THE Passion-Flower A SERMON Preached on the 30th day of January BEING The Day of the MARTYRDOM OF King Charles the I. Of whom the World was not worthy Heb. 11. 38. By CHRISTOPHER FLOWER M. A. and Rector of St. Margaret's Lothbury LONDON London Printed for Nathaniel Brook at the Angel in Cornhill 1666. Academiae Gantabrigiensis Liber To the truly Worthy His Honoured Friend Dr. BALDWIN HAMEY Doctor of Physic SIR OFten and seriously considering my manifold obligations owing even my very life next under God to your care and cure as having not seldom prolonged it when twinkling on the socket I determined rather to run the Gantlop of Censure from this capricious and overcurious age than merit the sordid Epithet of Ingrateful And yet if the gale of your Clemency drive me clear off that Scylla I fear I shall split upon Charybdis incur the suspicion at  of pride and vainglory while I only wish my Meditations immortal whereby my thanks may run parallel with them I must ingenuously acknowledge this Discourse hath nothing to commend it to your accomplished self but the sincere loyalty of the Author and the weightiness of the Subject comprising some of the Unjust Sufferings of the Lord of Glory in which as in a mirror you may also view the Sufferings of our glorious Lord King CHARLES the first of ever blessed memory whose Anniversary merits maugre all malice a sable Monument of solemn mourning to bear date with the utmost length of Time that so the Enemies of his Regality and Virtues may see the guilt and greatness of their Vices and those of our Nation and Religion may discern our Reality and Innocence Now would you deign to inquire what flegged this Discourse of mine to fly though with black wings farther than your habitation suffer me to tell you which I cannot without a sigh the supine negligence of some and the irreligion of others which obstructs a religious ingress into the sacred place of God's special Presence on the annual approach of this dismal day So that by an happy Providence this Sermon may reach some of their houses and perch on some of their hands who make little or no conscience of frequenting God's House on this solemn day That I have made a good Choice in putting this weak child of my weaker brain under your Patronage none will or can deny you having obtained one of the chiefest places among those breathing Gods who every daily the world with wonders in raising infirm mortals from sickness to health & as it were from death itself I may add whose loyalty learning candour integrity of life and exemplary Charity are as so many specifics against the Pestilential breath of detraction If you shall vouchsafe Noble Sir to stick in the vernant Eden of your Study this Passion-Flower which you are much more able than my self to read a Lecture on you will very much oblige him whose highest Ambition it is humbly to subscribe himself Your devoted Servant and witness of your merit CHR. FLOWER THE Passion-Flower John 18. part of the 40 th' Verse Not this Man but Barrabas The whole verse hath it thus Then cried they all saying Not this Man but Barrabas THAT I may speak from this holy Mount to your greater benefit and better bringing to pass of my pious design which is as much as in me lieth to melt your Hearts into a temper becoming the Solemnity of this day I shall desire your Christian attention may accompany me to some preceding passages In the beginning of this Chapter you may read Judas to betray Jesus in which bold and impious Attempt the Soldiers fall to the ground vers. 6. Jesus is taken and led to Annas and Caiphas v. 12. and in the 15. verse begins Peter's Denial of him v. 19 according to the Contents of some of your Bibles Jesus is examined before Caiphas v. 18. you may read him arraigned before Pilate who accosteth them that brought him before him first with this Interrogation What Accusation bring you against this Man v. 29. they reply If he were not a Malefactor we would not have delivered him up unto thee It is time now I conceive as early as it is by way of Preface to my Text to take them to Task and to examine the weight of their words for all was not Gospel they said though it be mentioned in the Gospel If he were not a Malefactor as if they should have said his Crime is so manifest that he needeth no Accusation what do you doubt of the Righteousness of our Proceedings who have done all things with deliberation and have found him worthy of Death and we expect that you should proceed to give Sentence Depth of Hypocrisy Madness and Malice as if being a Prisoner bound and in Fetters only was Crime enough and deserved Death as a Malefactor This was handsome indeed high equity sure who cannot perceive that they disinherited their Caus and therefore cunningly by way of Anticipation spoke what they did lest they should have been compelled to prove him so a Criminal a Malefactor as they pronounced him to be He that runneth may read their Hypocrisy they would by all means be thought to be Consoientious as if they never attempted any thing but what was just and had never sought the Death of any but of Malefactors when it stands upon sacred Record as a base blot in their Escutcheon that they unjustly slew all the Prophets that went before them O the perfrict brazen Forehead the Impudence of this Rout to style Him a Malefactor who had done Nothing but Good to their Nation They should have asked the Blind to whom he restored Sight The Lepers whom he had cleansed The Lame to whom he gave Limbs whether he was a Malefactor But thus it was prophesied Psal. 35. 