rather to scare men than to hurt them and causeth Conscience to smite them that if that will serve the turn he may hold his hand for it is better to fall into the hand of Conscience than into the hand of God If God had not such a witness as Conscience is how could he convict men at the day of Judgment of secret sins as the Text saith God will bring every secret thing to light whether it be good or whether it be evil and in the 1 Corinth 4.5 is said God will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the heart What but Conscience can witness against Men at the day of Judgment their Heart Murthers Heart Adulteries as Solomon said to Shimei 1 Kings 2.44 Thou knowest all the wickedness which thy Heart is privy to Now Conscience is such a witness as none can withstand or deny its testimony If two credible witnesses are sufficient even in matter of Life and Death much more Conscience which is a thousand witnesses Hence it is that we read of him who coming to a Wedding Feast without a Wedding Garment that when the King said unto him Friend How camest thou in hither not having a Wedding Garment he was speechless Matth. 22.12 Hence also we read of Every Mouth being stopt and all the World becoming guilty before God Rom. 3.19 Hence it was that no reply was made to our Saviour when he said He that wâ—â— without sin let him cast the first stone at her for the Text saith John 8.9 They which heard it being convicted in their own Consciences went out one by one Now whereas some are brought in pleading thus for themselves at the day of Judgement When did we see thee Hungry and fed thee not Naked and clothed thee not Sick and in Prison and did not administer unto thee Matth. 25.44 The reason is because they knew not that which Christ tells them of in the next verse In as much as you did it not to one of the least of these you did it not to me If their Consciences had been sooner convicted of their unkindness to their Saviour expressed in their unkindness to his Disciples and Followers they would not have had one word to say for themselves or presumed to open their Mouths It can never be doubted whether the Message were left with those Persons whom Conscience was appointed to warn because Conscience alwayes speaks with the Parties themselves and leaves its errand in their own Breasts Indeed when Christ shall come to judge the World it is said He will come like a Thief in the night Yea when God comes to ruine Persons or Nations after fair warnings given but never taken he oft-times doth it suddenly Hence Destruction is said to come as a whirlwind or as sorrow upâ—n a Woman in Travel who are sometimes never better at ease or more light-some or cheerful than just before their Pains hence those words of Solomon Prov. 29.1 He that being often reproved hardeneth his Neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy There we read indeed of sudden destruction but of frequent reproof going before it Now Conscience is the great Reprover and a man is never throughly convicted as to himself till he be so of his own Conscience so I have done with the first use Second Vse The next Use or Corollary is this If Conscience be such a Smiter as hath been shewed then it is no argument that sinners scape scot-free or go unpunished because their sins do not go before to Judgment that is are kept secret from men and consequently exempted from Humane Punishment Pain and Shame because it is Punishment enough God wot for a Man to run the Gantlet and undergo the Rack of his own Conscience If God shall but say take him Conscience take him by the Throat clap Irons upon him throw him in thy Dungeon feed him with the Bread of Spiritual Affliction and give him those Waters to drink which are more bitter than the Waters of Marah If the great Judge shall thus deliver up a man to the severest of Jaylors and say throw him in Prison and give him no hope to come out till he pay the utmost farthing Handle him as thou didst Cain Judas Francis Spira for thou canst do it teach him as Gideon taught the Men of Succoth with Bryers and Thorns tear him in pieces and let none deliver him Psal 15.22 If such a sentence as that shall come forth from the great God he upon whom it is past needs no Poverty no loss of near and dear Relations no Bodily Sickness or Pain no Temporal Prison no Reproach or Disgrace from Men to make him miserable nay he shall be so in spight of Riches Honour Power the best of Wives and Children the kindest of Relations and Friends and what ever else this World can give him he shall tremble as did Belshazzar even when quaffing and carouzing with all his Friends about him he shall fit Uneasie and as it were upon Thorns though he sit upon a Throne with his Crown on his Head and his Scepter in his Hand and Thousands of Nobles standing bare before him he shall not be heartily merry though upon his Wedding day nor at the Birth and Baptizing of a brave Son long desired nor at a Prince-like Feast when he hath all his Kindred and Friends about him the rarest Wines shall not be able to make him merry till they have made him not himself and then how he can be said to be merry who is not himself I know not Wine commonly makes the Brute or Brutal part of Man merry but what is that to the Man or to the Soul of Man which is himself God knows if Conscience be wounded a Man can possess no Mirth but what is rather to be called Madness or like the Laughter or Dancing of those who are stung with a Tarantula and let the Beast or Beastial part of Man be never so Brisk and Jocond that which is properly called the Soul viz. The Humane rational Soul or Spirit of a Man intermeddles not with its joys which makes me think of the Apostles words The Widow which liveth in Pleasure is Dead while she lives for what is Death but a separation of Soul and Body and in this case Soul and Body are separated for her animated Body hath Pleasure but her Soul hath none Reader If thou hadst ever known what the smitings of Conscience mean I need not tell thee that they are sufficient to give a man a very Hell upon Earth whilst they who behold his outward Prosperity not knowing where the Shooe pinches him do think him as it were in Heaven if there be any such thing as Heaven upon Earth So I have done with the second Vse The Third Vse is this If Conscience be so great and terrible a smiter it must needs be great folly in Men needlesly to provoke and inrage it as too many do from day to
