A SERMON Preached on The 30th of January 1684. The Day of MARTYRDOM OF King Charles Of Blessed Memory BY EDWARD PELLING Chaplain to His Grace the Duke of Somerset LONDON Printed for T. M. and are to be sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1685. PSAL. 137. 1. By the Rivers of Babylon there we sat down yea we wept when we remembred Zion THese Words do manifestly relate to the Captive-condition of the Jews after that Remarkable Overthrow of Jerusalem when that Cruel and Barbarous Enemy the Assyrian called expresly the Rod of God's Anger Isa 10. had now taken the City burnt the Temple consumed and dismantled the whole Metropolis slain the Nobles and seized the Person of their King Zedekiah and so carried Him and his Subjects away Captives to Babylon that is into a Land of Confusion so called from the Confusion of Languages in those Parts there to smart a long time for their Incorrigibleness and Wantonness at home that they might Reflect upon their Folly and learn to value their Former Felicities by the Loss of them the onely Discipline that can effectually teach those Obstinate and Ungrateful Wretches that will not learn to be Wise at the Cost of their Ancestors Experience By the Rivers of Babylon there they sat down remote from any Towns or Cities saith S. Chrysostom to spend part of their time as some conceive in draining of the Marshes and to keep away the Rest and so between Labour and Sorrow to wear out that miserable Life for which they had made such a woful Exchange There they wept when 't was too late at the sad remembrance of Zion that is at the thoughts of that Prosperous and Flourishing Condition which once they Enjoyed but were now Deprived of both in Church and State For Mount Sion was the Principal Place both for the Exercises of Religion and for the Administration of Justice There stood the Temple of God and thither the Tribes went up the Tribes of the Lord unto the Testimony of Israel to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord saith the Psalmist Psal 122. 4. And that God and his Anointed might dwell together there also were set the Thrones of Judgment the Thrones of the House of David as it is ver 5. Admirable was the Constitution of the Jews State and they the Happiest of all Nations as well in Sacred as in Civil respects till they Surfeited themselves with Abundance of Prosperity and were so Intoxicated with it under their own Vines and Figtrees that they forgat both the Author and Instruments of their Happiness The Story is of Them the Application of it is for Vs and at the very first view we may easily accommodate this sad Text to this sadder Day For do but Date the Captivity Stylo Novo instead of By the Rivers of Babylon read In a Land of Confusion a Babel in our own Countrey Shift you Pious Thoughts from the Monarch of Jerusalem to the Memory of our Own Soveraign a Greater a Better than Zedekiah the Mirrour of Princes the Noblest of Martyrs the Wonder of Ages and the Honour of Men Lay before your Eyes if yet ye can Endure to behold the Scaffold the Ax the Block and all that Pageantry of Oppression which the Sun never before beheld provided in that Manner and with those Circumstances for a Crowned Head Consider with what Pomp of Inhumanity that Mighty Prince fell how Three Kingdoms fell with Him how He was buried in the Ruines both of Church and State as in the Ruines of a Shattered World Remember those manifold Miseries that were throughout some the Praeface others the Epilogue to the dismal Tragoedy of this Day and then tell me wherein Our Captivity differ'd from that in the Text unless it did in This that 't was more Infamous and Reproachful because at Home and 't was not God be Blessed for Seventy years 't was not so Lasting as Our Sins the Deliverance out of it was too Quick and Hasty for the Repentance of those Miscreants who made us Captives I shall not therefore take much notice of the Miserable Condition of the Jews it being a matter of Foreign consideration but apply my self wholly to the Business of the Day And in the prosecution of it 1. I shall first give you some account of those Miseries which were the Attendants of Our Captivity and then 2. Shall in the second place try if it be possible for me to persuade Men not to be so Improvident again as to suffer themselves to be made Captives the Second time but to Beware in Time and to bethink themselves before it be too Late before they groan again under such another State of Bondage 1. First then That which was the principal Cause or at least the greatest Ingredient of all the Miseries of the Jews was the Captive-condition of their King This they particularly lamented that such as had been brought up in Scarlet did now embrace Dunghills that their King and their Princes were in the hands