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A53965
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A sermon preached on the anniversary of that most execrable murder of K. Charles the first royal martyr by Edward Pelling ...
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Pelling, Edward, d. 1718.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing P1090; ESTC R20742
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15,297
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44
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A SERMON PREACHED On the ANNIVERSARY OF THAT Most EXECRABLE MURDER OF K. CHARLES The First Royal Martyr By EDWARD PELLING Rector of St. Martins Ludgate and Chaplain to his Grace the Duke of Somerset 1 Sam. 26. 9. Who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord 's Anointed and be guiltless 2 Sam. 1. 14. How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord 's Anointed Eccles 1. 4. Where the Word of a King is there is Power and who may say unto him what doest thou LONDON Printed for J. Williams at the Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard and Joanna Brome at the Gun at the West-End of St. Pauls 1682. To His Grace my ever Honoured and Dear Lord Charles Duke of Somerset Marquess and Earl of Hertford Viscount Beauchamp and Baron of Trowbridge MY LORD SEveral Passages in this following Sermon having been maliciously misrepresented by Men who hate the Government and love Lying divers Friends have advis'd and importun'd me to make the whole Discourse Publick Not that any Hopes are conceived that it will work much upon those whom Interest or Malice engageth to be Obstinate and whom Obstinacy encourageth to be clamorous especially if there be upon their Consciences any Guilt of that Murther which on so Solemn an Occasion we cannot reflect upon without the greatest Horror Astonishment and Indignation Of such little Good is to be expected who have sinned away a great Stock of Grace which is so commonly the miserable case of Inveterate Rebels that to the Observation of the World they very seldom repent But God be blessed the Generality of Men among us mean well and are so honest in their Intentions that they cannot easily be rifled of a good Conscience but by some Cheat and for want of due Information because the shedding of the King's Blood was a Crime of that Horrid Nature and the Subversion of the Establish'd Government was a Mischief of such ill Effect that every Sober Man whose Eyes are open cannot but tremble at the Memory of the One and for the future dread the very Thoughts of the Other though some few Spirits may be so far possess'd with the Devil as that they could again be glad and rejoyce at Both. Now the Design of this Discourse is to serve the Sincere and Simple-minded part of the World by affording a short View of the Sin acted in 48 and of the Methods and Degrees by which the King and the Government were destroyed together and of the Miseries in Church and State which by the just Judgment of God this Nation smarted under that we might be made sensible of our foolish Exchange and be Disciplin'd into Wisdom for the future But alas since we have been healed of our Stripes some seem to have almost forgotten the Rod and are not only Willing but Desirous to come under the Lash again So unfixt and mutable are many English Spirits that the only Center they can rest in is the Grave For as the Moon after so many Periods returns into the same Phasis so some Erratick Humors after so many Years revert into the same Motion and the only Way to save men the Charge of being cured again of their Lunacy is to prevent the Disease And for this Reason I did Discourse upon this Theme because it is presumable that though there be in the World some Fickle some Factious and many Atheistical Spirits that could be content to try another Fall for the Government yet all men that are truly Conscientious and Wise will beware of encouraging Attempts of that Nature especially considering what a sad Booty this Nation did get by its former Wrestlings And now my Lord I hope your Grace will not wonder if I present this Sermon to your Lordship as a Patron though you was not an Auditor My Great Obligations to your self and to your Honourable Relations for your sake do challenge Higher Testimonies of Gratitude than my Skill can Express or your Modesty will Bear Yet were there nothing to be considered but that Natural Love and Duty which I owe your Grace I do most Thankfully Acknowledge that Your have a Just Right to all the Services which are Possible to be done either by Me or Mine because we are All your Lordships Servants by Birth So far am I from owning that Principle That every man is born Free that I confess my Self and all that bear my Name to have Inherited such a State of Servitude to your Lordship as if according to the Mosaical Custom your Noble Ancestors had bored the Ears not of our Progenitors alone but of their whole Issue For your Grace knows and I cannot without Ingratitude conceal it from the World that as we have been of every Generation One of us at least Clergy-men from Father to Son ever since the Reformation so we have had the Honour to have been all along Successively Chaplains to your Noble Family Such a singular respect to the Church and God be blessed to an Honest race of Church-men as hardly any Nobleman in the Kingdom but your Self can Own But my Lord I am a Debtor not to your Person only but to your Spotless Virtues that which makes you Truly Honourable and I had almost said the Rarity of our Age. It is a Common Happiness that what was Great and Good in your Noble Ancestors You are the Apparent Heir of and those Surviving Virtues in You which were so Eminent in that Excellent Person your Noble Brother against whose Memory I should Sin should I rob him of that Just Character that for his Years he was one of the Flowers of the World do something abate the Sense of that otherwise Irreparable loss which the whole Kingdom sustained by his Vnfortunate and Vndeserved End His Piety Humility Chastity Sobriety Sweetness of Nature and which I could not but observe in Him His utter Hatred of all Prophane and Irreverent use of God's Holy Name they were Vertues which do rarely meet in a Gentleman of Twenty years Old But this is all your Friends Comfort that while I count up some of your Brothers Vertues I mention Yours too and that Your Lordships Name may be ever Dear to all Good Men I must beg the wonted Freedom You give me to beseech You with the most Passionate Affection to be to your dying day Carefull of your Vertue being confident of this that as it is now your singular Honour so it will certainly be your Best Interest One thing I must put your Grace in mind of that your Noble Predecessors have been Eminent among other Vertues for their Fidelity to the Crown and their Zeal for the Prosperity of our Establisht Church And this I know to be your Lordships hearty Resolution and a considerable part of your Lordships Honour Vpon which account also I crave leave to offer these few Sheets to your Grace humbly begging your kind Acceptance and beseeching God to Bless you with all the Blessings of his Right hand and of his
