DOWNFALL OF SHEBNA: Together with AN APPLICATION to the bloody GOWRIE of SCOTLAND.  
As it was delivered in two several Sermons of that occasion, in S. MARY'S Church IN OXFORD.  
And now published for a warning to all ill-affected OGILVIESTS:  quorum exitus perhorrescunt, e●●●● facta non imiten●●●.  
BY J. S.  PSAL. 37.28. 
The Lord loveth judgement, and forsaketh not his Saints. They shall be preserved for evermore: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.  
LONDON Printed for John Bill. 1615.   

TO THE RIGHT Reverend Father in God, my very especial good Lord and Patron, JOHN KING, Bishop of London, J. S. Wisheth all true happiness in CHRIST JESUS.  
May it please your Lordship,  
I Have (according to the received ceremony) made bold to recommend this Treatise of SHEBNA his Downfall to your patronage, as a testimony of mine unfeigned thankfulness for your many favours and beneficence. In accepting whereof, I humbly pray you to imitate the goodness of Almighty God, who, as a learned Father saith, Coronat voluntatem, ubi non invenit facultatem. For otherwise had not I this strong confidence, I so well understand mine own disability, and take so little pleasure in proclaiming the same, as that this lively representation of my many defects had never come to your Lordship's view, much less patronage. I know it needs a Patron; I dare not trust mine own eye: the object is too near to be well discerned. And I cannot but remember in this bookish age the complaint of Andromache. Ω 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 
Eurip. An. drum.  O opinion, opinion: thou hast made many to think well of themselves, who were nothing indeed. Right Reverend; let it have your countenance, and as for others, if any man know more concerning the Subject here handled, either Shebna, or Gowrie, my pains may serve to stir up in him a desire to profit more, that so what he knoweth, sciat & alter. If any know less, I trust he will rather thank me, then censure me. There is none I assure myself so rigid and devoid of ingenuity, that will deny exiguis hunc addere rebus honorem.  
Now the Lord that made heaven and earth bless you out of Zion: the Lord guide and prosper you in all your ways: the Lord establish your house and family, that you may see your children's children, and an happy addition of many good and comfortable days in this life, and this life ended, eternal happiness in the kingdom of heaven.  
Your Lordship's Chaplain in all humble duty and service to be commanded, ISAAC SINGLETON.   

THE DOWNFALL OF SHEBNA.  ISAY 22.15. 
Go get thee unto this Treasurer even unto Shebna, which is over the house, and say.  
THough it be true that the judge of all the world must needs do right 
a Gen. 18.25. , and that he who is of infinite majesty, power, and justice, can do no less then avenge himself of sin and sinful men; yet such is his patience and longanimity, that now and then, as the wise man saith, dissimulat peccata hominum 
b Wisd. 7. , he dissembleth and seemeth not to see the sins of men. And as S. Austin observeth, there is not always apertio oculorum, when as this God seethe with the open eye, and takes apparent notice of the mischievous practices of evil doers; but sometime opertio, when he considereth (as I may so say) with the eyelid, and appears unto the wicked as one that sleeps, and winks at their impieties.  
Insomuch that the cry of Sodom 
c Gen. 18.25.  came up to the very gates of heaven ere he came down to them: the wickedness of the Amorites 
d 13.16.  was rotten ripe ere he began to lance; and the day of trouble and time 
e Isai. 22.15.  prefixed expired, ere he proceeded in judgement with the Princes of juda. And Shebna in my text by his many impieties and wicked machinations even turned his patience into fury ere he sent our Prophet unto him to threaten his ruin. Till at length the sins of Shebna began to cry, and the measure of his iniquity waxed full, and the day of his trouble came; and then when he thought himself most strong, and flourished like the bay tree 
f Psal. , when he dwelled in the cliffs of the rock 
g jer. 49.16. , and kept the height of the hills, and was (to use our Prophet's words in the five and twentieth verse 
h Isai. 22.25.  of this Chapter) as a nail fastened in a sure place, lo, even than comes a fearful message and most direful prediction of his utter ruin and destruction, Go get thee unto this Treasurer, even unto Shebna which is over the house and say.  
Which parcel of holy Writ may very well be entitled, The Downfall of Shebna. Occidit una domus, sed enim domus illa perire Digna fuit. For the better unfolding whereof consider with me I beseech you these three proposals.  

First, What this Shebna was.  
Secondly, What was his offence.  
And thirdly, How it was punished.   
As touching the first, what this Shebna was; go we no further than to the title here given him, and the bare signification of the name itself, we shall find, that as was his name, so was he: for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our English renders Treasurer, 
Musculus.  as Musculus very well observeth, is not so much a name of office, as parentage: and he was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socuite, from the City wherein he was borne. Now the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either signifieth to impoverish; so that Shebna as it should seem, was one that was given to wrong and hurt others, and set light by all such as had not relation to him, and favoured his proceed: and therefore among his other vices, which doubtless were many and great (as you shall hear anon) the holy Ghost 
i Isa. 22.21.  in the one and twentieth verse of this Chapter, plalnly specifieth the malice and spleen which he bore unto good Eliachim; and to regret and gall him the more, it is recorded as a parcel of his punishment, that whereas he laboured to supplant Eliachim, and bring him into disgrace with the Prince and State, Eliachim should be advanced, and that in Shebna room: For with thy garments will I  him, and with thy girdle will I strengthen him: thy power also will I commit into his hand, and he shall be a father of the Inhabitants of jerusalem, 
Isai. 22.21.  and of the house of judah.  
Or else it signifies to entertain, to warm and cherish. In which sense it is used the first of Kings, the first Chapter, and second verse, 
1 Reg. 1.2.  where it is said that the servants of David perceiving a decay of nature, and that his vital heat was well-nigh spent, they brought a young Virgin unto him, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & sit ei proficiens, foveat cum, let her cherish him. Which signification of the word if we will follow in this title, than we may conceive Shebna was a great feaster, and by his reveling and banqueting and royal entertainment and other his more secret practices endeared the loves and affections of the Assyrians and Egyptians, but especially of the false and hollowhearted people and natural subjects of Ezechia unto him, in such sort, as that all men stood in awe of him.  
Howsoever, certain it is, 
Tacitus hist. 1. sect. 13.  he was a man of special regard and eminency in the common wealth: For though he were an Egyptian borne and a mere stranger to the jewish nation, and a man who was beside those disadvantages of birth and life: the one, being mean, base and obscure, the other, lewd, wicked and ungodly, no way likely to rise in so good and well ordered an estate, as this of judah.  
Yet had he by some such virtues, as Tacitus mentioneth in Tigellinus, Luxury and Cruelty, and such other their inseparable companions, so humoured the wicked King Ahaz, and by his favour wrought himself into such place and general employment in the common wealth, as that Ezechiah, though he were a good and a pious Prince, and without all question made choice of his servants thereafter, yet he not only continued Shebna in that present greatness, whereunto Ahaz had advanced him: But seconded what Ahaz had begun, and followed Shebna with many an addition and fresh supply of future favour and preferment. For whereas there are but two courses, which Princes generally take with such as hold not correspondence with them, either to disgrace and cashier them quite, or else to win them by conferring favours and honours upon them: you have many embrace the former, and David himself though abused by a false and slandering fugitive could hardly brook Mephibosheth: 
2 Sam. 19.25.  wherefore goest not thou with me Mephibosheth? Yet this good King took the fairest and most charitable course, and heaped coals of fire upon this wicked Shebna his head. And this will evidently appear, if you will be pleased to take a view of the place which Shebna now held under Ezechiah, and of the great account which this good King made of him and of his service. For, to omit all busy discourse touching his office, whether he were Steward of the house, as some Writers read: or as junius renders it, praefectus praetorio, one that had the ordering of the men of war and marshal affairs: or whether he were Scriba honorarius, principal Secretary, as the story hath it, the 2 of Kings at the 18. or, 
2 Kings 18.  whether he were keeper of the Rolls, or, Master of Requests, as elsewhere our Prophet seems to imply, 
Isay 36.3.  Isaiah 36.3. we may boldly rest on this, that he was a prime man in that state, and indeed raised to that height of honour, or at least continued at that height of honour (until he deserved the contrary) as that higher he could not go, 
Junius.  even so high quantum potuit esse viri saith one, as possibly a subject could be capable of. He was secundus à Rege, the King's right hand, and as it should seem by the description of Eliachims' power and authority, who succeeded Shebna both in place and greatness, 
Isay 22.22.  he had the very key of David, and bore such sway, as that all men sought unto him, all, even from him that sat upon the throne, to him that grinded at the mill, relied on him: The King for advice, the people for dependence, and there was no one thing done, either in Church or Common wealth, either at home or abroad, that Shebna was not privy too: nay, such account made Ezechiah of this one Shebna, and such trust and confidence he reposed in him, as that when Zenacherib threatened the ruin and destruction both of Ezechiah and jerusalem, why, Shebna was a man, and a chief man sent from Ezechiah to appease Zenacherib and divert him from his bloody design. In a word: when I consider either the place that Shebna bore in the common wealth, or the good opinion shall I say? nay, the strong confidence, trust and repose, which Ezechiah had in him; me thinks I hear Ezechiah speak unto Shebna as Pharaoh unto joseph, 
Gen. 41.40.  Thou shalt be over mine house and of thy word shall all my people be armed, only in the King's throne will I be above thee. Gen. 41.40. Me thinks he no less respected him, 
Ester 6.8.  than Assuerus did Mordecay in the sixth of Ester at the 8 verse: or Balthasar him that could interpret the dream Dan: 5.7. For, 
Dan: 5.7.  Ecce (as junius hath it) jehovah contegit to in tegumento, & amiciendo amicit te bellè. and what possibly can you name should be done to the man whom the King would honour, that was not done to Shebna. He had honour, wealth, power, command, and which is equal, nay above all the rest, he had the favour and good opinion of his Sovereign, and what could the large and vast heart of any reasonable subject desire more?  
