A LOYAL TEAR Dropt on the VAULT OF THE High and Mighty PRINCE CHARLES II. Of Glorious and Happy Memory 2 Chron. 35. 24. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah By HENRY ANDERSON M. A. Vicar of Kingsumborne in Hampshire LONDON Printed for Luke Meredith at the Kings Head in St Paul's Church-Yard 1685. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND FATHER in GOD PETER Lord BISHOP of WINTON AND PRELATE of the GARTER MY LORD THE actings of Providence are no less various than unsearchable and it is both a pleasant and pious Employment to observe and meditate on Gods miraculous proceedings with Mankind For Providential Dispensations are discoveries of the Wisdom and Goodness of God in disposing of the conditions of his People whereby they may best glorifie him in whatever befalls them in this Temporal Life because a true Christian does as seriously study the Celestial Sphere and occurrences of Divine Providence as others do the Terrestrial Globe of this Corruptible Earth And since it has pleased Almighty God to speak to this Nation and Kingdom by the Messenger of Death in taking to his infinite Mercy our late Gracious Soveraign King Charles it must be acknowledg'd the bounty of a Divine Hand and we are bound to adore the Wisdom and Benignity of Heaven as S. Hierom suggested to Paula concerning the Death of Blaesilla whatsoever a good God doth cannot be bad therefore we must submit to the Divine Providence in translating that blessed Prince to a more glorious station to a Kingdom that cannot be shaken which is above all possibility of decay being incorruptible and fades not away Eternal in the Heavens Though the gain be his yet the loss is ours for when a good Prince dies a general damp and consternation seises the hearts of all Loyal Subjects because publick Calamity charges every Man with a rate of sorrow proportionable to the tenure of his understanding and the Memory of his late Majesty may justly oblige all his People to an excess of Tears as a signal of grief and Your Lordship comes in as a Chief Mourner who has had the Emanations of his Royal Favour which incourages my confidence to implore Your Lordships Patronage whereunto if you will vouchsafe to give the least approbation I shall not despair of the more favourable Censures of others and therefore it intreats Your Candid Interpretation and Acceptance of these Dedicatory Lines as a sincere Testimony of my Duty And that Your Lordship would be pleased to place me in the number of those that honour Your true Worth not only as to Episcopal Jurisdiction inspecting the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made You Overseer but also to Your Bounty and Liberality which sounds as far as your Name and displays the Ensign of Your Dignity worthy of double Honour for Your Generous and Brave Mind al must needs acknowledge and pay You Homage and Obeisance as Joseph's Brethren did to him with the greatest Veneration in which respect my most honoured Diocesan I am no less than Your Lordship's most Obedient Son and humble Servant HENRY ANDERSON A LOYAL TEAR Dropt on the VAULT OF THE High and Mighty PRINCE CHARLES II. THE frequent Objects of Mortality even of the greatest Monarchs daily presented before our Eyes should make us carefully to manage the moments of our Mortal Life Walking circumspectly not as Fools but as Wise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 redeeming the time because it is enacted by the Statute Law of Heaven semel mori and written indelibly in the Dust That all must Dye If Adam had stood in his Primitive Glory and not fell from his Original Purity in the state of Innocency we had not known what Death or Misery had meant but continued a piece of Immortality to this very Day but Adam in an instant after he had sinned became Mortal no sooner Sin entred into his Soul but mortality and corruption immediately entered into his Body then the parcels of Dust that were bound together by the bond of innocency were shaken loose by the grosser spots of Sin our first Parents disobedience contracted and involv'd their Posterity in a Labyrinth of Miseries and our Misery is not of yesterday but as antient as the first Criminal and our perplexities almost coaeval with Humane Nature The Day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely Dye viz. thou shalt be guilty of Death and thy Body shall that very hour become Mortal subject to infinite number of Chances Diseases and Old Age continually decaying unto the last Destruction of this Bodily Mass languishing to its fatal period and hastening to the dark Cells of the Grave which are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dormitories and sleeping Places of the Dead till the joyful Morning of the Resurrection Death insults over the frailties of Mankind for all the Tombs and Charnels of the World are but so many Monuments of Deaths Conquests and the instability of Humane Greatness how all things on this side Heaven are fleeting and transitory If I should procure you a Painter to pencil Death he would