without the least remorse for what they had done But far be it from us to think the better or more favourably of that sin the committers whereof did or seem'd to dye without repentance Now what I have written touching this matter I call Heaven to witness did not spring from any hatred that I do or ever did bear to the persons of them or theirs who had the infamous honour or seeming honour but eternal infamy of being the King's Judges but from detestation of the fact and a true desire that the like may be prevented for time to come and wheras it is commonly said that some do love Treason but always hate the Traytors I by a reverse do profess my self to have heartily pitied the persons of those Traytors to have true compassion and good will to their innocent Relations that yet survive them but mean time from my heart to abhor and detest that and all other Treason Did I say that as much as I hate Treason I have heartily pitied and do pity the Regicides I do not mean that I think it any pity that being what they were they should be brought to an untimely end to an ignominious death that I thought them too good to be hanged drawn and quartered who had been so vile as to behead their King all that they suffered in that nature was far less than they deserved But I do really pity them in relation to their poor Souls For I wish from my heart that all men might be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth and am not willing if I could help it that any should perish everlastingly I wish no man so ill as to wish him in hell or that he might die in his sins that the bottomless pit might open its mouth and swallow him up Sure I am the Regicides did run as great a risk and bid as fair for Hell and Damnation as men could do by any one action their fact being so transcendently and complicatedly wicked and abominable as it was Had they courted Hell and been fond of Damnation what could they have done more to have enjoyed it than to bain their own Souls as much as in them lay by an eternal Poyson compounded of all sorts of deadly Ingredients one of which might seem sufficient to effect the work in spight of an Antidote The great compounded Antidotes Treacle c. do hardly consist of more Alexipharmacal Ingredients than this fact of theirs did of deleterious and deadly things or shall I call them damnable Ingredients For first Is Perjury a damning sin or is it not If not what mean these words of St. James Jac. 5.12 Above all things swear not neither by the Heaven nor by the Earth nor by any other Oath but let your yea be yea and your nay nay lest you fall into condemnation Now in these words swearing but vainly and frivolously and that but by Heaven or Earth or other Creatures seems to be threatned with damnation and is it not far worse and more damnable to swear falsely and that by the Name of God than to swear frivolously by the Name of any Creature yet even the later of those doth St. James deprecate with the most earnest obtestation Above all things my brethren swear not neither by Heaven c. 2. Is there no damnableness in Rebellion think you No danger that Rebellion should damn any man Is that a venial and no mortal sin Surely no Witness the words of the Apostle Rom. 13.2 Whosoever resisteth the powers resisteth the Ordinances of God and they that resist them receive to themselves damnation Now in this case there was resisting unto blood 3. Was no man ever damn'd for Treason What think you of Judas who was a Traytor to his Master and Saviour of whom the Scripture saith It had been good for him that he had never been born If he went to Heaven if he were not damn'd it was well for him that ever he was born therefore those words do intimate that he was damned 4. Can Sacriledge damn no man Is not that of its self a damnable sin Surely it is For 1. Sacriledge is Theft and the highest sort of Theft For will a man rob God saith Malachy Now Thieves are brought into the Muster-rolls of persons that must be damned 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God nor abusers of themselves with mankinde nor thieves c. It is well if Ananias and Saphira feel it not to their sorrow that Sacriledge can damn Souls In Zech. 5.3 we read of stealing and swearing as things each or either of which will bring men under the flying-role or curse of God This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it I will bring it forth saith the Lord and it shall enter into the house of the thief and of him that sweareth falsely by by my Name and shall remain in the midst of his house and it shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof ver 4. Against whom but Thieves and Robbers is that threatning denounced Hab. 2.11 The stone shall cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber shall answer it applied to the unsatiable Chaldeans Now in Sacriledge there seems to be a complication of Theft and Perjury because it is a Robbing of God of that which was due to him by a Vow or that men have sworn for a Vow and an Oath come much what to one that they will give to God So was the case of Ananias and Saphira Indeed the Sacriledge of some men is their robbing of God not of what they themselves but of that which others have made God's by a Vow Now even they do fall under a horrible curse or execration Things given or devoted unto God called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they are devoted to God with the accursing of them which should convert them to their own use and so by a translated sense the word signifies a perpetual separation from Christ The Rabbins say of Votum cherem now the Hebrew word cherem answereth to the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as face to face in a glass est maximum votum But to hasten 5ly Is Murther wilful murther a damnable sin If not why saith St. John Ye know that no murtherer hath eternal life abiding in him i. e. hath any actual aptitude or capacity to enter into Heaven Now if the murthering of any man be he good or bad high or low superiour or inferiour be a damnable sin sure I am the murthering of an innocent good man yea of a King a good King which are great aggravations must be so too Yea if the wilful murthering of any one man expose to damnation much more needs must the murthering of many men at once Now the Regicides may be said to have been all of
