THE TEARES OF SION Vpon the Death of JOSIAH Distilled in some Country Sermon notes on Febr. 4 and 11 th 1649. Being the Quinquagesima and SexagesimaSundayes for that yeare Gloriosius esse pro Christo mori quà m Regnare in hoc seculo Quid enim praestantius quà m fieri Christi Hostiam Ambros de bono mortis cap. 3. Blessed are they which are persecuted for Righteousnesse sake for theirs is the kingdome of Heaven Mat. 5.10 Printed in the Yeare 1649. To the Reader REader I present to you those Teares which if you be truly Christian were once in your own eyes and the cause of which can never be out of your heart for you ought to think your life spared awhile onely to lament his Death whose life was given in exchange for yours and not to be spared long because his was not spared at all you have nothing left you now but to live and Mourne or to Pray and Dye For which cause you may well give us also in the Countrey leave to be as dutifull as others though not as Court-like as Affectionate though not as Eloquent 'T is not Ostentation that after so long Reluctancie brings these sad Drops to be drawne out into publike lines but meer Duty to the Dead King and Charity to the Living Subjects those especially whom it most deeply concernes to be heartily sorry yet care not to come to the Place where this was first published to know so much And to them as Servants I as a minister of Christ must give this Admonition They take not too little but too much of Christ upon them to be good Christians They are taught to learne of Christ in his Humiliation to bee meeke and lowly pittifull and Patient But they do assume the state of his Exaltation to bee Judges of the Quick and Dead I dare not judge their persons for my selfe a sinner feare to be judged of God but I must condemne their presumption if they measure their Religion by their successe why doe they not advance Turcisme above Christianitie If by themselves why come they so farre short of the worst Christians For in Gouernment they know no Charitie and under it they know no Patience A character which belong◠onely to those that live within the Torrid Zone of a Furious Zeale which if it cannot call down fire from Heaven will fetch up fire from Hell rather then not set the whole world in a combustion Believe it men of this Temper or rather of this Distemper had need either invent or bespeake a new Christianitie for the Old will not endure much lesse maintaine them I must likewise say in behalfe of the Woman persecuted by the Dragon Apoc. 12. And of the Man persecuted for the Woman that though at present driven into the Wildernesse they are still both on the better ground Not the more unhappy or sinfull because the lesse outwardly successefull And in this respect doth the Disciple of the Centurists judiciously castigate Salvian for Defending Gods providence when he suffered the Westerne Churches to be trampled upon by Goths and Vandals onely with this Argument That the said Churches had been very sinfull Debebat autem non tantum Christianorum Peccata accusare sed propter pios innocentis hominis etiam docere Deum immittere etiam sanctis suis gravis afflictiones aerumnas ut Jobo Jeremiae Johanni Baptistae aliis ut conformes fiant imagini Filii Dei saith Osiander Cent. 5. lib. 4. cap. 11. Salvian should not onely have blamed the bad Christians for their sinnes but for some very pious and innocent mens sakes have also taught That God did often inflict great temporall punishments even upon his best and dearest children as he brought Job to the dunghill Jeremie to the dungeon John Baptist to the Block we may adde And King CHARLES to all three to make them exactly conformable to the Image of his onely Son that as by their doings they had borne the image of the living so by their sufferings they might beare the image of the Dying Christ But I intend no new discourse onely the rehearsall of an old complaint yet certainly this present Age may blush to thinke and all future Ages will blush not to say That never a more Pious a more noble Prince swayed the Scepter Never a more impious a more ignoble People snatcht the Sword And therefore I may not blush to say that I was at first but Dumb in speaking and still am but maime in writing this sorrow Better one hand had been on my mouth to stop my Voyce th' other on my Heart to stop my Penne For as no sorrow is like Sions sorrow so no sorrow of Sion was ever like to this for her dearest Josiah As no mourning like the mourning of a Dove so no mourning of the Dove like that of Haddadrimmon And therefore 't is confessed without shame but not without cause that this expression of Sions sorrow is too dry to make your eye now water at the Reading though happily your heart did even bleed at the first hearing of the Dismal Tragedie but sure the affection made the Authors eye water at the writing of it And you must needs have a drop in your eye too otherwise you will see more cleerly to spie out faults then the Author could to mend them Who verily hopes for this reason to be justly offensive to none because he intended not to burden any guiltlesse heart but to ease his own And those that are guilty were better feele their burden here then hereafter The Devout man that carried the Martyr Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him Acts 8. 