mean the infirmities of it if they live to be an hundred years Old so certainly Conscience will call Men to an account if not in Health yet in Sickness if not Living yet Dying yea if not dying so soon as they are Dead for Conscience is a King that never Dies as they say in Law Rex nunquam moritur And they will find it in the next World by the Name and Nature of a Never dying Worm and as the Proverb saith Nullum Tempus occurrâ—t Regi The Kings time never lapseth Some Men will find that Conscience hath not lapsed or lost any time like Creditors that lose their Debts and Priviledge of suing for them for want of demanding them within such a term of years but will recover all its Arrears and sue them till they have paid the uttermost farthing We proceed in the next place to the Eighth Query which I proposed to speak of viz. The Quomodo Or how and in what manner it is thas Conscience doth use to smite men for sin To which I answer That Conscience doth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at sundry times and in divers manners First of all Conscience doth sometimes smite men very gently and easily with light and soft touches as Old Ely did his Sons when he said It is not a good report which I hear of you my Sons you make the Lords People to transgress 1 Sam. 2. Chap. v. 24. It whips Men sometimes as Mothers use to do their Infant Children with a small Twig and a soft hand whereby they are rather scared than hurt and toucheth them with that tenderness as one would touch the Apple of ones Eye But Secondly Conscience doth many times correct Men smartly smite them severely yet not so but that they are able to bear it as you shall hear some Men say of those fits of the Stone Gout or Collick which they have felt that they were very painful indeed but they thank God such as they were able to undergo and but able It is as much as ever some Men can do to bear that burthen of a wounded Conscience which lies upon them but they make a hard shift with much a-do rub along a little more weight added to them would sink and over-whelm them their Consciences correct them in full measure though not above measure and this it may be is the case of thousands their Consciences give them their full Dose though they destroy them not with a Hypercatharsis Thirdly But some there are a case two frequent in the World though not so common as the former whose Consciences do smite them Ad extremum viriuna and lay on upon them with all their might whose Conscience thunder and lighten upon them as God did upon the Israelites from Mount Sinai Exodus 19.16 And it came to pass that there were Thunder and Lightnings and a thick Cloud upon the Mount and the Voice of the Trumpet exceeding loud so that all the People that was in the Camp trembled and Mount Sinai was altogether on a Smoak because the Lord descended upon it in Fire the Smoak thereof ascended as the Smoak of a Furnace and the whole Mount quaked greatly With such like Terrour so far as a Creature may imitate his Creator so doth Conscience sometimes cloath it self If a Beast doth but touch the Mountain to allude to the passages at Mount Sinai it is stoned or struck through with a Dart Heb. 12.20 I mean if a bruitish thought do but touch a mans mind so terrible is the sight thereof as aggravated by Conscience that he may say as Moses 21. I exceedingly quake Look with how grim a Countenance and with how incens'd a Heart Ahasuerus lookt upon Haman when coming out of his Garden he found that proud Traytor fallen upon the Bed where Hester his Queen was and said of him Will he force the Queen also before me in the House Hester 7.8 With such an aspect and with such a rage doth Conscience accost some Men cause their Faces to be covered presently with shame and confusion Doth it not fall upon some Men like a Bear robbed of her Whelps or like a Man under Jealousie upon him whom he suspects Of which Solomon saith It is the rage of a Man he will not spare in the day of his wrath Conscience seems sometimes to vie with Death in the point of Terror and to make it self more a King of Terrors than he for Sin is the sting of Death and Conscience is as it were the sting of Sin That Death is less terrible than an inraged Conscience is manifest because thousands fly or have fled from a pursuant Conscience to hide themselves in the valley of the shadow of Death and have chosen rather to fall into their own Bloody and Murtherous Hands than to remain in the hands of Conscience How many pursued by Conscience have repaired to a Melancholly Beam as one calls it or any thing they could make a Gallows of as it were to a City of Refuge or to the Horns of an Altar that is have chosen strangling rather than life The Jews allow but Thirty nine Stripes to be given even to Malefactors 1 Cor. 11. But Conscience will give Thousands and Millions fetching Blood at every stroak Stone Collick Strangury are the names of three little Tortures compared to that of a wounded and wounding Conscience for so it is that a wounded Conscience will wound if we wound it it will wound us that ever Gnawing Worm if we tread upon it will surely turn again Nothing can make the Torment of Racking and Burning seem small but the greater Torment of a Tormenting Conscience All I have said is easie to believe if we but consider some men have preferred Hell it self before the smitings of an incensed Conscience so Judas when he went and hanged himself though others it may be have been preverted from doing the same thing chiefly by considering that what is said of God may as truly be said of and to Conscience Psal 139. If I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there Some it may be fear that never dying Worm in Hell more than the Fire and Brimstone we read of as supposing that the Torments of Conscience are all in all as to the Pena sensus or the positive Punishment which the damned do there undergo Say not the Lion is not so terrible as he is Painted or Conscience as I have described it for it alone can tell thee how terrible it is Of it as of the great God may be said Who knoweth the power of his wrath according to his fear so is his wrath The terrors of Conscience are as boundless as the extent of Fear which is a passion that knows no limits The Sea is bounded by Sands but the dreads of Conscience hardly by any thing no Boanarges or Son of Thunder like to Conscience no high Court of Justice nor yet of Injustice so terrible as that Two Witnesses serve in other Courts Conscience is a
thing remembring what Amaziah did Who put to death those that slew his Father but he slew not their Children but did as it is written in the Book of Moses viz. Deuter. 24.16 where the Lord commanded saying the father shall not die for the children neither shall the children die for their fathers but every man shall die for his own sin 2 Chron. 25.4 I say not in order to fixing any odium or disgrace upon the survivors but purely to convince as many as stand in need of it that Ministers and People may and ought to observe the Thirtieth of January as an Anniversary Fast Yea and that our Rulers do well in appointing it so to be kept in order to bewailing and seeking the expiation of a most notorious Sin and fetching out the stain of Royal Blood I say in order thereunto I hold it necessary and a Duty to set a Mirror before the Eyes of Men in which they may see the true visage and complexion of that horrid Crime which God grant may never more be laid to Englands charge Know then if either Perjury High Treason Rebellion Sacriledge Wilful and deliberate Murther Parricide or the killing of a Father Patricide or the ruining of our Native Countrey Justicidium or taking away the life of a Just Person Regnicidium or the destroying of a Kingdom Monarchicidium or the destruction of Monarchy it self Legicidium or the subversion of Laws Suicidâ—um or a mans killing of himself or being Felo dâ— se Animaecidium Soul-murther so far as in men is Multicidium or the Murthering of many at once both as to body and soul if Gods mercy prevent not yea Deicidium or striking at the life of God himself in a higher sense than most other sins are said to do I say if all these things put together do amount to a very great and stupendious sin then such a sin it was to put King Charles the First to death And now you see I have not charged the Kings Judges with Cumulative Treason or many Petty Treasons or Non Treasons pretended when they were all put together to amount to High Treason for High Treason it self is but one Article in this Charge Now it remains that so great a Charge as this should be proved against them And had I not been conscious of its being easie to be proved I would never have exhibited it for fear of violating the Ninth Commandment First Article of this Charge is Perjury for I do aver that they who sentenced the King to death did in so doing horribly violate the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy