thing remembring what Amaziah did Who put to death those that slew his Father but he slew not their Children but did as it is written in the Book of Moses viz. Deuter. 24.16 where the Lord commanded saying the father shall not die for the children neither shall the children die for their fathers but every man shall die for his own sin 2 Chron. 25.4 I say not in order to fixing any odium or disgrace upon the survivors but purely to convince as many as stand in need of it that Ministers and People may and ought to observe the Thirtieth of January as an Anniversary Fast Yea and that our Rulers do well in appointing it so to be kept in order to bewailing and seeking the expiation of a most notorious Sin and fetching out the stain of Royal Blood I say in order thereunto I hold it necessary and a Duty to set a Mirror before the Eyes of Men in which they may see the true visage and complexion of that horrid Crime which God grant may never more be laid to Englands charge Know then if either Perjury High Treason Rebellion Sacriledge Wilful and deliberate Murther Parricide or the killing of a Father Patricide or the ruining of our Native Countrey Justicidium or taking away the life of a Just Person Regnicidium or the destroying of a Kingdom Monarchicidium or the destruction of Monarchy it self Legicidium or the subversion of Laws Suicidâ—um or a mans killing of himself or being Felo dâ— se Animaecidium Soul-murther so far as in men is Multicidium or the Murthering of many at once both as to body and soul if Gods mercy prevent not yea Deicidium or striking at the life of God himself in a higher sense than most other sins are said to do I say if all these things put together do amount to a very great and stupendious sin then such a sin it was to put King Charles the First to death And now you see I have not charged the Kings Judges with Cumulative Treason or many Petty Treasons or Non Treasons pretended when they were all put together to amount to High Treason for High Treason it self is but one Article in this Charge Now it remains that so great a Charge as this should be proved against them And had I not been conscious of its being easie to be proved I would never have exhibited it for fear of violating the Ninth Commandment First Article of this Charge is Perjury for I do aver that they who sentenced the King to death did in so doing horribly violate the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy as also the Solemn League and Covenant though an Oath of their own imposing wherein they swore to preserve the Kings life and honour c. And as many of them as were his Majesties Servants as some such there were did also break the particular Oath which they had taken as such and thus breaking four Oaths at once may be said to be shod round with Perjury Some it may be would have added that they had also violated their Baptismal Vow and Oath and as many Repetitions and Confirmations of it as they had made in receiving the holy Eucharist because by those two Sacramental Vows all other Duties are bound upon men and consequently the observation of all our lawful Promissory Oaths but I need not strain so far to find out Aggravations of so Notorious a Fact Secondly My Charge against these men iâ— that of High Treason It is Petty Treason for a Woman to kill her own Husband though but a private man and what petty Sovereigns are private men compared with Princes 'T is Treason by our Laws barely to imagine the death of the King Queen or Prince yea to kill the Chancellor Treasurer or any Justice of either Bench Justices of Assize or any other Justices doing their Offices is by the Statute declared to be High Treason Statut. de Proditionibus 25 E. 3. Stat. 5. cap. 2. Yea it is Petty Treason for a servant to kill his Master c. Nay clipping crashing rounding or fileing for lucre sake any of the Peoples Moneys or Coyns of this Realm is adjudged High Treason Stat. 5 Eliz. 11. Is the Kings Money as it were inviolable and not to be clipped or diminished but upon pain of death and is not his person so In a Statute 13 Car. 2. cap. 1. it is thus said It shall be Treason in any persons whatsoever to compass imagine invent devise or intend death or any bodily harm maim or wounding imprisonment or restraint of the person of the King c. If to maim or imprison his person be Treason what is it then to put him to death But methinks I hear some say Though the Laws of England do punish Treason as a great and capital Crime yet possibly it is not so in the eye of Gods Law Now though every Breach of Gods Commandment be a sin yet possibly there are some Laws of Men that may be broken without sin To that I reply the sinful Laws of Men are better broke than kept Such as was Nebuchadnezzar's when he commanded all people to fall down and worship the Golden Image that he had set up Dan. 3.5 Such also was Darius his Dan. 6.7 when he made a Decree That whosoever should ask a Petition of any God or man save of the King for thirty dayes should be cast into a Den of Lyons Such also were the Statutes of Omry Micah 6.16 But no man can imagine that those Laws are sinful by which the lives and liberties of Princes as well as of the People are secured to them Now most certain it is that Humane Laws when lawful can never be violated without sin or without doing that which is in the sight of God as well as of men unlawful I think at present of no less than firâ— Commandments of the Second Table which were broken by those who put King Charlâ— the First to death viz. first of all the Fifâ— Commandment in these words Honour the father and thy mother for Kings are Poliâ—â—cal Fathers and to kill them is as 〈◊〉 from honouring them as any thing can be Secondly It was a manifest violation of the Sixth Commandment which saith Theâ— shalt not kill Thirdly of the Eighth Commandment also which saith Thou shalt 〈◊〉 steal For was not the language of theâ—â— hearts who put the King to death the same with that of their mouths Mat. 21.38 who said of our Saviour Come 〈◊〉 us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance Witness Cooks Confession viz. That what be did in reference to the Kings death was not 〈◊〉 of malice but covetousness not out of hatred to the King but for the love of money Habetâ—â— confitentem reum The Ninth Commandment which is Thou shalt not bear false witness c. was as manifestly transgressed by those who had a hand in that good Kings death as any of the former For without the horrible breach of that Commandment it had 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.
