meer Parricides yea and the worst and most flagitious of all Parricides The Scripture foresaw some such would be 1 Tim. 1.9 The Law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. for murtherers of Fathers and murtherers of Mothers c. But what punishment short of Hell its self can be thought great enough for those that are such Sith Death the greatest of all temporal punishments had wont to be inflicted upon Chiidren who were only disobedient to their Parents yea since there is such a passage as that of Solomon Prov. 30.17 The Eye that mocketh at his Father and despiseth to obey his Mother the Ravens of the Valley shall pick it out and the young Eagles shall eat it i. e. Such persons as these shall not live out half their days but shall come to untimely and shameful ends as to be hang'd or such like and so their Bodies exposed to be devoured by such revenous Creatures as are Crows or Eagles which are observed to aim especially at the Eyes of dead People whether because a very tender part and grateful to their palates or for what other causes I know not what then shall be done to those who not only mock but murther Kings who are their Fathers in a more eminent sense than were they who begat them We propagate to the Children of our Bodies original sin and actual misery which yet they ought to excuse us for as because no man can help it so likewise because they will do the same by their Children when they come to have any and so will all men in all ages and we must not set the whole World a quarrelling so do not Kings to their Political Children i. e. their Subjects Kings as Kings are Fathers to us only for our good and real benefit therefore called the ministers of God to us for our good Rom. 13.4 a terror not to good works but to them that do evil v. 3. i. e. Whosoever therefore shall ravish the Lives of them that are such Fathers by Office but especially if such by a due execution of their office punishing Vice and encouraging Vertue what may or can they expect to use and allude to the Apostles words Heb. 10.27 But a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries Tenthly Neither was their Crime meer Parricides as great a sin as that is but also Patriaecidium if I may have leave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or to make a new word upon this occasion Now by Patricide I mean the murthering of their Native Countrey putting that to death for which they ought to die if need were The phrase of killing ones Countrey may seem harsh but will be rendred more soft and suitable if we call to mind an ancient wise saying viz. That England is a great Animal which can never die unless it kill its self If it may be call'd an Animal it may be kill'd for whatsoever Creature here below is possest of Life may also be dispossest of the same but that none but its self could kill that Animal was a great mistake unless they took the word Self synecdochically i. e. for a part of its self for by a part of its self it was indeed destroy'd or brought to the very brink of destruction kill'd out-right or brought within one step of death Witness the grand and signal symptomes of death which they brought upon it for in that number are they reckoned by Physicians Magnae Jactationes multae bigiliae motus convulsivi ipsissimae convulsiones Pulsus Intermittens Facies Hippocratica c. All whichill symptoms or what was analogous to them were found upon England in the time of their raign who cut off the Head of King Charles the Martyr Let me add two or three more viz. Deliquium or frequent Lipothymies Faintings or Swoonings Also Delirium Doting and Phrensie I might have brought in Singultus or Hiccops as another deadly sign but that it is one species of Convulsions Now give me leave to say our Ruling Regicides had brought upon this poor Nation and their Native Countrey all the conclusive signs of death aforesaid whereby it appeareth they had given England its deaths wound but that God who killeth and maketh alive who bringeth down to the grave and saith return again yea God who raiseth the dead was pleased most miraculously to restore it to life again A short proof may serve for each of the particulars aforesaid they being so much known to all ingenious men that have either seen or read of the affairs and transactions of the late times the truth is the names of symptomes which I mentioned because by Metaphor applied to politicks or morals may need some little explication but when that is done they will easily command assent and acknowledgement Briefly then were there not Magna Jactationes that is great tossings and tumblings up and down in those days as dying men turn from side to side sit up lie down again call to rise and to be removed from bed to bed and chamber to chamber finding themselves uneasie in every posture seeking rest in change of posture though they find none How oft did we shift and change Governments in one year pull down one and set up another and pull down that again Sic cum voluit fortuna jocari So were we banded as it were by fortune or male-administration rather from end to end so reell'd we too and fro like drunken men or like a ship ready to be overset with stiff and contrary winds so sound we no rest for the sole of our feet and it was most easie to make the prognostick that nothing but a miracle of divine power and goodness could save us from sudden death and ruine Such Governments as they then set up seemed to be things that would not keep above a month or two or little Gourds which had a Worm at their root which caused them to wither presently And as the Nation had at that time little rest in one sense so little sleep in another for were not the minds of men continually kept awake with fears and sad apprehensions like people that live in an old rotten decay'd house who cannot sleep in tempestous nights for fear the house they dwell in should fall upon their heads These were the magnae vigiliae which I spoke of or rather the causes why men could not sleep in those days as they desired to do and ought to have done Again whosoever knows what State-Convulsions mean must needs understand that we had a great many of them in those days There are particular and universal Convulsions spoken of by Physicians i. e. some of particular parts only as of the eyes when they are distorted of the mouth when that is drawn awry c. Others again of the whole body whereby a man is rackt as it were from head to foot we had of both sorts in those unsettled times
thousand Witnesses that which makes it more dreadful is In the Court of Conscience a man becomes a thousand Witnesses against himself yea a Man becomes that Judge that passes the Sentence of eternal Death on himself as the Apostle saith Acts 13.46 Yea viz. Jews have put away the Gospel from you and judged your selves unworthy of everlasting Life Were there ever a Francis Spiro in our days as it is like some such there are he would tell you that all that I have said of the terror of a smitting Conscience were but one half of what is true yea but a Flea-biting to what he himself had felt that eye had never seen ear heard or it ever entered into the heart of man to conceive how terrible the smitings of Conscience sometimes are and that whereas 't is said that Deus Eternitas non patiuntur Hyperbolen id est that God and Eternity can admit of no Hyperboles or cannot be out-languaged The same may be truly said of a Conscience set upon smiting I shall conclude this Head with those words of Solomon The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmities but a wounded Spirit who can bear Prov. 18.14 Ninthly Come we now to speak of the ninth and last Query propounded to be spoken to viz. Quare Why it is that Conscience doth smite men when they do or have sinned against God I answer of that there are principally two reasons to be given first of all because God hath given Conscience a Command and Commission so to do saying to Conscience as to his Prophet of old Lift up thy voice like a Trumpet tell the people their transgressions Conscience is God's Attorney-General if I may so call it God's Advocate to plead for God against man to