But O ignominia domus Domini! you would wonder to see how soon this base fellow and earthly meteor, but now drawn aloft by the beams of the Prince's favour, vanished; and how quickly his good service (as Lewis the XI. King of France was wont to say) utterly undid him (so that, 
Phil. de Com. lib. 3.  quem vidit veniens dies superbum, Hunc vidit fugiens dies iacentem.  
For, Shebna looking upon these blessings of God and favours of his Prince, as Swine upon mast, never lifting up his heart or entertaining so much as a thankful thought from whence they fell, so exasperated God the author and donor of them, that he seemeth here, as sometime he did upon a serious view and consideration of the old world, even to repent that ever he made Shebna a man, or at least so great a man; and therefore he sends our Prophet here, and gives him in charge without any the least delay or preadmonition whatsoever, to lay the axe unto the root of the tree and smite home.  Go get thee unto this Treasurer, even unto Shebna which is over the house, and say. 
But of God's round and peremptory dealing with Shebna, I shall have occasion to speak, when I come to the punishment of his offence: I am yet come no further, than the quality of his person, what he was, a man, who kept all other in awe, a man, of royal entertainment: a man, of prime note and eminency, a pillar of the state, a patron of the people, a favourite of the King.  
The use whereof may be that in the Psalmist, Man being in honour hath no understanding, 
Psal: 49.13.  he is like to beasts that perish. Psal. 49.13. especially that man that riseth from a low and mean estate, none more insolent, none more ingrateful, none greater despisers of others, magnifiers of themselves.  
And it may serve to admonish such as rise from mean parentage, birth and estate, to look unto the rock from whence they were hewn, and in all humility and hearty acknowledgement of God's goodness towards them, to carry themselves fairly and respectively to others. Whereas such is the impotency and weakness of many, that observe it when you will, you shall seldom see men base by birth, base by descent, base by education, but if once they get into the stirrup and climb to any place of honour, preferment, means, command, why, presently they begin to play the Shebna, and as the Poet saith of drunken men, and what greater drunkenness than this of the mind? Tum veniunt risus, tum pauper cornua sumit. And this shall suffice to have been spoken of the quality of his person, what he was. I come now by your good favour, to the nature of his offence, what he did. Go get thee unto this Treasurer even unto Shebna which is over the house, & say. 
What was his offence.  As touching the offence of Shebna, it will ask some time to find it out, but being found out it will appear to be a marvelous great one, no less than Treason, a transcendent Treason, and every way deserving the severest punishment.  
There are that have taken great pains to find out the sin of Shebna, and they stick not to charge him with arrogancy, vainglory, security, contempt of God and his Prophets, exaction, extortion, oppression, scandal, and bad example, with which, as one saith, he did more hurt, then with all the rest.  
Cyrill describeth him to be, elato animo, superciliosum admodum ac saenum in eos à quibus erat offensus, rapinis exultantem, sordido quoestui mancipatum, ostentabundum, & honores ab alijs semper venantem.  
Whether Shebna were guilty of any one or all these, I will not say, but sure I am when we shall lay all these together, they will not make up the full measure of Shebna his impiety, they will not amount to the offence of Shebna, somewhat else there was in all likely hood, which did exasperate God so greatly against him.  
If you please to go no further than our Prophet's commission here, to the very words of my text, it will appear without any the least straining, even from the bare letter thereof, that there was another notorious sin in Shebna, besides all those which now were named, and that is his sin of Hypocrisy, in that God saith here, Go get thee unto this, this Treasurer. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for contempt saith Caluin. As if it had been said. Go get thee to this Cercops (as they called julian) to this subtle and wily fox, to this Amphisbaena, this two headed and double-hearted serpent Shebna. So that did we go no farther than his hypocrisy, why here you see is fuel enough for God's fierce and unquenchable wrath to work upon. For we are but of yesterday, and are ignorant. Inquire therefore I pray you of the former age, and call to mind ancient experiments, and they will tell you the guerdon and reward of an Hypocrite at the hands of Gods, did you ever see a rush grow without mire? or can the grass grow without water, though it were in green, and not cut down, yet it shall whither before any other herb: So are the paths of all that forget God, and the hypocrites hope shall perish. His confidence also shall be cut off and his trust shall be as the house of a spider. 
job 8. ver: 11.12.13.14.15.  He shall lean upon his house but it shall not stand: he shall hold him fast by it, yet shall it not endure. Lo here the reward of an hypocrite, and Shebna was an hypocrite: but yet this was not the sin of Shebna. Add unto his hypocrisy, 
Esay 22.16.  what we find in the 16 verse, to wit, his notorious ambition. In that Shebna being homo nows, ignobilis, a mere stranger, and which is more an Egyptian stranger, with whom neither Ezechiah himself, nor any of his subjects ought to have had the least commerce, or intercourse, and who by the law was excluded from all title of honour, or place of government in that common wealth; yet notwithstanding this stranger, this Egyptian, this Shebna, presumed to rank himself with the blood royal, the nobles and princes of judah, and omitted no one point of pomp and magnificence, whereby he might support himself in the eyes of the world during his natural life, and that once ended aeternize his name among them for ever. And therefore our Prophet gins with him as Achilles with that braving and cracking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Homer: Iliad ●.  after a round and rough manner, by way of high indignation and great disdain, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉? quis unde hominum es? What hast thou to do here? And whom hast thou here? that here of all other coasts and countries, where thou hast least interest, and canst not entitle thyself to any the least clod of earth, that here I say, thou shouldest prepare and erect so rich and so sumptuous a tomb in so high and eminent a place above others.  
Add unto his Ambition, 
vers. 18.  his Ingratitude in the 18 verse, where our Prophet calls ignominia domus Domini, the shame and scandal and dishonour of his Lord and Master: now, ingratum dixeris, omnia dixeris, there is no fault, no vice whatsoever, but you shall find it more or less in an ungrateful person, and Shebna was ingrateful, but yet this was not now the sin of Shebna.  
Add therefore I pray you one sin more, and then we shall come near the sin of Shebna: and that is, the unreconcilable hatred, despite, envy, detraction, wherewith he daily and hourly hunted, and persecuted honest and harmless Eliachim, still whispering and bussing in the ears of the King, some infamous slander or unchristian surmise, whereby he might bring innocent Eliachim in disgrace both with Prince and people, as we may gather out of the 20. verse. O this is a sin of all sins! 
vers: 20.  when a cursed Belial and slandering Shebna shall hate goodness in any for no other reason but because he will hate, when he shall carry a throat as wide as an open sepulchre, and tip his tongue with the poison of Asps, when he shall bend his bow and make ready his arrows, of detractrion, malice, slander, reports, suggestions, lies, and all to devour poison, and shoot secretly (Lord into their secret let not my soul come) at the simple and upright of life, and that when his fury is over, his passion settled and he come unto himself, neither he nor the devil that set him a work is able to say, what hath the righteous done? O this is one and a principal one, of those peccata clamantia, which as they oft-times pierce the tender hearts of Gods dear children, (the more their weakness and want of true Christian fortitude) so do they with all importunity knock at the gates of heaven, and cry aloud for God's heavy and unsupportable vengeance on the doers of them. And thus have ye at length a list of shebna's foul sins and offences. Shebna was an hypocrite, Shebna was ambitious, Shebna was ingrateful, Shebna was envious and given over to those crying sins of detraction, supplanting, slandering, lying, and what not, but yet we have not named the sin of Shebna, the particular capital crime, the predominant sin of Shebna which awaked God's justice and provoked him thus in all severity to proceed against him. For all these which but now I named, hypocrisy, ambition, ingratitude, envy, why they were rather peccata hominum, peccata judaeorum, than any appropriated sins of Shebna, they were sins incident to the corrupt nature of man: familiar to the people of the jews and cannot by way of denomination be termed the sins of Shebna. Insita est mortalibus naturâ, saith he, men by nature are wholly given to tax and malign virtue and goodness in others & pari dolore aliena commoda, ac proprias iniurias metiri and to take other men's benefits and blessings as much to heart as their own proper injuries. But especially the jews, no people, no nation so given over to hypocrisy, ambition, ingratitude and envy as the jews.  