2. Burdened their shoulders by the carriage but eased their hearts by the Lamentation Nor would the Jewes that found so many stones to force St. Stephens death find one to throw at him that so openly bewayled it The reason was sure they were overcome by his Incomparable Patience which spent his living spirits in converting his persecutors But much more by his Divine charitie which poured out his dying spirit in praying for them And so did our lately deceased Soveraigne which melted the eyes if not the heart of that Officer of warre who guarded him to his Death And much more should it pierce the very soule of a Sonne of Peace who now Preacheth the Gospel of Peace and never stretched out his hand against the Kings life to harden his Heart but for the Kings Bread to strengthen it which was the staffe of his Life at Westminster and the Universitie above twenty yeares and bound him by the pietie of Education not to study or play not to eat or drinke not to sleep or wake without praying for a Blessing upon the King as well as upon himselfe And though he hath these two last Olympiads of the bloudie Game for sure some men like Abner 2 Sam. 2. 14. made it but a Pastime been wholly trained up in the severe Schoole of conscience not onely
this dreadfull truth That the untimely death of their good King Josiah was not a Judgement upon the King but upon the People not upon him but upon Judah and Jerusalem and that 's the second cause of their great lamentation their dreadfull apprehension for what was like to befall them Judah and Jerusalem mourned for themselves in mourning for Josiah And the Prophet Jeremie shews them as much who though he writ his Lamentations upon this sad occasion the Death of Josiah as Jarchi expounds these words of my Text Behold they are written in the Lamentations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he that is In the Book of Lamentations yet he begins his complaint with the miserable estate not of Josiah but of Jerusalem How doth the Citie fit solitarie that was full of people None of all the Prophets seem so framed for and composed to Lamentations as Jeremiah he had a Heart to conceive it a Hand to endite it and a Tongue to expresse it Surely because he writ much about the time of Josiahs death which was the Inlet of all Judahs miserie For immediatly after that Judah was captivated under sin and that brought in the captivity under Babylon whiles Josiah lived he made Judah and Ierusalem serve God so devoutly that Non fuit simile huic in Israel was the Eulogie of their Passeover 2 Chron. 35. 18. And no sooner is he dead bus 'tis said of them They walked after the imagination of their own heart a most secret but a most sottish kind of Idolatry And after Baalim which their fathers taught them Jer. 9. 14. for in all probability this Chapter was not penned till after Iosiahs death This is the reason Ieremiah Prophesies so mournfully a fit Prophet for those calamitous times both for the Disposition in himself and for his Invitation of others to sorrow and contrition insomuch that a great part of his Prophesie is but a meer Lamentation especially the former part of it which was neerest the time of Iosiah for after the 21. chapter all his Prophesie is in the dayes of Iehoiakim and Zedechiah wherein he somewhat exceeds the sorrow of his own spirit writing not onely more dolefully then any other Prophet but also more dolefully then all the other parts of his own Prophecie I will give you but one instance for all and that is cap. 4. v. 19. My bowells my bowells I am pained at the very heart 'T is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am pained as a woman in travaile at the walls or bulwarks of my heart that which most struggles to keep life hath the stroke of death upon it The sorrows of a woman in her travail are almost insupportable But a wounded spirit who can beare Prov. 18. 14. The pain of the heart is for greater then the pain of the bowells but lest wee should think he was not in the greatest extremitie of pain he joyns them both together saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am so pained at the heart as if I were in child-birth such was his griefe for Iosiah's death a pain that both rends the bowells and breaks the heart and batters down the very walls and bulwarks of life And what 's the reason of all this great pain He tells us in the next verse Destruction upon destruction is cryed for the whole land is spoyled which could not be while Iosiah lived and therefore in these and such like sad expressions he did Prophetically foretell if not Historically bemoan Iosiah's death or rather indeed bemoan Ierusalem not but that his affection was most dutifull to Iosiah but because his apprehension was more dreadfull for Jerusalem For he saw that Iosiah was taken to the Reward of mercy for his great zeale to God and Religion but Jerusalem was left exposed to Judgement for her multiplied Abominations and Impieties And to the most heavy judgements of this world Fire and Sword and Bondage and to the most heavie bondage that could be to them a Bondage under the Egyptians A Bondage which their Fathers before had groaned so long under and which they could not at that time but tremble to think upon for Josiahs Passeovers according to the Law Exod. 12. 