Ierusalem all the good people in that Church and Nation betake themselves to dolefull lamentations And all Judah and Jerusalem c. 1. Of the first of these That the child the dearest child of God may undergo a violent death As a child of God may be exposed in this world to any tempration that is common to the Nature of man to the sorest and sharpest affliction so to the sharpest kind of death The reason is because death by the decree of God by the desert of man is the inseparable sequel of sin to all the sons of Adam aswel to the godly as to the wicked forasmuch as all have sinned all must dye whatsoever may conduce to or bring on death whether it be corruption from within in these our earthly Tabernacles our bodies breeding some noysome or grivous disease or force and violence from without by wounds hurts and bruises may befal the the one God permitting aswel as the other As death is common to all so the same causes procurers and producers of death are incident and alike common to all As the the undergoing any sore affliction or a violent death is no sure argument that a man is the child of God so the undergoing the like is no certain evidence that he is not the child of God we cannot conclude any one to be a reprobate simply from any kind of suffering or from any kind of death because Gods dear child may be exposed to the one or the other The Donatists of old who were the forefathers of our Anabaptisticall fanatique Section separating brood vainly supposed that the undergoing of sore afflictions and violent death was the most ready way to bring them to heaven and a sure character of eminent Saints and therfore would willfully and needlesly expose themselves to grievous sufferings and sometimes to cruell death As Venner the Sectarian Preacher or rather prater the Wine-cooper and his cursed crue lately gloried to shed their blood in fighting for King Jesus Thus do they blasphemously abuse that good sweet and precious name though in open and horrid Treason and Rebellion against the lawfull powers ordained by God and in plain opposition to the laws of God and of the Land as if Christ who foretold by his Prophets as a great blessing to his Church and People under the Gospell That Kings should be their nursing Fathers and Queens their nursing Mothers would have these nurses all killed and murthered by their own children And not remember what he hath said They that take the sword upon such false grounds shall perish by the sword St. Austin Epist 50. ad Bonifacium speaketh of three kinds of death wherewith the said Donatists desired to be killed or rather indeed killed themselves Some of them would make request unto the worshippers and keepers of Idols to destroy them others would offer themselves to armed men robbers and spoylers lying by the high-way side to be slain of them and there wanted not such among them as delighted to cast themselves headlong from high places into the water and into the fire In this last age some Fanatick people have traced their steps Gualterus that famous Preacher of Zurich who lived about an hundred years since Hom. 209. in Mat. cap. 16. Relateth that he himself saw a woman after she had lived many years honestly with her husband and among her neighbours being instructed or rather seducted by the Anabaptists ran away from her husband and forsook her seven little children nothing pittying the youngest though a sucking babe and being asked why so unnaturall and unlike Mother she forsooke her children she had that pretence which the rest of the Anabaptists have Christ exhorts us to bear the Cross But though he exhort to bear the Crosse yet he requireth not that we should put needless crosses upon our selves but only to bear them patiently when he is pleased to send them and when he cals to suffer As for those who rashly expose themselves to troubles and cast themselves into wilful dangers or death it self without warrant of Gods word their actions are so far from pleasing that they are very displeasing to him As Saint Austin very well affirmeth Tract 11. in 3. Iohn Let Marculus saith he fling himselfe downe headlong from a rock and let Donatus in like sort cast himself into a pit both with intent to end their lives yet shall they not be called Martyrs or at most as he speakes in another place they are but Martyrs of a foolish Philosophy mad Fanatick Martyrs Now as these or like sufferings were no evidence to them of their salvation because it is not the meet suffering or the kind of death but the cause that makes a Martyr So the like being undergone are no argument that a man is not in Gods favour The dearest child of God may undergo a violent death The Prophet the man of God that came from Iudah to cry out against Iereboams Idolatrous Altar at Bethel in his return homeward was slain by a Lyon yet all agree though his body suffered yet his soul was saved he was the dear child of God so esteemed by the old Prophet who took care for his decent burial and laid him in his own Sepulchre and they mourned over him saying alas my brother and laid a charge upon his sons to lay him in the same Sepuchre lay my bones besides his bones 1 Kin. 13.31 So this good King Iosiah esteemed him for when in accomplishment of that Prophesie he brake down the Altar of Bethel and burnt many bones upon it digging up the bones of the Idolatrous Priests and burned them when he came to the Sepulchre of this man of God and undertood by the title whose it was he gave charge to let him alone Let no man move his bones deeming him the servant of God 2 Kin. 23.18 And all those Worthies of the Old