THIS whole Chapter contains in it an Eminent Relation of cer­tain Remarkable Passages, con­cerning the fatal Death of King Saul, and the humble Carriage of Holy Da­vid there-upon. The whole History whereof seems to be Recorded on pur­pose, for the Vindication of the Holy-Man, from the unjust Imputation, of designing to bereave Saul of his Life, by the defensive Arms which he had formerly borne against him.

And Three Particulars are therein very Remarkable, as Evidences of his Innocence.

First, His unfeigned Grief for the la­mentable Death which he understood had be­fallen him, ver. 12.

Secondly, His Indignation against, and Justice upon the Person, who was so auda­cious, as to profess he had been the Instru­ment to hasten it, ver. 13, to 17.

Thirdly, His pious Endeavour to perpe­tuate the Memory of his deceased Sovereign, in a mournful Ditty composed by himself, and appointed, in succeeding Ages, to be Sung, in a solemn manner, by the Children of Judah.

Nor was this of David's Example al­together Barren; for we find it after­wards followed by the Godly Jews, up­on the Occasion of the unhappy Death of good Josiah; they Mourned so truly, and so heartily for him, that the great­ness of their Sorrow, in after-Ages, grew into a Proverb, Zech. 12.11. where [Page 5] 'tis said, As the Mourning of Hadadrimon in the Valley of Megiddon. And among their solemn Lamentations, had One kept on Record to Posterity, penn'd by an Holy Prophet, Lam. 4.20. and perpetuated the solemn Remembrance of that heavy Stroak, by publick Com­mand; for so you have it exprest at large in 2 Chron. 35.24, 25. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. And Je­remiah lamented for Josiah, and all the sing­ing-men, and singing-women spake of Josiah in their Lamentations to this day, and made them an Ordinance in Israel, and behold they are written in the Lamentations.

And afterwards, when Gedaliah the good Governour, left by Nebuzeradon, was treacherously slain by Ishmael, Jer. 41.1, 2. we find there was an Annual Fast appointed and observed, till the Return from Captivity, upon the very Month wherein he was Slain, as the most judicious Interpreters expound [Page 6] the Fast of the Seventh Month, Zech. 7.5. Which Examples loudly call for the like deep and solemn Impressions, and Expressions of heartiest Sorrow, from all Loyal Subjects, upon like Ac­cidents, and abundantly justify the An­nual Solemnity of this Day; especially, if we consider how great a Loss these Kingdoms suffered, and how great a Guilt they contracted, by the lamen­table Providence, that occasion'd it: Of which, I shall speak more plenti­fully in my ensuing Discourse.

I confess indeed, the Tears of Sub­jects are the best Spices to embalm a Sovereign's Memory withall; nor can there be a louder Attestation to the Deserts of a Prince, than that his Loss is bewail'd, as a common Calamity. Upon which Account it is, That the Almighty promises it, as a signal Mer­cy to the hopeful Son of wicked Je­roboam, That all Israel shall mourn for him, [Page 7] 1 Kings 14.13. and threatens it as a heavy Judgment on Jehoiakim, the wick­ed Son of good Josiah, That he should be buried with the burial of an Ass; thrown in a Ditch, without any one to mourn or lament for him, neither Brother, nor Sister, nor Subject, Jer. 22.18, 19. And this may suffice for a short Ju­stification of the Annual Solemnity of this Day.

I now come to the Text it self, which are the Words of Holy David to this wicked Amalekite, How, wast thou not a­fraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lords Anointed?

In which Words I shall observe these things:

First, The Person that committed this hor­rid Fact. Thou, who oughtest to have avoided it with an holy Fear, and that under a Two-fold Capacity:

1st, As a Private Man.

2dly, As a Subject; and, at that time, in a more especial Relation, as being then a Souldier under King Saul.

Secondly, The Person on whom this hor­rid Crime was committed; and who ought to have been otherwise dealt with, if considered in this Two-fold Capacity:

1. In Relation to his Civil Quality. He was Unctus, a Person who had receiv'd Regal Unction, and so was thereby separated from the Vulgus, or common sort of Men; a King that was solemn­ly inaugurated, The Anointed.

