SOME OBSERVATIONS UPON THE KEEPING THE Thirtieth of January AND Twenty ninth of MAY. Gal. 4.10 11. Ye observe Days and Months and Times and Years I am afraid of you least I have bestowed upon you labour in vain By J. G. G. LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by Ric. Baldwin at the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-lane 1694. SOME OBSERVATIONS Upon the Keeping the Thirtieth of January and XXIXth of May. EVERY Thirtieth of January doth yearly renew my Thoughts upon the occasion of the day We say it hath been appointed to be kept to mourn and humble the Nation for the Death of King Charles I. The thing hath two several Aspects for either it looks upon the Act of some Men against the Living or upon what others have done and do for the Dead both which I take to be ill the one because to me it seems Unlawful and the other as Contrary to True Religion I agree the Fact was an Horrid Murther Execrable as Black as Words can make it neither am ignorant how Blood defiles the Land what a loud and crying Sin is Blood-guiltiness according to other several strong Expressions in Holy Scriptures But when all is said after Justice hath been executed upon the Guilty after 45 Years there ought to be an end It were better more according to Charity and Christian Prudence to forget those things than to renew the Memory of them which continues Divisions for we know 't is too usual on that day to hear from the Pulpit about those who sold him of others that brought him to the Block and of those who cut off his Head which doth not restore to Life nor remedy that which is past and only Exasperates the Spirits of Men. This is too like the Italian Custom to keep and shew Handkerchiefs dipped in the Blood of those that were killed or such like Tokens only to infuse a desire of Vengeance and to make irreconcilable Enmities between Families and Parties after Acts of Oblivion for such things are passed the Memory thereof ought to be forgotten Such things do and must admit of a Prescription neither can I find any sound reason why such a Performance should be entailed upon us and our Posterity 't is enough once for all really and heartily to have done after that it degenerates into Formality and Bigoticism if I may so call it I know amongst us we have Men Zealous without Knowledge guided by Ignorance and as thorough-paced in their way as any Papist is in his who know not how to keep within bounds in many things they do Every one knows the keeping of this day was enacted after a Revolution amidst Heats and Desires of Revengefulness in some who looked upon themselves as having been ill used by others The Order for keeping that day was brought forth with some other things which by and by I shall have occasion to mention but because I do not intend to insist upon the Civil but the Religious part of keeping that day which is the principal thing of it and as the taking away of his Life was an ill thing so by the Grace of God I will shew that every Year keeping a day on that account is as bad if not worse in as much as the Honour and Worship of God are therein concerned What St. Paul saith to the People of Athens in general I may say to some amongst us in particular in this thing * Acts 17.22 You are too Superstitious For I am satisfied we cannot without Superstition whereof the very appearance ought to be avoided keep an Anniversary or a certain day every Year upon any Mans account and on the same day go to Church the place appointed only for God's Worship there to hear a Sermon preached on that Subject and to have a Collect Epistle and Gospel yea such a part of Gospel taken out of a Parable wherein our Blessed Saviour foretells his Death and this must be applied to a Dead Man Nay in that Service we pray to God he will be pleased to give us the Grace to follow that Man's Charity and Patience surely in this we are too Superstitious now Time Place and Service being appointed next thing for us to do will be to Pray to him Heathens had their Apotheosis of Men to make Gods after their Death Papists have their Canonizations or making of Saints but I think our Church ought to be free from such Errors and Abuses without Kalenders and Legends I am sure the best Reformed Churches beyond Sea admit of no such things let for brevities sake the Testimony of one serve for all * Festa autem hominibus divis instituta non probamus Helvet Confess cap. 24. de feriis We approve not of days dedicated to Saints Would to God we had not so many of these Relicks of Popery amongst us such as the Purification of the Virgin a Jewish Ceremony Annunciation Conception c. All Saints Michael and all Angels Innocents c. which as the already quoted Confession saith †Ibidem habent absurda inutilia minimeque toleranda have many things Absurd Superstitious and not to be endured It may be made a question Whether God will ever