Testament spoken of Heb. 11.36 37 48. Being too good to live in this world received hard measure from the world And had tryall of cruell hands and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment they were stoned they were sawen asunder were tempted were slain with the sword Blessed Steven the Proto-martyr of the New Testament was pelted knockt to death with stones and many of the best of Gods Saints and Servants pledg'd him in the cup of Martyrdom which was very bitter and bloody The holy Baptists head was chopt off to satisfie the appetite of a lustful and luxurious woman and served up to her in a Charger And Gods holy child Jesus that just and religious one taking our sins upon him and standing in that place underwent a violent death the painful shameful and accursed death of Cross yet still most dear in his Fathers favour Iosiah here a good and a religious King yet slain by cruell hands The Archers shot him and he dyed now briefly for Application Vse 1. Learn here first That neither goodnesse nor greatness can exempt man from the saddest
nature it self is apt enough to shew it self upon all occasions of this nature In mourning for our near relations we are more apt to erre in the excess then in the defect to mourn immoderately then to faile in mourning for our friends deceased Therefore let us take heed that we do not exceed nor give too much way to our passion The Apostle doth not forbid all sorrow for the dead but immoderate sorrow That we should not grieve and take on like the Gentiles who were ignorant of the blessed state of the dead that die in the Lord and had no hope of ever seing them again because they were not perswaded of the Resurrection and so mourned out of measure 1 Thes 4.13 I would not have you ignorant brethren of them that are asleep as ye sorrow not even as others that have no hope for if we beleeve that Jesus dyed and arose again even them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him There are four cordials let me give you to moderate and mitigate this sorrow regulate this passion 1. Because it is our common condition death is no new or strange thing but the lot and portion of every child of Adam As by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin so death passed upon all men for that all men have sinned Rom. 5.12 Do we see some friend go before us let us not be too much troubled nothing hath hapned to them but what must happen to us yea to all it is the case of all to die Our Fathers are gone before us and we must follow after them and our children after us one generation passeth and another succeedeth all things are here in a mutable condition and so are we Omnia peribunt sic ibimus ibitis ibunt Demonax the Philosopher seeing one make great lamentation for a friend departed wished him to make enquiry among all that company being very numerous and see if he could find any one who by death had not been deprived of some friend or other which when he did and could find none with the community of the case he comforted himselfe and bridled his sorrow So if by death we have been deprived of Parents or Brethren Husbands or Wives children and Friends let us remember nothing comes to us but that which is common to all and let this restrain us from moderate mourning With this thought David put an end to that sorrow for his child which he so dearly loved But now he is dead wherefore should I fast can I bring him back again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me 2 Sam. 12.23 As if he had said death is common to all I shall die as well as he I must follow him in the way of death the way of all the earth from which there is no returning hither Therefore why should I afflict my selfe any more 2. Because death comes by Gods appointment and determination with him are the issues of death he hath fixed and appointed our time here All the dayes of my appointed time will I waite till my change come saith Job So that God hath set down how long every ones time shall be The number of our moneths years and dayes is with him he hath set us our bounds which we cannot pass Job 14. Indeed to our apprehension many times some are taken away untimely unseasonably suddenly husbands from the wives and wives from their husbands children from their parents and parents from their children some in their youth and sull strength when their breasts are full of milk and their bones full of marrow but let it not seem strange to us Their appointed times were come the will of God is done and we must be content and with patience submit to it 3. Because by death the faithful go to a better mansion and mend their condition they make a happy change they change their mortall for immortality this corruption this earthly house for an heavenly house They are freed from their labours sorrows troubles miseries afflictions molestations of this present evill-world and brought to the desired home of true aest of blisse rnd perfect happiness ut non tam plangendus sit qui hac luce caruerit quam gratisicandum ei quod de tantis malis eraserit saith the Father That he which departed hence in the Lord is not so much to be lamented for because he is deprived of this light as to be rejoyced for in that he is escaped out of such a Sea of misery and landed safely in the sure harbour of endless felicity taken up to the true light 4. Because we have assurance of a joyful Resurrection they that dye in the Lord are not lost or gone from us for ever but only gone before us they are fallen into a sweet sleep and shall for certain awake again rise again at that great day when the Lord Iesus shall shew himself from heaven and change our vile body and make it like unto his own glorious body when we shall enjoy the company and society of our Christian friends in body and soul for ever therefore as the Apostle exhorteth comfort your selves and one another with these words The second Sermon And all Iudah and Ierusalem mourned for Iosiah And Ieremiah lamented for Iosiah c. 2 Chron. 