be delivered from that extensive Guilt which few escaped This Sermon cannot possibly make any guilty who are not but possibly it may shew some to be so who have not thought they were And therefore whereas upon that solemn Day we are taught to pray Lay not the Guilt of this Innocent Blood the shedding whereof nothing but the Blood of thy Son can expiate lay it not to the Charge of thy People of this Land nor let it ever be required of us or our Posterity This Discourse God so working may occasion that this Prayer may be preferred with more sense heart and feeling than before it hath been which to his Glory may the good God effect it will glad and rejoyce the heart of Thy Friend in the Lord J. A. From my Study Nov. 13. 1671. THE REGAL Proto-Martyr Acts 8. part of the 1. Ver. And SAUL was consenting to his death IN these words are two eminent persons to be look'd upon Saul and Stephen a Martyr and a Persecutor and indeed for as much a Veritas Odium naked Truth begets Armed Malice no wonder to see the Persecutor at the heels of the Martyr and to read of his Death who durst be so bold as to give witness to a Dangerous and Loyal Truth Now concerning this Martyr some things are obviously to be observed before we can come exactly to the Text. 1. His Ordination he was a person separate from the people 2. The Danger bound up in that profession 3. The particular Truth for the which he was put to death In the sixth Chapter you shall find a Motion made by the Apostles vers 3. That seven men of honest report should be looked up and be brought to them to be put into Holy Orders upon which Stephen being found a Man full of faith and the Holy Ghost was one Where by the way we may observe that albeit S. Stephen was a person of excellent endowments a person abundantly gifted a person full of faith and the Holy Ghost yet he did not assume or take an Holy Office on him nay the Congregation who looked him up and made choice on him they had no power to confer Orders or to make him what they desired for v. 6. They set him before the Apostles and when they had prayed they layed hands on him So that though the people lookt him up v. 3. it was the Apostles who appointed him to his Business though the people found him out it was the Apostles who sent him out Manus ei imposuerunt it was they that laid hands upon him So that the first thing observable concerning the Death of the glorious Martyr is he was an Ordained person he was one who by Imposition of Apostolical Hands and Prayer was set apart and designed for holy use The First Christian Martyr was in Apostolical Holy Orders Secondly The Danger involved and bound up in this profession for whereas before he liv'd secure and private as a Christian or a Disciple now called to a publick employment and set apart for a peculiar and Holy use he was not long in his Office for for ought we read his first Sermon cost him his life 'T is true indeed he was chosen to minister unto Widows Acts 6. 1. yet by his employment it appears he was not chosen to that Ministration onely for Stephen full of Faith and Power did great Wonders and Miracles among the people vers 8. yea though there was an whole Assembly an whole Assembly of Libertines against him he held not his peace ver 9. but so he disputed and so spake that as the Text implies They dispacht him for it An Argument to me That Holy Orders are not onely Honos but Onus not onely an advance to Honor but an expose to Hazard insomuch that by how much God is pleased to take a man nigher to himself by so much the more is he than another expos'd to the Hate of the World and bound to abide Death or Danger for him For our Blessed Lord and Master he whose Manhood of all others was nighest in conjunction with the Deity he was as I may say therefore put into Holy Orders therefore made a Priest that through the Eternal Spirit he might offer himself to God Heb. 9. 14. therefore was he made a Priest that he might be a Sacrifice And indeed whereas Christians in general are by St. Peter called An Holy Priesthood 1 Pet. 2. 5. I know nothing that this can more safely and seasonably admonish than to remember if we are Priests we must then sacrifice and sacrifice no less than our very selves to Gods glory For so did our pattern so did our high Priest who is set before us So did St. Stephen who though a Deacon and one in the lowest step of Holy Office when he was put to it he declined not but to his Masters and to his Kings glory he so spake that he died for it For Saul was consenting to his death Lastly To come up to the Text let us see and observe what that particular Truth was and what that very Speech for which he was thus us'd for the which the Jews cried out Run upon him and stoned him to death and you shall find it was onely for accusing them and sharply setting before them the Murther of their King For Acts 7. 