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A63886
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A sermon preached before the King on the 30th of January, 1684/5 being the fast for the martyrdom of King Charles the first of blessed memory / by Francis Lord Bishop of Ely, and Almoner to His Majesty.
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Turner, Francis, 1638?-1700.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing T3287; ESTC R3928
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11,974
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33
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the most bloody Zealots to Confess the guilt of Blood How forward to acquit themselves from so just a Charge 2. How necessary it is how absolutely necessary to lay them open to shew men of Blood their own guilt 3. Vpon whom should we intend to bring the guilt of Blood Vpon none but those that have brought it upon themselves And Who are those 4. Fourthly In all this we should mainly intend that which the Apostles intended to bring even the most Guilty to true Repentance 1. How backward are the most bloody Zealots to Confess the Guilt of Blood How forward to acquit themselves from so just a Charge Exactly at this pass are our English Regicides They kill'd and took possession as Eliah charges Ahab in the Case of Naboth Yet was their Case worse by far than that between Ahab and Naboth a King and one Innocent Subject for this the Regicides did to a great number of their Innocent fellow Subjects and this they did to a King as Eminent for all manner of Goodness as Ahab was remarkable for Extream Wickedness Yet if the Prophet Eliah should come again as some are of Opinion he shall come at the end of the World but if he should come at this time to deliver his Master's Errand to any of these he must expect no better Reception than Ahab gave Him Hast thou found me O mine Enemy for he becomes their Enemy that tells them the Truth Yet for all That Eliah like a Prophet from God immediately goes on I have found thee How gladly would they part with this odious Business out of their own Memories And how do they abhor us only for doing our Duty as the Apostles did here Calling their Sins to Remembrance They apply to this matter that saying of the Wiseman The Repetition of a matter separateth very Friends They would be Friends with us if we could find in our hearts to be their Flatterers They Complain as if it were ill-natur'd as if it were Uncharitable and Unchristian to mention their murdering of the King as if it were high time the Act for observing the Thirtieth of January were Repealed as if it were almost as great a Grievance as the 35th of the Queen To shew I do this sort of men no wrong How very few if any of those who took upon them to act as the King's Judges would take the Christian shame upon themselves when they came to suffer or profess the least regret for what they had acted Preach Repentance to them as was done to Several of them before their Deaths they would have us to know their names were inroll'd in the Book of Life their Calling and Election was sure And some of the last words which the Arch-Traytor was heard to utter were such as These I am sure I was once in Christ therefore ever in Christ I have kept it ever since for a Reply upon some well-meaning but ill-instructed People who are ready to Despair if they do not satisfie themselves of their being in the State of Certainty when they are dying that some of These whose hands were so full of blood yet were as full of this false Security as the most glorious Martyrs were of the true One If it were needful to give any more Instances I might shew by later Examples of the same Party to what a Reprobate Sense men may be given up that have once Sear'd their Consciences to stop their own bleeding at heart while they are shedding innocent Blood with their own hands while they break into Houses massacre Innocent men in their Beds mangle them with such Cruelty as the like was scarce ever heard of since Dolabella perform'd his Barbarous Exploit in the dead of Night upon Trebonius But that was for his being one of Caesar's Murderers Whereas these poor Sufferers were Guilty of no Crime but their being of his Majesties Guards And yet these same Monsters do in their Declarations solemnly protest they hold no Cruel Principles they would by no means be mistaken for men of Blood But the more Confident they are of their own Innocence and the more they turn away their Impudent eyes from seeing their own Guilt the more absolutely necessary it is for us to lay it before them which leads to my Second Part. 2. In this we do but follow the great Examples before us we do as was done by the Apostles And this ought to be done not barely for the sake of those that are guilty but also for the securing and preserving our own Innocence for He that hates his Brother is a Murderer says the Apostle and he that Suffers Sin upon him or does not reprove him for it is in another place of Scripture supposed to hate him Nor could St. Paul have enter'd this Protestation I take you to Record this Day that I am pure from the blood of all men but that he was able to add for I have not shunn'd to declare unto you all the Counsel of God Besides we are well aware that the voice of the meanest Blood much more of the Royalest if it still crys from the Earth will pluck down more Judgments from Heaven and that the most Innocent private man the most unspotted from Blood may yet be involv'd in those public Calamities We turn the Case upon our Selves the Case in the Second of Samuel that there was a Famine in the days of David three years year after year and David enquired of the Lord and the Lord answered It is for Saul and for his bloody House because he slew the Gibeonites for the Children of Israel had sworn unto them and Saul sought to slay them I do very well remember how pressingly this Case of the Gibeonites was urged in favour of those Murderers of the King that had render'd themselves But I must needs say it had been more pertinently urg'd if instead of Saul's putting to Death the Gibeonites after they had made a Covenant with Israel the Gibeonites had put King Saul to Death by vertue of a Covenant made among themselves without their King and against Him Now suppose those Gibeonites that were no better than Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water to Israel had Constituted some of their Draymen a High-Court of Justice to Murder King Saul with a shew of Authority on their Side Then had a Famine ensu'd had a War follow'd upon That had a Pestilence began where the War had ended had the Capital City in which such a Tragedy was acted been reduc'd to Ashes and after all That had the Famine begun again David would scarce have needed to Consult the Oracle of God to Discover one great Cause of so many Judgments Since then Almighty God when he makes Inquisition for Blood he remembers them and forgets not the Cry of the humble as David the Party concern'd in the former Case has set it down Psal 9. 12. We had best make strict Enquiry and consider well as the Apostles did here before they would charge any
