Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 10.djvu/75

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[ 67 ]

A


SERMON


UPON THE


MARTYRDOM OF KING CHARLES I.


PREACHED AT ST. PATRICK'S, DUBLIN, JAN. 30, 1725-6, BEING SUNDAY.


GENESIS xlix. 5, 6, 7.


Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.


O my soul, come not thou into their secret, unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united; for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall.


Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.

I KNOW very well, that the church hath been often censured for keeping holy this day of humiliation, in memory of that excellent king and blessed martyr Charles I, who rather chose to die on a scaffold, than betray the religion and liberties of his people, wherewith God and the laws had entrusted him. But, at the same time, it is manifest that those who make such censures, are either people without any religion at all, or who derive their principles, and perhaps

F 2
their