been utterly impossible for them by a pretended High Court of Justice and seemingly formal process of Law or rather Pageantry of Judicature to have sentenced so excellent a Prince to die the death of a Malefactor 'T is not yet forgotten what one or more said of hm when the pit was digging and the net spreading for the life of the late renowned King viz. Blacken him blacken him meaning Calumniare fortiter ut aliquid haereat i. e. Brand him smut him make him odious lay those things to his charge which he never did represent him for so did Cook that was Solicitor against him in his printed charge as bad almost as was Nero himself or as they did our Saviour John 7.20 The People said thou hast a Devil c. i. e. Thou art possest Satan hath fill'd thy heart and body both thou keepest a familiar one or more and doest cast out Devils by Belzebub the Prince of Devils Sith this was done to the green dry wonder not at what was done to the dry I am confident Jezebel did not more falsely accuse Naboth of Blasphemy in the high Court of Justice which she procured against him than was his Majesty of famous memory accused in the things that were laid to his charge some of which were so horrid the more horrid and execrable the guilt of his accusers as nothing could be more If our proverb be true about losing a good name He that wholly takes away the good name though but of a private person though he do nothing more does worse than behead him What then have they done or wherewithal shall their Crime be expiated who did not only take away the Head of an excellent Prince one of a thousand but his good name also as much as in them lay and did not only extinguish his Life and Light but endeavoured to make him go out in a snuff and leave a loathsome stench behind him which maugre all their malice God hath converted into a sweet odor and now he who had no Funeral Sermon on the day he was Buried hath hundreds that may be so called preached anniversally on the day of his Death viz. each 30 day of January and his name imbalmed a-fresh on every such day and like to be so to all posterity Lastly If their Treason who imbrued their hands in the Blood of the late King were not attended with the breach of the Tenth Commandment no sin ever was This horrid Murther and Treason was certainly one branch springing from that bitter root Covetousness which the Apostle calleth the root of all evel and if of all evils surely of this for one They thought the Life of a King in an ill sense more worth than the lives of ten thousand of his Subjects I mean a better prey a greater booty of which they could make more earnings and greater advantage to themselves than of ten thousand other Lives They would have said of a common man Quid laudis in nece tantillae bestiae He had not been worth the beheading what should they get by his death But doubtless they had well computed what was to be gotten by the death of their King He had Fields and Vineyards They knew how to part the Skin of a royal Lyon if he were but once dead they would be his Executioners as it were that they might make themselves his Executors I mean serve themselves of his Revenues and cause him to die that they might live more splendidly The Flowers and Jewels of one Royal Crown are sufficient to enrich though with a vengeance many private Families That by their own confession some of them aimed at and doubtless so did the rest or most of them that did never confess it Was it not the wedge of Gold I mean the Kings Revenues and that which they called A Babylonish Garment viz. The Lands of Bishops Deans and Chapters which those Achans those Troublers of Israel long'd for and made their way to through the Blood of their King So Judas for the lucre of 30 pieces betrayed his Lord and Master Now if that be not a great sin which breaks five Commandments at once let the World judge And so I pass on to my Third Aggravation of their sin who Murthered King Charles the First It was flat and down-right Rebellion open and palpable Rebellion In what can a Son more rebel against his Father than if he seek to take away his Life yea do actually murther him Now Kings are as well Political Fathers to their Subjects de facto as they are Nursing Fathers de jure Yea such Political Fathers are much more superior to their Political than Natural Fathers are to their Natural Children Sons if abroad in the World and at full age are not indecently suffered to be covered in the presence of their Fathers but may ordinary Subjects be so in the presence of their King If then Kings be unquestionable Fathers to their Subjects and of an order of Fatherhood superior to those who begat them then whatsoever is Rebellion in Children against their Natural Fathers the same thing if against their King is as true and as great yea greater Rebellion Ex parte objecti Now the Scriptare calls it Rebellion in a Son but to resist and refuse the lawful Commands of his Father Deut. 21.18 If a Man have a stubborn and rebellious Son which will not obey the voice of his Father or the voice of his Mother and that when they have chastened him will not hearken to them There you have a Rebel against his Natural Parents de facto viz. A Child that will not obey or hearken to the voice of his Father or of his Mother And his Punishment is set down v. 21. All the men of his City shall stone him with stones that he die Is Disobedience in a Child to the lawful Commands not only of a Father but