this heavy Crime of murdering them is not justly laid upon them that brought these Kings to their just deserved deaths Therefore to justifie their deaths to be murders and to clear St. Stephen from this unjust taxation laid upon him by the Jews we are to examine the three foresaid particulars how far they can justifie the Jews or any others in the like case from being murderers 1 The Charge unjust and first for the Charge that was laid against him we find the same pretended to be twofold and as I conceive very like the Charge that was laid against King Charles So King Charles was charged with the same Crimes 1. The abridging of their Liberty and betraying the same unto the Romans for so they say If we let this man alone all the World will run after him and the Romans will come and take away our Dominion from us 2. The corrupting of their Religion by abolishing their old Rites and Traditions of the Elders and teaching new Points of Doctrine to prophane the Sabbath to communicate with Sinners to justifie their slovenly eating with unwashen hands and the like loosness and liberties that the precise Pharisees could not endure he allowed unto his Disciples and follower in the service of God This was the pretended Charge that they laid against their King and against S. Stephen as you may see Acts 6.13 14. and that his adversaries laid against our good King But this pretended Charge was most false whenas he neither abridged their Liberty nor corrupted their Religion but most divinely cleared the same The Jew◠murdered Christ because he was their King Luc. 23 2◠and purged it from the false glosses of the Scribes and Pharises But the true cause indeed whatsoever they pretended why they killed him was because he was their King for S. Luke saith that when they led him to Pilate they began to accuse him saying We found this fellow perverting the Nation and forbidding to give tribute unto Caesar saying that he himself is Christ a King and when Pilate asked them Shall I crucifie your King a thing that was never known among the Heathen that Subjects should desire to crucifie their King and especially that they should so solemnly and judicially condemn him to death they answered him flatly So K. Charles was murdered by his adverfaries because he was their King and would have ruled them as their King when as they desired to be Kings themselves and to rule as they did after they had killed him We have no King but Caesar whom notwithstanding they loved no better than they loved Christ but hated him in their hearts as their often rebellions against him do sufficiently testifie And when Pilate the Judge and therefore knew best the Charge laid against him wrote his Title and fixed it upon his Crosse as shewing unto all that saw him the very cause why they put him to death which was Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews They came presently unto Pilate and desired him to alter the Superscription and not to say He was their King but that he said He was their King But Pilate herein like a resolute Judge that knew the truth and their dissembling answered them stoutly according to the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What I have written I have written And therefore this Charge being so unjust to kill him because he is their King whose life they are obliged to defend with the hazard of their own death S. Stephen may justly call them murderers 2. 2 The witnesset are false Math. 26.59 60. For the witnesses it is plainly said that they sought many yet found they none but at last there came two they could get no more and of them two it is said 1. That they were false witnesses and that is apparent when they add unto his words and change his meaning for he said no more but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Destroy this temple John 2.19 v. 21. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in three dayes I will raise it up and he spake this of the temple of his body as the Evangelist testifieth but their witnesses avouch that they heard him saying Marc. 14.58 59. I will destroy this Temple that is made with hands and within three dayes I will build another made without hands that is another material and magnificent Temple which Christ never meant and never spake of it nor of the temple of his body as they testifie for he said not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will destroy this Temple but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do you destroy this temple and I will raise it up You shall do the evil and bring destruction as you use to do and I will do the good and bring resurrection to them that are fallen 2. Marc. 14.59 It is said that these false witnesses which did both add unto his words and change his meaning did not agree together for the one said he heard him saying I will destroy this temple that is made with hands and within three dayes Cap. 14.58 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Math. 26.61 I will build another made without hands yet the other could not testifie that he said so but that he said I am able to destroy the temple of God and build it in three dayes and there is a great deal of difference betwixt I will destroy thee and I am able to destroy thee when I am able to do many things that I will not do Even as God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham but will not raise them And therefore seeing these two witnesses cannot agree together they destroy one another and must needs be invalid to condemn an innocent man and much less to condemn their King that was more innocent than any man But they were resolved to have done it whether they had witnesses or no witnesses for they said among themselves What need have we of witnesses Then all of them Math. 26.65 Marc. 14.63 64 So K. Charles was condemned without witnesses Joh. 18.31 Math. 26.4 Marc. 14.1 And was not K. Charles by craft and subtilty brought to his death as they had formerly resolved did presently vote him guilty of death not as it seems for the testimony of the witnesses but because their malice thought him worthy of death Yet they confess 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not lawful for us that is they had no lawful authority to put any man to death and for all that S. Mathew tells us they consulted how they might take him by subtilty and kill him and S. Mark testifieth as much that they sought how they might take him by craft and put him to death And therefore when Traytors have conspired and resolved to kill their King witnesses are but shadows and the formalities of their proceedings are but cloaks to palliat and cover their wickedness and to blind the eyes of the vulgar people whom they would perswade to believe that they do all things
not to destroy the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them and themselves by their false Expositions and new invented traditions were the innovators and corrupters both of the Law and Prophets and more particularly 1. For the Sabbath he sheweth that themselves are herein too nice and superstitious and he no prophaner thereof because the Sabbath was made for man i.e. for the good of man both for his soul and body of his soul by serving God and of his body by those necessary actions and recreations that may conduce for the continuance of his health on that day 2. For the reverence to be observed in the Temple or Church of God 2 Objection answered Esay 56.7 he sheweth that he was not too strict in driving the buyers and sellers and all other prophaners thereof out of the same because God himself saith even of this material Temple or Church of stones My house shall be called an house of prayer for all people for the Gentiles as well as for the Jewes but they had prophaned the same by making it a house of Merchandize and so a den of thieves as they do that make it a stable for their horses or a receptacle for their plundered and stolne goods And in both these points our Puritans now are just as the Jewes were then too much given to prophane the Church and too superstitious to observe the Sabbath But 3. For abridging the liberty of divorces 3 Objection answered Matth. 5.32 he tells them that he teacheth no otherwise then what was from the beginning that whosoever putteth away his wife saving for the cause of fornication causeth her to commit adultery but you by forsaking the good old way and following the traditions of your latter Rabbines your Assembly of new Divines have made the Commandements of God of none effect and teach for Doctrine the Commandements of men Chap. 15.6 just as they do now forsake the good old government of the Church that hath been from the beginning from Christ his time and follow the new invented Government that is forced from the false and wrested Expositions of our upstart Rabbines that never yet saw the age of a man since the death of Calvin and Beza the first Fathers that begat it 2. As they did thus unjustly taxe their King for Innovation 2 The destruction of the people And this madded the people against King Charles John 11.48 and the alteration of their established Religion so they have another bait whereby they do as cunningly catch the people and set them like wild men to joyn with them yea to out-goe them in their desires to destroy their King and that is Salus populi the safety and liberty of the people which they said would be utterly lost if they did let Him goe and this madded the people against their King though there was no truth in the charge nor ground to believe it but the feares and jealousies of the people raised only by the malice of their wicked leaders for how could it be that either the safety or the liberty of the people should be any wayes impaired by that King that came to fulfill the Law and to root out all the false glosses thereof and was contented to lose not his Kingdom only but also his own life for the safety and liberty of his people as themselves confesse that he must die for the people i. e. for their Lawes and Liberties and so become the Martyr of the Law and the Saviour of his people So you see the pretended charge against this King Jo. 11 48. that he was a tyrant by indevouring to destroy their Lawes and to alter their Religion and a Traytor to the State by forbidding Tribute unto the Conqueror whom now they were resolved to honour for their onely King lest they should lose their place and their Nation 2. 