was demollished Were ever any Temples build with Stone or Brick so sacred to God as he was Did the great God ever dwell so eminently so sensibly in any Temple madâ— with hands as he useth to do in all Christian Princes who are the Temples of the Living God in a more noble sense than any thing without Life and Reason ever was or could be Could ever dead Temple be as it were a nursing Father to God Israel which Christian Princes are said to be Some have charged Belshazzer with Sacriledge for alienating the Vessels of the Temple only so far forth as to drink in them when he feasted a thousand of his Nobles at one time others have called the sin of Annanias and Saphira Sacriledge and so it was to keep back any part of that which they had dedicated to God and to his Church but sith the two first instances of Sacriledge are much more notorious than these two latter if I shall prove that Murthering of King Charles the First was greater Sacriledge than either of them viz. Than that of Eli's Sons and that of Achan by proving the greater I have certainly prov'd the less for Omne majus in se continet minus As for the Sacriledge of Eli's Sons it was but this They took a part of Gods Meat for so were Sacrifices as the Altar was Gods Table and whereas it should have been boil'd for Gods use they caused it to be rosted for their own They rob'd him of part of his Meat who if he were hungry would not tell us for his are the Beasts upon a thousand Mountains Psal 50.12 The World is his and the fulness thereof c. They were over-kind to themselves and over-bold with God which cost them dear as you have read but what is all that in comparison of being cruel to the Life of a Man a Christian a Prince and our own Prince The Sacriledge of Eli's Sons compared with that of Murthering the King seems if I may so speak to have been lighter than vanity and nothing Nay doubtless it did far exceed that Sacriledge of Achan which was greater than that of Eli's Sons For what was it that that Achan who for his sin was stoned to death and burn'd and called the troubler of Israel because of the sad consequence of it did steal from God Was it not only a Garment some Silver and one wedge of Gold Now what trifles what meer bawbles are all those things if weighed in a ballance against the Life of the King I thought to have wholly passed by the instance of of Annanias and Saphirah their Sacriledge which together with the lie that attended it was punished with present death How much less was their Sacriledge than theirs who put the late King to death They rob'd the Church but of a sacred estate if I may so call it because devoted to God but these of a sacred Life nay they stole away but part of an estate these destroyed a precious Life not in part but in whole They with-held but what themselves had given and might have chosen whither they would have given and could give again but the Murtherers of our King withdrew that which they never did or could give and which when they had once withdrawn they nor all the World could never give again They destroyed but one small sinew of the Church if money may be so called as it is called the sinew of War yea did but strike that one little sinew but these cut off the temporal Head of the Church for so we own the King of England to be next and immediately under God Supream Head and Governor How great then was that Sacriledge which hath clearly outdone that of Annanias and Saphirah that of Eli's Sons that of Achan yea the most notorious of all the Sacriledges recorded in Scripture if not all those Sacriledges put together Who now cryes not out as the Prophet Jer. 9.1 Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain c. slain with the Aggravations of multiplied perjury high Treason horrid Rebellion transcendent Sacriledge And so I have made good the four first Articles exhibited against the Murtherers of King Charles the First c. 5. The putting of the late King to death was Homicidium i. e. down right Murther I need not fear to say greater than that of David in the matter of Uriah For there a King murthered a Subject but in this case Subjects murthered their King and Servants their Master What is Murther but taking away the Life of Man without just cause and without a just authority If so to do be not murther I wonder what is If either of these be in the case it is single murther as I may call it but if both do meet it is murther upon murther if I may so phraise it or redoubled Murther Now they both meet in the case of King Charles the First For First If he had done any thing worthy of death who but the King of Kings had authority to punish him for it or to inflict upon him the death which he had deserved If equals have no power of each other as the Law tells us that Par in pares non habet potestatem What power can Inferiors have upon their Superior Now he must needs be Superior to all the people of England and they all his Inferiors whom the Nation sweareth to own as the Supreme The Law of England being such as alloweth of no man to be put to death but by his Peers whither Lords or Commons doth surely suppose that no man hath any legal authority to put a King of England to death for what Fact soever sith he hath no Peers as that word signifieth equals for every body else in and of the Kingdom is his Subject Flagitious Princes such as Nero whatsoever become of their evil Servants and Counsellers must be left to the justice and judgment of God but our hand must not be upon them Did not Saul by the hand of Doeg whom he imployed for that purpose kill in one day 85 persons wearing Linnen Ephods 1 Sam. 22.18 for which and for many other things he had well deserved to die Yet I no where find David who of all men was most provokt to do it attempting upon his Life yea I hear him saying The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hands against him seeing he is the anointed of the Lords 1 Sam. 24.6 Muthology represents Achilles to have been impenetrable and invulnerable so far as he was anointed with Ambrosia but Kings in a sense are anointed all over with the ointment of Divine Authority and Power therefore impenetrable and inviolable dejure whatsoever they may be de facto Give me leave to change the mode and cry instead of Plectuntur â—lectantur Achivi If Princes err for want of good advice from those Subjects of theirs who ought to give it them let Subjects pay