exhibit God's Indictments against man as the matter doth or shall require Conscience is also Gods Executioner God's Lictor if I may so call it and therefore must smite when God bids it smite it hath God's fasces and secures that is God's Rods and Axes in his hands and must not bear those ensigns of Authority in vain but do execution with them as the great Consul or Dictator of the world shall appoint So much for the first reason Secondly The next is this God hath every way fitted and framed Conscience in its own fabrick nature and constitution for such a work as this viz. to smite men in reference to sin Unto so doing it is conducted as it were by instinct from God as is the Sun to know its due time of Rising and Setting and several Creatures void of understanding to know their proper seasons yea things without life act according to that frame and make which Art hath given them so Clocks do strike and Alarms go and sound at such seasons as they are made to do But for smitings of Conscience there is further reason for Conscience is at once both a Law a Witness and a Judg appointed of God so to be and qualified accordingly As it is a Law of which the Apostle speaks Rom. 2.14 15. These speaking to the Gentiles having not the Law are a Law to themselves which law is Conscience that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Law written in their hearts Now Conscience as such is by Divines called Synteresis being a Store-house of Maxims and Principles informing us of the Eternae indispensabiles rationes boni mali which Divines do so much speak of engraven with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or common notions of good and evil Secondly Conscience is a witness yea a thousand witnesses as we learn from Rom. 2.15 by these words which show the works of the Law written in their hearts their Conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts mean while accusing or else excusing one another Now as Conscience is a witness Divines call it Syneidesis Lastly Conscience is a Judg and as such is by Divines called Crisis witness 1 John 3.20 21. If our hearts condemn us God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things if our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God which words do show Conscience to be a Judg for it is the office of a Judg to pass sentence either of Condemnation or Absolution Moreover in those words are intimated that God hath given to Conscience as it were the power of the Keys and had said unto it as unto Peter and his Successors Matth. 16.19 I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven But now methinks I have to encounter with a very grand Objection namely this How can Conscience be said to be qualified as a reprover or smiter for sin sith it sometimes smites men for that which is no sin at other times when men do really sin against God it smites not at all but rather applauds and commends them as did the Conscience of St. Paul which told him he ought to do many things against Jesus of Nazareth and that it was true zeal in him to persecute the Churches of Christ Sith Conscience sometimes puts darkness for light and light for darkness evil for good and good for evil what matter is it for its smitings unless it were wiser and knew how at all turns never to justifie the wicked and condemn the righteous Can it be may some say that God should give a Commission to Conscience to smite those which ought not to be smitten or to chide those which ought rather to be comforted or to comfort and commend those who ought rather to be soundly chid and condemned If Conscience trifle at this rate may some say ought it not to be slighted like a perfidious Jury that brings in those guilty that are not guilty and those not guilty that are guilty This Objection seems to stand like a Mountain if not like Mount Sion it self which can never be removed yet wait but a while you may see it made a Plane if not turned into a Valley I premise a word or two by way of Concession namely that Conscience in this corrupt degenerate estate of all humane faculties doth sometimes mistake comforting those which it ought to chide and chiding those whom it ought to comfort but thanks be to God there is a way to prevent those mistakes Time was when Conscience might have serv'd as a Law to us and of it self a kind of regula pure regulans But now it is a regula regulata viz. a rule to be ruled by the word of God which is to Conscience as a light shining in a dark place to which the Consciences of men ought to take heed as to that which is a light to their feet and a lanthorn to their paths There is a crookedness which hath happened in part to the Consciences of men by Adam's fall and their fall in him but is such as may be rectified or made streight by attending to
thing remembring what Amaziah did Who put to death those that slew his Father but he slew not their Children but did as it is written in the Book of Moses viz. Deuter. 24.16 where the Lord commanded saying the father shall not die for the children neither shall the children die for their fathers but every man shall die for his own sin 2 Chron. 25.4 I say not in order to fixing any odium or disgrace upon the survivors but purely to convince as many as stand in need of it that Ministers and People may and ought to observe the Thirtieth of January as an Anniversary Fast Yea and that our Rulers do well in appointing it so to be kept in order to bewailing and seeking the expiation of a most notorious Sin and fetching out the stain of Royal Blood I say in order thereunto I hold it necessary and a Duty to set a Mirror before the Eyes of Men in which they may see the true visage and complexion of that horrid Crime which God grant may never more be laid to Englands charge Know then if either Perjury High Treason Rebellion Sacriledge Wilful and deliberate Murther Parricide or the killing of a Father Patricide or the ruining of our Native Countrey Justicidium or taking away the life of a Just Person Regnicidium or the destroying of a Kingdom Monarchicidium or the destruction of Monarchy it self Legicidium or the subversion of Laws Suicidâ—um or a mans killing of himself or being Felo dâ— se Animaecidium Soul-murther so far as in men is Multicidium or the Murthering of many at once both as to body and soul if Gods mercy prevent not yea Deicidium or striking at the life of God himself in a higher sense than most other sins are said to do I say if all these things put together do amount to a very great and stupendious sin then such a sin it was to put King Charles the First to death And now you see I have not charged the Kings Judges with Cumulative Treason or many Petty Treasons or Non Treasons pretended when they were all put together to amount to High Treason for High Treason it self is but one Article in this Charge Now it remains that so great a Charge as this should be proved against them And had I not been conscious of its being easie to be proved I would never have exhibited it for fear of violating the Ninth Commandment First Article of this Charge is Perjury for I do aver that they who sentenced the King to death did in so doing horribly violate the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy as also the Solemn League and Covenant though an Oath of their own imposing wherein they swore to preserve the Kings life and honour c. And as many of them as were his Majesties Servants as some such there were did also break the particular Oath which they had taken as such and thus breaking four Oaths at once may be said to be shod round with Perjury Some it may be would have added that they had also violated their Baptismal Vow and Oath and as many Repetitions and Confirmations of it as they had made in receiving the holy Eucharist because by those two Sacramental Vows all other Duties are bound upon men and consequently the observation of all our lawful Promissory Oaths but I need not strain so far to find out Aggravations of so Notorious a Fact Secondly My Charge against these men iâ— that of High Treason It is Petty Treason for a Woman to kill her own Husband though but a private man and