no but to congratulate it rather and I take the so religious observation of this day to be a standing evidence of it And I can no way question but such wise men that have signalized themselves by their prudent Government of this City and preserving Order in it to such measures that no such City in Europe can boast the like and have received just marks of honor for it from a King that can never fail to reward Merit do very well understand their own duty and know how to demean themselves accordingly and will never sully the glory of these actions and the honour gotten by them by any thing unworthy of either It is justly to be hoped that as the late fire hath truly refined this City it rising up in a splendor much greater than was before so that it hath melted down all faeces and dregs of undutifulness that were formerly in the hearts of any of its Inhabitants And that as Justice seems written on your Gates so Lonalty will be the Imbellishments of your Palaces And I am the more confident in my hopes of these things because all considering men will clearly see these three great things to depend upon it and be secured by it 1. The honour and safety of the King 2. The honour and welfare of this City 3. The welfare and quietness of the whole Kingdom all these next to God's blessing will be secured by the Loyalty of this Capital City 1. The honour and safety of the King for as the honour of a King is in the multitude of his Subjects so his safety consists in the love and affection and loyalty of these Subjects and the greater the number of Subjects that are embodied is the more conducive to his safety is the love of them since they can always be more ready as well as able to yield him assistance and to strike despair into any that would attempt against him 2. The honour and welfare of this City it self he that will search into the causes of the decay or ruine of Royal Cities will soon find their separating from their King to be one great one I cannot multiply instances because I have not time of this I shall only beg you to call to your remembrance an instance in our next Kingdom of France it will be hard for any man without tears to read the misery of that City not very long ago but the cause is obvious it was being separated from their King by the Faction of the House of Guise and by the bewitching charms of a Holy League if you will recollect your own miseries in the late times which I have seen some of you weep for you will be able to ascribe it to the same cause effected also by the same means viz. the enchanting Sorcery of a Solemn Covenant Honourable and Beloved this is a great truth the safety of the King depends upon the welfare of this City and the welfare of this City depends upon the safety of the King And if men would look into the truth of things they would soon perceive that their interests are complicated and indeed the same The safety of all Bodies next ever to God's blessing consists in the firm cohesion of its parts And it is true in experience as well as speculation And who ever will trace either the ruine of the King or subsequent misery of this City to their first Origins will soon find the Artifice of some men in separating them from each other effected both And you may see the same things plainly still for these men that design now the same things again do pursue them still by the same method it is here that they first spread their Nets and place their Engins and their disappointment here will cause despair and unsuccesfulness ever to attend their mis-chievous devices And therefore my assurance that I speak to wise men gives me assurance also of their great care still to disappoint these men For as Solomon saith Surely in vain the Net is spread in the sight of any Bird So say I if we permit the same men by the same methods to trapan us again into the same crimes and make us serve to the same evil purposes again we then make our ruine our own guilt as well as our misery and must perish as unpitied fools for ever But God I hope hath reserved us to better purposes and will give us grace to pursue wiser Counsels A few days past have given good hopes that the Genius of the English Nation is recovering it self and your hearty compliance with those great and I hope wise Counsels will be mighty contributive in order to giving effect to these hopes 3. But the effects of your Loyalty will not be confined in so narrow a room but will be extended to the benefit also of all the Kingdom It is you that stamp the practice of all the Nation by your carriage they take their measures and make your Actions their Presidents So that you 'll not only save your selves by your signal Loyalty but you 'll be influential also in saving the many thousands of Israel The seeds of Loyalty sown in this plot of ground will quickly spring up into a Tree whose branches will extend to the distant shores which together with the Royal Cedar will make a Shadow under which your selves and all the Nation may sit safely and sing praises to God chearfully and be happy in the Contemplation of your great Bliss And now I have done but that methinks I see something in the countenances of this Audience which incourageth me not only to beg that you would but prophecy also that you will exercise your selves in these Tacticks sing this Lamentation with such hearty accents of pious sorrow as may reach even to the Throne of God and be accepted by him and prevail with him for pardon of the guilt of the death of the Father and a Blessing to descend upon the head of the Son and that God will graciously please to add those years to the life of this which he was pleased to suffer to be substracted from the life of the other That we will all learn to shoot skilfully in this Bow such Arrows as shall be sharp in the experience as well as midst of the Kings and our Enemies That as English Archers have been renown'd for their Chivalry in earth so they may ever be blessed for their Loyalty in Heaven That all our names may be recorded in the Book of Jasher and be found written in that Book of the Upright and Just Ones at the last day and our portions of Bliss be eternal with theirs in Heaven for ever more Which God of his infinite Mercy grant for Christ Jesus his sake To whom c.
