way to bring wars and troubles unto himself and to the Common-wealth and a curse at least if not a rooting out of his posterity while the innocent blood that he hath shed or caused to be shed doth continually cry to God for vengeance against him or them that did it And so you see that neither Zimri nor any other killer of his King and of his Master or of any other man can have any peace either with God or with men 3. 3 King-killers and murderers and the like wicked men can have no peace with themselves The murderer and wicked man can have no peace with himself nor any rest or quietness in his own thoughts and conscience for as Lipsius saith Cognatum immo innatum est omni sceleri sceleris supplicium Sin bears its own punishment alwaies on his back they are so inseperably knit together that the one cannot be committed but the other will be inflicted because as S. Augustine saith Jossit Dominus ita est ut animus inordinatus sit sibi ipsi paena Lipsius de constantia l. 2. c. 13. the Lord hath ordained it and it is so that a wicked disordinate mind should be a punishment unto it selfe for as God said unto Cain so it is with us if we do ill sin lyeth at the door that is the reward of sin Gen 4.7 or the punishment due for that sin is alwaies at hand like a wild Beast to dog us and to bite us wheresoever we go and the conscience of sin especially of these bloody sins beareth forth such bitter fruit as that nothing in the world can be more grievous or more miserable to a mortall man for as Menander saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The conscience is as a god to all men to be a witness of our debts a judge of our deeds and a tormentor of all our transgressions and the wise man saith The spirit of a man will bear his infirmities that is all the sad calamities and misfortunes that may happen unto him a brave mind and a Heroick spirit will bear them all but a wounded spirit who can bear For as the Poet saith Strangulat inclusus dolor Ovid. Trist l. 5. atque exaestuat intùs And the Examples that might be brought hereof are infinite beyond number I will name to you but a few Oedipus that bloody incestuous King of Thebes is said to be led to Athens by his daughter Antigona i.e. to be doggd up and down by his own conscience and to be buried in the Temple of Erinnys i.e. to be overwhelmed with sorrows and perturbations for his lewd forepassed life and his wife and mother Jocasta in like manner strangled her self saith Sophocles And Procopius writes that Theodoric King of the Gothes after he had most unjustly put to death Symmachus and Boetius two noble Senators of Rome his own thoughts and conscience did so molest him that as he was at Supper with many friends about him and a Fish his head of great bigness being set on the table his imagination conceited It was the head of Symmachus that with angry eyes grinned upon him whereby he was so oppressed with fear and trembling that he suddenly rose from the table and could never afterwards be comforted but his conscience did continually so torment him that he pined away most miserably till he died And Polydore Virgil saith Polydor. l. 25. that Richard the third of this Kingdome after he had slain his two Nephews had the like tormenting conscience till he was slain by Hen. 7. at Bosworth Field And we read that Tiberius after he had been the death of very many that he hated was so vexed with such grievous torments of his wounded spirit that he desired all the gods rather to destroy him all at once then to suffer him thus to pine away with the continual sting and stripes of a tormented conscience wherein the just God dealt with him as he had done to many others to suffer many deaths before he put them to death as the subtle Fox was wont to say and Nero the monster of men when he had most unthankfully put to death his own Master and Tutor Seneca and most unnaturally caused his own natural Mother to be killed with many others of the faithful servants of Christ he was so grievously vexed in conscience that he could not be comforted by any means but thought in his mind that he did alwayes see his Mothers Ghost still crying for vengeance against him And to passe over those infinite examples that might be produced of this kind I will only alleadge that one of Apollodorus the Tyrant who dreamed that he was flea'd by the Scythians and that his heart thrown by them into a boyling Caldron should say unto him I am the cause of all this thy miseries my self so the heart and conscience of every malefactor especially the shedders of innocent blood will perpetually tell them where they are and what they must expect and howsoever they may put on a seeming countenance of peace and a quiet mind of no disturbance yet indeed they are but like the glow-worm that in a dark night makes a fiery shew but being prest you shall find nothing in him but cold moisture for the worm of conscience doth alwaies gnaw their wretched souls within them when their faces seem to smile without But it may be some will object that all sinners have not such unquiet minds and all murderers and King-killers have not as we see wounded spirits I answer that some indeed are of such brasen faces that they can laugh their sins out of countenance and smile with the fool when they go to the gallows but lassure my self their hearts bleed when their faces counterfeit smiles and they are like Dives that saw Lazarus a far off in Abrahams bosom but was himself tormented in Hell for the heart and soul may be sorrowfull when the face and countenance may seem cheerfull And it is a thousand to one but it is so with all murderers and the like haynous transgressors for that it is unpossible that such men should ever want furies so long as they have themselves or if they could find a way to run away from themselves and to cause their souls to forsake their bodies as Saul Zimri Achitophel and Judas did yet their consciences will not flie away from their souls nor their sins from their consciences but let a murderer King-killer or Master-killer or any other man-killer flye ab agro in â—ivitatem à publico ad domum à domo in cubiculum from the field into the City from the City into his house and from the house into his bed and thence like those impatient fishes that leap out of the frying pan into the fire from the private hell of their own breasts into the publick hell of damned souls yet Ecce hostem inveniet à quo confugerat behold there he shall find the enemy whom he feared that is a tormenting
to confesse their sins and to bewail his death Nay they were so far from returning or repenting them of their wickedness that their hearts being hardned harder than Pharaoh's heart they still proceed in malice and because any eulogy of him they thought obloquy unto themselves and his praise to be their shame they neither permitted him a Funeral Sermon nor provided a Tomb for his burial and therefore in all likelihood he had goue without one had not providence according to Prophesie provided him a Sepulcher from an honourable Counsellour which had lodged this King while he was alive in his heart and now being dead he layes him in his own Grave But it may be said That as S. Peter saith Ob. Pilate and the children of Israel did but what the hand and counsel of God bad determined before to be done and therefore this their proceeding against their King being but a lowly submission or a dutiful execution of Gods providence it cannot be so offensive unto God I answer Sol. 1 1. That Gods counsel was secret and unknown unto them and they had no revelation nor commandment from God to do it therefore they are inexcusable for doing it 2. Though S. Peter saith God had determined this to be done yet he doth not say that God determined to do it by them and in that manner and for that cause as they did it Therefore though the counsel of God for the doing of it had been revealed unto them yet this can be no excuse unthem unless God had commanded them to be the actors of it 3. Though they had known Gods mind and that his mind was that they should be the actors of this Tragedy yet Gods end being salus populi the salvation of all faithful people and their end being to satisfie their own malice and ambition to get the inheritance of the Church and the Kingdom to themselves the counsel of God to do it cannot justifie them in their wicked deeds And therefore all these things rightly weighed it will appear that Gods counsel was most just in it self and most gracious for us and their proceeding most unjust without warrant without authority and will be found at the last Day with all other like proceedings without excuse and themselves to be most malicious murderers of their King And now as Apelles or Timantes having drawn the sad and mournful countenance of the Mourners for Iphigenia to the uttermost height of his skill when he came to expresse the same in Agamemnon her father because his art could go no higher than he had gone and that it could not reach to express her fathers grief he was fain to draw a vail over Agamemnon's face and to leave it to the consideration of the beholders to conceive how infinite must be the sorrow of her dear father that so dearly loved her So I having painted out the horrible vileness of the murderers of their Just King to the uttermost of mine art and not able to shew half the damnability thereof I must put a Curtain before my Tablet and leave it to your thoughts to consider if you can imagine that it is possible for any Orator to expresse the unutterable and incomprehensible damnability of this Fact and the execrable villany of those Traytors that have murdered their own just King And now 3. 3 Part. Who were the murderers of this just King For the murderers that have killed their Just King I am to shew you who these Traytors and murderers were and we find in this Chapter and the precedent Chapter that they were the people and the Elders of the people the Scribes and the Priests and the whole multitude and the Evangelist adds the Pharisees the Sadduces the Lawyers and the Rulers of the people A strange and a wonderful thing that so many of several Sects of several Degrees and several dispositions should notwithstanding conspire together to put to death their own just and lawful King But you have heard of the Treason and Murder and the cruel handling of this King and you have seen and do know how our own King hath been likewise used and all this we can it may be patiently hear but when Nathan tells David Thou art the man and when I tell these Jews de quibus narratur fabula These and these were the men that did it and were the Actors in this wicked Tragedy or if I should name the Actors of the other Tragedy that our English Jews acted against their own King I know not how they would wring and bite and kick against me Yet howsoever I will as briefly as I can go over them all that the Scripture speaks of that when you find or see any of the Actors of the other later Tragedy and Regicides like these Murderers of their King you may dislike them and specially beware of them And 1. Because the Pharisees were most powerfull and most numerous 1 The Pharisees like our zealous seduced and hypocritical Saints I will begin with them that first began to quarrell with their King and you must know that they were but of yesterday a new-sprung Sect not so much as once mentioned in all the Old Testament but as soon as ever he peeps out of his shell he runs away like the Lapwing out of his nest and separates himself from the Church i.e. the Congregation of his neigbours Why the Pharisees separate themselves from all others for which cause he is termed Pharisaeus quasi segregatus and the reason of his separation is because he thinks all others prophane carnall and worldly and himself with the rest of his Sect to be the only holy Saints and servants of God And indeed we find that they exceeded all the common sort of men in five speciall things as 1. In Tything 2. In Fasting 3. In Praying and Preaching Their Religion 4. In a fair Language 5. In sanctifying the Sabbath For 1. For tythes they will not omit Mint and Cummin nor any of the least things untythed 2. For Fasting they must do it twice in every week 3. For Praying they used it often and made long prayers Matth. 6.23 and openly not caring who did see them but rather defirous that all men should take notice how devout they were in their prayers and so they were for the preaching the word of God and they were most diligent to hear Sermons insomuch that rather then they would be without the word preached Matth. 3 they will go to hear John the Baptist 4. For their fair language Christ himself tells us that they being evill yet speak good things and so when they came to intrap him Matth. 12.24 Their diffimuâ— lation they began with fair words and say Master and so in all their carriages when they meant to play the devill they spake like Saints as when they laboured what they could to be the death of Christ yet they come unto him as if they were his greatest friend and tell him
