sed hoc solo contentus quia praecipitur he that is truly obedient to him whom God commanded us to obey never regardeth what it is that is commanded so it be not simply and apertly evill but he considereth and is therewith satisfied that it is commanded and therefore doth it because as S Aug. saith The command of the Superiour is a sufficient excuse for the inferiour Mandatum imperantis tollit peccatum obedientis i.e. in all things not apparantly forbidden And therefore as Julians Christian-Souldiers would not sacrifice unto the Idols which was an apparent evil at his command Sed timendo potestatem contemnebant potestatem but in fearing the power of God regarded not the wrath of man yet when he led them against his enemies they never questioned who they were that they went against nor examined the cause of his war but they went freely with him Et subditi erant propter Dominum aeternum etiam Domino temporali and in all such civill commands they obeyed this wicked King for his sake that was the King of kings and it may be fought against their own brethren So did the Jews that followed Saul against David and yet we never read that ever they were blamed for it And so should we do the like if we would do what God commandeth us For it is not in the subject's choice against whom he will fight but he must be obedient to his King if he will be obedient unto God for so the Lord saith I have made the earth the man and the beast Jerem. 27.5 6. that are upon the ground by my great power therefore certainly none should deny his Right to dispose of it and now I have given all these Lands into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon my servant and yet he was both a Heathen and Idolater and a mighty Tyrant and all nations shall serve him and his son and his sons son and it shall come to passe that the nation and Kingdom which will not serve the same Nâ—buchadnezzar the King of Babylon and that will not put their necks under the oke of the King of Babylon that nation will I punish saith the Lord with the sword and with the famine and with the pestilence until I have consumed them by his hands Therefore hearken not ye unto your Prophets nor to your Divines which speak unto you saying Ye shall not serve the King of Babylon for they prophesie a lye unto you which he repeateth again and again they prophesie a lye unto you that you should perish Which very words I may take up against the Rebels of England Ireland and Scotland God gave these Kingdoms unto King Charles and they cannot deny this nor deny him to be a good man and a most religious King and He hath commanded us to obey him and they that will not serve him he will destroy them by his hand Therefore believe not your false Teachers whether they be the Priests and Jesuits of Ireland or the Brownists and Anabaptists of England for God hath not sent them though they multiply their lyes in his name because God hath so straightly commanded us to obey our King in all civil causes and in all things wherein he giveth not a special charge to do the contrary And therefore that which is most worthy to be observed though God himself for the sin of Solomon declared by his Prophet that he had decreed to cut off ten parts of the Kingdom from Rehoboam yet because the people revolted not to satisfie Gods justiâ—e for the sins of Solomon but out of their own discontents that he would not ease them of their burdens for this revolt from a foolish and an oppressing Prince they are termed Rebels 1 Kings 12.19 and as the Thief to prevent his discovery will commit murder scelus scelere regitur and one great mischief will shelter it self under a greater so their Rebellion corrupted their Religion and made them fall away from God to worship Idols as they had done from their King to serve a Traytor which soon brought them to confusion Because this revolt as it proceeded from them was most abominable unto God And therefore though they were not reduced to Rehoboam because that may pretend some cause as oppression yet this after a plenary disquisition can admit of none excuse and therefore being abominable above measure it cannot expect the least favour from God but they were most severely punished by God because they transgressed his will by thus rebelling against their King contrary to his Commandment 2. The other Caution is That if the King commandeth what the Lord forbiddeth or the contrary then I may disobey but I must not resist for this is the will of God that where my active obedience cannot take place my passive obedience must supply it And though our Kings were as Idolatrous as Manasses as Tyrannical as Nero as wicked as Ahab and as prophane as Julian yet we may not resist we must not Rebel which would overthrow the very order of nature Arnis de autâ—rit princ c. 3. pag. 68. as Arnisaeus proveth by many examples and takes away the glory of martyrdom and makes all the Precepts of the Gospel of none effect And therefore when the Christians in Tertullians time were more in number and of greater strength than their enemies yet being compelled to Idolatry they rather suffered any persecution than admitted of any Rebellion against the most wicked of their persecutors And Juâ—tinian faith Q is est tantae authoritatis ut nolentem principem possit coarctare Who hath so much power as to restrain an unwilling Prince And yet it is very strange to consider what new Divinity hath been taught ex cathedra pestilentiae out of the chair of our new Assembly to raise Rebellion against our King and that which is worse than Rebellion to refuse the grace of Remission The Scribes and Pharisees were most wicked hypocrites and they sate in Moses chair but they never durst teach such tenets as now are published and practised in these Kingdoms And therefore our Saviour saith Math. 23.3 All that they bid you observe that observe and do Indeed there were some Hereticks among them that in the dayes of Theudas and Judas Galilaeus taught That the Jews were not to pray for the life of the Emperour because he was but extraneous an Vsurper and none of their lawful Kings for which errour Pilate mingled their blood with their sacrifice but these never durst avouch they should not pray for their own lawful King much lesse that they might rebel and take up arms against him Joseph Antiq. though he were never so wicked For they knew that the holiest men that ever were among the Hebrews called Essaei or Esseni that is the true Practisers of the Law of God maintained that Soveraign Princes whatsoever they were ought to be inviolable to their subjects as they were in most places among the most