But as the former of these is an Error than which few are more dangerous as to the honor and power of Laws or more wholly defeating of the great end of them which is that their sanctions may be obeyed and the things done that they enjoyn for which cause it is that penalties are annexed not as ends of the Law but as motives to engage to compliance therewith From whence we may take just occasion to detect the sophistry and vanity of that common distinction of obedience into active and passive upon the strength of which many men hope to clear themselves from rebellion and disobedience I have many times wondred at learned mens accepting this distinction but not at all at their pains to solve these mens pretences for themselves when they have admitted it and therefore I think it needful first to detect the fallacy of it and then all the arguments from it are their own confutations and I cannot but think a small matter may suffice to do it for I do not know how ever to trust my own faculties in judging of any one thing in the world if passive obedience be not a contradiction in the adjunct And that both as to the words themselves about which plain evidence supersedes all dispute and as to the subrstate matter or thing signified by them for I would gladly be told whether any man suffer for obeying the Law or violating it No man can pretend he doth it for the first and to confess the latter and yet pretend obedience is to pretend that he obeys the Law when he confesseth he violates iâ— and I think a contradiction cannot be plainer in any instance This I take to be certain the end of the Law is obedience and the annexing penalties is but an Art to engage to it and the suffering it consequential only upon transgression and for men to pretend that the Law is equally fulfilled when the forfeiture is paid as when the condition is performed is the same thing as to say that he that is broken upon the wheel for Murther or Parricide obeys the fifth and sixth Commandments as well as he that honours his Father and never did any kind of violence to his Neighbour Besides it will fix the most reproachful character upon all Legislators whatsoever and make them little better than so many Tyrants or Devils in making Laws which if those under them obey they are pleased but if they transgress and suffer they are still as well pleased It was the just reproach of Draco's Laws that they were writ in blood but this is greater to all Laws for it makes them to design blood I confess it is necessary to vindicate the honour of Laws to inflict penalties for the breach of them but I take it this is not at all the end of them I have much more to say to this subject but that the digression would be too unbecoming Now the truth is just such a mistake as this is about Subjection to Laws there is also about Loyalty Subjection to Kings and it is every jot as pernicious to the safety of Kings as the other is to the honour of Laws for some men are as apt to claim the honour of Loyalty if they do not actually resist their King as others are that venture their lives and fortunes to assist and vindicate them against those that do resist them But how pernicious this is to the safety of Kings and how contrary to the true notion of Loyalty will soon be made appear For if Subjects be only obliged to the first and discharge their duty in it I would fain know how the safety of Kings shall be assured and who shall be obliged to assert them against violence and Treason All Nations have ever held the Persons of Kings to be sacred and accounted it their duty to protect them from all dangers and therefore have judged it needful to have Septs and Guards still about them But according to this doctrine all this is needless but the Apologue tells us who they were that would perswade the Sheep to discard their Guard And it is easie to see into the designs of all such perswasions Besides Loyalty sure is a nobler thing and in what breast soever it breaths will put a man upon endeavouring when need is to defend his King as well as forbearing to do him violence and â—e that considers those Oaths that Subjects bind themselves in to Princes will clearly see that thereby they are obliged not only not to do violence to them themselves but to do all that in them lieth that others also may not do it and it is treason when the King sets up his Standard for his defence not to repair unto it And where duty is tied on men by Oaths there to fail in it is not only common guilt but died with perjury And if it were otherwise we should make Loyalty a pitiful poor sneaking thing and give Kings infinitely less power over their Subjects than every petty Master hath over his Servants for thus much every such person expects from him that serves him that he should not only not do him wrong himself but to his power endeavour that none else may and every man will condemn him for a wicked servant that fails to do thus and why a Subject in the like case is not equally