truth as the Poet saith of Ibis Tincta Lycambaeo sanguine tela dabunt Ovid. in Ibin Their sword is dipt in blood and â—ats the flesh of Innocents and they will give you poyson in a golden cup and deceive you even with Scripture Phrases when as Claudian saith de voluptate Stiliconis Blanda quidem vâ—ltu Claudian de volupt l. 2. Stilic sed qua non tetrior ulla Interius fucata genas amicia dolosis Illecebris So their Doctrine hath the Countenance of truth and the shews of a great deale of piety and charity but you can not see so far as the further end of their intention or at least of his intention that sets them on this course which is to divide the seamless coat of Christ to bring sects and divisions into the Church and to break the two staffes wherewith the Church of Christ is guided and subsisteth Beauty and Bands i.e. the pure Doctrine and the discreet Discipline of the Governors of the Church that these Governors being suppressed and their discipline destroyed and the bands which are the Fences of Gods Vine-yard being broken all to pieces the wild Bore out of the Forrest and all the Beasts out of the Field may destroy the Vine-yard at their pleasure and make the Church of Christ to become the Synagogue of Satan and the House of God a Den of thieves And therefore when any of these false Prophets should arise and seek to withdraw Gods servants from the Truth and true God Deut 13.5 1 Reg. 18.40 the Lord commands his people to put that Prophet to death and so Elias caused all the Prophets of Baal to be slain and Jehu did the like and though our Saviour Christ be not so severe in the New Testament as God was in the Old Testament to command us to put the false Prophets to death yet he doth most seriously advise us to beware of them Apoc. 22.15 and the Holy Ghost calleth them Dogs barking dogs of whom the Apostle biddeth us to beware lest they bite us And truely we have the greatest reason in the world to beware of them because these false Prophets that seduce the people with their smooth Preaching and with the Words of God are worse then any other wicked men that destroy none but themselves and they bring thousands after them out of the right way and from the right service of God And yet these false Prophets were the only Prophets whom the Jews magnified and the true Prophets of God they persecuted for Jezabel fed 400. of these false Prophets at her own Table which was a pretty company for one woman to maintain and for Elias which was the true Prophet of the Lord she swore that she would be the death of him as you may see in 1 Reg. 19.2 1 Reg. 19.2 And the rest of the People of the Jews walked in the same waies And therefore the Lord saith Micah 2.11 If a man walking in the spirit and falshood do lie or walk with the wind and lie falfly he shall even be the Prophet of this people And this hath been the Common course of the world in all ages For all wicked men and all worldlings that would notwithstanding seem to be Religious and pretend to serve God as well as the best and rather then the best will therefore have Preachers and Prophets to instruct them in the way of God as they pretend but it is indeed to cover and to cloak their Hypocrisie and therefore their Preachers must be like Jezabels Prophets Prophets like themselves that will Prophesie what they please and serve what god they please and with what service they like best And such Prophets and Preachers as will do so to follow their directory they shall want no preferment they shall have annuities and pensions and augmentations and eat at Jezabels Table Thus did the Jews lay down a pattern to magnify the false Prophets and now the Christians follow them But how did they deal with the other sort of Prophets that were the Prophets of the Lord the Prophet Esay tels you To the Seers they said see not Esay 30.10 and to the true Prophets they said Prophesy not to us right things and because the true Prophets that the Lord owned to be His Prophets would not dissemble and smooth them up by sowing pillows under their elbows and prophesying placentia deceits and pleasing things unto them therefore the Holy Ghost tels us they mocked these Messengers of God 2 Chr. 36.16 and despised his words that is the Words of God that were spoken to them by his Messengers and they misused his Prophets as you may see in 2 Chron. 36.16 And as S. Stephen saith they persecuted them from time to time and from place to place And thus did the Jews use or rather abuse the true Prophets And have we not seen the like dealings in our own time and the people imitating these Jews to a hair Persecuting all the Reverend Bishops and all the grave Preachers and spoyling them of all their Livelihoods to make them the very scorn of the World as we have been above these two Lustra's of years and yet in a deep Hypocrisy to magnify and to advance the false Prophets and those young novices and Preachers that commended their waies and walked after their steps though now the tide being turn'd the most of them cry Peccavi and say with the Jews We have sinned with our Fathers we have done amiss and dealt wickedly to let you see what kind of Prophets they were and what you should conceive of their extorted confession but enough of this that sheweth you what Prophets and whose Prophets their Fathers persecuted the true Prophets of the Lord. Yet here is one point more and that is 3. The Generality of their persecution for Quem Prophetarum 3 The Generality of the Persecution saith the Martyr Which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted Can you name any one of Gods Prophets that hath escaped their persecuting hands And is it not strange that there is no Bound nor Measure of their malice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Devil is Gods ape but it must extend and reach to all Gods Prophets Surely no For the Devil is Gods apâ—â—â—nd as in many things else so he would fain imitate God herein As God would have all the Prophets of Baal destroyed that there might not be a false Prophet left to seduce his people so the Devill would have all the Prophets of the Lord destroyed that there might not be one true Prophet left to instruct Gods people and therefore he crieth out unto his instruments Down with them down with them even to the ground and let the foundations be cast down that their building may be quite demolished like the re-edifying of Jericho whose builder should be accursed and should lay the foundation thereof in his First born Josh 6.26 and set up the gates thereof in his
youngest son as it hapned afterward unto Hiel the Bethelite So would the instruments of Satan deal with all Gods Prophets 1 Reg. 16.24 as Jehu did with the Prophets of Baal and as it hapned to Segub and Abiram the sons of Hiel after the re-edifying of Jericho And did not the Long-Parliament take the same course to root out all the Bishops all the Hierarchy and all Episcopall men all must down root and branch and not one of them must be left Alas alas were they all wicked or did some offend and must all be condemned for the offence of few or will they shew themselves like the implacable goddesse which as the Poet saith Exurere classem Argivûm atque ipsos voluit submergere ponto Unius ob noxam furias Ajacis Oilei destroyed all the Navie and drowned all the Argives for one mans fault This is to condemn the righteous with the wicked and the Lord saith the Judges should justifie the righteous Deut. 25.1 and condemn the wicked and not to condemn the righteous for the wicked nor with the wicked for the Poet speaking of some lewd women saith Parcite paucarum diffundere crimen in omnes Spectetur meritis quaeque puella suis Though some be loose and wanton yet must you not for this blame those that are honest so though some of the Bishops might perhaps be found unworthy of so high a calling Is that a sufficient argument to destroy them all Yet such hath been the Devils Logick to perswade his late Schollars to make their distruction as universal as Noahs deluge to take them all away And so much shall serve for the first point 2 The killing of the Preachers i.e. The progression of these persecutors in their wickednesse which is the persecution of the Prophets The next point is 2. Occidio praedicatorum And that is their progression and their going forward in their wickednesse more and more As the Sun goeth higher and higher unto the perfect day so do they go from one sin unto another still from the lesser unto the greater for they have not only persecuted the Prophets saith this holy Martyr but they have also slain them which shewed before of the coming of the just one that is the Preachers of Jesus Christ wherein you may behold as in a glasse the lively perfect picture of all wicked men and the innate inseparable condition of all malicious persecutors that is to proceed from bad to worse from one step to another from one degree of evill to a viler untill at last they fall into the bottomlesse gulph of all the most horrid wickednesse and as the Poet saith Flumina magna vides parvis de fontibus ortâ— Plurima collectis multiplicantur aquis From a small fountain thou maist see great flouds to arise and many waters to make great Seas so from the small seeds of these mâ—ns â—â—â—ice their sins ascend to the top of intolerable mischief or rather descend to the bottomiesse gulf of their own unavoidable destruction for so Cain at first was but angry with his brother because the Lord accepted him and liked better of his sincerity than of the others hypocrisie then Acrior ad pugnam redit vim suscitat ira he began to hate and to maligne him after that malitia excoecavit eum his malice moved him to persecute him and last of all most inhumanely to kill him So Pharaoh first envied the prosperity of the children of Israel because he thought that Fertilior seges est alienis semper in agris God blessed them and all that they had better then he blessed him then vim injuriam intulit he began to oppresse them by laying hard taxes and most cruel labours upon them and then he killed their children and in all likelyhood would have killed them if God had not delivered them out of his hands And the reason of this their progression in wickednesse The reason why the wicked grow from bad to worse is truly rendred by Seneca Quia omne scelus majori scelere tuetur every hainous and most wicked deed can never subsist and be upheld but by a more wicked deed and therefore the Lyar will swear and forswear himself to justifie his lye the robber will kill the honest traveller for fear he should accuse him and the Rebell that riseth to resist and to warre against his King and the Traytor that betrayeth his King never thinks himself safe untill he can be the death of his King so the Hereticks maintain their heresies and errors with far greater heresies and the Presbyterians that oppose and refuse to be directed by their Diocesans think themselves never satisfied untill they see the Bishops wholly supprest and destroyed And so the Jewes walked in the same steps and dealt after the same manner with Gods Prophets And so likewise ever since the wicked worldlings deal with the true Preachers of Jesus Christ for the whole companie of Gods children knowes what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great gulph and a huge distance and difference not in nature originally figmentum unum when as all men are made from the same lump but in generality and condition there is and hath been ever seen betwixt the Lay Commonalty and the learned Clergy of any Land and how as Ismael that was born after the flesh persecuted his own brother Isaac that was born after the Spirit so the Lay-worldlings do ever maligne and persecute unto death all the right spiritual Clergy-men And this persecution we of the Clergy have felt now of late to the very height when very very many of the very best of them that did feed daintily even with the Kings dishes were as the Prophet saith left desolate in the street and glad to sustain their lives with a little Barley bread and Glass-door and they that were clad in Scarlet were driven to embrace the dung-hills Jerem. 4.5 and be clad in rags and with Joshua the high Priest to be clothed with filthie garments Zechary 3 3. and so were made the scorn and Table-talk of their neighbours and blamed that they did not live and go according to their degrees and calling when as the Proverb is ultra posse non est esse none is able to do beyond his ability and he onely that weares the shooe knoweth where it pincheth him And as the Jews not only persecuted the Prophets but also slew the Preachers so many of us were slain some with the sword of these mercilesse men and many more with hunger and want Zechar. 3 3.1 when their hearts were broken with the extremity of grief and the weight of those miseries that were laid upon these good men were far heavier then the pillars could support And so this persecution thus proceeding did far exceed all former persecutions beyond Nero's tyranny and Dioclesians cruelty and was of the same kind but of a higher strain than Julians stratagems which was not only to suppresse Presbyteros
not to destroy the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them and themselves by their false Expositions and new invented traditions were the innovators and corrupters both of the Law and Prophets and more particularly 1. For the Sabbath he sheweth that themselves are herein too nice and superstitious and he no prophaner thereof because the Sabbath was made for man i.e. for the good of man both for his soul and body of his soul by serving God and of his body by those necessary actions and recreations that may conduce for the continuance of his health on that day 2. For the reverence to be observed in the Temple or Church of God 2 Objection answered Esay 56.7 he sheweth that he was not too strict in driving the buyers and sellers and all other prophaners thereof out of the same because God himself saith even of this material Temple or Church of stones My house shall be called an house of prayer for all people for the Gentiles as well as for the Jewes but they had prophaned the same by making it a house of Merchandize and so a den of thieves as they do that make it a stable for their horses or a receptacle for their plundered and stolne goods And in both these points our Puritans now are just as the Jewes were then too much given to prophane the Church and too superstitious to observe the Sabbath But 3. For abridging the liberty of divorces 3 Objection answered Matth. 5.32 he tells them that he teacheth no otherwise then what was from the beginning that whosoever putteth away his wife saving for the cause of fornication causeth her to commit adultery but you by forsaking the good old way and following the traditions of your latter Rabbines your Assembly of new Divines have made the Commandements of God of none effect and teach for Doctrine the Commandements of men Chap. 15.6 just as they do now forsake the good old government of the Church that hath been from the beginning from Christ his time and follow the new invented Government that is forced from the false and wrested Expositions of our upstart Rabbines that never yet saw the age of a man since the death of Calvin and Beza the first Fathers that begat it 2. As they did thus unjustly taxe their King for Innovation 2 The destruction of the people And this madded the people against King Charles John 11.48 and the alteration of their established Religion so they have another bait whereby they do as cunningly catch the people and set them like wild men to joyn with them yea to out-goe them in their desires to destroy their King and that is Salus populi the safety and liberty of the people which they said would be utterly lost if they did let Him goe and this madded the people against their King though there was no truth in the charge nor ground to believe it but the feares and jealousies of the people raised only by the malice of their wicked leaders for how could it be that either the safety or the liberty of the people should be any wayes impaired by that King that came to fulfill the Law and to root out all the false glosses thereof and was contented to lose not his Kingdom only but also his own life for the safety and liberty of his people as themselves confesse that he must die for the people i. e. for their Lawes and Liberties and so become the Martyr of the Law and the Saviour of his people So you see the pretended charge against this King Jo. 11 48. that he was a tyrant by indevouring to destroy their Lawes and to alter their Religion and a Traytor to the State by forbidding Tribute unto the Conqueror whom now they were resolved to honour for their onely King lest they should lose their place and their Nation 2. 