Left which is the constant Prayer of My Lord Your Grace's most Humble Faithful and Affectionate Servant and Chaplain Edw. Pelling LAM 5. 16. The Crown is fallen from our Head wo unto us that we have sinned A Crown fallen Had the Prophet gon on and spake of the fall of a Crowned Head too we might have guest that by his Prophetical Spirit he had pointed as far as Forty Eight But to shed Bloud Royal as if it differed not from the Bloud of a Vulgar Person and to cut off the Neck even of a Neighbour Prince as if he had not been anointed with Oyl was lookt upon as an act too Barbarous to be done by those very Barbarians who thought it just and safe to put out the Eyes of a Conquer'd Monarch For if we look into the History of those Times to which my Text doth relate we shall find that no less than Five Kings of the Jews had been successively Captivated by the Assyrians and though Most of them if not All had been Unfaithfull to the King of Babylon and Rebelled against him after they became his Servants yet Sentence of of Death past not on any One of them but Deposing Imprisonment and Fetters were the usual Punishment of their Perfidiousness only Zedekiah who was the Last of the Five and had sworn Fealty to the King of Babylon and had given greater Provocations than the rest was handled more severely than the rest But though his incensed Enemies slew his Sons before his face yet the Judgment given against Him was only the taking away of his Eye-sight the Destruction and Killing of Kings being looked upon as a Crime of a most Horrid and Detestable Nature even by men who were in a state of Brutality and even then when they were armed with Power transported with Rage thirsty of Revenge and flesht with Victory However to rid himself of a necessity of Forcing the Jews into Subjection at every turn thus Nebuchadnezzar resolves to make very short work with them and in order thereunto he Sacks Jerusalem sets Fire on the Temple maketh Spoil of all the costly Furniture and Utensils thereof burneth down the Houses within the City demolishes the Walls destroys their whole State and Government and carries the King and People and all away into a strange Land leaving only some of the poorer Sort to be Vine-dressers and Husbandmen as we read at large 2 Kings 25. Now it was This Sad and most Dolesome time which the Prophet pointed unto in this Book of his Lamentations especially in this part of it where he grieved at This as the Epitome and Sum total of all their Evils that the Crown was fallen from their Head And in the whole Verse we may observe First The Calamity so lamented here by the Prophet It was the falling of the Crown Secondly The Cause of this Evil It was the Peoples Sins Thirdly That woful Condition those Plagues and Punishments which were Consequent hereunto Wo unto us for we have Sinned 1. Let us look a little first into the Calamity it self The Crown is fallen from our Head And for the opening of the Prophets Sense we are to know that by the Crown some understand the Joy of God's People Diadems and Coronets being wont formerly to be used in some places at Solemn times of Festivity Others interpret it of the Glory of the Jewish Nation which Glory consisted in this that hitherto they had been peculiarly favoured and honoured by God above all other Nations in the World Others will have it to be meant in a more strict Sense of their Temple and Priesthood in the possession whereof the Jews had all along Boasted and Prided themselves to a most high degree Others again do and as I conceive with better Reason understand by the falling of the Crown from their Head the loss of their Kingdom and establisht Government and the stripping of their Princes from that State Power Greatness and Royalty whereof the Crown was an Emblem and Argument For this was the Complement of their Misery and the reason of all their other Evils was resolved into This that their King's Throne was now quite cast down to the Ground and hereupon by necessary Consequence their Religion was overthrown too the Glory of Israel was departed the Liberties of the People were utterly lost their Laws cashier'd Church and State Both were now gon to wrack all Joy was vanisht their Harps were hung up upon the Willows in a strange Land and they themselves sat weeping by the Rivers of Babylon while they thought of their dear and now ruinated Sion Briefly whatever did help and concur to make them Desolate and Miserable all was owing next unto their Sins to the Ruin of that Monarchy and Government wherewith hitherto they had been Blest for so many Ages The Crown is fallen from our Head wo unto us that we have Sinned The Calamity then was Judahs but the Sin too was Englands on this day when Men not only with their eyes Saw but with their own hands Caused the downfall of the best of Kings and the Funeral of the best of Monarchies till God by a Miraculous hand gave it a Resurrection out of that Grave wherein it had been buried by those Cursed and Domestick Babylonians who said Down with it down with it even to the ground We do not wonder at the ruin of Zedekiah nor was the ruining of him a Crime on Nebuchadnezzar's part for even Absolute Princes are Coordinate and stand upon the same Level and if upon sufficient Provocations the one happens to gain his Neighbours Crown the fact is Just by right of Conquest But if the one be Subordinate to the other which was clearly the case of Zedekiah the Recovery of the Crown is in the Supreme Prince an act of Justice and the Punishment of an inferiour Prince who abjureth his Fealty is by all Nations allowed to be a Righteous act of Vengeance Upon this account the Jews may be said to have been rather an Vnhappy People for though they vvere vvicked in This respect that their Sins Occasioned their Misfortune yet they vvere not they durst not be vvicked in that respect vvherein the People of this Land Sinned who rose up against their own Sovereign and Natural Lord in whose Person the Supreme Power was vested by God Himself they themselves first pull'd off their Princes Crown from his Head then proceeded to bow down the Prince himself upon the Scaffold and at last dared to strike off his Head from his Shoulders So that though the falling of the Crown was to the Jews a Calamity yet being contrived here by Men vvho whether Severally or Joyntly considered vvere but Subjects being attempted by Resistance against the Authority and Person of the King vvho vvas the Only Supreme and being in the end brought about by most Unjustifiable Methods such as vvere contrary to all Laws Divine and Human contrary to so many Voluntary Protestations and Repeated Oaths and contrary to that