Besides, it is worth the noting, that God proceedeth after another fashion with the Princes of judah, and the rest of the inferior sort of people, and punisheth their offences in another kind, as he that will peruse the former part of this Chapter may easily perceive, and I as easily show you, could I now stay. But when he calls to mind the sin of Shebna, he bids our Prophet address himself to Shebna in particular, as unto a supereminent notorious offender above all the rest: Go get thee unto this Treasurer, even unto Shebna, which is over the house, and say. It was not then his hypocrisy, it was not his ambition, nor yet his ingratitude, no nor yet his envy: it was a sin of a deeper die, accomcompanied I grant you with all these, but yet not any one of all these.  
And that was his sin of Treason. Shebna was a Traitor, patriae proditor, which (as one saith) comes à prodendis consilijs hostibus: so that Shebna (as I verily think) revealed both arcana dominationis & domus, secrets of State, and secrets of Court, and most treacherously combined to betray Ezechiah and jerusalem into the hands of a professed enemy and atheall miscreant Zenacherib, as hoping forsooth that when once Zenacherib should be vested in the Throne of judah, he would think on Shebna, and make him King over his own Country at the least. And this I take to be the sin of Shebna. As for those other sins, I make no doubt but Shebna had of a long time nourished them, and God might say unto him as it is in the Psalmist, 
Psal. 49.21.  Haec fecisti & tacui: These things hast thou done, Shebna, and I held my peace. But when once he committed the sin of treason, than was it high time for God, who as the son of Siracke saith, patiented est etiam & redditor, 
Wisdom.  to come down and visit Shebna with a rod of iron.  Go get thee unto this Treasurer, even unto Shebna, that is over the house; and say. 
Shebna then was a Traitor, his offence Treason, nay, I added more, a transcendent Treason: For look upon the most heinous Treasons and bloody assassinats in the books of the Chronicles of the Kings of judah, and other faithful stories in the word of God, you shall find somewhat that will lessen them, and give occasion of extenuation. In all of them you shall observe that flesh and blood will have some Sanctuary to fly unto; and an indulgent observer will easily invent arguments to mitigate, if not quite to purge the foulness of each offence. But Shebna his treason was so dangerous and inexcusable, that it will admit of no extenuation.  
In the second of Ester you shall read of a dangerous treason attempted by Bigthan and Teresh, 
Ester 2.  upon the body of an anointed King, the King Assuerus; where, if we look upon the authors of the treason, it was very dangerous and inexcusable: for what could not these mischievous villains do, that were Squires of the body, and had the life and being of the King in their own custody? But yet if we cast our eye upon the object of their treason, why surely it extended no farther, neither had they any other object, than the bare life only of Assuerus at the most.  
In the third of that book you shall find recorded a barbarous massacre intended by Haman against the person, not of one or two, but even of Mordecay and the people of Mordecay. Hear now if you look narrowly upon the latitude of the object, Mordecay and all the jews, verily the cruelty of merciless Haman can no way be extenuated: but yet if you will search a little farther, and inquire after the end he proposed unto himself, we cannot say that the life of his liege Lord, or that the welfare of the proper inhabitants of that Country, or that the preservation of the state wherein he lived, and whereof he was a principal member, was any way put in hazard: only Mordecay and certain jews dispersed up and down throughout the King's provinces were aimed at.  
In the second of Samuel at the 15 we have storied a foul and unnatural treachery of Absalon against his father David; 
2. Sam. 15.  where if we mark well the end he proposed unto himself, to wit, the usurpation of the Kingdom, or the means he used for the achieving of this his end, namely by stealing away the hearts of the people, sollicitando, pollicitando, (as Simo chargeth Crito in the Comedy) feeding their fancies with affable gestures and fair promises, by getting arms and military forces into his hands, by quarreling the execution of justice and course of government, by deluding his father with a pretence of performing his vow, and the more free serving of God, and a world of such like traitorous lies and devices, nothing can be said for it. But yet if you will weigh the issue and event which in probability must needs have followed, you will not think it so heinous: for the worst that can be said or feared, was but the change of a Prince, of the father for the son, of an old for a new: the Law should have remained the same, the Religion the same, the government the same, and there would have ensued little or no inversion, much less eversion of the state. So that in all these, though dangerous and inexcusable treasons and murders in themselves, yet somewhat there is that a man partially affected may pick out to allege, if not for defence, yet for excuse and extenuation of them. But Shebna his treason here is like a strong poison composed of whatsoever was most bad in the worst of these. And it was dangerous and inexcusable, not only in regard of the author, as that of the eunuchs; nor yet of the object, as that of haman's; nor yet of the end and means which he used, as that of Absalon: but in all these respects, both of author, object, end, event, every way.  
First then, it was dangerous and inexcusable in regard of the author who committed it, Shebna.  
And here I must entreat you to conceive of Shebna not as now we find him, dismantled and detected by our Prophet, but as then he was when he first hatched and conceived this treason. For conspiracies and treasons are like sparks of fire, which in the dark and deep hearts of Traitors glitter, and are lightsome, probable, and very likely to take effect: but when as they Sun shines on them, and that they are discovered, they fall to ashes. Every child can pass a judgement upon the event and success of a design. But we must not think Traitors so foolish as the event, or rather God (whose glory it is to rain snares, fire and brimstone, 
Psal. 11.6.  and stormy tempest upon the mischievous machinations of treacherous wretches) in the event and conclusion makes them. He replied with great indignation, when led to the Tower a friend told him, Ah my Lord, I am sorry you had no more wit: Tush (quoth he) thou knowest not what thou sayest; When sawest thou a fool come hither?  
And you shall never read of any treason, especially such a complete treason as this of shebna's, but it was attempted by such as were great promisers unto themselves, confident of their wit, secure of the success, and such as made no more difficulty to effect then to affect a treason: and such a one was Shebna. Wherefore let us take Shebna as he was when he first plotted and contrived this treason, and then tell me if he carried not the matter dangerously, if he did not as much a any man of his spirit and working disposition could have done for the utter overthrow of Ezechiah and the whole Land of judah.  
For first, he took the same course that all deep Traitors ever have and will take, whose manner is to pretend one thing, when in heart they intent another; and like Lapwings, to flutter most and cry loudest, when they are farthest from their nest; or with boatmen, to look one way, and row another.  
Thus to omit all foreign instances, whereof there is no story so barren, but it hath store and plenty, thus I say the Traitor Digbie pretends a match of hunting, while his heart lay among the crows of iron, the piles of billets, and barrels of powder in the nethermost vault. Thus Parry, more to prepare access and credit, then for any care had of her majesties person, the late Queen Elizabeth of ever blessed memory, came to the Court, prayed audience, discovered the conjuration, but yet (as himself confessed) covered with all the skill he had, he disclosed only so much as he thought good and necessary to ground in her Highness a settled confidence towards him, whereby he might effect his traitorous intent with better opportunity, and his own safety.  
Right so, Shebna tenders his service to the King his Master, joins in commission with Eliachim and joah, parleys with Rabshakeh chief Colonel of zenacherib's host, layeth out an huge sum of money upon a costly and glorious Tomb, and all to divert the observation of the state, and bear them in hand he minded nothing more than to live and die amongst them, when notwithstanding he held intelligence with the enemy, and under these pretences took the more liberty to play the professed Traitor, and recommend his love and service to Zenacherib.  
Again, Shebna was not alone, he was not singular and self-conceited: it is probable a great part of the people (for the leaudest men, 
Tacit.  saith Tacitus, misdoubting the present, and fearing the change, prepare before hand friends) they also held it safest to do as Shebna did, and close with Zenacherib, as being perhaps animated thereunto partly by the submission of Ahaz, who had sworn fealty and homage to Tiglath Pileser King of Ashur, 
2. Reg. 16.7.  the second of Kings, the sixteenth chapter and seventh verse: and partly also by the dishonourable carriage of Ezechiah himself, who upon the first assault, broke out into a most base and unbeseeming acknowledgement, I have offended, depart from me, and what thou layest upon me I will bear it: the second of Kings, 
2. Reg. 18.14.  the eighteenth.  
And now I pray help me. Wherein trow you lay Ezechiah's strength, or what was there in Ezechiah, or the fence and munition of judah, that could encourage any man of that experience and understanding that Shebna was, to stand out against Zenacherib? Lay it in the multitude of his people? Zenacherib had two for one. Lay it in their firm adherence and constancy? which is the chiefest thing a King can take comfort in in the time of w●●re, where, as David said, the sword devoureth the one as well as the other, the second of Samuel, the eleventh; and where, 
2. Sam. 11.25.  as Hannibal in Livy tells us, nusquam minus eventus solent respondere, only if the people be firm and constant, and carry themselves like loyal and loving subjects, there's some comfort. But alas who knoweth not populi mobilem animum, & fi se ducem prabnisset Zenacherib, as he saith of Vespasian, they would have borne the same affection and demonstration of love and loyalty to Zenacherib, which now they made show of to Ezechiah: it being true of the common people in general, that they do nothing upon judgement or any true meaning, but upon a received habitual kind of timorousness to sway with the Prince whatsoever he be; especially of this people, who were as timorous as Hearts, and as wavering as the wind: and therefore upon a slighter occasion, and less danger, the Prophet saith, all were overtaken with such astonishment, that none could hold a joint still, but quivered and trembled like so many aspen leaves, Isay. 7.2. As also in the original story itself, 
Isay 7.2.  1. Reg. 18. and in our Prophet at the 36. chapter you shall find that Ezechiah's Ambassadors craved this as an especial favour of Rabshekeh, that he would not speak unto them in the jews tongue in the audience of the people that were on the wall, because they were naturally mutable, saith Caluin, and inconstant, and suddenly drawn to revolt. So that had Zenacherib sped and got the upper hand, there was no doubt but the common people illa ipsa diceret hora Augustum. Add hereunto the greatness of shebna's place and power to do mischief, being (as was said) praefectus praetorio, or principal Secretary, and therefore privy to all the secrets of State, those arcana Imperij, and might give Zenacherib perfect intelligence. Add his strength of wit to invent mischief, and secure himself: his knowledge of the State, how weak and unable to resist: the opportunity he now had (being the only man of trust, Eliachim and joah excepted) to deal with the enemy.  
