A SERMON Preached before Sir MARMADVKE LANGDALE At his entrance into BARVVICK By I. K. a Native of the same place sometimes Preacher of Gods word there Hosea Chap. 3. vers 5. Afterward shall the children of Israel returne and seeke the Lord their God and David their King and shall feare the Lord and his goodnesse in the latter dayes Printed in the Yeare 1648. And Ieremiah lamented for Iosiah 2 Cron. 35.25 THE sphere of this Text is Lamentation the Poles whereon it movâ—â—â— Iosiah and Ieremiah In the upper the etheriall part of this sphere wâ—â—â— see the bloud of Iosiah in the nether the watry hemisphere wee have the teares of Ieremiah And as the caelestiall Spheres have their first moover above them So is there in this Text a third person the Spirit of God who onely being above the King and the Prophet placed them heere in the Firmament of his word and by this his Testimony hath consolidated the blood of Iosiah and the teares of Jeremiah into fixt Starres wherein all men may reade their common condition and Kingdomes calculate their owne Nativities and dissolutions So in this darke Sphere of Lamentation Iosiah dying Ieremiah crying wee finde yet the Spirit of God testifying though in the cold Region of the revolting Iudah both King and Prophet be eclypsed the one by death the other by sorrow yet are they heere caught up into the cleere Orbe of the Scripture torres eruti deigne and there memorated to all Posterities by the uncloudeable testimony of the spirit of God Zach. 3.2 in whose sight since the death of his Saints is precious Psal 116.13.56.8 and he puts all their teares into his bottle therfore are these things noted in his booke therefore are Iosiah and Ieremiah recorded heere as Monuments and their bloud and teares turned into Rubies and Pearles to make Bracelets to adorne the Spouse of Christ Heere first wee see in Mourning and dying the condition of us all in this world sorrow and death play all our game Lugemus aut lugemur omnes in vicem It is an hard question whether at our entring wee begin sooner to weepe or to dye But in our progresse whereas dying hath no intervals sorrow seemes to admit some interludes but in a wise mans apprehension they are but delusions Looke into the Stage of the world you shall see two serious Actors the Dyer and the Mourner All the rest play the foole or the counterfeit whereupon the judicious spectator Eccle. 2.2 Solomon called out to laughter inâ—anis thou art mad and to mirth Quid frustra deciperis And the great Iob sayd of himselfe Job 29.24.31.23 if I laughed on them they beleeved it not so seldome did he so little could he laugh qui semper quasi tumentes super se fluctus timuit Deum who thought continually he heard God like the mighty billowes of the Sea rowling over his head But the Sonne of God quoties veâ—ò elle Isai 53 3. Psal 88.15 how oft did he impropriate the Title of vir dolorum the man of sorrowes From my youth up thy terrours have I suffered with a troubled minde Luke 17 50. and againe I have a Baptisme to be baptized withall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and how am I straightened till this be fulfilled For well knew the Sonne it was the will of the Father that sorrow should be the dyet and viands of man in the course of this life where the feathers and downe wee rest upon have their quills and thistles the Rose wee smell her pricks the meate on our Tables cryes out to us Mors in ollâ there is death in the pot This habituall sorrow for the fits of worldly mirth quamvis non intempestivis amaenitatibus are but recesses from it and I neither condemne every act of joy Gen. 35.18 nor justifie every motion of sorrow this habituall sorrow from which Bennoni the sonne of sorrow was called Benjamin the sonne of strength and by which the sorrowfull Iabez became more honourable then all his brethren 1. Cron. 4 9. this habituall sorrow I say this commanding sadnesse this mastred and well rayned pensivenesse is wisdome in the minde valour in the heart salt in the wit discipline to the flesh from whence there breakes forth a Majesty in the very countenance It is indeed the ballance of the soule without which a light and empty heart like an unpoysed Barke danceth aloft to the flattry of the windes which will quickly lay her low But we have every where so many causes of the one of these two sorrow that the other death might be jealous we forget him and surprize us suddenly if with the statue of sorrow in Jeremiah the spirit of God had not erected also a monument of death in Iosiah and justly for the same which David calls the valley of the shadow of death in the 23. Psalme he calls the valey of Baca in the 84. for sorrow is saith Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the shadow of sinne and mortality now as if a man were placed so high aboue the earth that night the shadow of it could not reach to him he should have continuall day so those soules onely that have wrought so high that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last