his earthly enjoyments were apparently adventured to a desperate irrecoverablenesse by his adhering to them ought not to be displeasing to any Especially when we consider how many principles and practises of far greater incompatibility with true piety must be allowed to make the Religion of some persons currant who most disparage His. And indeed whatever we thought of him living as to his Religion the consequences of his death too sadly evidenced how much the Protestant Cause was concerned in his preservation and especially the sad face of this Orphan-Church of ours which from that time forwards became the lamentablest scene of Anarchy and Confusion that ever was seen in the Christian world not excepting Munster it self that saw but the prologue to our Tragedy For who knows not that whatever Persons or Parties stepped up into â—â—â—s vacant Seat made it the Mâ—ster-piece of their policy like self-seeking Chirurgions to keep our wounds open that they might keep themselves in practise and to maintain opposite Factions to peck at one another that whiles the people were busied in private contests they might be the lesse sensible of their publique oppressions Insomuch that the sad revival of old Heresies and Schismes every one of which carried a Legion of new ones in its belly together with the apparent dangers of extirpation to the true Protestant Religion and all its Professors for many years together since our sins removed Him from us have convinced not a few that he was not so much to blame as was too commonly thought for not giving His consent to those violent and sudden changes which their misguided zeal among many others alike mis-led in those times too importunately called for And no doubt if he had lived to have perfected his own designed Modell for the Churches settlement most of those dissentions that have been of late and yet are too flagrant among us had long before they arrived at this maturity been buried in the grave of oblivion not so much by suppressing as by reconciling the Dissenters But as David when he had collected materials for the building of the Temple was fain to leave them with his Advice and Benediction to his Son Solomon to make use of So our Gracious Soveraign being not permitted by Providence to live to see the Rearing of that Structure which he intended hath left such Materials behind him together with his Fatherly Charge and Blessing for this happy work to his Genuine Son and Lawful Successor our present Gracious King whom God long preserve that we no waies doubt but as they are wonderful sutable to the Moderation of his Majesties temper so they will in due time be successefully made use of by him to the Happy Settlement of these Churches with the infinite Contentment of all those that love the Peace of Jerusalem In the mean while if by what I have said concerning the Person whose Funeral Anniversary this Day is appointed to solemnize and I am afraid I have rather injur'd his Memory by saying too little than the Truth by saying too much of him you be in any measure sensible of the Loss you suffered by his violent removal I hope you are the better prepared to entertain the next Consideration wherein this accursed Paricide exceeded that of Saul in my Text and that is 2. The View of the Persons who committed this horrid Act And As also in the difference between the Murderers of both here our Parallel halts again Had they been Native Forreigners as the Amalekite in my Text was and as he was in probability educated in a Heathen Religion and sowred with the Leaven of National Enmity heightned with the provocation of an universal Massacre acted by the person they so barbarously murdered upon all their dearest Relations the Crime had been more pardonable but these Paricides were his Majesties Native Subjects that had drawn their first Breath in his Hereditary Dominions to this Natural Bond of Allegiance had voluntarily added divers stronger Tyes of religious Oaths Protestations and Covenants yea some of those that lifted up not their Heels only but their Hands against him were such as did eat of his Bread his own sworn Servants none of them disobliged by any such Provocations of cruel Usages so that it is hard to imagine how it might be possible to load a Malefactor with more personal aggravating Considerations to render him monstrously criminal than these were notoriously guilty of except only that one which like a vast Mountain overtops all the rest that they were Persons of the Professed True Religion and in that Profession coveted to engross the Reputation of the most eminently strict and Conscientious And indeed this is an aggravation which ought beyond all others to whet the indignation of every Conscientious Christian to a keenness beyond all moderation as that which is most highly injurious to the whole Reformed Cause throughout all the vvorld O tell it not in Gath nor publish it in the streets of Askalon lest the Daughters of the Philistines rejoyce Alas What sport hath this V. 20. sad scandal already made and hovv much