Crucifie him 5. When to so milde a King that said none otherwise to his servant Math. 26 6â— So they beheaded King Charles where they used the baiting of Bears and other beasts in the common-way that arch-traytor which betrayed him but Friend wherefore art thou come they shall scornfully say to him The Prisoner or this fellow 6. When they carry him out to Golgotha a place fitter to bait beasts than to execute Kings there in a common high-way to lose his life 7. When as they go to Golgotha they cause him that was whipped and scourged and wearied in posting of him from place to place to carry his own heavy cross upon his shoulders 8. When they not only numbred him among the wicked but also crucified him betwixt two thieves in the midst of the wicked as if he had been the chiefest of all wicked men When the Colonel that brought him to his execution commanded his Souldiers to shoot any one that pâ—lled off his hâ—â— or shewed any reverence or spake any word for the honour of the King 3 How he was spit upon Joh. 19.29 And thus they bespitted King Charles with all kind of calumnies that had none but the wicked on every side of him 9. When as now disrobed of all Royalties and fastned to an accursed cross where he was induring intolerable pains not one that loved him durst speak a word but his enemies flouted him and wagged their heads at him and when he thirsted for our salvation they filled his mouth with sharp Vinegar as they did his ears with shameless taunts 10. When after he was dead they would not afford him a place of burial but he must be laid in another mans Sepulcher And were not all these and much more that might be collected most spightful usages of an innocent man and a glorious King Yet the Evangelist adds one thing more that I must not omit that they would spit upon him a note of the thing that we do most abominate as it seems their King was the chiefest thing that they did most hate and abhor But a man may be said to be spit upon figuratively when his enemies spit out their venome against him even bitter words And so Christ their King was most shamefully spit upon when by their Declarations and Remonstrances and other scurrilous Pamplets they proclaimed him to the World to be a Deceiver of the trust reposed in him and a Traytor because he perverted the people and drew them on to their destruction So they called him a Samaritane a Drunkard a Demoniak an upholder of Sinners a breaker of the Sabbath a Conjurer and what not Their tongues were swords that killed his Honour before they crucified his Person and they were the poyson of Aspes that spat out all these slanderous calumnies upon their King And this was bad enough and too much indignitie for a King Yet the Souldiers did not only thus Rhetorically spit upon him but Grammatically disgorged the scum of their ulcerous lungs in his glorious face and it is reported that a Souldier going under the name of a Christian did the like to a most Christian King which if true let him repent lest God should spue him out of his mouth And though it be the rule of the very Heathens De mortuis nil nisi bene We ought to speak nothing but good of the dead because as the Poet saith Livor post fata quiescit Yet these beasts like devils Saeva sed in manes manibus arma dabant degenerating from mankind are not content to kill their King but will murder him again and again after that he is both dead and buried and that not only in his Lovers and Followers whom they are resolved not to extenuate but to extirpate but especially in his fame his glory and his honour which is to all good men as the savour of the sweetest perfume that is made by the art of the Apothecarie and which they like stinking flies endeavour by all means to corrupt and defame and to destroy all those that truly preach or publish any truth redounding to his honour as you may plainly see it in the acts of his Apostles whom they threatned and terrified for speaking any good of him Though as the Poet saith Tu ne cede malis sed contrà audentior ito So the more these murderers sought to hinder it the more the glory and goodness of this King was spread abroad to their indelible shame throughout all the World when as the vertues of every just and pious man are as the palme-trees the more forcibly they are suppressed the more gloriously they will be exalted So you see how spightfully and how trayterously and bloodily and basely these miscreant Jews have used and abused killed and murdered their own King Now 2. 2 How causelessely they condâ—mned him John 10.32 You are to consider how causelessely and how unjustly they did all this unto him for the Prophet in the person of this King saith Oderunt me gratis They hated me indeed but without a cause and himself saith unto the Jews Many good works have I shewed you from my father For which of them do you now go about to kill me So in truth there was great cause to love and honour this good King that had done so much good unto them but no cause why they should either hate or abuse much lesse to kill or murder this their own King Yet we find several causes set down by the Evangelists that moved these Jews to kill their King and they are of two sorts 1. Pretended to the people 2. Real to themselves And 1. 1 The pretended causes to murder their King Their pretended cause is specially twofold 1. Cultus Dei 2. Salus populi the usual pretences of all Traytors and if they were true there could not be better And therefore this fair colour deceives the buyers of this bad cloth and these pretences made the people to commit on Christ this execrable Fact to hate and crucifie the son of God their own King But to proceed to examine these fair colours 1. As generally the raisers of any people to rebellion 1 Innovation of Religion taxe their Governours with innovation or destruction of Religion because all men even the superstitious and licentious and prophane worlding would fain seem to embrace the true Religion so these perswade the silly vulgar that this their King closely and cunningly laboureth to alter and innovate the true service of God as 1. That he was too loose in observing the Sabbath 2. Too strict in the reverence to be shewed in the material Temple Mark 2.24 Matth. 21.12 c 19. The very same things were objected against King Charles Matth. 5.17 1. Objection answered Mark 2.27 3. Too severe in abridging them the liberty of divorces and the like But to this our King answereth first in generall that they do wrong him by this their unjust charge and accusation because he came
not to destroy the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them and themselves by their false Expositions and new invented traditions were the innovators and corrupters both of the Law and Prophets and more particularly 1. For the Sabbath he sheweth that themselves are herein too nice and superstitious and he no prophaner thereof because the Sabbath was made for man i.e. for the good of man both for his soul and body of his soul by serving God and of his body by those necessary actions and recreations that may conduce for the continuance of his health on that day 2. For the reverence to be observed in the Temple or Church of God 2 Objection answered Esay 56.7 he sheweth that he was not too strict in driving the buyers and sellers and all other prophaners thereof out of the same because God himself saith even of this material Temple or Church of stones My house shall be called an house of prayer for all people for the Gentiles as well as for the Jewes but they had prophaned the same by making it a house of Merchandize and so a den of thieves as they do that make it a stable for their horses or a receptacle for their plundered and stolne goods And in both these points our Puritans now are just as the Jewes were then too much given to prophane the Church and too superstitious to observe the Sabbath But 3. For abridging the liberty of divorces 3 Objection answered Matth. 5.32 he tells them that he teacheth no otherwise then what was from the beginning that whosoever putteth away his wife saving for the cause of fornication causeth her to commit adultery but you by forsaking the good old way and following the traditions of your latter Rabbines your Assembly of new Divines have made the Commandements of God of none effect and teach for Doctrine the Commandements of men Chap. 15.6 just as they do now forsake the good old government of the Church that hath been from the beginning from Christ his time and follow the new invented Government that is forced from the false and wrested Expositions of our upstart Rabbines that never yet saw the age of a man since the death of Calvin and Beza the first Fathers that begat it 2. As they did thus unjustly taxe their King for Innovation 2 The destruction of the people And this madded the people against King Charles John 11.48 and the alteration of their established Religion so they have another bait whereby they do as cunningly catch the people and set them like wild men to joyn with them yea to out-goe them in their desires to destroy their King and that is Salus populi the safety and liberty of the people which they said would be utterly lost if they did let Him goe and this madded the people against their King though there was no truth in the charge nor ground to believe it but the feares and jealousies of the people raised only by the malice of their wicked leaders for how could it be that either the safety or the liberty of the people should be any wayes impaired by that King that came to fulfill the Law and to root out all the false glosses thereof and was contented to lose not his Kingdom only but also his own life for the safety and liberty of his people as themselves confesse that he must die for the people i. e. for their Lawes and Liberties and so become the Martyr of the Law and the Saviour of his people So you see the pretended charge against this King Jo. 11 48. that he was a tyrant by indevouring to destroy their Lawes and to alter their Religion and a Traytor to the State by forbidding Tribute unto the Conqueror whom now they were resolved to honour for their onely King lest they should lose their place and their Nation 2. 2 The true causes that moved the murderers to kill their Kings The true reall causes that moved these murderers to kill their King were very many but especially four 1. Envie to him 2. Despaire in themselves 3. Fear to lose 4. Ambition to be great For 1. 1 Envie Joh. 7.47 Mar. 7.37 They perceived that for his admirable worth and his divine endowments when as never man spake as he did and that he did all things well the people loved him followed him and adhered to him then As the glorious rayes of the Sun upon any putrified matter causeth a stench so his excellent vertues begat the poysonouâ—brats of envie and malice in these wicked miscreants and so Pilate perceived that for envie they had delivered or rather as the word signifieth betrayed him to death 2. 2 Despair of pardon When they had by their Declarations and Remonstrances their calumnies slanders and false accusations sought with all art to render him odious unto his people and had in all things opposed him to the uttermost of their might Gen. 4.13 then as Cain cried out my sin is greater then can be forgiven So the guilt of their malice and the remembrance of their fore-past wickednesse against him were of so deep a stain they they conceived all the water in the Sea could not wash it away and all the mercie of man could not remit their sin such is the conscience of all unconscionable sinners therefore though this good King could would and did forgive his enemies and pray for his persecutors yet because their hate and sins were so great that they could not believe it they thought themselves no wayes secured unlesse he were killed 3. 3 Fear to lose what they had gotten The men were now got into great power they had the liberty to be of what Sect and profession they pleased Scribes Pharises or Sadduces or what you will and to do what they would so long as they pleased the Conqueror no man could contradict them but if the right King continue King they saw he would not and could not endure such an Anarchie of Government and a Hodge podge to remain amongst them therefore Caiaphas the second man in power tells them it is expedient that he die for fear of the losse of their places and this their great power and liberty 4. 4 Ambition to be great men Matth. 21.23 Mâ—â— 12.7 Luk. 20.9 This King himself in the parable of the Vineyard which is faithfully recorded by three Evangelists sets down as I conceive it the main cause fundamental ground of his death that is their ambition desire to be great and to hold all power and authority in their own hands for so the wicked husband-men say This is the heir Venite come let us kill him and then retinebimus haereditatem ejus we shall hold his inheritance His it is we confesse yet then We shall hold it because as S. Mark saith then certainly erit nostra it will be ours and no man can keep us from it and indeed this desire of bearing rule And
I would fain know if these four things were not the very causes that made the Rebels to being King Charles unto death this covetousnesse to get what is none of our own hath been the death of many Kings of many men for what made Caracalla slay his brother Geta in his mothers lap and between her armes but this inordinate desire to raign What made Phraharers son of Horodes King of Parthia kill his own Father and 29. of his brethren but the like desire to raign And what made Abimelech the bastard son of Gedeon slay 70. of his brethren in one day and Jehn to slay his Master even as Zimri had done the like before him and Absolon attempt to do so to his own Father but only this ambitious desire of bearing rule And if you look into the 8. c. of the 5. Book of Camerarius Camerar l. 5. c. 8. his historical meditations you shall find a Catalogue of such wicked murderers that have bin the death of many Kings that they might raign as kings themselves and therefore let the pretences of these murderers of their King be what you will change of Religion Arbitrary Government great Tyranny or loss of liberty yet all these are but forged and fained to blind the World and to deceave the people and the true Cause indeed is this Haereditas erit nostra This Profit is the point that doth the deed And as the desire to raign makes the regicides Cant. 2. so this inheritance of the Church which is signified by the Vineyard brought the doctrine of killing deposing and depriving into the Church of Christ and it is as truly Esay 5. as wittily said by one that Quid vultis mihi dare is the Jews question in this case Omnia haec tabi dabo is the Devil's answer to the Church-robber And such a dialogue betwixt the Devil and the Jew for the inheritance of the Church is powerfull enough to bring any King even Christ himself the King of Kings unto his death so I do assure my self and all the World may be assured of it it is not the calling or the office of the Bishops or of Deans Prebends which neither they nor their grand Master was ever able to disprove to be Divine that they so much detest but it is their Lands and inheritance that they so greedily gape for and as this made Naboth to lose his life so this makes our calling detestable and this was the cause the cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that brought Charles our King and one speciall cause that brought Christ the King of kings unto their deaths because they would not betray the trust that God reposed in them nor surrender up this their rightfull Inheritance unto the greedy Usurpers but shewed themselves faithfull shepherds that were ready to lay down their lives for their sheep rather then to betray the laws and liberties of the people and the happiness that God had determined for their subjects and for this as we owe to our Saviour Christ our selves our souls and our bodies to honor him and serve him to praise him and to magnify him for ever as our only Saviour and preserver from everlasting death and destruction so this good King this just magnanimous King King Charles that rather suffered an ignominious death then to give away the inheritance of the Church or annull the highest calling in the same the Calling of the Reverend Bishops deserves to be everlastingly Loved indelibly Chronicled and universally Published like Mary Magdalen for a faithfull Martyr a true Protector and a nursing Father unto the Church of Christ which here I vow for mine part ever to do whensoever opportunity offers it self to do it But as I said before they had their King in their hands Ob. they had him their Prisoner so they had his Kingdom in their power and possession already what needed they therefore to kill him that they might have that which they had For if Ahab had had the Vineyard questionless Naboth had not died Saint Mark answereth fully that they kild the Heire Sol. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they might hold it and continue in it An answer specially to be observed for covetousness is a sin of Retention and never thinks of Restitution and the sin of forcible entrance can not endure to be put out of Possession thereforelest if he lived he might use some means to Regain it there is no surer way for them to hold in Peace what they unjustly got by the sword but by the death of the Just Owner And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I conceive signifieth not only that we may hold what we have but also that we may have more then we hold as if they should have said Some-what we have while we have him our prisoner and in our hands but more we shall get when we get him dead for then we shall have all as much as we can or will desire Therefore seeing ambition is like the daughters of the Horseleëch that still crieth more and more these murderers are like the Whore in the Apocalyps that having tasted the blood of the Saints will never give over till she be drunk with blood so will they never be satisfied with any less than the blood of their King Apoc 17. the death of the right Heir that they may hold what they have and have whatsoever they desire So you see the true Causes why these wicked murderers have put their King to death Now 3. 3 The patient and silent demeanor of this King Esay 53. Act. 8.32 When his adversaries most maliciously illegally and falsly accused him and laid many things to his charge contrary to all truth yet he answered not unto their charge but this good King being reviled reviled not again and being smitten smote not again but as a Lamb before his shearer is dumb so opened he not his mouth The Reason The Reason of not answering to their charge four fold why he answered not is not expressed by the Holy Evangelists therefore we may not curiously prie into that which is concealed nor Positively conclude the Reason that is not revealed unto us Yet with Modesty it may be conjectured that he would not answer 1. Reason 1 Lest his wise and satisfactory Answer might convince Pilate that was a rational man and seemed to bear no malice against him and being satisfied to let him go freed from the accusation of his enemies and so the Counsell of God which he knew and came to fulfill it touching the Redemption of mankind by his death might thereby be frustrated So far did he prefer our good before his own life A most gratious King 2. Reason 2 He answered them not lest his answering might have ministred an occasion to these malicious miscreants to suborn more perjurers to bear false witness against him so carefull was this good King of the good of his enemies that they should not heap