2. In Respect of his Sacred Relation; and so he was the Lord's Anointed, God's Deputy and Vicegerent, by 'spe­cial Commission.

Thirdly, The Fact it self; which was,

First, In its own Nature, Bloody, He destroyed Him.

Secondly, In its Principle, Voluntary, He stretched forth his Hand; which implys a purposed Resolution of Heart to do it.

Thirdly, In its manner, it was without Fear, He was not afraid to do that Act, which he should have trembled at.

Of these, by God's Assistance, in their Order.

First, In that he was a private Man; and for him to execute a Power of Life, and Death, was an high Presumption, and would amount to no less than horrid Murther, if acted upon the meanest Person in the World; but when, to the Privateness of the Condition, is added the highest Subjection also, this en­haunces it to be a far greater Aggra­vation. Had the Amalekite Slain his Equal, he had been a Murtherer; but the Slaying his Superiour, to whom he had sworn Faith, and true Allegi­ance, render'd him a Parricide. And therefore, the horrid Sin, of Subjects Murthering their Prince, upon this bare Account, amounts to no less than to a Usurpation of a Jurisdiction, in­consistent [Page 10] with all Principles of Right Reason and Laws, both of God, and Man; and renders the Person that is so Guilty, superlatively Criminal, as one who forfeits his Soul to God, and his Life to Man, by the Guilt of the highest Premunire that can be incurr'd.

Thus have I done with the First Em­phatical Aggravation of the Fact, from the Person committing it. And though Saul had deserved to die never so just­ly; yet what Commission had the A­malekite, a private Person, and his own Subject, to Kill him? And so Holy Da­vid tells him, How, was thou, &c.

Secondly, The Fact is rendred ex­treamly more hainous, by the Second Emphatical Aggravation in the Text, which is taken from the Person Slain, namely Saul, under a double Consi­deration:

• I. Ʋnctus.
• II. Ʋnctus Domini.

First, He was Ʋnctus in his Civil Qua­lity. He was a Person solemnly sepa­rated, and set-apart from other Men, an Anointed King. Anointing, or what­ever the Ceremony of Investiture is; (by the Customs of several Nations e­quivalent thereunto) it puts a Note of highest Difference and Distinction between the Persons dignified there­with, and Others: For Three high and honourable Functions, we read in Scrip­ture, were conferr'd by this distinguish­ing Ceremony of Anointing; and all of them fenc'd and priviledg'd from In­juries, by Vertue of that Holy Oyl; namely, the Priestly, Prophetical, and Royal Offices. Not to instance in the Two former, as not suitable to our present Occasion; yet were it easy to prove, That the Almighty has Writ­ten a Nolite Tangere, a Priviledge from common Handling, especially the last. The Royal is so highly secur'd by the [Page 12] Holy Scriptures, That they exact from Subjects such a 'special Awe and Re­verence towards KINGS, as not only binds the Hand and Tongue, but e­ven the Heart also, to its good Be­haviour.

And in the Case of this very King Saul, when he was once Anointed KING, the Holy-Ghost imposes the Brand of Sons of Belial, (that is, Sons of the Devil,) upon all those who despised, or spake contumeliously of Him, 1 Sam. 10.27. And Solomon, the Wisest of all Mortals, strictly chargeth us, Not to curse [or wish evil to] the King, no, not in our Thoughts, Eccles. 10.20. So that this Considera­tion was extreamly conducing to the Aggravation of the Amalekite's Sin in my Text; and in him, of every King-Killer's Offence. For, if the lesser Injury may not be done to KINGS, surely the greater may not: If our Tongues, nay, Thoughts, are not to injure them, How much less our Hands?

Secondly, To strengthen this Consi­deration yet further, Holy David calls him not only Ʋnctus, Anointed; but Ʋnctum Domini, the Lord's Anointed; which Title particularly relates Him to God, as his Vicegerent, and en­haunceth the Sin of every one that shall presume to lay violent Hands upon the Lord's Anointed, to the Guilt of High-Treason, even against GOD Himself. That the Title of the Lord's Anointed is attributed, and belongs to other Kings besides Saul, as to all the Jewish Kings, yea, and besides, even Heathenish Kings also, is evident from that instance of Cyrus, Isa. 41.1. And argues, that the same Security belongs to all other Kings, as being no less related to God, and commissioned under Him, accord­ing to that in the Proverbs, By me Kings Reign.