more may it yet make to the Romish Emissaries vvhose Religion hath been vvonted to raise Rebellions and to canonize for Saints the most prodigious Traytors and hath alone born the odium of monopolizing the Occasioning a Vindication of the Protestant Reâ—igion from Romish Calumnâ—â—s guilt of murdering Princes for many ages that they have novv too colourable a pretence to discharge a part of that guilt upon those of the Protestant Communion as being hereby become Fratres in malo Brethren in this horrid vvickedness vvith themselves An Occasion vvhich vve confess vve have cause to bevvail because they make such use of it But vve must vvithal tell them that vve think our Profession no vvay touched in its reputation thereby in the judgment of any vvhom inveterate Malice doth not prejudicate against us For besides that the Persons ingaged in this horrid Act vvere most of them departed from the Protestant Faith or Communion or both before they ingaged in this horrid Villany and so can no more justly reflect the guilt thereof upon the Church they once belonged to than a Renegado's miscarriages can concern the Troop vvhich he hath forsaken Let the Romanist knovv that no such Fruit ever grevv upon the root of Protestant Doctrines vvhich abhor and detest all such Principles and execrate all such Offenders and by consequence if any persons vvho professed themselves Protestants vvere guilty of this Barbarous Fact Protestancy it self is no more concerned in it than any State is in the Crimes of other Malefactors vvho suffer daily by the Svvord of Justice for Robberies Murders and Burglaries vvithout any imputation upon the Community to vvhich they belong vvhich sufficiently vindicates it self by the Laws provided against such Crimes and the Severity executed upon those vvho commit them from any partnership in them In a word when the Romanist can shew us any such Tenets as
a serious application of the other two parts of the Text expressing a defiâ—e that in these the Parallel may hold between David and us Or rather that we may excced him as there is great cause Martyrdom in the Kingdom of Glory and prefer the Cause wherein they suffered before those of the chiefest of Martyrs and abused themselves with a Rodomantick perswasion that it were a piece of ambition becoming the most eminont of that noble Society to desire an Exchange of condition with them The saddest Instances of the efficacy of delusion that ever the world saw from its first Creation to that very day And thus have I done with my Parallel so far as it concerns the Circumstances of the two Facts the one of the Text and the other of the Time wherein there is little to be seen but Concordia disoors an agreement in nothing but this that there is scarce any Circumstance wherein they agree I have only this to add that I hope to find a better Harmony in the other Part of it which comes now to hand the Parallel of Davids carriage upon the one and the Temper of all Religious Hearts among us and the Generations that are to come in reference to the other containing the due sense which as he had so we ought to have of so detestable and piacular a Fact and dismal a Providence Which sense according to the forementioned distribution ought to express it self in three things 1. Grief of which David had far less cause than we upon a In our Grief For the Loss received fourfold account 1. Of the Loss received Which in Davids case was inconsiderable if compared with ours He indeed lost a Soveraign valiant enough to fight the Lords Battels and one who by his conduct had divers times saved Israel but one who was now in his Wane and Declination so that whatsoever David in modesty thought of him the Loss of Saul was Israels gain by making room for a better Successor himself But our loss was like the dropping of a skilful Pilot overboard when the Ship under his conduct was in the very Mouth of the haven and big with expectation of landing its precious Merchandise but by that sad accident cast into the hands of raw and rash and mutinous Seamen whose indiscretions and animosities have cast us back again into a tempestuous Sea where we have for many years been tossed up and down with unspeakable hazard till at last God by a Miraculous Providence brought to our help a Phoenix raised out of his Ashes the true Heir both of his Kingdoms and Vertues who hath once more brought us within sight of Land and we hope will if our sins obstruct not his endeavours set us safe on shore To prevent which mischief we ought to grieve as we have cause more then David 2. Upon account of those sins in general which provoked and our sins in general provoking God to inflict it VVhereof some are expressed the peoples God to take him from us David kâ—ew that God had cast off formerly and now out off Saul for his own sins not his But we have cause enough to charge this losse upon our own provoking sins which at that time and since have been too notoriously apparent to God and the world Such as Contempt of Gods Word and Sacraments Reproaching and persecuting