of the Gentiles that the Crown was fallen from their Head that the Breath of their Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord was taken in the Pits as you find in several places of the Lamentations of Jeremiah And what else was the Undermining and Subverting of Our King's Throne but an effectual Stratagem to overthrow the Prosperity of the whole Kingdom and to let in that huge Army of Miseries which for many years made us not onely the most Calamitous but also the most Contemptible and Infamous Nation under Heaven He that carefully reads the Shameful History of those Times will find that all those Evils which were heaped up upon the Head of our Prince fell down upon our own Pates Though He Felt the Burden yet we Sunk and Perish'd under the weight of it Every Wound which Majesty received did help to let out the Blood and Spirits of the Subject too nor was it possible to Preserve the Welfare of the Body Politick by Weakning and Impairing Him who was the Common Life of the Three Kingdoms Those Artificial and Long-studied Methods which were used to Lessen His Authority to Profane His Honour to Spoil Him of His Peace of all but the Peace of His Conscience and almost of That too to Strip Him of His Prerogatives and at last to Destroy His Sacred Life these Methods I say were the Instruments not more of His than of our own Ruine and as He fell and died by degrees so did the whole Nation gradually Languish and fall into the Pangs of Death with Him Happy had this Land been for many Ages under the Successive Government of Kings especially of such as were Good and none could be ever Better than This. Under the Shadow of His Wings we did Rejoice till His Feathers were clipp'd Peace and Plenty was our Portion and every Man was Easie in his Cottage as long as He sat Easie in the Throne Our Liberties were Secure our Laws had Life and Religion which Exalteth a Nation
under the Common Oppressions We had the Independent the Anabaptist the Fifth-Monarchist the Brownist the Quaker the Seeker the Ranter the Adamite nay the very Atheist himself for Company and all these the Natural Spawn of the Presbyterian that Prolifick and Unruly Leviathan that not content to have taken his Pastime in the Lemain Lake hath troubled the Waters in all Parts of the Christian World So many Sects as there were so many Plagues there were in this little Island and what could we expect would be the Issue of this Complication of Unhappinesses but that the Interest of Religion would be weakned and its Reputation rendred Contemptible so many Bare-fac'd Enemies being Allowed and Encouraged to fall Foul upon the Church pursuant to that Base Example which was given them by a most Unconscionable Parliament Bishops were ready to be torn in pieces as the Limbs of Antichrist Multitudes of the Inferiour Clergy had no other Rewards for all their Labours and Fidelity in the Service of Christ but Sequestrations Imprisonment and all manner of Cruelties beyond the Tyranny even of a True-Protestant Grand Seignior The Vniversities were corrupted with Haeresie and Hypocrisie the Instruments of the Devil having taken his Work out of his Hands by sowing themselves such Tares and Cockle in the Seminaries of Religion as in a little time would have destroyed the very Life and Being of Christianity had not God himself been the Husbandman The Liturgy which they solemnly Protested that they would onely Reform was soon thrown out of doors to make room for Blasphemies and Enthusiasm which made the Worship of God an Abomination Pulpits that were erected for the Sons of the Prophets were made the Trading places of Mechanicks and the Basest of the People who were onely skilful in Cheating Men of their Money and such another Famine was in the Church as was once in Samaria when every Asses Head was sold for Fourscore pieces of Silver Sacraments were neglected and almost given over and the People were so Frighted and Discouraged from their Duty that in some Places of the Kingdom the Holy Communion was not used for almost Twenty years together A Glorious and Blessed Reformation Those Lands which the Piety of our Ancestors had so solemnly set apart for the Encouragement of Learning and for the Edification of Souls were made the Price of Rebellion and Blood and a Booty for the most Faithless and Perjur'd Villains upon the Earth Truth Honesty Justice Obedience Love and other the Essential Parts of Religion were all Trampled under foot and when God and his Worship were thus Scandalously Dishonoured I do not wonder that some of God's Houses were Filthily Polluted too When the Creed was Contaminated when the Lords Prayer was Despised when the Decalogue in all its Parts was Broken when the Orthodox Ministry was Cashier'd when Fonts and Altars were Defiled and when the