criminal will be hard to show Those famous Stories in the Annals of all Ages of Subjects that have interposed their own bodies betwixt danger and their Kings and received wounds themselves that were lighting upon them and thereby purchased to themselees a little kind of eternity while the Records of time last are clear Evidences of thus much that in all those Ages this hath been counted the Duty of Subjects and those have been signalized for happy that have had opportunity of doing it Thus Abishai's succoring David against the intents of Ishbi-Benob the Giant is recorded in holy Scripture and all the people congratulate the fact and vow never to permit their King to come again into the like danger and will rather fight his Battels without his Conduct than expose him to any hazard at all and you shall scarcely meet with any considerable History wherein there are not many parallel instances recorded And whoever shall please to read the story of Antius Restio his Servant when his Master was proscribed by the Roman Triumvicate as it is recorded by that excellent Patrician Valerius Maximus will be able to make this Observation that great harshness and unkindness in a Master do not discharge the Servant from this Duty for that Servant had receiv'd some extraordinary marks of an undeserved displeasure and yet for all that thought it his Duty when other Servants were contriving for themselves to contrive what he could for the safety of his Master which he happily effected by a very prudent stratagem And therefore it was a pitiful excuse that a Gentleman made for his disloyalty to the late King by
seeking to justifie his treason because his Majesty once in haste switched him for crossing his way as he was riding hard at Hunting And yet his greatest Enemies could never pretend any such shew of unkindness and I am confident in believing he never did any man more harm But now according to the Doctrine I am opposing all these stories should be cancelled and expunged out of History the Honour of Triumph should be denied to those Worthies and their Merits equalled to theirs who could unconcernedly behold the danger of their Kings and stand quietly by with their Arms folded up and their Hands in their Bosom But it is too great an honour to so dull a Doctrine to stay so long in its confutation any degree of Honour will detest and abhor it And as the Loyalty of those Persons who were so happily instrumental in that Miracle of our present King 's strange preservation will be remembred with Eulogies and Blessing and Honour as long as Loyalty rests in the Bosom of this Nation So it will be an evidence to the World that all true Englishmen abhor such a thin and base loyalty as shall think it enough to abstain only from offending but not to interpose at all in defending their King But I return to the matter before us in the Text and from what hath been said we may safely infer that if it were thus David might well lament Sauls death that is if he had either been contributive directly to it or failing in his endeavours to prevent it For all the former considerations made this matter but an infelicity but this renders it a great guilt and therefore justly to be sorrowed for we may justly sorrow for our miseries but when we pull down these upon us by our own sins we may much more do so we lawfully may lament our infelicities but we needs must lament our sins Now thus it is too evident it was with David in this case for first he had been actually in arms against Saul and though much may be said for it considering some circumstances yet considering the whole matter we may safely pronounce of it that it was certainly unjustifiable for there were more safer ways of avoyding the displeasure and anger of Saul than by raising an Army of out-laws and vitious persons and appearing in actual rebellion against him Especially also if he used those arms directly against Saul and that he either did or at least offered to do we are assured from the proffer and boast he made to Achish thereof 1 Sam. 28.2 and it will fix a deep guilt on the fact whatever the intention was for if he promised this and intended not to perform it he was an hypocrite and if he did he was a Traytor and a Rebel But if none of this were true yet the least evil that can be said is that he yielded not that assistance unto Saul which he might have done and by which possibly he might have averted this sad fate for who knows how far the arms of David in this juncture might have contributed to the overthrow of the Philistines and who knows not but that this might have been a happy means of a firm reconciliation betwixt him and Saul and an occasion of more endearing himself to all the people and occasioning the Daughters of Israel once more to sing his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And there is little reason to doubt but these considerations stuck close to him and gave a deep accent to every period in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for he whose conscience was so justly tender as to be touched with a sense of guilt when he had but offered violence to the utmost Garment of Saul may well be supposed to be burthened now with that sense when he could not but know that he had either been actually contributive to his fall or at least had suspended that assistance which probably might have preserved him from it From all which Considerations it will appear too clearly what great cause David had to mourn on this sad occasion and to lament with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son But it seems he thought not himself alone concerned