and Religion often into their mouths for their having nothing of either in their hearts Commend me to a famous Story which I heard from a Reverend and dignified Divine not far off and not long since which was to this purpose An excellent Knight told me saith he that a year or two before the late War betwixt the King and Parliament broke out there were several Meetings held at his house then in Covent-Garden betwixt some great Officers of State that were then in play and other popular Gentlemen who had a great mind to their places The late King was privy to all their Conferences if not sometimes present and finding where the Cardo Controversiae or Hinge of the Controversie was viz. that some Popular but yet private and unpreferr'd Gentlemen thirsted to get into publick Offices such as Mr. of the Court of Wards c. and that they would never be quiet till it were effected yielded that all of them save one to whom he had some particular and unpardonable exception should have and enjoy the Places and Offices which they sought for but the King refusing him and they being resolved upon one and all hit or miss the meeting was quite dissolved and not long after the War broke out which saith he could every one of those great Seekers have found the Preferment which he sought for had been prevented But that which the Author of this Story said most of all to my purpose was this Whilst we were thus bandying at this our meeting from time to time one half to hold the places which we were possest of or parta tueri the other half of the Company to throw us out and get themselves into our places without those Walls nothing was talkt of but Religion what great contrivances there were at that time for reforming and settling Religion whilst God knows within those Walls there was not all that while one word spoken concerning Religion but some of us were willing to hold our Preferments and others to get them away from us O Nation sweetly cheated O thou blessed Name Religion how oft hast thou been misus'd and made use of to christen the most horrid Villanies For the Proverb has prov'd too true In nomine Domine incipit omne malum Was it not under pretext of Religion because Religion as was alledged could not be preferr'd if he were suffer'd to live that that Martyrs blood must be made shed for the Church that the King's Head was said to be cut off As if to cut off the Head of the Church of England were the only way to keep life in the Body thereof Now how fond and irrational a thing was it how groundless and malicious a slander and censure to say or think that the life of King Charles the First could not consist with the true Christian and Protestant Religion Moreover they knew no more than their heels when the Religion established in the Church of England by Law was gone what to put in the room of it for they themselves were not of one Religion nay what if many of them were of no Religion What think you of St. Martin and St. Scot were they not pure Saints with several others of those Aeacus's and Radamanthus's who gave Sentence against the late King Oh how did they burn Was it with zeal for Religion A man would hardly think that Religion to be chaste and honest which such men courted or seemed to court What Religion I beseech you in pulling down all the fences of the Church and letting in all sorts of little foxes and wild bores to spoil God's Vineyard If this were Reformation it was not unlike that in Egypt when the whole Land did swarm and was over-run with Frogs and Lice and Flies Exod. 8. Whilst these men pretended to the honour of Religion who ever disgraced it more to the preservation of true Religion who indangered it more to the Reforming of Religion who ever deform'd and undid it more Look how the Ivy whilst it creeps into the wall and clasp's close about it embracing it as it were with greatest kindness doth mean time rot decay and perish it or look how the Ape so hugs her young ones as that she kills them with her kindness so kind and no kinder were those bloody Reformers to true Religion which they could have as ill afforded to have lookt in the face as a Debtor his severest Creditor or a Malefactor his Judge Surely they were never intended by God for Reformers considering what God said to David 1 Chro. 28. Thou shalt not build an House for my Name because thou hast been a man of war or hast shed blood Who could expect a Reformation of such men's making worthy the cost of that Royal Blood wherewith they purchased it That which they gave us was to dear by every drop which the purchase cost them When I am convinc'd that Jezebel took the course which she took with Naboth upon a Religious account that a zeal to reform Religion put her upon writing Letters in Ahab's name and sealing them with his Seal as it is 2 Kings 21.8 9 10. saying Proclaim a Fast and set Nabal on high among the people and set sons of Belial to bear witness against him saying Thou didst blaspheme God and the King and then carry him out and stone him that he may die I say when I believe that a true zeal against blaspheming of God made her do as she did who 't is most certain did all this meerly in order to what we read ver 15. When Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned and was dead Jezebelsaid to Ahab Arise take possession of the Vineyard of Naboth which he refused to give thee for money for Naboth is dead I say when I so believe then and not till then shall I think that an unfeign'd desire to promote true and undefiled Religion to keep out Popery and to reform Protestantism as practised amongst us was that which prompted the unhappy Judges of King Charles the Martyr to send him packing out of the world How hypocritical and false was the name that was given to the Court which tried him called The High Court of Justice For 1. we know it was no Court for it was not any such thing legallâ— and nothing is a Court but what is legally so and moreover his Majesty would never own it for a Court 2. It was no ways Highâ— but in â—ride presumption and Arroganâ—e to undertake what they did 3. It was to be sure no Court of Justice for it was called together only to serve one turn like Jezebâ—ls Court that was summoned against Naboth aforesaid to do one wiâ—ked job or feat that is per fas aut nefas right or wrong to cut off the Kings Head and there was to be the end of it But do men think that God will always be thus mocked When Ananias and Sapphira added as little Hypocrisie as this comes to to their Sacriledâ—e did it not cost them