And lastly this plausibleness with the people, being (as junitus calls him) fautor & magister impiorum, and (as in all good confirmation we may guess) pullus & puppus, the minion and darling of the multitude. So that though he entered into a desperate piece of service, where his life and honour and all lay at stake, yet he did nothing but what he saw and knew they would second.  
And now tell me whether this were not a dangerous treason, if we go no farther than the author, who you see had made all so sure, that it was even tempus faciendi Domino, high time for God to put his helping hand; otherwise the power of Zenacherib without, the inconstancy of the leauder sort of people within, considered, Shebna went as near as the wit of a man, actuated by the devil himself, the author of all mischievous subtlety and deep devices, could go, to compass the ruin and destruction, not of one Assuerus, or a Mordecay, and those of his Religion; but of his liege Lord and master Ezechiah, and the whole Land of judah.  
Hear now the object and the latitude of the object much aggravates Shebna his treason.  
For Shebna aimed not at the ruin of a private man, which had been bad and inexcusable, sith (as one saith) domestica & familiaris Deo est hominis natura: and quicunque effuderit humanum sanguinem, 
Gen. 9.6.  per hominem fundetur sanguis illius: Genesis 9.6.  
Neither leveled Shebna at Eliachim alone, at some chief Magistrate or Sentinel of the state, which had been worse, sith public Ministers stand for thousands and hundreds: they are the charets and horsemen of a commonwealth, 
2 Regum 2.12.  they are Gods Lieutenants and Vicegerents on earth, and therefore the least contempt, the least sinister thought tending to their hurt, God takes as done unto himself.  
But as those two and thirty Captains in the 1 of Kings and the two and twentieth, 
1 Regum 22.31.  did Shoot neither at small nor great, save at the King himself: so Shebnah his chief aim was at the King, and this King was Ezechiah, I say Ezechiah, so that here Shebna his treason appears in its full bigness, sith there was more in Ezechiah then can be verified of many, I had almost said of any King beside, and therefore the more eminent and worthy the Prince, the more vile and inexcusable the traitor, the more goodly the object, the fouler the treason.  
For first, had Ezechiah been a King only by conquest, without just title to the crown: this fact of Shebna had been the less, sith Kings by conquest are no better than great thieves. 
Augustine.  Elegant and excellent was the Pirates answer to the great Macedonian Alexander saith St Austin in his 4th book de civitate Dei and 4th chapter. The King ask him, how he durst molest the sea so? he replied with a free spirit saith the Father, how darest thou molest the whole world? but because I do it with one only Galley-foist, I am called a thief, thou doing it with a great Navy art called an Emperor. And Lucan makes no scruple to term Alexander a happy thief of the earth,  
— Terrarum fatale malum.  
Earth's fatal mischief and a cloud of thunder  
Renting the world: a star that struck in sunder  
The Nations.  
Conqueror's then, whose right is their power, are thieves, and there is such an antipathy between the Conqueror and the conquered, that it is impossible for subjects of any good blood truly and in heart to love a Conqueror; whereupon it is, that the Politics give a precept, and their scholars put it in practice, A Conqueror, say they, must subvert and destroy all such as suffer great loss in that Conquest, and altogether root out the blood and the race of such as before governed there.  
This doctrine Thrasibulus taught, when he led a Messenger into a field of corn and bruised the tallest ears between his hands, and this from him Periander practised, when he took out of the way the chief and noblest men of Corinth. This Tarquin the proud commended to Sextus his son, when he cut off summa papaverum capita, and this Sextus accordingly put in ure, when he caused to be massacred in their houses, all the greatest and noblest of the town of Gabium. But Ezechiah was no such bloody conqueror. He was an absolute Monarch and free borne King. Secondly, had Ezechiah been offensive or burdensome to his subjects, or dissolute in his government, Shebna might have had some pretence. 
Bellar: de Rom: Pon●: lib. 5. c. 7.  For though I am not of their opinion who teach that Kings receive their Crowns from men, and hold them at their dispose, yet I rest assured that the virtue, worth and affable usage of a Prince are they that gain and keep the affections of the people; whereas on the other side, the enormous defects and harsh usage of a King alienates their minds from him, as from one that abuseth his Sovereignty, and causeth them to fly to others, whom they hold more fit to command, and unto whom they are more willing to yield obedience. A Prince, as he is above others in place, so he should shine above others in virtue; petty blemishes in a Prince breed a loathing in the subject: their least defects are soon spied and as soon censured. Qui magno imperio praediti, in excelso aetatem agunt, eorum facta cuncti mortales novere. Ita in maxima fortuna minima licentia est (saith Caesar in Sallust.) neque studere, neque odisse sed minimè ●…asci debet. Quae apud alios Iracundia dicitur, ea imperij superbia atque crudelitas appellatur.  
The ill-willers of Pompey the great, observing that now and then he scratched his head with one finger, thought the worse of him for that. The Athenians found fault with Simon because he loved to drink a cup of good wine. And the Romans finding no other thing in that famous Leader Scipio, 
Plutarch: precep: pol.  took occasion to blame him (saith Plutarch in his precepts of policy) only for sleeping. For like as a little freckle, a little mole or pendant wart in the face of a man or woman is more offensive than black and blue marks, than scars and maims in all the rest of the body; even so, small and light faults otherwise of themselves, show great in the lives of Princes, saith that author. Now if men be so apt to take offence at such petty 'scapes as these, what will they not do, when they descry those prints of tyranny, murders, breach of promises and oaths, frauds and deceit, and all kind of injustice; he will tell you Qui sceptra duro saews imperio regit, timet timentes. And Tully, No force or power of Empire be it never so great, can long stand, if it be priest with continual fear and hatred of the subjects. 
Comminaeus.  Memorable is that which Comminaeus sets down at large in his 7 book & 11. chapter, of Alphonso a rich and potent King, who for that he forced his subjects to feed and fat his hogs, for that he bought up all the oil, and grain in the country before it was ripe, sold Bishoprics, gave away Abbeys to Falconers, and committed a many the like insolences, grew in the end despicable in the sight of his people, and was forsaken of all.  
The like befell Lodovic Sforza Duke of Milan, 
Guice: Inventory of France, vita Lewis the 12.  who by his great exactions and impositions (saith Guicciardin) so exasperated his subjects, that when Lewis the 12. came against him, they forthwith took arms, killed his Treasurer, forced him to fly, called in the French and yielded the town and themselves to their obedience.  
And lastly, Matthew of W●stminster tells us of King john, 
Matthew Westminster.  how that exosum se praebuit, he made himself hateful unto his people, as well for the murder of his nephew Arthur, as for his adulteries, his tyranny, his exactions, and the like, in respect whereof Vix alicuius meruit lamentatione deplorari, he deserved not to be lamented scarcely of any.  
How well and warrantably the subjects of these Kings demeaned themselves, I leave to your judgement, I like it not. By these few examples you may see how apt the people are to grow in dislike with their King, when he once ceaseth to be truly royal and by hard usage alienateth their minds and affections from him. But here was no such matter, Shebna could not implead his Prince of any such outrage. Ezechiah was a good and godly King, unto whom the Scripture still gives thi● testimony, that he did uprightly in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done, he trusted in the Lord God of Israel. So that after him was none like unto him among all the Kings of juda, neither were there any such before him, 
2 Reg: 18.5.  2 Kings 18.5.  
But this is not all, maius opus moveo & maior mihi nascitur ordo rerum, there was more in Ezechiah then all this. Ezechiah was a King, and a King of the line of David. A King and a King of the tribe of judah, unto both which God had bound himself by so many promises and covenants as that he might as well fail to be what he is, as not to be a faithful protector of judah, and of the stock of David, saying, I have sworn once by my holiness that I will not fail David, 
Psal: 89.63.  His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne shall be as the sun before me. Psal. 89.36.  
His ego nec metas rerum, nec tempora pono  
Imperium sine fine dedi.  
So that here as in a mirror you may see Shebna his more than Luciferian pride, his Gygantomachia, in that being a poor finite wretch, a Typhon, a vassal, a bramble, he durst attempt that, which he could not but know called in question, all those holy and faithful promises of that never-failing keeper of judah and of the line of David.  
End. And, cui bono? that I may let go those two former circumstances the Author and the Object, and come to his end which he proposed to himself, and the means whereby he must obtain this his end, to wit, that Shebna might be a King.  