in this matter but judged others also had cause to joyn in this Lamentation with him and therefore accordingly he takes care and gives order that they should Also he bad them teach the children of Judah the use of the Bow which is the second General I observed In speaking to which I shall be concerned to do these two things 1. To assure this Interpretation and Sense that I have given of the words 2. To account for the reasonableness of the thing 1. Then that this is the true Import and Genuine meaning of this Parenthesis I can see no reason of moment to enduce me at all to doubt but some very great ones to make me confident in believing In order to the making of which to appear to you also I must desire you to consider that it was a common thing among the Jews to affix special Titles to their Songs whether they were Eucharistical or Hilasterial i e. whether they were designed to give praise for mercies or whether they were intended to bewail guilt and depricate punishments for of both natures you shall meet with Songs in the holy Scriptures and many of these with some particular names and titles affixed to them of which in the Book of Psalms we meet with many Instances i. e. of Psalms with such Superscriptions as these to the chief Musician Neginoth Shoshannim Altashith c. just as this to the chief Musician Kesheth or the Bow the plain meaning of which is this he bad the chief Musicians such as Heman Ethan and Jeduthun to teach the common people to sing this Song of Mourning for the death of Saul And this name of the Bow is given to it with respect perhaps to the Philistine Archers by whom this slaughter was made as the precedent Chapter tells us but more especially with respect to the Bow of Jonathan of which mention is made in it also and by three Arrows shot out of which by that truest of friends David had notice of his danger and warning given him to provide for his safety So that you see I make here the Bow to be the name of a Song and not to denote that piece of Armature that is expressed by that name and so the learning the people the use of the Bow is the learning them to sing devoutly and Musically this Song And this Interpretation may be made good from these two Arguments 1. The authority of some very considerable Versions and Expositors 2. The unreasonableness of the contrary Exposition 1. By the authority of some very considerable Translations of this place Such is that of the 72 Interpreters and the Vulgar Latine i. e. in all the Ancient Copies and Manuscripts of it as the Learned Gregory from his own Observation intimates in his Notes upon this place from whom I am
that we should be more zealous for than to clear it of the same I shall most readily grant that were it any way chargeable with this fact there needeed no other thing to be pleaded against it this alone would bar all its pretences of being a Christian for ever For it is most certain the Religion of the blessed Jesus can be chargeable with no such thing nay it is most obvious that it takes all possible care to prevent them that it secures subjection and cheerful obedience to Kings by the strongest tyes possible and makes it impossible for a true Christian to become Rebel upon any pretence whatsoever as should be shewed at large did either the time allow or my subject require the same of me And there cannot be a greater mischief done to it than to give any just cause to suspect the contrary it must then never expect Kings to be its nursing Fathers more but rather that they should all combine to banish it out of the World now as they did to prevent its coming into it at first upon the same prejudice But it was its honour that it clear'd it self fully of all these unjust imputations and commended it self to Kings and became dear to them and was nursed in their Royal Breasts and was adopted into their Laws as being the greatest security of their Government and of subjection to them And what ever Religion doth contrary to this is by that only Argument detected to be perfectly Antichristian and truly were it my business to recriminate retort calumnies I would take this occasion to shew how truly unchristian all the different Factions amongst us at this day are in their Doctrines about these things And I could easily make manifest how very unsafe all of them make the conditions of Kings and upon what weak and slippery grounds they found subjection to them In this the most distant parties and sections conspire and accord perfectly Gebal and Ammon and Ameleck and all Rome and Geneva the Classis and the Conclave Munster and Leiden and what ever places have given denominations to any of these Factions And I am not afraid to speak it with some confidence that if some men had power to act and others durst but speak consonantly to their principles the late bloody Regicides would be Canonized in England and the Murtherous Jaques Clement and Ravilliack's names would be writ in Rubrick in the Roman Calendar But my business is not to calumniate others but to vindicate our selves And it is the Honour of the Church of England that her Doctrines in this case are truly Christian and Primitive and that ever hitherto she hath been untainted in her Loyalty that she hath had the same fate with her Kings and not only fell with but was persecuted for her Loyalty to her Martyred Master And it is certain when she fails to be so she ceases to be degenerates from her self and doth justly forfeit their protection But if God please to bless her and Kings favour her till that time there is little doubt but she will remain till the great dissolution And as the pious