neer attendance vpon God Cypri serm de Nat. Chri. Saint Cyprian hath collected them and hath the Catalogue of them Abel Pastor outum fuit fuerunt et Patriarchae pastores suarum tandem familiarum principes Pastor fuit Moses Pastor Dauid c. In the beginning after the creation in the olde Testament God chose shepherds to be his seruants In the beginning of the time of redemption in the new Testament Christ chose fishers to be his disciples shepherds haue a solitary life fishermen a watry life In shepherds the ancients haue hierogkiphically obserued contemplation in fishermen lamentation A shepherds life saith Philo Phil. lib. 1. de vit Mois is praeludium ad regnum of which phrase Homer and other Grecians haue made vse and the old Testament hath none of more esteeme then shepherds Moses that kept Iethro his sheepe Iacob that kept Labans sheepe Ioseph was sent to Iacobs sheepe Amos a Prophet taken from the heard Moses a Priest and Prophet from the sheepe Dauid the Lords souldier and whoeuer had such victories as Dauid taken from the fold Elias the Lords Seer and you know what the spirit of Elias was yet he taken from the cattell But more then this God the Father is called a shepherd in the Psalmes Psal 80.1 Ioh. 10.11 O thou shepherd of Israell thou that leadest Ioseph like a sheepe God the Son doth name himselfe a shepheard in the Gospell God the holy Spirit is named a shepheard in Peter 1 Pet. 2. the Shepheard and Bishop of our soules I haue lead you so farre onely to shew in what honor the name function person of shepheards haue beene you may the more wonder at the words percutiam PastoreÌ„ Abel the first shepherd may be slaughtered but this shepherd by excellencie called the shepherd he that is bonus Pastor magnus pastor Princeps Pastorum Formosi pecoris custos c. He that was white and ruddy the fairest of ten thousand full of grace were his lips spetiosus suae filijs hominum he whose head was fine as gold whose lockes were curled who had cheekes as a bed of spices lips like lillies hands as rings of Crysolites legges as pillars of marble whose countenance was as Lebanon whose mouth as sweete things who was wholly delectable O my God is he striken yes and smitten with such a deadly blow that the Axeliree of heauen could not haue born it Esay called him vir dolorum and Ieremy expresseth his inexpressible griefe dolor non sicut dolor neuer sorrow like his sorrow Sorrow followed him from his birth to his buriall In his birth persecuted by Tyrants in his life tempted by diuels at his death apprehended by Traytors scourged spitte vpon by souldiers vile fied more then a murtherer crucified with Theeues a Crosse the curse of the Law to beare him and he to beare all the sinnes of the world his most blessed body to be mangled and goared his soule to drinke vp sorrow thus to giue vp the ghost Pastor Pellican Christus dilectus filius Populi Doctor super hunc excitantur persecutorum manus vpon Christ who was primogenitus nay vnigenitus the beloued son the Doctor of his people the Shepheard of his sheepe the Lambe of God the Lyon of Iuda the expresse Character of his Father the light of the Gentiles glory of his people Israel the hands of his persecutors are lifted vp and fall downe with this heauy heauy blow Obser 2 The obseruation hence is that the great height of sinnes bring downe so heauy weight of iudgements as that God will not spare his owne onely one his deare one his faire one his Son Christ Iesus I say no more in this but what Aquinas gathereth from that of Esay Aquin. in Esay Proptâ—r scelus populi mei percussi eum for sin he was smitten who had no sin and the blow was so heauy that the mountaines trembled Not onely was Christ taken away for sin but in fiercenesse of Gods wrath hee often giues the world such a shocke and stroke that it reeles and almost ouerwhelmes with the dart of vengeance that strikes into the heart of a kingdome by taking away the chosen seruants of God the chosen shepheards of the world such as are Kings Princes who as Christ communicated of mans miserie so these participate of Gods Maiestie yet in his furie he will smite these Witnesse Iosias the dearling of God the apple of his eye the signet on his right hand Prophecied of three hundred yeeres before his birth lamented among the posteritie of the Iewes after his death yet Iosias must be smitten Iosias Eccle. 49. whose remembrance is like the perfume that is made by the Apothecary sweet as hony in all mouthes and as musicke at a banquet of wine he that was a patterne of reformation to all succeeding Princes yet Iosias must be smitten he that destroyed the idolatrous Priests monuments of Baal the Sunne Moone Planets with all their high Places or Valleyes or Groues or Altars or Vessels and cut downe burnt to ashes beate to powder threw into the brooke and left no signe of them yet Iosias must be smitten 2 King 23. 