what petty Sovereigns are private men compared with Princes 'T is Treason by our Laws barely to imagine the death of the King Queen or Prince yea to kill the Chancellor Treasurer or any Justice of either Bench Justices of Assize or any other Justices doing their Offices is by the Statute declared to be High Treason Statut. de Proditionibus 25 E. 3. Stat. 5. cap. 2. Yea it is Petty Treason for a servant to kill his Master c. Nay clipping crashing rounding or fileing for lucre sake any of the Peoples Moneys or Coyns of this Realm is adjudged High Treason Stat. 5 Eliz. 11. Is the Kings Money as it were inviolable and not to be clipped or diminished but upon pain of death and is not his person so In a Statute 13 Car. 2. cap. 1. it is thus said It shall be Treason in any persons whatsoever to compass imagine invent devise or intend death or any bodily harm maim or wounding imprisonment or restraint of the person of the King c. If to maim or imprison his person be Treason what is it then to put him to death But methinks I hear some say Though the Laws of England do punish Treason as a great and capital Crime yet possibly it is not so in the eye of Gods Law Now though every Breach of Gods Commandment be a sin yet possibly there are some Laws of Men that may be broken without sin To that I reply the sinful Laws of Men are better broke than kept Such as was Nebuchadnezzar's when he commanded all people to fall down and worship the Golden Image that he had set up Dan. 3.5 Such also was Darius his Dan. 6.7 when he made a Decree That whosoever should ask a Petition of any God or man save of the King for thirty dayes should be cast into a Den of Lyons Such also were the Statutes of Omry Micah 6.16 But no man can imagine that those Laws are sinful by which the lives and liberties of Princes as well as of the People are secured to them Now most certain it is that Humane Laws when lawful can never be violated without sin or without doing that which is in the sight of God as well as of men unlawful I think at present of no less than firâ— Commandments of the Second Table which were broken by those who put King Charlâ— the First to death viz. first of all the Fifâ— Commandment in these words Honour the father and thy mother for Kings are Poliâ—â—cal Fathers and to kill them is as 〈◊〉 from honouring them as any thing can be Secondly It was a manifest violation of the Sixth Commandment which saith Theâ— shalt not kill Thirdly of the Eighth Commandment also which saith Thou shalt 〈◊〉 steal For was not the language of theâ—â— hearts who put the King to death the same with that of their mouths Mat. 21.38 who said of our Saviour Come 〈◊〉 us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance Witness Cooks Confession viz. That what be did in reference to the Kings death was not 〈◊〉 of malice but covetousness not out of hatred to the King but for the love of money Habetâ—â— confitentem reum The Ninth Commandment which is Thou shalt not bear false witness c. was as manifestly transgressed by those who had a hand in that good Kings death as any of the former For without the horrible breach of that Commandment it had
been utterly impossible for them by a pretended High Court of Justice and seemingly formal process of Law or rather Pageantry of Judicature to have sentenced so excellent a Prince to die the death of a Malefactor 'T is not yet forgotten what one or more said of hm when the pit was digging and the net spreading for the life of the late renowned King viz. Blacken him blacken him meaning Calumniare fortiter ut aliquid haereat i. e. Brand him smut him make him odious lay those things to his charge which he never did represent him for so did Cook that was Solicitor against him in his printed charge as bad almost as was Nero himself or as they did our Saviour John 7.20 The People said thou hast a Devil c. i. e. Thou art possest Satan hath fill'd thy heart and body both thou keepest a familiar one or more and doest cast out Devils by Belzebub the Prince of Devils Sith this was done to the green dry wonder not at what was done to the dry I am confident Jezebel did not more falsely accuse Naboth of Blasphemy in the high Court of Justice which she procured against him than was his Majesty of famous memory accused in the things that were laid to his charge some of which were so horrid the more horrid and execrable the guilt of his accusers as nothing could be more If our proverb be true about losing a good name He that wholly takes away the good name though but of a private person though he do nothing more does worse than behead him What then have they done or wherewithal shall their Crime be expiated who did not only take away the Head of an excellent Prince one of a thousand but his good name also as much as in them lay and did not only extinguish his Life and Light but endeavoured to make him go out in a snuff and leave a loathsome stench behind him which maugre all their malice God hath converted into a sweet odor and now he who had no Funeral Sermon on the day he was Buried hath hundreds that may be so called preached anniversally on the day of his Death viz. each 30 day of January and his name imbalmed a-fresh on every such day and like to be so to all posterity Lastly If their Treason who imbrued their hands in the Blood of the late King were not attended with the breach of the Tenth Commandment no sin ever was This horrid Murther and Treason was certainly one branch springing from that bitter root Covetousness which the Apostle calleth the root of all evel and if of all evils surely of this for one They thought the Life of a King in an ill sense more worth than the lives of ten thousand of his Subjects I mean a better prey a greater booty of which they could make more earnings and greater advantage to themselves than of ten thousand other Lives They would have said of a common man Quid laudis in nece tantillae bestiae He had not been worth the beheading what should they get by his death But doubtless they had well computed what was to be gotten by the death of their King He had Fields and Vineyards They knew how to part the Skin of a royal Lyon if he were but once dead they would be his Executioners as it were that they might make themselves his Executors I mean serve themselves of his Revenues and cause him to die that they might live more splendidly The Flowers and Jewels of one Royal Crown are sufficient to enrich though with a vengeance many private Families That by their own confession some of them aimed at and doubtless so did the rest or most of them that did never confess it Was it not the wedge of Gold I mean the Kings Revenues and that which they called A Babylonish Garment viz. The Lands of Bishops Deans and Chapters which those Achans those Troublers of Israel long'd for and made their way to through the Blood of their King So Judas for the lucre of 30 pieces betrayed his Lord and Master Now if that be not a great sin which breaks five Commandments at once let the World judge And so I pass on to my Third Aggravation of their sin who Murthered King Charles the First It was flat and down-right Rebellion open and palpable Rebellion In what can a Son more rebel against his Father than if he seek to take away his Life yea do actually murther him Now Kings are as well Political Fathers to their Subjects de facto as they are Nursing Fathers de jure Yea such Political Fathers are much more superior to their Political than Natural Fathers are to their Natural Children Sons if abroad in the World and at full age are not indecently suffered to be covered in the presence of their Fathers but may ordinary Subjects be so in the presence of their King If then Kings be unquestionable Fathers to their Subjects and of an order of Fatherhood superior to those who begat them then whatsoever is Rebellion in Children against their Natural Fathers the same thing if against their King is as true and as great yea greater Rebellion Ex parte objecti Now the Scriptare calls it Rebellion in a Son but to resist and refuse the lawful Commands of his Father Deut. 21.18 If a Man have a stubborn and rebellious Son which