for judgement against the Bishops that were the Authours of these evils and so as all the Mariners were tossed for Jonas his sin so all the Bishops must suffer for the offence of few And though as Eusebius saith all the malice of the world and all the persecution of Tyrants and all the Stratagems of that old Serpent could not darken the glory of Christ his Church while the Bishops and the rest of the Priests and Preachers of God's word held together and kept the Unity of Faith in the Bond of Peace yet when the Bishops fell together by the ears and dissented in their opinions the one from the other the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that held the faith of one Substance which is the right Catholick faith from them that maintained the faith of the like Substance which was and is the Arrian Heresy and when the Priests banded against the Bishops and the Bishops did therefore seek to suppress those Priests then the Lord darkened the glory of the daughter of Sion and the Church that formerly triumphed sate then as a Sparrow that is alone mourning upon the House-top even so now in our days when they that ought and had promised and vowed most solemnly when they were admitted to Holy Orders to reverence their Bishops and to be advised by them and obedient to them began to spurn with their heels to spit in their faces and to bark against them in their Pulpits our Saviour's words must hold true that A Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand and much less the Hierarchy when the Priests and Bishops are at such ods and so contrary to themselves And this division of Reuben with the aforesaid distempers was a great presage of their present fall yet I believe not all the cause that moved God to permit the Devil to stir up Enemies to throw them down but the true cause was greater sins if I judge right then either of these for the former might be the aspersions of Enemies and but onely the allegation of ill-willers without any sound ground for their Justification or if true but the Acts of some few of the inferiour Bishops and the Divisions of the Clergy might lessen our repute and weaken our Authority but not utterly to overthrow our Hierarchy as all the contentions of the Primitive Church never did And therefore the true causes of our ruine must needs be of an higher nature and they might be besides the forenamed and some others that we know not of these three main faults that can neither be denied nor excused 1. The misguiding of the good King before the Long Parliament The three great saults of the Bishops 2. The neglecting of him in the Parliament 3. The evil Counsel they gave him with the Parliament First The King having a reverend opinion of the Bishops Fault was perswaded to second and to set forward the Designs of the Bishop of Canterbury in many things that brought him the ill opinion and so diminished the love of the people as in the matter of Saint Gregory's by Saint Paul's and especially in sending the newly amended Liturgy unto the Scotish Church and the Prosecution of that business so eagerly to the great prejudice of the King which was to speak what I conceive to be truth without flattery such an Episcopal offence as cannot be expiated with words nor could be defended with the power of the King as the Scots alleadged Non omnibus unum est Quod placet hic spinas colligit ille rosas and which I conceive to be the Original and the Seed of all the King's troubles and misfortunes and the Bishop's overthrow mittere falcem in alienam messem to busie themselves out of their own Diocess especially among the Scots that were bewitched with the love of the Presbytery and hated all forms of Liturgies but such as was without form or beauty like Christ at his Passion that was then as the Prophet saith without form or beauty for had they rested quiet without raising up those Northern blasts and those Spirits that they could not lay down they might no doubt in my Judgement have remained quiet to this very day but they throwing these stones into the Air they fell into their own fore-heads and they verified the old Proverb Qui striut insidias aliis sibi damna dat ipse he that diggeth a pit for another shall fall into it himself for by troubling the Scots with the new service they pull'd an old house upon their own heads and an unspeakable trouble upon the King and this Kingdom as they soon felt it afterwards and all the people smarted for it Secondly Great fault of the Bishops When they had troubled these unsavory waters and raised up these foul Spirits that they could not binde and had engaged the good King in this bad cause they neither justified the King with their pens nor assisted him with their purses near so much as so good a Patron both of them and of their Churches had deserved but as men stupified with that storm that the Parliament had raised they were tongue-tied in his Cause and hand-bound for any great help or assistance they afforded him against his and their own enemies And what a neglect was this of so good a King by wise men to save their Wealth and to lose both their King and themselves I would they had remembred Ausonius his Epigram 55. Effigiem Ausonius Epigt 55. Rex Croese tuam ditissime regum Vidit apud manes Diogenes Cynicus Constitit utque procul stetit majore cachinno Concussus dixit Quid tibi divitiae Nunc prosunt regum Rex O ditissime cumsis Sicut ego solus me quoque pauperior Nam quaecunque habui mecum fero cum nihil ipse Ex tantis tecum Croese feras opibus But they skulked to escape the storm I could name the men that had and let abundance of Wealth and ready Coin behind them and yet did nothing to relieve the King and suffered their King to suffer Ship-wrack a fault not unworthy to be punished by the Judges and an unthankfulness yea and such unthankfulness as exceeded all their former defects and faults to do so little for him that did so much for them and was contented to lose his life as he did rather then he would consent that they should lose their honour and be degraded of that Calling to which Christ had called them I am sure it is our duty and we ow it unto our King as I have fully shewed in my Book Of the Right of Kings to hazard our lives for our King and to spend all that we have in the defence of our King and I think this King well deserved if ever any King deserved at the Bishops hands that they should hazard their lives and expose all that they had in the just defence of so just a King and therefore God dealt most justly with us to suffer all our Bishops to
the Priests but also to root out Presbyterium Our late persecution worse then Julians persecution the very Priesthood of Jesus Christ and so to extinguish the Christian religion out of the world for these men imitating him sought to supress not the then Bishops that perhaps might be found to have offended though that was never proved but Episcopacie it self and the discentive succession thereof which we received by prayers and the imposition of hands even from the Apostles time from those that are yet unborn and have I am sure done neither good nor evill and yet have received this evill from these men to have the Calling that they were to enjoy supprest their honours buried and their undubitable Rights and Means alienated from them Prohscelus nefandum quod magnum est mirum a most wonderfull thing that wickednesse should have no bounds no stop no reason nor moderation in its progression but like a stone tumbling down a hill never leave tumbling till it comes to the bottome or like a right Apollyon and a blind smiter that will slay the righteous with the wicked or rather destroy the righteous because they will not be wicked And yet this is not all we are not yet come to the height of these persecutors wickednesse Ezek. k. 13 15. or to the depth of their abomination but as the Lord saith unto the Prophet Ezechiel turn thee yet again and thou shalt see greater abominations so from the Lord I will shew to you greater abomination and the greatest that ever was committed here on earth For 3. The 〈…〉 the beâ—â—â—ving and murderring of the first King Touching which three 〈◊〉 are â—â—â—â—trable They have not only persecuted the Prophets and slain the Preachers and foreshewers of the coming of Jesus Christ but they have also saith our Martyr betrayed and murdered that just one For the fuller and more perfect understanding of which point I shall desire you to observe these three things 1. What they are and how they are styled by the holy Ghost that did this deed Traytors and Murderers 2. Of whom they are the Traytors and Murderers which is here exprest by that Just One and we shall find him to be 1. None of the Plebeians or common sort of men but a King the highest and the chiefest man in all the Kingdom 2. Not an alien as were Caesar and Herod but their own King originally and lineally descended from the Jews 3. Not an Vsurper as was Jeroboam and many others of the Kings of Israel and Athalia among the Jewes and Rich. the third and the late Cromwell amongst us but he was their own lawfull King without question lawfully descended from the Royall line 4. Not an unjust or tyrannical King as were Pharaoh Dionysius and Nero nor yet a lascivious King as were Sardanapalus Belshazzar and Heliogabalus but a most just perfect and pious King No better King under heaven 3. Who they were that the holy Martyr meaneth by these Traytors and Murderers of their King and we shall find them to be the Lords and Commons the People the Elders the Scribes and Pharisees and the whole Council of the Jewes 1. Part. 1. Their style and denomination which is twofold â— Traytorss They that have put this just King to death are here styled and shall ever be justly termed Traytors and Murderers 1. Traytors that is to their King for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Holy Ghost useth in this place and is derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies prodo or trado from whence the word Traitor cometh doth properly and most usually signifie both in prophane Authours and in the Ecclesiasticall and Civil writers the illegal and undutiful demeanour and the rebellious behaviour of Subjects toward and against their King and as the most curious criticks and best searchers of the Scriptures do observe this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Traytor is never applyed to any King for any act be it never so illegall so foul so barbarous or so bloudy that the King commits agains his Subjects when as we find not one text in all the book of God the holy Bible that speaks of many wicked idolatrous and tyrannical bloudy Kings where any one of those Princes or Kings is signified by this word or called by this name of Traytor And therefore this word Traytors that the Martyr useth doth sufficiently shew that he meaneth thereby to prove Christ to be King and the Traytors that killed him to be his Subjects as I shall further declare unto you hereafter 2. 2 Murders They are murderers because he was unlawfully put to death for otherwise a lawful Judge may lawfully put a malefactor to death and be no murderer because God commandeth Idolaters and sorcerers and others the like malefactors to be put to death and they that legally put such men to death are never termed murderers but when the party executed is innocent and the Judge condemning him not vested with lawful authority the man so put to death is truly said to be murdered and his executioners murderers And such was the death of Christ because he was most innocent And so was the death of King Charles and the Judge had neither lawful authority nor a just cause to condemn him and therefore they that crucified Christ and put him to death are rightly termed murderers and because Christ was a King as I shewed you from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 traytors they were no ordinary murderers of plebeians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of the common sort of men but that which is the highest and the worst of all murders they were the murderers of their King and therefore the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Martyr useth to expresse the death of the fore-shewers of the coming of Christ and the words of the Husbandmen which they said together of the King's Son Marc. 12.7 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Occido used here to signifie the death of this King ought properly to be translated either by killing or slaying or murdering as our last Translation renders the Martyr's words most rightly that they were his murderers But here it may be the Jews will object and say That Man or that King cannot justly be said to be murdered which is brought to a publick Trial and hath 1. His Charge given him to answer Three things seeming topalliat and to disprove the murdering of this King discussed 2. The Witnesses ready to prove the Charge 3. A Lawful Judge to pronounce sentence against him And all this was used against Christ the King of the Jews and against Charles the King of England saith the long Parliament therefore neither the one nor the other can justly and properly be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be murdered but they are unjustly taxed and
this heavy Crime of murdering them is not justly laid upon them that brought these Kings to their just deserved deaths Therefore to justifie their deaths to be murders and to clear St. Stephen from this unjust taxation laid upon him by the Jews we are to examine the three foresaid particulars how far they can justifie the Jews or any others in the like case from being murderers 1 The Charge unjust and first for the Charge that was laid against him we find the same pretended to be twofold and as I conceive very like the Charge that was laid against King Charles So King Charles was charged with the same Crimes 1. The abridging of their Liberty and betraying the same unto the Romans for so they say If we let this man alone all the World will run after him and the Romans will come and take away our Dominion from us 2. The corrupting of their Religion by abolishing their old Rites and Traditions of the Elders and teaching new Points of Doctrine to prophane the Sabbath to communicate with Sinners to justifie their slovenly eating with unwashen hands and the like loosness and liberties that the precise Pharisees could not endure he allowed unto his Disciples and follower in the service of God This was the pretended Charge that they laid against their King and against S. Stephen as you may see Acts 6.13 14. and that his adversaries laid against our good King But this pretended Charge was most false whenas he neither abridged their Liberty nor corrupted their Religion but most divinely cleared the same The Jew◠murdered Christ because he was their King Luc. 23 2◠and purged it from the false glosses of the Scribes and Pharises But the true cause indeed whatsoever they pretended why they killed him was because he was their King for S. Luke saith that when they led him to Pilate they began to accuse him saying We found this fellow perverting the Nation and forbidding to give tribute unto Caesar saying that he himself is Christ a King and when Pilate asked them Shall I crucifie your King a thing that was never known among the Heathen that Subjects should desire to crucifie their King and especially that they should so solemnly and judicially condemn him to death they answered him flatly So K. Charles was murdered by his adverfaries because he was their King and would have ruled them as their King when as they desired to be Kings themselves and to rule as they did after they had killed him We have no King but Caesar whom notwithstanding they loved no better than they loved Christ but hated him in their hearts as their often rebellions against him do sufficiently testifie And when Pilate the Judge and therefore knew best the Charge laid against him wrote his Title and fixed it upon his Crosse as shewing unto all that saw him the very cause why they put him to death which was Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews They came presently unto Pilate and desired him to alter the Superscription and not to say He was their King but that he said He was their King But Pilate herein like a resolute Judge that knew the truth and their dissembling answered them stoutly according to the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What I have written I have written And therefore this Charge being so unjust to kill him because he is their King whose life they are obliged to defend with the hazard of their own death S. Stephen may justly call them murderers 2. 