IF when Anthony brought Caesars bloody Robe into the Market-place, the People were observed by the Orator to be in a tumult, and so passionately affected, ut non occisus esse Caesar, sed tune maxime occidi videre­tur, that they looked not upon his murder, as a thing [Page 2] already done and pass'd, but as if he were now bleeding under the Parricid's hands; then sure, if we are not that Durum genus which Ovid fancies, nor those Chil­dren which were raiss'd up to Abraham of Stones; it will not be possible for me to mention without horror, nor yet for you to remember without astonishment, that exe­crable thing which was as on this day done among us. That, which we are now met to commemorate, is the greatest victime which was ever sacrificed to divine Ven­geance, since Christ himself, in so ignoble a way: for the most Glorious Sun that ever shon in the Firmament of the Brittish Throne, was this day turn'd to blood; the mortality of our most Gracious, Soveraign Lord, CHARLES the First, Crown'd with Martyr­dome; the relation whereof (if I could suppose it were not still fresh in your memories) though but weakly per­form'd, would certainly be a very forcible argument, to engage you to that humiliation, which is justly to be expected from you; But, alas, I may easily be confident, that you have all sadly felt the incomparable smart of that fatal blow, it being the heaviest stroak that ever did light upon a distracted Kingdom, and of such per­nicious consequences, that the Children that are yet unborn, may have abundant reason to curse those un­parrallel'd villanies that gave it.

The Noble Army of Martyrs is the supreme of all Orders in the Church, both Militant and Triumphant; and he who was lately Ours is now a Prince of them, whose passion we are now met on this fatal day to ce­lebrate, as that which deserves: to have the greatest price set upon it, next to that of our Saviour, for as no vollyes of persecutions (though discharg'd so thick as God knows they were against him) could drive him from the maintenance of his Subjects Rights and Liber­ties; so was he a Defender of the true Catholick and Apo­stolick [Page 3] Faith indeed, for he went with it to the Staf­fold and took his death upon it, and I perswade my self; I am now speaking to those, some of whose pen­sive Souls have not yet left off their Close mourning for it.

He humbled himself to death, even to the death upon the Block, for the joy that was set before him he endured the bloody stroak of the Axe and despised the shame, in the hope and comfort of a blessed resurrection he layd down his head and dyed in the Lord and for him, 14 Rev. 13. 2 Heb. 10. the Royal Mar­tyr followed the Captain of our Salvation, that he might be made perfect through sufferings; and as Christ, though he could, with less than a word, have dispatched his Of­fenders quick into Hell, yet never so much as open'd his mouth, save only to pray that they might be forgiven, and that the extreme act of their malice might be the only means of their Salvation: so, though the King had a Spirit not to be outbrav'd with the Terror of an Executi­on, yet did not their cruelty, exceed the measures of his charity, who call'd for no fire from Heaven, but that of Di­vine love, to burn up his unnatural Subjects hatred and animosities to each other; this great and Christian Anti­dote he had against their malice, and what a Royal re­venge his charity gave him upon and victory over his ene­mies, let some of his last words convince you.

‘ I bless God, I pray not so much that this bitter cup of a violent death may pass from me, as that, that of his wrath may pass from all those, whose hands by deserting me are sprinkled, or by acting and consenting to my death are imbrued in my blood.’

Whilst therefore I am to discourse, of these last words of the first Christian Martyr St. Stephen, who was one of the 70 Disciples, chosen by Christ to be a Coadjutor to his Apostles, in the work of the Ministry, a Person every way qualified with Zeal and Piety for the service [Page 4] of the Church, whose Crown of Glory is platted in his name; I am sure, I shall not be to seek for a Parallel.

His case was this, his enraged Enemies not only sought his blood, but with an impatient and misguided Zeal they shed it, and yet he not only pardon'd them himself, but with bended knees and ane loud voyce (arguing the inten­tion of his Spirit) he prays to God to pardon them; which speaks him full of Faith and the Holy Ghost: Our Sa­viour did the same before him, our Soveraign of blessed Memory, since him. And he kneel'd down, and cryed with a loud voyce, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge, and when he had said this, he fell asleep.

I have a large Field, to lead you over, and that an Aceldama a Field of blood, a Tragical Theme to discourse of; in which I shall make no longer stay, then only to shew you these following particulars, reducible to 3 ge­neral heads, the Preface, the Prayer and the Date of it.

1. In the Preface there are 3 things observable.

1. The Petitioner, to whom the Pronoun He refers us, St. Stephen, whose honour, I have not now leisure to blazon, nor yet to make that just report, which another time might challenge me to do of him, who first pass'd through the red Sea of Martyrdome, and suffered for our Saviour 3 years after him; the most glorious performance, of which a creature is capable, and the most advantagious too: For if he who gives a Cup of cold Water shall not lose his re­ward, no doubt but he shall find it who gives a draught of warm blood, and that his heart-blood too; and therefore the Primitive Martyrs counted it as their highest prefer­ment.

2. The Humility of his posture; Vs. 59. when he pray'd for himself he stood, but as if his Enemies Souls were dearer to him than his own, our humble supplicant falls on his knees for them; and he kneeld down.

3. The fervency of his Spirit argued from his hearty and [Page 5] zealous outcry. His voyce was not so low before for him­self, but that 'tis now as high for them; he had need cry a­loud indeed who intercedes for the Pardon of such a crying sin as theirs: for he who bottles up his Servants tears, will un­doubtedly make an account of their blood, the Tongue whereof is always hoarse. Abels cryes still, (so I fear does the Kings) nor will St. Stephens easily be silenced at his greatest instance: And therefore when he kneel'd and pray'd for his murderers, it was, said in the Text, with a loud voyce.

2. In the Prayer we must also observe 3 things.

1. Subjectum cui, the party to whom it is directed, to him who had so lately suffered for and before him, to his and our Lord, the Lord Jesus.

2. Subjectum de quo; the persons for whom he inter­cedes, when he could scarce gain time to think of his friends, he is praying for his Enemies. Lyramus saith, that in some copies 'tis added, for they know not what they do; but for the most part they were mov'd (like the Kings Enemies) more by passion than ignorance, and even that ignorance of many was pravae dispositionis, caused by a preceding malice: For they were cutt to the heart, they gnash'd on him with their teeth, and they stop'd their ears (and so they also did to the gracious Messages of the martyr'd King) and ran upon him with one accord and ston'd him; and yet he knew not how to be angry with them, for taking away his Temporal, because they hastned his Eternal happiness. Eternal Life was the Crown of such a suffering, but Eternal death the wages of such a sin; which that it might not be the portion of their cup to drink he prayes; 11 Psal. 6. nor was his prayer lost: For Saul who was a principal person in it, had not this sin layd to his charge as himself witnesseth, 1 Tim. 1. 13. but was gaind to the Church by St. Stephen's prayer, says St. Augustin, Si Ste­phanus non sic orasset, Ecclesia Paulum non haberet; Aug. Serm. 1. de S. Steph. So ma­ny, no doubt, were to their Loyalty by those of our Mar­tyr'd Soveraign.