for none of these are the Faith These are but Mint Annise and Cummin in respect of the great things of Religion the Magnalia Dei the two Tables of the Law of which he is Keeper Those are but the arbitrary Modes Habits and Dresses of Religion Clothes do not belong to the essence of a man A man is a man to all intents and purposes whether he wear a Cloak or a Coat or neither or both Christianity is the same thing in all good men whether they wear Gowns or no Gowns Cassocks or no Cassocks and who are called either Episcopal Presbyterian Independent or whatsoever else So long as the essentials Vitals and Fundamentals of Religion are guarded by the Laws of England and the vigilant care of his Majesty what becomes of those little airy vehicles of disciplinary names divisions and distinctions is the least thing of a thousand For so long as a man lays no other foundation than that which God hath layed viz. Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3.11 building upon him by faith love and obedience if he should chuse besides Gold and silver and precious stones to build upon the foundation wood hay and stubble that his superstructure would be burnt yet himself should certainly be saved If a man may go to heaven out of the Church of England as well yea more readily than from Geneva or Amsterdam and from under the Discipline of any of those places let him look to it that he be a good Christian exercising himself to have a Conscience void of offence towards God and men one that worshippeth God in the spirit rejoyceth in Christ Jesus and has no confidence in the flesh as it is Phil. 3.3 and my Soul for his having thus his fruit unto holiness his end will be everlasting life So a man come to Heaven at last fighting a good fight finishing a good course and having kept the faith i. e. having been true to the great Doctrine and Rules of Christian Religion defended by the Church of England and his Majesty more especially the Supreme Governor thereof under God by a sincere life and practice thereof I say if a man persevering thus to do come to Heaven at last whether he come in the Kings high way as I may call it I mean in the more eminent and beaten Road of Episcopacy or in the more private narrow and unfrequented paths the matter is not great But I make account no man can ever come there who shall live and dye an incourager of known Schisme in others which is as truly a damning work of the flesh as Adultery or Murther or a wilful allower of it in himself 'T is no complement much less flattery or blasphemy to call him Defender of the Faith by whom as much of Religion as is necessary to Salvation is defended or rather we his Subjects in the free and safe exercise thereof though the same favour be not shewn to those who turn aside from the only established Discipline for but one Discipline can be established in one place as to those who conform thereunto If a man travel upon the Kings high way betwixt Sun and Sun and be rob'd he may sue and recover his Money but so may not he that travelleth in By-roads or cross the Country or over hedges and ditches I say if any man rob them that shall chuse to travel in such by obscure and unguarded paths no amends is made him only if he chance to be kill'd or murder'd in any wood or wilderness the Law will lay hold on him that did it Let who will govern or the Government be what it will be they who conform thereunto will always find more regard and countenance than those who do not though others may be tolerated and protected also And so much of our Kings being Defender of the Faith truly and properly so called upon account whereof we have cause to bless God for him 9thly We have cause to give thanks to God for those Kings by and under whom all the great ends of Government are provided for and therefore for his Majesty that now is By him all the great ends of Government are provided for What are they but in two words Religion and Property How Religion ot the preservation thereof and our protection in the profession and practice thereof are provided for I shew'd under the 8th and last head 'T is manifest that care is taken that we may lead a quiet and peaceble life in all godliness and honesty as it is 1 Tim. 2.2 Also how Property is secured to us may be gathered abundantly out of the formentioned particulars Now if you have any thing more to expect from a King declare what it is For I confess I know nothing else that there is for him to do as a King for us or for us as his Subjects to expect 10thly and lastly I do solemnly appeal to the discontented people of the Nation and to those whose mouths are most full of complaints I say I appeal to them in two cases which I shall propound in the two following Questions 1. Quest If you meet with less misery enjoy more mercy under his Majesty that now is than ye did expect or look for have you not cause to bless God for him Quest 2. Do you not really meet with less misery and more mercy under his Majesty that now is than you thought you should have done How oft have I heard many that were Parliamenteers say If ever the King were restored they should not be left worth a morsel of bread there would be no being for them then in England he would make the Land too hot for them and all such as they They had as good buy Bishops or Deans and Chapters Lands as not for if a change came they should as certainly lose their Lands of Inheritance and what they got by their own labour and was as free as any in the world as Kings and Bishops Lands if they intended to buy them I know that many did look upon the King's return as the giving up the Ghost of all their joys and comforts possessions and enjoyments But did it prove so Have not many of them seen as good days as ever they saw before Where is the Popery you prophesied of that would come in presently For you saw it flying towards us as upon the wings of the wind Where has been the bloody Persecution the Marian-days which your minds boded to you Have you not since that seen days of Grace and Peace and of the Son of man Is the Ark taken as you thought it would be Is God gone Is the Glory departed Is the Gospel extinguished and the Sun set as it were at Noon day as you fancied it would be O leave your dreaming of Dreams and divining of Divinations away with those hypocondriack vapours which turn to new Light and Prophecy Silence and slight your mistaken fancies Your eyes yet see your Teachers and your ears hear them Now even now there is