35.24 25. THe third observation which I gave you from this Text which I chiefly intended and aimed at for this day as being most suitable to our present occasion and meeting and which follows now to be spoken of was this That the death especially the violent death of a good King is a ground of great mourning to all good people Iosiah a good religious zealous King being slain in battel the Church and good people among the Jews yea the whole Nation City and Country Prophets and others all the Inhabitants of the Land fall to sad mourning and doleful lamentation This truth is so apparent that it needs not much proof yet it may be further made out upon these accounts 1. The death of any friend doth occasion sorrow and mourning much more the death of a choice friend of a chief friend of a common friend especially if he fall into the hands of merciless thieves and murderers and come to a barbarous and bloody end this must needs be a cause of great mourning to all that did bear any loving respect to him And is not a King a good King a friend a chief and choice friend a common friend to all his good people being the Minister and Vicegerent of God for the punishmen of evil doers but for the praise of them that do well 1 Pet. 2.14 Must not then his death a violent and bloody death unmercifully and unjustly brought upon him occasion sad hearts and great mourning among those who had any spark of goodness and affection towards him 2. A good King is not only a friend but a Father Pater Patriae the Father of his Country and of the
sight as I have removed Israel and will cast off this City Jerusalem which I have chosen and the house of which I have said my name shall be there 2 King 23.26.27 So that for the great sin of the Land was this blessed King snatched from his People by untimely death as a punishment not of his but of their iniquity According as Huldah the Prophetesse had informed the Messenger sent to her by him 2 King 22. from ver 15. to 20. Thus saith the Lord Tell the man that sent you to me Thus saith the Lord Behold I will bring evil upon this place and upon the Inhabitants thereof even all the words of the book which the King of Judah hath read because they have forsaken me and have burnt Incense to other gods to provoke me to anger Therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place and shall not be quenched But to the King of Judah that sent you Thus shall you say to him Thus saith the Lord God of Israel as touching the word which thou hast heard because thine heart was tender and thou hast humbled thy selfe before me when thou heardest what I said against this place and against the Inhabitants thereof to make it a desolation and a curse and hast rent thy clothes and hath wept before me I have also heard thee saith the Lord Behold therefore I will gather thee unto thy Fathers and thou shalt be gathered unto thy Grave in peace and thy eies shall not see all the evill that I will bring upon this Land Now that this judgement pronounced might be accomplished upon the Nation This godly and religious King was unhappily drawn into a destructive War Pharaoh Necho King of Egypt going to War against Carchemish King of Assyria to the river Euphrates Iosiah is drawn in to aid the Assyrians Necho sends Ambassadours to disswade him from it what have I to do with thee thou King of Iudah I come not against thee this day but against the House wherewith I have war for God commanded me to make hast for bear thee from medling with God who is with me that he destroy thee not Nevertheless Iosiah would not turn his face from him but disguised himself that he might fight with him and hearkned not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God and came to fight with him in the valley of Megiddâ— And in this battel he lost his life Vers 23. And the Archers shot at King Josiah and the King said to his Servants have me away for I am sore wounded His Servants therefore took him out of that Chariot and put him into the second Chariot that he had and they brought him to Jerusalem and he dyed and was buried in one of the Sepulchres of his Futhers And then followes my mournful Text And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah and Jeremiah lamented for Josiah c. Jusiah dyed by a fatall arrow as our Iosiah by a dismall blow to the unexpressible griefe of his People the Church of God decay of Religion and damage of the State which the Nation being sensible of betake themselves as our Nation now doth to a generall lamentation and a bitter mourning And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned c. and Jeremiah c. Wherein we have 1. The Person lamented and mourned for and that was Iosiah a godly and religious King yet slain by cruell hand The Archers shot him wounded him sore and he dyed 2. The sad lamentations made for him where we have 1. The generality of the mourners The whole Land mourned the whole Church and Nation of the Jews All Iudah and Ierusalem Jeremiah the Prophet all the singing men and singing women all the People both City and Country Prophets and others This was the greatest mourning that we read of Therefore the very quintessence of mourning is set forth by this Zach. 