will not obey the voice of his Father or the voice of his Mother and that when they have chastened him will not hearken to them There you have a Rebel against his Natural Parents de facto viz. A Child that will not obey or hearken to the voice of his Father or of his Mother And his Punishment is set down v. 21. All the men of his City shall stone him with stones that he die Is Disobedience in a Child to the lawful Commands not only of a Father but of a Mother Rebellion and such as God appointed to be punished with death and such a death too as is there described viz. Then shall his Father and his Mother lay hold on him and bring him out unto the Elders of his City and unto the Gate of his Place and they shall say unto the Elders of his City This our Son is stubborn and rebellious he will not obey our voice c. v. 19 20. Where first of all his own Parents were to be his accusers yea as it were the Constables that were charg'd with him to bring him before the Magistrates and give evidence against him declaring his Crime viz. saying This our Son is stubborn and rebellious a glutton and a drunkard Then his own Countreymen or Townsmen here called the Elders of his City were to be his Judges and to give sentence against him and that sentence of Death and that the Death of a Dog viz. to be stoned and that stoning by the hand not of one strange Executioner but by the hands of Countreymen or fellow-townsmen every one of which did or might fling a
stone at him so at once giving him both his death and burial and killing him as it were by burying him that is by burying him alive under a heap of Stones This Punishment did the Law of God award for rebelling but against the Commands of a private Father or Mother even death and such a death If he that rebelled but against the majesty of a private Father or Mother were so punished surely we may allude to what David spoke to Doeg Psal 120. What shall be given unto thee or what shall be done unto thee thou false Tongue who rebellest against the Majesty of a King sharp arrows of the Almighty with Coals of Juniper as it is v. 4. Nay beyond all this if to rebel against the Will and Command of a private Parent were made a capital Crime how much more than capital if a man had any thing dearer to him than life to lose might it justly be made to rebel against the very Life of a King and our own King Hear the Prophet aggravating the sin of Rebellion 1 Sam. 15.23 And Samuel said Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft and Stubbornness is as Iniquity and Idolatry Now whereas some may object that that is spoken of Saul 's Rebellion against God not of any Subjects Rebellion against him which is very true yet for as much as they who rebel against the lawful Commands of their lawful Rulers in so doing do rebel against God whose Vicegerents they are whose Image they bear by whom Kings Reign and who are called The ordinance of God Rom 13.2 Hence may they be said to be guilty of Idolatry or Witchcraft or what is as bad who rebel against their lawful Commands but a thousand times more who rebel against the Lives of Gods anointed ones I mean of those Kings whom God hath set over them Then let no Man say Rebellion is no sin unless he think that Idolatry and Witchcraft be no sins neither Why do we read of those who perished in the gainsaying i. e. in the Rebellion of Core Jude 11. if Rebellion be no great sin Core and his Complices were a sort of Rebellious Levellers or Levelling Rebels attempting to overthrow the Government both of Church and State as appeareth by their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their gainsaying or contradicting and murmuring against both Moses and Aaron and see what came of them v. 32. The earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up and their houses and all the men that appertained to Corah and all their Goods What had Corah Dathan and Abiram done Had they cut off the Head of Moses and of Aaron no such matter They had only opened their mouths against them and talkt at such a rate as if they had been as good men as they themselves and for that did the Earth open its mouth upon them They and all that appertained to them went down alive into the Pit and the Earth closed upon them and they perished from the Congregation v. 33. Which words give me fit occasion to mention what he whom some have called Our English Seneca meaning Master of the Sentences saith to this purpose Vengeance against Rebels may sleep it cannot die A sure if late judgment attends those that dare to lift up either the hand or tongue against the sacred persons of Gods Vicegerents Nay hear what a greater than he saith Rom. 13.1 2. The Powers that be are ordained of God whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Now the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translated damnation is put in many places not only for Judgment as some would mince the matter but for Gods eternal wrath and vengeance So Luke 20.47 Acts 24.25 Rom. 2.2 Heb. 6.2 2 Pet. 2.3 1 Cor. 11.29 See Dr. Hammond Thus having proved Perjury High Treason and Rebellion against those who had their hands in murthering of King Charles the First I come in the fourth place to lay Sacriledge to their charge of which I shall easily prove them as guilty as of the three former Now that word Sacriledge is no sooner dropt from my Pen but I sancy that at the first sight thereof some there are that will forthwith charge Superstition upon me for using it looking upon that which we call Sacriledge or upon the notion of Sacriledge as a meer Chimaera or Ens rationis a Bugbear to scare Children For their opinion is that there are but fours sort of Holy things in the World viz. 1. The Holy God Trinity in Vnity c. 2. Holy Angels and Archangels 3. Holy Men and Women or Saints Triumphant in Heaven and Militant upon Earth 4. Holy Ordinances of God such as Prayer Preaching Sacraments c. Now it is very true if we speak concerning the Holiness of Things nothing but the Ordinances of God if ye take that word in the largest sense viz. for Things ordained and instituted of God as holy separate and devoted to himself are holy for God is the Fountain of all kind of holiness as Kings are of all temporal honours But the great mistake of these who make nothing of Sacriledge yea who despise the word Sacriledge lies here by God Ordinances they understand nothing but Scriptures Praying Preaching Hearing Reading Singing of Psalms Sacraments c. These indeed are Ordinances of God but whatsoever else is of Gods ordinaing and appointing as set a part or devoted to himself is Gods Ordinances Also Civil Power and Authority is called the Ordinance of God Rom. 13.2 because ordained of God v. 1. and therefore surely it is in a sense sacred because one of Gods Ordinances Upon that account it was that the Ark of God though but a piece of Wood was called Holy and that we do read so often of Holy days the Sabbath and other festivals yea of holy places yea of the holy of holies or most holy place which was the inmost Temple called the Sanctuary and that Jerusalem is called the Holy City Also of the Holy Vessels that were in the Tabernacle 1 Kings 8.4 And of the Holy Garments made for Aaron and his Sons Exod. 28.3 and 29.29 Hence the Priests and Sons of Aaron are said to be Holy to God by vertue of their Office Levit. 21.8 Yea hence those words Levit. 25.12 It is the Jubile it shall be holy unto thee i. e. it shall be observed as a thing of Gods ordaining and therefore inviolaible and sacred Now in this sense it may be truly nnd soberly said of all Kings as such that they are sacred viz. Because the Powers that are are ordained of God and cannot be resisted but upon pain of damnation because they are the Ordinance of God Rom. 13.2 Now Sacriledge being the violation of sacred things for that all Scholars know to be the true notion of it and the Persons and Authority of Kings being sacred as hath been proved at large they must need◠be guilty of notorious Sacriledge
