malicious treacherous and murderous ill properties for great Courtiers that ought to be as well good as great else are they but a great shame among men and a great staine unto all their posterity 10. 10 The common people for the most part had a hand in his death by a three fold imployment As salus populi the good of the people and the liberty of the subjects was one main pretended cause why these murderers kild their King ne gens pereat lest if he lived the Nation should be destroyed so the people upon all occasion must be ready at hand to serve their turn and to do the services wherein these their grand Masters shall imploy them and this imployment we find to be three fold 1. Mar. 14.43 When their King is to be taken they must be sent armed with swords and staves to apprehend him 2. They must draw petitions for some base and unworthy thing as they did Math. 27.20 when they petitioned that Barabbas a thief and a murderer might be released and their King crucified 3. They must come to the Judgment-Hall or place of Judicature and for fear the King should find some favour from him that knew him innocent they must with loud voices cry for justice and double their desires for execution and all this saith the Evangelist was done by the multitude Math. 27.20 Hosi-anna as they were perswaded by the Priests and Presbyters Ah silly people that even now cry Hosanna serva quaeso Save Lord and now presently Crucifige that loved their King as his enemies confess and yet joyn with his enemies to kill their King and never ask What hath he done but this we will do to please them that set us on the work Who then but a mad man would repose trust in a multitude of men and relie upon a broken reed a reed that wavers with every winde And not only so but to shew the baseness of these base people for I know not how to say their envy or their malice that they should maligne their King who had done them good every way and no harm to any of them when Pilate a heathen Judge and a stranger to the Jews shall profess him to be a just person Math. 27.24 and therefore wash his hands from the blood of the innocent man this giddy multitude of rude people the generation of vipers that gnaw out the bowels of their own dams the brethren of Cain and the children of their father the Devil Joh. 8.44 that hath been a murderer from the beginning do cry out as vengeance doth require Math. 27.25 His blood be upon us and upon our children What Nefandum scelus a most fearfull thing when the blood of our own just King unjustly murdered by so many sorts of men that had their hands imbrued with his blood shall like Abels blood cry to God for vengeance against us and our children for ever O let us rather repent and desire of God that the blood of this lamb Jesus Christ may wash away these our bloody sins And thus I have shewed you the chiefest Actors in this bloody Tragedy all the whole Kingdom of Jury rebelling against their King and most Traiterously betraying him to an Ignominious death save only some few followers of Christ of whom this King foretold what should betide them some of them should be killed and some persecuted from City to City for Math. 23.34 as S. Basil said of Herod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his meat was the flesh and his drink was the blood of men so these Regicides will never leave a follower of this King untill like the Whore in the Revelations Revel 7.6 they be drunk with the blood of the Saints and thereby shew themselves as they are 1. Vnsatiable because they never leave till they be drunk 2. Vnmercifull because they will be drunk with blood and 3. Vnjust because no blood will serve them but the blood of the Saints and servants of this King the witnesses of Gods truth And therefore let all the lovers of this King look to themselves because the branches must needs wither when the root is plucked up And besides these followers of Christ that loved him we find some others that had no hand in killing him and those were the Samaritans a people as much hated by the Jews as Papists are by the Puritans and though this King confer'd upon the Jews beneficia nimis copiosa multa magna and did nothing at all for these Samaritans save only to pitty them and hinder the fiery Zâ—lots the two sons of Zebedee to destroy them by calling for fire out of Heaven to consume them as Elias did the two Captains and their fifties yet we do not read that either they hated the person or sought the life of this King no more do I find that any Papist joyned with the Parliament of England and the Conquerors of our King to put King Charles to death which I believe will be sufficient witnesses to rise in judgment to condemn them that have condemned the King at the last day Thus I have passed over all or most of the acts and scenes of this Tragedy and I might here end but that as the Prophet saith abyssus abyssum invocat and one Tragedy requires another and the destruction of this King and his followers cals for destruction upon the destroyers that like Damocles's sword hangs by a feeble thread ready to fall upon their necks for the Prophet David demands the question Shall they escape for their wickedness And he doth immediatly answer The Lord shall destroy both the blood-thirsty and deceitfull men and all these men that I have shewed being most deceitfull and very much thirsting after blood and that blood not of the basest people but of the best of men their Prophets their Preachers and their own most just and pious King it must needs pull destruction upon their heads Therefore Christ in the parable of the Vineyard saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 21.41 The Lord will miserably destroy them that is 1. Them that plotted to take away his inheritance 2. Them that consulted to take away his life 3. Them that so unjustly put him to death 4. Them that abused and wronged his servants that sought to defend his right And 5. I feare me them that might have helped to protect both their King and his servants and did not for if any where then surely here that axiome must hold good Qui non vetat peccare quum potest ipse peccat and that too-ill-applied Sentence so protect rebels assist murderers by our seducing brethren in the 5. of Judges where Debora saith Curse ye Meros curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not to the help of the Lord against the mighty must needs be applied to them that had ability to defend their King and to relieve his oppressed servants and yet suffered them to be destroyed by