point of this shadow of sin Mortality is below their feete those have no sorrow unlesse it be to looke downe upon us and see quantâ sub nocte jaceret nost â—a dies in what a true night of lamentablenesse we walke here on earth which yet we thicken with grosse conceits of false mirth the best use then of naturall life is the thinking on death O that they were wise saith Moses Deut. 32.29 that they would consider their latter end Sion remembered not her later end therefore she came down wonderfully Lam. 1.9 saith our Ieremie in this Lamentation yea in spirituall life Paul desired to know nothing here but Jesus Christ and him dying 1. Cor. 2.2 sleepe like a Publican takes excise of our life onely the rest of it is our owne he that thinkes not on death is asleepe what wee deny to the one Brother the other takes away O how I love thee thou meditation on death since not time but thou measurest life and makest it mine Through this narrow dark optick of the meditation on death our eyes help'd with the watry spectacles of teares pierce through the chrystalline Heaven and looke to eternall life Iohn confesseth of Peter and himselfe Jo. 20.10 who ran to the Sepulchre and presently returned home that they missed of that dignation which was afforded to Mary who stayed there looking into the tombe and weeping her constant adhering to the Sepulchre had the honour to see the vision of the Angels and her weeping the grace to heare the first salutation of her glorified saviour who appoints saith Esai to them that mourne Esay 61.3 and gives them beauty for ashes the oile of joy for
departing from them pro Christo Domini ac pro Christo Domino Wherefore the Spirit of God who enrolled in the booke of Jasher and bad teach the children of Judah the staves of Sauls funerall song called the Bow hath also eternized among his owne dictated manuscripts Jeremiahs lamentations for Iosiah In which Lamentations that particular or rather generall verse Lament 4.20 The breath of our nostrills the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits may be called the nave of the wheele whose severall beames integrate that whole booke Calvin upon this place taunts the reverend Hierom with grosse errour for saying that this booke of Lamentations was Ieremiahs funerall song for Iosiah and addes that the cited verse is wrested to Iosiah And yet the same Calvin himselfe in another place of his Comments saith in 12 Zach. 11. and justifies it against his owne exposition upon the place from Scripture that Jeremias in hoc lugubri carmine respexit propriè ad Josiam sicuti testatur sacra historia in this mournefull song did ayme properly at Iosiah as the holy History of the Bible testifieth Then coting particularly the foresaid verse he adds after Iosiahs death in cujus animâ vivebat anima populi in whose soule the one soule of the people lived that people was a meere carcase and the taking away of Iosiah was an evident signe of Gods wrath against them and that Gods favour was extinct with that King quia felicitas populi because the happinesse of the people depended upon the King Regia dignitas and the Regall Dignity was a sure pledge of Gods favour to them Thus this word Josiah is dead was to Iudah another Ichabod where is the glory The beauty of Israel is stayned by thy waters O Megiddo with Iosiah vale Lex vale Moses farewell the Arke farewell the milke and honey of the promised Land upon the setting of this Sunne the Manna in the pot melts the blossomes on Aarons red blast and the Almonds become bitter Almonds From Iosiahs death the Prophet dates the fall of Hierusalem By the violation of Iosiahs head Hierusalem her selfe is become sacrum caput and her Epitaphe is prepared in this word Iosiah is dead that is as Chrysostome expoundes that of the Angel to the blessed Virgine Luke 1.31 They shall call his name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the people and the successe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall finde and verifie that Iosiah is dead O Ieremy would thou hadst been onely a mourner here and not a Prophet but I finde thee no where more a Prophet then in mourning heere The Prophet knew that in Gods purpose Hierusalem was now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 devoted to ruine that the Temple was already demolished in her patterne in the Mount that the Angels had deserted the Sanctuary and the people were casheered in the High Counsell in Heaven yet was it enough for deploring HierusaleÌ„ Temple Sanctuary people all to lament one Iosiah even divine providence so disposing that so pretious an head should not be violate till God had rejected the whole body Luke 23.31 si haec in viridi quid fiet in aridâ if this be done in the greene tree what shall become of the dry one Needes must the people be outlawed when their King is thus rapt from them in whom they had truely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plato said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose arme