of a Mother Rebellion and such as God appointed to be punished with death and such a death too as is there described viz. Then shall his Father and his Mother lay hold on him and bring him out unto the Elders of his City and unto the Gate of his Place and they shall say unto the Elders of his City This our Son is stubborn and rebellious he will not obey our voice c. v. 19 20. Where first of all his own Parents were to be his accusers yea as it were the Constables that were charg'd with him to bring him before the Magistrates and give evidence against him declaring his Crime viz. saying This our Son is stubborn and rebellious a glutton and a drunkard Then his own Countreymen or Townsmen here called the Elders of his City were to be his Judges and to give sentence against him and that sentence of Death and that the Death of a Dog viz. to be stoned and that stoning by the hand not of one strange Executioner but by the hands of Countreymen or fellow-townsmen every one of which did or might fling a
mean the infirmities of it if they live to be an hundred years Old so certainly Conscience will call Men to an account if not in Health yet in Sickness if not Living yet Dying yea if not dying so soon as they are Dead for Conscience is a King that never Dies as they say in Law Rex nunquam moritur And they will find it in the next World by the Name and Nature of a Never dying Worm and as the Proverb saith Nullum Tempus occurrâ—t Regi The Kings time never lapseth Some Men will find that Conscience hath not lapsed or lost any time like Creditors that lose their Debts and Priviledge of suing for them for want of demanding them within such a term of years but will recover all its Arrears and sue them till they have paid the uttermost farthing We proceed in the next place to the Eighth Query which I proposed to speak of viz. The Quomodo Or how and in what manner it is thas Conscience doth use to smite men for sin To which I answer That Conscience doth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at sundry times and in divers manners First of all Conscience doth sometimes smite men very gently and easily with light and soft touches as Old Ely did his Sons when he said It is not a good report which I hear of you my Sons you make the Lords People to transgress 1 Sam. 2. Chap. v. 24. It whips Men sometimes as Mothers use to do their Infant Children with a small Twig and a soft hand whereby they are rather scared than hurt and toucheth them with that tenderness as one would touch the Apple of ones Eye But Secondly Conscience doth many times correct Men smartly smite them severely yet not so but that they are able to bear it as you shall hear some Men say of those fits of the Stone Gout or Collick which they have felt that they were very painful indeed but they thank God such as they were able to undergo and but able It is as much as ever some Men can do to bear that burthen of a wounded Conscience which lies upon them but they make a hard shift with much a-do rub along a little more weight added to them would sink and over-whelm them their Consciences correct them in full measure though not above measure and this it may be is the case of thousands their Consciences give them their full Dose though they destroy them not with a Hypercatharsis Thirdly But some there are a case two frequent in the World though not so common as the former whose Consciences do smite them Ad extremum viriuna and lay on upon them with all their might whose Conscience thunder and lighten upon them as God did upon the Israelites from Mount Sinai Exodus 19.16 And it came to pass that there were Thunder and Lightnings and a thick Cloud upon the Mount and the Voice of the Trumpet exceeding loud so that all the People that was in the Camp trembled and Mount Sinai was altogether on a Smoak because the Lord descended upon it in Fire the Smoak thereof ascended as the Smoak of a Furnace and the whole Mount quaked greatly With such like Terrour so far as a Creature may imitate his Creator so doth Conscience sometimes cloath it self If a Beast doth but touch the Mountain to allude to the passages at Mount Sinai it is stoned or struck through with a Dart Heb. 12.20 I mean if a bruitish thought do but touch a mans mind so terrible is the sight thereof as aggravated by Conscience that he may say as Moses 21. I exceedingly quake Look with how grim a Countenance and with how incens'd a Heart Ahasuerus lookt upon Haman when coming out of his Garden he found that proud Traytor fallen upon the Bed where Hester his Queen was and said of him Will he force the Queen also before me in the House Hester 7.8 With such an aspect and with such a rage doth Conscience accost some Men cause their Faces to be covered presently with shame and confusion Doth it not fall upon some Men like a Bear robbed of her Whelps or like a Man under Jealousie upon him whom he suspects Of which Solomon saith It is the rage of a Man he will not spare in the day of his wrath Conscience seems sometimes to vie with Death in the point of Terror and to make it self more a King of Terrors than he for Sin is the sting of Death and Conscience is as it were the sting of Sin That Death is less terrible than an inraged Conscience is manifest because thousands fly or have fled from a pursuant Conscience to hide themselves in the valley of the shadow of Death and have chosen rather to fall into their own Bloody and Murtherous Hands than