upon young Man or Maiden old Man or him that stooped for Age he gave them all into his Hand for that there was no Remedy 2 Chron. xxxvi 15 16 17. And of the Second the Spirit of God saith that the Lord sent against Jehoiakim bands of the Chaldees and bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the Children of Ammon and he sent them against Juda to destroy it and to remove them out of his sight for the sins of Manasses and for the innocent blood that he shed for he filled Hierusalem with innocent blood as the Judges of the Rump-Parliament did fill Ingland which the Lord would not pardon 2 Reg. xxiv 4. as if he had said though the Lord God might have been perswaded by Prayers and Tears and Sacrifices to pardon all other Sins yet this sin of shedding innocent Blood especially when it is judicially shed the Lord will no ways nor by any means pardon it and though men would fain pardon it yet God will not pardon it because God which is the God of truth and Truth it self hath said it and that we should not doubt of it he hath said Surely your blood of your Lives will I require at the hand of every Beast will I require it and at the hand of man at the hand of every man's Brother will I require the life of man And Whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the Image of God made he man Gen. ix 5 6. and see how fully and how energetically the Lord hath said and the Scripture hath set down all these things against the pardoning of them that shed innocent blood And then these things being duly weighed as Saint Ambrose said to Theodosius Quod inconsulto fecisti consultius revocetur so I believe that if any man hath inconsideratly either through ignorance corruption or partiality caused or consented to let any Agag to escape whom the Justice of God hath designed to death he would assuredly consultius errorem corrigere amend His former errour and not let the death of such a King as was worth ten thousand of us and the Blood of so many of His loyal Subjects as were judicially and unjustly condemned to death pass away unpunished and unquestioned whensoever any of the Authours or Contrivers of their death should be found out or at least wise he would be satisfied and not blame others for doing if they do what he should have done It is no matter when better late then never for Nunquam sera est ad Justitiam via The way to do Justice is never too far nor the time too late and God deserreth his Judgments for many years together when we finde Murderers flourishing in all Pomp and Power a long time as I have shewed it at large in the Tragedy of Zimri and yet at last to come to tast of their just deserved Punishment as Pilate and Herod and the rest of the Murderers of Jesus Christ were not apprehended by God's Justice some of them in fourty years after they had condemned their just and lawful King and many more such Murderers you may finde in Dr. Beard 's Theatre of God's Judgments and in other Authours to have lain secure and to have slept in their sins for a long Season before the hand of Vengeance hath rouzed them up and yet after many Ages to pay Death for Death And therefore though the Parliament and Parliaments have passed over and perhaps pardoned those whom God saith he will not pardon yet I conceive that whensoever any of them that had their hands imbrued or the least finger stayned in our King's Blood or in the Blood those His loyal Subjects that were judicially unjustly condemned shall be found out and made known to be such they should be brought unto their Trial especially when we consider that Justice donâ— upon such transcendent Malefactours that do now as yet as it is conceived wallow in those innocent Bloods that they have spilt and do jet up and down most proudly in the spoils of their Slaughtered and Beggered Brethren would as the Scripture testifieth purge the Land from the stain of that innocent Blood which they have so plentifully lost and doth still crie like Abel's Blood for Vengeance against them appease the Wrath of God for our former neglect of doing Justice increase the King's Revenues by the Forfeited estates of these Transgressours satisfie the Friends of those Murthered innocents terrifie all other Rebellious hearts from such horrible attempts and all other Judges from abusing the Laws and perverting Justice and be an excellent Example of a just and unpartial proceeding against Traitours for the Foreign Kings to applaud it and for their Subjects to fear it if ever the like thoughts should enter into their hearts of doing such things as were done by these Murtherers And truely it hath often grieved me to hear the vulgar people so generally complaining that they see divers of the late King's Enemies and Rebels that they suspect guilty some way of the Kings death so much favoured in the World and so domineering over others jetting up and down in Pride so gloriously trimmed with the spoils of the loyal Subjects and some of the King's Friends and faithfull Servants sneaking up and down wholly dejected so as if there were an Act of Oblivion past of the King's Friends and an Act of Indempnity for His Adversaries To whom I have often answered that our King is wise as the Angel of God and He knoweth best what He hath to do far better then the best of us all and they should rather remember what the Psalmist saith Fret not thy self because of the ungodly neither be thou Envious because of the wicked doers for they shall soon be cut down like the Grass and be withered like unto the green Herb especially when their Iniquitie their Treasons and Treacheries that as yet are hidden from the Eyes of men shall be found out and be made apparent unto the World And therefore though I say all this that I said before as from the straight unpartial rule of severe Justice yet as I am a Bishop of Jesus Christ and a Messenger of the God of mercy that takes no delight in the blood of his Brethren nor desireth the death of any one I am obliged most humbly and earnestly to pray and beseech Your gracious Majesty to be still gracious as You have demonstratively shewed Your Self to be hitherto unto these ungracious Offenders and when the Law of Justice hath decreed their Desert to stretch forth unto them the right Hand of Mercy and to do with them as the Wisdom of the most merciful God shall direct Your Majesty Secondly The next thing that I am bound to declare and to remonstrate unto Your Majesty and to all others is lest Your Majesty should be misinformed concerning me as I understood by Mr. Secretary Nicholas I have been misrepresented in Your Majestie 's Court most humbly to
these murderers All these saith our Saviour shall be destroyed and so they were all of them that repented not did soon perish For 1. Judas the prime Traytor hanged himself and that without any regard of his grand Masters who when they saw his disconsolate soul and heard his confession of his foul Treason said no more but What is that to us as if they said Be hang'd or be damn'd we do not care thou shouldst have looked to that thy self 2. Pilate that unjust Judge not long after the execution of this King was disgracefully displaced and exiled his Countrey and therefore killed himself in a strange land 3. Herod died most miserably being eaten up with worms 4. Annas and Caiphas were violently killed as the Stories do report 5. The Priests and Presbyters Pharisees and Sadduces and many others that were Actors in the murdering of this King lived I believe most of them to see the famous City of Jerusalem besieged and many of them to see it destroyed and at least 1100000. of their Countrey-men slaughtered and all the rest even their Children that were unborn when they kil'd their King either Captivated by their enemies or scattered like Vagabonds over all the face of the earth And as the severall Factions and the different Sects conspired together and agreed as one man to kill their King So their divisions and differences made way for the Romans to destroy them all and which is strange by this their wicked act the very things that they feared came upon them for their great Prophet Caiphas tels them it was expedient that he should die lest the Nation perish and by the just Judgment of God their Nation must perish