be said But seeing the pressing of Obedience will avail little with the Rebellious if the fear of Gods judgements and the punishments of him that beareth not the Sword in vain doth not terrisie them from disobedience for such is the frowardness of mans nature that he would never fear God if he thought God consisted all of mercy and were not as just as He is merciful Therefore as you heard how necessary is obedience so I intend by Gods help to shew you the just judgement of God and the punishment of the Rebellious and disobedient upon the words that you shall find in 2 Kings 9.31 Had Zimri peace that slue his Master The last Sermon that I Preached in this City was on the Day of our Humiliation for the unnatural Rebellion and the monstrous Murder of our late most gracious King Charles the First And that work I then told mine Auditors I knew not how to do it in any better way than by paralleling the transcendent murder of Jesus Christ by those wicked Jews that crucified him which was their true and lawful King with that late unnatural murder that our English-Jews have committed upon their own just and lawful King Charles the First and that parallel I then prosecuted à capite ad calcem And this Text that I have now read unto you seems to be a Question demanding What became of one and what should become of all others wicked murderers that like him and like the other two sorts of Jews should kill both their King and their Master And the words are a Speech made at the entrance of a brave Conquerer into a famous City that is of Jehu into Jezreel A custom very often used amongst all Nations to make solemn Speeches at the Inauguration of their Soveraign Kings and Emperours or when any Noble Person cometh to any famous City as the University Orator doth it in the Academy and the Recorder in other Cities And so Jezabel makes this Speech unto Jehu assoon as ever he entred into the Gates of Jezreel Had Zimri peace that slew his Master And we do read of two special Zimries in the Book of God and both of them wicked men Numb 25. The first you may read of in the 25th of Numbers where you may see 1. How that Israel contrary to the Command of God joyned himself to Baal-Peor and that one Zimri a Prince of a chief House among the Simeonites brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman named Cozbi the daughter of Zur that was Head over a people and of a chief House in Midian 2. How that for this transgression of God's Command the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel so that he said unto Moses Take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord against the Sun that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel And Moses said unto the Judges of Israel Slay ye every one his men that were joyned to Baal-Peor And so they did that there were slain 24. thousand men 3. How that Phineas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the Priest according to the Commandment of the Lord and of Moses took a Javelin in his hand and killed both Zâ—mri and Cozbi and that the Lord was so well pleased therewith that he rewarded him with the covenant of an everlasting Priesthood and stayed the plague from the children of Israel And the Prophet David saith that when the plague was so great among them Psal 106.30 then stood up Phinehas and prayed and so the plague ceased And our Presbyterians that find such fault with our Liturgy do say That we corrupt the Text because in the Original it is said That Phinehas stood up and executed judgement and so the plague ceased But their carping at this without cause hath been fully and sufficiently answered and may be easily and briefly done because he both prayed and executed judgement for the Text tells you plainly That the people were weeping before the door of the Congregation Verse 6 and so praying to God to turn away his anger from them and Phinehas rose from amongst the Congregation and killed them and then the plague ceased To teach us that the only sure way to turn away God's anger and the plagues that we deserve is not only to weep and mourn and be sorry for the wickednesse of the people but we must also execute judgement upon the transgressors Deut. 13.8 and as the Lord often sets it down Thine eye shall not pity them neither shalt thou conceal them but thou shalt surely kill them So shall you put away evil from among you and turn away the judgements of God from you which otherwise must still lie upon you because sins and especially great sins such as are Idolatry Rebellions and Murders and their punishments are so indiss lubly linked together that God seldom or never remits the one without inflicting the other And therefore he would not take away the plague from Israel until judgement was executed upon Zimri and Cozbi And this was the first Zimri that we read of and is not meant here in my Text. 2. 