these in one If any man put the Question What is Conscience as Pilate of old What is Truth Methinks I see Conscience it self stand ready to answer him Knowest not thou who and what I Conscience am whence I come and whether I would Art thou so much a stranger at home so much a stranger to thy self of whom I am part I am nearer to thee than he or she that is Flesh of thy Flesh and Bone of thy Bone than the Husband or Wife of thy Bosome I was brought up with thee in thy Nonage and was thy Bosome Companion from the time thou didst first know thy right hand from thy left I have been with thee early and late talked with thee many an hour in thy Bed and in the still and dead of the night I have kept thee waking many an hour when thou wouldst fain have slept calling thy sins to remembrance and seting them in order before thee Many a time have I made thee blush many a time have I made thee cry and water thy Couch with thy tears sometimes have I made thee quake and tremble and make thy very Bed to shake under thee And knowest thou me not all this while Other times have I spoken good and comfortable words to thee come to thee with an Olive Branch of Peace in my Mouth and said to thee in Gods Name whose vicegerent I am Well done good and faithful Servant Or as the Angel of God said to Cornelius in a Vision Acts 10.4 Thy Prayers and thy Alms are come up for a Memorial before God or as the words are Eccles 9.7 Go thy way eat thy Bread with joy and drink thy Wine with a merry heart for God now accepteth thy Works Sometimes have I made thee a Feast of Fat Things and of Wines refined on the Lees for a good Conscience thou knowest is a continual Feast of Fat Things full of Marrow of Wines on the Lees well refined Hence forward ask no body but thy self who I am Who should know the things of a Man but the Spirit of Man which is in him as the Apostle speaks And surely among the things of a Man I Conscience am the greatest I am that Spirit of Man which Solomon calleth the Candle of the Lord Searching all the inward parts of the Belly I am that great thing which some have called a god for it is an old saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though indeed I am but Gods Vice Roy or one of those that are called gods In a word I 'll say no more what I am for I am so inconsiderable when my Saviour is but once mentioned that I am not worthy speaking of yet I am not just nothing at all therefore let him that was writing of me proceed and tell you how it doth appear that I am that Smiter that Reprover that Bonarges that Son of Thunder that he has told you I am and that will bring him from the Quid to the Quod which is the next thing to be spoke to Secondly I am obliged in the next place to prove that which may as easily admit a proof as any thing yea indeed needs no proof at all viz. That Conscience is a faculty in the Soul of Man that will smite first or last if occasion be given I say it seems to need no proof for what need is there for any man to prove by Reason and Arguments that there is such a thing as the Gout Stone or Collick or that these things are painful when they seize People violently seeing the sense and woful experience of every man that has been under the smart discipline of all or any of these assures him that so it is What the Apostle saith of Afflictions may be applied to the chastisings of Conscience If you are without Chastisement whereof all are partakers ye are Bastards and not Sons The Scripture saith That by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word is confirmed We shall therefore alledge Three credible Witnesses viz. Scripture Experience and Sound Reason whereby ex abundanti to establish the point in hand It is none of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or things but once written in the Holy Scriptures That Conscience is a Smiter for this we find asserted over and over both in the Old and New Testament Witness first the famous instance of this truth in the first Adam Gen. 3. v. 10. And he said I heard thy voice in the Garden and I was afraid because I was naked and and hid my self The meaning whereof is That when Adam had eaten of the forbidden Fruit his Conscience did forthwith fly or spit in his Face and put him into a pannick fear and to a woful shame so that he could almost have buried himself alive or gone down to Hell could he there have been hid from the presence and displeasure of an angry God Our next instance shall be in Cain Did his Conscience smite him or did it not Yea almost as mortally as he smote his Brother Abel witness those words of his Gen. 4.13 And Cain said unto the Lord My punishment is greater than I can bear behold thou hast driven me out this day from the Face of the Earth and from thy Face shall I be hid and I shall be a Fugitive and a Vagaboud in the Earth and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me v. 14. See here the doleful Bodings of a guilty smiting Conscience The Third Witness that we shall call shall be that passage in Gen. 42.21 And they viz. Joseph 's Brethren said one to another we are verily guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us A Fourth instance would be one more than I promis'd but you may have it in Judges 1.7 And Adoni-Bezek said threescore and ten Kings having their Thumbs and their great Toes cut off gathered meat under my Table As I have done so God hath requited me Let the famous instance of Judas bring up the Rear Matth. 27.3 Then Judas which had betrayed him viz. our Saviour when he saw that he was condemned repented himself saying I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood And he cast down the pieces of Silver in the Temple and went and hanged himself verse 4 5. If Conscience had not smitten him so as it were with fiery Scorpions surely his soul had not chosen strangling rather than life We have been already compassed about with a sufficient Cloud of Scriptural Witnesses In the next place you may find those Witnesses backt with Experience I mean the Experience not of one but of all Ages which need not be pressed but will come in in the Quality of Volunteers and offer its service to attest this truth That there is a God hath not more suffrages from the light of Nature and common Experience of Mankind then that there is a