shew you a grim Anatomy with a lean Body a pale Face and a wann Countenance c. That which hath devoured the World so many times over like Pharaoh's lean Kine is as lean as ever The Bell still toles for the voluptuous Epicure and the Earth that insatiable Grave longs for his corpulent Body to feast Worms The swift motion of the Heavens roles up the thread of our Lives and the fleet Horse on which Death runs is still posting after us Crowns nor Scepters can't secure from the Artillery of Death There is no confidence to be placed in Humane Prosperity for neither Kingdom Empire nor any Greatness whatsoever can secure their owners from ruine Behold Andronicus cloathed in Purple adored by Nations commanding the East his Temples enriched with a Royal Diadem the Imperial Scepter in his Hands and his very Shoes studded with Oriental Gemms yet pays his Life as Tribute to Death so that the Majesty of the greatest Monarchs are subject to perish Think upon this seriously that the Gates of Death are ever open and the Enemy lies continually in ambush to assault u◠nay there is not a Vein or Artery but is a Room in Natures Work-house wherein our humours as so many Cyclops's are forging those Instruments of Mortality and in an instant hurry us into our Graves Every Day Hour and Moment wears away a part of our Life and so much as is already spent so far we are already Dead So that the longest liver as the Antediluvian Patriarchs witness is no more but only longer a dying than others It is appointed saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto Men once to dye but after this to Judgment where they shall receive for the deeds of the Body whether it be good or evil They that have done good to the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto eternal damnation This proclaims our happiness or
misery and as it tells the danger so in all reason it should awaken our care but Heaven and Hell are Vtopia's in conceit saith the Atheist and no where exist but in melancholy distemper'd Brains The joys of the one promised to a virtuous and holy Life are only pleasant Fancies and torments of the other denounced against Vice and Impiety but fearful Dreams Our Saviour who knows it best hath described unto us the management of the whole affair and the different Portions of the good and bad When the son of man saith St Matthew shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him all nations shall be gathered before his throne and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats To the good the King shall say Come ye blessed a Benediction far surpassing that of the old Patriarchs and putting down the dew of Hermon which dispersed it self over the Mountain of Sion Here thou shalt dwell for ever in a Land flowing with Milk and Honey of Divine Blessing abounding with the Bread of Angels and Heavenly Manna freed from all Captivity by the presence of our Lord. But unto the Wicked Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Be gone thou cursed Fig-Tree thou art not worthy to take Root in blessed Earth to have any place in the Garden of my delight and they are not only eternally exiled from the Glorious Residence of Heaven but their Doom is sealed up to infernal Flames delivered over into the power of the Dragon without all hopes of escaping from him who will seize upon their Souls and carry them to the Abyss of Hell there to be tormented for ever And these shall go saith the Evangelist into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal Men being adjudged rewards and punishments in a future state or life to come sutable to their actions in this World was a general resentment among the Heathens as Justin Martyr truly tells the Greeks in his Oration to them That not only the Prophets and other Divine Persons of the Old Testament but also those that were accounted wise among the Heathens both Poets and Philosophers did acknowledge a Judgment to come after Death If the thoughts of the Worlds last Day filled St Hierom's Heart with such a dread as made him lose both his food and repose because the voice of the Arch-Angels Trumpet sounded incessantly in his imagination surgite mortui venite ad judicium Arise ye Dead and come to Judgment What weight should that Eternal Doom have in all our Hearts that shall crown the Just with Glory and Immortality but involve the Wicked in quenchless flames Death is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said an Heathen Philosopher which in Job's Language may be rendered the King of Terrors Nature shrinks when we see the pale-horse of Death approaching It is a sharp corrosive to most Men and Women in the World when they think of the separation of these dear Companions the Soul and Body the two constitutive parts of Man His breath goeth forth saith the Psalmist there is the egress of the one and he returns to his Earth there is the regress of the other the one is verified in ipso articulo mortis in the very point of Death the other is most evident in sepultura corporis at the time of Burial they have slept