day for there are a sort of Men of whom David speaks Who are wont to transgress without a cause Psal 25.3 David speaks of some who were his Enemies without a cause Psal 7. and without Cause had hid their net for him in a Pit which without cause they digged for him Psal 35.7 May it not be said of some that they are Enemies to God and to the Peace of their own Minds by making work for Conscience and for Repentance without any considerable cause Of this sort are those who abound in needless Oaths and Execrations crying at every turn I will be hang'd if this or that be not so Yea here and there you have a Monster of a Man that fears not upon every slight occasion to cry God damn me as if he defied his maker and scorned that Tophet which was prepared of old for such as he which God hath made deep and large the Pile whereof is much Wood and the Breath of the Lord like a stream of Brimstone doth kindle it Isa 30.33 Or as if they could cheerfully drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God which is poured out with mixture into the Cup of his Indignation and endure to be tormented with Fire and Brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and to have the smoak of their torment ascending for ever and ever and to have no rest day nor night Rev. 14.10 11. Or as if when the question is put Who can dwell with the consuming Fire who can dwell with everlasting Burnings as it is Isa 33.14 they could roundly answer That can we do If so they have stouter hearts than sinners in old time were wont to have for the Text saith The sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulness hath surprized the Hypocrites saying Who shall dwell with devouring Fire c. Methinks I can resemble these Persons to nothing so much as to the Priests of Baal spoken of 1 Kings 18.28 of whom it is said They cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner with Knives and Launces till the Blood guished out upon them Many who laugh at the Papist for whipping themselves on Good-Friday do worse for that Papists do in point of Devotion aiming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to beat down their Bodies as we translate it by beating them Black and Blew but Atheists slash and gash their Souls with severe stroaks for no good intent at all but out of meer Irreligion and wanton Prophaneness Lord I can but think how these men will look when Conscience shall come to reckon with them and they find themselves not able to answer it one of a thousand I can but think how pale they will look or rather how black in the Face with fear and astonishment what a dreadful eccho those Oaths and bloody Curses will have in Mens Ears when they come to be resounded upon a Sick-bed or Death-bed Or rather in what a pickle those men will be when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and they see themselves punished with everlasting Destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thes 1.7 8 9. If it be so terrible as it is to hear but a zealous Minister warmly discoursing of the Torments of Hell especially if a Mans Conscience at the same time second what he saith and joyn issue with the Preacher as did the Conscience of Felix of whom it is said Acts 24.25 That when Paul reasoned of Righteousness Temperance and Judgement to come Felix trembled I say if the bare hearing of Hell be so terrible as to make a Heathen Judge upon the Bench tremble at the words of his poor Prisoner at the Bar standing there to await his Sentence how intollerable will it be to feel such things And who can chuse when in the midst of those Flames but cry out as did the Sinners and Hypocrites in Zion Who can dwell with devouring Fire Who can dwell with everlasting Burnings You would be loath constantly to sit under the Ministry of a Boanerges that would be alwayes thundring and lightning preaching of Hell and Damnation flashing Hell-fire in your Faces with every Sermon as if Mount Sinah were his Pulpit but were your Minister such you could make a shift and an excuse to go out of the Church as oft as he came to his use of terrour and stay out of his way till the storm were over but if you provoke your Consciences and make them burning as well as shining Lights within you as that phrase may be taken whether will you fly from those flames and whereunto will you betake your selves Go whither you will Conscience will follow you and if you have Ears to hear will make you hear yea will find you Ears if you make as if you had none yea speak loud enough to be heard though you were almost dead or were disposed to turn a deaf Ear upon it Conscience will have access to you at all hours even in the dead and still of the night it will come stealing upon you like a Thief in the night nay that it need not do neither for it will make bold with greatest noise to burst your Iron