King 21.8 false Prophets at her own Table and she vowed to be the death of Elias 1 King 18.4 and made a wicked King to become far more wicked by her continuall instigation of him to wickedness and therefore she was a very wicked woman vers 19 and the more inabled to be wicked because she was so Noble and so Witty when as there is no wickedness so great and so unavoydable as armed wickedness which is invented by Subtilty perpetrated by Power and defended by Authority for And how inabled to be wicked as Non nisi ex magnis ingeniis magni errores Great Heresies never spring from mean Schollers and great oppressions could never be acted by petty Landlords or mean Gentlemen so Jezabel could never have gotten Naboth's Vineyard if she had not had the wit to device this plot and the learning to write these letters for so the Text saith 1 King 21.8 That she wrote letters in Ahabs name and the power as being King Ahabs wife to seal them with his seal and send them as from him to the Nobles and Elders to execute her wicked will neither could she have maintained 400. false Prophets at her own Table if she had not had the wealth and power for to do it and so if Irene had not been an Empress she had never perswaded a whole Council to set up the worshipping of Images And therefore great Schollers ought earnestly to beg and to pray to God for grace to sanctify their learning that they may be retained within the sphere of truth and not to start aside like Arius Eutyches Nestorius and the like learned Hereticks that thought so well of themselves that they disdained to walk in the troden paths of Orthodoxall Divinity and therefore invented most wicked Heresies and so as the Lord saith of proud Babylon their Wisdom and their knowledge caused them to fall which hath been the practice of our Presbyterians and Jesuits in these very daies And in like manner Kings and Princes Magistrates and Judges Landlords and Great men ought to be very carefull of their actions and more carefull then any other men that are of a lower station because they are more inabled to do more wickedness For if a mean man wrong me I may perchance be able to right my self but if a Judge decree against me or a mighty man oppress me I must with patience be resolved to bear it or by strugling in all likelihood to be much more damnified And the Devill laboureth more to get a subtile Scotus or a learned Origen to become an Heretick a powerfull Nero to become a Tyrant and an Assembly of Senators and a choise Parliament to become Rebels and to bandy against their King as the Senators of Rome conspired the death of Caesar and the Jewish Sanhedrim the death of Christ and the grave Judges to become such Judasses as to sell the Truth or like the Judges of Susanna to condemn the Innocent and the rich Landlords to turn miserable Oppressors I say the Devill laboureth more and rejoyceth more to have one such than twenty other poor Snakes that want the abilities of Wit Learning Power and Authority to become his Instruments of wickedness And therefore I say to all such men of good parts and great power as the Prophet saith Psal 2â— for the same cause Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be Learned all ye that are the Judges of the Earth And do you follow the known common troden path of truth all you that are good Schollers And so much for the speaker Jezabel that was a noble witty and wicked woman 2. For the Speech of this wicked-wicked woman 2 The speech of Jezabel it is a most Excellent Speech worthy to be set in Letters of Gold inter dicta sapientum among the Aphorisms or Parables of the wise As I shall make it manifest unto you when I come to explain the same In the interim you may observe How that many wicked men and wicked women Hereticks and Tyrants have had many times some Excellent sayings and sometimes most worthy Acts have proceeded from them As the Papists and Presbyterians have made many good Sermons and written many Excellent Books and Treatises of Divinity full of Learning and great Piety and who better then Bellarmine his Meditations upon his Gemitus columbae How many wicked men have said and done many things well Soliloquies De ascensione animi in coelum per scalas rerum creatarum Septem verba Christi in cruce And his Comments upon the Psalms and the like And so Ferus Granatensis Drexelius and many more have done the like and we find divers others that have been great Hereticks to have done so likewise And in like manner we do read that many wicked men have done some speciall Acts of Virtue and Piety As Herod that sought the Life of Christ yet did he as Josephus relates it most Magnificently re-edify and beautify the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem and the other Herod the husband of Herodias hearkened to John Baptist in many things and Pilate that condemned Christ to death did many things exceeding well as in the strict examination of Christ his Cause and justifying his Innocency when he delivered him to be Crucified and Claudius Lisâ—as though he would not release S. Paul from his bands yet he preserved his Life and delivered him out of the hands of his enemies and the unrighteous Judge that as our Saviour saith Luk. 18.5 feared not God neither regarded man yet did he once justice to the importunate Widow and Am. Marcellinus tels us that even fulian the Apostate and the bitterest persecutor of the Christians was adorned with many singular properties as being an Excellent Schollar bred in Athens at the same time with Greg. Nazian and writing many Epistles Orations and Morall sayings and behaving himself most mildly and courteously towards all men but the Christians and so we read that Vespasian Titus Nerva Trajan Antoninus Pius Marcus Aurelius and many others of the Roman Emperors had many good parts in them and did many singular acts of Virtue though they were no Christians but some of them very Evill men and great persecutors of the Christians And I could instance in many Tyrants and other great Oppressors of Gods people and wicked men even in our own Kingdom that have done some Acts of Virtue and Piety And I could name you the men that have been very Turbulent in Gods Church and mis-led abundance of the people and yet have made some good Sermons and written some good Treatises of Divinity And what then Shall we therefore adore them and follow them in their factions and evill waies because they do or have done some good By no means For as thou shouldest not drink the Wine that is mingled with some Poâ—son though the Wine be never so good so it is not safe for thee to hear that Sermon that leads thee to Sedition though
Bernard tells his friend that Ideò dolet charitas mea quòd cum sis dolendus non doleas inde magis miseretur quod cum miser sis miserabilis tamen non es And S. Hierom saith in like manner to Sabinian Hoc ego plango quod te non plangis This do I bewail in thee that thou dost not bewail thy self For as our Saviour saith when a strong man armed keeps his house the things that he possesseth are in peace So are these wicked men in peace and quiet while the strong man Satan keeps their hearts as his house to reside in but this secret peace with Satan is but an open war with God Hierom ad He liodorum de vita eromit and as S. Hierom saith Tranquillitas ista tempestas est This calm is a cruel storm And nothing can be more miserable than these senseless sinners that perceive not their miserable condition But as Josephus saith The wickedest men in Jerâ—sâ—lem that were the destruction of the City profest themselves to be the only Zelots So these wicked men think themselves the only Saints of God walking towards Heaven when as their wicked deeds do shew they ride poste to Hell And as the Lord tells Cain If thou doest ill sin lieth at the door So will their sins lie at the door and like wild beasts dog them wheresoever they go and perhaps awaken them at the last to let them see their miserable condition And then 2. 