may be ours Now as he who killeth for an Inheritance continues on him the guilt of that Blood so long as he enjoyeth that Inheritance that being the design and complement of his Murther Even so Qui Ratum habet factum He who approves a Murder done in his Name and manifesteth that approbation by sharing in the prey and the advantages of that Murder he by Ratification makes the deed his own and as oft as he makes a beneficial use of that Blood Blood toucheth Blood and he is a Consenter in that Blood Now the Murther which at This Time we are to be humbled for the execrable Beheading of Gods Anointed it was done in Our Name the Cursed and Illegal Indictment it was drawn up in the Name of The People of England Now if in Law Qui ratum habet factum Mandanti aequiparatur If he who approves a mischief done in his Name and for his Interest is look'd upon as a Commander of it Certainly then whosoever hath not disowned or is so far from disowning that he shall make a beneficial and glad use of this Murther he thereby so ratifies that he owns the Mischief and as Ahab at Naboths death is very well pleased and content the deed was done Amongst us men we cannot measure Intentions but only by outward proofs but the Seer of all Secrets He who shall judge the World even for the abstrusest Crimes He shall judge according to the Bosom and the hidden Influence according to those likings and thoughts of heart which we have but perchance fear or shame to discover As for instance They who would rather a King should lose his Head than they the Crown Land lose all His Majesty and Honour than they their present Justiceship and Power they who would rather the Son of God should be crucified a fresh than they part with their sins Such in the sight of our Just and All-seeing God they are liable to these deaths and shall be sadly accountable for the guilt of them It is not yet so long but we may very well remember those who did this foul deed they made it their work to draw in as many Consenters as possible For first there was a Subscription then there was an Engagement then a Recognition all tending to the Ratification of this Murther A Sanhedrim or Council there was of Forty a Readmission to the House but none might have this Priviledge or Honour but he must first subscribe places of Trust Pensions other mens good Livings Promotions and Offices of profit none might have without an Engagement against King and Lords Yea the Capital Head of this Mischief He for whose Rise the King was Ruin'd must have a Recognition Now put the Case thus Suppose the Great Sultan the Grand Seignior the Turk had made a Conquest of this Nation and would admit no Man to any place of Trust or Profit no nor to enjoy his own unless he would subscribe that the Jews did well in putting their King and Soveraign to Death I beseech you lay your hands upon your hearts and seriously judge if this subscription were not let the mental Reservation be what it may a sensible Ratification or a Consenting to his Death Now if so how shall they avoid the being at least seeming Consenters to the death and blood of our dread blessed Soveraign who meerly to feed their ambition and to become what they were never Bred nor Born to Lords over their Brethren and Controulers of all about them subscribed the guilt and greedily shared either in the power authority or revenue which was all his for if we justly charge the Pope for being a guilty Consenter to stews and Brothel-houses because he takes a Salary and Revenue from them or if we justly say they who eat of the Sacrifice though they never come at the Shrine are guilty Consenters to the Idolatry certainly in like and equitable proportion those who have been partakers in any of the Royal Ruines Those who have cemented their Fortunes with the Kings Blood and have secretly deprecated and prayed against the Return of any of His these though they may and have avoided the Law they have yet a God to reckon with before whom such a Consenter shall not dare to plead net guilty but how deep in guilt that must be our last considerable in which I promised to shew III. Consent may contract so deep a guilt that without hearty confession and an unfeigned contrition it may hale the vengeance of an actor upon the Consenters head The Senses the Members and all the Natural actions and performances of the Body they are indeterminately considered indifferent they are in themselves nor good nor evil it is our consent that makes them morally all they are Rom. 6. 'T is our consent that makes our members as St. Paul speaks servants either to uncleanness or holiness The eye of man it may be the instrument either of admiration or of lust yea the very heart it self it may be the seat either of Charity or Uncharitableness If so be then we would apprehend how our state stands in Foro Interno in the Court of Conscience and the eye of God we must begin at Heart and look within David a good King could tell us he had Subjects the Words of whose Mouth were smoother than Butter Psal 55. 