troubled And David let me fall into the hands of the Lord for great are his mercies but let me not fall into the hand of man 1 Chron. 22.13 And our Ieremy in this Lamentation Lament 3.21.22 This I recall to minde therefore I have hope it is of the Lords mercy that wee are not consumed because his compassions faile not Upon this apprehension of both judgement and mercy in God Ieremy was comforted and expressed it in this Lamentation that wee through patience and comfort of the Scripture may have hope the same word Littenoth signifies both Lamentation and consolation for comfort takes best from one that laments with us and he condoles truely that useth all meanes to comfort I called upon thy name O Lord and thou didst heare my voice Lament 3.53.54.55.56.57.58 Thou drewest neere in that day and sayedst when I called feare not O Lord thou hast pleaded the causes of my soule thou hast redeemed my life Thou hast redeemed observe Ieremy that lamented for the losse of Iosiah his King was comforted in the promise of Jesus his Redeemer Thus the soule having at last wrought up to Gods judgement findeth there mercy also And in this mercy of God meetes againe with the great Shepheard that had deserted it and from this shepheard obtaines grace both to repent of it owne ruine which offended God and blancht the shepheard and to judge charitably of others in the same condition By which grace it proceedes to patience both to endure the present affliction and to waite for deliverance Heb. 11.35 whether present deliverance or a better resurrection Mat. 12.20 when and in what manner the wisdome of God shall by sending forth judgement unto victory upon impenitent sinners and the Sonne of righteousnesse with healing to contrite hearts worke out the redemption Mal. 4.2 The end beloved of every Text wee preach to you is that you winde your selves into the truth it holds forth And the aime of this my present Text is that you conforme your selves to it celestiall semblance To be selfe centred is earthly and sensuall but to move for the publick good is heavenly and spirituall If therefore there be any fellowship of the spirit saith Paul 2 Philip. 4. Looke not every one on his owne things but on the things of others for by embracing this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Ignatius speakes this true gallantry of harmonious love while every one seekes the good and bewailes the evill of every one a private evill is so divided that it is heavy to no man and a particular good so communicated that it redoundes to all Now he that will seeke the good of all must observe the course which he takes who rules all heere our Text requires conformity to an higher heaven then the materiall and diffuse as he diffuseth else he may confound when he thinkes to communicate And wee read that God led his people while he delighted in them by the hand of Moses and Aaron But that in his displeasure the Sunne the greater light is turned into blood and the lesser the Moone into water Ps 77.20 Wee have heere the spirit of God testifying in Josiah dying and Ieremiah crying Parumnè ad vos said Ieremy in this Lamentation Lament 1.12 as leaving this bridge for Posterity to passe from Iudah to England Is it nothing to you Yea our Syon may asselfe the words and go on with them Behold and see si major est ullus dolor quam dolor meus that lesser is all other sorrow then my sorrow I have had successively I would I could say succesfully three religious vertuous orthodox Princes Elizabeth James and Charles I had a glorious face of a Church a Church the very eye and excellency of all other Churches In Henry the 7. by my King I was freed from the division of Roses bitterer then wormewood sharper then the thistle In Henry 8. I shaked off by my King the Ecclesiasticall Tyranny of Anti-christ In Edward 6. purity of Religion sprang up with my King which though it was watred with the bloud of Martyrs under Mary that sister without breasts yet grew it the more glorious under those my three envies of all Kingdomes Elizabeth Iames and Charles But now facta est in pace amaritudo mea amarissima may I say with the sick Hezekiah behold upon my peace is come great bitternesse Esay 38.17 My bitternesse was great in the opposition of Hereticks greater in the death of my children the Martyrs but now in my peace my bitternesse is become greatest by the desolation of my dearest children the King and the Prophet Of whom since God had promised me Zach. 6.13 The counsell of peace shall be betwixt them both I sayd with my selfe as Iob did I shall dye in my nest my bow shall be renewed in my hand Iob 29 18.30.26 But when I lookt for light eruperunt tenebrae then darkenesse surprised me Ægyptian darkenesse my waters were turned into bloud my Land brought forth frogs in my Kings chambers palpable darkenesse not onely such as learned judgements can discerne but such as all hands but the actours feele and tremble at Parumnè ad vos turning againe for the people is it nothing to you is the case of Iosiah so lamented by Ieremiah nothing to you Ier. 5.31 Doe my people love to have it so And what will you doe in the end thereof Shall that of Iosiah be verified in you Esay 26.11 Lord when thy hand is lifed up they will not see but they shall see They will not see that the guilt proceeds from them but they shall see that the judgement