letting them see to their great Cost that even Armed Rebels rarely get any thing but Wo by a Sad Victory over their Rightful Soveraign The Traitors pretended to fight for the Safety of the King's Person for the Protestant Religion for the Liberty of the Subject for the Privileges of Parliament and for the Laws and Rights of the whole Kingdom In every of these respects All were Losers but the King He indeed got Two Crowns for One a Crown of Martyrdom and a Crown of Glory for a Diadem of Thorns But what his Enemies gained besides Infamy and a Curse and a sear'd Conscience with a little Plunder they themselves will find at the day of Final Retribution and what the Nation lost we may reckon a little now We lost a Prince too Good for Us to Keep and Good God! too Sacred to be Destroy'd We lost a Church Beautiful in her Structure Glorious in her Members Militant for her Head and when that was struck off 't was her Necessary but yet Honourable Fate to take her share in the Martyrdom We lost our Laws too That indeed was the first Loss when Irreligion Levied that War against Majesty which in point of Conscience and Law both was downright Rebellion And when our Monarchy our Religion our Liberties and Properties were all gone Vengeance went at last out of the Field to the very Parliament house where all our Miseries had been formed to Invade Privileges too and to let those Butchers of the World see how little even They should get by first Beheading the whole Parliament that others might be enabled to Behead the King too The Fall of the two Hothams Father and Son who were the first that bad Open Desiance to Majesty and gave Him the first Blow but in a little time were Executed themselves by the very Masters that Employed them their Fall I say was an early Praesage of what would afterwards befal the Rest that were the Instruments of the King's Ruine These Two Men denied the King admittance in to Hull though He went thither in Person to Demand it Soon after upon Remorse of Conscience they would have opened the Gates to Him but the Parliament now Hating their own Servants more than they Feared their Soveraign Rewarded them at last with a Scaffold and an Ax and by those their own Proceedings they gave an Unpitied Example to Others a Faction that yet stood behind the Curtain to make even Them and their Accomplices the worst Returns for their Best Services And so indeed it fell out not in the Country and City onely but in Both Houses of Parliament also In the Beginning of the Troubles Petitioning was encouraged under Pretence of being the Subjects Right as a most probable Means to bring the King Low and to lay His Honour in the Dust But though this Popular Method was for some time fiercely cried up as being of dangerous Consequence to Majesty yet when the Faction had served their own Turn by it it was as violently Opposed as being of as dangerous Consequence to the Parliament So that when the County of Surry in May 1648. carried a Petition to the House that tended unto Peace all of them were Abused multitudes of them Beaten many of them Stripp'd of their very Clothes and several of them actually Killed upon the Spot Thus that which one day was the Subjects Duty another day was their Sin and poor People were taught to use Artifices which in the end became their Snares Toyls to catch the People themselves after They had used them to catch their poor Prince This was one but the very Least part of the Countries Reward Did it fare better with the City after all its Friendship Services Zeal Charge Tumults and unparallell'd Wickednesses for a Damned Cause We know indeed how it fared when Vengeance from Heaven struck it down into the Dust to Expiate if it were possible its Sins by Fire But how I pray did Matters go here about the Period and Close of the War Do not many now alive Remember how Miserably I cannot say Vnjustly this City was used in 1647 how it was Over-awed and Harassed even by those very Men whose Hands the City had Arm'd and Strengthned against its Prince Upon the Apprentices Insurrection did not Cromwell Threaten nay Command his Forces to Kill Man Woman and Child and to Fire the City Were not Speeches made in the Commons House to Confiscate the Estates of many the most Eminent and Wealthy Citizens and to take off their Heads Were not the Aldermen and others committed to the Gaol the Posts and Chains pulled up and the whole City left to visible Dangers of a Massacre Was not the Tower seiz'd the Fortifications about the Town demolished the Militia voted out of the Cityhands and every House exposed to the Mercies of an Outragious Enemy that was clothed with Plunder and fed with Blood Did not an Insolent General ride with his Army through the Streets for no other Reason but to Treat Fools at last with Scorn Contumely and Reproach and to Triumph over those who had Assisted so effectually to Beat and Conquer their King These and I know not how many such like Usages more were the Cities Reward not to speak of a Constant and then in a manner the Onely Trade that was here driven of Impositions and Loans and a Thousand Prefidious Tricks to Cheat men at last of those vast Sums wherewith Zeal and Impiety had liberally entrusted the Publick Faith All which Disgraceful and Contumelious Treatments Men though they might be then very sensible of their past Follies were Forced to yield and submit to Tamely a Powerful and Veterane Army lying near the Town to keep People in awe and to hold them by the Throats while their Friends at Westminster pick'd their Purses and carried away their Money These were thy Gods O Israel These were London's Patriots London's Tutelar Saints the Deities and Idols that London Worshipp'd and Bowed down to when she Forswore her Allegiance and Raised such Formidable Mutinies first against the Earl of Strafford and then against the King These were Strange Returns one would think for a Confiding City to Receive after all her Perjuries after all those Forces of Men and Money which she had Employed to bring her distressed Prince to the Scaffold for that was the Event and Natural Consequence whatever the Intentions of some were who did not look so far at the First But if we go on now and enquire further into the Story we shall find that the Parliament themselves that Blew the Trumpet and Sent out the Drum gained nothing neither but had reason to weep too and Infinitely more than others considering that their utmost Acquest was Guilt and Reproach and a Perpetual Curse upon their Names For even They were paid in their own Coin and were served Themselves as they had served the Government having soon Lost that which they called the King's Politick Capacity when they had Ruin'd His Person
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
