SEVEN TREATISES , Very necessary to be observed in these very bad Days To prevent the Seven last Vials of God's Wrath , that the Seven Angels are to pour down upon the Earth ; Revel. xvi .

I. The Monstrous Murder of the most righteous King ; Paralel'd to the Murder of King CHARLES the First . Act. vii . 52. II. The Tragedy of Zimri , that slew his King , that was his Master . 2. Reg. ix . 31. III. God's War with the wicked , Rebels , Murderers , &c. Esay . lvii . 21. IV. The lively Picture of these lewd times . Jeremy . xiv . 10. V. The four Chiefest Duties of every Christian Man . 1. Peter . ii . 17. VI. The true Properties , and Prerogatives of the true Saints . John . x. 27. VII . The Chiefest Cause why we should love God . 1. John . iv . 19.

Whereunto is annexed The DECLARATION of the just Judgment of GOD

AND The superabundant Grace , and great Mercy of God shewed towards this good King , CHARLES the First . I. In his Life . II. In his Death . III. After his Death . 1. In his Honour . 2. In his Children , and Posterity . 3. In all his Friends and loyal Subjects .

By Gr. Williams , Ld. Bishop of Ossory .

LONDON . Printed for the Authour . 1661.

THAT he is most strictly obliged , and indispensably bound as he is sent a messenger from God to instruct his people , and called by His late Majesty , his most gracious Master , and now most Glorious Martyr , Charles the first , of ever blessed memory , to be the Bishop of Ossorie , to declare , and make Remonstrance unto Your Majesty , to the now-Convened Parliament , and to all Posterity , these few Subsequent things . As ,

First , that ever since 1625. I lived with my ever-honoured Lord , and Master , the Earl of Pembroke and Mountgomery , for the most part , in His Majestie house at the Cock-Pit , about the space of eighteen years together , and about seven years of that time , in His Majestie 's service ; and in that respect I had fitter opportunity to observe His Majestie , and to understand the affairs , and Trans-actions of the Court better then most others of His Majestie 's Chaplains , that waited only their accustomed Moneth , and then returned to their residence . And mine Obligations to His late Majestie are so many , and so great , that I cannot with the best of mine endeavours discharge the Dimidium of those duties , that low to the blessed memory of that King ; for he gave me all that I had , and all that I have , and had not the late Arch Bishop of Canterbury provided , and commended to His Majestie a far better , and abler man every way then my self , His Majestie intended to make me the Teacher , and Tutour to Your Majestie , as I heard it from His own mouth when my ever Honoured Lord , and Master , the Earl of Pembroke , and Mountgomery , brought me to examine His Son , and my Scholar , the Lord Charles Herbert before His Majestie . And therefore I conceive , that I am more obliged , and bound in Conscience , to declare what I do infallibly know to be truth , to perpetuate the understanding thereof , unto Posterities , and to undeceive the Ignorant , and Simplest sort of people , that know not things aright , but , in hearing the lying reports of most Malicious men , do swallow down the same for truths ; then many others of His late Majestie 's Chaplains .

And I call the great God of Heaven , and the Searcher of all hearts to be my witness , that what I do , is neither out of Envie , Hatred , or Malice to any particular man ; or to Flatter , and to Insinuate my self into the favour of any one the greatest man living ; or for the hope , and expectation , of any benefit , or Preferment in the World ; whereas I never did , nor ever intended , to desire any thing of Your Majestie , or of any other , but onely to retain , and to enjoy what our late Pious King , and my most gracious Master , hath given me ; because that , although I was Plundered in England , and Plundered in Wales , and Sequestred of all my Means both in England , and Wales , and had not left me one peny of any Ecclesiastical Means , nor twenty Pound per annum , in all the World , to maintain my self , and my Servants , of any Temporal Estate ; so that I was forced for these twelve last years , and more , to live upon a little Tenement , for which I payed fifty shillings rent to Sir Gr. Williams , and four Pound land by the year of mine own , poorer then poor Curates , with Oaten-Bread , and Barly-Bread , and a little Butter-Milk , or Glas-Door , and sometimes Water , being not able to keep any drop of Ale , or Beer in my house for these two lustra's of years , and more , as all my Neighbours know ; and to go attired in very mean Country Cloaths , and to do many servile works my self , about my House , Garden , and Cattel , for want of means to hire labourers ; yet for all this my sad condition , lest I should be ensnared , and hindred to discharge my duty , and my tongue entangled with such Bird-lime , I resolved to accept of no means , benevolence , or maintenance from the Usurpers , Rebels , and the Robbers of the Church of Christ , and of their brethren , whatsoever they should offer unto me , and how great soever my wants should be ; as , being contented , with the Apostle , with any state , or condition , whatsoever , and hoping , that , as the Poet said of Pompey , Non me videre superbum Prospera fatorum ; so — Nec fractum adversa videbunt .

