as killing got you this so the keeping of it must continue and hold in killing And this is the last bloudy act presented by the Jewes in this Tragedy that they kill him him Ch the King what but a word and a blow no not so S. Luke 20.14 saith before they did this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they tooke it into serious consideration and reasoned or argued the case and upon the debate their first Resolve is as Luke 19.14 nolumus hunc regnare we will have no more addresses to him as to King or we will have no more King And upon this a second Resolve followes as is expressed John 11.50 Expedit it is expedient that one that one the King should die and yet though from the first they plotted this if he yeilded not up his inheritance as is evident through the whole context of the story yet John 7.20 they deny it that they have any such intention for then the people would not have joyned with them and therefore they give out as Luke 20.19 that he must be brought to the Great Councel but we know ab Inferis nulla redemptio from that lower House or their hellish Councell there is no redemption Object But Caiphas our Chieftaine hath a Revelation from heaven to doe this To this the Armies Prophet M. Will Sedgwicke shall Answer saying p. 4. When we tell them of the Lawes of God and Man they flie to an extraordinary call as Phinehas and thus they halt betwixt two opinions being neither true to God or Man but are like the Beasts in the Revelation whose heads are crowned with the most glorious Titles of the presence of God the people of God the cause of God while their hearts are absurd cruell beastly monstrous I have before spoken of the severall Actors and therefore shall adde but little more then one Question and a short Answer thereunto For it being so that the Nation is said John 18.35 to deliver or betray him and in this Nation of every place Sect or condition of men the most had some way or other acted first or last to the taking the King The Question will be Whether all these were Traytours as guilty of his death though in this last act they had no hand in killing him For resolution whereof I must remember you with a generall received Maxime in our Law Quicquid movet ad mortem what ever though un inanimate thing as a Cart much more the Beast but undeniably the man that moves or acts that which led to or drew on the death of any man is guilty of his death 2. But if you shall adde to this that in the act of Treason not onely they who directly kill the King or who were privy or assenting thereunto but all who any way did assent assist or contribute to the unjust taking him whereby and whereupon his life was taken away are all guilty of Treason and of his death then the Question is resolved affirmatively Which and much more you will find proved by Gods censure and judgment to be just in this very act for Mat. 21.41 Christ saith the Lord will miserably destroy those Husbandmen and for what was it for killing the Heire the King for that was yet but in consultation but say that it was for that conspiracy and as acted yet it was not onely for that but for that they consulted and acted how to take away his inheritance which unjust end or designe of theirs drew on this unlawfull act to kill him and therefore not onely they who killed him but who plotted the taking away of his inheritance whereupon his death followed were punished as Traytours and Murderers for so it is vers 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord will as it after came to passe destroy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them that is those who not onely killed him but who consulted to rob him of his just rights and inheritance yea more those who beat and wounded his Servants sent to require and defend his right those also the Lord in justice wil miserably destroy for in that they were as they are called Acts 7.52 Traytours and Murderers I could and I thinke I should adde one note more that not onely these who any way from first to last contributed in any kind were guilty of this barbarous murder but they who had power and meanes and used them not in the defence of the Heire and resistance to this bloudy act were no lesse though not in so high a degree Traytours and Murderers Our generall axiome Qui non vetat quum potest will beare out that position And I pray consider whether Christs owne words John 18.36 will not without any great straining imply thus much where he said If my Kingdome were of this world my Servants and Subjects would that is they would as of right bound and should they would fight for and defend me from death which if they doe not in suffering me to be killed when they might and should have resisted and defended they have killed me And I desire all those who so often and with such vehemency have squeezed that Text to bloud Jud. 5.23 to consider whether Gods word there may not have its due weight to the maintenance of this position where it is said Curse ye Meroz curse ye bitterly the Inhabitants thereof because they came not to the help of the Lord against the mighty It hath been a long and a great dispute whether Antichrist be come and who it is and if I be not much mistaken this and some other Texts in the Gospel will easily and plainly resolve this Question for where it is said they Apostates