might have lived to a far longer date to have been the blessed instrument of much Glory and much Happiness to these Kingdoms For by the healthfulness of his Constitution and the soundness of his Vitals he seem'd to have been design'd for a long Life and in all probability his Moderation and Temperance and Sobriety which he practis'd on all occasions might have lengthned his days very nigh these of ours if not to them But he was too great a Blessing for such an ingratefull and sinfull People to enjoy any longer and therefore God suffers him to fall into the bloudy hands of his implacable Enemies and to be cut off by them that so the Nation might be involved in those Confusions and groan under those Miseries which the provoking guilts and impieties of it so abundantly deserv'd And all Men had great reason to apprehend beforehand those dismal Evils which soon followed his Death when they consider'd the Manner and Circumstances of it For that God should suffer so Holy a King to be so inhumanely treated and so barbarously murthered could proceed from nothing but his hot-burning Wrath against the Nation and his immoveable purpose to pour down his heavy Judgments upon it And the Event sadly demonstrated the reasonableness of such pre-apprehensions for when he suffer'd our Religion and our Laws suffer'd with him and the Government both in Church and State expired and dyed in the very same moment with him For then our Holy Religion was banished from our Churches and the Ministers of it driven into Corners or forc'd into Prisons and the Abomination of desolation stood in our Holy Places Then Hypocrisie pull'd off its Mask and Atheism appear'd barefac'd and Profaneness grew impudent and Sacrilege laid its devouring hands on all holy Things then innumerable Swarms of new and unheard of Sects sprang and grew up among us and walked abroad in their uncouth Forms and monstrous Shapes Then Popery prevail'd and increas'd and seduc'd many weak and unstable Souls and gained more Proselytes in those dark times of trouble and confusion as some have made the computation than in all the peacefull Reign of King CHARLES the second So that Cardinal Richilieu seems to have had some grounds for that Maxim of his viz. Till the Monarchy of England was chang'd into a Common-wealth there was little reason to hope for the return of Popery Then our Laws were either laid aside or turn'd against themselves expounded and interpreted to their own ruine and the destruction of those who adhered to them and so were executed in no other sense than in that in which their Royal Fountain and Guardian was executed that is by being destroy'd Thus you see how the manner of our King's death was an Index of God's fierce displeasure and a Prologue to Tragical Miseries which immediately succeeded it and what great reason the Nation had upon that account to grieve and mourn for him But this is not all but there 's something more of a fadder Consideration still behind and which extremely differenceth our Case from that of the Jews concerning the death of that good King Josiah and shews that these Nations not onely had but still have more reason to grieve and mourn for the violent and untimely death of that blessed Martyr and glorious Saint King CHARLES the First of ever Blessed Memory and this will appear if 3. We consider the Instruments by which this bloudy and untimely death was effected and brought to pass For it was not an Assyrian or an Egyptian not a Stranger or Foreigner which slew him but his own native Subjects who by all the Laws of God and Man by all the Ties of Oaths and Engagements of Promises by all the Obligations of Gratitude and Interest were bound to preserve and protect his Royal Person against all attempts of Violence whatsoever And if the Jews mourned so heavily for Josiah who dyed by the chance of War and by the hands of an Alien from the Commonwealth of Israel how much more ought we to mourn for our Gratious Sovereign who was put to death as a Criminal and Malefactour in his own Kingdom and in the great and famous Metropolis of that Kingdom and before the Gates of his own Royal Palace in that Metropolis and by the hands of his own natural Subjects This was a prodigious Wickedness a Complicated Villany an Unprecedented Excess of Unrelenting and Impudent Barbarity It was Murther and Treason too and both of them heightened to the utmost degree of Aggravation by being dressed up in the forms and methods of publick Justice And if all Murther is a crying Sin which importunes the Justice and wearies the Ears of the Almighty untill it be avenged how clamarous must the bloud of innocent Majesty be and how great must those Judgments be which must silence its loud Cries and attone the Wrath which is due for it And can this Nation then sit down under the sense and remembrance of this sad and deplorable Evil without being touched and affected with it without being humbled and grieved for it without accompanying their Grief and Humiliations with a sincere and hearty repentance for the Guilt of this day's Wickedness as well as of all other their Offences For the Guilt of this Murther was as National as the Loss which was sustained by it and all the People of this Kingdom were accessory to it either as the Instruments or the occasions of it some by their actual putting him to death and imbruing their wicked hands