King of Kings in speaking highly and honourably of his Vicegerent upon Earth which is Conscience and nextly to my good Lord and Master the King of England by attempting to make the sin of Regicide as odious in the eyes of all men as it is in its own nature that all After-ages may fear and dread it next to the sin against the Holy Ghost and for ought I know it is a sin of the second Magnitude and next to that Now if every man shall become so perswaded surely for time to come men will as soon throw themselves into caldrons of scalding Oyls or into hot burning Furnaces as either directly or indirectly contribute to the death of their King whereas whilst men make nothing of that first fact what do they Reader I See no necessity of pre-advertising thee touching any more than one thing in this Book viz. the Title if it Loyalty and Peace which I have given it because I am well assured that if men shall revere Conscience more than they regard Interest and entertain those dreadful apprehensions of the Sinfulness of murthering Kings which this Treatise doth bespeak and receive the due impression of some other passages therein contained as soon may a Camel go through the eye of a Needle as they find in their hearts to be disloyal or unpeaceable 1 Sam. Chap. XXIV Verse 5. And it came to pass afterwards that David's heart smote him because he had cut off Saul's Skirt MY Text is part of a Remarkable Story referring to David and Saul Saul had been possest with an Implacable Spirit of Envy such as no Harp could lay from the time that the Women sang in their Dances Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands Little did those sweet Singers of Israel if they may be so called think how great a Discord that their praising Melody which gave the preference to David a Son and Subject above Saul his Father and Sovereign would make in the heart of Saul against David in so much that ever after he hunted him like a Partridge upon the Mountains Thinking no sacrifice great enough to expiate for that his Crimen Alienum or other folks fault in over-commending him but the life and heart-blood of him that was so commended Which sheweth us that Solomon spoke like an Oracle when he said Who can stand before Envy Saul returning from following the Philistins I had almost said like a Lyon that hath tasted blood and thirsts for more was told that David was in the Wilderness of En-gedi ver 1. Forthwith he took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men upon the Rocks of the Wild Goats No Rock but he who is called the Rock of Ages was sufficient for David's security or can be for ours In ver 3. it is said that Saul came to the Sheep-Cotes by the way thinking possibly that the Shepherds of whose Profession David formerly was could inform concerning him where saith the Text Was a Cave which Saul went into to cover his feet It followeth that David and his men remained in the sides of that Cave and no wonder because as Strabo tells us there were some Spelunca or Caves especially towards Arabia and Iturea where in time of War Shepherds hid themselves and their flocks yea whereunto all the Inhabitants of Villages and small Cities did repair for shelter some of them being able to contain at once four thousand men The Mouths of some of those Caves were so small and full of Windings that no man at his Entrance could espy those that were within but those that were within could espy those that were entring so that David and his men saw Saul coming but he saw not them whereupon he went on securely little suspecting that he was within one step of death if God and David had so pleased And possibly he laid by his uppermost Garment the Skirt whereof David was said to have cut off and might be more prone to do when it was separated from that sacred Body to which it did belong than when Gods Anointed had it on to whose holy Anointing David had special regard though his followers had none Witness their words ver 4. And the men of David said unto him Behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee I will deliver thine Enemy into thine hands that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good to thee meaning that thou mayest kill him Counsel worthy of such Councellors as they who were a parcel of Runnagates men in debt and in distress and of desperate fortunes who looked for nothing but a Jail or worse if Saul should live to be reconciled to David Men likely enough to have been Saul's Executioners if David had but said the word Strike off his Head or Cut his Throat For of that sort of men I presume are all the Executioners of Horrid and Bloody Edicts But as bad and faithless men as they were they prefume not to give such counsel as that without a religious pretext and colour for what they said They countenanced this their sanguinary Advice with three specious things viz. Divine Prophecy Promise and Providence For say they Behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee Behold I will deliver thine Enemy into thine hand Which words seem to refer to some Prophecy and Promise of that Nature which God had made to David by the mouth of Nathan Gad or Samuel though there be no such Prophecy or Promise recorded in Scripture which causeth some to think that Providence was the onely Argument which David's Ragged Regiment and Outlawed Crew of Desperadoes made use of to stir him up to take away the life of Saul And then they read the words thus Behold the Day of which the Lord saith unto thee putting in the Present Tense per Enallegen temporis for the Preterperfect Carrying the sense thus Behold this is the day in which the Lord by the plain voice of a signal Providence hath told thee that he hath put King Saul into thine hand to do with him what seems good in thine Eyes Having now so tempting and charming a Providence before thee be not thou like the Deaf Adder that hearkeneth not to the voice of the Charmer though he charm ever so sweetly Yea methinks I hear some of them say unto David as the King of Israel said unto Elisha concerning those Enemies whom he had led blind-fold into Samaria My Father shall I smite shall I smite Or as he said Let me smite but once and I will not smite again Behold a Price is put into the hand of a Fool if he have not the heart to improve it So plain and powerful was the Argument taken from Providence always amongst those whose Fingers itched to be doing and whose mouths watered at that for which they had no better Arguments The force and stress of which Argument lies here What may be done may be done That is what may be