as also the Solemn League and Covenant though an Oath of their own imposing wherein they swore to preserve the Kings life and honour c. And as many of them as were his Majesties Servants as some such there were did also break the particular Oath which they had taken as such and thus breaking four Oaths at once may be said to be shod round with Perjury Some it may be would have added that they had also violated their Baptismal Vow and Oath and as many Repetitions and Confirmations of it as they had made in receiving the holy Eucharist because by those two Sacramental Vows all other Duties are bound upon men and consequently the observation of all our lawful Promissory Oaths but I need not strain so far to find out Aggravations of so Notorious a Fact Secondly My Charge against these men iâ— that of High Treason It is Petty Treason for a Woman to kill her own Husband though but a private man and what petty Sovereigns are private men compared with Princes 'T is Treason by our Laws barely to imagine the death of the King Queen or Prince yea to kill the Chancellor Treasurer or any Justice of either Bench Justices of Assize or any other Justices doing their Offices is by the Statute declared to be High Treason Statut. de Proditionibus 25 E. 3. Stat. 5. cap. 2. Yea it is Petty Treason for a servant to kill his Master c. Nay clipping crashing rounding or fileing for lucre sake any of the Peoples Moneys or Coyns of this Realm is adjudged High Treason Stat. 5 Eliz. 11. Is the Kings Money as it were inviolable and not to be clipped or diminished but upon pain of death and is not his person so In a Statute 13 Car. 2. cap. 1. it is thus said It shall be Treason in any persons whatsoever to compass imagine invent devise or intend death or any bodily harm maim or wounding imprisonment or restraint of the person of the King c. If to maim or imprison his person be Treason what is it then to put him to death But methinks I hear some say Though the Laws of England do punish Treason as a great and capital Crime yet possibly it is not so in the eye of Gods Law Now though every Breach of Gods Commandment be a sin yet possibly there are some Laws of Men that may be broken without sin To that I reply the sinful Laws of Men are better broke than kept Such as was Nebuchadnezzar's when he commanded all people to fall down and worship the Golden Image that he had set up Dan. 3.5 Such also was Darius his Dan. 6.7 when he made a Decree That whosoever should ask a Petition of any God or man save of the King for thirty dayes should be cast into a Den of Lyons Such also were the Statutes of Omry Micah 6.16 But no man can imagine that those Laws are sinful by which the lives and liberties of Princes as well as of the People are secured to them Now most certain it is that Humane Laws when lawful can never be violated without sin or without doing that which is in the sight of God as well as of men unlawful I think at present of no less than firâ— Commandments of the Second Table which were broken by those who put King Charlâ— the First to death viz. first of all the Fifâ— Commandment in these words Honour the father and thy mother for Kings are Poliâ—â—cal Fathers and to kill them is as 〈◊〉 from honouring them as any thing can be Secondly It was a manifest violation of the Sixth Commandment which saith Theâ— shalt not kill Thirdly of the Eighth Commandment also which saith Thou shalt 〈◊〉 steal For was not the language of theâ—â— hearts who put the King to death the same with that of their mouths Mat. 21.38 who said of our Saviour Come 〈◊〉 us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance Witness Cooks Confession viz. That what be did in reference to the Kings death was not 〈◊〉 of malice but covetousness not out of hatred to the King but for the love of money Habetâ—â— confitentem reum The Ninth Commandment which is Thou shalt not bear false witness c. was as manifestly transgressed by those who had a hand in that good Kings death as any of the former For without the horrible breach of that Commandment it had
an accepted time a day of Salvation You were worse scar'd than hurt with the Alarm of a King Such is not the manner of the King that rules over us as is described 1 Sam. 8.9 ours is no such King Are not your Estates all but those that were ravished from the Church or State continued with you Is not the Law open and ready to defend you and yours if required as much as any other of the Kings Subjects If you be as quiet may you not live as quietly as any people in England To allude to that Text Psal 126.1 When the Lord turned again the Captivity of Zion we were like them that dream Are you not like men and women in a dream to see your selves in so good a plight and posture as you never expected to have been if God restor'd the King Had God given you a new Law of thankfulfulness upon condition it should have been so well with you as now it is would you not have accepted it with all your hearts upon those terms If God has been better to you than his word or promise your obligation is so much the greater Learn we then to bless God for our good King to love honour and obey him and let us cry out with the man after God's own heart Psal 118 28. God is the Lord which hath shewed us light bind the Sacrifice with cords even to the horns of the Altar ver 29. O give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Now Reader let thine own invention tell thee how these heads may be further enlarged and upon what other heads it may be most proper for thee to discourse either in publick or private upon a 30th day of January sacred to the Memory of King Charles the first his Martyrdom I will detain thee no longer than whilst I have made a little enquiry into one great Mystery and resolved one perplexing Question which is this Quest If the murthering of the late King were so great a sin as I have deciphereed it to be How comes it to pass that none of all his Judges one excepted who by common fame is presumed to be a man of more Conscience and Religion than the rest no not of those who were executed for it were ever for ought I heard learn to confess and bewail what they had done but rather to carry and brave it out with such confidence and seeming innocence as the adulterous woman Prov. 30.20 of whom Solomon thus speaks She eateth and wipeth her mouth and saith I have done no wickedness This their confidence hath cast such a mist before the eyes of some people and so perverted their judgments as to make them think there was nothing amiss in what they did yea to be almost perswaded that they did God good service in it and quitted themselves like Phineas who stood up and executed judgment and it was accounted to him for righteusness Answ But oh the mistakes of men Oh the false Glosses which dazle the eyes of poor filly mortals Oh the common fallacy which imposeth upon the world viz. Non causa pro causa They must needs have had the most false and flattering Consciences the most deceitful hearts that ever men had if ever they presum'd to tell them they had done well or bid them when taking their Viaticum or last repast to eat their bread with joy and drink their wine with a merry heart for God accepted their work or that with such a sacrifice as that God was well pleased Had an Israelite instead of sacrificing a Lamb cut off a dogs neck or offered Swines blood for an oblation to God or bless'd an Idol instead of burning incense or slain a man instead of killing of an Oxe as God expresses in Ifa 66.3 he might as well have promised himself Gods acceptance thereof and his smelling a sweet savour of rest from thence as those Murtherers of an excellent King could do of that bloody barbarous Sacrifice which they had prepared to which I may aptly apply those words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 10.10 But I say the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Devils and not to God No drink-offering ever cheer'd the heart of Devils and wicked men so well according to Judg. 9.13 as did that of Royal Blood If ever there were mirth in Hell surely it was upon that day That was such a Hecatomb as the infernall Fiends never had a greater offered to them never a Feast of more fat things sacrificed to their malice That they who were the Actors in this bloody Tragedy were no more sensible of what they had done might spring from two causes 1. Because the sin being so great and horrid as it was might well bring a kind of Apoplexy upon their Consciences and in some such apoplectick Fit they or some of them seem'd to dye For great sins as well as great sorrows and blows are apt to stun and stupifie as I proved before 2. Because there were many of them that were concern'd in it and it might seem to them to be in this as in other cases viz. That many hands make light work 'T is a very true and common observation that when a great many men joyn together when they go as it were in herds and