because they did so wickedly put their King to death And so they were resolved to kill him lest the Romans should invade their Land and change their laws and because they did kill him God sent the Romans to destroy their Country to change their laws and to make such havock of slaughtering them ut nec locus crucibus nec cruces corporibus sufficerent And ever since the murder of their King they have been hated of all Nations For Sisibut King of the Visigothes and Dagobert the 10th King of France commanded them on pain of death to depart out of their Dominions And Ferdinando and Isabella King and Queen of Castile within these seven-score years 1500. years after the murdering of their King handled them very shrewdly Camerar l. 5. c. 9. and put an infinite number of them to death And Emmanuel King of Portugal did the like So hateful are they for their regicide to all good men and so just is God in all his wayes and so exceedingly hating Rebellion against our Kings and much more the murdering of our own lawful just and pious King that the same never escapeth the severest punishment that can be imagined as I shall shew it in the next Treatise For if he who sheddeth mans blood though but a poor Beggar by man shall his blood be shed then surely he that sheds his Kings blood cannot escape the severe vengeance of God who peremptorily saith Vengeance is mine and I will revenge saith the Lord. And you know what the Apostle saith It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God who is a consuming fire And therefore if any man hath persecuted Gods Servants the Preachers or conspired to take away the life of his King the Annointed of the Lord let him repent and that quickly lest God as He saith to the Church of Pergamos do quickly come unto him and fight against him with the sword of his mouth which is a two-edged sword that cuts on every side the soul with the worm of conscience and the body with most fearful plagues and punishments For if the blood of Abel which had no voice while it lived yet being dead cryed so loud here on earth that it was easily heard in heaven and it was as fearful as it was loud for it was for vengeance against his brother then questionless the innocent blood of a just King being dead yet speaketh and speaketh louder for vengeance against his Subjects than the other did against his brother which I fear without our speedy and deep repentance will be abundantly poured out upon this sinful generation for that we have so barbarously murdered our own King in such wicked manner that I never read the like in any History nor the Sun I believe did ever see the like since the devilish murder of the King of kings from which these murderers took their pattern to proceed in like manner in most particulars and herein therefore Licet parvis componere magna I thought good to parallel the practises of both sorts of murderers the Jewish and the English murderers The murdered I confess are far unlike and will admit of no comparison the difference and distance betwixt their Persons being so great as is betwixt Heaven and Earth the Creator and the creature King Charles being begotten by an earthly father as all other men are and subject to like passions as we are but Jesus Christ the King of the Jews was conceived by the Holy Ghost and free from all sin and mastering all affections And King Charles was King but of small Territories But Jesus Christ was Rex universae terrae and he was and is King of kings and Lord of lords King Charles did good but to many and hurt but few if he hurt any but the King of the Jews did good to all and wronged none and so in all other things I know how that the one is finite and the other infinite in justice wisdom Power and all other Attributes of excellencies But if we look how both these Kings were handled by their Subjects we shall find the later not much unlike the former and King Charles hated traduced mocked spightfully used and causelessely killed and murdered And all this in like manner though not in every particular in like measure by his own Subjects as Jesus Christ was by the wicked Jews As I hope I have fully and sufficiently and plainly declared unto you in this Treatise And therefore that we ought all of us to confess lament and bewail as in general all our sins so more especially this our great sin of murdering our own King and to pray to God night and day that for the merits of the death and passion of Jesus Christ the King of the Jews he would pardon and forgive us our sins committed in putting to death our own most just and gracious King Grant this O dear Father for thy dear Son Jesus Christ his sake to whom be glory c. THE SECOND TREATISE 2 Kings 9.31 Had Zimri peace that slew his Master THE Doctrine of Obedience both to God and to our lawful King and his Magistrates hath been so fully and so excellently handled by the Right reverend and most Worthy and Learned Bishop of Downes that more need not and better cannot
Saints and Angels where there is no provocation to evil or to serve God aright where there is neither Sectary nor Heretick But the praise of Gods servants is to live among the wicked and yet not to follow their evil examples and to be in the midst of Hereticks and all kind of Sectaries and yet not suffer our selves to embrace their false opinions or to approve their wrongserving of God and yet still to honour them to love them and to be at peace with them And 2. 2 The great desire we should have to peace That we should not fail in this duty the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follow after peace As the Grey-hound followeth after the Hare that he may catch her So do you follow after peace that you may have it and that is not only to accept of peace when it is offered but also to purchase peace at any reasonable rate and upon any reasonable terms And we have an excellent example of this great desire of peace that should be in us The most excellent example of Abraham Rom. 4.13 in Abraham who though he was told by God Himself that he should be the Heir of the World which was a Title and interest good enough when God gave it him yet rather than he would strive with his inferiour his Nephew Lot he was contented cedere de jure to wave his right and to let him take his oboice of all the land what he would and where he pleased Gen. 13.8 9. And the like desire of peace we find in Pharaoh Necho King of Egypt when he sent Embassadours to Josias saying What have I to do with thee thou King of Judah I come not against thee this day but against the house wherewith I have war 2 Chron 35.21 for God hath commanded me to make haste forbear thee from medling with God who is with me that he destroy thee not and so he was destroyed for refusing to live in peace And the reason The reason of this great desire of peace is twofold 1. Because war is the greatest of all the plagues of God why we should love and honour and thus labour to live in peace with all men is because wrongs and injuries breed hatred suits and wars and war will be the death of many men and God made not death neither can he endure that any one man should malicioâ—sly destroy another God making not men to kill one another And therefore we find that the Sentence of Cain's punishment for killing his brother Abel is far heavier than Adam's punishment for eating of the forbidden fruit when God said unto Adam Cursed