Pharisees Sadduces c. they the man of sin the Nation of the Jewes they oppose themselves against Christ they sit in the Temple and set themselves above all deposing murdering Kings are not these the first great Antichrist who make themselves what Christ alone is King of Kings and Lord of Lords Apoc. 19.16 Qui Christi sunt crucifixerunt carnem the Tyrant flesh Gal. 5.24 qui Antichristi Regem the Anointed of the Lord so that by this Text you have one step to the discovery of Antichrist But enough of these and too much unlesse they were better and yet from such wicked persons Actors I must now according to the Text sead you on to that most damnable act of theirs the murdering their King But in after-times the Devil growne wiser hath furnished his Schollars Regicides with Arguments to prove the killing of Kings which neither the Jewes nor any Religions ever found out save onely some corrupted Christians 1. And the ground of their first Argument is taken from 1 Pet. 2.13 for the Devil is as good a Scripturist as these Saints and as good an Interpreter and both alike where the Apostle saith that the Kingly Office is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore though the King be singulis major and though par in parem non habet potestatem yet the
understand that in this Treason those Priests were like our Romish Jesuits yet you may well understand and believe them to be Mars his Priests called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who in their Temples and Sacrifices scattered the fire of sedition and rebellion and being appointed in the Church as Trumpets yet upon the least grievance or discontent of the People they used their Trumpets as Sheba did 2 Sam. 20.1 to stirre up the People to their Tents and to take up Armes though it be against Ch their King and indeed without these or the like never did Commotion or Rebellion take life or live long so that to choake or strangle these is the way to cut the throat of all Rebellion I cannot omit in a word to put you in mind that the Gospels have minded us of some who though comprised under those before mentioned yet notified by an especiall title as called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as in our English Bible Luke 7.30 Lawyers and these as chiefe peeces culled out of the rest were as I may call them Chaire-men for so Christ spake of them they sit in Moses Chaire and what they say saith Christ that is when they speake and say the Law doe as they say and teach but doe not follow or imitate them in their waies and practises for as Christ there said of them they have rejected or frustrated the counsels of God written in the Law against themselves and therefore Luke 11.52 Woe unto you Lawyers for ye have taken away the key of knowledge the Law and instead thereof you teach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the traditions of men Mat. 15.3 6. which traditions Saint Paul Ephes 2.15 calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in our English not Laws or Canons but Ordinances In the 15. of Marke 1. we read of their Councel in which or to which most of the fore-specified Parties were assembled and gathered together I cannot I thinke no good Christian can call it as some of our Councels have termed Benedictum but either Indoctum Insanum Sacrilegum or as indeed this was and so to be stiled of all others from the beginning of the world to this day Diaholicum The Councell of Trent in comparison of this was Divinum and of it we may truly and properly apply that Psal 1.1 it is the Councell of the Vngodly the way of Sinners and the seat of the Scornfull and therefore all good men may say as Jacob Gen. 49.5 Instruments of cruelty are in their hands or their Swords are Weapons of violence and may pray as he did v. 6. O my soule come not thou into their secret unto their assembly be not thou united for in their anger they slew a Man v. 7. Cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruell I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel and why may not all the People say Amen for though in this Councell and Treason there were of severall Sects and Factions as Pharisees and Sadduces who were as opposite as Lutheran and Calvinist and Scribes and Herodians who differed in many things and hated each other yet they all in this conspire and thence it is called in the worst sense a Conspiracy or as here a Councell to betray to death Ch their King And yet that all may not appeare alike guilty let me adde that though there be no Accessaries in Treason or none more Traytours than others in respect of its ordinary punishments yet some are and may justly be said to be greater and more guilty in the Treason than others And to this I desire it may be noted that there being at this time but three apparent profest Sects among the Jewes into which or some of which all Jewes of what Authority Place or Office soever had cut and divided themselves viz. Pharisees Sadduces and Essenes of which latter sort happily Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea might be Now as these I find not mentioned in the New Testament so nor to be Actors in this grand Rebellion or Treason for they were peaceable men but as the Pharisees of the two ruling Sects were the most numerous and potent so were they the most forward and active in the