droves they do often venture upon doing of those things by consent which were they invited to do alone they would be ready to say as he Is thy Servant a dead dog that I should do this thing One would think men were deceived with some such idle fallacy as this viz. That if an hundred men joyn together in one Murther or other high act of Injustice or Dishonesty every one of them were but the hundredth part of a Murtherer as if multorum manibus grande levatur onus were a Rule that held in this case but as thus applied it is a very great mistake For what our Law saith is consonant to right Reason viz. That in murther no man is meer accessary but all are principals and obnoxious to death Shall I add a third This their sin was not so universally gone before to judgment as is a plain ordinary Murther because it was coloured over with a pretence of Law and Justice there were a great many that were ready not only to vindicate but applaud it the mask was not quite taken off from it nor the vail of darkness from the hearts of all the Spectators This with a good strong Cordial a sufficient opiate and a seared Conscience and an ambition to set a good face upon what they had done to make the best of a bad market to dye like men and Souldiers and those that some would not doubt to Canonize for Saints even for the sake of their Regicide could they but keep their own counsel by dying such in point of Resolution and seeming Assurance those with some other things I could name might be the true causes why they did or seem'd to die
been utterly impossible for them by a pretended High Court of Justice and seemingly formal process of Law or rather Pageantry of Judicature to have sentenced so excellent a Prince to die the death of a Malefactor 'T is not yet forgotten what one or more said of hm when the pit was digging and the net spreading for the life of the late renowned King viz. Blacken him blacken him meaning Calumniare fortiter ut aliquid haereat i. e. Brand him smut him make him odious lay those things to his charge which he never did represent him for so did Cook that was Solicitor against him in his printed charge as bad almost as was Nero himself or as they did our Saviour John 7.20 The People said thou hast a Devil c. i. e. Thou art possest Satan hath fill'd thy heart and body both thou keepest a familiar one or more and doest cast out Devils by Belzebub the Prince of Devils Sith this was done to the green dry wonder not at what was done to the dry I am confident Jezebel did not more falsely accuse Naboth of Blasphemy in the high Court of Justice which she procured against him than was his Majesty of famous memory accused in the things that were laid to his charge some of which were so horrid the more horrid and execrable the guilt of his accusers as nothing could be more If our proverb be true about losing a good name He that wholly takes away the good name though but of a private person though he do nothing more does worse than behead him What then have they done or wherewithal shall their Crime be expiated who did not only take away the Head of an excellent Prince one of a thousand but his good name also as much as in them lay and did not only extinguish his Life and Light but endeavoured to make him go out in a snuff and leave a loathsome stench behind him which maugre all their malice God hath converted into a sweet odor and now he who had no Funeral Sermon on the day he was Buried hath hundreds that may be so called preached anniversally on the day of his Death viz. each 30 day of January and his name imbalmed a-fresh on every such day and like to be so to all posterity Lastly If their Treason who imbrued their hands in the Blood of the late King were not attended with the breach of the Tenth Commandment no sin ever was This horrid Murther and Treason was certainly one branch springing from that bitter root Covetousness which the Apostle calleth the root of all evel and if of all evils surely of this for one They thought the Life of a King in an ill sense more worth than the lives of ten thousand of his Subjects I mean a better prey a greater booty of which they could make more earnings and greater advantage to themselves than of ten thousand other Lives They would have said of a common man Quid laudis in nece tantillae bestiae He had not been worth the beheading what should they get by his death But doubtless they had well computed what was to be gotten by the death of their King He had Fields and Vineyards They knew how to part the Skin of a royal Lyon if he were but once dead they would be his Executioners as it were that they might make themselves his Executors I mean serve themselves of his Revenues and cause him to die that they might live more splendidly The Flowers and Jewels of one Royal Crown are sufficient to enrich though with a vengeance many private Families That by their own confession some of them aimed at and doubtless so did the rest or most of them that did never confess it Was it not the wedge of Gold I mean the Kings Revenues and that which they called A Babylonish Garment viz. The Lands of Bishops Deans and Chapters which those Achans those Troublers of Israel long'd for and made their way to through the Blood of their King So Judas for the lucre of 30 pieces betrayed his Lord and Master Now if that be not a great sin which breaks five Commandments at once let the World judge And so I pass on to my Third Aggravation of their sin who Murthered King Charles the First It was flat and down-right Rebellion open and palpable Rebellion In what can a Son more rebel against his Father than if he seek to take away his Life yea do actually murther him Now Kings are as well Political Fathers to their Subjects de facto as they are Nursing Fathers de jure Yea such Political Fathers are much more superior to their Political than Natural Fathers are to their Natural Children Sons if abroad in the World and at full age are not indecently suffered to be covered in the presence of their Fathers but may ordinary Subjects be so in the presence of their King If then Kings be unquestionable Fathers to their Subjects and of an order of Fatherhood superior to those who begat them then whatsoever is Rebellion in Children against their Natural Fathers the same thing if against their King is as true and as great yea greater Rebellion Ex parte objecti Now the Scriptare calls it Rebellion in a Son but to resist and refuse the lawful Commands of his Father Deut. 21.18 If a Man have a stubborn and rebellious Son which will not obey the voice of his Father or the voice of his Mother and that when they have chastened him will not hearken to them There you have a Rebel against his Natural Parents de facto viz. A Child that will not obey or hearken to the voice of his Father or of his Mother And his Punishment is set down v. 21. All the men of his City shall stone him with stones that he die Is Disobedience in a Child to the lawful Commands not only of a Father but of a Mother Rebellion and such as God appointed to be punished with death and such a death too as is there described viz. Then shall his Father and his Mother lay hold on him and bring him out unto the Elders of his City and unto the Gate of his Place and they shall say unto the Elders of his City This our Son is stubborn and rebellious he will not obey our voice c. v. 19 20. Where first of all his own Parents were to be his accusers yea as it were the Constables that were charg'd with him to bring him before the Magistrates and give evidence against him declaring his Crime viz. saying This our Son is stubborn and rebellious a glutton and a drunkard Then his own Countreymen or Townsmen here called the Elders of his City were to be his Judges and to give sentence against him and that sentence of Death and that the Death of a Dog viz. to be stoned and that stoning by the hand not of one strange Executioner but by the hands of Countreymen or fellow-townsmen every one of which did or might fling a