But what I say herein , I do it onely to demonstrate the truth of things , not to those , that knew His Majestie , which were needless , but to those , that knew Him not , and upon mis-apprehension of His Majesties action's , related by Malicious Adversaries misunderstood the same , and made a simple conversion of White to Black , and of Good to Evil. For ,

As I shall answer for what I say , at the Dreadfull day of Judgment , I do here profess , that in all mine Observation of what I saw , and what I heard , of the Lords , and Gentlemen of His Court , in so many years , as they know I lived therein , which was , ever since King James died , till the Wars began , I knew neither Lord , nor Knight , nor Gentleman , nor any other man whatsoever , neither have I read in any Historie , Greek , or Latine , of any Emperour , or King , I will not except Constantine , nor Theodosius , nor St. Edward of Ingland , that was a juster King , a wiser Governour , and a better man , then King Charles , that was so Pious in his Devotions , so just and upright in all His Actions , so sweet in His Disposition , so loving to His Friends , so mild to His Servants , so ready to forgive His Enemies , and so free from all revenge for His greatest wrongs , that when His own Subjects , and Servants , so Undutifully , and Maliciously , Rebelled , and Warred against Him , and bespotted His Innocent Conversation , and pure Life , with most false , and venomous Aspersions , I heard him say , I thank God , I can freely forgive all my Enemies , and I pray God , that God would forgive them : and I dare boldly affirm it , and can justifie it , that He was as good a Protestant , if not the best Protestant in all the Christian World , and , I am sure , the best Protestant King , or Prince , that ever England saw ; who , when I came unto Him , immediately after Edg-Hill-fight , and said , that whatsoever otherwise , we wanted in our Abilities , yet our Prayers should never be wanting , to beseech the Almighty God , night and day , to bless Him , and to protect Him from all His Adversaries , He answered , that He thanked us for our Prayers , and desired us to continue our Prayers still , as He hoped we would do , for Him ; because He suffered all this War , and whatsoever else should betide Him , for our sake , and for the defence of the true Protestant Religion , as it was Established in the Church of England , and for the preservation of the known Laws of these Kingdoms : and all the while I lived in His Court , I never saw the man , Clergy , or Laity , that shewed himself so punctually professing the Protestant Religion , and so zealously , and regularly , observing the true service of God , as His gracious Majestie .

What other Character I should give to this most excellent Prince , for a loving faithfull Husband to His Queen , and for a dear indulgent Father to all His Children , His goodness therein is very very far beyond my ability of Expression ; as it is indeed in all the other particulars : so that the praise , and Eulogie , which Homer gave to Achilles , and Ulysses , Virgil to Aenaeas , Xenophon to his Cyrus , Eusebius to Constantine , and Osorius to Emmanuel King of Portugal , I may truly ascribe to Him , or rather what the Prophet Jeremy , and the Son of Sirach saith of the good King Josias , or the Scripture of King David , that he was a man according to God's own heart , so I hope , and believe , that I may say with out mistake , without offence , that King Charles the First was a man according to God's own heart , and though , as Christ non dimidiavit dies suos , so God did soon bring this good King to His death , that He might be soon delivered from the contradictions of Sinners , and soon brought to enjoy the glorious Crown of Eternal life , yet was He most blessed , both in His life , and death , as hereafter I shall more fully shew unto you . And therefore I had rather say no more , then to say too too little , as I shall , when I say my best of this most gracious , and now most glorious King , Charles the First .

And though he was so good , so gracious , and so pious a King ; yet this good , gracious , and incomparably pious Protestant King , the gentlest , meekest , and of the sweetest disposition of all the men I ever saw , was , as you well know , most rebelliously Warred against , most Judas-like sold , most treacherously betrayed , and most maliciously , Barbarously , and , for the spiteful mischeivous manner thereof , most Jewishly , and unexpressably Murthered ; and many more Noble-men , and Gentle-men , Clergy , and Laity , Murthered in like manner , onely for His sake , and for the truth of their Loyalty unto Him , and their Fidelity unto God , as I have Mystically , and yet fully shewed in my Book of The great Anti-Christ revealed , and in these Treatises following .