12.11 In that day there shal be a great mourning in Ierusalem like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Magiddon And that not without cause whether the worth of the man the good that he did or the evill that followed upon his death be considered 2. The continuation of this mourning It was not only for a time for a day or two or a week or two a month or two and no more but it was continued from time to time from year to year by an Ordinance made for it in Israel It was a custom amonst the Iews to have publick mourners at their Funerals both men and women who used to make lamentations in dolefull Tunes at the death of Persons of worth as appeares Eccl. 12.5 Man goeth to his long home and the Mourners go about the streets In these lamentations they used to make mention of the parties deceased and to mourn for them Thus they did for Iosiah in their solemn mournings for others making mention of the great losse of him Insomuch that it became a constant custom and as it were a setled Law or Ordinance to make mention of the sad loss of Josiah in their dolefull Elegies Or it may be that by reason of the losse of so worthy a King a speciall Law was enacted for it as our Nation and State hath now piously and prudently done that at all other solemn mournings there should be mourning for Josiah and that publike Mourners observed the same This is meant when 't is said And made them an Ordinance in Israel 3. The Record for the commemoration of this holy man in the continued mourning for him And behold they are written in the Lamentations Some conceive the Lamentations of Jeremiah registred in sacred Scripture to be here meant which seemes to them to be hinted Lam. 4.20 The breath of our nostrils the anoynted of the Lord is taken in their Pits c. But the most reject this and think there might be some other Lamentations remaining then upon record and wherein the losse of Josiah was set down And all Iudah and Ierusalem mourned for Iosiah and Ieremiah lamented for Iosiah c. I shall not now by reason of my very short warning exactly handle every branch of the text but only gather for you from hence three generall observations wherin I shall comprise and bind up together as with a threefold cord the whole sum and substance of the Text. 1. That the child the dearest child of God may undergo a violent death and this I gather from the Person lamented Iosiah a good and godly King a blessed Saint yet slain by cruell hands The Archers shot him 2. That it hath been an ancient custom among the people of God to mourn for the dead And this I gather from the mourners in the Text The Church of God Iudah and Ierusalem Ieremiah the prophet All betaking themselves to sad and solemn mourning for Josiahs death 3. That the death especially the violent death of a good King is a ground of a great mourning to all good people Good Iosiah being so unhappily slain Iudah and
sufferings Iosiah a King as good as great yet slain in battell The Lord seeth good sometimes to have it so to humble the best and greatest that none may presume or trust to any worldly priviledge or dignity and to prepare his servants for a suffering condition 2. Let us be instructed to beware of rash Iudgmen not to be censorious of all that suffer either sharp affliction or some bitter death if they die penitently c in true faith of Christ or in a good cause it doth not diminish ought from their future happinesse but rather promote them in the way to glory But let none of you suffer as a murtherer saith St Peter or as a thief or as an evill doer or as a busie bodie in other mans matters yet if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalfe 1 Pet. 4.15 16. Christ hath taught us not to deem them the greatest sinners who are the greatest sufferers Eo nomine for that very reason because sufferers by the example of those Galilaans who sacrificing were sacrificed Pilate mingling their own blood with the blood of the beasts which they offered and of the other who were mangled and quashed to death by the sudden fall of a Tower Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans because they suffered such things I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Or those eighteen upon whom the Tower in Siloe fell and flew them think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwell at Ierusalem I tell you nay But except you repent you shal likewise perish Lu. 13.2 3 4. And though our late dear Iosiah underwent a bloody death made as it were a sacrifice for the Church and his people by the rage malice and immane cruelty of mercilesse and perfidious men or rather monsters Horrendum factum dictu Horrendum Yet God forbid any of us should have the least doubt of his souls felicity Although his hard hearted and implacable enemies denyed him that which is freely granted to the vilest and most notorious condemned malefactors the help and comforts of his Chaplaines for his souls refreshment in the time of his hard imprisonment and therein as he complaines in his Soliloquies might seem as they sought to deprive him of all things else so to be afraid he should save his soul other sence charity it selfe can hardly pick out of these repulses I received saith he Yet we have good ground to conclude and ful assurance to perswade us that the better part of him is safe they which killed the body had no power to hurt the soul That bitter cup conduced much to his souls happinesse calix mortis calix salutis the cup of death and Martyrdom was to him a cup of Salvation His meek submitting to the will of God his patient bearing taunts reproaches and