2 Chro. 35 Iosias whose Epipoheneme and acclamation was like vnto him was no King before him whose Elegy and Lamentation was such as neuer the like before or after him all singing men and singing women lament him to his day and neuer the like mourning as that of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo yet Iosias must be smitten Non similis for his honorable reformation Non similis for his memorable lamentation yet the right hand of the Almighty spared not Iosias In the Chronicles of all the Kings from Saul to Zedekiah containing fourteene generations and forty Kings there was not one that gaue or tooke the like example of perfection For as among the bad Rehoboam did ill Ieroboam worse Omri worse then he Ahab worse then all so on the contrary though Asa did right in the eyes of the lord 1 King â—â— his son Iehoshaphat walked in the wayes of Asa his father Amasiah did vprightly in the sight of the Lord 1 King 22 and Azariah his son did according to all that his father Amasiah did 2 King 14 2 King 15 Dauid was a man after Gods owne heart Salomon his sonne for his wisedome honor riches and happines exceeded his father Dauid 1 King 10 yet euery one of these had some scarre some blots some blemishes an eclipticke line ranne through each of their Zodiackes onely Iosias is without any noted spot or wrinckle like him was no king before him What then was the reason that this Rose of the garland must be blasted the diamond of the Crowne be darkened the Paragon of all the Kings of Israel and Iudah must be smitten that percutiam the word of my Text serued his execution so violently vpon Iosias Why would he that breaketh the bow
LAMENTATIONS FOR the death of the late Illustrious Prince Henry AND the dissolution of his religious Familie Two Sermons Preached in his Highnesse Chappell at Saint IAMES on the 10. and 15. day of Nouember being the first Tuesday and Sunday after his decease By DANIEL PRICE Chaplaine then in attendance MICAH 7.8 Reioyce not against me O mine enemie though I fall I shall rise againe LONDON Printed by THO. SNODHAM for ROGER IACKSON and are to be sould at his shop neere to Fleetstreet Conduit 1613. TO THE HIGH AND MIGHTY PRINCE PRINCE CHARLES THE IOY OF OVR SORROW AND THE HOPE OF SVCCESSION ENGLANDS CHARLEMAINE DANIEL PRICE WITH THE DEDICATION OF THESE HIS TWO MITES WISHETH THE ACCRVMENT OF ALL HAPPINESSE WITH THE DOVBLING OF THE SPIRIT OF HIS BLESSED BROTHER VPON HIM TO THE HONOVRAble Religious and worthy Gentlemen the great Officers to the late renowmed Prince To the Ho. worthy Gentlemen of the Bed-chamber to his Reuerend Brethren the Chaplaines and to all the rest of the Gentlemen and Officers of that Princely familie THe importunity of some the expectation of many and the kinde acceptation of all of you hath caused me to cast these two Mites into the Treasure of the publike sorrow and to present that now to your hands which in my attendance in this woefull time J prouided for your hearts They are plaine both because sorrow dislikes descant and plaine stuffes are fittest for Mourners they are passionate for in my meditation by the riuers of sorrow I sat downe wept and hanged my Harpe vpon the willow trees for euer tuning it to comfort or melody againe and when ye required this song of mee in my heauinesse I knew not how to sing any song of the Lord but a song of sorrow in this strange land strange for the sinnes strange for the iudgements They are yours they once breathed with you and now euer shall liue with you a pledge of that hart that neuer reioyced in any sublunary obiect more then to see while our Sunne did shine such an happy friendly aspect of so many principall Planets and sweet plants in this place let Charity interpret me and none will be offended that vpon impetuous importunity I publish these last offices to the memory of that illustrious Prince our Maister for whom the sound of all tongues and applause of all hands testifie neuer was any more honoured in his life neuer any more lamented in his death that euer beheld the light of heauen in this land My best deuotion faithfulest seruices are presented with these and so I remaine Yours in all Christian dutie Daniell Price The first Sermon Matth. 26.31 I will smite the Shepheard and the Sheepe of the flocke shall be scattered A Great Prince is falne in Israel 2 Sam. 3.38 1 Sam. 4.21 Zach. 11.2 Aust de Pas the ioy of the Christian world is deceased Ichabod the glory of Israel is departed Howle ye poore Firre Trees your Cedar is fallen Lachrimis non verbis miserationibus non orationibus opus est I know it is contrary to the grounds of Art presently at the first entrance to hoise vp sayles in such a sea of lamentation and sorrow But miserie obserues no rules of Oratory and therefore without any further Proeme wee should all take vp that Elegy of Dauid 2 Sam. 1. 