forgive it those who so stiffly retain such things and oppose a thorough Reformation keeping the Clogs of such Superstitions and Fopperies upon our Holy Religion whereof the Purity is thereby defiled What St. Paul saith to the Galatians You observe days c. I am afraid of you Gal. 4.10 11. least I have bestowed upon you labour in vain may justly be applied to many amongst us I know this enlargement will not be thought to deviate from our purpose But we are not satisfied of him to make a Saint but a Martyr too for that 's now the Name given him the Martyr by Excellency I confess here I am somewhat at a stand to see such a Name so much misapplied but before I proceed I declare I charitably believe God shewed him Mercy but withall 't is not the Manner but the Cause of Death makes one a Martyr I know several kinds of Perswasions have their Witnesses and Martyrs but for us the Martyr who suffers for the Testimony of the Lord Jesus he is the true Martyr who loses his Life for the sake of Christ for his Person for his Attributes for his Offices for his Faith such an one was * Acts 7. St. Stephen such †Acts 12. St. James such ‖ Rev. 2.13 Antipas whom the Lord called his faithful Martyr and many others after for the same Cause and here by the bye I must take notice how the Apostolical Church appointed no day nor Rubrick to remember or mourn for their Death not so much as for that of our Lord and Saviour nor of his Birth only that of his Resurrection the first day of the Week which St. John calls the * Rev. 1.10 Lords-day But for Charles I. he must be a Saint and a Martyr of a new Coining but
to remember the Death of the young Prince our Reformer Edward the Sixth with Grief and Sorrow though Heylin was of another mind the Death of so Pious a Prince not without Suspicion of Poison was a great loss to Religion and the Nation but yet such set days as the Thirtieth of January and Circumstances must be avoided such a Memory may to this day be well continued by lawful Means as his very Funeral Sermons Epitaphs and such things remaining as were published in or about that time as Jeremiah's Lamentation upon that Subject might be read and sung in after-Ages The Memory of good Princes and other pious Men ought to be precious and dear to Posterity but we must not bestow any thing of Religious Relation upon them but strictly avoid every appearance of it Saul's Death was a Judgment upon him but Josiah's Death was a Mercy to him Because thine heart was tender 2 Chron. 34.27 28. I will gather thee to thy Fathers and to thy Grave in Peace neither shall thine eyes see all the Evil that I will bring upon this place and upon the Inhabitants of the same Now Things and Persons being compared in the Reigns of Josiah and Charles to say no more we shall find a vast Difference The third case is that of Gedaliah whom 2 Kings 25.25 and Jer. 41.2 after the taking of Jerusalem the King of Babylon made a Governour of the Cities of Judah which was treacherously killed by Ishmael the Son of Nethaniah This indeed was a sad Blow to the People that was left in the Land but in the two quoted places in the Margin nor in the Book of Chronicles nothing is said of any publick mourning of the People for it yet some would if possible upon the Opinion of the most Judicious Interpreters as he calls them screw something out of Zech. 7.5 as if their Mourning there was an Ordinance for that lasted till the time of their return from their Captivity but 't is easie to find the true cause of it namely Levit. 23.27 29. a positive order from God On the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of Atonement it shall be an holy Convocation unto you and ye shall afflict your Souls c. And whatsoever Soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day he shall be cut off from amongst his People This is the true cause of the Mourning in the Seventh Month and 't were in vain to fancy any other A very good Use may by present and future Ages be made of such sad Effects of God's Providence as to warn us of our Mortality of the Uncertainty of Life of the Vanity of Honours and to prepare us for Death to shew how our Life is in the Hand of God which he disposeth of how and when he pleases It is good always to be Thankful to God for Mercies always to be humbled and to Mourn for Sins for as we do constantly Sin so we must constantly repent what doth befall others as well as what happeneth to us ought to work upon us And so we have cause enough to keep days of Humiliation both in Publick and Private and this is to make a right use of such Occasions and not to flatter and chuse God's House to make Panegyricks of Dead Men over and over every Year in such a Strain as Papists do for their Pretended Saints and Dead Men. After this way Mr. Newman in his Sermon Page 17 18 19 c. maketh King Charles a great Poet nay a Laureat one a great Orator He saith