the Priests but also to root out Presbyterium Our late persecution worse then Julians persecution the very Priesthood of Jesus Christ and so to extinguish the Christian religion out of the world for these men imitating him sought to supress not the then Bishops that perhaps might be found to have offended though that was never proved but Episcopacie it self and the discentive succession thereof which we received by prayers and the imposition of hands even from the Apostles time from those that are yet unborn and have I am sure done neither good nor evill and yet have received this evill from these men to have the Calling that they were to enjoy supprest their honours buried and their undubitable Rights and Means alienated from them Prohscelus nefandum quod magnum est mirum a most wonderfull thing that wickednesse should have no bounds no stop no reason nor moderation in its progression but like a stone tumbling down a hill never leave tumbling till it comes to the bottome or like a right Apollyon and a blind smiter that will slay the righteous with the wicked or rather destroy the righteous because they will not be wicked And yet this is not all we are not yet come to the height of these persecutors wickednesse Ezek. k. 13 15. or to the depth of their abomination but as the Lord saith unto the Prophet Ezechiel turn thee yet again and thou shalt see greater abominations so from the Lord I will shew to you greater abomination and the greatest that ever was committed here on earth For 3. The 〈…〉 the beâ—â—â—ving and murderring of the first King Touching which three 〈◊〉 are â—â—â—â—trable They have not only persecuted the Prophets and slain the Preachers and foreshewers of the coming of Jesus Christ but they have also saith our Martyr betrayed and murdered that just one For the fuller and more perfect understanding of which point I shall desire you to observe these three things 1. What they are and how they are styled by the holy Ghost that did this deed Traytors and Murderers 2. Of whom they are the Traytors and Murderers which is here exprest by that Just One and we shall find him to be 1. None of the Plebeians or common sort of men but a King the highest and the chiefest man in all the Kingdom 2. Not an alien as were Caesar and Herod but their own King originally and lineally descended from the Jews 3. Not an Vsurper as was Jeroboam and many others of the Kings of Israel and Athalia among the Jewes and Rich. the third and the late Cromwell amongst us but he was their own lawfull King without question lawfully descended from the Royall line 4. Not an unjust or tyrannical King as were Pharaoh Dionysius and Nero nor yet a lascivious King as were Sardanapalus Belshazzar and Heliogabalus but a most just perfect and pious King No better King under heaven 3. Who they were that the holy Martyr meaneth by these Traytors and Murderers of their King and we shall find them to be the Lords and Commons the People the Elders the Scribes and Pharisees and the whole Council of the Jewes 1. Part. 1. Their style and denomination which is twofold â— Traytorss They that have put this just King to death are here styled and shall ever be justly termed Traytors and Murderers 1. Traytors that is to their King for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Holy Ghost useth in this place and is derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies prodo or trado from whence the word Traitor cometh doth properly and most usually signifie both in prophane Authours and in the Ecclesiasticall and Civil writers the illegal and undutiful demeanour and the rebellious behaviour of Subjects toward and against their King and as the most curious criticks and best searchers of the Scriptures do observe this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Traytor is never applyed to any King for any act be it never so illegall so foul so barbarous or so bloudy that the King commits agains his Subjects when as we find not one text in all the book of God the holy Bible that speaks of many wicked idolatrous and tyrannical bloudy Kings where any one of those Princes or Kings is signified by this word or called by this name of Traytor And therefore this word Traytors that the Martyr useth doth sufficiently shew that he meaneth thereby to prove Christ to be King and the Traytors that killed him to be his Subjects as I shall further declare unto you hereafter 2. 2 Murders They are murderers because he was unlawfully put to death for otherwise a lawful Judge may lawfully put a malefactor to death and be no murderer because God commandeth Idolaters and sorcerers and others the like malefactors to be put to death and they that legally put such men to death are never termed murderers but when the party executed is innocent and the Judge condemning him not vested with lawful authority the man so put to death is truly said to be murdered and his executioners murderers And such was the death of Christ because he was most innocent And so was the death of King Charles and the Judge had neither lawful authority nor a just cause to condemn him and therefore they that crucified Christ and put him to death are rightly termed murderers and because Christ was a King as I shewed you from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 traytors they were no ordinary murderers of plebeians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of the common sort of men but that which is the highest and the worst of all murders they were the murderers of their King and therefore the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Martyr useth to expresse the death of the fore-shewers of the coming of Christ and the words of the Husbandmen which they said together of the King's Son Marc. 12.7 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Occido used here to signifie the death of this King ought properly to be translated either by killing or slaying or murdering as our last Translation renders the Martyr's words most rightly that they were his murderers But here it may be the Jews will object and say That Man or that King cannot justly be said to be murdered which is brought to a publick Trial and hath 1. His Charge given him to answer Three things seeming topalliat and to disprove the murdering of this King discussed 2. The Witnesses ready to prove the Charge 3. A Lawful Judge to pronounce sentence against him And all this was used against Christ the King of the Jews and against Charles the King of England saith the long Parliament therefore neither the one nor the other can justly and properly be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be murdered but they are unjustly taxed and