And can any thing so fowly defile the Land , and so highly provoke the Wrath , and Indignation of God against his people , as the shedding of so much Innocent Blood ? or shall we think , that the just God will rest satisfied , and contented , to have his Wrath appeased ( especially , if we consider what he saith to the three sons of Noah , Gen. ix . 5 , 6. and of the Bloody sins of Manasses , 2 King . xxiv . 4. and to Ahab for letting Benhadad to escape , 1 King . xx . 42. ) when he seeth the pretious Blood of so Good , so Gracious , and so Pious a King , His own Vicegerent , and the Blood of so many faithfull Christians , Noble-men , Gentle-men , and other loyal Subjects , that have lost their lives , for their constancie in professing the true service of God , the right Faith of Christ , and their duty , and loyalty to their true , and lawfull King , left unexpiated , and according to the Law of justice , unrevenged , and unpunished ?

The truth of God saith , Not so : therefore His now gracious Majestie , lest His filiall affection of so good , and so loving a Father , and His anger , and indignation against such monstrous Murtherers might seem to transport Him with Passion to be over-partial , too rigid , and too severe , in His censure , against these Murderers , did , most wisely , religiously , and Christian-like transmit the Judgment , and Punishment of these transcendent Malefactours to his Parliament , who , as he knew , had infinitely suffered most unspeakable Detriment , and Dammage , as well , though not near the like , nor so much as himself , in the loss of their so good a King .

And the late Parliament , that was , The Keepers of the Liberties of Ingland by the Authority of our Parliament ( and you may compute , what Number of Arithmetical Letters this name contained ) and had very many of the King's Enemies in it ( and therefore likely not to do all things so well , as they should do ) yet hath it most gallantly , religiously , and justly sentenced many of them to death , and the just God , without Question , doth most propitiously accept , and approve of all those their doings , which are just according to his own Precepts .

But though herein , they have done very well ; yet do you think , that they have done sufficiently well ? I will not presume to teach them , that , in State Affairs , are better able to be my Teachers , then I to advise their Wisdoms , what they ought to have done ; yet , as I am 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I must humbly crave leave to set down , what I conceive to be the just Will of God herein ; and that is , that all , and every one , that had any hand , or finger in that good King's Death , or in the death of any of those His good Subjects , that were unjustly , and illegally sentenced to death , ( I do not speak of them , that were killed in the War ; because , as the Poet Lucan saith , Pharsal . lib. 1. Victrix causa Diis placuit , sed victa Catoni . And as the Prophet David saith , The Sword devoureth the one , as well as the other : but of those , that in cold blood , by usu ping Judges , under the Colour of Law , were contrary to the Laws , both of God , and of the Land , most unjustly condemned unto death ) should , for that their unjust Proceedings , be justly questioned , and legally tryed for their former Offence ; the same being of so high a Nature , as I shewed to you before .

But you will say , many of them , as blinde Bartimaeus might easily see , that acted very highly against the last King , and , as it is conceived , had their hands deep in his death , were as active , as any others , and most special Instruments , to bring His now Sacred Majesty unto His Right , whereby , they have fully expiated their foul offence , and deserve rather to be well rewarded and honoured , as some say they are , then any ways questioned , as their Adversaries would have them to be .

I answer , that His Majesty is wise , as the Angel of God , and knoweth best , what he should best do ; and the Policy of State , is far beyond the Sphere of mine Intelligence , and their doings therein ought highly to be commended , and deserve not meanly to be rewarded ; though , as Will . Sommers told King Henry the Eight , that such a Gentleman threatned to kill him , and the King answered , that , if he killed him , he would have him hanged for it ; Will . Sommers replied , Nay good King , let him be hanged before he kills me , or else , his death will not preserve my life , and his hanging will do me no good : so I heard some say , that they would have had the Enemies of the last King first punished for their Rebellion , and the Murder of Him ; and then rewarded for their good Service to His now gracious Majesty , or else , reward them well for their good Service done to our now gracious King , and then question them , and punish them answerable to their Deserts , for their Disloyalty , and Treachery to our late King ; as I read it in the Turkish History , and in some other Historians , of some very wise Kings , that did so to the like Offenders ; because , we may believe it for a truth , that they , which have proved false , to their own true , just , and lawful Prince , will scarce ever prove faithful to any Prince , nor seem to be , but either for hope , still to reap the fruit of their Subtlety , to turn , when the Winde turns , or for fear to be dash'd in Pieces , if they turn not their Sayls to escape those Rocks ; which they cannot otherwise avoid ; and no thanks to such men for any good they do , when they do it perforce , and therefore should be trusted perchance .

