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A37275
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A sermon preach'd at the parish-church of St. Chad's in Shrewsbury, March 5, 1694/5 being the funeral day of our most gracious sovereign Queen Mary / by Thomas Dawes.
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Dawes, Thomas, 1652?-1715.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing D451; ESTC R24877
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12,749
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32
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Town and Countrey as I said from the High Places of Idolatrous Worship he brake down the Altars of Baalam in the plural signifying the many False Gods they Worshipp'd and in the 26 year of his Life and the 18 of his Reign He and Hilkiah the High Priest with other of his Friends and Servants whom he trusted purges and repairs the Temple It appears they had Built an Heathen Altar there as also many other in the Royal City and Regions adjoyning as you will read here in their story which he visited personally for the greatest part and utterly Destroy'd not omitting the search even of their private Houses so to root out effectually all Heathen Abominations out of the Land the accursed object of God's otherwise implacable Hatred and Displeasure Hilkiah hy a special order from the King searching into the Ruines of the Temple not totally Destroy'd till afterward in Zedekiah's time but too sadly Decay'd by the many Sacrilegious abuses of the Idol-Priests he chances to light upon an old Authentick Copy of the Law which he found Buried in the Rubbish in some close part of the Building which was neglected 't is like that was the only true Copy they had left probably all the rest being forced out of their hands and Burnt or otherwise effectually Destroy'd by a cruel Inquisition it being usual with the Heathen so to do as since with a Religion as Heathenish for so much as they tho' call'd Christian and Catholick 'T was so before and in the Empire of Julian th' Apostate when the Holy Books were gathered with all imaginable Industry of the Heathen and Destroy'd to make room for the Lying Oracles of Apollo and their Idol Gods But not so totally Destroy'd then nor here in Josiah's time nowithstanding the Dotage of Haman and Manasseh Hilkiah having thus found the Book and shew'd it to the good King He entertains it with great Reverence and causes it to be read in the ears of the People to teach 'em what they had forgot be sure in too great a measure the true Worship of God By this and other such his Religious pious Arts he brought back again the Holy Worship and the People the Worshippers to the Temple which they with their Forefathers had so long forsaken having already notoriously disgrac'd their Profane Altars by Burning the Bones of their Idolatrous Priests upon 'em some of 'em that were Dead all the rest but those he slew having fled and and made their escape 't is like upon this signal Revolution and left thus ingloriously their Temples and their Gods all a Sacrifice to the Zeal of good Josiah who put a fatal period to their sensless tho' cruel Devotion Manasseh and Amon now dead their great Patrons it having been till then the Kings Religion behold The Idol stoops and tamely resign'd it's feign'd Omnipotency and owns a Conqueror Nor was this any suddain start and heat of Passion in Josiah as Zeal is too apt to extravagance in unwary hands for we find here after He had purg'd and restor'd the Temple He deliberately with the joynt advise and consent of his People who were by this time return'd to their right Vnderstandings in the 18 year of his Happy Reign already named Josiah sends and proclaims a Passover to the Lord which he celebrates on such a splendid manner with so much magnificence in honour of the true God that the Tale and number of the Sacrifice is almost incredible which made such an extraordinary solemn figure in the Worship of the Jews that never was the like Festivity in such Glorious Preparation seen among them 'T is describ'd at large here Cap. 35. there was never held such a Passover from the Days of the Judges which judged Israel c. i. e. never such an one before since the Beginning of their Government which was a joyful sight we may well think at Jerusalem where 'till that time the Worship of the Temple had lain so long neglected 't was so magnificent that I observe Josephus their Antiquary seems somewhat concerned at it as tho' it reflected upon the Poverty of the Devotion of the Antient Church and excuses it thus Lib. 10. c. 5. Ant. the reason says he why there was no such Festivity from the days of Samuel mention'd here 2 Chron. 