2 The true causes that moved the murderers to kill their Kings The true reall causes that moved these murderers to kill their King were very many but especially four 1. Envie to him 2. Despaire in themselves 3. Fear to lose 4. Ambition to be great For 1. 1 Envie Joh. 7.47 Mar. 7.37 They perceived that for his admirable worth and his divine endowments when as never man spake as he did and that he did all things well the people loved him followed him and adhered to him then As the glorious rayes of the Sun upon any putrified matter causeth a stench so his excellent vertues begat the poysonouâ—brats of envie and malice in these wicked miscreants and so Pilate perceived that for envie they had delivered or rather as the word signifieth betrayed him to death 2. 2 Despair of pardon When they had by their Declarations and Remonstrances their calumnies slanders and false accusations sought with all art to render him odious unto his people and had in all things opposed him to the uttermost of their might Gen. 4.13 then as Cain cried out my sin is greater then can be forgiven So the guilt of their malice and the remembrance of their fore-past wickednesse against him were of so deep a stain they they conceived all the water in the Sea could not wash it away and all the mercie of man could not remit their sin such is the conscience of all unconscionable sinners therefore though this good King could would and did forgive his enemies and pray for his persecutors yet because their hate and sins were so great that they could not believe it they thought themselves no wayes secured unlesse he were killed 3. 3 Fear to lose what they had gotten The men were now got into great power they had the liberty to be of what Sect and profession they pleased Scribes Pharises or Sadduces or what you will and to do what they would so long as they pleased the Conqueror no man could contradict them but if the right King continue King they saw he would not and could not endure such an Anarchie of Government and a Hodge podge to remain amongst them therefore Caiaphas the second man in power tells them it is expedient that he die for fear of the losse of their places and this their great power and liberty 4. 4 Ambition to be great men Matth. 21.23 Mâ—â— 12.7 Luk. 20.9 This King himself in the parable of the Vineyard which is faithfully recorded by three Evangelists sets down as I conceive it the main cause fundamental ground of his death that is their ambition desire to be great and to hold all power and authority in their own hands for so the wicked husband-men say This is the heir Venite come let us kill him and then retinebimus haereditatem ejus we shall hold his inheritance His it is we confesse yet then We shall hold it because as S. Mark saith then certainly erit nostra it will be ours and no man can keep us from it and indeed this desire of bearing rule And
Crucifie him 5. When to so milde a King that said none otherwise to his servant Math. 26 6â— So they beheaded King Charles where they used the baiting of Bears and other beasts in the common-way that arch-traytor which betrayed him but Friend wherefore art thou come they shall scornfully say to him The Prisoner or this fellow 6. When they carry him out to Golgotha a place fitter to bait beasts than to execute Kings there in a common high-way to lose his life 7. When as they go to Golgotha they cause him that was whipped and scourged and wearied in posting of him from place to place to carry his own heavy cross upon his shoulders 8. When they not only numbred him among the wicked but also crucified him betwixt two thieves in the midst of the wicked as if he had been the chiefest of all wicked men When the Colonel that brought him to his execution commanded his Souldiers to shoot any one that pâ—lled off his hâ—â— or shewed any reverence or spake any word for the honour of the King 3 How he was spit upon Joh. 19.29 And thus they bespitted King Charles with all kind of calumnies that had none but the wicked on every side of him 9. When as now disrobed of all Royalties and fastned to an accursed cross where he was induring intolerable pains not one that loved him durst speak a word but his enemies flouted him and wagged their heads at him and when he thirsted for our salvation they filled his mouth with sharp Vinegar as they did his ears with shameless taunts 10. When after he was dead they would not afford him a place of burial but he must be laid in another mans Sepulcher And were not all these and much more that might be collected most spightful usages of an innocent man and a glorious King Yet the Evangelist adds one thing more that I must not omit that they would spit upon him a note of the thing that we do most abominate as it seems their King was the chiefest thing that they did most hate and abhor But a man may be said to be spit upon figuratively when his enemies spit out their venome against him even bitter words And so Christ their King was most shamefully spit upon when by their Declarations and Remonstrances and other scurrilous Pamplets they proclaimed him to the World to be a Deceiver of the trust reposed in him and a Traytor because he perverted the people and drew them on to their destruction So they called him a Samaritane a Drunkard a Demoniak an upholder of Sinners a breaker of the Sabbath a Conjurer and what not Their tongues were swords that killed his Honour before they crucified his Person and they were the poyson of Aspes that spat out all these slanderous calumnies upon their King And this was bad enough and too much indignitie for a King Yet the Souldiers did not only thus Rhetorically spit upon him but Grammatically disgorged the scum of their ulcerous lungs in his glorious face and it is reported that a Souldier going under the name of a Christian did the like to a most Christian King which if true let him repent lest God should spue him out of his mouth And though it be the rule of the very Heathens De mortuis nil nisi bene We ought to speak nothing but good of the dead because as the Poet saith Livor post fata quiescit Yet these beasts like devils Saeva sed in manes manibus arma dabant degenerating from mankind are not content to kill their King but will murder him again and again after that he is both dead and buried and that not only in his Lovers and Followers whom they are resolved not to extenuate but to extirpate but especially in his fame his glory and his honour which is to all good men as the savour of the sweetest perfume that is made by the art of the Apothecarie and which they like stinking flies endeavour by all means to corrupt and defame and to destroy all those that truly preach or publish any truth redounding to his honour as you may plainly see it in the acts of his Apostles whom they threatned and terrified for speaking any good of him Though as the Poet saith Tu ne cede malis sed contrà audentior ito So the more these murderers sought to hinder it the more the glory and goodness of this King was spread abroad to their indelible shame throughout all the World when as the vertues of every just and pious man are as the palme-trees the more forcibly they are suppressed the more gloriously they will be exalted So you see how spightfully and how trayterously and bloodily and basely these miscreant Jews have used and abused killed and murdered their own King Now 2. 2 How causelessely they condâ—mned him John 10.32 You are to consider how causelessely and how unjustly they did all this unto him for the Prophet in the person of this King saith Oderunt me gratis They hated me indeed but without a cause and himself saith unto the Jews Many good works have I shewed you from my father For which of them do you now go about to kill me So in truth there was great cause to love and honour this good King that had done so much good unto them but no cause why they should either hate or abuse much lesse to kill or murder this their own King Yet we find several causes set down by the Evangelists that moved these Jews to kill their King and they are of two sorts 1. Pretended to the people 2. Real to themselves And 1. 1 The pretended causes to murder their King Their pretended cause is specially twofold 1. Cultus Dei 2. Salus populi the usual pretences of all Traytors and if they were true there could not be better And therefore this fair colour deceives the buyers of this bad cloth and these pretences made the people to commit on Christ this execrable Fact to hate and crucifie the son of God their own King But to proceed to examine these fair colours 1. As generally the raisers of any people to rebellion 1 Innovation of Religion taxe their Governours with innovation or destruction of Religion because all men even the superstitious and licentious and prophane worlding would fain seem to embrace the true Religion so these perswade the silly vulgar that this their King closely and cunningly laboureth to alter and innovate the true service of God as 1. That he was too loose in observing the Sabbath 2. Too strict in the reverence to be shewed in the material Temple Mark 2.24 Matth. 21.12 c 19. The very same things were objected against King Charles Matth. 5.17 1. Objection answered Mark 2.27 3. Too severe in abridging them the liberty of divorces and the like But to this our King answereth first in generall that they do wrong him by this their unjust charge and accusation because he came
