THE DEATH OF King Charles I. Proved a Down-right MURDER, With the Aggravations of it. IN A SERMON AT St. Botolph Aldgate, LONDON, January 30. 1692/3. To which are Added, some Just Reflections upon some late Papers, concerning That King's Book.
By RICH. HOLLINGWORTH, D.D.
LONDON, Printed by R. Norton for Walter Kettilby, at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1693.
To the INHABITANTS Of St. Botolph Aldgate, LONDON, Who are true Lovers of Old England indeed.
THere is a certain bold Libeller, who has been pleased under the Name of Ludlow a Regicide, to load me with a great many reproaches and false Stories in several lewd Pamphlets, in order to prejudice you against my Person, and thereby to hinder the success of my Ministry amongst you; which, thanks be to God, has had very little effect as yet, and I hope never will: for I must say thus much, that I have found the Love and Respects of abundance of You rather encrease than diminish, ever since I undertook the honest and just Defence of King Charles the First into my hands; but however that You may not repent of standing by me in this good Cause, I think it very necessary to take this [Page]occasion to defend my self against an Imputation of this bad Man's, to wit, of Forgery, a Sin of which if I thought, or knew my self guilty, I should Blush, nay Tremble, ever to come into a Pulpit, to Preach the Doctrines of the Gospel either to You, or any other persons whatsoever; and therefore, I shall with all freedom and unreservedness let You into the Knowledge of this thing, which he calls Forgery.
Being the last Summer at my Lord Bishop of London's, I accidentally met with the Reverend Mr. Lamplugh Son to the late Archbishop of York, who was pleased, knowing that I was engaged in the Cause of King Charles the First, to shew me Mr. Henderson's Death-bed Declaration, which he found in his Father's study, and upon my request, to lend it me, which after I had read, and found so very Honest, so plain and hearty a Character, and so agreeable to what by an uninterrupted Tradition had been delivered down to us of this Age, both by English and Scotchmen, namely, that Mr. Henderson after a thorow acquaintance and conversation with King Charles the First at Newcastle, went away perfectly changed as to his Opinion of that King's Sanctity, Learning and profound Judgment; and with great grief that he had been [Page]instrumental to the Miseries that Good Man was brought to, at that time: I say, it being so agreeable to what was so generally said of Mr. Henderson, I, after I had shewed it to many Persons of great Character and Consideration in Our Church, and by them encouraged to make it more publick resolved to Re-print it, that the World might see how much that Great and Good Man was abused by this Libeller, who so impudently brands him with the Name of Nimrod, Pharaoh, and unaccountable Tyrant, which Character, as it wonderfully pleased all that wish well to our English Monarchy; so it had the contrary effect upon our Commonwealths men, and therefore in half a Years time this Scribler makes a shift to get Two pretended Papers to Prove this a Forgery: The First is, as he tells you, a Letter from a grave and worthy Gentleman who lived in Scotland about that time, and was very conversant in the great Affairs of that Kingdom: And what says this grave and knowing Gentleman to this affair? why he tells him, he never heard of this Declaration neither there nor here, and that had it been true, to wit, that there was such a one, the World would have been full of it. Strange, that this Man so conversant in the great Affairs of Scotland at that time, should not hear of a [Page]Declaration of the General Assembly, as to the Falshood and Forgery of that Book; and therefore this very thing must make any Man, not prejudiced, call in question the Truth of the Assemblies Declaration, especially considering this bold Man puts it out, without any attestation from any Publick Notary, or any other Creditable Witnesses, whom he might have employed to search the Records, and therefore I believe upon this account the World will lay the Forgery at his Door, and not at mine; especially when I tell him this Story, that I have from a great and undoubted hand: That Mr. Henderson when he came from Newcastle to Edinburgh, did design to unbosome himself in the great Church at Edinburgh, as to the Vertues of that great King, and the Reasons of the Change of his Opinion of Him; which was understood by some great Leaders in the Assembly, and therefore they hindred his Preaching; after which he fell Sick and Dyed, and no doubt to unburthen and ease his Mind, drew up in this Declaration what he intended to Preach, had he been permitted. And now, I think, my Good Neighbours, You will say I have sufficiently defended my self from the base Imputation of a Forgerer.
The other things I shall trouble you with the account of, are some Papers said lately to be found, which plainly, as they say, make it out that King Charles I. was not the Author of that Book, which for forty odd Years has gone in his Name. These Papers, by the kindness of the Gentleman in whose hands they are, I have examined twice, and I am very sorry, for Dr. Gauden's Memory sake, that they have been so much exposed, because in my Remarks upon them, some things must fall very hard upon that Prelate, which I should be very averse to, was not the Name, Honour, Religion and Learning of King Charles concerned, which, I hope, will excuse me amongst all Men that understand the difference of Persons, especially of a King and a Subject.