35.18 was because in those early Times all things were perform'd in exact complyance to Moses Ritual and the Customs then on foot tho' the Levitical Law left place for Free-will-Offerings and such according to Josephus was a great part of this Celebrated Passover of Josiah Which therefore is a singular argument of this Good Kings more than ordinary Devotion and his Zeal in promoting the Worship and the Honour of God And hence 't is we read 2 Kings 23.25 And like unto him there was no King before him that turn'd to the Lord with all his heart c. neither after him arose there any like him The truth is Josiah was one purposely raised up of God for this Noble Design It was Prophetically foretold 360 years and more says the Jew in the Reign of Jeroboam that thus it should be 1 Kings 13.2 Behold a Child shall be born to the House of David Josiah by name and upon Thee i. e. the Altar at Bethel which the Son of Nehat had then newly set up shall he offer the Priests of the High-Places c. and it fell out exactly 2 Kings 23.15 16. You see then how for this very end in a long course of Providence Josiah was raised of God to Root out by his means and to Destroy Idolatry from out of Judah and Israel as much as was left of the foregoing Captivity Such and so remarkable was this Pious Kings singular Devotion and to the great joy and satisfaction of all his Subjects but some who had little or no Religion and others that hanker'd after that He had Destroy'd by the will of God He Reigned 31 years and Liv'd in the whole 40 bating one prosperous in Wealth and Glory and then very unfortunately by the incessant Provocation of the Crying sins of Judah as Huldah the Prophetess at that time foretold God was finally resolv'd to punish very grievously as He did in the ensuing Captivity which lasted no less while than 70 long years under the King of Babylon as Jeremy Prophesy'd 22 years after Josiah's Death unfortunately I say He makes War against Necho the Aegyptian King who was upon his March against th' Assyrian denies him passage throâ— his Country imagining 't is like he was a going up against Judah when it seems as he signify'd by his Embassaders He intended no such thing But Josiah listned not and rashly opposes Himself upon the Borders in the Valley of Megiddon where He is mortally wounded by an Aegyptian Archer as He rode in his Chariot thereupon carry'd back to Jerusalem where He Dyes This Good King so necessary to the Happiness of his People which Dyes together with Him Their Dreadful Calamity was only
Deferr'd till his Death inasmuch as his Heart was tender and He humbled Himself before God here Cap. 34 27 28. He Dyes at his Royal City and was Buried in the Sepulchres of the Kings his Fathers and all Judah and Jerusalem the whole Kingdom mourned for Josiah And no doubt a sad Mourning 't was The Loss of so Good a King and at such a time when we must think the Eyes and Hearts of all his People were upon Him Jeremiah upon this sad occasion Weep'd and penn'd a Mournful Elogy emphatically a Black Book of Lamentation in such a deep natural racy strein that it weeps yet afresh to every eye that reads it see there Cap. 4.20 The Breath of our Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their Pits of whom we said under His shadow we shall live among the Heathen And so famous was this Solemn Mourning of the Jews that about an 100 years after where the Prophet Zechary foretells of the Coming of the Kingdom of the Messiah and the fearful Desolation which should at that time befal the Jews in the Total Devastation of their Second Temple and their City with their whole Government by the Romans He could not express their Sorrow to greater advantage than by this Deplorable instance of the Death of Good Josiah Cap. 12.11 In that day says he There shall be a great Mourning in Jerusalem as the Mourning of Haddadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon which is the Mourning of the Text here And such was the Jews estimation of their Great Loss and Misfortune that 't was not only a little time which once they set apart to this their Mourning but they made it an Anniversary Fast in their Generations by an Ordinance for ever in the v. next after the Text. From whence it would seem The Book of Lamentations was the Form of their publick yearly Humiliation upon this account So great the Loss and so great the Sorrow of this unhappy people And yet not so great but in good sence of Resemblance it may become a Pattern of ours now 'T is confessed Blessed be our Good God who in Judgment remembers Mercy