And it may be , many of the very Murderers , both of the good King , and of his loyal Subjects , have robbed , and spoyled , not the Aegyptians of their Jewels , but the Israelites , their Brethren , of their Goods , Lands , and Possessions , which they have gotten into their own hands , and thereby became exceeding rich , and enabled themselves to match their Sons , and their Daughters to great Families , and to bestow large Gifts , that do blind the eyes of the wise , on others , to make to themselves Friends of their unrig hteous Mammon , to preserve them from ther just deserts , and to pull down the Wrath , and Vengeance of God on others , for this their obstructing of the straight rule of Justice , that teacheth us to do otherwise .

Or , if it were not so , many men do wonder , how so many men , as were conceived to have been active , and most of them to have their hands embrued in the good King's Blood , and were likewise guilty of the death of His innocent Subjects , should escape uncensured , and so few of them sentenced , to expiate , and appease the Wrath of God for such horrible , unparallebd , and transcendent Murthers : for I knew eight persons executed at Dublin for the Murther of one ordinary Traveller , and is it not strange , that we see no more brought to their Trial for such a S●aughter , as was done upon our good King , and His innocent Subjects , so judicially , and yet so illegally , and altogether unjustly sentenced to death ? or shall we think , that no more were guilty , then were condemned ? or not rather , that the guilty Murtherers , by their Wealth , Subtlety , and Friends , made many others guilty of God's anger , and the pulling down of God's vengeance upon many more , for their excusing , covering , and clearing such abominable Transgressours : for I would have all men to consider duly , how destructive Murther is to mankinde , and how odious , and hatefull it is to God , above all other sins whatsoever , especially , when an innocent man is judicially , and illegally Murthered , as you may rightly finde the truth hereof fully proved in the fifth Chapter of the first Book of The Great Anti-Christ revealed , and in these Sermons following .

And I would the Protectours of the King's Murtherers would rightly weigh what the people sayd to King David , that His life was worth ten thousand of the lives of the common people ; and how the Lord punished the whole house , and posterity of Saul , and all the Kingdom of Israel until his wrath was satisfied , for the innocent death of the Gibeonites , that were but a poor contemptible people , but killed without cause ; 2. Sam. xxi . and especially , that there be not any more , but two sins , that I can finde , in the whole Book of God , that the Lord saith , cannot be pardoned , and obliterated , without their due punishment , and they are , 1. The high Abuse of God's Messengers , and Publishers of his Will. 2. The unjust shedding of innocent Blood . For

Of the First the Spirit of God saith , that when the Lord God sent his Messengers unto the Children of Israel , and they mocked the Messengers of God , and despised his words , and misused his Prophets , the wrath of the Lord arose against his People , until there was no Remedy ; as if he had said , For other sins of these Israelites , some ways , and remedies might have been found out , as Moses , and Aaron , by their prayers , and censers appeased the wrath of God , to turn away the Punishment of them ; and David , and Ezra did the like from the Jews : but when they mocked his Messengers , despised his Word , and misused his Prophets , which were the onely S●●ve , or Medicine , that could heal their sickned Souls , when they refused , and cast away these Remedies from them , then there was no Remedy in the World for them , to preserve them from their just deserved Punishment ; and therefore saith the Text , The Lord brought upon them the King of the Chaldees , who slew their young men with the Sword , in th● House of their Sanctuary , and had no Compassion upon young Man , or Maiden , old Man , or him , that stooped for Age ; he gave them all into his Hand ; for that there was no Remedy . 2 Chron. xxxvi . 15 , 16 , 17.