52. you shall find these words Which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted and they have slain them who shewed before of the coming of the just one of whom yet have been now the Betrayers and the Murtherers When St. Stephen though full of the Holy Ghost was so bold as to tell the Rebellious Jews of their killing the Prophets and of their putting to death the Just one it presently followeth v. 53. When they heard these things they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth When St. Stephen was so bold as to tell them how they had 〈◊〉 trayed their King and murthered the Lords Annointed When he was so bold as to set their so horrid and so bloody Rebellion before their eyes no wonder if they resolve to cut off him who had thus cut them to break his head who had broke their hearts It is oft said Many a man loves the Treason who hates the Traitor But here we have a Treason which the Traitors themselves endure not to hear on For Acts 5. 40. The Counsel of State for the time being even those whose hands were imbrued in the blood of their King they call and command the Apostles that they should not speak in the Name of Jesus Jesus the King of the Jews his Murtherers commanded that no mention be made of him command even his own Servants even the nighest to him not to do any thing no not to speak in the Kings Name Yea so did the memory of their Rebellion crucifie their souls that witness St. Stephen they were ready to slay and to stone the Speaker For having nothing to answer in Defense of
this you shall find is gathered even from the very language of God Himself for the Lord by his Prophet Rebuking Israel Thus saith Why will you die O House of Israel Alas Israel had no mind no will in the world to die They would never have given suffrage or consent to their own death And yet for as much as they willed that which would infallibly bring death upon them God lays their death even to their own charge and makes their destruction an act of their own will saying Why will ye die O House of Israel Now as the Men of the old World the Deluge as the Men of Sodom their Fire and Brimstone and as Israel their Destruction so were all we the cause of the Kings death who continued to commit those sins and to act those wickednesses for which God was resolved to deprive the Nation of so great an Happiness 2 Chron. 35. We read how Josiah going out to Battel was slain before Necho King of Egypt Now Josiah was so good a King so right-hearted toward his God so Religious and so zealous of his Honour that it is generally concluded He was slain not for His own but for the sins of His People insomuch that some conceive Jeremiah made his Lamentations with Order unto him That Soveraign whose Murther we this Day Commemorate He was never so much Charls le Grand as He was le Bon. He was never so Great as he was Good He was to say no more as Gold tried in the Fire exact and pure or as Saul for height even so He for Piety was far above his Brethren and yet even He could not stand before His Enemies The Lord went not out with His Armies He fell as did good Josiah before the Uncircumcized And why so Was it for want of Valour or Prudence or Skill in Feates of War No He had all these what then Truly it was because the Sins of His Party fought stronger against Heaven than their Armes could do against the Rebels The lowd Volly of Oaths discharged against God Himself The Drink Offerings of the Mighty The Rapine Plunders and abominable Exactions done in his Name This made our King miscarry this prevented God from going out with our Hosts These Achans so troubled our Israel that as God the Son King of the Jews was smitten wounded and slain for the Transgressions of His People Even so the Transgressions of His People the sin of his Three full and flourishing Kingdoms these were the Provocations and these a great cause why God took away so great a blessing and delivered into Bloody Hands so innocent a KING 1 Sam. 12. 25 If ye shall do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King It is not said if ye and your King do wickedly then shall both be destroyed but it is onely said If ye shall do wickedly yet both ye and your King shall be consumed Whence it clearly appears to me that the provocation of a people and the sins of a Nation they may and oft have a great influence upon the death of a King and that a King may be taken away not so much for his own as for their Transgressions And therefore I beseech you all in the name and fear of God if it onely be that you may live peaceably and plentifully and every man sit quietly under his own vine and comfortably eat the fruit of his own labours let us therefore forbear any longer to provoke our God Forasmuch as swearing and whoring and drinking prophane and ungodly Ryots Forasmuch as doing wickedly may again provoke God to consume both us and our King let us upon this day of solemn Humiliation and Fasting for the glory of our God for the safety of our King for that sad share which we contributed toward this so foul a murther let us sow in tears that we may reap in joy let us henceforth abhor at least those sins which gave the Rebellious an advantage those sins which gave occasion to the Enimies of the Lord for to blaspheme and to say the Kings Friends they were onely Libertines Papists Atheists horrible Swearers and Blasphemers Enimies to God and the power of Godliness I beseech you for Gods sake that all who profess Loyalty may profess piety that Fear God and honour the King may be as close in our hearts as we find they