done de facto may be done de jure or whatsoever God makes possible by an unusual series of Providence as is the cutting off a Kings Head when it is once brought to the Block is thereby intimated to be lawful yea necessary and our duty So opportunity makes a Thief and a good opportunity makes it a Judges Duty to condemn him and an Executioners to put him to death But possibly these Subterranean or Cave Councellors of Davids that they might have three strings to their Bow did really intend to urge also a Prophecy and Promise from God in the Case whether there were any or no a Practice usual in more modern Ages to encourage Rebellion by some pretended Prophecy of success in the Case When men that intend Rebellion can alledge signal Providences pursuant of Prophecies and Promises for their purpose as also Prophecies foretelling those things which a train of successful providences seem to make way for they seem then to sail before Wind and Tide doubt not but to get safely yea and honestly too into the harbour of their designs and to get Complices enough to bear them company But since that providence hath tackt about like the Wind though it held for above twenty years in one Corner I do imagine that the English Logicians who formerly made more use of that Topick than of any other could wish that an Index Expurgatorius might pass upon it Because that Wind which for so many years past was with and for them is now as much against them And if they will still hold that old Argument taken from Providence it is to be hoped it will make them good and loyal Subjects because as miraculous a series of Providence as any they could ever pretend to hath given us the happy Restauration of His Majesty and firmly setled him upon his Throne But to proceed The Counsel of David's followers seemed to make some Impression upon him and that something did stick as they say there will when men do fortiter calumniari for that he adventured to cut off Saul 's Skirt as who should say he would try whether the Ice would bear him before he would venture to walk or slide upon it but finding it to Give Thaw or Crack under him I mean his Heart to fail him when he had done no more but so he presently started back his Conscience recoiled upon him and gave occasion to the words of my Text And Davids Heart smote him because he had cut off Saul 's Skirt Which words do plainly consist of three general parts viz. first of all David smitten secondly that which smote him viz. his Heart thirdly the reason why his Heart smote him because he cut off Saul 's Skirt I shall spend but a few words to explain the several parts of the Text. By Davids Heart we are to understand his Conscience for so some Interpreters render it Redarguit Davidem Conscientia sua Now the Conscience of Man may well be called his Heart because Naturallists give this account of the Heart of Man that it is Primum vivens ultimus moriens so is the Conscience of Man viz. The first thing that lives when man begins the Life of Religion and the last thing that dies when a man forsakes that Life for whilst a man has one spark of Religion abiding in him it remains in his Conscience As for the word smote him though it be a Metaphor I hope it may be pardoned because I find few Texts of Scripture in which is no Metaphor and the sense of it is plainly this That Davids Heart did rebuke him As for the last words because he cut off Saul 's Skirt they are so plain nothing can make them plainer It is most easie to espy in these words thus divided and explained these Four Propositions viz. First of all That Conscience is a Smiter or one that will smite men first or last if they give occasion Secondly That Conscience doth smite men sometimes for sins comparatively small as Davids Heart did for cutting off but Saul's Skirt Thirdly That the same Conscience hath and doth sometimes smite men for small sins which for a time hath given them no rebuke for much greater transgressions witness the Heart of David which for a considerable time rebuked him not for his Adultery with Bathsheba nor yet for murthering her innocent Husband Vriah and yet now smote him for but cutting off of the Lap of Sauls Skirt Fourthly That Affronts and Injuries offered to Superiours are sins for which Conscience is as apt to smite men as for most that are committed against either Table Of which I shall give an account hereafter But now for the first of these Propositions It may take in the two Later to which I shall therefore apply my self and in pursuance of it inquire into Nine Particulars or whether I should rather call them Generals I am not as yet satisfied viz. Quid Or what is Conscience secondly Quod the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or that Conscience is a smiter Thirdly Propter quod Or for what it is that Conscience useth to smite Fourthly Quos Or who they are that Conscience takes the boldness or useth to smite Fifthly Quibus Or by what means and methods Conscience is stirr'd up to smite men Sixthly Quando When and at what seasons Conscience useth to smite Seventhly Quamdiu How long Conscience holds on Chiding Eighthly Quomodo How or in what manner Conscience useth to smite Ninthly Quare Why or by what Authority Conscience presumes to smite Now these Nine Particulars will take up all we mean to say upon the Doctrinal part of this Text which we intend to finish in a short Application We begin with the first of these namely the Quid or to shew what Conscience is Conscience is well defined by Amesius to be Judicium Hominis de semetipso prout subjecitur Judicio Dei That is the Judgment of a Man concerning himself as it is subjected to the Judgment of God Isa 5.3 1 Corinth 11.31 But more plainly Conscience is that which excuseth when we do well condemneth us when we do ill If our Hearts condemn us saith the Apostle c. Commendeth us when we do well Confounds us or rather puts us to shame and confusion of Face when we leave undone the things we ought to do or do the things we ought to leave undone and on the other hand comforts us and fills us with joy when we leave undone what we ought to leave undone and do the things which we ought to do and as we ought to do them Hence those words of the Apostle 2 Corinth 1.12 For our Rejoycing is this The testimony of our Conscience that in godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world c. Conscience is a Court set up by God in every mans Breast and hath a three-fold Office assign'd it viz. That of a Plaintiff or Accuser Secondly Of a Witness or Evidence Thirdly Of a Judge for Conscience is all