the Presbyterian way I am confident and sure that God never approveth of their courses nor for a man to accept of his own right by an indirect way and therefore I finde not that he blessed any of the Scots designs but as Nahum saith of Niniveh Nahum 3.13 so we may say of them thy people in the midest of thee are Women the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies and the fire shall devour thy barrs and I think they have found it true themselves through their Kingdom when the Lion and his Bears the Tyrant and his Whelps came amongst them And therefore this deliverance of the Prince being of the like nature as those wonderful deliverances that God wrought for other good Princes which are set down by Camerar libro secundo capite decimo being such a special act of God's favour and so wonderful in our eyes and as I believe with these former praecedentia fore-passed things will be a warning to him and to all others to amend future things and to detest and abandon this Presbyterian way which I am confident the Lord hateth and do assure my self will never bless it nor them that cordially follow it if they do rightly understand it howsoever he may in his secret Counsel suffer them as he doth many other Sinners and great offendours for a time to tyrannise over his children and to prosper in this World which is but as the Prophet saith a slippery station when as Claudian speaking of Ruffinus and his confederates saith tolluntur in altum Vt lapsu graviori ruant God lifteth them up to throw them down which makes their overthrow the greater by how much their exaltation is the higher for Qui jacet in terra non habet unde cadat He that walketh upon the ground can have no great fall but as Horace saith Saepius ventis agitatur ingens pinus celsae graviori casu decidunt turres feriuntque summos ful◠ura montes And so I believe their fall will be ere long which now ride on other men's palfreys and jet it up and down in pride in their Brethren's garments because as Job saith Job 20.5 27. The triumphing of the Wicked is but short and the joy of the Hypocrite is but for a moment when as the heavens shall reveile his iniquity and the earth shall rise up against him Secondly for the rest of the Scottish nation Mr. Hall a Counsellour for the Common-Wealth of England The trial of Mr. Love pag 76. How the Scots have been always avers and great enemies to the English-Nation in the triall of Mr. Love saieth that Master Love held Intelligence with the Scottish-Nation which truely saith he I do conceive hardly an English man that had the blood of an English man running in his Veins would joyn in confederacy with that Nation of all the Nations in the World against the Common-Wealth a Nation that hath been known to have been a constant enemy to this nation in all ages through the memory of all Histories whereby * If this be true you may guess how worthy they are to have an union with this Nation and how wisely we do to submit our selves by an indissoluble Covenant to their Scottish-discipline and therefore touching the now distressed and subdued subjects of Scotland especially those that Covenanted with the Parliament of England to overthrow the established Government of our Church and to set up the beggerly Presbytery I may most truely say lex non justior ulla Quam Artifices tales arte perire suâ Never Nation was more justly dealt withall then they be by what Crumwell brought upon them for though according to the Apostles warrant saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Cretians are always lyars I might justly say there are national sins as well as personal and you know that punica fides Titus 1.12 grew to be a Proverb among the Romans to note out a perfidions person so I might truely tell you that from Fergusius the renowned King of the Scots that first entred Ireland and afterwards was drowned at Carreg-fergus now corruptly called Knoc-fargus in that Kingdom their own Chronicles do testify how this Nation have been always such as Saint Stephen saith the Jews were a stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears that have allways resisted the Holy Ghost even as their Fathers did so did they so were the Scots a stiff-necked stubborn and rebellious people that have always resisted their own lawful Princes by deposing some and killing others whom they disliked and whom I could easily name if it were not for fear to be too tedious unto you out of their own Chronicles And though they had many brave Commanders and gallant Soldiers amongst them and some great Schollars as furious Knox Antimonarchical Buchanan That the Scots have been ever a most rebellious Nation in his Junius Brutus and De Jure regni apud Scotos and the like not a few yet as a little colloquintida spoileth all the whole pot of pottage so their treachery and Rebellion against their Kings obscureth all the good parts that can be in them It is a rare commendation that Quintus Curtius gives unto the Persians for their love and faithfullness unto Darius their King in his dejected Fortunes when they would rather lose their own lives then betray their King and Damianus a Goes tells us that many Infidels among the Indians were not inferiours to the best nations in their Obedience and Loyalty to their Kings and yet the Scots of all other Nations are as they say clean contrary for to go no further then our times it is not unknown to both Kingdoms how many signal favours were conferred upon men of all sorts both the nobles Gentles and Plebeyans of Scotland by King James that made himself poor How liberal and bountiful King James hath been unto the Scots to make them rich and many times emptied his own Exchequer to fill their purses and how King Charles never imposed any heavy burthen upon them but was no small benefactour to them preferring them in his own house to places of the greatest honour and best profit and those that came with their staff like Jacob over the Tweed and in their blew Bonnets into England they were in a short space enriched Knighted and ennobled in the King 's Court. But least that this Commemoration of benefits should be taken for an exprobration as the Comick speaketh I will not name those great persons that have been made great by this good King and that I could have set down for unthankful retributours of such great favours yet in general I would that all men knew how they have all rewarded their deserving Prince for that blessed man in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith The Scots are a Nation The King in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How lovingly King Charles used the Scots upon whom I have not onely tyes of nature sovereignty and bounty with my Father of blessed