2 The bad tormenting conscience Their tormenting consciences will be a hell upon earth here unto them for as the godly have the joy of a good conscience as the earnest of the heavenly happiness So the wicked have this vermis conscientiae the vexation of a tormenting conscience as the earnest of hell-torments wheresoever they are Isidor l. 2. soliloq And as Isidorus saith Nulla poena gravior quam poena conscientiae quiae nunquam securus est reus animus for as Solomon saith The spirit of a man can bear his infirmities but a wounded spirit who can bear And Lucan saith Lucan pharsal l. 7. that a wicked man doth Nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore testem And that Hunc omnes gladii quos aut Pharsalia vid it Aut ultrix visura dies stringente Senatu Illa nocte premunt bunc infera monstra flagellant And as Ovid saith Ovid. de ponto lib. 1. Impia perpetuos curarum pectora morsus Fine quibus nullo conficiantur habent Nec prius himentem stimuli quam vita relinquet Quique dolet citius quam dolor ipse cadet And Pictorius in his Epigrams saith Istud habet damni vitium inter caetera quod mens Palpitat assiduo flagitiosa metu Semper enim velsi non deprendatur in ipso Sese deprendi pâ—sse putat scelere Deque suo alterius quoties de crimine sermo est Cogitat credit se magis esse reum Inque dies timor hinc crescit And S. Augustine renders to us the reason of all this saying Jussisti Domine ita est ut animus inordinatus sit sibi ipsi poena And as the Poet saith Heu quantum misero poenae mens conscia donat For we do read how Theodoricus being troubled in his conscience imagined that he saw as he sate at Supper the visage of Symmachus Procopius lanquet Chron. fol. 146. whom he had unjustly slain in a fishes-head and after that he could never rest quiet nor be comforted by any means but pined away most miserably And Sleidan writes how Crescentius Sleidan com l. 23. in fine the Pope's Vice-gerent in the Council of Trent being conscious of many ill carriages in that Council saw the Devil in the likeness of a black dog And Polydore Virgil writes of Richard the Third that after he had caused his two Nephews the sons of Edward the Fourth to be secretly murdered he could never have any rest or quiet mind whiâ—e ne lived but would be still starting and clapping his hand on his Dagger And to be brief so it is with all wicked men that either they have a seared conscience void of all sense or if it awakes a tormenting conscience that vexeth and plagueth them continually For my Text is most true that there is no peace to the wicked neither with men nor with God nor with themselves And therefore howsoever they deem us for their enemies yet in very deed they are the greatest enemies that can be found on earth unto themselves 2. As there is no peace to the wicked so they have no peace in no place 2 The wicked have no peace in no place but as S. Augustine saith Fugiet ab agro in civitatem à publico in domum à domo in cubiculum à cubiculo in lectum ecce hostem suum invenit à quo confugerat seipsum scilicet à quo fugiturus est 3. They have no peace ullo tempore at any time but 3 The wicked have no peace at no time as I said before out of Lucan the wicked do Nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore testem both night and day early and late bear in their bosome a relator that doth accuse them and a witnesse that doth testifie against them the great and horrible wick edness that they have done and a Judge that doth continually condemn them And therefore the Text saith not non erat pax nor non erit pax but non est pax and in the Original the Text is set down indefinitely without a verbe as naming no time that assoon as ever we have sinned we might fear Gods judgements presently and expect our punishment instantly and at all times thereafter Because as Lipsius saith Cognatum imme innatum Lipsius do constantial 2. c. 13. omni sceleri est sceleris supplicium And S. Paul saith The wages of sin is death to shew that as the work is present so the payment must be present nec aufertur nec defertur it shall neither be remitted nor deferred But as the Lord commandeth not to detain the labourers wages until the morning but presently to pay him assoon as ever he hath done his work before the Sun goeth down So when the sinner hath done the sin the punishment lieth at the door waiting for him So you see here is no peace in no place at no time after the wickednesse is done and the sin is oncè committed And 4. 4 There is no peaâ—e to no wicked man To make the generality of the sentence full there is no peace to no wicked man that is not to any man that is wicked for with God there is no respect of persons but if Coniah the Prince do sin though he were as the signet upon my right hand I will cut him off saith the Lord. The Jews were Gods own peculiar people of whom the Prophet saith You only have I chosen of all the Nations of the earth yet when they became
honoured and that so their own proper vertues only and not their Ancestors makes them glorious I had rather be as Juvenal saith the son of Thyrsites a base coward and to imitate the exploits of Achilles the most valiant Heroick than to be the son of Achilles and to behave my self like Thyrsites And I would choose sooner to be a faithful Jonathan the son of persecuting Saul than a rebellious Absolom the son of godly David But as Horace saith and we have seen it true that Aetas parentum pejor avis Horat. 3. Carm. 6. tulit Nos nequiores mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem The Progeny is worse than the Progenitors our Fathers worse than our Grandfathers and we far worse than our Fathers and our children like to be worse than we are a Progeny most vitious Earipides in Heraclid generatim bane sententiam ad omnes mortales retulit when as the off-spring still proves worse and worse and as Euripides saith Thou shalt scarce find one son amongst many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is not worse than his father which made a certain poor Widow most earnestly to pray for the long life of her oppressing Landlord that was a most wicked Tyrant and her grievous persecutor and being demanded the reason why she did so zealously pray for him that never did her any good The poor womans prayer for her cruel Landlord but had heaped upon her very many intolerable wrongs she answered It was because she knew his Grandfather and he was a very bad man and an unjust Oppressor of his poor Neighbours and his Son this mans father proved worse than he and This man is far worse than them both and if he were dead I fear his son will be the Devil himself So these Jews though they were originally descended from Abraham the friend of God yet the posterity of Abraham degenerating How children degenerate from their Parents and the Progeny still growing worse than the Progenitors angring God in the Wilderness forty years together and killing his Prophets when they enjoyed the promised Land S. Stephen tells them they were now the children of Persecutors and of murderers and our Saviour saith John 8.43 They were the children of their father the Devil because he was a murderer from the beginning And as then it happened with the posterity of Abraham the Jews to grow worse and worse from Gods friends to be the Devils children So I fear it is now with the whole World and with all the posterity of the first good Christians to grow worse and worse and instead of being a faithful people to become a faithless and a stubborn generation a generation that setteth not their heart aright and whose spirit cleaveth not stedfastly unto God For in the Primitive times the Christians continued with one accord in the Temple praying and praising God and had Cor unum animam unam Acts 4.32 but in the suceeding times they degenerated and the love of many did wax cold and iniquity so far and so fast incrased that Linacrus reading the 6. What Linacrus did and 7. chapters of S. Mat. threw away his Testament and said Certè aut hoc non est Evangelium Christi aut nos non sumus Christiani Certainly either this is not the Gospel of Christ or we are not Christians that are so far from doing what he teacheth and commandeth us to do But when we find our Fathers to have degenerated from their good Fathers and instead of being faithful Christians and good Subjects to become Rebels and Murderers or Idolaters and the like to rob their neighbours and to resist their King to renounce their Baptism and to prophane the Chuches to countenance the wicked here on earth and to despise the Saints that are in Heaven as some of our Fathers lately did all these things and did much more horrid acts than any of these then ought we not to imitate them and to walk in the wayes of our Fathers as these Jews did and as the Prophet Jeremy saith have done worse than their Fathers Jerem. 16.12 for we ought not to observe the Statutes of Omri nor walk in the wayes of Jeroboam nor do the wickedness that our Fathers did but we ought to do as the Lord adviseth us by his Prophet Ezechiel saying unto us as he said unto the Jews Walk yee not in the Statutes of your Fathers neither observe their judgements Ezech. 20.18 nor their ordinances nor defile your selves by walking in their wayes and doing the like wrongs as they have done or confirming and continuing those injuries which they acted against their neighbours But What good children ought to do if they have made any Laws and given any Judgements to take away the goods or the lands and possessions of any man unjustly be he of what Nation or of what Religion soever when he hath done nothing worthy of censure and much lesse of disinheriting as I am sure and you may be sure of it they have done to very many in these Dominions and especially in this Kingdom Then do not ye justifie those doings and make good their judgements and continue the wrongs and oppressions that they have done and so sin with your Fathers and worse than your Fathers by making your selves not only the partakers of their sins but also the Patrons and Protectors of all their unjust proceedings But do ye confess the iniquities of your Fathers and say with the Prophet That they have done amiss and dealt wickedly and so do ye shew your selves sorry for their sins and recede from their unjust doings and rectifie what they have done amiss And if we thus return unto God Zach. 1 2. Malac. 