2 The true causes that moved the murderers to kill their Kings The true reall causes that moved these murderers to kill their King were very many but especially four 1. Envie to him 2. Despaire in themselves 3. Fear to lose 4. Ambition to be great For 1. 1 Envie Joh. 7.47 Mar. 7.37 They perceived that for his admirable worth and his divine endowments when as never man spake as he did and that he did all things well the people loved him followed him and adhered to him then As the glorious rayes of the Sun upon any putrified matter causeth a stench so his excellent vertues begat the poysonouâ—brats of envie and malice in these wicked miscreants and so Pilate perceived that for envie they had delivered or rather as the word signifieth betrayed him to death 2. 2 Despair of pardon When they had by their Declarations and Remonstrances their calumnies slanders and false accusations sought with all art to render him odious unto his people and had in all things opposed him to the uttermost of their might Gen. 4.13 then as Cain cried out my sin is greater then can be forgiven So the guilt of their malice and the remembrance of their fore-past wickednesse against him were of so deep a stain they they conceived all the water in the Sea could not wash it away and all the mercie of man could not remit their sin such is the conscience of all unconscionable sinners therefore though this good King could would and did forgive his enemies and pray for his persecutors yet because their hate and sins were so great that they could not believe it they thought themselves no wayes secured unlesse he were killed 3. 3 Fear to lose what they had gotten The men were now got into great power they had the liberty to be of what Sect and profession they pleased Scribes Pharises or Sadduces or what you will and to do what they would so long as they pleased the Conqueror no man could contradict them but if the right King continue King they saw he would not and could not endure such an Anarchie of Government and a Hodge podge to remain amongst them therefore Caiaphas the second man in power tells them it is expedient that he die for fear of the losse of their places and this their great power and liberty 4. 4 Ambition to be great men Matth. 21.23 Mâ—â— 12.7 Luk. 20.9 This King himself in the parable of the Vineyard which is faithfully recorded by three Evangelists sets down as I conceive it the main cause fundamental ground of his death that is their ambition desire to be great and to hold all power and authority in their own hands for so the wicked husband-men say This is the heir Venite come let us kill him and then retinebimus haereditatem ejus we shall hold his inheritance His it is we confesse yet then We shall hold it because as S. Mark saith then certainly erit nostra it will be ours and no man can keep us from it and indeed this desire of bearing rule And
I would fain know if these four things were not the very causes that made the Rebels to being King Charles unto death this covetousnesse to get what is none of our own hath been the death of many Kings of many men for what made Caracalla slay his brother Geta in his mothers lap and between her armes but this inordinate desire to raign What made Phraharers son of Horodes King of Parthia kill his own Father and 29. of his brethren but the like desire to raign And what made Abimelech the bastard son of Gedeon slay 70. of his brethren in one day and Jehn to slay his Master even as Zimri had done the like before him and Absolon attempt to do so to his own Father but only this ambitious desire of bearing rule And if you look into the 8. c. of the 5. Book of Camerarius Camerar l. 5. c. 8. his historical meditations you shall find a Catalogue of such wicked murderers that have bin the death of many Kings that they might raign as kings themselves and therefore let the pretences of these murderers of their King be what you will change of Religion Arbitrary Government great Tyranny or loss of liberty yet all these are but forged and fained to blind the World and to deceave the people and the true Cause indeed is this Haereditas erit nostra This Profit is the point that doth the deed And as the desire to raign makes the regicides Cant. 2. so this inheritance of the Church which is signified by the Vineyard brought the doctrine of killing deposing and depriving into the Church of Christ and it is as truly Esay 5. as wittily said by one that Quid vultis mihi dare is the Jews question in this case Omnia haec tabi dabo is the Devil's answer to the Church-robber And such a dialogue betwixt the Devil and the Jew for the inheritance of the Church is powerfull enough to bring any King even Christ himself the King of Kings unto his death so I do assure my self and all the World may be assured of it it is not the calling or the office of the Bishops or of Deans Prebends which neither they nor their grand Master was ever able to disprove to be Divine that they so much detest but it is their Lands and inheritance that they so greedily gape for and as this made Naboth to lose his life so this makes our calling detestable and this was the cause the cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that brought Charles our King and one speciall cause that brought Christ the King of kings unto their deaths because they would not betray the trust that God reposed in them nor surrender up this their rightfull Inheritance unto the greedy Usurpers but shewed themselves faithfull shepherds that were ready to lay down their lives for their sheep rather then to betray the laws and liberties of the people and the happiness that God had determined for their subjects and for this as we owe to our Saviour Christ our selves our souls and our bodies to honor him and serve him to praise him and to magnify him for ever as our only Saviour and preserver from everlasting death and destruction so this good King this just magnanimous King King Charles that rather suffered an ignominious death then to give away the inheritance of the Church or annull the highest calling in the same the Calling of the Reverend Bishops deserves to be everlastingly Loved indelibly Chronicled and universally Published like Mary Magdalen for a faithfull Martyr a true Protector and a nursing Father unto the Church of Christ which here I vow for mine part ever to do whensoever opportunity offers it self to do it But as I said before they had their King in their hands Ob. they had him their Prisoner so they had his Kingdom in their power and possession already what needed they therefore to kill him that they might have that which they had For if Ahab had had the Vineyard questionless Naboth had not died Saint Mark answereth fully that they kild the Heire Sol. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they might hold it and continue in it An answer specially to be observed for covetousness is a sin of Retention and never thinks of Restitution and the sin of forcible entrance can not endure to be put out of Possession thereforelest if he lived he might use some means to Regain it there is no surer way for them to hold in Peace what they unjustly got by the sword but by the death of the Just Owner And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I conceive signifieth not only that we may hold what we have but also that we may have more then we hold as if they should have said Some-what we have while we have him our prisoner and in our hands but more we shall get when we get him dead for then we shall have all as much as we can or will desire Therefore seeing ambition is like the daughters of the Horseleëch that still crieth more and more these murderers are like the Whore in the Apocalyps that having tasted the blood of the Saints will never give over till she be drunk with blood so will they never be satisfied with any less than the blood of their King Apoc 17. the death of the right Heir that they may hold what they have and have whatsoever they desire So you see the true Causes why these wicked murderers have put their King to death Now 3. 3 The patient and silent demeanor of this King Esay 53. Act. 8.32 When his adversaries most maliciously illegally and falsly accused him and laid many things to his charge contrary to all truth yet he answered not unto their charge but this good King being reviled reviled not again and being smitten smote not again but as a Lamb before his shearer is dumb so opened he not his mouth The Reason The Reason of not answering to their charge four fold why he answered not is not expressed by the Holy Evangelists therefore we may not curiously prie into that which is concealed nor Positively conclude the Reason that is not revealed unto us Yet with Modesty it may be conjectured that he would not answer 1. Reason 1 Lest his wise and satisfactory Answer might convince Pilate that was a rational man and seemed to bear no malice against him and being satisfied to let him go freed from the accusation of his enemies and so the Counsell of God which he knew and came to fulfill it touching the Redemption of mankind by his death might thereby be frustrated So far did he prefer our good before his own life A most gratious King 2. Reason 2 He answered them not lest his answering might have ministred an occasion to these malicious miscreants to suborn more perjurers to bear false witness against him so carefull was this good King of the good of his enemies that they should not heap
more vengeance upon themselves by committing the more sins 3. Reason 3 He answered not because he held that Power which at that time the sword had so unjustly gotten to be insufficient and unjustifiable in his case to try his person and to condemn Him to death who in respect of the Hypostaticall union was Rex universae terrae and so King of the Romans as well as of the Jews therefore he would not answer to that charge that was so illegally charged against him coram non Judice before a Judge that had no lawfull commission to be his Judge So Bradshaw had no commission to be King Charles his Judge Or 4. Reason 4 It may be said that he answered nothing to the false charge laid against him because of the illegall power authority or right that his enemies had to require it when as he being their King was not to answer for any faci that he had done to any one of all his Subjects as the King that was according to Gods own heart sheweth when after he had committed both adultery and murder he saith to God Against thee only have I sinned And therefore the Jews being Christ his Subjects and so having neither right nor authority Math. 27.11 to lay any charge against Him that was their King he was altogether silent in all that concerned the charge laid against him Mar. 15.2 But for any other question that Pilate his servant and now made his Judge Luk. 23.3 did ask him He gave him a full and a sufficient answer as you may see in all the Evangelists Or else Joh. 18.34 36. and chap. 19 11. as S. Jerom. comments upon the Evangelists he spake nothing that is nihil durum nihil asperum nothing that might offend either the Judge or the Jews But we find What this King spake not to save his own life but for others that neither Jews nor Gentiles neither High Priest nor Pilate would condemn this King before they gave him liberty to speak and they were ready to hear what he would or could say for himself Because the law of the Jews as Nicodemus a Counsellor of their law testifieth judged no man before it heard him and it was not the manner of the Romans Jo. 7.51 Act. 25.16 to deliver any man to die before he had liberty to answer for himself as Festus another Judge of the Romans confesseth And yet such was the injustice shewed to Charles our King which you may remember by his subject-Judge that contrary to all Laws both of Heaven and Earth both of Jews and Gentiles he would not hear those just Reasons that he sought to shew for himself against their unjust proceedings against him And therefore no doubt but Annas and Caiphas and unjust Pilate will rise in Judgment to condemn that unjust Judge at the last day But though this good King Christ said nothing to their Charge to save his own life yet at his death he spake much to preserve his enemies from Everlasting death as when he said I thirst that was not for the blood of his enemies as they and the Souldiers did for his blood but it was for the accomplishment of the mysterie of theirs and our salvation that was to be effected by his death And especially when as Bellar mine observeth he prayed for his very murderers that were slaughtering and tormenting him and said Father forgive them for they know not what they do and some of them are simply ignorant of the wickedness of this fact being seduced by their false Teachers and others though wilfully blind yet are they ignorant of the consequents of this act that is the heavy punishment that is due to them and without great repentance must light on them for this wicked deed therefore O my Father I pray thee revenge not my death but forgive them for my sake And this prayer prevailed for Longinus that thrust him through his side How mightily the prayer of Christ prevailed with God to forgive his enemies to become a Convert if old Tradition may be believed for truth and for 3000. more at one clap when S. Peter took off the vail that shadowed the truth and shewed to the poor seduced people the horrible wickedness of their malicious leaders and for many many more that returned unto him immediately after and would have prevailed for all the very worst of his murderers even for Judas Annas and Caiphas yea and for the Judges the first and second Pilate that pronounced the Sentence against their Kings if they had had the grace to repent them of their evill deed and to believe in this their Saviour 4. Consider 4 How Speedily they condemned their King I pray you how speedily they executed and made an end of him after he was Condemned for he was apprehended but upon Thursday when-as upon Wednesday at night he did eat the Pass-over with his Disciples and tels them that after two daies was the Feast of the Passover the greatest feast that they had Math. 26.2 solemnized in remembrance of their great and wonderfull deliverance out of Pharaohs bondage And yet they would not suffer him to live till that Feast was past but being taken upon Thursday he must all that day and all that night be hurried from Annas to Caiphas from Caiphas to Pilate from Pilate to Herod and from Herod back again to Pilate and so from place to place and the very next day which was Friday by nine of the clock in the morning which was their third hour of the day they fastened him to his Cross Mar. 15.25 with nails so large that being found they made a helmet and a bridle for Constantine as it is reported And this was a very quick dispatch indeed King Charleâ— I remember another King that was murdered in like manner by his subjects but though suddenly enough dispatched out of the way yet had a litle more favour and a litle longer time before he was beheaded But why would not these miscreants suffer their King to live one day Quest to prepare himself for his death after he was condemned They answer That the next day after he was adjudged to die Resp Why they would not suffer their King to live one day longer was their Feast day and the greatest feast in the year therefore they must not suffer him to pass over that day nor to die on that day for these two speciall Reasons 1. Reason 1 Lest there should be an uproare among the people because that day being set apart for an holy meeting as the Lord commanded it and as our Apprentices are permitted upon Shrove-tuesday Servants had liberty on Holy dayes and Feast-dayes to take their liberty and to go a Shroving where they please So were their labourers and servants under colour of going to the Temple suffered on this day to gad abroad and to go where they would And therefore the raskality of the people and