2 The witnesset are false Math. 26.59 60. For the witnesses it is plainly said that they sought many yet found they none but at last there came two they could get no more and of them two it is said 1. That they were false witnesses and that is apparent when they add unto his words and change his meaning for he said no more but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Destroy this temple John 2.19 v. 21. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in three dayes I will raise it up and he spake this of the temple of his body as the Evangelist testifieth but their witnesses avouch that they heard him saying Marc. 14.58 59. I will destroy this Temple that is made with hands and within three dayes I will build another made without hands that is another material and magnificent Temple which Christ never meant and never spake of it nor of the temple of his body as they testifie for he said not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will destroy this Temple but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do you destroy this temple and I will raise it up You shall do the evil and bring destruction as you use to do and I will do the good and bring resurrection to them that are fallen 2. Marc. 14.59 It is said that these false witnesses which did both add unto his words and change his meaning did not agree together for the one said he heard him saying I will destroy this temple that is made with hands and within three dayes Cap. 14.58 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Math. 26.61 I will build another made without hands yet the other could not testifie that he said so but that he said I am able to destroy the temple of God and build it in three dayes and there is a great deal of difference betwixt I will destroy thee and I am able to destroy thee when I am able to do many things that I will not do Even as God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham but will not raise them And therefore seeing these two witnesses cannot agree together they destroy one another and must needs be invalid to condemn an innocent man and much less to condemn their King that was more innocent than any man But they were resolved to have done it whether they had witnesses or no witnesses for they said among themselves What need have we of witnesses Then all of them Math. 26.65 Marc. 14.63 64 So K. Charles was condemned without witnesses Joh. 18.31 Math. 26.4 Marc. 14.1 And was not K. Charles by craft and subtilty brought to his death as they had formerly resolved did presently vote him guilty of death not as it seems for the testimony of the witnesses but because their malice thought him worthy of death Yet they confess 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not lawful for us that is they had no lawful authority to put any man to death and for all that S. Mathew tells us they consulted how they might take him by subtilty and kill him and S. Mark testifieth as much that they sought how they might take him by craft and put him to death And therefore when Traytors have conspired and resolved to kill their King witnesses are but shadows and the formalities of their proceedings are but cloaks to palliat and cover their wickedness and to blind the eyes of the vulgar people whom they would perswade to believe that they do all things
the manner of them to deliver any man to die before that he which is accused have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him so it may be Zimri will shew some good reason why he kill'd his Master And I doubt not but he had learnt Absolons lesson that it was for the ill government of Elah propter bonum Reipublicae for the good of the people that they might be better governed and much eased of many burthens and relieved of their grievances To which I say that you must understand all Traytors and wicked actors to be just like unto Watermen that row one way and look another way so they pretend one thing and intend another thing Thus Zimri pretended to amend the Government to ease the people to reform the Laws and rectifie their Religion but his intention and his chiefest ayme was to make himself great to get his Masters place and to become a King himself which was first in his intention though last in the execution otherwise if his principal ayme had been as he pretended the publike good he would have turned and changed the Kingdom of Israel into a Common-wealth or else he would have made either Omri or Tibni whom the people loved and not himself whom they hated to be their King sed menrita est iniquitas sibi but wickedesse though not always yet sometimes bewrayeth it self as the action of Zimri to make himself a King discovered his prime intention and the chiefest occasion that moved him to slay his Master to be his Ambition and desire of bearing rule And indeed this Ambition and desire of bearing rule hath so strangely bewitched the minds of many men Camer l. 5. c. 8. that as Camerarius saith it is almost incredible to believe and most strange to consider what inordinate desire men have to raign and to rule as Kings what villanies they have committed to become Kings What horrible things have been done by those that were ambitious of bearing rule what execrable things they have done to continue Kings for Amurath the third caused five of his younger brethren to be strangled in his presence Ismael the second son to Teâ—mas King of Persia did put to death so many of his brethren as he could lay hold on and all the Princes that he suspected to have any desire to his Kingdom that so they might raign and rule without fear And Solyman mistrusting his own son Mustapha when he returned victorious from the Persian war and was received with such generall applause caused him presently to be strangled and a Proclamation to be made throughout all the Army that there must be but one God in heaven and one Emperour i.e. Himself here on earth and Camerarius saith that this is a perpetuall custom in the race of the Ottomans and among the Turkish Souldans to put all that pretend succession unto death Neither is it only a Turkish custom but it is also the practice of all such as are bewitched with such inordinate desire to rule as Kings to do the like For Plutarch writeth that Diotarus having many sons and desirous that only one of them should reign slew all the rest with his own hands and Justin saith that Horodes King of the Parthians killed his own Father and after that massacred all his brethren that he might reign and rule alone and the sacred story sheweth that the very people of God the sons of Israel were not free but pestered with this disease Judges 9. as Abimeleck the son of Gedeon slew seventy of his brethren in one day and played many other tragicall parts that he might make himself a King 2 Sam. 15.16 And the furious ambition of young Absolon did set him on fire to seek to end his Fathers dayes and to play the Parracide that he might reign in his Fathers place and so Zimri when he began to reign as soon as he sate on his throne he delayed not the time but presently slew all the house of Baasha 2 King 16.11 as Baasha had formerly done to all the posterity of Jeroboam he left him not one that pisseth against a wall neither of his kinsfolks nor of his friends And not to go from home for Examples Did not Henry the fourth put by Richard the second his own King and Cosen-German that he himself might be the King and did not Richard the 3d. cause the true King his brothers chidren his own Nephews the sons of Edward the fourth that were but children and never offended him to be done to death that he might wear the Crown himselfe And my papers would fail me if I should set down all the examples that I could produce of this nature for there is not any thing so sacred which the great men of this world that desire to be made greater will not dare to violate and spare neither King father brether nor friend to bring themselves to their desired advancement to be the rulers of the people and to have the power both of our lives and goods in their own hands as the proof is plainly seen in the foresaid examples and especially in Antoninus Caracalla who when he had most unnaturally and barbarously slain his own brother Geta even in his mothers lap and between her arms and being counselled by some friends to Canonize him among the Heroes and to place him with the Deastri to mitigate the thought of so execrable a fact answered like a vile Caitiffe Sit divus modò non sit vivus Let him be a god among the dead so he be not alive among men So great an enemy is the inordinate desire of raigning and ruling to all piety and right saith Camerarius l. 5. c. 8. And for Zimri's pretence to rectify the government to ease the people to establish the true service of God which King Elah and his Father Baasha had permitted to be continued as Jeroboam had corrupted it and to fulfill the Words of the Lord which he spake by Jehu the son of Hanani 1 King 16.2 I say these things were least in his thoughts and were but meer pretences and shadows to hide and cover his malice unto his King and his ambitious desire of bearing rule for he being a subject and a servant unto King Elah what warrant had he or what command from God to kill his King Jeroboam was the master piece of Idolatry and the ring-leader of them that made Israel to sin and yet I would fain know where God gives leave to his subjects to kill him for this intolerable impiety But when God setteth up Kings if they prove wicked to corrupt his service and to destroy his servants he can raise other Kings to punish them as he did Pharaoh King of Egypt and Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon to chastise and to remove the evill Kings of Judah or he can take them away by death or by twenty other waies that we know not of without making their own
subjects to become perjurers and rebels against their King but ambition and impatience are the two hands that pull down Kings out of their Thrones 1. Impatience in the subjects that can not tarry Gods leasure to relieve them 2. Ambition in those that desire the Crown and are bewitched with the inordinate desire of bearing rule Other things are but pretences these only are the causes that move subjects and servants to kill their Kings whom they think do misgovern them or Tyrannize over them 2. Having seen the hatred and malice of Zimri towards Elah The second thing ment oned which is Peace his Treason against his King his ingratitude to his Master and his most horrible sin of Murder in slaying his King and his Master We are now come to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the second thing mentioned in this speech of Jezabel and that is Peace Had Zimri peace which is a question what reward he had or rather what punishment he suffered for that tragicall exploit to kill his Master Had he peace for his pains And peace as I told you is the best and the most excellent of all earthly blessings and it is called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth quiet sweet gracious and by the Latins pax quasi pacata i.e. calm gentle courteous for so the Apostle meaneth when he saith that Rahab received the Spies with peace that is courteously Heb. 11.31 But you must understand that this blessed peace is two fold 1. Perfect And Peace two fold 2. Imperfect And 1. The perfect peace is not here to be found on earth 1 Perfect but among the blessed Saints in Heaven where is pax super pacem Perm Serm. 23. de verb. Psal pax quae exsuperat omnem sensum Peace upon peace and peace which passeth all understanding peace that shall have no end but will put an end to all our labours And this peace was not meant here by Jezabel she knew not what belongs to this peace 2. The other peace which Jezabol meaneth 2 Imperfect and this is threefold is that which may be obtained here on earth and that peace is three fold 1. With God 2. With our selves 3. With our neighbours The first peace is with God for our Forefather sinning against God 1 With God and eating the sower grapes hath set all our teeth on edge Esay 1.24 and made us all enemies unto God as the Apostle sheweth and God saith He will be avenged of his enemies and therefore there is no way for us to be delivered out of his hands unless we be reconciled to be at peace with him And at peace with God we cannot be but by faith in Jesus Christ who became peace to them that were a far off Eph. 2.17 and to them that were neer i. e. both to the Jews and to the Gentiles as S. Jerom expoundeth it The second peace is with our selves 2 With our selves for after we became enemies unto God posuit nos nobis ipsis graves God did not only arm all his creatures against us but he hath set enmity within our selves and raiseth such rebellions wars and troubles in our own thoughts and consciences that we can never be at rest untill we find our selves at peace with God but when we believe that our peace is made with God through Jesus Christ our Lord who hath paid our debts and satisfied God for our fins then our minds are quieted and our consciences are at peace and as our Saviour saith let not your hearts be troubled neither fear for I have overcome the world so nothing in the world troubles them that believe they are at peace with God The third peace is with men 3 With our neighbors that are without us and are our neighbours for sin hath set all the world together by the ears Non hospes ab hospite tutus But they that are at peace with God do obey the precepts and counsell of God to follow peace with all men and to do good to all men and these be the three kinds of peace that are had in this life and are the greatest blessings in this world And this last kind of peace i. e. peace and concord among men which is the more generall and the more sensible then the other kinds of peace was ever esteemed both of the Jews and Gentiles to be the greatest happiness that men can enjoy under heaven Et quia contraria juxta so posita magis elucescunt As the horror of the night commends the brightness of the day so the miseries of war do shew the benefits of this peace I will make this point plain unto you And war is called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of the abundance of blood that is shed in war and by Divines it is termed flagellum Dei the scourge of God and God hath many scourges as poverty sickness imprisonment but especially these three Grand Scourges 1. Three speciall scourges of God Famine 2. Pestilence 3. Sword Whereof war is the worst of all comprehends them all and brings them all upon us and therefore Homer saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is an unsociable and a most wicked man that will bring war which is the most deadly thing unto the people for then as Virgil saith Non ullus aratro Dignus honor There is no regard of husbandy Sed multae scelerum facies Et curvaerigidum falces conflantur in ensem And as Tibullus saith The plow Shares are turned to Swords Tunc caedes hominum generi tunc praelia natae Tunc breviter dirae mortis aperta via est And you see how in the time of war the poor infants that never offended do perish upon their mothers brests and many times in the womb before they see the light the goodly houses the stately Palaces the pleasant gardens that are like paradises the fruitfull trees that have been some hundreds of years before they came to this perfection are all burnt destroyed and demolished in a moment the poore are starved in the streets the fruitfull land is become a wilderness and as Learned Vives writing to King Henry the eighth saith No Common-wealth is more unstable then that which is most exercised with war as we see how often the Athenians came to their last gasp when as à Persis exustae à Lacedemoniis oppressae à Philippo fractae ab altero Philippo afflictae à Mithridate occisae à Sylla propedum deletae And warlike Rome was taken by Tatius besieged by Porsenna burnt by the Gaules terrified by Pyrrhus shaken by Hanniball and at last torn in pieces by her own weapons And the like lamentable events have hapned to this our own Kingdom in the time of the Barons war and that civill dissention betwixt the two houses of York and Lancaster wherein