stand together in the Book of God and then I am sure we shall ever prevent this first guilt the provoking of God to take away or to permit the murther of our King Secondly A second consequential Consent or previous disposition to the destruction of Gods Annointed it was The deserting of him Non obstans the not preventing the not bindring of it whilst yet it was in our power And this is an undoubted way of contracting guilt from the sin of others he who hinders not what he may and where he is bound doubtless he is volitum in causa of what effect followeth upon this culpable neglect As for instance he who stands or sits before a window thorow which the wind blows and the snow or rain beats if he will neither remove thence nor pull to the cazement he is undoubtedly a consenter to his own wetting and a consequential willer of his own cold-taking for he both might and ought to have prevented it That Father or Mother who by a timely and seasonable correction might have kept their children from lewd and vile courses and have not endeavoured it such parents they have a guilt even in their transgressions even in the misdemeanors of such children For 1 Sam. 3. you shall find God threatens a judgment upon old Eli because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not because old Eli hindred not when he might the Lord imputeth a portion of his sons sin even unto him Now to apply this to our present purpose First Had the people of this Nation kept close and conscientiously to their Allegiance and their Oaths there had been no Rising had they kept those cazements as they were close shut the Tempest of War and the Storms of Blood had never broken in yea had they clapt them to when they first opened there had been an end For to speak in the phrase of our Royal Martyr When the Devil of Rebellion first turn'd himself into an Angel of Reformation Whilst yet the Religious Mask of the Godly Party had but one Presbyterian Face to cover the Vizard might easily have been knockt off before numerous Faces and many Factions appeared under at first but one godly Hood before the Prince of Darkness transformed himself into an whole Firmament of New Lights the King in the right sense might have been secur'd For at first what Elisha said to his Servant was with us most true There was more for us than was against us more for than against the King But with a Non Obstante for not using the means and power they had for not preferring a publick and
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
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
their Rebellion having nothing to answer for their Murther of Gods Annointed having nothing to keep off that deadly stab which the charge of their killing the just one gave unto their very souls Acts 7. 57. They stop their ears but with wide open mouths they ran upon him and to stop that mouth whose truth cut their hearts for want of arguments so silenced him with stones that he died at their feet of whose death the Holy Ghost is pleased to take notice and to record not onely the Actors but a bare Consenter also in these words And Saul was consenting to his death But what talk I of the Murther of a Deacon upon a day solemnly set a part to be humbled for the Murther of a King my answer is I find so nigh a conjunction between Sacred Majesty and Holy Order between Prince and Priest between Gods annointed to be Kings and Gods annointed to be Prophets that we can scarse find the man who will wrong the one but if occasion serve he would do as much for the other and therefore we find them both equally shielded in one verse Touch not mine Annointed and do my Prophets no harm Psalm 105. They who will harm the Prophets they will not stick to arm against the Annointed They who killed the Just one they made nothing of murthering his Messengers and indeed in order to this horrid Murther in order to the betraying of our Just one and the Lords Annointed what was more previous than the stoning of his Prophets the sequestring silencing and depriving from all comforts of this life who ever durst as did Stephen magnifie the Lords Annointed or did dare to say They were his Betrrayers or his Murtherers Indeed between Deacon and King there is a great disproportion Deacon the lowest degree of Ministry and King the superexcellent for Majesty and yet the same Kings who are sometime called Gods they are also stiled Rom. 13. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Deacons too that is Gods selected and peculiar Servants and thus considered St. Stephen and our Soveraign may very well admit a Parallel For Was S. Stephen Acts 6. 