Church was Plunder'd and Stripp'd within and without it is no marvel that many Oratories were so Profaned too as to be Turn'd at last into Stables for Horses by those Beasts of the People that before had made them Sanctuaries for Traytors Nurseries of Rebels and Regicides and Dens of Thieves 3. Well might we Weep when we remembred Sion whose ways did now mourn because her Children could not come to her Solemn Feast her Gates were desolate her Priests sighed her Virgins were afflicted her Beauty was departed her Princes were pursued like Harts her Persecutors overtook her her Enemies Prosper'd and she her self was in Bitterness as the Prophet spake Lam. 1. But yet the Church did not suffer alone nor was Religion the Onely bleeding Sacrifice though the Wounding of That was infinitely Reproachful to those who sold their very Consciences pretending a Design to Redeem and Rescue it The State went Partnership with the Church in its Losses and we soon saw what it was to want a King whose Loins were not half so heavy as the Little Finger of that Tyrant who Vsurp'd His Throne and was such an Hardned Reprobate as first to Kill and then to take Possession Liberty the Darling of the Nation the Blessing of Kings but the Engine of Traytors Liberty that Fools never think Secure till they sue for it in the Field though they have it in Possession and no Man questions their Title Liberty that was used to Destroy and Pursue Prerogative was at last Confined within the narrow Compass of a Goal and a Dungeon Nor did it fare better with Property neither for no Man enjoyed so much of That as the Beggar and the Bankrupt that had little to be robb'd of but the Latchet of his Shoe Sequestrations Decimations Plunders Forfeitures Contributions Taxes Loans and vast Offerings to the Publick Faith some or all of these devoured all that was either Inheritance or Purchase and we could call nothing our Own but those Sins and Follies that had made us Miserable at least no man could promise himself any long Enjoyment of what he had Violence and Rapine being all over the Nation the great Trade of those Times so that what a Mercenary Souldier Left a Rapacious Committee-man would be Sure to Take unless a man would Barter away his Honour and a Blessed Eternity by giving up his Conscience as a Composition and Ransom for his Estate And the Reason of all this was because the whole Kingdom was Plunder'd of its Birth-right I mean the Law which while it was in the Hands of the King was every ones Security from the Peer to the very Meanest Subject and of this the King was so Tender to the last that just before His Martyrdom when He was offer'd His Life if he would Yield to some Conditions which were Inconsistent with His Conscience and the Laws He answered That He would chuse to die a Thousand Deaths before He would Prostitute His Honour or Betray the Liberties and Rights of His People Every man was Sure of his Right as long as that Religious Prince had His just Authority But when once Vsurpation was the Regent first in the Parliament-House and then in the King's Palace we had no Law but the Pleasure and Lust of Tyrants whose Oppressions were Vnsupportable because their Power was Arbitrary and their Tyranny Boundless What was Magna Charta worth when it hung at the Hilt of the Sword And what did you talk of Laws when Votes were too Hard for Statutes when Tryals were Removed from Westminster-Hall to the Camp and Sentence was given at the Mouth of the Cannon Not that this was the Fate onely of the Honest Royalist Though His Miseries were beyond measure intolerable and he knew not Poor Wretch what to do more but to shed his Tears when his Dread Soveraign the Master of his Dearest Affections had now shed a whole Stream of Blood yet the Generality of the whole Nation began now to be Sensible what a Miserable Bargain was made by the Unhappy Change of the Times God shewing at once his own Justice and Mens Follies by
never flourish'd more in This as long as he enjoyed the Prerogatives which are justly due to the Head of the Church No sooner was His Honour touched but our Faelicity was invaded too especially when Wickedness was so Impudent as to draw the Sword upon Him and to thrust at Him with the Point Our Happiness Declined as His Peace did it kept even pace with our Prince His Fortune the more still That tended to Ruine the Faster He was Hunted to the Scaffold and then it Expired though in hope of a Resurrection when He laid down His Sacred Neck and died a Martyr for Religion and a Victim for His People Great were the Miseries that attended that Unnatural and Devilish Rebellion but as long as the King was Safe the Calamities were the less felt because there was a Prospect of Reparation at least of a speedy End of them Though that Rebellious Faction in