thus employed is no longer bare and common Oyle but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gifâ— of Grace which however vilified by Enthusiastiques and Solifidians betokens the Grace 〈◊〉 Christ unto Kings and prescribe necessary submission and duty unto their Subjects We are not whatever phantastique men may presume â—o spirituall in this life but that we stand in need of outward representations to carry on our faith and hope unto things spirituall the greatest favours unto lapsed mankind are the Sacraments where the visible and corporeall Elements are the meanes to convey by faith spirituall graces and the whole benefit of Christs sufferings unto us the sublimated and metaphysicall Professours of our times endeavour too irreverent a close with Almighty God they will have no King but Christ no Unction but that of the Spirit which is not that sober peaceable Spirit that leadeth into all truth but the Spirit of giddinesse Elihu's spirit the spirit of their belly which leadeth into all errour Carnal interests constraining them to shake off Gods Government in Princes to effect which the most compendious way is to throw all Ceremony which is unto Religion as the Scaberd unto the Sword to preserve it from the rust of contempt as Saint Augustinâ— speaks The sacred regards of Unction of King of Priest of Prophet of Churches of Tythes stand betwixt them and their sacrilegious ends they must be removed no railes or bounds must be set unto them they will up into the Mount and run the hazard if not of temporall flames yet certainly without hearty repentance of the Everlasting burnings These men who will be solely swayed by the guidance of their own spirit which being as various as the severall tempers of the Continents it inhabits will make Religion full of uncertainties meerly imaginary and wholly depending upon the doubtfull Insufficiencies of mens weak Conceptions so that hereby the essentiall truths of Religion must needs daily decay the substance thereof be reduced into the smoake of every mans unbounded Fancy and the Christian faith will die by degrees But Unction puts Gods Dominion into the Kings hands that must not be resisted for it is the resisting of God himselfe It is the very language of the Holy Ghost unto the â—en revolted Tribes that they resisted thâ— Kingdome of God in the hands of the Sonnes of David and Josephus assignes this the Cause of the subversion of them no memory of them being left The sedition saith he that they moved against Rehoboam establishing hiâ— Servant for their King was the originall of their mischiefs Ammon was a most wicked and idolatrous Prince yet God punished the Treason of his Servants against him because he was Gods Anointed Many sacred regards are by Unction conveyed from God unto Princes great cause then had the Prophet and people of Judah to lament the death of their good King Josiah The Anointed of the Lord That he was fallen into their pits 3. Of whom we said Vnder the shadow of his wings we shall live among the Heathen King Josiah his regall prerogatives and personall vertues were a protection unto his people he was the fountaine of their liberty and safety The happinesse of Subjects depends upon the wel-being of their Kings and the preservation of the Regall dignity is a sure pledge of Gods goodnesse the continuance of his favour unto a people for this cause is it that when the Apostle had exhorted that prayers should be made for all men 1 Tim. 2.1 as though this precept were too universall he reduceth it v. 2. unto Kings and adds the reason that ye may lead a quiet and peaceable life and for the same cause did the Prophet command the Israelites to pray for the King of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar This consideration also made Davids Subjects apprice his life at so high a rate is not now thy life worth ten thousand of ours The King is the Head of the people there is a sacred and neare relation betwixt them a disease or paine in the Head causeth a discrasie in the whole body an indisposition throughout all the members So the calamity and sufferings of the King affecteth every conscientious man in his Kingdome this honest zeale and pious sympathy between thâ— Heâ—d 〈…〉 the King and the people made our Prophet and the men of Judah so passionately bewaile the losse of their good King Josiah they promised unto themselves a lasting security in this life Of whom we said Under the shadow of his wings we shall live among the Heathen Gods grant of Regall prerogatives unto Josiah afforded not onely protection as the Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings our Saviours allusion to defend them from the Birds of prey but a strength also and vigorous warmth to make them grow up unto an ability to guard themselves and dwell with safety among the Heathen the known Enemies of their Nation and profession when then this Royall Oake was cut down and they deprived of the thriving benefits of its shelter their sorrows must needs plentifully spring up from the sense of so great and irrepaâ—â—able a losse and the fear of those