The first Paper I shall take notice of, is a Petition to the King for the Bishoprick of Winchester, which, indeed, for his Memory's sake, ought by no means to have been exposed to view; it is so Romantick, so childishly cracking and boasting of his Heroick and Secret Service, that a Man would think the poor Man had utterly forgot and lost all the impressions of common Policy and Prudence, and was resolved to provoke the King to command him out of White-Hall; [Page]as a Man not fit to be a Countrey Curate, much less preferred to the wealthiest Bishoprick in England: But the best of it is, though he had the vanity to draw it up, he was yet so wise as not to present it, which is plain from his own mouth; for Page 5 of Dr. Walker, we have this Story, That the last time Dr. Walker saw him, which was after he was Lord Bishop of Worcester Elect, he asked him whether King Charles II. knew that he wrote the Book? He gave him this answer; That I cannot positively and certainly say he doth, because he was never pleased to take express notice of it to me: The truth of it is, when I consider that Dr. Walker says, That Dr. Gauden took the Covenant; and that when Mr. Zach. Crofton charges Dr. Gauden as one of the number of Covenanters: And Dr. Gauden denies all, Page 275. of Anti-Baal, and says, That Mr. Crofton reckons without his Host, when he made him one of the number of Covenanters, and positively assures the World, that he never took any Oaths but those appointed by Law, no League nor Vow, and that if he had done it, he must have had no peace 'till he had publickly repented, and recanted such Dissimulation, which he abhors as Hell. I say, when I read this, I wonder at, nay, I believe, nothing that Dr. Gauden [Page]either said or did, in order to get a fat Bishoprick: but before I leave this Paper, give me leave to say, that the Style is so like to all his other Writings, and so altogether unlike the King's Book, that I will as soon believe that Mr. Ralph Venning, who Writ two Books, called Milk and Honey, and Orthodox Paradoxes, or that Mr. William Seckar, who Writ the fulsom Sermon, called the Wedding Ring, could have Writ the Whole Duty of Man, or Mr. Baxter's Saints Everlasting Rest, as that Dr. Gauden could Write the Eicon.
The next Paper is a Letter to my Lord Chancellour Hide, still for the Bishoprick of Winchester: And the Truth of it is, here he displays himself to the full, and shews his Virtues all at once; and how far the World ought to give credit to his pretences, for he down-right offers to commit the sin of Simony, and bids one half of the Bishoprick of Winchester to get the other; a fit Man indeed, to Write such Holy and Divine Meditations as are contained in the King's Book; who rather than miss his Ambitious Aims, will enter in at the door of Perjury, and, I am sure he that will forswear himself, will not fail to tell a falsehood, when Covetousness and Pride have the Ascendant of him.
The next and last Paper I shall take notice of, is a long Narrative of Mrs. Gauden's, all which depends upon her Husband's Truth, and which will not hold together when it comes strictly to be examined. She tells you of an intercourse betwixt King Charles the Second and Dr. Gauden, about the Book, and the King upon satisfaction that he wrote it, promised him the Reversion of the Bishoprick of Winchester; and yet as by the former Story appears, the King, even after he was Elect of Worcester, never said word to him of any such thing. She further positively asserts, that her Husband sent the Manuscript to the King at the Isle of Wight, and that the King received it, and sent Bishop Duppa to give Dr. Gauden an account of it: and yet, pag. 5. of Dr. Walker, he asking Dr. Gauden whether the King had ever seen the Book, he gave him this Answer, I know it certainly no more than you; but I used my best endeavours that he might, for I delivered a Copy of it to the Marquess of Hartford, when he went to the Treaty at the Isle of Wight, and intreated his Lordship, if he could obtain any private opportunity he would deliver it to his Majesty, and humbly desire to know his Majesty's pleasure concerning it. But the Violence which threatned the King, hastning so fast, he ventured [Page]to Print it, and never knew what was the issue of sending it. Here is brave work, my Masters, Dr. Gauden, by Dr. Walker, down-right giving Mrs. Gauden the lye. She tells you in another place, that it was some few days after the King's Murder, that her Husband got the Book, Printed it: whereas it is well known, the Book was Printed off before the King's Murder.
But commend me to the last positive assertion of this Lady, for she tells you, that some of the Rump-Parliaments Friends took the very Manuscript her Husband sent to his Majesty, and appointed a private Committee, to find out the business. This had been brave for Mr. Milton, and I am sure we should have heard of it again and again, in his Answer to the King's Book; and no doubt that Remnant of the House that sat and were so grieved at this Book, and lost so much ground throughout the Kingdom, by Vertue of this Book, would have sent this news all over the Nation: but not one word of all this, but the Book passed, as it ought to do, for above 12. Years together, as the King's own. And so I take my leave of Mrs. Gauden, but not without expressing my hearty sorrow, that I am absolutely necessitated to these Remarks and Reflections upon Dr. Gauden and his Wife; for I take no pleasure neither in speaking ill of, [Page]nor doing ill to any Man or Woman whatsoever.