Parliament pursued Him like a Partridge upon the Mountains yet we did not give all for lost because they Declared Promised Protested and Swore by all that is Great and Sacred that they intended not to Hurt His Person nor to Invade His Just Rights Throughout that Bloody War there was something still to allay our Pains because we hoped that the Wounds in our Sides were not Mortal Nay though trusting to Mens Compassions He threw himself into the Hands of those Persidious Villains who afterwards set a Price upon His Blood as Judas did upon our Saviour's yet the King Himself did not yet Despair because those Men had vowed in a Solemn League and Covenant of their own and with Hands lifted up to the most High God That they would Preserve His Person Crown and Dignity Nay when those Iscariots at Westminster had bought Him for 200000 Pounds and Cromwell and the rest of those True-Protestant Janizaries had gotten Him in their Clutches though there was reason enough for our Hearts to Sink and Fail us the King Himself being now actually a Captive and Loyalty and Religion in Captivity with Him yet such were the Solemn Professions and Protestations of those Men of Further Addresses to His Majesty and of Personal Treaties with Him that we were still willing to hope that yet we should not sit down by the Rivers of Babel to weep there Once more When the Conspirators carried Him away first to Holmeby thence to Hampton-Court and thence conveyed Him to the Isle of Wight though we fear'd that all their Treaties were nothing but Pretence and Hypocrisie to blind Mens Eyes though they used Majesty with such Indignities as none but that Prince could have born though some of the Faction did now say openly That the King was no more than a Dead Dog though every discerning Man apprehended that the King's Life was now upon the very brink of Destruction yet even then were we willing to hope that all our Happiness was not yet come to a full Period because the Majority of the Parliament enraged at last to see how they had been cheated and out of a just Abhorrence of the intended Wickedness voted That the King's Concessions were Satisfactory and Sufficient Grounds for Peace But when once we saw those Men barred out of the House suddenly after when once we saw that Cursed Vote of the Remaining Faction That the King had taken Arms against the Parliament and was guilty of all the Blood which had been shed in the War and therefore ought to expiate the Crime with His own Blood when once we saw a Phanatick Army that had been used to Blood so Thirsty for more that nothing would satisfie them but Blood Royal when once we saw a Tribunal Erected and some of the Legion of Hell Sitting on it and a Judge appointed whose most Honourable Character is that he was Pontius Pilate the Second when once we saw Majesty treated there with such Barbarousness and Contempt and thence carried through Smoke Spittle and Flouts some of them such as were used at the Condemnation of the Holy Jesus when we saw Him led like a Lamb to be Slaughter'd on a Scaffold at His Palace Door when we saw that as the Presbyterian had clipp'd off His Locks so the Independent had now cut off His Head when the one Faction had Destroyed the King and the other had now murder'd the Man Then then our Hopes were gone and we could not but conclude our selves a Lost a Captivated an Vndone People And while Some were so Barbarous as even to wash their Hands in that Blessed Martyr's Blood the whole Nation was taught to make This Use of the Shedding of it That if ever it should please God after the Death of the Father to Restore the Son it would be our Best Policy to be most Tender not of His Life onely but of His Honour and Peace too it being Impossible so to sever His Interest from our Own but that of necessity we must Stand or Fall with Him Every Man's Welfare is so wrapped up in His that we must take some Share in His Fortune whether it be a Crown of Gold or of Thorns that He wears upon His Head 2. The King being destroyed the Miseries which ensued both in Church and State are not to be written fully but in another Book of Martyrs In the Church our Calamities were such that whosoever had a respect for Conscience for Religion for a God could not but be deeply afflicted to see what Contumelies were thrown upon every thing that was Sacred Indeed the Churches Sufferings began when the Kings Troubles Commenced and so Increased as They did because Traitors saw that the Doctrine Discipline and Government of the Church were such Pillars of State too that 't was Impossible for them to Pull down or Reach the Crown but by stepping first upon the Ruines of Prelacy and all Order in Religion And if we may have leave to make some little Observations 't is somewhat Remarkable That first the Primate and