with Orient Metaphors Infallible predictions not onely of events but even of circumstances and that in such minute particularities that few Historians do so lively relate things already acted Some may question whether these predictions were dictated by the Spirit of Prophesie but who dares question a mighty influence of the Spirit of Wisdom And how are these rare sufficiences sanctified with all Christian graces What undaunted magnanimity outfacing a long series of danger and never deserting those interests which he knew it his duty to maintain What invincible patience outliving the witherings of his gourd without discontent or peevishnesse or the least complaint to these who wanted nothing to complete their mirth but onely such Musick or any other shrinking from that Majesty which graced him most in his lowest ebbs What fervent Piety firing his devout heart with a steady and permanent heat yet no volatile zeal like theirs which shew no other proof but their boasts and their levity but fixed with a judicious constancy to that Religion which he protected with his life And Oh! what Charity what sweet love what tender Bowels His enemies did him this onely right they thought none but the greatest injuries to be competent trials of his patience yet great as they were his charity outvied them It is a small matter with him to pardon them he pitieth them he prayeth for them I thank God saith he I never found but my pity was above my anger nor have my passions ever so prevailed against me as to exclude my most compassionate prayers for them whom devout errors more then their own malice have betrayed to a most religious Rebellion Nay he is ready to reward them too I do not saith he more willingly forgive their seductions then I am ambitious by all princely merits to redeem from their unjust suspicions and reward them for their good intentions These were the passions these were the revenges which that intolerable load of calumnies affronts prisons and all kind of persecutions begat in the breast of that excellent King the sweetnesse of whose temper could not receive any tincture of brackishnesse though it ran a long long course through a brinish sea of troubles And if such were his tendernesse to his enemies Oh how dear where his affections to his friends and loving Subjects which he testified while he had power by such gracious concessions that all posterity will stand astonished both at the goodness which granted them and the basenesse which abused them and when he had no power but of his Pen by his last declaration wherein he protested before the face of Heaven that his own afflictions afflicted him not so much as his peoples sufferings Thus were Saul and Jonathan united in one person wisdome and eloquence greatness and goodnesse magnanimity and patience piety and charity were lovely in his life and in his writings they were not divided Such was this mighty King mighty in the greatnesse of Saul but mightier in the sweetnesse of Jonathan mighty in the number and strength of his kingdomes but mightier in the greater number and perfections of his vertues mighty in the love of his friends but mightier by the malice of his enemies who made him a great and glorious King by exercising and evidencing his greatnesse by his diminutions his glory by his ecclipses his heighth by his fall his might by his weaknesse Had they not thus performed their promise he might have layen in level with common Princes who retain to their crowns for all their greatness we had not known him from a comet but by his parallaxes we had not known his brightnesse but by his clouds nor his height but by his setting For how did the mighty fall like Saul and Jonathan by the arrows of the Philistins No God covered his head in the day of battell By the decays of Age No he was but newly past the meridian By the excesses of luxury No those vices which could not stain could not destroy his life How did this mighty fall He will tell you himself He fell a King by the hands of his own Subjects a violent sudden and barbarous death in the strength of his years in the midst of his Kingdom his friends and loving Subjects being helplesse spectators his enemies insolent revilers and triumphers over him living dying and dead Surely as David lamented Abner so may we him As a man falleth before wicked men so fellest thou Thy vineyard made thee a blasphemer a fast is proclaimed a High Court of Justice established witnesses prepared an unjust sentence procured and executed that thy vineyard might be possessed As Naboth fell before Jezabell so fellest thou But Naboth was perhaps rich enough by the inheritance of his fathers not mighty by the power of the Sword Abner had the Sword too yet fell by the Sword of Joab who got within him under pretence of kindnesse Great complements are used they are his faithfull and loyall Subjects his great counsel will make him a great and glorious King As Abner fell before Joab so fellest thou But Joab was Abner's enemy not only upon the publick quarrel but a private grudge And it is the heavy complaint of this afflicted King If they had been mine open and forain enemies I could have born it but they must be mine own Subjects who are next mine own Children dear to me and for the restoring of whose tranquillity I could willingly be the Jonah He was destroyed by them for whom he was destroyed As Christ fell before the Jews so fellest thou So fellest thou so prayedst thou so fellest for their good so prayedst for their pardon so didst thou by all means in life and death seek their happinesse But how did the mighty fall How did he fall by his own weight By those perfections which are preservatives to others and fatal only to him How might he have expostulated in that strange question of his Saviour Many good works have I done for which of them do you kill me Yea for which of them did not kill him which of his perfections was there that did not furnish them with a tentation or advantage to destroy him His Greatnesse That made him an enemy because it would reward them with spoils His Goodness That weakened him by such a multitude of disarming concessions His Charity That incouraged them to go on because they knew they could not out goe his pardon His Love to the people That provoked them because it would not suffer him to make them slaves to an arbitrary power His Firmnesse in Religion That inraged them because it kept them from swallowing the Revenues of the Church His Wisdome That frighted them with jealousies of being at last discovered loathed and ruined How did the mighty fall like Saul upon his own Sword which should have defended him But how did the mighty fall how did he take his fall Died Abner as a fool dieth Did he whine away his Soul with childish moans did he crouch to his