And so I come to the Third Aggra­vation, taken from the Fact it self, and [Page 14] that is represented notoriously Foul, in Three Respects:

First, That it was in its own Nature, Bloody; He destroyed the Lord's Anointed. It was not a Murther intended only, nor a Murther barely attempted, with­out Success; but an actual and real Murther: And yet, had he not effected it, the very Attempt, considering the Quality of the Person, had been so hainous a Crime, that the Laws of Nature, and Nations, would have pu­nished it with Death: But here the Guilt is infinitely aggravated, by the Execution of that which had been so highly Criminal, but to attempt. For a King, however attempted against, whilst he is in Being, fills the Royal Seat, and heads the Common-wealth, and animates all Courts of Justice, by the Authority of his Name; yea, lays some restraint upon the most Lawless and dissolute Persons, on the Account [Page 15] of a Possibility of being called to Ac­count for their Outrages and Enormi­ties; but the actual taking away of a King's Life, exposeth the empty Throne to the next potent Ʋsurper, silenceth the Laws, annulleth all deputed Powers, by the Expiration of their Commissi­ons, renders every Man, in a sort, his own Master, and sets up, for the Time, as many Lords of mis-rule in a Nati­on, as there are evil disposed Persons in it: And therefore the Fact of this Amalekite was the more hainous, as be­ing an actual destroying of the Lord's Anointed. But,

Secondly, It was a voluntary and wil­ful Act; for, He stretched forth his Hand, and that with a purpose to destroy the King. Had the King accidentally rush'd upon his drawn Sword, or had his ar­med Hand, by Impression from some external Force, been made the instru­mental Cause of taking away the Life [Page 16] of the Lord's Anointed, or any other like Accident, had render'd him the Destroyer of the King, though besides his Intention; yet had it been an Infeli­city to have been bewail'd all the Days of his Life.

And this, I hope, to make further appear, if you please to consider, with me, the Person, whose Death we this Day commemorate, compar'd with King Saul in my Text; I mean, our late Gra­cious, and now Glorious Sovereign: A Person (by what I have read, and heard of Him) of a Temper so far different from Saul's, that as the One seem'd to be compos'd of Cruelty; so the Other (by all the Relation that I ever met with) seem'd to have no­thing in his Constitution, but Cle­mency: A Person in both Capacities, (both of Man, and King) so free, not only from the Guilt, but even from the Suspicion of any enormous Crime, [Page 17] that even the Malice of his Accusers themselves, could find nothing to stuff out that black Charge, which they un­justly laid against Him; but the un­happy Contests between Himself, and his Subjects, which indeed were his great Infelicity, but their Guilt who first made the unhappy Breach; and afterwards (as much as in them lay) hindred the making it up; because their own Consciences (of having un­pardonably offended Him) told them, they could expect no Security, but in his Ruine.

A Person, and King, of so elevated a size, both of Intellectual and Moral Endowments, that I may be bold to say, the Stature of his inward Man as much over-topp'd and surpass'd the most accomplish'd of his Subjects, as King Saul's outward Man did over­look the rest of the Israelites, 1 Sam. 10.23.

For his Intellectuals, He was endow'd with such an height of Fancy, as would deservedly have won him the Lau­rel, in a Common-wealth of Poets. He was Master of so sublime a Gran­deur of Language, and stately Maje­sticalness, joyn'd with an amiable Flu­ency of Stile, as might have chal­lenged a Dictator's-ship amongst the best of Orators; of which, his Royal Remains are an indisputable Evidence. And for his soundness of Judgment, both in Points of Controversie, and Cases of Conscience, he might have challenged the Theological Chair, upon the Account of meer worth; and have sate not only Regius Professor, but Rex Professorum, in both Universities.