in his Innocent bloud some by their unnatural Rebellion and Treasonable Fighting against him some by their cowardly Neutrality and treacherous Unconcernedness and all by their personal Sins and Vices which inflamed the Wrath of God and contributed to the general Provocation And let us not vainly imagine that we are no way concerned for this great Evil no way obliged to be grieved and humbled for it because it was committed Forty years ago when most of us were not born and most of of us who were then born not capable of knowing good from evil for it being a National Sin a National Judgment is due for it And because this World is the proper Season for inflicting such Judgments we have reason to dread that God will bring upon us the Judgement which is due for this Sin if he has not already brought it with all the Circumstances of Terrour and Severity of Execution except we endeavour to avert it with sincere Humiliations and unfeigned Repentances Remember that it was not till Forty years after the death of our Blessed Saviour that God visited the Jewish Nation for the guilt of shedding his Innocent bloud and it is very probable that very few of those who either petitioned for his Crucifixion or apprehended and Murthered him were living at that time And yet when God after so long forbearance visited that Nation for that Sin neither Age nor Sex nor Rank or Quality were spared but all were involved in the same common Fate and felt the severe effects of the Publick Calamity It s true indeed God provided an opportunity for the Christians to escape and to fly beyond the reach of the publick Judgment but that we may not presume on impunity from the Example of their deliverance we must know that they were Christians not onely in Name and Profession but in Life and Practice and their Graces and Vertues were as singular and extraordinary as their Preservation And therefore consider it is now just Forty years since the horrid Fact was committed which we either do or should commemorate this day with Fasting and Humiliation and Penitential Sorrows And consider farther that the publick Affairs of this unsettled Kingdom seem now to be brought to a Crisis and to move on the point of Life and Death of Happiness and Misery How things will go and what will be the issue and event of them God onely knows but I am sure there is no such certain and effectual way to make them go well and succeed to our preservation and happiness as to humble our selves under the hand of God to lament and bewail all our Sins both Personal and National Private and Publick and particularly the Sin of this day which was such a scandal to the Protestant Religion such an Infamy to the English Nation and such an offence to Almighty God And therefore with contrite Hearts and devout Minds let us pray to God that he would deliver us from Bloud-guiltiness and particularly from the guilt of that Royal Bloud which we now bewail and mourn for that so it may not be charged upon us or our Posterity And to our devout Prayers let us add Works of Mercy and Charity which are Sacrifices well-pleasing to God and throughout the whole course of our Lives let us keep innocence and doe that which is right and upon all occasions be followers of that which is good and then we may hope that God for the sake of Christ will pardon and forgive us all our offences receive us into his favour and protection own us for his People in this World and receive us into his Glory in that to come which God grant for Christ Jesus's sake To whom with the Father and Holy Spirit be ascribed all Might Majesty Dominion Praise and Thanksgiving now and for ever Amen FINIS
Imprimatur Guil. Needham R. R. in Christo P. ac D. D. Wilhelmo Archiep. Cant. Ã Sacr. Domest Ex Aed Lamb. Febr. 21. 1688. A SERMON Preached in the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church OF St. Peter in York January 30th 1688 / 9. AND Published at the request of the Auditors By WILLIAM STAINFORTH Residentiary Canon of York LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-head in St. Paul's Church-yard and Francis Hildyard Bookseller in York 1689. II. CHRON. 35. 24. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah MOURNING supposeth Grief as being the proper effect and natural indication of it for though Grief is a secret and hidden passion and inwardly seated in the Mind yet as all other passions when they are suffered to swell and grow up to any considerable degree of strength it affects our Bodies in such a sensible manner as renders it apparent and manifest to all who look upon us For the Soul and the Body are so closely united together and have such a dependency and influence on each other that their interests are inseparable and they mutually partake in each others impressions so that whatever affects the Mind in a troublesome manner and sits heavy upon it the Body falls under the weight and shares in the pressure and uneasiness of the burthen for the grief of the mind contracts and oppresseth the Heart it checks the motion of the Bloud retards and slackens its Circulations it damps and clogs the vital Spirits relaxeth the Nerves and enfeebleth the Animal faculties and prejudices and weakens them in their necessary operations And from hence proceed those sad Looks and dejected Countenances those deep Sighs and heavy Groans those loud Complaints and effusion of Tears which are properly called Mourning and which are so discernible in all persons who are oppressed and afflicted with any considerable degree of Grief and Trouble of mind So that Mourning signifying all the outward signs and sensible expressions of Grief it must suppose Grief if it is not counter feit and dissembled as the inward and necessary cause of it And as Mourning supposeth Grief so Grief in some measure or other is the natural and common portion of all mankind Our state and condition in this world does necessarily subject us unto it and we can no more resist the impressions than we can prevent the cause Job 5. 