Here may you observe a strange point of nature in this Traitor, in that he so impotently affected his own private advancement, as that he cared not what became of Ezechiah or of jerusalem, or of the whole land of judah, so he might be a King. Nay, God himself must go from his word, fall from his promise, forsake his anointed abandon his own peculium and proper people, and all that Shebna may be a King.  
Dear Christ! what is this heart of man, how boundless the desires thereof? was it not enough for Shebna to be glutted with the favours of his Prince? was it enough for him (to speak in the phrase of the Poet) to detain fortune captive with all her treasures, and carry in triumph the felicities of this world, glory, honour, riches, but Shebna must needs be a King. I, that's it, Shebna must be a King. Otherwise his ambitious heart would pant and bray, and all this present greatness and honour wherewith he wa● now invested, would but increase his grief, sink him in Melancholy, and drive him into a consumption or worse disease, so long as he was deprived of that which must crown and actuate all the rest, and give unto his aspiring mind her full complacency and contentment, and that's a kingdom. Shebna must be a King.  
Ah poor Shebna: quid hoc putemus esse? qui modo scurra aut si quid hae re tricius videbatur. Must he now needs be a King? was it ever heard that a traitor was rewarded? did ever wise man think him worthy of any reward, but such as is truly due unto him, the gallows? yet Shebna must be a King.  
Alexander the great (saith justin) at his Father's obsequies, commanded public 〈…〉 done upon those whom he had himself secretly employed to kill him.  
Tiberius (saith Tacitus in the first of his Annals) disavowed his commission given to a soldier to kill Agrippa, telling him that he should answer the matter before the Senate. And howsoever men or rather monsters of men many times are contented to take the benefit of a service done by evil means: yet ever after they hold the instrument suspected, and hate the malicious nature and disposition of him that doth it. Yet Shebna must be a King.  

Inventor: of France, vita Henry the 3.  james Clement a jacobine voweth to kill Henry the third of France, he imparts his damnable project to Doctor Bourgoing Prior of his Covent, to Father Comelet and other jesuits, and to all the chief of the sixteen, and to the forty of Paris. All encourage him to his happy design, they promise him Abbeys and bishoprics, and if he chance to be made a Martyr, no less than a place in heaven above the Apostles. This traitor thus encouraged, goes on, kills the King, and Paulus, Quintus spends a great deal of wit and invention in commendation of the murder, it was rarum (saith he) inauditum, memorabile facinus.  
There is abroad in the world that shames not to justify Ravillacs stabbing of Henry the fourth, late King of France, and saith it was not so much Ravillacs' fault, as stoliditas Regis ob susceptum haereticorum patrocinium.  
And I know there are that mince that superlative sulphureous treason. Alas it was but the attempt of some few, and those unfortunate Gentlemen, and that when they held the King, for no King or not their King, and lastly, expectanda erat diuturna persecutio: and what will you never give over, saith Parsons, that personated traitor, your clamours and exaggerations, the Powder treason, the Powder treason: But tell me if ever you read or heard of any that truly and in heart loved the traitor; yet Shebna must be a King.  
Means. I but how or by what means say you must Shebna be a King? why, sollicitando, pollicitando, which was Absalon's course, and many traitors have ta'en the like, and yet this is not all neither: a kingdom is not so easily gotten. But how then? Marry how have greater spirits risen from nothing, or how grew the Roman Empire, to that magnitude and greatness, or how have high attempts been compassed beyond the expectation and reach of shallow and narrow wits?  
Ask Livy, and he will tell you Agendo, 
Lib: 22.  audendoque res Romana crevit etc. by doing and by daring the affairs of Rome increased, not by these dull and heavy counsels which timorous men term wary. A wit too curious and cautelous in casting of doubts for the most part hurteth, and he that omitteth an opportunity present, upon supposed dangers, shall never advance his own fortune.  
Go to Catesby hear what he saith: Will't thou be a Traitor Tom? aude aliquid. Venture not thyself to small purpose. If thou wilt be a traitor, there is a plot to greater advantage, and such a one as near can be discovered.  
Good God of what mould are these traitors made? or what womb bore them? what difference and disparity there is between them and all good men? how infinitely come they short of the cruelest heathens? We read that the elected Saints of God have wished themselves Anathemised razed out of the book of life, and utterly excluded from the kingdom of heaven, for the public good and preservation of God's dear people: but Shebna here wisheth and plotteth the destruction and extirpation of Gods own chosen peculiar people, and all that he may get a silly kingdom on earth.  
The most ambitious among the heathen, though they took an extraordinary felicity to imbrue their hands in blood, to pill and depopulate whole towns and countries, yet they shook not off all humanity, they forgot not to be men, but had a feeling and were sensible of others calamities and distress. Alexander wept for Darius, julius Caesar for Pompeius, Marcellus for Siracusa, and Scipio for Numantia. But so Shebna may be a King, Ezechiah, jerusalem, and that glorious kingdom of judah must be exposed to cruelty itself, to sack and pillage, and all kind of spoil and devastation.  
Event. For what other can we imagine should be the Event of Shebna his treason, which was the fourth circumstance, and comes now in it due place to aggravate the foul inexcusable treason of Shebna. For howsoever Shebna was not so wise as to foresee, nor so honest as to fear what could not choose but follow, though Shebna proposing to himself his own advancement run on blindfold and spied not the many many inconveniences and mischiefs which would have ensued, no nor cared not what might ensue, so he might be a King: yet succeeding ages saw and judah feared, and howbeit a sin once committed be but one and the same, yet the hurt that ariseth thereby much augments the venomous quality thereof, and thereafter as it doth dilate and spread and multiply to the prejudice and damage of others, the more vile and dangerous and inexcusable must it needs be.  
Let us therefore see what hurt would have ensued. And that will appear by the predictions, threats, and forewarnings of that pseudo prophet Rabshekeh, who to make the people quake and tremble the more, sets before them the miseries and calamities into which they plunged themselves, if they hearkened to Ezechiah and stood out against Zenacherib.  
Hath my Master sent me to thy Master, and to thee to speak these words, 
Isai. 36.12.  and not to the men that sit on the wall.  comedant stercus suum & bibant aquas pedum suorum. Isai. 36.12. now  
Dura quidem miseris mors est mortalibus omnis:  
At perijsse fame, res una miserrima longè est.  
But we shall not need to argue the event from Rabshekeh his threats, though I think he said no more than what Zenacherib would have made good, and what Ezechiah and his people should have felt.  
You all know what are the proper immediate effects of war and conquest; and therefore if you will needs have me set down what would have ensued, I most earnestly desire you to remember (as Tully sometimes said in his oration for Flaccus) the rashness of the multitude, and how the Grecian Victors handled the matter at the sack of Troy.  

Virgil. Aen. ●.  Scilicet ignis edax summa ad vestigia vento  
Voluitur, exuperant flammae, furit aestus ad arras.  
And then, as there Aeneas tells you,  
To juno's Sanctuaerie  
Comes all the prey, and what they thither carry,  
Is kept by choice men, the Phoenician,  
And dire Ulysses. Thither the whole state  
Of Troy's wealth swarms, the Gods, their Temple's plate.  
There lies the gold in heaps, and robes of worth  
Snatched from the flaming Coffers.  
Or, if you will have a more particular description of the dismal event and bloody effects which the vanquished of all sorts are sure to feel, take those which Caesar reckons up as undoubted fruits of Catiline's conspiracy, in Sallust: 
Sallust.  Rapiuntur Virgins, etc. The Virgins are ravished, the children torn from their parents bosoms, the Matrons made the object of all the Victor's lust, the Temples and houses spoiled, all things turned to burning and slaughter, all places stopped full of weapons, carcases, blood, and lamentation.  
Or if this content you not, take that of Quintilian in his eighth book: The flames were spread thorough the Temples, 
Quint.  a terrible cracking of falling houses is heard, and one confused sound of a thousand several clamours. Some fly they know not whither: some stick fast in the last embraces of their friends. The children and the women howl, and the old men (unluckily spared until that fatal day.) Then followeth the tearing away of all the goods out of house and Temple, and the talk of those that have carried away one burden, and run for another: and the poor prisoners are driven in chains before their takers, and the mother endeavouring to carry her silly infant with her. And where the most gain is, there go the Victors together by the ears.  
But what need we illustrate the effects of bloody war and victory out of heathenish authors? Who hath not heard of the weeping voice of Elizeus unto Hazael King of Syria, 
2. King. 8.12.10.32.33.13.7.  the second of Kings 8.12. I know the evil that thou shalt do unto the children of Israel: their strong Cities shalt thou set on fire: their young men shalt thou slay with the sword: thou shalt dash their infants against the stones, and rend in pieces their women with child.  
And this, if I conceive any thing, had been the deplored case of judah: this (if not far worse) the event of Shebna his treason, who all this while, as Dionysius (of whom Tully reports in his third book De natura Deorum) who having spoiled the Temple of Proserpina at Locris, 
Tully.  of jupiter in Peloponesus, of Aesculapius at Epidaurus, because Proserpina drowned him not as he sailed to Syracuse, nor yet jupiter struck him in pieces with his thunderbolts, nor Aesculapius made an end of him by some long and miserable consumption, thought himself secure and past danger, and that he had done nothing but what was lawful and warrantable, and what very well sorted with his great spirit and high imagination.  
