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A58702
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Detma basilikē a sermon preached at the Kings prison in the Fleet on the 30th of January, 1681, being the anniversary of the martyrdom of King Charles I, of ever blessed memory.
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T. S.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing S156; ESTC R33576
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19,933
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56
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The first appearance of this Storm was in that fatal unquiet Quarter the North. The Cloud arose in Scotland and was at first no bigger than a mans hand but at last it grew so great that it covered three Kingdoms and drench'd almost every corner of them with showers of blood The pretence indeed of this disorder was Religion but it appeared by the sad consequences that the thing design'd and intended at least by the Ring-leaders and first movers of it was Violence and Rapine and Sacriledge Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Who would think Religion should make men so wicked They begin first of all with Paper Arms mutinous and Treasonable Pamphlets and insolent and senceless Petitions Then the evil Spirit grew so unruly and disorderly that it assaulted the Bishops upon the Streets nay the very Churches and Pulpits could not secure them from violence And at length this heat and insolence broke forth into an open flame of Hostility and Rebellion But that which made every good mans apprehensions of this mischief the stronger was that the Rebels were conniv'd at if not favour'd and encouraged under hand by a party of their Brethren in England For at the same time there were many Seditious Pamphlets scattered about here likewise which did most impiously reflect both upon the Church and Government yea which was yet infinitely more intolerable several of the Authors who had been taken into custody and confin'd for them were afterwards by the House of Commons delivered and vindicated and commenced the date of their Fame and Popularity as Herostratuâ— from the burning of Diana's Temple from those a bominable beginnings and upon those dangerous Foundations erected the structure of their rising Fortunes This I say to put you in mind that sometimes men arrive at strange degrees of honour and esteem only by the merit of their Crimes And I am of opinion we have seen but too many examples of the like kind very lately who to please the people and make a fortune neither cared what they said or swore or did But let me tell you by the way that such attempts and practices as these are for the most part very unfortunate in the end and when the Peoples eyes are opened they that before cryed Hail Master will then cry Crucifie him Crucifie him and they that to day cry Hosanna will to morrow cry Away with him to Golgotha But I came not here to Prophesie The Male-contents in England after the example of their rebellious Neighbours begin to cry out aloud for Liberty and Religion and a thorow Reformation Hereupon his Majesty thinking it the most proper remedy for these Agonies and Convulsions of State calls a Parliament And this as it happened afterwards proved a remedy worse than the Disease it self For instead of healing and composing differences and grievances they made it their business to aggravate and make them worse They themselves immediately begin to complain of Bishops and the whole Hierarchy of Ecclesiastical Officers in the Church and of evil Counsellors in the State and about his Majesties Person Nay they begin to descend to particulars His Grace the Lord Arch-Bishop is Impeached and afterwards Executed for high-Treason nor can the Reverence of his Office nor the Integrity of his Manners secure him About the same time the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland of whose Innocence his Majesty and all the World not excepting his very Enemies who took care that his case should be no president for Posterity were very well satisfied was also Committed to the Tower Condemned and Executed upon the like accusation All this while his Majesty was but a helpless looker on for the Common People upon his occasion ran together in such Multitudes and clamorous Tumults as endangered not only the Servant but the Master A hard case and a pitiful that a King whos 's the Laws are could not deliver an innocent Person from being Condemned and suffering Death contrary to Law and a sad presage of his own misfortunes In the mean time the Parliament is plyed with Petitions from all sorts of men and women too except the good and Grievances and Fears and Jealousies of I know not how many kinds But the main common places were Religion and Liberty Alas what Religion do they dream of that strike at the very roots and foundations of it Or what Liberty can the Subjects expect when the King himself is not free However they and the Parliament mutually encourage one another and strengthen one anothers hands in wickedness The clamours of the People make the Parliament bold and the boldness of the Parliament makes the People clamorous All this while his Majesty to shew how much he tendered the peace and quiet of his Subjects and to satisfie them all if it were possible at their importunity recedes in some things from his Right and Prerogative He passes a Bill for the Triennial Parliaments and afterwards settled this during the pleasure of the two Houses A wonderful condescention and goodness in a King the like of which we have never met with in all our English Chronicles And now let us see how they requite him About this time his Majesty charged some of the Members of the House of Commons and not without just cause with High-Treason and demanded them in the House himself in Person But this they exclaim of as a high breach of Priviledge and the accused Members who were for the present fain to abscond were in a little time afterward brought again to sit in the House and vindicated without Tryal Thus finding the ground they had got of his Majesty their demands grow every day louder and more unreasonable They do not blush to demand the power of the Militia the Command of the Navy the Government of all the Strengths and Garrisons in the Kingdom So that Royalty was now to be strips of all her Ornaments and Soveraignty to be Vox praeterea nihil An empty Name and nothing else And now what is become of our old English Loyalty and Honesty when our King shall by his own Parliament be divested of all the Ensigns of his Honour and Majesty and the Father of his Country become a Slave to his Subjects About this time did the Natives of the Kingdom of Ireland encouraged by the example of the Scots and the attempts of this Parliament upon the Crown cast off the Yoke of their Allegiance and run into open Rebellion and made such a Massacre of his Majesties Protestant Subjects as never was heard of before in the three Kingdoms And here notwithstanding his Majesties continual solliciting and importuning the Parliament for the reducing and settling that Kingdom it is very observable that they still declin'd it And some men were so barbarously scandalous and so unreasonably malicious as to object the cause of that Rebellion to his Majesty himself and intimate to the World that it was secretly begun and favoured by his Authority and Commission Thus did the three Kingdoms as