21 even then when Warr was at the Heart their words were smoother than Oil yet were they drawn Swords Men may appear and our Martyr'd King sadly found it so like Saints and Angels talking of nothing but of Reformation Religion in Purity and the power of godliness when God knows within their hearts were full of malice God not in all their thoughts nor did they aim at any thing more than Interest and Destruction Now albeit it so is that Figg-leaves and Sheeps cloathing may blind the Eyes of Men God will not God cannot be so mocked Look what we are at heart look what we are within look what is consented to agreed on and concluded in the most secret Recesses of the Soul by that God judgeth and to that we shall stand or fall Actus exterior nihil Malitiae addit interiori The School well observes though the outward act may be the Executioner it cannot be the Author of any more mischief than what in the Soul is contrived and consented to so that consent is a compleat guilt and therefore I have shewed you Consent may make an Adulterer and yet the body not touch a Woman Malice may make a Murtherer and yet the hand do no Violence Soul may be guilty of the death of Stephen and throw never a stone at him The Point then is how deep a guilt consent may be and we shall find it deep enough to carry an impenitent soul to eternal sorrows Psal 50. 18. When thou sawest a Thief then thou consentest with him To consent but to a piece of Theevery it is guilt enough yea guilt in such a measure that it is numbred among those sins
THE REGAL Proto-Martyr OR The MEMORIAL of the MARTYRDOM OF Charles the First In a Sermon preached upon the first Fast of Publick Appointment for it An Appendix to the GRAND CONSPIRACY By John Allington Rector of Vppingham Cui prodest scelus is fecit Medea Jasoni LONDON Printed by J. W. for W. Gilbert Bookseller at the Half-moon in St. Pauls Church-yard 1672. To the Right Worshipful Sir THOMAS TREVOR Knight and Baronet and one of the Honorable Order of the Knights of the BATH SIR FOr as much as the Period of the Grand Conspiracy came forth as the First-Fruits of my publick gratitude I could not let this Appendix walk abroad without your cognisance which I am therefore willing my self any thing of mine should wear because one Tongue is too little to tell the world what a Patron I have had have and the good God grant I may long have It is I confess an easie thing for me to say thus and seriously it were an ill thing in me to say less for the greatest good that in this world I enjoy it came from your single Heart and free Hand Now after a Period to talk of the Grand Conspiracy may seem that I had done before I had made an end But truly speaking The Subject of this Sermon it is the survey of that Guilt which the Grand Conspirators and their Abettors acted and contracted before the other Sermons could have a being So that this is but a Label to the Crown and an Appendix to the sad Story The Drift of this onely is to knock at every door to see how much of this guilt may lie in every bosom not to upbraid any but to exhort all so to examine that our Penitence may be proportionable to our Failings For Though He fell by Open Enimies yet he was wounded in the House of his Friends For whilst they stood a far off the diligent in mischief came up close whilst they were wary the other were working so that a Non obstans lieth at many a door and a Non manifestans at as many And rare is that Subject who in no measure was wanting to this Sacred Person Let the Discourse be your scrutiny and the presentation of it a fresh but a short acknowledgment of his great Obligations for abundant Kindnesses heapt upon My most honored Patron From my Study in Leomington Hastang Nov. 13. 1671. Your humble affectionate and most obliged Chaplain John Allington To the Reader THis following Discourse it hath made no hast unto the Press for it was preached first when first that sad Day was made Rubrical the Author then being in that Zoar wherein the good God preserved him for better times It since hath been repeated in two Corporations a City and a Town in the one it was censur'd thus He came hither to make us guilty of the KINGS death In the other It were well to be preacht oft that men might become more sensible of their latent guilt Now I profess before the world my intentions when I by the mercies of God conceiv'd it when at any time by his assistance I was deliver'd of it ever were to work upon my Auditory and as far as in me lay to prick the Heart and wound that soul which either by Thought Word or Deed had assisted that Grand Conspiracy For being I well know Frustra praetereunt leges quem non absolvit Conscientia that Laws vainly pass over and clear an Offender whilst yet the guilt lieth upon the soul my design was ever to make those who are conscious know Though a suppressing and stifling of evidence may carry off a Malefactor and a Pardon may preserve a Murtherer though an Act of Indemnity