and religious observation of this day may be one good means to prevail with God for this blessing so it will be a standing evidence of the injustice and malice of this immerited imputation 2. For the expiation of the guilt of this great crime and prevailing with God for a full pardon of it The shedding innoceot blood is one of the greatest of guilts but the shedding the blood of good Kings is next to impardonable when one man riseth up against his brother and kills him the Judge can judge him and inflict a punishment equal to the guilt but when he turns Parricide or Regicide murthers his Father and assassinates his Prince his guilt becomes transcendent and God only can inflict an equal punishment and therefore if any blood unjustly spilt cry loud and fix a great guilt surely the blood of an Innocent King so spilt must be supposed to cry louder and dye deeper I find a Law amongst the Jews that when a man was slain and the murtherer not known the whole Land became responsible and chargeable with the guilt and therefore was to be purged by a General Sacrifice But this comes far short of our case and makes such a publick sacrifice much more needful for us for if that were due in case of any common murther it is much more so in ours where though some of the Murtherers be known and have had the just reward of their crime and it is to be hoped God be in some measure appeased Yet all are not known and some that are are yet by a mercy next to divine spared upon which account a continued Sacrifice will still be needful to supply what is wanting towards the full attonement This is certain and a sad truth the Land may be said to be defiled by this blood and almost all sorts of men more or less chargeable with it as will appear if you will please to recollect what hath been before delivered and therefore it cannot be less than absolutely needful unless we will still lie in this guilt to mourn publickly before the Lord still for it and to intersperse in our mourning as the Church doth piously teach us this Prayer Heal our Land O Lord and deliver it from blood guiltiness O God thou God of our Salvation 3. For the prevention of those Judgments that yet may be impending for this guilt Where guilts are transcending there what is wanting in a single judgment towards expiation must be expected to be supplied in many and what cannot be sufficiently punished in a short infliction will certainly be made up in the length of it And truly we have just case to fear God may proceed after the same measures with us and account this Sin too great to be punished in our Age. That this Land hath smarted under a series of many heavy judgments since that black time our yet bleeding experiences can too plainly tell us And that some of these have carried on them such clear signatures as even point to this their great cause the only calling them to remembrance will be clear evidence And those men that have used to be such bold Interpreters of Providences might do well to consider But yet whether our punishments have been in full proportions and the voice of that blood be quite stilled and God fully propitiated he only knows but we have just cause to be fearful and therefore have as just cause yet to continue our religious Mournings as we had to begin them the next night that succeeded that Tragical day I do not desire to be counted a bold pryer into God's secrets in thus ascribing those judgments to this sin I bless God I have learned more Christian modesty and shall never I hope fall into that presumption which hath added to the guilt of those mens sins that were the Authors of this mischief Neither do I
desire to be told that we have other sins enough to deserve these and worser Judgements I know it too well and could wish mine eyes fountains of tears to weep for them But then I say it ill becomes penitents in their Humiliations and Mournings not to account for all known sins especially if great and heinous And it is a sad sign when those that would be accounted the only true Mourners in Israel and can be so exact in telling God their other crimes should never think fit to take this into their confessions and yet I am sure they have most cause to do so But because they do not I am sure we should and make up by our repentances and mournings what is wanting in theirs But I have something more to say to these men I suppose they will not be brought to say they suffer'd for this sin before the Restauration They were then indeed those that made others suffer and the sufferings of the King being by them thought too little they were made up in heaping them upon all those who either did or could be pretended to have adhered to him And since that time it seems in these mens account all our sufferings have been for other crimes Therefore according to them this sin hath never been punished at all yet and perhaps they think never must And yet they must either grant it to have been a great sin or else quit Humanity and consequently expect the punishment or by Repentance seek to avert it or else they must quit their claim to Christianity If it be said as I doubt not but it will that our most signal Judgements have been since the Restauration I readily grant it but yet think it a great advantage Indeed till then we were sufficiently punished by these men they made our loads heavy enough and God was pleased in mercy not to make them heavier And therefore since hath only been the time in which these Judgements could well be inflicted Especially if we consider that when the first means were used for the expiation of this guilt and Humiliations appointed to