is the ground for thy sake and so forth But to Cain he said Cursed art thou from the earth which is a far greater curse than the former as is the rest of his censure in very many particulars whereupon Cain perceiving the heaviness of his Sentence so far exceeding his fathers curse Gen. 4.13 said My punishment is greater than I can bear And after the Flood the first Precept and the strictest charge that God gave to man was to prevent and hinder the shedding of mans blood which being shed he would require at the hand of man and at the hand of every beast which should be put to death if they were the death of any man And the Propheâ— saith That God will make inquisition for all the blood that shall be spilt that is search and find out them Murder shall never escape undiscovered that have been the death of any man yea though they should do it never so cunningly and secretly yet rather than they should escape undiscovered and so passe unpunished the Birds of the air as they did the death of Ibicus should betray their wickedness or the very blood that they have spiâ—t if there be none other witnesse shall with Abels blood cry out of the earth for vengeance against them because bloody men that delight to kill their brethren are an abomination to the Lord who as the Prophet saith abborreth both the blood thirsty and the deceitful man for Psal 5.6 Quem videris sangâ—ine gaâ—d â—teâ— lupus est saith S. Chrysostome hom 19. opef imperfect And therefore War which is a Feast celebrated to the honour of Death and is Mâ—ter omnium malorum The mother of all miseries the greatest shedder of blood upon the earth and the unjustest instrument of death that can be found when contrary to all Law and beyond all Justice nothing else is to be seen in war but fire robberies treasons tortures War the worst of all the plagues of God and slaughters inflicted as well upon the innocent as the nocent is deemed the worst of all the plagues of God the most direful and most destructive unto mankind For when the Lord with rebukes doth chasten man for sin and is sore displeased with any Kingdom he whippeth it with one of these threefold scourges Plague Famine and War And the first two Plague and Famine do but take away the men and take them so that most commonly they have time to repent and to humble themselves under the Mighty hand of God but the war casteth down houses burneth Cities subverteth Castles The many mischiefs that war bringeth destroyeth the creatures and shaketh the very foundation of all earthly happiness and not only suddenly cutteth off the lives of many thousands and sometimes Infants and Innocents from the earth but also introduceth Famines and Plagues after it at the heels And therefore David when he was necessitated to undergo one of these three scourges and had the favour to take his choice of them 2 Sam. 24.14 he would not choose war by any means And truly it were a happy thing that there were neither Souldier nor War nor cause of any war in all the World but that the people should beat their swords into Plowâ—shares and their Spears into Pruning-hooks and that Nation should not lift up a sword against Nation neither learn war any more as the Prophet speaketh Because Esay 2.4 as one saith God made Souldiers the worst of men as he made the Devils the worst of spirits to plague the World and to be the Executioners of his anger and just judgements against his children when they do offend him That is for the generality of them otherwise many of them are very just and religious as the Scripture testifieth And the very Heathen man could say of the Souldiers Nulla fides pietasque viris qui castra sequuntur Lucan Phars 2. As War is such a dismal Apollyon 2 Because peace is the greatest of all earthly blessings and so furious a destroyer of all mankind the poison of Religion and the hated enemy of all creatures So on the other side the love of neighbours and peace among men is the greatest the best and the most excellent of all earthly blessings And as Ignatius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is nothing in
of Ormond had resolved to travel in his own person as he did to Kilkenny and Clonmel to cause the concluded Articles of peace to be proclaimed in the chiefest Cities of that Kingdom these wretched men bewitched with the poyson of Rebellion in the pride of their heart which as the Prophet saith of the Edomites hath deceived them instead of a thankful acceptance of so merciful a favour and abundance of graces concluded for them did most desperately reject their own happiness and as not forgetting their usual Treacheries they laid snares and plotted how they might take the noble Marquess and render evil what or how much I know not to him that had with much cost and more paines procured so much good for them To shew unto us that as the Inhabitants of the Isle of Malta unjustly said of Saint Paul so we might justly say of them though the mercifull King desired not their Blood to their ruine yet vengeance would not suffer them to escape Act. 28.4 but as the Lord said of Edom behind they whose judgment was not to drink of the Cup have assuredly drunken and art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished thou shalt not go unpunished but thou shalt surely drink of it for I have sworne by my self saith the Lord that Bozra shall become a desolation a reproach a waste Jerem. xlix 1â— Jerem. xlix v. 37. and a curse and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes and as the Lord said of Elam I will cause it to be dismaid before their enimies and before them that seek their-life and I will bring evill upon them even my fierce anger saith the Lord and I will send the Sword after them till I have consumed them so the very like judgment doth now fall upon the Irish for the Sword is sent after them And yet the last v. of this C. may be a great comfort unto the Irish for it shall come to pass in the latter dayes that I will bring againe the captivity of Elam saith the Lord and so the Irish repenting and reduced to their obedience may be received again into a sociable communion and become a great and a good nation and they are dismaide before their Enemies and they are become a Desolation a reproach a waste and a curse and their cities as they were theirs perpetual wastes and that even in the judgment of man most justly too because as I shewed to you before they have rebelled against the Lord and against a good King and were so cruel against their brethren and have committed such horrible wickedness against innocent persons and yet as blinded in their own malice they have refused their own happiness for now the Lord God that ministreth true judgment unto the people maketh inquisition by his Magistrates for all the Blood that they have spilt and if the Blood of Abell that was but one man cried so loud to God from off the Earth for vengeance against Caine that was likewise but one single murtherer then how much more loud do the Bloods of so many hundreds of men so many women and so many infants as so many thousands of these Irish Rebells have most cruelly spilt crie to God for Vengeance against those wicked murtherers And therefore whatsoever hath befallen them or shall happen unto them God must needs be justified in all the judgments of these rebells and themselves cannot deny but that he which sits in the Throne that judgeth