injuries evento shameful spitting on his meek yeelding to an unjust and bloody stroak his hearty praying for his enemies and murtherers according to that glorious pattern of his blessed Master his commending his soul to God trusting to his mercies in Jesus Christ our only Saviour for an eternal crown all being fruits of a sanctified soule are comfortable evidences of a saved soule Though his death was bloody and violent yet being sweetned with Christs death and his being washed and bathed in the blood of the Lamb we have firmperswasion and good assurance that he lived and dyed the dear child of God and is now a Saint in Heaven praising God among the noble army of Martyrs an heire of salvation and of that immarcescible Crown of glory which the Lord hath promised to them that love him Vse 3. Let it prepare and arm us against the fear and terrour of violent death if such should befal any of us we know not but it may it is sometimes the lot of Gods dearest children Let us not then overmuch disquiet our selves with the fear of violent death by theeves robbers murtherers or by the rebellious rout of Fanaticks The Sectaries talk high and hope yet to have a day their hearts are bloody and their hands would be at work these times they say will not hold we shall have a change though we have now a time of rejoycing yet we shall ere long have a time of howling and crying our harp shall be turned into mourning and our mirth into the voyce of them that weep but we hope their hornes will be clipt and their nailes pared a book be put into their nostrils and a bridle in their lips to hold them back from rebellion and mischief If they should break out in murther as they did begin and if any of us should fall by their knives swords or guns let not the fear or thought of this too much affright us Let us arme and prepare our selves with the shield of Faith and be alwaies ready and if we die in the Faith and favour of our God in Christ it shall not hinder us at all to our way to heaven but bring us the sooner to our Fathers House the place of true rest and happiness I proceed to the second Observation That it hath been an ancient custom among the people of God to mourn for the dead and in a moderate manner to mourn for our departed friends is not unlawful but rather Christian and commendable The custome hath been very ancient Solomon speakes of it as a thing commonly used in his time Eccl. 12.5 And we find it more ancient Abraham the Father of the faithfull bewailed his dead wife Sarah Gen. 23.2 Sarah dyed in Kirjath-arba the same is Hebron in the Land of Canaan and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her Joseph mourned many dayes for his Father Jacob. They mourned with a very great and sore lamentation and with grievous mourning Gen. 50.10.11 All the people mourned thirty dayes for Moses Deut. 34. David mourned for Ammon and for Absolom and for Abner yea he was the chiefe mourner there King David himselfe followed the biere and the King lift up his voyce and wept at the grave of Abner and all the people wept yea all the people wept again for Abner 2 Sam. 3.31 32. And as in the Old Testament so we find it used in the New The devout widows wept for the death of Tabitha Act. 6.39 Christ wept at the grave of Lazarus Joh. 12. And the good woman mourned and wept when he dyed And devout men carryed Steven to his buriall and made great lamentation over him Act. 8.2 And here all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah and Jeremiah lamented for Josiah c. From all which examples we see the the antiquity of this custom and hence Use May learn That moderate mourning for the dead is not unlawful but rather commendable Christians are not to be like Stoicks or rather Stocks void of all naturall affection But to this I shall not need to exhort
Commonwealth and surely he is no good and dutiful childe that will not mourn for his fathers death especially if he see him slain and murthered by bloody hands in such a case not to shed tears were a sign of a graceless and godless son and certainly they are no good children no loyal or dutiful subjects that mourn not for the horrid slaughter and barbarous assassination of their civil father 3. A good King is the light of our eyes and breath of our nostrils yea the very life of our lives a principal means under God of our temporal weal and being under whose shadow and protection we enjoy our selves and all in safety life goods and estate He is the Minister of God to thee for good Rom. 13.4 And is it not a sad thing to have such a pillar broken down such a one taken away by cruel hands What can be expected to follow but ruine rapine confusion and misery oppression and calamity as we have felt by woful experience and will not all that have any goodness that delight not to live by devouring others lament for the loss of such a one 4. A good King is under God a principal cause of our well-being in relation to spiritual things for our souls benefit it is under him and by his power and Law that we are preserved to live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty 1 Tim. 2.2 therefore the loss of him must needs be deplorable as opening a wide gap to all prophaneness and dissolute living It was a sad time with Israel when there was no King in Israel every man did what was good in his own eyes Iudg. 17.6 and to what exorbitances and villanies will not the corrupt nature of man left to its own liberty and actuated by satanical fury break out in such an Anarchy will not this make a good heart mourn 5. A good King is a nursing Father of the Church so called