2 Sam. 1. O noble Israel he is slaine vpon thy high places Tell it not in Gath nor publish it in Ascalon least the daughters of the vncircumcised reioyce O ye Mountaines of Gilboa vpon yee be neither dew nor raine there the shield of the mighty was cast downe Ionathan was lonely and pleasant in his life swift as an Eagle strong as a Lyon ye sonnes of Israel weepe for Ionathan which clothed you in Scarlet with pleasures and hanged ornaments of Gold vpon your apparell All of you of what condition soeuer heare with silence what you feele with sorrow the very thunderbolt of heauen I will smite the Shepheard and the sheepe of the flocke shall be scattered Take vp a lamentation Ierem. sayth the Lord to the Prophet A lamentation such as was not in the daies of our fathers Alas no lamentation will sit our losse a deluge of teares is little enough to beare the arke of our sorrow Austin is sayd to weepe a shoure of teares Ambrose a flood of tears but you will tell me Doct. Swale Rhetorie intur Patres I am sure Ieremy wished for a fountaine of teares and my sorrowing louing brother hath brought you a Saboath dayes iourney towards this Fountaine him I follow with paces of lamentation and loue and with as faithfull as sorrowfull obseruance to his memory for whom we are commanded to continue these our last accomplishments of attendance we shall both endeuor to teach you that last lesson of our Sauiour Weepe not for me but weepe for your selues I haue at this time setled the foundation of my meditations vpon the farewell of Christ to his Disciples A prophecy found in Zachary 400. yeeres before it was vsed heere Zach 13.7 Mark 14.28 Ioh. 16.27 repeated in Matthew in Mark and Iohn in all these places prophecying of the death of the lord of life Hypocrisie is a true Pharisie but griefe is a bad Scribe expect neither order nor matter sorrow hath deuided such shares among vs the scattered sheepe and flocke of this fold that our soules are euen deuided within vs. The words themselues without any descant be words of amazement and astonishment I will smite the shepherd and the sheepe of the flocke shall be scattered Rom. 1.16 Ier. 23.29 Heb. 4.12 Eph. 6.17 Euery word of the Lord is a power a fire a hammer a Pyoner to ouerthrow strong holds a sword to deuide the reynes and the marrow But this an extraordinary word it is the alarum to a battel the voice of a Trumpet an Earthquake shaking the Pillars of the Earth I will smite the shepheard and the sheep shall be scattered I will smite vox furoris doloris sayth a Glosse the voyce of fury in God Gloss Bern. Leu. 27. Deut. 28. Reu. 3.19 the voyce of misery to man It had beene more milde if as in Leuiticus I will punish or in Deuteronomy I will correct or in the Reuelation I will chastise But who is able to beare his blow who is able to stand before him if he be angry by the least of his blowes wee are cut downe dryed vp and withered I will smite the Shepheard not the sheepe of his Pasture not the Ewes great with yong not the Lambes of the Fold if the sheepe onely had bin smitten Psalme Dauids prayer had serued how long wilt thou proceed in anger against the sheep of this pasture But the stroke is greater more grieuous it is falne vpon the shepheard the guider the glory the Prince of the people I will smite the shepheard And the sheepe shall be scattered his poore followers haue no better phrase
Psalme knappeth the speare in sunder casteth the arrowes in the fire I say why would he let the Archers shoot at King Iosias 1 King 22 It was the voyce of the King of Aram to his Captaines concerning wicked King Ahab fight ye neither against great nor small but against the King but that the Lord should direct that fatall arrow to be the death of his darling Iosias this arrow strikes vs with admiration I cannot but beare part with those mourners in Megiddo Alas for this great day Alas for that good Prince Alas that Iosias is smitten When Dauid numbred the people the people dyed they suffered for his sinne 1 Chro. 21 plectuntur Achiui and Dauid cryeth What haue they done it is euen I that haue sinned Is it not I that haue commanded to number the people but these sheepe what haue they done O Lord my God I beseech thee let thine hand be on me and on my fathers house and not on thy people for their destruction There the people were plagued for the offence of the Prince but heere the Prince is smitten for the offence of the people I finde especially two causes why Iosias was smitten First for the sinnes of the time The first cause of the death of Iosias the sinnes of those dayes I collect out of Zephany to be strange and horride In the front of the Prophecie you may see that he prophesied in the dayes of Iosias Zeph. 1.1 in the second verse of that Chapter there is a fearefull destruction pronounced such as in so few wordes is not to be found in all the Prophets It is a generall obseruation that where we heare some strange desolation threatned there is some strange abhomination committed Obserue both here first the desolation thretned I will surely destroy all things from the Land Zeph. 1.1.2 saith