right hath done them right in all that is done unto them And I fear that before God makes an end of their punishment as the Prophet saith I will houle for Moab and I will crie out for all Moab mine heart shall mourne for the men of Kir-heres O vine of Sibmah Jerem xlviii 31. I will weep for thee with the weeping of Jazer so we may weep and lament for the desolation of Ireland and the sad condition of the poor Irish people when they shall find and feel the mighty distance and difference betwixt a mercifull King that they had and merciless enemies and a cruel Tyrant whose little fingers shall be found heavier then the King's loynes and who For these things weâ—e written in the time of the Usurper in stead of those twigs wherewith the King would have most gently whipped them will most severely Scourge them with Scorpions Fourthly touching the Scots I shall as brief as I can speak 1. Of Charles Stuart whom they Crowned to be their King and is both their and our lawfull King 2. Of those perfideous and distressed Subjects that have Crowned him First their Crowned King Charles Stuart as the Son of a good Father and no less Virtuous a mother is in the judgment of all that now know him a verie wise discreet and Prudent Prince and they say as Valiant and Couragious as any Gentleman whatsoever I need not say much of his worth it is so well known to all that know him and his Enemies cannot deny it neither doth the Relation of his worth any ways lessen theirs that have any worth in them but were he as wise as Solomon the mysteries of States and the requisites to govern many people will require many heads and those likewise not of the meanest sort but of the wisest and greatest capacities to assist him for as Xenophon saith Pauca aliqua unus videat unus audiat one man can neither see much nor hear much and therefore Tacitus none of the meanest States-men saith Xenophon Cyr. lib. 8. Non est unius mens tantae molis capax but great affairs such as fall out within the Spheres of Kings and Princes do require many Heads to advise and many hands to effect and manage them How requisite it is for all Kings and Princes to have wise Counsellours to advise them and to be consuited with when as one arm is altogether unsufficient to bear up so unsupportable a Burthen as is the Government of many people and one brain is not capable of such a charge as to be alone sufficient to advise how to discharge so great a business but as Velleius saith Magna negotia magnis adjutoribus egent great businesses do require great assistants and therefore a Princes or King's affairs being great especially to regain such a loss as this Prince received he must not follow his own opinion though grounded upon very probable suppositions but he must yield to his faithful Counsellours when they produce more forcible reasons because he that needeth no Counsel especially in great matters must be more then a man and he that refuseth all Counsel is not much better then a Beast And it was most wisely said of Mar. Antoninus the Philosopher Aequius est ut ego tot taliumque amicorum Consilia sequar quam tot talesque amici mei unius voluntatem Tit. Liv. lib. 44. It was fitter that he should follow the Counsel of such and so many Friends then that such and so many men should follow the mind and will of
gave life to man Joh. 19.10 Therefore when Pilate said to Christ that he had power to Crucify him and power to Release him our Saviour answereth directly Vers 11. that he could not have This power against him Except it were given him from above And so S. Paul plainly saith that This power of the Sword which is in the King Rom. 13.1 as Supream as S. Peter saith is from God and so this is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether you place it in the Jew or in the Gentile in the hand of a Godly Constantine or a Bloody Dioclesian but it is the Immediate Ordinance of God and can not issue or flow from man but from the Living God that is the Author and hath the Soveraign power both of Life and Death And therefore in the Restauration of the World after the flood God Almighty 1. Re-iterates the Blessing and favour which formerly he had bestowed upon Adam and Eve Gen. 9.1 in bidding them to Increase and Multiply and so to produce and continue the Life of man 2. He confirmeth that Former Soveraignty which he had granted unto Adam Vers 2. 3. over all the inferior creatures 3. He establisheth the Civil Government that was to be Observed amongst all the future Generations of Noah and therein as if he now called to mind the Murder of Innocent Abel to prevent the like he doth Explicitely and plainly challenge to himself the Power of punishing the shedding of mans blood to death Vers 5. saying Surely the blood of your lives will I require at the hand of every beast will I require it and at the hand of man and at the hand of every mans brother will I require the life of man Where you see the Lord three times repeats I will require it and prefixeth the word Surely that you should not doubt it And lest any man should think that God meant to punish that sin Immediatly by his Own hand and not rather by his Substitute and Vice-roy the Lord addeth Vers 6. Who so sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed again which is the right reading of the words fuller then the Vulgar Translation that saith no more but Quicunque effuderit sanguinem hominis fundetur sanguis illius and plainer then the Septuagint that saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dr. Maxw pag. 50. as the Learned Arch-Bishop of Tuam sufficiently proveth And the words being Thus as our English Translation rightly hath them you see the Soveraignty of the punishing the Slayer of man is immediatly invested in Gods Deputy by God himself that is in Him whom God Appointeth to do it and in none other For I hope no man will conceive it so that Any man whatsoever is invested with This power to shed the blood of him that sheddeth mans blood because this would be such a Disorder and produce such confusion as that nothing could be more destructive and pernitious to humane kind and more repugnant to Gods Nature that is the God of Order as well as of justice And therefore as this Soveraign Power of Life and Death doth Principally and Properly belong to God so God Gives this power not to the Community to all nor to Every one that will or would have it but to some Particular Deputy whom he doth Immediately invest therewith to punish death with Death And as this Soveraign power over life which is the Head and chiefest part of Civil Government is Immediatly given by God unto his Deputy to be executed So all the Parts of Governments when as all are Homogenous that is In indivisibili posita things Indivisible in their nature such as can no more be distracted and severed then a Crown can be a Crown when any part thereof is taken away they must be in like manner granted to be Immediatly from God and not from Man 3. Were the Kingly office an Humane creature that is Sol. 3 of mans Ordinance yet the Person of the King is Gods creature and therefore were their false Exposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 True yet could they not infer any more from thence then the dethroning of Him whom they had exalted and not the killing of Him whom God had created But Quo jure quâque injuriâ let others look and let him be whose Creature