flor aliâ— faedera regni And yet when God and nature and Scripture and all the wise men in the world and our own reason and experience tells us it is better for us to honour the King then Kings to obey one then many when as the wisest of men tells us plainly that for the transgressions of a Land many are the Princes thereof Prov. 28.2 but by a man of understanding the State shall be prolonged Shall we be so mad as to rebell against our King whom God commandeth us to honour and chuse unto our selves 400. Kings which God never appointed over us and never advised us to obey them which if you do I say it is not vanitas vanitatum but it is the folly of follyes but and iniquity of all iniquities and therefore deserveth justly to be punished with the misery of all miseries Wherefore I beseech you my brethren to follow the counsell of the Apostle and to obey the Precept of God to honor the King the King which he hath placed over you and leave the other Kings the usurping and imaginary Kings to their own shame But 2. As we are to honor the King and not Kings so we are to consider among other things 1. Quem and 2. Qualem Regem Both what King and what manner of King we are bound to honor for we are to waigh in every King 1. Modum assumendi 2. Normam gubernandi 1. The manner or the waies how any King cometh to his Kingdom 2. The rules by which he governeth and guideth the people that shall be under his charge 1. Hos 8.4 God saith of many Kings They have raigned but not by me As many men do Preach whom he hath not sent these are Vsurpers and come to their government without right And therefore we are not to honor them because though they should govern justly yet they have unjustly attained unto their government and I know not where we are commanded to be voluntarily obedient to Usurpers Others there are that do attain unto their Dominions and yet not all the same way for 1. Some come by the Sword 2. Others by the peoples choice 3. Others by the right of their birth And though the last is best and most authentick yet we may not reject the other two so far forth as they are from God for when rightfull Kings become with Nimrod to be unjust Tyrants God many times disposeth their Crowns as pleaseth him as he did the Kingdom of Saul unto David and Belshazzars unto Cyrus and the like and this Right is good as it proceedeth from God Who giveth victory unto Kings when as the Poet saith victrix causa Deo placuit And as Daniel saith he removeth Kings and setteth up Kings Dan. 2.21 and Job 34.24 And when Kings neglected their duty so far that the people knew not that they had any King or who had any right to be their King or when the people were so miserably handled by such foes as invaded them that they could not tell how to withstand them then as Herodotus saith of the Medes that chose Deioces which is the first elective King that I read of to be their Protector the people made choice of the chiefest man amongst them to be their King Or as we read of Abimeleck when he that had no right unto the Crown would cloak his Vsurpation by the election of the people this popular choice was held for a good way to maintain that Vsurped Authority And though I deny not the right of some Elective Kings because God out of his infinite lenity to our Human frailty rather then his people should be without Government doth permit and it may be approve the same when it is orderly done as he did the Bill of Divorcement unto the Jews yet if we should justly waigh the case of Abimeleck and as some say of Jeroboam who of all the Kings of Israel and Judah were only made by the suffrage of the people how unjustly they entred how wickedly they raigned and how lamentably the first that was without question the creature of the people ended both his life and his raign it would shew unto us how unsuccessefull it is to admit any other makers of our King then He that is the King of kings And the time will not permit me to set down the great and many mischiefs that happened to the children of Israel by these Elective Kings no less then at all times to cast off the service of God and in the end utterly to destroy themselves when by Salmanazar they were carried Captives unto Assyria never to return again to this very day But against all this the brood of Anabaptists will object as they do now positively teach that to be a King is but an ambitious intrusion into Authority when as Nimrod rather by humane violence Gen. 10.8 then by any Divine Ordinance became to be the first King that ever was in this World and therefore S. 1 Pet. 2.13 Peter calleth the establishing of Kings to be the ordinance of man I answer that the Scripture shall determine this question for Solomon saith Hearken O ye Kings hear ye that Govern the Nations Sap. 6.1 2 3. for power is given unto you by the Lord and principality by the most high And S. Paul saith There is no power but from God and whosoever resisteth the power Rom. 13.5 resisteth the Ordinance of God And Daniel saith to Nebuchadnezzar O King thou art the King of kings for the God of Heaven hath given thee a Kingdom Dan. 2.37 Power Strength and Glory and the Wisdom of God saith Prov. 18.15 Esay 45.1 Per me reges regnant And the Lord saith as much unto Cyrus and no less to Nebuchadnezzar And to make the point more plain by Examples I would demand Jer. 27.5 6. whether Moses his government over Israel was by his own intrusion or by the Ordinance of God And what shall I say of Saul when he sought his father Asses and of David when he fed the flock of Jesse was it their desire or Gods design that made them Kings And you may see how little Jehu dreamed of a Kingdom when Elisaeus sent one of the children of the Prophets To annoint him from the Lord to be King over Israel 2 King 9. Therefore S. Augustine saith Aug. de Civit. Dei that the greatness of Empires cometh neither by chance nor by destiny by chance he understandeth as he saith the things that happen beyond our knowledg of their causes or without any premeditated order of reason assisting their conception and birth and by destiny he understandeth as the Pagans deemed what happeneth without the will either of God or men by the inevitable necessity of some particular order which opinion is most injurious to Gods providence but we must certainly believe that Kingdoms are constituted and established simply and absolutely by the Divine Providence of God and in another pâ—ace he saith
that the same true God which giveth the Kingdom of Heaven to his children only giveth the Earthly Kingdoms both to the good and to the bad as he pleaseth yet alwaies justly And for Nimrod I say the words bear no more then he became mightier then other Kings or began to Tyrannize more then all the other Kings And for S. Peters words I say he means it only of Elective Kings Which in another place I shewed more fully than the time will now give me leave in what sense he calleth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore I say the calling of Kings is the proper Ordinance of God as it is fully and most learnedly shewed by a most Reverend Prelate of our Church lately published and intituled Sacro-Sancta Regum Majestas Howsoever as I said we condemn not as unlawfull the right of all Elective Kings yet we ought to acknowledg how much more bound we are to God that himself in a rightfull line of succession hath appointed our Kings to raign over us so that we need not fear the error of our Election if there be no error in our submission 2. As we are to consider quem whom so we ought to remember qualem what manner of King we are commanded to honor for as the unjust Vsurper may govern the people justly as they do sometimes and in some places so they that have just Titles to their Crowns may prove unjust in their Governments as too too many both of the Kings in Israel and Judah and I fear many other Kings have been And yet if they be our lawfull Kings be they what they will Cruell Tyrannous or Idolatrous or if you will put all together I say we are bound to honor them and no waies to Rebell against them for if thy Brother the son of thy Mother or thy son or thy daughter Deut. 13.6 or the wife of thy bosome or thy friend which is as thine own soul shall intice thee to Idolatry and to serve strange gods thine eye shall not spare him neither shalt thou have any pity upon him but for the son to rise up against the Father the wife against her Husband the servant against his Lord or the subject against his King here is not a word and we are not to do what the Lord doth not command as Tostat well observeth upon this place Therefore though Jeroboam made Israel to sin by setting up his calves to be adored Nâ—buchadnezzar commanded all his people to worship his Golden Image Ahab Manasses Nero Julian and the rest of the persecuting Emperors did most impiously compell their Subjects to Idolatry and exercised all kinds of cruelty against Gods servants yet you shall never find that either the Jews under Jeroboam or Daniel in Babylon or Elias in the time of Ahab or any Christian under Julian or the rest of those bloody Tyrants did ever rebell against any of those wicked Kings for they all considered the law of God and I beseech you all to consider it likewise 1. Exod 22.28 Moses saith Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy people yea though he should be evil yet must thou not speak evil of him for as thou art to honor thy Father not so much because he is good as because he is thy Father and therefore the son of Noah was accursed because he despised his Father when his father sinned so we are to honor our King and to speak no ill of him though he should be never so ill for Is it fit to say to a King Thou art wicked And to Princes Ye are ungodly Job 34.18 2. 2 Not to do the least indignity unto our King As we are to bridle our tongues so much more ought we to refrain our hands from offering the least violence unto our King When the Lord saith peremptorily Touch not mine annointed where he doth not say Non occides or ne perdas the worst that can be but ne tangas the least that may be neither doth he say Sanctos meos my holy ones but Christos meos my annointed ones whether they be holy or unboly good or bad therefore though Saul was a wicked King and a heavy persecutor of David without cause hunting him like a Partridge upon the Mountains and seeking no less then to take away his life yet when the men of David said unto him Behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand that thou maist do to him as it shall seem good unto thee what seemed good unto him Truely no waies to hurt him nor to do the least indignity unto him for his heart smote him because he had cut off the skirt of his robe and therefore he said unto his men 1 Sam. 24.4 5 6 The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my Master the Lords annointed to stretch forth my hand against him And why so because he is the annointed of the Lord that is not because he is a good man but because he is my King Nay we are not only forbidden to offer violence That we are to protect our King with the hazard of our lives but we are also injoyned to give our best assistance to protect the persons of our most wicked Kings for David not only staid his servants with the former words and suffered them not to rise against Saul but when Saul lay sleeping within his trench and David and Abishai took away his speare and had the power to destroy him What saith David unto Abner Art not thou a Valiant man And who is like thee in Israel Wherefore then hast thou not kept thy Lord the King This thing is not good that thou hast done as the Lord liveth 1 Sam. 15.16 ye are worthy to dye because you have not kept your Master the Lords annointed And if this thing is not good and David jesteth not but sweareth As the Lord liveth they are worthy to dye that preserve not the life of their King be he never so wicked then certainly this thing is not good and they are more then worthy to die that not only refuse to assist but also rise in Arms to persecute and to take away the life of a most Pious and a Gracious King So you see the person whom we are to honor the King whatsoever he be good or bad 2. The Honor that we are to exhibite unto him is to be considered out of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word so significant that it not only comprehendeth all the duty which we owe to our Father and Mother but it is also used to express most if not all the service of God when he saith If I am a father Malach. 1.5 where is my honor And therefore when Ahassuerus asked Haman What should be done unto the man Whom the King would honor he answered let the Royall apparell be brought which the King useth to weare and the Horse that the King rideth upon
sed hoc solo contentus quia praecipitur he that is truly obedient to him whom God commanded us to obey never regardeth what it is that is commanded so it be not simply and apertly evill but he considereth and is therewith satisfied that it is commanded and therefore doth it because as S Aug. saith The command of the Superiour is a sufficient excuse for the inferiour Mandatum imperantis tollit peccatum obedientis i.e. in all things not apparantly forbidden And therefore as Julians Christian-Souldiers would not sacrifice unto the Idols which was an apparent evil at his command Sed timendo potestatem contemnebant potestatem but in fearing the power of God regarded not the wrath of man yet when he led them against his enemies they never questioned who they were that they went against nor examined the cause of his war but they went freely with him Et subditi erant propter Dominum aeternum etiam Domino temporali and in all such civill commands they obeyed this wicked King for his sake that was the King of kings and it may be fought against their own brethren So did the Jews that followed Saul against David and yet we never read that ever they were blamed for it And so should we do the like if we would do what God commandeth us For it is not in the subject's choice against whom he will fight but he must be obedient to his King if he will be obedient unto God for so the Lord saith I have made the earth the man and the beast Jerem. 27.5 6. that are upon the ground by my great power therefore certainly none should deny his Right to dispose of it and now I have given all these Lands into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon my servant and yet he was both a Heathen and Idolater and a mighty Tyrant and all nations shall serve him and his son and his sons son and it shall come to passe that the nation and Kingdom which will not serve the same Nâ—buchadnezzar the King of Babylon and that will not put their necks under the oke of the King of Babylon that nation will I punish saith the Lord with the sword and with the famine and with the pestilence until I have consumed them by his hands Therefore hearken not ye unto your Prophets nor to your Divines which speak unto you saying Ye shall not serve the King of Babylon for they prophesie a lye unto you which he repeateth again and again they prophesie a lye unto you that you should perish Which very words I may take up against the Rebels of England Ireland and Scotland God gave these Kingdoms unto King Charles and they cannot deny this nor deny him to be a good man and a most religious King and He hath commanded us to obey him and they that will not serve him he will destroy them by his hand Therefore believe not your false Teachers whether they be the Priests and Jesuits of Ireland or the Brownists and Anabaptists of England for God hath not sent them though they multiply their lyes in his name because God hath so straightly commanded us to obey our King in all civil causes and in all things wherein he giveth not a special charge to do the contrary And therefore that which is most worthy to be observed though God himself for the sin of Solomon declared by his Prophet that he had decreed to cut off ten parts of the Kingdom from Rehoboam yet because the people revolted not to satisfie Gods justiâ—e for the sins of Solomon but out of their own discontents that he would not ease them of their burdens for this revolt from a foolish and an oppressing Prince they are termed Rebels 1 Kings 12.19 and as the Thief to prevent his discovery will commit murder scelus scelere regitur and one great mischief will shelter it self under a greater so their Rebellion corrupted their Religion and made them fall away from God to worship Idols as they had done from their King to serve a Traytor which soon brought them to confusion Because this revolt as it proceeded from them was most abominable unto God And therefore though they were not reduced to Rehoboam because that may pretend some cause as oppression yet this after a plenary disquisition can admit of none excuse and therefore being abominable above measure it cannot expect the least favour from God but they were most severely punished by God because they transgressed his will by thus rebelling against their King contrary to his Commandment 2. The other Caution is That if the King commandeth what the Lord forbiddeth or the contrary then I may disobey but I must not resist for this is the will of God that where my active obedience cannot take place my passive obedience must supply it And though our Kings were as Idolatrous as Manasses as Tyrannical as Nero as wicked as Ahab and as prophane as Julian yet we may not resist we must not Rebel which would overthrow the very order of nature Arnis de autâ—rit princ c. 3. pag. 68. as Arnisaeus proveth by many examples and takes away the glory of martyrdom and makes all the Precepts of the Gospel of none effect And therefore when the Christians in Tertullians time were more in number and of greater strength than their enemies yet being compelled to Idolatry they rather suffered any persecution than admitted of any Rebellion against the most wicked of their persecutors And Juâ—tinian faith Q is est tantae authoritatis ut nolentem principem possit coarctare Who hath so much power as to restrain an unwilling Prince And yet it is very strange to consider what new Divinity hath been taught ex cathedra pestilentiae out of the chair of our new Assembly to raise Rebellion against our King and that which is worse than Rebellion to refuse the grace of Remission The Scribes and Pharisees were most wicked hypocrites and they sate in Moses chair but they never durst teach such tenets as now are published and practised in these Kingdoms And therefore our Saviour saith Math. 23.3 All that they bid you observe that observe and do Indeed there were some Hereticks among them that in the dayes of Theudas and Judas Galilaeus taught That the Jews were not to pray for the life of the Emperour because he was but extraneous an Vsurper and none of their lawful Kings for which errour Pilate mingled their blood with their sacrifice but these never durst avouch they should not pray for their own lawful King much lesse that they might rebel and take up arms against him Joseph Antiq. though he were never so wicked For they knew that the holiest men that ever were among the Hebrews called Essaei or Esseni that is the true Practisers of the Law of God maintained that Soveraign Princes whatsoever they were ought to be inviolable to their subjects as they were in most places among the most