5. a man full of Faiih and the Holy Ghost such was our Soveraign Full of Faith for it was in faith of a better that he gave up his earthly Crown Full of the Holy Ghost for the most envious cannot deny his Meditations and Solitudes to be the undoubted Breathings of that Spirit Was St. Stephen endowed with such high parts and gifts that v. 10. They were not able to resist the Wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke Even so was it with our Blessed Soveraign or else we had never heard of An Ordinance for no Addresses nor as himself speaks had he been assailed with Armies instead of Arguments yea when his cursed Conspirators when those who sought his life and those who in order to it had declared him A Fool one unfit to govern when they had divested him of all counsel and sequestred him from all Advice when many and the choicest of the pack were sent to him as the Herodians to our Saviour to entrap and entangle him in his words they found him so qualify'd as the Book of God testifieth of S. Stephen That they were not able to resist the Wisdom and the Spirit by which he spake and therefore as St. Stephen was confuted with stones because they were not able to do it with Arguments Even so therefore was our Blessed Soveraign not permitted to speak against the High Court of Justice Therefore brought to his Scaffold and therefore cut off because they were not able to resist his Wisdom because they found he was no less good than great as they served St. Stephen Acts 7. 58. even so they ran upon him and cast him out of the City Yea the very circumstance of place whence those came who did this deed that relateth to St. Stephen too for the High Court of Justice that pack of Miscreants which were sent to do this Villany they came forth of St. Stephens Chappel Now being in Stephens Martyrdom the Spirit of God is so severe as to take notice not onely of those who as I may say sealed and signed his death not onely of those who ran upon him and were the actors in this Murther but of a very Accessory of a stander by of one who gave no vote flung no stone did no hurt being the Spirit of God takes notice of one who did onely look to the cloathing of those that stoned him vers 58. One that did onely look on and like the thing certainly we shall find Consenters as well as Actors are mightily to be humbled for the sin of this day Not onely they who plotted and preached and prepar'd the Murther but those also who liked it when it was done Those who by any complacency or after act or subscription avowed the thing All such are guilty of the Horrid Murther of this Day or else vainly did the Holy Pen observe what is our present Text And Saul was consenting to his death In and about these Words we shall consider of these three Propositions First a man may be guilty of that sin in which he was no actor by being onely as Saul here stands recorded A Consenter Secondly a guilt may be postnate unto a fact for after the stoning of St. Stephen it is observ'd and not before that Saul was consenting to his death Lastly Consent may contract so deep a guilt that without confession and contrition it may hale the vengeance of an Actor upon the Consenters head First A man may be guilty of that sin c. Consent it is the conception and the first quickning of every sin consent it is that which gives the first being to every iniquity insomuch that he who consenteth though he never act further is an actual sinner before his God Nam scelus intra se tantum qui cogitat ultum And therefore said our Blessed Master Matt. 5. 28. Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already with her in his heart He who hath a wanton a lascivious and an adulterat reflection upon a beauty he who looks and lusts though he never exchange a word never touch handle or come nigh the woman even this very consent this very complacencie it is Adultery in the eye of the most pure For saith our Saviour the son of a Virgin he hath committed adultery with her already in his heart And as consent in the Concupiscible even so consent in the Irascible it contracts a like guilt For as he is an adulterer who looketh and lusteth though he never violate the chastity of the woman even so a man may be guilty of Murther and yet never draw bloud a man may be a Manslayer and yet never harm or hurt a person For the express determination and words of St. John are Whosoever hateth his brother is a Murtherer 1 Jo. 3. 15. Now if it be so that consent is the
window that first le ts in the thief consent the pass by which the Destroyer entreth into our Souls if it be so that Consent makes us guilty even of the sin of others for if Consent abstracted from all outward Action makes the whole Man guilty if guilt takes its rise not from the Act but from Consent it is all a matter who Acts for who ever consenteth he is also guilty In the Beginning of Time when the Devil first endeavour'd to bring sin into the World He took upon Him the form of a Serpent Gen. 3. in that he spake unto the woman told Her God meant nothing less than what He said That they should die yea rather they should become as Gods and all this only to gain a Consent so that it was consent that brought Sin into the World it was Consent that made Eve a sinner Consent that made Her guilty of the Devils Machination On the other side when our blessed Lord and Master come to Destroy the works of the Devil The Devil He could gain no Consent and therefore though He set before him All the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them yet saith our Saviour John 14. 