their sleeep and all the Men whose hands were mighty have found nothing The Life of Man is but of little value and all his Honour but contemptible because Mortality is the disgrace of all sublunary things With David the Psalmist Royal I may call him a vain shadow and with the Holy Prophet less than nothing and altogether lighter than vanity it self were it nor for Eternity Consider now the Day is far spent the Night is hastning and spreading its wings over us the Grave expects us and bids other Corps make room Death is ready to grasp us in its cold Arms and hale us to the dreadful Tribunal and yet how little of our great Work is done we burn away our precious Days and miserably wast our light and Life we exhaust our strength and lavish out our affections on fond Toys and Nothings ȧs if Eternity were to be expected here and none hereafter Is the blind and the lame a sacrifice for the great God shall we devote the flower of our Youth to Vanity and Folly and can we think the Majesty of Heaven will accept of the frozen and cold affections of decrepit Old Age he may surely say go to the Gods that ye have serv'd therefore let us remember our Creator in the morning of our Youth not consuming our Days in Vanity and Years in Folly letting the delights and pleasures of this World steal away our Hearts and Affections from God our Maker drawing us from true Happiness The young Man may rejoyce but not so as to forget his Creator and if they live many years and triumph in them all yet let them consider the days of darkness It is not Crowns Imperial nor Thrones nor Diadems that can escape the great Assize The last judgment is such a day as neither Wisdom nor Riches nor Honours can deliver them from it The Minions of the world may brave it awhile as the only Favorites and Darlings of the age they may swim in a stream of Gold and tumble in Arabian Spices but know for all these things God will bring you into judgment therefore the vast concernments of an everlasting state requires the most serious thoughts and consideration both of Prince and People Every object should read something to our observation either of our own mortality or excite us to piety and holiness that so by the memory of death we may learn to live in Gods holy fear that we may die in his favour and dwell in those everlasting habitations of glory and happiness The Romans of old did put a Sergeant in the triumphal chariot to keep the Conqueror amidst all his triumphs within bounds of moderation and sobriety of Spirit by crying to him Memento te esse mortalem Remember thou art a mortal Man Philip King of Macedon directed his Page to call at his chamber door with this morning Salutation Memento mori Remember death and so put him in mind that in the midst of all enjoyments they are still but Stewards and know not how soon our Lord may summon us to appear at the great Audit Saladine also the puissant Emperor of Persia who had extended the limits of his Empire by many victories and successful battles and being in no pitched field ever vanquished or overcome at last falling mortally sick caused one of his chief Commanders to hang his Winding sheet on a staff and to proclaim in the streets of Persia This is all he can have of his many conquests nisi parva quod urna capit but what may suffice to bury
to attain so much as a shadow of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is always in Impatience Patience is too beautiful for his deformed Nature and crooked disposition being a composition of all those lovely Vertues and Graces of the Holy Spirit to which he is a perfect stranger To die by a Persecutor it s Martyrdom in open work but to suffer injuries and love our hater it is Martyrdom in heart Let Baptism be your Armour Faith your Helmet Love your Spear but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Patience Cap-a-pe your whole Armour of defence it is the sweetest Salve to mishap or desire of revenge the truest Remedy of Injuries and the Shield against Wrongs because through Patience in well-doing we seek for Glory and Honour Life and Immortality It is great Fortitude if being hurt to forgive It is great Glory if thou mightest punish and yet to Pardon This was one of the Gemms in the Crown of his late Majesty that he exercised a Soveraignty over all his Subjects with a rejoycing and delightful kind of Patience which does eternize his Memory and blazon his Honour to Posterity even his auspicious and most gentle Government and Chronicle will free me from the least tincture of flattery if any think I am beyond the bounds either of Sincerity or Truth Now if the Prophet Jeremiah composed the whole sorrowful structure of his Lamentations on the mournful Obsequies of the Good King Josiah shall not the English World weep out Elegies and condole the Death of the Royal Charles the light of our Eyes and breath of our Nostrils of whom we said under his shadow we shall live among the Heathen Thirdly His wonderful Beneficence or Christian Charity displays it self First In forgiving his Enemies when they had