12. They rewarded Me Evil for Good to the Despoyling of my Soul and Hatred for my Love Yet Pilate as bad as he was being startled at their unjust Proceedings seemed to rid his Hands of him with Accipite eum Take ye him and judge him according to your Law The Roman Law forbidding to Condemn any before he be heard Now do but see how they elude this It is not lawful for us to put any one to Death No Then the Death of Stephen lies at your doors your present judgements confute your former practices besides what was it other then to be the Death of Christ so violently to beg it with open Mouth thus to go against Him and like so many Bloodhounds to cry him down It seems by their Law he should only have been stoned by the Roman Law he must be Crucified it was their intent then not only that he should Die but with the greatest ignominy pain and shame that might be Neither is Pilate yet satisfied for being entered into the Judgment-Hall again and having convened Jesus he asketh Him Art Thou the King of the Jews In this he thought to have struck the Nail on the Head as if Christ would upon that Demand of his have confessed Himself guilty of Treason against Caesar and of disturbing the Peace of the Nation But what said our Saviour Sayest thou this of thyself or did others tell it thee of Me As if he should have said Little dost thou think what thou sayest the Mystery that those few words contain in them For how couldst thou style Me King since no Man can say Jesus is the Lord but by the spirit Have it whence thou wilt it is of weighty concernment what thou hast said didst thou but understand it Or we may suppose this Interrogation to be a Reproof of Pilate as if our Saviour should have said if this proceedeth from thy own Suspicion it is but an injust part thou dost Act for that is not the Star a Judge should be led by he ought not to be both the Judge and the Witness If some others told thee so why are not my Accusers brought forth If to Accuse be enough to make a man Guilty none will be Innocent Judges are to proceed secundum allegata & probata according to what is alleged and proved Our Saviour probably said this to give him an occasion to speak what followed Am I a Jew This Pilate may be said to ask in Scorn to that Nation hateful to the Heathens for their Difference from them in Religion as if he should have said How can I speak this of myself who am not a Jew but an Ethnic and what have we Heathens to do with your Rites The Chief Priests of your Nation delivered You to Me and for This accused Thee to Me they are the men that lay it to thy Charge I neither Apprehended Thee neither did I Accuse Thee Certainly he would not had he been a Jew and Christ his King yet as his Place empowered him he examines him Quid fecisti What hast thou done Our Saviour thought that Question answered itself and therefore was not solicitous to Reply to it having done nothing worthy such usage A Kingdom he dreads not to tell him that he had but it was not of this World v. 36. of this Chap. Therefore he need not be thought to stand in their Light who had Kingdoms they might have room enough to Sway their Sceptres in for all him Yet it is very observable He doth not say his Kingdom was not In this World but not Of this World whence it follows That there is another world which Pilate it is probable dreamed not of In which he that suffers the loss of never so many Kingdoms here may be riehly rewarded there This could not but cure Pilate of that shaking Palsy which Fear had put him into our Saviour talking of a Kingdom Now this our Saviour proceeds to make more manifest thus If my Kingdom were of this World then would my Servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews as if he should have said I would not be so imprudent as to go only with a few un-armed Disciples I would then be a little better Guarded my Attendants should be many and mighty such as know how to use their weapons and to acquit themselves like Men Smiling as it were at the Vanity and Impotence of worldly Potentates who of themselves signify little but depend on the strength of external power which if it fail they fall but having that they can do any thing bring Others to their Bent or Bow at pleasure have their Persons at Command as they had his Yet Pilate cannot but harp on that String witness his Language Art thou a King then This could make but harsh Music in his ears who could not but envy him that Title howsoever wherever his Kingdom was He was loath to ask where his Kingdom was lest he should not be far from Happiness sure No take heed of that Methinks I see him tremble at what our Saviour answered Thou sayest that I am a King as if he should have said What need I say it when you yourself say as much your own Mouth hath pronounced it and yet lest the Man should be too much dejected at it our Saviour addeth To this end was I born and for this Caus came I into the world what to reign like other Kings No but to walk Antipodes to them rather as if he should have said 'T is an Error to think that I am Ambitious of any Mundan Reign any worldly Sovereignty 'T is thus