to remain in the hands of Conscience How many pursued by Conscience have repaired to a Melancholly Beam as one calls it or any thing they could make a Gallows of as it were to a City of Refuge or to the Horns of an Altar that is have chosen strangling rather than life The Jews allow but Thirty nine Stripes to be given even to Malefactors 1 Cor. 11. But Conscience will give Thousands and Millions fetching Blood at every stroak Stone Collick Strangury are the names of three little Tortures compared to that of a wounded and wounding Conscience for so it is that a wounded Conscience will wound if we wound it it will wound us that ever Gnawing Worm if we tread upon it will surely turn again Nothing can make the Torment of Racking and Burning seem small but the greater Torment of a Tormenting Conscience All I have said is easie to believe if we but consider some men have preferred Hell it self before the smitings of an incensed Conscience so Judas when he went and hanged himself though others it may be have been preverted from doing the same thing chiefly by considering that what is said of God may as truly be said of and to Conscience Psal 139. If I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there Some it may be fear that never dying Worm in Hell more than the Fire and Brimstone we read of as supposing that the Torments of Conscience are all in all as to the Pena sensus or the positive Punishment which the damned do there undergo Say not the Lion is not so terrible as he is Painted or Conscience as I have described it for it alone can tell thee how terrible it is Of it as of the great God may be said Who knoweth the power of his wrath according to his fear so is his wrath The terrors of Conscience are as boundless as the extent of Fear which is a passion that knows no limits The Sea is bounded by Sands but the dreads of Conscience hardly by any thing no Boanarges or Son of Thunder like to Conscience no high Court of Justice nor yet of Injustice so terrible as that Two Witnesses serve in other Courts Conscience is a
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
duty of Subjects towards Kings and Rulers Possibly your Children and your Servants will be more obedient to you than now they are when you have learnt to be more obedient to those whom God hath set over you in the Church or State Nay some good and pious women whilst they are teaching their Children and Servants obedience to the King may reflect and learn more obedience to their own Husbands Vpon that day let every thing that is under Government be taught to obey I do really think it a very great defect in Parents not to train up their Children in Loyalty amongst other Principles of Religion for that is one head of the Fifth Commandment not to train them up in that way of their youth that they may not forget it when they are old Perhaps some Parents had kept their Children from those untimely ends which their Disloyalty hath brought them to if they had done so Let us possess our Families with awful apprehensions of Magistracie and the necessity of obeying those whom God hath set over us in all lawful things and this especially upon every 30th day of January For want of this many are undone by scrupling what they need not viz. indifferent things and not scrupling what they ought viz. Rebellion Is it not to little purpose generally for men to give their Children Learning unless they instruct them in Loyalty for if they are to seek as to that where and in what capacity shall they use their Learning What shall be the Sphere of their activity A little Learning would serve the turn to preach to so few hearers as the Law will afford or allow them who are not instructed in obedience How many Lads of excellent parts and hopes having suckt in dâ—sloyal Principles as it were with their Mothers milk have been put to mean and Mechanick Trades and forced to live by their hands who could have liv'd by their heads or head-pieces as well as most men had they not been denied that Education that should have inabled them so to do It might prevent the ruine of thousands if such Texts as some that I could name were preached upon on every 30th day of January and handled as they should be I mean so as that the Reason and Consciences of men might feel what the Minister saith and go away more fixed in Loyalty and Obedience than they came thither Ex. gr one of the Texts I mean is Prov. 24.21 22. My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knows the ruine of them both What we translate given to change some render by the word Rebellibus Rebels others by nova Molientibus such as project or attempt new things i. e. new Governments There are two expressions that bid fair for the sense of those words who knows the ruin of them both 1. Who knows what ruine may fall upon them who honour not God and the King from them both i. e. both from God and the King 2. Or the words may be rendred who knows Sheneicem i. e. terminum annorum the end of their years and days who are given to change and overturn Governments how soon they may perish in their Rebellion as did Corah and his Complices Another Text which I wish that Parents would mind their Children and Masters their Servants of upon every 30th day of January is Prov. 17.26 To punish the just is not good nor to strike Princes for equity Methinks at the first hearing the words do sound as if the meaning of them were That it is not good to strike Princes