Lunae 1. die Feb. 1696. Ordered THat the Thanks of this House be given to Doctor Lancaster for the Sermon by him Preached before them upon Saturday last at St. Margaret's Westminster And that he be desired to Print the same and that Mr Robert Berty and Mr Drake do acquaint him therewith Paul Jodrell Cl. Dom. Com. A SERMON PREACHED Before the Honourable House of Commons AT St Margaret's Westminster On the 30th of January 1696 7. By WILLIAM LANCASTER D.D. Vicar of S. Martin's in the Fields LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1697. A SERMON Preached before the Honourable House of Commons LAMENT V. 16. The Crown is fallen from our Head Wo to us for we have sinned THE Words are part of Jeremy's Lamentation and if we look into 2 Chron. 35.25 We shall find that this Lamentation was for the Death of King Josiah The words of that place in Chronicles are these And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah and all the singing men and singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day and made them an Ordinance in Israel and behold they are written in the Lamentations From these words I conclude That the Prophet in this place speaking of the downfall of the Crown does it with relation to the Death of that great and good King The Chronicle witnesses That Jeremy made Lamentation for him and that it was contain'd and written in the Lamentations And since these Words of the Prophet do so well express it we must believe that Josiah's downfall was the occasion of them He was a Pattern for all Princes and the Mourning which was to be in Judah and Jerusalem for him was to be a Pattern for all Lamentation The Prophet Zechary when he foretells the Passion and dying of our Lord Jesus upon the Cross says There shall be such mourning for Him as was for Josiah That they shall look on him whom they have pierced Zech. 12.10 which S. John c. 19. explains and applies to our Saviour exposed and wounded and bleeding upon the Cross And then the Prophet adds v. 11. That in that day there shall be great mourning in Jerusalem as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon The Lamentation for our Lord it is here foretold should be as great as that for Josiah who was slain in the Field of Battle at Megiddo which seems to have been the greatest Mourning that was ever known in Israel The words then I have sufficiently explain'd by shewing the occasion of them and the same History says That hereupon an Ordinance was made in Israel and the Book which was written many years at least some reigns after Josiah's Death says the observation of that Ordinance was continued a very long time They speak of him in their Lamentation to this day So that we may conclude thus much from that History that when Josiah was slain there was in Israel an Act an Ordinance a Law made for a solemn yearly Mourning for ever We see then we are now assembled by a Law made after a Precedent of great Antiquity and I may add of much greater Authority And since Providence has for our Sins given us the like Occasion let us implore his merciful Acceptance of the like Mourning and Humiliation and of our Service and Sorrow in Obedience to the Law in our own Nation made after the example of Israel and of this Divine Ordinance wherein the Wisdom of Heaven was most immediately concern'd The Civil Magistrate may by what Rules he pleases enquire after Persons disaffected and uneasy to the Government but methinks it were very natural to suspect all such persons as dangerous to Kings and States who rejoyce and seem to triumph at the fall of one of the best of Kings and at the promotion of the worst of Men and Murderers into his place It cannot be safe laughing when a Nation upon so good reason is commanded to be all in Tears not only lest God should be angry whose Judgments are thereby despised but also lest that Man who can be merry upon so sad and lamentable an occasion should be thought pleas'd with the publick Sorrow and that common Calamity which was the cause of it Every Man's experience tells him thus much that what we are glad of we wish may happen frequently and that occasion and matter of Joy can never come too often so that should the Anniversary for one Prince's Murder be to any Man a day of Joy I should suspect that Man wishes more such days as these and that we may have many such reasons for Jeremy to lament On the other hand what a Man sorrows and grieves and mourns for he wishes may never be repeated and that he may never hear of the like again So that days of Humiliation as they have sometimes been serviceable to Hypocrisie may serve for Politick Ends and Purposes as well as Religious to secure Princes from all attempts of cruel and bloody Men by creating an aversion to such barbarous Practices upon them in the minds of all Men. It is very natural for Sorrow and Shame to fill the Mind with horror and dislike of all Events or Actions which caused sorrow to possess