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A53972
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A sermon preached on the 30th of January, 1684, the day of martyrdom of King Charles I, of blessed memory by Edward Pelling ...
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Pelling, Edward, d. 1718.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing P1097; ESTC R23219
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20,190
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37
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A SERMON Preached on The 30th of January 1684. The Day of MARTYRDOM OF King Charles Of Blessed Memory BY EDWARD PELLING Chaplain to His Grace the Duke of Somerset LONDON Printed for T. M. and are to be sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1685. PSAL. 137. 1. By the Rivers of Babylon there we sat down yea we wept when we remembred Zion THese Words do manifestly relate to the Captive-condition of the Jews after that Remarkable Overthrow of Jerusalem when that Cruel and Barbarous Enemy the Assyrian called expresly the Rod of God's Anger Isa 10. had now taken the City burnt the Temple consumed and dismantled the whole Metropolis slain the Nobles and seized the Person of their King Zedekiah and so carried Him and his Subjects away Captives to Babylon that is into a Land of Confusion so called from the Confusion of Languages in those Parts there to smart a long time for their Incorrigibleness and Wantonness at home that they might Reflect upon their Folly and learn to value their Former Felicities by the Loss of them the onely Discipline that can effectually teach those Obstinate and Ungrateful Wretches that will not learn to be Wise at the Cost of their Ancestors Experience By the Rivers of Babylon there they sat down remote from any Towns or Cities saith S. Chrysostom to spend part of their time as some conceive in draining of the Marshes and to keep away the Rest and so between Labour and Sorrow to wear out that miserable Life for which they had made such a woful Exchange There they wept when 't was too late at the sad remembrance of Zion that is at the thoughts of that Prosperous and Flourishing Condition which once they Enjoyed but were now Deprived of both in Church and State For Mount Sion was the Principal Place both for the Exercises of Religion and for the Administration of Justice There stood the Temple of God and thither the Tribes went up the Tribes of the Lord unto the Testimony of Israel to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord saith the Psalmist Psal 122. 4. And that God and his Anointed might dwell together there also were set the Thrones of Judgment the Thrones of the House of David as it is ver 5. Admirable was the Constitution of the Jews State and they the Happiest of all Nations as well in Sacred as in Civil respects till they Surfeited themselves with Abundance of Prosperity and were so Intoxicated with it under their own Vines and Figtrees that they forgat both the Author and Instruments of their Happiness The Story is of Them the Application of it is for Vs and at the very first view we may easily accommodate this sad Text to this sadder Day For do but Date the Captivity Stylo Novo instead of By the Rivers of Babylon read In a Land of Confusion a Babel in our own Countrey Shift you Pious Thoughts from the Monarch of Jerusalem to the Memory of our Own Soveraign a Greater a Better than Zedekiah the Mirrour of Princes the Noblest of Martyrs the Wonder of Ages and the Honour of Men Lay before your Eyes if yet ye can Endure to behold the Scaffold the Ax the Block and all that Pageantry of Oppression which the Sun never before beheld provided in that Manner and with those Circumstances for a Crowned Head Consider with what Pomp of Inhumanity that Mighty Prince fell how Three Kingdoms fell with Him how He was buried in the Ruines both of Church and State as in the Ruines of a Shattered World Remember those manifold Miseries that were throughout some the Praeface others the Epilogue to the dismal Tragoedy of this Day and then tell me wherein Our Captivity differ'd from that in the Text unless it did in This that 't was more Infamous and Reproachful because at Home and 't was not God be Blessed for Seventy years 't was not so Lasting as Our Sins the Deliverance out of it was too Quick and Hasty for the Repentance of those Miscreants who made us Captives I shall not therefore take much notice of the Miserable Condition of the Jews it being a matter of Foreign consideration but apply my self wholly to the Business of the Day And in the prosecution of it 1. I shall first give you some account of those Miseries