under pretence of bringing them as Delinquents to condign punishment of trying them by a pretended Court of Justice or Process of Law as Jezebel tried Naboth Surely if a man be either a just man or a Prince he ought not to be stricken by the hand of any man If just because he deserves it not if a Prince or King because if you could suppose him to have deserved it he is to be reserved to the judgment of the King of Kings as David said concerning Saul 1 Sam. 26.10 The Lord shall smite him or his day shall come to die or he shall descend into battle and perish The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lords Anointed ver 9. And David said to Abishat who said to him Let me smite Saul once with a spear to the earth and I will not smite him again for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless Cause your Children and Servants to read such Texts as these upon every 30th day of January A disloyal Education I perswade my self hath been the temporal ruine of many a hopeful Person Let no Parents convey those groundless prejudices into the minds of their children which may prove the seeds of Rebellion in time at leastwise of Faction and Sedition which will ever keep them from ever signifying any thing in this world and consign them over to the woful temptations of want and beggery and what if Parents when they have compassed Sea and Land to make their Children Froselytes to their own perswasions have proved but ignes fatui to their own children meerly misled and misguided them And whilst they being blind themselves as to those matters lead their children as blind as themselves both of them fall into the ditch God secure all conscientious Loyalty and Obedience in this and all following Ages and let all good and wise Parents cause their Childrn to suck it in with their Mothers milk that such days of Rebellion Treason Perjury Sacriledge and Murther as our eyes have seen may never return upon us again Tell your Children that in such a year begun a Civil War in England which ended in the murthering the barbarous murthering of a good King say that and you need say no more to make any conscientious person tremble at the thought of another Civil War oâ— of contributing thereunto Let the murther of the King be exposed to deter all after-ages from ever thirsting more after the blood of Kings or at leastwise daring to gratifie and quench that their thirst c. If Ministers will please to lay aside all invective language if any be prone thereunto of which I can charge no man particularly upon each 30th day of January and whatsoever may give people just occasion to say they railed in the Pulpit using as one expresseth it soft words and hard Arguments whereby to convince all gainsayers that the putting of the late King to death was an action monstrously wicked an unaccountable sin to God or men if people will be so obedient to Authority and so true to themselves as to attend publick preaching and prayer on that day the Anniversary Fast may with the blessing of of God turn to a very good account namely of securing the Peace and Safety of the Nation and of the respective
making of any more Laws which might be judged necessary for the good of the Nation For without the King no Law can be made His Royal Assent Sanction and Fiat makes every Law to be a Law Therefore the Parliament did never presume to call any things by the name of a Law which they made without the King but by the name not of Acts but of Ordinances of Parliament Secondly there was stop put to the execution of those good and wholsome Laws which were before in being Execution say they is the life of Laws and who but the King is the great Executioner of Laws or the life of their Execution When Judges and other great men in the Law went off by death who but a King could legally substitute others in their room If any Justice be done by Officers not legally called and constituted we must be beholden to usurpation for it Laws are things full of life and spirit if they be such for the constitution and execution of them as they ought to be and upon the life of good Laws depend all our Lives Liberties good Names Estates Properties It is as it were the breath of their Nostrils If the true Soul of the Law go out of it which is the King they must either be restored by some Vsurper or usurping spirit or fall to the ground They who destroy our Laws or the due execution of them had as good in effect burn up all our Ships break down all our Forts and Fences yea they had as good almost cut down all our Banks and Buttresses upon the Sea-shore and let in the Sea upon us as do what they do He that destroys one good Law or the effect and progress of it may do the world more mischief than if he had destroy'd twenty men yea a hundred such as they might be I had almost said If a man could stop the motion of the Sun Moon and Stars and all their Influences upon the earth their light and height c. for ought I know would not be more missed than the free course or progress of Laws would be What Death then could be greater than their demerits who kill'd not only the Law-maker but the Laws themselves which are all in all in all that we have to shew or plead for any thing that we call ours in this world Seventhly Alas alas that I should yet have more wherewith to accuse those poor unhappy men who put the late King to death I say it was Homicidium barbarum a barbarous Murther in reference to the circumstances