7. of it Job tells us That man is born to trouble as the sparks sly upwards By which he means that our Nature does as necessarily expose us to sufferings and grief as the nature of sparks does determine their motion upwards We came into the world with Tears in our Eyes and we no sooner breath out we cry and those Infant-Tears and Ories are Ominous and Prophetick of our future succeeding condition and sadly presage that our continuance in the world will be like our entrance into it and that we shall never want in some respect or other cause of Grief and matter of Complaint And indeed whoever considers the frailty of our Nature and the passiveness of our Tempers the instability of humane Affairs and the uncertainty of all earthly Comforts will find the evidence of this great Truth too bright and convincing to suffer a contradiction But alas I need not discourse on the Reason and Philosophy of it to gain your assent to it every man's personal experience is a sufficient argument for this purpose and there is no necessity of appealing to any thing but that for a demonstrative proof and full conviction of it For what man is there upon Earth who has not his infelicities as well as his sins his misfortunes as well as his guilts to wound and afflict his Soul What man is there whose Sun is always so bright and shining as never to be over-cast and clouded whose days are always so calm and serene as never to be ruffled and discomposed with any rude storms and boisterous tempests Alas what mam is there but frequently suffers in his private and personal interests as he stands considered by himself and without relation to the publick Community of which he is a member Thus how often do we suffer in our Health in our Reputations in our Estates in our Friends and Relations How often are we crossed in our desires and disappointed in our hopes and frustrated in our designs and deprived of our choicest and most valuable earthly Comforts But when an affliction becomes National and is as publick and extensive as the whole Kingdom then every man must be a sufferer on that account and partake of the common Calamity because every man makes a part of the Nation on which it is laid And have not Kingdoms and publick Societies of men considered as such Afflictions and Distresses as well as private Persons Are not those equally with these obnoxious to Calamities and liable to Losses And is not the death of good King such a publick loss such a common Calamity And can such a loss such a Calamity happen and not be regarded and considered Or can it be considered and reflected on and not be resented with a quick and passionate Grief with a Grief as universal as the Loss and with a Mourning loudly indicative and emphatically expressive of that Grief This is impossible to humane Nature except where it is so far hardened by Folly or corrupted by Vice as to become insensible of its most tender and concerning Interests For it 's as natural to grieve for any Good which we lose as it is to rejoice in the use and possession of it and our Joy and our Grief are in both cases proportionable to the nature and importance of it And as no earthly Good is of greater advantage to us than a good King because nothing is of such publick and universal influence to the whole Nation so the Loss of such a King cannot but be lamented and bewailed by all thinking and considering People with all the signs and expressions of an hearty Grief and affectionate Sorrow And so the whole Jewish Nation did when good Josiah dyed for my Text tells us That all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah In the discoursing on these words I will 1. Consider the general Reason which induceth a People or Nation in common to grieve and mourn for the death of a good King. 2. Consider how much the Jewish Nation were concerned in this general Reason to grieve and mourn for the death of Josiah 3. Consider what particular and additional Reason they had besides the general one to grieve and mourn for his death 4. Consider our own case in relation to the sad occasion of this day's Assembly and shew you that though the Jews had great and extraordinary reason to mourn for Josiah yet these Nations had not onely as much but more reason nay still have more reason to mourn and lament the death of our late Dread Sovereign King CHARLES I. of ever Blessed Memory 1. I will consider the general Reason which induceth a