stormes which now threatned to overturne their felicity But the depth of this sorrow was not to be fathomed when they found the bottomlesse Abysse of their own sinnes the head thereof that notwithstanding the great priviledges of Josiah's Regall dignity and pieâ—y that the fiercenesse of Gods greater wrath was so kindled against Judah that the Lord said I will remove Judah out of my sight as I have removed Israel and therefore that his fury without obstruction or let might be powred out upon them God suffers the breath of their Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord of whoâ— they said Under the shadow of his wings they should live among the Heathen Good King Josiah the life of their Religion Law he who was empowred by God with the Supreme Authority had a divine grant of humane Indemnity and Inviolability their righteous Justicer their Physitian their nursing Father their Protectour and the great Conservator of their Liberty and Safety To fall into their pits to die by the hands of his Adversaries being the second consideration in the Text. 2. The breath of our Nostrils c. was taken in their pits Here is the nulling of Gods letters patents and the grant of Regall prerogatives and beneficiall priviledges made unto King Josiah by a violent death God for the punishment of the people of Judah's sinnes takes away their pious Prince by the power of his Enemies The force of the relation betwixt the head and the members the King and the People is the true reason why God punisheth the best of Kings with temporall judgments for the offences of his Subjects as here in Josiah The anger of the Lord was moved against Israel and he moved David to number the people 2 Sam. 24.1 The divine Justice vindicated that sin of the King upon the people for whose
taking away a good King from a People is an evidence of his heavy displeasure and a certain Prognostique of the many miseries he will bring upon them That a violent death proves a temporall blessing unto a King when it takes from him the sight and sense of his Subjects sufferings That a violent death may justly be reputed a departing in peace compared with a continuance of the sence of troubles and durable calamity That all men are strictly and deeply engaged unto the most solemn sorrow for the calamity of their King as caused by their sins and ushering in their approaching miseries Let us see whether our Kingdomes may not truly calculate their griefs by the Ephimerides of Judah's sorrow we have had a British Josiah whose Graces and Prerogatives fully answered the proportion and size of their pattern Could Judah's sinnes snatch away their pious King JOSIAH from them and do not we conceive that our sins have hurried our Religious King CHARLES from us Was King Josiah's death the In-let of Judah's miseries and do not we suppose that King Charles his life may be the period of our temporall happiness and his death the first act of that tragicall Woe which is to be presented upon the Theatre of this Kingdome likely to continue longer than the now-living Spectators We have had as great an Ebbe of Felicity in the loss of our King Charles as Judah had in her Josiah's should not the Tyde then of our sorrows run as high as theirs Surely the parallel considerations of the Vertues and Prerogatives of both these pious Kings of the causes of their Calamities and the sad consequences attending them will command an equality of ours with Judah's sorrow we will a little invert the method Begin with King Charls his divine and regal Prerogatives next shew his personall Vertues and Graces then his Sufferings point at their Causes and conclude with our own constrained Sorrows England in her best and loudest language the Law hath largely declared the sacred soveraignty of her Kings spoke them Gods Vicars assigned unto them the fulness of Regall power laid forth their jurisdiction by as large bounds as the Scripture doth King Josiah's or any other Kings of Israel or Judah Are not these legall registred and publick acknowledgments That every man is under the King and he under God onely That he is not inferiour unto his Subjects even collectively considered That he is a mixt person and capable of Spirituall Jurisdiction through holy Unction That he is the fountain of Honour hath the sole power to pardon and punish Offenders to leavy War to make Peace to constitute Officers That he can do no wrong Do not these expressions amount unto The breath of our Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord c. And these are the Regall peculiars of the Kings of England inseparably annexed unto their Crown and Dignity which he that runneth may read being written in those large and known characters of the Law Certainly these significant delineations of the sacred and regall power of the Kings of England were copied out of the holy Scriptures which those that now wrest them and make that fair Face of the Holy Ghost a vizard alterable unto the disguise of their personated piety and hypocritical practice seeing will not see Doubtless the Crown of England was held from the Lord