was a measure and whose religious minde was a Law to them and what but epidemicall death could be expected when the devotion of so zealous an head could kindle no fire in the paraliticall body He that delivered Abrahams Couzen vexed with the filthy conversation of the Sodomites 2 Pet. 2.7 knew how to deliver Davids owne and reserve a rebellious Generation to emminent judgement Wherefore to the soule of Iosiah the Angel called as once to Lot the husband Gen. 19 22. Escape thou and flye away to bright Zoar the mountaine of the vision of God and leave thy unbelieving wife who of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be made to all Nations a monument of rejecting the Law and not hearkning to her King and husband what panegiriques would the heathen who knew not God onely had naturall love of loyalty and vertue have made had they had a King that would have suffered losse of power estate glory liberty wife and children yea whatsoever stupified Subjects prefer before a King rather then consent to the prophaning of Gods service and the enslaving the persons and estates of his people nothing could make their misery more miserable nor more convict them of their rebellion then that their best King was made their last Indeed this honour was due to Iosiahs piety and this solace to his Funerals that none should succeed him whom none could second and that by the sequell of Iosiahs death all Kingdomes might learne how much the weale of a State depends upon the life and how close the ruine of it followes upon the want of a religious King All were defective saith the sonne of Syrach but David Hezechiah and Iosiah Our Posterity will reade a Chronicle of England not Apocryphall that will make them as much wonder at us as admire the story till this day all were defective but Elizabeth Iames and Charles when of three vertuous and religious Kings the third is untimely taken away the people that by having the two first would not learne to appretiate a King are by the losse of the third taught what it is to have none Daughters of Hierusalem Ieremy weepes not for Iosiah but weepes for you and your children for sinne the Mother and desolation the broode lest the dayes come lest the lamentable dayes come in which they shall say blessed are the Inhabitants that have no possessions and the parents that are not indebted to children for education The Spirit of God testifieth heere the blood of Iosiah and the teares of Ieremiah to the end that the people should trace the teares of the Prophet through the bloud of the King first to their owne impending punishment and thence to their past sinnes For if you looke O Daughtet of Iudah to the acts of Jeremiah himselfe he had already lived long if to your owne aggravation of wrath too long if to your neede of such a King to stand in the gap he dyed too soone if to the honour of his owne remembrance he shall never dye but all Posterities shall copie out from Josiah Compositum vis fasque animi sanctosque recessus Mentis inâ—octum generoso pectus honesto And the remembrance of Josiah shall be like the composition of the perfume made by the art of the Apothecary sweet as honey in all mouthes as musick at a banquet of wine Eccles 49.1 For that name that entred before his mortall life goes not out with it and that which attended not for his birth will not waite on his death But as it was imposed by
Propheticall breath so in Propheticall teares it is embalmed and continued to all Posterities which shall wonder and be amazed even the Kings of the earth and all the Inhabitants of the world Lament 4.12 and not believe that the enemy could have entred the ports of the Daughter of Zion having so religious a King under whose shadow they lived securely among the Heathen Lament 4.20 But hearing withall that this King was so taken away they shall acknowledge that the God of Israel dealt therein with that people and Josiah in the same manner as he dealt once with David and them 2 Sam. 24 1. He that suffered David to sinne in numbring the people for the sinne of a number whom he would destroy suffering also Josiah so zealous for the Law and the weale of the people to goe against the word in the mouth and fall by the sword in the hand of Necho 2 Chron. 35 22. That the Bulwarke which stood in the way of the destroyer once broken downe the floud of the wrath of God quâ data porta ruat might thenceforth breake in upon a rebellious Nation that so they might be punished by his death who was suffered to slip for their punishment and by whose righteous life they would not be reformed As for that one act of Josiahs going to war against Pharoh piety forbids us to thinke that Iosiah would have done it had he beene forbidden by the mouth of Ieremiah or any of Gods Prophets But in the mouth of Pharoah what more authority could this interdiction expect from Iosiah then that commination from the mouth of Zenacherib obtained of Hezekiah 2 King 18.25 Indeede wee who now have the story written since by the holy Ghost reade that Iosiah hearkned not to the word of Necho from the mouth of God 2 Chron. 