succeed them Then the murmurings of these men began and just like as after the execution upon Corah and his Complices complaints were made that the Lords people were slain and men lost the sense of their former sins and began to contrive how to commit them again So that it was then Gods time to step in and let an unthankful Nation feel his hand and reckon with them for their former dismal great miscarriages And therefore we may thank these mens murmurings and unthankfulness that this sin was so signally and yet is not sufficiently punished And because we have just cause to fear it is not we have as just cause to continue our most passionate Humiliations and Tears if thereby we may propitiate God and prevail with him for a final suspention of what is behind 4. For the deeper impressing upon us all a great care to beware of all future incidences into the same Sins This is the end and this is the effect of all godly sorrow for men do not sorrow in Gods account when they sin and sorrow and sin again but when they so sorrow as to sin no more And to let this days Humiliation have this effect upon us will render it truly Divine and procure Gods gracious acceptation and blessing But without this it will be but pageantry and and add hypocrisie to our other guilts and be but just like the Jews adorning the Sepulchres of the Prophets which their Fathers had slain when themselves retain'd the same Principles and were designing to murther the greatest of all Prophets themselves And truly if we lament the death of the Father and yet retain the same rebellious principles against the Son our very lamentations are but mocking of God aggravating our guilt provoking his anger and the more certainly assuring our own plagues Then only will our tears attone this guilt when they drown and take away those evil lusts that did occasion it And here I cannot but express my sorrow that there is any need to mention these things and certainly it is a wounding reflexion that all our great experiences should be no better improved and should not have long ago superseded all need of any addresses to us of this Nature A man might reasonably think that English men had tasted too largely the bitter effects of rebellion to hanker after it again and experienc'd the great blessings of Loyalty and Subjection so fully as to endear them to it and fix them in it beyond all possibility of being removed And if it be not thus it must needs be very strange But so that sottish people the Jews grew quickly weary of the mild Government of Moses and in their hearts yea and words too returned into Egypt whose bondage they so very lately groaned under and above all things wished deliverance from and it will fix the same reproach of sottishness or something worse upon those men who grow weary and impatient under the golden Scepter of a gracious King and are fond of the Iron Rod of an imperious Usurper To all such I must take liberty to say as Moses did to his people in much what a like a case Do you thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Do you no better know your own mercies Have you so poor a sense of those Miracles of kindness that have blessed you with them Do you wish with the murmuring Jews that you had died in Egypt Take heed of provoking God you may have your wishes too soon But I would fain hope that I am needlesly invective against these things and I am loath to have any thing to accuse my Nation of I would fain in spight of the common proverb suppose them men that are able to apprehend and judge truly of things that do so widely differ And if so it will soon appear a great truth that Loyalty is the interest as well as duty of English men their being true to Monarchy is their happiness as well as their honour past experiences have attested how happy they have been under it and late experiences have demonstrated how impossible it is for them to live under any other Government and then the inference from both these one would think were easie And I cannot but congratulate the happiness of the English Genius in this for it is the just honour and prelation of Monarchy that its safety consists in the wealth and happiness of its Subjects when few instances can be given of any Common Wealths that have flourished much longer than while necessity and poverty were their ligatures and cements and it is the good hap of a people to be so naturally inclined to that which is much their interest and their felicity But I am called this day to speak before this Great City I would therefore crave leave to conclude with a short address to it I do not come to doubt the Loyalty of it
one of which might justly occasion a lamentation 1. For first to dye to leave these splendid habitations for a cold grave to leave dear friends to converse with putrefaction and rottenness to have these beautiful Piles tumbled into confusion and dust to have our vast Possessions and Manors shrunk up into a few feet of Earth a pitchy Sheet and a strait Coffin are to most men living sad stories and the thoughts of them rarely entertain'd without sighs and a tear Mourning is therefore one attendant always upon Funerals Amongst the Jews there was always a set of common Mourners that their mourning might be more solemn and their lamentations more affective and I find it threatned as a judgement to Jehojakim that he should have an inglorious and contemptible Burial and should have none to make formal lamentation for him Jer. 22.18 And whoever consults the Genius of the Christian Religion will find its compassions are as great its affections as quick and its sense as tender as before and