Dowry for his Daughter two hundred Foreskins of the Philistines slain by his hand yet was his Conscience too much and too hard for him humbled him laid him grovelling in the Dust at its pleasure Nay it hath smitten as great rich and powerful men as most ever were witness David aforesaid and his Son Solomon a greater Prince than he both in Wisdom and Wealth both of which Conscience when time was made to lay their mouths in the dust if there might be hope Did not Conscience make its part good with Nebuchadnezzer though a kind of Universal Monarch Dan. 3.4 c. As also with Belshazar spoken of Dan. 5.6 In these words Then the Kings Countenance was changed and his Thoughts troubled him so that the Joynts of his Loins were loosned and his Knees smote one against another namely when he saw the hand-writting upon the Wall Thou art weighed and found too light And so I have dispatched the fourth thing or the Quos shewing whom Conscience makes bold to smite viz. As well High as Low Rich as Poor Wise as Foolish Learned as Unlearned Princes as People Men that have the fairest forms of Godlias well as those that are openly Prophane for Conscience is no Child or Coward to fear Masks and Vizards and no Changling to be taken with Painted Faces and Artificial Beauties The next or fifth Head to be spoken too is the Quibus or by what things Conscience is ordinarily stirr'd up to smite and chide and some of them are as follow viz. By the Word of God Read or powerfully Preached which is the reason why some Persons conscious to themselves of great sins wherein they lived have studiously refrained coming to Church lest they should meet with rebukes and others have as generally abstained from Reading the Holy Scriptures lest they should find the Word of God to be quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged Sword and a discerner of the Thoughts and Intents of the Heart Saint Austin Reading the Holy Scriptures was smitten to the purpose with that Text Rom. 13.13 Let us walk Honestly as in the day not in Rioting and Drunkenness not in Chambering and Wantonness c. Secondly Conscience is sometimes set to work or set a work by the private admonition of some faithful friend Minister or other good Christian So David's sleepy Conscience was roused and awakened by the Prophet Nathan his convincing Parable of the Ewe-Lamb c. Hence that Expression of the Holy Psalmist Psal 141.5 Let the righteous smite me it shall be a kindness and let him reprove me it shall be an excellent Oyl which shall not break my Head That is by the figure Meiosis which shall prove sanative and healing to me meaning that the wholesome reproofs of a faithful friend like those Medicines which take off the stagnation of Blood and Spirits in the Veins and Arteries of Men and do put them into a free motion and equal circulation would as it were ferment his Conscience and by so doing cause it to do him a kindness Thirdly Gods chastisements upon men set their Consciences a smiting For when God smites Conscience though it lay still before is apt to smite too as we see in the case of Josephs Brethren who when he ruffled with them and swore by the Life of Pharoah they were spyes which might make them to expect to be used accordingly then and not till then they said one to another We are verily guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his Soul and we would not hear therefore this distress is come upon us In the 33. Chap. of Job where we read of Gods chastning Man with Pain upon his Bed and the multitude of his Bones with strong Pain so that his Life abhoreth Bread and his Soul dainty Meat his Flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seen and his Bones that were not seen stick out his Soul draws near to the Grave and his Life to the Destroyers then as it is v. 16. God openeth the Ears of Men and sealeth their Instruction then as it is v. 23. If there be a Messenger with him and an Interpreter one among a thousand which may partly be meant of an awakened Conscience by what followeth v. 27. To shew to man his uprightness then God is gracious to him c. I say the 27. v. may countenance the referring those words to Conscience or intending it by the Interpreter there spoken of because the words there are He looketh upon Men and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which is right and it profited me not he will deliver his Soul from going into the Pit c. Fourthly Those Afflictions or Judgments above all others which carry the Mark and Signature of our Sins upon them are most apt to set Conscience a smiting for read saith Conscience as he that runs may thy sin in thy suffering behold the plain Prints and foot-steps of it that Face doth not more exactly answer to Face in the Glass So in the case of Adoni-Bezek Judges the 1.7 Threescore and ten Kings saith he having their thumbs and their great toes cut off gathered their meat under my table as I have done so God hath requited me c. So said Samuel to Agag 1 Sam. 15.33 As thy Sword hath made Women Childless so shall thy Mother be Childless among Women and Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord c. Fifthly When men are spectators of Gods smiting others for the same sins which themselves have committed or do commit from day to day but especially if for less degrees of those sins than they themselves are guilty of then and thereby is Conscience stirr'd up to smite them and doth cause them thus to bethink themselves If this be done to the green Tree what shall be done to the dry As for Example If Ananias and Saphira were struck dead upon the place for telling one lie a-piece and that but a kind of equivocation neither O what shall become of me who have told thousands of lies who walked in the way of lying who compassed God about with lies and deceipt as it is Hosea 11.12 Who have pressed the God of Truth with Lies as a Cart is pressed with Sheaves What can I expect but that the Earth should open its Mouth and swallow me quick Now these are some of the things for I shall not pretend to call all to remembrance which do by the Conscience of Men as the Marriners did by Jonah when fast asleep in the Ship viz. Call upon them and awaken them which possibly would otherwise never awake till they awoke in Hell or till Men were drowned in the bottomless Pit of Destruction Sixthly the next thing we propose to query is the Quamdiu or how long the smitings of Conscience use to last how long it useth to be before an angry Conscience become pacified or before Conscience having fallen out with Men about some great Sin or Sins become Friends