That my Kingdom is Spiritual I cannot I will not deny but will aver it either before thee or any Caesar on Earth Only know this That it is the lest of my Intention to molest other Kings or pompously like them to Reign But to be a witness to the truth am I come At this Pilate seems to be pretty well pleased and asketh him What is Truth But alas it was more out of Derision and Contempt then to be Informed As indeed profane Spirits cannot endure to hear savoury words but they turn them off with Scorn as if he should have said I hope you will produce no other truth then your High Priests do teach you will not seem wiser than they will you If you do 't is folly to declare it I must interrupt you for it is other Business that we are about Your Life is in Question He would not stay for an Answer but went out saith the Text because he thought Caesar's Laws sufficient and the knowledge of any other Truth needless Besides he saw the Cloud to thicken The Jews it is likely bandying together so that it was no time to hold conference any longer with him and the Jews feared lest Christ having obtained Liberty to speak for himself he might so work upon the Judge and melt the hearts of the rest on the Bench as to frustrate their Design Well for all this He that before went out to hear his Accusation now goes out to excuse him to the People to his Accusers Behold him seemingly to heap Civility upon Civility upon our Saviour even in the midst of his Severity For first Tho on the one side were Persons of great Rank and Quality from whom he might expect a Becoming reward for his Injustice or dread their Displeasure if he did not act as they would have him And on the other side Christ who was mean and contemptible in outward appearance forlorn and forfaken yet he gives it for him against the Jews casting their Malice as it were in their Teeth Secondly He stands not only up for Christ maugre all their eager expectation of the contrary but Confounds his Adversaries pronouncing Him innocent and that not without an Emphasis I find in him no Fault at all And yet this Volpone this Fox lest their teeth so sharp set should for want of a Prey fasten on himself he tells them you have a Custom an ungodly one it was what ever was the ground of it Some think it was in memory of Jonathan rescued by the People from Death which his Father had threatened him with Others that the Feast might be celebrated with the more Joy and Gladness Others more probably say it was in remembrance of their Deliverance from the Egyptick Bondage But if so one would think the Paschal Lamb should have been Memorial enough for that but they must do somewhat additional though not commanded by God Thus Hypocrisy is always busy in preferring its own Figments before God's Commands yet I verily believe the World would have been more happy than it is had it not had worse Judges than Pilate was in some respects For do but see how Industrious he seems to be for Christ's Release For this end he rubs up a Custom of theirs to capacitate them to Release him he did not pervert an Old Law or establish a New one Setting up a High Court of Justice to try him by Then he propounds them two None is in Competition with him but Barrabas a notorious Miscreant whom he thought none would be for Nay more he seems to Beg him or at  to bid them choose him saying Will ye that I release to you the King of the Jews scorning to mention Barrabas whom our Evangelist styles a Robber and another a Murderer which served as a Foil for their malice if that needed any to prefer such a one before Christ But Pilate it seems was deceived for the great ones before had been at the People to ask Barrabas and to leave Jesus to undergo Death The Multitude which not long before was for Him now unanimously bandy against him For they cried all again say the words immediately preceding my Text Envy you see cannot be quiet till it hath made the person it strikes at perfectly miserable But why again They cried all again You may remember they before cried if he were not a Malefactor we would not have delivered him unto thee That which they cried again was that which I cannot it being my Text but repeat again Not this Man but Barrabbas Thus Beloved having presented you with that Preface which can be styled no less than Necessary Come we to some Division of their words whom it is a wonder being so many as they were to hear not Divided Yet thus it was Here was no crying some one thing and some another as at that uproar we read of Acts 19 The Wind and Tide Priest and People both went one way great and small honourable and ignoble young and old male and female they cried all not once but again Non Hunc sed Barrabam Not this Man but Barrabas In which words you have the People's Election and Reprobation or if you will in Terms less offensive less to be excepted against the People's Negative and Affirmative Choice such as it was Negative Not this Man Affirmative but Barrabas To scan each by itself briefly and to come to some suitable Application of both And first of their Negative Vote or Choice Not this Man And pray why not He O ye Jews What harm did he ever do you or could ye ever find in Him How justly might it have been said to them concerning Him I mean our Saviour as Themistocles said to the Athenians Are ye weary of receiving so many Benefits by