Loyalty and Peace Or Two Seasonable DISCOURSES From 1 Sam. 24.5 viz. David's heart smote him because he cut off Saul's skirt The First Of CONSCIENCE and its Smitings The Second Of the Prodigious Impiety of Murthering King CHARLES I. Intended To promote sincere Devotion and Humiliation upon each Anniversary Fast for the late King's Death By Dr. SAMUEL ROLLS Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty LONDON Printed by Tho. James Mathematical Printer to the King 's most Excellent Majesty for Joseph Hindmarsh at the Black Bull in Cornhill near the Royal Exchange 1678. but stand ready for such another I had dedicated these my first-fruits in the Church to him to whom all first-fruits are due but that I considered that Kings like High Altars ought not to be approached all at once but by steps and degrees as also that such a Tragedy as I here relate could not be pleasant to his Majesty to read though very profitable for his Subjects that it should be written The Loyal Contents of this small Treatise may assure the world that your Lordship hath admitted into his Majesties Service a Person of as unfained and fervent Loyalty as your heart could wish or as the world affords And now my Lord what remains but my most ardent wishes in which I know your Lordship will joyn with me viz. That the Soul of our Lord the King may be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord his God as the Phrase is 1 Sam. 25.29 and the lives of his enemies may be slung out as out of the middle of a sling that his Enemies may be clothed with shame but upon himself his Crown may flourish and that God would cover his head both in the day of Battle and of Peace For your Lordship I have no greater thing to wish than that the King of Kings may take your Lordship as much into his favour as the King of England has done and instead of the Star which his Majesty hath bestowed upon you may in due time give you that Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judg shall give at the great day to all them that love his appearing which is the hearty Prayer of My Lord Your Lordships most humble faithful and obedient Servant S. ROLLS TO The most Reverend Father in God WILLIAM Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and Metropolitan and one of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council S. R. The least of all the Servants of the Church and not worthy to be so called humbly dedicates his poor and unworthy Labours in the ensuing Treatise of Conscience c. May it please your Grace THough some Writings of extraordinary men may seem to need no Patron yet I am very sensible that mine do and this of mine above all the rest which for the nature of the Subject may pretend to deserve one because I do easily foresee it will fall under the displeasure of many both for the Author 's and Arguments-sake for the Author's sake because he hath given his Service to the Church of England which he had done many years sooner but for an invincible impediment not unknown to your Grace and now doth with as much heartiness chearfulness and satisfaction as ever man did for which there are some that do stomach him the more because a doubting trembling sâ—â—upulous Conformist is in their apprehension the honestest man that conforms and in the most safe and salvable condition though the Spirit of God speaking by St Paul hath told us That whatsoever is not of faith is sin and that he that doubteth is damned if he eat No less distasteful to many prejudiced and malecontented people is the Argument of the latter part of this Fook For they cannot endure to hear that Fact called a horrid and bloody Murther which they have look'd upon as a gallant and heroick Enterprize not unlike the signal Atchievements of Jael against Sisera Ehud against Eglon recorded in the Book of Judges I doubt too many had rather that Act had been made a Precedent than the Actors thereof an Example My Lord If I fly not to your Grace's Protection men of that ill Character will be ready to swallow me up quick whilst their rage is kindled against me For having preached but one 30th day of January upon the subject of this Book I know to my sorrow what it and a few more expressions of my Conformity cost me and how I was made to run the Gaunlet for it and from some men could have no quarter But my comfort is that I have fully satisfied my own Conscience in this that I have written and if your Grace's Judgment shall be also satisfied therewith I shall value it more than I shall regard the censure and clamor of a thousand disaffected persons who for want of Capacity Learning and Integrity are not the thousandth part so able to make a judgment of it I therefore beseech your Grace to take both it and its Author under your wing at least the Author for his good and loyal Intentions which may extend far towards the covering of his weaknesses who will easily own that he hath nothing to be proud of if he may be proud of any thing but that he had the honour to have been sometime of the same University and Colledge with your Grace and admitted thereinto upon your Grace's personal Examination and Allowance I write not this as presuming to invite your Grace to water what you have planted but only to make a hedge about it that no wild Creatures may root it up Now that he whose right hand hath fixed your Grace in that place of Eminency where you now shine as a Star of the first Magnitude would always hold your Grace as a Star in his own right hand and make you as hitherto your Grace has been a burning and shining Light shining forth more and more like the Sun towards the perfect day is the hearty Prayer of Your Grace's Most Devoted Orator Humble Servant and Obedient Son S. ROLLS To the Right Honourable Henry Earl of Arlington Lord Chamberlain Of His Majesty's Houshold and one of His Majesties most Honorable Privy-Council c. S. R. Humbly dedicateth the ensuing Treatise wishing it may prove in any measure worthy of your Lordships acceptance May it please your Lordship HAving lately received more immediately from your Lordships hand an Honour too big for me to mention in print I hold it my bounden duty thankfully to acknowledge it Were I able to write any thing that might be worth your Lordships reading which I can scarce presume to think that were one proper way of doing it for the Calves of Mens Lips are as usual a Thank-offering as any and the Calves or Sacrifices of their Pens are almost the same thing For Pens are a sort of Lips wherewith men speak so loud that the world may hear them My Lord within the compass of this Book I have endeavored to express my hearty Loyalty first to the