paramount of Dominion God by as free noble and regall a tenure as any under Heaven And from him by a lineall and unquestionable right of succession had King Charles the investure thereof and grant of all these royall acknowledged Prerogatives untill without any divine or humane warrant He was violently disseized of them and taken in their pits These were his sacred and regall Prerogatives Let us now look into that spacious field of His personall Vertues a fragrant tract having the sweet smell of A field which the Lord hath blessed and since time wil not permit the perusal of every pleasant walk of grace and the delightful Ambits of his vertues let us as Moses from Mount Nâ—bo take a general and distant survey of this blessed circuit flowing with milk and honey King Charles his Celestial gifts and graces A Jove principium His religious piety renders iâ— self glorious in his great love fear and honour of God His zeal and devout frequency in prayer receiving the Sacraments and reading the holy Scriptures his reverence in Gods House his attention unto Godâ— word preached the esteem he had of Gods Messengers his hatred of Heresie and the zealous care he had as it was consistent with charity to propagate the true worship of God the Protestant Religion this in the purity thereof he established by his Laws enlarged with his Regall Authority cleansed from that Rust it had contracted through the Atheism and ignorance of the Times by the contemptibleness of the outward worship adorned with Decency and Order in the publique service and with cost upon the places dedicate unto that service but chiefly he beautified it with the glorious example of his holy life and encouragement of the Officers thereof whom he rewarded with the rewards of Honour and Maintenance His Royall Palace as Theodosius Juniors was a constant Receipt for learned and pious Prelats whom he entertained and cherished as the Servants of the great God and Dispensers of the mysteries and means of Grace which as it was an especiall and infallible mark of the sincerity of his humble piety so through the supercilious irreligion of the times did that which should have most endeared him unto Christians draw neglect and contempt upon him from them and those Great ones too who love nothing of Christianity but the naked name he knew that Church-maintenance was the best Nurse of Religion and therefore no weight of difficulties could so press upon him to alien Gods portion the Patrimony of the Church to preserve which from the sacrilegious invasion of the first movers of these Troubles who thought the best way to shake off Government was to destroy Religion and the most effectuall and quick course to destroy Religion to take away Church-maintenance He tendred the sale of so much Crown-land as would amount unto the value of the Church-land That great and strict care he took to keep the Throne and Kingdom of God in his Soul His Conscience inviolable shews that although he made his abode among Men yet his Conversation was in Heaven The continuall acknowledged remorse he was seized with for consenting against the dictate of his Conscience unto the Earl of Strafford's death speaks him another David and A Man after Gods own heart such were the tender impressions that Act ever left in him as David when he cut off the skirt of Sauls garment his heart smote him and indeed his Majesty found that fate which the Rabbins assigne unto David's fact that he found no heat in his cloaths afterwards So His Majesty found not that comforting warmth in the advices of others which he
them by the giddy preachments and undigested swelling and tedious prayers of their Lecturers who reduced all Religion unto lip-worship and canting Scriptures Hence came it to passe that contemning the old paths the truth of the reformation in the Protestant Religion they contended unto bloud to corrupt by their phanatick Alterations the pure Doctrine Evangelical discipline established in the Church of England to effect which with the more â—ase they adventure upon sacriledgâ— to carry on that they must pull down Episcopacy the fence of the Church and here the King as a nursing Father interposing they render Him unable by encroaching upon his Prerogatives quarrelling him seize upoÌ„ his Strenghs Arme fight against him imprison and then Murther Him which last Act of Rebellion though the greatest part of the first Engagers may be thought never to have intended yet they may see the first violation of their Obedience due unto His Majesty punished by a guilt thus farre of his Innocent bloud that that power which they raised spilt it So dangerous it is to vary from a Christian Principle or to do evil that good may come of it God onely having power to direct limit and determine any evill action so that look over the pedigree of Englands sins through the severall descents thereof and you will find it thus Peace begot wealth that plenty that pride that vanity that curiosity that contention that hate of the Clergy that Sacriledge that the downfall of Bishops that the contempt of the KING that War that imprisonment