Scaffold as on the Throne and as Philo goes on Jam jam assumendus in ipsis stans carceribus unde ad coelestem metam erat evolaturus tunc quoque afflatus Divinitus vivens adhuc Prophetavit He being yet alive blessed all the tribes of Israel and prophesied of their future prosperity Deut. 33. Being now to go up into Mount Nebo and die he went as from his Prison to a Throne and from a glimpse of that earthly Canaan which he was deni'd to enter to possess that heavenly Canaan which was open to receive him Which brings us to the last part of our Parallel Our Royal Martyr was like Moses in his death also for so died Moses the servant of the Lord in the land of Moab according to the word of the Lord. He began to die as a King when Aaron the Saint of the Lord his chief Minister about the Tabernacle and the things belonging to the Worship of God was violently pluckt from him not for consenting to but for his endeavour to suppress those golden Calves which the people had made and set up to themselves as their Gods not to go before them towards Canaaa but to lead them back to Egypt whither they were returning He died on Mount Hor the Tower-hill Jethro also his great Counsellor was taken from him by the same bloudy hands And the circumstance of the place where Moses died is very considerable in our Parallel for he must go up from the plains of Moab the land of his inheritance for so Moab signifieth de Patre the Land which descended to him from his Fathers to Mount Abarim where stood the Metropolis of Moab and where the greatest concourse of people was for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies transitus Near Abarim stood the Hill Nebo where was the Royal Palace and adjoyning to that was the Vertix Pisgah the Banqueting-house where he had a prospect of the Land of Canaan which God had promised to give him as an Inheritance yet here die he must not so much for his own sins as for the sins of the people who now had cast off all fear of God and what then should a King do among them Hosea 10.3 But our Moses must die say the Rebel-people according to the word of the Lord. Certainly there was no word of the Lord Jehovah that the people should put their King to death it must be some enthusiastick dream of an infatuated spirit from the God of this world that inspired them with such a Revelation The word which God spake concerning Moses Deut. 32.49 was onely this Ascende morere Go up and die He had an ascention even before his dissolution An ascention I call it because God had promised Exod. 33.14 to go up with him and to give him rest to gather him to his fathers and hide him in the clifts of the rock until the storm was over Exod. 33.22 So that though God had told him that it was a terrible thing that God would do with him Exod. 34.10 yet having the presence of an All-sufficient God with whom he might converse as a man talketh with his friend face to face Exod. 33.11 and having seen all the goodness of the Lord pass before him and proclaiming the Lord God to be gracious and merciful long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth forgiving iniquity transgression and sin and that would by no means clear the guilty Exod. 34.6 7. this made the face of our Moses to shine even when that black vail was laid over it And now he gives instruction to his Successor Joshua concerning the Church and People of God not doubting but that God under his conduct would bring that stiffnecked people into Canaan And then with an undaunted courage addresseth himself to his last Combat being assured of victory over all his Enemies and more like an Orator from his Desk than a dying man on the Scaffold he thus exhorteth the People as it is recorded by Josephus I thought it requisite lest I should fail of my duty to lay open the way that leadeth to your happiness Obey God and keep his Laws which I have given you not innovating any thing in Religion Hearken to the counsel of Eleazar the Priest and Joshua my successor with the Senate Be not stiff-necked and think it not your liberty to mutiny against the commandments of your Prince God forbid you should be so exasperated against them as against me for I have been more often in hazard of my life by your means than by my enemies I speak not this to upbraid you but to admonish you and make you wiser for the time to come in obeying the Laws of your Country in abhorring the Gods of the Nations and adhering to the Religion in which I die God having prefixed the day and place of my departure I give him thanks and submit And thus after mutual embraces between him and Eleazar the Priest blessing the People praying for himself and his enemies he laid down his earthly Tabernacle his Crown of Thorns and distracted Kingdoms to receive an immarcescible Crown of Glory and a Kingdom that cannot be moved eternal in the Heavens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Super Os Domini And thus he died as the Rabbins interpret the Text with a kiss