and made a simple conversion of White to Black and of Good to Evil. For As I shall answer for what I say at the Dreadfull day of Judgment I do here profess that in all mine Observation of what I saw and what I heard of the Lords and Gentlemen of His Court in so many years as they know I lived therein which was ever since King James died till the Wars began I knew neither Lord nor Knight nor Gentleman nor any other man whatsoever neither have I read in any Historie Greek or Latine of any Emperour or King I will not except Constantine nor Theodosius nor St. Edward of Ingland that was a juster King a wiser Governour and a better man then King Charles that was so Pious in his Devotions so just and upright in all His Actions so sweet in His Disposition so loving to His Friends so mild to His Servants so ready to forgive His Enemies and so free from all revenge for His greatest wrongs that when His own Subjects and Servants so Undutifully and Maliciously Rebelled and Warred against Him and bespotted His Innocent Conversation and pure Life with most false and venomous Aspersions I heard him say I thank God I can freely forgive all my Enemies and I pray God that God would forgive them and I dare boldly affirm it and can justifie it that He was as good a Protestant if not the best Protestant in all the Christian World and I am sure the best Protestant King or Prince that ever England saw who when I came unto Him immediately after Edg-Hill-fight and said that whatsoever otherwise we wanted in our Abilities yet our Prayers should never be wanting to beseech the Almighty God night and day to bless Him and to protect Him from all His Adversaries He answered that He thanked us for our Prayers and desired us to continue our Prayers still as He hoped we would do for Him because He suffered all this War and whatsoever else should betide Him for our sake and for the defence of the true Protestant Religion as it was Established in the Church of England and for the preservation of the known Laws of these Kingdoms and all the while I lived in His Court I never saw the man Clergy or Laity that shewed himself so punctually professing the Protestant Religion and so zealously and regularly observing the true service of God as His gracious Majestie What other Character I should give to this most excellent Prince for a loving faithfull Husband to His Queen and for a dear indulgent Father to all His Children His goodness therein is very very far beyond my ability of Expression as it is indeed in all the other particulars so that the praise and Eulogie which Homer gave to Achilles and Ulysses Virgil to Aenaeas Xenophon to his Cyrus Eusebius to Constantine and Osorius to Emmanuel King of Portugal I may truly ascribe to Him or rather what the Prophet Jeremy and the Son of Sirach saith of the good King Josias or the Scripture of King David that he was a man according to God's own heart so I hope and believe that I may say with out mistake without offence that King Charles the First was a man according to God's own heart and though as Christ non dimidiavit dies suos so God did soon bring this good King to His death that He might be soon delivered from the contradictions of Sinners and soon brought to enjoy the glorious Crown of Eternal life yet was He most blessed both in His life and death as hereafter I shall more fully shew unto you And therefore I had rather say no more then to say too too little as I shall when I say my best of this most gracious and now most glorious King Charles the First And though he was so good so gracious and so pious a King yet this good gracious and incomparably pious Protestant King the gentlest meekest and of the sweetest disposition of all the men I ever saw was as you well know most rebelliously Warred against most Judas-like sold most treacherously betrayed and most maliciously Barbarously and for the spiteful mischeivous manner thereof most Jewishly and unexpressably Murthered and many more Noble-men and Gentle-men Clergy and Laity Murthered in like manner onely for His sake and for the truth of their Loyalty unto Him and their Fidelity unto God as I have Mystically and yet fully shewed in my Book of The great Anti-Christ revealed and in these Treatises following And can any thing so fowly defile the Land and so highly provoke the Wrath and Indignation of God against his people as the shedding of so much Innocent Blood or shall we think that the just God will rest satisfied and contented to have his Wrath appeased especially if we consider what he saith to the three sons of Noah Gen. ix 5 6. and of the Bloody sins of Manasses 2 King xxiv 4. and to Ahab for letting Benhadad to escape 1 King xx 42. when he seeth the pretious Blood of so Good so Gracious and so Pious a King His own Vicegerent and the Blood of so many faithfull Christians Noble-men Gentle-men and other loyal Subjects that have lost their lives for their constancie in professing the true service of God the right Faith of Christ and their duty and loyalty to their true and lawfull King left unexpiated and according to the Law of justice unrevenged and unpunished The truth of God saith Not so therefore His now gracious Majestie lest His filiall affection of so good and so loving a Father and His anger and indignation against such monstrous Murtherers might seem to transport Him with Passion to be over-partial too rigid and too severe in His censure against these Murderers did most wisely religiously and Christian-like transmit the Judgment and Punishment of these transcendent Malefactours to his Parliament who as he knew had infinitely suffered most unspeakable Detriment and Dammage as well though not near the like nor so much as himself in the loss of their so good a King And the late Parliament that was The Keepers of the Liberties of Ingland by the Authority of our Parliament and you may compute what Number of Arithmetical Letters this name contained and had very many of the King's Enemies in it and therefore likely not to do all things so well as they should do yet hath it most gallantly religiously and justly sentenced many of them to death and the just God without Question doth most propitiously accept and approve of all those their doings which are just according to his own Precepts But though herein they have done very well yet do you think that they have done sufficiently well I will not presume to teach them that in State Affairs are better able to be my Teachers then I to advise their Wisdoms what they ought to have done yet as I am 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I must humbly crave leave to set down what I conceive to be the just Will of God