runs to them They will not see that the judgement lookes at them while it is snatching at the Crowne and the Ephod but they shal see it and be astonisht when those being taken away it shall seize on them irrecoverably This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by whatsoever sinister passages and tumults it makes now an eddy at the King and Prophet will winde about againe and with a crooked turne empty direct judgement elsewhere It is your glory that as the vindication of God and the King the sympathy of the King and the Prophet so the welfare and ruine of the people and the King make up a trinity of combinations a threefold corde that cannot be broken If you serve the Lord and not rebell against his word both you and your King shall be nigh unto the Lord your God but if you doe wickedly you shall be consumed both you and your King said Samuel to the desirers of change of Government Beloved if that conformity to the celestiall semblance of the Text in being every one in commune bonus good not to himselfe alone but to the publique in his private calling would satisfie the whole end of the Text and our present case I could dismisse you with a compendious method of that duty namely that since every mans civill activity cannot extend so largely his devotion may come home to every mans doore to his Sonnes and his Daughters to his Garners his sheepe and oxen to his peace and tranquillity yea to his disposure to the Lord his God For all this is done by praying for the King This were enough in a composed State but it is not so with me sayd Job once Iob 9.35 The greatest of all the men of the East and our Syon now my Crowne is cast to the ground and the Sunne is gone downe upon my Prophets Mic. 3.6 Therefore when the foundations are cast downe what shall the righteous doe As he propoundes our case who had experience of it and he addes the resolution the Lord is in his holy Temple the Lords Throne is in Heaven Psalm 11.3.4 Observe the Symetry of the partes on earth foundations in the plurall the King and the Priest but unity in the patterne in Heaven the Lord yet in proportion to the building on earth expressed likewise as in the plurall the Temple and the Throne If then you would have your dayes on earth as the dayes of Heaven as Moses exhorted the Israelites Deut. 11.21 Doe as he commandeth in whom Heaven and Earth are revealed and reconciled Render to Caesar and render to God Math. 22 21. Heere 's both Caesar propounded and God and yet but one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea and first it is sayd to Caesar For of the good wee can render to God Caesar is the Minister to us and what obedience wee render to Caesar is rendred to God as the terminative object After all the rendring to Caesar there remaines a rendring to God and in all the rendring to Caesar there is a further rendring to God Render therefore to Caesar and render to God sed ipsum Caesarem reddite Deo but restore Caesar himselfe to God as he is a foundation restore him to God by acknowledging him to be from God as he is a shaken foundation restore him to God to the service that God hath ordained him for and to the meanes to performe the same For you owe to the patterne in Heaven and through the foundation on earth must render justitiam Throno Templo preces justice to the Throne prayers to the Temple the Throne in Heaven requires of you justice too and the Temple in Heaven prayers for the King on earth Discite justitiam moniti non temnere Divos Take heede Subjects how you deale with Kings he that must judge betwixt you is a King not a Subject Restore then to God his King lest you be like those Gyants the Aloades that sacrificed to their God Mars and yet fettred his hands Let us conclude with our Ieremy and his Lamentation Lament 5. vers 21.22 Turne us unto thee O Lord and wee shall be turned renew our dayes as of old unlesse thou hast utterly rejected us and cast the nice upon us Gloria Deo Christo FINIS
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
the Cadmean progeny is revived in our age faecunda vulpa saecula when a cursed Nadab hath dared to throw this strange fire from the Alter Damascenum upon our Alter innatum est omnibus Regibus contrà Christum odium all Kings beare an inbred hate to Christ These are the foxes that spoile our Vine Cant. 2.15 Rev. 9.3 and our tender Grapes these are the Locusts that come saith John out of the bottomlesse pit and have no King Prov. 30.27 saith yet go forth by bands And certainely this self-love coveteousnesse and pride which corrupts the love to the person and countermines to the authority of the King and to do both divides both is a symtome of Gods rejection of a Kingdome and the people Breake an entire looking-grasse that one perfect face 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which shined in it while it was whole appeares no more but in place of it so many breaches so many puppit phisnomies strive to represent the great face and mock the sight Marcellinus observes that the glory of Rome began to retrograde when the great ones began to seeke every one his owne ends and impropriate to himselfe hinc leges plebiscita coactae Et cum consulibus turbantes jura Tribuni so a private Tricipitina wrought a publique precipitation The Prophet Hosee Hos 10.3.1 when he was to prophesie that now Israell should say I