was demollished Were ever any Temples build with Stone or Brick so sacred to God as he was Did the great God ever dwell so eminently so sensibly in any Temple madâ— with hands as he useth to do in all Christian Princes who are the Temples of the Living God in a more noble sense than any thing without Life and Reason ever was or could be Could ever dead Temple be as it were a nursing Father to God Israel which Christian Princes are said to be Some have charged Belshazzer with Sacriledge for alienating the Vessels of the Temple only so far forth as to drink in them when he feasted a thousand of his Nobles at one time others have called the sin of Annanias and Saphira Sacriledge and so it was to keep back any part of that which they had dedicated to God and to his Church but sith the two first instances of Sacriledge are much more notorious than these two latter if I shall prove that Murthering of King Charles the First was greater Sacriledge than either of them viz. Than that of Eli's Sons and that of Achan by proving the greater I have certainly prov'd the less for Omne majus in se continet minus As for the Sacriledge of Eli's Sons it was but this They took a part of Gods Meat for so were Sacrifices as the Altar was Gods Table and whereas it should have been boil'd for Gods use they caused it to be rosted for their own They rob'd him of part of his Meat who if he were hungry would not tell us for his are the Beasts upon a thousand Mountains Psal 50.12 The World is his and the fulness thereof c. They were over-kind to themselves and over-bold with God which cost them dear as you have read but what is all that in comparison of being cruel to the Life of a Man a Christian a Prince and our own Prince The Sacriledge of Eli's Sons compared with that of Murthering the King seems if I may so speak to have been lighter than vanity and nothing Nay doubtless it did far exceed that Sacriledge of Achan which was greater than that of Eli's Sons For what was it that that Achan who for his sin was stoned to death and burn'd and called the troubler of Israel because of the sad consequence of it did steal from God Was it not only a Garment some Silver and one wedge of Gold Now what trifles what meer bawbles are all those things if weighed in a ballance against the Life of the King I thought to have wholly passed by the instance of of Annanias and Saphirah their Sacriledge which together with the lie that attended it was punished with present death How much less was their Sacriledge than theirs who put the late King to death They rob'd the Church but of a sacred estate if I may so call it because devoted to God but these of a sacred Life nay they stole away but part of an estate these destroyed a precious Life not in part but in whole They with-held but what themselves had given and might have chosen whither they would have given and could give again but the Murtherers of our King withdrew that which they never did or could give and which when they had once withdrawn they nor all the World could never give again They destroyed but one small sinew of the Church if money may be so called as it is called the sinew of War yea did but strike that one little sinew but these cut off the temporal Head of the Church for so we own the King of England to be next and immediately under God Supream Head and Governor How great then was that Sacriledge which hath clearly outdone that of Annanias and Saphirah that of Eli's Sons that of Achan yea the most notorious of all the Sacriledges recorded in Scripture if not all those Sacriledges put together Who now cryes not out as the Prophet Jer. 9.1 Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain c. slain with the Aggravations of multiplied perjury high Treason horrid Rebellion transcendent Sacriledge And so I have made good the four first Articles exhibited against the Murtherers of King Charles the First c. 5. The putting of the late King to death was Homicidium i. e. down right Murther I need not fear to say greater than that of David in the matter of Uriah For there a King murthered a Subject but in this case Subjects murthered their King and Servants their Master What is Murther but taking away the Life of Man without just cause and without a just authority If so to do be not murther I wonder what is If either of these be in the case it is single murther as I may call it but if both do meet it is murther upon murther if I may so phraise it or redoubled Murther Now they both meet in the case of King Charles the First For First If he had done any thing worthy of death who but the King of Kings had authority to punish him for it or to inflict upon him the death which he had deserved If equals have no power of each other as the Law tells us that Par in pares non habet potestatem What power can Inferiors have upon their Superior Now he must needs be Superior to all the people of England and they all his Inferiors whom the Nation sweareth to own as the Supreme The Law of England being such as alloweth of no man to be put to death but by his Peers whither Lords or Commons doth surely suppose that no man hath any legal authority to put a King of England to death for what Fact soever sith he hath no Peers as that word signifieth equals for every body else in and of the Kingdom is his Subject Flagitious Princes such as Nero whatsoever become of their evil Servants and Counsellers must be left to the justice and judgment of God but our hand must not be upon them Did not Saul by the hand of Doeg whom he imployed for that purpose kill in one day 85 persons wearing Linnen Ephods 1 Sam. 22.18 for which and for many other things he had well deserved to die Yet I no where find David who of all men was most provokt to do it attempting upon his Life yea I hear him saying The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hands against him seeing he is the anointed of the Lords 1 Sam. 24.6 Muthology represents Achilles to have been impenetrable and invulnerable so far as he was anointed with Ambrosia but Kings in a sense are anointed all over with the ointment of Divine Authority and Power therefore impenetrable and inviolable dejure whatsoever they may be de facto Give me leave to change the mode and cry instead of Plectuntur â—lectantur Achivi If Princes err for want of good advice from those Subjects of theirs who ought to give it them let Subjects pay
for it but presume not to meddle with the persons of Soveraigns whom God hath reserved to his own immediate Justice Let them stand or fall to their own Master and who is that but God Almighty Would it not be murther in him who is no Executioner nor appointed by the Magistrate thereunto to put to death the fowlest Malefactor that was ever brought to a Gaole because he has no authority so to do To be sure they who put the late King to death neither had or could have any authority or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for what they did for we have no such Law or Custom in England thanks be to God as to put our Kings to death if they do not please us They may be free in their own perswasion to do such things if commissioned from Rome for that purpose who doubt the Supremacy of all Princes but the Pope to whom they apprehend all other Princes to be of right in subjection but we Protestants have not so learned Christ and Religion as to think that the Heads of all Secular Princes are at the Popes Devotion and their lives in his hands and that they are to hold them but durante illius beneplacito During his Holiness Pleasure Therefore I am amaz'd to think what kind of Heteroclite degenerate Protestants they were if we may call them Protestants who took the boldness to behead King Charles the Martyr Sixthly The sixth Article which I exhibit against the Murtherers of the late Royal Martyr is that their fault was Regicide the murthering not of a private person or subject but of a King which gave a great accent to their crime and made them as it were double-died in blood Though the blood of Jesus Christ may and will upon true and lively repentance wash away the Guilt of Royal Blood so as to prevent the eternal damnation of them that shod it and oh the virtue and value of that Blood that can do so yet I know no Laver that God hath appointed to wash out the