I would fain know if these four things were not the very causes that made the Rebels to being King Charles unto death this covetousnesse to get what is none of our own hath been the death of many Kings of many men for what made Caracalla slay his brother Geta in his mothers lap and between her armes but this inordinate desire to raign What made Phraharers son of Horodes King of Parthia kill his own Father and 29. of his brethren but the like desire to raign And what made Abimelech the bastard son of Gedeon slay 70. of his brethren in one day and Jehn to slay his Master even as Zimri had done the like before him and Absolon attempt to do so to his own Father but only this ambitious desire of bearing rule And if you look into the 8. c. of the 5. Book of Camerarius Camerar l. 5. c. 8. his historical meditations you shall find a Catalogue of such wicked murderers that have bin the death of many Kings that they might raign as kings themselves and therefore let the pretences of these murderers of their King be what you will change of Religion Arbitrary Government great Tyranny or loss of liberty yet all these are but forged and fained to blind the World and to deceave the people and the true Cause indeed is this Haereditas erit nostra This Profit is the point that doth the deed And as the desire to raign makes the regicides Cant. 2. so this inheritance of the Church which is signified by the Vineyard brought the doctrine of killing deposing and depriving into the Church of Christ and it is as truly Esay 5. as wittily said by one that Quid vultis mihi dare is the Jews question in this case Omnia haec tabi dabo is the Devil's answer to the Church-robber And such a dialogue betwixt the Devil and the Jew for the inheritance of the Church is powerfull enough to bring any King even Christ himself the King of Kings unto his death so I do assure my self and all the World may be assured of it it is not the calling or the office of the Bishops or of Deans Prebends which neither they nor their grand Master was ever able to disprove to be Divine that they so much detest but it is their Lands and inheritance that they so greedily gape for and as this made Naboth to lose his life so this makes our calling detestable and this was the cause the cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that brought Charles our King and one speciall cause that brought Christ the King of kings unto their deaths because they would not betray the trust that God reposed in them nor surrender up this their rightfull Inheritance unto the greedy Usurpers but shewed themselves faithfull shepherds that were ready to lay down their lives for their sheep rather then to betray the laws and liberties of the people and the happiness that God had determined for their subjects and for this as we owe to our Saviour Christ our selves our souls and our bodies to honor him and serve him to praise him and to magnify him for ever as our only Saviour and preserver from everlasting death and destruction so this good King this just magnanimous King King Charles that rather suffered an ignominious death then to give away the inheritance of the Church or annull the highest calling in the same the Calling of the Reverend Bishops deserves to be everlastingly Loved indelibly Chronicled and universally Published like Mary Magdalen for a faithfull Martyr a true Protector and a nursing Father unto the Church of Christ which here I vow for mine part ever to do whensoever opportunity offers it self to do it But as I said before they had their King in their hands Ob. they had him their Prisoner so they had his Kingdom in their power and possession already what needed they therefore to kill him that they might have that which they had For if Ahab had had the Vineyard questionless Naboth had not died Saint Mark answereth fully that they kild the Heire Sol. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they might hold it and continue in it An answer specially to be observed for covetousness is a sin of Retention and never thinks of Restitution and the sin of forcible entrance can not endure to be put out of Possession thereforelest if he lived he might use some means to Regain it there is no surer way for them to hold in Peace what they unjustly got by the sword but by the death of the Just Owner And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I conceive signifieth not only that we may hold what we have but also that we may have more then we hold as if they should have said Some-what we have while we have him our prisoner and in our hands but more we shall get when we get him dead for then we shall have all as much as we can or will desire Therefore seeing ambition is like the daughters of the Horseleëch that still crieth more and more these murderers are like the Whore in the Apocalyps that having tasted the blood of the Saints will never give over till she be drunk with blood so will they never be satisfied with any less than the blood of their King Apoc 17. the death of the right Heir that they may hold what they have and have whatsoever they desire So you see the true Causes why these wicked murderers have put their King to death Now 3. 3 The patient and silent demeanor of this King Esay 53. Act. 8.32 When his adversaries most maliciously illegally and falsly accused him and laid many things to his charge contrary to all truth yet he answered not unto their charge but this good King being reviled reviled not again and being smitten smote not again but as a Lamb before his shearer is dumb so opened he not his mouth The Reason The Reason of not answering to their charge four fold why he answered not is not expressed by the Holy Evangelists therefore we may not curiously prie into that which is concealed nor Positively conclude the Reason that is not revealed unto us Yet with Modesty it may be conjectured that he would not answer 1. Reason 1 Lest his wise and satisfactory Answer might convince Pilate that was a rational man and seemed to bear no malice against him and being satisfied to let him go freed from the accusation of his enemies and so the Counsell of God which he knew and came to fulfill it touching the Redemption of mankind by his death might thereby be frustrated So far did he prefer our good before his own life A most gratious King 2. Reason 2 He answered them not lest his answering might have ministred an occasion to these malicious miscreants to suborn more perjurers to bear false witness against him so carefull was this good King of the good of his enemies that they should not heap
our words which we come to speak in the presence of God And yet you hear what our Prophet saith of this people that according to the number of their Cities were their gods and according to their streets so were their altars that is new gods and a new Service of God in every City and in every street go to this street and to this Church and you shall have such Prayers and such Chapters and such a Service used unto the people but go to that other street and to that other Synagogue of Jerusalem and you shall have another Altar set up another Sacrifice and another Service as if they served another god Such was the deplorable condition of the Jews and I only wish it may not so be amongst us 2. 2 How this people rebelled and alwayes resisted their Kings their subordinate Magistrates Their Rebellion against their Governours is the second branch of their deviation and this did ever accompany their abuse of Gods service for the King that is the Supreme Governour under God is Custos utrinsque tabulae The keeper of God Laws and to have a care that God should be rightly served therefore they that will serve God as they list will never obey their King nor submit themselves to his under-Governours as they ought for while the highest wheel of the Clock is put out of temper and thrust out of place all the rest must be disordered And therefore as this people were most prone to Idolatry and most greedily desirous of changes and new forms of Gods Service So were they most frequent in their disobedience unto their lawful Governours as you may see how often they murmured against Moses against the sons of Gedeon against Samuel and David and Solomon and Rehoboam and almost against all the rest of the succeeding Kings even to Zedechias that governed them at this time when our Prophet lived and was so terrified and domineered over by his Nobles and Princes that he could do just nothing either for the Service of God or the protection of Gods Servants For they said We have no King because we fear not the Lord what then should a King do to us Just as I told you Hos 10.3 No regard to Gods service and to obey his Precepts no obedience to their King and his under-Magistrates And yet Chap. 8. v. 4. if you look but two Chapters before the Prophet tells us the Lord saith They have set up Kings but not by me and they have made Princes and I knew it not as now we have done set up those for Kings that God never set up Where you may observe what the Lord utterly disliketh in this people and what they principally desired for he blames them for rejecting the Monarchical Government Chap. 10.3 and saying We have no King or What shall we do with a King or a Monarch We cannot endure that any one man should rule and govern us Chap. 8.4 And then you see how Chapter 8.4 he blames them a great deal more for affecting the Aristocratical Government and making many Kings and Princes to govern the people which is the greatest plague that can happen to any people and which none but the Tribe of Issachar would suffer to rule over them And therefore I say these Dominions are herein infinitely obliged to