He was Master of a Sublime Grandure of Language and in Points of Controversie and in Cases of Conscience so great a Divine as he might have challenged the Theological Chair upon the account of meer Worth If he had but attributed some Miracles then we might have said as Jesuits use to speak of their Ignatius Franciscans of their Francis and Dominicans of their Dominick upon their days And all this he affirms upon hear-say and by relation if this be not Flattery 't is too much like it this is a studied Discourse to make a shew of his Parts to flatter the Dead deceive the Living but edifie none To say the setting apart such days is not intended as if thereby they were made Holier than others but only to appoint them to an Holier Use is not enough to excuse the thing we all know 't is not in the power of Man in that kind to make one day better than another that 's the Work of God alone and of all the days of the Week the Seventh his Sabbath-day * Gen. 2.3 and Exod. 20.11 he sanctified it blessed and hallowed it Nay the other Feasts which were but Typical and for a time which we read of in the Book of * Chap. 23. Leviticus were of God's own special Appointment So that to Institute such days is an Act of Religion And though we agree that the Church may make Rules for Order-sake as to Circumstances yet under the Gospel no Man may upon Humane Account Institute days wherein is a Cessation of Work God having commanded Six days to labour and do our work Thus there would be no end one day this Year another or more the next as we see it in the Church of Rome where every new Saint hath a day allowed him every Year By the same reason it is done for one it may be done for an hundred All Orthodox Divines do agree That in the First and Second Commandment not only Idolatry but also Superstition are forbidden whereby the Fixedness of the Minds of Men which ought to be upon God is tossed and distracted here and there upon different Objects Prayers of Mourning Repentance or Thanksgiving must be directed to God for they are part of his Worship without any Collateral regard to the Merits or Sufferings of any Man Dead or Alive And here by the by I must take notice of a Clause which some of our Ministers use in their Prayers to thank God for his Servants deceased which in my opinion is very Improper for those who own we ought not to pray to or for the Dead the Gospel and God's other Mercies is What we ought to thank God for And though a Minister may make mention of those Faithful Servants of his remembred in his Word and exhort us to follow their Example and Divine Rules they were acted by the Faith of Abraham the Patience of Job the Repentance of Peter yet the Case is different when he is in Prayer for then he is the Mouth of the People to God in that Condition of Supplicants no Humane Rule or Example is to be mentioned to God especially now when so gross an Abuse about it is committed by Papists whereof we ought to avoid the very Appearance The Dangers of bringing such things into the Church is very great though at first not perceptible sometimes great Evils had but small beginnings the Devil is
rather no Martyr amongst true Christians except it be made to appear that he suffered for the Testimony of the Lord Jesus though otherwise never so unjustly Let those who took away his Life be as Wicked as can be imagined yet they were not professed Infidels his being a Christian was not the Cause or Pretence of his being put to Death the Pretence was how true or false I dive not into it his following Evil Council encroaching upon the Liberties carrying on Designs for Arbitrariness casting into Prison Men for refusing to lend him Mony raising Mony without Parliament as in the case of Ship-Mony for designing to bring in Popery and such other things as the whole Nation knows which the last excepted were all of a Worldly Concernment and no ways fit to qualifie a Martyr him who suffers for them As to this last I must say in his time whether or not of his own Contrivance I cannot tell a Design was carrying on to reconcile us to the Church of Rome whose Interest here did much thrive through the Queens Favour the Persecution of Puritans the Prayer-book sent into Scotland bringing in Arminianism setting up Crucifixes upon the Communion-Tables by them called Altars as Ministers were and are still by the name of Priests thus promiscuously bringing in Names and Things those and many more were Evidences of the Project then in hand which though it had been true and carried on by the King yet can never justifie the putting him to Death no more than his being put to Death can prove him a Martyr Suppose they were Murderers must we be Blasphemers If they were Villains must we be Idolaters or Superstitious Is it a Warrant for us to do Evil because they did so 'T is very bad Logick for after this we must follow evil Examples After the