Church Satan hath some of his Emissaries amongst them that come as the Scribes and Pharisees came to hear Christ not to be instructed by him that they might be saved but to catch at some things in his words that they might accuse him 3. 3 Taking away their lives Jer. 19.4 c. 22.17 Jer. 2.34 They filled Jerusalem with the blood of innocents and that which was a great deal worse even the worst of all In their skirts was found the blood of the soules of the poor innocents which I take to be not only an Hebraism but also to shew unto us how they sought to destroy both the bodies and the souls of men and that is as I conceive by forcing them for fear of being undone and to have all their lively-hood taken from them to forswear themselves as the Prophet Hosea sheweth they have spoken words swearing falsely Hosea 10.4 in making a Covenant and shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord For though they pretended this out of zeal to Gods service to compell men to such a Form of Gods worship and to professe such and such a Religion as they conceived best or else to deprive them of their possessions yet I find the best Divines protesting that this is contrary to Gods will that would have faith wrought in us by preaching and not by fighting and Religion settled in us by perswasion and not by compulsion For as Lipsius saith Lipsius polit l. 4. c. 4. The greatest thing that any Prince is able to bring to passe by his terrour is to make that he who doth most of all seem to be obedient doth in outward shew consent but never in his heart for as Lactantius demandeth Who can compel me either to believe what I list not Lactant. l. 5. c. 14. Faith and Religion not to be forced Eccles hist l. or not to believe what I will And therefore constraint bringeth dissimulation and not Religion and maketh Hypocrites and not Saints when the constrained persons do worship the power of the constrainer and not his God which made King Theodorick to say That he could not command Religion because no man could be inforced to believe against his will and there is nothing more free than Religion which the mind no sooner withstandeth but forthwith it vanisheth and is no more Religion saith Lactantius quò suprà Hosea 10.4 And yet these Jews whereof the Prophet Hosea speaketh sought with all rigor to compel men to swear unto their wicked covenant and thereby saith our Prophet Their skirts were filled with the blood of the souls of the poor innocents when to save their estates they believed their faith and became such hypocrites before God for fear of men as made them most liable to Gods heavy judgements which must needs be no small offence in this people and in all those that imitate them herein But let this wickedness and the sin of this people be what it will it proceeded all from the Assembly of their Divines and false Prophets The Assembly of their Divines the chiefest cause of their wickedness Jer. 23.13.14 For they caused my people Israel to erre and they strengthened the hands of the evil doers that none doth return from his wickedness saith the Prophet For indeed we that are the Teachers of the people are just like Jeremy's Figs They that were good were very good and they that were bad were very bad So are we either the best or the worst of men and we either bring men to Christ or send them to the Antichrist either make them Saints or make them Seditious and Hereticks and through our pride covetousness and ambition we lead them like fools as they are that follow falshood into all mischief And therefore from the King to the peasant from the highest to the lowest all men ought to be wary whom they affect and chuse to be their Teachers For it is most true that as the Prophet saith Like Priest like people unless it be as S. Bernard saith That now the Priest is worse than the people For we know the Arian Bishops made Constantius an Arian Emperour and the false Prophets made Ahab and Jezabel so zealously affected to the service of Baal So the Anabaptistical Priests make their followers Anabaptists and the popish Priests make Papists And therefore all great men Kings Princes and Governours ought to have a special care to chuse Orthodoxal men to be their Chaplains and all men ought to have the like care to follow the Doctrine of the true Preachers and to be as willing to hear the Orthodox and true Preachers as the Heterodox and false Prophets For if Ahab and Jezabel would have hearkened to Micaiah as well as they did to the Prophets of Baal it is very likely Baal had not been so much worshipped nor the true Service of God so much neglected But S. Gregory l. 4. Epist 38. saith most truly Rex superbiae prope est quod dici nefas sacerdotum ei praeparatur exercitus And herein this City and this Kingdom is now very happy that God hath sent them so Religious and so Noble a King as doth favour and countenance the true Protestants and is not apt to believe the aspersions that the false brethren are so ready to cast upon them But to proceed to shew to you how this great wickedness of the people proceeded from the Priests our Prophet saith That from the Prophets of Jerusalem which was in Judea as London in England and Dublin in Ireland Lishon in Portugal and Paris in France the chiefest City of the Kingdom is prophaness gone forth into all the land Jer. 23.25 that is they of the Head-City were the cause that all the other Cities of the whole Kingdom do so prephanely The Head-City is the Leader of all the other 〈◊〉 of the Kingdom and so irreverently serve the Lord. And therefore the Prophets of the Metropolis ought to be very careful and circumspect what example they give to other Cities And this our Prophet further sheweth How this great mischief of prophaness covetousness injustice and all other wickedness happened to become so general among this people and that was When the unity of the Clergy and uniformity of Gods service was divided into many Sects and different sorts of serving God Jer. 12.10 for many Pastors have destroyed my vineyard saith the Prophet not because they were many had they been all of one mind but because they were of many different minds as were the Scribes Pharisees Sadduces Herodians Esseni and many other inferiour Sects among the Jews as now Presbyterians Independants Anabaptists Papists Quakers Dippers and many Sects and Factions are among us when the Church of God that should be tanquam Acies ordinata like a well-ordered Army as Solomon saith i.e. governed by the General and his subordinate Officers and not be commanded by a multitude of unequal and all dissenting Commanders shall be instructed by