But it may be some will say, pray why did my Lord Chancellour Hide seem to believe it: I answer, that he was perfectly imposed upon, by Dr. Gauden, and knew nothing of the matter it self; for he never saw the King's face after he left Oxford, being always excepted out of Pardon by the Parliament, and so became wholly a stranger to the King's private Transactions.
And now, my good Friends and Neighbours, I shall only trouble you, by asking you whether those are not very credulous Men, and have Throats that will swallow Mountains, that make these vain contradictory Papers weigh down the evidence of Major Huntington; who after Nazeby fight, procured so much of the King's Book as was then drawn up from Fairfax the General, and delivered the Papers with his own hand to the King, who received them with great joy, and told him, that he esteemed them more than all the Jewels he had lost in his Cabinet, which was attested to me by Mr. Cave Becke, a Reverend, Pious and Learned Minister, now living in Ipswich, from the mouth of the Major, in a Letter under his own hand: and also by Mr. Ric. Duke of Devon, and several others in the same County to Mr. Read, Archdeacon of Barnstaple, who all [Page]had it from the Major himself; or will weigh down the Evidence of that holy, humble, modest and admirable learned Man Dr. Dillingham, sometimes Fellow and Master of Emanuel College in Cambridge, who declared to his Son, which I have formerly Printed from a Letter writ by himself to a Reverend Minister in London, That his Father read in the King's Closet at Holdenby, presently after he came from Newcastle, several Sentences newly writ, as he supposed, by the King's own hand, which he afterwards found exactly in a Chapter of the King's Book; the Truth of which Story has been very lately confirmed to me by the Reverend Mr. Saunderson, late Fellow of Emanuel College, to whom that learned Doctor did tell it more than once: Or, further, Whether these vain and unaccountable Papers will weigh down the Evidence of Sir John Brattle, lately deceased, who has declared a hundred and a hundred times, within this last year, to my self and others, That he assisted his Father in methodizing the King's loose Papers, which made up the greatest part of this Book in the Year 1647. and which were brought to his Father by the King's Order, by Bishop Juxon for that purpose; or weigh down the credit of that holy, honest and couragious Sufferer [Page]Mr. Simmonds: All which Characters will appear in a few Weeks to be true of him, by his Book called, The Vindication of King Charles the First, which was Printed in 48. and now Re-printed again by my self, who all along in his Sickness, and to his last Breath, declared it to be the King's own Book, and none others, whose only fault was in the trust reposed in him by the King to Print and Correct this Book, that he showed it to Dr. Gauden, and let him too much into the knowledge of it, who thereupon, Mr. Simmonds being dead, and the Marquess of Worcester too, who, if living, could have disproved, to his shame, all his Pretences, in order to serve his ambitious ends, sets up for the Author of the Book. Or lastly, weigh down the Evidence of the Reverend Mr. Long, who so sacredly has declared, that he heard Dr. Gauden declare, and often affirm, that he was fully convinced, that the Book was entirely that King's Work. I now, my good Friends, appeal to you all, to judge betwixt these so much cryed-up Papers, and the Evidence against them for that great and good King; and I leave my self in your hands, and the hands of all the dis-interested and unprejudiced part of the Kingdom, to judge whether I am guilty of Forgery, that great sin a late Barbarous Libeller lays to my charge.
I shall detain you no longer than to tell you, That the reason of my Zeal and Labour in the Vindication of this King, next to my satisfaction in his Personal Vertues, it, that the Principles by which this King was Murdered, and by which his Murder is now justified, will, if they prevail once more, destroy our English Ancient Monarchy, and tear up by the Roots again, the best constituted Church in the World; and by the Grace of God, as I will never contribute to such a Design, so according to my small Ability, I will in my place endeavour to prevent it, let what will come of Me and Mine. My good Neighbours, praying for your Health and Happiness, and thanking of you for your continued kindness to me, I am your hearty loving Friend and Minister.
TO THE Counterfeit LUDLOW.
WHereas you challenge me as to the Truth of the Story concerning Mrs. Gauden to a Lady, if you please to come, or send to me, I will direct you to that Reverend Person, who will satisfie you, that a Lady told him above sixteen years ago, that Mrs. Gauden told her, That she questioned the Eternal State of her Husband, because he pretended to be the Author of a Book, which to her knowledge he never wrote. And when you know him, you will say I am not out, when I say, He is as considerable a Person as most that wears a Gown.
Imprimatur.
Guil. Lancaster.
