instead of the most Flourishing Court of Europe He saw Himself long abandon'd to silent Walls or Rocks and Seas and yet more cruel Guards or then when in His Solitude He cast His thoughts back on His Travels abroad where He was the Love and Delight of Forein Courts and on His Return Home when the Whole Nation seem'd for Joy to go out beyond its own Shores to Meet Him and now to find that the same Nation lay so quiet and Astonish'd at His approaching Murther or then when He reflected on the Spotless Innocence of His whole Life and compar'd it as He well might with other Princes His Contemporaries and yet observ'd the strange Difference that Heaven had made in their Fortunes or then when He found that after the Greatest hopes of Peace and Accommodation He was so suddenly so unexpectedly Hurried to Destruction that even many of His Enemies could not keep pace with the rest in their Cruelty or when He saw that all the second Attempts of His Loyal Friends had prov'd as unfortunate as the first or when He remember'd the Innocence and the Calamities of the absent parts of Himself and took His last leave of those His Children that were present or when He beheld the places of His Trial and Martyrdome the one the Chief Seat of His own Justice the other of His former Splendor Or when I can go no farther For this can scarce be spoken without Tears and Tears will not become a Death so Triumphant Let it suffice that in all this He was not without all Natural Affections nor can any Man that is be truly Magnanimous Two things indeed came near His Heart the Misfortunes of His Family and Friends and the Slavery in which He saw His Subjects were going to be Inthrall'd These only could touch yet even these could not disorder His Soul nor weaken His Faith in God to whom He Meekly Resign'd His Own Private and the Publick Cause which was His own too and by a Divine Spirit Foretold the happy Recovery of both Let therefore the present Age and Posterity let all his Friends and Admirers know what his Enemies could not but confess that in all his Last Words and Looks and Actions He not only equall'd his former Greatness but he Did and Spoke and Look'd as became the Glory he was going to possess He parted from his Crowns as not asham'd to have worn them nor conscious of deserving to lose them nor unwilling to leave them He submitted not to the Unjust Sentence as a King he yielded to the Cruel Execution of it as a Christian The dishonorable part he refus'd the painful he accepted He pleaded not for himself at his Enemies Bar because it was below him He Pleaded and Pray'd for his Enemies at the Bar of heaven which only was above him That Majesty which Nature gave him he preserv'd he improv'd That humility and charity which Religion Taught him he Practis'd he adorn'd What Comforter in so great a Tempest could have inspir'd him with such Security such Calmness such Cheerfulness Who but He whom the Winds and Seas obey'd He that walk'd Himself on the Roughest Waves suffer'd himself the greatest Torments and was able to make His Disciples do the same Of that Divine Teacher He learnt this Heavenly Truth That Persecution is a Blessing and He behav'd Himself Conformable to that Blessed Example as well as Doctrine He was Persecuted for Righteousness sake whether we take Righteousness for Justice or Religion For both of which He was a Martyr and although his Persecutions might seem a Curse to him in this World because they depriv'd him of an Earthly Diadem yet they were a Real Inexpressible Blessing to him For he is abundantly unmeasurably recompens'd in the Kingdom of Heaven Whether the Kingdom of Heaven be taken as usually it is in Scripture Language for the Gospel of that Kingdom those Truths and Precepts that shew the Way to it or for the Joys of Heaven it self to which they Lead He certainly has had the blessings of both He felt out of question the sincere Comforts of the Evangelical Doctrine in this World his Life shewd it his Sufferings prov'd it his Death most evidently confirm'd it And therefore we have a charitable undoubted assurance that he attain'd at his Death to the other more happy Sense of the Word that as he himself the very Moment of his Expiring said he should He has exchang'd his Corruptible for an Incorruptible Crown that the Text of the Sermon Preach'd before him at his Coronation though it then might seem unseasonable has prov'd Prophetical which was the latter part of those Words Be thou faithful unto Death and I will give thee a Crown of Life We have now attended this Godlike Man to the end of his Labors and as much as we can do by our lmperfect Applauses and Congratulations we have brought him to the end of his Faith his entrance into the Kingdom of Glory But I am sensible that in Zeal to perform my poor Office to his Ashes I have too much Trespass'd on the Patience of this Great Assembly Yet I was led on by some kind of confidence that having this the Subject of my Discourse I should not only have your Customary pardon and more than ordinary Attention but the most favourable Concurrence of your tenderest Passions For though on less and private occasions there is scarce any Sorrow but may be wearied and dried up by the distance of almost Thirty years yet I could not but believe and you your selves have given me the greatest reasons imaginable to believe it that there are none here present who came not hither still afresh and most nearly concern'd in the Irreparable