his Faithful Messengers Wanton affecting of new Notions and Inventions and contemning old Truths and the primitive simplicity of the Gospel Uncharitable schismes and separations in the Church and ambitious self-seeking and in order thereunto fomenting Factions in the State Sacrilegious robbing of God and barbarous spoyling and destroying one another with a rage reaching up to Heaven Notorious Debauchery and Prophaness in all sorts and degrees of men which spared neither Gods Name nor his Sabbaths nor his Creatures nor the Profession of Religion in the life and power of it toleration of Popery and other dangerous Errors and Heresies and to make our Ephah of sins yet fuller a spirit of Rebellion spread over the whole Nation against just and lawful Authority and many more might be added to this Black Roll but that I hasten to an end And was it not time think you for God to be avenged of such a Nation as this was and I would to God I could with a clear Conscience stop at was But I fear it may with too much evidence of Truth be added and yet is And who could tax that Justice which by his Providence suffered us to cut through that Bank with our own hands which under himself kept out that Deluge of Miseries which our sins deserved and fell down that Royal Tree in the Branches whereof our several Nests were built And oh Let us fear lest by the continued guilt of the same sins we procure a Decree of the Watchers to cut down those Royal shoots that have grown up in his stead and he hath begun with them already to our sad losse and not leave so much as a stump in the earth out of which a Rod may grow to make a Scepter of But possibly here I may be interrupted with a Question whether The Thronts waved all the Fault which provoked God to inflict such a severe stroak were in the People and the Throne altogether guiltless To which I answer That I doubt not but personal sins and acts of misgovernment towards the people under their charge are incident to Kings as well as to persons of a lower degree And I dare not perswade my self or others that our late Sovereign was so much Saint as to be altogether free nay he was so much Saint as more then once to confesse miscarriages in his Government and why But I must tell the enquirers withall that I do not believe him one half so criminal as popular prejudice blown up by the breath of factious spirits endeavoured to make him And for what was really amisse in him I have this to plead That Kings are persons under such Tentations as Vulgar capacities do not understand that because of their eminency and publique influence the Tempter thrusts sorer at them then ordinary that they may fall that God Psal 118. 13. doth sometimes lead them into Tentation because his wrath is kindled against their people that in Scripture those who have the 〈…〉 4. 1. commendation of Gods Spirit for the best of Kings David and Solomon have yet more and fouler spots upon their Names than K. Charles and that were the busie enquirers into and censurers of Kings faults a while in their places I fear they would commit more and greater Let the Questionist if he can answer me this Question Si fuerisâ—tu Leo qualis eris In a word Were I sufficiently instructed in the Cabinet affairs of our late Sovereign and had I a revelation withall afforded me to discover the secret springs of those Counsels upon which he acted and his own mind in acting and were I inabled thereby to
rhey relate to a preceding Narrative made by an Amalekite a mercenary of Sauls as is likely escaped out of that battel before mentioned concerning the manner of the Kings death We will take a little time before we come to a particular view of them to examine the considerable passages in it and circumstances relating to it And it is observable that the villain expresseth in 〈◊〉 carriage and relation a strange mixture of 1. Confidence Managed with a strange 2. Caution First Confidence in that he took the boldnesse to be the Relator 1. Confidence of such a story concerning himself and that in the face of Authority which an ordinary person would have trembled to have been charged withall by another And that which most sets off his confidence is that the person before whom he confesseth himself guilty of promoting Sauls death was his immediate Successoun David who by his death became actually King Had he been never so slightly read in politicks he might have learned that succeeding Kings however they may look on the news of their Predecessors death as acceptable tidings yet seldom look favourably upon those who have been Instruments in making the royal Seat void for them as considering that the same persons who have been so kind to them upon like inducements may be easily tempted to do the like courtesie for others as occasion serves But it seems the Wretch built his confidence upon three probable Upon mistaken grounds conjectures in all of which neverthelesse he was sorely mistaken 1. That David being by Gods appointment and Samuels unction the next in succession to Saul might by his greedinesse