3.7 then God promiseth that He will return unto us and he will blesse us But when we have Abraham to our father and are the sons of Jacob the children of such fathers as feared God and walked in his wayes relieved the poor and built and beautified Churches and spent their dayes in praying and doing all other pious deeds and wronging no man either in word or deed then ought we not to say with our new Saints They were superstitious and ignorant and walked in darkness by thinking to merit heaven by their works What good children ought not to do and have therefore merited to be sent to hell which is a most ungodly and uncharitable censure of most ungracious children that delight rather to spit in their fathers faces than to commend and to imitate their Vertues But we ought to honour the memories of our forefathers that have most faithfully served God and procured the blessings of God to those children that will serve God That God blesseth the good children for their godly fathers sake Gen. 26.24 as they have done because God loveth and hath promised to blesse the good children that will walk in the wayes of their godly fathers for their fathers sake that had formerly served him and
most of it seems never so Pious and the Preacher never so Honest And as one vicious Act doth not presently give the denomination of a wicked man to any one as to be once drunk with Lot doth not make a man to be stiled a drunkard as Aristotle truly saith Quia semel insanivimus omnes because there is no man living but he may sometimes fall So one virtuous Act doth not make a man Vertuous one wise word doth not prove the speaker to be a wise man and one Act of Piety whether it be to hear Sermons or to Fast or to erect an Hospitall or the like doth not make a Religious man But a good man must have the habit of well doing and a Godly Religious man must have respect unto all God Commandments and as the Apostle saith By continuance in well doing seek Glory Honor and Immortality And therefore the Judge that would be deemed a just Judge must not only once or twice do justice but he must constantly administer justice unto all and not only unto equals as many of them many times will do but also to the poorest and meanest men against the Richest and Noblest Persons wherein the timerous and corrupt covetous Judges often fail And the Preacher that desires to be a faithfull Minister of Christ must not only like those Landlords that require much and many services from their Tenants and then bestow a dinner upon them once a year bestow a Sermon or two upon his Flock when he comes to receive his Payments and to set his Tythes but as the Apostle saith he must Preach In season and out of season Volentibus Nolentibus upon all occasions at all times in all places and to all Persons that will hear him And not only some of his Sermon must be good and the rest factious and Seditious but they must be all Pious for the edifying of Gods people and peaceable for the quieting of Gods Church Or else one Seditious Sermon may do more evill than twenty of his best Sermons may do good but we should all Preach the Doctrine of Charity and Vnity that as there is but one God one Faith one Baptism one Christ and one Church here on earth So there should be but one and the same Doctrine and one and the same Discipline in the Church of Christ And so he that would be accounted a Charitable man must not only bestow his alms to one or two but as the Scripture saith he ought to do good unto all men and specially to them that are of the houshold of Faith for so the Lord commandeth us Give alms of thy goods and never turn thy face from any man i.e. any man that wants thy help and then The face of the Lord shall not be turned away from thee because as I said it is not any one Act of goodness but a Continuance in well doing that doth please the Lord and gives the denomination of a good man And so you see how a wicked man or a wicked woman may have some good speeches and do some good Acts and yet be no good man nor good woman But now for the substance of this Speech of Jezabel we may observe therein 1. Two Persons 2. Two things 1. The Persons are Elah the son of Baasha and Zimry Captains of half his Charets a Master and a servant a King and a subject that after became a King himself 2. The things that are mentioned in this short speech are 1. Murder the worst of all the injuries that can be offered to any man 2. Peace the best of all the blessings that this world can afford unto men So you see this Text is the Tragedy of two Kings and Treateth of two of the greatest and rarest things under Heaven the one Positive the greatest Evil that can be done to man which is murder The other Privative the want of the greatest good that the earth can afford unto men which is Peace for so the Phrase doth not only simply avouch that Zimri having slain his Master could not have Peace but it doth most forcibly infer that having done such a wicked Act it was impossible for him to have peace because an Interrogation is the most forcible vehement and significant expression either of Negatives or Affirmatives that any Orator can use ascertaining the thing far more Energetically then could be done by any plain and simple assertion And now let us by Gods assistance Treat of these Parties and Parts in their order And 1. Elah was the King of Israel and the son of a King of Israel 1 Person is Elah the son of Baasha that had Raigned 24. years in Tyrza and himself two years in the same Kingdom and in the same City and therefore in all reason he should either have been sooner dethroned or now to have been continued especially considering his Title was just he was no Vsurper and his rule was not Tyrannicall neither do we read of any great misdemeanour of this King save only that he walked in the waies of his Father and that he was drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza 1 Kings 16.9 that was his Steward Where you may observe these two things 1. 1 Not to follow our fathers evil wayes Ezech. 20.18 That we ought not to walk in the wayes of our fathers when our fathers walk not in the wayes of God but as the Prophet Ezechiel saith Walk you not in the statutes of your fathers nor defile your selves by walking in their waies And therefore if your fathers have unjustly taken away the Lands and Possessions of the Church or of any one else do not you continue in their wayes and perpetuate the wrongs that they have done lest God will destroy you as he destroyed Elah for walking in the wayes of his father for if your fathers have killed the Prophets and you garnish their Tombs if the Vsurpers have taken away our lands and you still detain them as you do Which is better or which worse to us judge your selves 2. 2 The bitter fruits of sweet drunkenness You may from hence observe the fruits of Drunk enness which hath undone many famous men as some in their drink have fallen off from their horses and so brake their limbs and some their necks others fell into the waters and were drowned and others into quarrels and were killed Noah though a righteous man yet by his drunkenness discovered his nakedness and thereby occasioned his son which he should not have done to deride his father's folly and for this his great impiety to bring an inevitable curse upon himself Gen. 9.25 and upon all his posterity a most fearful fruite all springing from this bitter root of sweet drunkenness So Lot being drunk lay with both his own daughters of whom sprang those two ungodly Generations of the Moabites and the Amonites And so did Armitus and Ciranippus the Syracusians plutarcb as Plutarch saith l. 2. c. 31. And