Loss of that excellent King Perhaps some that have heard me this day were his own Menial Servants and so were Domestick Witnesses of His incomparable goodness and had a share in His particular Kindness many there may be here who injoy'd the blessed fruits of His first Peaceful most Gentle most Religious Reign many I see who griev'd at His Ruin and indeavour'd too to support His falling Greatness with the hazard of all with the loss of much that was near and dear to them Even the youngest of us methinks cannot but still most sensibly regret His untimely Fall by which they were depriv'd of so perfect an Example of all Virtue and Piety and were forc'd to pass away their first years that else might have been most pleasant amidst the Oppressions and Confusions of their Country And certainly all of us together have just cause to be humbled under a sense of Gods Wrath and to Implore his Mercy that this Royal Innocent Blood which was spilt for the Church and has cryed from under the Altar may at length cease Crying not only against the Wretched Instruments of that Cruelty for that also in our own Charity and by His Example we ought to Pray for but that His Blood may cease Crying against the whole Nation it Self which How shall I express it without offence nay How with a just resentment which certainly suffer'd it by their Negligence Should I not add by their stupidity and too much hasten'd it by their Sins And if we are all Cordially thus affected as I doubt not but we all are with such Indignation for his Undeserv'd Death such Veneration for His Never-dying Memory may we all endeavor to express these our Affections not only by declaring our abhorrence of those Black Counsels and Accursed Practises which finish'd the last part of His Tragedy but even of those that did any way though at never so great a distance in the least Contribute towards it May all of us according to our several Stations and Abilities and Who can have Abilities to do this if you here present have not May all of us be most industriously Watchful that the same Schismatical Designs and Antimonarchical Principles which then lnspir'd so many ill Men Misled some Good Men and cost our Good King so Dear may not once more revive and Insinuate themselves again under the same or Newer and Craftier Disguises and find an opportunity to attempt the like Mischiefs For the Present Let us all joyn in our hearty Prayers to Allmighty God That he would be pleased to pardon to us and to our Country this Hainous Publick Sin by the same Infinite Compassion by which we can only expect Forgiveness of Our own particular Sins By that Blood which speaks better things than the Blood of the most Righteous Abel or Charles By that Blood which is more Precious than the Kings By the Blood and Merits and Intercession of Iesus Christ Our Lord. Amen FINIS Rev. 2.10
but True Zeal can break the force of False Zeal and of the very form of Godliness Wherefore from that Fatal Example how much the Name of Godliness Hypocritically us'd stood our Adversaries instead may we be instructed to Govern our Minds and Strengthen our Hearts and Reform our Lives by the Directions and Precepts of the True Holiness to have our Consciences as much in earnest as theirs but better Inform'd not only to hate the Hypocrisie but to out-doe the warmth of their Zeal And if the very Shadow of Christ could do such wonderful things What would not his Hand his Tongue his Body his Life do If by a sad experience we have found a feigned and Dissembled Piety so outragiously strong and too long irresistible Should we not thence conclude what greater Influence what more durable Authority the True Piety might have on our Minds by the efficacy of its own True Promises Rewards and Comforts In which God has pitied the Infirmities of our weak Humanity has supply'd them all in a gracious proportion to our defects has provided the greatest happiness for our immortal and mortal parts hereafter has furnisht us with the best relief for our Mortal part here But that Religion should bestow the surest aid and assistance in persecution is the more strange because at the first view it seems to make persecution more grievous by forbidding us many helps and means of defence which nature offers to the afflicted Does not our Saviours Doctrine command us to have the severest thoughts of our selves It tames the mind as well as it requires the body to be subservient to the mortification of the mind It lays so much restraint on our intemperate pleasures that to a carnal man it even seems to render prosperity a sort of persecution It denies us the use of some kinds of resistance of all manner of revenge of all actual revenge which is the delight of the powerful of all revengeful thoughts which may be esteemed some ease to the weak How then can it be that such a Doctrine should turn all persecution into a blessing yes most certainly and for the most weighty reasons of which the Two principal are here mention'd In this life it makes the suffering delightful because it is for righteousness sake in the next it makes it our glory and crown because of it's just claim to the Kingdome of Heaven First I say 't is this Doctrine only that prescribes such rules and provides such helps for the right ordering of all our thoughts words and actions in this Life that if they be exactly followed will put us into a condition of suffering for nothing but Righteousness sake So much moderation it