1 Kings 16.9 For the other Zimri you may read of him in 1 Kings 16.9 where you may find 1. How this Zimri conspired against his King and his Master and killed him and slew all the House of Baasha and left not one that pisseth against the wall neither of his kinsfolks nor of his friends 2. How that after this murder of their King and Zimri's possessing the Royal Throne all Israel was divided and most miserably embroyled in Civil Wars when some of them were with Zimri in Tyrza others with Tibni and the rest with Omri 3. What became of this Zimri and his conspirators that have wrought all these Wonders and most tragical Acts to kill their King and all the Kings friends how he went into the Palace of the Kings house and burnt the Kings house over him and died burning himself therein A just judgement of Almighty God against such as would conspire to kill their King And of this Zimri Jezabel demands the Question Had Zimri peace As if she should have said Is it possible that either Zimri or any one of them that conspired with Zimri and had any hand with him in the murder of their King and their Master or that very Kingdom that fostereth any of those murderers should have any peace or settlement or any happiness in the world until justice and judgement be executed upon such transcendent Malefactors For she conceived that as the wrath of God and his plagues were not turned away from Israel until Phinehas stood up and executed judgement upon the other Zimri and Cozbi so this Zimri and the Associates of this Zimri and all the kingdom that abetted him should never have peace nor happiness so long as judgement was unexecuted upon them as the example of Achan and abundance more doth make it plain that the
straightly prohibite to be done is a disgracing of God himself and all the contempts done to this Image do presently redound to God that is represented without all question in this Image And the City of Thessalonica besides many others can well testifie how severely the Emperours punished the abusing of their Images when they deemed all the dishonour that was done against their Images to be Treasons against themselves 8. And lastly this killing of a man not only defaceth the Image of God but also robbeth God of his Temple which is Sacriledge and makes none account of but trampleth under feet that which God did so highly esteem and purchased at so high a rate as with his own blood And in a word it is so odious so haynous and so horrible a sin every way as it is impessible for me to expresse the vileness and the haynousnesse of this sin of Man-slaughter or the malicious killing of a man And therefore to shew how odious this sin is in the sight of God immediately after the Flood the great Commandment and the only Commandment that he gave to all the sons of Noah was to abstain from shedding of mans blood and he doth so pathetically and with such terrible threatnings expresse the punishment of the Transgressors saying Surely that you need not doubt it your blood of your lives will I require yea at the hand of every beast will I require it See Exod. 21.28 and though they be void of reason and understanding of what they do yet will I not hold them guiltless if they shed mans blood And therefore much rather and much sooner at the hand of man and at the hand of every mans brother Gen. 9.5 6. See Numb 35.31 33. Levit. 24.17 Math. 26.52 will I require the life of man and to that end he did appoint Kings that they should ordain Magistrates under them that whosoever sheddeth mans blood by man should his blood be shed And the reason why God is so severe against Man-slayers is here rendered for that in the Image of God made he man and so whosoever killeth a man except it be whom the Law killeth destroyeth the Image of God and God cannot endure to have his own lively Image which no painter but Himself hath made to be defaced And therefore in Numbers 35.31 the Lord saith Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a Murderer which is guilty of death but he shall be surely put to death And the reason is rendered verse 33. And truly I do not find any sius I will not say that are irremissible but that are so difficult so hard and so seldom remitted as these two Videlicet 1. The abuse of God's Messengers and 2. The shedding of Innocent blood For Of the first it is said that when the Jews mocked the Messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets 2 Chro. 36.16 the wrath of the Lord arose against his people until there was no remedy Of the second it is said 2 Kings 24.4 that the Lord sent Bands of the Chaldees to revenge the Innocent blood that Manasses had shed which the Lord would not pardon Also when God gave his Laws unto us on Mount Sinai the first Commandment of all that doth concern men after the duty that we owe to our Parents that bring us into the World and bring us up and feed us when we cannot feed our selves is Thou shalt not kill And truly in these respects I for my own part do so far hate the killing of any man except it be to save mine own life from him that would maliciously take it from me that I had rather do any servile work for a penny a day Greg. habetur 23. q. 8. si in mortem than receive the greatest Salary Honour and Preferment for killing of men And I think S. Gregory not far from my mind when he said Si in mortem Longobardorum me miscere voluissem hodie Longobardorum gens nec regem nec ducem baberet sed quia Deum timeo in mortem cujusâ—ibeâ— hominis me miscere formido For he that feareth God will be afraid to be the death of any man and will study by all means vacuas caedis habere manus Ovid. de arte l. 1. to keep his hands clean from blood And if it be so unnatural so unreasonable so devilish so beastly so haynous and every way so inexplicable and so detestable in the sight of God and all good men to kill and murder a man I would fain know what tongue what eloquence what Orator though he had the tongue of men and Angels can expresse the haynousness of a subject's killing his own King and a servant's killing his own kind and loving Master as Zimri did his King and his Master Elah 2 Sam. 18.3 and some others did such a King as was worth ten thousand of his subjects And therefore well and wisely might Jezabel demand Had Zimri peace that slew his Master But the wit of man is so crafty that it