THE TEARES OF SION Vpon the Death of JOSIAH Distilled in some Country Sermon notes on Febr. 4 and 11 th 1649. Being the Quinquagesima and SexagesimaSundayes for that yeare Gloriosius esse pro Christo mori quà m Regnare in hoc seculo Quid enim praestantius quà m fieri Christi Hostiam Ambros de bono mortis cap. 3. Blessed are they which are persecuted for Righteousnesse sake for theirs is the kingdome of Heaven Mat. 5.10 Printed in the Yeare 1649. To the Reader REader I present to you those Teares which if you be truly Christian were once in your own eyes and the cause of which can never be out of your heart for you ought to think your life spared awhile onely to lament his Death whose life was given in exchange for yours and not to be spared long because his was not spared at all you have nothing left you now but to live and Mourne or to Pray and Dye For which cause you may well give us also in the Countrey leave to be as dutifull as others though not as Court-like as Affectionate though not as Eloquent 'T is not Ostentation that after so long Reluctancie brings these sad Drops to be drawne out into publike lines but meer Duty to the Dead King and Charity to the Living Subjects those especially whom it most deeply concernes to be heartily sorry yet care not to come to the Place where this was first published to know so much And to them as Servants I as a minister of Christ must give this Admonition They take not too little but too much of Christ upon them to be good Christians They are taught to learne of Christ in his Humiliation to bee meeke and lowly pittifull and Patient But they do assume the state of his Exaltation to bee Judges of the Quick and Dead I dare not judge their persons for my selfe a sinner feare to be judged of God but I must condemne their presumption if they measure their Religion by their successe why doe they not advance Turcisme above Christianitie If by themselves why come they so farre short of the worst Christians For in Gouernment they know no Charitie and under it they know no Patience A character which belong◠onely to those that live within the Torrid Zone of a Furious Zeale which if it cannot call down fire from Heaven will fetch up fire from Hell rather then not set the whole world in a combustion Believe it men of this Temper or rather of this Distemper had need either invent or bespeake a new Christianitie for the Old will not endure much lesse maintaine them I must likewise say in behalfe of the Woman persecuted by the Dragon Apoc. 12. And of the Man persecuted for the Woman that though at present driven into the Wildernesse they are still both on the better ground Not the more unhappy or sinfull because the lesse outwardly successefull And in this respect doth the Disciple of the Centurists judiciously castigate Salvian for Defending Gods providence when he suffered the Westerne Churches to be trampled upon by Goths and Vandals onely with this Argument That the said Churches had been very sinfull Debebat autem non tantum Christianorum Peccata accusare sed propter pios innocentis hominis etiam docere Deum immittere etiam sanctis suis gravis afflictiones aerumnas ut Jobo Jeremiae Johanni Baptistae aliis ut conformes fiant imagini Filii Dei saith Osiander Cent. 5. lib. 4. cap. 11. Salvian should not onely have blamed the bad Christians for their sinnes but for some very pious and innocent mens sakes have also taught That God did often inflict great temporall punishments even upon his best and dearest children as he brought Job to the dunghill Jeremie to the dungeon John Baptist to the Block we may adde And King CHARLES to all three to make them exactly conformable to the Image of his onely Son that as by their doings they had borne the image of the living so by their sufferings they might beare the image of the Dying Christ But I intend no new discourse onely the rehearsall of an old complaint yet certainly this present Age may blush to thinke and all future Ages will blush not to say That never a more Pious a more noble Prince swayed the Scepter Never a more impious a more ignoble People snatcht the Sword And therefore I may not blush to say that I was at first but Dumb in speaking and still am but maime in writing this sorrow Better one hand had been on my mouth to stop my Voyce th' other on my Heart to stop my Penne For as no sorrow is like Sions sorrow so no sorrow of Sion was ever like to this for her dearest Josiah As no mourning like the mourning of a Dove so no mourning of the Dove like that of Haddadrimmon And therefore 't is confessed without shame but not without cause that this expression of Sions sorrow is too dry to make your eye now water at the Reading though happily your heart did even bleed at the first hearing of the Dismal Tragedie but sure the affection made the Authors eye water at the writing of it And you must needs have a drop in your eye too otherwise you will see more cleerly to spie out faults then the Author could to mend them Who verily hopes for this reason to be justly offensive to none because he intended not to burden any guiltlesse heart but to ease his own And those that are guilty were better feele their burden here then hereafter The Devout man that carried the Martyr Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him Acts 8. 