the Mind with a principle and habitual desire to prevent such Actions for the time to come and all the Efforts and Endeavours which are made towards them The Jews had therefore very good reason to make an Ordinance for a yearly Mourning for Josiah as all other States and Governments have upon the like occasion because sorrow and affliction for the untimely Death of one King disposes the Mind to Care and Vigilance over the Life and Welfare of another And I think common Charity will teach us to believe That he who now does his dury to God and is just to the Blessed Memory of this day's Martyr can do no injury to the State or Person of his present Successor nor give way to so much as a Thought which may prejudice the Interest of that Brave Man who through so many Perils has asserted the Religion and Honour of the English Nation We may reckon upon Two sorts of Men who are avowed Enemies to our present Constitution The First are those little Wretches who yet dare meditate great and Bloody Villanies and endeavour the Confusion of their own Native Country by Assassines and bringing in upon us a Foreign Power These are not to be neglected because little since it has often been in the power of Wretches and small things to do great mischiefs But Secondly There are other Enemies who are far more powerfull and who have hit upon the only stratagem in the World which can undo us Such are they who endeavour to make God our Enemy and to rob us of his Care and Favour to whom alone we owe our Protection and Peace When the Almighty thunders and when his Judgments are abroad he expects we should tremble and be afraid and not live as if we either
their Land put under a Curse or defiled with Innocent Blood Let the Armies of Egypt and Pharaoh Necho answer for it Jerusalem and Judah had no hand in it Josiah was not murder'd by His own Subjects nor try'd condemn'd and executed by Men whom he had patronis'd and promoted to Wealth and Honour Josiah was not brought to the Bar or Scaffold by Men who fought against his Person by his own Commission nor did he die by the hand of Thieves and Robbers who when they had slain the Heir divided among them the Inheritance Josiah's Enemies were all of them of another Countrey and had never vow'd Duty nor sworn Allegiance to him and such Men may have by the Laws of Nature and Nations a greater Liberty to invade and make War then Men born and educated in his own Dominions But then If the King of Judah only fallen in Battle and slain by a foreign Enemy caused so general Lamentation and such as was continued through the Reigns of all the succeeding Kings till the Babylonish Captivity and which was observed even in the time of Cyrus and the Persian Monarchy as the last Chapter of 2 Chron. does sufficiently evince How much greater and more lasting Humiliation should Ours be who have the Guilt of Innocent Blood at our own Doors A Prince who was Himself all Pity and Compassion sentenced and put to Death by cruel and bloody Men a King who had been a kind Father to his People worry'd and devour'd by his own Children here is Guilt that may demand Humiliation till the Day of Judgment The Almighty has ever declared to the World That the Blood of the poorest Innocent defiles the Land and that whole Kingdoms and Countries have a long time lain under the Curse and Cry of it Ancient Wise Men fill'd their Tragedies and loaded their Scenes with God's Judgments upon Murder Theatres groaned under the weight of publick Guilt and Towns and Cities felt the Calamity especially upon the Effusion of Royal Blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord says Oedipus in Sophocles What a storm of Vengeance falls upon our City for this King's Blood The very Heathen Gods seem not to have been at rest till the Blood of Innocents was atoned for or revenged and the Saints in Heaven and Souls of Martyrs now with God though them selves all flaming Charity and Love to Mankind yet call for Vengeance upon the Earth for the Innocent Blood that has been shed upon it And I saw says S. John Rev. 6.9,10 under the Altar the Souls of them that were slain for the Word of God And they cryed with a loud Voice saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth So that in Case of Blood even Mercy it self turns cruel and calls for Justice and cannot rest till it be reveng'd And now whether we believe Moses or S. John or even Sophocles the Tragedian They all with one Voice conclude That a Drop of Innocent Blood is enough to bring a Deluge of Misery upon a Nation But who will deny That Innocent Blood was shed as on This Day and in This Land and not only the Blood of a Man who had done no harm but under whom we might have enjoy'd both Wealth and Honour who nourished Arts encouraged Learning advanced Religion maintain'd the Peoples Liberties pardon'd great Offenders and at last was betray'd and put to Death by many of those who had been forgiven by him All Nations have owned