3. Subjectum circa quod, the subject matter of his re­quest, or that which he craves in their behalf is Pardon. Lay not this sin to their charge. He does not pray to God, not to repute it a sin, it were impossible for the just Judge to justifie such an unjust action, but that he would not impute it to them. God is not like men, apt to forget sins, as soon as they are committed, he beholdeth mischief and wrong, and he writes bitter things against them, 10 Psal. 14. 13 Job. 20. nor will he quickly blot them out of the Book of his remembrance. And though he do not always let loose his Thunder to strike those men of blood, to whom his severest Venge­ance is due; yet we know not upon what Strapado their souls are sometimes tost, in what a continual Allarum that fury keeps their Consciences, and what an Hell they have within them; nor will God, who now walks upon the face of the waters, that his footsteps are not seen, suffer this his forbearance to pass for a payment, for when he makes inquisition for blood, 9 Psal. 12. he will remember it. St. Stephen knew, that whilst his Enemies continued in their wicked­ness without repentance, it would be in vain to dream of any device to tye the hand of an Almighty Vengeance, from seizing on them. Christ hath not born the sins of the impenitent; they themselves must: he therefore prays for their faith and repentance, that so they may be resto­red to Gods favour, who were under his wrath, that the hand-writing which was issued out against them might be canceld, and that God in Christ would in mercy recon­cile them to himself; this in Heaven is call'd a not impu­ting of sin, and in the Souls of sinful men, 'tis a reconcilia­tion of their rebellious natures to truth and goodness.

3. Lastly we are to observe the Date and timing of his Petition; 'twas in the extremity of his Passion, for when he had said this, he fell asleep, Obdormivit in Domino—ho­minem exuit, he willingly puts off the Flesh, as a weary man does his Cloaths, and composes himself to rest. The [Page 7] hard Stones are a soft Pillow to his innocent Head. Death is but the bodies Bed-Chamber in which it sleeps, till the Soul return to awaken it at the Resurrection.

These and more incidental Circumstances are full of such variety with which I might pardonably entertain you at any time but this; to wear out any part whereof, in such unnecessary diversions, as might call me off from this me­lancholly solemnity, would, I am sure, be too gross an abuse of your patience, and of this solemn day of Humiliation; in which if I shall chance to give you Epimetronti, something more than the measure of an ordinary Sermon upon such an Extraordinary Theme and Time: at least, when your patience gives me over, endure the rest as an easie Penance for the heavy Sin of the day.

And I hope you will not think that I shake hands with my Text, whilst I take this just occasion of showing you, how well it does accord with the Time, comparing the E­ternal stain of this day, with the Sin of that, and the guilt of the Regicides, with that of the Jews; by which we may be the better convinced, that, as the King himself of his Princely Pity to us did, so had we need to cry aloud for our Pardon, humbling our selves, and renouncing that abhorred murder, of God's Anointed Servant, and our lawful Soveraign; least when he come to make inquisition for Blood, his innocent Royal blood be still justly re­quired of us and our Posterities.

Now though the Charitable Martyr hid his Enemies sin, in such a terminus diminuens, as the close Phrase of this sin; yet, the faithful Minister may not: 'tis for him, to search it, that he may see, whether it be not like that of Cain, greater than could be forgiven.

The sin therefore, though but express'd in two words, must be explain'd in many more, 'tis a comprehensive Villany, its name is Legion; never any sin had so great a train of Hell as this; it is like a Mathematick Line divisible, in semper divisibilia; I shall but reckon up its Aggravations, [Page 8] as the unjust Steward did his Masters debts, of a thousand, set down but fifty: and yet I expect to tire my self and you too before I leave it.

Gentle Language does but water Sin, and make it grow again; and he who treats it civilly, is guilty of its increase: which I would be loath to be of Rebellion; and yet should we strain courtesie with this, the most plausible term we could give it, would be Murder; a sin which like an armed Gyant, will first or last set upon its Authors, and rend them with inward torments. And 'tis therefore above all other sins, so hedg'd about with Thornes, even in this life, 'tis ten to one but Vengeance meets it. 'Tis scelus in­fandum, a wickedness too great for any expression.

The Act it self is abominable, but the Object makes it execrable; a sin out of measure sinful; such a stupendious Villany it was, as our posterity will hardly find Faith enough to believe. 'Tis the Murder, not of a private man, but of a King, the best of men. And if Alexander's killing of Calisthenes, was in Seneca's Judgment crimen aeternum, what shall so damnable a Paracide, this Regicide, be in ours? If ever any Corps deserved to swim in Teares, 'twas his. And if ever any Villany did match that of the Jews, in the Cru­cifying of Our Saviour, 'twas theirs, in the Beheading of Our most gracious Sovereign: For he was not such a Pha­roah to us, as to change a Kingdom of Free-men, into an House of Bondage. He neither enslaved: us in our Persons, Labours, Possessions nor Ʋnderstandings; (and 'tis a great Truth, which may be said without danger of Flattery, that His Son walkes after him) nay so much greater was His care for us than himself, that how much soever our en­croaching fingers itch'd to be tampring with his Prerogative; (as they still do with His Son's) he took care, we should be abridged no liberty of the Subject, unless it were a Licence of destroying our selves: (of which we in this Age seem as fond, as in the last,) and so far was He from invading our Rights, that none was ever so forward to part with his own, [Page 9] (in which, I pray God, His Son, Our gracious Soveraign walk not too much after him) diminishing it in so many particu­lars, as left him open at last to the losing of all the rest.

Witness the Petition of Right, passed by him, in June, 1628. An Act of such Royal grace, as might easily have put us into an extasy of admiration: In so much as that when he passed that Bill, he almost dealt with his People, as Tra­jan did with his Praetorian prefect, put his Sword into their hands, and bid them use it for him, if he ruled well, if not, against him; he acted rather like a Steward for his people, than a Lord over them; and so would his Son do too, if we would let him.