Kings and Rulers as such viz. in point of Authority and Dominion which they ought to honor and reverence though they knew the other were wanting For most sure it is That Dominium non fundatur in gratia A man may be a King and ought to be reverenced as such though he be no Christian but a profest Ethnick or Heathen God has given the earth to the Children of men Wo would be to Princes if none were bound to obey them but such as do and will own them for Saints Then would they be Sainted and un-Sainted toties quoties as oft as they pleas'd or displeas'd the people for so has been the manuer of men Who cannot instance in men who but a little while before were generally vogud to be but carnal or moral men that to serve an end have presently been run up to Saints canonized all of the sudden and they who but a few weeks before were thought not to have grace so much as a grain of muster-seed amounts to their grace in an instance was become by common same like as a great tree so that the birds of the air might come and lodge on the branches thereof But let me tell thee Reader even such Princes as were Antiochus Epiphanes or Epimanes as some call him and such as Nero who respective to their morals have appeared in the world like Devils yet were Gods by Office and Denomination from Scripture and we must alwayes allow that God who is the fountain of all honour is the best Herald and best knows what title to give to every one and in their place and sphere ought to be respected as such Saint Paul when inadvertently he called Ananias the high Priest a whited-wall Acts 23.3 for judging contrary to the Law when it was said to him Revilest thou Gods high Priest repli'd I wist not that he was the high Priest for it is written Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy people Not but that he of whom he spake it was in and of himself as a whited wall or painted sepulcher but nevertheless the respect due to a a great Noble ought to have been paid him in his place Yea to kill a very bad Prince were Deicide or the killing of a mortal god for as a Prince he is a god But what if a King that resembles God not only in his Greatness but Goodness not only in his Power and Authority but in his Purity and Holiness in his Wisdom and Mercy and several other of his most glorious Attributes and such a one many have told us that knew him if we did not was King Charles the First what if he be murthered by his own Subjects are they not Regicides with a witness that shall do it yea they have done it Now if any man shall ask me that indivious question as some account it which of the Kings Subjects was it that put him to death I answer first of all Negatively Not the Body or Community of the Nation not the major part or generallity but a few in comparison of them 2. Not the representative of the Nation the Parliament I mean for all the Lords disclaim'd it and and most of the Commons and were laid aside to make way for it but positively first All that were active in the War betwixt King and Parliament must be confessed to have remotely and ignorantly though not voluntarily and intentionally contributed thereunto because that the murther of him had never been but for the War Some classical men sore against their will and intention were partly accessary to that most unclassical and illegal action But they must needs be charg'd with the murthering of the King who suffered themselves to be made his Judges and to sit as such His very Executioner whosoever that disguised Caitiff was for whom it bad been well if he had been born without hands if not that he had never been born was not so guilty of his death as was every one of his presumptuous Judges For Plus peccat Author quam Actor is an old and a good rule i.e. The Author is worse than the Actor Thirdly Some chief Officers of the Army that then was though possibly they were not nominated amongst his Judges had as great a hand in his death as any body had and possibly were the first means of it and the greatest sticklers for it Their names and ends are sufficiently known Fourthly That sort of men who not only adhered to the Parliament but had a respect for the Covenant till neer the time of the King's death and then of a sudden had wont to cry out The Covenant was an Almanack out of date And why said they so but because the Covenant did seem to stand in their light and to be a block in their way who had a mind to have the King's Head cut off I say Those who cri'd up the Covenant till towards the year 1648 but then criâ—d it down as much and made an Almanack out of date of it and about that time and ever after did alwayes more adhere to the Army than to the Parliament they were the well-willers to the death of the King they were promoters countenancers and abetters of it I have met with a parcel of Names Characters and Periphrases somewhere which if I am able to expound them do describe that Generation of men who were best pleased with the King's death and gave most countenance to it before and afterwards viz. The Cantonizers of the Church the dividers and subdividers of it in semper divisibilia The Mother Church of Enthusiasts and Enthusiasm in England The Ecclesiastical Democracy The close Persecutors of such as dissent or depart from them They who pretend to run so far from Babylon as that they run beyond Jerusalem The Punctuallists who demand Scripture for every punctilio or circumstance in and about the Service of God but can shew none for many of their own Practices ex gr Their Auricular Confessions of faith c. The people that talk much of a Judgment of Charity by which they make Saints of those they have a kindness for and yet have less charity in judging of others than most men have The Antpodes to â—rclacy and Monarchy The Disciples of the Council of Savoy such as dâ—scribe the Church of God as if it were like to that which is unintelligibly said of the Soul of man viz. tota in toto tota in qualibet parte Men of the new-found Discipline The Trap door men who from that passage in the Covenant which was for preserving the Lâ—fe and Honor of the King found this door of â—scape viz. in the preservation of Religion and insisted much upon it That the life of Religion and the life of the King could not consist together They who dscourse and act as if every Member-Church were the whole body mystical of Christ or as if Christ had innumerable entire bodies or his whole body mystical in every place where two or