the word of God as the Psalmist saith A young man may cleanse his way by taking heed to Gods Word Look how a raw and unskilful Composer may do well enough if he shall but follow the advice of an able and careful Corrector of the Press so may the Consciences of men produce a correct edition of their lives if they make but such amendments as the word of God doth direct Far be it from us to charge the holy God so foolishly as if he did suborn and instigate the Consciences of men to condemn them for what they ought to be commended or to commend them for what they ought to be condemned for shall not the judg of all the earth do righteously is not Jehovah a God that cannot lye This premised it must needs be said that God never did doth or can give to Conscience a Commission or command to smite when it ought not to smite or to strike when it ought rather to smile upon us but it cannot be denied but that God doth sometimes give such a permission as that to the Consciences of men and leaves them as he is free to do to mis-represent things according to their corrupt and perverse inclinations That passage in the first of Kings 22.22 which seemeth of all other Texts most pregnant to prove that God Almighty doth sometimes give forth his command and commission to instruments to do that which is evil as namely to lye c. will be found upon due examination to signifie just nothing to that purpose the words are these And the evil spirit said I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his that is of Ahab's Prophets And he that is the Lord said thou shalt perswade and prevail also go forth and do so But upon due search it will be found that those words of God go forth and do so are not words of command and Commission but a bare permission and sufferance like those words of our Saviour to Judas John 13.27 And after the sop Satan entered into him That thou doest do quickly As if he had said now the fulness of time is at hand in which the Son of man is to be betrayed I will not hinder thee but suffer thee to do what I know is in thy heart to do as soon as thou pleasest Again I say the words forecited Go and do so signifie no more than did the words of Christ to the Devils who besought him to suffer them to go into the Herd of Swine Matth. 8.31 And he said unto them go ver 32. that is not I command and appoint but I permit and suffer you to do Moreover it is to be noted that so the Hebrew Language doth often put the Imperative Mood for the Future Tense as in Prov. 4.4 Keep my Commandments and live where vive is put for vives live instead of thou shalt live So Prov. 9.6 Forsake the foolish and live that is and thou shalt live of which there are many more instances in the holy Scriptures In like manner the words go forth and do so in the Text I am explaining signifie no more but this I will not be thy hindrance if thou wilt thou shalt for me thou shalt have my permission to go forth and do so By what I have said it doth plainly appear that unless God were bound as surely he is not to hinder all the sin that is or ever was or ever shall be possible for him to hinder that is all sin that ever was or shall be in the world there is no fault to be charged upon God for permitting and but barely permitting the degenerate purblind Consciences of men like Ahab's false Prophets to delude and deceive them When the Consciences of men have defiled and debauched themselves it is at Gods pleasure and liberty whether hewill or will not restore and rectifie them However this may serve for ever to stop the mouths of men that though their Consciences in this fallen state be not a light sufficient to guide them in all their ways that they turn not aside from God more or less to the right or to the left hand yet God hath given another auxiliary or supplemental light if I may so call it viz. the Holy Scriptures which are said to be profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnish'd unto all good works For as man could not plead ignorance after that God had given him the Ten Commandments written in Tables of Stone though he had defaced the Law which was at first written in his heart this new edition of the Law in Tables of Stone restoring to him what was obliterated in the stony table of his heart so neither now can men plead excuse for their sins from the misdirectings of their Consciences sith God hath given his holy Word as it were another Conscience and guide to men to show them the way in the which they ought to walk and to please God What if the torch of natural light or Conscience hath been well nigh blown out so long as there are the Sun Beams of Divine Revelation contracted in the holy Scriptures as in a Burning-glass wherewith to light it again Put Conscience and Scripture together and where they two meet there 's light enough to make a mans way plain to heaven and if he will but mind his Compass to bring him safe to the port of everlasting happiness So I have done with the doctrinal part of the first doctrine viz. that Conscience is a smiter or a thing that will smite men first or last if they give occasion I shall conclude this discousse with a few Corolaries or Vses Use 1. Then God hath not left himself without a witness in the breasts of men nor men without warning Sometimes Conscience witnesseth for God and against men other times Conscience witnesseth for men and with God so the Apostle speaks The Spirit of God witnesseth with our spirits that we are the children of God Conscience is Gods Ambassador lying leager in the souls of men by which God is wont to give men notice when he is whetting his sword bending his bow making ready his arrow upon the string and preparing for them instruments of death if they turn not as in Psalm 7.12 God doth not usually surprize men or come upon them unawares before such time as he hath shot off his warning-piece Nineveh had notice given it by the Prophet Jonah of its approaching ruine if Repentance prevented not God by the preaching of Noah warn'd the old world of that Flood which did await it and was to fall upon it not till a hundred and twenty years after God would have men forewarned that they might be fore-arm'd Amos 4.12 Thus will I do unto thee O Israel and because I will do this unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel God threatens that he may not smite wishing