26 27. could not but fill their eares with the narration and their hearts with the horrour of it It was the Bondage of Egypt which those children could not but expect mercilesse whose Fathers had been formerly the spoylers and destroyers of the Egyptians Let us a little view this new Bondage that it may appeare their feares were not greater then their dangers though they were greater then their hopes for now Egypt had learned to act beyond it selfe in the practise of cruelty Before it was contented to take the tribute of their hands in work or of their backs for not working by the Brick-task-masters But now besides these it hath found out money task-masters to demand Tribute of their purses The former Tyrants had made them slaves but this Necho makes them pay for their slavery nay he made not onely their Purses Tributary but also their Patience whiles they were forced to see Jehoaaz whom they had declared King in his Fathers stead deposed by this Tyrant and themselves punished for their Alleageance towards Josiah their beloved Josiah and his seed in an hundred talents of Silver and one talent of Gold 2 Chro. 36. 3. For it is more then probable that Necho condemned the Land in that mulct or punishment for presuming to be true and faithfull to the Succession of the Crown without his leave And yet there is a worse Bondage then this the bondage of their Religion begun by the Egyptians and compleated after by the Babylonians This bondage of their Religion was now begun by the Egyptians for Necho made Eliakim change his name to Jehoiakim 2 Chron. 36. 4. before he would admit him to bee King as if he should renounce or forget his Circumcision wherein his name was first given him or lose his Kingdoms And this same Bondage was compleated by the Babylonians who carried away all the Treasures of the house of the Lord and cut in pieces all the Vessels of gold which Solomon King of Israel had made in the Temple of the Lord Thus were they forced to see the abomination of Desolation standing in the Holy place which carried the Desolation further then the Temple even to their souls that saw it whiles they were compelled to look on prophannesse in stead of Religion and see their Temple and worship both made havock of by uncircumcised Babylonians they not in the least degree able to help either themselves or their Temple All the Book of God sets not down so sad an History of a King destroyed for his People as this of Josiah And therefore no wonder if we find not any where else so sad a lamentation they had kept a solemn Passeover before but now they were forced to keep a dismall Passeover when their innocent Josiah was made the Paschal Lamb
can exceed in sorrow for Josiah because he was taken away from the evill to come yet you cannot for your own sinnes by which he was taken away I am brought into so great trouble and miserie saith the tender-hearted King Psa 38. 6. that I go mourning all the day long Hee for my sinnes and not I much rather for mine own Sorrow is certainly most agreeable with a godly heart or the man after Gods own heart could not have spoken thus much lesse in the Person of the Sonne of God not is the Precept and practise thereof meerly legall for those onely that were under the curse of the Law but also Evangelicall for those that are under the Crosse of Christ and the blessings of the Gospel James 4. 8 9. They that are sinners must be afflicted and mourn and weep though they are bound to believe the Remission of sins And they must be sinners here in their own who hope to be Saints hereafter in Gods account Let us then joyn our selves to this sad Quire of mourners the season calls for it Lent was antiently a time of mourning The occasion calls for it our Josiah is slain and wee have yet a twofold lowder call that of our own sinnes and of Gods judgements both which cry aloud for the most bitter kinds of Lamentation If not for our interest in the life of our King yet for our sin in his Death we must heartily lamenr and that we may so do wee must ever hereafter speak of Iosiah in all our Lamentations They spake of Iosiah in their Lamentations to this day Sorrow is very unwilling to lift up either Head or Eye and therefore though we have heard some of the mournings of Iudah yet we have not looked so much about us as to see either the occasion of the mourning or the condition of it The Text directs us immediately unto both First The occasion of this bitter mourning it was the untimely death of Josiah untimely to all but to himselfe They mourned for Iosiah 2. The condition of it in the train of the Mourners All Judah and Jerusalem mourned and Jeremiah lamented and all the singing men c. First the occasion of this bitter mourning the untimely death of Iosiah lamentable in it selfe slain by Egyptians in a full age and ripenesse of years to govern both himselfe and Iudah 2 Kings 22. 1. But more lamentable in its circumstances for hee had newly made a Religious Real not a specious Phantasticall league and covenant with God 2 Chron. 34. 31. A Covenant that bound him to change his heart not his Religion and to keep the cōmandements which God had given not to give a new Commandement in the name of God He had taken away all the abominations of Israel 34. 33. Kept a most solemne Passeover 35. 18. and both with so great a Humiliation and Devotion as might have exempted a most wicked Ahab from a judgement already denounced against him not onely in his own as 1 Kin. 21. 