his Highness the Lord Protector for dissolving and disabling those many Kings and Princes that tyrannized or were such Tyrants over us and reducing our Government again to be as it is most acceptable unto God and most excellent among men Monarchical under the Rule of one supreme Governour And we should all be doubly obliged to his Highness if God should put it into his heart and he submit himself to Gods will for his own honour which he might gain thereby and for the tranquillity and happiness of all the people of these Kingdoms to bring and settle our Government which I believe he might easily do in the right Line and on the right Heir which God and Nature have designed for it For When God hath designed a King to be the Governour over his people as he did Moses and David over the Israelites and other Kings successively over his people how odious and how abominable is disobedience to any of those Kings in the fight of God you may easily perceive if you mark how God seems to be more angry with the contestation and rebellion of Corah and his confederates against Moses and of Absolom against David and of this people against Zâ—dechia than he was for the Idolatry and impiety they committed against himself for if you weigh the haynousness of the sin by the severity of the punishment which is the only ballance that we can judge by you shall find that Absoloms rebellion against his King 2 Sam. 18.14 that was his Governour was more severely punished than his Idolatry 2 Sam. 18.18 or any other his impiety against God And lest you should deny Absolom to have committed any idolatry by that Pillar which he reared in the Kings dale you may see that the first and greatest Idolatry of the Israelites when they worshipped their golden Calf was punished but with the death of about 3000. men Exod. 32.28 and yet when they disobeyed Moses and rebelled against him and it was but a privative rebellion no taking up of arms no plotting of his death but the very embrio of a rebellion and the beginning of disobedience Numb 16.49 We will not come at thee there died in the plague fourteen thousand and seven hundred men besides them that died about the matter of Corah How severely God punisheth the rebellious and disobedient people which were no less than two hundred and fifty men For God having appointed the Emperour or King to be the Soveraign Magistrate and commanded him to be the Governour of his people and to have a special care of his Worship and to be the Defender of the Faith of Christ What can this Governour do to uphold the Faith and to hinder the service of God to fail and to fall to the ground when the people disobey him and refuse to be ruled by him and spurn against him as our people have done against our King And therefore though this disobedience to the Magistrate and rebellion against our King that is Chief Governour in it self if you consider the object of either sin is not equivalent nor so haynous as Idolatry yet Why God is so angry with them that rebel against their Kings because Government is sustentaculum the prop and stay of the true Religion and disobedience against our lawful Governours hath alwayes produced the corruption of Gods true Service as you may see in the rebellion of Jeroboam who no sooner fell from his obedience to his King but he presently fell from his duty to his God and corrupted his Service with gross Idolatry Therefore is God so extreamly angry and doth so severely punish the
Church Satan hath some of his Emissaries amongst them that come as the Scribes and Pharisees came to hear Christ not to be instructed by him that they might be saved but to catch at some things in his words that they might accuse him 3. 3 Taking away their lives Jer. 19.4 c. 22.17 Jer. 2.34 They filled Jerusalem with the blood of innocents and that which was a great deal worse even the worst of all In their skirts was found the blood of the soules of the poor innocents which I take to be not only an Hebraism but also to shew unto us how they sought to destroy both the bodies and the souls of men and that is as I conceive by forcing them for fear of being undone and to have all their lively-hood taken from them to forswear themselves as the Prophet Hosea sheweth they have spoken words swearing falsely Hosea 10.4 in making a Covenant and shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord For though they pretended this out of zeal to Gods service to compell men to such a Form of Gods worship and to professe such and such a Religion as they conceived best or else to deprive them of their possessions yet I find the best Divines protesting that this is contrary to Gods will that would have faith wrought in us by preaching and not by fighting and Religion settled in us by perswasion and not by compulsion For as Lipsius saith Lipsius polit l. 4. c. 4. The greatest thing that any Prince is able to bring to passe by his terrour is to make that he who doth most of all seem to be obedient doth in outward shew consent but never in his heart for as Lactantius demandeth Who can compel me either to believe what I list not Lactant. l. 5. c. 14. Faith and Religion not to be forced Eccles hist l. or not to believe what I will And therefore constraint bringeth dissimulation and not Religion and maketh Hypocrites and not Saints when the constrained persons do worship the power of the constrainer and not his God which made King Theodorick to say That he could not command Religion because no man could be inforced to believe against his will and there is nothing more free than Religion which the mind no sooner withstandeth but forthwith it vanisheth and is no more Religion saith Lactantius quò suprà Hosea 10.4 And yet these Jews whereof the Prophet Hosea speaketh sought with all rigor to compel men to swear unto their wicked covenant and thereby saith our Prophet Their skirts were filled with the blood of the souls of the poor innocents when to save their estates they believed their faith and became such hypocrites before God for fear of men as made them most liable to Gods heavy judgements which must needs be no small offence in this people and in all those that imitate them herein But let this wickedness and the sin of this people be what it will it proceeded all from the Assembly of their Divines and false Prophets The Assembly of their Divines the chiefest cause of their wickedness Jer. 23.13.14 For they caused my people Israel to erre and they strengthened the hands of the evil doers that none doth return from his wickedness saith the Prophet For indeed we that are the Teachers of the people are just like Jeremy's Figs They that were good were very good and they that were bad were very bad So are we either the best or the worst of men and we either bring men to Christ or send them to the Antichrist either make them Saints or make them Seditious and Hereticks and through our pride covetousness and ambition we lead them like fools as they are that follow falshood into all mischief And therefore from the King to the peasant from the highest to the lowest all men ought to be wary whom they affect and chuse to be their Teachers For it is most true that as the Prophet saith Like Priest like people unless it be as S. Bernard saith That now the Priest is worse than the people For we know the Arian Bishops made Constantius an Arian Emperour and the false Prophets made Ahab and Jezabel so zealously affected to the service of Baal So the Anabaptistical Priests make their followers Anabaptists and the popish Priests make Papists And therefore all great men Kings Princes and Governours ought to have a special care to chuse Orthodoxal men to be their Chaplains and all men ought to have the like care to follow the Doctrine of the true Preachers and to be as willing to hear the Orthodox and true Preachers as the Heterodox and false Prophets For if Ahab and Jezabel would have hearkened to Micaiah as well as they did to the Prophets of Baal it is very likely Baal had not been so much worshipped nor the true Service of God so much neglected But S. Gregory l. 4. Epist 38. saith most truly Rex superbiae prope est quod dici nefas sacerdotum ei praeparatur exercitus And herein this City and this Kingdom is now very happy that God hath sent them so Religious and so Noble a King as doth favour and countenance the true Protestants and is not apt to believe the aspersions that the false brethren are so ready to cast upon them But to proceed to shew to you how this great wickedness of the people proceeded from the Priests our Prophet saith That from the Prophets of Jerusalem which was in Judea as London in England and Dublin in Ireland Lishon in Portugal and Paris in France the chiefest City of the Kingdom is prophaness gone forth into all the land Jer. 23.25 that is they of the Head-City were the cause that all the other Cities of the whole Kingdom do so prephanely The Head-City is the Leader of all the other 〈◊〉 of the Kingdom and so irreverently serve the Lord. And therefore the Prophets of the Metropolis ought to be very careful and circumspect what example they give to other Cities And this our Prophet further sheweth How this great mischief of prophaness covetousness injustice and all other wickedness happened to become so general among this people and that was When the unity of the Clergy and uniformity of Gods service was divided into many Sects and different sorts of serving God Jer. 12.10 for many Pastors have destroyed my vineyard saith the Prophet not because they were many had they been all of one mind but because they were of many different minds as were the Scribes Pharisees Sadduces Herodians Esseni and many other inferiour Sects among the Jews as now Presbyterians Independants Anabaptists Papists Quakers Dippers and many Sects and Factions are among us when the Church of God that should be tanquam Acies ordinata like a well-ordered Army as Solomon saith i.e. governed by the General and his subordinate Officers and not be commanded by a multitude of unequal and all dissenting Commanders shall be instructed by