shall we convince these men We will cite them to a new Topick whose authority and evidence they shall never be able to dispute Their own principles Their own protestations Their own first pretences If they have renounced their own principles If they have broken their own protestations If they have confuted their own pretences how can it be but men of such tender consciences finding themselves self condemned should think it necessary to repent of those actions which they cannot justifie and seeing they must needs take shame to themselves blush rather at their exorbitances then their Sobriety I shall not further rake up those actions which the Kings mercy and our charity have buried then is necessary to discover the several changes of that Insect cause whose generation we are thence to conclude equivocall that we may observe the truth of that saying of Cicero clearly verified Qui semel modestiae fines transilierit opportet ut sit gnaviter impudens The confluence of so great a number of Godly men in the great Councel of the Kingdome promised us a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness But behold the sons of Zerviah are too hard for the King and hinder his concurrence with his great Councel Who is he now that hath any Zeal for God and will not do his best for removing such obstructions by taking away the wicked from before the King though against his will That the lawfulness of the means may answer the goodnesse of the end We must make a distinction yea a separation yea an opposition between the power and the person of the King that so the godly party may disobey him in duty and fight against him in his defence under an Engagement for King and Parliament And because this distinction might perhaps appear too nice for grosser understandings the law of God and the Land must for once to promote so good a cause give way to the law of Nature which alloweth self defence in case of imminent danger and that again must allow a little straining our fears and jealousies may justifie that for a defensive war which is made to prevent a foreseen danger which that it may appear real a protestation is injoyned to defend the much endangered take heed King Parliament Laws and protestant Religion established By this chain of fair pretences are a multitude of well meaning men perswaded to Hebron Gods cause inviting them but not to the least disobedience against the King whose power and person they protest to defend But how quickly is the Scene changed they who just now protested to defend the Religion established now fight for the Subversion of a great part of it under the specious name of Reformation They who took up arms only in their necessary defence will not grant the King peace unless he purchase it with delivering up his Sword the power of the Militia acknowledged by themselves to be his undoubted right And is not this now a most manifest rebellion not only against the Laws of God and the Land but against their own protestation and their publick remonstrances But the godly party being once ingaged must needs go on and are unawares grown to be Fresbyterians They go on and after forty messages from the King importuning them for peace partly slighted partly denyed partly yielded too but upon unreasonable terms at last they gain a complete victory and make the Kings most secret papers their Prisoners It might be expected from such faithful Subjects as they profess themselves that they shew him as much civility as Pompey did to his enemy Sertorius whose Letters he hurnt or as the Emp. shewed his enemy the Queen of Bohemia whose intercepted Letters he conveyed according to direction No these Letters discover so many horrid plots against our Kingdome and Religion that they should be very unfaithful to the cause if they should conceal them They are published and what do they discover but this that the Kings intentions were most righteous his desires of peace most ardent his wisdome most eminent his affections to his people most tender and all their own pretences most false What invention could have devised a way more convincingly to justifie the King and to condemn themselves They had declared the King a good but an easie Prince led away by evil councellors and needing the guardianship of the Parliament this they confute by publishing those letters which demonstrate his excellent wisdome and care They had declared the war on their own parts to be meerly defensive and now they publish those letters which make it apparent that the King is most desirous of peace They had declared that the King intended to bring in Popery and now they publish those letters wherein his firmness to the Protestant Religion is most apparent They had declared his intentions to be foul and confute themselves by publishing the secretest intentions of his very heart to be fair and innocent Was not this to give their cause a greater rout then they had given the Kings forces Yet the Presbyterians are Godly men but being so far ingaged they must go on though Absalon be never so impudent The cause is grown so strong as to defend it self not only against the Laws of God and man but against all its own pretences and all appearance of modesty For now all fairer pretences are laid aside and Providence shall bear them out even against their own principles They will do whatever shall seem most advantagious and no law nor religion shall withold them for Providence leads them That is they have gotten power and as long as they prosper their sword shall justifie what the ballance condemns The distressed King no longer able to defend himself applieth himself to the natives of his person and his troubles upon their engagement to assist him and his party with their Armies and Forces and accordingly at first they publish a glorious manifesto declaring it an odious basenesse if they should deliver him up to those Commissioners who were sent for him But having thus inhanced the price they plainly make sale of him for a sum of money with a proviso notwithstanding for his honour and safety in pursuance doubtlesse of their National covenant sir reverence which taught them to suborder the Kings defence to the defence of Religion which they the Gospels life guard could no longer serve without pay What proviso for the safety and honour of the King is no other way made good but by a fair imprisonment and a perpetual refusall of his repeated importunities for a Personal treaty And is not this a plain giving themselves the Lye who pretended to fight only to bring the King to his Parliament and now will not suffer him to come Yet the Presbyterians are godly men but being ingaged are now carried on by Providence to higher actions then at first appeared lawfull and they must be excused if they change their principles with their condition Providence thus calling them to it At last