may clear an estate and as to secular disturbances and to legal inflictions secure a man Yet such who before God stand guilty of Intrusions violent Detentions Sacrilege Blood Rebellion Schism c. These though they stand as recti in curia discharged in all Courts freed from all legal molestations or vexatious upbraiding yet before their own Consciences if not seared can absolve or speak peace unto them they must repent them truly and they must be most heartily sorrowful for all these Mis-doings yea if that recieved piece of Divinity be true Non dimittitur peccatum nisi restituatur oblatum the sin is not remitted till the prey is restored then whoever have wronged any they must have Zachaeus care where they have wronged to restore where wrongs have been so highly acted that more than all will not do it then the acknowledgment must needs be great and the anguishes of soul as proportionable as may be to the anguishes of those who perished by their default and were not heard in their most just complaints and saddest exigencies In the following Discourse you shall find that good St. Paul when he became a Convert was now sensible of that far distant consent which mainly appears by looking to the raiment of those who stoned Stephen being for ought we know nor Accuser nor witness nor Executioner nor Judge He was for this consent so extremely humbled that he publickly confessed and with an holy indignation against the fact said Ipse ego When the bloud of the Martyr Stephen was shed I also was standing by and consenting to his death and kept the raiment of them who slew him Acts 22. Before Men Brethren Fathers before a great assembly he deplor'd his guilt I was standing by and consenting to his death I kept the raiment of them who slew him I am content in Charity to hope that God hath toucht the souls of many who were then well pleas'd when the bloud of our Regal Martyr was shed I will hope they may have bewail'd their guilt But it were much more conducing toward their Remission pardon of so great a crime if they became as St. Paul was more publick Penitents For that such who have openly slandered the Foot-steps of Gods Annointed and in publick Meetings reviled and spoke against that holy one And as for instance If any of the Orthodox of those times having zeal proportion'd to his Interest should have been so prodigiously wicked as to pray Lord now thou hast destroyed the Lyon take away the Whelps also Whether such an one ought not as publickly to bewail his rashness and as openly to retract such an horrid saying then call'd praying I leave it to a Conscience and to a Casuist The following Sermon I may tell you hath been importunately desired and now many more may have it than did so But I should wish none to give a peny for it or to lay an eye upon it unless they will resolve to make a conscientious reflection on it Sure I am it is not personal and as sure that few persons shall read it but may find a share in it and take just occasion either to ask Gods pardon for some omission or to give God praise that made them so right hearted as to
Royal Interest before their own by omitting the duty which Oaths and Allegiance obliged to we betray'd our Soveraign and by not restraining and Helping when we might we became Volitum in Causa even upon this account consequentially guilty even of our Soveraign's Blood We cannot but know how it was the common Allarm of every factious Trumpet the Vulgar Theam of every Rebellious Pulpit Curse ye Meroz saith the Angel of the Lord curse ye bitterly the Inhabitants thereof because they come not to the Help of the Lord to the Help of the Lord against the Mighty Judg. 5. 23. Now if our Adversaries Judges to speak in their own words and out of one of their Catechisms Neuters are Directly under that fearful Curse which the Angel of the Lord denounced against Merosh Rom. pag. 7. I say then if they who came not out and defended their Rebellious Cause if the Mighty for not fighting against the Almighty in the Cause of His Anointed deserved a Curse and were as they affirm Directly under that fearful execration which the Angel of the Lord denounced Certainly then a fortiori Those who were wanting in a far better Cause Those who deserted their Soveraign those who came not out to the Help of Him whom by the Oath of God they were bound to succour those who to save their own Penny cared not to see him lose his Crown These for not using the power and means they had though they did not spill they betray'd his blood and though they were not direct Consenters yet they were direct strengthners of their Hands who did it Now if it be so That the Son of Man when in the Person of a King sitting upon his Throne of rich Glory He shall pass an everlasting curse upon the sins of Omission that is upon such who Reliev'd him not no not in His poorest Members if for not seeding the Hungry for not cloathing the Naked for not visiting the imprisoned if for omitting Acts of Charity Christ shall Denounce