YEsterday, being the 15th of February, a very Worthy and particular Friend of mine, was pleased to come to my house, and to inform me, That one Captain Rhodes, together with his Mother, could give me a farther account of King Charles the First's Book; upon which I gave the said Captain a meeting the last Night, who was pleased to invite me to his House this afternoon, being the 16th instant, where and when the Mother, a grave, serious Gentlewoman, did declare to me, that her Husband Dr. Rhodes, Minister of Haughton and Thorpe near Newark, did live in Newark in the time it was a Garison, while the King was there, and that the King came often to her House, to discourse with her Husband, and that her Husband did conduct the King in a disguise, from Newark to Oxford, and was with him often, from that time till his being a Prisoner in the Isle of Wight, where he attended him also; in all which places he saw those parts of the King's Book which he then drew up, Written [Page]with his own hand, being so intimate with the King, and so intirely beloved by him, as to be admitted into his Closets and secret Communications: all which her Husband often told her as great Truths; and the said Captain, her Son, did declare to me, which he will when lawfully called restifie upon Oath, that he was in company with Sir Francis Leake, and one Major Millington a Sectary, and his Father, when a discourse arising about this Book, his Father solemnly laid his Hand upon his Breast and said, upon the Word of an Honest Man, I have at several times, and in several places, seen and read these Papers, Writ with the King's own hand. This Captain Rhodes and his Mother live in Mansel-street in Goodman's Fields, within two doors of the Green Man, and will justifie the Truth of what I have said, to any that have the curiosity to ask them. And now, Mr. Ben. Hatley, who against Faith and Promise, exposed these false and ridiculous Papers to publick View, at the Rummer in Queen-street, and suffered a silly abstract to be taken by the Counterfeit Ludlow: much good may your Design do you, though I assure you Dr. Gauden's Relations have no reason to thank you.
MATTHEW XIX. 18. Jesus said, Thou shalt do no Murder.
WHEN God Created Man, He designed that his Issue and Posterity should live in Love and Peace with one another, mutually Helping and Assisting each other, according to their several Necessities and Straits: and therefore, when Cain rose up against his Brother Abel, and embrued his Hands in his Bloud, the great God, to shew his abhorrence and detestation of the Sin, tells him, that the Voice of his Brother's Bloud, was come to Him from the ground; and in Judgment makes him a Vagabond and a Wanderer, and afterwards makes a standing Law in order to deterr Men from a Sin, that did so break in upon the Reason of his Creation, and the Laws of Society; That whosoever did shed Man's Bloud, [Page 2]by Man should his Bloud be shed. And when He gave the Ten Commandments by the hands of Moses to the Children of Israel, He inserted this for one, Exod. 20. That he should not kill. And our Saviour who came to fulfil all Righteousness, and as He tells us himself, Matth. 5. Not to destroy, but to fulfil the Law, namely, To set things in a clearer Light, to found the Practice of them upon Nobler Principles, to carry them to Nobler Ends, and to give Men greater Spiritual Aids and Assistances to perform them, than the Jews had under the Paedagogy of Moses: He repeats and justifies this particular Law, making the observance of it, one of the conditions of Eternal Life, and tells the Man in the words of my Text, Thou shalt do no Murder.
In the handling of which Words, I will briefly fix the true Notion of Murder, of Killing our fellow Creatures, those of the same Rank and Order of Being with our selves; and then see whether the Murder we are appointed by the Wisdom of the Nation This Day to bewail, is not according to that Notion of Murder, a real Act of Murder, and not a piece of Justice, as many wicked Men, at this Day, call it, and consequently does not [Page 3]deserve to be abhorred and grieved for by all Men that wish well to the Kingdom, and in order to it do endeavour to atone that displeasure which the Shedding, and the Vindicating the shedding of Innocent Bloud, may justly raise in the Divine Breast, and which may provoke God still to pour down his Judgments upon us for so doing.
And certainly there is no good Man in the Nation but will conclude, considering the Circumstances and Dangers we are in, threatned by a powerful Enemy abroad, and weakned so much, by so great destructive Divisions at home: I say there is no good Man but will conclude, that we ought to do all that lyes in us to procure the Blessings, and the kind and seasonable interposals of Divine Providence to secure our Armies by Land, and our Forces by Sea, and so to prosper them, that we may be delivered from the hands of our Enemies, and all that hate us, our Nation and Religion. And he that by Vindicating the crying Sin of Murder, does contribute towards Divine Provocation, he is so far from being a Friend to the Laws and Liberties of his Countrey, that he is the greatest Enemy they have, and ought by all [Page 4]Men trusted with Publick Offices either Spiritual or Secular, to be both publickly instructed, and with all good Temper to be reproved too, that so he may be reclaimed from a Sin that hath so poysonous an influence upon the Good of the Community of which he is a Member.