have no King premised this disposition to the Anarchie Israell is an emptying Vine that fructifies onely to it selfe that doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 luxuriate it selfe but beares no fruit to the dresser a people whose shoulders like the Acephali are aboue the face see what the depravation and deprivation of the love of a King can doe On the contrary the love of men to their King comes from him by whom Kings raigne over men this God imprinted first by nature in that manifest impression which the publique benefit of a King makes in all men quantò discords libertate samentibus utilius sit uâ—um esse an serviant saith Plinie that it is better for men to be subject to one then to be allwaies jangling in untuned liberty who is saith Cyprian pax populi tutamen patriae c. the peace of the people the security of the Countrey the immunity of the Commonalty the joy of men Wherefore before the Emperours gate in Rome was an Oake planted betwixt two Bay-trees signifying that the felicity of the people depends upon the vertue and prosperity of the King The Macedonians were sensible of this who being put to slight by the Illyrians sent the next day for their Infant King into the field in his cradle and then rallying their forces overthrew the Illyrians shewing that the day before they wanted not valour but a King Even a dumbe man had conned this dictate of Nature so perquire that seeing the King assaulted he brake the string of his tongue and cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If thou beest a man doe not kill a King Againe God confirmed this mandate of love to a King by the Magna Charta of his word God spake once Psal 62.11 twice I heard it once for the matter twice for the manner There went saith the sacred History Sam. 10.26 with the King a band of men whose hearts God had touched but the children of Belial despised him who toucht their hearts â— Sam 9.20 And on whom sayd the Prophet to the King is all the desire of Israel is it not on thee and thy Fathers house 2 Sam. 21 17. The Israelits acknowledged to their King thou art the light of Israel thou art worth ten thousand of us And when the Spirit of God came upon the Generall of the Army of Iudah 2 Sam. 18.3 he said to the King thine are wee David and on thy side thou Sonne of Iesse Peace peace be to thee and peace be to thy helpers for thy God helpeth thee And least yet Lucifers behaviour should incarnate on earth for some turbulent spirits saith Calvine count not Christs Kingdome advanced nor themselves at Christian liberty unlesse they shake off all humane subjection God hath coupled together and fastned to his owne assertion the vindication of Kings and joyned together his owne and their both love and despight The Lord his God is with him Numb 23.21 and the shout of a King clangor victoriae Regis is among them who strove against Moses and Aaron when they strove against the Lord And againe their King shall passe before them and the Lord on the head of them But facing about he cursed God and the King was the high attaindure of any person and the dire curse of a Nation they shall fret themselves and curse their King and their God Thus both Nature and Scripture injoyne and knit to the love of the true God the true love of the King even of Iulian the temporall Lord saith Augustine for the eternall Lords sake Nature in Esops last charge to his Sonne Ennus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chvming to the Scripture Peters injunction to all Christians Feare God Honour the King Now if it be impiety not to mourne for their deaths for whose lives it is iniquity not to pray if Samuel mourned for a rejected King and David told the Daughters of Iudah of an evill King that it was he that cloathed them with scarlet and delights and put the Ornaments of gold upon their apparell if the word of God that injoynes love of the living justifie sorrow for dying Kings quod defles illud amasti How could the man whose eies were open which heard the words of God which saw the vision of the Almighty who was not ignorant that a people is in better condition under an evill King then without all government who perceived that in their Kings untimely death the Lord of Hostes called to weeping and mourning who was both Priest and Prophet how could he but lament for Iosiah Yea lament he did yea lament ausus potuit though Pharoah were in the Land yet warme with the Royall blood Yea he durst not but lament greatly and professe sorrow for his Kings death least the peoples slighting or soone forgetting it might be imputed to his example tali dedicatore nostri gemitus gloriamur but that rather they might say with Tertullian in the like case his love rejoyceth in sorrow and triumphs in black as the devotion of those that preferred the pitty in burning Steven before the feare of their owne lives He durst mourne for his King yea mourne he did for Iosiah tanquam pro unigenito saith Zachary as for an onely sonne tanquam pro primogenito as for a first borne Sonne the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo was like the mourning for the great shepheard Christ saith the same Zachary Zach. 12.11 who now in Josiahs death had broken both his staves Beauty and Bandes For Josiah as for Jesus for Josiah dying among them as for Jesus
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