three are met together as Papists say of his body natural The younger Brethren of Presbytery For saith one Our English Amsterdam was founded since our English Geneva They who cried down the Covenant as it was for Monarchy and for the preservation of the King's Life and Honour but did and do still cry up the Covenant against Prelacy and to upbraid all Conformists with Perjury who have declar'd the Covenant not to be obligatory The great Freeholders in point of Discipline who brook no Landlord in that point or to have any Authority over them The Hance-town Church-men who claim to have all Power and Jurisdiction within themselves and say Who is Lord over them That sort of men who of all sorts of Christians seem to have least regard to one Article of our Creed viz. I believe the Holy Catholick Church or they by whose practice one would think that were no Article of their Creed If there be no sort of men to whom the Characters aforesaid do agree sith no Party is nam'd none need to be concern'd but if any such there be or have been they were they who said of the King's death Ah! ah so would we have it The Limner who drew the foregoing Picture thought it a disparagement to write under it This is the Picture of such an one for if it be like no body it is good for nothing 'T is possible that some whom it doth not concern will out of a jealous humour apply it to themselves but let them be warn'd by what was said of one that did so I said the Author of a certain Character have made a Fools Cap and such an one has put it upon his head and fancies that it fits him But in good earnest if the Painter have not wrong'd those people whose Picture he meant to give us but such be their real Feature and Portraicture if it be as like them as can be they are a people worthy to be exposed chid and rebuked and most unworthy to be esteem'd by others at any such rate as they esteem themselves and one another Let those Characters be intended of whomsoever for I shall not pretend to know of whom they are intended but I have found them somwhere methinks the men of such a Complexion and Constitution as they seem to describe must needs be some of those men that were well-willers to the death of King Charles the Martyr For they can never love Kings well who would be Kings themselves John 19.12 Whosoever maketh himself a King speaketh against Caesar Fifthly Doubtless Fifth-Monarchy-men gave no discountenance to the death of the King for many of them thought long for the expiration of the fourth Monarchy which they supposed might be at the death of the King or soon after For when all was overturn'd overturn'd overturn'd then they thought he would come whose right it is Sixthly But that the Papists should be so hearty for the King's Murther as it should seem they or some of them were is not that the wonder of all wonders May not such a truth as that is be confirmed by the Testimony of two great Orthodox Divines If so they are forth-coming The first shall be Dr. Perrinshiefe pag. 195. For there mentioning Jesuitical Counsels he addeth whose Society it is reported upon the King's offering to give all possible security against the corruptions of the Church of Rome at a Council of theirs did decree to use their whole Interest and Power with the Faction to hasten the King's death which sober Protestants had reason enough to believe because all or the most of the Arguments which were used by the Asserters of this violence on his Majesty were but gleanings from Popish Writers Also pag. 213. the same Author saith thus How little the Papists credited what the Faction would have the world believe was too evident by the Conspiracies of their Father against his Life and Honour which the discovery of Hubernefield brouâ—ht to light They were mingled likewise amonâ—st the Conspirators and both heated and directed their fury against him They were as importunate in their calumnies of him even after his death as were the vilest of the Sectaries For his sake they continued their hatred to his Family abetted the usurpations of the following Tyrant by imposing on the world new Rules of Obedience and Government inventâ—d frrsh calumnies for the Son obstructed by various Methods his return to the Principality because he was heir as well of the Faith as of the Throne of his Father My next witness and two such witnesses may suffice as well as twenty shall be Dr. Moâ—ulâ—n Prebendary of Canterbury in a Book of his called A Vindication of the Protestant Religion in the point of Obedience to Sovereigns c. pag. 58. The late Rebelion was raised and fostered by the Arts of the Court of Rome Jesuites professed themselves Independent as not depending on the Church of England and in the Committees forthe destruction of the King they had their Spes and their Agents The Roman Priest and Confessor is known who when the fatal stroke was given to our holy King and Martyr flourishâ—d his Sword and said Now the greatest Inemy that we have in the world is gone I 'll â—uote no more but rather commend that excedent Book to thy reading Thus have we made a competent discovery at whose door the death of the late King doth principallyâ—ie Her upon methinks I hear some saying But what is the King's death to us who had not the least finger in the death of the murthered King What is that to us Let them look to it as was said to Judas when in despair Answ There are many ways and circumstances whereby a man that was not principally concern'd yet may be brought in as truly accessary to the Kings death or to any such thing as it was viz. 1. Connivendo 2. Non reprehendendo 3. Non praeveniendo 4 Non dolendo 5. Demerendo 6. Non deprecando 7. Imitando 8. Non detestando satis contra protestando 9. Provocando 10. Non puntendo cum possumus 'T is much to be feared that this whole Nation may come in for a share in the Kings death thus remotely or upon account of one or other of the foresaid particulars For 1. Some did as it were connive at it when it was in fieri or bringing about and dic not do all they could have done to prevent it Now to such that passage 1 Sam. 26.15 16. may be applied David said to Abner wherefore hast thou not kept thy Lord the King For there came one of the people in to destroy the King thy Lord. As the Lord liveth ye are worthy to die because ye have not kpt your Master the Lords Anointed And now see where the Kings spear is and the cruse of water that was at his Bolster Was not old Eli therefore charged with the sins of his wicked Children because his Sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not 1