barbarous Heathens And therefore no doubt but these Jews and these Gentiles shall rise in judgement and condemn our most wicked and rebellious generation But you will say What if my King seek to kill me for so now the Rebels have ascended to that height of impiety that they are not ashamed thus slanderovsly to taxe him and most falsely to accuse him Doth not nature it self teach me that common principle vim vi pellere and rather kill him than suffer my self to be killed To resolve this Question I demand of thee What if thy father seek to kill thee Mayest thou rather kill him than be killed First thou must know That the father next under God is the cause of the very Being 2 The sons obligation to his father is more than ever he can do to requite it and the giver of the life of his son so is not the son of the father 2. The father as I proved upon the 5th Commandment had under the Law of Nature and for many years after Moses potestatem vitae necis the power of life and death over all his children and the children unlesse they grew very ungracious and more than unnatural never durst resist them otherwise when God commanded Abraham Gen. 22.2 to offer up Isaac for a burnt-offering he might have answered First that he had no right to do it Secondly that he was old and feeble and the Lad was young and lusty as you see he was better able to carry the wood upon his shoulders than his father and therefore he might fear his son would be his death if he went about to sacrifice him But Abraham knew that his son was better taught and that nature shewed him The child should not with cursed Cham despise his father no not in his sin much lesse to resist him in his right And yet the King to whom the Paternal-right is transferred is more than any private Father for he is the publique Father of us all under whom we we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty 1 Tim. 2.2 as the Apostle speaketh and without whom we can have neither our Estates enjoyed nor our Persons secured from the violence of the strongest but that every one shall be exposed to the will of him that can master him which was the case of the Jewes when there was no King in Israel and will be little better with us if God doth not preserve our King And therefore men though they may flee with David to preserve their lives yet ought not to offer violence unto their King though he should prove as wicked as Saul was to David without cause to seek to take away their lives then certainly most wicked are those men that rebell and fight against a good King that expendeth his own fortunes and exposeth his own life to preserve the Estates and Lives of all his loyall subjects but to proceed 3. The last branch of that honour which I said was due unto our King 3 To assist our King is aid and assistance in all his urgent necessities which aid we all confesse to be due and yet few of us will believe or can endure scarce to hear the truth how far this aid is to be extended How far the aid that we owe unto our King extendeth I must tell you what the Scripture saith that it comprehendeth 1. Our Estates For 2. Our Persons For 1. He that bids us render unto God what is Gods 1 To the uttermost of our abilities bids us also render unto Caesar what is Caesars and S. Paul tells you that this tribute is due unto him Indeed when there is no urgent necessity it is a great deal seemlier for the Majesty of a King as Artax said to give then to take by pulling from his subjects and it is a golden Apothegm of King James unto his Son where he saith Enrich not your self with exactions from your Subjects but think the riches of your Subjects your best treasure And so it is generally conceived that whosoever in the time of peace overchargeth his subjects with taxations either for his own Luxury or to enrich his Favourites is very unwise because he that ruleth over men must be just 2 Sam. 23.3 ruling in the fear of God and Justice tells us he must take nothing from any man but when necessity requireth And then the ordinary glosse and Mr. Calvin also saith Neque nostrum est vel principibus praescribere quantum in res singulas impendant vel eos ad calculum vocare It is neither our part to prescribe how much they shall expend nor to call them to an account for their expences that account must be given to a higher Judge But we read that when Saul was annointed to be King over Israel Samuel told him he should come to the Plain of Tabor and there should meet him three men going up to God to Bethel one carrying three kids another carrying three loaves of bread and another carrying a bottle of wine and they should salute him and give him two loaves of bread which he should receive of their hands which thing wanted not a mystery but was an embleme as Divines make it of the right of Kings in their necessities The mystery of the gift of the men that met Saul unfolded two parts of three which was a very great proportion and yet we find that divers of the heathens went much further when after the coronation of their Kings most of his subjects especially the Nobility and those of any Fortunes presented unto him a Purse with a key hanging thereat by which Hierogly phick they shewed that all their treasure was submitted to his necessities he might unlock their Store-horse and put into his Purse What the heathens did give unto their Kings whatever pleased him because they conceived it right that he which protected all should have the use of any part of all when his necessity did require it and seeing they were bound to expose their persons for him they saw no reason they should detain their estates from him because my life should be dearer unto me then all my wealth And if our King had such subjects as these Heathens I think he needed not to have wanted to supply his necessities But our Kings are not like Augustus that taxed all the world as much as he pleased nor like Charles the fifth Qui immania tributa populis imperavit as Oscrius writeth nor like the Eastern Kings that impose upon their subjects what they will but of their speciall grace and favour have granted such priviledges and made such concessions limitations and pactions with their subjects as cannot be discussed or expressed within my limited time to set down how far and to shew how well or ill they were concluded and therefore all that I shall say herein is this that we ought to consider how far God requireth us to assist our King and take heed
us likewise that are his under-shepherds that we should undergo all dangers to save and to protect our sheep and as S. Bernard saith Custodia civitatis ut sit sufficiens trifaria est the guard and safe custody of Gods City and sheep-fold of Christ if it be sufficient must be three-fold 1. A Vi tyrannorum 2. A fraude haereticorum 3. Ã Temptationibus daemonum Three most excellent properties of a good Shepherd And truly the sheep of Christ had never more need to be protected and defended from this three-headed Gerion then now they have For 1. In the Primitive Church though they had Tyrants to oppress them and Persecutors to destroy them yet then they were all at unity among themselves and the seamless coat of Christ was still unrent and therefore Sanguis martyrum semen ecclesiae the blood of the Martyrs did fatten the field of Gods Church and made it to bring forth fruits more abundantly But now the coat of Christ is torn in pieces far worse then Jeroboams garment that was cut in ten parts and the Church of God is filled with Sects and Heresies so that the poor sheep of Christ know neither where the fold is nor who is the true Shepherd 2. In the time of the Arians Novatians Eutichians Nestorians and others the like Heresiarches though they infested the Church with damnable doctrines and as that traiterous villain Turkish Histo corrupted by Amurath the sixth King of the Turks poysoned the well of Sfetigrade that watered the whole City with the carkass of a dead dog so did they seek to poyson the pure fountain of the holy Scriptures with the stinking carrion of their rotten glosses yet the Christian Emperours and the other pious Kings and Princes stretched forth their hands to assist the care and wisdome of the reverend Prelates to suppress the Hereticks and to root out all the bitter weeds of false doctrine from Gods Church But now Psal 86.14 as the Prophet David saith O God Princes have persecuted me without cause and the assemblies of violent men naughty men saith the vulgar that have not set thee before their eyes seek after my soul and after the soul of thine anoynted So I fear the Bishops may now say That Princes do hate them without a cause and for seeking to root out the damnable Doctrines of the Sectaries the assemblies of terrible men as the Original hath it that set not God before their eyes do seek after our souls And that we might be environed with enemies on all sides Hell is broken loose as Edwards one of their own Presbyterians saith and Satan is set at liberty to poure forth out of the bottomless pit those locusts that you read of Rev. 9.3 whose shapes were like horses prepared unto battel because their whole heart is for war to imbrue their hands in blood and to destroy all the true Prelates and yet their hair were as the hair of women that is very specious and lovely to behold when they pretend nothing but a perfect Gospel-discipline and a pure Heavenly doctrine beating downe the Antichristian Pope and the worshipping of Saints Images Pictures and all Impieties but their teeth were as the teeth of Lions that is devouring all that ever we have and all that shall come within their reach as all the patrimony of the Church and all the fleeces of Christ his Flock and their tails are like Scorpions that have their stings in their tailes to make the catastrophe and conclusion of their doings very grievous and most lamentable as I fear it will be found at last unless God will be so merciful unto us as to help us And if you would know whom these locusts might signifie I assure my self they be now the rable rout of Priests Jesuits and Friars in the Church of Rome and the multitude of Presbyterians Anabaptists Independents and other sectaries here amongst us that like Ephraim and Manasses do conspire together on both sides to shoot at and to shoot through the true Protestant Bishops and to destroy all their Protestant flocks by making them either superstitious Papists or wild wandering Sectaries as bad if not worse then the other I must tell you my mind without fear And therefore 3. The Sheep of Christ and his Under-shepherds being thus invironed with Wolves Foxes and the like ravenous Beasts their temptations are greater and the assaults of Satan are more violent then ever they were which is the cause that so many men do start aside like a broken bow and Satans book is filled with the names of apostata's that either for the desire and love of preferment to get a living or a good Sallary from the Usurpers or else for fear of losing their preferment and to be deprived of their means which are the two engines that the Tempter useth against the Shepherds Ver. 12 13. and do as our Saviour speaks of the hireling that is to leave their sheep to the mercy of the Wolves yea and to assist the Wolves and the Foxes the Hereticks and Schismaticks 4th Duty is to watch that our shepherd go not astray to lead away and drive the poor Sheep into the wilderness and thickest of all errours to destroy them And therefore 4. As Christ came down from Heaven to discharge the fourth duty of a good Shepherd that is to watch over his sheep that they should not wander or if they do stray to seek them that are lost as he testifieth himself that he came To seek the lost sheep of the house of Israel so he commandeth us his under-shepherds to doe the like and to use all diligence to reduce and regain the wandering sheep to Christ when they are perverted by the instruments of the Antichrist and truly it is a shame for us as Rusticus Diaconus saith to see how sedulous they are to seduce the poor people and to lead the sheep of Christ out of the right way and with the Scribes and Pharisees to gain Proselites unto themselves Nos autem pro veritate frigidiores in venire and to finde us cold in the defence of truth and to reduce the erroneous unto the right way which notwithstanding is too too commonly seen in the world because as our Saviour saith the children of this world are wiser in their generation then the children of light and we see Judas takes more paines to betray Christ then his Disciples did to attend their Saviour for he runs from the garden to the high Priest How diligent the wicked are and the godly negligent and from the high Priest to the garden and then from the garden in a short space to the gallows and his Disciples were so careless that they slumbered and slept and so do we and while we sleep the envious enemy by these his instruments soweth the tares of errours and heresies in the field of Gods Church But though we neglect our duties yet you see that Christ in all the foresaid respects Christ
of death for the King then to be perswaded for what pretense of good soever and by whomsoever were it an Angel out of Heaven to consent unto his death is to become guilty of a great fault and to say that he was perswaded thereunto by the Bishops whose fault was therefore greater then his Majestie 's can no more excuse him then for the man of God to say that he was seduced by the old Prophet And therefore this might be a just cause with God to suffer him that to satisfie sinful men would offend his good God by giving way to them to take away the life of an innocent man to have his own life taken from him even by those men to whom he had yielded to take away the life of another man which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conformity of our punishment to our offence and is nothing else but lex talionis an eye for an eye a tooth for tooth and death for death which was the first Law that God published after the Deluge saying Whosoever sheddeth man's blood that is either per se as Cain did Abel or per alium as David did Vriah's and Ahab Naboth by Act or it may be by consent by man shall his blood be shed Secondly touching the Bishops my self knoweth that he loved them all and honoured their Calling very much being fully satisfied of the truth of their Divine and Apostolical Institution as appeareth by that learned and exquisite defence that himself most graciously made against the Presbyterians of the Episcopal Order and he was indeed a right Constantine to all the Bishops rather hiding their infirmities if he spyed any fault in them with the Lap of his Garment then any ways multiplying or publishing the same unto the People And this was a most Christian course in him for I may justly say Victima sacra Deo res est succurrere Cleris And as our Saviour saith of them He that receiveth you receiveth me And the Bishops of all other his Subjects were his most loyal Servants and most faithful Oratours never thwarting their King nor crossing any of his just Designs but ever cleaving unto his Cause and voting on his side so far as truth and right and a good Conscience would give them leave contrary to which his Majesty never desired any thing And therefore when the King saw the malice of most wicked men qui oderunt eos gratis and did bear an intestine hatred against these true Servants of God and did strive manibus pedibúsque with all their might against all justice to thrust them out of their undoubted Right by the favour we confess of our most pious Princes for him as we conceive against his own mind and to his own prejudice to please and satisfie the implacable hatred of his and their enemies to pass an Act to exclude the Bishops out of his Great Council the Parliament when above thirty Acts of Parliament had confirmed their right Interest therein since the confirmation of Magna Charta was an errour as I conceive not salvable and a fault that cannot be justly excused by his best Friends and therefore God might justly suffer all his Counsels to fail and his Counsellours to become perfidi familiares his familiar Traytours such as the Poet speaks of Saepe sub agnina latet hirtus pelle Lycaon Subque Catone pio perfidus ille Nero. And though I do not nor dare not say it was so yet I may say that for this God might so give way to his Enemies to prevail against him and to thrust him out of his Kingdom when he gave way to thrust his Embassadours out of his house which is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and even as Solomon divided God's Service betwixt God and the Idols of Zidon Moab and Ammon 1 Reg. 11. c. 12. so God divided his Kingdom betwixt his Son Rehoboam and his Servant Jeroboam so might he deal with King Charles when he yielded to expel the Bishops that were his true Friends and God's Servants out of his Council to suffer his Enemies to exclude him out of his Kingdom and not unjustly or without cause neither as the same proceeds from God whose ways are always just for who could better declare the right and truth of things unto the King then the Expounders of the Book of Truth Who could advise and direct him to make better and juster Laws then the Teachers of the Law of God and who fitter to judge of right and to require Justice to be enjoyned and practised by all People then they whose Calling is continually to call upon all men to live godly and soberly and justly in this present World Why then should they be excluded from the Seat of Justice either in the making of Laws or to see those Laws executed unless it were that the Lay-Justices might do what they would without shame and what they pleased without controul when as heretofore the reverend Presence of the Bishops and grave Divines and their sage Counsel did oftentimes stop the Current of Injustice and made some ashamed of some gross dealings that in their absence they were not ashamed to have effected and therefore I suppose I may justly say that as it was said of the Emperour Justinian when he caused Aetius his brave General to be cut off he had cut off his right Arm with his left Hand so did King Charles when he pâ—ssed that Act that prejudiced himself more then the Bishops Thirdly touching the Parliament we must understand that Parliaments were first instiâ—uted by the Kings of this Nation to inform them of the Abuses Dangers and Defects which the Lords and Peers and the wiser sort of their Subjects which each Countrey had elected and the chief Cities had chosen for that purpose had observed and to advise and consult with their King de arduis rebus Regni of these and all other difficult and great Affairs of the Kingdom as the Writs that call them together do declare and then to consider by what good means the Dangers of the Kingdom might be prevented by what Laws ' the abuses might be redressed and which ways the peace of the People might be preserved and the happiness of all his Subjects continued and enlarged and if they understood of any sorreign dangers invasions or injuries to consult how the same might be prevented and rectified And when the King understood what his Lords and Commons conceived fitting to be done He with the Advice of His Council ratified what he approved and rejected what he disliked with the usual phrase in that kind But in process of time the Parliament-men as I heard wise men say began to incroach more and more upon the Rights of Majesty upon the Power and Authority of the King especially of those Kings that either had no Right or at the best but doubtful Titles unto the Crown or those that were of less Abilities or of an easie and facile disposition and would soon be perswaded