leading part to tempt and betray Christ yet the Sadduces who denyed all Scripture that made against them 2. The immortality of the Soule 3. All punishment for evill after death these and upon these grounds and causes I may suppose were the most active and cruell in hurrying the Lord of life to death and killing Ch their King Besides Officers and Sects there is a Faction mentioned in this Treason as distinct from all the former and they are in the Gospel called Herodians and these were flattering Courtiers who varied and changed their Opinions with the over-ruling and swaying part and concerning these and such like Christ gave that saving cautionary counsel Marke 8.15 Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herodians that is of the contagious doctrines of the former and the Fox-like subtilties of the latter 2. Of their leaven of doctrine for it is 1. sower 2. spreading 3. tainting and from their persons Matth. 23. a Generation of Vipers 1. multiplying 2. infectious 3. killing There is further mention of Samaritans who were to the Jews as Papists to Protestants and branded by the Jewes as inhumane and bloudy men and though Ch the King did all he possible could for the Jewes and nothing at all for the Samaritans more than to pity them and not fuffer them to be destroyed when some of his Disciples like fiery Zealots desired it yet these would not joyne in the bloudy act with the more seeming-holy Professors but shall at last rise up and condemne them But in stead of those you shall find Luke 22.66 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word for word the Presbytery for they led the way and Marke 15.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole Councell of the professing Jewes they first or last have their hands in it But I heare these Jewes John 8.3 boasting themselves to be Abrahams seed the Faithfull vers 41. the Children of God but here truth it selfe tells them what indeed they are notwithstanding their vaine hypocrisie and he saith v. 44. ye are of your Father the Devill and the lusts of your Father ye doe who was a Murderer from the beginning As the persons of the Traytours are not in this or any other Text laid together so nor in this or any other is the manner exprest how they enterprized plotted or proceeded in this devilish Tragedy of any one that Text which Christ parabolically uttered Mat. 21. comes the nearest to the point where Christ saith they seeing him there called the Heire but now their King upon sight of such a sacred Majesty which would have begot an awfull reverence in all but such as they were upon this sight their eyes became bloud-shot and therefore forth with from seeing they proceed to saying saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 within themselves cogitaverunt they said in themselves by meditation so Mat. 2.38 2. They said Mar. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as Mat. 26.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consultaverunt they said among themselves by consultation 3. They said apud se among themselves i. publicaverunt by communication or publication to such as themselves They said 4. let us joyne by an Association League and Covenant 5. And then venite by a Combination let us rise our selves and raise all our Confederates 6. Vt occidamus that we may kill him the Heire Ch the King in all which we see the Devill wrought as with Judas he first entered into his heart and poysoned his thought and therefore against this Solomon a wise King principally laboured when he said Eccles 10.20 Curse not the King no not in thy thought for if this once infected head eyes tongue hands all will be presently working for it speaks as the Centurion in the Gospel I say unto one Goe and he goeth and to another Doe this and he doeth it I shall end this point with an Observation of that Psal 2.1 where the People are said to imagine a vaine thing and then v. 3. The Rulers finding this they tooke counsell against the Lords anointed and those words Saint Peter Acts the 4.25 expounds and applies to the seditious plot of the Jewes of which it is said the Son of man shall be betrayed as it followes To the Gentiles now as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek and trado in the Latine signifie both to deliver up and to betray so Christ the King in the Gospels is said in respect of the persons to whom to be twice betrayed and delivered up Saint Marke hath them both in the 33. verse of the 12. chapt where it is said the Son of man shall be delivered to the Priests and Scribes their Great Councel who shall condemne him and then to the Gentiles the Souldiers and Conquerours who shall mock and kill him And when Christ and the Evangelists call these Conquerors Gentiles or Heathen they speak in the Jewes Dialect who as the Greeks called all but themselves Barbarians so these stiled all those that were Aliens or Strangers from the Covenant Heathen or Gentiles And further all such Alien Heathen were in their account and the language of the Gospel Sinners so Mat. 18.17 and more neerly and by application Marke 14.41 the Son of man shall be delivered up to Sinners and so Mat. 26.45 in both which places are understood these Roman Heathen Now if those Romans were so called Sinners and Heathen because Strangers to the Covenant why may not