Had he without any tryal of Law, made his pleasure pass for Sentence, and lop'd off these rebellious Members, and the rest of the Senators heads as Tarquin did Poppyes. Had he made them feel such times as Tacitus describes, where no man durst be vertuous least he should be thought to out­brave his Prince; and yet to complain of their hard usage had been Capital, and had his Subjects like Naboth been sto­ned for their Vineyards, they might have used the Churches arms, Prayers and Tears, not Swords or Guns, as they did against him: ‘ but God knows, so far was he from bearing justly the vast load and guilt of all that blood which had been shed in our unhappy Wars, which some men would needs charge upon him, to ease their own Souls; that he was ever­more afraid, to take away any mans Life unjustly, than to lose his own.’ He resisted our enemies to the blood, and chose to lose His own Head, rather than one hair should fall from ours: So that next to God and his good Angels, we were most beholding to him for our safety. Rerum prima Salus & una Caesar. He was indeed the Tutelar Angel of his 3 Kingdoms, whom when God called to himself; he quickly sent a destroying Angel among us.

And yet such was the touchiness of those times (and it more than begins to be the same in these) ‘ that, though he intended, not only to oblige his friends, but his enemies also, being perswaded that he could neither grant too much, nor distrust too little;’ yet his matchless favours did rather [Page 10] exasperate than win them, their poysoned hearts turning all into venome.

The Martyr saw it clearly before he dyed, and His Son cannot choose but see it now: that malice is not abated by time, nor appeased by any good turns: M [...]chiav. l. 3. c. 6. And that the Prince who would be wary of conspirators, should be most jea­lous of those, to whom he has afforded most savours. With what monstrous ingratitude was his indulgence repayed? whilst it forced him ‘ to observe, that his letting some men go up to the pinacle of the Temple, was a temptation to them, to cast him down headlong; and that others hydropicke in­satiableness, learned to thirst the more, by how much the more they drank: in so much that the fountain of his Royal boun­ty could not satisfie them.’ An Epidemical disease it is, which rages as much among the people of this age, as of the last. Nor is it any wonder, that he did not answer the unrea­sonable expectations of these people: For the least they ex­pected from him, was to sacrifice his Honour, break his Oath, and to give up the Government, and with it, his fast­est friends as a victime to the fury of his fiercest Enemies, and to violate his conscience in the breach of those Laws, which he had sworn to maintain; which were to have made himself second in a fault, which the impartial world con­demn'd in them, as the first and principal offenders.

Cast but an eye upon his concessions, and you shall quick­ly perceive, that never any villains were brib'd into murder, at so cheap a rate, and with so little colour of provocation as they. (I must always except their impenitent offspring.)

Was their quarrel commenc'd for the true Protestant Re­ligion? So was his to the death, when he prov'd himself to have Defender of the Faith among his Titles, more by de­sert than inheritance. Was it for the Priviledges of Parlia­ment? he thought nothing too honourable for them but Majesty, and 'tis to be hop'd, they will be taught to be con­tent without that still. Did they aim at the liberty of the Sub­ject? So did He: Unless they meant the licentiousness of the rabble, which open'd the flood-gates to that impetuous tor­rent, which carryed down the Government of Church and [Page 11] State, of Soveraignty, Prelacy and Peerage. Did they stand up for the Laws of the Land? So did he, and fell for them too; so will neither they nor their offspring do. Was it for the right administration of Justice? Where and when did they ever know it in greater perfection than in his Reign? If peace and plenty could have stop'd their mouths, Heaven had prevented their clamours against him: for in no Kings Reign were the Commons in greater wealth, the Nobility more honoured, or the Clergy less wrong'd. And if liberty of Conscience was the thing they struggled for, (the common Vouchee of all National quarrels) when he him­self wanted it, he was most ready to give it; and so might have said in these points to them, as St. Paul to the rest of the Apostles, that in all these things he had labour'd more a­bundantly than they all, for which, he will always have his Chair of State in every Loyal breast.

He was indeed a Prince, Heb. 11. 38. whose supereminent Graces were such, as became God's Deputy; of whom the World was not worthy, I am sure, not these ingrateful Islands: whether he were a better King or Christian, more innocent in his doing or patient in his sufferings, is not easie to determine. Natus erat in Exemplar, he was born for a President of goodness, his Great example was both a Law and a demonstration, and his chaste life a dayly Sermon against his lustful Enemies. His Parts and Piety, his Reason and Religion were beyond any but his own expression. Nor did ever any Age, since our Saviour's Passion, furnish the World with so great an example of Patience and Constancy, as that which he this day set us.

But why should I praise him to you, who are so much the more miserable in the loss of him, by how much the more you knew him? What Gifts and Graces were in him, as he used them, so let us ascribe them to the King of all Glory.

We have seen, how seldom Excellency is in any Kind long­lived, and how rarely the men of this World can indure any supereminent goodness. It had not else been possible for the Sons of Belial, for any but the Devil and his black Angels to have been incensed against such a meek and harmless Prince [Page 12] as this, much less for his own Subjects to have murder'd him; for them who were hatch'd under the covert of his wings, to pick out his eyes, for such Cuckows to devour him, from whom next under God, they received their well being, is a Prodigy. Cannot Caesar be butcher'd, but Brutus must profer the Stab? Cannot Christ be betray'd, but one of his own Disciples must be the chief Contriver? Cannot St. Steven be stoned, but by his Country-men? And must so Gracious a King become the white object for the squint-ey'd malice of his own trayterous Subjects, to dart those spleenish Arrows at, which they had drawn out of the Artillery of Hell? Could there be a greater Piacle in nature? Could there be a more execrable and horrid thing? Transanimated Devils was a stranger Metempshychosis than ever Poets fancyed; and yet Maximilian you see was little less than a Prophet, in styling the King of great Britain a Prince of Devils, be­cause of his Subjects frequent insurrections against and de­positions of their Princes. We have had the best Kings, and been the worst subjects in Christendome, to our shame be it spoken.

