed of the Lords 1 Sam. 24.6 Muthology represents Achilles to have been impenetrable and invulnerable so far as he was anointed with Ambrosia but Kings in a sense are anointed all over with the ointment of Divine Authority and Power therefore impenetrable and inviolable dejure whatsoever they may be de facto Give me leave to change the mode and cry instead of Plectuntur â—lectantur Achivi If Princes err for want of good advice from those Subjects of theirs who ought to give it them let Subjects pay
day for there are a sort of Men of whom David speaks Who are wont to transgress without a cause Psal 25.3 David speaks of some who were his Enemies without a cause Psal 7. and without Cause had hid their net for him in a Pit which without cause they digged for him Psal 35.7 May it not be said of some that they are Enemies to God and to the Peace of their own Minds by making work for Conscience and for Repentance without any considerable cause Of this sort are those who abound in needless Oaths and Execrations crying at every turn I will be hang'd if this or that be not so Yea here and there you have a Monster of a Man that fears not upon every slight occasion to cry God damn me as if he defied his maker and scorned that Tophet which was prepared of old for such as he which God hath made deep and large the Pile whereof is much Wood and the Breath of the Lord like a stream of Brimstone doth kindle it Isa 30.33 Or as if they could cheerfully drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God which is poured out with mixture into the Cup of his Indignation and endure to be tormented with Fire and Brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and to have the smoak of their torment ascending for ever and ever and to have no rest day nor night Rev. 14.10 11. Or as if when the question is put Who can dwell with the consuming Fire who can dwell with everlasting Burnings as it is Isa 33.14 they could roundly answer That can we do If so they have stouter hearts than sinners in old time were wont to have for the Text saith The sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulness hath surprized the Hypocrites saying Who shall dwell with devouring Fire c. Methinks I can resemble these Persons to nothing so much as to the Priests of Baal spoken of 1 Kings 18.28 of whom it is said They cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner with Knives and Launces till the Blood guished out upon them Many who laugh at the Papist for whipping themselves on Good-Friday do worse for that Papists do in point of Devotion aiming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to beat down their Bodies as we translate it by beating them Black and Blew but Atheists slash and gash their Souls with severe stroaks for no good intent at all but out of meer Irreligion and wanton Prophaneness Lord I can but think how these men will look when Conscience shall come to reckon with them and they find themselves not able to answer it one of a thousand I can but think how pale they will look or rather how black in the Face with fear and astonishment what a dreadful eccho those Oaths and bloody Curses will have in Mens Ears when they come to be resounded upon a Sick-bed or Death-bed Or rather in what a pickle those men will be when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and they see themselves punished with everlasting Destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thes 1.7 8 9. If it be so terrible as it is to hear but a zealous Minister warmly discoursing of the Torments of Hell especially if a Mans Conscience at the same time second what he saith and joyn issue with the Preacher as did the Conscience of Felix of whom it is said Acts 24.25 That when Paul reasoned of Righteousness Temperance and Judgement to come Felix trembled I say if the bare hearing of Hell be so terrible as to make a Heathen Judge upon the Bench tremble at the words of his poor Prisoner at the Bar standing there to await his Sentence how intollerable will it be to feel such things And who can chuse when in the midst of those Flames but cry out as did the Sinners and Hypocrites in Zion Who can dwell with devouring Fire Who can dwell with everlasting Burnings You would be loath constantly to sit under the Ministry of a Boanerges that would be alwayes thundring and lightning preaching of Hell and Damnation flashing Hell-fire in your Faces with every Sermon as if Mount Sinah were his Pulpit but were your Minister such you could make a shift and an excuse to go out of the Church as oft as he came to his use of terrour and stay out of his way till the storm were over but if you provoke your Consciences and make them burning as well as shining Lights within you as that phrase may be taken whether will you fly from those flames and whereunto will you betake your selves Go whither you will Conscience will follow you and if you have Ears to hear will make you hear yea will find you Ears if you make as if you had none yea speak loud enough to be heard though you were almost dead or were disposed to turn a deaf Ear upon it Conscience will have access to you at all hours even in the dead and still of the night it will come stealing upon you like a Thief in the night nay that it need not do neither for it will make bold with greatest noise to burst your Iron Bars break open your Doors and make a loud and forcible entrance upon you when it pleases and look upon it self to be always at home when it is where you are yea to be Master of the House and to have full authority to speak and do within your Breasts what it listeth Conscience is as it were every Mans Chamberlain and carrieth the Key of every Mans Breast as it were at his Girdle and therefore can go or get into a Man when it pleaseth and if they do as it were bolt or bar the Door on the inside it is able to make even Brass or Iron Grates to fly open before it for nothing can keep Conscience out Now Conscience being such a thing as I have described what Solomon saith viz. He that passeth by and medleth with strife that belongeth not to him is like one that taketh a Dog by the Ears may be applied to Conscience And therefore it must needs be folly and madness in any Man needlesly to provoke his Conscience and without great cause and temptation to make work for it as he were mad that would rouze up a sleepy Lion or Mastiff when he had no occasion so to do So much shall serve for the 3. Vse Fourth Vse shall be this Sith it is the office of Conscience to smite Men as in reference to sin it must needs behove us to keep our Consciences alwayes in smiting case I do not mean to give them cause to smite us for that we should by no means do but to keep them in an aptitude and fitness to smite us when just cause is given What is a Dog good for if he