That Kings are Fathers of their Countrey and the Voice of Civiliz'd and Learned Nations is the Voice of Nature and of God Now for a Man to murder his own Father is of all sins of the worst kind the very worst and most clamorous and cries loudest to Heaven for Vengeance In short then The People had no sin to answer for when Josiah died and yet they had Mourning by an Ordinance and by a Law but in our case the People of This Nation slew their own Prince and had their Hands dyed in the Blood of their Sovereign of Him who by Birth Title Possession Care Kindness Courtesie and every thing that could either give or purchase Right was Father of his Countrey It is not very difficult to discern how the Almighty has ever since chastised and scourged This Nation and how that horrid Murder and Effusion of Sacred Blood has been the Cause of many publick Calamities This Land has since groaned under His Death was accompanied with the Blood of Thousands other great Men and He went to Heaven with a royal Army of Martyrs to attend upon Him Then it was That Men's Honesty was their Crime and Wealth and good Estates were to others as bad as Felony It were endless to reckon up how many brave Men were oblig'd to fly for their Lives to pray for Sanctuary and Protection in a Foreign Land to take Service in another Nation thereby to escape a most wretched Bondage and Captivity in their own Countrey We have been ever since and may be not without Reason under Fears and Jealousies of a Foreign Religion even the Blessings and Sweets of the Restauration were made bitter to us by the Wormwood and Gall of Superstition infused into our Cup and by the endeavours which have been used to bring our Souls into Bondage Only the Wisdom and Goodness of Heaven in this mighty Revolution we hope may free us from those Apprehensions of Superstition coming in among us the Equivocal Offspring of that otherwise happy Restauration But still we must remember who first drove those Kings into a Countrey where they might be taught Superstition and that if they had not when young been pursued out of their own Land they would not have been tempted by the Gods of other Kingdoms if they had been Educated under their own Father in their own Countrey under their own Laws and suffered to breath their own Native Air they might have been zealous Patrons of the Religion and Interest of their own Nation and the Miseries we have laboured under upon that account will in a good measure lye at the doors of those who drove them out of the Church into the Idols Temple And having thus far assign'd and apply'd the Reasons of Judah's Lamentation give me leave to sum up what other things I have interwoven with this Discourse I have shewn First That the downfall of that good King whom we now lament taking all the Miseries that did belong to it from first to last was a most visible mark of God's Displeasure and may be so severe a Judgment as this Land never felt since it was a Nation Secondly That God's Judgments upon a People ought not to be neglected much less to be made our Pastime and entertain'd with Raillery and Ridicule Solomon says God scorns the scorners and that He will laugh when their Fear cometh Thirdly That the Peoples shedding the Blood of their Soveraign was a Publick Crime as well
we have a Guardian who can defend his Charge and protect his Orphan against the Invasions and Incroachments of his greedy Neighbour Here is a Counsellor who knows the state of Nations and sees into all affairs of Princes both Foreign and at Home He knows what 's done in this Cabal in that Cabinet in the other Conclave nay He knows the Hearts and understands our Thoughts long before So that a Child and Infant of a King under His Conduct shall undermine the Counsels of Achitophel himself It is said of Josiah That he chose David for his Pattern whom he would imitate without going aside to the right or left hand Now David was a glorious Precedent for any Potentate on Earth to take Example by He was great in Arms and in Religion admired for Courage and for Devotion and to satisfie all the World that Religion does not make Cowards He was therefore Great in the Field because Devout at the Altar and in the House of God I shall not give any account of the many eminent Vertues either of Josiah or the Martyr those of the latter which were most in View and in Exercise were Patience and Perseverance and it is but Melancholy discoursing on these Vertues as well as practising them They were both of them Zealous for Religion and for Reforming to the True Ancient and Primitive Way They both studied to adorn the Temple and to serve God in the Beauty of Holiness It was their Endeavour to cleanse the House of God from Sordidness and Superstition and to distinguish it from a Gaol or a Den of Thieves And if others had but been as Careful to have served Them as they were Active and Industrious to serve their God they might have had a much more prosperous