imposes on our injoyment of things in our power So strictly it forbids all irregular desires of things in others power So much it teaches an inoffensive meekness and caution of not displeasing God or injuring Man that whoever lives accordingly whatever his Persecution may be he cannot but be innocent in it And if he be innocent the Persecution will be so too and will do him no manner of hurt To a heart so Conscientiously prepar'd so certain of its Duty so rightly secur'd in its Cause the Afflictions of this World have quite another appearance than to the rest of the World They are presently found to be only the tender Trials of a Merciful Father to be not only his Trials but Tokens and Testimonies of his Love and of our Adoption to Intitle us to the Privileges of Gods own People and Children to his Peculiar Care to his Spiritual Joys to his Kingdom That is the other Contemplation which completes the Blessing And it is only the hope of that Kingdom which our Lord Christ alone has Purchas'd for us that can be Equal to the Wants and Wishes of our Immortal Souls That only can Refresh the Distress'd and ease the Heavy Laden and Support the Living and Rejoyce the Dying without that Expectation the least Mortal Frailties and Crosses even Mortality it self were an Intolerable Oppression but with it the Cruellest Mortal Pains may be made light and inconsiderable without that Beliefe as Christians of all Men so Men of all Creatures were most miserable If there were no prospect of Heaven even Earth it self were a kind of Hell so dark so uncomfortable so dismally doubtful were the Condition of Mankind But now there is a Heaven so certain so unquestionable so near them who believe it and labor for it to such there shall not only be no Hell but even Earth it self amidst all their Earthly Calamities becomes a kind of Heaven so truely great is their Present Comfort so unspeakably great will be their future Felicity YOU now behold the Character Supports and Benefits of that Persecution which in the Religion that all of us have embrac'd is reckon'd as a Blessing This infallibly is the Christian Doctrine I come next to inforce and illustrate it by a Christian Example And I might allege that of the Blessed Author of it our Saviour himself But in him it may be said the Godhead did sustain the Humanity I might urge the Apostles and Primitive Disciples But they also were immediately assisted by a Miraculous Power enabling them to do and to suffer I might produce a Noble Army of Martyrs in all Ages of the Christian Church But it will now be enough once for all only to mention the blessed Pattern of that Saint-like King whose wonderful Patience in an Age wherein Miracles were ceas'd did almost seem to revive them His magnanimous Suffering did evidence how much Strength and Lustre the true Piety may add to the most Princely Mind the Afflictions that surrounded His Head did not deface but beautify His Life as the Thorns His Great Master wore at His Passion they were intended by His Enemies for His Shame and His Pain but they were in Truth His Crown His Fourth more Precious Crown When I seriously reflect on all the Sufferings of that Excellent Prince how little He deserv'd the least of them from any Man how much far otherwise he merited from many the chief Authors of them and yet by how many sad Circumstances they were still increast against how many fair hopes they still prevail'd and with what unshaken Constancy He bore them all I cannot but conclude that He was separated and Consecrated as it were by Gods Special Appointment to fall a Glorious Sacrifice to give a new Example of Christian Passive Courage to the decaying Virtue of this Age and that as the blood of Martyrs is truly said to be the Seed of the Church so the Blood of one Martyr'd King should be the perpetual Seed both of the Church and Monarchy of England He succeeded to His Temporal Crowns by the Conjunction and Indisputable Right of many Royal â—ines Yet he was so far from having the usual allowance that seems due to Rightful Sovereign Princes from observing whose very faults too curiously their Subjects ought and in better times
Whole World was a Spectator too Calmly a Spectator of the Last Part of His Life whilst Wicked Men Furiously Pursu'd His Death furiously for it was one time or other to be the Cause of their own Destruction whilst Good Men Pray'd for Him but could not otherwise help Him nay His Enemies Pray'd too and boldly Bely'd Heaven in Presuming that His Murther was the Return of their Prayers But Heaven was on His side God supported Him the Angels Minister'd to Him the Devils Tempted Him in vain His Adversaries too Effectually And I beseech you Where can there be found a Worthier or more plentiful Subject for our Admiration than that so Great a King who had Sway'd those Scepters that are the Balance of all Europe should come down from His High Estate by so many easie and deliberate Degrees should put off all the Ornaments of a just Soveraignty to bear all the Indignities of His own Subjects Tyranny with so little Reluctancy with so much Contentment should prepare Himself still for thicker and greater Afflictions by a Glorious Disdain and yet a Pious Improvement of all the former should have a Mind so Compassionate of others Misfortunes even of His Enemies Offences and yet so Serene amidst His own Dangers should have a greater Lustre and Majesty of Countenance as Moses had and that not when he was