never flourish'd more in This as long as he enjoyed the Prerogatives which are justly due to the Head of the Church No sooner was His Honour touched but our Faelicity was invaded too especially when Wickedness was so Impudent as to draw the Sword upon Him and to thrust at Him with the Point Our Happiness Declined as His Peace did it kept even pace with our Prince His Fortune the more still That tended to Ruine the Faster He was Hunted to the Scaffold and then it Expired though in hope of a Resurrection when He laid down His Sacred Neck and died a Martyr for Religion and a Victim for His People Great were the Miseries that attended that Unnatural and Devilish Rebellion but as long as the King was Safe the Calamities were the less felt because there was a Prospect of Reparation at least of a speedy End of them Though that Rebellious Faction in Parliament pursued Him like a Partridge upon the Mountains yet we did not give all for lost because they Declared Promised Protested and Swore by all that is Great and Sacred that they intended not to Hurt His Person nor to Invade His Just Rights Throughout that Bloody War there was something still to allay our Pains because we hoped that the Wounds in our Sides were not Mortal Nay though trusting to Mens Compassions He threw himself into the Hands of those Persidious Villains who afterwards set a Price upon His Blood as Judas did upon our Saviour's yet the King Himself did not yet Despair because those Men had vowed in a Solemn League and Covenant of their own and with Hands lifted up to the most High God That they would Preserve His Person Crown and Dignity Nay when those Iscariots at Westminster had bought Him for 200000 Pounds and Cromwell and the rest of those True-Protestant Janizaries had gotten Him in their Clutches though there was reason enough for our Hearts to Sink and Fail us the King Himself being now actually a Captive and Loyalty and Religion in Captivity with Him yet such were the Solemn Professions and Protestations of those Men of Further Addresses to His Majesty and of Personal Treaties with Him that we were still willing to hope that yet we should not sit down by the Rivers of Babel to weep there Once more When the Conspirators carried Him away first to Holmeby thence to Hampton-Court and thence conveyed Him to the Isle of Wight though we fear'd that all their Treaties were nothing but Pretence and Hypocrisie to blind Mens Eyes though they used Majesty with such Indignities as none but that Prince could have born though some of the Faction did now say openly That the King was no more than a Dead Dog though every discerning Man apprehended that the King's Life was now upon the very brink of Destruction yet even then were we willing to hope that all our Happiness was not yet come to a full Period because the Majority of the Parliament enraged at last to see how they had been cheated and out of a just Abhorrence of the intended Wickedness voted That the King's Concessions were Satisfactory and Sufficient Grounds for Peace But when once we saw those Men barred out of the House suddenly after when once we saw that Cursed Vote of the Remaining Faction That the King had taken Arms against the Parliament and was guilty of all the Blood which had been shed in the War and therefore ought to expiate the Crime with His own Blood when once we saw a Phanatick Army that had been used to Blood so Thirsty for more that nothing would satisfie them but Blood Royal when once we saw a Tribunal Erected and some of the Legion of Hell Sitting on it and a Judge appointed whose most Honourable Character is that he was Pontius Pilate the Second when once we saw Majesty treated there with such Barbarousness and Contempt and thence carried through Smoke Spittle and Flouts some of them such as were used at the Condemnation of the Holy Jesus when we saw Him led like a Lamb to be Slaughter'd on a Scaffold at His Palace Door when we saw that as the Presbyterian had clipp'd off His Locks so the Independent had now cut off His Head when the one Faction had Destroyed the King and the other had now murder'd the Man Then then our Hopes were gone and we could not but conclude our selves a Lost a Captivated an Vndone People And while Some were so Barbarous as even to wash their Hands in that Blessed Martyr's Blood the whole Nation was taught to make This Use of the Shedding of it That if ever it should please God after the Death of the Father to Restore the Son it would be our Best Policy to be most Tender not of His Life onely but of His Honour and Peace too it being Impossible so to sever His Interest from our Own but that of necessity we must Stand or Fall with Him Every Man's Welfare is so wrapped up in His that we must take some Share in His Fortune whether it be a Crown of Gold or of Thorns that He wears upon His Head 2. The King being destroyed the Miseries which ensued both in Church and State are not to be written fully but in another Book of Martyrs In the Church our Calamities were such that whosoever had a respect for Conscience for Religion for a God could not but be deeply afflicted to see what Contumelies were thrown upon every thing that was Sacred Indeed the Churches Sufferings began when the Kings Troubles Commenced and so Increased as They did because Traitors saw that the Doctrine Discipline and Government of the Church were such Pillars of State too that 't was Impossible for them to Pull down or Reach the Crown but by stepping first upon the Ruines of Prelacy and all Order in Religion And if we may have leave to make some little Observations 't is somewhat Remarkable That first the Primate and four years after the King of England were both Murder'd in the same Month the one on the Tenth the other on the Thirtieth of January that Great Prelate shewing his Prince the way that even He was to go too somewhat like John the Baptist that was the Forerunner of Christ in his Sufferings as well as Birth and prepared the way for the Prince of Peace not onely into the World but to the Cross also Monarchy followed Episcopacy to the Grave and Religion that was the Mourner dropp'd in at last Good God! What Variety of Sects had we that Martyr'd the very Creed so that some even of the Faction did confess that upon the dissolution of Episcopacy more Sects and Haeresies presently started up than ever were heard of among us before under that Government which was Decried as Antichristian And all these Sects were either Ingendred or Encourag'd by those Rebels who by Dividing the Nation into a great many weak Parties strengthned their own Vsurpations and made each Party both Unable to Rise and Afraid to Mutter
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