But beloved, I beseech God of his infinite mercy, give me grace, and as many as hear me this day (forasmuch as we are all of us in proportion of the same mind, we all of us in our jollity think we may do what we list, and so long as God forbears to punish, we will never forbear to sin.) But God grant, which shall be all the use I will now make, and with which I will shut up this point, God grant (I say) we may remember and lay unto our hearts what that good Father S. Austin saith: Nihil est infelicius: 
Augustin.  Nothing is more unfortunate than the felicity of sinners, whereby their penal impunity is nourished, and their malice strengthened and increased. When God suffereth sinners to prosper, than his indignation is the greater towards them (saith that Father) and when he leaveth them unpunished, than he punisheth them most of all. Witness this spectacle of God's vengeance, Shebna, who not long since I myself saw, in the course and passage of my meditations, strong and in great power, spreading himself like a green bay three: Vidi eum super exaltatum, as the vulgar hath it, honoured and exalted above measure, elevated and lifted up far higher than the Cedar trees of Libanus. And yet now again I passed by, and lo he was gone: I sought him, but he could not be found, 
Psal. 37.  Psalm. 37.  
And so I come to his punishment, which is set down by our Prophet here in so full and ample manner, as more cannot be said. All that I shall need to do, will be to recommend unto your further consideration two special traces and steps of God's justice in punishing Shebna: whereof the first is the suddenness of it; Potentes potentèr tormenta patientur, Wisdom 6.7. The second, the manner of it; 
Wisd. 6.7.  In quo peccamus, in eodem plectimur.  
Touching the suddenness of it; lend me your attention, and you shall find in our Prophet's commission here, what you shall seldom or never find in any of the like nature. All other commissions given to Prophets when they were sent to denounce the ruin of any one man or nation, run for the most part with a proviso, and mercy is joined with judgement, as Fabius with Marcellus, to temper and allay the fierceness of it. Novit enim Deus suas comminationes conditionaliter esse intelligendas, nempe nisi resipiscant, saith learned Zanchius. 
Zanchius de Nat. Dei. sect. 2. c. 4.   
As jonas the third at the fourth verse: Yet forty days, and Ninive shall be overthrown: true, if ye will not repent, 
jonah 3.4.  and amend your lives by my preaching. 
Isay 38.1.  So Isay the 38. at the first, which commination some think came just at the very time of Zenacherib's fearful expedition: Put thy house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live: true, unless God may hear thy prayers, and see thy tears, and then his heart is turned within him: his repentings are rolled together, and he will not execute the fierceness of his wrath, as it is Hos. 11. 
Hos. 11.9.   
But most pregnant of all other is that of God himself, jer. 18. at the 7. 
jerem. 18.7.  I will speak suddenly concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom, to pluck it up, and to root it out, and to destroy it. But if this nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from their wickedness, I will repent of the plague that I thought to bring upon them.  
Nay Divines say, that if judas (whom I may term the Traitor) could have repent, he might have found mercy. judas had time, though not grace to repent.  
But Shebna his case here is far more lamentable and desperate: here's no respite for repentance, no hope of mercy, all judgement. Transportando transportabit te: Volutando volutabit te. Behold, the Lord will carry thee away, and will surely cover thee; he will surely roll and turn thee like a ball in a large Country: there shalt thou die, and there shall the Chariots of thy glory cease, O thou scandal and dishonour of thy Lord and Master.  
Manner. See how every word hath his weight, how every sin bears it own burden, and which is a special token of God's heavy wrath and unpartial process in judgement, see how he meets with him in the same kind.  
Adonibezek caused seventy Kings having the thumbs of their hands and of their feet cut off, to gather crumbs under his Table: and the thumbs of Adoni-bezeks hands and of his feet were cut off, 
judg. 1.7.  judg. 1.7. Agags' sword made women childless: and his mother was hewn in pieces and made childless among other women, 
1. Sam. 15.33.  1. Sam. 15.33.  
Ralphe Lardein (saith M. Fox) betrayed George Eagles, a good and a just man: and the same Ralphe afterward was attached himself, arraigned, and hanged.  
The chief of the Vault-pioners resolved to blow up the Parliament with powder: and the same Vault-pioners were maimed, disfigured, shot, wounded, and blown up with powder. Right so fareth it with Shebna. Shebna to refresh his reputation and uphold his greatness, suppresseth Eliachim: God suppresseth Shebna, and raiseth up Eliachim.  
Shebna resolveth to live and die in jerusalem: God drives him out of jerusalem. Shebna looks for grace, relief, and countenance from the enemy: the enemy disgraceth, hangeth, executeth Shebna.  
Psal. 83.13.14.15.17.18.  Psal. 83.13 O my God, make them like unto a wheel, and as the stubble before the wind. Psal. 83.14 Like as the fire that burneth up the wood, and as the flame that consumeth the mountains. Psal. 83.15 Persecute them even so with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm. Psal. 83.17 Let them be confounded and vexed ever more and more: let them be put to shame and perish. Psal. 83.18 And they shall know that thou whose name is jehovah, art only the most high over all the earth. 
Application. And now to make some application, and to compare Shebna with Gowrie, and shebna's treason with the treason of Gowrie so far as my knowledge of their like condition can parallel them together: I must crave leave to fly to that old refuge, Similitudes hold not in all things. Neither shall I be able to parallel Gowrie with Shebna, nor his treason with shebna's treason in each particular.  
Howsoever, certain it is (to begin with that I first observed in Shebna) he was a man of note and eminency, a man of marvelous comely deportment and behaviour, a man that had conquered the affections both of his own Countrymen and strangers in such sort, as that notwithstanding a cloud of witnesses, the clear and laudable depositions of sundry examinants, the Act of Parliament for the forfeiting of his estate, and of his heirs for ever, and which is instar mill testium, the all-provident hand of God in opening the mouth of Sprot, and hailing him to the Ministers of justice, and causing him to be his own accuser, and that an eight years after, when Bour and Logan●, two other Conspirators, were dead and putrefied in their graves, and devoured of worms, and no mortal creature could detect him but his own witness, judge, and executioner, the Conscience of his own breast. Yet notwithstanding there are not a few who shame not to take up that of the Prophet: Quis credet auditui? Who will believe your report?  
But this I will boldly say, and it shall stand incontroleable till the day of doom, to the eternal confusion of Gowrie, that he was as much tied unto his Majesty, as a subject in his case and of his quality could possibly be unto his Sovereign: neither shall it be any amplification at all, or any the least strain of wit, to tell you that his Highness proceeding and carriage towards Gowrie was far more gracious and charitable then that of Ezechiah unto Shebna. For Shebna by the means of Ahaz was now thoroughly acquainted with the course of government, and happily Ezechiah might have especial use of his advice, and could not be without him, and that the children of God are driven often times to rely upon the wise in their generation, is not Ezechiah his case alone.  
Secondly, Shebna (for aught we find) during the time of Ahaz, and until this terrible invasion of Zenacherib, remained in his allegiance sound and uncorrupt: whereas Gowrie, bloody Gowrie (for I shall ever call him so: he was a man of blood, his heart was died as red as scarlet with the royal blood of an anointed King) could stand his Majesty in no such stead. Secondly, his race was tainted, the leaven of his father's disloyalty had soured the whole lump and mass of his thoughts and affections, and therefore he could look for no gracious aspect from his Majesty, sith of so bad a kind as Traitors are, it is true the soldiers said at the death of Maximinus son, there ought not to be saved so much as a whelp.  
A pardon, an indulgence, a connivency, doth never change the cankered and festered distemper of a wicked wretch. There are benefits which are odious, which exasperated, and cause the heart of an unthankful malicious miscreant to swell and burst again, when he is as it were conquered and overcome of love and fair usage.  
All instances and allegations omitted whatsoever, take that of Parrie for a pregnant precedent, from whom in despite of Pope or Devil, the very aspect of our late right illustrious Queen extorted this fervent acknowledgement: When I looked upon her Majesty, saith he, (and what marvel? for she was the most glorious creature of her sex that then breathed) & remembered her many excellencies, I was troubled, and yet I saw no remedy: for my vows were in heaven, my letters and promises in earth; and had she preferred me never so greatly, yet must my enterprise have held.  
But what should we go further than his majesties own experience? who thought by being gracious at the beginning, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 31.  to win all men's hearts to a loving and willing obedience, but found by the contrary the disorder of the Country, and the loss of his thanks to be all his reward.  
Yet notwithstanding so graciously dealt he with this ungracious Traitor, that for his sake he was content to dispense with the principles of moral wisdom, and after a sort to offer violence to his own princely knowledge and experience. Whereupon it was that he heaped so many coals of fire upon this bloody Gowries' head, and that beyond all example.  
True it is that Saul, for reasons best known unto himself, could not endure that any of his subjects that were diffident and doubtful of his title, should so much as be called in question. There shall not a man die this day: for to day the Lord hath saved Israel, 1. Sam. 11.14. 