which were the Attendants of Our Captivity and then 2. Shall in the second place try if it be possible for me to persuade Men not to be so Improvident again as to suffer themselves to be made Captives the Second time but to Beware in Time and to bethink themselves before it be too Late before they groan again under such another State of Bondage 1. First then That which was the principal Cause or at least the greatest Ingredient of all the Miseries of the Jews was the Captive-condition of their King This they particularly lamented that such as had been brought up in Scarlet did now embrace Dunghills that their King and their Princes were in the hands of the Gentiles that the Crown was fallen from their Head that the Breath of their Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord was taken in the Pits as you find in several places of the Lamentations of Jeremiah And what else was the Undermining and Subverting of Our King's Throne but an effectual Stratagem to overthrow the Prosperity of the whole Kingdom and to let in that huge Army of Miseries which for many years made us not onely the most Calamitous but also the most Contemptible and Infamous Nation under Heaven He that carefully reads the Shameful History of those Times will find that all those Evils which were heaped up upon the Head of our Prince fell down upon our own Pates Though He Felt the Burden yet we Sunk and Perish'd under the weight of it Every Wound which Majesty received did help to let out the Blood and Spirits of the Subject too nor was it possible to Preserve the Welfare of the Body Politick by Weakning and Impairing Him who was the Common Life of the Three Kingdoms Those Artificial and Long-studied Methods which were used to Lessen His Authority to Profane His Honour to Spoil Him of His Peace of all but the Peace of His Conscience and almost of That too to Strip Him of His Prerogatives and at last to Destroy His Sacred Life these Methods I say were the Instruments not more of His than of our own Ruine and as He fell and died by degrees so did the whole Nation gradually Languish and fall into the Pangs of Death with Him Happy had this Land been for many Ages under the Successive Government of Kings especially of such as were Good and none could be ever Better than This. Under the Shadow of His Wings we did Rejoice till His Feathers were clipp'd Peace and Plenty was our Portion and every Man was Easie in his Cottage as long as He sat Easie in the Throne Our Liberties were Secure our Laws had Life and Religion which Exalteth a Nation
under the Common Oppressions We had the Independent the Anabaptist the Fifth-Monarchist the Brownist the Quaker the Seeker the Ranter the Adamite nay the very Atheist himself for Company and all these the Natural Spawn of the Presbyterian that Prolifick and Unruly Leviathan that not content to have taken his Pastime in the Lemain Lake hath troubled the Waters in all Parts of the Christian World So many Sects as there were so many Plagues there were in this little Island and what could we expect would be the Issue of this Complication of Unhappinesses but that the Interest of Religion would be weakned and its Reputation rendred Contemptible so many Bare-fac'd Enemies being Allowed and Encouraged to fall Foul upon the Church pursuant to that Base Example which was given them by a most Unconscionable Parliament Bishops were ready to be torn in pieces as the Limbs of Antichrist Multitudes of the Inferiour Clergy had no other Rewards for all their Labours and Fidelity in the Service of Christ but Sequestrations Imprisonment and all manner of Cruelties beyond the Tyranny even of a True-Protestant Grand Seignior The Vniversities were corrupted with Haeresie and Hypocrisie the Instruments of the Devil having taken his Work out of his Hands by sowing themselves such Tares and Cockle in the Seminaries of Religion as in a little time would have destroyed the very Life and Being of Christianity had not God himself been the Husbandman The Liturgy which they solemnly Protested that they would onely Reform was soon thrown out of doors to make room for Blasphemies and Enthusiasm which made the Worship of God an Abomination Pulpits that were erected for the Sons of the Prophets were made the Trading places of Mechanicks and the Basest of the People who were onely skilful in Cheating Men of their Money and such another Famine was in the Church as was once in Samaria when every Asses Head was sold for Fourscore pieces of Silver Sacraments were neglected and almost given over and the People were so Frighted and Discouraged from their Duty that in some Places of the Kingdom the Holy Communion was not used for almost