he was besieged by Omri and saw that the City was taken he went into the Pallace and burnt the Kings House over him and died 1 Kings 16.18 How sped the Servants of Amon King of Judah who murthered him in his House See 2 Kings 21.24 And the People of the Land slew all them that had conspired against King Amon and made Josiah his Son King in his stead Joash his Servants conspired against him and slew him 2 Chron. 24.25 which was a most just thing on Gods part to avenge the Blood of the Sons of Jehoiada the Priest v. 25. but how came they off see 2 Chron. 25.3 When the Kingdom was established to him he i. e. Amaziah slew his Servants that had beheaded the King his Father If the Murtherers of private persons be now and then reserved to the judgment of the great day to be punished yet Divine Justice and Vengeance as if more concerned about the death of Princes than of Private Persons by the instances fore-cited seems to have alwayes overtaken those even in this Life who have spilt the Blood of Kings as Water upon the Ground Whence is easie to infer that though Homicide be a very great sin yet Regicide is greater and that he was a King whom the Men I am writing of put to death no man ever doubted Seventhly Neither was it Regicide only or the murthering of one who was meerly a King of which these men were guilty but also Justicidium or the murthering of a good King Who knows not that the wilful murthering of any man though a bad yea though the worst of men is a great and crying sin but the murthering of a good and vertuous man a man of a thousand is worse than that and beyond either of them is the murthering of a good and excellent King yea of one of the best Kings in the World which is the case before us Now by how much better the murthered person was by so much worse was the murther for Corruptio optimi est pessima is a never failing rule I dare not apply to this occasion those words of St. Peter Acts 3.14 Ye denied the holy one and the just because they are peculiar to our Saviour who is the holy and the just one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and there is no man so besides him but that the martyred King was a man of great vertue is I think as generally acknowledged by them that either knew him or have seen what is in History concerning him as almost any thing is Who could ever taxe him with Intemperance more or less Who knew not the greatness of his Patience under his unparallell'd Sufferings his professed forgiveness of his most provoking enemies Who ever did read more Divine Lines more pious Contemplations dropping from the Pen of any afflicted Prince than his incomparable and unimitable Book doth contain But it will not stand with the brevity here intended or with the Symmetry of this part with the rest of this Book to write a History in this place of that renowned Kings Vertues but he that shall read his Life excellently written as it is by Dr. Perringshief and others if he have any faith in Histories as what wise men hath not some will not as much admire the greatness of his Vertues as the barbarousness of his Sufferings and both together most of all Herein appeared the barbarousness of his murtherers that they could find in their hearts to use a Prince so immensely ill who deserved so excellently well The Apostle saith Rom. 5.7 Paradventure for a good man some would even dare to die Were they Men or Monsters or Devils incarnate or what were they then who instead of dying for a good man put a good man to death An untimely death I had almost call'd it a shameful death for so it in true tended but that I know no shame was in martyrdom If any man doubt the piety of that Martyr and the tenderness of his Conscience let him but read the 2. chap. in his excellent Book viz. upon the Earl of Strafford 's death Because when almost wearied out of his life by the importunity of those that he believed did wish him well and us'd it as a Maxime Better one man perish though unjustly than the people be displeased or destroy'd he had complied to sign a Bill against the Earl of Strafford's life though without plenary consent to his destruction as he himself saith Lord how uneasie was his Consciscience Reader forbear weeping if thou canst when thou readest those melting warning words of his I see it a bad Exchange to wound a man 's own Conscience thereby to salve State-sores to calm the storms of Popular discontents by stirring up a tempest in a man 's own bosom But I will not prevent thy reading of that whole most excellent Chapter which may almost warrant us to call him A father of Penitents as Abraham was called A father of the Faithful I shall conclude this seventh Article of my charge against the Murtherers of King Charles the First with a short reflexion upon David's words to Baanah and Rechab who cut off the head of Ishbosheth and brought it to him looking for a reward 2 Sam. 4.11 How much more when wicked men have slain a righteous person shall not I require his blood of your hand and take you away from the earth As if David had said for that he meant Saul was a wicked King an enemy to God as well as me and yet when one told me saying Behold Saul is dead viz. the Amalekite who said he slew him by his own command to put him out of pain 2 Sam. 1.10 I took hold of him and slew him who thought I would have given him a reward for his tidings If he were worthy of death who only reported himself upon a pick-thankly account to have kill'd Saul who seem'd otherwise about to kill himself and at his own appointment who was then full of anguish though Saul was a very wicked man as aforesaid what have they deserv'd who beheaded a virtuous King sore against his will and best endeavours to the contrary and that with many circumstances of barbarity as you will hear hereafter And so I proceed to the eighth Article wherewith I charge the said King's Judges viz. Hypocrisie I say with great Hypocrisie practized in that fact It was Homicidium maxime Hypocriticum It was even the Master-piece of Hypocrisie and the grandest Cheat under the Notion of Piety that ever was imposed upon the world Now all Hypocrisie is a perfect Lye and the fault that needs a Lye grows two thereby as Mr. Herbert tells us Who that understands the intrigue of that Business do's not cry out Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Could such a Monster spring from the Womb of Religion Who laid that Brat at her Door For it was none of hers So Politicians talk most of Religion when they mean nothing less as if they would compensate by taking God
Sam. 3.13 There is a Saying that would bear hard in this case Qui non prohbet cum potest jubet 2. Some did not enough deprecate the death of the King which every one was able to have done though many could do nothing else but that to promote it The old Armor of Christians which are Prayers and Tears ought to have been taken up by all men and managed to the best advantage for the defence of his Majesty's life If that were not done you were remotely accessary to his death 3. If you did not sufficiently lay that to heart mourn over and bewail it you are in some degree guilty concerning it So had Lot been of the sins of Sodom if he had not vexed his righteous soul with the ungodly conversation of that place as he is said to have done 2 Pet. 2.8 The Apostle chargeth the Corinthians concerning the Incestuous man 1 Cor. 5.2 saying Ye are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he who hath done this thing might be taken away from among you God sent his Angel as we read Ezek 9.4 to set a mark of preservation upon the foreheads of the men that sighed and cried for the abominations done in the midst of Jerusalem and upon them only as who should say the rest were involved in the common guilt 4. If we have not duly reproved and reprehended such as had a hand in the King's death according to what opportunities we have had so to do labouring to convince them of the horrible evil and sin of which they were guilty and to call them to repentance then are we in part guilty of and accessary to it our selves So much is intended in that passage of the Apostle Eph. 5.11 Have no fellowship with the fruits of darkness but rather reprove them implying that they who reprove them not are reckoned by God to have part or fellowship with them 5. If we have not sufficiently detested the putting of the King to death and seasonably entred a Protestation against it surely we are in part guilty of it David hath an expression to that purpose Psal 101.3 I hate the work of them that turn aside it shall not cleave to me intimating that the only way to have nothing of other mens turnings aside or sins to cleave to him was for him to hate their wayes and as for entring our protest against other mens sins see how careful Joshuah was to clear himself by doing that Josh 24 14 15. Put away the gods which your Fathers served in Egypt and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil to serve the Lord chuse ye this day whom ye will serve but as for me I and my house will serve the Lord. 6. They who do any ways provoke stir up or encourage others to a sin the acting whereof they themselves do not touch with the least of their fingers are for that reason guilty of that sin Witness that most remarkable passage Exod. 32.35 The Lord plagued the people because they made the Calf that Aaron made The people are said to have made it because they put Aaron upon the making of it 7. They who were any ways contributing and assisting towards the death of the King though ignorantly and far from intentionally or to any of those things which did make way for the acting and accomplishing of that bloody Tragedy were in part accessary to his death As the men who broke off the golden ear-rings which were in the ears of their wives and daughters and brought them to Aaron therewith to make a golden Calf are therefore