in Scripture phrase it is by his care and providence by his good example and diligence in the service of God and in the holy duties of his worship that Religion is upheld and the practise of it furthered and the Church maintained in a flourishing condition Regis ad exemplum to tus componitur orbis people are much inclined to follow the example of the Prince And can good people that wish well to Sion and are well affected to Religion to the service and worship of God see such a one snatch'd from them by violent death to the great decay of Religion abolishing of the solemn worship of God and the bringing in a Babel-like confusion of hearts and Tongues as we have seen to our reproach to the breaking of our hearts to the joy and derision of our enemies and not be filled with extreme grief and betake themselves to great and bitter mourning 6. A good King is the Bridegroom of the Commonwealth the Husband of his people and hence it hath been an ancient custome at the Inauguration or Coronation of Kings to deliver them a Ring as a pledge or token of wedding them to their people and will not the children of the Bride-chamber mourn when the Bridgeroom is taken away from them Christ himself in the Gospel assures us that they will and shall mourn in that day And here I pray take notice that they are no children of the Bridechamber that mourn not for such a loss what then are they that rejoyce Can the Bride a loving Spouse endure to see her dear Husband assassinated murthered by cruel Butchers and that in the Bridechamber in his own house or at his own gates Can she endure for ever to have him separated from her or to have his head separated from his body before her eyes without shrieking out and wringing hands without bitter tears and doleful lamentations surely no And how then can good people good Christians good Subjects call to mind the murdering of a good King at the door of his own Royal Palace by some of his own people of his own subjects and servants without bleeding hearts weeping eyes and mournful spirits These may stand as so many grounds or arguments to confirm the point in hand that the death especially the violent death of a good King is a ground of great mourning to all good people To all these I might add the confusion that follows such a black deed The barbarous murder of a good King is commonly attended with a deplorable Chaos of confusion both in Church and State The plotters and actors in such a foul work are none of the best yea they are the very worst and vilest of men men of hard hearts and seared consciences of wild large and loose principles who having swallowed Royal blood do easily glut themselves with the blood of Nobles and other of their fellow subjects and like ravening Wolves having slain the Shepherd sport themselves in tearing and worrying the sheep and to conclude make no bones of the greatest evil so it may promote their wicked designs And must not this needs bring on a rueful confusion 1. There follows a Chaos of confusion in the Church when a good King is murdered if the murderers escape they new-model Religion and fit it to their own Standard and make it a meer Machiavillian politick Engine to prop and boulster up their usurped power When Ieroboam wrested the ten Tribes from the house of David with his new Kingdome he set up a new Religion for fear least if the people kept to their old Religion they would return to their old King 1 King 12.26 27 28. Ieroboam said in his heart Now shall the Kingdome return to the house of David if this people go up to do sacrifice in the House of the Lord at Ierusalem then shall the heart of this people burn again unto their Lord even to Rehoboam King of Iudah and they shall kill me Whereupon he took counsel and made two calves and set the one in Bethel and the other in Dan and pretended all to be done for the good and ease of the people it is too much for you to go up to Ierusalem whereas it was for his own base ends and according to his new Religion he made a new sort of Priests not of the sons of Aaron according to Gods Ordination but whosoever would might be a Priest for that State-Religion and served well enough to serve calves He made of the lowest and meanest of the people Priests of the high places whosoever would he consecrated him and he became one of the Priests of the high places and this thing became a sin unto the house of Ieroboam even to cut it off and to destroy it from off the face of the earth 1 King 13.33 34. I need not tell you how exactly the late Tyrants our Masters followed his steps the sad thought of it is too fresh in our memories Our old true and established Religion must be thrown down and turned out both for government discipline
and gracelesse persons though they have a huge weight of sin upon them yet they feel it not their consciences are not pressed nor troubled with it because it is in its proper place But the child of God is sensible of the least sin even the appearance of evill and trembles under the weight of it because there it is out of his own place and proper Element A soft heart a tender conscience checking of sin argues a divine impression upon it if the true fear of God and of his dreadfull Majesty 7. Iosiah was a King as devout to God so devoted to his peoples good good to his people full of goodnesse to his people In the verse following my text there is mention of the acts of Josiah and his goodness Now the rest of the Acts of Josiah and his goodness or kindness ver 26. His Acts and his goodness or kindness are joyned together because he did many Acts of goodness and kindness to