the seduced followers of the Scribes Pharisees and Presbyters cryed for Justice Justice Crucifie him Crucifie him yet seeing all the rest of the honest people that had well observed his meekness and his sweet carriage amongst them and had received so much justice and so many favours from this good King did exceedingly love him and said He did all things weâ—l and were ready to venture their lives for him the Priests and Presbyters durst not venture to delay his execution till that day were past lest they should attempt to rescue him and so to save his life on that day So you see the subtilty of the crafty foxes and the greediness of these Bloody-hounds to take away the life of their good King and to hinder al others to preserve his life Reason 2 2. They would not have him to suffer on their Feast day lest they should be defiled John 18.28 a most damnable hypocrisie that stumble at a straw and leap over a block that fear to be defiled on their Holy day and yet fear not the shedding of innocent blood the blood of their King and of the Son of God on any other day Just like our hypocritical Saints that cannot endure to misie the hearing of two Sermons on the Lords day and care not to deceive and destroy 200. of their neighbours if they can do it upon any other day And therefore these holy Saints are none of Gods Saints but do belong to that Angel of darkness The great hypocrisie of these holy murderers that can so finely transform himself as these men do into an Angel of Light And so you see how speedily they executed their King and the main Reasons why they did so And this speedy execution of his death doth exceedingly aggravate the heynousness of the action for after they had him in their hands their feet were swift to shed his blood and they ended all proceedings in few dayes their unsatiable thirst for blood can never suffer these Blood-bounds to rest until their thirst be quenched But you will say He was almost four years amongst them after he was Baptized A Question and began to dresse his Vineyard and to sway the Scepter of his Dominion if they were so greedy of his extirpation Why stayed they all this while before they executed their intention I answer Not because they wanted will but by reason of some remora's The Answer for three Reasons Luke 22.2 that hindered their desires and they were especially these three 1. The love of the people who for his justice innocency and fair carriage towards all men and the great good he did to many men did for many years exceedingly love him and apologise for him until these subtile Foxes by their Remonstrances and Aspersions had wrought this unstable multitude that understood nothing right to a jealous and a causeless suspition of this Just King and a wicked compliance with these unjust murderers 2. The want of fit opportunity made that they could not so safely do it until the people at the Passeover were drawn up to the Metropolis Hierusalem where by the Law they were to convene at this Feast and whereby you may see how their subtilty made way for their villany 3. The factions and oppositions that were among themselves and especially betwixt their chief Commanders Pilate the Roman Commander and Herod the head-Ruler of the Jews stayed their purposes till these differences were composed and these two great Opponents made great Friends and this assoon as ever done they presently do what they intended and never rest till all be finished 5. When they had thus devilishly condemned 5 The Attendants that followed Christ to the place of execution Math. 27.33 So was King Charles beheaded in the High-way where they used to bait Bears Bulls and thus speedily resolved to kill their King I pray you mark the place where they carried him to be executedâ—â— and that place where they would have him to be executed I told you before was Golgotha that is to say A place of a skull the most infamous place about Hierusalem where their Malefactors were hanged and their bones were scattered and gnawn of Dogs A fit place think you for a King to end his life And then 6. Consider the attendants that accompanied this great King to this despicable place of Execution and we shall find them to be Either 1. His friends Or 2. His foes And 1. Of his friends I find but very few that durst be seen to follow him 1 How few of his friends Joh. 19.26 Chap. 18.15 not any man that I find recorded but only one and that was the Disciple that our Saviour loved and that Disciple was known unto the High Priest and therefore the bolder to follow him whom he loved The rest I presume loved him well but they saw the malice of his persecutors was so great not only against their King but also against all those that loved him How cruel the enemies of Christ were to all that loved him that if they were seen to follow him or heard to speak a word in his behalf they had presently been taken for Malignants and most severely punished as most haynous Delinquents And therefore all the rest of his Apostles and Disciples and all others that loved him were so mightily terrified that they durst neither be heard nor seen So cruel were these Subjects even unto their King Some Women indeed that loved him well were permitted to be present at his death their Sex was their only warrant but these Women and the rest that knew him were fain to stand afar off and durst not come near him and it seems they durst not speak one word either of him or to him but smote their breasts and returned Luke 23.48 But 2. For his foes we read of enough that followed him 2 How many of his foes a guard of Souldiers for fear he should be rescued and the Rulers that derided him and the foolish people that were the flatterers of those lewd Leaders saying He saved others let him save himself if he be Christ the Son of God Luc. 23.25 and some no doubt were present that betrayed him Such villany and impudence had covered the foreheads of these monsters of men yet one of these bloody Souldiers that were the chief actors in the execution of this King received here the benefit of this Kings prayer and was inlightened by his Spirit to say Math. 27.54 Truly this was the Son of God But for the Priests and Presbyters the Scribes and Rulers of the people they could bring him to his death and mocked him upon the Cross when humanity should have rather taught them to pity him than to scoffe at him not one of them notwithstanding all the wonders that were then shewed as the rising of many that were dead the rending of the vail of the Temple and the great Earth quake that immediately followed his death had the grace
were noâ— took to gather those evill examples to evill ends for we are to live by Lawes and not by Examples and especially by the Lawes of God or otherwise you may live as you list and you may do whatsoever you please for if a King means to play the Tyrant That we are to live by Lawes and not by examples he may have examples enough to justifie his Tyranny if he be an adulterer he may alledge King David that was a man according to Gods own heart and 100. more that did commit adultery and if thou pleasest to be a drunkard thou hast the examples of righteous Noah and of Lot and 1000. more that may justifie thee for being drunk or to be brief if thou wouldst be an oppressor or a robber and a Rebel and a Traytor to depose thy King or to kill him thou hast a Jeroboam and a Zimri and Jehu too though he had a speciall warrant for it and an infinite other examples that may be produced to shelter thee from blame for committing the greatest Treason or any other execrable villanie if the producing of examples might serve the turn But the truth is whatsoever other men whatsoever Councils Kingdoms or Commonwealths have done contrary to the will and Lawes of God we ought not to imitate them therein because their Examples be no excuse for us that should have recourse to the Law and to the Testimony Esay 8.20 as the Prophet speaketh to direct us what we ought to do And therefore no Precedents no Examples in the world though you should produce ten thousands of them can excuse Zimri nor any other Zimries in the whole Universe for killing their King but 2. Here is another relation betwixt Ela and Zimri 2 A Servant that should more strictly have tyed and ingaged Zimri to be true and faithful unto Elah for he was his servant and his menial servant in ordinary which all other subjects could not be and this is rightly observed by Jezabel and therefore she saith not Had Zimri peace that slew his King but Had Zimri peace that slew his Master And a Master that gives meat drink and wages means and maintenance unto his servant is loco parentis instead of a Father unto him and therefore he should be respected and honoured of his servant next unto his Father and we find that many true and faithful servants have done so indeed I cannot well remember where for I remember I read it in Appian that when Scipio had gained Carthage or some other opulent Town he gave a strict charge that none of the Citizens upon pain of death should hide any of the wealth or treasure of that rich City yet one of the wealthiest Merchants having a great store of Gold and inestimable Jewels hid a great deal thereof so secretly that no man could find it but the Servant that helped him to hide it and that Servant like a false Judas went and revealed it to the General who making a strict search for the Merchant another of the Merchants servants seeing how his Master if he were taken should be condemned to death for that fact goeth unto Scipio and protesteth unto him An excellent story of a most faithful servant that it was he which did hide that treasure altogether unknown unto his Master and therefore desired that his innocent Master might be freed and let him lay what punishment he pleased upon himself that had offended but the other servant stood stiffely to his former accusation that it was his Master and not the Servant that had hid it then Scipio would needs find out the Merchant who being found confest the truth that he himself with the help of his accuser had conveyed away that treasure and that altogether unknown to his other servant who to preserve his Master was so ready to sacrifice his own life whereupon Scipio like a brave Commander and a Heroick indeed seeing the fidelity of the one servant and the treachery of the other pardons the Master for his faithfull servants sake and puts the accuser to death for his treacherie and infidelity and we read of many other servants that have so dearly loved and been so truly faithful unto their Masters that they have hazarded their own lives to save their Masters as you may read the servants of King David have done and as it is recorded that Mauricius Duke of Saxony being in a battle thrown to the ground his servant casting himself upon him covered him and so defended him from his enemies untill he was rescued by his friends and so with his own death he saved his Masters life And it is written of Eros servant to Antonius that when his Master was overcome by Augustus and would have him to dispatch his life he drew his sword and killed himself rather then he would kill his Master for as a Master next to his own children is to respect provide care for his servants above all other friends or kinsfolks whatsoever according to the saying of the wise man Hast thou a faithful servant let him be unto thee as thine own soul so the servant next to his Father and Mother ought to honour and to preserve his Master before all other men whatsoever And therefore Zimri can no waies be thought any other than a most Villanous Traytor to slay his Master worse then Ditalcon and Minuro that were corrupted by Capio Appian p. 112. Of the Roman wars with the Spaniard 3. A servaut in an honourable setvice to kill their Master Viriatus that brave Spaniard that gave work enough to the Romans eight years together Especially if we do confider 3. Qualis servitus in what manner of service he was under his Master Elah for though the Romans and many others used most of their servants that were their slaves like dogs which produced that proverb Of so many servants so many enemies which ever feared but never loved their Masters as the Romans found it most true to their cost when they made the servile War that proved so hazardous unto them Yet Elah did not so with Zimri but he preferred him to a very honorable place and made him Captain of halt his Charrets and so a Master to keep many servants under him as you see all Captains have The three fold impiety of Zimri and therefore for a servant to kill such a Master that had thus advanced his servant is a note beyond Elah and doth exceedingly aggravate the offence of Zimri and makes it to ascend higher and higher or rather to descend lower and lower even to the bottomless pit of hell To commit murder as hainous as any murder can be to kill his King his Master and a Master that was so lâ—ving and had so honorably preferred him which was a three fold cord to bind him in Obedience but is soon snapt asunder by this wicked Traytor that was a Traytor just like Judas of whom the Prophet in the person of Christ