he will and his Kingly Office be from Whom you will of God or of men they are resolved to Kill him And yet they will as the Evangelist saith do it most Subtilly and seem to give him a Fair Triall that the Vulgar people which know no more then what is put into their heads and as the Centaures embraced a cloud for Juno so do they take Shadows for the Substance might believe he was Justly and legally condemned and not as he was indeed Maliciously murdered But Why will they Murder Him and draw his Innocent blood upon their wicked heads For they had Him in their Own hands He was their Prisoner and they could have Him and hurry Him where they would from Pilate to Herod and from Herod to Pilate again Why might they not have sent Him and detained Him with S. John the Evangelist in the Isle of Patmos or secure his Person still in Prison with S. John Baptist It may be answered Nefandum scelus majori scelere adimpletur Quae scelero pacta est scelere rumpatur fides Senec. in Medea every haynous offence secures it self by a More haynous crime as Seneca well observeth as the Thiefe that Robs for love of money will often Murder the poor Traveller for fear to be Discovered and the Lewd woman that fears to be Shamed for her lewdness will not fear to Murder her own Child so the Cevetous desire of having what we have no right unto Why the wicked never leave persecuting their King till they kill him as it worketh a Great care and sedulity how to get it so it begets a Great fear and jealousy to lose it therefore seeing there may be an Escape or reprisall from prison and a Return from exile as it was in Henry Bullingbrook afterwards King Henry the fourth they that fear to lose their Vsurped Possessions or to feel the Revenge of their Treason and Rebellion never think themselves Secured or their usurpation Setled untill their unjust titles be sealed in the blood of the right Owner and their own Wicked lives secured in the Vnmerited death of their Innocent adversaries And this is the Reason that these Wicked murderers of their Own King never left to persecute Him till they had Killed Him I should now proceed to the Last point to discover the Murderers of this Just One their own Pious and Religious King but that before I proceed to that point I hold it requisite First Six Speciall circumstances to be observed to shew unto you these six Speciall Circumstances about the Murder of this King which Are most Exactly delivered unto us by the Evangelists and which very-very
more vengeance upon themselves by committing the more sins 3. Reason 3 He answered not because he held that Power which at that time the sword had so unjustly gotten to be insufficient and unjustifiable in his case to try his person and to condemn Him to death who in respect of the Hypostaticall union was Rex universae terrae and so King of the Romans as well as of the Jews therefore he would not answer to that charge that was so illegally charged against him coram non Judice before a Judge that had no lawfull commission to be his Judge So Bradshaw had no commission to be King Charles his Judge Or 4. Reason 4 It may be said that he answered nothing to the false charge laid against him because of the illegall power authority or right that his enemies had to require it when as he being their King was not to answer for any faci that he had done to any one of all his Subjects as the King that was according to Gods own heart sheweth when after he had committed both adultery and murder he saith to God Against thee only have I sinned And therefore the Jews being Christ his Subjects and so having neither right nor authority Math. 27.11 to lay any charge against Him that was their King he was altogether silent in all that concerned the charge laid against him Mar. 15.2 But for any other question that Pilate his servant and now made his Judge Luk. 23.3 did ask him He gave him a full and a sufficient answer as you may see in all the Evangelists Or else Joh. 18.34 36. and chap. 19 11. as S. Jerom. comments upon the Evangelists he spake nothing that is nihil durum nihil asperum nothing that might offend either the Judge or the Jews But we find What this King spake not to save his own life but for others that neither Jews nor Gentiles neither High Priest nor Pilate would condemn this King before they gave him liberty to speak and they were ready to hear what he would or could say for himself Because the law of the Jews as Nicodemus a Counsellor of their law testifieth judged no man before it heard him and it was not the manner of the Romans Jo. 7.51 Act. 25.16 to deliver any man to die before he had liberty to answer for himself as Festus another Judge of the Romans confesseth And yet such was the injustice shewed to Charles our King which you may remember by his subject-Judge that contrary to all Laws both of Heaven and Earth both of Jews and Gentiles he would not hear those just Reasons that he sought to shew for himself against their unjust proceedings against him And therefore no doubt but Annas and Caiphas and unjust Pilate will rise in Judgment to condemn that unjust Judge at the last day But though this good King Christ said nothing to their Charge to save his own life yet at his death he spake much to preserve his enemies from Everlasting death as when he said I thirst that was not for the blood of his enemies as they and the Souldiers did for his blood but it was for the accomplishment of the mysterie of theirs and our salvation that was to be effected by his death And especially when as Bellar mine observeth he prayed for his very murderers that were slaughtering and tormenting him and said Father forgive them for they know not what they do and some of them are simply ignorant of the wickedness of this fact being seduced by their false Teachers and others though wilfully blind yet are they ignorant of the consequents of this act that is the heavy punishment that is due to them and without great repentance must light on them for this wicked deed therefore O my Father I pray thee revenge not my death but forgive them for my sake And this prayer prevailed for Longinus that thrust him through his side How mightily the prayer of Christ prevailed with God to forgive his enemies to become a Convert if old Tradition may be believed for truth and for 3000. more at one clap when S. Peter took off the vail that shadowed the truth and shewed to the poor seduced people the horrible wickedness of their malicious leaders and for many many more that returned unto him immediately after and would have prevailed for all the very worst of his murderers even for Judas Annas and Caiphas yea and for the Judges the first and second Pilate that pronounced the Sentence against their Kings if they had had the grace to repent them of their evill deed and to believe in this their Saviour 4. Consider 4 How Speedily they condemned their King I pray you how speedily they executed and made an end of him after he was Condemned for he was apprehended but upon Thursday when-as upon Wednesday at night he did eat the Pass-over with his Disciples and tels them that after two daies was the Feast of the Passover the greatest feast that they had Math. 26.2 solemnized in remembrance of their great and wonderfull deliverance out of Pharaohs bondage And yet they would not suffer him to live till that Feast was past but being taken upon Thursday