Covenant-takers and Covenant-breakers be much more held as Heathens and Sinners so that if a native Jew and Subject had protested vowed sworne and covenanted to protect and defend the honour and person of Ch his King I conceive for failer and breach hereof he might as well if not more truly be called and so held an Heathen and a Sinner an Infidel an Atheist then the Roman who never entred such a Protestation Covenant Literally then I confesse by Gentiles are here in this place meant the Romans Strangers to Christ the King but allegorically and tropologically the Jewes themselves being guilty of more than the Romans were may very well be held as Gentiles and therefore I will hereafter say without more differencing them he was betrayed mocked and killed by Heathen-Jewes And yet before I passe upon the confounding their Titles who were so closely joyned in the Treason I cannot but in one thing preferre the justice and ingenuity of these trayterous Jewes before the impudence and injustice of some other Traytours who stick not to act all the parts of Treason and cruelty themselves and in their owne persons as to be Conspiratours Counsellours Accusers and after all to appoint themselves to be the Judges and Executioners of him whom they have betrayed whereas these Jewes though they durst act the former parts yet they had so much wit or grace as to decline the latter and therefore when they had betrayed and made him their King fast they delivered him Mat. 20.19 Acts 21.11 to the Gentiles the Romans and that is to Pilat the Roman Governour that he might act that lawlesse part which themselves confest it was not lawfull for them to doe And here now enters the second act of this direfull sad Tragedy wherein Christ the King is mocked and that by the Jewish-Heathen and Heathen-Jewes by severall waies the Jewish-Heathen they put a Crowne of Thornes upon his Head and a Reed in his Hand for a Scepter they take off his owne and clothe him in Players robes and thus they mocked Ch their King but the Heathen-Jewes more scurrilously one while vote and declare him to be their King John 6.15 and soone after vote and declare nolumus hunc regnare Luke 19.14 we will have no more Addresses to Him and yet not long after this they crie Hosanna blessed be the King Luke 19.38 they declare to make Him a glorious King and yet within few daies after it they vote and declare His death for so they fiercely cried out Crucifie crucifie Him Luke 23.21 I might adde a precedent subtile malicious piece of mockery invented and practised upon Ch their King for they made him believe Luke 13.31 Herod was purposely set to kill him and therefore they in a seeming love and tender to his safety perswade him secretly to escape this danger by a close conveying himselfe to some retired place when all this while these trusty Counsellours are those Herodians who hunted him into their net thereby to take away his life the former were scurrilous and malitious but this last a treacherous bloudy mock We read Mat. 27.27 that in stead of a Royall traine and Guard fitting such a King the common Soldiers the rudest and the most barbarous of the People and of them a whole Band they must seize upon and take him and to lead him whither not to his Chamber of presence but to the common-Hall there to be tried for his life And in stead of a Scepter of Gold the Ensigne of Power and Rule he shall have forced upon him a Scepter of a Reed to be bowed and bent by their wind and to be broken in pieces when they will Instead of a Crowne set with Jewels jewels of prerogative beseeming such a King they will plat a Crowne of Thornes malice disgrace and robbing him of all which of right belonged unto him But he was not onely mocked but as it follows he was despitefully used by them and was not this a spightfull usage to send out armed men to take their King by force the King saith it is no lesse Mat. 26.55 Ye are come out as against a Thiefe with Swords to take me 2. Was not this a spightfull usage of a King when they hunted him as King David complained like a Partridge and flew him from dale to mountaine and from mountaine
people the creator and maker of the King as it appears he is by the Text hath power to destroy his owne creature if he faile in the end of his creation Answ Saint Peter writing here to the Jewes who held their Royall Government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be divine and immediate from God and to stand in force without the election or ordination of man might call the Heathen dominion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an humane ordinance or creature for so creature sometimes notes what is heathenish or not heavenly and if so then the Argument of the Apostle holds the more strong for Ch and all Christian Kings being the Apostle commands the subjection not resistance the obedience not murdering of such humane creatures as Heathenish Kings 2. In some part and in some degrees the jurisdiction of the best Kings for extent may be humane of man but that concludes not that the power of managing the Sword is simply humane and not divine for as Saint Paul and Saint Peter spake by and from the Spirit infallible truth so Saint Paul expresly professeth Rom. 13. that this power of the Sword is in the King the Supreme as Saint Peter here stiles him and