since his Return we have had as much assurance as we need to wish of the greatness and goodness of his Princely Intellectuals of his being endowed with excellent natural parts which brings to mind a Scotch Proverb viz. That one inch of Mother-wit meaning natural ingenuity is better than an ell of Clergy And those natural parts improved and exalted by forein Travel converse with all sorts of men Experience both of Adversity and Prosperity dispatch of business for many years together the constant and assistance of wise Counsellors and the advantage of his great office and Dignity and you know by how much higher any man standeth by so much farther off can he see So that now I know no man can question whether he hath great fitness and skill for the business and purposes of a King great understanding how to govern in all points and better skill to manage a Scepter than any man who hath not a Scepter to manage 5. If it be yet a further mercy or happiness to a people to have a King that is active or nimble not dull or sluggish so is he I had almost said that his Majesty seems to be as much an Vbiquitary when he pleaseth i.e. here and there and every where as his Affairs require his presence as any man that wears a body I had almost said he hath not only a body so agile and active as if it were a Soul but also a Soul so active as if it were an Angel rather than the Soul of a mortal man 6. Is not that King a great mercy and blessing under whom his Subjects do live as easily as freely and as much like men as any Subjects in the world do Where more liberty more peace more plenty than amongst English men who by their Representatives in Parliament may be said to carry the purse at their Girdles whilst his Majesty carrieth the Sword by his side Go but over Sea to other parts of Europe or of the world and when you see how it fareth with Subjects almost every where else what meer Slaves they are in comparison of Englishmen you will look upon England as the most temperate Climate that any Subjects do live in and think with your selves that if there were but a Bridge betwixt England and other parts of the world all Subjects would chuse to come and live here as is said in another case Verily the Subjects of England are little Princes to what the Subjects are in other parts and to them I may apply those words of the Poet Foelices nimium sua si bona norant We are too too happy if we did but know it If there be at this day a Canaan upon earth like that of old flowing with milk and honey I mean abounding with all manner of good things England is one not for Bodies only but for Souls also In England God is known and his Name great in England he hath not dealt so with every Nation nor have they known his Statutes as we have done Why then hear we such bleating of the sheep and such lowing of the oxen Why such murmuring complaining and not rather serving God with chearfulness in the midst of all the good things which we have in England Is it not a great wonder that we should be the most happy of all people and yet the least contented the least thankful If it be a happiness to a trading people to have a King that maketh it his business to promote the Trade and Traffique of his people we have such a one I could safely produce a person of great worth and eminency and of as much skill in Merchandize possibly as most men in the world who has told me time after time bona fide that no Prince to the best of his observation was ever so much concern'd for the good of Trade or had more denied himself for the advancement thereof than his Majesty that now is hath done which I doubt not but he is ready to demonstrate to every rational man But if after all this Trading be but dead as that is the great complaint and the very cardo controversiae hinc illae lachrymae may not his Majesty say to his people Am I in Gods stead If the Lord help ye not in that point as the King said to the woman of Samaria that cried to him for bread in the time of famine How should I help you So it fareth with many private Families they are but poor and yet the Master of the Family is a man of double diligence providence forecast rises early and eates the bread of carefulness Is it just and equal that his Children and Servants should be ready to stone him because he doth not grow rich upon all his labours Nay it is as God pleases for that matter witness Deut. 8.18 Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth If he that is poor in spight of all his diligence and care had been careless and slothful possibly his Family had been starv'd which now is only not rich So had we not had a Prince who had been such a Nursing-Father to Trade as his present Majesty is it may be by this time there had been no Trade at all or next to none 8ly If Kings be Defenders of the Antient Catholick Apostolick Faith The faith once delivered to the Churches of the true Christian Protestant Religion have we not cause to bless God for them as such And such an one is he whom God hath set over us Is not the Protestant Religion defended by him Are not Protestants by him defended and protected in the publick open and free exercise of their Religion So as Papists are not who fly about like Bats rather than otherwise Are not all the Preferments of the Church bestowed upon the Protestant Divines have not they all the Archbishopricks Bishopricks Deaneries Prebends Masterships of Colledges c. amongst them Are not good and learned Books against Popery licens'd from time to time and Popish Books suppressed whether they come from beyond Sea or endeavor to get out of our English Presses Are not all publick Ordinations Administration of Sacraments and other Church-Offices dispensed after the manner of Protestants Are not the Articles of the Church of England defended by his Majesty and are not they all purely Frotestant Those things considered who can deny his Majesty to be really a Defender of the Faith And why should any man go about to clip his Title any more than he dare to clip his Coin May he not be truly a Defender of the Faith though he be no Defender of Presbytery either Scotch or English nor yet of Independency nor of Anabaptism nor of Quakerism nor of Fifth-Monarchism I say though he be no Defender of any of them in the Abstract but only of their persons in the Concrete who are of those perswasions I say he may be a Defender of the Faith nevertheless and so he is