〈◊〉 the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble much more blessed shall he be that helpeth and relieveth the oppressed and especially those that have formerly wronged and oppressed him he shall be doubly blessed 1. Because he relieveth his wants And 2. Because he remitteth his faults and revengeth not his own wrongs And so you see how we are to honor to esteem and to love all men 2. As we are to honor all men in generall 2 What love we owe to the Brother-hood so more especially we are to love the Brother-hood in particular where observe 1. The Act. 2. The Extent 1. The Act is love and love saith the Schoolman is Bene velle amato but that is no more then Amor affectivus and the Apostle speaks not here de amore affectivo tantum sed de amore effectivo simul of the inward affection only but also of that love which is declared by the effects in outward actions and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Aethic l. 9. c. 5. To love is to will that which we esteem good to any one and to the uttermost of our power to procure that good unto him as Aristotle saith So that this our love to the brother-hood comprehendeth 1. An hearty affection without dissimulation 1 Joh. 3.18 not only in tongue and in word but in deed and verity i. e. from the heart 2. An actuall performance of all the good that we can do unto them as praying for them comforting them and administring to their necessities not only with our purses but also with our words with our labours Crysost in Ro. 12. ho. 21. and with any thing that lieth in our power to stand them in any stead This is the act that we are to do And 2. For the Extent of it we are to do it most especially saith the Apostle to the Brother-hood Touching which point of Fraternity or Brother-hood you must observe that there is a two fold Brother-hood whereof you must hate the one and love the other That there is a two fold fraeternity As The 1. Is in Evil and from the Devil The 2. Is in Good and from God For 1. Simeon and Levi were brethren but it was in the evil 1 The evill Brother-hood saith the Scripture when the instruments of cruelty were in their habitations and therefore cursed was their brother-hood Gâ—n 49.5 7.7 and their unity was to be divided in Jacob and to be scattered in Israel And so the wicked at all times Faciunt unitatem coutra unitatem do as S. Augustine saith unite themselves together against verity and against the unity that should be among Cristians Psal 2.1 2. which is the unity of faith and religion and as the Prophet David saith the Heathen do furiously rage together How the wicked like the Scots and the Parliament do combine and covenant together and the people do imagine a vain thing and all take counsell together and plot against the Lord and against his annointed so Pilate and Herod though at ods among themselves for other things yet they can be reconciled and agree together to crucify Christ And so Solomon tels us how the Congregation of the ungodly do confederate and Covenant as now they do together to strengthen themselves in their wickedness saying one to anothe Come let us cast our lots together let us have but one purse that is one common treasure amongst us all Prov. 1.11 14. and let us undergo the same fortune be the same good or bad And therefore it is no new thing for Traytors Rebels and Robbers and other the like wicked men though of different sects and severall opinions yet to unite themselves together and to take oathes and make covenants confederacies and conspiracies against the professors of the true Religion and against those that they are bound Salust Conjurat Caâ—el X â—â—â—phâ—n de ascend Cyri. by former oaths to obey as it was in the conspiracy of Cateline which Salust relateth and in the confederacy of the Grecians when they went up with Cyrus the younger against Artaxerxes which Zenophon setteth down at large and the covenant of the holy leaguers of France against their King and the like But you must remember to do what God commandeth you to do in such confederacies saying My son walk not thou in the way with them resrain thy fâ—ot from their path Prov. 1.15 for their feet run to evil and make hast to shed blood as you may read in the foresaid Authors what abundance of innocent blood those wicked covenants and confederacies have caused to be spilt And therefore this being not the Brother-hood that you should love if you love God and your own souls you must hate the same as you do the gates of hell because that as the Psalmist saith in covenanting against right and against the truth they are confederates against thee O God and against thy servants And what created power under Heaven How hard it is to escaâ—e the mischief of subtile confederates is able to unty that knot and to escape that malice which villany subtilty and cruelty have combined to bring to pass Or what man is able to withstand a multitude of united enemies that have strength and wealth enough and have covenanted and sworne to fight against him untill they have destroyed him Surely when their plots are so subtile their power so great their wealth of Gold and Silver so much and the confederates of sworne brethren so many it is impossible to prevent their mischief and to escape out of their hands if the Lord himself doth not stand to help his servants and as the Prophet saith if he that dwelleth in heaven laugheth not these covenanters to scorne if the Lord have them not in derision yea if he speaks not to them in his wrath and vexeth them in his sore displeasure 2. 2 The good Brother-hood The other brother-hood is good among the good and in good in faith to God in obedience to our King and in love towards all men and this brother-hood is many fold as specially 1. Is four fold Naturall 2. Nationall 3. Politicall 4. Spirituall 1. 1 The naturall Brother-hood Naturall brethren begotten of the same parents bred in the same house and after the same manner should not be like the off-spring of Cain that killed his own and his only brother Abel and as Romulus killed his own brother Remus and Antoninus murdered his brother Geta in his mother's lap 2 Chr. 21.4 and King Joram slew six of his own naturall brethren the sons of Jehosaphat Jâ—seph de Ant. l. 14. c. 2. deinceps with the sword when as such miscreants are unworthy to live on earth neither should they jar hate or envy one another as Jacob and Esau did and Jacobs children did their brother Joseph and as the dissention of Hyrcanus and Aristobulus made way for
sed hoc solo contentus quia praecipitur he that is truly obedient to him whom God commanded us to obey never regardeth what it is that is commanded so it be not simply and apertly evill but he considereth and is therewith satisfied that it is commanded and therefore doth it because as S Aug. saith The command of the Superiour is a sufficient excuse for the inferiour Mandatum imperantis tollit peccatum obedientis i.e. in all things not apparantly forbidden And therefore as Julians Christian-Souldiers would not sacrifice unto the Idols which was an apparent evil at his command Sed timendo potestatem contemnebant potestatem but in fearing the power of God regarded not the wrath of man yet when he led them against his enemies they never questioned who they were that they went against nor examined the cause of his war but they went freely with him Et subditi erant propter Dominum aeternum etiam Domino temporali and in all such civill commands they obeyed this wicked King for his sake that was the King of kings and it may be fought against their own brethren So did the Jews that followed Saul against David and yet we never read that ever they were blamed for it And so should we do the like if we would do what God commandeth us For it is not in the subject's choice against whom he will fight but he must be obedient to his King if he will be obedient unto God for so the Lord saith I have made the earth the man and the beast Jerem. 27.5 6. that are upon the ground by my great power therefore certainly none should deny his Right to dispose of it and now I have given all these Lands into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon my servant and yet he was both a Heathen and Idolater and a mighty Tyrant and all nations shall serve him and his son and his sons son and it shall come to passe that the nation and Kingdom which will not serve the same Nâ—buchadnezzar the King of Babylon and that will not put their necks under the oke of the King of Babylon that nation will I punish saith the Lord with the sword and with the famine and with the pestilence until I have consumed them by his hands Therefore hearken not ye unto your Prophets nor to your Divines which speak unto you saying Ye shall not serve the King of Babylon for they prophesie a lye unto you which he repeateth again and again they prophesie a lye unto you that you should perish Which very words I may take up against the Rebels of England Ireland and Scotland God gave these Kingdoms unto King Charles and they cannot deny this nor deny him to be a good man and a most religious King and He hath commanded us to obey him and they that will not serve him he will destroy them by his hand Therefore believe not your false Teachers whether they be the Priests and Jesuits of Ireland or the Brownists and Anabaptists of England for God hath not sent them though they multiply their lyes in his name because God hath so straightly commanded us to obey our King in all civil causes and in all things wherein he giveth not a special charge to do the contrary And therefore that which is most worthy to be observed