more then thirty three years olde by his malitious enemies so the like enimies have shortened the life of this good King and cut him off at the eight and fourtieth year of his age yet as Esay saith of Christ Generationem ejus quis enarrabit who shall be able to declare his Generation for he shall see his seed and shall prolong his days and as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me saith the Lord so shall his seed and his name remain that is for ever and ever so I doubt not to say of King Charles that howsoever and for what cause soever the wisdom of God hath been pleased to permit his enemies to shorten that life which at the best and to the best is accompanied with abundance of infelicities yet instead of that Crown which was replenished with cares and circumvironed with thorns and which his persecutors have snatched from him God hath now crowned him with eternal felicity and hath set a crown of pure gold upon his head that is as himself said the crown of Martyrdom which is the crown of the greatest glory because none can go higher or do more for Christ then to dy for Christ for the defence of the service and servants of God and the laws of this Kingdom as he testified upon the Scaffold And so the Lord hath dealt with him just as he saith of his chosen people for a small moment have I forsaken thee that is while I suffered thine enemies so furiously to rage against thee and so maliciously to behead thee but with great mercies will I gather thee In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment when in justice I punished thee for thine errors those small things wherein thou hast failed but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee when as now I make thee to be numbred with my Saints in glory everlasting Therefore as Balaam wished that he might dy the death of the righteous and that his last end might be like his Numb 23 10. so from my soul I wish that my soul may rest as I hope it shall when it leaves my body with this righteous King that doth now rest in Abraham's bosome CHAP. II. SEcondly For of his other subjects that were against him I shall speak in an other place touching the King's subjects that honoured loved and served him and were of his party and have been and still were persecuted banished killed and afflicted so long as the Tyrants ruled they are either 1. Clergy or And 2. Laity or And First as for the Clergy that are the other second witness of Jesus Christ they are either 1. the Bishops 2. the Priests And whatsoever hath befallen to these or to either of these I may truly and justly say with Ezra Ezra ix 13. and God hath punished us less then our iniquities deserved First Touching the Bishops that are the prime part of the spiritual Witness of Christ I do cordially love all their persons and honour their calling being all of them very learned and most reverend men and therefore not to discover the nakedness of such worthy Fathers whose imperfections and imbecillities like neves in a fair face I had rather with the good King like the most Christian Constantine cover with the lap of my garment then expose them to the view of the Vulgar but yet to justify the doings of our just God whose Judgments alwaies are according to truth I must say as Christ saith to the Angel that is the Bishop of the Church of Ephesus and to the Angel of the Church of Pergamus that God had somewhat against them and I fear more then he had against those Angels for which he might most justly remove their candlesticks and remove them Two things considerable in all Clergy-men as he did out of their places For there be two things considerable in the calling of all God's Ministers as well those of the highest as the other of the lowest order 1. Their introduction or coming into their places 2. The Execution of their office after they are entred into it For first Their entrance into that holy calling So the Articles of our Church and of our religion testify Whosoever shall not be called by the spirit of God to the great office as Aaron was or shall not enter through the gate that is Christ or the Ordinance of Christ set down by his holy Apostles is a thief and a robber and not the Vicar of Christ but of Judas Iscariot and of Simon the Samaritan but whether all our Bishops came rightly in I cannot judg we cannot search into the testimony of any man's conscience yet for the investigation of the truth and the outward election and approbation of them which Dionysius calleth the Sacrament of Order I am sure the King was so careful that none should be admitted to that high and holy office but such as should be thought worthy both for uprightness of life and soundness of learning of those places whereof most of them The execution of their office if not all of them he knew to be such himself 2. For the execution of their office they were to do it 1. by the example of a good life 2. by the discharging of their Episcopal duties First By a good example of a just and holy conversation because By a good example as the Poët saith Exemplar vitae populis est vita regentis The common people look rather after our example then after our Precept Christs slock to be sed three ways therefore the Expositours do apply the thrice repetition of the same thing to Saint Peter Feed my Sheep to a threefold manner of feeding that is 1. Pasce verbo 2. Pasce cibo 3. Pasce exemplo First Feed them with the word of God and with good instruction With the word of God how they ought to behave themselves as becometh Saints and what to believe like good Christians 2 With Alms-deeds Secondly Feed the poorer sort with food and alms-deeds so far as thy means and ability will give thee leave Thirdly Feed all of them with the good examples of humility meekness With good examples gentleness patience piety contentedness and contempt of these worldly vanities And here I must confess that instead of giving good Example unto the People many of the Bishops that were our Predecessours gave the worst example that could be both to their succeeding Bishops and to all other people whatsoever The evil Example of our Predecessors if the example of covetousness injustice and neglect of God's Service be evil examples for what pious men and good Christians had formerly bestowed upon the Church and Church-men for the honour of God and the promoting of the Christian Faith they either through covetousness for some Fine or affection to their Children Friends or Servants have alienated the same from their Successours in Fee-Farmes or long Leases some for a 1000. some for an 100. years Whereby we
fall that would not help him to stand which agonized strived and sweated to keep them up And yet I will shew you greater abomination for Thirdly The greatest fault of the Bishops When the Parliament thirsted after the blood and so eagerly sought to take away the life of that good and wise Earl of Strafford and the King like a just and a Christian King would not against his Conscience consent unto his death to shed the blood of him whom he conceived if not innocent yet not worthy of death nor guilty of the crimes laid to his charge they chose some Bishops to perswade the King and to rectific his Conscience as they pretended wherein he erred and they were the heads of the people the heads of the Clergy and the chiefest amongst the Bishops two Arch-Bishops and two of the prime Bishops that I can name and these all but one * The Bishop of London which I am sure herein was the honester the wiser and the more Christian advised the King and I pray God the Earl's blood be not laid to their charge howsoever after they had been with the King the King was induced to subscribe unto his death though still with some reluctancy of his own Conscience as himself confessed which makes me to conceive it was for none other cause then as Pilate delivered Christ to be crucified for fear of some evil if he denied it or as Herod committed St. Peter unto the Goal to please the people that would needs have it so so did the Bishops so did the King though unwillingly commit this great evil to satisfie the desire of the long Parliament but O Lord I hope and am sure thy mercy is such that thou hast not laid this to the charge of him that was deceived by those guides that with Balaam had their eyes open Numbers 24.15 and yet did set a stumbling-block before the blinde and therefore are the more inexcusable who knowing the judgement of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not onely joyn with the Parliament themselves though not in that sentence yet in approving by not disproving the sentence of his death but also be the means at leastwise ut causa sine qua non to draw the King to deliver him into the hands of his Executioners Who then but such as with the Sodomites do grope for the wall in the clear day can not see the judgment of God to be most just against us and far less then we deserve to suffer the Parliament to thrust us out of their Society when we would be companions with them in this Iniquity and to put all the Bishops out of their Honourable calling when the chiefest of them would have any Finger with the Parliament to put such an honourable person out of his life a person The just commendation of the Earl of Strafford for a true Friend of the Church that I dare say it upon my knowledg did more favour and more good to the Church and Church-men then any man except the King in these three Kingdomes for as men that saile in a Ship when a Storme cometh must all both good and bad endure the same loss so the Bishops sayling with the same winde must all perish with their heads in the same Boat And as their sufferings and the judgment of God was most justly inflicted upon them all in general as we may conceive for these master-faults and the general corruption that was amongst them not much inferior if true to those wherewith Corn. Agrippa taxeth the Roman Prelates so I could descend to everie particular man and shew you how the violent death of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the sudden death of the Arch-Bishop of York and the Childishness of the Arch-Bishop of Armath and whatsoever disaster befell to any other of them they have for some offence or other more then most justly deserved the same But I love not to rake in the dunghil of their shame and dishonour wherein I have no other pleasure but to amplifie the Declaration of the just Judgments of God even upon these otherwise most worthy men and the faithfull witnesses of Jesus Christ and upon the sight hereof to teach every one of them and every like of them to say with Job I do abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes and to proclaim it with Saint Paule to all the World Let God be true and just and every man a lyar and every one of them to have more cause to rejoyce and to praise God that he hath so favourably spared them then either to complain and murmur or to grieve that he hath too severely dealt with them and to warn all men to consider 1 Pettr 4.17 that if these things be done in the green trees what shall be done in the drie and if judgment thus begins in the house of God and upon his own faithfull Witnesses for their delinquences what shall be end of them that obey not the Gospel of Christ Secondly 2 The Insetior Clergy For the other Clergy the Priests that have suffered and felt the rod of Gods anger within these few years wherein the Wars raged amongst us I may distribute them into these two Ranks that is either 1. Presbyterians or 2. Episcopalls or First Revel xiii 11. The Presbyterians are the false Prophets and the Beast that rose out of the Earth and they were duces omnium malorum the Fountaine from whence sprang all the mischief they hated both the King and the Bishops and therefore contrary to their oathes taken many times both of their Faith and allegiance to the King and of their submission and canonical obedience to their Diocessans have rebelled against their King and railed against their Bishops and became the incendiaries and the bellows to blow and to inflame that fierie zeal of some of our blinde zelots and the infernal malice of some others both of the Parliament Citties and Countries to dethrone the King and to degrade the Bishops And truly The causes of the differences and distast betwixt the Bishops and presbyterians 1 On the Bishops part though I have deligently searched into the cause of this mischief yet I could never fide it to be any other then First too much austerity superciliousness and neglect if not contempt of these men in some of the Bishops for which they cannot be excused when of all others they should be curteous and affable like Pompey of whom it is Recorded that no Petitioner departed from him discontented because he either granted his request or he gave such reasons with that curtesie and affability that the Petitioner could not be offended and as Titus the Son of Vespatian was wont to say non oportet quemquam a Caesaris colloquio tristem discedere so should a Bishop especially endeavour to let none of his coat and calling to depart from him in discontent Sueton. in vita Titi. if reasons and faire speeches could do the same Multum quippe placent
unsearchable ways to pull down the pride of men and to cross the ambition of aspiring spirits should not rather fear to deal unjustly and be contented with his own unblameable station then seek to raise himself by unwarrantable courses and especially such as are by the downfall of others When as Pliny writeth of the Hart-wolf Quamvis in fame mandens si respexerit aliud oblivionem cibi subrepere aiunt digressumque quaerere illud c. that be he never so hungry and eating yet if he seeth another prey Venator sequitur fugientiae capta relinquit Semper inventis ulteriora petit Ovid. Amor. lib. 2. he forsakes his meat and followeth after the same and thereby doth oftentimes like Aesops Dog lose the morsel in his mouth by snatching at the shadow in the water so the ambitious covetous wretches making no account of what they have but greedily and unjustly hunting after more do by the just judgement of God amittere certa dum incerta petunt as Plautus saith lose what they justly had by their unjust seeking of what they should not look after Secondly The Episcopal Clergy For those Clergy-men that were not the Members of the false Prophet but were Royalists and the approvers of the Episcopal Function and yet have not escaped the fierie tryal but have been driven through fire and water and have suffered many heavy things to be plundered of their Goods deprived of their Livings and often times detained in Bonds or driven to flie from their house and home I say that besides other causes best known to God into whose secrets we dare not dive we know good reasons that they were not thus handled without good cause nor any ways unjustly dealt withall by the just God as specially if there were nothing else but because they were not 1. Either right Royalists or 2. Right Episcopals but as the Poet saith of the Maremaid Desinit in piscem mulier formosa superné or like those half-Christians that begin in the spirit but end in the flesh or those Apostles that would build Tabernacles to remain with Christ on Mount Tabor where he was transfigured in glory but will flinch away and forsake him on Mount Calvary when his face was filled with ignominy so they like the Jews in Elias his time halted betwixt God and Baal were staggering betwixt the King and the Parliament and tottered betwixt the Bishops and the Presbyters as doubtful what would be the event and issue of this debate For 1. Divers indeed loved the King and approved his Cause as most just and right and their Consciences told them how far they were obliged even by God's word to honour and obey him in all his just Commands and to assist him against his unjust enemies but they like Ephraim that was as a Cake baked on the one side or like the Church of Laodicea that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were termed a righteous people and yet were neither hot nor could but luke-warm in their Profession so were these men as they pretended for the King but did nothing against the Parliament nor any thing to any purpose for the King for had they all with their tongues and with their pens hi scriptis illi verbis published and thundered it out like Trumpets unto their several Congregations and to all the World how unjustly and how unchristian-like it is for any Subjects to rebel and to warr against their King and how far they and all other true Subjects and good Christians are bound