the manner of them to deliver any man to die before that he which is accused have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him so it may be Zimri will shew some good reason why he kill'd his Master And I doubt not but he had learnt Absolons lesson that it was for the ill government of Elah propter bonum Reipublicae for the good of the people that they might be better governed and much eased of many burthens and relieved of their grievances To which I say that you must understand all Traytors and wicked actors to be just like unto Watermen that row one way and look another way so they pretend one thing and intend another thing Thus Zimri pretended to amend the Government to ease the people to reform the Laws and rectifie their Religion but his intention and his chiefest ayme was to make himself great to get his Masters place and to become a King himself which was first in his intention though last in the execution otherwise if his principal ayme had been as he pretended the publike good he would have turned and changed the Kingdom of Israel into a Common-wealth or else he would have made either Omri or Tibni whom the people loved and not himself whom they hated to be their King sed menrita est iniquitas sibi but wickedesse though not always yet sometimes bewrayeth it self as the action of Zimri to make himself a King discovered his prime intention and the chiefest occasion that moved him to slay his Master to be his Ambition and desire of bearing rule And indeed this Ambition and desire of bearing rule hath so strangely bewitched the minds of many men Camer l. 5. c. 8. that as Camerarius saith it is almost incredible to believe and most strange to consider what inordinate desire men have to raign and to rule as Kings what villanies they have committed to become Kings What horrible things have been done by those that were ambitious of bearing rule what execrable things they have done to continue Kings for Amurath the third caused five of his younger brethren to be strangled in his presence Ismael the second son to Teâ—mas King of Persia did put to death so many of his brethren as he could lay hold on and all the Princes that he suspected to have any desire to his Kingdom that so they might raign and rule without fear And Solyman mistrusting his own son Mustapha when he returned victorious from the Persian war and was received with such generall applause caused him presently to be strangled and a Proclamation to be made throughout all the Army that there must be but one God in heaven and one Emperour i.e. Himself here on earth and Camerarius saith that this is a perpetuall custom in the race of the Ottomans and among the Turkish Souldans to put all that pretend succession unto death Neither is it only a Turkish custom but it is also the practice of all such as are bewitched with such inordinate desire to rule as Kings to do the like For Plutarch writeth that Diotarus having many sons and desirous that only one of them should reign slew all the rest with his own hands and Justin saith that Horodes King of the Parthians killed his own Father and after that massacred all his brethren that he might reign and rule alone and the sacred story sheweth that the very people of God the sons of Israel were not free but pestered with this disease Judges 9. as Abimeleck the son of Gedeon slew seventy of his brethren in one day and played many other tragicall parts that he might make himself a King 2 Sam. 15.16 And the furious ambition of young Absolon did set him on fire to seek to end his Fathers dayes and to play the Parracide that he might reign in his Fathers place and so Zimri when he began to reign as soon as he sate on his throne he delayed not the time but presently slew all the house of Baasha 2 King 16.11 as Baasha had formerly done to all the posterity of Jeroboam he left him not one that pisseth against a wall neither of his kinsfolks nor of his friends And not to go from home for Examples Did not Henry the fourth put by Richard the second his own King and Cosen-German that he himself might be the King and did not Richard the 3d. cause the true King his brothers chidren his own Nephews the sons of Edward the fourth that were but children and never offended him to be done to death that he might wear the Crown himselfe And my papers would fail me if I should set down all the examples that I could produce of this nature for there is not any thing so sacred which the great men of this world that desire to be made greater will not dare to violate and spare neither King father brether nor friend to bring themselves to their desired advancement to be the rulers of the people and to have the power both of our lives and goods in their own hands as the proof is plainly seen in the foresaid examples and especially in Antoninus Caracalla who when he had most unnaturally and barbarously slain his own brother Geta even in his mothers lap and between her arms and being counselled by some friends to Canonize him among the Heroes and to place him with the Deastri to mitigate the thought of so execrable a fact answered like a vile Caitiffe Sit divus modò non sit vivus Let him be a god among the dead so he be not alive among men So great an enemy is the inordinate desire of raigning and ruling to all piety and right saith Camerarius l. 5. c. 8. And for Zimri's pretence to rectify the government to ease the people to establish the true service of God which King Elah and his Father Baasha had permitted to be continued as Jeroboam had corrupted it and to fulfill the Words of the Lord which he spake by Jehu the son of Hanani 1 King 16.2 I say these things were least in his thoughts and were but meer pretences and shadows to hide and cover his malice unto his King and his ambitious desire of bearing rule for he being a subject and a servant unto King Elah what warrant had he or what command from God to kill his King Jeroboam was the master piece of Idolatry and the ring-leader of them that made Israel to sin and yet I would fain know where God gives leave to his subjects to kill him for this intolerable impiety But when God setteth up Kings if they prove wicked to corrupt his service and to destroy his servants he can raise other Kings to punish them as he did Pharaoh King of Egypt and Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon to chastise and to remove the evill Kings of Judah or he can take them away by death or by twenty other waies that we know not of without making their own
God doth require that as he gave the Law so he should have his Law observed i.e. That he which sheddeth mans blood should have his blood shed by man For the fuller clearing of which point I pray you look what the Lord saith in Numbers 35.31 and the reason that is rendered verse 33. for that blood defileth the Land And I might here make you a whole Volume to set forth the declaration of the just judgement of God upon such Traytors and Transgressors of this Law as Zimri was both of former times and of these later years And You know what the Law saith An eye for an eye tooth for tooth Exod. 2.23 24. Math. 7.2 life for life And you hear how the Prophets threaten that spoilers shall be spâ—iled and that our Saviour saith With what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again And that the Holy Ghost saith He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity and he that killeth with the sword shall die by the sword which is lex talionis the law of retaliation and is the justest law in the World and said to be the justice which the Poetsfaign Radamanthus executeth in Hell by punishing every offender according to his demerit And Adonibezec said As I have done so God hath requited me Judg. 1.6 7. and hath executed the very same punishment upon me as I had done upon others And Justin writes that Gryphus King of Egypt had a poisoned cup offered him by his own Mother who formerly had betrayed Demetrius into the hands of his enemies and had caused one of her own sons to be killed that she her self might reign but Gryphus being forewarned of the mischief caused her to drink that potion which she had brewed for him And Benzo reporteth of Attibalipa a mighty King of Peru how the Spaniards having taken him prisoner and agreed with him that for two millions of Gold he should be ransomed yet after the receipt of the Gold did most perfidiously put him to death but it so fell out saith mine Author Berzo in his History of the New World l. 3. c. 5. that by the just judgement of God all they that were consenting to his death came to a most wretched and a miserable end So Aelian setteth down how Archelaus King of Macedon had a Minion named Cratenas Elian l. 1. that affecting the Kingdom murdered his Master but not many dayes after he was betrayed and murdered himself And Melancthon sheweth how Arius Axer slew Numerianus Mâ—lancthon Chron. l. 3. that he miâ—ht attain unto the Empire but the Praetorian Souldiers understanding the matter rejected Axer and chose Dioclesian for their Emperour that laid hold of Axer and put him to death as he well deserved for his disloyalty And further the same Melancthon sheweth how young Gordian the Emperour was teacherously slain by Philip Arabs whom Gordian had promoted to great honour but the justice of God served him with the same sauce when his own Souldiers conspired against him and Decius caused him to be slain So Domitian was killed by Stephan that was the Steward of his house and he was slain for his pains in the time of Nerva Casaubon animadver in Sâ—eton l. And the Learned Casaubon hath observed that Brutus and Cassius and all the rest of the Conspirators against Julius Caesar were never free from War but still followed by Angustus and Antonius until they slew themselves with the same Paniards wherewith they had stabbed Caesar But to what end should I tell you of any more such Stories out of prophane Authors that are so full of the like examples when the boly Scripture does sufficiently testifie by the examples that are therein set down that such murderers of their Lords and Masters never had any peace among men but were still molested with wars hatred and troubles until they were destroyed For Jozachar the son of Shimeath and Jehozabad the son of Shomer that slew their King 2 Kings 12.23 Chap. 14.5 And I think he did very well in it as I would have done 2 Kings 15.14 2 Kings 15.30 and their Master Joash were so bated by the people that the Kingdom was confirmed to Amazia that slew these murderers who had slain his father So Shallum the Son of Jabesh slew his King Zacharia and raigned in his stead but he was therefore himself slain by Menahem the son of Gadi within one moneth after he had slain his Master So Peka the son of Remalia conspired against his King and his Master Pekahiah the son of Menahem and slew him and Hoshea the son of Ela made a conspiracy against him and slew him even as he had kill'd his King which verified the old Proverb 2 Kings 21.23 24. Proditoris proditor He became a Traytor of a Traytor So the servants of King Amon that slew their Master the Lord stirred up the people of the Land to revenge his death and to kill all them that had conspired against their King i.e. the common people And so bere to name no more Zimri that slew his King and his Master that was a Drunkard hath no rest nor peace but is begirt and brought to that extremity as to throw himself into the fire to be burned a very just but a very fearful death And therefore let no Zimri nor any that are of Zimri's mind King-killers and the Murderers of their Masters ever think that they can have either peace or rest or any happiness but envy hatred and wars or some mischief or other to follow them at their heels until they be destroyed as they have destroyed their Masters For the Scriptures must be fulfilled that wickedness shall never prosper and the murderers of their Kings can have no peace nor any good successe while they live for having committed such horrible Facts they can have no Associats Patrons or Protectors but such vile Varlets as themselves and therefore these they must entertain and these they must advance and protect And remember what King Boco said to the Senate of Rome What King Boco said to the people of Rome Wo to that Realme where all are such as neither the good among the evil nor the evil among the good are known Wo to that Realme which is an entertainer of all fools and a destroyer of all Sages Wo to that Realme where the good are fearful to do good and the evil too bold to do evil Wo to that Realme where the patient are despised and the seditious are commended Wo to that Realme which destroyeth those that watch for the good The Diall of Princes pag. 393. and crowneth those which watch to do evil Wo to that Realme where the poor are suffered to be proud and the rich tyrants Wo to that Realme where all do know the evil and no man doth follow the good Wo to that Realme where so many evil vices are openly committed which in another Country dare not secretly be mentioned Wo to that Realme where