Light of the Gospel hath since the Reformation so clearly shined amongst us 't is very strange that some who might know better have as to the matter in hand carried things so far on in the way of Superstition A Medal of Bishop Laud a Man so noted in his days soon after King Charles's Restoration was coined in the Tower and consequently by publick Authority of which here are several and many beyond Sea with this Inscription Sancti Caroli Praecursor the fore-runner of St. Charles Here the business is not minced we speak it out plainly in England we have our St. Charles as Italians have theirs his name is entred into the List of Saints he hath his day only we have not builded him a Church as is done for Charles Borromeo in Rome But instead of that he is owned as such in every Church we have let Men honour his Memory but not to such a length as to run into Superstition if not worse for there is no less than Blasphemy in the case in the Medal Bishop Laud is compared to John the Baptist and consequently King Charles is parallelled with Christ for John Baptist both in his Birth and Death was fore-runner of the Lord Jesus This Comparison is come not only out of a Stamp but from Pulpits too a place very improper for such Doctrines some now alive have carried on the Parallel much beyond bounds others have been heard to preach that the Guilt of King Charles's Blood lies upon the Nation never to be washed off What upon Childrens Children and from Generation to Generation to the Worlds end yet God saith by two of his Prophets the Proverb shall no more be used Jer. 31.29 Ezek. 18.2 3. The Fathers have eaten a Soure Grape and the Childrens Teeth are set on edge To see the Blood of the Son of God lie as a Curse upon the Generality of the Jews is no wonder they all cried Crucifie Crucifie they all said Matt. 27.25 Let his Blood be upon us and our Children I hope our thorough-paced Papists in this Point will not have the Face to say that the Blood of Charles I. though never so Innocent can be compared with that of our Lord and Saviour though alas about the time of that Death some were possessed with such extravagant Fits of Superstition as to dye Handkerchiefs in the Blood to keep and use it to Cure Diseases work Miracles and such other things as made an Impression upon the Spirits of Credulous and Ignorant People which true Christians who make Profession of the Purity of the Gospel ought to be ashamed of Others upon the occasion of the day and that lately said Dr. Sherlock's Sermon The Evils and Calamities which we have now more than Forty Years in some degree or other and sometimes very severely suffered under are the natural Effects or just Punishment of that Sin which we this day lament Herein is a great Exaggeration but as to Cursing Swearing Perjury Covenant-breaking Injustice Shedding of Innocent Blood as of late there was too much Drunkenness Uncleanness these are but trifling Sins not worth God's taking notice of let such Preachers as much as they please exalt and commend their Martyrs for such Vertues as are rarely found in mean Persons which in my weak Apprehension is no great Commendation for a King to say he had those Virtues that are rarely found in mean Persons as indeed 't is rare for mean Persons to be Conspicuous in great Virtues to find such Virtues we must go into an Hermit's Cell we must needs be at a great loss not to have where to search for them but those dark Holes or Places of Darkness this is to have a great Opinion of Hermits Lives as well as of King Charles's great Virtues we must not be wanting also to attribute great Merits to Hermits in their Cells However one could bear with such Stuff if the Preaching of the Gospel of Peace was not turned into the sound of an Alarm What mean these Expressions There is a Spirit of Zeal and Faction the Principles of which if not restrained will ruine the best Princes and overturn the best Governments Again The horrid Fact committed on this Day hath poisoned the very Springs of Government and so deeply tinctured the Minds of Men that I pray God we may not still live to see and feel the miserable effects of it These are Doctrines of a New Gospel to work Differences and Cause and keep up Division But to make our selves the more acceptable we must promise That those who under the late Reigns were for Passive Obedience will be so under this Another in a late Sermon of his doth screw up all his Wits and spend his whole Strength in making an unnecessary and improper Panegyrick I doubt very much whether upon our Saviours Passion-day he ever used Expressions so pathetical and delivered them with so much Zeal as he did upon this last Occasion I confess I never heard before a Prince's though never so good being called a Tyrant to be Blasphemy I thought to Blaspheme was against God and not against Man Then he proceeds to unhandsome and uncharitable