of God's mouth or according to the Word of the Lord. And now exeunt Tyranni His Murtherers having killed the Heir they go and take possession but the Land spewed them out one after another till Shiloh came to whom it did belong But as soon as the People had time to consider their great loss and the Books of the Law written by Moses and left as a Legacy to the People and were made sensible of the Rapine and Oppression of his Murtherers they wept extremely saith Josephus the men rent their clothes the women beat their breasts and sadness covered all faces his very Enemies being ashamed of that Horrid Parricide It was pity said some his Concessions had not been better considered Had he not been a King said others of them he might have lived longer And even those who had betrayed and murthered him would like Judas and Pilate have washt their hands from his bloud if it had been possible The Actors in this Tragedy would still keep themselves as unknown as the Executioner It was not we say the Presbyterians nor we say the Independents nor did the one destroy him as a King and the other as a man but both were Regicides and both lift up their hands against the Lords Anointed The London-Ministers endeavoured but in vain to wash their hands from that bloud but their Vindication carrieth a Confutation with it for they say The woful Miscarriages of the King himself which we cannot but acknowledge to be many and very great in his Government that have cost the three Kingdoms so dear and cast him down from his Excellency into a horrid Pit of Misery almost beyond example Was this a more likely means to
MOSES AND THE Royal Martyr King CHARLES the First Parallel'd IN A SERMON Preached on the 30th of January 1683 4. IN THE Cathedral-Church of St. Peters EXON By THO. LONG one of the Prebendaries Mat. 6.29 Solomon in all his glory was not like One of these LONDON Printed by J. C. and F. Collins for Daniel Brown at the black Swan and Bible without Temple-bar and are to be sold by Walter Davies in Amen-corner 1684. To the Right Reverend Father in God HENRY Lord Bishop of London One of his Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council May it please your Lordship THE Great Devotion wherewith your Lordship indefatigably seeks to promote Works of Piety Loyalty and Charity and especially the high veneration that you have for every little thing that concerns the Honour of the ROYAL MARTYR hath given me the presumption of this Dedication Finding among some neglected Papers such Pieces as seemed to retain though but an obscure Character of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I carefully collected and composed them in this little Tablet And though I well know that your Lordship hath a far more perfect Idea of that Best of Kings engraven on your heart yet perceiving that this made a good impression on a Loyal Audience at the first view I have presumed to make it more publick under your Lordships Name which gives a value and lustre to such things as in themselves are but of little worth hoping that by this Recommendation of it it may prove as an Amulet to confirm some in their Loyalty and shame and convince others of their Disloyalty by manifesting to all the incomparable Graces of that Man of God and the unparallel'd Barbarity of those Sons of Belial the Ignoramus's and Ignatians that were Actors in that Tragedy some of which still survive and like the Devil himself seek to draw others into the like Conspiracies and Condemnation with themselves and by another fatal Blow to deprive us of all those Blessings Spiritual and Temporal which by Gods wonderful Providence and Mercy we yet enjoy and to reduce us to our former Distractions and Confusions Nor is it your Lorships publick Merit and Reputation onely but a particular and signal Favour to my self which though forgotten by your self shall be ever thankfully commemorated by me hath obliged me to this confident Address For in truth I have been uneasie and displeased with my self that I found no sooner opportunity nor as yet a better demonstration of my Gratitude and to let the World know what freedom of Access what candor of Countenance and endearing Affability Counsel and Assistance the meanest Clergy-man may hope for from so noble and munificent a Spirit In testimony whereof I have done my self the right with your Lorships favour to subscribe my self Exon Feb. 12. 