stain thereof I mean the blot and stain which it always leaves upon the names and memories of them whose hands have been so imbrewed To attempt that were to wash a Blackamore All injuries become greater by the greatness of the object or party against whom they are committed Read the greatness of their sins in the greatness of the punishments which God hath inflicted on them as the Scripture tells us who have so much as resisted or rebell'd against their Kings but more against them who have put their Kings to death When the Moabites who had paid tribute to King Ahab rebell'd against his Son Jehoram 2 Kings 3.5 They were sorely beaten and the King of Moab brought to such distress that he took his Eldest Son that should have reign'd in his stead and offered him for a burnt offering upon the Wall v. 27. Again we read how Ho eah the King of Israel was punished and the Israel it es carried away Captive though the Governours were Heathen and the Subjects the People of God 2 Kings 17. because after he had made himself servant and tributary to Shalmonezer King of Assiria he afterwards denied him tribute c. In like manner Zedekiah King of Judah was punished as you may see 2 Kings 25.1 compared with chap. 24.20 Thorow the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah until he had cast them out from his presence viz. giving them up to Famine Desolation Captivity Destruction of their City and Temple chap. 25 c. that Zedekiah rebell'd against the King of Babylon yea see what is added chap. 25.7 They slew the Sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and put out the Eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in Fetters of Brass and carried him to Babylon Lord what a dismal train of Consequences insued upon a Jewish King his rebelling but against a Babylonish King Instance we next in Sheba who rebell'd against David and drew all the ten tribes after him was he not by him besieg'd in Abel had his head cut off by the advice of a Woman and thrown out to him 2 Sam. 20.22 The Amalakite that said he had slain Saul though he had not slain him and though he said that Saul bid him was notwithstanding presently put to death at the command of David saying this to him 2 Sam. 1.14 How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thy hand to destroy the Lords anointed Yea David was so incensed at it that he cursed the Mountains where Saul was slain v. 21. Ye mountains of Gilboa let there be no dew neither let there be rain upon you nor fields of offerings for there the shield of the mighty is vâ—lely cast away the shield of Saul as though he had not been anointed with oyl The meer murmurings of the Israelites against Moses are both spoken of and punished as murmurings against God Exod. 16.8 So Numâ—â— 20 13. it is said the people chode with Moseâ— for water and yet v. 13. it is said that thâ— water was called the water of Meribah be cause the Children of Israel strove with thâ— Lord. Hannaniah perswaded the Jews to revolt from the King of Babylon only anâ— yet it is said that he taught rebellion againâ— the Lord Jer. 28.16 Was not Miriam punished with Leprosie but for speaking againâ—â— Moses Numb 12.10 Mind what God said and did upon that occasion ver 8. were yâ—â— not then afraid ye viz. Miriam and Aaron to speak against my servant Moses ver 9 And the anger of the Lord was kindled againâ—â— them and he departed v. 10. And the Cloâ—â— departed from off the Tabernacle and behold Miriam became leprous Nay we find disobedience to the very Priests and Loviteâ— threatned with Leprosie Deut. 24.8 9. Takâ— heed of the plague of Leprosie that ye take heed diligently to observe and do according tâ— all that the Priests and Levites shall teach thee ver 9. Remember what the Lord thy God dâ—â— to Miriam viz. who was strucken with Leprosie for murmuring against Moses who was no Priest To perswade men to revelt from those Princes whose subjects they are is yet a farther Crime than bare murmuring and see how God punished it in Ahab and Zedikiah who were rosted to death by Nebuchad-nezzer Jer. 29.22 And how Shemaiah's whole Family was likewise extirpated v. 32. Hear David's Sentence against Saul's Servants for not using their utmost indeavours to preserve his Life 1 Sam. 26.16 As the Lord liveth ye are worthy to die because ye have not kept your Master the Lords anointed See how miserably Rachab and Banah two of Ishbosheth's Captains came off who murthered their Master and carried his Head as a present to King David hoping for a reward v. 12. David commanded his Young Men and they slew them and cut off their hands and feet and hanged them up possibly in Chains as a terror to others Had Zimri peace who slew his Master Elah King of Israel Surely no for when
he was besieged by Omri and saw that the City was taken he went into the Pallace and burnt the Kings House over him and died 1 Kings 16.18 How sped the Servants of Amon King of Judah who murthered him in his House See 2 Kings 21.24 And the People of the Land slew all them that had conspired against King Amon and made Josiah his Son King in his stead Joash his Servants conspired against him and slew him 2 Chron. 24.25 which was a most just thing on Gods part to avenge the Blood of the Sons of Jehoiada the Priest v. 25. but how came they off see 2 Chron. 25.3 When the Kingdom was established to him he i. e. Amaziah slew his Servants that had beheaded the King his Father If the Murtherers of private persons be now and then reserved to the judgment of the great day to be punished yet Divine Justice and Vengeance as if more concerned about the death of Princes than of Private Persons by the instances fore-cited seems to have alwayes overtaken those even in this Life who have spilt the Blood of Kings as Water upon the Ground Whence is easie to infer that though Homicide be a very great sin yet Regicide is greater and that he was a King whom the Men I am writing of put to death no man ever doubted Seventhly Neither was it Regicide only or the murthering of one who was meerly a King of which these men were guilty but also Justicidium or the murthering of a good King Who knows not that the wilful murthering of any man though a bad yea though the worst of men is a great and crying sin but the murthering of a good and vertuous man a man of a thousand is worse than that and beyond either of them is the murthering of a good and excellent King yea of one of the best Kings in the World which is the case before us Now by how much better the murthered person was by so much worse was the murther for Corruptio optimi est pessima is a never failing rule I dare not apply to this occasion those words of St. Peter Acts 3.14 Ye denied the holy one and the just because they are peculiar to our Saviour who is the holy and the just one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and there is no man so besides him but that the martyred King was a man of great vertue is I think as generally acknowledged by them that either knew him or have seen what is in History concerning him as almost any thing is Who could ever taxe him with Intemperance more or less Who knew not the greatness of his Patience under his unparallell'd Sufferings his professed forgiveness of his most provoking enemies Who ever did read more Divine Lines more pious Contemplations dropping from the Pen of any afflicted Prince than his incomparable and unimitable Book doth contain But it will not stand with the brevity here intended or with the Symmetry of this part with the rest of this Book to write a History in this place of that renowned Kings Vertues but he that shall read his Life excellently written as it is by Dr. Perringshief and others if he have any faith in Histories as what wise men hath not some will not as much admire the greatness of his Vertues as the barbarousness of his Sufferings and both together most of all Herein appeared the barbarousness of his murtherers that they could find in their hearts to use a Prince so immensely ill who deserved so excellently well The Apostle saith Rom. 5.7 Paradventure for a good man some would even dare to die Were they Men or Monsters or