that to be not from man humane but from God divine 3. Were the Kingly Office an humane creature yet the person or manhood of the King is not such his person or manhood is Gods creature so that from this Text taken in their owne sense the most that can be inforced were that they might in some cases dethrone whom they had exalted but kill him the person the man they cannot they may not for this God made and not they Object But nature and reason teach us to defend our selves and to kill what would destroy us rather then to be killed Resp 2 Cor. 20. the wisdome and reason of worldly men is foolishnesse with God and the naturall man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnesse unto him 1 Cor. 2.14 Secondly although nature and reason in the generall dictates so much unto us yet nature and reason have laid some restraints upon this Maxime in respect of Persons for suppose the head of a man intoxicated or distracted should endeavour the hanging or drowning the body might the body to preserve it selfe destroy this head and the King in respect of his Subjects hath the like relation and therefore is so called both in Gods and our Lawes the Head of the People Thirdly but can there be a better Expounder of the Law of nature or reason then God himselfe in this case which if you grant then I pray go through the whole Booke of God both in the Old and New Testament and tell me if God hath not every where injoyned subjection and forbad even resistance against the worst Kings 2. Whether throughout the Bible those that were led by Gods Spirit did not follow this rule strictly as David to Saul c 3. Tell me whether you find the least print of any precept or counsell given to any Subject to put their King to death 4. Whether ever any Subjects mentioned in all Gods Book ever pleaded any Text or good example in warranty or excuse of such an act 5. Whether for the most part all Offenders in this kind have not throughout Gods Booke and Law received condigne punishment from heaven or earth or both and if all this holds true and good I cannot but wonder that men that Scriptures should forsake Scriptures and betake themselves to reason and nature when as still it cannot be denied that the Scripture of God is the best Expositor of nature and reason Object But vox Populi vox Dei what all the People say may be interpreted to be as the voice of God 2. Heare Pilat as well as divers Texts in the Gospels thy Nation John 18.35 which may be expounded the people of the Jewes in generall they have delivered thee unto me Resp Had this been really and absolutely true that all the Jewes had delivered Christ to death yet it could not have justified the act any more then the number of Sinners can make a sin just and lawfull 2. Though in this case of Ch it be said the People or Nation yet no more could rightly strictly be thereby understood than that those who were then present or who conspired delivered him to be slaine and this was not all the people of the Jewes it is therfore too unjustly too figuratively charged upon all when it is done but by a few of them all Object But you 'l say it was done by the Councell the Representative of all Resp This Councell by money corruption and usurpation had a great deale inlarged their power 2. But had their power or priviledge been greater it could neither make good evill nor evill good 3. But to the point if you consider what Ch the King had done for the people and how the people loved him you will easily collect from severall passages in the Gospels that the voice of the people was not for killing him And if you will yet presse that the voice of the People of God was for it and that is as the voice of God I must answer that if all be such as call themselves so then the Conspirators Numb 16. and then these Jewes that acted against the Lords Anointed were the people of God for these so stiled themselves the holy yea Numb 16.3 the word Holy may be rendered Saints And these are they who shall put him to death They shall put him to death which Translation by the leave of the learned and judicious I would gladly change and for this they shall I would read they will in stead of put to death I would render it they will kill and murder him for although for the most part future tenses are rendred indifferently by shall or will yet here to take away all shadow or plea from the malice of the act by laying it on the determinate counsell of God as Acts 4.28 I would read not they shall but they will 2. Not put to death but kill or slay for a lawfull Judge may put to death a Malefactor without staine or guilt of sinne but if the Party executed were innocent and the Judge not vested with just authority the man is truly and rightly said to be murdered And indeed I know not upon what cause or slip the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is Englished by put to death and in other Texts as Mat. 21.39 by slay John 5.16 John 8.44 by Murder And all other Scriptures that speake of Christs death in relation to the Actors render it by kill slay or murder But if any aske the Question why not imprison or secure his Person as to Jo Baptist or banish him as to John the Apostle I must answer 1. that generally when Tyrants Usurpers of rule begin they scarce ever end but as here in killing for usurpation and unjust possession