People or Nation in common to grieve and mourn for the death of a good King. Now all Grief supposeth the Loss of something which we esteemed and valued and which some way or other contributed to our delight or our advantage For Grief is a trouble and perturbation of Mind which is raised and effected in us through the sense and experience of such a loss and therefore when we grieve and mourn for the death of any Person our Grief speaks the interest we had in his Life and the sufferings we feel by his Death And as the very Make and Principles of humane Nature by a strong and powerfull Bias incline us to love and esteem those who oblige us by their favours and kindnesses who are usefull and beneficial to us who are the happy instruments of the ease and comfort of our lives so the same Nature as strongly disposes us for Grief when Death takes such a dear Friend from us and will not allow us to consider the loss which we sustain by his departure without a real and hearty concernment without a sensible and afflictive Sorrow And as our Natures urge and necessitate us to grieve on such a sad occasion so Religion allows it for the Design of Religion is not to extinguish our affections but to rectifie them not to root out our passions but to reclaim and reduce them to bring them into good order to put them under the discipline and conduct of right Reason and to keep them within those bounds and limits which were originally set and prescribed unto them Religion allows us to love the good things of this world in proportion to their worth and value their conveniency and usefulness and in subordination to our love of God and of the things above And it allows us to grieve for the loss of what we love so long as our Grief exceeds not the causes of it nor riseth beyond the merits of the things whose loss affect us with it so long as it does not grow up into Fret and Vexation and Impatience nor sallies out into Murmurings and Repinings but keeps a just decorum and due consistency with our dutifull submissions and humble resignations to the Will of Almighty God. Thus our Blessed Saviour himself who had no passions but what were natural and innocent grieved John. 11. 35. for the death of Lazarus and expressed that Grief by shedding Tears which the Jews interpreted as an argument of the Love and Affection which we had for him And thus may we love our Friends and Relatives and mourn for the death of those we love without any guilt or danger without any disparagement to our Reason or any offence to God if we do but take care to avoid the criminal and intemperate Excesses of either And if our Nature constrains and our Religion allows us to grieve for the death of a private Friend whose kindnesses perhaps went no farther than our selves or at most were extended but to a few besides how much more then for the death of a good King whose Benefactions were as diffusive as his Authority and like the benign influences of the Sun ran through all the parts of the Nation visited all the corners of the Kingdom and gave life and vigour and spirit to the whole Community for a good King is the most publick and comprehensive Blessing imaginable because such a King derives and secures unto his People all the Blessings and Comforts which can proceed from a wife and gentle a just and mercifull administration of Government For it is inconsistent with the notion and nature of a good King to govern arbitrarily as that signifies governing by mere Will Humour and Passion for that is the proper temper and character of a Tyrant who abuseth his just Authority to evil purposes and instead of protecting his Subjects oppresseth them and instead of ruling them prudently with all his Power turns his Power into an instrument of his rage and folly and exerciseth it upon his People not for their preservation but destruction and so makes his Government a Curse instead of a Blessing No a good King is acted by other principles and proceeds by other measures and takes his aims and directions from other ends He considers the ends for which Government was instituted and his Authority given him and because both were designed for the Peace and Order and Prosperity of the whole Community therefore he never exerciseth his Authority but with respect to these publick ends and in subserviency to them As he has a tender and paternal care for his People so in all the expresses of his sovereign Power he consults and intends their common interest and welfare and instead of governing them with the ungratefull roughness and severity of an imperious Lord he rules them with the endearing affections and compassions of an indulgent Father And upon this account good Kings are in Holy Scripture compar'd to the most usefull and beneficial Things and have Titles and Appellatives of Honour given them which are borrowed from those excellent Things Thus they are call'd The Healers of Isai 3. 7. a Land because by their wise and prudent administration of Government they apply proper remedies to the diseases and distempers of it and cure the wounds and breaches which have been made in it The Bars of it because Lam. 2. 9. by their watchfulness and providence and necessary preparations they secure it from being invaded and rifled by foreign force and violence The Shields of it because by their Psal 47. 9. power and strength they defend it from mischief and protect it from violence The Foundations Psal 11. 