an accepted time a day of Salvation You were worse scar'd than hurt with the Alarm of a King Such is not the manner of the King that rules over us as is described 1 Sam. 8.9 ours is no such King Are not your Estates all but those that were ravished from the Church or State continued with you Is not the Law open and ready to defend you and yours if required as much as any other of the Kings Subjects If you be as quiet may you not live as quietly as any people in England To allude to that Text Psal 126.1 When the Lord turned again the Captivity of Zion we were like them that dream Are you not like men and women in a dream to see your selves in so good a plight and posture as you never expected to have been if God restor'd the King Had God given you a new Law of thankfulfulness upon condition it should have been so well with you as now it is would you not have accepted it with all your hearts upon those terms If God has been better to you than his word or promise your obligation is so much the greater Learn we then to bless God for our good King to love honour and obey him and let us cry out with the man after God's own heart Psal 118 28. God is the Lord which hath shewed us light bind the Sacrifice with cords even to the horns of the Altar ver 29. O give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Now Reader let thine own invention tell thee how these heads may be further enlarged and upon what other heads it may be most proper for thee to discourse either in publick or private upon a 30th day of January sacred to the Memory of King Charles the first his Martyrdom I will detain thee no longer than whilst I have made a little enquiry into one great Mystery and resolved one perplexing Question which is this Quest If the murthering of the late King were so great a sin as I have deciphereed it to be How comes it to pass that none of all his Judges one excepted who by common fame is presumed to be a man of more Conscience and Religion than the rest no not of those who were executed for it were ever for ought I heard learn to confess and bewail what they had done but rather to carry and brave it out with such confidence and seeming innocence as the adulterous woman Prov. 30.20 of whom Solomon thus speaks She eateth and wipeth her mouth and saith I have done no wickedness This their confidence hath cast such a mist before the eyes of some people and so perverted their judgments as to make them think there was nothing amiss in what they did yea to be almost perswaded that they did God good service in it and quitted themselves like Phineas who stood up and executed judgment and it was accounted to him for righteusness Answ But oh the mistakes of men Oh the false Glosses which dazle the eyes of poor filly mortals Oh the common fallacy which imposeth upon the world viz. Non causa pro causa They must needs have had the most false and flattering Consciences the most deceitful hearts that ever men had if ever they presum'd to tell them they had done well or bid them when taking their Viaticum or last repast to eat their bread with joy and drink their wine with a merry heart for God accepted their work or that with such a sacrifice as that God was well pleased Had an Israelite instead of sacrificing a Lamb cut off a dogs neck or offered Swines blood for an oblation to God or bless'd an Idol instead of burning incense or slain a man instead of killing of an Oxe as God expresses in Ifa 66.3 he might as well have promised himself Gods acceptance thereof and his smelling a sweet savour of rest from thence as those Murtherers of an excellent King could do of that bloody barbarous Sacrifice which they had prepared to which I may aptly apply those words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 10.10 But I say the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Devils and not to God No drink-offering ever cheer'd the heart of Devils and wicked men so well according to Judg. 9.13 as did that of Royal Blood If ever there were mirth in Hell surely it was upon that day That was such a Hecatomb as the infernall Fiends never had a greater offered to them never a Feast of more fat things sacrificed to their malice That they who were the Actors in this bloody Tragedy were no more sensible of what they had done might spring from two causes 1. Because the sin being so great and horrid as it was might well bring a kind of Apoplexy upon their Consciences and in some such apoplectick Fit they or some of them seem'd to dye For great sins as well as great sorrows and blows are apt to stun and stupifie as I proved before 2. Because there were many of them that were concern'd in it and it might seem to them to be in this as in other cases viz. That many hands make light work 'T is a very true and common observation that when a great many men joyn together when they go as it were in herds and droves they do often venture upon doing of those things by consent which were they invited to do alone they would be ready to say as he Is thy Servant a dead dog that I should do this thing One would think men were deceived with some such idle fallacy as this viz. That if an hundred men joyn together in one Murther or other