Who can stretch out his hand against the Lords Anoynted, and be innocent? Can his own Subjects do it? how came the feet by any authority, to judge the head, or subjects to sit upon their Soveraign? Does the King hold this Crown by indentures from his people? As much as the Father does his Government, by a Covenant with his Children. Prov. 8. 15. 'Tis by me (sayeth God) that Kings Reign. Shall those that are of his making be of the peoples marring? shall Children condition with their Parents upon such and such usage to be acquitted of their duty and obedience? and must they expect to ex­change Authority with them? and shall they govern by the wills of their sons and Servants or by their own? Of what in­chanted Cup had they drunk so deep, as to forget themselves to be subjects, and that it was for them to do their duty, and the King his pleasure? If they were above him, how was he Supreme, and how they his subjects? or was his supremacy to be torn off by the hands of [...]ormation, a rag of popery? or if they were his subjects, how came they to be his Judges? and if no judges, [Page 13] how could they be his Avengers? and if no Avengers, why were they not quiet? how durst they lift up their hands, or indeed open their mouths against him? Tacitus said right, even in Machiavels Judgment, that men should wish for good Princes, but whatsoever they are, indure them, and verily he who does otherwise (let your Whigs and our Dissenters say what they please) ruines both himself and his Country. God made him King, and us Subjects, we were wedded together at his Coronation; and so we should have continued like Man and Wife for better for worse: our obedience being not to depend upon his good behaviour, but upon Gods Ordi­nance; and yet notwithstanding this close tye of Heaven, and their manifold Obligations to him, his own Subjects, and the scum of them, destroyed him.

Those who were immanitate scelerum tuti, Secur'd by the greatness of their crimes, were the men who made use of the insolency of the rabble, and the Midwifery of tumults to bring forth confusion, on Church and State. They are now taking the same methods a second time, pray God, send us better Success. These were those Sainted Salamanders, who courted a combustion and a scramble: because their fortunes were as desperate as their designs; which they could not drive on without grating upon all the Extremes imaginable. It must be by an Error of Humanity, if we take such ingrateful beasts as these, for men, it being directly against the radical principles of nature, and no less than a demonstration of besti­ality, for any to destroy those to whom they owe their self pre­servation, and to sin with so high an hand, against their principal benefactor.

But yet if He had not been sufficiently secur'd from their violence by the Law of nature, yet certainly he was by the Laws of our Nation; which have abundantly declared ‘ that neither the Lords nor Commons, nor both together in Parli­ament (much less a Still-born house of Commons) not the peo­ple collectively or representatively, nor any other persons whatsoever, have or ought to have any coercive power over the person of any King of our Realm:’ who is so far Pater Patriae, the Father of his Country, that a Woman may as well [Page 14] get a Child upon her self, as both Houses of Parliament pro­duce any Law, till the Kings consent first pass upon them. Omnes sub eo & ipse sub nullo, nisi tantum sub Deo, saith Bra­cton, who was Lord Chief Justice in King Henry the thirds time; so that their crime was both unnatural and illegal, even by that very Law, by which they intended to hold and defend their own lives and liberties.

Nay so it likewise was, by that Eternal Law of God, to which most of them have already, and the rest must ere long submit their souls; and of this I the rather speak, because the Devil of Rebellion transformed himself into an Angel of Re­formation, and is beginning to play the same Game over a­gain, and many were so desperately seduced by that grand impostor, as to shake hands with their allegiance, under pre­tence of laying faster hold on Religion and Reformation; as if Christian liberty did lose the reines of civil Government, and Saintship give them a Priviledge against the interest of obedience: which they who undertake to maintain must sharpen their Weapons, at the Philistines forge, go to Rome for arguments; whose School-men indeavouring to thrust the King below the Pope, thought it their surest way to advance the People in some cases above him; these seeds of Rebellion must be fetch'd from their School Divinity, from whence Christianity received its bane. Rebellion under pretence of Religion, is the vertical point of Jesuitism, the top branch of Popery, and Jack Presbyter was over familiar with the Whore of Babylon when he stole that Doctrine out of her bo­some; 'tis indeed more like a peice of the Alcoran than of the Gospel, an Article of the Turkish not of the Christian Creed. Let us not therefore for fear of losing our Religion, without fear or wit, presently jump into Rebellion: for Christ never taught the sword of the Spirit, to make way to the con­science, by cutting through the flesh; nor did he ever autho­rize subjects to plant or water his Christian Doctrine (much less their own phanatical devises) in the blood of their Soveraign, and fellow Subjects. He mentions some who took the Kingdom of Heaven by violence, not any who by violence imposed it up­on others. Nay the Prophet tells the Jewes, that in the day when [Page 15] they found themselves oppressed by their King, they should cry out for redress unto the Lord, Deut. 17. 18. as the only Arbiter and Judge of the Deeds of Princes, against whom there is no rising up; Prov. 30. 31. and when the Jews asked Christ, whether they should pay Tribute to Caesar or not? de did not ask them, whether there were any Statute against it, nor advise them to defer their payment till the People should agree upon it: he only looked upon the Superscription of the money, and told them to whom it was due; and his practice was an­swerable to it, when he chose rather to fish for money, and to be at the expence of a Miracle to pay his Taxes, than to offend the Higher Powers. And that he might teach submission to the worst of Kings, John 16. [...] 11. he acknowledges even Pilate's Power to be of God; this I am sure was the Judgment of Christ, and the former of one who lived long before Antichrist. Our blessed Saviour obeyed unto death, under the Reign of Tiberius, and his Disciples under Ne­ro, Claudius and Caligula. And when Julian from Chri­stianity fell to flat Paganism, you shall find the Christians whom he loaded with Persecutions, not entring into any Rebellious Associations, but fitting their Necks to his Yoak, and teaching one another postures, how they might stand fairest for the stroke of death: and that, not because they could not help themselves (for the greatest part of his Army were then Christians) but because they were con­vinced, that no man could become a Traytor, who had a­ny relick of Grace in him; and that he who shakes off this Sacred Bond of Obedience, hath first resigned Heaven, and made shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience. He who faltreth in his Allegiance to the King the Deputy, does manifestly revolt from God the Deputer. If the King oppress his Subjects, 'tis the abusing of that Power which is in him, which is to be reserved for a Divine Judgment; but if the People take up Arms, 'tis an usurping of that Power which belongs not to them, an Act of Injustice against God, an invading the Right and Prerogative of Heaven, and a leavying War against God's Ordinance; which [Page 16] ceases not to be Sacred when 'tis wickedly imployed; and for this, God hath appointed the King to punish them, and not to bear the Sword in vain. And he took the Kingdom from Saul, not for being too tyrannical to his Subjects, but for being too merciful to his Enemies, in sparing Agag; Let all Crowned heads take that for a warning.