said to have made that Calf though they made it not a Calf but only Aaron gave it a form and shape Exod. 32.20 And Moses took the Calf which they i. e. the people had made and burnt it Causa causae est causa causati is an old Rule 8. We become guilty of the sins of other men which we imitate and follow for in so doing we do as it were vouch vindicate and justifie them Luke 11 49 50 said the Wisdom of God I will send them Prophets and Apostles and some of them they shall slay and persecute That the blood of all the Prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this Generation c. 9. Lastly to name no more at this time We may be guilty of other mens sins and so of murthering the King in particular Deme rendo by our other sins whereby we have provoked God to let so great a judgment for it may be considered as a judgment as well as a sin befal the Nation Witness that pat Text 2 Sam. 24.1 And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to say Go number Israel and Judah Now quit himself who can from all those remote ways of accessoriness to the late Kings death Now I am very prone to think that the Accessoriness of men to the sins of others in such way and manner as hath been expressed is one of the best accounts that can be given why God punisheth some men for other mens sins ex gr Israel and Judah for David's numbring of the people 2 Sam. 24. Particularly for men's justifying the sins of others by treading in their steps and doing wickedly as they did before them which is very provoking to God witness Deut. 32.13 14. The Lords anger was kindled against Israel and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years c. And behold ye are risen up in your Fathers stead an increase of sinful men to augment yet the fierce anger of the Lord against Israel Possibly one main reason of God's imputing Original sin to any besides him that committed it and whose actual sin it was is because men do justifie the same by their actual transgressions For if Adam did not do well in doing what God had forbad him why do we the same thing presuming from day to day to eat as it were of forbidden fruit Yea I do verily believe that God never did and never will impute Original sin to the eternal condemnation of any one person male or female that hath not or shall not rise up and justifie the same by his or her actual transgressions But now lest the hearts of them who were primarily immediately intentionally and wilfully guilty of murthering King Charles the First should be hardned by hearing that almost every body had remotely or indirectly a hand or finger in the death of that good King give me leave to tell you that there is no comparison betwixt the greatness of their guilt who are the principal Actors the wilful and deliberate Contrivers and Executots of such a bloody fact as that was and of others who by some of the ways before-mentioned are become sore against their will and intentions and beyond all that they could ever imagine in some sort Accessary to and remotely concern'd in it and at a great distance guilty of the same It
was occasioned by a Lye of David's that as we read 1 Sam. 22.18 The King i. e. Saul said to Doeg Turn thou and fall upon the Priests And Doeg went and fell upon the Priests and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linnen Ephod ver 19. And Nob the City of the Priests smote he with the edge of the sword both men and women children and sucklings and oxen asses and sheep Hear David's Confession ver 22. that it was long of him David said to Abiathar I knew it that day when Doeg was there that he would surely tell Saul I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy Fathers house Now had David been as deeply guilty of the death of so many Priests and other People as Saul was who commanded Doeg to kill them or as Doeg was who did so willingly execute that bloody command of Saul directly opposite to the Command of God 't is like he had been overwhelm'd with the sense of it but as the case stood he was not so because though he was not altogether unaccessary to the slaughter aforesaid yet he had so small a hand in it and was so very remotely indirectly and vnintentionally concern'd therein that his Conscience had not much to say to him concerning it For it fareth in such cases as these as it doth in some small and slender Errors in judgment which may be charged with dangerous Consequences at the long run they may possibly be no great prejudice to these that hold them or are deceived by them because they do utterly abhor those Consequences wherewith they are charged neither do they apprehend that they are chargeable with any such Consequences Ex. gr Suppose that be an Error that some have made such ill use of That Christ shall reign upon the earth a thousand years though Fifth monarchy-men have taken occasion from thence to raise Arms and rebel under pretence of bringing Christ to his Throne yet ought not all that ever were of that opinion or now are to be courted Rebels For there are and have been men of that perswasion who knew full well that the Kingdom of Christ upon Earth stood in no need of mens sins and Rebellion to set it up but would make way for its self when the full time was come God forbid that I should be so unjust as to charge every body with the death of the martyred King at any such rate as his Judges are charged with it but this I am bold to say viz. that the whole Nation at leastwise by deserving that so great a judgment should befal it as was the cutting off a good King or by not sufficiently bewailing that such a thing was done or notenough abhorring the tsinfulness of that fact are become so far forth accessary to it as doth give every man sufficient occasion to cast in his Lot amongst those that do fast and mourn upon every 30th day of January And now methinks I hear some people objecting against the Law which hath established a perpetual Fast upon that occasion to be celebrated every year and on such a day as if it were a thing of which no good account could be given or more than needs and concerning which the great God would say Who hath required this at your hands As if it did but kindle coals keep up revenge renew heats and animosities raise and disturb the Ghosts of the dead which should be at rest upbraid those who have received their punishment and upon the whole matter do more hurt than good Now to those who ask us Quo warranto do we keep our Anversary Fast on every 30th day of January To that I answer 1. We have frequent instances in holy Writ of Magistrates taking upon them to appoint Religious Fasts 1 Sam. 7.5 And Samuel said Gather all Israel to Mizepeh And they gathered to Mizpeh and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted all that day c. Which passage the Chaldee Paraphrase doth thus gloss upon viz. Hauserunt aquas e puteo cordis sui abunde lachrymati sunt coram Domino resipiscentes i. e. They drew waters out of the wells of their hearts and wept abundantly before the Lord but that by the way See also 2 Chron. 20.3 Jehoshaphat feared viz. because Moab and Ammon were come up against him and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a Fast throughout Judah See also Ezra 8.21 Then I proclaimed a Fast saith Ezra that we might afflict our selves before our God to seek of him a right way for us and for our little ones and for all our substance Also Esther 4.16 Go gather together all the Jews that are in Shushan said Queen Hester and fast ye for me and neither eat nor drink three days night or day I also and my maids will fast likewise and so will I go in unto the King which is not according to the Law and if I perish I perish See Jonah 3.5 So the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a Fast ver 6. For word came to the King of Nineveh and he covered him with sackcloth and sate in ashes And he caused it to be proclaimed and published thorow Nineveh by the decree of the King and his Nobles c. All these Texts do manifest beyond all contradiction That even the best of Rulers and Magistrates such as Samuel Jehoshaphat Ezra c. have taken upon them to proclaim and enjoyn Religious Fasts when they saw causes for it which doubtless so good and knowing men as these would never have done if it had not belonged to them So then there can be no fault in Magistrates assuming to themselves to appoint a Fast and Fasts upon sufficient and meet occasions though some cannot endure to hear of Civil Magistrates their medling or making more or less about matters of Religion no though it be to promote it but I think they are more nice than wise in that particular But may some say Will the occasion bear a Fast viz. The Death of the King so many years ago To which I answer Why not Surely it will Great Judgments either incumbent or but impendent have been the occasions of Fasts So of Jehoshaphat's and of Esther's Fast and why are not great sins as much and as just an occasion of a Fast for they are causes and procurers of great Judgments Have we not as much cause to fast and pray in reference to that Guilt which is upon our heads as to War or other Calamities which do but hang or hover over our heads Now whereas some may think that though such an occasion as that may well bear a day or two once for all yet an Anniversary Fast upon such an account as this is too much I am not of their mind For why not Anniversary Fasts upon great and and publick sins as well as Anniversary Feasts upon great and publick deliverances and that appointed by Magistrates too Such was