35 2â— But if this were a ruine and such an one was Moses his at the waters of Meribah so subtile that it must be a quick eye can discerne it wee may say with Gregory pro qualitatibus subditorum disponuntur acta regentium the actions of Kings are by Gods permission and overruling hand disposed according to the desert of their Subjects justus interim Judex c. In the meane time the just Iudge vindicates those sinnes of the King at their hands for whose sake he was suffered to slip Heere the sinne of Iudah came to it height in their greater guiltinesse of his lesser sinne Their sinne had it complement in his slip and their punishment it beginning from his death O the just and unsearcheable judgements of the great King From this judgement wee are taught how sacred a relation is betwixt a King and his people so strong so neare is it that he that atempts to part them had better halfe cleave a great Oake and forcing the sides to open stand betwixt them at their suddaine clapping together againe See the piety of this potent relation on the Kings part in Moses Exod. 32.32 O forgive the sinne of this people or else blot me out of the booke thou hast written See it in David what have these sheepe done Let thy hand be upon me and my fathers house 2 Sam. 24.17 On the Subjects part how strong and indelible this naturall love to their King is though indeede the wife be more subject to the tempter wee reade in those sensitive creatures in which Rege incolumi mous omnibus una amisso rupere fidem in naturall men which upon the violent death of their King even after a good successour was possessed have never rested till the doers were punished as in DomitiaÌ„ some have died for pitty to their King as in Otho and the best Optimus Emperor executed that which Nerva coted to him out of Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But where the knowledge of God was this zeale was ever more warme The people sayd to Samuel who is he that sayd Saul shall not raign over us Bring the men that wee may put them to death 1 Sam â— 1 1â— And the same people that were deluded by Absolom to rebell against David their King after the fit was over were so â—ealous for him that they were at strife through all the Tribes of Israel who should be first in bringing back the King and expiating their rash folly with redoubled Loyalty 2 Sam. 19.42 The strength of this relation is the reason that God sometimes punisheth a King for the peoples sake as heere in Iosiah sometimes the people for the Kings sake as in Saule 2 Sam. 21.1 And sometimes lets the King transgresse that he may punish the people as in David 2 Sam. 24.1 This solemne course of Almighty God in punishing is the strength of the current of Jeremiahs Lamentations for Iosiah so drawing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the people from that one act of Iosiah to consideration of their past sinnes and from the death of Iosiah to their present judgement and so to God himselfe And this is the decumanus fluctus now have teares swelled to their Land-marke springing from sorrow for common death and vulgar mourners to the chiefe mourner the Prophet and the hyperocall sorrow for a King then rising from the death of a King to the losse of a Iosiah thence to the consequent of the losse it diffuseth then swelleth againe to the departure of the great shepheard thence passeth to the motive cause of all these sinne At last it mounts up to the efficient and disposer Almighty God So our Ieremy in this Lamentation for Iosiah Lament 3.42.39 Wee have transgressed and rebelled and thou hast not pardoned and againe wherefore doth a living man murmure a man for the punishment of his sinne For even those whom God hath forsaken grieve at their punishment they have not cryed to me with their heart when they howled upon their beds saith Hosee Hos 7.14 but this is a signe that the party under punishment is yet a man a live man when the soule stumbles not and stops either murmuring at the punishment or at the second cause quarrelling but leaping over and rising above both second causes and punishment ascends to God arguing thus with our Ieremy in this Lamentation Lament 3.37 Who is he that saith it and it comes to passe when the Lord commandeth it not Out of the mouth of the most high proceedes not evill and good Thus persuing our sinnes to God wee finde in him both judgement and mercy judgement by which he hath but from us to punish mercy in which he hath of his seminarium miserecordiarum to be gratious and repent him of the evill upon the evils repentance 2 Cor. 1.3 Whereas if wee stay in our afflictions either out of dulnesse or impatience at the second causes and instruments by higher pressures wee become hardened and dejected by greater moreover in the men that oppresse us wee shall finde onely insultation and matter of provocation is my complaint saith Iob Iob â—1 4. to man if it were so how should not my spirit be