thinks to find a way to effect his own end and yet to evade the hand and escape the judgement of God when they keep their own hands free from blood but will notwithstanding prosecute the innocent person whom they hate either judicially as the Jews did Christ by their high court of Parliament that pronounced judgement against him for a malefactour which may and ought to be put to death by the Law of God or else secretly by others their assassins whom they procure to be their instruments to bring whom they hate to his untimely death either by poyson as Alexander was by Thessalus and Sir Thomas Overbury by Sir Jervase Eloway or by some other secret contrivance as King David plotted the death of Vrias and then as the Harlot commits Adultery and wipes her mouth and is clean so they will bring Christ and his servants to their death and then with Pilate they will wash their hands clean from their blood Truly methinks these are very fine shifts for murderers and malefactors to free themselves from blame if they could as well blind the eyes of the All-seeing God as they do many times deceive simple men that think those Judges to be just that have most unjustly beheaded innocencie it self And those murderers to be innocent that have killed their neighbors by the hands of their assassins But though Davids hands were far from that fact free from the blood of Vrias that was slain by the sword of the enemy yet God tels him he was the murderer his wit shall not serve his turn to wipe away his punishment though it was the High Court of Justice that condemned Naboth unto death yet the Prophet tells Ahab that God will condemn him and his posterity for it for as the devill saith S. Aug. is said to be a murderer non gladio armatus non ferro accinctus sed quia ad hominem veniendo verbum
that end the Lord gave unto his people the same Law the same Sacraments and the same Gospell that the same God might have the same worship in all places and that his people might believe the same faith use the same prayer receive the same Sacraments and do the same publick service unto God in every City and in every place that so they might attain unto the same end which is the kingdom of heaven And therefore the Reverend Bishops and Governours of Gods Church were so careful herein to preserve the unity of the Church and the uniformity of Gods service that they prescribed the same prayers the same Psalms The set form of prayers and service of God justified 1. By the people of God the same Chapters and the same Service to be used in all Churches that all the world might know we worship the same God And to justifie this their practice of a set form of Prayers and Service of God they have 1. The Precept of God himself saying unto Moses Speak unto Aaron and to his sons saying On this wise ye shall blesse the children of Israel saying unto them The Lord blesse thee and keep thee the Lord make his face to shine upon thee Numb 6.22 and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace and so likewise he prescribeth unto them the very prayer that they should make and the very words that they should use both as they went forth and as they returned home from Battle for when the Ark set forward Moses said Rise up O Lord and let thine enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee And when the Ark rested Numb 10.35 he said Return O Lord unto the many thousands of Israel and the Prophet David useth the very same prayer and the same words saying Let God arise Psal 68.1 and let his enemies be scattered let them also that hate him flee before him 2. 2 By the Precept of Christ Luke 12.2 They have the Precept of Christ himself that biddeth us to use that prayer which he taught us saying When ye pray say Our Father which art in heaven c. 3. 3 By the practice of the godly people in the Old Testament They have the practice of the godly people of the Old Testament as you may see the very words that they were to use in Gods service when they offered their first fruits and the very prayer that they were to make in Deut. 26. from the third verse to the tenth and verse 13. And so the very words that the Priests were to use unto the people when they came nigh unto the battle as you may see in Deut. 20.3 And the godly King Hezechias made certain Psalms after his recovery from his sicknesse and saith We will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord Esay 38.20 and when he reformed the service of God that the people had neglected and the wicked Kings had corrupted he prescribed a set form of Gods worship and commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord not as every simple Priest 2 Chro. 29 30. or silly Levite pleased but with the words of David and Asaph the Seer And Mr. Selden in his Notes upon Eutychius sheweth Selden in Eutych pag. 41. dist ad pagin 25. that since Ezra's time when after their return from Babylon the true Service of God was restored the Jews constantly used a set form of Gods worship in all their Synagogues every Synagogue using the same Service 4. They have the practice of all the Saints under the New Testament 4 By the practice of all the Saints under the New Testament Luke 11.1 Matth 26.44 Psal 22.1 as 1. Of John Baptist that taught his disciples a Set form of serving God and a set form of Prayer 2 Of Christ himself that used the same form of prayer and repeated the same words three times together and commanded us to do the like and when he was upon the Crosse he used the very words of the Psalmist changeing onely the Hebrew phrase into the Syriack Dialect 3. Of the Primitive