First therefore, As for the True Notion of Murder, the thing forbidden in the Text; In short, it is nothing else but the taking away another Man's Life without a Warrant from God, or Man deputed and entrusted by God, in a Judicial way to bring Men to such a piece of Justice as deprives them of their Lives. For, it is plain from Scripture, that many Mens Lives have been taken away, by an immediate Command from God, which justified the Act, and took away the Notion, and consequently the Guilt of Murder. And it is as plain, that there are many Acts of Wickedness that God ordered the Lawful Magistrate, for the appeasing of Divine Wrath and the Good of Humane Societies to put Men to Death, which Laws have had their force in all Nations and Countries whatsoever, and indeed, without which, Humane Societies would quickly be dissolved, and the World would be like nothing [Page 5]but a Wilderness or Desart, full of Men turned into the nature of wild Bears and Tygers; and where you have one violent destruction of a Fellow-Creature, you would have a thousand. So that the Murder of my Text is nothing else but a pretending and undertaking to be Master of another Man's Life, without any Commission from God, or any Legal Tryal by Men, according to the Laws of the Country in which they live, and to which they are bound to subject themselves. So that this brings me to the work and business of this day, namely, to consider, Whether the Death of King Charles the First was a Murder, yea, or no, or an Act of Justice, as some wicked men do still pretend to call-it?
Now here let us consider whether they had a Commission from God to do it. Now a Commission from God must either be by a Voice from Heaven, or else by the Ministry of an Angel sent by God, or some other way by which God did convey His Mind and Purpose to His People of old; none of which were ever pretended to, as the ground and reason of this great Man's Death, by any that had a hand in it. And therefore let us see what Warrant they had from the [Page 6]Laws of the Land. The Laws of the Land, What are they, or upon what Authority are they founded? Why, according to our Constitution, all Laws flow from the Power of King, Lords and Commons; the Lords and Commons framing and preparing Bills, such as they conceive for the Good of the Countrey; and the King, by his Royal Fiat, giving Life and Being to those Bills, upon which they immediately become obligatory to the People of the Land: to violate or transgress which, is attended with such Pains and Penalties, as those Law-makers who make up the Legislative Power of the Nation, think good and meet to enact; and whatsoever is offered as a Law, made without the concurrence of these Three Estates together, is an Invasion and Encroachment upon the True and Essential Constitution of the Kingdom: For neither the King without the Lords and Commons, nor the Lords and Commons without the King, can bind the Subject to any thing under the Notion of a Law of this Kingdom. This, my Beloved, is our happy Frame of Government, which certainly is the best the World can shew, and under which we ought to sit with great delight [Page 7]and pleasure: And they that go about to set any of these Three Powers, contrary to the Law, above their places, are great Enemies to this excellent Constitution, and their Projects and Contrivances, their Arguments and Proposals, have always been of very unhappy consequence to the Kingdom in general: And for my own part, I do here profess my self so great an Admirer of this happy Constitution, that by the Grace of God, my little Finger shall never be employed to make any jar in the Harmony and Concurrence of King, Lords and Commons; and I will always submit by doing, or by suffering, to whatsoever they shall Enact: And though they should pass into a Law, what I in Conscience could not comply withal, yet I think it my duty not to Resist, but to be passively Obedient; which I account the true Notion of Non-Resistance and Passive-Obedience; two Doctrines, which if not maintained and practised in this sense I have named, all Government is precarious, and will be in danger of being unhinged, whenever a number of discontented and ambitious Persons get together, with Force and Strength, in order to carry on their wicked and base [Page 8]designs, and to answer and gratifie their unreasonable dissatisfactions.
Well, this being the true Notion of the English Laws, pray let us see whether King, Lords and Commons, ever consented to a Law, that enabled one part to destroy the other, the King to destroy and null the Being and Authority of Lords and Commons; or the Lords and Commons to sit upon, judge and take away, the Life of their King. And here I challenge the boldest Assertor of the Justice of the Murder of this Day, to show me any one word, from the beginning of the Statute-Book to the end thereof, that looks this way, or gives such a Power into any of the three parts of the Legislative Powers Hands: And if there be no Commission from the Law of the Land, then certainly this Death must be called, and is, a true and real Murder, the Thing forbidden in my Text. A Law to do it! No, no; they could not perpetrate this Act, before they had broke in upon the whole Frame and Constitution of the Government; and they made their way to it by the most undutiful, rude and barbarous Acts, that History almost can parallel. For at that very time when the [Page 9]good King had made such Concessions as the House of Commons Voted a ground for Peace: and when the tired and harrassed Nation expected their Swords to be turned into Plow-shares, and the Spears into pruning books, at that time did an insolent Army, through Pride, Covetousness and Perjury, violently assault their Masters, who had set them on Work, and all along paid them their Wages, and stop'd and laid hold of many of the Members as they were going into the House, and put them under a restraint, even to such a number, that very few, considering of what number the House ought to consist, did remain behind: which Few, notwithstanding, took upon them the Name of the People of England, and in a short time, after some Votes, which rooted up and destroyed the very Fundamentals of our Government, Voted the Tryal of the King as a Traytor, and named Commissioners to sit upon him, and when they sent the Bill to the Lords for their concurrence, who nobly rejected it, for so doing, they Voted away all the Authority of the House of Lords, tho' it be by our Constitution the Highest Court of Judicature in the Kingdom. By such unheard of, and Barbarous Ways, they made way for [Page 10]the King's Tryal, and at last for his inhumane Death.