death in any other Country where they should be but like Jonas among the Ninivites meer strangers Yet thus was Jeremy used and thus are we 3. This our Prophet was not only a Jew preaching unto the Jews 3 He was a dear lover of them for so many a man as Cateline among the Romans Vortigern among the Britains Speed l. 7. c. 4. and Simon Jason and others among the Jews and some others nearer home have betrayed their own Country 2 Machab. 4. the trust that their Country reposed in them but he was a faithful Patriot a hearty lover and no hater of his people Tertullian noteth how dearly Moses loved this Nation of the Israelites when rather than God should destroy them he earnestly requested that his own name might be blotted out of the Book of Life S. Paul sheweth the like love unto the Jews when he saith he could wish himself accursed from Christ Rom. 9.3 for his brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh And this our Prophet sheweth no lesse love unto them than the other as you may easily see by this his Prophesie and his Preaching to them and his Lamentation for them Yet all the love of these men and put all together was not comparable to the love of Christ who gave himself for them and prayed for them when they Crucified him And therefore well might he say Greater love than this hath no man John 15.13 that a man lay down his life for his friends which none of all the Prophets nor of the Apostles nor of the Martyrs that died all for themselves and suffered death for their own sins did lay down their life for others as our Saviour Christ did lay down his life not for himself but for his enemies and yet they loved them very much and very dear as I shewed to you before And so must all the Messengers of Christ and Preachers of God's Word How the Ministers and Preachers of Gods Word should love their people imitate these holy men to love Gods people for that the people can hardly reap any good from them whom they perceive not to love them but as we suspect the gifts of an enemy to be as the Belt of Ajax was to Hector and Hectors Sword to him in like sort the death of each other So we dis esteem and regard not the words of them that love us not But you see how the true Prophets and Servants of God loved this people and laboured all that ever they could for the good of the people to bring them unto God and to turn away Gods anger from them And what reward did this people render to these and to the rest of Gods Messengers and Teachers for all the love that they shewed unto them and the pains they had undertaken for them The very Heathen tells us that Amor amoris magnes durus est qui amorem non rependit Love is a Loadstone to draw love again and if we will do nothing else yet we can do no lesse than love them that do so dearly love us The very publicans and sinners do the same Yet behold The ingratitude of the Jews O Heavens and wonder O Earth at this ungrateful people who rendered to Gods Messengers evil for good and instead of loving them stoned them For they murmured against Moses rebelled against David persecuted Elias beheaded John the Baptist and as our Saviour saith they killed the Prophets Luke 13.34 and stoned them that were sent unto them And it is no strange thing for us to find many men walking in the same wayes and treading in the same steps as these Jews have done but it were very strange that we should be used any better than those better Messengers that were sent before us Luke 10.3 For our Saviour tells us with an Ecce Behold and consider it well I send you forth as lambs into the midst of wolves And you know the Fable how the silly lamb procul infrà bibens for drinking far enough below the wolfe was notwithstanding torn all to pieces by that cruel wolfe upon pretence that he stopt the current which was impossible for him to do 2. 2 The parties to whom this Message was sent The Parties to whom the Message was sent are shewed in these words this people and that is the people of the Jews that were then flos florum medulla mundi the choisest and the noblest of all the people of the world for You only have I known that is acknowledged for mine own people Amos 3.2 and mine own peculiar inheritance of all the families of the earth saith the Lord. And God shewed his great love towards them by the wonderful works that he had done for them For as the Prophet saith He eased their shoulders from their burdens Psal and their hands from making the pots and he delivered them out of that Egyptian-bondage and from the tyranny of cruel Pharaoh The great favours of God unto the Jews Then he gave them such Laws so holy and so just as neither Solon nor Lycurgus nor any other Nation of the World had the like And he fed them in the Wildernesse 40. years together with Manna that was the bread of Heaven and the Angels food and after that he thrust out 7. other Nations to make room for them and he gave them the labours of the people in possession and planted them in Canaan which was a Land that flowed with milk and honey and there he hedged them about as we were of late hedged here with all kind of blessings beneficia nimis copiosa most ample benefits And as the Schools say Privativa positiva for they had plenty in peace and victory in war and what was it not that this people had not And yet this people this peculiar people of God must hear this hard Message and they must undergo this sharp censure For as the Lord saith of Coniah Jeremy 22.24 were he as the signet upon my right hand yet would I pluck him thence and give him into the hands of those that seek his life So will he do with this people and with any other when they do prevaricate and offend him He will cut them off and cast them from him were they formerly never so precious in his sight How God dealeth with his dearest children when they depart from his service for no priviledge no prerogative no former piety can prevail with God to prevent his judgements when with this people they love to wander and refrain not their feet from their evil wayes But as these his dearly beloved people the Jews were cast off when they did cast off the true service of God and as those seven Churches of Asia Ephesus Smyrna Pergamos Thyatira Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea that were planted by the Apostles and watered with the blood of Martyrs had their Candlesticks removed and themselves delivered up to groan under the Turkish tyranny
that we fail not to observe his Commandment ne rapiat fiscus quod non capit Christus lest the Rebell should take all because we will not part with what is fit both to defend our selves 2 To the hazard of our lives and to assist our King 2. If we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren as Saint John saith much rather ought we to do it for our King and I could shew you many worthy examples of many Jewes and Gentiles that are made famous throughout all generations for what they sustained in the defence of their Kings You may read that when David was assailed by a mighty Gyant named Ishâ—benob which was of the sonnes of Rapha the head of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brasse Abishai the son of Servia with the danger of his own life ran betwixt him and the King and for this faithfulness to his Master 2 Sam. 21.17 God assisted him so that he killed the Philistine and it is recorded in our Annals to his eternall praise that Sir Hugh Sincler at the Siege of Bridg-north seeing an arrow that was shot at his Master King Henry the second stepped betwixt the shaft and his Soveraign How freedily subjects ought to assist their King and not to 〈…〉 till it be too late and so receiving the arrow into his own body was therewith shot to death that he might thereby preserve the life of his King And as you see how far we are to aid and assist our King to the uttermost of our abilities with the hazard of our lives so we ought to consider the time when this assistance is to be yielded unto him for the School-rule is most sure Gratia ab officio quod mora tardat abest That aid is not good when it doth no good but doth a great deal of ill because we depended on it and were disappointed of it And this hath been the losse of many Armies and the destruction of many men that have perished in the expectation of their relief as the debates and delayes of the Carthaginians to send aid unto Hannibal lost him Italy and thereby lost themselves and many the like examples I could produce to you Therefore when Metius Suffetius promised aid unto the Romans and yet deferred the performance untill he could perceive which was most likely to prevaile of both parties the Romans more incenst against him that thus subtilly deceived their expectation then against their enemies that were in open rebellion tore him in pieces betwixt wild horses and the Poet saith to him that thought it a hard censure At tu dictis Albane maneres It was but very just because he was so false and the Merozites for the like faults were most fearfully cursed by God himself Judg. 5.23 And therefore Tolle moras semper nocuit differre paratis Let them that mean to aid their King take off delayes for as God loveth a cheerful doer so he loveth a speedy doer of any good and therefore he saith To day if you will hear his voice hearden not your hearts and put not off his service till to morrow But wise Counsellers will tell us that great bodies do move slowly and many matters cannot suddenly be concluded it is true yet the deferring of such duties as may be a weakening to one part and a strengthening to the other and the delayes that may be purposely protracted should be as wisely prevented as they are craftily intended I am no States-man neither will I presume to prescribe Rules for Counsell but as we daily pray O God make speed to save us O Lord make haste to help us so let us humbly