high act of Injustice or Dishonesty every one of them were but the hundredth part of a Murtherer as if multorum manibus grande levatur onus were a Rule that held in this case but as thus applied it is a very great mistake For what our Law saith is consonant to right Reason viz. That in murther no man is meer accessary but all are principals and obnoxious to death Shall I add a third This their sin was not so universally gone before to judgment as is a plain ordinary Murther because it was coloured over with a pretence of Law and Justice there were a great many that were ready not only to vindicate but applaud it the mask was not quite taken off from it nor the vail of darkness from the hearts of all the Spectators This with a good strong Cordial a sufficient opiate and a seared Conscience and an ambition to set a good face upon what they had done to make the best of a bad market to dye like men and Souldiers and those that some would not doubt to Canonize for Saints even for the sake of their Regicide could they but keep their own counsel by dying such in point of Resolution and seeming Assurance those with some other things I could name might be the true causes why they did or seem'd to die
save in a few instances here and there one c. and of them whom they censured as carnal and ungodly or but moral people at the best for that the morality of some of them did much outstrip their own has put me out of conceit with what had wont to be called The Good Old Cause more than any thing else has done And then to see that the Chieftains and greatest Bigots of and for the good old Cause as they call'd it could swallow such a Camel as was the murthering of the King yea be themselves some of the Camels that murthered him or caused him to be murthered whilst they seem'd to strain at meer Gnats could say This is the heir come let us kill him and the inheritance shall be ours Those I say are the things which have made me think cheaply of those times those men and their pretensions to suspect if not more than so a very grand cheat and a bottomless-pit of worldly interest and carnal design in and under all those things and to wish heartily that the Church and State might always continue as now it is much rather than to fall back again into the hands of such Tinker-like Reformers as were in those days making ten holes where they mended one and be re-invaded by hypocritical Vsurpation Sacriledge Enthusiasme and Confusion If I know any thing of my own heart I do at this very day sincerely love every body that I know or think to be truly good and possibly my charity is as large as most mens and my censoriousness as little but as for those who make the highest pretences to Religion and seem to be Piety-like Calomelanos as Physicians call it six or 12 times sublimed or like the Pharisees of old who said to other men Stand off I am holier than thou who rather blaze and blare like great Comets than shine like Stars in the Firmament of Religion if I find them playing the Knaves becoming the Ring-leaders of Murther embrewing their hands in Royal blood under pretence of abhorring Idols committing Sacriledge and bringing all to confusion and under colour of Reforming Church and State to design nothing but the feathering of their own Nests getting wealth and power into their own hands per fas nefas overturning overturning overturning till they themselves whose right it is not come and take all and when they have done all entitling God and Religion to all their Villanies like those with whom the great God doth thus expostulate Jer. 7.9 Will ye steal murder and commit Adultery and swear falsly and come and stand before me in this House and say we are delivered to do all these abominations c. I say the people to whom this Character is due whose Inscription this is are to my Soul as one calls it the first-born of Abominations Now after all that hath been said of the exceeding sinfulness of their bloody fact who were the Murtherers of the late King and of the woful hazard which their precious and immortal Souls did incur thereby give me leave to hope that if the same opportunities should ever come again which God forbid i. e. if ever the now dissenting people of England should have so puissant an Army at their back as then they had and so subtile skilful and resolute a General to conduct them and so many covetous people at their heels waiting to enrich themselves by the spoil of the Kings and Churches Lands so dividing the Lions skin when once he were dead from a real dread of thereby plunging themselves into everlasting flames they would rather burn at a stake than have their hands in such another business To shut up all I have been induced to insist so long upon the heinousness and danger of their sin who put the King to death because a thorow belief and due consideration of what I have said and I do aver it is all true might and would in my opinion be a very great security against all publick Mutinies Insurrections and Civil Wars hereafter For if the people of England did universally and all as one man dread the thoughts of Regicide as of a sin next to that which is unpardonable there would be no cause to fear Rebellion for then would men be govern'd and over-aw'd by this Dilemna If the King against whom we rebel shall always keep his head we shall lose our lives first or last but if he lose his head by our means and contrivances we shall be in great danger to lose our Souls which is worse For what will it profit a man to gain the whole world and to lose his own Soul FINIS