And now I appeal to any Man of Sense, Reason or Religion, whither this was not a real Murder, and I ask with what Brow any Man that pretends a Love for his Countreys Constitution, can advocate and plead for such an illegal Act; an Act of a few Men who took upon them an Authority our Law knows nothing of.
But to put the thing out of doubt, and to satisfie you to the full, that this was a real Murder, I will give you an Abstract of the Act, made by the Parliament upon the Restoration of King Charles the Second, many of the Members of which, were persons excluded by the Army, in order to the violent cutting off King Charles the First.
They declare in that Act, That The horrid and execrable Murder of our late most gracious Soveraign King Charles the First, of ever-blessed and glorious Memory, hath been committed by a party of wretched Men, desperately wicked and hardned in their impiety, who-having first plotted and contrived the ruine and destruction of our excellent Monarchy, and with it, the True Reformed Protestant Religion, which had been long [Page 11]protected by it, and flourished under it, to carry on their pernicious and traiterous designs, threw down all the Fences and Bulworks of Law, subverted the very Being and Constitution of Parliaments, that they might have a way opened for any further attempt upon the Sacred Person of his Majesty. Further they declare, That by many odious Acts they had fully strengthened themselves in Power and Faction—seiz'd upon his Royal Person—erected a prodigious and unheard of Tribunal, which they called an High Court of Justice for Tryal of his Majesty, and at last with force and cruelty they brought his Sacred Majesty to the Scaffold, and there publickly Murdered him before the Gates of his own Royal Palace. And because by this horrid Action, the Protestant Religion hath received the greatest Wound and reproach, and the People of England the most unsupportable Shame and Infamy that it was possible for the enemies of God and the King to bring upon us—Further it says, The Fanatick rage of a few miscreants, who were as far from being True Protestants, as they were from being True Subjects. Therefore we the Parliament do hereby renounce, abominate and protest against that impious Fact, that execrable Murther, and unparallel'd Treason committed against the Sacred [Page 12]Person and Life of our said late Sovereign, and all proceedings thereunto. And be it hereby declared, that by the undoubted and fundamental Laws of this Kingdom, neither the Peers of this Realm, nor the Commons, nor both together in Parliament, nor the People collectively, nor representatively, nor any other Person whatsoever, ever had, have or ought to have a coercive Power over the persons of the Kings of this Realm.
And for the vindicating our selves, and as a lasting Monument to Posterity, of our inexpressible detestation and abhorrence of this Villanous and Abominable Fact; Be it Enacted, that every 30th. of January shall be for over hereafter set a part to be kept and observed in all Churches and Chappels in his Majesties Dominions as an Anniversary day of Fasting and Humiliation to implore the Mercy of God, that neither the Guilt of the Sacred and Innocent Bloud may at any time hereafter be visited upon Ʋs and our Posterity. Then it goes on to Attaint as Traitors and Regicides, Oliver Cromwel, Edmund Ludlow, &c. as notorious Wicked and Active Instruments in prosecuting and compassing that Trayterous Murder.
And now, my Beloved, I hope, when the Wisdom of the Nation in Parliament has [Page 13]declared it self so fully and freely, I say, I hope, there is none in this Congregation will deny this Fact to be a real and down-right Murder, in the sense of my Text. Give me leave in the next place, to show you the Aggravations of this Murder, that so you may be affected with it, and thereby answer the Reason of the Day, and the design of those that appointed it, and consequently help to the keeping of that Divine Vengeance, which other mens justifying and abetting of it may justly pull down upon our heads. And the truth of it is, the Aggravations are great and many, and surmount all my little Rhetorick to make a just description of; but however, as far as I am able, I will give you them.
I. Consider the Aggravation from the Persons that contrived and accomplished this horrid Murder; they were Men that had sworn true Faith to him again and again, who had taken the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance, who took the Protestation, by which they promised to defend and secure the King's Rights; who took the Covenant, by which they engaged at the same rate, and to the same purposes; Men that had consented to Messages upon Messages, Petitions [Page 14]upon Petitions, under the Name and Notion of His Majesty's most humble and dutiful Subjects; who aimed at nothing, and called God to witness they had nothing more in their eyes, than the safety, honour and welfare of His Majesty's Person and Government; and yet these Men embrue their hands in His Bloud, and break through all the Ties and Obligations, these Oaths laid upon them, in order to kill and take possession of what he had. Now certainly, my Beloved, this thing ought mightily to be bewailed upon this account; and God must needs be angry with that People, who magnifie and vindicate not only the shedding of Righteous Bloud, but the working their way to it, through Perjury and Perfidiousness, through Breaches upon Promises, reiterated and repeated again and again: And therefore upon this account I recommend to you weeping, and wailing, because Perjury and Murder are great and crying sins.
