Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A49241
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A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons, at St. Margaret's Westminster, on the 30th of January, 1696/7 by William Lancaster ...
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Lancaster, William, 1650-1717.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing L315; ESTC R6275
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14,635
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35
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as a Publick Judgment and Calamity Fourthly That although the Effusion of his Innocent Blood were no more then a private or a personal Crime or the Sin only of those Men who acted in it yet the punishment is National and the Land polluted The Nation is one Body Politick and the whole must answer for what one or a few Members have done amiss Fifthly That the Pollution of the Land with Blood submits the Nation to the Curse of God which he has said he will sometimes continue to the third or fourth Generation and the Jews when they were so vehement for our Lord 's dying as a Malefactor took his Blood upon themselves and their Posterity I come now to the last thing I am to speak to and that is Secondly That He upon whom God's Judgment falls is not always the Person who offended but the Innocent are many times the Sufferers when the Guilty escape and go free Josiah lost his Crown and Life but it is Wo to us for we have sinned Kings have often suffered for the Sins of the People and perhaps as often has an Innocent Nation been scourged and plagued for the Sins of their King For First David number'd the People which was not their fault nor was it in their Power to prevent their being reckon'd up if the Prince of the People would have it so But the Plague fell upon them alone and not upon the Person who had done the Offence David owns thus much in the Presence of God and the Congregation It is I that have sinned Lord what have these silly sheep done Secondly the Son of Jeroboam dy'd young or was by God removed out of the way by Death not because He had offended but because He should not see the Evil which was to fall upon his Friends and Countrevmen who had He only of all the House of Jeroboam shall go to the Grave in Peace because in him was found some good His goodness shorten'd his days He was early ripe for Heaven and for Eternity as the rest of his Family were for destruction Yet this young Prince did not lose a Crown which he might have come to by slow ways of Succession and of Inheritance but was hasten'd and translated to a Crown that is Immortal This young Son of Jeroboam it is said went down to the Grave in Peace I would here stop a little to enquire what is meant by a Man's going to the Grave in Peace Is it to live as long as the Course of Nature will allow Is it to wear well for Threescore Years and Ten and then to dye an easy and a Natural Death and the Lamp of Life to go out purely for want of Oil No far otherwise It is said of Josiah that He should go to the Grave in Peace Behold I will gather Thee to thy Fathers and Thou shalt be gathered to thy Grave in Peace 2 Chr. 34.28 Now I have already shewn That Josiah was mortally wounded at Megiddo and fell in Battle and how can such a Man who is defeated and dyes in War be said to go to the Grave in Peace And yet Josiah who fell by the Hand of an Egyptian and Jeroboam's Son who was cut off by Death in the most flourishing state of life I say they both went to the Grave in Peace Now to dye or go to the Grave in Peace does not respect the kinds of Death whether in Battle or on a Scaffold or of old Age and in a Man's Bed but it regards the Person who dyes and that Temper and Chearfulness and quiet of Mind wherein a man dyes He then dyes in Peace whom Outrages and Indignities cannot provoke to Anger and whose Patience reremains unshaken when the Storms and Waves of Sorrow beat hardest upon Him He dyes in Peace who resigns his own Will to the Will and Pleasure of him who made him and welcomes the most painful or shameful way of Dying as the ready way to Immortality and Eternal Life Thus dyed Josiah though he fell in Battle and thus fell the Royal Martyr though Murder'd in the face of the Sun and his own Subjects How he went to the Grave it is not known the Graves of Moses and of King Charles being concealed by the Will of God to this day I confess there 's one Reason why Martyrs should not so much be said to die in Peace as they who die in Battle or in their Bed because tho' they go out of the World with a calm and quiet Mind yet their Blood calling for Vengeance seems to declare War But in all other respects Men who die for Religion and patiently suffer in a good Cause though sawn asunder or torn with wild Horses and devour'd by Birds or Beasts of the Field may very well be said to go to the Grave in Peace It is very true that Sorrow and Suffering and Death did all come into the World together and were occasioned by the sin of Man and are all of them continued as Scourges and Judgments of God upon Man for sin The Almighty has but one Arrow in his Quiver sharper than these and that he sends among us when he punishes sin with sin when he suffers ill Men to harden in Impenitence to encrease their Guilt and thereby consigns them over to Damnation This is the most dreadful and amazing Judgment of God upon Earth to leave a Man to a reprobate sence and hard heart and on this side the Grave and Hell without all hopes of Redemption I know not but there may be Men in the World thus left to themselves who instead of repenting of a most horrid Murder and of shedding Innocent Blood have themselves and their Posterity justified the doing it and advanced from the Blood of one King to maintain the Lawfulness of resisting all Kings To sin is not so great a fault as to vindicate and maintain the lawfulness of committing Sin we are all sinners but hope God will give us Grace to repent and amend and then we are again right in his sight But to shed Innocent Blood and to justify the doing it is what Highway-men and common Thieves and Robbers will not do Now Resisting is a comprehensive Word and includes in it reviling and standering deposing and putting to Death and that what way you please whether by Ponyard or Pistol on an open Theatre or by Assassines in the High-Way Any or all of these are Lawful to as many as believe it Lawful to Resist Do but then think Who are they that have been plotting against the Lord 's Anointed Who have been engaged in Conspiracies to murder him in secret and by surprise Who have been in Consult and Intriguing with a Foreign Enemy to invade us and upon what bottom all this mighty process has been form'd and founded but upon this hellish Principle That it is Lawful to resist Our Prince is hereby in as much danger in his Palace or in his Bed as formerly in a Battle and his very Recreations