Saints and Angels where there is no provocation to evil or to serve God aright where there is neither Sectary nor Heretick But the praise of Gods servants is to live among the wicked and yet not to follow their evil examples and to be in the midst of Hereticks and all kind of Sectaries and yet not suffer our selves to embrace their false opinions or to approve their wrongserving of God and yet still to honour them to love them and to be at peace with them And 2. 2 The great desire we should have to peace That we should not fail in this duty the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follow after peace As the Grey-hound followeth after the Hare that he may catch her So do you follow after peace that you may have it and that is not only to accept of peace when it is offered but also to purchase peace at any reasonable rate and upon any reasonable terms And we have an excellent example of this great desire of peace that should be in us The most excellent example of Abraham Rom. 4.13 in Abraham who though he was told by God Himself that he should be the Heir of the World which was a Title and interest good enough when God gave it him yet rather than he would strive with his inferiour his Nephew Lot he was contented cedere de jure to wave his right and to let him take his oboice of all the land what he would and where he pleased Gen. 13.8 9. And the like desire of peace we find in Pharaoh Necho King of Egypt when he sent Embassadours to Josias saying What have I to do with thee thou King of Judah I come not against thee this day but against the house wherewith I have war 2 Chron 35.21 for God hath commanded me to make haste forbear thee from medling with God who is with me that he destroy thee not and so he was destroyed for refusing to live in peace And the reason The reason of this great desire of peace is twofold 1. Because war is the greatest of all the plagues of God why we should love and honour and thus labour to live in peace with all men is because wrongs and injuries breed hatred suits and wars and war will be the death of many men and God made not death neither can he endure that any one man should malicioâ—sly destroy another God making not men to kill one another And therefore we find that the Sentence of Cain's punishment for killing his brother Abel is far heavier than Adam's punishment for eating of the forbidden fruit when God said unto Adam Cursed is the ground for thy sake and so forth But to Cain he said Cursed art thou from the earth which is a far greater curse than the former as is the rest of his censure in very many particulars whereupon Cain perceiving the heaviness of his Sentence so far exceeding his fathers curse Gen. 4.13 said My punishment is greater than I can bear And after the Flood the first Precept and the strictest charge that God gave to man was to prevent and hinder the shedding of mans blood which being shed he would require at the hand of man and at the hand of every beast which should be put to death if they were the death of any man And the Propheâ— saith That God will make inquisition for all the blood that shall be spilt that is search and find out them Murder shall never escape undiscovered that have been the death of any man yea though they should do it never so cunningly and secretly yet rather than they should escape undiscovered and so passe unpunished the Birds of the air as they did the death of Ibicus should betray their wickedness or the very blood that they have spiâ—t if there be none other witnesse shall with Abels blood cry out of the earth for vengeance against them because bloody men that delight to kill their brethren are an abomination to the Lord who as the Prophet saith abborreth both the blood thirsty and the deceitful man for Psal 5.6 Quem videris sangâ—ine gaâ—d â—teâ— lupus est saith S. Chrysostome hom 19. opef imperfect And therefore War which is a Feast celebrated to the honour of Death and is Mâ—ter omnium malorum The mother of all miseries the greatest shedder of blood upon the earth and the unjustest instrument of death that can be found when contrary to all Law and beyond all Justice nothing else is to be seen in war but fire robberies treasons tortures War the worst of all the plagues of God and slaughters inflicted as well upon the innocent as the nocent is deemed the worst of all the plagues of God the most direful and most destructive unto mankind For when the Lord with rebukes doth chasten man for sin and is sore displeased with any Kingdom he whippeth it with one of these threefold scourges Plague Famine and War And the first two Plague and Famine do but take away the men and take them so that most commonly they have time to repent and to humble themselves under the Mighty hand of God but the war casteth down houses burneth Cities subverteth Castles The many mischiefs that war bringeth destroyeth the creatures and shaketh the very foundation of all earthly happiness and not only suddenly cutteth off the lives of many thousands and sometimes Infants and Innocents from the earth but also introduceth Famines and Plagues after it at the heels And therefore David when he was necessitated to undergo one of these three scourges and had the favour to take his choice of them 2 Sam. 24.14 he would not choose war by any means And truly it were a happy thing that there were neither Souldier nor War nor cause of any war in all the World but that the people should beat their swords into Plowâ—shares and their Spears into Pruning-hooks and that Nation should not lift up a sword against Nation neither learn war any more as the Prophet speaketh Because Esay 2.4 as one saith God made Souldiers the worst of men as he made the Devils the worst of spirits to plague the World and to be the Executioners of his anger and just judgements against his children when they do offend him That is for the generality of them otherwise many of them are very just and religious as the Scripture testifieth And the very Heathen man could say of the Souldiers Nulla fides pietasque viris qui castra sequuntur Lucan Phars 2. As War is such a dismal Apollyon 2 Because peace is the greatest of all earthly blessings and so furious a destroyer of all mankind the poison of Religion and the hated enemy of all creatures So on the other side the love of neighbours and peace among men is the greatest the best and the most excellent of all earthly blessings And as Ignatius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is nothing in
scientiam zelati sunt sacriligi extiterunt in filium Dei they perswaded themselves that they had the love and zeal of the honour of God but because their zeal was not according to knowledge they became sacrilegious against the Son of God and their fiery zeal to Gods Worship became as Saint Ambrose saith A bloody Zeal unto Death and like unto a Ship under faile without a Pilate that will dash it self against the Rocks all to pieces so it is when we rob and spoyl and persecute the true Servants of Christ for being as we suppose the limbs of the Antichrist But such and so great is the malice and subtilty of Satan towards mankind that he cares not which wayes he brings man to destruction so he may bring him any way either in being too zealous without knowledge and so persecute the good for bad or too careless with all our knowledge and so bless the bad for the good either by hating the superstitious Papist The continual practice of the Devil beyond all reason or loving the malicious Sectary contrary to all reason either by falling into the fire on the right hand or into the water on the left hand either by making the whole Service of God to consist onely of preaching and hearing Sermons and neglect the Prayers and all other Christian duties or using the Prayers onely with the Service of the Church and omit the preaching of Gods Word for this hath been alwayes the Devils practise To separate those whom God would have joyned together and to joyn those together whom God would have kept asunder And therefore we should be very careful to joyn Knowledge and Discretion with our Zeal and desire to do God service if we desire to follow Christ 2. 2 The matter wherein we are to follow Christ For the Matter Points or wayes wherein the Sheep of Christ are to follow him they are very many but the chiefest of them are reducible into these three principal Heads 1. The works of Piety Joh. 2.17 2. The works of Equity 3. The works of Charity Jam. 2.16 Eph. 5.1 2. In all which we are to do our best endeavour to imitate and to follow Christ Actu ciffectu Bern. in Cant. S. 50. and therein we shall do the things that are most acceptable unto God and most profitable for our selves For the first none doubts of it but that these things are most acceptable in the sight of God And for the second we may be sure of it that it is better for us to build Churches to maintain Preachers and to erect Hospitals then to raise our Families and we shall receive more comfort to do Justice and to protect the Innocent and to relieve the Poor then by gaining Naboths Vineyard or heâ—ping Dives his Treasures unto our selves The time will not give me leave to prosecute these particulars any further but I pray God give us grace to prosecute the performance and doing of them throughout all our lives to the glory of God the discharging of our Duties and the eternall comfort of our own souls through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour To whom with the Father and the holy Spirit be all Glory and Honour for ever and ever Amen Amen Jehovae Liberatori THE SEVENTH TREATISE 1 John 4.19 We love him because he first loved us THis text you see is a text of love a Theam that filleth Sea and Land Heaven and Earth and as the Poets feign Hell it self Claudian de raptu Proserpinae when as the King thereof Tumidas exarsit in iras did swell with rage because he might not enjoy his love in hell as Jupiter did in heaven And yet the scarcity and want of true love causeth such plenty of great evils in every place for we love not God we love not our neighbours we love not our own selves for if we loved God we would keep his Commandments if we loved our neighbours we would neither wrong them nor oppress them and if we loved our selves then we would love God if not for his own sake which is the right love yet for our own good and our neighbours for Gods sake But for Gods Commandements I may truly say it with Nehemiah Nehem. 9.34 Neither have our Kings our Princes our Priests nor our Fathers kept his Laws nor hearkned unto his Commandments but as Ezra saith Ezra 9.7 We have all been in a great trespass unto this day and for our iniquities have we our King our Priests our Bishops our Judges and all of us been delivered to the sword to the spoil to confusion of face and to all these miseries as it is this day And for wronging one another if we consider all the oppressions that are done under the Sun nay that were done in these Kingdomes and the tears of such as were oppressed and had no Comforter when the oppressors had such power that none durst speak against them then as Solomon saith we may most justly praise the dead which are already dead more then the living which are yet alive Eccles 4.1 2 3 and him better then both which hath not yet been to see the great evils that are done amongst us And for our own selves we do just as the wise man saith seek our own death in the errour of our life and Sampson-like pull down the house upon our own heads as you may remember that when we had plenty of peace and prosperity then as the children of Israel murmured against Moses that delivered them out of the Aegyptian bondage and loathed Manna that came down from heaven so were we discontented at every trifle and so weary of peace and such murmurers against our happiness When the Articles of peace were published we were so discontented and murmured so much thereat that the ear of jealousie which heareth all things heard the same and was pleased to satisfie our discontents and to send us our own desires such plenty of wars and fulness of all miseries plagues famines and oppressions as our Fathers never knew the like and are like to continue amongst us until God seeth us more in love with his goodness towards us and our repentings move him to repent him of the evils that he intendeth against us that have so justly deserved them from him Therefore to ingender and beget love where it is not to encrease it where it is but little and to rectifie it where it is amiss either towards God or our neighbours or our selves I will by Gods help and your patience with as much brevity as I can How the created Trinity fell and may be reunited to the uncreated Trinity express the plenty of these few words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mellifluous S. Bern. whose laborious work is like a pleasant garden that is replenished with all sorts of the most odoriferous flowers saith that in the Unity of Gods Essence there is a Trinity of persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost
of it And whereas this day five years past all the Protestants in this Kingdome and we especially of this City were destined to be sacrificed and slaughtered and sent as an Holâ—â—â—st or whole burnt-offering from the holy Father to the infernal God as many thousands of our Brethren were then and since yet by the love of God towards us we are still preserved alive that we might serve him and love him again And what more shall I say but cry out with the Psalmist O how plentiful is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee Psal 31.21 and that thou hast prepared for them that put their trust in thee even before the Sons of men for thou hast shewed us Marvellous great kindness I cannot say in a strong City but I say in a weak City and delivering us from strong Enemies whose Subtilty and Cruelty Treachery and Perfidiousness would require the head of the best experienced converted Jesuite to express it I had rather preach of Gods Love than treat of their Malicâ— and to talk of his Goodness rather than their wickedness and that great goodness The Lord Marquess of Ormond which he hath so lately shewed in delivering our most Excellent Governour so often from that malicious wickedness of the Sons of Belial so perfidiously intended against him is not the least Testimony of Gods Love to us all especially if we consider that what was intended this day 5 years had now questionless been executed if God had not broken the Snare of the Fowler and by delivering him redeemed us all from the Sword of Malice and from the Jawes of death and therefore this ought to be rightly weighed and duly remembred in our Thanksgiving among the many great undeserved and unexpected Preservations that our good God hath wrought for us And because his Excellency trusteth not in Lying Vanities but putteth his Trust in the Lord and in the Mercy of the Most High therefore he shall not miscarry But indeed this Love of God to us hath been so great and his Blessings in our Deliverances have been so many that if I should go about to enumerate them I might as well tell the Stars for as the Prophet saith they are more in number than I am able to expresse and therefore I will now conclude with our hearty thanks and Praise unto our good God for all his Love and Favours and Deliverances that he hath shewed unto us through Jesus Christ our Lord who is blessed for evermore Labilis memoria hominis How easily and how soon men forget good things the memory of man is very frail and slippery especially in the retention of all good things for though as the Poet saith Scribit in marmore laesus we write injuries in marble and never forget nor forgive the least ill turn that is done against us yet we write all benefits and all good instructions in the sands where the waves of forgetfulness do soon wash all away as the children of Israel regarded not the wonders that God wrought in Aegypt neither kept they his great goodness in remembrance Psal 106.7 13 21. but soon forgot his works yea and forgat God their Saviour which had done so great things in Aegypt wondrous