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
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
that at this very day to say as the Jews did and do That Christ was an Impostor that He was a Deceiver that He was justly arraigned condemned and crucified This is by a postnate Consent to render us guilty of his Blood and to crucifie asresh the Lord of Glory This is to Thrust the Nails into his Hands and Feet again this is as the Page did his Masters Sword to run the Souldiers Spear into his Heart again Now as Ahab by approving what Jesabel had done The Page by confirming what his Master Carpentus had acted the Apostates by owning and commending what the Jews did Are all by postnate Consents guilty of the several Murthers acted to their Hands even so of the cruel and barbarous Murder of our King our King of most blessed and happy Memory they must all be as was Saul to the Death of Stephen Consenters who either rejoyced at his Death applauded the deed or so far countenance the Villany as to slaunder the Foot steps of Gods anointed to justifie his arraignment or who dared in their Hearts to say He suffered as a Tyrant a Traytor and a Murtherer Psalm 10. 3. The vulgar Latin thus renders it Quoniam laudatur peccator in Desideriis Animae suae iniquus benedicitur c. Because the sinner is praised in the desires of his Soul and the unjust Man is blessed therefore is God exasperated To call evil good to praise the desires of the wicked to bless the unjust this is a ready way to contract a share in their Iniquity Acts 12. 22. When Herod making a blasphemous Oration had the Peoples applause for it this their praise was a sinful consenting to and an owning of his Blasphemy Verse 3. The Jews being pleas'd that Herod killed James by this became involved in the blood of James and Saul in my Text by Countenancing the Executioners and such as did became himself a guilty Consenter to St. Stephens Death Those then who when our blessed King was Murthered stuck not to say now was our Achan the troubler of Israel taken out of the way those who to blind the indisputable Villany Perjury and Treason of those desperately wicked who dared to Murder the Lords Anointed Those I say who to palliate and justifie their abominations laid all the Blood and Guilt and mischief upon the Innocent upon their suffering and Martyr'd King those who cryed him down as Caput Malignantium the head of Tyranny but cryed up his Persecutors as the Saints of the Earth Those who laid His Honor in the Dust but advanced theirs to the Highest Heavens those who did thus justifie the wicked trample upon and condemn the righteous they did more than Saul in my Text for he only kept what Cloaths they had but these they cloathed the Murtherers with Majesty and Honor and therefore if Saul for suffering the Cloaths of the Executioners to lie at his feet was a Consenter to St. Stephens death these who did dare to trample upon their Dead Soveraign and to put His Robes and Righteousness upon the King-killers those who did dare to call the Usurper David and his Son Solomon their lawful Soveraign Tarquin or Charls Stewart But the Seed of the Rebellious His Highness the Joy of the Nation and the Healer of our Breaches They must needs be deeper in guilt than was Saul and therefore Consenters because such Countenancers of his death amongst us Men we doubt not for to say he who really intends but is prevented for acting is for all that guilty of his designed mischief Those 40. who bound themselves under a Curse not to eat or drink till they had killed the Consenter in my Text Acts 23. 12. til they had killed Paul though Paul was rescued yet they were guilty for they had already committed Murther in their hearts The Husbandmen who said among themselves This is the Heir come let us kill him Math. 21. 28. They were guilty even from that very moment and doubtless that ungracious Son Patrios qui inquirit in Annos who wisheth his Fathers death that he may have his Lands he hath already killed him as far as he dares Now as an Intention before the act even so a Complacency and well-liking of the Thing done are proportionable guilts both Consenters one to the doing the other to the deed done both guilty before the just God They who wished the Kings death but did nothing toward it They who were glad it was done but had no hand in doing of it In Uno Tertio Conveniunt they both meet in this guilt they are Consenters to his death Acts 3. 15. Though the people of the Jews did no more But onely consent unto the Sentence and Judgment of their Magistrates St. Peter chargeth the whole Nation saying Authorem Vitae interfecistis Ye have killed the Prince of Life After his Sentence and Condemnation some who perchance were not at his Tryal were at his Passion or Execution Now if they who gave No consent toward his death did whilst yet dying or dead revile mock or deride him if they were in their number who when he was dead said to Pilate Sir This Impostor or this Deceiver said thus or thus This derision this scornful joy and this reviling of him dead made them also Consenters and guilty of his death Those then whose foul Hearts have yet an evil Eye those who call Murtherers Martyrs and Unrighteous Judges The Beloved of the Lord Those who love to detract and to hear Him Lessened who was the greatest Loss that ever Our Three Kingdoms suffered Such because they cannot wash their Hands in innocence they ought to wash their Hearts in penitence for what Subject soever doth not perfectly abhor he is in some measure a liker and and so a kind of Consenter to his death either by applauding the Doers or by a tacit commending liking and joying in the deed Lastly As by applauding the Actors commending liking or joying in the Act there is a culpable Consent contracted Numb 16. 26. even so by partaking in the Advantages in the Rapine and ill-gotten goods issuing from that death there is a sinful and wicked Consent involved Cui prodest scelus is fecit 1 Kings 21. When Jesabel had dispatcht poor Naboth had Ahab abhorr'd the Vineyard had Ahab took no possession had not Ahab entred upon his Inheritance we might then have justly thought Naboths death had been wholly Jesabels not at all his will But when we find that he who was Sick while Naboth lived was instantly Recovered when Naboth was dead when we find how that Ahab as to an Inheritance new fallen hastens to possess what Blood and Murder gave him Title to This is a clear demonstration his content was full and he must needs be a Consenter to his death In the crucifying and murthering of the Son of God the first Motive to a Consult or Consent it was the Inheritance Matth. 21. 28. This is the Heir let us kill him that the Inheritance