the sad Sentence of everlasting Fire certainly then Subjects omitting Acts of Justice Subjects not doing their bounden duties Subjects neglecting the King of Glory in his Chief and most immediate Deputy the Lords anointed they have a great deal of cause to fear and grieve and pray that even this Grand Omission and this great failing may be forgiven to Them For he who hinders not when he may and when he is Bound cannot but be guilty of the Blood he might have saved and of that sin which he both should and might have prevented And therefore whether we respect our Provocations of God Almighty by our Personal misdoings or the Omission of our Duty by our not doing in both respects the most of us have been consequential Consenters and contradicted guilt enough to be this day humbled and beg Gods pardon though not for the Murder yet for the slaughter of our King And so I have done with the first Proposition to wit How a Man may be guilty of that sin in which he was no actor by being as you have heard a consequential Consenter to it We shall now therefore pass to the Second II. That is to prove and shew How a guilt may be postnate unto a Fact for after the stoning of St. Stephen it is observed and not before That Saul was consenting to His Death In the last Verse of the preceding Chapter it is written when St. Stephen had kneeled down and prayed for his Enemies He fell asleep so that Dead he was before these words were added And Saul was consenting c. Now Two Ways I shall observe how Guilt may come in at the back Door and be postnate unto the Fact 1. By applauding the Deed by commending liking and joying in it 2dly By partaking in the Advantages and by a Tacit Desire rather the Act should be done than they want the Benefit and the Rest they have got by it First He who applauds commends likes and joys in a foul Transaction he is a Consenter to it Qui laudat obscoenum perpetrat illud He who praiseth a piece of obscenity he acts it saith the Arabians And indeed Consent and Commendation they are so nigh Related that we never heartily commend what we like not and so alike are Consent and Liking that they are not easily distinguished for as He who frowns or turns his Ear from a seeming witty piece of lewdness in so doing checks it even so He who laughs and smiles and seems pleased with it so far as he is pleased so far he is a Consenter to it And therefore St. Paul condemns the impure Gnostiques even upon This account that they were not onely vile themselves but they also took pleasure in them that did such things Rom. 1. 32. And indeed St. Pauls sin here according to the Original it seems onely a complacency and a liking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore as in lust even so it is in point of Blood He who applauds the Murther He who is glad 't is done He who praises and honours the Doers of it though he had no Hand in the doing of it hath a Consenting Heart to the Deed done and is in the Eye of the Just God Guilty of it For indeed there is no Body joys and praises and is glad to hear any Thing is done but if he durst even he himself would have done it Doubtless Saul in my Text though casually he was onely a Consenter he could as willingly have been an Aider or Assistant to St. Stephen's death In the Case of King Ahab and poor Naboth we do not read that Ahab had any intelligence or inckling given him of Jesabel's bloody design all was acted and done the High Court of Iustice had sped their villany and dispatcht the Innocent before he knew it and yet for all that the Prophet is sent to arrest and charge him guilty of plain Murther Occidisti Thou hast killed Now I pray how could he be guilty of a death he knew not of of a Murder done altogether unknown to him Truly if you search the Story you shall find it onely was by a postnate Consent by a liking and approving and joying what Jesabel had done There is a Story of one Lucius Carpentus who having kill'd Nicanor by running him thorow his Page who deadly hated him after his Master had dispatcht him he to show his well-liking of the fact thrust in his Masters Sword deeper into the dead Heart Now though the Page could not possibly kill him again yet he by thus doing and thus confirming and approving what his Master had done he became a Murtherer as well as his Master It is very well known the Lord of Glory Christ Jesus our Spiritual King He can die no more Death can have no more Dominion over him Heb. 6. 6. and yet Saint Paul expresly saith They who fall away that is such as fall off from the Faith of Him They crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh So