Homer saith Iliad Ï€. but as God useth to do in the like case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Annuit hoc illi Divum pater abnuit illud that is to give them what he thought fit for them and to deny them what he conceived them unworthy of Yet because that was not satisfactory to their expectation when they beheld as Ovid saith Fertilior seges alienis semper in agris better Corn and a more plentiful Harvest in the Bishops Fields then in their own they taught their Proselytes to invent new Oaths and Covenants to call new Synods and they made Seditious and Schismatical Sermons and defended Perjuries Forgeries Treacheries Equivocations Rebellions and the like and they altered the whole frame of the Government of the Church and of the Service of our God And so as Solomon ascended to the Throne of Majesty per sex gradus by six steps so these men descended to the depth of their Iniquity by these six ugly sins And though as Reusner saith Formicae grata est formica cicada cicadae Et doctus doctis gaudet Apollo choris one Ant Disscidia inter aequales â—ut fratres pâ—ssima and one Grashopper loves another and as Plinie saith Serpens Serpentem non laedit one Serpent will not bite nor hurt another and as our Saviour saith If Satan cast out Satan his kingdom cannot stand yet these men worse then Serpents and foolisher then Flies do that which Satan will not do destroy them of their own Profession their fellow-Servants and those worrhy men that made them the Ministers of Christ Proud envy so their virtues doth deface And makes these foes to them they should embrace And therefore as their Pride Covetousness and Ambition either through ignorance or else which is worse against their Consciences if they were not ignorant have made them to envy the Bishops and to hate the King and thereupon omnem movere lapidem to use all their best wit and to imploy their whole strength like the brood of Vipers to gnaw out the bowels of their Mother-Church and like cursed Cham to discover and to deride their Fathers supposed nakedness and to spur on the Parliament never to give over to prosecute their design to degrade the Bishops to put down the Hierarchy Root and Branch so the just God whose Judgements are true and righteous altogether Psal 19.5 to recompense this their wickedness to their bosom suffered the Devil to stir up as spiteful and as malicious a generation of Vipers as themselves a brood of Independents that sprang from among themselves and that became as outragious against them as they had been injurious against the Bishops and these were not afraid to jear Jack Presbyter as they termed him to his face to set out his last Will and Testament and to proclaim it to the World that these Presbyterians were far more insolent more intolerable more inconsistent with Monarchy and their Government every way more unjustifiable and further from the Apostolical Rule then the Government of the Prelates and if the Presbytery should be established whereas before we had but twenty six Bishops in all England So many Popes in England as there be Parishes we should then have not a Bishop but a Pope in every Parish throughout this Kingdom and a Pope more arrogant and presumptuous and more tyrannical and injurious to the people of God then ever any Bishop or Pope attempted to be for whereas neither Pope nor Bishop excommunicated any Christian but either for contempt of his Court or upon sufficient proof upon the Oath of good Witnesses to make good the Allegation alledged against him every Presbyter upon his own dislike and his own supposal that such an one is unworthy and a scandalous liver will presently excommunicate the same person and cut him off from the Body of Christ heu scelus nefandum an offence beyond expression And so by these and the like bold attempts And another saith Hic jacet in cineres quem deflent hae mulieres Presbyter Andreas qui vitiavit eas Cujus luxuriae meretrix non sufficit omnis Cujus â—varitiae totus non sufficit orbis and constant Allegations of the Independents the dissembling and Hypocritical Assembly of Presbyterians were disliked divers of them imprisonned some of them executed others fled and all of them discarded and discharged from their new devised Presbyterial Tyranny and one that best knew them makes this Epitaph of them Presbyter hic jacet jam dedecus urbis orbis Qui nostrae aetatis magna ruina fuit Hic est si nescis qui nobis certe paravit Excidium pestem funera bella famem Contemptor sacrum blasphemus publicus hostis Perfidus ingratus raptor iniquus atrox Ex ista tandem migravit urbe Tyrannus Quo pejor pestis nullus in orbe fuit And as there were under the Law four great Prophets Esay Jeremiah Ezechiel and Daniel and in the time of the Gospel four Evangelists St. Matthew St. Mark St. Luke and St. John and in the Primitive Church four famous Greek Fathers St. Athanasius St. Basil St. Gregory Nazianzene St. Chrysostome and the like four in the Latine Church St. Hierome St. Ambrose St. Augustine and St. Gregory and in the Popish Church four great Schole-Doctors Aquinas Scotus Antoninus and Bonaventur So these Independents have nominated four Arch-Presbyters Marshall Case Calamy and Edwards to be the four Bearers of the Presbyterial Assembly to his Grave and appointed Sibbalds to teach their Funeral-Sermon upon that Text in Psal 89.44 The days of my youth hast thou shortned and covered me with dishonour and Burges and Sedgewick were to be the close Mourners then Gouge to throw it like an Ass into the pit with these few words Ashes to ashes dust to dust And rise thou when others must And thus their own Proselytes have jeared the Presbytery out of his life The whole Tryal of Mr. Love pag. 68. And that which is more worthy your observation Mr. Christopher Love who confesseth that he was the first Scholar that he knew of or ever heard of in Oxford that did publickly refuse in the Congregation-House to subscribe unto those Impositions or Canons imposed by the Arch-Bishop touching the Prelates and Common-Prayer for which he was expelled the Congregation-House never to sit amongst his Brethren so he was the first of the Presbyters that suffered death for the defence of the Covenant and the Presbyterian Cause And this was as I conceive some part of the inchoative Judgement of God upon them in this life what more shall be imposed on them either here or hereafter it is not for me to imagine but leave it to him that is the Judge of all the World But hereby we may all see How justly God hath dealt and dealeth with the Presbyterians how just is God in all this to throw them down that sought to raise themselves by throwing their Fathers down And who then considering these just Judgements of Almighty God and his
