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
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
doctrine manner of worship and Divine Ordination as if all had been nought and a boundless toleration given for a monstrous many headed new Religion and Priests start up of the meanest and lowest of the people many boldly intruded upon that holy work to administer the Word and Sacraments without a lawful call and separation to it they climbed up and crept in the wrong way like thieves and robbers Iohn 10. they consecrated themselves with audacious and sacrilegious presumption rushing upon that sacred Function and came not in by the door of Divine Ordination which none ever durst presume to do since the Apostles time till these daies of confusion and these were the Priests of the high places these these the only men in those disorderly times who having never taken holy Orders were thought most worthy to be mounted to the high places of preferment 2. A Chaos of confusion follows also in the state They which kill the Heir to gain the inheritance and stone Naboth to seize his Vineyard must maintain with a vast expence of blood and treasure what they have unjustly gotten by which means the poor people are oppressed and squeezed harrowed and peeled to the very bones We have found and felt this true what sore oppressions unsupportable taxes and over-heavy burthens besides devouring free-quarter when our Lord-Danes boasted that all was theirs and that they had more to do in our houses and with our goods expertus loquor then we our selves have we undergone since the oppression and murder of our good King Besides there is a vast confusion after such a fact by reason of contestations between Competitors as was in the Roman Empire upon Caesars death between Octavius Lepidus Marcus Antonius and others there is a furious busling and strugling who shall be Master and Supreme now one strives for it and now another now one hath it and then another now one Government is up and then another and so the oppressed people in this time of confusion are the greatest sufferers pelted and buffeted between both tumbled and tossed and emptied from one vessel to another till their purses are as empty of money as their hearts of content or their lives of comfort Now then seeing such a Chaos of confusion both in Church and State follows upon the murder or violent death of a good King as we all alas can too feelingly and knowingly speak is not the point clear that the death especially the violent death of a good King is a ground of great mourning to all good people for I am sure none will grant them to be good people unless themselves may be Judges and their own mouths praise them who applaud a Chaos of confusion in Church and State and delight like Sharks Harpies and Cormorants to fish in troubled waters or like Tories to live upon spoil and rapine because there out they have formerly sucked no small advantage I hasten on to the application of this truth to all our souls Vse 1. First then see here what great cause we have of sad mourning and of great lamentation who have seen a Iosiah a good and religious King our great our chief friend our common Father our Bridegroom our dear Husband snatched from us by bloody hands and by a violent death well may this day be called a bitter day as the mourning for one only son or the mourning of Hadadrimmon for Englands Iosiah Let us a little parallel Iosiah in my Text with our Iosiah that so seeing his excellent worth we may be the more sensible of this exceeding loss and find what cause we have for great mourning 1. Iosiah was a very pious and religious Prince well affected to Religion to the true Religion the reformed Religion as it was by his care reformed and restored according to the Law of God found in the Temple by Hilkiah the High-Priest to this he adhered cleaving to the Lord with all his heart and walking in all the wayes of David his father and turned not aside to the right hand or to the lest 2 King 22.2 So our Iosiah was very pious and zealously affected to Religion to the true reformed Protestant Religion which he firmly professed and cleaved to And though his adversaries in the beginning of our troubles blasted him with Popery as if he had been a Papist a slander as false as the Father of Lies could invent and one of their most cunning Engines whereby Absalem-like they stole away the hearts of his people and brought him so low yet he continued constant in it to his last breath and sealed it with his blood and that unparallell'd book which he wrote and left behinde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein he commends that Religion to his son our now gracious Soveraign to be constantly imbraced and professed by him which he found by proof to be the best of all Religions and neerest to the Apostolical primity and purity I say this shall stand as a lasting monument to all posterity to the perpetual shame of those malitious Traducers Out of that divine book so I may call it for much of a divinely inspir'd spirit appears in it give me leave to add some of his own sweet words to the Prince of Wales If you never see my face again I do require and entreat you as your Father and your King that you never suffer your heart to receive the least check against or disaffection from the true Religion established in the Church of England I tell you I have tryed it and after much search and many disputes have concluded it to be the best in the world not only in the community as Christian but also in the special notion as reformed keeping the middle way between the pomp of superstitious tyranny and the meanness of fantastick Anarchy And a little after The scandal of the late troubles which some may object and urge to you against the Protestant Religion established in England is easily answered to them or your own thoughts in this that scarce any one who hath been a beginner or an active prosecutor of this late War against the Church the Law and me either was or is a true lover imbracer or practiser of the Protestant Religion established in England which neither gives such rule nor ever before set such examples 2. Iosiah was very zealous for Gods house he took great care for the repairing of the Temple and the beautifying of it 2 King 22.3.1 Chron. 35.20 So our Iosiah was zealous for the houses of God in the year of his raign he took order that the Temples and Churches through the Kingdome should be repaired and beautified and attempted and to a good degree brought on the reparation of that great Mother-Church the old Ornament of our Metropolis or great City famous for the antiquity of it and for its great bulk being reputed for its building the greatest pile in the Christian world great part of which charge he took upon himselfe which with his fall is falling