one Man If ye go to that what good did he not do you How could ye so soon forget the Evils that he cured The empty Bells among you which He often filled and fed What house did he ever enter into but Salvation entered with Him Some always were the better for Him Not this Man What! after so many Miracles wrought among you by his Divine power Is he but a Man in your judgements I had thought the inspired Magis that fell down devoutly at his feet when newly infanted which you could not but hear of The water of the neighbouring Flood turned by Him into Wine for the pleasuring of the galilean Youth being with them at a Marriage His forty days fasting His feasting the Multitude with Bread that increased betwixt the Dispenser's hands when more than All remained His wonderful checking the boisterous Waves of the Sea with a word His walking on that watery Plain with unsinking feet Those damned infernal Spirits Rebels to God and the Light which hearing his Voice forsook their fleshly Habitations The blind by Birth who to Him owed his Day The Dumb that never spoke till he loosened their Tongues I thought these would have proved as so many Heralds to proclaim him more than Man No for all this it 's only Not this Man they were loath sure to believe Him to be God lest the thoughts of it should have endangered their Conversion or melted them into a better temyer non istum so some render it by way of diminution and vilifying not this worthless person No whom then But Barrabas which is their positive Choice or affirmative Vote and comes next to be handled I fear I shall not do it so roughly as it deserves But Barrabas an excellent Choice indeed a special lovely dish this to be served in at such a Feast Now this Fellow to turn the istum upon him which they undeservedly fixed on our Saviour He was notorious I. For Robbery he was a Robber saith our Evangelist II. For Sedition he troubled the whole City saith S. Luke III. For Murder saith the same Evangelist cap. 23. 19 This was the Idol they cried up the Miscreant they put into the balance with Christ the Son of God a very anointed Villain he was to have whom executed every man's appetite but a little before was up yet rather than Jesus shall live Barrabas shall be released more Insurrections more Murders more Seditions more any thing rather than to be in danger of having Christ their King He that was born King of the Jews Do but see how S. Peter sets them out in their Colours characterizeth them to their Heads Acts 3. 14. But ye denied the Holy one and the just and desired a Murderer to be given unto you and killed the Prince of Life This was he that was thought only worth naming with them Christ out of contempt being branded with the Appellation of This Man they had rather celebrate their Passover with that wretch then with Jesus And no marvel for they knew this Fellow would prove no eyesore them would patiently permit them to do what they would give them Liberty of Conscience and so would be excellent company for them alas he was not for their Tooth who came from Heaven upon Errands of Holiness and Reformation whose Example would put Vice out of countenance and upbraid their madness No they had too much of Him already Not this Man but Barrabas what more intense blindness madness and malice could betray itself What was this but to say what I think you cannot hear without trembling Occidatur qui suscitat Mortuos & dimittatur qui Occîdit vivos as one hath it Let him die who raised the Dead and him be released whose Trade it is to destroy the Living Let Life depart and Darkness remain The Peacemaker be dispatched and the Seditious reprieved How by this Action or Election of theirs did the Jews in the saddest sense forsake the Fountain of Living waters and betake themselves to a muddy bloody dirty puddle of water They did not set free the Nocent only instead of the Innocent but put to death Him who was a constant and faithful Benefactor to them And thus my Discourse all along if you have observed it respects the business of this Day which is to be humbled for the horrid Murder of an innocent Person a good Benefactor to this Nation under whom it had flourished many years First then in this the Jews betrayed superlative ingratitude and high Baseness to prefer so vile a person before Him who chose them from among all Nations to be His peculiar People his choice Enclosure Secondly here was their Malice who cared not how things went so as in this they had their wills Thirdly this argues them Blind indeed Malice is blind ask what they should have been against the death of their Saviour and the Release of a Thief and as they passionately desired so it came to pass hugging their Bane in Him whom they were so hot to have released For the Vengeance which such a Choice merited did not long sleep neither would it If they had not made use of that Cabell His Blood be upon us and our Children to pull it down more speedily upon them For Titus saith Josephus besieging Jerusalem when the Jews pinched with Famine came forth in Multitudes to seek food for their famished Souls he daily caused a number of them to be Crucified in so much that at length saith the Historian There was scarce any place to erect Crosses on nor Crosses enough to fasten their Bodiesto This this was the Crop of severity which their sinful choice yielded