himself alone for he like a wise man judged that man which doth all things out of his own head superbum magÃs quà m sapientem esse rather a proud man then a wise man as Titus Livius saith Charles Stuart our now most gracious King therefore I make no question had his Counsellours then and as we finde it by the Transactions of business in Jersy and Breda he was in his greatest affairs guided by them the more fault theirs if they misguided him though the more dammage his neither yet can he be excused from all fault if he was misguided by them the great God that governs all things and crowns events according to their deserts hath made it manifest to the world Laertius in Solon that his Counsellours have not fully followed the old rule in Laertius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Consule non quae suavissima sed quae optima Counsel not those things that seem most sweet and pleasant but those things which are best and most honest for these Ductores Principis Counsellours of this young Prince consulting with flesh and blood and considering what was likest to advance his design and not considering what was most agreeable to God's Will have in the Judgment of some not so well advised their good Master and had he not been as it seemeth another Jedidia beloved of God by following their Counsel in the Course that he took he might have been taken in a snare to his utter ruine That is in Worcester Fight But what was the Counsel that they gave him it appeareth by the tryal of Master Love and by the event of those treatises betwixt the Scots Commissioners and the Presbyterian Agents out of England Captain Titus Drake and the rest and the Prince that they perswaded him to comply with the Scots for that by this means he should peaceably gain the Crown of Scotland and with the Strength of Scotland joined with the Presbyterian Party of England which were very considerable he might easily gain the Kingdom of England and then Ireland must needs yield An unquestionable uncontroulable way in the judgement of man but it seemed not so with God as the event did make it clear and therefore as when the Counsellours of Rheoboam differed in their advice the one sort saying Si loquaris verba lenia speak to this people fair and they will be thy Servants and the other sort bidding him to tell them that His Father whipped them with rods but he would scourge them with Scorpions Rheâ—boam should have had the Discretion to know which was the best to follow for herein consisteth the greatest wisdom of any Prince in the Election of his Counsel because it is most likely that among many wise men both the best and the worst Counsel will be propounded And it is a point of great wisdom to be able to follow the best to choose the good and to refuse the evil and the wisest man in the world may easily fail herein especially in great matters whose future and contingent events are so doubtful And therefore it is no wonder nor any fault-unexcuseable for the best traveller to mistake his way in the dark or in a wilderness among the thickets But could any wise man that remembered the former passages betwixt the Scots and the late pious King think or any good Christian believe that God whose ways are always right as the Prophet speaketh and the just shall walk in them but the transgressors shall fall therein would prosper the counsel that leadeth to any erroneous course no no this cannot be And therefore as I conceive the Counsellors of this good Prince failed though not in their love and faithfulness to their Master but in their advice in directing him the best way and he not knowing which way was best Incidit in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charibdim By seeking to escape the Lions it may be the Irish Catholicks he fell among Bears if I may so call the Scottish Presbytery whose feet Rev. xiii 2. the holy Scripture tells us are as the feet of a Bear But his Counsellors may answer as a very learned Scotchman discoursing hereof answered me that their purpose was right and their intention exceeding good aiming at the same end as is now blessed be God for it come to pass But I say the just God will not approve of our intentions to do good if we go about to effect that good by an evil way for as the Scholes tell us si bonum feceris malâ intentione non imputabitur tibi pro bono if thou doest good with an ill intent it shall not be imputed to thee for good so in like manner si malum feceris boná intentione non imputabitur tibi pro bono if thou doest evil though thou meanest never so well and thine intention be never so good yet shall it not be imputed to thee for good because the God that is most perfect in all his ways and in every thing doth require that the good which we do should be perfectly good ex omni parte on all sides and in every respect for as the Prophet speaketh He requireth truth in the inward parts and will have heart and hand minde and tongue to go together and therefore we may not do evil that good may come thereof or to enable us to do good Job xiii 7. neither may we speak wickedly for God nor talk deceitfully for him as Job speaketh much less may we do the same for the greatest preferment in the World And therefore if this good Prince had been well informed and throughly given to understand all the former passages and proceedings of those Scots that so undutifully so unkindly and so treacherously dealt with his good Father and for what ends they did it I believe he would have never wandred those ways that he travelled unto them but he having thus mistaken his way he missed of his end and the Presbyterians that had made a Covenant with death as the Prophet speaks of the Jews and an agreement with Hell it self did not stand any ways to further his design but when the overflowing Scourge did pass through then were they troden down by it and he had been likewise troden down himself or taken which had been worst had not the eye of Heaven which saw the innocency of his heart not wittingly offending in any way watched over him and as he did when he led Jacob to Padan-Aram that he might escape his Brother's wrath so it guided him most miraculously in man's judgment to the haven where he would be that so he might escape the treachery of some professed friends and be delivered from the malice of his cruel enemies for I fear we may say with Obadiah All the men of thy confedracy have brought thee even to the border Obadiah v. 7. the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee and they that eat thy bread have layd a wound under thee that is his own counsellours by perswading him to take