2. Burdened their shoulders by the carriage but eased their hearts by the Lamentation Nor would the Jewes that found so many stones to force St. Stephens death find one to throw at him that so openly bewayled it The reason was sure they were overcome by his Incomparable Patience which spent his living spirits in converting his persecutors But much more by his Divine charitie which poured out his dying spirit in praying for them And so did our lately deceased Soveraigne which melted the eyes if not the heart of that Officer of warre who guarded him to his Death And much more should it pierce the very soule of a Sonne of Peace who now Preacheth the Gospel of Peace and never stretched out his hand against the Kings life to harden his Heart but for the Kings Bread to strengthen it which was the staffe of his Life at Westminster and the Universitie above twenty yeares and bound him by the pietie of Education not to study or play not to eat or drinke not to sleep or wake without praying for a Blessing upon the King as well as upon himselfe And though he hath these two last Olympiads of the bloudie Game for sure some men like Abner 2 Sam. 2. 14. made it but a Pastime been wholly trained up in the severe Schoole of conscience not onely
speculatively for the care of his own but also practically for the cure of other mens soules yet is forced to confesse that he cannot live in so great Patience and charitie as his King could Die. For which cause hee conceives himselfe unworthy to be enquired after either for Approbation or for Reprehension And having undertaken to be Sions Pen-man though with Pans Reed in stead of Apollo's Quill hee is resolved to be known by no other Character then this of a true Citizen of Sion that he is yours in all brotherly love whether you be his so or no Yet if you be any other so he beseeches you not to separate those which God hath joyned together Love the Brotherhood Feare God Honour the King Hee desires that all three may be inseparably 1 Pet. 2. 17. joyned in himselfe and remaines Your servant in Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Tears of Sion upon the Death of JOSIAH c. 2 CHRON. 35. 24 25. 24. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah 25. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah And all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their Lamentations to this day and made them an Ordubabce in Israel and behold they are written in the Lamentations T IS want of sorrow that is the greatest cause of sorrow Want of godly sorrow to compunction that is the cause of wofull sorrow to confusion Dives being in Torments hath not his memento given him for nothing Luke 16. 25. Son remember that thou in thy life time c. for Eternitie and Time are as different in their condition as in their continuance Heavinesse must endure for the night of this life that joy may come in the morning of Eternitie Psal 30. 5. such a Morning as never drawes to an Evening and cannot bee overshadowed with night Joy and gladnesse may be a vanitie at all times but 't is also an impietie at such a time when God calls to weeping and to mourning And in that day did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping and to mourning Isa 22. v. 12. And behold joy and gladnesse v. 13. but what followes next Surely this iniquitie shall not be purged from you till ye die saith the Lord God of Hosts At such a time Joy is not onely a great Vanitie but also a great iniquitie a very great iniquitie For this iniquitie shall not be purged from you till ye die saith the Lord God of Hosts 'T is not an Host of men may forbid it when the Lord of Hosts calls for it Judah and Jerusalem would not be guilty of this iniquitie The Prophet Jeremie durst not be guilty of it For when God called unto mourning for the Untimely Death so untimely that time it selfe could wish to be untimed in that part of its succession the untimely death of their King Josiah their Religious their Devout their unparalelled King Josiah the Text saith All Judah and Jerusalem mourned and Jeremiah mourned and the Singing men and singing women mourned and left a Pattern of mourning to all Ages and all Sexes and all conditions and made them an Ordinance in Israel and behold they are written in the Lamentations Tears are the best comment upon the Text and they cannot be brought into method for sorrow is an ill Courtier and method is but the Courtship of Learning The eye that waters is not so quick-sighted as to spie out elegancies And where the Heart is full the Hand cannot hold till the eye hath done watering But saith Judah as he goes along mourning for he mourns till this day saith the Text and wee may trace him by his teares when I look upon the Parallel of the place Zach. 12. 