his people what an Act of bounty and kindnesse to his people was it to be at that vast charge in the Passe over feast for their ease and benefit before mentioned So our Iosiah did many good Acts in relation to his people In the beginning of the long Parliament he passed sundry Acts of grace and goodness for the ease and comfort of his people as for taking away ship mony for taking away all illegall taxes for the taking down the Star-Chamber Court and the high Commission Court which were found to be oppressive to his people for a trienniall Parliament and other enough to have made abundant and ample reparations for any former miscarriages of his Officers and Ministers had he been to deal with reasonable and moderate men and more he would have done and more he intended to do yea more then could in reason be required had his precious life been spared But the greedy appetite of some could not be satisfied without innocent blood royall blood as the Jews would rest in nothing but our Saviours crucifige crucifige crucifie him crucifie him though they pull'd the horrid guilt of it upon themselves and upon their children Thus you have heard what a King what a good King we had and what a blessing in him Now to have such a Iosiah taken from us is it not a sad losse and by a violent and bloody death is it not a sad case He was slain not as Iosiah in my text by strangers of another Nation and in the hear of battell but murdered in cold blood and that by some of his own Subjects and Servants who had sworn allegeance and fidelity to him who had declared promised professed protested vowed covenanted to protect preserve and defend him and to make him a glorious King O damnable Hypocrisie for these to murder him and that not in private as other Traytors have dealt with their Princes but to do it openly with great pomp and artifice as men solemnly wicked and under pretence and shew of Justice Oh hellish mockery of justice added to cruelty and malice as it were in defiance of Heaven in the sight of all Israel and in the sight of the Sun in opposition to all Laws both of God and man against the light of their own consciences This was a sad and a black fact The Powder-plotters were a great deal more modest they did their work under ground and in darkness as being ashamed of it But these played a game above board in the open light with an harlots face without shame or blushing so that all circumstances and aggravations considered that might be named it was the most daring and horrid act of immanity and iniquity that was ever perpetrated under the Sun next to the crucifying of the Lord of Life an act not to be equalized in any history not only of Holy Writ but also of prophane and heathen Authors For such a King to be thus murthered is the faddest ground of mourning that ever the good people of this Nation had therefore for this O England gird thee with sackcloth lament and howl Ier. 4.8 yea wallow and rowl thy self in ashes make thee mourning as for an only son yea bitter lamentation Ier. 6.26 and as it is Zach. 11.2 howl firre tree for the Cedar is fallen And let us everyone wish with the Prophet O that mine head were full of water and mine eyes a fountain of tears to weep day and night for the slain the Ruler of the people Ier. 9.1 or as it is Ier. 14.17 Let mine eyes run down night and day and let them not cease for the Virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach and with a very grievous blow O that blow that very grievous blow made the greatest breach upon the sons and daughters of Sion upon all true children of this Church that ever was made to the piercing of their hearts and wounding of their spirits and bleeding of their very souls therefore weep and mourn for this let our hearts be filled with bitter grief and our eyes with brinish tears And as for the loss of such a King so much more let us mourn for that wonderful and horrid sin which was this day committed in the Land the shedding of his innocent blood a sin over passing the deeds of the wicked a sin that no Nation no people ever committed Let us beseech the Lord to pardon it to acquit the Land of it that it may no longer cry for vengeance and call for judgements to be continued upon us and cause him to poure out his fury upon us in blood Let the blood of sprinkling the blood of Christ speak better things then the blood of Abel Abel's blood cryed for vengeance and so may the blood of this righteous one but the blood of Christ cryes for mercy Holy Father let that blood of thy dear Son out-cry the other and bring down mercy upon the Land O deliver us and be merciful to us in regard of that crying sin for it was great Lord lay not the guilt of that blood this day shed upon the whole Nation for thou hast many among us who having neither hands not hearts defiled in it did with abhorrency of soul detest and loath and in much bitterness of spirit mourn for that odious fact Thou who art the searcher of hearts and knowest our thoughts knowest this to be true Lay it home to their consciences who had a hand in it and are yet living that they may see the greatness of their sin and be moved to great sorrow and bitter repentance and obtain pardon out of thy great and abundant mercies in Christ that the innocency of thy blessed Martyr may be cleared our Religion vindicated from the scandal and out Nation cleared from the vengeance of that blood and thy mercy glorified in the conversion of so great sinners And as for this horrid fact so for all our other sins and provocations let us mourn which helped forward this judgment for our personal sins