this heavy Crime of murdering them is not justly laid upon them that brought these Kings to their just deserved deaths Therefore to justifie their deaths to be murders and to clear St. Stephen from this unjust taxation laid upon him by the Jews we are to examine the three foresaid particulars how far they can justifie the Jews or any others in the like case from being murderers 1 The Charge unjust and first for the Charge that was laid against him we find the same pretended to be twofold and as I conceive very like the Charge that was laid against King Charles So King Charles was charged with the same Crimes 1. The abridging of their Liberty and betraying the same unto the Romans for so they say If we let this man alone all the World will run after him and the Romans will come and take away our Dominion from us 2. The corrupting of their Religion by abolishing their old Rites and Traditions of the Elders and teaching new Points of Doctrine to prophane the Sabbath to communicate with Sinners to justifie their slovenly eating with unwashen hands and the like loosness and liberties that the precise Pharisees could not endure he allowed unto his Disciples and follower in the service of God This was the pretended Charge that they laid against their King and against S. Stephen as you may see Acts 6.13 14. and that his adversaries laid against our good King But this pretended Charge was most false whenas he neither abridged their Liberty nor corrupted their Religion but most divinely cleared the same The Jew◠murdered Christ because he was their King Luc. 23 2◠and purged it from the false glosses of the Scribes and Pharises But the true cause indeed whatsoever they pretended why they killed him was because he was their King for S. Luke saith that when they led him to Pilate they began to accuse him saying We found this fellow perverting the Nation and forbidding to give tribute unto Caesar saying that he himself is Christ a King and when Pilate asked them Shall I crucifie your King a thing that was never known among the Heathen that Subjects should desire to crucifie their King and especially that they should so solemnly and judicially condemn him to death they answered him flatly So K. Charles was murdered by his adverfaries because he was their King and would have ruled them as their King when as they desired to be Kings themselves and to rule as they did after they had killed him We have no King but Caesar whom notwithstanding they loved no better than they loved Christ but hated him in their hearts as their often rebellions against him do sufficiently testifie And when Pilate the Judge and therefore knew best the Charge laid against him wrote his Title and fixed it upon his Crosse as shewing unto all that saw him the very cause why they put him to death which was Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews They came presently unto Pilate and desired him to alter the Superscription and not to say He was their King but that he said He was their King But Pilate herein like a resolute Judge that knew the truth and their dissembling answered them stoutly according to the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What I have written I have written And therefore this Charge being so unjust to kill him because he is their King whose life they are obliged to defend with the hazard of their own death S. Stephen may justly call them murderers 2. 2 The witnesset are false Math. 26.59 60. For the witnesses it is plainly said that they sought many yet found they none but at last there came two they could get no more and of them two it is said 1. That they were false witnesses and that is apparent when they add unto his words and change his meaning for he said no more but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Destroy this temple John 2.19 v. 21. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in three dayes I will raise it up and he spake this of the temple of his body as the Evangelist testifieth but their witnesses avouch that they heard him saying Marc. 14.58 59. I will destroy this Temple that is made with hands and within three dayes I will build another made without hands that is another material and magnificent Temple which Christ never meant and never spake of it nor of the temple of his body as they testifie for he said not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will destroy this Temple but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do you destroy this temple and I will raise it up You shall do the evil and bring destruction as you use to do and I will do the good and bring resurrection to them that are fallen 2. Marc. 14.59 It is said that these false witnesses which did both add unto his words and change his meaning did not agree together for the one said he heard him saying I will destroy this temple that is made with hands and within three dayes Cap. 14.58 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Math. 26.61 I will build another made without hands yet the other could not testifie that he said so but that he said I am able to destroy the temple of God and build it in three dayes and there is a great deal of difference betwixt I will destroy thee and I am able to destroy thee when I am able to do many things that I will not do Even as God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham but will not raise them And therefore seeing these two witnesses cannot agree together they destroy one another and must needs be invalid to condemn an innocent man and much less to condemn their King that was more innocent than any man But they were resolved to have done it whether they had witnesses or no witnesses for they said among themselves What need have we of witnesses Then all of them Math. 26.65 Marc. 14.63 64 So K. Charles was condemned without witnesses Joh. 18.31 Math. 26.4 Marc. 14.1 And was not K. Charles by craft and subtilty brought to his death as they had formerly resolved did presently vote him guilty of death not as it seems for the testimony of the witnesses but because their malice thought him worthy of death Yet they confess 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not lawful for us that is they had no lawful authority to put any man to death and for all that S. Mathew tells us they consulted how they might take him by subtilty and kill him and S. Mark testifieth as much that they sought how they might take him by craft and put him to death And therefore when Traytors have conspired and resolved to kill their King witnesses are but shadows and the formalities of their proceedings are but cloaks to palliat and cover their wickedness and to blind the eyes of the vulgar people whom they would perswade to believe that they do all things