rather to scare men than to hurt them and causeth Conscience to smite them that if that will serve the turn he may hold his hand for it is better to fall into the hand of Conscience than into the hand of God If God had not such a witness as Conscience is how could he convict men at the day of Judgment of secret sins as the Text saith God will bring every secret thing to light whether it be good or whether it be evil and in the 1 Corinth 4.5 is said God will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the heart What but Conscience can witness against Men at the day of Judgment their Heart Murthers Heart Adulteries as Solomon said to Shimei 1 Kings 2.44 Thou knowest all the wickedness which thy Heart is privy to Now Conscience is such a witness as none can withstand or deny its testimony If two credible witnesses are sufficient even in matter of Life and Death much more Conscience which is a thousand witnesses Hence it is that we read of him who coming to a Wedding Feast without a Wedding Garment that when the King said unto him Friend How camest thou in hither not having a Wedding Garment he was speechless Matth. 22.12 Hence also we read of Every Mouth being stopt and all the World becoming guilty before God Rom. 3.19 Hence it was that no reply was made to our Saviour when he said He that wâ—â— without sin let him cast the first stone at her for the Text saith John 8.9 They which heard it being convicted in their own Consciences went out one by one Now whereas some are brought in pleading thus for themselves at the day of Judgement When did we see thee Hungry and fed thee not Naked and clothed thee not Sick and in Prison and did not administer unto thee Matth. 25.44 The reason is because they knew not that which Christ tells them of in the next verse In as much as you did it not to one of the least of these you did it not to me If their Consciences had been sooner convicted of their unkindness to their Saviour expressed in their unkindness to his Disciples and Followers they would not have had one word to say for themselves or presumed to open their Mouths It can never be doubted whether the Message were left with those Persons whom Conscience was appointed to warn because Conscience alwayes speaks with the Parties themselves and leaves its errand in their own Breasts Indeed when Christ shall come to judge the World it is said He will come like a Thief in the night Yea when God comes to ruine Persons or Nations after fair warnings given but never taken he oft-times doth it suddenly Hence Destruction is said to come as a whirlwind or as sorrow upâ—n a Woman in Travel who are sometimes never better at ease or more light-some or cheerful than just before their Pains hence those words of Solomon Prov. 29.1 He that being often reproved hardeneth his Neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy There we read indeed of sudden destruction but of frequent reproof going before it Now Conscience is the great Reprover and a man is never throughly convicted as to himself till he be so of his own Conscience so I have done with the first use Second Vse The next Use or Corollary is this If Conscience be such a Smiter as hath been shewed then it is no argument that sinners scape scot-free or go unpunished because their sins do not go before to Judgment that is are kept secret from men and consequently exempted from Humane Punishment Pain and Shame because it is Punishment enough God wot for a Man to run the Gantlet and undergo the Rack of his own Conscience If God shall but say take him Conscience take him by the Throat clap Irons upon him throw him in thy Dungeon feed him with the Bread of Spiritual Affliction and give him those Waters to drink which are more bitter than the Waters of Marah If the great Judge shall thus deliver up a man to the severest of Jaylors and say throw him in Prison and give him no hope to come out till he pay the utmost farthing Handle him as thou didst Cain Judas Francis Spira for thou canst do it teach him as Gideon taught the Men of Succoth with Bryers and Thorns tear him in pieces and let none deliver him Psal 15.22 If such a sentence as that shall come forth from the great God he upon whom it is past needs no Poverty no loss of near and dear Relations no Bodily Sickness or Pain no Temporal Prison no Reproach or Disgrace from Men to make him miserable nay he shall be so in spight of Riches Honour Power the best of Wives and Children the kindest of Relations and Friends and what ever else this World can give him he shall tremble as did Belshazzar even when quaffing and carouzing with all his Friends about him he shall fit Uneasie and as it were upon Thorns though he sit upon a Throne with his Crown on his Head and his Scepter in his Hand and Thousands of Nobles standing bare before him he shall not be heartily merry though upon his Wedding day nor at the Birth and Baptizing of a brave Son long desired nor at a Prince-like Feast when he hath all his Kindred and Friends about him the rarest Wines shall not be able to make him merry till they have made him not himself and then how he can be said to be merry who is not himself I know not Wine commonly makes the Brute or Brutal part of Man merry but what is that to the Man or to the Soul of Man which is himself God knows if Conscience be wounded a Man can possess no Mirth but what is rather to be called Madness or like the Laughter or Dancing of those who are stung with a Tarantula and let the Beast or Beastial part of Man be never so Brisk and Jocond that which is properly called the Soul viz. The Humane rational Soul or Spirit of a Man intermeddles not with its joys which makes me think of the Apostles words The Widow which liveth in Pleasure is Dead while she lives for what is Death but a separation of Soul and Body and in this case Soul and Body are separated for her animated Body hath Pleasure but her Soul hath none Reader If thou hadst ever known what the smitings of Conscience mean I need not tell thee that they are sufficient to give a man a very Hell upon Earth whilst they who behold his outward Prosperity not knowing where the Shooe pinches him do think him as it were in Heaven if there be any such thing as Heaven upon Earth So I have done with the second Vse The Third Vse is this If Conscience be so great and terrible a smiter it must needs be great folly in Men needlesly to provoke and inrage it as too many do from day to