30. The Prince of this world cometh and hath Nothing in me Let the Devil and His Angels do all they can they can get no ground they can have nothing in us or any of us but with consent only so that of all things that are under our power of all the Talents committed to our charge we ought to be more choice of none than of this we have now in Hand Our Consent 'T is this that makes us miserable This that makes us happy it is this that maketh us virtuous and 't is this that makes us vitious 'T is this that makes us God's and 't is this that makes us the Devils 'T was Consent that made the Devils suggestion become Eves sin it was consent that made Eve's entisement become Adam's Transgression and it is consent that makes every Tentation become our guilt so that you see to very great purpose it was here observed that though Saul was not an Actor yet He was a Consenter to his death Whereas then the Business of this great Day is to be Humbled before the great God for the foulest Murder except that of the Son of God that was ever read on it concerns every of us to lay Hand upon the Heart and as the Twelve did when their King and Master foretold His Treachery to say Master Is it I Math. 26. 22. It concerns every of us to consider how far we were toward the guilt of this great Crime How far either by way of Default or Consent we have drawn up even to this Murther 1 Tim. 5. 22. Lay Hands suddenly on no Man neither be partaker of other Mens sins This exhortation of St. Paul not only admonisheth Timothy to take Heed of sinning by an over-hasty either Ordination or Absolution But also to take heed that He become not a Party or partaker in other Mens sins Now the great sins which we are this Day or at this Time to recollect it is the Murder of God's Anointed the betraying and butchering of our King Now this though it was Paucorum Crimen the abominable acting of some few yet it was Multorum Delictum the Failance and the sin of too too many and that upon these Accounts 1. In Respect of Acts Antecedent and going before 2. In Respect of Acts Consequent and following after Upon both which we shall find Consent and Guilt it will rise like a Land-Flood and carry almost all afore it so that albeit few were those who washed their Hands in His Blood we shall find few also are those who are not besprinkled with it First Then let us consider what previous and antecedent Acts may involve a Guilt in this Murther I shall instance only in Two 1. A Provocation of our God 2. A Desertion of God's Anointed For both these are as the School speaks Volitum in Causa a consequential consent or a consequential guilt First It is a Consequential Consent and guilt to do that which provoketh God to inflict such a Judgment so that in our provocation of God to permit this Murder we have contracted enough to call for our Tears For if gracious and good Kings be the Blessings of God upon a People certainly the Removing of such must needs be upon a provocation and nothing can be so but our sin Amongst us Men we justly account Him a partaker who is a Provoker unto sin He that provokes a Man to Anger provokes a Man to Drunkenness provokes a Man to Steal he is doubtless a partaker even in his sin Had Job cursed upon the provocation and instigation of his Wife She as well as He had been guilt Not Amnon alone but Jonadab who promoted and provoked was guilty in his lust 2 Sam. 13. Now look what is the provoking of a Man to sin proportionably the same is the provokeing of our God to Judgment A sin undoubtedly for only sin can do it and sin can do it even to as sad a Judgment as to permit the Murder of a good and a precious KING 2 Sam. 12. When the Child gotten by David in Adultery was delivered the Lord sent him word v. 14. That Because thou hast given Occasion to the Enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the Child that is born unto Thee shall surely die The sin of the Father it had an influence even upon the death of the Child because Thou hast given occasion therefore shall the Child die And even so because we provoked the Lord therefore did God suffer His Anointed to be thus smitten And indeed the School very well observes there is Volitum in Causa as well as Directe Voluntarium There is an indirect consent and a consequential willing of a Thing as well as a down-right and voluntary consent insomuch that many a Man gladly and willingly consents unto the cause who perfectly abhors and abominates the effect and yet where there is an inseparable coherence He who directly wills the one he doth consequentially will the other As for instance The Men of the first World Gen. 6. 5. They did directly will and consent unto those abominations and wickednesses for which God threatned yea and resolv'd to drown the world But as to the Drowning of the World they gave no consent nor had no will But for as much as they willed that which necessarily brought on the other therefore they were Volitum in Causa They were the consequential willers of their own Ruine For their sins provoked the Deluge Gen. 18. 20. Even so the Men of Sodom they had no will to have had Them and Theirs destroyed with Fire and Brimstone But being they continued to Act and do that whose cry clamored to Heaven for vengeance and for this Vengeance Therefore even they were Volitum in Causa they were the consequential cause and provoker of their own destruction And
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