Twenty years together A Glorious and Blessed Reformation Those Lands which the Piety of our Ancestors had so solemnly set apart for the Encouragement of Learning and for the Edification of Souls were made the Price of Rebellion and Blood and a Booty for the most Faithless and Perjur'd Villains upon the Earth Truth Honesty Justice Obedience Love and other the Essential Parts of Religion were all Trampled under foot and when God and his Worship were thus Scandalously Dishonoured I do not wonder that some of God's Houses were Filthily Polluted too When the Creed was Contaminated when the Lords Prayer was Despised when the Decalogue in all its Parts was Broken when the Orthodox Ministry was Cashier'd when Fonts and Altars were Defiled and when the Church was Plunder'd and Stripp'd within and without it is no marvel that many Oratories were so Profaned too as to be Turn'd at last into Stables for Horses by those Beasts of the People that before had made them Sanctuaries for Traytors Nurseries of Rebels and Regicides and Dens of Thieves 3. Well might we Weep when we remembred Sion whose ways did now mourn because her Children could not come to her Solemn Feast her Gates were desolate her Priests sighed her Virgins were afflicted her Beauty was departed her Princes were pursued like Harts her Persecutors overtook her her Enemies Prosper'd and she her self was in Bitterness as the Prophet spake Lam. 1. But yet the Church did not suffer alone nor was Religion the Onely bleeding Sacrifice though the Wounding of That was infinitely Reproachful to those who sold their very Consciences pretending a Design to Redeem and Rescue it The State went Partnership with the Church in its Losses and we soon saw what it was to want a King whose Loins were not half so heavy as the Little Finger of that Tyrant who Vsurp'd His Throne and was such an Hardned Reprobate as first to Kill and then to take Possession Liberty the Darling of the Nation the Blessing of Kings but the Engine of Traytors Liberty that Fools never think Secure till they sue for it in the Field though they have it in Possession and no Man questions their Title Liberty that was used to Destroy and Pursue Prerogative was at last Confined within the narrow Compass of a Goal and a Dungeon Nor did it fare better with Property neither for no Man enjoyed so much of That as the Beggar and the Bankrupt that had little to be robb'd of but the Latchet of his Shoe Sequestrations Decimations Plunders Forfeitures Contributions Taxes Loans and vast Offerings to the Publick Faith some or all of these devoured all that was either Inheritance or Purchase and we could call nothing our Own but those Sins and Follies that had made us Miserable at least no man could promise himself any long Enjoyment of what he had Violence and Rapine being all over the Nation the great Trade of those Times so that what a Mercenary Souldier Left a Rapacious Committee-man would be Sure to Take unless a man would Barter away his Honour and a Blessed Eternity by giving up his Conscience as a Composition and Ransom for his Estate And the Reason of all this was because the whole Kingdom was Plunder'd of its Birth-right I mean the Law which while it was in the Hands of the King was every ones Security from the Peer to the very Meanest Subject and of this the King was so Tender to the last that just before His Martyrdom when He was offer'd His Life if he would Yield to some Conditions which were Inconsistent with His Conscience and the Laws He answered That He would chuse to die a Thousand Deaths before He would Prostitute His Honour or Betray the Liberties and Rights of His People Every man was Sure of his Right as long as that Religious Prince had His just Authority But when once Vsurpation was the Regent first in the Parliament-House and then in the King's Palace we had no Law but the Pleasure and Lust of Tyrants whose Oppressions were Vnsupportable because their Power was Arbitrary and their Tyranny Boundless What was Magna Charta worth when it hung at the Hilt of the Sword And what did you talk of Laws when Votes were too Hard for Statutes when Tryals were Removed from Westminster-Hall to the Camp and Sentence was given at the Mouth of the Cannon Not that this was the Fate onely of the Honest Royalist Though His Miseries were beyond measure intolerable and he knew not Poor Wretch what to do more but to shed his Tears when his Dread Soveraign the Master of his Dearest Affections had now shed a whole Stream of Blood yet the Generality of the whole Nation began now to be Sensible what a Miserable Bargain was made by the Unhappy Change of the Times God shewing at once his own Justice and Mens Follies by