Church as the Lyturgy of Saint James Saint Basil S. Chrysostom and the short Form of serving God which Saint Peter left at Rome and the other which Saint Mark left at Alexandria do sufficiently testifie 4 Of the whole Catholick Church as it appeareth out of Cassander and other Writers of the Lyturgica And Therefore the religious Emperour Constantine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb de vità Const l. 4 c 17. rendered Set Formes of prayers unto the Christians saith Eusebius and his Nobles used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prayers that the Emperour liked and they were all brought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pray the same prayer yea he prescribed a Set Form of Service for his souldiers Idem l. 4. c. 20. as the same Eusebius testifieth And Saint August saith that Sursum corda lift up your hearts are words ab ipsis Apostolorum temporibus petita used in the Church of Christ even from the very times of the Apostles and are agreeable to the Constitutions of the Apostles L. 8. c. 16. 5. They have the practice of the Heathens that were so wise herein 5 By the practice of the heathens Plato de legibus l. 7. Alexand ab◠Alexand. l. 4. c. 17. Why the Gentiles used the same set prayers in their service as to use the same Service to every false god as both Plato and Alexander ab Alexandro do bear witnesse and they caused their prayers to be read out of a Book 1. That so the people might learn to repeat the same Prayers with the Priest when the same Prayers are constantly used in Gods service which they shall never be able to do when they shall have a new Prayer and a new Service upon every new day 2. Their Prayers were prescribed and read lest the simple and ignorant Priest should ask of God any evill thing that should not be asked and 3. Ne quid preposterè dicatur their Petitions were set down in verbis conceptis as we use to send messages to great persons in these and these very words lest we should offend either in the matter or in the manner in the thing requested or in the words wherein we have requested it Out of all which you may perceive how necessary it was for the Governours of Gods Church to see that the same God should have the same Service and that very Service which himself prescribeth and not what new Prayers and new worship in what Form and under what words soever every ignorant Priest should extemporarily pour forth to the Almighty God For if we ought to be very carefull to keep our feet when we go to the house of God Eccles 5.1 then how much more carefull ought we to be to keep our mouths and look to
we while we feared and served God we may easily perceive if we be not wilfully blind how we our selves that live in these Kingdomes while we feared God and observed his service were more happy then any of all our Neighbour-Nations both in regard of those many many deliverances that God hath wonderfully wrought for us far beyond usual favâ—urs both in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth and of King James as that Reverend Bishop Carleton hath collected and compiled them together and also in powring down so many inestimable blessings upon us bâ—â—a si sua norint Agricolae had we but the grace to acknowledge them as I dare confidently affirm it of our selves as Moses doth of the Israelites no Kingdome under heaven had the like as chiefly the purest preachâ—ng of the Gâ—spel the most learned Clergy the gravest and I believe the most uncorrupted Judges the wisest and the meekest Governours and above all the upholder of all the best and most pious Protestant King that ever these Kingdomes enjoyed O that we were wise and would consider these things and would understand these loving kindnesses of the Lord. But when How miserable did we be come when we did cast off the fear of God as Moses said of the Israelites dilectus meus impinguatus we began to surfet of these great blessings to loath Manna and to cast off the fear of God to deem the highest of Gods messengers not worthy to eat with the dogs of our flocks not fit for any thing but to be trodden under feet as mire and clay in the streets when we make our strength to become the Law of Justice when we despise Governours and speak great swelling words against authority yea and raise a Rebellion as odious as I shewed our King is pious then you see and I pray God you do not still feel what mischiefs and miseries do succeed and are like to continue in the chiefest of these three Kingdomes the house of God is made a den of thieves the Priests are made out of the basest of the people the Pulpits are filled with Heresies Treasons and Blasphemies the highest Courts of Justice are turned to be the shops of all oppressions and wrongs and Gods Annointed is persecuted more then any other yea and the whole Kingdome is made the butcherie and slaughter-house of the Kings best subjects and Gods most faithful servants and all this and much more because there is no fear of God before our eyes And therefore let not these holy Rebels under the pretence of their great love to God cast away the fear of God and let them not think they do him service by persecuting his servants or that that is Christian Religion which breaks forth into Rebellion because they cannot obtain their Petition but as Solomon begins his Proverbs with the fear of the Lord and the beginning of wisdom and ends his Ecclesiastes with Fear God and keep his Commandemets so I say that we and they should begin and end all that we take in hand with the fear of God and then all of us shall be blessed and whatsoever we