And yet this was no rub at all in our home-bred Rebels way, who had neither Faith enough to make them true Christians, nor yet so much Hypocrisie, as to make them plausibly seem so: (and yet they had more of that, than did themselves or others good too, and so have their Off­spring) for after they had sworn Subjection to him and his Heirs, in the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance, and in another which deserves to be named no more amongst us, being first unlawfully taken, and after, more unlawfully kept by too many, after all the complicated Protestations of the sincerity of their intentions to him, they persidiously de­stroyed him; Judas was just such another Saint as they, and much of their complexion and perswasion. There was not a Petition, not a Message, not a Declaration they ever sent him, in which they did not oblige themselves by the Faith of Christians (they meant of Devils, who never keep their words but in malice) to have a tender regard for his Sacred Person, and to make him a great and glorious King; and yet they were never so good as their words, till they first platted him a Crown of Thorns, and then made his way to a Crown of Eternal Glory: one would think, they still had such another under the Anvil, for his Son. How much respect soever they acknowledged to be due, they never paid him any; unless like the worshippers of Hermes, they thought the hurling stones at him to be the best in­stance of their devotion. Their Trojan horses which they sent him, were consecrated indeed to Pallas without, but lined with an ambush of armed Enemies within; and their foul Projects the more horrid, for having such a disguizing luster perpetually put upon them. Was the Parliament, to which, they pretended such a zeal, to bring [Page 17] him, held at Holmby house, or at Carisbrook castle? Was S. James's, the High Court of Justice, or the Scaffold the place in which they meant to debate with him? Did ever men give themselves the lye so loudly, as these? Or did they ever mean (do you think?) to run the hazard of be­ing honest, whilst such down right knavery as this would serve their turns. Their wickedness was not spun with so fine a thread, but that it might be discovered; nor have they taught their Children to mend the matter. They had better have used no pretences at all, for their disobedi­ence, then such frivolous ones as they did: so easily was their nakedness betrayed through their fig-leaves, when they thought they had stitcht them together to the greatest ad­vantage. We do not now want sufficient evidence to prove that Rebellion may be in Maskarade, aswel as Popery.

But the Beast, which hath two holes to his den, can stop or open either, as the Weather sits, and they commenced their quarrel so cunningly, that as their interessed zeal taught them to clip the King in sunder by a State distincti­on, seperating his Person from his Power; so that they might the better disguise their more dangerous secret, they made the specious pretence of fighting against his Evil Councillers, to stalk before it. And who would not wil­lingly offer himself a Sacrifice to so good a Cause? Who would not lift up his hand against them who intend any Evil to my Lord the King, either in his Person or Govern­ment? if his Sacred Life be in danger, all good Subjects will hazard theirs to save it. These were those words of Inchantment, by which the unthinking people were so un­usually enticed into their own Thraldom, and a great part of that dismal spell, which raised the Spirit of discord, to walk so long among them; and I pray God he be not conjured again by the same methods.

But alas, how soon was this Mask of Hypocrisie laid a­side, and the face of their dark design overspread with a Rebellious Leprosie? How soon was Jacob's voyce betrayed by the palpable roughness of Esau's hands? Was there [Page 18] any one motive by which they were induced to sight, made good? And which I pray of his Evil Councillers, when they had Him in their power, did they labour to destroy, unless they took his Good Conscience for one?

But when Faction hath bent her bow, she never wants some Bolts to shoot; they who resolve to pick quarrels, know at least, how to feign suspicions and jealousies, and upon no better foundation than this did they raise the quarrel: so that the King's real wrong was to joyn battle with their weak surmizes; for the Injury and Invasion, of which they complained, was only contingent and conjectu­ral; a Plot wrapt up in the womb of some dark Cabinet Councils, which engaged them by a Preventive and Anti­cipating War, to take up Arms against the King, not be­cause he was, but because he possibly might be a Tyrant: which that they might the better induce the credulous ra­ble to believe; they dealt with their minds, as melancho­ly men use to do with the Clouds, raised monstrous forms and shapes to fright them, where no fear was, as Time, (the best Interpreter of mens intentions) did convince us. By such black Arts did they raise up those turbulent Spirits, which they would afterwards, have been glad they could have conjured down again; but armed Petitioners were not so easily disbanded as listed.

Their security consisted in scaring the People, who are a sort of timerous Dear, and as wild as Bucks, whose heads when they are once fly-blown with the buzzes of suspici­on, the Vermin multiply exceedingly, and one jealousie begets another. Many were the Birds of prey which they threw off from their fists, to devour his reputation; (the same which now fly at his Son's, our Gracious Sovereign) the place of whose breeding was so well known, that they might have ventured to have floun them without varvels, for their owners might have been found in S. Stevens Chap­pel, without the help of a cunning man. Lord, what weak, groundless and improbable conjectures did they raise, of the King's adherence to the Church of Rome? And how many [Page 19] such bastard creatures of their own corrupt fancies did they lay to his charge? As if it had been part of their Religion to revile him: whereas if they would have spoke their conscience, and not their spleen, they must needs ac­knowledge, that, He had done more for the suppression of Popery, than any Prince before him. Witness his Answer to the Parliament at OXON in the first year of his Reign, concerning the suppression of Popery A.D. 1625. To the Petition of the Third Parliament, A.D. 1628. and his Proclamation, in farther pursuance of it, 3. Aug. An. Reg. quarte. Witness his Confirmation of the third Canon made in the Convocation, A.D. 1640. for suppressing of the growth of Popery. Witness his Protestation which he made near Wellington, in the County of Stafford. 19. Sep­temb. 1642. Whereby he ingaged himself in the Pre­sence of Almighty God, to live and die (as he did) in the true Protestant Religion, as it stood in its Beauty in the happy days of Queen Elizabeth, without any connivance at Popery, and to the utmost of his power defend and maintain it. Witness his Confirmation of that his Since­rity, before his receiving of the Holy Eucharist at Christ-Church in OXON, A.D. 1643. and his Latine Declarati­on of it to all Forreign Churches in May 1644. and his Conference with the Marquess of Worcester at Ragland Castle, A.D. 1645. And yet for all this, the Popular Maxime prevailed, That, the King was not to be trusted; and so 'twas his, 'tis his Sons and the misery of the best Princes, when they do well, to be evil spoken of; Our Savi­our himself was crowned with reproaches aswel as thorns, and if these things were done in the green Tree, what shall be done in the dry? No wonder if they whet their Tongues like a Sword, and shoot for their Arrows such bitter words as these against the King, Psal. 64. 3. Psal. 11. [...]. who was so upright in his heart.