them And how justly were they punished with death who refused the Lord of life so pl●●gid by that Tyrant who cried again Non hune Not this man but Barrabas But what had not Pilate a Finger at lest in this from the guilt of which he cleared himself would have been thought to do so by washing of his hands as if he should have said by that action I am innocent therefore look ye to it that I condemn this man O ye Jews I do it not voluntarily but being compelled I am innocent I call Heaven to witness it is you that are Nocent and guilty of his Blood This Hypocrite he was as Scarlet or Purple within as without in Heart as in Habit notwithstanding all that Formality of washing his hands accessary he was to the Death of the Lord of Life in a high degree being a faint-hearted Judge afraid to give Innocency its Reward Had he bore up valiantly against the stream of the multitude he had approved himself an honest man and a good Judge What could be more base and dirty and sinful then to confess he found no fault at all in Him and yet not to find in his heart to acquit him but to curry favour with the people adjudges him to be Crucified Thus Non rarò bonorum virorism Capitibus ut Talis aut Tesseris Ludunt saith one 'T is the Old Game of the world for the Heads and Lives of good men to be played with like Dice or Chess-men by Great men that they might ingratiate themselves with each other I have read of an Apologue to this purpose it runs thus The Wolf the Fox and the Ass on a time came together to Shrift The Wolf confessed and was dismissed the Fox did likewise and was absolved but the Ass confessed and his fault was this that being hungry he took one straw out of the sheaf of a poor Pilgrim travelling to Rome for which he was severely punished the Fox and the Wolf strait fall upon him and devour him maintaining that the poor Ass' Crime was so great as to deserve it The Fable applies itself To be sure where Pilate is Judge Barrabas shall be loosed and the Innocent condemned I do believe unjust Sysamnes whom Cambyses flayed and of his Skin made a Cushion for all succeeding Judges to lean and look on was a Saint to this Judge as subtly as he carried it And yet as mad and malicious as the People were they could not hinder their Prisoner from evading a Glorious King though nothing but unworthy base usage came from them Glorious in his personal virtues Glorious in his Divine Graces but most Glorious in his Constancy and perseverance in his Charity even amidst all his Sufferings which nothing could more magnify then this Choice of theirs Electing Barrabas and rejecting Jesus not before they had done either good or evil but after One had done all the Evil and the Other for divers years together all the Good imaginable then to elect the Robber and reject the Saviour what could more make against them and for Him here again how plainly through the Sufferings of the King of Saints may one see the Sufferings of that Saint of Kings Charles the first whose Murder we are this Day to lament and be humbled for I shall now descend to some suitable application I. From the Competition precedaneous to the Choice presumed here but expressed in Saint Matthew which of the two will ye that I release unto you for so run the words Math. 27. 17. Let us learn that there is no office so sacred or weighty but some either through favour or fear will abuse it whom will ye that I release Corrupt wretch to bring that in Question Which it was in his power to put out of Question and sure would have done had he acted according to the Dictate either of his Wife by his side or of that Scold his Conscience within him For he knew that for Envy they they had de-delivered him Matth. 27. 18. Knew yet would not do what he should have done but did forbear to acquit Christ exposing him to the mercy of the Multitude whose tenderest mercies are cruel Not to save a Man if it be in ones power is to destroy him so saith our Saviour Mark 3. 4. Job broke the jaws of the wicked and plucked the Prey out of his Teeth 't is said I have read that Sir George Blage if I mistake not his Name one of King Henry the 8ths Privy Chamber being condemned for a Heretic was yet pardoned by the King he coming afterward into the King's presence Ah my Pig said the King for so he was wont to call him yea said he If your Majesty had not been better to me then my Judges were your Pig had been roasted  this time for certain there is no such unsavoury Salt and more becoming a Dunghill than a  or a Bradshaw an unjust Judge Envy not the pomp of such a one whensoever your eyes shall behold him which I wish may never be no more than thou wouldst a dead Corpse its Garnish and Gaiety II. Let this Competition mind us of that we are so much concerned in Tho God hath left the Heathen without excuse yet he hath not left us without a choice our Salvation is elective both on God's part and ours I would but ye would not 't is God's own language Hence likewise it is no less true than a right saying he that made thee without thyself will not save thee without thyself Indeed were there but one Object within our reach presented to the Faculty of election in man as one Christ one Holiness our receiving of him could not be called choice but it might be styled necessity rather But since there are many Christ's aswell as Antichrists and divers