29. but also in his sons daies Yet after all this comes his untimely Death as it is said 2 Chro. 35. 20. After all this when Josiah had prepared the Temple Necho King of Egypt came up c. After all this when Iosiah had prepared the Temple then himselfe was made the Sacrifice So that this one occasion affords in truth many causes of their mourning which are all reducible to these two Heads Their Affection and their Apprehension their Affection for what had befallen Iosiah and their Apprehension for what was like to befall them 1. There Affection for what had befallen Iosiah So the Prophet Ieremy begins his Lamentations How is the City become a widow Amisso Rege optimo qui Regni quasi meritus est popularium quasi Pater saith Tremelius a very good Protestant but in this a far better Christian Ierusalem was a widow having lost her Husband and an Orphan having lost her Father in the death of one Iosiah And so comes both with the Affection of a widow to mourn for her husband and with the affection of a child to mourn for her Father If Rachel mourned so affectionately for her children much more for her Husband Ierem. 31. 15. Do but change the persons and you may see how Ierusalem mourned for Iosiah A voice was heard in Ramah Lamentation and bitter weeping not Rachel weeping for her children but Ierusalem weeping for her Husband refuseth to be comforted for her Husband because hee is not If Ieremy could lament so exceedingly for the slain of the Daughter then how much more for the slaying of the Father of his People Doe but so change his words and you have a short view how Ieremiah lamented for Iosiah as he went along with the mourners Ier. 9. 1. O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountaine of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the Daughters but much more for the slain of the Father of my people Thus the greatest natural and personal affection that could be to their Josiah as a Father as a Husband is the cause of this great Lamentation and yet greater is the affection they shew to themselves For they did indeed in Josiahs death mourn and lament their owne Funeralls their affection to him was capable of some comfort but their affection to themselves was capable of none They knew that nothing but good had befallen Josiah for hee was gathered to his Fathers in peace as Huldah had prophesied 2 Chron. 34. 28. But they knew that nothing but evill could befall themselves for whose sinnes he was so soon gathered to his Fathers So that for their affection to him they could comfort themselves with these two documents First That God will not have his faithfull servants rely upon a temporall reward for their service but calleth them to the contemplation and fruition of Eternitie and yet is no debter in not paying their wages here in this world 2 Cor. 4. 17. Secondly That an untimely and unmercifull Death is sometimes given in favour not in judgement to Righteous and mercifull men even to take them away from the evill to come Isa 57. 1. As it was prophesied of this same Josiah that he should be gathered to his fathers in peace 2 Chron. 34. 28. which was without doubt fulfilled though hee was afterwards slain in Battell which hath the most cruell and the most dreadfull visage of War so that their inference savours of ill Logick but of worse divinity who upon those words Behold how he loved him John 11. 36. Presently replyed v. 37. Could he not have caused that this man should not have died as if that had been the greatest testimonie of his love For because God loved Iosiah he suffered him to die Thus their affection towards Iosiah might receive comfort from these two Documents which most of all distracts and disturbs their apprehension when they reflect upon themselves For both these considerations speak aloud to them
and their first born not saved but destroyed by the sprinkling of his blood We have but one example that comes neer this and that is of our Saviour Christ And he bids the women of Jerusalem lament not for him but for themselves and for their children Luk. 23. 27. for though his death did satisfie the eternall wrath of God against other sinners yet did it open the floudgates to let in his temporall wrath upon them that crucified him by a whole deluge of Bloud But behold in this of Josiah is somewhat a more dismal Passeover For in the Passeover of Christ as it was typicall in the Lamb none but Egyptians as it was reall in himselfe none but Divels were smitten But in this of Josiah all Israel nay the best of all Israel Judah and Jerusalem nay the best of Jerusalem the Temple of God nay the best of the Temple the Altar the worship of God was smitten All the Plagues that Israel had formerly occasioned unto Egypt were now more then aboundantly repayed back again to them by the Egyptians in taking away their Josiah who stood alone betwixt them and the finall wrath of God From henceforth Jerusalem may expect to be made a Cup of trembling unto others Zach. 12. 2. and much more unto her selfe And the Inhabitants of Judah may take up that sad complaint of the Psalmist Psal 60. 