Bars break open your Doors and make a loud and forcible entrance upon you when it pleases and look upon it self to be always at home when it is where you are yea to be Master of the House and to have full authority to speak and do within your Breasts what it listeth Conscience is as it were every Mans Chamberlain and carrieth the Key of every Mans Breast as it were at his Girdle and therefore can go or get into a Man when it pleaseth and if they do as it were bolt or bar the Door on the inside it is able to make even Brass or Iron Grates to fly open before it for nothing can keep Conscience out Now Conscience being such a thing as I have described what Solomon saith viz. He that passeth by and medleth with strife that belongeth not to him is like one that taketh a Dog by the Ears may be applied to Conscience And therefore it must needs be folly and madness in any Man needlesly to provoke his Conscience and without great cause and temptation to make work for it as he were mad that would rouze up a sleepy Lion or Mastiff when he had no occasion so to do So much shall serve for the 3. Vse Fourth Vse shall be this Sith it is the office of Conscience to smite Men as in reference to sin it must needs behove us to keep our Consciences alwayes in smiting case I do not mean to give them cause to smite us for that we should by no means do but to keep them in an aptitude and fitness to smite us when just cause is given What is a Dog good for if he
will not so much as bark Or what does a Sword signifie if it be rusty and has lost all its edge Chyrurgeons can asill spare their smarting as their healing Plaisters because proud Flesh must be taken off by Corrosives Give me a Fever rather than a Lethargy sith it is the manner of Physicians to cure Men of Lethargies by casting them into Fevers It is better to be blistered than stupified therefore Epispastick Plaisters are applied when stupefaction is feared but especially when incumbent Let my Conscience rather raise Blisters on me from Head to Foot than suffer me to fall into a dead sleep of Security and fall into Hell in a Golden Dream of Heaven and Happiness Now that Conscience may be in smiteing case as the matter shall require and have that sharp edge which is due to it take the following directions Dir. 1. Keep the Eye of Conscience alwayes open and clear that it may be able to see when cause is given to smite The will indeed is Coeca potentia a blind faculty truly so called and if not led by the understanding will fall into many a Ditch hence 't is commonly said that Voluntas sequitur ultimum dictamen intellectus practici But as for the Conscience that to be sure ought to be no blind faculty for that is understanding it self therefore called Intellectus practicus it does belong to it not to be led but to lead it is the very eye of a Soul I had almost said the very Apple of its Eye therefore let not so much as a Mote get into it to dim and obscure it Direct 2. Keep alwayes a tenderness upon thy Conscience though not a perplexing scrupulousness What said God to Josiah 2 Kings 22.19 Because thine heart was tender I also have heard thee saith the Lord c. A tender Conscience is soon wounded and a Conscience that is wounded will certainly wound and smite Conscience of all things is not to be exposed to hardship for what Divines say of the Holy Ghost viz. That Spiritus Dei estres delicatula That he is a tender thing soon grieved and quenched The same in its measure may be said of Conscience it is a most tender thing 'T is preternatural when those parts of the Body that ought to be soft and tender become hard and callous as when a Mans Kidneys become petrified and turned into meer Stones so it is when the heart of a Man becomes a heart of stone which ought to be a Heart of Flesh Direct 3. Labour to escape the frequent and more fervent smitings of Conscience for by means of them it is that the hearts of Men become perfectly hardned Just like School-Boys who having often felt the smart of the Rod or Ferula and are feeling of it from day to day are wont to despise those Corrections and to become Rod and Ferulâ— Direct 4. Encourage Conscience to smite thee by mending upon it as often as it tells thee thy faults remembring that passage Job 34.31 32. Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement I will not offend any more that which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more Conscience will have little heart to smite a man any more but rather consent that he be reserved to the day of Judgment to be punished if when smitten he revolt more and more and if he be not manifestly worse is not one jot the better for all its smitings Direct 5. Be much in contemplation of Death and Judgment and of the world to come or if thou wilt of the quatuor novissima or the four last things viz. Death Judgment Heaven and Hell for they are as it were the four wheels which draw the Chariot of Conscience and when they or any of them is quite taken off Conscience draws but heavily Commend me to the good man that said I bless God I carry my dying thoughts always about me and do use to try my most solemn enterprises by the touch-stone of this question Will this or that give me comfort when I come to die How will Conscience look upon this or that through the perspective of Death and approaching Judgment To think often of our dying and coming to judgment is an excellent way to keep our Consciences alive and awake and in smiting case so I have done with the 5. Direction and 4. Use The 5. Vse or Corollary is this Sith Conscience is so terrible a Smiter and so like to the Hand and Rod of Moses which