he must all that day and all that night be hurried from Annas to Caiphas from Caiphas to Pilate from Pilate to Herod and from Herod back again to Pilate and so from place to place and the very next day which was Friday by nine of the clock in the morning which was their third hour of the day they fastened him to his Cross Mar. 15.25 with nails so large that being found they made a helmet and a bridle for Constantine as it is reported And this was a very quick dispatch indeed King Charleâ— I remember another King that was murdered in like manner by his subjects but though suddenly enough dispatched out of the way yet had a litle more favour and a litle longer time before he was beheaded But why would not these miscreants suffer their King to live one day Quest to prepare himself for his death after he was condemned They answer That the next day after he was adjudged to die Resp Why they would not suffer their King to live one day longer was their Feast day and the greatest feast in the year therefore they must not suffer him to pass over that day nor to die on that day for these two speciall Reasons 1. Reason 1 Lest there should be an uproare among the people because that day being set apart for an holy meeting as the Lord commanded it and as our Apprentices are permitted upon Shrove-tuesday Servants had liberty on Holy dayes and Feast-dayes to take their liberty and to go a Shroving where they please So were their labourers and servants under colour of going to the Temple suffered on this day to gad abroad and to go where they would And therefore the raskality of the people and
of death for the King then to be perswaded for what pretense of good soever and by whomsoever were it an Angel out of Heaven to consent unto his death is to become guilty of a great fault and to say that he was perswaded thereunto by the Bishops whose fault was therefore greater then his Majestie 's can no more excuse him then for the man of God to say that he was seduced by the old Prophet And therefore this might be a just cause with God to suffer him that to satisfie sinful men would offend his good God by giving way to them to take away the life of an innocent man to have his own life taken from him even by those men to whom he had yielded to take away the life of another man which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conformity of our punishment to our offence and is nothing else but lex talionis an eye for an eye a tooth for tooth and death for death which was the first Law that God published after the Deluge saying Whosoever sheddeth man's blood that is either per se as Cain did Abel or per alium as David did Vriah's and Ahab Naboth by Act or it may be by consent by man shall his blood be shed Secondly touching the Bishops my self knoweth that he loved them all and honoured their Calling very much being fully satisfied of the truth of their Divine and Apostolical Institution as appeareth by that learned and exquisite defence that himself most graciously made against the Presbyterians of the Episcopal Order and he was indeed a right Constantine to all the Bishops rather hiding their infirmities if he spyed any fault in them with the Lap of his Garment then any ways multiplying or publishing the same unto the People And this was a most Christian course in him for I may justly say Victima sacra Deo res est succurrere Cleris And as our Saviour saith of them He that receiveth you receiveth me And the Bishops of all other his Subjects were his most loyal Servants and most faithful Oratours never thwarting their King nor crossing any of his just Designs but ever cleaving unto his Cause and voting on his side so far as truth and right and a good Conscience would give them leave contrary to which his Majesty never desired any thing And therefore when the King saw the malice of most wicked men qui oderunt eos gratis and did bear an intestine hatred against these true Servants of God and did strive manibus pedibúsque with all their might against all justice to thrust them out of their undoubted Right by the favour we confess of our most pious Princes for him as we conceive against his own mind and to his own prejudice to please and satisfie the implacable hatred of his and their enemies to pass an Act to exclude the Bishops out of his Great Council the Parliament when above thirty Acts of Parliament had confirmed their right Interest therein since the confirmation of Magna Charta was an errour as I conceive not salvable and a fault that cannot be justly excused by his best Friends and therefore God might justly suffer all his Counsels to fail and his Counsellours to become perfidi familiares his familiar Traytours such as the Poet speaks of Saepe sub agnina latet hirtus pelle Lycaon Subque Catone pio perfidus ille Nero. And though I do not nor dare not say it was so yet I may say that for this God might so give way to his Enemies to prevail against him and to thrust him out of his Kingdom when he gave way to thrust his Embassadours out of his house which is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and even as Solomon divided God's Service betwixt God and the Idols of Zidon Moab and Ammon 1 Reg. 11. c. 12. so God divided his Kingdom betwixt his Son Rehoboam and his Servant Jeroboam so might he deal with King Charles when he yielded to expel the Bishops that were his true Friends and God's Servants out of his Council to suffer his Enemies to exclude him out of his Kingdom and not unjustly or without cause neither as the same proceeds from God whose ways are always just for who could better declare the right and truth of things unto the King then the Expounders of the Book of Truth Who could advise and direct him to make better and juster Laws then the Teachers of the Law of God and who fitter to judge of right and to require Justice to be enjoyned and practised by all People then they whose Calling is continually to call upon all men to live godly and soberly and justly in this present World Why then should they be excluded from the Seat of Justice either in the making of Laws or to see those Laws executed unless it were that the Lay-Justices might do what they would without shame and what they pleased without controul when as heretofore the reverend Presence of the Bishops and grave Divines and their sage Counsel did oftentimes stop the Current of Injustice and made some ashamed of some gross dealings that in their absence they were not ashamed to have effected and therefore I suppose I may justly say that as it was said of the Emperour Justinian when he caused Aetius his brave General to be cut off he had cut off his right Arm with his left Hand so did King Charles when he pâ—ssed that Act that prejudiced himself more then the Bishops Thirdly touching the Parliament we must understand that Parliaments were first instiâ—uted by the Kings of this Nation to inform them of the Abuses Dangers and Defects which the Lords and Peers and the wiser sort of their Subjects which each Countrey had elected and the chief Cities had chosen for that purpose had observed and to advise and consult with their King de arduis rebus Regni of these and all other difficult and great Affairs of the Kingdom as the Writs that call them together do declare and then to consider by what good means the Dangers of the Kingdom might be prevented by what Laws ' the abuses might be redressed and which ways the peace of the People might be preserved and the happiness of all his Subjects continued and enlarged and if they understood of any sorreign dangers invasions or injuries to consult how the same might be prevented and rectified And when the King understood what his Lords and Commons conceived fitting to be done He with the Advice of His Council ratified what he approved and rejected what he disliked with the usual phrase in that kind But in process of time the Parliament-men as I heard wise men say began to incroach more and more upon the Rights of Majesty upon the Power and Authority of the King especially of those Kings that either had no Right or at the best but doubtful Titles unto the Crown or those that were of less Abilities or of an easie and facile disposition and would soon be perswaded