who not only despised the Authority but destroyed the very Life of that excellent King of whom we have been speaking But there is one cause more of mens despising the great sin of Sacriledge and making nothing of it viz. A great mistake which they are and have been under as touching the holiness of Persons viz. That they know and acknowledge no holiness of Persons but that which the Scripture intends when it saith without holiness no man shall see God Whereas most evident it is both from the Old and New Testament that Persons are very often called holy upon a much more laxe large and loose account Ex. gr 1. Vpon account of being dedicated though not by themselves to God yet by God to himself to his own use and honour Luke 2.23 Every Male that openeth the Womb shall be called holy unto the Lord. Surely that is not meant of a saving but of a ceremonial Holiness of a typical rather than of a substantial Holiness 2. Vpon account of Gods external Adoption of a people to the title and outward priviledges of his Children and Holy ones Hence it is said of the Jews or Jewish Nation though it were not savingly true of all or of the most of them 1 Pet. 2.9 Ye are a chosen Generation a holy Nation a peculiar People c. The reason of which Apellation is because they were Israelites to whom pertained the Adoption and the Glory and the Covenants c. Rom. 9.4 Not so far forth as that all of them were thereby finally sav'd but only put into a much better capacity for Salvation than others were who did not enjoy the same priviledges 3. Vpon account of meer profession and outward appearance men are often called in Scripture Holy and Saints which is all one c. So 1 Thes 5.27 Let this Epistle be read to all the Holy Brethren So he calls the whole Church So Heb. 3.1 Wherefore Holy Brethren partakers of the Heavenly Calling c. So we find the word Saints scattered so freely and us'd so commonly in Saint Pauls Epistles that we may rest assured it is not there applied to them only who are Saints indeed Rom. 12.13 Distribute to the necessity of the Saints i.e. Of all poor persons professing the Christian Religion for they could not search or judge of their hearts Rom. 15.25.26 Rom. 16.15 With innumerable other Texts to the some purpose 4. Vpon the account of federal Holiness are they called Holy who are not all so in strictness of speaking or iâ— relation to eternal Life So 1 Cor. 7.14 Thâ— unbelieving Husband is sanctified or rendreâ— holy by the Wife and the unbelieving Wife is sanctified by the Husband else were your Children unclean but now are they holy meaning federally not savingly holy as the unbelieving Wife is said to be sanctified by her Husband not savingly for so many never are but federally 5ly and lastly Persons may be called sacred upon the account of their being inviolable or such as do not lie open and exposed so as common persons do but there is a noli me tangere upon them Touch not handle not hurt not to be sure Touch not mine annointed and do my Prophets no harm So the Feast of Jubile was called Holy because inviolable Lev. 25. Now though none but religious and godly Kings be holy so as is meant when the Scripture saith Without holiness none shall see God yet every King professing the Christian Religion is sacred upon the five accounts last rehearsed and in a peculiar manner upon the last of them viz. As being more inviolable and unapproachable for the matter of hurting more guarded from the violence of men by the sacredness of his Office and Supremacy of his Condition than Subjects are Yea and upon one accompt more 6ly â—ings and Rulers as they have more of the Image and Stamp of God in point of Authority therefore called Gods in Scripture and they are set apart by God for his more especial service as his Deputies and Vicegerents upon earth may and ought to be counted sacred persons Now being Sacred the injury done to such especially the destroying of theirlives may very fitly be stiled Sacriledge Now when I have spoken to two things more viz. 1. That Sacriledge is a very great sin and 2. That this Regicide was very great Sacriledge I shall dismiss this 4th Article and proceed to another May not the heavy judgments of God inflicted for Sacriledge be alledged as a great proof of the hainousness of that sin for though God hath now and then signally punished sins seemingly but small yet it is possible they might be really much greater all things considered than we know of yet ordinarily they are great and hainous sins for which God visiteth men with great and heavy Punishments And such are the Judgments which God hath inflicted for Sacriledge witness Mal. 3.9 Ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me even this whole Nation Witness also what we read touching Eli and his Sons 1 Sam. 2.25 When Hophni and Phineas took away paâ—â— of the Flesh which the People brought foâ— offerings to rost for themselves Eli thâ—â— expostulated with them If one man sin against another the Judge shall judge him bâ—â— if a man sin against the Lord who shall entreat for him Where their Sacriledge iâ— spoken of as so great a sin and so immediately against God that they would find it hard to get any body to intercede for them though in Law-suits betwixt man and man Advocates and Council aâ— they are called are allowed on both sides In Jer. 7.16 God said to Jeremy Pray noâ— you for this People neither make intercession to me for I will not hear thee And in Exod. 32.10 The Lord said to Moses let me alone that my wrath may waxe hot against them and that I may consume them Now Eli spoke to his Sons as if their sin had made God so angry that he scarce knew what mortal man would dare to intercede for them or be suffered by God to stand in the gap Yea the following words are very severe viz. Notwithstanding they hearkened not to the voice of their Father because the Lord would slay them i. e. God was so provoked by their liquorish Sacriledge that he was resolved not to prevent their ruin by any special interposure of his Grace nor yet to put their Father upon what further means he might have used for the reclaiming of them viz. By hard blowes instead of soft words Yea so angry was God with Eli's Sons for their Sacriledge that it reached not their heads only but also run down upon the Skirts of their Father Eli for not punishing of them at an otherguess rate than his tender over-indulgent heart had suffered him to do because he smote them not as with Rods God smote him and his as with Scorpions 1 Sam. 2.34 This shall be a sign unto thee that shall come upon thy two Sons on Hophny and Phineas