all it designs in this case is not to dam up the Fountain but take care that it flow only in due measures not that we sorrow not at all but that we sorrow in due proportions according to the measures of faith and with the abatements and intermixtures of Christian hope for that I take to be the meaning of that limitation in the Apostolical Canon That ye sorrow not as the Gentiles which have no hope 1 Thess 4.13 But this is but a small matter and the least of these considerations for if death be just matter of Lamentation certainly the death of a King is much more so when the Tall Cedars bow and the strong Oaks crack and are made to stoop low and compelled to lie prostrate upon the breast of their common Mother then as the storm is more strong so it is more awakening and summons the most serious regards and most real resentments And so it is also in this matter for when death knocks but at the common door the Mourners strike but the common key but when it rifles Palaces and enters into the Chambers of Kings and those that are gods die like men and fall equal Trophies to this rude Conqueror and are dragged after the wheels of his triumphing Chariot there you shall see always the Scene is dressed with all the solemnities of the deepest sorrow the croud of Mourners is great and the Herald's skill is needful to marshal the troops and to preserve order in the great confusion And this wants not good appearances of reason to plead its justification for as the wise Jews accounted David worth ten thousand of them his life of more value than the lives of thrice so many thousand of common persons So indeed have all wise civilized Nations accounted after the same rate and as they have solemnized the Natalitia of their Kings with all expressions of publick joy so they have observed the days of their death with as great demonstrations of Mourning when David in solemn manner lamented the death of Abner he gave a sufficient reason he thought for it in saying Know ye not that there is a Prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel and certainly if the fall of a Prince much more the fall of a King also will warrant mourning and if David might justly lament the death of Abner he might more justly do so upon the death of Saul But this also is much short of what yet remains unconsidered for if the death of Kings be just matter of sorrow then the more untimely and violent and preternatural the death is the more afflictedly ought it still to be resented When the Taper dies regularly having consumed all its oyl and exhausted all its store of moysture it expires quietly and no man is much concerned at it but when it meets with an interruption by the rude caresses of an impetuous blast then its snuff grows offensive and all men take notice of it and are concerned at the disaster And so it is with Kings in this case when they come into their Sepulchers as shocks of corn fully ripened and in their season as Eliphaz elegantly Job 5.26 when they die the common death of all men and go down to the grave in a good old age having honourably passed all the stages and periods of humane life there we pay them commonly but a common tribute and drop a tear upon their Hearse and bewail them upon the stock of common frailty and our grief that they are gone receives a just abatement from the remembrance that God spared them to us so long but when these fall like untimely fruit shaken by an unseasonable violent unkind wind there the chanels are full the streams run high the Accents are deep the Minstrels strike the dolefullest note and as it is said of David here men commonly ever exceed in their expressions of grief for so when good Josiah fell by the Arms of the Assyrians at the River Euphrates the people lamented the sad Accident at Megiddo with a sorrow that for the greatness of it became proverbial And yet the greatest of these considerations is behind for if all these things happen without any fault or concurrence of ours then our sorrow even from thence receives a great extenuation but if we have any ways been contributive to the mischief or been negligent and failing to do our utmost towards preventing of it then indeed our sorrow is much more just yea it is necessary I put these two together in one period and consideration you see and truly I do not know well how to part or distinguish betwixt them for though it be certain that there is a difference betwixt them absolutely considered and he that actually embrues his hands in blood is more guilty than he that passed by and did not endeavour to rescue though even he be greatly guilty also Yet in this case I am now upon there is little or no difference at all for Subjects are as equally obliged to assist their Kings in all straits and dangers as not to resist or rise up against them to bring them into the same and their failure in the first is as criminal as doing the second and only differs from it as the cause from the effect for therefore some men are encouraged to attempt the latter because others are negligent and failing in the former upon which reason it is certain if either exceed in guilt it is the former I take this occasion to discourse a little this matter because of a great and a most dangerous mistake that I observe to be Epidemical and common about it For as some men boast they obey the Law if they quietly submit to the penalty and pay the forfeiture as well as he that performs the positive duty for the neglect of which the former penalty is threatned So other men are apt to commend their Loyalty as much for not resisting as others do theirs for protecting their King