11. I am directed to mourn with one eye for my King with the other for my Saviour and indeed he saith true for in this dismall Tragedie of Josiah there was very much of Christ both for the Innocencie of the sufferer and for the manner of his suffering The Archers that shot Josiah knew him not to bee King of Judah And the Jewes that crucified Christ knew him not to be their King denying Pilats question in stead of answering it John 19. 15. Shall I crucifie your King for they said We have no King but Caesar Professing that if hee were their King in their own knowledge they would never crucifie Him O Generation of Christians worse then Jewes Josiah kept a most solemn Passeover and after it was made the Paschal Lamb So Christ But with this Difference Christ for expiation and Diminution Josiah for denuntiation and increase of Vengeance Bothinnocencies suffer upon Golgotha in Christ to quicken the skulls in Josiah to increase them God permitted Christ to be slain that he might reconcile Israel But Josiah that he might reject remove it out of his sight 2 Kings 23. 27. Josiah had not fought against Necho if God had not fought against Judah He stood like Aaron betwixt the Dead and the living and God put him aside being resolved to destroy all by Death whiles Josiah lived Judah could not die and now Josiah is Dead Judah may not hope and scarce desire to live This is the Reason of the sad Dity in the mouths of all the singing men and the singing women who seem to groan and sigh out rather than sing this heavy Lamentation Ah thou bloudie Egyptian Tyrant Hadst thou brought all the plagues of Egypt with thee and left those Archers behind that shot Josiah well thou mightest have grinded Judah and Jerusalem into Powder but thou couldest never have dissolved it into Tears And now O yee singing men and yee singing women forget all the songs of Sion as if yee were already in Babylon for it will not be long before you will be carried away captive thither Let all your mirth be turned into mourning your Josiah is fallen and your Hopes and Hearts are fallen with him your voyces must fall too Yet a deeper note of sorrow your singing must be turned into groaning that your waylings may be as sad as are your spirits sigh out your last groanings and when you have thus quite mourned away your voyces then mourn out your eyes Let not the Crocodiles of Egypt outvie the men of Judah They weep over their slain traveller before they devoure him having mercy in their eyes to check the want of it in their jawes why should we that have or ought to have so much mercy in our Hearts have none at all in our eyes If this Josiah and his goodnesses 2 Chron. 35. 26. A magazine of all that 's good in all other good men layed up in one Josiah move you not yet the other Josiah in Zacharie must needs move you If not his kindnesses yet your own unkindnesses must needs excite you And were your hearts as Rocks yet struck with Moses his Rod the terrours of Gods wrath against sinners which your Josiah did undergoe in your stead there must needs issue forth Rivers of waters If you
this dreadfull truth That the untimely death of their good King Josiah was not a Judgement upon the King but upon the People not upon him but upon Judah and Jerusalem and that 's the second cause of their great lamentation their dreadfull apprehension for what was like to befall them Judah and Jerusalem mourned for themselves in mourning for Josiah And the Prophet Jeremie shews them as much who though he writ his Lamentations upon this sad occasion the Death of Josiah as Jarchi expounds these words of my Text Behold they are written in the Lamentations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he that is In the Book of Lamentations yet he begins his complaint with the miserable estate not of Josiah but of Jerusalem How doth the Citie fit solitarie that was full of people None of all the Prophets seem so framed for and composed to Lamentations as Jeremiah he had a Heart to conceive it a Hand to endite it and a Tongue to expresse it Surely because he writ much about the time of Josiahs death which was the Inlet of all Judahs miserie For immediatly after that Judah was captivated under sin and that brought in the captivity under Babylon whiles Josiah lived he made Judah and Ierusalem serve God so devoutly that Non fuit simile huic in Israel was the Eulogie of their Passeover 2 Chron. 35. 18. And no sooner is he dead bus 'tis said of them They walked after the imagination of their own heart a most secret but a most sottish kind of Idolatry And after Baalim which their fathers taught them Jer. 9. 