This Court doth desire Dr. Snape to Print his Sermon, Preach'd at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, before the Lord-Mayor, Aldermen and Citizens of this City, on Monday the Thirtieth of January last, being the Day of Humiliation for the Martyrdom of King Charles the First.
GIBSON.
1 KINGS, XXI. 9, 10.
Proclaim a Fast, and set Naboth on high among the People:
And set Two Men, Sons of Belial, before him, to bear Witness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and the King: and then carry him out and stone him, that he may die.
There is scarce any one Instance of the shedding innocent Blood recorded in Holy Scripture which has not at some time or other been apply'd to the Occasion of this Day's Solemnity, even that of our blessed Saviour not excepted, whose Steps we have with one Voice declar'd in the Service of the Church the blessed Martyr cheerfully to have follow'd. [Note: 2d Collect for the day.] But here indeed it concerns us to tread warily. We can only affirm of the greatest Saints and brightest Luminaries of the Church that they have made some faint Approaches toward that great Exemplar, without
presuming to equal either the Merits or the Sufferings of any meer Man to those of our crucify'd Redeemer: in all other Parallels there is less Danger of Excess, since most of 'em will be found, in many Circumstances, to fall short of the Fact committed on this Day.
Now altho' in such a comparative way of arguing, where we single out some remarkable Passage from the Records of past Ages, and adapt it, as far as it will naturally bear, to some After-Occurrence that has fall'n out nearer our own Times, it cannot be expected that both the Cases should be in all Respects exactly the same, without the least Variation, yet when we can point out some of the principal and Master-Strokes of each of 'em which have a near Resemblance of one another, when the Methods and Ways of Acting, the Motives and Inducements to it, with other concurrent Circumstances, are the same; this may be enough to justify the Choice of the Subject, and make it serve at least as a fair Introduction to the Matter in Debate.