could fetch Water out of a Rock as has been shewed it behoves every Man to stand in Awe of his own Conscience and to take that advice as in reference to God himself viz. Stand in awe and sin not It was an old and a good saying Dâ—sce revereri teipsum That is That a Man should learn to reverence respect and dread himself Sure I am There is no part of a Mans self which he ought more or yet so much to dread as his Conscience But for Conscience no one faculty in the Soul of Man would be terrible to him nor yet all his faculties put together but Conscience infuseth terrour into every one of them Who could not look upon the Register of his Memory without any trouble or fear were it not that Conscience did severely reflect upon the evil action therein registred Who could not exercise his speculative understanding in contemplating the worst things he hath done without regret or remorse were it not that Conscience that Practical Intellect did make such terrible use of them Who could not disport himself with his Fantasie and Imagination and pleasantly act over all his former enormities upon that stage were it not for Conscience that is apt to spoil the Sport to look a Man out of Countenance and to speak to him in those words of Solomon Eccles 11.9 Rejoyce O Young Man in thy Youth and let thy Heart cheer thee in the days of thy Youth and walk in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment They had wont to say Cave Cato videt Take heed Cato sees you But I say Cave Conscientia videt Take heed Conscience sees you get out of Consciences sight if you can and do your worst but I had almost said you may as easily fly from God himself who is Omnipresent as from Conscience which is Gods Deputy though it be not every where present as God is and present to all Creatures as God is yet it is present to every Mans self and I was about to say of it in reference to every Mans Soul as is said of the Soul in reference to the Body that Conscientia est tota in toto tota in qualibet parte That is Intirely in all and every part and faculty of the Soul Say often to thy self It is more to me that my Conscience is privy to
what I do though all the World besides be ignorant of it than if all the World besides knew it and my own Conscience knew nothing of it for if Conscience be disposed to take vengeance on me and to call me to a strict account for what I have done I know it can create punishments for me beyond all that men can inflict or that can be inflicted by any hands save his who is able to cast Soul and Body into Hell Fire and in that regard is the onely Person whom I ought to dread and reverence more than my own Conscience for as Self Murther is the worst and cruellest of all Murthers so Self-smitings and what are they but reflections of Conscience are the terriblest of all smiteings They are those Arrows of the Almighty that stick in Mens hearts and the venom thereof drinketh up their Spirits What pity is it that many men never learn to fear themselves enough till they come to feel themselves so sharp upon and so uneasie to themselves that they can bear it no longer that they seem a greater Hell to themselves than Hell it self would be which was Spira's case It is one good answer wherewith to stop the mouth of the tempter How can I do this wickedness and sin against my own Conscience How can I look my Conscience in the face if I comply with such a temptation or rather how dreadfully will Conscience stare me in the face when I have done it I had rather displease the whole World than displease that part of my self which is called Conscience for if that once be angry and continue so I shall have no joy in my Life all my comforts will be imbittered it will give me for Beauty Ashes for the Oyl of Joy Mourning for the Garment of Praise the Spirit of Heaviness it will be Colloquintida or Death in the pot of all my Injoyments They feel Conscience least who fear it most and they who in one sense are most afraid of Conscience are usually least hurt by it as Parents love not to strike those Children whom they can sufficiently over-awe and deter from mis-doing without striking them So I have done with the 5. Vse A Sixth shall be this Sith Conscience is so dreadful a Smiter it must needs be every mans concern to maintain Peace Amity and a good Correspondence with his own Conscience that it may either not smite him at all or in measure so as he may be able to bear it staying if I may so speak its rough Wind in the day of the East-wind not thrashing out the Fitches with a thrashing Instrument nor turning about the Cart Wheel upon the Cummin but beating out the Fitches with a Staff and the Cummin with the Rod To allude to what is said of God Isaiah 28.27 Correct him but in measure though it leave him not altogether unpunished as God promised his People Jer. 30.11 School Boys who have Masters eminently severe are concerned to make as few faults as ever they can and to please them as much as ever lies in their power as ever they hope to sleep in a whole skin such a Master is Conscience if it set on Now the way to give it content and to keep it quiet with us is as followeth Direct 1. See that Conscience it self be well advised and informed like a Jury that have received full instructions from the Judge else it may chance to chide us sometimes upon pure mistake as the weakest People are usually the most querulous What serves the Word of God for what more proper use can be made of pious and able Ministers of our acquantance with Judicious and experienced Christians than that by the help of all these our Consciences might be guided into the way of truth Neither