14. for in all probability this Chapter was not penned till after Iosiahs death This is the reason Ieremiah Prophesies so mournfully a fit Prophet for those calamitous times both for the Disposition in himself and for his Invitation of others to sorrow and contrition insomuch that a great part of his Prophesie is but a meer Lamentation especially the former part of it which was neerest the time of Iosiah for after the 21. chapter all his Prophesie is in the dayes of Iehoiakim and Zedechiah wherein he somewhat exceeds the sorrow of his own spirit writing not onely more dolefully then any other Prophet but also more dolefully then all the other parts of his own Prophecie I will give you but one instance for all and that is cap. 4. v. 19. My bowells my bowells I am pained at the very heart 'T is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am pained as a woman in travaile at the walls or bulwarks of my heart that which most struggles to keep life hath the stroke of death upon it The sorrows of a woman in her travail are almost insupportable But a wounded spirit who can beare Prov. 18. 14. The pain of the heart is for greater then the pain of the bowells but lest wee should think he was not in the greatest extremitie of pain he joyns them both together saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am so pained at the heart as if I were in child-birth such was his griefe for Iosiah's death a pain that both rends the bowells and breaks the heart and batters down the very walls and bulwarks of life And what 's the reason of all this great pain He tells us in the next verse Destruction upon destruction is cryed for the whole land is spoyled which could not be while Iosiah lived and therefore in these and such like sad expressions he did Prophetically foretell if not Historically bemoan Iosiah's death or rather indeed bemoan Ierusalem not but that his affection was most dutifull to Iosiah but because his apprehension was more dreadfull for Jerusalem For he saw that Iosiah was taken to the Reward of mercy for his great zeale to God and Religion but Jerusalem was left exposed to Judgement for her multiplied Abominations and Impieties And to the most heavy judgements of this world Fire and Sword and Bondage and to the most heavie bondage that could be to them a Bondage under the Egyptians A Bondage which their Fathers before had groaned so long under and which they could not at that time but tremble to think upon for Josiahs Passeovers according to the Law Exod. 12. 26 27. could not but fill their eares with the narration and their hearts with the horrour of it It was the Bondage of Egypt which those children could not but expect mercilesse whose Fathers had been formerly the spoylers and destroyers of the Egyptians Let us a little view this new Bondage that it may appeare their feares were not greater then their dangers though they were greater then their hopes for now Egypt had learned to act beyond it selfe in the practise of cruelty Before it was contented to take the tribute of their hands in work or of their backs for not working by the Brick-task-masters But now besides these it hath found out money task-masters to demand Tribute of their purses The former Tyrants had made them slaves but this Necho makes them pay for their slavery nay he made not onely their Purses Tributary but also their Patience whiles they were forced to see Jehoaaz whom they had declared King in his Fathers stead deposed by this Tyrant and themselves punished for their Alleageance towards Josiah their beloved Josiah and his seed in an hundred talents of Silver and one talent of Gold 2 Chro. 36. 3. For it is more then probable that Necho condemned the Land in that mulct or punishment for presuming to be true and faithfull to the Succession of the Crown without his leave And yet there is a worse Bondage then this the bondage of their Religion begun by the Egyptians and compleated after by the Babylonians This bondage of their Religion was now begun by the Egyptians for Necho made Eliakim change his name to Jehoiakim 2 Chron. 36. 4. before he would admit him to bee King as if he should renounce or forget his Circumcision wherein his name was first given him or lose his Kingdoms And this same Bondage was compleated by the Babylonians who carried away all the Treasures of the house of the Lord and cut in pieces all the Vessels of gold which Solomon King of Israel had made in the Temple of the Lord Thus were they forced to see the abomination of Desolation standing in the Holy place which carried the Desolation further then the Temple even to their souls that saw it whiles they were compelled to look on prophannesse in stead of Religion and see their Temple and worship both made havock of by uncircumcised Babylonians they not in the least degree able to help either themselves or their Temple All the Book of God sets not down so sad an History of a King destroyed for his People as this of Josiah And therefore no wonder if we find not any where else so sad a lamentation they had kept a solemn Passeover before but now they were forced to keep a dismall Passeover when their innocent Josiah was made the Paschal Lamb