For his Morals, He was Just, Vali­ant, Temperate, Chast, Merciful, and what not? and that even to such a Proportion, as that he might have set the very best of his Subjects a Copy [Page 19] of Vertue, in his own Example. In­deed he was a Prince, that might have past clear, with the universal Repu­tation, Of the best of English Kings; had he not been so unhappy, as to Reign in the worst of Times; wherein the English Manners were so extreamly de­bauch'd with the Blandishments of a long continued Tranquility, and Plen­ty, and their Judgments so miserably intoxicated with Prejudice, and Cen­soriousness, that too too many nei­ther lov'd the Practice of Vertue themselves, nor would willingly al­low the Reputation of it in others. A King, whom if we had not, by our Sins, render'd our selves unworthy to enjoy longer, we had been (it may be) in doubt of nothing more, than being surfeited with our own Feli­city; and that we enjoy'd Him not, all the World must bear Him Witness, it was not his Fault; seeing, at that last [Page 20] and Fatal Treaty, as Providence made it, at Newport, He there shew'd so great a Desire, in his Gracious Condescen­tions, to make his People Happy, that he even forgot he had any share of his Own to challenge among them; having indeed given them all, but what he could not part with; I mean, That Sovereign Goodness of Dispo­sition, which was the only thing al­most that he had left, besides the re­dintigrated Affections of his People; divers of whom began then to know Him better, and therefore valued Him the more, out of Conviction, that they had ignorantly persecuted Him, under a mistaken Zeal, to support his Throne withall: So that, I think, I may truly say, It was the fatal Infa­tuation and Infelicity of these Na­tions, that they knew not, in the Day of their Visitation, The things that be­longed to their Peace; and therefore, [Page 21] were they, (by the Righteous Judg­ment of God) for a full Decad of Years, and more, justly hid from their Eyes:

And for his Religion, this I think may safely be said of Him, without Ex­ception from any, but such as all Re­ligion may blush to own, That if the Imployment of his serene Hours were of a piece with the Entertain­ment of his Solitudes and Sufferings; that Man is not enough Christian himself, who can admit a Dispute in his own Bosom, whether he ought not to be ranked amongst the chiefest of Christians: And, indeed, whatever we thought of Him Living, as to his Re­ligion; the Consequences of his Death too sadly Evidenc'd, how much the Protestant Cause was concern'd in his Preservation; and especially the sad [Page 22] Face of this Orphant Church of En­gland, after the unhappy Death of this its Nursing Father; which, from that Time forwards, became the most wo­ful Scene of Anarchy and Confusion, that ever was seen in the Christian World, if we may at all give Credit to the best of Histories; not except­ing even Munster it self, which saw but the Prologue to our Fatal Tragedy: For, who knows not, whatever Per­sons or Parties stept up in his vacant Seat, made it the Master-piece of their Policy, like self-interested Chirurge­ons, to keep our Wounds open, that they might keep themselves in Pra­ctice, and to maintain opposite Fa­ctions, to peck at one another; that whilst the People were busied in pri­vate Contests, they might be the less sensible of their Oppressions; inso­much, that the Revival of old Here­sies and Schisms, every one of which, [Page 23] carried a Legion of new Ones in its Belly; together, with the apparent Dangers of Extirpation to the true Protestant Religion, and all its Professors, for many Years together (since our Sins remov'd Him from us;) have con­vinced not a few, that he was not so much to blame, as was too common­ly thought, for not giving his Con­sent to those violent and sudden Changes, which their mis-guided Zeal, (amongst many others alike mis-led) in those unhappy Times, too impor­tunately call'd for.

In the mean while, If what I have said concerning the Person, whose Funeral-Anniversary this Day is appoint­ed to solemnize, and, I am afraid, I have rather injur'd his blessed Me­mory, by saying too little, than the Truth, by saying too much of Him; I say, if you find your selves, in any measure, sensible of the Loss you suf­fer'd [Page 24] by his violent Removal; I hope then you will be the better prepar'd to entertain the next Consideration, wherein this accursed Parricide exceed­ed that of King Saul's, in my Text, if we consider the Persons who com­mitted this horrid Fact.