1683. Your Lordships most Humble and Obliged Servant THO. LONG DEUT. 34.5 So Moses the servant of the Lord died in the land of Moab according to the word of the Lord. ST Gregory Nyssen being desired by his friend Cesarius to give him the Pattern of a holy life transcribes the History of Moses's Heroick Actions and reducing them to Moral Duties proposeth them for his imitation If ever the memorable Actions of that man of God were copied to the life it was done by our ROYAL MARTYR who so imitated whatever was excellent in Moses that it may be thought that God took of the Spirit of Moses and put it upon him So like him he was in his life that in his death he was not separated So he lived and so he died as Moses the servant of the Lord died in the land of Moab according to the word of the Lord. The Text and the time requires me to run a Parallel between Moses and the Royal Martyr whose Obsequies we then duly celebrate when we not onely bewail and detest that execrable Murther and renounce those Principles and repent of those Sins which betrayed that good man into the hands of deceitful and cruel meu but do heartily endeavour to imitate that Christian Example of Faith and Patience which God by him hath commended unto us This Parallel I shall extend 1. To his private and personal Excellencies as he was Moses 2. To his publick and political Capacity as he was the servant of the Lord i. e. by way of Eminency as he was a King in Jesurun Deut. 33.5 who ruled the People of God in the integrity of his heart and with all his might And it is observable that Moses was born when there was a Generation of men that dealt subtily with the people of God but God endued him with so much Patience as well as Meekness and Resolution that no difficulty was insuperable to him The first Grace that appeared in him was his Humility and Meekness of which the Scripture testifieth that he was the meekest man on the earth Numb 12.3 And though this were as another Vail on the face of our Moses for a time to obscure the splendour of his Vertues yet even that tended to his greater glory and admiration among such as did more intimately converse with him He lived long in a retired condition being educated in all the Wisdom of the Egyptians that might qualifie him for the Government to which God had designed him yet his Meekness appeared first in a diffidence of his own judgment which though it were grounded on strong Reason and mature Deliberation yet he alway submitted to such as he thought better skilled in their several Sciences though usually when the Kings Opinion was neglected and theirs followed the success failed and when Moses held up his hands Israel prevailed when he let them down Amalek prevailed His Affability another branch of Meekness was such that the meanest Subject had a a gracious access to him nor needed there any Favourite or Advocate to mediate for him save the justness of his Cause which he would alway hear with great Patience and determine with Prudence and Justice And if at any time he perceived an Egyptian smiting one of his Brethren he would voluntarily interpose and avenge the Oppressed As for the Power which he exercised over his Passions he was as much a King in that as in any other Vertue◠The Stoical Philosophy never prescribed a better Apathy than he practised never discovering any Passion but when the Cause of God and his Church was concerned nor was he ever known to act any thing by way of revenge though none was more provoked and though he had Jus utriusque gladii His Enemies indeed made a self-denying Ordinance but none besides himself did practise it His moderation even in words was so great that he seldom spake unadvisedly with his lips and if he did after insufferable Affronts and Injuries call his implacable Enemies Rebels he did no more than Moses Numb 20.10 Hear now ye Rebels and yet he mitigates the harshness of that title with the Epithite of a Religious Rebellion and a misguided Zeal and prays for them in the
preserve his life or to destroy it to charge him with all the miseries of the late War And a Leader of this Party says that the removal of our Ceremonies onely might countervail for all the Bloud and Treasure spilt and spent in those Distractions Jenkins Sermon Sept. 24. p. 23. which was spoken in 1656. about 8 years after the Kings death They did not indeed erect a high Court of Justice to arraign him but they raised Armies to fight against him And it is to be believed saith Mr. Baxter that a man would kill him whom he fights against And Mr. Marshal p. 19. of a Letter of his says That if the King had been slain in battel it had been none of the Parliaments fault for he might have kept himself farther off if he pleased And they might have kept themselves at home and done their own business and not the Devils work in pursuing their King to his Prison which hath usually been the Grave of Kings as it was his And in this the Army-men in a Book called Bonds and Bounds argued not amiss If by the Covenant say they p. 45. we were indispensibly obliged to preserve his i. e. the Kings Person how comes it to pass that we were obliged by the same Covenant to wage War against him I have heard of a distinction between his Person and his Power but never between his Person and Himself So that if the Covenant would have dispensed with any Souldier of England or Scotland to kill his person by an accident of War as his life was oft in danger before he was brought to the Scaffold his death had been violent and the obligations to preserve