though God himself for the sin of Solomon declared by his Prophet that he had decreed to cut off ten parts of the Kingdom from Rehoboam yet because the people revolted not to satisfie Gods justiâ—e for the sins of Solomon but out of their own discontents that he would not ease them of their burdens for this revolt from a foolish and an oppressing Prince they are termed Rebels 1 Kings 12.19 and as the Thief to prevent his discovery will commit murder scelus scelere regitur and one great mischief will shelter it self under a greater so their Rebellion corrupted their Religion and made them fall away from God to worship Idols as they had done from their King to serve a Traytor which soon brought them to confusion Because this revolt as it proceeded from them was most abominable unto God And therefore though they were not reduced to Rehoboam because that may pretend some cause as oppression yet this after a plenary disquisition can admit of none excuse and therefore being abominable above measure it cannot expect the least favour from God but they were most severely punished by God because they transgressed his will by thus rebelling against their King contrary to his Commandment 2. The other Caution is That if the King commandeth what the Lord forbiddeth or the contrary then I may disobey but I must not resist for this is the will of God that where my active obedience cannot take place my passive obedience must supply it And though our Kings were as Idolatrous as Manasses as Tyrannical as Nero as wicked as Ahab and as prophane as Julian yet we may not resist we must not Rebel which would overthrow the very order of nature Arnis de autâ—rit princ c. 3. pag. 68. as Arnisaeus proveth by many examples and takes away the glory of martyrdom and makes all the Precepts of the Gospel of none effect And therefore when the Christians in Tertullians time were more in number and of greater strength than their enemies yet being compelled to Idolatry they rather suffered any persecution than admitted of any Rebellion against the most wicked of their persecutors And Juâ—tinian faith Q is est tantae authoritatis ut nolentem principem possit coarctare Who hath so much power as to restrain an unwilling Prince And yet it is very strange to consider what new Divinity hath been taught ex cathedra pestilentiae out of the chair of our new Assembly to raise Rebellion against our King and that which is worse than Rebellion to refuse the grace of Remission The Scribes and Pharisees were most wicked hypocrites and they sate in Moses chair but they never durst teach such tenets as now are published and practised in these Kingdoms And therefore our Saviour saith Math. 23.3 All that they bid you observe that observe and do Indeed there were some Hereticks among them that in the dayes of Theudas and Judas Galilaeus taught That the Jews were not to pray for the life of the Emperour because he was but extraneous an Vsurper and none of their lawful Kings for which errour Pilate mingled their blood with their sacrifice but these never durst avouch they should not pray for their own lawful King much lesse that they might rebel and take up arms against him Joseph Antiq. though he were never so wicked For they knew that the holiest men that ever were among the Hebrews called Essaei or Esseni that is the true Practisers of the Law of God maintained that Soveraign Princes whatsoever they were ought to be inviolable to their subjects as they were in most places among the most
ut bene agerent they will not understand the truth that they might do well 2. 2 The Hypocrites The next sort of bad hearers are the hypocrites which for a while will seem to be Saints and in the end will prove Apostata and an hypocrite is a Greek word that was used to signifie a Stage-player who for a time weareth the habit and carrieth the stile and title of a King An Hypocrite what it signifieth or acteth the part of some valorous Knight when as indeed he is but a Peasant and a Coward of no resolution and being applied to matters of Religion it signifieth such a one whose mouth ears and face and all other his outward deportment do make shews of great piety and Religion when as really he is nothing of what he seems to be but as the Watermen do look one way and row another way so doth the hypocrite pretend one thing and aim at another thing as those Spyes that were sent by the chief Priests and Scribes to watch our Saviour Christ did feign themselves just men but it was to this end saith the Evangelist that they might take hold of his words Luke 20.20 that so they might deliver him to the power of the Governour So here is a fair pretence to be just and honest men and yet a most wicked purpose to intrap and betray our Saviour Christ And have we no such Spyes in these daies that come to hear us that they might take hold of our words and pervert our words too that they might accuse us Res ipsaloquitur and I have found them And therefore seeing such hearers of Gods Words have but the shews and shadows of Religion and no substances they are fitly compared to those falling stars which the Phylosophers do call assub for as these in the night time do seem to be truestars in the Firmament and yet they are nothing else but certain fat exhalations of the earth which being lifted up through the upper Region of the ayr and kindled through the heat and force of the upper Element which is the fire do suddenly fall again into nothing So these hypocritical hearers of Gods Words that are Catones foris and Nerones intus as upright as Cato and as zealous as S. Paul without and as deceitful as Tyberius and as cruel as Nero within do for a while seem to be good Christians in the Church of God but because the Words that they hear take no root in their hearts that are canales non conchi like Sluces and Channels to convey it through them and not pools or vessels to retain it still within them when the fire of affliction and persecution and the fear of losing their honours and preferment cometh they fall away saith our Saviour even as the falling stars and they are ready to turn with every wind as you may note in your books the many multitude of Professors both Clergy and Laity that have done so since 1641. I pray God it be not laid to their charge 3. 3 The worldling The last sort of bad hearers are those worldly men that would gladly come to the Kingdome of heaven but they cannot be perswaded to relinquish and forsake the things of this world but they are so far addicted and so much in love with the pleasures and vanities of this present life that as Christ saith the cares and riches of this world do so choak them Luke 8.14 4. The good Christian that they bring no fruit unto perfection But the sheep of Christ with an honest heart and a simple desire to understand the will of God and know the truth that they may believe the one and obey the other do hear the voice of Christ And therefore as when Moses called the people of God to hear the words and Commandments of God and told them how the Lord willed them to sanctifie themselves the day before to make clean their apparel and to keep themselves from their wives Exod 19.10 4. 15. v. How men should prepare themselves to hear Gods Word that they might with the more purity and sincerity hear his words So the sheep of Christ considering that this outward sanctification and preparation of this people to hear Gods Word was but the type and figure of that inward purity and due preparation that they should make when they come to hear the voice of Christ do earnestly pray to God that they may come to hear with a good intent and not for fashion sake or with a prejudicate conceit of the Preacher or an obstinate mind to perfist in their own erronious Opinion whatsoever they hear to the contrary or especially to catch at some things from the Preacher to accuse him but to be truly edified in the Faith of Christ and rightly instructed for the true service of God These be the true sheep that do rightly hear the voice of the true Shepherd and all other hearers that do call for preaching and run after preaching and seek for singular Preachers of their own Faction are but wicked or formal hearers of the voice of Christ and such as the Prophet Esay speaketh of which follow after the Word and gather precept upon precept and word upon word and line upon line here a little Esay 28. 10.13 and there a little and are never the better but fall backward and grow worse and worse because these hearers do resemble the Inhabitants that are about the fall of the river Nilus which is very great and the fall thereof so exceeding high The customary hearers like the Inhabitants about the fall of Nilus Macrobius and the noyse of the fall so violent and so loud that at the first it astonisheth the hearers so much and maketh them in a manner sensless and to hear nothing else by reason of the violence of the noyse yet at length saith Macrobius when they are accustomed with the noyse thereof and that it becomes habitual to them it seems as nothing to move them to astonishment even so is the Word of God to these hearers At first it seems to quicken and make some impression in them but the same being so often sounded and the voice thereof so familiar to them and so often heard of them it moveth their hearts no whit at all but it passeth so smoothly through them that it maketh no operation within them which makes the Apostle tell us 2 Tim. 3.7 that they are ever learning and so ever hearing and yet never able to come to the knowledge of the truth 2. Having heard the act which my sheep are to do that is 2 The object my voice to hear as they ought to hear attentively reverently and religiously to be edified and bettered thereby we are now to consider the object of this act what they are to hear and that is not the Turks Alcoran nor the Popes Traditions nor the Jewish fables but my voice saith Christ And this voice of