righteous and just Secondly I say that there is crudelitas parcens misericordia puniens a sparing which is cruelty and a punishment that is a great mercie and such are the troubles pressures and punishments of God's Children mercies rather then judgments because they proceed not from God's Wrath but as the chastisements of a Father to his Children so do these come from the love of God towards his servants for their good whom he afflicteth here for a moment that they should be bettered and not be condemned with the Wicked hereafter for ever Thirdly I say that the Miseries Crosses and Calamities Reason 1 that the Faithfull suffer in this World are not always so much a punishment for their Sins Reason 2 though their Sins deserve much more Reason 3 and Sin is the root from whence all miseries do spring as trials and probations of their Faith and Constancie in God's love and service for so the Scripture saith that God tempted Abraham not temptatione deceptionis to deceive him as Satan tempteth us but temptatione probationis to try him whether he would obey the Commandment of God or not when he commanded him to offer his Son his onely Son Isaac for a Sacrifice unto God and so he tried the Israelites at the waters of Strife and as Moses saith in their Fourty years wandring through the Wilderness to see whether they would love the Lord their God and cleave unto him and continue faithfull in his service and so he doth plainly tell the Church of Smyrna that the Devil should cast some of them into Prison that they might be tryed and they should have Tribulation ten dayes and that is either ten years as Junius expounds it or else several times as others think yet all to this end that they might be tryed whether they would continue faithfull unto death or not and such were the afflictions of Job and of many other of the Saints of God they were justly deserved by their Sins and God in mercie sent them for their trial What the former Doctrine teaching the us And therefore whatsoever and how great soever a measure of Miseries Crosses and Troubles we have or shall suffer yet let us not faint nor be affraid of them and let not the Children of God be like the Children of Ephraim that being Harnessed and carrying Bows and so well prepared for the fight yet turned themselves back in the day of Battaile when there was most need of their assistance but as we have loved our King and have suffered all the calamities and burthens that are layd upon us for our faithfulness to him and the preservance of a good conscience so let us continue unto the end and never comply with any of the King's Enemies in the abatement of the least jot of our love and good opinion of the deceased King or with the Factious Non-conformists in the dis-service of God and the new invented Religion of our upstart Schismaticks let neither weight of trouble nor length of time change our minds because perseverance in Faith and Virtue is that which crowneth all the other Virtues and if at any time even at the last we forsake our first love and change our Faith we lose all the reward of all the former good that we have done and do by our revolt testifie that we were not good for the love of goodness nor adhered to the truth for righteousness sake but for some other by-respects for our own ends that never brings any to a good end and therefore the primitive Christians could never by any means be drawn to alter the least point of their Faith Prudent De Vincéntio and the right service of God but as Prudentius saith Tormenta carcer ungulae Stridénsque flammis lamina Atque ipsa paenarum ultima Mors Christianis ludus est All the Torments and Terrours of the World could never move them to change their mindes But some man may say Objection Providence hath decided the Controversy the King is dead Victrix causa Dits placuit and the Parliament hath prevailed against him and all his Friends and therefore what should I do now but comply with the stronger side and use that religion which they profess and that form of worship which they prescribe and so redeem the time that I have lost and repair some losses that I have sustained I answer Solution that our Saviour Christ to prevent this very Objection that the Jews might make to terrifie the Christians and to with-hold them from the faith of Christ because they had killed him and he was dead and therefore to what purpose should they adhere to a dead Saviour and hazard their lives and their fortunes to maintain the honour of a dead man that could not preserve his own life because a Living Dog is better then a dead Lion saith unto his Servant John I am he that liveth and was dead and behold or mark it well I am alive for evermore Amen and therefore let not my death deterr any man from following me or believing in me so I say that faith and truth are still alive and though oftentimes suppressed and afflicted yet not killed and therefore the Poet saith Dispaire not yet though truth be hidden oft Because at last she shall be set aloft And as another saith Terra fremat regna alta crepent ruet ortus orcus Si modo firma fides nulla ruina nocet And for King Charles I say though he is dead yet he is still alive many ways and that his blood like Abel's blood being dead yet speaketh and speaks aloud not onely to God These things were written and preached by the Author in the time of Oliver but also to every one of them that loved him that they should not so soon forget their faith and love to him that lost his life for their defence and the defence of the true Catholick Faith and though he be dead he is still alive alive with Christ in Heaven for evermore and alive with us on earth in the good that he did bring to us in the love that he shewed towards us and in the good that he left amongst us and shall we leave him and leave our love to him and our remembrance of him and forsake our faith and prove perfidious both to God and to the honour and to the memory of our deceased King and cleave to them to say and do as they say and do that have bereft us of him and would have destroyed us with him No no let us abhor them and their evil doings detest their false Faith and hate their Wickedness with a perfect hatred And though we have suffered much and may suffer much more at the hands of these Tyrants that are our new Masters yet let us submit our selves unto them but as Daniel and the rest of God's people did unto the Chaldeans full sore against their wills Iames v 11. Job lxii 12. and let us yield none otherwise to this present Government