is it easie for us to imagine that in case we did use all these means to inform our Consciences aright that God would suffer them to err in any great and dangerous instances Direct 2. When we have got our Consciences well advised our next business should be to consult and advise with our Consciences When Conscience hath heard what God hath to say to it we should hear what Conscience had to say to us As God gave his Law to Moses and Moses to his People so God speaks first to Conscience or gives his Law to Conscience and Conscience in Gods Name gives Law to us If we pay not that respect to our Consciences to consult with them they will never be at peace with us but think themselves slighted and affronted Conscience expects that every Man should say to it By your leave and may it stand with your good liking before he enterpriseth any matter of concernment When a Man hath any thing in design the first question to be asked is Is it lawful to be done And of whom should a Man ask that but of his Conscience leaving thar to inform it self the best it can by all the wayes and means aforesaid For as God took it ill when the Israelites sate down to eat and drink with the Gibeonites and asked not Counsel of the Lord So will Conscience when we do any thing of importance and do not first ask its Counsel and repair to it as to an Oracle Direct 3. If thou wouldst not have Conscience smite thee then when Conscience is yet in doubt and suspence be thou in suspence also suspend acting till Conscience become resolved according to that good old saying Quod dubitas ne facias Remembring the Apostles Words He that doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not of faith for whatsoever is not of faith is sin Rom. 14.23 As also the Exhortation which the same Apostle giveth v. 5. Let every man be fully perswaded or assured in his own mind Meaning of the lawfulness of that which he taketh in hand He that would maintain peace and friendship betwixt Conscience and himself or rather that would have his Conscience good friends with him let him await the full resolution and satisfaction of Conscience before he presumes to act Direct 4. He that would escape the severe stroaks and smitings of Conscience let him take heed of doing any thing contrary to the express distates and commands of thereof of going if I may so express it to Tarshish as did Jonah when Conscience would send him to Nineveh of going to the West when the Commission which he hath received is for the East Conscience is very impatient of being contradicted and that Men and Women should proceed point blank contrary to its Counsel and Command Next to that indignation wherewith you may imagine the great God resented it when the Israelites of old made this stubborn reply to his Prophet Jeremy Jer. 44.16 viz. As for the Word that thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not hearken unto thee but we will certainly do whatsoever thing goes forth out of our own Mouth to burn Incense unto the Queen of Heaven c.
thing remembring what Amaziah did Who put to death those that slew his Father but he slew not their Children but did as it is written in the Book of Moses viz. Deuter. 24.16 where the Lord commanded saying the father shall not die for the children neither shall the children die for their fathers but every man shall die for his own sin 2 Chron. 25.4 I say not in order to fixing any odium or disgrace upon the survivors but purely to convince as many as stand in need of it that Ministers and People may and ought to observe the Thirtieth of January as an Anniversary Fast Yea and that our Rulers do well in appointing it so to be kept in order to bewailing and seeking the expiation of a most notorious Sin and fetching out the stain of Royal Blood I say in order thereunto I hold it necessary and a Duty to set a Mirror before the Eyes of Men in which they may see the true visage and complexion of that horrid Crime which God grant may never more be laid to Englands charge Know then if either Perjury High Treason Rebellion Sacriledge Wilful and deliberate Murther Parricide or the killing of a Father Patricide or the ruining of our Native Countrey Justicidium or taking away the life of a Just Person Regnicidium or the destroying of a Kingdom Monarchicidium or the destruction of Monarchy it self Legicidium or the subversion of Laws Suicidâ—um or a mans killing of himself or being Felo dâ— se Animaecidium Soul-murther so far as in men is Multicidium or the Murthering of many at once both as to body and soul if Gods mercy prevent not yea Deicidium or striking at the life of God himself in a higher sense than most other sins are said to do I say if all these things put together do amount to a very great and stupendious sin then such a sin it was to put King Charles the First to death And now you see I have not charged the Kings Judges with Cumulative Treason or many Petty Treasons or Non Treasons pretended when they were all put together to amount to High Treason for High Treason it self is but one Article in this Charge Now it remains that so great a Charge as this should be proved against them And had I not been conscious of its being easie to be proved I would never have exhibited it for fear of violating the Ninth Commandment First Article of this Charge is Perjury for I do aver that they who sentenced the King to death did in so doing horribly violate the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy as also the Solemn League and Covenant though an Oath of their own imposing wherein they swore to preserve the Kings life and honour c. And as many of them as were his Majesties