And of the Second the Spirit of God saith , that the Lord sent against Jehoiakim bands of the Chaldees , and bands of the Syrians , and bands of the Moabites , and bands of the Children of Ammon , and he sent them against Juda to destroy it , and to remove them out of his sight for the sins of Manasses , and for the innocent blood that he shed , ( for he filled Hierusalem with innocent blood , as the Judges of the Rump-Parliament did fill Ingland ) which the Lord would not pardon , 2 Reg. xxiv . 4. as if he had said , though the Lord God might have been perswaded by Prayers , and Tears , and Sacrifices to pardon all other Sins ; yet this sin of shedding innocent Blood , especially , when it is judicially shed , the Lord will no ways , nor by any means pardon it , and , though men would fain pardon it , yet God will not pardon it ; because God , which is the God of truth , and Truth it self , hath said it : and , that we should not doubt of it , he hath said , Surely , your blood of your Lives will I require ; at the hand of every Beast will I require it , and at the hand of man , at the hand of every man's Brother will I require the life of man . And , Whoso sheddeth man's blood , by man shall his blood be shed : for in the Image of God made he man , Gen. ix . 5 , 6. and see how fully , and how energetically the Lord hath said , and the Scripture hath set down , all these things , against the pardoning of them , that shed innocent blood .

And then , these things being duly weighed , as Saint Ambrose said to Theodosius , Quod inconsulto fecisti , consultius revocetur , so I believe , that , if any man hath inconsideratly , either through ignorance , corruption , or partiality caused , or consented to let any Agag to escape , whom the Justice of God hath designed to death , he would assuredly , consultius errorem corrigere , amend His former errour , and not let the death of such a King , as was worth ten thousand of us , and the Blood of so many of His loyal Subjects , as were judicially , and unjustly condemned to death , pass away unpunished , and unquestioned , whensoever any of the Authours , or Contrivers of their death should be found out ; or at least wise , he would be satisfied , and not blame others , for doing , if they do , what he should have done : It is no matter when ; ( better late then never ) for Nunquam sera est ad Justitiam via , The way to do Justice is never too far , nor the time too late ; and God deferreth his Judgments for many years together , when we finde Murderers flourishing in all Pomp , and Power a long time , as I have shewed it at large in the Tragedy of Zimri ; and yet at last , to come to tast of their just deserved Punishment ; as Pilate , and Herod , and the rest of the Murderers of Jesus Christ , were not apprehended by God's Justice , some of them in fourty years after they had condemned their just , and lawful King ; and many more such Murderers you may finde in Dr. Beard's Theatre of God's Judgments , and in other Authours to have lain secure , and to have slept in their sins for a long Season , before the hand of Vengeance hath rouzed them up : and yet after many Ages to pay Death for Death .

And therefore , though the Parliament , and Parliaments have passed over , and perhaps pardoned those , whom God saith , he will not pardon ; yet I conceive , that whensoever any of them , that had their hands imbrued , or the least finger stayned , in our King's Blood , or in the Blood those , His loyal Subjects , that were judicially , unjustly condemned , shall be found out , and made known to be such , they should be brought unto their Trial ; especially when we consider , that Justice don● upon such transcendent Malefactours , that do now , as yet ( as it is conceived ) wallow in those innocent Bloods , that they have spilt , and do jet up and down , most proudly , in the spoils of their Slaughtered , and Beggered Brethren , would , as the Scripture testifieth , purge the Land from the stain of that innocent Blood , which they have so plentifully lost and doth still crie , like Abel's Blood , for Vengeance against them , appease the Wrath of God for our former neglect of doing Justice ; increase the King's Revenues , by the Forfeited estates of these Transgressours ; satisfie the Friends of those Murthered innocents ; terrifie all other Rebellious hearts from such horrible attempts , and all other Judges , from abusing the Laws , and perverting Justice ; and be an excellent Example of a just , and unpartial proceeding against Traitours , for the Foreign Kings to applaud it , and for their Subjects to fear it , if ever the like thoughts should enter into their hearts of doing such things , as were done by these Murtherers .

And truely it hath often grieved me , to hear the vulgar people so generally complaining , that they see divers of the late King's Enemies , and Rebels , that they suspect guilty , some way , of the Kings death , so much favoured in the World , and so domineering over others , jetting up and down in Pride , so gloriously trimmed with the spoils of the loyal Subjects , and some of the King's Friends , and faithfull Servants , sneaking up and down , wholly dejected , so as if there were an Act of Oblivion past of the King's Friends , and an Act of Indempnity for His Adversaries .

To whom I have often answered that our King is wise , as the Angel of God , and He knoweth best what He hath to do , far better then the best of us all , and they should rather remember what the Psalmist saith ; Fret not thy self because of the ungodly , neither be thou Envious because of the wicked doers : for they shall soon be cut down like the Grass , and be withered like unto the green Herb ; especially when their Iniquitie , their Treasons , and Treacheries , that as yet are hidden from the Eyes of men , shall be found out , and be made apparent unto the World .