duty of Subjects towards Kings and Rulers Possibly your Children and your Servants will be more obedient to you than now they are when you have learnt to be more obedient to those whom God hath set over you in the Church or State Nay some good and pious women whilst they are teaching their Children and Servants obedience to the King may reflect and learn more obedience to their own Husbands Vpon that day let every thing that is under Government be taught to obey I do really think it a very great defect in Parents not to train up their Children in Loyalty amongst other Principles of Religion for that is one head of the Fifth Commandment not to train them up in that way of their youth that they may not forget it when they are old Perhaps some Parents had kept their Children from those untimely ends which their Disloyalty hath brought them to if they had done so Let us possess our Families with awful apprehensions of Magistracie and the necessity of obeying those whom God hath set over us in all lawful things and this especially upon every 30th day of January For want of this many are undone by scrupling what they need not viz. indifferent things and not scrupling what they ought viz. Rebellion Is it not to little purpose generally for men to give their Children Learning unless they instruct them in Loyalty for if they are to seek as to that where and in what capacity shall they use their Learning What shall be the Sphere of their activity A little Learning would serve the turn to preach to so few hearers as the Law will afford or allow them who are not instructed in obedience How many Lads of excellent parts and hopes having suckt in dâ—sloyal Principles as it were with their Mothers milk have been put to mean and Mechanick Trades and forced to live by their hands who could have liv'd by their heads or head-pieces as well as most men had they not been denied that Education that should have inabled them so to do It might prevent the ruine of thousands if such Texts as some that I could name were preached upon on every 30th day of January and handled as they should be I mean so as that the Reason and Consciences of men might feel what the Minister saith and go away more fixed in Loyalty and Obedience than they came thither Ex. gr one of the Texts I mean is Prov. 24.21 22. My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knows the ruine of them both What we translate given to change some render by the word Rebellibus Rebels others by nova Molientibus such as project or attempt new things i. e. new Governments There are two expressions that bid fair for the sense of those words who knows the ruin of them both 1. Who knows what ruine may fall upon them who honour not God and the King from them both i. e. both from God and the King 2. Or the words may be rendred who knows Sheneicem i. e. terminum annorum the end of their years and days who are given to change and overturn Governments how soon they may perish in their Rebellion as did Corah and his Complices Another Text which I wish that Parents would mind their Children and Masters their Servants of upon every 30th day of January is Prov. 17.26 To punish the just is not good nor to strike Princes for equity Methinks at the first hearing the words do sound as if the meaning of them were That it is not good to strike Princes under pretence of bringing them as Delinquents to condign punishment of trying them by a pretended Court of Justice or Process of Law as Jezebel tried Naboth Surely if a man be either a just man or a Prince he ought not to be stricken by the hand of any man If just because he deserves it not if a Prince or King because if you could suppose him to have deserved it he is to be reserved to the judgment of the King of Kings as David said concerning Saul 1 Sam. 26.10 The Lord shall smite him or his day shall come to die or he shall descend into battle and perish The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lords Anointed ver 9. And David said to Abishat who said to him Let me smite Saul once with a spear to the earth and I will not smite him again for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless Cause your Children and Servants to read such Texts as these upon every 30th day of January A disloyal Education I perswade my self hath been the temporal ruine of many a hopeful Person Let no Parents convey those groundless prejudices into the minds of their children which may prove the seeds of Rebellion in time at leastwise of Faction and Sedition which will ever keep them from ever signifying any thing in this world and consign them over to the woful temptations of want and beggery and what if Parents when they have compassed Sea and Land to make their Children Froselytes to their own perswasions have proved but ignes fatui to their own children meerly misled and misguided them And whilst they being blind themselves as to those matters lead their children as blind as themselves both of them fall into the ditch God secure all conscientious Loyalty and Obedience in this and all following Ages and let all good and wise Parents cause their Childrn to suck it in with their Mothers milk that such days of Rebellion Treason Perjury Sacriledge and Murther as our eyes have seen may never return upon us again Tell your Children that in such a year begun a Civil War in England which ended in the murthering the barbarous murthering of a good King say that and you need say no more to make any conscientious person tremble at the thought of another Civil War oâ— of contributing thereunto Let the murther of the King be exposed to deter all after-ages from ever thirsting more after the blood of Kings or at leastwise daring to gratifie and quench that their thirst c. If Ministers will please to lay aside all invective language if any be prone thereunto of which I can charge no man particularly upon each 30th day of January and whatsoever may give people just occasion to say they railed in the Pulpit using as one expresseth it soft words and hard Arguments whereby to convince all gainsayers that the putting of the late King to death was an action monstrously wicked an unaccountable sin to God or men if people will be so obedient to Authority and so true to themselves as to attend publick preaching and prayer on that day the Anniversary Fast may with the blessing of of God turn to a very good account namely of securing the Peace and Safety of the Nation and of the respective
them murtherers each of other because they did abet and encourage each other in and unto the murther of the King in which was included their own consequentially If there were forty of them each of them was guilty of the death of forty not the forty only guilty of the death of one man viz. the King but each of them of forty murthers viz. each of other for that they strengthened each others hands in and unto the work Again If naked Murther be a damnable sin as hath been proved that murther which is cloathed with barbarous and inhumane circumstances must needs be so much more In Judg. 19.25 we read of a Levites Concubine not only killed but with circumstances that were very barbarous viz. forced to death by the Benjamites dwelling in Gibeah Chap. 20.5 But what dreadful things ensued ver 6. I saith the Levite took my Concubine and cut her in pieces and sent her through all Israel for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel The product of this was what we read Judg. 20.34 35. And there came up against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel and the battle was sore And the Lord smote Benjamin before Israel and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjamites that day twenty and four thousand and an hundred men all these drew the sword or were men of valour as is said ver 44. Though wilful murther it self cloathed with the most extenuating circumstances be a great sin yet the barbarous circumstances wherewith it may be cloathed may make it twice so great a sin as otherwise it had been and much more expose it to the Divine vengeance as appeareth by the instance aforesaid But to proceed 6thly Is Hypocrisie a damning sin or not It must needs be so because Hell or the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth is called a portion with the Hypocrite Matth. 