in Conscience and obliged by God's Word to defend him whom they know without question is their undoubted King and had they themselves to give good examples unto their people opened their purses and extended their bounty to the uttermost of their power and sent their Servants and their Children to assist his Majesty I doubt not but am sure of it that they had herein pleased God and in all probability defended the King and freed themselves from that yoak of Tyranny and all those burthens and afflictions that since the Parliament prevailed were imposed upon them and they were necessitated to undergo them but they were such as Pliny speaks of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mouthless men that could not or would not speak a word in the King's cause and they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men without hands able to do nothing or at least willing to do nothing for him that underwent all his trouble for the Church and Church-men And therefore when they neglected their duty to do what in their Consciences they were perswaded they should do it was most just that they should suffer what they would not suffer because the sins of omission are as punishable as the sins of commission and he that is not with me saith our Saviour is against me and he that gathereth not scattereth abroad and so the Angel cursed Meroz and cursed bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not forth to help Israel against Jahin King of Canaan and so they are justly punished that being in their hearts for the King they did not with their tongues hands and purses do the uttermrst of their endeavours to aid and assist the King for as the Poet saith Foederis haec species id habet concordia signum Vt quos jungit amor jungat ipsa manus Our hands should ever go with our hearts and I am confident had all we that in our hearts were for the King given to his Majesty in time the fifth part of that which the Parliament hath since plundered and wrested from us we might by the assistance of God have preserved both our King and our selves from all the miseries and losses that the Parliament hath since brought upon us and what fools were we to save our wealth and shut our purses to enrich our enemies and to impower them to destroy our selves O let ns never do so again Secondly For those that approved of Episcopacy and had subscribed to the Articles and allowed the Liturgy of our Church and were in their Consciences perswaded of the purity and excellency thereof the same being composed by those godly Martyrs that weeded all superstition and superfluities from it and then sealed the rest that was inoffensive and pious with their blood and the same also being justified by all the convocations of all the Bishops and Clergy ever since and accordingly confirmed by acts of Parliament throughout the reign of four most pious Princes for the space of well near one hundred years for them I say through hope to save and to retain their livings and so for the love of the World to comply with the Parliament and to embrace their directory so indirectly to serve God every Presbiter after his own fancy and to omit the whole set form of God's Worship injoyned to be observed in all Churches save onely the reading of a Psalm and two Chapters which notwithstanding they did not according to the Rubrick and to
prophane all Holy-daies even those that are set apart for the Commemoration of the blessed Birth Circumcision and Ascension of our only Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and all other days that the former Saints and the whole Church of Christ had appointed for the children of God to meet to give thanks to God for the great blessings that all we had received from him I demand of any man even themselves being Judges if it be not very just that they should be plundred and pressed and even lose their livings which have so unjustly and so perfidiously done those things in hope to retain their livings for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non te latuerit O supreme Jupiter horum malorum quisquis autor extitit The Heathen man can tell us God will not be mocked neither can we blinde the all-seeing eyes of God nor hide our selves out of his sight when we do commit such evils and Christ tells us plainly he that saveth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for his sake shall finde it And were the Martyrs so ready to lose their lives for his sake and shall we be so unwilling to forgo a little worldly pelf and some small living for his sake that tells us plainly whatsoever we give or lose for his sake we shall be required an hundred-fold and shall receive eternal life Let them therefore that will if not out of faction or ignorance but for the love of their livings reject our inoffensive and divine Liturgy that is so conducing to peace and good order so little obnoxious to any just exception and so exceeding profitable for the instruction of the people for mine own part I know it to be the true service of the true God and the best way that I know to serve God and therefore by God's help I will never omit it nor be guided by their directory for all the livings that they could or can heap upon me and I pray God it be not layd to their charge that to comply with the factious opposers of it or to retain their livings have done it to betray the service of God and to lay aside those heavenly prayers that were made by holy Saints and approved by all the best Doctours of the Church and appointed by authority to be used to help the devotion of God's people and in the stead thereof to authorise or at least by their example to encourage every Ignoramus to prate nonsence and sometimes to belch out blasphemies in his prayers to God and in the face of the Church without shame God forgive them Secondly For the lay-subjects of the King that have had their part in the miseries of these latter days The lay-subjects I speak onely of those that in their Consciences approved of their King's cause for his enemies their portion perhaps is yet unpaid I may divide them into two ranks just as were the followers of Gideon 1. Judges vii 7. Some were faint hearted and they were the greatest part and that by much 2. Others were very faithful and couragious but they were by far the smalest number not above 300. of 32000. so were the following subjects of King Charles First The faint-hearted Royalist the fainthearted subjects that loved the King and wished that he might prosper and prevail against his Adversaries but feared the powerful numerous multitude of the Parliament abettors that were very many and were just like the Inhabitants of Meroz that hated the Cananites but did nothing for the Israelites so did these nothing or so little as nothing for the King and for their fellow-subjects that were with him And yet the Scholes tell us and so do the Heathens also that Qui potest liberare alium non liberat occidit he that can deliver another that is from anundeserved death as in his Conscience he believeth is innocent and delivereth him not killeth him and is thereby guilty of his blood and the Canonists do say Scotus in sent dist 15. decret secunda parte c. usa 23. q. 3. Et Seneca passimâ— qui succurrere perituro potest cum non succurrâ—t occidit And Cicero saith Nâ—l habet fortuna majus quam ut possit nec nâ—turametius quaÌ„ ut velit servare Pro. xxiv 11 12. qui non repellit injuriam à Socio cùm potest tam est in vitio quam qui facit he that hindereth not an injury or a wrong that is done his fellow when it lyeth in his power to do it is as much in fault as he that doth the injury and Solomon saith If thou faint in the day of Adversity thy strength is smal and if thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain and sayest behold we knew it not doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it and he that keepeth thy Soul doth not he know it and shall not he render to every man according to his works and the Prophet David biddeth us to defend the Fatherless and the Widdows and to see that such as be oppressed have right which was the practice of Job as himself confesseth and of Moses also when he killed the Aegyptian to deliver the oppressed Israelite out of his hands and the Poet that knew no more then what the dim Light of Nature shewed him saith Turpe erit in miseris veteri tibi rebus amico Auxilium nulla parte tulisse tuum Ovid. lib. 2. De Ponto It is a foul shame for any man to leave an old friend in distress and not to further him with his aid and assistance And if men are thus obliged to assist their Neighbours and their Friends A shameful thing to neglect our Friends in Adversity when they are wronged how much more are they bound to aid and to defend their King when they see him wronged and sought to be murdered or dethroned for these men had sworn Allegiance and fidelity to their King at divers times and many of them if not most of them had their places and offices at least their Protection formerly from him and passing over those that were furthest from my knowledge and to speak of them quorum pars magna fui mine own Country men and Kinsmen with some great I know not how good men had like Aeneas and Vcalegon invited the wily Greeks to enter Troy and to come into our Coasts the chiefest Gentry were all moved and perswaded to swear and to take an Oath so well deviced and penned as the best and most learned Divines in all those parts could do it to be true and faithful unto their King and to the uttermost of their power with the hazard of their lives and the expence of their goods and fortunes to oppose all those Adversaries The inconstancy of many men that then opposed him and the chiefest of them by name And yet behold the Constancy and the Faithfulness of these good Subjects how good Christians I know not before one drop of their blood
memory but also special and late obligations of Favours having gratified the active spirits among them so far that I seemed to many to prefer the desires of that party before mine own interest and honour And Cicero tells us that ingratitudine nihil mali non inest there is no evill that is not residing in an unthankful Wretch and Ausonius saith that ingrato homine terra pejus nil procreat The earth never brought forth a viler thing or worser wood then an unthankful man and could there be found besides the Jews a more unthankful people on earth then the Scots have been to this their own lawful loving King and bountiful Benefactour How unthankful the Scots are Witness that monster of men whom the King made Lieutenant of the Tower the chiefest Fort of all England and he made himself the King 's mortal enemy and besides him witness a thousand more whom the King raised from the dunghil to make them companions of Princes and they to requite him combined with the Parliament fought against their King to subdue him and to bring him to nothing hoc magnum est hoc mirum and may not this be wondered at that the earth should bring forth such creatures as are unworthy to live upon the earth for have they not like mortal Enemies in a most hostile manner invaded the King's Territories and warred against him with as perfect fury as ever Hannibal did against the Romanes and we all know or should know that no causes are warrantable for the undertaking of a war if justice be not the ground thereof Lipsius polit lib. 5. Justum autem non est quod tria haec non habet justa autorem causam finem and just it cannot be saith Justus Lipsius if it hath not these three just things A just Author a just Cause and a just End And Titus Livius saith Tit. Livius lib. 9. Justum bellum quibus necessarium pia arma quibus nulla nisi in armis relinquitur spes that war is just to whom it is necessary and they do rightly fall to take Arms And no War in no time for no cause can be just that is made by Subjects against their King which have no help nor hope but in their Arms. In eum autem qui juste agere satisfacere paratus est nefas est bellum sumere saith Thucidides but it is an heinous offence to make war against him that if you be wronged is ready to do you right and to make you satisfaction and wherein I pray you could the Scots shew themselves justly grieved and King Charles did not most willingly and beyond expectation give them and offer them full satisfaction And what cause then could they pretend for this Invasion surely none at all but onely covetousness and a desire to be enriched either with Spoils and Plunderings or with very fair Compositions as they were by the means of their Confederates in England with the Sum as was said of three hundred thousand pounds a fair Sum for such a foul Fact and therefore these doings must needs be odious both to God and to all good men And yet I will shew you greater Abomination of these abominable rebellious Creatures for they had as the Parliament of England had done likewise taken their Oaths of Allegiance and Fidelity to his Majesty and how have they kept their Faith and observed their Oathes did they not being Scholars remember what the Poet saith Non bove mactato caelestia Numina gaudent Ovid Epist 18. Sed quae prestanda est sine teste fides id est That God delighteth more in observing Faith and performing Promises then in sacrificing whole Oxen to him Nam fidem qui perdidit nihil ultra potest for he that hath lost his faith How heinous a thing it is to break our faith and to falâ—ifie our Oaths hath lost all that he hath worth any thing and is unworthy to live among men And would these men violate their solemn Oaths think you surely men will hardly believe it if they did not see it for a perfidious Violation of an Oath and Covenant is as damnable as Athiesm if not worse because this wittingly and willingly abuseth and scorneth that Deity which it necessarily though unwillingly acknowledgeth and therefore the Heathen man could advise us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by no means to forswear our selves for fear of punishment from God and shame among men because as I said before out of Menander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though we may deceive men as Perjurers do many times yet we must not think that our Perjuries and Falsities can be hid from God whose peircing eyes do behold every secret thought and will not suffer the Perjurers and Deceivers to go unpunished as it may appear by this one example The Story of Perfidiousness of Hatâ—o Bishop of Mentz which I have picked out of many that might be produced to the same purpose of Hatto Bishop of Meutz for Abbas Vrsbergensis writeth that Adelbert Count Palatine of Franconia being charged to have slain the Emperours Son and upon that suspition being straitly besieged by the Emperor but the Castle of Adelbert being very strong both by nature and by art the Siege did no whit promise either the taking of it or the yielding up thereof therefore Hatto being a near Kinsman to Adelbert and desireous to curry favour with the Emperor employed himself by cheating means to draw his Cosen into the Emperour's hands perswading Adelbert to go with him unto the Emperour and that he might boldly go without any fear of danger he made a solemn Oath unto him that as he came safe out of his Castle so if they could not well agree by a good Treaty he would bring him safe again unto his Castle whereupon Adelbert consented to go with him and went a prety way from his Castle but Hatto looking upon the Sun said the Morning was well spent and there was a long way to the Emperours Camp and therefore he thought it was their best Course to return to the Castle and to break their Fast and then they might go the better and with more ease and Adelbert suspecting no ill in so fair a Motion yeilded to return to break their Fast and he courteously entertained his Cosen and after Break-fast they rid both to the Emperours Camp where presently the Emperour adjudged Adelbert to dy whereupon he calleth for Hatto and accused him of Treason and Perjury except he performed his Promise to bring him back safe again into his Castle whereto the Bishop answered that he was acquitted of his Oath in that he carryed him to his Castle when they returned to break their Fast and upon this perfideous trick the credulous Earl lost his life and the Emperour seised upon all his Seigniories but for this wicked part Hatto could never blot out his reproach but was ever afterwards called by the Germans Hatto the Traytor and as you may finde it in the Chronological