works in the Land of Ham and fearful things by the Red Sea therefore lest you should forget the first part of this text before you heard the second I thougt it high time to proceed to those points which the time prevented me to inlarge not the last time I was in this place but the last time I treated of this verse and I hope you do remember that I told you this text was a text of love and of a twofold love 1. The love of God to man And 2. The love of man to God And In the first I noted these four things 1. The lover God 2. The affection Love He loved us first 3. The beloved Us. 4. The time First And I have done with the first three and therefore not to stand upon any further repetition I am now to proceed to shew you the fourth point that is the time when he loved us 4 The time when God loved us first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he loved us first i.e. before we would or could love him for love is one of the affections and the affections are seated in the heart and the heart is placed in the midst of the body and the body could not contain the heart nor the heart cast forth the affections nor the affections produce love before our loves Jer. 31.3 God loved us from everlasting before our Creation and affections and hearts and bodies had their being But God loved us before we were created and before we could have the least thought of our very being for I have loved thee with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee saith the Lord and this love was everlasting as well a parte ante from the time past as a parte post for the time to come and this love will appear the greater if we consider how freely and how undeservedly he hath loved us for the object of love is good either that which is really so indeed or seeming so to be And S. Aug. reasoneth most truly that antequam creati eramus nihil boni merebamur before we were made we could do no good we could merit no reward we could deserve no love And yet before we had received any being the love of God towards us had received a beginning and when our souls were unbreathed our bodies unframed and all this glorious structure laid in the dust before ever we beheld the light or the light was brought out of darkness or the darkness was upon the face of the deep our bodies and our souls were affected by God and we had a deep interest in the love of God when as then the earth was created for our habitation the creatures were produced for our service and the heavens were appointed for our comfort So God loved us before our Generation before we were before we had our being and after our transgression God loved us after our transgression John 8. when as God had made us his sons like himself and we had made our selves like our Father the devil there was cause enough of hate but none of love for then we found a way to run away from God we invented garments to hide our shame and to cover our nakedness from the eyes of men but to make us most loathsome in the eyes of God and we became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haters of God that laboured with the old Gyants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fight and war with God to unthrone him and to ungod him when we desired to make our selves like Gods nay the only Gods and he should be no God at all unless we might have our wills and not his will to be done in heaven as we do in earth Yet then when
we were thus filled with malice swelled with enmity and opposite to all amity to all verity to all goodness when we lay polluted in our own blood as the Prop. Ezek. saith Ez. 6.6 were enemies unto God and were as the Ap. speaketh dead in trespasses sins having hearts but no hearts to love him having souls Eph. 2.1 but no souls to long for him and having bodies but no bodies to serve him but such as were breathing out slaughters against him as Saul was breathing the like against the Church Acts 9.1 and when we were no more willing to yield him any the least jot of true love or holy affection then dead bodies are able to perform the most honourable action God then pittied our miseries and had compassion of our unworthiness and as S. Aug. saith etiam non dilectus dilexit out of his abundant goodness without any other motive he loved us when we thus hated wronged and abused him continually provoking him to anger with our continual abominations and yet he doth not say with the Poet Odero si potero si non invitus amabo I love them against my will but indignos amavi I have freely loved them that are so worthy of my hate and so unworthy of my love And therefore here is love and the love of loves and the wonder of all wonders to prosecute them with love that persecuted him with hate and so mercifully to give his only Son to save their lives that so causlesly and maliciously put his Son whom he so dearly loved to a most direful and a most shameful death And therefore as David directeth his 45. Psalm which is Epithalamium Christi sponsae or Canticum amicanum a Song of Loves to the chief Musitian upon Shoshannim or to him that excelleth in Musick So must I leave this great love of God to be amplified by him that is vates amorum the Disciple of Love not he that termed himself so but he that was so indeed the Disciple which our Saviour loved And so I will descend unto the second part of this text which is Pars 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nos diligimus eum as Catharinus Calv. Beza Tremel and abundance more do read it or diligamus eum as the Vulg. Lat. Aquinas Justinianus Corn. a Lapide and all those that follow the vulgar translation do expound it which in effect is all one the Holy Ghost purposely using that word which in the original is both the Indicative and the Subjunctive Mood to reach us that what the holy men of God do all men should do the same that is to love him which is the second part of my Text far different from the former that being high and excellent this low and but indifferent that very great and more then can be expressed this very very little and less then should be imagined and therefore I can speak but a little of it and for that little I beseech you to consider these two points The 1. From the consideration of Gods love that he loved us 2. From the consideration of the time that he loved us first The first point teacheth us to love God again Quia amor amoris magnes 1 VVhat the first Point teacheth us i.e. to love God a-again De Lege Talionis Res dare pro rebus pro verbis verba solemus Pro bufis bufas pro trufis reddere trufas Buffets with blowes and mocks with mowes Dalton p. 180. Mat. 7.12 1. In retaliation of evil for evil Exod. 21.22 durus est qui amorem non rependit and Lextalionis The Law of like doth require no less then that we should love him that loveth us for even reason sheweth that Lex non justior ullaest there cannot be a juster Law in the world then the Law of Retaliation and so our Saviour testifieth With the same measure ye meat it shall be measured to you again and Nature it self teacheth us the same Lesson Quod tibi fieri velis aliis hoc fieri videto Quod tibi fieri nolis aliis hoc fieri caveto And the Eternal Verity saith Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets And this Law holdeth good not only in general but also in the particular retribution 1. Of evil for evil 2. Of good for good As 1. Moses that was Faithful in all Gods House saith If men strive and any mischief follow then thou shalt give Life for Life Eye for Eye c. which is to be understood not of private revenge but to be executed by him that is justly deputed to execute vengeance upon the evil doers And so we find it executed both by God and men for the Old world that filled the Earth with a Deluge of all wickedness God brought a Deluge of Water to wash the same clean away and the Sodomites that burned with the fire of unlawful Lusts were consumed with Fire and Brimstone for the same and the Egyptians that drowned all the Male Children of the Israelites were themselves drowned in the Red Sea and the Children of Israel when they took Adonibezek cut off his Thumbes and his Great Toes and he said Judges 1.6 7. Threescore and ten Kings having their Thumbes and their Great Toes out off gâ—thered their meat under my Table and now as I have done so God hath required me So when Perillus made his Brazen Bull to torment others Phalaris thought it just that himself which made it should first tast of his own Invention And when Egypt wanted the wonted Inundation of Nilus and Thracius told Busiris that the Wrath of the gods would be appeased by the Sacrificing of a Strangers Blood and the King understanding by his own Confession that he was an Alien Illi Busiris fies Jovis Hostia primus Inquit Aegypto tu dabis hospes aquam He thought it the justest act to offer him first unto the gods So we read that those Lords which first called the Moores into Spain to suppresse their King Rodericke whom they hated were themselves and their Families destroyed by the means of those Moores and the Britains that rejected their Just and Lawful King Aurel. Ambrosius Speed l. 7. c. 12. and sent for the Saxons Hengist and Horsus to aid Vortigerne and his Associates that were Intruders were driven by the Saxons into the Rocky Mountains where they remain exiled from their own Right to this very day and because the God of Long Patience is a God of Great Justice that will render to every man according to his deeds and holds it very just that those rebellious people which call any other Nation to suppresse their own Lawful King should at one time or other either by that very Nation or some other be subdued and destroyed themselves therefore Subjects ought to think of Gods Justice before they cast off the Yoke of their Allegiance And 2. As the Poet
all his ways Psal 145.17 and holy in all his works and the Prophet Daniel testifieth as much and so do all the Saints and Servants of God yea and the very wicked Reprobates do confess the same for Adoni-bezek the Tyrant that had Seventy Kings having their Thumbs and great Toes cut off to gather their meat under his Table doth acknowledge that God did most justly deal with him as he had dealt with others and so we finde that the Law of God is most just and requireth Justice to be done at all times in all places and to all persons as an eye for an eye tooth for tooth and he that sheddeth man's blood by man should his blood be shed yet such is the corruption of man's Nature that we do often judge amiss of the just Judgments of God and therefore Christ adviseth us not to judge that is amiss or if we judge not to do it according to the Superficies and outward appearance of things but to judge righteous Judgments and especially of all the Judgments of God that he sheweth either in this world or in the world to come And because God of late hath poured out much of his wrath and indignation and shewed many Judgments upon these Kingdoms I will endeavour Rom. 2.3 by the help and assistance of the same God to make as the Apostle saith a Declaration of the just Judgments of God to stop the mouths of all discontented Murmurers and to shew the just deserts of us all that either have been or still are most justly punished and I shall further shew how that in the midst of God's anger against these Nations he was pleased to continue his mercies and loving kindnesses to his dear and faithful Servant and our late most gracious King of ever blessed Memory Charles the First And first as the Poet saith A Jove principium Musae so I shall begin with him that was Jehovah's Vice-gerent the Anointed of the Lord and our most gracions King CHAP. I. FIrst then for King Charles I knew him before he was crowned King a most virtuous Vera quidem res est patrem sequitur sua proles Et sequitur leviter filia matris iter and Religious Prince religiously following the pious steps of his good and godly Father and well-beloved and well spoken of by all his Fathers Court pietas spectata per ignes and his Travels through France and Return from Spain have sufficiently testified his sincerity and constancy in the true Religion so that I may truly say of him Firma valent perâ—se nullúmque Machaona quaerunt And after he was crowned King all in white in token of that purity and innocency which he desired always to retain according to the counsel of Solomon that saith Let thy Garments be always white I living in His Court in no mean place had a very great desire to note and observe the lives actions and contrivements both of the King and of most other men that were of any note in the King's house and throughout all the space of seventeen or eighteen years that I was resident in His Court whereof I waited in my turn six or seven years upon His Majesty my Witness is in Heaven that I could observe none nor find out any man either of the Lords Knights or other Gentlemen of his House that was of so mild a Disposition so courteous in his Conversation and so pious in all the actions and circumstances of Religion as King Charles was a man that I never heard to take the Name of God in vain at any time nor ever saw him passionately angry with any man neither do I believe that the mouth of the Father of Lies could justly tax him of any open crime or inexcusable defect either of Charity Equity or Piety before the Birth of the Long Parliament or after throughout all his life for he knew that Qui sceptra duro saevus imperio reget Timet timentes metus in autorem cedit Seneca in Oedipo Act. 3. and I am sure I am able to arise in the last day to testifie against many of his enemies and accusers that I have often heard them justifying him in those things for which afterwards they accused him and condemned him yea they were his Counsellours to have them done and then his Prosecutours and Persecutours of him unto the death for doing them Much more could I speak and speak it most truly in the just praise and commendation of this good and godly King and when all that I could speak were set down I must confess mine offence that plenty it self and the abundance of his virtues Talem vix reperit unum Millibus 〈◊〉 multis bominum consultus Apollo Ausonius and merits hath made me poor in mine expressions thereof Prob dolor infoelix sors nostra amittere talem Ter foelix talem quae tenet or aviorum And is it not therefore strange that the just and good God should suffer the wicked Sons of men so strictly to prosecute and so unexemplarily to handle and to deal with so just so good and so Religious a Prince as the Long Parliament hath done with King Charles and so to confute that Poet which saith Nullum caruit exemplo nefas when as no Historie of any Times of any Kingdom can parallel the proceedings against King Charles I answer no not at all but in the death of this good and godly King may be seen the great merey of God and I dare not say the Revelation of the just Judgment of God but the gentle chastisement of a most loving Father to a most dear and dutiful Son that all men that see the same might praise God for the one and fear him for the other for as the death of the Son of God Jesus Christ was most unjustly done by the wicked Jews that condemned him for Blasphemy against God and Treason against Caesar whereof he was most innocent and guilty of neither yet was it most justly suffered to be done by the determinate Counsel of God as Saint Peter sheweth because that out of his great love and mercy to save sinful man he became his Surety to pay his Debts and to satisfie God's Wrath by suffering that death for our sins that as the Prophet saith We by his stripes might be healed therefore did God most justly execute upon him what he had most mercifully undertaken for us all so though King Charles was a very good man and a most religious Prince and as his friends knew most innocent and free from all those crimes that were layd to his charge by the long Parliament yet could be not be justified from all offences against his God but as Moses that was faithful in all Gods House yet failed he a little at the waters of Meriba and as David that was a man according to Gods own heart yet offended he also in numbering the people and as Ezechias and Josias that were two of the three best Princes of all the Kings of