Servants as some such there were did also break the particular Oath which they had taken as such and thus breaking four Oaths at once may be said to be shod round with Perjury Some it may be would have added that they had also violated their Baptismal Vow and Oath and as many Repetitions and Confirmations of it as they had made in receiving the holy Eucharist because by those two Sacramental Vows all other Duties are bound upon men and consequently the observation of all our lawful Promissory Oaths but I need not strain so far to find out Aggravations of so Notorious a Fact Secondly My Charge against these men iâ— that of High Treason It is Petty Treason for a Woman to kill her own Husband though but a private man and what petty Sovereigns are private men compared with Princes 'T is Treason by our Laws barely to imagine the death of the King Queen or Prince yea to kill the Chancellor Treasurer or any Justice of either Bench Justices of Assize or any other Justices doing their Offices is by the Statute declared to be High Treason Statut. de Proditionibus 25 E. 3. Stat. 5. cap. 2. Yea it is Petty Treason for a servant to kill his Master c. Nay clipping crashing rounding or fileing for lucre sake any of the Peoples Moneys or Coyns of this Realm is adjudged High Treason Stat. 5 Eliz. 11. Is the Kings Money as it were inviolable and not to be clipped or diminished but upon pain of death and is not his person so In a Statute 13 Car. 2. cap. 1. it is thus said It shall be Treason in any persons whatsoever to compass imagine invent devise or intend death or any bodily harm maim or wounding imprisonment or restraint of the person of the King c. If to maim or imprison his person be Treason what is it then to put him to death But methinks I hear some say Though the Laws of England do punish Treason as a great and capital Crime yet possibly it is not so in the eye of Gods Law Now though every Breach of Gods Commandment be a sin yet possibly there are some Laws of Men that may be broken without sin To that I reply the sinful Laws of Men are better broke than kept Such as was Nebuchadnezzar's when he commanded all people to fall down and worship the Golden Image that he had set up Dan. 3.5 Such also was Darius his Dan. 6.7 when he made a Decree That whosoever should ask a Petition of any God or man save of the King for thirty dayes should be cast into a Den of Lyons Such also were the Statutes of Omry Micah 6.16 But no man can imagine that those Laws are sinful by which the lives and liberties of Princes as well as of the People are secured to them Now most certain it is that Humane Laws when lawful can never be violated without sin or without doing that which is in the sight of God as well as of men unlawful I think at present of no less than firâ— Commandments of the Second Table which were broken by those who put King Charlâ— the First to death viz. first of all the Fifâ— Commandment in these words Honour the father and thy mother for Kings are Poliâ—â—cal Fathers and to kill them is as 〈◊〉 from honouring them as any thing can be Secondly It was a manifest violation of the Sixth Commandment which saith Theâ— shalt not kill Thirdly of the Eighth Commandment also which saith Thou shalt 〈◊〉 steal For was not the language of theâ—â— hearts who put the King to death the same with that of their mouths Mat. 21.38 who said of our Saviour Come 〈◊〉 us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance Witness Cooks Confession viz. That what be did in reference to the Kings death was not 〈◊〉 of malice but covetousness not out of hatred to the King but for the love of money Habetâ—â— confitentem reum The Ninth Commandment which is Thou shalt not bear false witness c. was as manifestly transgressed by those who had a hand in that good Kings death as any of the former For without the horrible breach of that Commandment it had
diffused power of the two last should happen to be equally divided as is possible for it to be and yet to have a power of determining it self and turn the Scales must not that be done by some one man will it not necessarily issue there For say All power were in a Senate consisting of a thousand men admit there be all the Members of that Senate present at a debate save only one by means of whose absence there being five hundred Votes on the one side there can be but 499 on the other upon this so great division you see the whole Affair is carried by but one voice Even amongst those who by their constitution have an equal share in Government is there not generally a Dominus fac totum a Chieftain or Superintendant a Leading-man a man that hath the casting voice generally given him in whose advice and counsel all the rest or the major part of them do acquiesce And what is such a man but a Monarch in his place and amongst those over whom he governs so absolutely so uncontroulably let him go by what name he will either of Justice Magistrate or Minister c. Kings themselves do not act without their Privy Council and other persons of Honor who are assisting to their Affairs but in conjunction with them their advice and assistance they do what they please And truly so do those petty invisible Princes or Kings that walk incognito and under disguise They in conjunction with some of the best Head-pieces that are about them and by the assistance of their party which adheres to them carry what they please carry all before them in spight of all opposition Thus it was from the beginning thus it now is and will be to the end of the world Were it not easie to say Who is in effect a Monarch amongst the Anabaptists and amongst the Quakers