an accepted time a day of Salvation You were worse scar'd than hurt with the Alarm of a King Such is not the manner of the King that rules over us as is described 1 Sam. 8.9 ours is no such King Are not your Estates all but those that were ravished from the Church or State continued with you Is not the Law open and ready to defend you and yours if required as much as any other of the Kings Subjects If you be as quiet may you not live as quietly as any people in England To allude to that Text Psal 126.1 When the Lord turned again the Captivity of Zion we were like them that dream Are you not like men and women in a dream to see your selves in so good a plight and posture as you never expected to have been if God restor'd the King Had God given you a new Law of thankfulfulness upon condition it should have been so well with you as now it is would you not have accepted it with all your hearts upon those terms If God has been better to you than his word or promise your obligation is so much the greater Learn we then to bless God for our good King to love honour and obey him and let us cry out with the man after God's own heart Psal 118 28. God is the Lord which hath shewed us light bind the Sacrifice with cords even to the horns of the Altar ver 29. O give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Now Reader let thine own invention tell thee how these heads may be further enlarged and upon what other heads it may be most proper for thee to discourse either in publick or private upon a 30th day of January sacred to the Memory of King Charles the first his Martyrdom I will detain thee no longer than whilst I have made a little enquiry into one great Mystery and resolved one perplexing Question which is this Quest If the murthering of the late King were so great a sin as I have deciphereed it to be How comes it to pass that none of all his Judges one excepted who by common fame is presumed to be a man of more Conscience and Religion than the rest no not of those who were executed for it were ever for ought I heard learn to confess and bewail what they had done but rather to carry and brave it out with such confidence and seeming innocence as the adulterous woman Prov. 30.20 of whom Solomon thus speaks She eateth and wipeth her mouth and saith I have done no wickedness This their confidence hath cast such a mist before the eyes of some people and so perverted their judgments as to make them think there was nothing amiss in what they did yea to be almost perswaded that they did God good service in it and quitted themselves like Phineas who stood up and executed judgment and it was accounted to him for righteusness Answ But oh the mistakes of men Oh the false Glosses which dazle the eyes of poor filly mortals Oh the common fallacy which imposeth upon the world viz. Non causa pro causa They must needs have had the most false and flattering Consciences the most deceitful hearts that ever men had if ever they presum'd to tell them they had done well or bid them when taking their Viaticum or last repast to eat their bread with joy and drink their wine with a merry heart for God accepted their work or that with such a sacrifice as that God was well pleased Had an Israelite instead of sacrificing a Lamb cut off a dogs neck or offered Swines blood for an oblation to God or bless'd an Idol instead of burning incense or slain a man instead of killing of an Oxe as God expresses in Ifa 66.3 he might as well have promised himself Gods acceptance thereof and his smelling a sweet savour of rest from thence as those Murtherers of an excellent King could do of that bloody barbarous Sacrifice which they had prepared to which I may aptly apply those words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 10.10 But I say the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Devils and not to God No drink-offering ever cheer'd the heart of Devils and wicked men so well according to Judg. 9.13 as did that of Royal Blood If ever there were mirth in Hell surely it was upon that day That was such a Hecatomb as the infernall Fiends never had a greater offered to them never a Feast of more fat things sacrificed to their malice That they who were the Actors in this bloody Tragedy were no more sensible of what they had done might spring from two causes 1. Because the sin being so great and horrid as it was might well bring a kind of Apoplexy upon their Consciences and in some such apoplectick Fit they or some of them seem'd to dye For great sins as well as great sorrows and blows are apt to stun and stupifie as I proved before 2. Because there were many of them that were concern'd in it and it might seem to them to be in this as in other cases viz. That many hands make light work 'T is a very true and common observation that when a great many men joyn together when they go as it were in herds and droves they do often venture upon doing of those things by consent which were they invited to do alone they would be ready to say as he Is thy Servant a dead dog that I should do this thing One would think men were deceived with some such idle fallacy as this viz. That if an hundred men joyn together in one Murther or other high act of Injustice or Dishonesty every one of them were but the hundredth part of a Murtherer as if multorum manibus grande levatur onus were a Rule that held in this case but as thus applied it is a very great mistake For what our Law saith is consonant to right Reason viz. That in murther no man is meer accessary but all are principals and obnoxious to death Shall I add a third This their sin was not so universally gone before to judgment as is a plain ordinary Murther because it was coloured over with a pretence of Law and Justice there were a great many that were ready not only to vindicate but applaud it the mask was not quite taken off from it nor the vail of darkness from the hearts of all the Spectators This with a good strong Cordial a sufficient opiate and a seared Conscience and an ambition to set a good face upon what they had done to make the best of a bad market to dye like men and Souldiers and those that some would not doubt to Canonize for Saints even for the sake of their Regicide could they but keep their own counsel by dying such in point of Resolution and seeming Assurance those with some other things I could name might be the true causes why they did or seem'd to die