the Intercessions of foreign Ambassadors; to all the Importunities of their own Friends and Relations; and to the pressing Instances of their own General Fairfax ; and had no Manner of Regard to their own former folemn Professions and Declarations. In short, when they were resolved to seize on the Inheritance, nothing could hinder them from destroying the Lord and Owner of it.

The Sum of what has been said in this Comparison, is this The Mariners, after much Struggle with themselves, cast into the Sea one that was a perfect Stranger to them, but who had acknowledged that he had greatly offended his God, and greatly endangered them, by coming amongst them. The Regicides of this Day, threw their very Pilot over-board, and persecuted and destroyed not only the Lord's Anointed, and their own lawful King and Sovereign, but one like David, a Man after God's own Heart, a Man of exemplary Piety and heroick Goodness, a Father of his Country, and a true Lover of his People. The Mariners Thewed a great Unwillingness and Averseness to the last, to cast Jonah into the Sea, tho' advised and desired by himself to do it. The Regicides went on in their black Design, in the most daring Manner, without any seeming Check or Remorse, and cut off a most righteous and gracious

Prince,

Prince, tho' pressed on all Sides not to do it. The Mariners were in the utmost Peril of their Lives, and might have pleaded for themselves, that it was expedient that one Man should die, and that the whole Crew perish not; and yet could scarce prevail with themselves to make Trial of this Expedient, tho’ it proved the happy Means of saving themselves and the Ship too. But the Regicides were in no Manner of Danger, and no Way necessitated to use any desperate Remedy: On the contrary, they had the Command of All, and then lorded it over three Kingdoms; and were so far from consulting the Peace and Safety of the Nation, or their own Security, in what they did, that they brought thereby utter Ruin and Desolation, and such an unmeasurable Load of Guilt, Infamy, and Misery, upon themselves and upon all the People, as has ministred but too just an Occasion ever since for serious Lamentation, and the most folemn Acts of Repentance and Humiliation. And this leads me to

The Second Thing to be considered, namely, The Duty incumbent on all the People of the Land, to deplore the Guilt, and deprecate the Judgments, that may justly be inflicted upon us, for the national and crying Sin of this Day. For national Sins call for national Judgments; and these can be prevented or averted, only by a na

tional Humiliation and Repentance. And that the Sin of this Day is to be reckoned the Sin of the whole Nation, may appear, among other Reasons, from considering the Person suffering, and the Persons offending.

As to the Person suffering. We are to remember that this was not a solitary or private Person, but the Head and Repretentative of the whole Body politick; and tho' some Limbs or Members may be taken off, without the Ruin or Demolition of the Body ; yet here the Body itself was lost or killed in the Head, since one cannot survive the Destruction of the other. For 'tis the Head in the political, as well as the natural Constitution, that communicates Life, Vigour, and Spirits, to the several Parts : So that in destroying one they must necessarily destroy the other; and therefore, in this Case, we may truly and properly say, that a whole Nation was cut off at one Blow, and that Church and State fell with King Charles the First : Consequently with Respect to the Person suffering, this could be no other than a national Sin, which requires a national Humiliation ; and there is no Person so pure or righteous, so free or exempt in this Case, who is not obliged to bewail the Guilt of it, and to deprecate the Vengeance that is due to it,

Then

i

Then with respect to the Persons offending: Tho' those more immediately concerned were but few in Number, no more, as it were, than a Handful of Men in Comparison of the rest; yet they assumed and acted in the Name of all the People of. England, and afterwards by the Permission of Providence, usurped and exercised a Power and Authority, over the whole Nation for many Years together. Not to mention, that great

Part of the Nation might be very blameable, in not being more vigorous and active, in opposing and endeavouring to hinder the Murder of their Sovereign. And no doubt the Sins of All, more or less, or fome Way or other, contributed to the bringing down that heavy Judgment upon them.

But for the clearer Apprehension of this Matter, it will be necessary to distinguish here, between a national AEt, and a national Sin. For 'tis certain that there

may be a national Sin, when the outward Act which constituted the Sin, cannot strictly or properly be called national. Thus in the present Case, the Act itself was sudden and violent, short and transient, and committed only by a few abandoned Miscreants ; but the Guilt of this Act is of a deep Dye, and of a lasting and extensive Nature, looking backward to many preceding Facts that opened and led the Way to it, and reaching

forward to all secret Likings and Appro-
bations, as well as open Justifications of it;
and so affecting many more Persons in both
Ways, than can be known or well ima-
gined, unless we could resolve all the Que-
stions that may be raised upon this point;
among which I shall mention only this one
that has been hinted before, viz. Whether
the Neglect of the Royalists to interpose
in their King's Behalf, in order to prevent
his Murder, by a verbal Remonstrance at
least, if they could not venture upon actual
Force, might not be imputed to them by
God, as a criminal Neglect, and bring them
in as partly accessary to the Guilt of this
Day ? For my Part, I can't affirm that
it will, nor can any one prove that it will
not. I only observe, that in this and all
other Cases of so heinous, publick, and com-
plicated a Nature, there is a certain noxious
Quality, that spreads itself all around, and
threatens Infection to all that are within
the Verge of it's Influence and Power. Or
to illustrate this by another Comparison
Such publick and frightful Enormities that
ripen by Degrees, and are compleated at
last by a small number of Men, are like
those dangerous Indraughts which Mariners
have discovered in some Seas, and which they
are so careful to avoid, the Force or Suction
of which is in some Places of wide Extent,
and endangers all Vessels that come within

the