forsaken their Allegiance by acts of Rebellion and his late Majesty could have crush'd them with the Hand of Greatness yet he made an act of Indemnity or Oblivion the vehicle of his Kindness which speaks his Kingly Beneficence that he was a Patron of Goodness and Charity and gives us occasion to discern how transporting a delight it is to a Noble and Generous Mind to be an Instrument of good to others As the bountiful light in the Body of the Sun illuminates and beautifies all the Orbs and Heavenly Bodies about it by the projection of its beams it begets all the Beauty Glory Sweetness we have here below on the Earth and it is so communicative of doing good as it never restrains the free Communication of its Influence and Glory until it determine by natural and necessary expiration Even so proportionably his late Majesty as the Sun did cherish and enliven Terrestrial Bodies and folded not up his Rays but dispensed them freely so that his Princely Clemency and Charitable Disposition like a rich Fountain did run with large streams of Goodness which renders his Deceased Majesty deservedly honoured by all his Subjects for all things that have an affinity with the Heavens have a communicative Goodness and move upon the Center of another which they benefit and Man may be by so much Neighbour to the Gods by how much he doth good beyond requital for self is a poor Center of a Mans actions but to do good to others begets a strong reflection of Majesty and Honour O that all those who pretend to greatness of Mind would copy out this Munificence taing all Opportunities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do good for 't is goodness which sits gloriously Triumphant at the Top of Heaven and uncharitableness lies miserably grovelling under the bottom of Hell Heaven descends from one as its principal Cause Hell is built on the other as its main Foundation as the one approximates the Blessed Angels to God and beatifies them so the other removeth the cursed Fiends to such a distance from God and Happiness saith a Reverend Divine not to wish not to do any good It is true Nobleness and carrys with it the signatures of Majesty and Greatness Honour and Piety to be of a large diffusive Spirit exercising Bounty and Mercy as holy Athanasius in his Works affirms that Mercifulness is the Queen of Vertues and his late Majesty whose Sacred Memory we celebrate did practise this high piece of Christian Perfection according to the Prescriptions of our Lord in forgiving his Enemies which shews that Goodness and Charity as Fruit did grow on this Royal Tree Secondly His Kingly Munificence and Liberality not only to the Tribe of Levi but to all that implored his Royal Favour dispensing of his Treasures to the supply of the needy and putting on Bowels of Mercy to those in want and necessity giving Bread to the Hungry and cloathing the naked with a garment And one Charitable Action performed in Obedience to the Divine Command will be more conducive to our Eternal Welfare than the value of innumerable Worlds Therefore this Pious Prince was inclined to acts of Beneficence and Compassion who now injoys the happy consequences thereof for Bread cast upon the Waters is trajectitia pecunia Money for which you take a Bill of Exchange from God and it meets you in a far Country no Robbers by Land no Piracies by Sea no unfaithfulness of Factors no violence of Tempests shall take it from you He hath dispersed he hath given to the poor saith the Psalmist and his righteousness endureth for ever And so Goodness and Charity did shine in this Mighty Monarch like the precious Stones in Aarons Breast-Plate There is no felicity now a wanting to this illustrious Monarch but that of Virginius Ruffus to have another Tacitus to write his Funeral Obsequies those just Encomiums and Praises due to his rare and singular Perfections for Vertues are Copies drawn for imitation and left as paths for succeeding Ages to tread in Regis ad Exemplum totus componitur Orbis And his late Majesty being Dead yet speaks by his Royal Example to all his loving Subjects in the Language of the Holy Apostle Be ye followers of me as I was of Christ in Faith and Hope Humility and Meekness Charity and Patience till you come ad interior a velaminis above the reach of dull Mortality filling up those seats of Blessedness and triumphing in the Glories of a Saviour Death however we figure it with the Pencil of Fancy yet it does but rend the vail of Mortality and lets the Soul into the Palace of inestimable Majesty where we shall not only behold Jesus in all his Glory but receive the utmost effects of his mighty Love and live with him for ever in Heavenly Places The quality of the Grave is alter'd since Christ slept there it was a Prison now a Chamber of repose The Prophet Isaiah speaking of the Death of the faithful saith They shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds for Death of a formidable Enemy is made a Friend and a Blessing in Christ a passage from the Valley of Tears to the Kingdom of Glory Now who would be