performing an Act of Government and Administring the Law but when He was dying by the Unjust Pretence of His having broken His own Laws For any Man to bear Miseries well has been ever counted so great an Honor that some of the Antient Heathens have too extravagantly thought it equall'd Men to God Himself who is not capable of Misery That sayes one of them is truely Divine to have the Frailties of a Man the Security of a God It is indeed by all true Philosophy esteem'd to proceed from the greatest strength of Nature by all true Christianity from the highest degree of Grace Can any other Virtue so cleerly manifest of what strong and firm and invulnerable a temper the heart is made Passive Courage is perform'd within in the Soul it self when Men are forlorn oppress'd despis'd not so well as only forsaken when they have no Flatterers few Comforters scarce any but Enemies near them And therefore this Grace before was generally more found in the Poor Low and Obscure part of the World 't was commonly excluded from Princes Courts by a Thousand Delights and by the Pompous Dreams of Human Greatness 'T was almost enough Patience before in Great Men to be only more moderate and reserv'd in their Pleasures From the Greatest and Best of Kings before Men us'd rather to take Examples how to Lead Armies to Command Nations to Distribute Justice to cherish their Good Subjects to subdue the Rebellious These were the Arts of Empire 'T was from the severe Practices of the Cottage the Cell and the Gown and they usually fetch'd Instructions and Examples how to submit to hard Fate to endure Mildly the Rigors of a stronger Power to contemn the Melancholy and Terrors of a Prison to pardon or to bear the Affronts of mean Conquerors and by such hands to Dye a violent Death with Decence What Praises then can be worthy of that King who so much excell'd the upper and the lower part of Mankind in their different perfections who out-did the Upper in Righteousness and Mercy the Lower in Meekness and Long-suffering How shall we be able to Extol His Goodness who could 〈◊〉 readily lay down His own Life for His Subjects when it has been often esteem'd goodness enough in other Sovereigns to spare sometimes the Lives of some of their Subjects that have transgrest their Commands What Title shall we bestow on that Magnanimous Courage which could endure all the Barbarous forms of such a Tryal and Execution the Insolence of the Ignominious Judges the Horror of the Disguis'd Executioners nay even pardon the Word for He Pardon'd the Thing the Spitle of His Inhuman Persecutors could suffer this with as much unconcern'd easiness as if it had been only the Pomp and Solemnity of His Coronation To Witness all this I might challenge the Testimony of those very Servants that were by His Adversaries impos'd on Him in His Restraints of whom many were Converted by His Sufferings who had been His most bitter Enemies whilst He flourish'd I might Allege His Speeches His Conferences His Personal Treaties His Conversation His Immortal Writings all Compos d in His Greatest Distresses some near the very sight of the Scaffold They tell us that when Caesar Swam for His Life amidst His Enemies He had such Presence of Mind as to Swim with one hand and in the other to hold up His own Book and save it from perishing But when the King was incompass'd with far greater inevitable dangers He not only preserv'd but Wrote that Books to which amongst all the Writings of Princes I know none equal but Caesar's if His none Superior but Davids and Solomons But What need we seek farther for a Proof of His Royal Courage and Christian Patience than to the very Men that Conquer'd Him And that not only now when they have so many Reasons to Condemn their own Cruelty towards Him and of all Reasons two most unanswerable ones I wish they would think so His Own Pardoning them and His Sons Confirming His Mercy But we may even venture to appeal to their Opinions and Censures of Him when He was in His Lowest they in their Highest most Insulting Condition His Enemies had Him long amongst them long they had all His nearest Concernments open to their discovery His Chambers His Cabinets His very Body and Heart The last part of His Life they forc'd Him to pass in a Camp or Prison or Hall or Scaffold There were no secret conveyances of a Palace no officious silence of Servants there all His behaviour was exposed to the view of all and chiefly to those that mortally hated Him And what the least indecence or weakness did they discerne What the Greatest Resolution and Heroick Spirit did they not see in Him Did at any time any word or even murmur of discontent come from Him for which He ought to have been jealous of His Enemies presence Nay rather might He not in all have wish'd for their most exact and severe observation For what did or could they observe What in all His Discourses but great Truth oppress'd and yet Gloriously Prevailing What in all His private Actions but the most unaffected Modesty and Devotion What in all His Publick but Unmoveable Constancy and the most invincible thing in this World an Humble Conscience well-assured How many various distracting thoughts of Hatred and Disdain of natural Tenderness and Affection not to speak of Fear or desire of Life might often then have assaulted a weaker Heart in any one of all the dismal degrees of His Passion was it not then enough to Discompose and Shake a Mind less Establish'd or then when