and that the murther of the King a murther the most horrid murther that ever the Sun saw for Subjects to take away their King's life without the prescription of a single example or a law nay even against all laws divine and humane to Try him after the form of a Judiciary proceeding this is to entitle God unto the greatest sin to establish iniquity by a Law and to make God such as themselves Thus the Jews dealt with our Saviour We have a Law and by that Law he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God although there was no such Law but a new-made Law a Juncto-law Straffords law Canterburies law the King's law consequent Laws Laws without names or cognizance made because he was KING Neither doth their power any more prove the equity of this Fact the great scandal of the Christian name and height of Anabaptistical fury than the Devils power which is from God doth justifie his malice which is from himself They have now indeed made King Charles a glorious King prov'd him glorious in his personal Vertues glorious in his divine Graces but most glorious in the Christian Constancy of his glorious Sufferings for Gods Cause the true Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of the three Kingdomes thus hath God extorted a truth from them for this spake they not of themselves but God forceing their testimony they prophesied As we have seen His Majesties sufferings and their causes our sins so let us reflect upon their punishments as the Springs from which our sorrows should arise The exceeding avarice and hypocrisie two noted Court-sins with which the greatest Christian Prince Constantine was abused of the State-Grandees the deep pits wherein they laid the fatall snares into which pious King CHARLES fell will be visibly punished for God will not be mocked The pride vanity sacriledge rebellion and the cruel murther of His Majesty will have particular judgments levell'd against these sins every mans sin even of those who have fought for His Majesty who have yet fought against him by their sins hath given force unto this great stroke and wound given unto these Kingdoms in His Majesties death and therefore ought every man to proportion his sorrow unto his sins As King Josiah from Judah so the strong Baricado King Charles is taken away betwixt Gods judgments and this Kingdom the great and wide In-let of all misery is made by his death could our sorrows answer them like a Torrent it would overflow all the banks of Reason and grow too big to be carried away by the channels of our senses behold every spring of Jeremiah and Judahs sorrow open to send forth these flowing streams of affliction upon us and all arise from the same head 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 Those heavy judgments which the Prophet Jeremiah foresaw impending and after came to pass by King Josiahs death are in a great part by King Charles his death already come upon us Gods House his beautiful house is laid waste the Heathen have entred into the Sanctuary they have made a noise in the House of the Lord as in the day of a solemn Feast So that they who in the beginning pretended God Religion the Church their Cause have dealt with us as that Faction among the Jews who called â—hemselves The Zealous in the war with Titus did under pretence of defending Religion and the Law they possessed themselves of the Temple yet were themselves the first who put fire with their own hands into the holy places How hath the avarice and carnall interests of the Teachers of these times corrupted the purity of our Religion as Judahs so Englands onely Prophets have seen vain and foolish things for her and they have not discovered her iniquity to turn away her captivity but have seen for her false burthens and causes of banishment they have shed the bloud of the just K. Charles in the midst of her Englands greatest Adversaries are chief and her Enemies prosper Servants do bear rule over us and there is none to deliver us out of their hand They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghils Princes are hanged by their hands and the faces of the Elders are not honoured War desolation and famine with their sad effects foretold in these Lamentations appear in our Horizon already like Elihu's little Cloud which will shortly overspread our whole English firmament and all these calamities have and will fall upon us because the Crown is fallen from our Head the British Josiah King Charles is taken from us and we have no comforter and how great and just causes of our sorrows are all these Calamities But let this sorrow have the full advantage in its fall to adde motion unto all the turning wheels of our afflicting griefs the fall from our great happiness in his Majesties Government Let London let England let Scotland let Ireland let every of them Remember as Jerusalem did in the dayes of her afflictions and her miseries all the pleasant things that she had in the dayes of old All the pleasant things they had in the blessed dayes of King Charles his blessed Reign the glory and truth of her Religion the just execution of