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
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
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
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
for it but presume not to meddle with the persons of Soveraigns whom God hath reserved to his own immediate Justice Let them stand or fall to their own Master and who is that but God Almighty Would it not be murther in him who is no Executioner nor appointed by the Magistrate thereunto to put to death the fowlest Malefactor that was ever brought to a Gaole because he has no authority so to do To be sure they who put the late King to death neither had or could have any authority or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for what they did for we have no such Law or Custom in England thanks be to God as to put our Kings to death if they do not please us They may be free in their own perswasion to do such things if commissioned from Rome for that purpose who doubt the Supremacy of all Princes but the Pope to whom they apprehend all other Princes to be of right in subjection but we Protestants have not so learned Christ and Religion as to think that the Heads of all Secular Princes are at the Popes Devotion and their lives in his hands and that they are to hold them but durante illius beneplacito During his Holiness Pleasure Therefore I am amaz'd to think what kind of Heteroclite degenerate Protestants they were if we may call them Protestants who took the boldness to behead King Charles the Martyr Sixthly The sixth Article which I exhibit against the Murtherers of the late Royal Martyr is that their fault was Regicide the murthering not of a private person or subject but of a King which gave a great accent to their crime and made them as it were double-died in blood Though the blood of Jesus Christ may and will upon true and lively repentance wash away the Guilt of Royal Blood so as to prevent the eternal damnation of them that shod it and oh the virtue and value of that Blood that can do so yet I know no Laver that God hath appointed to wash out the stain thereof I mean the blot and stain which it always leaves upon the names and memories of them whose hands have been so imbrewed To attempt that were to wash a Blackamore All injuries become greater by the greatness of the object or party against whom they are committed Read the greatness of their sins in the greatness of the punishments which God hath inflicted on them as the Scripture tells us who have so much as resisted or rebell'd against their Kings but more against them who have put their Kings to death When the Moabites who had paid tribute to King Ahab rebell'd against his Son Jehoram 2 Kings 3.5 They were sorely beaten and the King of Moab brought to such distress that he took his Eldest Son that should have reign'd in his stead and offered him for a burnt offering upon the Wall v. 27. Again we read how Ho eah the King of Israel was punished and the Israel it es carried away Captive though the Governours were Heathen and the Subjects the People of God 2 Kings 17. because after he had made himself servant and tributary to Shalmonezer King of Assiria he afterwards denied him tribute c. In like manner Zedekiah King of Judah was punished as you may see 2 Kings 25.1 compared with chap. 24.20 Thorow the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah until he had cast them out from his presence viz. giving them up to Famine Desolation Captivity Destruction of their City and Temple chap. 25 c. that Zedekiah rebell'd against the King of Babylon yea see what is added chap. 25.7 They slew the Sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and put out the Eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in Fetters of Brass and carried him to Babylon Lord what a dismal train of Consequences insued upon a Jewish King his rebelling but against a Babylonish King Instance we next in Sheba who rebell'd against David and drew all the ten tribes after him was he not by him besieg'd in Abel had his head cut off by the advice of a Woman and thrown out to him 2 Sam. 20.22 The Amalakite that said he had slain Saul though he had not slain him and though he said that Saul bid him was notwithstanding presently put to death at the command of David saying this to him 2 Sam. 1.14 How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thy hand to destroy the Lords anointed Yea David was so incensed at it that he cursed the Mountains where Saul was slain v. 21. Ye mountains of Gilboa let there be no dew neither let there be rain upon you nor fields of offerings for there the shield of the mighty is vâ—lely cast away the shield of Saul as though he had not been anointed with oyl The meer murmurings of the Israelites against Moses are both spoken of and punished as murmurings against God Exod. 16.8 So Numâ—â— 20 13. it is said the people chode with Moseâ— for water and yet v. 13. it is said that thâ— water was called the water of Meribah be cause the Children of Israel strove with thâ— Lord. Hannaniah perswaded the Jews to revolt from the King of Babylon only anâ— yet it is said that he taught rebellion againâ— the Lord Jer. 28.16 Was not Miriam punished with Leprosie but for speaking againâ—â— Moses Numb 12.10 Mind what God said and did upon that occasion ver 8. were yâ—â— not then afraid ye viz. Miriam and Aaron to speak against my servant Moses ver 9 And the anger of the Lord was kindled againâ—â— them and he departed v. 10. And the Cloâ—â— departed from off the Tabernacle and behold Miriam became leprous Nay we find disobedience to the very Priests and Loviteâ— threatned with Leprosie Deut. 24.8 9. Takâ— heed of the plague of Leprosie that ye take heed diligently to observe and do according tâ— all that the Priests and Levites shall teach thee ver 9. Remember what the Lord thy God dâ—â— to Miriam viz. who was strucken with Leprosie for murmuring against Moses who was no Priest To perswade men to revelt from those Princes whose subjects they are is yet a farther Crime than bare murmuring and see how God punished it in Ahab and Zedikiah who were rosted to death by Nebuchad-nezzer Jer. 29.22 And how Shemaiah's whole Family was likewise extirpated v. 32. Hear David's Sentence against Saul's Servants for not using their utmost indeavours to preserve his Life 1 Sam. 26.16 As the Lord liveth ye are worthy to die because ye have not kept your Master the Lords anointed See how miserably Rachab and Banah two of Ishbosheth's Captains came off who murthered their Master and carried his Head as a present to King David hoping for a reward v. 12. David commanded his Young Men and they slew them and cut off their hands and feet and hanged them up possibly in Chains as a terror to others Had Zimri peace who slew his Master Elah King of Israel Surely no for when