II. Another Aggravation of this Murder is the Person that suffered, and that was King Charles I. and here let us see whether he deserved such a barbarous death. I am very far from thinking him a man in a state of [Page 15]Perfection; and I do acknowledge there were Errors and Failures in his Government, he came early to the Crown, and therefore might be imposed upon; but I hope every Man does not deserve to be knock'd o'th' Head for every particular slip of his life; if so, the best Kings that have Reigned would not have died natural deaths; neither David nor Solomon, neither Hezekiah nor Josiah, nor any other Prince, recorded for vertuous and very good men.
But, however, whatsoever his imperfections were in the beginning of his Reign, I am sure before the Quarrel began with him, he rectifyed them all, and consented to remove all those things that were accounted grievous, and indeed filled the Statute-Book with more Privileges than it does afford now; for a succeeding Parliament took away some things then established, which they, in their great Wisdom, thought neither fit for a King to grant, nor People to enjoy. The truth of it is, this Great Person, take him in all considerations, deserved a far better Lot than he met withal; and many of those that at first entertained hard thoughts of him, and engaged against him, upon Conversation and Acquaintance [Page 16]with him, repented of what they had done; and as they ever after bore a great esteem for him, so in all their discourses afterwards represented him, as one of the best of men they ever met withal; particularly the Learned and Pious Mr. Vines, who said to some Friends of mine, That if ever there was a Solomon since Solomon, it was Charles the I.
And truly no wonder; for certainly he was a Man endowed with as many Vertues and Graces as most Princes that ever sate upon a Throne. His Devotions in the way of the Church of England were constant and regular; his Discourses pithy and profitable; for he was a man of great Parts and admirable Improvements; his Behaviour was affable and courteous; and so long as he was able, possessed of his own Inheritance, he was greatly Charitable, and ready to lend his helping hand, in promoting any publick Good, which I could make out by many Instances; further, his Chastity, considering the Temptations he as a King might be supposed to be under, is scarce to be parallel'd; and his Temperance acknowledged, by all that were about him; his Patience was in some sort [Page 17]like that of his great Master's the Holy Jesus: and tho he met with as great affronts and indignities, as ever Man did that wore a Crown; yet his very Enemies confessed that they could not throw him into a Passion, nor ruffle him so far as to break out into undecent and angry Reflections; how he behaved himself at his Tryal, and immediately before his Death, and at the hour of Death it self, pray search the History, and you will be satisfied, that he was acted by a more than ordinary Divine Spirit; one instance I cannot omit, and that is, when he was going through the Park towards the Scaffold, with a Guard about him, he spoke to Two Persons that did more immediately attend him, that they would go faster, saying, That he now went before them to strive for an Heavenly Crown, with less sollicitude than he had oftentimes bid his Souldiers to fight for an Earthly Diadem; and how he went out of the World with a clear Soul without the least revenge, but praving forgiveness for his Enemies, you may find in the True Account of the passages at his Death. And pray, my Beloved, what Cause was there now for this Great and Good Man's Murder? Yes, say some wicked Men, he was a Tyrant and a [Page 18]Papist. A Tyrant, that is strange! that gave to his People all they could reasonably ask, and frankly offered to consent to any thing that did not strip him of his Kingship, and that was consistent with his Honour and Conscience. If such a Man be a Tyrant, then You and I must all of us change our Notions of things, and call Good Evil, and Evil Good.
And as for the Imputation of Popery, there is no Man that reads his History with an unprejudiced Mind, can believe the least inclination to it, if Living and Dying in perfect Communion with the most excellent Church in the World, if offering to do any thing that might preserve and support the Protestant Religion, be arguments of a Papist; then I must confess the Imputation is just: but what Man of the Church of England is not a Papist at this rate? But thanks be to God, as he refuted this Reflection by the whole Series of his Life, and by his solemn Protestation at his Death, when he was just going to give an account to God; so I think the Members of this Church have Preach'd, Printed and said enough in the late Reign, for ever to silence and shame this Reflection and Imputation out of the World. So that [Page 19]hitherto we find no cause of Death in him at all, even if by the Laws of the Land he had been rightly tryed by a just Power that had as just an Authority to bring him to an Hearing and Tryal: and therefore this is a great aggravation of his Death, that a Man of Innocence and Goodness, a Man of Virtue and Piety, a Man indeed of a most Exemplary Life, should be thus Butcher'd, and that by those, who had no more Authority to do it, than you have to fall a cutting one anothers Throats as soon as this Sermon is ended. And therefore upon this score, This Death ought to be bewailed, and there is great reason for the observing This Day in order to prevent the Judgments that may come upon us for shedding, and for the vindicating the shedding of this Innocent Bloud.