beseech Almighty God that he would speedily assist and send aid unto our King and set an end to our vexations and compose all the differences of these poor distracted Kingdomes that so we might joyfully serve him and praise him without end Per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum cui Laus Honor Gloria in secula seculorum Amen Jehovae Liberatori THE SIXTH TREATISE John 10.27 My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me THe blessed Apostle Saint Peter saith that Jesus Christ while he lived here on earth went about doing good that is Acts 10.38 not good to himself for so all worldlings and all ambitious men go about continually to do themselves that which they conceive to be good but he went about to do good to all others as strengthening the feeble comforting the broken hearted and healing all that were oppressed of the devil and as Saint Matthew saith he gave sight to the blinde he cleansed the leapers and raised the dead Mat. 11.5 all good deeds indeed And yet the doing of all these good deeds to all men that had need of them and were capable of good could not move all men to speak good of him All speak not well of Christ that did good to all nor to give him good words for all the good works that he did unto them but though some said he hath done all things well and he could neither make the lame to walk nor the blinde to see if God were not with him yet others and they were the major part and the nobler part of the people the Scribes and the Pharisees said he was a grand Impostor a Seducer of the people a Sabbath-breaker a drunkard a glutton and a wine-bibber a man possessed of the devil a friend of Publicans and sinners Neque enim Jupiter neque pluens omnibus placet neque abstinens Theog 25. and what not good God! Quid Domini facient audent cum talia fures What shall good men doe when such wicked men dare say such things of the Son of God But you may see and you ought to consider it that as Theognis saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alius tibi male alius melius dicet bonos alius valde vituperat alius laudat God himself that made all things exceeding good and doth all things exceeding well cannot please the never satisfied will of all men but when one would have peace another would have war when some desire rain some others desire to have faire weather and so one will speak ill of thee another well and one will exceedingly dispraise the good another will as much praise them and commend them So different are the mindes of men And therefore how is it possible that either I Go how we will or doe what we will we shall never please all men or any man else either in our Sermons or in our Prayers though we preach nothing but truth and pray as Christ commandeth us to pray should notwithstanding satisfie all our hearers but that the Sceptick blameth what the charitable man commendeth and though our intentions be never so straight yet their expositions will be found often crooked And this cannot be helped neither is he the wisest that otherwise expecteth it but
CHARLES for you know it is not long since the Word of God was had in our native language but it was locked up in the Greek and Latine Tongues which none but a few scholars understood and since it is vulgarly published you may consider how many Bibles are now printed to furnish every Prentice maid and boy in comparison of the small number that the best men had in former times and for Sermons how rare were they in our fathers times and how generally you may hear them now at all times in most places and the Angel foretells the Prophet Daniel it should be thus before the end of the world for saith he Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be encreased as now it is I think ten times more then ever it was Dan. 12.4 And therefore the Prophet saith The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea Hab. 2.14 And yet notwithstanding all the multitude of our Bibles all the volumes of divine Treatises all the frequent Sermons that are made and all the knowledge that is profest from the learned scribe to the City-tradesman the Country plough-man our Saviour tells us that when he cometh Iniquity shall be encreased the love of many shall wax cold and he shall scarce finde faith upon the earth And if any man demand with Nichodemus How can these things be I answer That the more good wheat we sowe in the field of Gods Church the more tares will Satan sow amongst it and the more we strive to enlarge the true faith the more errours and heresies will his instruments spread amongst the people and for knowledge he knoweth enough and too much himself and is very well pleased that all his servants should be knowing men The Devil would have all to be knowing men and be as skilful in the Scriptures as he is himself for as one crafty knave can do ten times more mischief then ten silly fooles so one learned heretick will broach more errours and defend and maintaine them far better then many meaner scholars can do and it is a true axiom that Non nisi ex magnis ingeniis magni errores the great errours never sprung and the strange heresies could never have been maintained but by men of some good parts and of great knowledge And therefore I may justly say with S. Augustine that Melior est fidelis ignorantia quam temeraria scientia it were far better for men to be humbly ignorant then proudly filled and rashly erring with knowledge for as the Apostle saith Knowledge puffeth up 1 Cor. 8.1 Esay 47.10 and many times produceth many errours and much evil even as the Lord saith of Babylon Thy wisdome and thy knowledge have perverted thee and caused thee to turn away from the right way And as the rash proud and unsanctified knowledge of men doth breed many errours and much evil so it bringeth no good at all for as S. Paul saith that not the hearers of the law Rom. 2.13 but the doers of the law shall be justified so not the knowers of the Scriptures could they repeat it all at their fingers end but they that understand it right apply it as they ought believe in Christ and lead their lives according to the Scriptures shall receive the reward promised in Scripture otherwise as he that knoweth his masters will and doth it not so he that knoweth the Word of God and is most skilful in the holy Scriptures and yet neither applies them right nor believes nor lives according to the Word of God is worthy to be beaten with many stripes And therefore Christ enjoyneth us to give unto his sheep their own due portion of knowledge and spiritual food that may edifie them and not destroy them and that is such a proportion as every one is capable of and is requisite for him to know And 2. As we are to give to every one his own due portion of this spiritual food 2 In due season both in quality and quantity so we are to give it them in due season because as Solomon saith there is a time for all things as a time to speak and a time to be silent a time to feast and a time to fast a time to preach and a time to pray which I fear is now cut shortest of all times if not persecuted to hide it self in corners and private Chappels when as many of our Churches are scarce acquainted with the Lords prayer the prayer that our Saviour commanded us to use Horrendum dictu And as Christ our grand Shepherd hath commanded us to give to every one his own portion in due season so he hath warned and instructed his sheep not to take what they list but to be satisfied with what is given them and to expect it in the due time and not to exact it whensoever they please because God cannot endure that every man should be his own carver and stretch forth his hand with Adam to any forbidden fruit God would not have men to be their own carvers when as every one should be contented with what is given him and should pray to God as Christ hath taught us saying Give us this day our daily bread and therefore when Christ blessed the five Loaves and two Fishes he did not as many of our new Divines teach the people now to take what they list of the blessed bread in the Eucharist but as S. John saith he distributed them to the Disciples John 6.11 and the Disciples to them that were set down But alas here is our misery and the iniquity of these times The misery the iniquity of these dayes that our dispensers shall not dispose this spirituall food and God himself shall not distribute his own gifts but as the Poet saith Vivitur ex rapto what God hath most graciously bestowed upon one man another will most wickedly snatch it from him and men must and will have the Word of God expounded extorted and multiplied as Christ multiplied his loaves when where how and by whom they list which is the cause of our calamities and like if not prevented to bring destruction unto the sheep of Christ And therefore 3. Christ the good Shepherd doth not onely feed his sheep and bid S. Peter and in him all us three times to feed his sheep that is to feed them three manner of wayes 1. Pascere verbo 2. Pascere cibo 3. Pascere exemplo 1. With the Word of God 2. With Almes-deeds 3. With good examples but he doth also expose himself to all dangers even to death it self to save and to protect his sheep from the fury of those that any wayes labour to destroy them even as he saith I lay down my life for my sheep therefore he must needs be the good Shepherd and none can deny him to be a good Shepherd that layeth down his life for his sheep And he requireth of