of it Who knows not that cruelty may be shew'd even towards a noxious Brute which ought to be put to death as towards a wild Boar or the like namely by making its necessary death more painful or more lingring than it need to be but if the same thing be done to a harmless Animal as to a tame Dove or such like the cruelty and barbarousness is yet greater upon that account If the severity be applied to a reasonable Creature man or woman it is counted ten times so barbarous but when barbarous usage shall be applied to a Prince a King our own King a virtuous King and one that had been a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs for many years together not to grant him as handsome an Exit out of the world as could consist with an untimely death was such a transcendant instance of inhumane barbarity as I think no age can parallel Reader If thy heart can bear the mention of them which I assure thee mine hardly can and if thou art content to weep a while for the following Lines are scarcely to be writ or read with dry eyes I shall quote a few instances of the barbarous usage which our dear and dread Sovereign that then was met with as I find them recorded in Dr. Perrinshief's excellent History of the Life and Death of King Charles I. To say nothing of the King-killing Party in Parliament and Army their over-ruling all the vigorous endeavours which were used from time to time by the whole House of Lords together with the major part of the House of Commons to compromise all matters with his Majesty having courageously Voted though the Army was drawn up to London to over-awe them That the King's Concessions were a sufficient ground for Peace Dr. P. p. 174. But to come immediately to such passages as do refer to his Death Some would have the King saith Dr. Perrinshief pag. 185. first formally degraded and divested of all his Royal Habiliments and Ensigns of Majesty and then as a private person exposed to Justice Others designing a Tyrannical Oligarchy whereby they might have a share in the Government would have the King proceeded against as King that by so shedding his Blood they might extinguish Majesty and so mâ—rther Monarchy For several of them did confess that indeed he was guilty of no Crime more than that he was their King and because the excellency of his parts and the rights of his birth would not suffer him to be a private person pag. 186. In their second debate about the matters of Accusation all embraced the advice of Harrison to blacken him c. Ibidem Accordingly they impeached him as a Tyrant Traitor Murtherer and an implacable common Enemy because he had levied war against the Parliament Upon which the Author afterward descants thus excellently pag. 187. Those who had none but the light of nature to make them generous never reproached their conquered Enemies with their Victory but these men would murther their Prince against whom they had nothing else to object but the unhappy issues of a war which leaves the Conquered the only Criminal while the name of Justice and Goodness are the spoils of Conquerors Most barbarous was their cruelty because most inexorable For saith he pag. 187. while they were thus ingaged to perpetrate their intended mischiefs all Parties declare against it The Presbyterian Ministers almost all those of London and very many out of the several Countries and some though few of the Independents The Scots also by their Commissioners declare and protest against it The States of Holland also by their Embassadors did intercede and deprecate it as most destructive to the Protestant Interest Some of the most eminent of the Nobility as the Earl of Southampton the Duke of Richmond the Marquess of Hertford and the Earl of Lindsey and others neglact no ways either by Prayers or Reasons to save the King yea they offered themselves as Hostages for him and if the Conspirators must needs be fed with blood to suffer in his stead pag. 189. The Prince of Orange did daily send as Arents the Kindred and Allies of the Conspirators with full Power and to propose any Conditions make any Promises and use all threatnings to divert them from their intended cruelty But all was in vain For no conditions of Peace could please them whose Ambition had swallowed the hopes of Empire therefore they would
Kings of England and particularly of his gracious Majesty that now is for ever after Let us Ministers tell the people on that day how just and righteous God is how God is known by the Judgments which he executeth the wicked being taken in their own snare and in the pit which they digged for others how he causes mens sins to find them out and long forborn Murther and Regicides to pursue men like Blood-hounds how he brings the wheel upon ungodly men after long-forbearance how though he be long-suffering yet not ever-suffering and when he maketh inquisition for blood he will not forget the Blood of Kings or suffer the shedding of Royal blood to go unpunished Mind your people how dangerous the beginnings of publick Disturbances and Changes are even like sparks of fire in the midst of a Magazine of Gun-powder and may prove of as dangerous consequence When a King and his people are once ing aged against each other in a War ten to one but the issue will be either he will hang them if he have the better of it or they will behead him if the day be theirs Think of Solomons words Prov. 17.14 The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out