the Lord I will destroy man and beast I will destroy the fowles of the heauen and the fishes of the sea and ruines shall be to the wicked and I will cut off man from the land saith the Lord c. It is so terrible as if that in the Psalm were fulfilled Destructions are come to a perpetuall end Psalm 9. a deluge and Cataclisme a deuastation desolation vnspeakable The greatest plagues that euer came on the world were either the particular in the Iudgements on Egipt or the generall in the drowning of the World In Egipt besideâ— flyes and lice and frogs and darknesse there was the killing of the first-borne Murraine of Beasts death of Fishes by the water turned into bloud but I find no where that their fowle of heauen were destroyed In the drowning of the World all mankinde was not destroyed eight Soules were preserued and although the beasts of the field and fowles of the ayre perished yet I can no way collect the destruction of the fishes those watry creatures kept their Colonyes In Egipt beasts and fishes were destroyed not the fowles In the floud beasts and fowles not the fishes but in this Man and Beast Fish and Fowle all things threatned to be destroyed from the earth Secondly therefore consider the abhomination committed in those times you may at first sight collect them out of the following verses In the 4. verse Zeph. 1.4.1 there was a remnant of Baall in the land resembling our Papists Secondly Priests and Chemarims fit parallels to our Priests and Iesuits Verse 5 Thirdly in the 5. verse there were some that sware by the Lord and sware by Malcham equalling the false-harted halfe hollow-harted Hipocrites of two Religions in these dayes Verse 6 Fourthly in the 6. verse some that turned backe from the Lord like to our Ephraimitall Apostaticall reuolters Fiftly some that sought not the Lord nor inquired after him shadowing the Atheists of our land Verse 8 Sixtly in the 8. verse such as were cloathed with strange apparell the characters of the guls and gallants of our dayes Verse 9 In the 9. verse some that daunced vpon the threshold so proudly the note of the quaint Crane-paced Courtiers of this time Lastly those that filled houses by cruelty and deceit the brand of the sinfull and couetous Citizens of this Citie Now measure with the cubit of the Sanctuary whether desolation be not fitted to abhomination Runne to and fro through the streete of that Chapter and see and heare and feare and tremble Sinnes were the cause of that threatned destruction sinnes were the Cart-ropes Engines Pioners the Earthquakes Whirlewindes Thunderbolts finall downefall and funerall and deuastation of that State In the time of the Iudges Iudg. 20.44 the Lord almost extinguished the Tribe of Beniamin eighteen thousand at one time 1 King â—2 In the time of the Kings ten Tribes fell from Israell But this misery is more Roote and Branch head and tayle as the Prophet sore-told Man Beast Fish and fowle are destroyed For sinnes he doth stretch out his hand vpon Iudah and vpon all the inhabitants of Ierusalem for sinnes he doth worry the Sheepe and smite the Shepheard This is the first reason why Iosias is smitten The second cause of smiting Iosias The second reason that Iosias was smitten was that hee might not see the misery threatned to be brought vpon Israell his eyes should not see that euill Euill must come but not in the dayes of Iosias The word of the Lord is good saith Hezekias onely let peace be in my dayes The Israelites must be bond-slaues in the land of Egipt Genesis but not till the Patriarkes sleepe in peace Tenne Tribes shall be diuided from the twelue yet Salomons eyes shall first be shut Ierusalem shall be destroyed but not till they who mourne in Zyon be marked Ezek. 9.4 Al Italy grieuously troubled but Ambrose must first be at rest Africa shal be spoiled but not till Austine decease Germany was distracted but Luther first must peaceably honourably be buryed England was persecuted and fiered but blessed King Edward must first be receiued into Abrahams bosome God reserueth his iust determinate plagues and stayeth his Vyals till his appointed times All the States of the World haue their Criticall dayes and Climactericall yeeres beginnings setled stations declinations and dissolutions at Gods appointment Certo veniunt ordine Parcae Seneca It was a speech that commands admiration from vs that God should say to Lot Get thee hence I can doe nothing till thou art gone hence Was the power of God limited by himselfe he did actiuely limit his power it was not passiuely limitted by Lot God did limit his wil Genesis or rather both were determinated then limited or terminated It exceedes our thoughts that he in so fauourable a Compassion will forbeare for his loue to some particular Seruant the great wrath he hath laid vp in store for a Nation Gen. 39 5. Gen. 30.27 He doth not onely blesse Potiphar for Ioseph and Laban for Iacob but hold his hand stay his Vials forbeare his