And so I come to run the Parallel between the Persons Murthered, The Death of King Saul, and the sad Oc­casion of this Day's Solemnity.

And indeed, many Kings Deaths are Recorded in Holy Scripture, and di­vers of them Violent, and Bloody, and many of them brought about by the Hands of Rebellious and Trai­terous Subjects: But, to equal all the hainous Circumstances of the most execrable Murther committed this Day, on King Charles the First, of ever Blessed Memory, I know no Exam­ple that can in the least pretend to outvie it.

'Tis true indeed, that both of them were Kings Anointed, and the Lord's A­nointed, and both Murther'd by Sub­jects; but the Difference of them so vastly distant, that no Power of In­vention can ever bring them to an e­qual Parallel. As,

First, They were not Native-For­reigners, as the Amalekite in my Text, was; but these Parricides were his Ma­jesties Native Subjects, that had drawn their first Breath in his Hereditary Dominions; and to this natural Bond of Allegiance, had voluntary added divers stronger Tyes of Religious Oaths, Protestations, and Covenants; yea, some of them that lifted up not their Heads only, but their Hands a­gainst Him, were such as did eat of his Bread, his own Sworn Servants, and none of them obliged, by any such Provocations of cruel Usages; so that it is hard to conceive, how it [Page 26] might be possible to load a Malefactor with more aggravating Circumstan­ces, to render Him monstrously Cri­minal. But,

Secondly, A Second Consideration to amplifie the horrid Murther of this Day, may be taken from the Fact it self, in that it outvies the Death of King Saul: For the Amalekite's Fact was a sneaking Business, acted in a Cor­ner; so that it had not been known, but by his own Relating of it: But that of this Day, was a publick Tragedy, in all the parts of it; wherein the Con­spirators made all the World Specta­tors of their audacious Effrontery: For here was a Pageantry of publick Justice, an High-Court, a Bench, and a Bar, a President, and a Prisoner, an In­dictment, and a Prosecution; and, at last, an illegal and wicked Sentence, even a­gainst the Lord's Anointed; and all these in the most publick Place of Judica­ture, [Page 27] in the Three Nations: And, last of all, a most Bloody Execution, and that not in a Corner, but in the open Street, in the Face of the Sun; as if they meant (with a kind of Defiance to God Himself) to call Him in, as a publick Spectator, to behold how in­solently they trampled upon his Au­thority, in his undoubted Vicegerent. A Tragedy, which, in all the Acts and Parts of it, I may be confident to af­firm, all the Histories in the World can never parallel. For many Kings indeed have died by the Sword, by the Dagger, and the Pistol, and many by poisonous Compositions, and other such Instruments of private and clan­destine Ambition, and Revenge; but never Any, till this black Day, by the Executioner's Axe, upon a publick Scaf­fold, in the Face of his own Royal Pal­lace; so that, here was a Confluence of all that wilful Cruelty and Inso­lence [Page 28] could contribute to the Aggra­vation of a Villany.

I shall conclude All, with an hum­ble Supplication to the King of Kings; That the horrid Murther, which was this Day committed on the Sacred Person of the Lord's Anointed, may be so wiped off from the Score of these Nations, That we be ne­ver visited with those very Evils, or any that may appear so hainous as those were; And as God hath been so graciously merciful to us, and deliver'd us once and again, within a few Years last past, and has pro­tected and defended us from all those Dan­gers, which might have happened to us, if his infinite Mercy had not interpos'd; So we may perpetually honour our present So­vereigns, that now sit on the Throne, with the most Noble and Glorious Titles of The Allayors of our mutual Heats and Animo­sities, The Moderatours of all our Diffe­rences, and The Reconcilers of us to each other, in Ʋnity, and Godly Love; That so we [Page 29] may walk worthy of the Vocation wherewith we are called, with all Lowliness, and Meekness, with Long-suffering, Forbearing one another in Love; Endeavouring to keep the Uni­ty of the Spirit, in the Bond of Peace, Eph. 4.1, 2, 3.

Which God of his infinite Mercy grant we may All do, for Jesus Christ his Sake, Amen.