him had ended and yet according to this argument the Covenant had not been broken why then should these men think the World so dull as not to understand plainly enough that the Covenant provided for his death more ways than one And in brief the Actions of the two Parties differed onely as Diminutio obtruncatio Capitis They that took away his Regal Power did diminuere caput Regis they that took away his Life did obtruncare Caput they that first gave Commission to raise a War against him and they that slew him were equally guilty for they are all Principals in such an execrable Treason Nec dum finitus Orestes The immortal hatred of these persons would not permit the dead body of Moses to be gathered with his Fathers and be at rest for we read in St. Jude v. 9. of the Devil and his Angels disputing with Michael and his Angels about the body of Moses either while it was yet alive the Devil intending to send some evil Spirit to dispatch him secretly which the good Angels opposed or being dead to deny him a Burial-place with his Ancestors for the same reason perhaps that the Apostate Julian removed the Bones of Babilas the Martyr because the Devils Oracle could not assist him while the Martyr lay so near it and therefore he must be buried at a distance in the Valley lest the Regicides should be minded of their guilt and the People inraged at the remembrance of their loss But as Pliny de viris Illustribus speaking how the Romans were incensed to revenge the death of Romulus their Founder Proculus stept forth and said to them Be not troubled O ye Romans for I saw your King in a glorious Chariot ascending up into Heaven So to allay our sorrows and to cause us to lay aside all thoughts of revenge I say his Enemies have so far kept their words with him as to make him a glorious King Thus fell the best of Kings by the worst of men that had generally sworn Allegiance to him and often perjured themselves by Covenants and Engagements against him He fell before his own Palace and at the Gates of his great but unrelenting City He fell in the midst of his Age and maturity of his Strength and fulness of Grace the Prodigy of Wisdom and Meekness He fell by the Sword and for the sins of a stiff-necked and rebellious People He fell not alone but our Religion our Laws and Liberties fell with him and out of the Ashes of that Phaenix they all rose again and resumed their first strength and splendour If we number him among the good Kings none of them was so wise if among the wise none of them was so good Charles le Bon was not so wise nor Charlemain was ever so good If the names of all the best Princes were to be engraved in a Ring the name of this King would serve as a Diamond to give vertue and luster to it Carolus Primus nulli Secundus his Murther therefore was a Murther all circumstances considered not to be parallel'd by any but the Passion of our great Lord and common Saviour and next to that to be detested and abhorred of all men And this is the first Vse and Conclusion that I shall draw from these Premises That we seriously lament and repent for those Impieties which the sins of the Nation drew upon it self and from which the Land is not purged to this day For as God threatned Israel for the sin of making the golden Calves that when he visited he would visit that sin upon them from whence the Jews observed that in every judgment there was an ounce i. e. some greater weight for the sin of the golden Calf So we may justly believe that by those dreadful Plagues and Conflagrations that have been on the Land and especially on the great City God would call to our remembrance that great sin for which his anger is not yet turned away but his wrath is stretched out still And because amendment of life is the best signe of Repentance let us imitate his Example in Meekness and peaceableness of Spirit in Temperance and Chastity in Patience and Charity even to our greatest Enemies but especially in his Love to that Church which adhered so faithfully to him and which therefore he so loved as to lay down his life for it and in whose Doctrine and Communion if you keep your selves you will be free from that great iniquity of Rebellion and Conspiracies which are like the sin of Witchcraft Which word minds me of one Admonition more That you would consider the nature of this sin which comes so nigh to the sin of Witchcrast that it seldom admits of any repentance for a sad observation and yet too true it is that among all the Regicides that were executed for that actual Murther of the Father which how horrid it was you have heard and among those that died for the intended Murther of the Son whom God long preserve though they all acknowledged or were proved guilty of the Fact not one repented of the sin notwithstanding that God hath threatned such resistance with damnation and though such may escape the judgment of men it will be a fearful thing for them in their impenitency to fall into the hands of God 2. Let