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
Discovery of Mysteries and the Revelation of the great Anti-Christ And for which doings the Lord God hath if not sufficiently yet apparently shewed his just Wrath and Indignation against them many ways First In the discovery of their secret Hypocritical and hidden under-ground Mysteries of their Iniquitie which could not otherwise be sifted out and manifested but by the omniscient Spirit of the all-seeing-God Secondly In raysing so many godly men though to many with the hazard and to some with the loss of their lives and fortunes to oppose them and with a courage raysed by the divine Spirit to withstand their wicked ways and to uphold the true service of the living God Thirdly In the reducing of their chiefest Plots and Devices to nothing though out of his patience and long-sufferings he suffered them for a while to prosper and to walk on still and to proceed in their wickedness for they intended like those Gyants that built the Tower of Babel to erect such a frame of Government in these Kingdomes that they only and their Posterity and Successours should sit at the Stern to turn and guide the same as the thirty Tyrants did for a while in Athens so long as the Sun and Moon endureth and to that end they destroyed their King they suppressed the Bishops they excluded the Lords and then framed such an Engagement as might infringebly oblige and tie all the inhabitants of these dominions to adore them for their good Masters and Governours for ever But lo he that dwelleth in Heaven laughed them to scorne Psal ii 4. and the Lord had them in derision for as the Spirit of the Lord came upon Othniel and upon Barak and Gedeon to destroy the Aramites Canaanites and Midianites and as the Lord stired up Sampson and David to destroy the Philistines so the same Spirit stirred up one even the Lord General Cromwel a Philistine from among these Philistines and a grand Rebel out of these Rebel's that did first so wisely disannul their brazen Engin the Engagement and then seeing his opportunity and finding how acceptable it would be to God and beneficial to all good men he did with an Heroical courage dissolve that knot and scatter those Parliament-men as the Lord scattered the Jews that were the murderers of his Son and their own King over all the parts of this Kingdom And thus by the just Judgment of God the whol Mass of that long Parliament that thought to remaine as Kings for ever became like the chaff which the winde scattereth away from the face of the earth And therefore Secondly The just Judgment of God upon the dismembred members of the long Paâ—liament I must now proceed to shew you the just Judgments of God upon the dismembred parts of this great body as I finde them driven by the winde of God's wrath here and there throughout all the parts of these Dominions But I must confess that for the particular persons of that Parliament and their adherrents that have in a great measure already felt the heavy hand of God's wrath for their Transgressions in that confederacie it is a work beyond mans reach either to set them down or to shew their punishments and therefore I will confine my self and as the Lord shewed unto Moses the land of Canaan from the top of Mount Nebo afar of which sight must needs be therefore but very partial and imperfect so will I give you a tast and a glimmering light of some judgments of God and the justness thereof upon some particular men and the more noted Members of that Parliament and I will begin with him that was the beginning of our trouble the first disturber of our peace and the General of the late unhappy War the Earl of Essex First It was said as I remember of Dionysius King of Sicily Of the Earl of Essex that he was a Tyrant begot of Tyrants then which a worser Character could not be given and a baser description could not be made of him saith Plutarch But I will not say of this noble Lord who in deed had a great deal of Honour in him and carried himself for ought that ever I heard like a man of Honour and pius inimicus a noble Adversary unto the King that he was a Traytor begot a of Traytor yet I must say that his Father was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth and was arraigned and beheaded for Treason à ainst the Queen whether justly for his deserts or unjustly by the malice of his enemies I will not determine and though her Royal Majesty did Royally and most Graciously restore this man both to his Fathers Lands and Honours and King James confirmed the same and King Charles more then that made him one of his Privy Council and Lord Chamberlain of his House-hold which was for Honour one of the best Offices as I take it in the Court and for profit a place worth viis modis near about 2000. pounds per annum as I heard and conferred many other favours upon him and for all this this Lord as is conceived out of no other cause then ambition of popular praise which greedy desire of popularity hath undone many a noble minde or as others think out of a secret grudg which he bare to this good King and to King James his linage for giving way to his Lady and Wife to be divorced from him onely propter frigiditatem naturae which all Divines and Canonists do not consent to be a sufficient cause of divorce presently and willingly accepted the motion of the House of Commons Plinius lâ—b 8. cap. 23. and commission of the Parliament to become the General of all their Forces against the King wherein as Pliny writeth of the Aspick saying Conjunga ferè vagantur nec nisi cum compare vita est itaque alterutra intercepta incredibilis alteri ultionis curá persequitur interfectorem unúmque eum in quantolibet populi agmine notitia quadam infestat perrupit omnes difficultates ut perdat eum qui comparem perdiderat that he pursueth him which hath hurt or killed his Mate and knows him among a multitude of men and therefore hunteth him still and layeth for him breaking throughout all difficulties to come at him so it may be this Lord was such as Seneca speaks of qui tantùm ut noceat cupit esse potens that accepted of his office that he might be revenged for his disgrace when notwithstanding King Charles was not the Author of his dishonour nor did any wayes further that divorce and therefore should not have been maligned for anothers fault Or if it was not for this cause as I heard some confidently say it was yet for what cause soever this or any other and with what minde soever this Lord accepted that office as being loth to stain his Honour and Ambitious to retain the Fame of an honourable Soldier I never heard the King nor any other of the Nobility accusing him for any base ignoble and perfidious act
Punishment which should be a warning to all Transgressors to fear the Vengeance of Allmighty God Thirdly The Lord Brooks The next Member of the Long Parliament that I shall set down in my Catalogue of disloyal Subjects is the Lord Brooks a man whose former life and Conversation which I knew by his own penitent Epistles and Letters that from beyond the Seas he wrote to his Unckle Sir Fulk Grevil afterwards Lord Brooks who shewed them unto me was very loose and dissolute and how in a short time by some strange Conversion far unlike Saint Paul's he passed from one extream to another Four remarkable things concerning the Lord Brooks from a very dissolute Youth to a most resolute Saint I know not but out of many remarkable things written of him immediately after his death I shall onely set down here these few particulars First That as in his former looseness he wholly neglected the Commands and grave Counsels of his Unckle Sir Fulke Grevil that was his Governour loco Parentis his Maintainer and upon my Knowledge a very bountiful Maintainer of him too so afterwards in his too much preciseness he did in like manner wholly reject his Duty and Obedience to his King that was Pater Patriae and a very gracious King to him too yea he became a very obstinate violent and a most virulent Opposer of his King as if he could not be a Saint in the Service of God except the became as a rebel to oppose his King but so it is most commonly seen that they which are undutyful to their Parents and Governors will seldom prove faithful to their Kings or Princes Secondly I observed that our of his superabundant zeal which he pretended to God's Honour he extremely hated and persecuted the Governours of God's Church and the chief Upholders of God's Service the reverend