sorts of holiness it will behoove us to be wary what choice we make To see that we have not so much Faith for the Alcoran as for the Bible and as much obedience for the Devil as for God for the Law in our members as for that of our mind It must need 's be more obliging not to say meritorious for a Joseph to be chaste at Court than for another to be so in a Cottage or in a Cell For a Soldier to be temperate in the Camp where he is beleaguered with Temptations to the contrary than for another to be so at home To be a Christian in Nero's house than at a greater distance from danger Thou art virtuous because thou canst not easily be otherwise this is a Commendation that leaves but a flat farewell behind it 'T is an Act not only of Wisdom but of God's great Goodness thus to order it to leave the Christian as it were in the Confines of two most distant people improvable unto Good and capable of Evil. For Righteousness to go for thy refuge and not for thy choice as it doth where there is no Rival Sin is to be content that should be without its Crown and thyself without thy Reward which conducts me from the Competition to the Competitors Christ and Barrabas From whence learn we 1. Not to build on the multitudes vogue or choice to esteem no otherwise of its Applau or Approbation than of a whiff of Smoke the best Emblem of its base inconstancy But now they cried Hosannah Now they are all for Crucify him Crucify him Vox populi was not here Vox Dei but Mors Dei The voice of the people was not the voice of God but the death of God rather Follow not a multitude to do evil saith the Holy Ghost as if it did little or nothing else but do so We must then get a preservative against the Infection of the multitude as well as that of the Plague or else it is like to go ill with us It is the world's guise to elect what is evil and to reject what is gaod It is the nature of that ugly Ape to hug its Brats as most lovely and Beautiful What more lively example of this is there than the carriage of these Jews at this time How unworthily did they write all those Benefits our Saviour conferred on them in water witness their Praeteritition or passing him by and their Choosing a bloody Thief and Seditious preferring such a one before him This is that foul Sin St. Peter makes bold to tax them home with in his Sermon laid it to their Hearts and were Converted I do verily believ there is not a person that hears of this but hate 's this Action in the Jews Condemning it in their Thoughts and were he asked would say he did so And yet how many are there who knowing the Judgement of God inflicted on them for it do not only do the same thing in effect but have pleasure in them that do it to use that of S. Paul's language Rom. 1. 32. There is no Sin but is as base as Barrabas nay worse for he had not been so vile and base without it How loudly doth the Swearer make one with these Larding his Discourse with Oaths damnably confronting that strict Command Swear not at all for he will do nothing at all but swear and so by consequence cries Non hunc Not this man but Barrabas I shall only desire of such a Sinner that he would tell me what fruit he can expect or ever any did reap from that Bramble besides God's Curs Hell-fire is the punishment of such whose tongues are so set on fire of Hell Neither can the Hypocrite excuse himself who seems to be for Christ wearing his Livery on his back but Barrabas his Favour in his Bosom who was a Thief and a Robber so is he in his Shop it may be though not on the Road. What should I say of the unclean person who is one of this Rout of this Rabble too How by making the Members of Christ the Members of a Harlot doth he day and night cry Non hunc Not this Man but Barrabas My advice to such a one shall only be this to labour for a saving inversion of these words as thus to turn when tempted this Hunc into hanc I mean upon Choice to say Not this Woman this Strumpet were she more beautiful than she is but Christ You would wonder now if I should prove it possible for you to be crying up of Barrabas even while you are hearing of Christ preached Beloved he that gives way to wanton lustful looks or worldly thoughts at a Sermon suffering them to take up his Mind cry's with the Jews Non hunc Not this Man but Barrabas But see that ye refuse not Him that speaks to speak in S. Paul's words Heb. 12. 25. For if they escape not that refused him that spoke on earth much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him that thus speaks from heaven The Jews paid for their Nolumus hunc We will not have this Man to reign over us And for their Non hunc Not this Man but such a one And so shall we too if we repent not in time of our Recusancy Let those then that hate and abhor the Jews for this indeed to be lamented Choice descend into themselves by Examination and see they be not guilty of the same What is there so base and so vile but a corrupt mind will prefer before Christ II. Hence as in a Mirror we may see the Prevalency of the Actions of Great Men the attractiveness of them If Herod and Caiphas do begin Christ shall have fists enough about his ears there will not be wanting that will smite him with Tongue as well as with the Hand Fly blow and blister his Fame to purpose With Inferiors example doth more than precept and like men in a Crowd they do not go