for the which God threatens to Tear in Pieces without Deliverance Now if a consent in theft may amount to this certainly a consent in blood and that blood heightned by the greatest circumstances incident to Blood to wit Majesty and Innocence A consent I say in the shedding of such blood it must needs be aggravated and indeed cannot be extenuated but by the weakness and the little measures of consent 1 Epist of St. John ch 3. v. 15. The beloved Disciple had no sooner said Whosoever hateth his Brother is a Murtherer But then he immediately adds and no Murtherer hath Eternal Life abiding in him No Murtherer A learned Neoterick well upon that place observes Murther is committed Non tantum occident is Manu sed etiam odient is Animo Homing nâ—â— only by the Hand but by the Mind so that even a mental Murtherer a consenter but no acter a willer but no doeâ— he may be even foâ— it in the state of damnation a Person in whom he so continuing the hope of Eternal Life is not Evidence enough that Consent alone may involve in a deep guilt What then Remains Truly this only that where consent Once was Contrition may for ever be Saul in my Text whilst yet Saul whilst yet a Persecuter he made nothing of consenting no not of putting a Saint to Death But when he became a Convert one of the first signal Testimonies he gives is the confession of his guilt contracted even at St. Stephens death Acts 22. 20. Lord when the Blood of thy Martyr Stephen was shed I also was standing by and consenting to his Death and kept the Rayment of them that slew him When of a Saul he became a Paul when his Soul was softened and his Heart changed behold him Vir Dolorum a Man of Sorrows a Man whose very Soul is troubled for looking on for standing by for consenting yea for that little countenance he gave in keeping the Rayment of them that stoned him How much then in the Name of God ought every of us to be humbled and grieved for the Provocations by which we have moved God to permit this Villany For our not doing in time what might have stopt this Blood For applauding the Doers For liking the Deed Or when for our own Interest and Advantage we have secretly rather wish'd it so than otherwise Did Time or Place serve I might now do well to inforce this Argument from a Bare Consent to such a Full Consent as includes and implies Plotting Counselling Commanding Contributing and Acting For if a weak postnate and bare Consent may as ye have heard contract a guilt certainly then as Consents have been heightned so must needs the guilt Those who have made it their work to prepare the way for so foul a Murther those who preached and printed down their King for a Mad-man or a Fool comparing him to a Pilot whose endeavour was to sink his Ship and to a General who planted his Ordinance against his own Army that so he might be as he was first disarmed Those who made it their work to run about with slanders and spread lying disparagements throughout the Nation onely to weaken the Repute and make their King despicable Those who to save themselves laid all their own guilt upon his shoulders And those who when He had for peace-sake own'd the Debts which he never contracted and was content to preface a Treaty of Peace with his own Infamy Those I say who took this advantage for a Confession and grounded all their closer Machinations of his Death upon this Bottom These and every of these are Actors in so sad a guilt that it behoves such not onely as did David for the murthering of a Subject onely go mourning all the day long but they ought to do so all their lives long praying and praying again yea they ought to importune others to pray both with them and for them that their foul Hearts may happily be cleansed in That KINGS Blood which is onely able to wash off This Kings Blood In a word to close all It is observed of St. Paul that after he became a Convert and of the Right Side after he was truly sensible of the Dishonour done to his King then in glory None of all his most Faithful Adherents out-did him in Pains and Diligence for the Recovery and Advance of the Glory of his Master for now we find him at that pitch that he professeth to value Nothing like to it saying God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ Gal. 6. 14. and I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified 1 Cor. 2. 2. All then I shall add is That we also express our Penitence as St. Paul did by a most loyal and double diligence that so our King who dyed a Martyr may be found a Prophet also for in those excellent Meditations fit to be read and perused upon this Day He tells his Son His penitent Rebels Those that Repent of any Defects in their Duties toward him them should he find truly zealous to repay with Interest their Loyalty and Love and the good God grant they may and that not only they but even all we duly considering whose Authority the King hath may so faithfully serve and humbly obey him in God and for God that God may be a God of peace to us and to our Children even from Generation to Generation These O God and all other Blessings in thy Wisdom known expedient even for our Eternal Welfare we humbly beg even for His sake who was a King murthered by His Subjects even Jesus Christ the Righteous To whom with Thee and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory now and for ever AMEN Deo soli sit omnis gloria FINIS