Devils incarnate or what were they then who instead of dying for a good man put a good man to death An untimely death I had almost call'd it a shameful death for so it in true tended but that I know no shame was in martyrdom If any man doubt the piety of that Martyr and the tenderness of his Conscience let him but read the 2. chap. in his excellent Book viz. upon the Earl of Strafford 's death Because when almost wearied out of his life by the importunity of those that he believed did wish him well and us'd it as a Maxime Better one man perish though unjustly than the people be displeased or destroy'd he had complied to sign a Bill against the Earl of Strafford's life though without plenary consent to his destruction as he himself saith Lord how uneasie was his Consciscience Reader forbear weeping if thou canst when thou readest those melting warning words of his I see it a bad Exchange to wound a man 's own Conscience thereby to salve State-sores to calm the storms of Popular discontents by stirring up a tempest in a man 's own bosom But I will not prevent thy reading of that whole most excellent Chapter which may almost warrant us to call him A father of Penitents as Abraham was called A father of the Faithful I shall conclude this seventh Article of my charge against the Murtherers of King Charles the First with a short reflexion upon David's words to Baanah and Rechab who cut off the head of Ishbosheth and brought it to him looking for a reward 2 Sam. 4.11 How much more when wicked men have slain a righteous person shall not I require his blood of your hand and take you away from the earth As if David had said for that he meant Saul was a wicked King an enemy to God as well as me and yet when one told me saying Behold Saul is dead viz. the Amalekite who said he slew him by his own command to put him out of pain 2 Sam. 1.10 I took hold of him and slew him who thought I would have given him a reward for his tidings If he were worthy of death who only reported himself upon a pick-thankly account to have kill'd Saul who seem'd otherwise about to kill himself and at his own appointment who was then full of anguish though Saul was a very wicked man as aforesaid what have they deserv'd who beheaded a virtuous King sore against his will and best endeavours to the contrary and that with many circumstances of barbarity as you will hear hereafter And so I proceed to the eighth Article wherewith I charge the said King's Judges viz. Hypocrisie I say with great Hypocrisie practized in that fact It was Homicidium maxime Hypocriticum It was even the Master-piece of Hypocrisie and the grandest Cheat under the Notion of Piety that ever was imposed upon the world Now all Hypocrisie is a perfect Lye and the fault that needs a Lye grows two thereby as Mr. Herbert tells us Who that understands the intrigue of that Business do's not cry out Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Could such a Monster spring from the Womb of Religion Who laid that Brat at her Door For it was none of hers So Politicians talk most of Religion when they mean nothing less as if they would compensate by taking God
making of any more Laws which might be judged necessary for the good of the Nation For without the King no Law can be made His Royal Assent Sanction and Fiat makes every Law to be a Law Therefore the Parliament did never presume to call any things by the name of a Law which they made without the King but by the name not of Acts but of Ordinances of Parliament Secondly there was stop put to the execution of those good and wholsome Laws which were before in being Execution say they is the life of Laws and who but the King is the great Executioner of Laws or the life of their Execution When Judges and other great men in the Law went off by death who but a King could legally substitute others in their room If any Justice be done by Officers not legally called and constituted we must be beholden to usurpation for it Laws are things full of life and spirit if they be such for the constitution and execution of them as they ought to be and upon the life of good Laws depend all our Lives Liberties good Names Estates Properties It is as it were the breath of their Nostrils If the true Soul of the Law go out of it which is the King they must either be restored by some Vsurper or usurping spirit or fall to the ground They who destroy our Laws or the due execution of them had as good in effect burn up all our Ships break down all our Forts and Fences yea they had as good almost cut down all our Banks and Buttresses upon the Sea-shore and let in the Sea upon us as do what they do He that destroys one good Law or the effect and progress of it may do the world more mischief than if he had destroy'd twenty men yea a hundred such as they might be I had almost said If a man could stop the motion of the Sun Moon and Stars and all their Influences upon the earth their light and height c. for ought I know would not be more missed than the free course or progress of Laws would be What Death then could be greater than their demerits who kill'd not only the Law-maker but the Laws themselves which are all in all in all that we have to shew or plead for any thing that we call ours in this world Seventhly Alas alas that I should yet have more wherewith to accuse those poor unhappy men who put the late King to death I say it was Homicidium barbarum a barbarous Murther in reference to the circumstances of it Who knows not that cruelty may be shew'd even towards a noxious Brute which ought to be put to death as towards a wild Boar or the like namely by making its necessary death more painful or more lingring than it need to be but if the same thing be done to a harmless Animal as to a tame Dove or such like the cruelty and barbarousness is yet greater upon that account If the severity be applied to a reasonable Creature man or woman it is counted ten times so barbarous but when barbarous usage shall be applied to a Prince a King our own King a virtuous King and one that had been a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs for many years together not to grant him as handsome an Exit out of the world as could consist with an untimely death was such a transcendant instance of inhumane barbarity as I think no age can parallel Reader If thy heart can bear the mention of them which I assure thee mine hardly can and if thou art content to weep a while for the following Lines are scarcely to be writ or read with dry eyes I shall quote a few instances of the barbarous usage which our dear and dread Sovereign that then was met with as I find them recorded in Dr. Perrinshief's excellent History of the Life and Death of King Charles I. To say nothing of the King-killing Party in Parliament and Army their over-ruling all the vigorous endeavours which were used from time to time by the whole House of Lords together with the major part of the House of Commons to compromise all matters with his Majesty having courageously Voted though the Army was drawn up to London to over-awe them That the King's Concessions were a sufficient ground for Peace Dr. P. p. 174. But to come immediately to such passages as do refer to his Death Some would have the King saith Dr. Perrinshief pag. 185. first formally degraded and divested of all his Royal Habiliments and Ensigns of Majesty and then as a private person exposed to Justice Others designing a Tyrannical Oligarchy whereby they might have a share in the Government would have the King proceeded against as King that by so shedding his Blood they might extinguish Majesty and so mâ—rther Monarchy For several of them did confess that indeed he was guilty of no Crime more than that he was their King and because the excellency of his parts and the rights of his birth would not suffer him to be a private person pag. 186. In their second debate about the matters of Accusation all embraced the advice of Harrison to blacken him c. Ibidem Accordingly they impeached him as a Tyrant Traitor Murtherer and an implacable common Enemy because he had levied war against the Parliament Upon which the Author afterward