Their Antimonarchical Spirits had fill'd them so brim­full of gall and venome against the Crown, that it was not strange, their mouths should run over, with such poyson of Aspes, against the person of the King. Alas they set [Page 20] their [...]its on tenter-books, to find out matter of accusation, prying into every corner for an imputation whereby they might with some colour bespatter him and lay his ho­nour in the dust, making it their business to load him with dirt before the people, because they hated to see him clean, and why did they hate him but because they had abused him? Naturale est edisse, quem laeferis, and must heap injuries on whom they had wrong'd, that the latter might add some countenance to the former. And this was that seale of degrees, by which they ascended to his Murder, as the Jews did to S. Stephens. Nemo repente fuit turpissimus, first they disputed with him: Us. 9. (so they did with the Royal Martyr, about Prerogative and Property) then they despised him, and at last they destroyed him; they begun with arguments and concluded with stones: some few perhaps there were to pitty, but none to protect him: And such was their matchless malice to our Martyr'd Sove­raign, whom they destroyed by piece meale as if they had intended, not to cut off but to unravel the thred of his life. God send his Son our Gracious Soveraign, fewer Enemies and more Friends, than his Father; and us, no more such fatal days, as this in our Kalendar. They stript him in his own person, of all the usual comforts of his life, burying him alive, among Seas and Rocks, hunting him as a partridge on the mountains in continual danger, hurrying him to and fro from one prison to another, and thereby depriving him of his natural liberty as he was a man; of the Society of his Loyal and Dearest Consort, as he was an Husband; of the Conversation of his Children, as he was a Father; of the Attendance of his Servants, as he was a Master; of his Chaplains, as he was a Christian, of his faithful Counsellers when he most needed and desired them; of his Crown, Sword and Scepter, even of all his Royal Prerogatives, as he was a King, Et quid plus velit ira? They depriv'd him of all comforts which he could possibly miss, but that of a good conscience, which was out of their reach, (afflictions so sharp that no patience but [Page 21] his could have conquer'd them) carrying Swords in their mouths against his reputation, aswell as in their hands a­gainst his person, and all who durst be guilty of so much Loyaltyas to attend or assist him, plundering him of all en­joyments, which might make life valuable for a blessing; and then to complete those calamities into which the Elder faction had thus accursedly plung'd him, the Younger proceeded on this dismal day, to the utmost essay of ma­lice, they murder'd him.

This ended his Passion, this continued ours, till Our Soveraign's miraculous Restauration, and that especially considering with how much heat and boldness and with how little remorse they did it, not ruining him by accident and besides their intention, but with propensed malice. It was no fault nor vertue of theirs, that their bullets did not dispatch him before in the battle, if Providence had not to a miracle secured him, he had fallen long before by their Swords, but seeing that would not do, they took farther council and resolv'd at last upon that horrid, that bold and insolent sin, which we are now met as becomes us, to lament; and indeed we have the more cause to lament it, because they did not, but with an inhumane delight and ostentation prided themselves in the performance of it, and though a deed of the greatest darkness, the foulest of crimes, yet so strangely were their consciences stupified, that they committed it presumptuously with an unheard of impudence, at noon day, in the sight of the Sun, without any care to cover the conspicuous marks of their own shame. Faux would have smotherd it in a dark Lan­thorn, and hatch'd that plot in a Celler which they brought forth upon an open stage. Nay they made the Place of his Royalty the Seat of his Execution, they conducted him through his greatest room of state to that bloody Theatre of inhumanity, and murdered him on a Scaffold before the gates of his own Royal Palace: so far did the Devil prevail with the Ambitious humour of those irreligious miscreants to drive on such prodigious and preposterous purposes.

Nay so hot was their Zeal, and so cold their charity, that he must dye the third day after his Sentence; a short time for a King to set his house in order, and to take his leave of three Kingdoms; and a shorter for so Notorious a sinner (as they would have made the world believe he was) to repent in. But persecutors are always in haste, they will neither tarry God's nor the King's leisure, their feet are swift to shed-blood, nor can they sleep till those that offend them have slept the sleep of death.

Nay that which does yet more inflame and aggravate their sin, extracting out of it the quintessence of Villany, is this, that Justice it self was courted in a complement to own it, and his Judges (who were also his profess'd Enemies, and persecutors) cloath'd in Scarlet, that the people might the more admire them; it was done with a mock shew of pretended Law, and the blood-thirsty Representatives indea­vour'd to make their fond admirers believe, that they took council of none but of the Holy Ghost, for the management of this their Successful treason. Psal. 91: 5. Because none of the sa­gittae volantes; those arrows which for their speedy Executi­on are said to fly by day, did pierce them in their Villanies, as they had done Ananias and Saphyra, who only liv'd to hear of their sins and immediately to dye for them; some un­resolved men of little loyalty and less Religion were tempt­ed with Cato to question, and others with Diagoras to deny an over-ruling Providence, and to say as Diogenes did of Harpalus a notorious but prosperous thief, that it did Ci [...]. de. nat. Dei. Testimonium adversus Deum dicere, stand up as a Witness against the all-seeing eye of Heaven, and they themselves gave out that God owned their proceeding, because swift de­struction was not the immediate catastrophe of their disobe­dience, nor did God presently arise, to vindicate the Kings injur'd innocence.

They would have made men believe that they could not follow their Saviour without forsaking their Soveraign, and that they were inspir'd to murder him; they first seek God, and then they find it expedient, to slay his Vicegerent, [Page 23] which was megiston Adikema, the greatest villany, of which men have been guilty, for above 1600 years; and those who swam to their desired Haven, in such a full stream of Royal Blood, de­serve to be stigmatized, at least once a year, for such their Pro­digious and unparallel'd Enormities.

And yet the Grand Actors in this our National Tragedy, were all this while the greatest Pretenders in the World to Loyalty and Religion; which set them up with such a stock of Reputation, that upon the bare credit thereof they might run freely on the score, to the commission of such horrid Crimes against both the King and the People, and yet not have their names once called to an account for any injustice. But we have too much cause to say of the Spawn of these Blood-suckers, Gen. 49. 7. as Jacob did of Simeon and Levi, Cursed be their Anger, for it was fierce, and their Wrath for it was cruel; I mean the Worshippers of that Scythian Diana, which was once fed with so many inhumane Sacrifices, and to which, as to another Molock, so many men of Parts and Piety, of Courage and Loyalty (aswel as Children) were compelled to pass through the fire. Not to swim along with the stream of their Rebellion, was present drowning, Crede, aut jugulum dabis, might have been their Motto, considering how many mens lives and fortunes were sacrificed to their revenge and passion; there was no need nor noise of liberty of conscience when that Religion was rampant. Now if these were Saints, who were Scythians? If these were the Children of God, which are the Sons of Belial? If these were the Failings of the Righteous, which are the Crimes of the Wicked? Let them wipe their mouths as clear as they can, they were taken bloody handed, and their treachery deserves to travel in a Proverb to the end of the World, till they can wash either their hands or mouths in innocence from this great Trans­gression. Some of the more moderate men (if indeed there can be any moderation in Rebellion) perhaps if they had not found it easier to lay on their Hounds than to rate them off, would have desisted sooner, but yet they remembred so much of their Pra­ctice of Piety, (I mean of Machiavel's Instructions) that they would neither stand, so close to the King (as well as they lov'd him) as to be oppressed with his ruine, nor yet so far off, but that [Page 24] when his ruine came, they might be able to rise upon some parts of it.