take in hand it shall prosper But as S Gregory saith Probatio dilectionis exhibitio est operis and our love to God must be manifested by our love to our neighbours so our fear of God must be principally proved by that honour which we shew unto the King because as S. John saith it is impossible for us to love God and to hate his Image so it is impossible that any man should fear God which doth not honour the King because the same Spirit that saith fear God saith also honour the King and therefore S. Peter knowing how inseparably these duties go together after he had bidden us to fear God doth immediately adde honour the King which is the fourth branch of this Text. 4. Honour the King where I desire you to observe 4 Branch 1. Point and to observe it carefully when you had never more need to observe it then now 1. Who is to be honoured 2. What is the honour that is due unto him 3. Who are injoyned to honour him And all these are included in these word Honour the King 1. It is the King in the singular number and not Kings Homer Iliad 2. that every man is bound to honour for one man cannot serve two Masters much lesse can he honour two Kings but he must despise the one when he cleaves unto the other And therefore as it was like false Latine when Lamec said Hearken unto me ye wives of Lameâ— so it had been very incongruous for the Apostle to have said to any man honour thy Kings because as the Poet saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isocrat in Nicol. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec multos regnare bonam Rex unicus esto And so not only Isocrates Lucan l. 1. after he had disputed much of all sorts of governments concludeth peremptorily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no kind of government is better then the Monarchy but also Plato-Aristotle Plutarch Herodotus Philostratus Cassius Patricius Sigonius and all the wisest men that have written of Government have proved Monarchical Government to be the best form agreeable to nature wherein God founded it and is the first Government that ever was most consonant to Gods own Government and the most universally received throughout the whole world even from the beginning of the Creation to this very day C. 3. p. 20. as I have most fully proved in my Treatise of the Rights of Kings Therefore Serâ—nus writeth that when Craesus raigned over the Lydians he would have taken his brother to be his associate in the Government but one of the wisest Lydians rose up and said Or all the good things O King that are in earth there is none greater or better then the Sâ—n without which nothing could be seen nothing could remain on earth yet if there were two Suns periculum immineret ne omnia constagrantia pâ—ssum irent we should find the danger to have all things consumed with too much heat even so the Lydians do most willingly embrace one King and most faithfully believe and acknowledge him to be their Saviour and deliverer duos vero simul tolerare non possunt but they can no wayes endure two at once and Plutarch saith that Alexander gave the like answer unto Darius when he sent word that he should raign with him saying nec terram duos Soles neque A am duos Reges ferre pâ—sse that Asia could no more abide two Kings then the earth could endure two Suns because as Caelius saith Nulla sancia societas nec fides regni est Caelius l. 24. c. 11. Omnisque potestas impatiens consortis erit And I believe this very Kingdome hath found the difference betwixt two Lords-Justices and one Lord Lievtenant even as the Poet saith Tu causa malorum Facta tribus Dominis communis Roma Lucan l. 1. nec unquam In turbam missi
will endeavour to discharge his duty by good report and evil report 2. You may observe that goodness it self is hated and truth it self slandered and traduced for in his mouth was found no guile but as Saint John saith he is the way the truth and the life and yet all that malice can invent is thought little enough to be laid on him he must bear in his bosom the reproach of a mighty people and he must endure the contradictions of a wicked generation And therefore what wonder is it if the best King and Governour in the world were he as mild as Moses as religious as King David as upright as Samuel and as bountiful to Gods servants as Nehemiah or if as worthy Preachers as ever trod pulpit were they as faithful as Saint Peter as loving as Saint John and as zealous as Saint Paul should be maligned traduced and slandered for you may assure your selves it is no new thing though a very true thing for the wicked to deal thus with the good and godly at all times But among all the subtil arguments doubtful questions and malicious disputations that the Scribes Christs good deeds inraged the wicked Pharisees and Heredians had with our Saviour Christ which were very many and all only for to intrap him in his speech that they might bring him to his death and not to beget faith in their own hearts that they might attain-to eternal life this conflict in this chapter seemeth to be none of the least for after he had so miraculously healed the poor man that was born blind their malice was so inraged and their rage so furious against him that they excommunicated the poor fellow and thrust him out of their Synagogue for speaking well of him that had done so much good for him or because he would not be so wicked and so malicious as themselves and then gathering themselves together round about Christ they began to question him about his office and very strictly to examine him whether he was the Christ the Messias or not And Our Saviour