to grasp the Scepter be tempted to make another judgement of the fact then otherwise he would and account his service meritorious who had holpen him to it sooner then in the course of nature it would have fallen He made an ill conjecture it appears at the temper of Davids spirit which was not so sharp-set upon the dish of Royalty however tempting in it self and to vulgar appetites but that he could stay till Gods providence in a regular way carved it to him How much mind soever he had to the golden apple which sets all the world at odds Dominion yet had he no mind to have the Tret on which it grew battered to make it fall before the time 2. That however David might be too mortified to bite at the bait of Ambition yet secret revenge might tickle him into a good humour when he understood in what manner divine vengeance had overtaken his deadly enemy and implacable persecutor But David had learned that a gracious soul is frequently the more endangered by being secure from dangers That a state of persecution well husbanded is the most feracious soil for grace to thrive in That be the benefit accrewing by the fall of ones enemy never so great yet to rejoyce at the destruction of him that hateth us when evil hath found him is not only a vicious disposition in morality but a sin of no ordinary size in Divinity Job 35. 15. and especially when the person so suffering is the Lords anointed and so the private advantage accrewing thereby to any person is too inconsiderable a compensation to be laid in ballance against a publique losse And upon this account his politicks failed the Relator in his second presumption 3. That David had been in Arms against Saul for divers years and was at this time in a posture of defence against him in a frontier Town of an enemies Country These considerations gave very great suspicion that he designed the death of Saul himself and so was at least intentionally a partner in guilt with him who effected it But the Miscreant either knew not or was willing not to know that Davids Arms were meerly defensive not offensive that as his warrant for wearing them was extraordinary and much different from other subjects in like cases so his temper in the use of them was extraordinary also and lastly that he had more then once given evidence of no lesse when both opportunity and tentation from his most intimate friends had put it to the utmost trial 1 Sam. 24. 26. And thus was he mistaken in his third conjecture which bottomed his Confidence And possibly he himself might have some twinges and wrenches of suspicion that he might be so and that in the midst of his boldnesse makes him to manage his relation in the second place with much Secondly Caution Which appears in several particulars observable 2. Caution in his Artifices Pleas for justification or extenuation of the Fact 1. He relates only the death of Saul Davids enemy v. 5. in his carriage and narrative whereby he seems of purpose to design the extenuation of this fact which he assumed the boldnesse thus to relate As 1. That though he brought the tidings of both Sauls and Jonathans death yet he pretends not to have any such particular knowledge of Jonathans death as he had of Sauls though David asked him concerning them both lest David should by the circumstances of his own relation have suspected him guilty of Jonathans death also as he confessed himself of Sauls He knew that friendship which was between David and Jonathan would have endangered him to a more severe scrutiny then he hoped he should undergo for Sauls At least he was not so ready to insist on that part of the story which he knew was the most unwelcome and therefore chose to insist only on that which he hoped would be better entertained He had indeed slain Davids enemy and so could give the most perfect relation of his death but could say little but from the voice of the people concerning the death of his friend 2. That though he confesseth he had an hand in the death of 2. He justifieth his Fact 1. By Sauls request Saul yet he was requested by himself to do it He said unto him stand upon me I pray thee and slay me ver 9. Now volenti non fit injuria and how much lesse roganti No man is injured but against his will and therefore it cannot in any reason come under the notion of Injury to satisfie anothers Request which hath in it a superlative degree of Voluntariness Besides he was his Sovereign and so his Requests adopted the Authority of Commands And if his Soveraigns Command might warrant him to take away the life of another why might it not justifie him rather in the case of his own seeing what is a mans own is more properly and directly in his power to dispose of than what is anothers Add to this that it was the last Office of Love and Service that he was capable of performing towards him and that so great that as he had cause to believe that Saul himself thanked him for it in his dying thoughts so his very Ghost if it were present could not but attest that no man ever merited more highly from Saul than he had done