They pretended to deserve aswel of the Traytors and Usurpers then, as they do now of the King, and as Godly as they were, the Crown and Church-lands, were a great Gain to them; they thought it a mortal sin to rob either, but not so much as a venial one to buy the stollen goods. But to think that any Reasons of mine, or Convictions of their own, should make them believe, that this sin might be laid to their charge, were to entertain a bet­ter opinion of their Piety, and my own Parts, than either of them deserve.

Never was any Parricide committed with so high an hand, as this, it was done by the joynt agreement and contrivance of the two Imps of Rebellion, those Brethren in iniquity, whom Faction coupled, and Interest divided: for they strugled together in the Womb of Ambition, till the elder was indeed craftily supplanted by the younger, who carried away the long expected Fruits of the others Plots and Practices.

This made them so very busie when the work was over, to shift off the guilt of this execrable Act, from the one to the o­ther, and whether of the two Harlots was indeed the true Mo­ther of this Monstrous Birth, you will best know by attempting to divide it. Solomon would have judged it to belong to her who would rather part with it all, than accept of half, and then the Elder Brother is the principal Murderer. Their case in short was this; The One granted Commissions to fight against the King, but yet they would be thought to have provided for his Personal Safety, in a Parenthesis of fair Words, they could not sleep in their Beds for fear of the King's being murdered, and the other judged it as lawful to behead him. The one gave the Council, and the other the Stroke. The one laid the Train, and the other fired it. The one devoured the Prey, and the other gave a Blessing to it. The one carried on the Rebellion in the four first Acts of the Tragedy, and the other were the bloody performers of the fifth. The one sharpned the Ax, and the other stroke with it. The one brought his Royal head to the block, and the other severed it from his shoulders. The elder of the Twins [Page 25] bound his Father, and the Younger butchered him. The one first murdered the King of Great Brittain, the other the Person of Charles the First, Vel neutrum flammis ure, vel ure duos, they run at least parcel guilty, and both of them certainly washed their hands in his blood, how desirous soever they have been since to wash them of it: But to whether of the two, the sin is more pro­perly chargeable, I had rather, a better Casuist would resolve them. Between them I am sure, they have brought the great­est scandal upon the Protestant Religion, and the English Nation imaginable, making it as much the Scorn and Reproach, as before it was the Envy and Glory of the World.

God grant, our Posterity may learn to be ashamed of those Acti­ons, which have brought such an obloquy and disgrace upon us, as to make us the sole object of publick execrations and curses.

And that especially considering, what a vast Treasure they squandred away, to purchase his destruction, who was the chief Instrument of their preservation, and in fine their own de­struction too, for Quid tu si peream ego? What became of the Peerage, when Prelacy and Kingship were run down? Then was a time when Actaeon-like they were worried by their own Hounds, till they had learned that, Nemo gratis malus est, that they had bought their iniquity at a dear rate; and better they had never been born, than that the guilt of their iniquity should lie so heavy upon them, and the punishment devolve, as it did, upon so many thousands besides them.

But like blind Sampson, so they gratified their own revenge, they were utterly regardless how many they destroyed, in plucking down the glorious Fabrick of Church and State about their ears. No calling drank so deep of this bitter cup, in that unna­tural War as ours, the States loss was not to be expressed, but the Churches not to be imagined: for our Priviledges and Reve­nues were not only taken from us, by those Jews, who would have Crucified Christ himself (as they did his Vicegerent) to get [Page 26] his Garments, but our office it self lay ableeding, and was draw­ing to its last gasp, if a Miracle of Providence, had not sent us such a Sovereign, such a Nursing Father, as God hath now bles­sed us with, to revive it.

Now if when so many frightful circumstances meet together, to wring tears from our eyes, at the resentment of such an incon­ceivable loss, do not ingage us in a serious lamentation, and if our sobbs do not grave the remembrance of our Martyr'd Sove­reign in our hearts, in Characters as great, as was the Crime of His Murderers, we are more insensible of God's Dealings, and our own Demerits, then becomes us.

There were more Judases than one, who Sinned in betraying this Innocent Blood. I wish they had learned so much ingenuity from him as to confess it, and so much wisdom from God's long suffering, as to see it betimes, not dreaming that, a general guilti­ness will amount to Innocence in Heaven, as it does sometimes on Earth. I shall deserve your pardon, if I value your Souls, which cost the Blood of Christ at more than a words speaking, There being no flattery so fatal, as that of the Physician and the Divine. I shall esteem your amendment so much above your favour, as to have more respect to your happiness, than to suffer you to live a­ny longer in a mistaken opinion, of your own innocence, even as to this Crime. And what I speak in this place, will I hope, be the better taken, because 'tis out of a desire to convince all; and not to shame any of you; unless I shame some few by accident, in refu­sing the glory of true Repentance; for I am fully perswaded that the major part of you are already satisfied that you can never be sensible enough, nor repent too much of this sin.

Let us therefore, not any longer inveigh against those notori­ous Villains, whose faults are written in their fore heads, but come by a particular serutiny to enquire into our selves, whe­ther we can plead not guilty to that Crime, for which we have heard them indited; and shall not rather be forced to say with Aeneas,

That we have a great share in his Iniquity. [Page 27] There is no beguiling of the pangs of our own Consciences.

Our guilt will stick as close to us as Deianiras poysoned shirt did to Hercules. Let us therefore have mercy on our Souls, and not be so desperately foolish, as to flatter them unto destruction

'Twas the wickedness of our Sodom, which provoked God to send his Angel, to fetch that righteous Lot from among us; and had we kept God's Commandments better, we might have kept his Vice­gerent longer: who like an abused mercy, was in great Justice taken from us, upon which we may use the Prophet's language, Dan. 9. 12. And he hath confirm'd his words which he spake against us, and a­gainst our Judges that Judged us, by bringing upon us a great plague, for under the whole Heaven hath not been the like, that hath been brought upon our Hierusalem. Dan. 9. 7. O lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, and to us open shame, as appears this day. Had we not lull'd our selves asleep in the bosome of those vices, to which our souls were so affectionately wedded, but writ them a bill of divorce, and not suffer'd them to come any more under our roofs, God would never have visited us with so severe a chastisement; But let the burn'd Children dread the fire, for if ye do wickedly, you shall be destroyed both you and your King, 1. Sam. [...] 25. and if we say that we did not and do not so still, we deceive our selves.