1. Sam. 11.14.  And David, so far forth as it concerned his own person, was well pleased to pardon Shimei: Thou shalt not die; and the King swore unto him, 
2. Sam. 19.23.  2. Sam. 19.23.  
And Solomon dealt so mercifully with him, that he confessed, The thing is good: as my Lord the King hath said, so will thy servant do, 
1. Reg. 2.38.  1. Reg. 2.38. But here his Majesty, upon no one motive in the world, neither upon the apprehension of an extraordinary blessing, as Saul; nor upon a passion of joy, as David; nor upon a point of policy for a spirit, and after three years to meet with him for good and all, as Solomon: but freely and voluntarily, of his own benign nature and regal clemency, forgiveth and acquitteth Gowrie, he restoreth him to his land, he restoreth him to his dignities, he nourisheth and bringeth up two or three of his sisters, as it were in his own bosom, by a continual attendance upon his dearest bedfellow in her privy chamber. And if all this had been too little, he would have given him (as it was said to David) such and such things, 
1. Sam. 12.18.  1. Sam. 12.18.  
— Quorum si singula duram  
Flectere non poterant, potuissent omnia mentem.  
But O ignominia domus Domini! It is more than stupendious to see how all this wholesome nourishment, which should have bred good blood, turned to venom, and how strangely that which would have dissolved an heart of flint, and wrought remorse, made this villain more reckless and obdurate: all this loving commemoration of so many binding benefits, no more moved the bloody butcher Alexander, than the ruthful moan of Lycaon, fierce Achilles: but all this he heard, and (as there the Poet saith) replied:  
Homer. Il. φ.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
For now, after a little pause, and conference had with his bloody brother, he gins afresh:  
Ingrediturque domum, luctus comitantur euntem,  
Et pavor & terror, trèpidoque insania vultu.  
Now, no one word falls from his black mouth, but dismal death; tell not me of thy gifts, nor of thy good turns, nor of any price of redemption whatsoever, die, die thou must: the death of Patr●clus, saith Achilles; the death of my Father, saith bloody Alexander will not suffer me to think on mercy.  
Now Antaeus-like he renews his strength, 
Tusc: quest. l. 5.  and as a furious Ram upon recoil, comes with the greater force: or as Balistae lapidum & reliqua tormenta, telorum (as Tully saith) eo graviores ictus habent, quo sunt contenta & obducta vehementius, so grew this bloody Alexander more violent and outrageous.  
Never did ravenous wolf so insult and prey upon a silly lamb, never did doting she-Beare robbed of her whelps, so fret and foam as now this bloody Alexander did. Where (though I confess it adds little to what hath been already said) yet to the dishonour of bloody Alexander, I beseech you note how devoid he was of all manhood and common civility. For first; whereas Lions and Bears will take some compassion on a prostrated creature, this bloody villain, shakes of nature itself and sets upon him as a bird in the snare, upon all the disadvantage that possibly may be, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Homer: Iliad φ.  naked of helmet, shield, sword or lance, which none but a bloody Alexander devoid of all manhood, would ever have done.  
Secondly, he threateneth a King descended from as honourable predecessors as any Prince living, with a reproachful and inglorious kind of death: he must not die by the hands of a woman, which Abimilech held dishonourable, judges 9 Nor yet by the sword of his Page, 
judges 9.54.  which had been a thought better, but he must die as a fool dieth, as an ox goeth unto the slaughter, 
Prou: 7.22.  and as a fool goeth to the stocks bound hand and foot, so must he go with all ignominy and dishonour unto his grave.  
It behoveth you to be bound, saith he; 
2 Sam: 3.34.  but died Abner as a fool's dieth? his hands were not bound nor his feet tied in fetters of brass, but as a man falleth before wicked men, so should he have fallen as on this day.  
Now let us go on and see whether bloody Gowry came any whit short of Shebna, for now all those circumstances, the end only excepted, must be renewed again, and brought in by way of application to aggravate the foul inexcusable treason of Gowrie. 
Gow: conspir: c. 3.  For, I will not now dally out the time, or tire your patience, or spend my breath in charging him with all those sins of Shebna, though I make no doubt but he that was so given to Magic operative by birth and many years descent and much practice, was guilty of all or more, or worse than those.  
Neither shall I be able to say any thing of his end, of the ultimate end which Gowrie aimed at, being as yet unknown. Howbeit that he looked no further than the life of an innocent and harmless King, or that he projected no other thing then the bare revenge of his Father's death, I for my part shall never believe. His traveling beyond the seas, especially in Italy, the mint, and; but I forbear to speak what we all know, for what have I to do with other nations? 
Gowries' consp: D. 1. col. 2.  Only by the way you may remember what Rind under his hand sets down, that in those parts where Gowrie was they would give sundry folks Breves.  
His secret conference with jesuits, men by profession disposers of Kings and kingdoms; men, whom that triple-crowned Monarch useth as the Roman Emperors those they called agentes in rebus all his spies, intelligencers and informers, with whom an honest heart cannot well converse.  
And lastly, his plausibility with the people, who upon the report of Gowries' death grew so tumultuous and stirring, as that his Majesty was feign to cause the Bailiffs, and the rest of the honest men of the town to be brought into the chamber, and made eye-witnesses of that which their hearts could not believe (plausibility being as you know always the forerunner and harbinger of ambitious and swelling thoughts) these and the like, as the lowing of the Oxen which Samuel heard, and as the bleating of the Sheep, 
1 Sam: 15.14.  crying in mine ears, makes me more than suspicious, that there was in Gowries' treason somewhat that the world cannot as yet judge of, nor the wit of man certainly determine. Wherefore, not to speak of the end which Gowrie aimed at, nor yet to recommend unto you conjectures and presumptions only; may it please you to remember what was said touching Shebna his treason in regard of the Author, Object, Event: all these present themselves again, and come (as I said) by way of Application to aggravate the fowl inexcusable treason of Gowrie.  
First, in regard of the Author. Gowrie: 
Gowries' conspir: D. 2. col. 1.  Gowrie was no fool. For first, he lays this down for a ground. A wise man intending an high and dangerous purpose must communicate the same to none but himself.  
Secondly, 
Exam: of George Spro● pag. 41.  Restalrig (that is to say a perfect Gowrie) (for they two had but one heart between them) he calls upon him, My Lord you must be circumspect with your brother, that he be not rash in any speeches; such a purpose as your Lordship intendeth cannot be done rashly, but with deliberation.  
My Lord if you will come over to my house, persuade yourself you shall be as safe and quiet here, while we have settled our plot, as if you were in your own chamber. I doubt not my Lord but all things shall be well.  
My Lord I am resolved to peril life, lands, honour, goods, yea and the hazard of hell shall not frey me, though the scaffold were already set up.  
What? such secrecies? such vows? such conjurations? such protestations? as far as their souls and the damnation of their souls came to? and yet this a silly plot? no, no, I will grant as much as he that is most incredulous shall or can urge, and yet this no silly plot. There must be a concursus fortuitorum over and beyond the project, or else the best laid plot may easily miscarry. I grant it was senseless for Alexander to think that a pot of dross should have any adamantine virtue in it to draw bounty itself to Gowrie his house: I grant, it was senseless for him to think that Courtesy or rather Glavering, bowing his head under his majesties knee could work upon the affection of a King, who is as an Angel of God, and can well distinguish semblance and bare complement, from truth and realty.  
Moreover; his unmannerly importunity, his unseasonable interrupting his Majesty in his game, his dejection of countenance, his deep oaths, his faltering in his speech, his impatience of delay: all these I grant were arguments of Alexander's weakness and ill managing of the plot, but the plot was still the same and lay in Gowries' breast, concealed and unknown to any, save God, and the Devil, with whom he dealt, and who was his chief counsellor. Alexander was but instrumentum animatum, all that he was to act and play in this bloody Tragedy, was to get the King to Gowries' house, and into the chamber, and then let him and the Devil alone.  
Again, that the King should use Alexander so lovingly, as to lay his hand on his shoulder, that notwithstanding his many conjectures he could never suspect any harm to be intended, or that when he did suspect he should presently check himself, as being ashamed in respect of the clearness of his own conscience, to give way thereunto; these were not of the essence of the plot, neither can they be ascribed to any wisdom or forecast in Gowrie or his brother Alexander, but to his majesties open simplicity and harmlessness, 
Chrysost.  there being (as Saint Chrysostome saith in his Homily de Sancta Susanna, if the Tract be his) suspiciones malenolae calumniantium & suspitiones benevolae Gubernantium: malicious suspicions, proper to calumniators, benevolous and friendly suspicions proper to Governors. If my friend betray me, I beshrew him, but if my enemy betray me, I beshrew myself, said he.  
But go we on, and follow his Majesty into the dark chamber of death, and then tell me if zenacherib's army, Rabsaches threats, the inconstancy of the people, the disloyalty of Shebna, could put Ezechiah in such danger, or that it was ever higher time for God to put to his helping hand then now? no beloved, here, here stand you still, and behold the salvation of the Lord, which he showed as on this day; open the book of his works, read the doctrine of providence; 
Exod: 14.13.  did ever God show himself to be a God almighty and a God of power, did he ever manifest his particular providence more articulatly beyond the strength of reason and compass of second causes then now?  
Was it not strange and miraculous, that he, that was appointed to be the murderer should presently upon the sight of the King (as Baltashar, when he saw the hand-writing on the wall) stand trembling and quaking rather like one condemned then an excutioner of such an enterprise?  