and for our National sins we have all contributed to that stock of sin which brought that stroak of divine vengeance upon the Land Let us weep in the bitterness of out souls for the great and crying sins of the Land our mourning repining unthankfulness for former mercies our barrenness and unfruitfulness under the means of grace our swearing and blasphemy our excess and drunkenness our hatred and uncharitableness our irreligiousness and prophaneness and all other our heinous sins which so highly provoked the Lords anger to deliver up both us and our King into the hands of such merciless and blood-thirsty men let us I say mourn for them in the bitterness our souls and beseech the Father of heaven to pardon them all for the merits sake of his dear Son And as we mourn for our provoking sins so let us turn from them subdue and mortifie them that so we turning from our evil wayes and ceasing from sinning the Lord may cease from punishing and turn from his wrathful indignation and restore to us his wonted blessings and favors as praised be his name he hath in great mercy begun Our sins our sins have been the cause of this judgment and of all the judgments following it O let us stir up our hearts with indignation against our sins as the Jews took hold of Paul crying men of Israel help this is the man that teacheth every where against the people so should we lay hold on our sins which are the greatest disturbers and cry to the Lord for help against them as we read of Marcus Antonius when Iulius Caesar was murdered in the Senate house and some sought to pacifie the business he brought forth Caesars coat all bloody rent and cut and spread it before the people Look here sayes he you have your Emperours coat thus bloody and torn whereupon the people were presently in an uproar and cryed out to slay the murderers Thus looking upon this horrid bloody fact and the other judgements crowding in upon us of late years and considering that our sins have been the murderers and authors of all these mischiefs our hearts should be raised to fly upon our sins with indignation and not be satisfied without the destruction of them which have wrought so much distraction among us Vse 2. If the violent death of a good King be a ground of great mourning to all good people see here what good people they are who mourn not nor ever did mourn upon this account what good people they are who plotted contrived abetted assisted and acted in that black and bloody work the horrid murder of our dear Soveraign what good people they were who gloried in it rejoyced in it and justified it being done as I my self heard one say that the taking off of the head of that blessed King was the greatest and worthiest piece of Justice that ever was We know who they were and of what principles they were whose hands were dipt in that blood and whose fingers were defiled with the iniquity The Sectarian party Anabaptists Quakers Independents fifth Monarchists of a new stamp were the sticklers in that detestable black business and the approvers applauders of it Judge wha they are They have indeed of late usurped to themselves the name of Saints good people the well affected of the Nation pious precious men the holy the godly men the holy the godly party as if all other were reprobates to them Whether they be such or no let their workes speak and let the world judge and the Lord himself shall judge If murder aeason homicide parricide regicide hypocrisie perjury immrnity cruelty be piety then let them be Saints Solomon saith That the mercies not of the Saints but of the wicked are cruel from such Saints and from their mercies good Lord deliver us Vse 3. See what cause we have to bless God for the late blessed and healing Parliament which hath endeavoured to avert Gods wrath and to acquit the Land of that innocent blood by disavowing the deed and by Justice upon the Traytors and murderers and to vindicate our Nation and Religion from that shame and reproach which the adversaries cast upon both though unjustly for that horrid fact whereas neither our Nation nor Religion liked or allowed it but loathed abhorred and detested it it was devised hatched and perpetrated by a Sectarian Anabaptistical fanatick party who as the Act saith were as far from being true Protestants as from being true subjects all true Protestants did abominate it and in bitterness of soul mourned in secret for it And blessed also may they be for enacting this Law and Ordinance in our Israel for an anniversary fasting and humiliation in relation to it a thing my soul desired that so we may have liberty and opportunity to express our detestation of it and lamentation for it in publick Vse 4. See what cause we have to pour forth our humble prayers and most hearty supplications to the most high for his mercifull and powerful protection and preservation of our most gracious Soveraign that now is such a son of such a father that this land may never have the like cause of mourning that he may be a second Josiah only any such tragick act or end excepted which the good Lord avert for the glory of God and for the joy and comfort of this Church and Nation That as he hath even miraculously kept him from the peril of the sword and rescued him from the midst of his furious enemies brought him back to his people and restored him with little less then a miracle to his just rights and placed him on his Fathers Throne so he will vouchsafe to be his defence and strong Tower to hide him under the shadow of his wings until uniquity be overpast That his sacred person may never come under the power or be at the mercy of such Saints or rather Satanists whom nothing could suffice but the blood of a righteous King the Lords anointed and as we have just cause to fear who being levened with such sowre principles thirst no less after his Lord therefore disappoint their plots and confound them in their wicked devices Let all that rise up against him be like Sisera and Iabin who perished at Endor and became as the dung of the earth make them and their Princes like Oreb and Zeb yea make all their leaders like as Zeba and Salmunah O our God make them like a wheel and as the stubble before the wind persecute them even so with thy tempest and make them afraid with thy storms make their faces ashamed let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a cloak let their mischief come upon their own heads and their cruelty fall on their own pates so shall the King rejoyce in thy strength exceeding glad shall he be of thy salvation for why the King putteth his trust in the Lord and in thy mercy O thou most high let him not miscarry so we thy people and sheep of thy pasture shall give thee thanks for ever and will be shewing forth thy praise from one generation to another so shall thy name be glorified thy son magnified thy truth defended thy Gospel propagated our breaches repaired thy poor Church comforted which we humbly beseech thee to grant O Father of mercies for his sake who is the Son of thy love and our only Saviour Jesus Christ the righteous to whom with thee and the blessed Spirit of Grace and Truth one Almighty and ever-living God be all honour praise and glory adoration and obedience now and for ever Amen FINIS