A SERMON Preached before the KING ON The 30th of January 1684 5. Being the FAST for the Martyrdom of King CHARLES the First of Blessed Memory By FRANCIS Lord Bishop of Ely and Almoner to His MAJESTY Published by His Majesties special Command LONDON Printed for Robert Clavell at the Peacock at the West-end of St. Pauls Church-yard 1685. ACTS V. 28. later part And intend to bring this Man's Blood upon us TO direct and determine our Choice what parts of the Holy Writ are fittest to be dwelt upon by us in our Pulpits by you in your Closets on this Day the Anniversary Memorial of a most horrid Murder but also of a most glorious Martyrdom Whose Judgment is so fit to be followed as His whom we do now Commemorate the Blessed and Royal Martyr escap't from his Murderers and out of the reach of those hands that were deeply dy'd in his Blood When his Soul was almost upon the Wing ready to take it's flight and the Angels stood waiting to conduct it to the Place of Blifs whither Christ was gone before Then He did with strong Consolation reflect and with intense Devotion did He meditate on the Story of the Passion as the Lesson appointed of old by the Church for this day of the Month but then the most Seasonable and now the most proper Lesson for this His Day The Words I have chosen are in the Continuation of that Story relating the Consequences of the Passion the heavy Consequences that were like to fall upon the Betrayers and Murderers of that Just One Titles which St. Stephen the next Martyr after Him gave Them and Him Yet I do not intend to draw any studied Parallels between the Passion of our Lord the Lord from Heaven and the Sufferings of an Earthly Prince though as Soveraign a Prince and as Sacred as any of those whom the Holy Ghost has call'd the Christ's or Anointed of God For although the Royal Prophet has said to all other Kings Ye are Gods yet our Solemn Mourning at this time is enough to put us in mind of what he subjoyns immediately but ye shall dye like men of which this bloody Day gave the most fatal Instance and the most amazing one that was ever given But infinitely more astonishing was the fall of him whom the Prophet Daniel styles Messiah the Prince though he lov'd to style himself the Son of Man yet in all his Life and Death there was so much of a God that we may ask concerning that King of Kings such a Question as himself asks concerning the Kingdom of God by what Comparison shall we compare him Most Parallels are hard and stiff and come up lamely but in this case they would look too bold and swelling They would offend the tender Piety of that most Christian King if he in Heaven could hear them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Gregory Nazianzen speaks where he speaks in his Rhetorical way to the Soul of the dead Emperor If in those Regions of Bliss be knew what was doing here below Therefore I shall not strain the Circumstances of one Tragic story to make it resemble the other yet safely I may say in General our most devout Prince made it his Prayer made it the Labor of his Life as the Apostle had done That he might know Christ and the Fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable to his Death And this Prayer of his was so favourably heard that he might have said with an humble Confidence after that same blessed Apostle St. Paul who also was beheaded for the Testimony of Jesus I fill up that which is behind of the Afflictions of Christ in my Flesh And again The Sufferings of Christ abound in me To let my self into my own most proper Business and Task at this time I must open the matter of Fact as it stood in that Conjuncture when these words of my Text were spoken by some of the Chief Leaders among the Jews They had shed the blood of their God their King their Messias yet they would fain have shifted off the Guilt from themselves but still the Apostles thought it their part to put it extremely home upon them A cursed prevailing Party among the Jews the Pharisees and Sadducees had Conspired or in plain terms a Race of abominable Hypocrites had combin'd with a Crew of detestable and damnable Atheists such a Junto as the like never was before nor ever since has been except our late Regicides These men had at length gain'd the People from Christ and gotten them or enow of them on their side to be instant with loud Clamors Crucifie him Crucifie him When they had done the Deed then they would have silenc'd the Cry of his Blood against them They Menac'd Imprison'd and Haras'd all those who had the Courage to charge them with the Guilt though at the same time these Preachers of the Gospel had the Charity to shew them how they might sue out their Pardon But how ungrateful and unwelcome a thing is Truth where it shews ill men to themselves Though Pilate had the hardiness to ask our Lord Christ What is Truth yet he durst not stay for his Answer And now what would not these Miscreants give for an Act of Oblivion that they might forget the thing they had done and the very Name of the Person might be forgotten Ye intend say they to bring this Man's blood upon us but it was grievous to them to say the Blood of Jesus That there was such a Man put to Death they must needs acknowledge that They had been the Accusers They the Solicitors They the Petitioners for Justice and Execution upon him they could not deny Pilate indeed would gladly have been but Passive But for Them so Active were They that no body needed to bring this Man's Blood upon them For to ease that tame Wretch the Governor who ought to have drawn his Sword instead of washing his Hands they had call'd this Blood upon themselves and upon all their Posterity His Blood be upon us and upon our Children Their meaning then in my Text was this You intend to bring this Man's Blood upon us as if it were Innocent Blood nay as if it were the Blood of our Messias you would make us Guilty not only of Homicide but of Regicide nay even of Deicide as if we had shed the Blood of God whereas He whom ye style your King was delivered up as a Malefactor was Try'd as a Subject and Condemn'd as a Traytor to the Government so that it was no Murder but an Execution But ye have fill'd Jerusalem with your Doctrines there was the galling Point that these great Preachers regain'd the People apace and then those proud Demagogues that were lately so very governing must lose their dear Popularity and fall from their Empire to be mark't and pointed out for the Men of Blood The words being thus explain'd do naturally offer and afford us these Observations And 1. First How backward are