and longer Reign over a far better and far more happy People And yet it is not to be wonder'd at That so much Vertue and Piety that so pure a Zeal for Religion and the Love of God should sometime happen to be utterly over-run and ruin'd by the grossest Atheism and Hypocrisie that ever pass'd upon Mankind Our Josiah was bound up to the strictest Honour Truth and Justice and could do nothing which might be a blemish to any of these though it were to save a Kingdom when as his Enemies were for Liberty and as their practice explain'd it were to be confin'd to no Rule or Principle were to be bound by no Law or Promise but to act purely and entirely as their Interest should direct If a Man make a Conscience of Truth and Justice then Liberty of Conscience is very good and men seldom want it but where there is no Conscience all Men must own that Liberty is very dangerous it then becomes Licentiousness or a Liberty such as our Martyr's Enemies made their own and which was allow'd to none besides to kill and to take Possession and to wade through the blood of Innocents to every thing they imagined would enrich honour or advance them And thus I have done with my first Reason why so great Lamentation for Josiah He was Religiously good and the loss of such a Prince is hardly to be repaired Secondly The Jews had reason to mourn when Josiah dyed because it was prophesy'd to them That their Calamity and Misery should commence from the very day that Josiah should be taken away from them It was told them by Huldah the Prophetess That God was very angry with that people and that he had dreadfull Judgments in Reserve whereby to punish the Obstinacy of the Jewish Nation but that for Josiah's sake that most pious and most religious Prince he would not execute his Vengeance so long as he should live but would defer his Indignation till that great good Man should be carry'd to his Grave in Peace that then and from that time Israel should be a miserable and an afflicted People and a hissing and an astonishment to all Nations round about them According to this Decree revealed to and foretold them by the Prophetess all things befell them Josiah's Sons and Successors were one of them carry'd away by Necho King of Egypt another was deposed by the King of Babylon a third was taken Prisoner and judgment given against Him his Sons all slain before his Eyes and then his Eyes bored out that he might see no more of the Misery which he was to suffer Now since this was all foretold them and that all their temporal Bliss and Happiness depended upon the Thred of Josiah's life no wonder they made great Lamentation when he dyed The Ancients reported that in Troy there was an Image which they believed fell from Heaven which so long as they could preserve safe within their Walls would preserve them successfull against all Enemies from abroad but the loss of it was to foretell the Ruin of their City and Civil Government King Josiah was this Image and gave the same security to Judah and Jerusalem and they were well assured that whilst this Palladium was among them no Injury could befall them either from Heaven or Earth for he who is Lord of both had given his Word for it He therefore falling in Megiddo caused this Lamentation among the People their Peace their Plenty their Laws Religion and Lives were all in Danger when he was in Peril or in the least Distress all their Glory was cast down when he fell in Battle and the Arrow that wounded him went to the Heart of every good Man in his Dominions This is therefore my second Reason for so great Mourning in Jerusalem at that time Now give me leave to apply these Reasons of Judah and Jerusalem's Lamentation for their King who fell in Battle and was slain in the Valley or Plain of Megiddo There was upon it an Ordinance a Law made for a solemn Mourning and it was observed even after the Jewish Monarchy was destroy'd I hope our Law of the same nature made after that Divine Example and ordained for the same end and purpose may long continue together with the Enghsh Monarchy and even for that very end that the Monarchy may long endure The Jews Mourning for Josiah endured longer then their Kingdom Their yearly Fast for Gedaliah notwithstanding their Dispersion is religiously observed by them to this day and although they are broken and scattered abroad in all Nations and among all Languages yet their Lamentation is continued with one Voice and one Consent It were not hard to make it appear That we have as great Reason to continue our Humiliation as the Jews had for Josiah and may be it were happy for us if we had not other and greater Reasons for this day's Solemnity then the Jews had Josiah was slain by a foreign Power He fell in Battle and was killed in the heat of Blood Himself was in a Disguise and unknown and an Arrow shot at Random wounded Him that He dyed His own People were no way guilty His Death could not be charged upon any of them nor was