consumed to ashes and reduced to nothing their power weakness their prudence folly and their excellency base in respect of that boundless Omnipotencie infinite Wisdome and incomprehensible transcendent excellencies of God For if he is not barren that imparteth fecundity unto others nor he poor that can make many rich then surely he must needs be most beautiful that can adorn the poor Lilies of the field with a far more glorious mantle then any of those choicest robes that covered the body of the wisest Solomon For though fields and gardens and Palaces and the bodies of men and women and so the Heavens and the Angels and the whole frame of this Universe which the Grecians called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is so admirably beautified and composed in number weight and measure are all innamelled with abundance of beauty yet all these beauties proceeds from him and reside in him and are comprized in him in a far more eminent degree of excellency How eminently all perfections are in God then they are in the best of these creatures themselves because that in these creatures they are all limited in Essence and hedged within the narrow bounds of natural perfections But in God all the Attributes of his bounty simplicity verity charity justice mercy benignity and all other amiable colours and most glorious beauties of his perfections which the Angels rejoyce to behold the blessed Saints contemplate and we poor wandring Pilgrimes do all aspire to see are all illimited infinite and boundless And befides all this if we consider him truly he is whatsoever is desirable or can be desired by any one as Omnipotency to him that affecteth power Omnisciency to him that desireth knowledge and the Antient of daies to him that desighteth in antiquity And as S. Ambrose saith Siesuris ipse est panis if thou art hungry he is the Bread of Life Whatsoever we desire we may have the same in God if thou art thirsty he is the Fountain of Living Water if thou art naked he is the Garment of Righteousness if thou art sick he is a heavenly Physitian if thou art in prison he is with thee as he was with Joseph if thou art in danger he is a present help in trouble if thou beest dead he can restore thee to life for he is life which is of all things so infinitely desired and he is light which is so much admired he is truth which is so much commended he is the God of Peace which is the Mother of all plenty he is the God of Unity which is the honour of all Brethren he is the God of Constancy which is the Crown of all Friendship and he is the God of Wisdome which is the glory of every man And to be brief all things that are good are in him and derived from him who is goodness it self And therefore causa diligendi Deum Deut est this only consideration that he is God and such a God is a sufficient cause of loving God as S. Bern. saith because these are excellencies enough to attract love from the stoniest hearts quae genuere ferae which the most salvage men have produced if they did but truly consider them And yet this is not that which the Apostle setteth down here to be the ground and cause of our loving God but seeing our weakness could not ascend so high as to conceive the excellent brightness of this everlasting glory therefore his goodness was pleased to descend so low as to express that which is neerer unto us and doth more feelingly concern our selves Whom men do naturally love best that is the love of God towards us and the great good that we receive from that love for the Apostle knew that all men were naturally inclined to love their benefactors and to love them best which do profit them most And albeit very often this kind of love is but base and vitious yet being guided with reason Iob 1. and ruled by charity it may prove good and virtuous therefore as the devil maliciously suggested of holy Job that he served not God for nought so the Apostle wisely doth here intimate that we love not God without cause especially if we consider that great and real love of God which hath and doth continually so infinitely profit us for we love him because he loved us first Touching which words though our love to God is first set down in the series of these words yet seeing by the order of nature causa precedit effectum the cause doth ever precede the effect I will by Gods help speak 1. Of that great love which God hath shewed unto us 2. Of that love which in requital thereof we owe unto God And the first shall be the subject of my whole discourse at this time wherein you may observe as many parts 1 In Gods love to us four things observable as there be words 1. The Lover he He loved us first 2. The affection loved He loved us first 3. 1 The Lover Divers pretend to love us The beloved us He loved us first 4. The time first He loved us first 1. Who is this He that loveth us for there be very many that pretend to love us and yet in very deed do love us not at all especially 1. The Devil 1 How the Devil professeth to love us 2. The World 3. Our own selves 1. In the third of Hosea v. 1. Diabolus Dicitur amicus saith a Father Satan is said to be the lover of the seduced soul even as the lascivious loves the Harlot for the Devil comes unto us as he came unto Adam and saith You shall be as gods and I will make you happy and you shall be victorious when he means to plunge us into all miseries and to hurl us headlong into hell And to that end we can intend nothing nor resolve upon any good action What manner of love the Devil beareth to us wherein this dissembling Lover is not alwayes ready to intrap us as Progne did to Tereus proponendo quod delectabile supponendo quod exitiale by giving us like the Whore of Babylon a drink of deadly poyson in a golden Cup to teach us Heresies out of the holy Scriptures to set up a meer Anarchy under the glorious title of a Gospel-Government and to raise a most odious rebellion under the name of King and Parliament and under the pretence of Faith and Religion But O good God is it possible that tantum potuit Religio suadere malorum No no God will tell us this is nothing else but Satans plot who desires our ruine and he desires not only thus to fill us up with evil but also to infect all our good for if we pray he casteth wandring thoughts into our minds and when our hearts should think most of God he will guide our eyes to withdraw them to some other object as S. Hierom confesseth of himself that while his tongue was talking with God in
and other places round about and that only for Religion and not for worldly Dominion which is the suffering of the Christians under the Turk that permitteth any profession so they yield themselves to his subjection He must ingenuously confess this truth of Isidorus that the greatest of all Persecutions is that which is prosecuted by the Ministry of Antichrist that now raigneth in the world But if you would desire to know who is this Antichrist that now reigneth and thus rageth in the world I answer VVho is the Great Antichrist divers opinions That although many good Arguments are produced to prove the Great Turk to be that Great Antichrist and Constantinople to be that Babylon which is the Throne of that bloudy beast and as many good Arguments are alleadged by Powel Whitaker Downham Thompson and others of our Protestant Writers to prove that series paparum from Boniface in Phocas time to this present Pope is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spoken of by St. Paul 2 Thes 3. and that Rome is his proper seat and so called Babylm by St. Peter Yet divers others of no small Learning do avouch That as Ecclesia credentium corpus cum capite the whole Catholick Church of Christ head and members is said to be and is so termed unus Christus one Christ as in Joh. 3.13 And Christ saith unto Saul Why persecutest thou me when he persecuted his Church So Ecclesia malignantium the Congregation of the wicked or especially Senatus consultus the great Sanedrim of the people the supream Counsel A pack of wicked men is termed the Antichrist and the highest Court of any Nation which is the representative mystical body of that dispersed and nefarious Synagogue is oftentimes for their unanimous consent in all wickedness spoken of quasi unus homo as if they were but one man because they all have but one head one will and one end to destroy the truth and the true Church of Christ And this supream stool of wickedness that establisheth mischief by a Law 2 Thes 3.8 doth now appear to many men to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That man of sin and the child of perdition whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming because they say First There is neither Note Argument Saying nor Testimony of holy Scripture that doth competere antichristo and is sutable unto Antichrist but it is most properly found to agree with that Cumulus Senatorum the representative Council of all wickedness As 1. They have seated themselves in a mystical Babylon the Amsterdam of all confusion where you may easily find almost all Heresies maintained that have been invented and any Religion used but the true Religion that dares not be professed 2. They do sit in the Temple of God as God that is they do possess the truest Church of God that we know to be on earth and as God they establish Worship and Religion and ordain Laws for the Government of that Church and root out that Worship and Government which God himself hath ordained 3. They exalt themselves above all that is called God i.e. Above Kings This point of the Great Antichrist is fully and at large handled in my Book of The Great Antichrist revealed of whom the Scripture most properly saith Dixi Dii estis I said you are Gods because they are in Gods stead and do exercise Gods Power here on Earth and yet this grand Council of the Great Synagogue would not only be worshipped themselves as Kings but will suppress Kings deny any service to be done to them and suffer none to do them Worship which is properly to exalt themselves above Kings when they keep Kings so low 4. When by their false assembled Prophets they deny the Notions whereby we understand the Father and the Son to be the true God as they plainly do by the cashiering of the words Essence Person Trinity and the like words which the Church of God penes quam norma loquendi hath ever used to bring her Children thereby to some sure knowledge of that great mystery of godliness and to inable them to confute those wicked Hereticks that denied the same they do manifest themselves to be that Antichrist who as St. John saith denieth the Father and the Son 1 Joh. 2.22 which neither Turk nor Pope as yet ever did 5. The unfolding of that great mystery of the Beast Aug de Civitat Dei l. 20. c. 9. 