but are carried rather Do any of the Ruler's believ in him This Question deterred many of the Vulgar from adhering to our Saviour The weightiest Drops of whose blood I do believ fell in the saddest Sens on the Wisest of them For had not They first preached Him down in their Synagogs' the People had never cried Him down in the Judgment-Hall with a Non hune Not This Man but Barrabas III. Here is matter of Comfort in our vilified reproached Condition here below As thus I. That we cannot be lower than our Saviour was in the World's Repute II. That his Disreputation hath Sanctified Ours If such a one who had done so much Good could not procure a Good word from those he did it to why should such Unprofitable Servants as we are at best be troubled if we be awarded with frowns for our Favours with Cruelty from others from our kindness to them I 'm sure this Lamb of God opened not his Mouth repiningly was dumb before the Shearers who as much as in them lay robbed him of the whole Fleece of his Reputation yet that which at first sight seems to make for his ignominy realy conduced much for his Glory For his Father would not have him ransomed at such a rate as to be beholding to the people's Favour for his Repriev and live under the Notion of a Malefactor who being innocent would be Condemned and Die with more Honour as he did to the stigmatising of them who were his Judges and Persecutors with the Brand of perpetual infamy In short here is matter as of Comfort so of Caution lest at any time we make our Teeth to meet in the rigid Censure of that Penson that dies not a Natural but a violent Death What is this but to condemn the Generation of the Righteous I remember Lam. 4. 20. there is a passage to this purpose The breath of our Nostrils the Anointed of the jord is taken in their pits Which was this that fell as a Morsel into his enemy's Mouths but a good King one under whose Government they pronouned themselves Happy as it follows in the same vers. Beloved it is unchristian to judge temporal punishments to be judgements due unto Sin Suffer me to speak it Thy wickedness is too triumphant who will not acknowledge that some afflictions are for Trials and in order to the increase of Grace and Glory unto God's dear Children 'T is as much as to say Christ could not be the Sun of Righteousness because he did set in such a Cloud of wretchedness at his Death as to outward appearance dying on the Cross in the midst of two Thiefs as if the chiefest Malefactor 'T is not it the manner of one's Death but the Cours of one's Life that makes really wretched or happy To think otherwise is to pronounce thyself as much out in thy judgement as these Jews were in their Choice when they all cried Non hunc Not this Man but Barrabas I have now done with my Text and it may be expected I should speak somewhat of the Occasion For this is not only a Fastday but a Funeral which we Solemnize The Funeral of as pious a King as ever England had to sway its Sceptre That little that is to be found in Bad men the holy Ghost hath thought good to Register David penned Saul's Epicedium which runs thus Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their Lives and in their Death they were not Divided ye Daughters of Israel weep over Saul who clothed you in Scarlet and other Delights who put Ornaments of Gold upon your Apparel 2. Sam. 1. 23 24. Which gives a sufficient warrant to mention and not only so but to commend the Dead which I intent not to do at this time His incomparable worth vows not the varnish of my water-Colours to set him off Neither shall I blister the air of this sacred place with mentioning of any of those who had a hand in his Death since Justice is in pursuit of them and its Iron-hand will recompense the Slowness of its Leaden feet But because some were eminently instrumental to bring to pass the Death of that just Man shall We think ourselves Innocent God forbid There are none of us of mature years but by our Sins gave earnest for that fatal Stroak which made three Kingdoms Miserable at once So that well may We assume that passionate wish of the Prophet Jeremy O that our Heads were Waters and our Eyes Fountains of Tears that we may lament Day and Night for the shedding of the Innocent Blood of that good King The Top-branch of which Royal Cedar to the root of which Envy and implacable Malice laid the Axe the Lord preserv Bless him O Lord in his Body and bless him in his Soul bless him in his Going out and bless him in his Coming in Bless him whensoever he shall adventure upon the Water that dangerous deceitful Element be thou his Pilot Bless him when he shall journey on the Land be thou his Conduct Bless the Guard of his Body with Courage and Fidelity bless the Guides of his Soul with Sincerity of Life and soundness Doctrine May all the blessings on Mount Gerezim in this Life and in the next all the blessings Christ preached upon the Mount be multiplied upon him And to this Prayer I doubt not but every Loyal Subject will from his heart say Amen Specially when he doth remember and resent Horresco referens this sad trilinguous Hexastich MAP Ter Deno JanI Labens rex soLe CaDente Carolus eXutus soLio sCeptorqVe seCure CHARLES best of Kings for God's Laws and the Land 's Was Martyred murdered by UNHALLOWED hands Dei Gratiâ & Regis Oblatio qualisqualis EHMAMP FINIS