Christ Christ answereth for the good of the godly that knew their thoughts better then themselves intendeth not to satisfie their desire which was to receive such an answer whereby they might accuse him yet for their instruction that would believe in him he setteth down an institution or an infallible induction whereby both their subtil question was fully answered and his own true servants perfectly expressed and distinguished from them that serve him not in these words My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me Wherein The means ways to save us our Saviour setteth down the means whereby the true Christians are eternally saved in being called justified and sanctified which are the three main steps or degrees whereby we pass from our natural state of corruption unto the blessed state of grace that brings us to eternal glory 1. Called in these words My sheep hear my voice 2. Justified in these words I know them 3. Sanctified in these words They follow me 1. Then the Christians are called to come to Christ in that he saith My sheep hear my voice for as Adam after his transgression never sought for God until God sought for him and said Adam Where art thou So all the children of Adam would never come to Christ if Christ did not call them to come unto him but as wisdom crieth without and uttereth her voice in the streets Prov. 1.20 so doth this wisdome of God Jesus Christ cry Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you and if he did not cry and utter forth his voice his sheep could not hear his voice but God sendeth forth his voice yea and that a mighty voice and as the Prophet David saith The Lord thundered out of heaven Psal 68 33. and the most high uttered his voice And that not onely as he did once unto the Israelites God uttereth his voice two wayes when he delivered his laws on mount Sinai but also to all others whom he calleth and uttereth his voice unto them two special ways 1. To the ears of his people by the mouths of his Prophets 1 To our ears Apostles and Preachers of his holy Word that do continually call and cry unto them to come to hear his voice and to obey his Precepts 2. To the hearts of his servants by the inspiration of his blessed Spirit 2 To our hearts which teacheth them to cry abba Father and perswadeth them to yield obedience to all his heavenly motions And our Saviour saith that his sheep or servants will hear his voice that is both uttered by his servants and inspired by his Spirit and they will neither neglect to hear the preaching of his written Word nor suffocate or choak the inspired Word that is the internal motions of his holy Spirit but they will most readily and willingly hear both these voices My sheep hear my voice howsoever uttered Three things observable For the further and the better understanding of which words you may observe these three things 1. The denomination Sheep 2. Their appropriation my sheep 3. Their qualification hear my voice 1. By Sheep here is understood not those four-footed silly creatures The children of God called sheep in a double respect that by their wooll and lamb and milk and their own flesh are so profitable unto us and by their simplicity are so easie to be kept and are the most innocent among all the beasts of the field but those children of God and true Christians that are called and compared unto sheep in a double respect 1. In respect of Christ that is their Pastour or Shepherd 2. In respect of themselves that are his flock 1. Christ is often called in the Scriptures our Shepherd 1 Grand Shepherd of the sheep Christ the good Shepherd in two respects 1. A lawful entrance into his Office Heb. 5.4 1. By the testimony of his own conscience 2. By an outward approbation and he is set forth unto us in this 10. c. by a double manifestation 1. Of a lawful entrance into his Office 2. Of an absolute performance of his Duties 1. The Apostle saith No man taketh this honour unto himself that is to be the Shepherd over Gods flock and a Priest to teach Gods people but he that is called of God as was Aaron And how was Aaron called 1. By God inwardly by the testimony of his own conscience that tells him the Spirit of God calleth him to such an Office 2. Because a man is not to believe his own private spirit that many times deceiveth us therefore God would have Aaron to take his commission and his ordination from Moses as you may see Exod. 28.1 and as the Lord had formerly said unto Moses that he should be instead of God unto Aaron to call him unto the Priests office And as no man taketh or should
that Christ speakes of had shewed him the way before but as after Ages grew more subtle so they became more wicked then the former times even so this unjust and unthankful Servant became more wicked then before for now he layeth up such hatred and malice against his King and sealeth it in the depth of his Heart wherein the same boyled like new Wine that wanted vent so that it was like meat and drink to an hungry Stomach for him to finde any Opportunity to broach the same against the King And the Long Parliament that consisted of very many discontented Persons and men both disaffected to his Majesty and distasting his present Government made him a fair way to lay open all his Malice and what he formerly vented in his private Discourse by retail he doth it publickly now in gross and he doth it to the full and having a tongue apt to speak and not unskilful in the art of Rhetorick he begins first to make his Oration against the Earl of Strafford as knowing that whatsoever evil was proved or conceived against him the