four years after the King of England were both Murder'd in the same Month the one on the Tenth the other on the Thirtieth of January that Great Prelate shewing his Prince the way that even He was to go too somewhat like John the Baptist that was the Forerunner of Christ in his Sufferings as well as Birth and prepared the way for the Prince of Peace not onely into the World but to the Cross also Monarchy followed Episcopacy to the Grave and Religion that was the Mourner dropp'd in at last Good God! What Variety of Sects had we that Martyr'd the very Creed so that some even of the Faction did confess that upon the dissolution of Episcopacy more Sects and Haeresies presently started up than ever were heard of among us before under that Government which was Decried as Antichristian And all these Sects were either Ingendred or Encourag'd by those Rebels who by Dividing the Nation into a great many weak Parties strengthned their own Vsurpations and made each Party both Unable to Rise and Afraid to Mutter
Wickedness of this kind but from all Possibilities of Guilt He that hateth his Brother is a Murderer and so he that entertaineth any Undutiful and Unworthy Apprehensions of his Prince is in a ready way to be a Regicide Out of the Heart proceed evil Surmises Jealousies Fears Hatreds thence Men go on to Blasphemies and Reproaches of a Princes Actions and Government and the basest Misconstructions that can be made of his Counsels and Administrations though they be for the most part Honourable and in all points Innocent and Just And when the Heart and the Tongue both are set on Fire the whole Kingdom will be presently set on Fire too and 't is twenty to one but the King himself is made at last a Flaming Sacrifice These were the Original sins in the late times From Idle Jealousies which Undutiful Spirits were very Receptive of they went to Hard Words from Words to Blows and at last the War ended in the Barbarous Parricide that was acted upon 〈◊〉 Great Father of our Countrey though to still if it were possible the Madness of the People he was willing to part with any thing but his whole Crown and his Conscience And yet to see what a sad Fate commonly attends an Impatient and Heady Generation when his dangers of being destroy'd were now Open and Manifest all considering Persons that had any regard for Humanity and Religion were presently in a Rage And not onely many Honourable Persons who had ever been Faithful and True to Him and particularly those truly Loyal and Noble Lords Hertford Richmond Southampton Lindsey and some more freely offered themselves to Die and be Sacrificed for him but also very many of those who had been the Unfortunate Instruments of his Ruine Relented when they saw the Ax coming and would have hindred the intended Barbarity being brought at last to a Sense whether of their Sin or of their Misery I cannot tell The Scots Protested against it but alas it was too Late and their strength was now gone before their Prince the Glory of their Nation fell Considerable Insurrections were in several parts of this Kingdom for the Liberty of their Soveraign The London Apprentices took Arms to Atone if they could for their Masters Crimes and to Deliver their Captive Prince The Parliament that now saw the sad issues of their Disobedience voted an Agreement with His Majesty Onely from the Army and the Veteran Faction of the City Petitions came for Justice against Him All other Faces gathered Blackness through Horror and Amazement at the intended Villany nay many of those very Ministers who had thrown Firebrands from the Pulpit would now have Quenched them with their Tears they Repented as Judas did but were at last Despised and Hated by the Faction that had hitherto Abetted them but now could have been well pleased if as they Repented so they would have Hanged themselves too as Judas their Elder-brother did after he had Betrayed the Innocent Blood This is enough to shew what a Dangerous Matter it is for People but to Affect Innovation and to be Dispos'd for it and how Necessary it is for Us that would live Quietly in the Land to Stifle all manner of Disloyalty in the very Beginnings lest by giving way to those things which already have Caused the Subversion of our Government and Laws and the Death of the King we should fall again into Distractions and Outrages till by the Wiles and Artifices of Evil Men we be led like Fools to the Correction of the Stocks and make our selves Captives once more beyond all Hopes or Possibilities of Redemption 2. And in order thereunto let us all be very careful in the next place to keep our Brains from being Infected with those Vicious Principles which the Enemies of our Peace are wont to use as Tools and Instruments to bring all their Bloody and Execrable Conspiracies