if they had made a secret League and Agreement among themselves almost at one time fall into Rebellion against their Natural Prince A Prince who was so ready to grant them any reasonable request that we may say of him as it was once said of the good Roman Emperor Neminem unquam a se tristem demisit He never let any man depart out of his presence sorrowful or dejected if his Petition could be granted with honour But the Parliaments Addresses are not such they spend whole Reams in Petitions Remonstrances Declarations and a great many such like Paper fire-works all very strange and unreasonable And still the more his Majesty grants the more they still demand for they are resolv'd that nothing shall satisfie them but all They will have the very Fundamentals of Government altered both in Church and State and because his Majesty cannot agree to this the Rabble associate themselves in tumults and dangerous uproars insomuch that he is forced to send away his Queen into Holland for fear of violence from his own Subjects in the head City of his Kingdom and in his own Palace Nay at last he was fain himself to retreat from his own House and take an unwilling leave of the City for fear his People in their mutinies and tumults than which there can be no greater omens or presages of approaching misery to a State should have stretcht forth their hands to destroy the Lords Anointed And because he is now out of their reach the Parliament do actually seize upon the Militia the Tower and all other Garrisons of the Kingdom they put the command of the Navy into hands of their own chusing and their own Creatures into all Offices of Trust in the Kingdom In short having made all the preparations that the time would admit they put themselves into a posture of War and to let the world see that they were in good earnest his Majesty is absolutely denyed entrance into one of his own Towns and the Parliament avow the Deed. And this I think was one of the first acts of open Hostility and Defiance I am sorry I have been forced to be so particular in this first part of his late Majesties Sufferings but I have done it not only to put you in mind of those steps and advances whereby the late Civil Waâ—â—â—gan but also to let you see how near we were in this late conjuncture of affairs to tread the â—â—me paths and make our selves miserable once more by the same means And here I desire that no body may take that for Reproach and Affront which I intend only for Reproof and Instruction We began now just â—â—we did then after a long Fit of Ease and Plenty to be weary of our Rest and sick of our Happiness And to secure the Success the Design is begun with the very 〈◊〉 method whereby 〈◊〉 had once prevailed Secret Murmurings Private Cabals Treasonable Pamphlets Lewd Petitions Complaints against the Church and Her Discipline Indignities to Her Bishops Crying out against Evill Counsellors lessening His Majesty in the esteem of His People and filling their Heads with frantick Fears and Jealousies where no Fear was This I 〈…〉 though I could wish it were not And had 〈◊〉 His Majesty and His Council seen the 〈◊〉 Consequences of these things once before â—nd all probability we had been min'd and unâ—one by Wheâ—â—ow and the whole Nation 〈…〉 in a Bloudy Civil War Brother might been fighting against Brother the Father against the Son and the Son against the Father and a Man's Enemies might have been those of his own House And this puts me in mind of the second Section in my method wherein I promis'd to speak of His Majesty's Sufferings and Misfortunes during the time of the late Civil War till he was deliver d up by the Scots into the hands of His Enemies and Imprison'd And now you may imagine the War already begun English-men marching and fighting against English-men the Air filled with the noise of Drums and Trumpets and darkened with the smoak of Cannons and Musquets the Fields cover'd with the Carcasses of the Dead and the Rivers colour'd with the Bloud of the Slain In the midst of this Confusion and clattering of Arms the Laws are utterly silent and each man's Possession is his only Title With what eyes and with what heart do you think so good a King could behold the various Successes and Events of the Warâ— wherein whoever were the Conquerours He was still sure to lose His Subjects and always to bear a sorrowful part both in Doing and Suffering How contrary this War was to His Majesty's Intentions that I may use his own words in his incomparable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will appear in his total unpreparedness for it His sonner Concessions shew how willingly he would have prevented it and his frequent Messages for Peace sufficiently testifie that he delighted not in War Whereas all the Overtures of Peace that his Enemies ever made were still accompanied with such Articles and Clauses as they knew beforehand could never be condescended to either by a King or a Good Man Witness the Nineteen Propositions with the Addition The Treaty at Uxbridge and all other their Mediations wherein it is evident even to ordinary Capacities that they design'd nothing but War well understanding and wisely considering that aâ—â—om of Machiavâ—â—â— He that draws his Sword against his Prince must throw away the Scabbâ—rd This indeed they kept to themselves But there were other 〈◊〉 of their own Policy I could tell you of which they obâ—â—led upon the People to the eternal shame of oâ—â— English Nation be it spoken As the distinction between His Majestyâ—s Private and 〈…〉 against Himself by Hâ—â— Authority Killing his Subjects to Defend 〈…〉 â—â—belling our 〈…〉 I know 〈…〉 they worthy upon 〈◊〉 they imposed these notions but I am certain the Impartial 〈◊〉 Swords and Bullets could never be taugh◠〈…〉 〈…〉 in 〈…〉 Confusion and Calamity it should go well with the Church when it was so ill with her Sons The Reverend Bishops are some of 〈…〉 from their Seâ—â— An Ordinance is made against the Book Common Prayer 〈◊〉 the very Creed and Lord's prayer 〈…〉 and some of the 〈…〉 form 〈…〉 of 〈…〉 haâ—◠〈…〉 〈…〉 Thâ—â— Pulpits 〈…〉 Stools of Sedition and Treason and because there were not enough of them the Shop-bulks Tables Chairs Tubs Trees and almost every coâ—â—er of the Streets are prest to supply the defect The Learned and Orthodox Divines are slighted and persecuted and the bold and ignorant Guifted-men as they call'd them are favour'd and advanc'd No wonder then if all manner of Sects Errours and Heresies like Leprous and Infectious Diseases spread themselves almost into all places of the Kingdom And now the Scots are called in as Auxiliaries to their Brethren but they are men not to be hir'd upon any easie or ordinary terms They bring a Solemn League and Covenant along with them and unless their Brethren in