Lunae 1. die Feb. 1696. Ordered THat the Thanks of this House be given to Doctor Lancaster for the Sermon by him Preached before them upon Saturday last at St. Margaret's Westminster And that he be desired to Print the same and that Mr Robert Berty and Mr Drake do acquaint him therewith Paul Jodrell Cl. Dom. Com. A SERMON PREACHED Before the Honourable House of Commons AT St Margaret's Westminster On the 30th of January 1696 7. By WILLIAM LANCASTER D.D. Vicar of S. Martin's in the Fields LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1697. A SERMON Preached before the Honourable House of Commons LAMENT V. 16. The Crown is fallen from our Head Wo to us for we have sinned THE Words are part of Jeremy's Lamentation and if we look into 2 Chron. 35.25 We shall find that this Lamentation was for the Death of King Josiah The words of that place in Chronicles are these And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah and all the singing men and singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day and made them an Ordinance in Israel and behold they are written in the Lamentations From these words I conclude That the Prophet in this place speaking of the downfall of the Crown does it with relation to the Death of that great and good King The Chronicle witnesses That Jeremy made Lamentation for him and that it was contain'd and written in the Lamentations And since these Words of the Prophet do so well express it we must believe that Josiah's downfall was the occasion of them He was a Pattern for all Princes and the Mourning which was to be in Judah and Jerusalem for him was to be a Pattern for all Lamentation The Prophet Zechary when he foretells the Passion and dying of our Lord Jesus upon the Cross says There shall be such mourning for Him as was for Josiah That they shall look on him whom they have pierced Zech. 12.10 which S. John c. 19. explains and applies to our Saviour exposed and wounded and bleeding upon the Cross And then the Prophet adds v. 11. That in that day there shall be great mourning in Jerusalem as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon The Lamentation for our Lord it is here foretold should be as great as that for Josiah who was slain in the Field of Battle at Megiddo which seems to have been the greatest Mourning that was ever known in Israel The words then I have sufficiently explain'd by shewing the occasion of them and the same History says That hereupon an Ordinance was made in Israel and the Book which was written many years at least some reigns after Josiah's Death says the observation of that Ordinance was continued a very long time They speak of him in their Lamentation to this day So that we may conclude thus much from that History that when Josiah was slain there was in Israel an Act an Ordinance a Law made for a solemn yearly Mourning for ever We see then we are now assembled by a Law made after a Precedent of great Antiquity and I may add of much greater Authority And since Providence has for our Sins given us the like Occasion let us implore his merciful Acceptance of the like Mourning and Humiliation and of our Service and Sorrow in Obedience to the Law in our own Nation made after the example of Israel and of this Divine Ordinance wherein the Wisdom of Heaven was most immediately concern'd The Civil Magistrate may by what Rules he pleases enquire after Persons disaffected and uneasy to the Government but methinks it were very natural to suspect all such persons as dangerous to Kings and States who rejoyce and seem to triumph at the fall of one of the best of Kings and at the promotion of the worst of Men and Murderers into his place It cannot be safe laughing when a Nation upon so good reason is commanded to be all in Tears not only lest God should be angry whose Judgments are thereby despised but also lest that Man who can be merry upon so sad and lamentable an occasion should be thought pleas'd with the publick Sorrow and that common Calamity which was the cause of it Every Man's experience tells him thus much that what we are glad of we wish may happen frequently and that occasion and matter of Joy can never come too often so that should the Anniversary for one Prince's Murder be to any Man a day of Joy I should suspect that Man wishes more such days as these and that we may have many such reasons for Jeremy to lament On the other hand what a Man sorrows and grieves and mourns for he wishes may never be repeated and that he may never hear of the like again So that days of Humiliation as they have sometimes been serviceable to Hypocrisie may serve for Politick Ends and Purposes as well as Religious to secure Princes from all attempts of cruel and bloody Men by creating an aversion to such barbarous Practices upon them in the minds of all Men. It is very natural for Sorrow and Shame to fill the Mind with horror and dislike of all Events or Actions which caused sorrow to possess the Mind with a principle and habitual desire to prevent such Actions for the time to come and all the Efforts and Endeavours which are made towards them The Jews had therefore very good reason to make an Ordinance for a yearly Mourning for Josiah as all other States and Governments have upon the like occasion because sorrow and affliction for the untimely Death of one King disposes the Mind to Care and Vigilance over the Life and Welfare of another And I think common Charity will teach us to believe That he who now does his dury to God and is just to the Blessed Memory of this day's Martyr can do no injury to the State or Person of his present Successor nor give way to so much as a Thought which may prejudice the Interest of that Brave Man who through so many Perils has asserted the Religion and Honour of the English Nation We may reckon upon Two sorts of Men who are avowed Enemies to our present Constitution The First are those little Wretches who yet dare meditate great and Bloody Villanies and endeavour the Confusion of their own Native Country by Assassines and bringing in upon us a Foreign Power These are not to be neglected because little since it has often been in the power of Wretches and small things to do great mischiefs But Secondly There are other Enemies who are far more powerfull and who have hit upon the only stratagem in the World which can undo us Such are they who endeavour to make God our Enemy and to rob us of his Care and Favour to whom alone we owe our Protection and Peace When the Almighty thunders and when his Judgments are abroad he expects we should tremble and be afraid and not live as if we either