14. which Beast St. Augustine understandeth of the Society of wicked Christians and the City of Satan that is signified by that Beast and the mystery which the Holy Ghost setteth down to be observed as the most proper Note of the Beast is that it containeth 666. touching which if you omit one thousand which is a full and perfect number and which is not an unusual thing in the Scripture to do to make the other the more mystery and consider that in 646. this great Sanedrim or superlative Council demanded the Militia or soveraign rule over the King for twenty years which being added to 646 do make up the just number of 666. This they say is a strong Argument to prove the grand Council to be that Great Beast 6. And lastly The unspeakable unparalelled persecution of this Antichrist above all the persecutions that preceded it either of Pope Turke or heathen Tyrants do plainly prove them to the judgment of some men to be the greatest Antichrist that as yet is revealed unto the world though some think that a greater may yet come before Christ does come to judgment which I do not believe But though I say as St. Augustine doth in the like case Alii atque alii aliud atque aliud opinati sunt Divers men have divers opinions about the time place and person of Antichrist which neither my Text nor my time will give me leave either to discuss or to disprove any of the same now Yet thus much I dare boldly say that letting pass the persecutions of the Preachers not to be paralelled in any History if you consider first the number of them all the Reverend Bishops all the Deans all Prebends and all the best Divines in the whole Kingdom And 2. the misery that is imposed upon them worse than death Quia dulce mori miseris To be spoyled of all their means banished from all their friends wife children and Parents and exposed to all wants and contempts so that neither Nero Domitian Dioclesian nor Julian brought such a storm upon the Church of Christ as is now brought upon the body of the whole Clergy within these five years and omitting the many thousands of good Christians No Historian can shew me any king that hath suffered more indignities at any â—nchristian hand than King Charls hath suffered from the Long Parliament that for their Religion and good conscience have lost their lives livings and liberties I say letting
righteous and just Secondly I say that there is crudelitas parcens misericordia puniens a sparing which is cruelty and a punishment that is a great mercie and such are the troubles pressures and punishments of God's Children mercies rather then judgments because they proceed not from God's Wrath but as the chastisements of a Father to his Children so do these come from the love of God towards his servants for their good whom he afflicteth here for a moment that they should be bettered and not be condemned with the Wicked hereafter for ever Thirdly I say that the Miseries Crosses and Calamities Reason 1 that the Faithfull suffer in this World are not always so much a punishment for their Sins Reason 2 though their Sins deserve much more Reason 3 and Sin is the root from whence all miseries do spring as trials and probations of their Faith and Constancie in God's love and service for so the Scripture saith that God tempted Abraham not temptatione deceptionis to deceive him as Satan tempteth us but temptatione probationis to try him whether he would obey the Commandment of God or not when he commanded him to offer his Son his onely Son Isaac for a Sacrifice unto God and so he tried the Israelites at the waters of Strife and as Moses saith in their Fourty years wandring through the Wilderness to see whether they would love the Lord their God and cleave unto him and continue faithfull in his service and so he doth plainly tell the Church of Smyrna that the Devil should cast some of them into Prison that they might be tryed and they should have Tribulation ten dayes and that is either ten years as Junius expounds it or else several times as others think yet all to this end that they might be tryed whether they would continue faithfull unto death or not and such were the afflictions of Job and of many other of the Saints of God they were justly deserved by their Sins and God in mercie sent them for their trial What the former Doctrine teaching the us And therefore whatsoever and how great soever a measure of Miseries Crosses and Troubles we have or shall suffer yet let us not faint nor be affraid of them and let not the Children of God be like the Children of Ephraim that being Harnessed and carrying Bows and so well prepared for the fight yet turned themselves back in the day of Battaile when there was most need of their assistance but as we have loved our King and have suffered all the calamities and burthens that are layd upon us for our faithfulness to him and the preservance of a good conscience so let us continue unto the end and never comply with any of the King's Enemies in the abatement of the least jot of our love and good opinion of the deceased King or with the Factious Non-conformists in the dis-service of God and the new invented Religion of our upstart Schismaticks let neither weight of trouble nor length of time change our minds because perseverance in Faith and Virtue is that which crowneth all the other Virtues and if at any time even at the last we forsake our first love and change our Faith we lose all the reward of all the former good that we have done and do by our revolt testifie that we were not good for the love of goodness nor adhered to the truth for righteousness sake but for some other by-respects for our own ends that never brings any to a good end and therefore the primitive Christians could never by any means be drawn to alter the least point of their Faith Prudent De Vincéntio and the right service of God but as Prudentius saith Tormenta carcer ungulae Stridénsque flammis lamina Atque ipsa paenarum ultima Mors Christianis ludus est All the Torments and Terrours of the World could never move them to change their mindes But some man may say Objection Providence hath decided the Controversy the King is dead Victrix causa Dits placuit and the Parliament hath prevailed against him and all his Friends and therefore what should I do now but comply with the stronger side and use that religion which they profess and that form of worship which they prescribe and so redeem the time that I have lost and repair some losses that I have sustained I answer Solution that our Saviour Christ to prevent this very Objection that the Jews might make to terrifie the Christians and to with-hold them from the faith of Christ because they had killed him and he was dead and therefore to what purpose should they adhere to a dead Saviour and hazard their lives and their fortunes to maintain the honour of a dead man that could not preserve his own life because a Living Dog is better then a dead Lion saith unto his Servant John I am he that liveth and was dead and behold or mark it well I am alive for evermore Amen and therefore let not my death deterr any man from following me or believing in me so I say that faith and truth are still alive and though oftentimes suppressed and afflicted yet not killed and therefore the Poet saith Dispaire not yet though truth be hidden oft Because at last she shall be set aloft And as another saith Terra fremat regna alta crepent ruet ortus orcus Si modo firma fides nulla ruina nocet And for King Charles I say though he is dead yet he is still alive many ways and that his blood like Abel's blood being dead yet speaketh and speaks aloud not onely to God These things were written and preached by the Author in the time of Oliver but also to every one of them that loved him that they should not so soon forget their faith and love to him that lost his life for their defence and the defence of the true Catholick Faith and though he be dead he is still alive alive with Christ in Heaven for evermore and alive with us on earth in the good that he did bring to us in the love that he shewed towards us and in the good that he left amongst us and shall we leave him and leave our love to him and our remembrance of him and forsake our faith and prove perfidious both to God and to the honour and to the memory of our deceased King and cleave to them to say and do as they say and do that have bereft us of him and would have destroyed us with him No no let us abhor them and their evil doings detest their false Faith and hate their Wickedness with a perfect hatred And though we have suffered much and may suffer much more at the hands of these Tyrants that are our new Masters yet let us submit our selves unto them but as Daniel and the rest of God's people did unto the Chaldeans full sore against their wills Iames v 11. Job lxii 12. and let us yield none otherwise to this present Government