waters therefore leave off contention before it be medled with Think also of the words of St. James Jam. 3.5 Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth Labor on that day especially to bring one French fashion into England viz. to cause the people of England to love and honour their King as universally as the people of France are said to do whose humour and it is a very good one is this as I am informâ—d viz. If their King enjoy great renown and prosperity if he be victorious and successful a little matter else will content them they are content with any thing looking upon their happiness as bound up in his and that if he be happy they ought not to think themselves miserable A 30th of January is as good and sutable a day as can be to exhort the people as St. Paul doth 1 Tim. 1.1 2. That not only supplications prayers and intercessions but also giving of Thanks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be made for Kings and for all that are in Authority and in order thereunto to make them sensible how many and great mercies benefits and priviledges they enjoy under the Government of his Majesty that now is Doth not the blood and spirit of Justice if I may so call it freely and uninterruptedly circulate in all the veins of this Nation Was there ever less complaint of Male-administration in publick Courts than has been ever since his Majesties return What great numbers are there of able Lawyers Judges Sergeants and others Learned in the Law And possibly as many Gentlemen of honesty and integrity as have been known of that Profession in any one Age. How well furnished are both the Vniversities with good Scholars and good men though it cannot be expected they should all be such especially Masters and Fellows of Colledges And that I may instance in every of the Liberal and Learned Professions How many Learned Physicians are there in England far surpassing the number of Learned men of that Profession it may be in any part of Europe for so I have heard Nay how many scores of Pious and Learned Divines are there at this day in England doubtless in no age all Divines were such and amongst them how many painful and excellent Preachers acurate Disputants noble champions for the Protestant Religion mighty Goliahs to encounter the greatest Leviathan's and as rational clear-headed enemies to Atheisme Enthusiasme and Nonserse as ever drew sword against those Enemies I was about to fay If God had given us leave to bespeak a King after our own hearts or made one on purpose for us such as we desired he could not in sundry respects have excelled what he now is Ex. gr 1. In point of Mercy and Benignity I think he has forgiven more than any King did before him or may do after him a more unsanguinary Prince never was in the world Blame him not if he exact that Obedience which is due to him but he cares as little for Sacrifice as ever King did and as small a matter hath atoned him as ever did atone any Prince so provoked and injured as he hath been If he has not fed his enemies when he saw them hungry and clothed them when they were naked many men that were his enemies both in war and otherwise never did any man do it 2. In point of Peaceableness for all know him to be the true Grandchild of King King James He is none of those that delight in War and are ever and anon immersing their Subjects in Seas of Blood He loves not to quarrel his Neighbours round about him and to Hector them into War and to give up his people to the Sword to eat their flesh and drink their blood but had rather have them sit under ther vines and under their fig-trees none making them afraid 3. If Humility and Condescention be an ornament to a Prince and the advantage of his Subjects I am much deceived if his Majesty doth no abound therein and yet reserveth to himself the Majesty and Greatness which doth become his place What Prince in the world more affable more accessible than he 4. If it be a mercy to have a wise Prince who understands his own business as doubtless it is t is well known by this time of day that he is one none but a wise Pilot could steer safely in so great storms as his Majesty hath been in and preserve a Ship from being lost sayling amongst so many Rocks and Shelves and Sands as he has done The wisdom of his Grandfather King James as being one of the greatest Royal Scholars that ever was began early to appear for the warm Sun of so literate an Education quickly brought him to maturity But the wisdom of King Charles the Martyr did then most gloriously shine out when he himself was under a cloud of Adversity and was like Musick which makes the sweetest melody upon the waters So did his Piety and Wisdom upon the waters of Affliction As a man may bebold the Sun in a shady pit or well better than above ground for there is no reflexion from the earth to divert our eyes So they who beheld King Charles the First in the deep pit or well of Affliction saw his wisdom to greater advantage than it was taken notice of before and in him that Maxime verified viz. Vexatio dat intellectum Quite contrary it hapned to his Majesty that now is whom God bless for ever In the years of his Adversity his wisdom and other excellencies were better known to Foreiners than to us his natural Subjects for that he was then upon force-put a stranger to his own Country and Kingdoms and evil-minded men took the advantage of his Exile and absence to represent him as they pleased But