24.51 intimating that Tophet was prepared of old as much for Hypocrites as for any sort of men Doth not our Saviour let fly as many Vae's or Woes against Hypocrites as against any sort of men Mat. 25.14 15 16 23 25 27 29. and does he not utter those dreadful words in the close ver 33. Ye Serpents ye generation of Vipers how can ye escape the damnation of hell Now with what direful circumstances of Hypocrisie the late King's death was managed I have told you before 7thly If it be a mortal damning sin to murther but one man especially if a King a Monarch or any thing so great is it not more so to murther a whole Kingdom Country and Monarchy at once The whole species of Monarchy is much more than one individual Kingdom or Monarchy Now I have shew'd before that was aim'd at in putting the King to death which was not only Monarchicidium but designed to issue in Monarchiaecidium or in the ruine of all Monarchy 8thly Is it not a horrid and damning sin to subvert and destroy the good and necessary Laws of a Nation all at once Yea. Not the Laws only but also the very Legislative Power or the Power of making more good Laws as the matter should require If they who resist or disobey the powers that are shall receive damnation as the Apostle speaks Rom. 13.2 What will become of them who in effect destroy and disanul all the Laws of a Nation at once and all the Law-makers Such were the Regicides For when there was no King in England arm'd with power no new Laws could be made nor the old ones executed neither Legally for who but a King has power to give Commission to Judges and other great Instruments of the Law upon all emergent occasions c What the Apostle saith of the Law of God viz. The Law is good if a man use it lawfully is true of the Law of England it is good if it be used lawfully or legally but how could that be done when there was no King in being 9thly Is it not a damning sin for a man to murther himself as did Judas Ahitophel c And did not they murther themselves who murther'd the King For besides that they were dead men in the Eye of the Law the first moment they did or attempted it did it not cost most of them their lives and expose them to an untimely and shameful death though no punishment could be so shameful as was their crime 10thly and lastly Is Deicidium or striking at the life of God himself a damning sin If that will not damn men without great repentance what will The murthering of earthly Kings in Person is it not a kind of murthering the King of Kings in Effigie For his Stamp and Inscription they bear and from thence are called gods in Scripture frequently not that they are equal to the true and living God yea not but that they shall die like men but because in point of Power and Authority of Honour and Majesty they do resemble God much more than Subjects do Now as he that should spit upon the Kings Coin or Picture would be dealt with as one that offered an affront and indignity to his Person and were highly disaffected to him so in this case Now all those Soul-damning sins that I have mentioned being in the womb of that one sin viz. the murthering of the late King let the Reader judge whether the Regicides did not take as direct a course to damn their own Souls as men could take And whether if any shall hereafter attempt to do the same thing to his Majesty that now is as they did to his Father which God forbid it will not prove as ready and certain a course not only to throw away their corporal lives with ignominy but also to damn their Souls and the Souls of their Confederates as any that men could take I am hardned against those that shall say if any such there be That this was done in favour of Religion and for the preservation thereof in power and purity by a Story which a noted Parliament-man and Purchaser of the revenues of a Bishoprick told me about the year 1648. Whereas saith he it is given out that all the change which hath been made has been in order to the preservation and Reformation of Religion there is no such thing For said he had there been Preferments enough in Church State wherewith to have gratified all men of parts interest who were ambitious of them I do assure you there had been no war He was as capable of knowing what he said as any man could be being at that time a Member of Parliament and a great man amongst them though more plain-hearted than some others were The discoveries which I have made of notorious Hypocrisie and blasphemous pretences to God and Religion whilst men did uti Deo at fruantur mundo i. e. use God that they might enjoy the world together with the little difference which I could ever discern betwixt the conversations of those that called themselves the Godly Party
Vengeance upon Cities and Kingdoms like the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah which laid those famous Cities all in Ashes or like Davids numbring the People which exposed his Subjects to one of three dreadful Judgments choose him whether the least whereof was the Plague or Pestilence when Conscience smites for such things as these it even breaks Mens Bones it makes them Magor Missabibs that is Terrors round about to themselves ready to fall into the jaws of despair cursing the day of their birth as did Job Chap. 1.3 upon an other account and crying out as he v. 11. Why died I not from the Womb Why did I not give up the Ghost when I came out of the Belly When Conscience smites at this rate ah who can live But Fifthly and lastly to name no more Presumptuous sins that is sins committed against full Conriction of their real and hainous sinfulness against the Lord Out-cryes of Christian Friends Holy Ministers and above all of Mens own Consciences crying out and saying O do not this abominable thing which the Soul of God hateth sins against fairest warnings given by Gods signal Judgments executed upon sinners of the like nature sins against the highest obligations of stupendious mercies obliging men to the contrary and aggravated by whatsoever other circumstances do aggravate the sins of men These presumptious sins as I call them do make the Consciences of Men to smite till even themselves be sick with smiting and to give the sinner little or no rest day or night causing him to cry out My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness there is no soundness in my flesh because of my sin mine iniquites are gone over my Head and are a burthen too heavy for me to bear c. Now that Conscience should smite for such crying and crimson sins as these is no wonder but what should be the meaning of its smiting men as now and than it doth for small sins for motes in their eyes for meer Peccadillo's When poor Jonathans have tasted but a little Honey upon the tip of their Staves Why must they die for so doing Why must Vzza's Hand wither but for stretching it forth and that with a good intention to stay Gods tottering Ark Why must the Carkasses of so many Beth-shemites fall onely for the most pardonable curiositie as it may seem viz. To look into Gods Ark whilst the Angels of God themselves are allowed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to stoop down and to pry into Gods Misteries Why must David lose so great a number of his innocent Subjects as he call'd them when he said What have these Sheep done onely because their King and Shepherd made bold to number them Why since it is a Maxim in the Laws of England Lex non curat de minimis The Law troubles not it self with trivial faults I say Why doth the All-merciful God either smite himself or suffer Conscience to smite at so great a rate for small Transgressions for cutting off not the Head of a King but meerly the Skirt of his Garment Or how can he be said to be merciful that does so Hath he appointed Conscience not onely not to swallow Camels but to strain at Gnats Is this the manner of Men that are accounted mild and merciful Ans It were easie for me to take up the Authors of this objection very short saying no more than this Who art thou O man that repliest against God But since it may easily be done I shall gratifie them with a more full and satisfactory account of this matter in the following Particulars First of all God doth therefore punish small sins such I mean in comparison of others with great temporal Punishments and set Conscience at work sometimes to chide for them at a great rate to let the World know there is no sin small absolutely but comparatively For as much as every sin is committed against God who is infinitely good and in that respect is Ex parte objecti a kind of infinite evil As there is no wilful Murther Incest Sodomy Bestiality Perjury or Treason which is in it self a small crime yet there are some of all these which are small in comparison of other faults of the same denomination clothed with much more aggravating circumstances as we commonly hear of Petty Treason in opposition to High Treason so there are Petty Thefts Petty Oaths of which sins we may say as of the Stars of Heaven