Discovery of Mysteries and the Revelation of the great Anti-Christ And for which doings the Lord God hath if not sufficiently yet apparently shewed his just Wrath and Indignation against them many ways First In the discovery of their secret Hypocritical and hidden under-ground Mysteries of their Iniquitie which could not otherwise be sifted out and manifested but by the omniscient Spirit of the all-seeing-God Secondly In raysing so many godly men though to many with the hazard and to some with the loss of their lives and fortunes to oppose them and with a courage raysed by the divine Spirit to withstand their wicked ways and to uphold the true service of the living God Thirdly In the reducing of their chiefest Plots and Devices to nothing though out of his patience and long-sufferings he suffered them for a while to prosper and to walk on still and to proceed in their wickedness for they intended like those Gyants that built the Tower of Babel to erect such a frame of Government in these Kingdomes that they only and their Posterity and Successours should sit at the Stern to turn and guide the same as the thirty Tyrants did for a while in Athens so long as the Sun and Moon endureth and to that end they destroyed their King they suppressed the Bishops they excluded the Lords and then framed such an Engagement as might infringebly oblige and tie all the inhabitants of these dominions to adore them for their good Masters and Governours for ever But lo he that dwelleth in Heaven laughed them to scorne Psal ii 4. and the Lord had them in derision for as the Spirit of the Lord came upon Othniel and upon Barak and Gedeon to destroy the Aramites Canaanites and Midianites and as the Lord stired up Sampson and David to destroy the Philistines so the same Spirit stirred up one even the Lord General Cromwel a Philistine from among these Philistines and a grand Rebel out of these Rebel's that did first so wisely disannul their brazen Engin the Engagement and then seeing his opportunity and finding how acceptable it would be to God and beneficial to all good men he did with an Heroical courage dissolve that knot and scatter those Parliament-men as the Lord scattered the Jews that were the murderers of his Son and their own King over all the parts of this Kingdom And thus by the just Judgment of God the whol Mass of that long Parliament that thought to remaine as Kings for ever became like the chaff which the winde scattereth away from the face of the earth And therefore Secondly The just Judgment of God upon the dismembred members of the long Paâ—liament I must now proceed to shew you the just Judgments of God upon the dismembred parts of this great body as I finde them driven by the winde of God's wrath here and there throughout all the parts of these Dominions But I must confess that for the particular persons of that Parliament and their adherrents that have in a great measure already felt the heavy hand of God's wrath for their Transgressions in that confederacie it is a work beyond mans reach either to set them down or to shew their punishments and therefore I will confine my self and as the Lord shewed unto Moses the land of Canaan from the top of Mount Nebo afar of which sight must needs be therefore but very partial and imperfect so will I give you a tast and a glimmering light of some judgments of God and the justness thereof upon some particular men and the more noted Members of that Parliament and I will begin with him that was the beginning of our trouble the first disturber of our peace and the General of the late unhappy War the Earl of Essex First It was said as I remember of Dionysius King of Sicily Of the Earl of Essex that he was a Tyrant begot of Tyrants then which a worser Character could not be given and a baser description could not be made of him saith Plutarch But I will not say of this noble Lord who in deed had a great deal of Honour in him and carried himself for ought that ever I heard like a man of Honour and pius inimicus a noble Adversary unto the King that he was a Traytor begot a of Traytor yet I must say that his Father was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth and was arraigned and beheaded for Treason à ainst the Queen whether justly for his deserts or unjustly by the malice of his enemies I will not determine and though her Royal Majesty did Royally and most Graciously restore this man both to his Fathers Lands and Honours and King James confirmed the same and King Charles more then that made him one of his Privy Council and Lord Chamberlain of his House-hold which was for Honour one of the best Offices as I take it in the Court and for profit a place worth viis modis near about 2000. pounds per annum as I heard and conferred many other favours upon him and for all this this Lord as is conceived out of no other cause then ambition of popular praise which greedy desire of popularity hath undone many a noble minde or as others think out of a secret grudg which he bare to this good King and to King James his linage for giving way to his Lady and Wife to be divorced from him onely propter frigiditatem naturae which all Divines and Canonists do not consent to be a sufficient cause of divorce presently and willingly accepted the motion of the House of Commons Plinius lâ—b 8. cap. 23. and commission of the Parliament to become the General of all their Forces against the King wherein as Pliny writeth of the Aspick saying Conjunga ferè vagantur nec nisi cum compare vita est itaque alterutra intercepta incredibilis alteri ultionis curá persequitur interfectorem unúmque eum in quantolibet populi agmine notitia quadam infestat perrupit omnes difficultates ut perdat eum qui comparem perdiderat that he pursueth him which hath hurt or killed his Mate and knows him among a multitude of men and therefore hunteth him still and layeth for him breaking throughout all difficulties to come at him so it may be this Lord was such as Seneca speaks of qui tantùm ut noceat cupit esse potens that accepted of his office that he might be revenged for his disgrace when notwithstanding King Charles was not the Author of his dishonour nor did any wayes further that divorce and therefore should not have been maligned for anothers fault Or if it was not for this cause as I heard some confidently say it was yet for what cause soever this or any other and with what minde soever this Lord accepted that office as being loth to stain his Honour and Ambitious to retain the Fame of an honourable Soldier I never heard the King nor any other of the Nobility accusing him for any base ignoble and perfidious act
his private Closet his mind was wandring among the Wantons in the Galleries of Rome If we hear Sermons he will poyson our Opinions and prejudicate our minds with some ill conceit of the Preacher if we do well he will infect our best deeds with Pharisaical pride tum superbia destruit quicquid justitia aedificat pride destroyeth whatsoever righteousness buildeth if we do ill he will perswade us to persevere therein And so in all things else though he professeth love yet is it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like the gift of an enemy as was Ajax Sword that he received from Hector wherewith he kill'd himself a most deadly love worse then any open hate 2. Passing over all dissembling flatterers and all flattering friends 2 How the world professeth to love us perditissimos homines and those villanous men as Cicere terms them which can give a stab to the smile of an innocent and perfidiously deceive them qui laesi non essent nisi credidissent which had been safe if they had not trusted them The whole world is the Devils Ape and imitates him to a hair like the Courtlie Mountebank that is composed of nothing else but Complements and can promise golden Mountains but perform dirty Dales and deal with us as Laban did with Jacob Gen. 29.24 when he had served seven years for beautiful Rachel to thrust into his bed and to his bosome bleer-ey'd Leah It is like Dalila able to betray the strongest Sampson and like Circe powerful enough to bewitch the Wisest Solomon And if I had time to relate unto you the Tragedies of Mar. Attilius Regulus Cheops King of Egypt that erected the Pyramides Croesus King of Lydia Darius King of Persia Manius Acilius the Roman Consul Belisarius the brave General of Justinian who in his old age begged Date obolum Belisario Iob 30.4 quem virtus exaltavit fortuna depressit malitia excaecavit O give one half-peny to him whom virtue raised fortune spoiled and malice made him a poor blind begger And those thirty Emperours or thereabouts that died not sicca Morte but were killed from Julius Caesar to Charlemaigne and especially that notable example of Hebraim Bassa chief Councellor and of greatest power with Solyman the Great Turk whom Paulus Jovius termeth the greatest Minion of the worlds inconstancy because he was so intirely beloved of Solyman that he entreated his Master not to make so much of him lest being elevated with Haman too high he might have like him too great a fall and the Emperour swore he would never take away his life while he lived yet afterwards for some distaste of his insolent carriage Solyman being informed by a Talisman or Turkish Priest that a man asleep cannot be counted among the living sent an Eunuch into his Chamber who with a sharp Razor cut his throat as he was quietly sleeping in his bed And likewise Pope Baltazar Cossa who called himself John the XXIV that being thrown out of his Popedome by the Council of Constance 1417. made these verses of himself Qui modo summus eram gandens nomine Prasul Tristis Abjectus nunc mea Fata gemo Excelsus solio nuper versabar in alto Cunctaque Gens pedibus oscula prona dabant Nunc ego paenarum fundo devolvor in imo Vultum deformem quemque videre piget Omnibus eterris Aurum mihi sponte ferebant Sed nec Gaza juvat nec quis amicus adest Sic varians Fortuna vices adversa secundis Subdit ambiguo nomine ludit atrox And a thousand like examples that might be produced of some men that as Job saith cut up mallows by the bushes and Juniper roots for their meat children of fools yea children of base men that were viler then the earth whose Fathers we would have disdained to have eaten with the dogs of our flocks are now keepers of Castles and Commanders of whole Countryes Camer l. 4. c. 7.246 And others that from the highest honor were suddenly thrown down to the lowest misery compell'd to change their scarlet robes for rugs it would plainly appear unto us that the lovers of this world which relie upon the Worlds love Camerarius l. 3. c. 5.162 are greater fools then Heliodorus the Carthaginian who caused this Epitaph to be ingraven upon his Tomb hard by the straight of Gibralter I Heliodorus Reliodorus his Epitaph a fool of Carthage have ordained by my last will to be buried in this place in the remotest part of the world to see if any man more foolish then my self would come thus far to see me And therefore the best way to escape the deceits of the World is to follow the counsel of the Epicarmus How we ought to deal with the world that is semper diffidere alwayes to distrust it and never to believe it but with Ulysses to tye our selves unto the main Mast of our ship i.e. to sound reason or rather to true Religion that teacheth us to deal with this World as the worldlings deal with God to stop our ears like the deaf Adder that layeth one ear close to the earth and clappeth her tail in the other and so never listneth to the voice of the Charmer charm he never so wisely 3. 3 How we love our selves 2 Tim. 3.2 The Comique tells us verum idesse vulgo quod dici solet that every man loves himself better then another And Euripides saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every one loves himself better then his friend and the Apostle saith that in the last times men should be lovers of themselves And yet there was not a sounder truth uttered by the mouth of any Phylosopher then nemo laditur nisi a seipso no man is wounded but by himself because as Aquinas saith inordinatus amor sui est causa omnis peccati Sin is the cause of all our miseries and the inordinate love of our selves That our self love is the cause of all our sins and of all our miseries is the chiefest cause of all sins And Plato calleth this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sons omnium malorum the root and fountain of all mischief And experience tells us that intus est equus Trojanus every mans greatest enemy lodgeth within his own bosome otherwise if we had the true reins of our own passions and could bridle our own affections then outward occasions might well exercise our virtue but not much injure our actions because others cannot draw us into any great inconveniences if we do not some way help our selves forward As the Adulterers cannot bereave us of the chastity of our bodies if there be not an Adulterer lodging within our souls and the Fornicator cannot take away the chastity of a Virgin if her corrupted heart doth not some way yield consent and therefore the Law saith of the ravished woman that she shall be freed and no cause of death shall be in her because the fact was committed against
her will No force can prevail against the will and actual sins have so much dependency upon the hearts approbation as that the same alone can either vitiate or excuse the action and no outward force hath any power over mine inward mind unless my self do give it him as all the power of the Kingdome cannot force my heart to hate my King or to love his enemies they may tear this poor body all to pieces but they can never force the mind to do but what it will And yet such is the deceit of our own flesh that if the devil should be absent from us our own frailties would be his tempting deputies and when we have none other foe we will become the greatest foes unto our selves as Apollodorus the Tyrant dreamd that he was flead by the Scythians and that his heart thrown into a boyling caldron should say unto him That it was the cause of all his miseries and so every man that is undone hath indeed undone himself for Perditio tua exte thy destruction is from thy self saith the Prophet yea the very best men Hos 13.9 by whomsoever wronged yet wrong themselves as now it is with our gracious King for as Valentine the Emperour when he cut off his best Commander and demanding of his best Counselour what he thought of it had this answer given him That he had cut off his own right arm with his left hand so when the good King seduced and over-perswaded gave way though against his will to make an Everlasting Parliament he then gave away the Sword out his own hand So I could tell you of a very good man that is brought to very great exigency by parting with his owne strength and giving his sword out of his own hand and when he excluded the Bishops out of the House of Peers he parted with so much of his own strength and brought himself thereby to be weaker then he was before and so it will be with every one of us and it may be in a higher misprision then with our King if we look not well unto our selves and take heed lest in seeking to preserve our bodies we destroy our own souls or to save our estates we make shipwrack of our faith or especially to uphold an earthly Rule or Kingdome we expose to ruine the spiritual Kingdome of Christ which is the Church of God as you know how the Parliament do it at this day And therefore the Spaniards prayer is very good Dios mi guarda mi de mi O my God defend me from my self that I do not destroy my self and Saint Augustine upon the words of the Psalmist Deliver me from the wicked man demanding who was that wicked man Answ it was a seipso and so the wisest Philosophers have given us many Precepts to beware of our selves And he that can do so Latius regnat avidum domando Spiritum Horatius quam si lybiam remotis Gadibus jungat uterque paenus Serviat uni doth more and ruleth better then he that reigneth from the Southern Lybia to the Northern Pole so hard it is for man under all the cope of Heaven to find any one that truly loves him But God is Verax veritas true and the truth it self and as Hugo saith Veritas est sine fallacia faelicitas sine miseria he is Truth without Deceit that neither can deceive not be deceived and as this our Apostle saith God is love and the Fountain of all true love and he is sweet he is wise and he is strong 1 John 4.8 How God loveth us and how sweet and gracious his love is therefore S. Bern. saith that he loveth sweetly wisely and strongly Dulciter quia carnem induit sapienter quia culpam cavit fortiter quia mortem sustinuit sweetly because he was made man to have a fellow-feeling of our miseries wisely because he did avoid sin that he might be able to help us and strongly because his love was as strong as death when rather then he would lessen his love unto us he would lose his life for us And therefore of all that pretend to love us God alone is the onely pure and truly perfect lover 2. For the affection it is love for God loved us and love 2 The affection Love comprehendeth three things as it is in the creatures is a passion better perceived by the lover then it can be expressed by any other and it comprehendeth three things 1. A liking to the thing beloved 2. A desire to enjoy it And 3. A contentment in it as when the Father saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as others think of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth to be fully and perfectly satisfied in the thing loved as Phavorinus testifieth And so though the affection of love is not the same in God as it is in us because he is a Spirit most simple without passion and we are often-times transported and swallowed up of this affection yet in the love of God we finde these three things most perfectly contained 3 Things contained in the love of God 1. An Eternal benevolence or purpose to do good unto his creatures 2. An Actual beneficence and performance of that good unto them 3. A Delightful complacency or contented delight in the things beloved as the Lord loveth him that followeth after righteousness that is he taketh delight and pleasure in all righteous livers and as he hateth the ungodly so he loveth the righteous and taketh delight in them and in their just and righteous dealing But because love is an inward affection that can hardly be discerned without some outward demonstration of the same and that as S. Gregory saith Probatio dilectionis exhibitio est operis the trial of our love is seen by our actions which testifie our love far better then our words How God imanifesteth his love many wayes when we see too too many that profess to love us when they labour to destroy us as the rebels pray for the King when they fight against him so finely can the Devil deceive us therefore God manifested his love by many manifold arguments As 1. Way 1 By screating things of nothing and making them so perfectly good that when himself had considered them all he saw that they were all exceeding good 2. Way 2 By preserving all things that they return not to nothing Quia fundavit Deus mundum supranihilum ut mundus fundaret se supra Deum because God laid the foundations of the world upon nothing that the world might wholly rely upon God who is the basis that beareth up all things with his mighty word and more particularly in preserving not onely the righteous but even the wicked also from many evils both of Sin and Punishment for did not God withhold and restrain the very reprobates even