III. Another Aggravation of this Murder, is the Consequences of it. Alas, after the Sacrifice of this great Person, Nobles fell by their bloudy hands, and the best Families were either Banished or Imprisoned, and their Estates Confiscated; a bloudy War with Scotland was commenc'd, and that free Nation brought into a perfect slavery, and that which was a thing of deplorable consequence, this [Page 20]Good Man's Children were Banished to seek their Bread in strange Countreys, from whence proceeded the Miseries, especially of the last Reign: and therefore those Men that flye in the face of the Two last Kings, should do well to consider where they were forcibly bred, and how they came to be bred there, who sent them out of their own Countrey, and exposed them to live upon the Bounty of Popish Princes: if King Charles the First had lived out his time, they no doubt had been bred up in the strictest way in the Protestant Religion, as professed in the Church of England, and no doubt would have maintained its Interest and Honour both at home and abroad by Virtue of the Principles of their Education, which must without all dispute have taught them to Love and Honour, to Support and Strengthen the Protestant Interest over all these Western Parts of the World: and therefore we must thank these Murderers of this Good King, for the misfortunes of the last Reign, and for the Fears that are upon us at present.
And now having proved the Murder, and shewed you the Aggravations of it, give me leave to ask you, whither we ought not to be [Page 21]serious in the observation of this Day? And whether they be not great Offenders, and bad Men, that ridicule the Day, and call it in scorn the madding Day? Whether they be not Men of mischievous and provoking Principles, that still continue to assert and justifie this barbarous Act? And whether we may not expect great Judgments to fall upon us upon this account?
Come therefore, my Beloved, let us all seriously bethink our selves, and consider what great reason we have to do every thing that tends to pacifie Divine Wrath at this time, and to procure His Prefence to go along with us. You all know, that we have at this time the greatest and dearest things that belong to us, lye at stake, to wit, our Religion and our Laws; we have a potent Enemy to encounter, who yet scorns us, and bids defiance to all the conjoyned Forces on this side Europe; an Enemy, who if he prevails, will certainly bring us into the condition of his own Subjects, both as to Religion, Liberty and Property; and therefore, Oh! thou good God, give us the Interposals and Watchfulness of Thy Providence; lend us Thy mighty helping Hand in this our time of Trouble; let us be under Thy [Page 22]Conduct and Guidance, and preserve still our Noble Prince, and let him be under the shadow of Thy Wings, and make his Enemies to flee before him. And blessed are, as the Psalmist says, the People that are in such a case, and who thus have the Lord for their God. I, but my beloved, tho God is ready to help us yet he hath proposed conditions on our part in order to an interest in his Power and Presence; we must eschew Evil, and do Good; we must forsake the wickedness of our ways; we must not speak evil of Dignities, nor curse the King, no not in our hearts, we must not shed Innocent Bloud, nor vindicate and justifie it when it is done. If we are resolved upon such courses as these are, we must expect to be dealt withal by the great God accordingly; we must follow the example of David, and cry, Deli [...] us from Bloud guiltiness, O God, thou God [...] Salvation, And beg that we may be warned throughly from this sin, and cleansed from this iniquity. I, this is the way to have success attend our Counsels, and our Engagements both by Land and Sea. Give me leave to speak plainly to you; and I hope those, if there be any such, as I am satisfied: there are, that came with a design to make themselves merry here to day [Page 23]with our preaching and praying, will go away with better and more serious Thoughts, and that because the happiness of their Countrey is concerned in their holy and pious resentments of, and indignation against this horrid Murder. But if all this will not prevail with you, give me leave to tell these sort of Men, that are resolved to abuse this great Martyr, and laugh at the observation of the Day, that at the same time they abuse the King and the Queen, who this Day solemnly observe it; that they abuse the Two Houses of Parliament, who have appointed Preachers to set out affect them with the sin of the Day: And withal let me tell you, notwithstanding all their professions of Honour to, and kindness for King William and Queen Mary, yet they are unmannerly and clownish, ill bred and rude persons; for if King Charles I had had no personal Vertues to recommend him to the World, yet methinks they should be so civil, and so far make good their pretensions of Honour and Affection to K. William and Q. Mary, as at least to hold their Tongues, and keep them from railing against him, and that barely because he was the King and Queen's Grandfather.
And now tho' I have said so much as I am sure will convince all good men, yet I am satisfied there are a Generation of Men will not cease to vent their rage against this great Prince, and in order to it have very lately cryed up, and triumphed in a discovery of some Papers, which seem to rob him of the glory and honour of being Author of his excellent Book: which Papers I have read, and find them Romantick and vain-glorious, making a simoniacal offer, in order to obtain the best Bishoprick in England, and withal so contradictory to plain evidence two years before they are pretended to be writ by the Author, and so vastly different from the noble Air, and Stile, and Spirit of that excellent Book, that I do here in the face of this Congregation, challenge the Party to Print the Papers, and do assure them they shall have a just Examination and Consideration in a due and convenient time; and this great King's Memory will still be preserved by that great and excellent Book, which indeed it is almost impossible to believe any man could write, but he that was in his Circumstances and Condition, and under such Thoughts, as such a Condition, when Sanctified, is usually attended withal.