remove the King to enthrone themselves To me it seems so barbarous as nothing can be more not to suffer his Majesty to plead for himself because he would not own the Authority of the Court which they themselves knew in their own Consciences was not vested with any lawful Authority but was a meer usurpation and a high affront to bring a King before such contemptible Judges See in pag. 194. At his departure he was exposed to all the indâ—gnities that a base rabble could invent and commit when the barbarous Souldiers cried out Justice Justice Execution Execution See also page 199. The Conspirators meet in a Committee to appoint the manner time and place of the murther Now blush O Heavens and be ashamed O Earth at the reading of that which followeth Some saith he page 199 and 200. would have his Head and Quarters fastned upon Poles as it is usual with Traitors that the marks of their cruelty might outlast his death Others would have him hang'd as they punish'd Thieves and Murtherers Others gave their Votes that he should suffer in his Royal Habiliments with his Crown and in his Robes that it might be a Triumph of the People's power over Kings At last they agree That he should lose his Head near White-hall-gates before the Banqueting-house that so from thence where he used to sit on his Throne and shew the splendor of Majesty he might pass to his Grave there parting with the Ensignes of Royalty and laying them down as Spoils where he had before used them as the Robes of Empire Thus did they endeavour to make their malice ingenious and provided Triumphs for their revenge And because they suspected he would not stoop to the block they caused to be fastned in it some Iron staples and Rings that by them with cords they might draw him down if he would not comply Who can forbear to tell one signal Passage of most barbarous and blasphemous Hypocrisie which the same Author writeth pag 203. Some of the chief Conspirators suspecting lest the Lord Fair fax should hinder the Execution came to him that morning that they had signed the Warrant for the Kings Assâ—ssination and disired him with them to seek the Lord by Prayer that they might know his mind in the thing which he assenting to Harrison was appointed for the duty and by compact to draw out his profane and blasphemous discourse to God in such a length as might give them time for the Execution which they privately sent to their Instruments to hasten of which when they had notice that it was past they rose up and perswaded the General that this was a full return of prayer and God having so manifested his pleasure they were to accuiesce in it But for further tormenting my Readers heart and my own I would add what the same Author tells us pag. 205. Thus the King finished his Martyrdâ—m but the Enemies not their malice who abused the headless trunk Some washt their hands in the Royal Blood others dipt their stavâ—s in it they sold the chips of the block and the sands that were discoloured with his Blood and exposed his very Hairs to sale which the Spectators bought for different uses some as the Reliques of so glorious a Prince and some out of a brutish malice would have them as Spoils and Trophies of their hatred to their lawful Sovereign One is said to have curiously survey'd the murthered Carcass when it was brought in the Coffin into White-hall and to assure himself the King was dead with his fingers to have searched the wound whether the head were fully severed from the body or no pag. 206. After-terward they permitted the Body to be unbowelled to an Emperick of the Faction together with the rude Chirurgions of the Army not permitting the King 's own physicians to this office and commanded them to search which was as much as to bid them so report whether they could not find in it Symptoms of the French Disease or some other evidences of frigidity and natural impotency that so they might have some colour to slander him who was eminent for chastity or to make his Seed infamous Shew me who can a Murther committed though upon but a private person with more barbarous circumstances of cruelty inhumanity and malice then was this upon the King of which you may read more at large in the Book forementioned p. 171 to p. 207. Read those passages over and over and see how they make that sin out of measure sinful and then consider if for the Nation to be humbled before God once a year for so prodigious and publick a Villany be any more than is fit and necessary Eighteenth Aggravation The Scripture will bear me out in the expression if I call the murther of the late King by the name of Deicide because the Scripture calls Kings by the name of Gods I have said they are Gods only allaying it with the following words but they shall die like men Though the true and the living God be immortal yet there are certain mortals who are called Gods even by him who is the true and only immortal God or who alone hath immortality viz. in and from himself And of this sort of Gods are all Kings or Rulers therefore so called because they have the Image and Inscription of Gods Authority and Majesty upon them so and in such a manner as private men have not though Parents and Masters as such are vested with some lower degree of Power and Authority in their respective Persons and Places Now the murthering of King Charles I. was the murthering of a mortal God which is a greater sin by much than is the murthering of a meer mortal man There are three forts to which the name of God is applied The first is God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God by essence that is he that made the World all other are but mortal gods and much inferiour to him To us there is but one the true and the living God 1. There are Dij 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 False Gods such were all the Idols of the Heathen 3. There are Dij 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods so called by Grace and favourable condescension Such are Angels and Magistrates Kings are inferior to the true God but superior to all false Gods yea in their own dominion superior to him who exalteth himself above all that is culled God c. 'T is much to be feared that whilst a sort of men busie themselves and are much concern'd about that Image of God in Princes which consists in righteousness and true holiness and do either ascribe or not ascribe it to them and have been wont to respect or disrespect them accordingly I mean as they have taken them for Saints or no Saints I say whilst men trouble themselves about that which is a matter of hope and charity not of science or certainty it is much to be fearâ—d they overlook that Image of God which is certainly in all