Bishops and and all the grave and learned Doctours of God's word and he was no less a Profaner of God's House which is the material Temple and the place where God's Honour dwelleth while the Saints are Pilgrims in the Wilderness of this World Thirdly It is not unknown to most that knew him that he could not endure to have this Epithete and Title of Saint to be given either to Evangelist or Apostle and especially to any other departed Saint or Servant of God as Saint Augustine Saint Ambrose and the like though he could not deny them to be with God in Heaven as if the Saints in Heaven for fear of Idolatry or Superstition were not to be acknowledged for Saints now on earth but that this Sanctity must be appropriated onely to themselves that are such furious Zelots against the reverend esteem we bear to the Saints in Heaven though we neither invocate them for help nor adore the best of them with the Church of Rome no more then they but knowing that not one is in Heaven but he is a Saint we give this Title of Saint to them of whom we doubt not of their being blessed with God Fourthly He had another property no less injurious to himself and the Servants of God on earth then the former was to the Saints in Heaven for that excellent Prayer in our Letany and the holy desire of God's Servants that it would please God to deliver them from sudden Death which all good Divines and faithfull Servants of God did ever acknowledge for a temporary Judgement of God and therefore prayed that whensoever it pleased him to call for their Souls out of this earthly Tabernacle he would be pleased to grant them some time and space to call upon him for the forgiveness of their Sins and to commend their Souls into his Hands and so forth Yet this Lord could not away with the Prayer nor abide to hear of this Petition but would have every man at all times to be so prepared for death that he needed not at any time to pray against sudden death and we say likewise that every man ought to expect death in every place and to do his best endeavour to be prepared for death at all times yet that neither this Lord nor the best Saint on earth can be so well prepared at any time but that he ought as he hath need to pray for pardon of the Defects and Imperfection of his Preparation and therefore to pray for time to make that Prayer and then as for time to dispose and fit himself for God and to make his peace with him through Christ so to set his House in order as the â—rophet saith to Ezechias and to settle his Estate among those that depend upon him which hath been ever held to be as it is indeed a Blessing and a great favour granted from God to preserve love and to continue peace and amity amongst a man's Children and the rest of his Friends and Posterity But here in this Lord we may behold and adore the Judgment of the just God how that as Goliah's Head was cut off with his own Sword so Judicium suum super caput suum this man's Judgment and his practice fell upon his own head and the Stone that he threw at another lighted upon his own Pate for in the Prosecution of his hate against his King as a just reward of that Service his Lordship being in Litchfield on Saint Chad's day the Founder of that Church while he viewed the College or Close as they tearm it and Church of Saint Chad to batter them down with his Canons for the Fideliy and Allegiance of that Fraternity unto their King being all harnessed Cap-a-pâ— from top to toe as he lifted up his Helmet to see the same more clearly behold you and see the just hand of God directing the hand of a youth that was a Prebend's Son with a Fowling-Piece to hit him just in the eye that as formerly he could not see the truth so now he could see nothing but fell suddenly dead and never spake word no not so much as Lord have mercy upon me so the Lord God shewed himself just and righteous in his Judgments and holy in all his ways and let all the Sons of men acknowledge the same and all wicked men fear his Justice Fourthly The next man Fourth Man that I shall bring upon the Stage to answer at the Bar of Justice is Master John Pym a man that was in an Office of great trust and of much profit and gain under the King and because as the Proverb goeth Much would have more his Covetousness egged forward by his Ambition to be great snatching at more then was just laid him open to lose what was due and to be deprived of his place that was so good Then he like the unjust Steward spoken of in the Gospel took unjuster Courses against his Master for he not onely advised with himself to detain more of his Master's goods in his hands and to deceive him of so much as might well enable him to live well and in good sort as his false fellow-Steward
that Christ speakes of had shewed him the way before but as after Ages grew more subtle so they became more wicked then the former times even so this unjust and unthankful Servant became more wicked then before for now he layeth up such hatred and malice against his King and sealeth it in the depth of his Heart wherein the same boyled like new Wine that wanted vent so that it was like meat and drink to an hungry Stomach for him to finde any Opportunity to broach the same against the King And the Long Parliament that consisted of very many discontented Persons and men both disaffected to his Majesty and distasting his present Government made him a fair way to lay open all his Malice and what he formerly vented in his private Discourse by retail he doth it publickly now in gross and he doth it to the full and having a tongue apt to speak and not unskilful in the art of Rhetorick he begins first to make his Oration against the Earl of Strafford as knowing that whatsoever evil was proved or conceived against him the same reflected most upon the King then after the taking of this great Earl and prudent Counsellour of the King out of the way making more bitter Invectives against his Majesty then ever Cicero's Philippicks were against Marcus Antoninius or his Actions against Verres he so still passed on till he had poysoned the greater part of that House and the seditious vulgar that understood his Proceedings with an evil conceit against the good King And now seeing himself back'd with the wilde part of the House and the strength of the rude multitude no mean revenge will serve his turn but with his Rhetorical Orations and Speeches filled with Gall against the King though as yet somewhat obliquely he labours to disrobe and rob the King of all his chief Friends under the Notion of evil Counsellours and withall secretly complies with the Scots to assist him and the rest of his seditious Compeers against his Majesty But the King having full intelligence both of his and his partners vile practice against his Majesty laboured to bring them to their Tryal in the usual legal way for their underhand Treachery and Confederacy with the Scots to bring a foreign Army to invade his Dominion and then to save himself and the rest they fly to the City of London and in a short space drew the Citizens and with them the whole Kingdom to engage themselves in a desperate civil War against their lawful Sovereign Then the King found himself too weak to bring this strong Rebel to any trial yet the hand of God was not to short to fetch him out of his guarded Palace for he is the Lord of Hosts and hath as well his great Army of little ones as the Rats and Mice that devoured Popiel the second King of Polonia in anno 830. for his treacherous poysoning of his Unckles the Moales that undermined a City in Thessaly and the Worms that destroyed Herod the King as also his strong Army of great ones as the earth to swallow up Corah Dathan and Abiram the Sea to overwhelm Pharaoh and all his Hoast the Stars in their Order too fight against Sisera and his Angels to be at his Command to overthrow his enemies And therefore he sent his Serjeant to arrest him and to fetch him out of his strong hold that he should do no further Mischief against his Anointed And how he died I leave to the Report of them that knew the manner of his death better then I can set it down I did intend further to shew unto you the just Judgment of God upon Colonel Hamden that for his disloyalty to his King was shot whereof he dyed on the same Plot of ground where he first mustered his Souldiers against his King even as the Lord threatened the like Judgment against Ahab And upon the Mayor of York that on that day twelve-Moneth that our King lost his life made a Bone-fire for joy that the King had so lost his life but on the same day twelve-Moneth after hanged himself And especially upon Colonel Axtel that hath been the ruine of so many Churches and the Suppressour of so many honest conformable Ministers and other good Protestants and plaid so many Tyrannical parts about Kilkenny and in my Diocess of Ossory as I am not able in a short time and with few words to express it and upon divers others but my Occasions at this time will