3. of it because by their prudent care and conduct and discreet management of publick affairs they support the peace and prosperity of it and preserve it from sinking into confusion and falling into disorder by intestine Seditions and Commotions They are styled Sheepherds and Fathers which import not onely their power and dominion over their People but also their watchfull care and tender affections for them Nay as if every thing upon Earth were too scanty and little to make up a just Comparison and to set forth the mighty usefulness and excellency of their Persons they are styled Gods which would have been accounted a piece of Court-blasphemy if we had not had the Authority of Holy Scripture to warrant the use of it And indeed a good King may in some sort be justly reckon'd an earthly God because he represents the heavenly One not onely in his Majesty and Power but also in his Love and Goodness and in those invaluable blessings and benefits which he procures for and conveys to his People And therefore no wonder that such a King is dear to his Subjects and gains such an interest in their affections and extends his Empire to their very Souls which no earthly force can reach no humane power can subdue and makes him reign over their minds as well as their bodies and establisheth his
and to reade in it all his days that he might learn to fear the Lord his God and to keep all the words of this Law and these Statutes to doe them Now Josiah out of a just regard to the Authority of God and a tender respect to the Welfare of his People contains himself in the exercise of his Sovereign Power within those bounds which God had set him and administers his Government according to those Laws which God appointed to be the constant 2 Kings 23. 25. and fixed rules of it for so we are told that like unto him was there no King before him that turned unto the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might according to all the Law of Moses neither after him arose there any like him Where by all the Law of Moses must be meant the judicial as well as the moral and ceremonial Laws and consequently this noble Character of Josiah must imply his exact and punctual Observance of that in matters civil and political as well as his strict Conformity to the other in things of a moral and ceremonial nature And what greater Blessing could a Nation enjoy or wish for than such a King who was so admirably qualified and fitted for Government and who in his Government kept punctually to the legal constitution of it and inviolably observ'd all the publick Rules which either related to the Worship of God and the duties of Religion or to the civil Rights and Properties of the People And therefore the Death of such a King could not be reckon'd any otherwise than a publick Loss nor could the Notice of it be received by any thinking person without such a passionate and affective Grief as was suitable to the nature and moment of the Consequences which depended on it And accordingly when good Josiah dyed the whole Nation was ready to dye with Grief too ready to faint and sink under the sense of their Loss and the weight of their Affliction for as their Loss was extraordinary so their Grief was so excessive and so much beyond the ordinary rate of Mourners that it became proverbial and the Prophet Zachary could not find a more proper instance of Grief to represent the greatness of that Mourning which the Children of the Bride-chamber would express when Christ their Bridegroom should be taken from them than this wherewith the Death of Josiah was lamented for thus he describes it It shall be like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddo And indeed all Judah and Jerusalem had extraordinary reason to mourn at that extraordinary rate for Josiah not onely because he dyed but because he dyed in that surprising and astonishing manner Which brings me to consider III. What peculiar and additional Reason they had besides the general one to grieve and mourn for the Death of Josiah If good Josiah had dyed according to the ordinary course of Nature and gone to his Sepulchre and been gathered to his Fathers as a shock of corn fully ripened and in its proper Season as Eliphaz elegantly compares it though his Job 5. 26. death even under such circumstances had been a loss and an infelicity yet the consideration that he had lived so long and as long as the forces of humane Nature could hold out might have been a just abatement of their grief and disposed them to have born the Calamity with less Trouble and more temper of Mind But alas the case was quite otherwise for he not onely dyed in the prime of his Age in his full strength and vigour but he dyed too by the hands of Violence for he was slain in the day of Battel as he was endeavouring to oppose the King of Egypt and to stop his march towards the river Euphrates For an unlucky Egyptian drew his mischievous Bow and shot a fatal Arrow which gave him his mortal wound and soon put an end to his Life and to all the joys and delights of his people for they could not bear the death the untimely and violent Death of such an excellent King without being extremely concern'd at it and almost overwhelm'd with a deluge of grief and sorrow for it And indeed the manner of his death was a just occasion for so great a grief because it was so plain an indication of God's displeasure against them and so clear a Prognostick of Calamities and Miseries which would follow upon it For though Kings must dye like other men and though there seems nothing extraordinary in the untimely and violent death of a good King when we consider onely that