our Circumstances are not in Prospect so Deplorable as theirs were The proud King of Babylon has not yet set his foot upon our Land nor Burnt our Church and made us his Captives nor we hope ever will so long as we have God and a Good King our Protectors who is as Josiah was an implacable Adversary to his our Church and Nations Enemies The Glorious Champion of our Holy War The Greatest Patron of all the Protestant Churches Born indeed the Son of War whose Sword invincible as 't is glisters astonishment in the Hearts of those who are only great in this that they have the honour to fall under the resistless stroke of his Victorious Arms. His Royal Great Soul untaught to yield to any other Adversity to shew He had an Heart of Flesh and Affections tender as his Religion is Wept over the Royal Ashes of his Dearest Consort our Good Queen Mary Nor was this any light faint transient stricture of his inward Sorrow His indelible Piety so deeply rooted in his Breast sunk him down low in this his Affliction as low as 't is possible Love and Virtue could Behold here a Brave Glorious Constellation of the greatest Fortitude and the greatest Love such an one seldom never shone before in our Hemisphere How then shall we Subjects Dispense with this Free Subsidy yet naturally a Debt of our Funeral Lamentation unless we have in this Distance to Her much Lamented Death spent all our Stock already and in so doing exhausted the Fountain of our Tears Alas our cheap vulgar Weeping here is not big enough at lowdest to ballance one single Sigh of our Josiah's Royal Grief We who had so great a part and interest in her Princely Care and Indulgence and might have had so still but that our Ingratitude that unpardonable sin for which we and this poor English Nation have so often smarted our hateful Ingratitude rendred us by so many degrees unworthy of her longer Life A Blessing so infinitely desireable as I believe you think that I Despair of adding any thing to your present Information I 'll not therefore now touch upon any Preliminaries as her Royal Birth and Descent her Natural and her Acquired Perfections exceeding great with her truly Christian Education here under the sacred influence of our Dear Mother the Church of England Which in her by plainest experiment has taught us the most incomparable Temper of her wise Guardiancy and Tuition and would make us all lovely and belov'd as She for th' inestimable Beauty of Virtuous Christian Life and would Teach our Docility not to shift so improvidently from under her Heavenly Doctrine and pious Discipline when her Spiritual Gifts are so many and so highly advantageous and would easily Blush and shame all that unreasonable Prejudice which drives some of us foolishly away and bewilders us in a dark Superstitious Maze of a stubborn forgetfulness of our Duties and ourselves See here and wonder an Angelical Mind fram'd by God and perfected into Bliss by true Religion This Noble Affectionate Theme wings the highest flights of our most grateful Thoughts I am too weak to support thus the Greatness of her Character only wish sincerely that the radiant Honours of the English Crown may ever Descend a portion to so Good Examples as 't was in Royal Her is now and we pray will ever be Beloved you know how we were left before their Majesties happy Arrival joyntly in the Throne Left so that we were at a Loss on both sides how to state probably the reasons of our publick welfare Behold a Dreadful Enemy to our English Nation Popery on one hand and Anarchy and Confusion on the other We could not be prevail'd upon to change our Good Religion for a worse and if not we must part with our Property and Establishments 'T is true these things were not wrested yet quite out of our hands but we were throughly taught what we were to expect by a costly sad Tryal of another Neighbouring Kingdom before as well as since by one of our own all this over and above to what was miserably indur'd in a former Reign upon the same Name and Principles and however we are misrepresented we stook close enough to our Passive Obedience to the visible Joy and Triumph of our Enemies that hated us this so long 'till He that should have Govern'd us left us without our fault and what reason we should indure longer must our Antient Government rot and sink into Ruine upon its own Foundations It must certainly have done so had not God sent us and He came the Defender of his own Rights and together with them our Protestant Faith William by the good Providence and Grace of God with his Royal Consort whose Death we now Lament This Latter is my Subject more especially now Who when she Landed from