same reflected most upon the King then after the taking of this great Earl and prudent Counsellour of the King out of the way making more bitter Invectives against his Majesty then ever Cicero's Philippicks were against Marcus Antoninius or his Actions against Verres he so still passed on till he had poysoned the greater part of that House and the seditious vulgar that understood his Proceedings with an evil conceit against the good King And now seeing himself back'd with the wilde part of the House and the strength of the rude multitude no mean revenge will serve his turn but with his Rhetorical Orations and Speeches filled with Gall against the King though as yet somewhat obliquely he labours to disrobe and rob the King of all his chief Friends under the Notion of evil Counsellours and withall secretly complies with the Scots to assist him and the rest of his seditious Compeers against his Majesty But the King having full intelligence both of his and his partners vile practice against his Majesty laboured to bring them to their Tryal in the usual legal way for their underhand Treachery and Confederacy with the Scots to bring a foreign Army to invade his Dominion and then to save himself and the rest they fly to the City of London and in a short space drew the Citizens and with them the whole Kingdom to engage themselves in a desperate civil War against their lawful Sovereign Then the King found himself too weak to bring this strong Rebel to any trial yet the hand of God was not to short to fetch him out of his guarded Palace for he is the Lord of Hosts and hath as well his great Army of little ones as the Rats and Mice that devoured Popiel the second King of Polonia in anno 830. for his treacherous poysoning of his Unckles the Moales that undermined a City in Thessaly and the Worms that destroyed Herod the King as also his strong Army of great ones as the earth to swallow up Corah Dathan and Abiram the Sea to overwhelm Pharaoh and all his Hoast the Stars in their Order too fight against Sisera and his Angels to be at his Command to overthrow his enemies And therefore he sent his Serjeant to arrest him and to fetch him out of his strong hold that he should do no further Mischief against his Anointed And how he died I leave to the Report of them that knew the manner of his death better then I can set it down I did intend further to shew unto you the just Judgment of God upon Colonel Hamden that for his disloyalty to his King was shot whereof he dyed on the same Plot of ground where he first mustered his Souldiers against his King even as the Lord threatened the like Judgment against Ahab And upon the Mayor of York that on that day twelve-Moneth that our King lost his life made a Bone-fire for joy that the King had so lost his life but on the same day twelve-Moneth after hanged himself And especially upon Colonel Axtel that hath been the ruine of so many Churches and the Suppressour of so many honest conformable Ministers and other good Protestants and plaid so many Tyrannical parts about Kilkenny and in my Diocess of Ossory as I am not able in a short time and with few words to express it and upon divers others but my Occasions at this time will not give me leave to perfect what I have begun And therefore I must now here make an End and commend us all to God through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom be all glory and honour for evermore Amen Jehovae Liberatori The Authour's Prayer after he had finished the Reparation of the Chancel and Quire of the Cathedral Church of Kilkenny OEternal Almighty and most merciful Lord God that hast created all things by thy Power governest them by thy Wisdom and preservest them by thy Goodness and hast disposed all thy Creatures to be for the Service of man the Sun to give him light by day and the Moon by night the Earth to feed him and the Angels of Heaven to attend him that he dash not his foot against a Stone for all which great love and bounty of thine towards man thou requirest no more but that he should be thankful unto thee and praise thee for thy goodness and declare the wonders that thou doest for the Children of men and as Moses saith what doth the Lord our God require of us but to fear the Lord our God to walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve the Lord our God with all our hearts and with all our souls and to keep his Commandments and Statutes which he commanded us for our good for the discharging of which duties and the performance of our Service unto the Lord our God though as Saint Stephen saith the most High dwelleth not in Temples made with hands when as the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him which is above the heavens and below the earth and filleth all places and beyond all places with his Presence yet our fore-Fathers most religiously according to the President that King Solomon left us and the good Examples that the Primitive Christians gave us have erected Oratories and built Temples and Churches where the Saints and Servants of God might meet to praise the Lord for his manifold mercies to beg his favour and graces to help and to supply their wants and necessities to understand his Will and to know his Commands and to do all other the best Service that they could do to the Lord their God and to that onely end they have set them apart and alienated them from all secular and prophane uses dedicated them wholly for God's Service and consecrated them by Prayers to be Sanctuaries for them and their Posterities to serve and to honour God in But O Lord our God we confess and