descants thus excellently pag. 187. Those who had none but the light of nature to make them generous never reproached their conquered Enemies with their Victory but these men would murther their Prince against whom they had nothing else to object but the unhappy issues of a war which leaves the Conquered the only Criminal while the name of Justice and Goodness are the spoils of Conquerors Most barbarous was their cruelty because most inexorable For saith he pag. 187. while they were thus ingaged to perpetrate their intended mischiefs all Parties declare against it The Presbyterian Ministers almost all those of London and very many out of the several Countries and some though few of the Independents The Scots also by their Commissioners declare and protest against it The States of Holland also by their Embassadors did intercede and deprecate it as most destructive to the Protestant Interest Some of the most eminent of the Nobility as the Earl of Southampton the Duke of Richmond the Marquess of Hertford and the Earl of Lindsey and others neglact no ways either by Prayers or Reasons to save the King yea they offered themselves as Hostages for him and if the Conspirators must needs be fed with blood to suffer in his stead pag. 189. The Prince of Orange did daily send as Arents the Kindred and Allies of the Conspirators with full Power and to propose any Conditions make any Promises and use all threatnings to divert them from their intended cruelty But all was in vain For no conditions of Peace could please them whose Ambition had swallowed the hopes of Empire therefore they would
them murtherers each of other because they did abet and encourage each other in and unto the murther of the King in which was included their own consequentially If there were forty of them each of them was guilty of the death of forty not the forty only guilty of the death of one man viz. the King but each of them of forty murthers viz. each of other for that they strengthened each others hands in and unto the work Again If naked Murther be a damnable sin as hath been proved that murther which is cloathed with barbarous and inhumane circumstances must needs be so much more In Judg. 19.25 we read of a Levites Concubine not only killed but with circumstances that were very barbarous viz. forced to death by the Benjamites dwelling in Gibeah Chap. 20.5 But what dreadful things ensued ver 6. I saith the Levite took my Concubine and cut her in pieces and sent her through all Israel for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel The product of this was what we read Judg. 20.34 35. And there came up against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel and the battle was sore And the Lord smote Benjamin before Israel and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjamites that day twenty and four thousand and an hundred men all these drew the sword or were men of valour as is said ver 44. Though wilful murther it self cloathed with the most extenuating circumstances be a great sin yet the barbarous circumstances wherewith it may be cloathed may make it twice so great a sin as otherwise it had been and much more expose it to the Divine vengeance as appeareth by the instance aforesaid But to proceed 6thly Is Hypocrisie a damning sin or not It must needs be so because Hell or the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth is called a portion with the Hypocrite Matth. 24.51 intimating that Tophet was prepared of old as much for Hypocrites as for any sort of men Doth not our Saviour let fly as many Vae's or Woes against Hypocrites as against any sort of men Mat. 25.14 15 16 23 25 27 29. and does he not utter those dreadful words in the close ver 33. Ye Serpents ye generation of Vipers how can ye escape the damnation of hell Now with what direful circumstances of Hypocrisie the late King's death was managed I have told you before 7thly If it be a mortal damning sin to murther but one man especially if a King a Monarch or any thing so great is it not more so to murther a whole Kingdom Country and Monarchy at once The whole species of Monarchy is much more than one individual Kingdom or Monarchy Now I have shew'd before that was aim'd at in putting the King to death which was not only Monarchicidium but designed to issue in Monarchiaecidium or in the ruine of all Monarchy 8thly Is it not a horrid and damning sin to subvert and destroy the good and necessary Laws of a Nation all at once Yea. Not the Laws only but also the very Legislative Power or the Power of making more good Laws as the matter should require If they who resist or disobey the powers that are shall receive damnation as the Apostle speaks Rom. 13.2 What will become of them who in effect destroy and disanul all the Laws of a Nation at once and all the Law-makers Such were the Regicides For when there was no King in England arm'd with power no new Laws could be made nor the old ones executed neither Legally for who but a King has power to give Commission to Judges and other great Instruments of the Law upon all emergent occasions c What the Apostle saith of the Law of God viz. The Law is good if a man use it lawfully is true of the Law of England it is good if it be used lawfully or legally but how could that be done when there was no King in being 9thly Is it not a damning sin for a man to murther himself as did Judas Ahitophel c And did not they murther themselves who murther'd the King For besides that they were dead men in the Eye of the Law the first moment they did or attempted it did it not cost most of them their lives and expose them to an untimely and shameful death though no punishment could be so shameful as was their crime 10thly and lastly Is Deicidium or striking at the life of God himself a damning sin If that will not damn men without great repentance what will The murthering of earthly Kings in Person is it not a kind of murthering the King of Kings in Effigie For his Stamp and Inscription they bear and from thence are called gods in Scripture frequently not that they are equal to the true and living God yea not but that they shall die like men but because in point of Power and Authority of Honour and Majesty they do resemble God much more than Subjects do Now as he that should spit upon the Kings Coin or Picture would be dealt with as one that offered an affront and indignity to his Person and were highly disaffected to him so in this case Now all those Soul-damning sins that I have mentioned being in the womb of that one sin viz. the murthering of the late King let the Reader judge whether the Regicides did not take as direct a course to damn their own Souls as men could take And whether if any shall hereafter attempt to do the same thing to his Majesty that now is as they did to his Father which God forbid it will not prove as ready and certain a course not only to throw away their corporal lives with ignominy but also to damn their Souls and the Souls of their Confederates as any that men could take I am hardned against those that shall say if any such there be That this was done in favour of Religion and for the preservation thereof in power and purity by a Story which a noted Parliament-man and Purchaser of the revenues of a Bishoprick told me about the year 1648. Whereas saith he it is given out that all the change which hath been made has been in order to the preservation and Reformation of Religion there is no such thing For said he had there been Preferments enough in Church State wherewith to have gratified all men of parts interest who were ambitious of them I do assure you there had been no war He was as capable of knowing what he said as any man could be being at that time a Member of Parliament and a great man amongst them though more plain-hearted than some others were The discoveries which I have made of notorious Hypocrisie and blasphemous pretences to God and Religion whilst men did uti Deo at fruantur mundo i. e. use God that they might enjoy the world together with the little difference which I could ever discern betwixt the conversations of those that called themselves the Godly Party