the perpetual importunities of the King and Kingdom extort their consent to a treaty which they grant but with this condition that the King first depose himself by signing four Bills yeilding up himself religion laws friends people and all to their Arbitrary power which because he cannot but refuse to do they fairly depose and excommunicate him by voting against all addresses to him or from him And is not this an accomplishment of the greatest self conviction in the world thus to depose him whose lawfull authority they had so often sworn to defend Yet still the Presbyterians are godly men but being engaged are led on by Providence to such actions as themselves had often declared sinfull but now appear godly because providence calleth upon them to change their principles with their condition But what invention shall we find out to justifie us against this last pretence providence it self fiighting also in its course against our last actions as well as against all our first pretences and requiring us to return where we first set out by changing those principles too with our condition I do not I professe I do not thus uncover their nakednesse to upbraid but to convince them who are hardened against all other evidences We appeal to themselves to their own publick protestations to those very principles into which their holy cause was first baptized If they have not as peremptorily resisted every one of them as the King himself we shall yield them the honour of being the only godly party They professed to make him a great and glorious King How did they perform this by illustrating his magnamity patience and other suffering vertues They professed to bring him to his Parliament How did they perform this By bringing his power thither and keeping away his person They promised to remove him from his evil Counsellours How did they perform this by keeping him from that his great Councell They promised to defend the Protestant Religion established in England How did they perform this By comparing the Loyalty of its principles with those of the new discipline At last they made providence their rule Let them do so now and joyn with us in detesting those principles which providence it self hath so manifestly blasted and which do so manifestly confesse themselves not fit to be trusted as having skrewed up such Godly men to such a heigth of impiety But what is this to the Presbyterians They did not kill the King Grant it are they therefore the godly party because they did not come up to the very top of wickednesse When they boast what they did not they might do well to remember what they did They put the King though not to death yet upon the certain expectations of death as knowing there are but few steps between the prisons and graves of Princes They did not kill the King 't is true But 't is as true they could not They would not if they could How shall we know that By their protestations let them shew us how they made good any one protestation and we will believe them How can they expect belief from us how can they believe themselves whose principles run through so many changes They voted the Kings concessions a ground for peace But when when it was too late when they had no other way to oppose the Army the Army who first pretended to restore the King and then were opposed by the Parliament as they are now when they declare to destroy him They voted his concessions only a ground for a treaty that they might engage his friends to help them and not engage themselves to restore the King But these things are past and pardoned They are now his best Subjects They restored the King Yes As Marcus Livius was the cause of the taking of Tarentum because if he had not first lost it it could not have been taken So were they cause of restoring the King because if they had not driven him from his Kingdome he could not have been restored But they restored him They restore him Why then are they so mad that he was restored so freely without articles The Scots shew us the way of Presbyterians bringing in Kings They declare him their undoubted rightfull King but withall he must not exercise any power untill he have submitted to such conditions as they think good to prescribe Then they bestow a Crown upon him but a thorny one and make his Kingdome worse then his banishment But the Presbyterians are the Kings faithfull Subjects If they will be believed let them make it credible by some evidence Let them follow the ingenuity of their brethren of Aberdeen Let them shew their affections to the Son by their detestation of those principles which ruined the Father How jealous would a just resentment make them of every principle that hath the least appearance of evil of every garment spotted with the flesh When Adonijab petitioned for Abishag the warming-pan rather then the Concubine of David what a storm of jealousie doth this raise in Solomon to the ruine of Adonijah and his party one slain another degraded another confined How would that jealously become every affectionate heart towards all those principles which do though never so little glance toward disobedience How should we suspect every questioning of the fitnesse of any royall command How should we curse The mountains of Gilboa every thing that contributed though never so little to the ruine of that Beauty of Israel How should we be jealous of our selves how should we fear the jealousies of our Superiours while we foster those opinions of whose creeping venome we have had such lamentable experience But why so much fondness for Absalom Why must we be tempted to say like Joab you declare that you regard neither Prince nor People For we perceive that if your covenant had been brought in and the King kept out it had pleased you well What so great necessity of establishing the new and destroying the old Government What do you fear Popery This is that we crave that you would renounce those principles which are no lesse propetly Popish then perniciously Anti-christian What age what Nation not onely of the Christian but universall world ever denied the power of the Civil Magistrate in Ecclesiastical affairs untill the ambition or the Popes wrested it from the Emperors who were they that refused the doctrine and Oath of Supremacy when first imposed in England and ever since Is it thus that you make your selves Antipodes to the Jesuites that you may carry your faces opposite wayes and dwell in the same longitude and latitude from truth and charity Is it thus you run from one another only as Sampson's foxes did with countenances seperate and tayls united in those fiery doctrines to which the Church of Christ oweth all her combustions Believe it those Plebaeian doctrines of purgatory Indulgences Dirges c. which onely pick Purses are not so properly and fundamentally Popish as those Jesuitish principles