But I doubt this Sin may be lay'd to some of your charges much nearer then so, who might be partakers of it, some of these follow­ing ways.

1. By Consent and approbation, or taking pleasure in them who did it. Thus, if many people by joynt consent set upon a man and Kill him, though one only give him the deadly wound, yet they all are guilty of the murder, because they all intended it, did something to­wards it: for their number was the cause of his terror, and of the abatement of his courage, and an occasion to make him de­spair of defending himself, and by consequence that terrour was the cause of his receiving his wounds, and the wounds the cause of his death, and so their malice is to be judged equal by their conjunct attempt. Thus Saul was guilty of St. Stephen's death; [Page 28] Thus thousands were of Our Soveraign's, even as many as ever drew their Swords, nay as ever opened their mouths or purses a­gainst him.

2. By Council and Advice, for Qui monet quasi adjuvat; John 11. 49. so Ca­iaphas had a hand in the blood of our Crucifyed Saviour; so as ma­ny as instigated, encouraged, or abetted the rebellion, had, in the blood of our Martyr'd Soveraign.

3. By appointment and command, so Pharoah and Herod slew the infants; so David, Uriah; so these infernal Judges did the King.

4. By Commending, Applauding, Defending, or Excusing the mur­der, for woe be to them who call evil good, who put light for darkness and sweet for bitter.

5. By partaking with his murderers, in the fruits of their Villa­nies; Isa. 5. 20. and so all sequestrators, commitee men and purchasers of the Crown or Church lands were guilty.

6. By concealing the treason when it was hatching; for as good lay thy hand on the Lords anointed, as lay thy hand on thy mouth and conceal the treason, so foul a thing is it to hear the voice of conspi­racy and not to utter it: and yet 'tis hard in our days to avoid the hearing of it almost in all places.

7. By unseasonable silence, and neglect of the Christian duty of reprehension. Qui non vetat peccare, cum potest, jubet, He who is unactive for the King does passively rebel against him; and he bids who does not forbid such outrages and violences to be com­mitted against the Father of his Country. The mischief intended by a Souldier against Craesus, gave his Son a tongue, who never spoke before, to cry anthrope me kteine Creson, man kill not Craesus.

Now according to the degrees of your will and choice, and the tendency of your affections to this disasterous event, will your own Consciences be best able to measure out your fearful expectations; which I the rather council you to do, because men may dye an E­ternal death, for that, upon which, our most indulgent Soveraign hath not thought fit, to inflict a temporal. Men may be damn'd for those very sins, which are pardon'd by an Act of Oblivion; the authority of the King of Heaven, being above any Act of Parlia­ment.

Some thousands, I believe, there were, both in your Kingdom and Ours, in the diminution of whose guilt, we may truly say, that through ignorance they did it, and that their crime lay more in their heads than in their hearts, and what they did, was, rather by the instigation of others, then any inclination of their own; being drawn into it by those jugling Impostors, who upon the re­ceipt of other mens livings, sealed and delivered up their own consciences to the Rebels service, and pay'd them with the interest of as many more as they could seduce.

Examine your consciences therefore, whether you did not perceive some reluctancy then, for those grand impieties, into which you were inveagled, some remorse for them since? And do you not by so much the more abominate and detest the seducers, by how much the more they had deluded both your reason and con­science? Dare you not remember your Rebellious engagements with­out displeasure! If not, though you at first entred into a complyance, even at the gate of Zeal, yet you have some reason to hope, that God will not lay this sin to your charge; But hearken to the King's own prayer for you, which was, ‘That God would bury this and all other their sins in his Grave, that they might never rise up again to work their desperation in this World, or their damna­tion in the next—That when God makes inquisition for blood, he would sprinkle your polluted yet penitent Souls with the blood of his Son, that his destroying Angel might pass you over: for says the Royal Martyr, As I doubt not but my blood will cry for vengeance to Heaven, so I beseech God, not to pour out his wrath upon the generality of the People, who have either deserted me or ingaged against me, through the artifice and hypocrisie of their Leaders.—That my temporal death unjustly inflicted by them, may not be revenged by God's just inflicting of Eternal death upon them; for I look upon the temporal destruction of the greatest King, as far less de­plorable than the Eternal damnation of the meanest Subject.—Though my destroyers forget their duty to thee or me, yet do not thou, O Lord, forget to be merciful to them, though they deserve, yet let them not receive to themselves damnation, but let the voyce of thy Son's blood be heard for my murderers louder than the cry of mine against them.’

Repentance is above half way to innocence, it changes the person with whom God is angry: Let us not therefore flatter our selves in any impenitent security, but bewail our ingagements in that fatall quarrel, and that the sooner and the more, by how much the longer we have continued in it without any sence or feeling: Let us lay the Sin to our consciences for our amendment, that God may not lay it to our charges for condemnation, nor the King's blood be upon us, and our Children.

And let us repay with interest that Obedience to the Son, which was due and in arrear to the Father; Submitting our selves as be­comes Good Christians and Subjects, to our now gracious Soveraign Lord King Charles the Second: Who is Heir apparent to that Love and Loyalty, which His Royal Father payed so dear for, as to en­tail it upon him this day, by a deed of Martyrdom. Let us pray to God, that he may be Trajano melior, & Augusto faelicior, more vertuous then Trajan, and more fortunate then Augustus, and that the most righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth, may not make us drink so deep again of such a cup of trembling, ‘ nor leave us to our selves and our Sins, nor impute His blood any farther to us; than to convince us, what need we have of Christ's blood, to wash our Souls from the guilt of shedding His.’ O Lord, we beseech thee let not his Blood out-cry his Prayers, but let those that spilt the one, obtain the benefit of the other; That by their Convicti­ons and Repentance, his Innocence may receive the happiest attest; Our Religion be Vindicated from the Scandal of so horrid a fact; Our Nation be secured from the vengeance of that Blood, and the shedding more of the same Kind; and thy mercy glorified in the Conversion of so great Sinners, and all for Jesus Christ his sake, to whom, with thee O Father, and the Holy Ghost, be all Ho­nour Power and Glory, now, and for ever.

Amen.