to Effect I mean such Principles as These That the King's Power is not derived immediately from God but from the People That by their own Voluntary Act the People do make Princes their Commissioners and Trustees That they may call Him to account if they judge him to have failed in the Execution of His Office That if He will not come to Trial with Tameness and Submission the People may use any Force or Violence against Him That upon Proof and Conviction touching His Breach of Trust they may Condemn Depose and Kill Him if they please and Dispose of the Crown according as they shall think best for the Peoples Good They that thus make Court to the People as if all Soveraignty were in Them and would make them believe that They have Really that Power which the Devil pretended to of Bestowing Kingdoms can design nothing else but to Debauch Men out of their Allegiance and to fit them for the perpetrating of any the most Horrid Villanies and whosoever he be that is strongly persuaded of the Truth of those Principles wants nothing but Opportunity and an Ax to make him a Regicide The Faction of the Late Times to Justifie if they could their Proceedings against the King Reprinted a Treasonable Book which had been written by a most violent Jesuit under the Counterfeit Name of Doleman with some few Alterations to Disguise it which very Libel was Lately Printed again entire by the Faction now though it was Condemned by Act of Parliament in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth Now Hâ—st of Indep p. 113. the Fundamental Principle in that Book is this That every Commonwealth hath Power within it self to Dispose of the Governours and either to Alter or Abolish any Form of Government according to the Pleasure of the People A little before the King's Tryal the Pestilent Remnant of the House of Commons that were now at the Armies Devotion to Prepare the Kings way first to the Court and so to the Scaffold agreed upon this Vote as if they had been a Conclave of Jesuites That the People under God are the Original of all Just Power And upon this Fundamental Principle they raised these other Positions which were the Natural Consequents of it 1. That the Commons of England Assembled in Parliament have the Supreme Authority of the Nation 2. That whatsoever is declared for Law by the Commons hath the force of a Law 3. That all the People of the Nation are concluded thereby although the Consent of the King and the Peers be not had thereunto 4. That to raise Arms against the Peoples Representatives is High-Treason Thus were these Popular Principles Previous and Preparative for that Horrid Murder which to the Dishonour of Nature to the Reproach of Religion to the Shame of this Kingdom and to the Scandal of all Nations was so barbarously committed on this Day The Charge against that Incomparable Prince ran in the Name of the People He had violated that Trust which the People had reposed in Him Which thing when an Honourable Lady that was present Heard she cried out openly before the whole Court It was a Lie for not the Tenth part of the People would be guilty of such a Crime When the King demanded by what Authority they brought Him to Tryal that most Impudent and Vnjust Judge the Blasphemer of God and His Anointed answered That 't was by the Authority of the People When the King had Solidly and Eloquently refuted that Pretence that Monster of Mankind persisted in it That the People of England were the Supreme Authority of the Nation over King and Laws too that he was an Officer in Trust and that having broken his Compact with the People they might justly proceed against Him even unto Death And this he endeavoured to prove by Arguments and Examples all taken one by one out of the Counterfeit Doleman which I mentioned before Thus did these Treasonable Principles cost that excellent Monarch first his Peace and at last his Life to the Eternal warning as well of every Upright Magistrate that he presume not to Suffer as of every Faithful Subject that he presume not to Listen to those Cursed Principles and Doctrines which were never Formed and Designed but for Blood were never Countenanced and Cherish'd but for Blood were never Obeyed and Followed but by Men that Longed and Thirst for Blood Royal. I have no more to add but my Humble and Hearty Prayers to the God of Order and Power That he would Pardon that Great Sin which this day was acted against Himself and his Anointed and Bless his Present Majesty and the whole Royal Family with a long continuance of Life Health Peace and Honour and that the course of this World may be so peaceably ordered by his Governance that his Church may joyfully serve him in all Godly Quietness through Jesus Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory World without end Amen FINIS