c So that all the Governments in the world are virtually and in effect Monarchies though the people see it not and their Votes are little more than for fashion-sake and to please them with a shadow of Power and Liberty when their real power is little more than to sit still He then that is an Enemy to Monarchy and to every thing that is like it will presently become an enemy to all sorts of Governments all the world over which are indeed and truth but so many Virtual Monarchies all things considered So men fly the Name whilst they continue the Thing and alter the Shadow whilst they accept the Substance of Monarchy over them Amongst those who are equal in power the wisest will always govern the weakest and they that by their Wealth or Prudence or otherwise can make the greatest Party will carry all before them If then the light of Nature and universal practice of the world hath determined Monarchy to be the best and most necessary form of Government who can sufficiently decry their sin who did not only destroy an excellent King and Monarch but also aimed at the destruction of Monarchy or Kingly Power throughout Europe that if it were possible the Name and Thing might be rooted out and might be restor'd no more And so I have made good the 12th thing which I charg'd upon them viz. an attempt to destroy Monarchy though it be the best Government in the world Thirteenthly It must needs be confest they were Self-murtherers or Felo de se's who murthered the late King For in taking away his life they forfeited their own If an Earl or a greater Subject do wilfully but murther a poor Foot-man or Beggar by so doing he forfeits his life according to God's Law yea and the Law of England too He then that kills a King had he a hundred thousand lives would by so doing forfeit every one of them and be made to pay his forfeiture too unless great clemency interpose I remember no one Regicide in all the Scripture but what is punished with death save only that of Jehu committed upon the person of Joram which being done at the express command of God ought not I think to be called Regicide But I pass on Fourteenthly The murthering of the late King was Animaecidium not only Self-murther as to each of their Bodies but Soul-murther as to every of them unless the infinite Mercy of God should step in and prevent it Is Hell-fire the wages of them that wilfully murder but a private person witness those words 1 John 3.15 And ye know no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him i. e. no wilful murtherer hath jus in re as to eternal life i. e. any present actual capacity to enter into life eternal as he that was under a Leprosie under the Law might not for that time be admitted to eat the Passeover though jus ad rem i. e. a dormant suspended right which may or shall be restor'd and redintegrated upon his repentance that he may have as David had when he defiled Bathsheba But divers do say If David had never actually repented of that great sin he had never had eternal life but had been everlastingly damn'd So Baronius in his excellent Book De peccato mortali veniali If the wilful murthering of one private man be enough to sink a Soul into Hell what will not the murder of a King do Will not God heat that Furnace yet ten times hotter for Regicides Korah Dathan and Abiram are called sinners against their own Souls Numb 16.38 for rebelling against Moses and Aaron i. e. for but murmuring against them though not one drop of blood was shed by their hands How greatly then have they sinn'd against their own Souls who have rebelled and resisted even to blood I have before quoted that Text Rom. 13.2 They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation I leave that word to fasten this head on their Consciences as a nail in a sure place and pass on to the next Fifteenthly The murthering of the King was Multicidium pardon the making of a new word in such a case as this or Caedes multorum or Homicidium multiplicatum complicatum i. e. it was a great many murthers in one First it was virtually so according to the computation which we read of 2 Sam. 18.3 But the people answered Thou shalt not go forth i. e. David should should not go forth to Battle thou art more worth than ten thousand of us c. Secondly It was actually so as the Complices in that violent action by encouraging and emboldning each other thereunto were guilty of the sin and death of one another Thirdly As the death of the late King was remotely the death of many persons and families I mean the ruine and destruction of multitudes of Families which depended upon him which was worse than dâ—ath its self Sixteenthly Putting of the late King to death was Legicidium as well as Regicidium i. e. the death of the Law as well as of the King For first By the King's death a stop was put to the