viz. They are all great though not all of the same magnitude for all Stars are not Stars of the first magnitude Secondly God sometimes smites severely both by himself and by Conscience his Vice-Roy for small sins to let men know that the smallest sins deserve though not the greatest of eternal yet of temporal Punishments though not the worst place in Hell yet the worst condition can be undergone in this World else God had been unrighteous in laying what he did lay upon Job whose sins were meer Motes in comparison of the sins of many other Men which were like Beams and yet his Afflictions were like great Beams whilst theirs were but little Motes or Atomes dancing in the Sun To punish any man one grain above his demerit were one grain of Injustice which is altogether incompatible with the Righteousness of God Surely the greatest of temporal Judgments are but finite and therefore the least of sins being infinitely evil Ex parte objecti or as it is against an infinite good cannot but deserve it Thirdly Therefore doth God suffer men to be smitten at a very great rate both by himself and their own Consciences for small sins which they use to call Zoar 's saying they are but little ones and their Souls shall live to declare his infinite Purity and Holiness as being so great a hater of all sin that he cannot behold the least without indignation as if the Apple of his Eyes were thereby touched and a very Mote will disturb the Apple of ones Eye Fourthly We may humbly conceive that God puts a Rod into the hands of Conscience in order to its smiting men for small sins for this merciful end that he may restrain them from committing greater He whose Heart smote him for cutting off but Sauls Skirt was in no danger of ever adventuring to cut off his Head Lastly God may be supposed by Conscience and by himself to smite men severely for small sins that thereby he may make other men afraid of committing greater and they who have committed greater to quake and tremble when they consider what God hath done by those whose sins were far less than theirs saying within themselves If this be done to the green Tree what shall be done to the dry And if Judgment thus begin as it were at the House of God where shall the wicked and ungodly appear I hope by this time my Reader is satisfied in the reasons why God doth sometimes punish sins comparatively but small with great and grievous Judgments and
particularly with sharp stings and reflections of Conscience If any shall now ask me why God doth not punish all sins alike in this Life and every small transgression as severely as he did Davids numbering the People I might answer him by another Question namely Why do not Magistrates put to death all condemned Persons Thieves and others but onely transport some whilst they hang others and while some are executed within a day or two give others a long reprive and possibly in conclusion a pardon Is there any Injustice in so doing No surely for Justice and Mercy do not interfere but do sweetly accord and kiss each other whilst Mercy keeps within its Zodiack to allude to the motion of the Sun though it hath an Ecliptick Line which seems not so strait yet it trespasseth not upon the Bounds or Land-marks of Justice Take it in the case of Pharoah who though he hanged his Baker that had displeased him was not unjust though his pleasure was to lift up the Head of his Butler who possibly was in the same Transgression as well as in the same Prison with him not upon the Gallows as he did the Baker but in the Preferments of his Court A Creditor who having two Debtors shall cast one of them into Prison who all things considered deserves to be so dealt with is not unjust though at the same time he shall freely forgive the other as great or greater a Debt It is highly comporting with Wisdom and the ends of Government that small sins be sometimes severely punished especially at the first making Laws to give them sanction So God commanded him to be stoned to death who gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day and sent fire from Heaven to consume Nadab and Abihu for offering strange fire And it is on the other hand as agreeable to Wisdom and other Perfections that small faults should generally receive but small punishments that the work and reward as well bad as good should bear a manifest proportion each to other But the Riddle of all Riddles as it may seem to some is that which is yet behind namely Why doth God sometimes suffer the Consciences of men to be quiet and not to smite them at all after they have sinned with a very high hand when yet the Consciences of those very men are sometimes appointed by God to fall foul upon them for meer Peccadillo's Of which we have an instance in David whose Heart smote him not for the matter of Bathsheba and Vriah the two grand faults of his Life and greatest blot sin all his Escutheon till such time as Nathan the Prophet came to him which was supposed to have been one or more years afterwards and opened his Eyes with the Eye-salve of a Parable whereby he was honestly trapann'd if I may so say into giving sentence against himself There are principally two reasons which offer themselves to satisfie us in this point One taken from the Nature of great Sins the other from the Justice and Wisdom of God That from great Sins is this 'T is the nature and property of great sins to stun and stupisie the Consciences of Men and as it were to strike them dead as a great blow is apt to put a man past all feeling for the present to deliver him up to an Apoplexy whilst a small blow shall fill him with Smart and Pain 'T is commonly and truly said Leves loquuntur curae Ingentes stupent And it is most certain that all things which are a great deal too big and too much for us do naturally astonish and confound us be they Griefs or Joyes Fears or Hopes Good or Evil Things which sutes well with what Naturalists say viz. that Nimium sensible ledit sensorium As we see too much Light dazzles and blinds our Eyes though nothing so pleasing to the Eyes as that measure of Light which they can bear and too much noise though moderate sounds are the musick of the ear do not please but deafen us so it fareth with Men who by great sins have stun'd their Consciences and lain them as it were sprauling at their feet they become as the Apostle calls it Past feeling Ephes 4.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as it is expressed 1 Tim. 4.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is having their Consciences seared with a hot Iron Conscientias Cauterio resectas like Veins or Arteries burnt in two which have no more sense or perception of any thing Secondly The reason of this which is taken from the Justice of God may be thus explained 'T is a righteous thing with God when Men have slighted the frequent and earnest motions of their Consciences to give them up to their own hearts lusts and to say unto Conscience Let them alone as of old concerning Ephraim Ephraim is joyned to Idols let him alone Hosea 4.17 or as it is in the 14 of that Chap. I will not punish your Daughters when they commit Whoredom nor your Spouses when they commit Adultery c. Or as it is in Psal 11. v. 11 12. But my People would not hearken to my voice and Israel would have none of me so I gave them up to their own hearts lust and they walked in their own counsels c. This is now the soarest of all Punishments in this Life As nothing afflicts a Sick Man so much as to hear his Physician say Let him eat and drink what he will rise and go abroad when and where he will for then he concludes that he has given him over and looks upon him as past all cure and so an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or pleasant Passage out of the World is all he aims at for him I forbear to add a third reason viz. That Conscience when it has found it self often repulsed resisted and baffled begins to grow weary of admonishing takes pet and saith in effect as the words are Rev. 22.11 He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still or as God himself Isaiah 1.5 Why should you be stricken any more you will revolt more and more the whole Head is sick and the whole Heart is faint c. Let us now pass to the fourth thing which I propounded to speak of viz. The Quos or who they are that Conscience doth make bold to smite In answer to that let me tell you 'T is much easier to declare whom Conscience hath presumed to smite than whom it hath not for doubtless Conscience fears the Face of no man it hath smitten as Wise Men as ever were in the World not doubting to make good its charge against them witness Solomon for one if the Book of Ecclesiastes be his recantation as it is generally supposed to be It hath smitten as valiant Men and brave Souldiers as ever drew a Sword witness David who feared not the Face of Goliah that mighty amazing Gyant he who undauntedly encountered with a Lion and a Bear and gave Saul as a