Was it not strange and miraculous that the King should drag Alexander to the window, and that his Nobles at the self same instant should be under that and the very same window?  
Lastly, was it not strange and miraculous that that blessed Angel and messenger of the Lord, that josuah, and mighty Deliverer, Sr john Ramsey should find the turnepicke door open, follow it up to the head, enter into the chamber, rescue the King from Alexander, and strike bloody Gowry himself stone dead in the place?  
All these are as so many books, wherein he that runneth may read, God's especial providence over his anointed. Turn over the leaf again.  
That he that should have been the murderer should now stand as one that was to be murdered.  
That the King should drag Alexander to the window: That his train should be at that very time under that very window: That Sir john Ramsay should light upon that dark, unused, unknown by-way, free him from Alexander, and strike bloody Gowrie dead in the very room: read it advisedly, and then awake all antiquity and show me the like instance of God's especial providence again.  
I know you will tell me of Noah in the Ark: for what in the eye of reason should become of Noah in the Ark, in the Ark, without Anchor to stay her, without mast to poise her, without stern to move her, without Pilot to guide her, had not the same God, who forgets nothing that he hath made, both shut him in with his own hands, and preserved him being in, which otherwise in reason could never have been.  
I know you will tell me of the Israelites deliverance from 70 years captivity, 
Psal. 126.  which the Prophet David saith, struck such an amazement in them, that they were like them that dream, 
Livius 33.  Psalm 126. and as Livy saith in a case of great joy, much liberty and freedom, Maius gaudium fuit, quàm quod universum homines caperent, vix satis credere se quisque audivisse, alij alios intueri mirabundi velut somni vanam speciem.  
I know you will tell of Peter's enlargement out of prison, which so marvelously affected the blessed Apostle, that he was scarce his own man, he knew not that it was true which was done by the Angel, but thought he had seen a vision. Acts 12.9. 
Acts 12.9.  But what was there in all these or any one of them, that you shall not read in some one page or other of this most omnipotent and all powerful deliverance of his sacred Majesty. 
Reg: 12.9.  Great is the Lord and most worthy to be praised, and his greatness is incomprehensible. 
Psalm 145.  Generation shall praise thy works unto generation, and declare thy power.  
Object. Another circumstance followeth; In applying whereof dared I presume, either on the time, or your patience, or mine own strength, much might be inserted to the indelible shame of these bloody Gowries.  
For they (miscreants as they were) thirsted not after the blood of a private man, nor any subordinate Magistrate, but of the King himself. A King not precario, or by conquest; 
pag. 29.  read his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but an absolute Monarch, and free borne King, the which with undaunted presence of mind he told pale Alexander (for the righteous are as bold as a Lion) he was borne a free King, and should die a free King.  
A King; not offensive or grievous unto his subjects, but a King surnamed by the voice of all his people, of all humours, of all factions, of all religions, the geude King. A King, and a King of the line of David, a King and a King of the tribe of judah.  
Event. But here I must lay my hand upon my mouth, I cannot say what my heart conceives, nor yet conceive what ought and should be said: wherefore I come to the event. For what of all this? a King and a free borne King, a King and a geud King, a King and a King of the line of David, a King and a King of the tribe of judah; what of all this? It was a foul treason, they were bloody villains, what of all this? did you never hear of a treason before? did you never hear of a King murdered? and what a quoil here is about one Gowrie, seduced happily by pestilent firebrands abroad in Italy? or what if his deep Melancholy now broke forth and growing stark mad as Ajax offended with Ulysses, Agamemnon and Menelaus, wrecked his malice upon a silly and a harmless sheep, thinking it had been Ulysses; So he, instead of those that had done him wrong (as he thought) and proceeded against his Father, miss his aim and fell upon the King as upon a silly and harmless sheep, who was in his minority, and wholly passive in all that business? why what of all this?  
Beloved, shall a Prince and a great man fall in Israel, the second of Samuel at the third, 
2 Sam. 3.38.  and will the sons of Zeruiah stand still? will no tumults, no uproars, no alteration follow? And shall an absolute Monarch, though but now in Hebron, as David, yet in expectation and sight of all the world (to the joy and comfort of God's Saints, to the terror and amazement of the enemies of God and his Gospel) the puissant Monarch of Great BRITAIN and of all Israel, shall he I say, be bloodily mangled, and hewn in pieces, and no horror, no murders, no massacres follow? Yes, yes for (to omit what thousands ●●e observed, ho● about that very same year, nay within the compass of one month and week almost, many subjects of principal note miscarried, and grew corrupt in their allegiance, many treacheries were attempted, many Protestant Princes miraculously preserved) what meant, what meant that posting to Rome, that gadding to Douai? what meant that hissing of the Bee of Ashur? that buzzing of the fly of Egypt? and all about this time. Whereunto tended those many pasquils and pamphlets touching the doctrine of Succession? Whereto tended those confident predictions of the Romish Rabshakehs'? Nondum completa est iniquitas Anglorum, saith Pererius.  
Dabit Deus tempus quando vetula illa anus, saith another, and all about this time. But of all other, whereto tended, or what construction can you make of Pope Clement's Bull? to wit: After the death of the Queen, whether by course of nature, or otherwise, whosoever should lay claim or title to the Crown of England, though never so directly and nearly interessed therein by descent and blood-royal, yet unless he were such a one as would not only tolerate the Catholic Romish Religion, but by all best endeavours and force promote it, they should admit or receive none to be King of England.  
Surely when I consider this in mine heart, as it is Lam. 3. I resolve it was the Lord's mercy that we were not consumed. For had not God (his unspeakable rich mercy be praised for it) upon the decease of the late ever-blessed Queen Elizabeth, reserved a seed, and a seed of a right generous kind, for aught that we can gather from the predictions, Bulls and Briefs of those Romish Rabshekehs', our Land (as the Prophet Isay saith) had lain waste, 
Isai. 1.  our Cities had been burned with fire, strangers had devoured our Land in our presence, and it would have become desolate as the overthrow of foreign enemies. Had not God reserved a seed, and a seed of a right generous kind, the daughter of Zion should have remained like a Cottage in a Vineyard, like a lodge in a garden of Cucumbers, and like a besieged City. Had not God reserved a seed, and a seed of a right generous kind, we had been as Sodom and Gomorrah, all in combustion and hurly burly: then should you have seen here a Bonner whipping and broiling of poor innocents, there a Gardener proscribing, imprisoning, murdering of the right heirs and zealous professors of God's truth. Then should you have seen the very channels in our streets swell with the blood of Martyrs, as jordan in the time of harvest, 
josuah 3.15.  and their bodies piled up for fuel, for beacons and bonfires, in usum nocturni luminis. And which is a misery, which the heathen, the sublimatest wit among the heathens could not express, no sacking, no rifling, no razing of Cities, no burning of whole towns and villages cometh any whit near it. Then should you have seen cleanness of teeth in all your Cities, and scarcenesss of bread in all your places: I mean the spiritual famine of God's word, when the people and sheep of Christ's fold should have been turned out to graze on the naked pasture of an implicit faith, and should never have come to the sight of that holy Manna, that pabulum animae, the sacred word of God; but happily once in the year you should have had a Ducking Friar step up into this or the like holy Mount, and fed them with the saliva, the froth and foam of an allegorical and tropological Postiller.  
But why do I argue the event from the threats and Bulls and Briefs of those Romish Rabshakehs'? or why should we fear their fears, or be afraid of them? 
Isai. 8.12.   
Who seethe not? nay, as S. Austin saith, speaking of the blessings which the name of Christ and the Christian profession brought into the world, in his first book De Civitate Dei, and sixth chapter: He that seethe not this, is blind: 
August.  he that seethe it, and praiseth it not, is thankless: he that hindereth him that praiseth it, is mad.  
How that if violence had prevailed in the day of blood, we had been bereft of all those blessings which his Majesty as a rick of corn came laden with into this Land, even in number as many as the benedictions of Abraham, especially 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which individually accompanied his 〈◊〉 person, and depended not so much upon the change of the Prince, and death of Queen Elizabeth, as upon his and his only succession in the Throne. I shall not need to reckon them; I assure myself there is not any thankful heart or true Israelite indeed, but hath them in a table before him. Sure I am, had we wanted the least of them, and had not God as on this day avenged himself on bloody Gowrie, ●●th suddenly, and in the same manner as it was said of Shebna, we had wanted them, very babes and sucklings would have been eloquent in the commemoration of them, and that now we have them in their height and perfection, we are not sensible of them.  
But beloved I beseech you in the bowels of Christ jesus, let us in the day of wealth and all kind of happiness, so comfort ourselves, as that we quite forget not the day of affliction.  
Let us so solace ourselves with remembrance of what we now are, as that we abandon not all thought of what we might have been, and of what God, had he not been the more merciful, might well have deprived us of. Now, O Lord God, let thy name be magnified for ever by them that shall say. The Lord of hosts is God over judah, and let the house of thy servant the King be established before thee. 
2. Sam. 7.  Let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue for ever, and let the house of thy servant and of his seed be blessed with thy best blessings. Amen.  
FINIS.