since his Return we have had as much assurance as we need to wish of the greatness and goodness of his Princely Intellectuals of his being endowed with excellent natural parts which brings to mind a Scotch Proverb viz. That one inch of Mother-wit meaning natural ingenuity is better than an ell of Clergy And those natural parts improved and exalted by forein Travel converse with all sorts of men Experience both of Adversity and Prosperity dispatch of business for many years together the constant and assistance of wise Counsellors and the advantage of his great office and Dignity and you know by how much higher any man standeth by so much farther off can he see So that now I know no man can question whether he hath great fitness and skill for the business and purposes of a King great understanding how to govern in all points and better skill to manage a Scepter than any man who hath not a Scepter to manage 5. If it be yet a further mercy or happiness to a people to have a King that is active or nimble not dull or sluggish so is he I had almost said that his Majesty seems to be as much an Vbiquitary when he pleaseth i.e. here and there and every where as his Affairs require his presence as any man that wears a body I had almost said he hath not only a body so agile and active as if it were a Soul but also a Soul so active as if it were an Angel rather than the Soul of a mortal man 6. Is not that King a great mercy and blessing under whom his Subjects do live as easily as freely and as much like men as any Subjects in the world do Where more liberty more peace more plenty than amongst English men who by their Representatives in Parliament may be said to carry the purse at their Girdles whilst his Majesty carrieth the Sword by his side Go but over Sea to other parts of Europe or of the world and when you see how it fareth with Subjects almost every where else what meer Slaves they are in comparison of Englishmen you will look upon England as the most temperate Climate that any Subjects do live in and think with your selves that if there were but a Bridge betwixt England and other parts of the world all Subjects would chuse to come and live here as is said in another case Verily the Subjects of England are little Princes to what the Subjects are in other parts and to them I may apply those words of the Poet Foelices nimium sua si bona norant We are too too happy if we did but know it If there be at this day a Canaan upon earth like that of old flowing with milk and honey I mean abounding with all manner of good things England is one not for Bodies only but for Souls also In England God is known and his Name great in England he hath not dealt so with every Nation nor have they known his Statutes as we have done Why then hear we such bleating of the sheep and such lowing of the oxen Why such murmuring complaining and not rather serving God with chearfulness in the midst of all the good things which we have in England Is it not a great wonder that we should be the most happy of all people and yet the least contented the least thankful If it be a happiness to a trading people to have a King that maketh it his business to promote the Trade and Traffique of his people we have such a one I could safely produce a person of great worth and eminency and of as much skill in Merchandize possibly as most men in the world who has told me time after time bona fide that no Prince to the best of his observation was ever so much concern'd for the good of Trade or had more denied himself for the advancement thereof than his Majesty that now is hath done which I doubt not but he is ready to demonstrate to every rational man But if after all this Trading be but dead as that is the great complaint and the very cardo controversiae hinc illae lachrymae may not his Majesty say to his people Am I in Gods stead If the Lord help ye not in that point as the King said to the woman of Samaria that cried to him for bread in the time of famine How should I help you So it fareth with many private Families they are but poor and yet the Master of the Family is a man of double diligence providence forecast rises early and eates the bread of carefulness Is it just and equal that his Children and Servants should be ready to stone him because he doth not grow rich upon all his labours Nay it is as God pleases for that matter witness Deut. 8.18 Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth If he that is poor in spight of all his diligence and care had been careless and slothful possibly his Family had been starv'd which now is only not rich So had we not had a Prince who had been such a Nursing-Father to Trade as his present Majesty is it may be by this time there had been no Trade at all or next to none 8ly If Kings be Defenders of the Antient Catholick Apostolick Faith The faith once delivered to the Churches of the true Christian Protestant Religion have we not cause to bless God for them as such And such an one is he whom God hath set over us Is not the Protestant Religion defended by him Are not Protestants by him defended and protected in the publick open and free exercise of their Religion So as Papists are not who fly about like Bats rather than otherwise Are not all the Preferments of the Church bestowed upon the Protestant Divines have not they all the Archbishopricks Bishopricks Deaneries Prebends Masterships of Colledges c. amongst them Are not good and learned Books against Popery licens'd from time to time and Popish Books suppressed whether they come from beyond Sea or endeavor to get out of our English Presses Are not all publick Ordinations Administration of Sacraments and other Church-Offices dispensed after the manner of Protestants Are not the Articles of the Church of England defended by his Majesty and are not they all purely Frotestant Those things considered who can deny his Majesty to be really a Defender of the Faith And why should any man go about to clip his Title any more than he dare to clip his Coin May he not be truly a Defender of the Faith though he be no Defender of Presbytery either Scotch or English nor yet of Independency nor of Anabaptism nor of Quakerism nor of Fifth-Monarchism I say though he be no Defender of any of them in the Abstract but only of their persons in the Concrete who are of those perswasions I say he may be a Defender of the Faith nevertheless and so he is
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