Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A66715
|
A sermon preached at East Dearham in Norf. Jan. 30, 1661 being the day of the most horrid murther of that most pious and incomparable prince, King Charles the First of England &c. / by John Winter ...
|
Winter, John, 1621?-1698?
|
1661
(1661)
|
Wing W3083; ESTC R35262
|
13,115
|
23
|
Arguments both Hereticks and Schismaticks A true Beauclerk and best deserving that Title as much a Scholar as a Prince as much a Christian as either and as much all in one as ever was any mortall one In brief he was and he is not only to this Nation but to all Christendome a mirrour to think how he lived a grief to think how he died Then let all our Judah and Jerusalem mourn for our Josiah And if all Judah and Jersalem mourned much more cause have we They were not immediately guilty of the death of their King nor any otherwise than by the provocation of their sins They contrived not Josiah's murther they did not confederate with the cursed Egyptians they fell not from obedience they took not up Arms against him they did not buy and sell him they did not pretend a Law erect a Scaffold to butcher him nor make his Royall Palace his slaughter-house they did not triumph over the dead Kings Corps and justifie the fact oh no but what an Egyptian did they bewail and lament bathing the bloody Corps with tears and embalming his precious memory with a set form of lamentation And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah Thus was the case of our Josiah far beyond theirs and most near to that of our blessed Saviour Inter malitiam avaritiam Between the malice of some and the avarice and ambition of others as Christ between the thieves was he crucified Some corrupt and stinking Elders some bloody hypocriticall Priests and some pharisaicall Zelots pretend to do God service by violating his holy Commandements Here a Judas comes with his Quantum dabitis What will ye give me and I will betray him There a temporizing Courtier who eat bread at his Table lift up his heel against him Such practices Heathens have abhorred Am I a Jew said Pilate to Christ thine own Nation and the chief Priests have delivered thee unto me His own Nation even those who by all Laws of God and man were obliged to defend him This was a heavy aggravation of Christs sufferings and so it was of our gracious Soveraigns The base Scots sold him as base English bought him the receiver and the thief are both in one predicament and the Nation may say to either party as Simon Peter said to Simon Magus Pecunia tua tibi sit in perditionem Act. 8.20 They money perish with thee How hath this wounded and stained our Church and Nation And we whither have we caused our shampe to go If the guilt of a brothers blood cryed to Heaven for vengeance as God told Cain Gen. 4.10 then how much more the blood of a father the common father of three Christian Kingdomes If Saul's death were deplorable yet he a wicked person and the Philistines none of his Subjects then how much more this case 2 Sam 4.11 where wicked Subjects like Baanah and Rhecab have murther'd a righteous man and their most gracious King at his own house in his Royall Jerusalem How ought this to afflict us Know ye not that there is a Prince and a great man fallen this day in our Israel He is fallen and with him fell Judah and Jerusalem Judah the Nobility and Gentry Laws and Justice Jerusalem Church and Religion doctrine and discipline piety and morality The Civil State was forthwith corupted in practice the Ecclesiasticall in judgement and worship Thus all Judah and Jerusalem have cause to mourn for our Josiah And all all indeed have cause to mourn The Princes Nobility and Gentry have cause to mourn to think what a breach the Lord hath made upon them by the prophanation of the Scepter and dishonour of the Diadem For whose honour of life can be safe where Kings shields are thus vilely cast away The Bishops and Pastors of the Church have cause to mourn for since the death of that Defender of the Faith prophaneness heresies and schismes have revived and flourished saving truths and orthodox Ministers have languished they that sold the truth have with the wages of iniquity bought preferment Et probit as laudatur alget and honesty is only praised and starved The common people have cause to mourn the cheat of the publick Faith hath weaken'd their private credits taxes have exhausted their purses others have eaten up their labours and the evil spirits I mean the miseries which were quickly raised are not like soon to be conjured down Well may the whole Land mourn for the misemployed wealth wherewith they purchased the death of their most gracious King and without Gods wonderfull mercy upon their hearty repentance misery and vengeance on themselves and their posterities The greatest of the Kings enemies have greatest cause to mourn both upon a sacred and a civil account Upon a facred because their souls lye at stake for that bloody sacrifice and upon a civil because they now see the axe laid to them in justice which they brought upon others unjustly For having Agag's cruelty 1 Sam. 15.33 they suffer Agag's doom which was this As thy sword hath made women childless so shall thy mother be childless among women And it comes upon them as upon him when they said Surely the bitterness of death is past And God grant that they all may be true mourners that their scarlet sins may be made white by the blood of Christ Jesus It is not our part to rejoyce at any mans misery and far is it I thank God from my thoughts to do so But I should be cruell if in this business I should not be strict in laying open the atrocity of the crime My hearts desire for all those that hear me this day and for all those that do not is that they may be saved And I hope no man will count me an enemy because I tell him the truth It is sorrow unto repentance that bringeth salvation 2 Cor. 7.10 The work of this day calls for mourning for more than an ordinary mourning And the blessing of Christ is pronounced to mourners Mat. 5.4 My prayer is that God would first give every man true sorrow of heart for all his sins and more especially for this great sin and then that he would give him the comfort of his holy Spirit as he did to David in the time of his great need that he may not be swallowed up of overmuch grief I shall say no more to set forth the ugliness of this monster this black deed for I am charitably perswaded that every one here present doth more abhor it in his heart than I am able to conceive or express And therefore let no man misunderstand me and think because I have as I ought throughout this Discourse and upon all other occasions eternally condemned the fact that therefore I have everlastingly damned all persons concerned in it God forbid There was hope and place of repentance yea and infallible means of salvation for them that had their hands stained with the blood of Christ Jesus When St Peter had laid the crime home most severly to them and they were pricked in their hearts and said Men and brethren what shall we do Act. 2.37 he did not bid them lye down and perish but repent and save themselves from that untoward generation And upon this there were converted that day three thousand souls And God grant that this dayes preaching may be proportionably as effectuall throughout this Nation Brethren we are all guilty of this dayes crime though after sundry manners well then let us not be angry one with another any longer but let every man be angry with himself for his sinfull wayes Let us condemn our selves and God will not condemn us If we confess our sins God is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Let there be no more discord let us henceforth fear God and the King and love one another as he hath commanded us Give me leave to use that phrase of speech which hath been long abused let us associate against the common enemy The common enemy is the Devil his dominion is sin and his Kingdome is enlarged by our divisions Let us strive to beat down sin in our selves and to advance the Kingdome of Christ which consists in righteousness peace and joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 This Text I have chosen for the day calls to us unanimously for mourning the occasion I have shewed you to be a very sad one As for our Josiah our Late gracious King our sorrow reacheth not to him Injuriam facit Martyri qui orat pro Martyre He injures the Martyr that prays for him Let our mourning then be for our selves and for our sins which helped forward his death and our own misery Methinks I hear his glorious soul saying to us as our Saviour did to the Daughters of Jerusalem Luk. 23.28 Weep not for me but for your selves and for your children Ye know what followeth in the next words and we know not how nearly they may concern us Judah and Jerusalem rued Josiah's death full many a year after indeed they never did outgrow it And we the people of this Land for ought we know may every year more and more have cause to mourn for our Josiah The Lord give us all a true insight into our selves and our own dangers The Lord be mercifull unto us and restore the voice of joy and health into our dwellings Deliver us from blood-guiltiness Oh God thou that art the God of our strength and our tongues shall sing of thy righteousness Grant this O Lord for Jesus Christs sake our Saviour and Redeemer Amen Laus Doe FINIS