3. Thou hast given us a drink of deadly wine Potasti nos Vino 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tremoris quod bibens homo contramiscit moritur Thou hast given us not onely a drink of deadly poyson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as saith Jarchie that contracts and shuts up the Heart but also a drink of Palsie-poyson that first brings a shaking then death upon him that drinks it Jerusalem had such a Cup of Trembling at Josiah's death she could not but fear and tremble to think that since her sins were now so great as to make God snatch away her Josiah that he might recall the blessings of Peace and Truth which he had given they would not in hast be so little as to suffer him to renew again such blessed gifts This was the occasion of this great mourning and the condition is answerable to the occasion which is my second generall part The condition of this mourning in the train of Mourners And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned and Jeremiah lamented and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their Lamentations c. The condition of this mourning is such as never was before nor after it all the imaginable degrees of sorrow are to be found in it Gradus extensionis Gradus intensionis Gradus Protensionis The greatest sorrow that ever was in Judah for its universality for its vehemencie for its continuance 1. Gradus extensionis The greatest sorrow that ever was for its Universality For t is Omnes singuli all Judah and Jerusalem in general Then Jeremiah and the singing men singing women in particular in their severall consorts and companies nay in their severall Families saith Zach. 12. 12 13. And the land shall mourn every family apart the family of the house of David apart for the great losse that is befallen the house of David And the family of the house of Levi apart for the great losse that is befallen to the house of God Every family apart for their great losse in the losses of the house of David and the house of God If true griefe of heart could endure to be Ceremonious it would here easily find an employment for a Litania major and busie another Gregory for here is a Mauritius too slaughtered by the Captain of his Armies to order this sad Procession wherein all the Families of Iudah and Ierusalem apart do bewaile and lament the losse of their dearest Lord the onely joy of their hearts whiles he lived and now dead the greatest griefe of them But I can take notice onely of their Passion which makes them cry out with great earnestnesse but greater sorrow in this dreadfull Quaking of men as those of Constantinople sometimes did in that dreadfull quaking of the Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sanctus Deus Sanctus Fortis Sanctus Immortalis miserere nostri Holy O God Holy O mightie Holy ô Immortal have mercy upon us have mercy upon us that are living who hast already magnified thy mercy towards the dead in taking him away by death from the insupportable miseries of this wretched life But why is there no mention of Israel in this Universall sorrow of all Judahs and Jerusalems mourning for Josiah I answer they were not so happy though this happinesse was the greatest of miseries they were not so happy as to have any share in this losse and therefore not in this Lamentation this sorrow had too much of God for the Israelites to be partners in it who had so little of God left in them Nay who had so desperately fallen away from him which Apostasie of theirs is remarkably set forth by one of their own writers R. David Kimchi upon Hos 3. v. 4 5. The words of the Prophet are these Verse 4. For the children of Israel shall abide many daies without a King and without a Prince and without a Sacrifice and without an Ephod and Teraphim Verse 5. Afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their King and shall fear the Lord and his goodnesse in the latter dayes The fourth verse sets down Israels captivity for their sin The fift verse their Restauration for their Repentance And Kimchie upon those words gives us this glosse The children of Israel saith he did in the daies of Rehoboam reject or forsake three things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They did reject the kingdome of Heaven in forsaking God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Kingdom of the house of David in forsaking Rehoboam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the house of the Sanctuary or temple of Jerusalem in setting up Calves at Bethel And in these three consisted their captivity Therefore in the fift verse where is promised their Restauration the Prophet saith they shall return again to all these They shall seek the Lord their God there is promised their return to the Kingdome of Heaven And David their King there 's promised their return to the house of David And shall fear the Lord and his goodnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bonum ejus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Kimchie that is His Sanctuary There 's promised their return to the house of God In their defection from these was their Apostasie in their Apostasie was their miserie and captivitie Before their Revolt in King Davids time it was O Israel trust in the Lord and he shall redeem Israel from all his sinnes Psal 130. But after Jeroboams Rebellion and Revolt from the house of David we find that Israel had not one good King in many successions of Ages and that it had very little share in