of death for the King then to be perswaded for what pretense of good soever and by whomsoever were it an Angel out of Heaven to consent unto his death is to become guilty of a great fault and to say that he was perswaded thereunto by the Bishops whose fault was therefore greater then his Majestie 's can no more excuse him then for the man of God to say that he was seduced by the old Prophet And therefore this might be a just cause with God to suffer him that to satisfie sinful men would offend his good God by giving way to them to take away the life of an innocent man to have his own life taken from him even by those men to whom he had yielded to take away the life of another man which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conformity of our punishment to our offence and is nothing else but lex talionis an eye for an eye a tooth for tooth and death for death which was the first Law that God published after the Deluge saying Whosoever sheddeth man's blood that is either per se as Cain did Abel or per alium as David did Vriah's and Ahab Naboth by Act or it may be by consent by man shall his blood be shed Secondly touching the Bishops my self knoweth that he loved them all and honoured their Calling very much being fully satisfied of the truth of their Divine and Apostolical Institution as appeareth by that learned and exquisite defence that himself most graciously made against the Presbyterians of the Episcopal Order and he was indeed a right Constantine to all the Bishops rather hiding their infirmities if he spyed any fault in them with the Lap of his Garment then any ways multiplying or publishing the same unto the People And this was a most Christian course in him for I may justly say Victima sacra Deo res est succurrere Cleris And as our Saviour saith of them He that receiveth you receiveth me And the Bishops of all other his Subjects were his most loyal Servants and most faithful Oratours never thwarting their King nor crossing any of his just Designs but ever cleaving unto his Cause and voting on his side so far as truth and right and a good Conscience would give them leave contrary to which his Majesty never desired any thing And therefore when the King saw the malice of most wicked men qui oderunt eos gratis and did bear an intestine hatred against these true Servants of God and did strive manibus pedibúsque with all their might against all justice to thrust them out of their undoubted Right by the favour we confess of our most pious Princes for him as we conceive against his own mind and to his own prejudice to please and satisfie the implacable hatred of his and their enemies to pass an Act to exclude the Bishops out of his Great Council the Parliament when above thirty Acts of Parliament had confirmed their right Interest therein since the confirmation of Magna Charta was an errour as I conceive not salvable and a fault that cannot be justly excused by his best Friends and therefore God might justly suffer all his Counsels to fail and his Counsellours to become perfidi familiares his familiar Traytours such as the Poet speaks of Saepe sub agnina latet hirtus pelle Lycaon Subque Catone pio perfidus ille Nero. And though I do not nor dare not say it was so yet I may say that for this God might so give way to his Enemies to prevail against him and to thrust him out of his Kingdom when he gave way to thrust his Embassadours out of his house which is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and even as Solomon divided God's Service betwixt God and the Idols of Zidon Moab and Ammon 1 Reg. 11. c. 12. so God divided his Kingdom betwixt his Son Rehoboam and his Servant Jeroboam so might he deal with King Charles when he yielded to expel the Bishops that were his true Friends and God's Servants out of his Council to suffer his Enemies to exclude him out of his Kingdom and not unjustly or without cause neither as the same proceeds from God whose ways are always just for who could better declare the right and truth of things unto the King then the Expounders of the Book of Truth Who could advise and direct him to make better and juster Laws then the Teachers of the Law of God and who fitter to judge of right and to require Justice to be enjoyned and practised by all People then they whose Calling is continually to call upon all men to live godly and soberly and justly in this present World Why then should they be excluded from the Seat of Justice either in the making of Laws or to see those Laws executed unless it were that the Lay-Justices might do what they would without shame and what they pleased without controul when as heretofore the reverend Presence of the Bishops and grave Divines and their sage Counsel did oftentimes stop the Current of Injustice and made some ashamed of some gross dealings that in their absence they were not ashamed to have effected and therefore I suppose I may justly say that as it was said of the Emperour Justinian when he caused Aetius his brave General to be cut off he had cut off his right Arm with his left Hand so did King Charles when he pâ—ssed that Act that prejudiced himself more then the Bishops Thirdly touching the Parliament we must understand that Parliaments were first instiâ—uted by the Kings of this Nation to inform them of the Abuses Dangers and Defects which the Lords and Peers and the wiser sort of their Subjects which each Countrey had elected and the chief Cities had chosen for that purpose had observed and to advise and consult with their King de arduis rebus Regni of these and all other difficult and great Affairs of the Kingdom as the Writs that call them together do declare and then to consider by what good means the Dangers of the Kingdom might be prevented by what Laws ' the abuses might be redressed and which ways the peace of the People might be preserved and the happiness of all his Subjects continued and enlarged and if they understood of any sorreign dangers invasions or injuries to consult how the same might be prevented and rectified And when the King understood what his Lords and Commons conceived fitting to be done He with the Advice of His Council ratified what he approved and rejected what he disliked with the usual phrase in that kind But in process of time the Parliament-men as I heard wise men say began to incroach more and more upon the Rights of Majesty upon the Power and Authority of the King especially of those Kings that either had no Right or at the best but doubtful Titles unto the Crown or those that were of less Abilities or of an easie and facile disposition and would soon be perswaded
righteous and just Secondly I say that there is crudelitas parcens misericordia puniens a sparing which is cruelty and a punishment that is a great mercie and such are the troubles pressures and punishments of God's Children mercies rather then judgments because they proceed not from God's Wrath but as the chastisements of a Father to his Children so do these come from the love of God towards his servants for their good whom he afflicteth here for a moment that they should be bettered and not be condemned with the Wicked hereafter for ever Thirdly I say that the Miseries Crosses and Calamities Reason 1 that the Faithfull suffer in this World are not always so much a punishment for their Sins Reason 2 though their Sins deserve much more Reason 3 and Sin is the root from whence all miseries do spring as trials and probations of their Faith and Constancie in God's love and service for so the Scripture saith that God tempted Abraham not temptatione deceptionis to deceive him as Satan tempteth us but temptatione probationis to try him whether he would obey the Commandment of God or not when he commanded him to offer his Son his onely Son Isaac for a Sacrifice unto God and so he tried the Israelites at the waters of Strife and as Moses saith in their Fourty years wandring through the Wilderness to see whether they would love the Lord their God and cleave unto him and continue faithfull in his service and so he doth plainly tell the Church of Smyrna that the Devil should cast some of them into Prison that they might be tryed and they should have Tribulation ten dayes and that is either ten years as Junius expounds it or else several times as others think yet all to this end that they might be tryed whether they would continue faithfull unto death or not and such were the afflictions of Job and of many other of the Saints of God they were justly deserved by their Sins and God in mercie sent them for their trial What the former Doctrine teaching the us And therefore whatsoever and how great soever a measure of Miseries Crosses and Troubles we have or shall suffer yet let us not faint nor be affraid of them and let not the Children of God be like the Children of Ephraim that being Harnessed and carrying Bows and so well prepared for the fight yet turned themselves back in the day of Battaile when there was most need of their assistance but as we have loved our King and have suffered all the calamities and burthens that are layd upon us for our faithfulness to him and the preservance of a good conscience so let us continue unto the end and never comply with any of the King's Enemies in the abatement of the least jot of our love and good opinion of the deceased King or with the Factious Non-conformists in the dis-service of God and the new invented Religion of our upstart Schismaticks let neither weight of trouble nor length of time change our minds because perseverance in Faith and Virtue is that which crowneth all the other Virtues and if at any time even at the last we forsake our first love and change our Faith we lose all the reward of all the former good that we have done and do by our revolt testifie that we were not good for the love of goodness nor adhered to the truth for righteousness sake but for some other by-respects for our own ends that never brings any to a good end and therefore the primitive Christians could never by any means be drawn to alter the least point of their Faith Prudent De Vincéntio and the right service of God but as Prudentius saith Tormenta carcer ungulae Stridénsque flammis lamina Atque ipsa paenarum ultima Mors Christianis ludus est All the Torments and Terrours of the World could never move them to change their mindes But some man may say Objection Providence hath decided the Controversy the King is dead Victrix causa Dits placuit and the Parliament hath prevailed against him and all his Friends and therefore what should I do now but comply with the stronger side and use that religion which they profess and that form of worship which they prescribe and so redeem the time that I have lost and repair some losses that I have sustained I answer Solution that our Saviour Christ to prevent this very Objection that the Jews might make to terrifie the Christians and to with-hold them from the faith of Christ because they had killed him and he was dead and therefore to what purpose should they adhere to a dead Saviour and hazard their lives and their fortunes to maintain the honour of a dead man that could not preserve his own life because a Living Dog is better then a dead Lion saith unto his Servant John I am he that liveth and was dead and behold or mark it well I am alive for evermore Amen and therefore let not my death deterr any man from following me or believing in me so I say that faith and truth are still alive and though oftentimes suppressed and afflicted yet not killed and therefore the Poet saith Dispaire not yet though truth be hidden oft Because at last she shall be set aloft And as another saith Terra fremat regna alta crepent ruet ortus orcus Si modo firma fides nulla ruina nocet And for King Charles I say though he is dead yet he is still alive many ways and that his blood like Abel's blood being dead yet speaketh and speaks aloud not onely to God These things were written and preached by the Author in the time of Oliver but also to every one of them that loved him that they should not so soon forget their faith and love to him that lost his life for their defence and the defence of the true Catholick Faith and though he be dead he is still alive alive with Christ in Heaven for evermore and alive with us on earth in the good that he did bring to us in the love that he shewed towards us and in the good that he left amongst us and shall we leave him and leave our love to him and our remembrance of him and forsake our faith and prove perfidious both to God and to the honour and to the memory of our deceased King and cleave to them to say and do as they say and do that have bereft us of him and would have destroyed us with him No no let us abhor them and their evil doings detest their false Faith and hate their Wickedness with a perfect hatred And though we have suffered much and may suffer much more at the hands of these Tyrants that are our new Masters yet let us submit our selves unto them but as Daniel and the rest of God's people did unto the Chaldeans full sore against their wills Iames v 11. Job lxii 12. and let us yield none otherwise to this present Government