not give me leave to perfect what I have begun And therefore I must now here make an End and commend us all to God through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom be all glory and honour for evermore Amen Jehovae Liberatori The Authour's Prayer after he had finished the Reparation of the Chancel and Quire of the Cathedral Church of Kilkenny OEternal Almighty and most merciful Lord God that hast created all things by thy Power governest them by thy Wisdom and preservest them by thy Goodness and hast disposed all thy Creatures to be for the Service of man the Sun to give him light by day and the Moon by night the Earth to feed him and the Angels of Heaven to attend him that he dash not his foot against a Stone for all which great love and bounty of thine towards man thou requirest no more but that he should be thankful unto thee and praise thee for thy goodness and declare the wonders that thou doest for the Children of men and as Moses saith what doth the Lord our God require of us but to fear the Lord our God to walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve the Lord our God with all our hearts and with all our souls and to keep his Commandments and Statutes which he commanded us for our good for the discharging of which duties and the performance of our Service unto the Lord our God though as Saint Stephen saith the most High dwelleth not in Temples made with hands when as the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him which is above the heavens and below the earth and filleth all places and beyond all places with his Presence yet our fore-Fathers most religiously according to the President that King Solomon left us and the good Examples that the Primitive Christians gave us have erected Oratories and built Temples and Churches where the Saints and Servants of God might meet to praise the Lord for his manifold mercies to beg his favour and graces to help and to supply their wants and necessities to understand his Will and to know his Commands and to do all other the best Service that they could do to the Lord their God and to that onely end they have set them apart and alienated them from all secular and prophane uses dedicated them wholly for God's Service and consecrated them by Prayers to be Sanctuaries for them and their Posterities to serve and to honour God in But O Lord our God we confess and
wicked God cast them off and scattered them among all the Nations of the earth And therefore whether thou beest Jew or Gentile Prince or peasant young or old rich or poor if thou wilt walk in thy wickednesse presume not of any prerogative to exempt thee from Gods judgement for the Lord hath said it and he will perform it There is no peace to no wicked man let him be whom you will But here Object it may be some will object that we are all wicked ergo pax nulli I answer Sol. That indeed we are all wicked and there is none that doth good no not one but that we are not all alike wicked for 1. There are divers kinds of wicked men 2. There are divers differences betwixt the wickednesses of wicked men as 1. There are some that commit wickedness through ignorance others of knowledge and some that commit wickednesse through weaknesse and infirmity and others do offend of malicious wickedness And so there are some wicked men lesse haynous than others both in the sight of God and men And there are others more odious and more transcendently wicked and I conceive that the Prophet principally meaneth Those high abominable sinners have not nor can have any peace such as are Murderers Regicides Rebells Traytors Idolaters Adulterers and the like wicked men and especially if you consider 2. That there is a threefold difference betwixt the sins and wickednesse of the godly that are wicked men and the sins and wickedness of the other abominable wicked sinners whereof the Prophet speaketh as 1. Before they sin 2. When they sin 3. After they sin For 1. 1 Difference The godly purpose not to offend God but do intend to serve him and to keep his Commandments but the wicked do imagine mischief upon their beds their feet are swift to shed blood and they resolve to proceed from one wickednesse to another And as Seneca saith Scelera sua sceleribus tueri To protect and hedge about their wickednesse with greater wickednesse as their lyes with perjuries their malice with murder and their disobedience with rebellion treachery and treasons 2. 2 Difference The godly when they do sin they do it with a great deal of reluctancy and as the Apostle saith the evil that they would not do and what they hate that they do by reason of the frailty and weakness of their flesh and the greatness of their temptation But the wicked sin with greediness and do rejoyce in the works of their hands and make a sport of their sins 3. 3 Difference When the sin is committed the godly are sorry for it and do repent them of it and resolve to do so no more and therefore do pray to God to forgive them what is past and to give them his grace to preserve them from the like but the wicked never repent them of any wickedness that they do nor pray to God for grace to amend them but think they do God good service when they persecute the righteous and destroy his servants And therefore the godly endeavouring to be at peace with all men they are for their part in peace with all men Ephes 4.3 and being justified by the faith which they have in Christ Jesus they have peace towards God and having peace with God and so leading a godly life they have peace with themselves which is the peace of conscience which is a Paradise of pleasure as S. Aug. Aug super Genes terms it and as the Poet saith Audebit dicere Horat. Pentheu Rector Thebarum quid me perferre patique Indignum coges But the wicked whose hands are like Ismaels hands against all men His thought seeth his punishment and his fear overwhelms him with miseries shall have all mens hands against them and being without fear in offending God and without any true faith in Christ they shall have God for their professed enemy and so being at war with God and thirsting after wickednesse they have no rest nor peace but Supplicium exercent curae Statius l. 3. Thebaidos tunc plurima versat Pessimusin dubiis augur timor And so there is no peace to no wicked man especially to these transcendent and resolved irrepentant wicked men Sed bella horrida bella warres warres and rumours of warres And these our warres and preparations for war our fightings and our plundering our oppressions and insupportable taxations and especially this our unnatural rebellion against our own just and pious King and above other horrible wickednesse the barbarous murdering of so just so innocent and so godly a King do sufficiently shew that we are a wicked generation and as this our Prophet saith a sinfull nation a nation laden with iniquity corrupt children and the seed of evill doers that have wholly forsaken the lawes of our God And this our wickednesse vice versa doth as apparantly shew that there is no peace intended for us and that we do but expect peace in vain untill we fully intend to forsake our sins because our sins and wickednesses our unjustice toward men and our prophanenesse in Gods service have made and will make a separation betwixt us and God and how can we hope for peace among men when God proclaimeth warre against us Quia conscientia mala bene sperare non potest Because a conscience guilty of such wickednesse Aug. in Ps 32. as the men of this Nation have committed knowes not how to hope for any good 2. This sheweth that our sins and wickednesse is the cause of all our miseries our sicknesse our wants our warres and of all our troubles Prov. 14.4 for man suffereth for his sins and as Solomon saith Miseros facit populos peccatum It is our sins that make us miserable and therefore if we would be freed from troubles eased of our burdens delivered from these wars and healed from our diseases let us forsake our sins and then God will turn all these evills from us 2. Having heard the particulars of this generall Proclamation 2 The proclaimers of this truth 1. The Prophet we are now to consider of the Proclaimers and they are two 1. The Prophet as Gods Herald and his messenger 2. God himself who is the chief sender forth of this Proclamation for there is no peace 1. The Prophets Apostles and Preachers of Gods word are Gods Heralds to declare his will and to proclaim his Messages unto the people and as one saith very well they are Gods mouth in preaching to the people and therefore they say Os Domini loquutum est the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it and they are the peoples mouth in praying for them unto God even as Mediators betwixt God and the people as Moses saith unto the Israelites I stood between the Lord and you Matth. 23.2.3 to shew unto you the word of the Lord. Which should be a warning to us that as the Apostle saith If any man speak he should speak