they are made up of the same frail perishing materials with our selves and with the rest of mortal men are equally susceptive of the fatal impressions of a destructive Violence yet when we consider farther that the Providence of God does in an especial manner superintend and watch over good men and in a more particular manner over good Kings then we cannot reflect on the untimely and violent death of a Wise Holy and Just King without being convinced that Heaven is highly offended and has a dreadfull controversie with the Nation and has removed this great instrument of its Blessing out of the way that so its wrath may break in with greater liberty and fall down upon it with all the dispatch and execution imaginable And the Jews had a more than ordinary reason to make such a judgment on the untimely and violent death of their good King Josiah and to interpret God's permission of it as the effect of his sore wrath and heavy displeasure which he now seemed resolved to pour down upon them in such National Calamities and Miseries as should bear proportion to their own and their Ancestours provocations For they had been assured by Huldah the Prophetess that the Idolatries and Impieties of their Forefathers had kindled and blown up the wrath of God against them to such a degree that it should not be quenched but should flame out upon them in Judgments as signal as their Crimes and as extraordinary as their Offences which deserv'd it But notwithstanding for the sake of Josiah whose heart was tender and who 2. King. 22. humbled himself before the Lord God would defer the Execution of his wrath and not bring it upon them in his days And therefore as the Jews were warranted by this Prophecy to esteem the life of their King as the surest preservative of their own and to look upon his Person as an happy Skrene which interposed between them and the dismal terrours of God's justice and kept off his destroying hand from seizing and laying hold on their guilty Nation so they had reason to conclude from the manner of his death that God was quite wearied out with their provocations That his Patience and Long-suffering were utterly exhausted and that he was now sending down upon them all those tremendous judgments which their Prophets had so clearly foretold and their sins so loudly called
for And all men must own this to have been a reasonable inference gather'd from the manner of his death which carried in it such evident marks of God's fierce Anger and Displeasure against them And must not their grief then have been as reasonable as the inference For if they had any sense of their publick loss and of the fatal Consequences which attended it how was it possible for them to have stood unconcerned or to have griev'd less than they did under so awakening and astonishing a Providence No wonder then that when Josiah dyed an universal Grief ran through his Kingdom and all his Subjects expressed their grief in such extraordinary Mourning as became as remarkable for its Greatness as the sad Loss that occasion'd it But though the Jews had great and extraordinary reason to mourn for Josiah yet I will IV. Shew you That these Nations had not onely as much but more reason nay still have more reason to mourn and lament the Death of our late dread Sovereign King CHARLES the First of ever blessed Memory And 1. What was there great and eminent of publick Use and universal Benefit in the Person Life and Government of King Josiah which may not with equal Truth and Justice in all those respects be ascrib'd to the Royal Martyr of this day For 1. As for his Understanding it was of a Royal size and Princely dimensions and of such a vast Capacity and Comprehension as shew'd him sitted for Empire and Government as he was born to it There are none can doubt of this who have with any care and impartiality perused the Book which he composed and wrote in the state of his Sufferings a Book which is a Lively Image of his Royal Mind a Perfect Transcript of his Great Soul a Book which contains in it not onely such Exuberancy such Compass such Variety of delightfull Fancy nor onely such Majesty of Style such Elegance of Phrase such Propriety of Language but also such Strength of Thought such Depth of Judgment such Reach of Apprehension as uncontrollably proclaims him to have been a great Man in the modern sense of the Phrase as that signifies a Man of great Understanding 2. As for his Life What was that but a visible draught of practical Christianity a bright and illustrious example of universal Holiness for How did all Christian Graces and Vertues adorn his Royal Conversation How did the Power and Spirit of true Christianity appear and manifest it self throughout the whole Course and Tenour of his Actions notwithstanding all the softening Charms and fascinating Temptations of a Court with which he was surrounded Nor was he onely an eminent Example of those Graces and Vertues which are proper to a flourishing and prosperous Condition but also of those which belong to a passive and suffering State. His Chastity and Temperance his Mercy and Justice His Humility and Charity were not more remarkable in him in the time of his Prosperity than his Meekness and Contentedness his Patience and Submission to the Will of God in the days of his Affliction So that if that pernicious Maxim had been true That Dominion is founded in Grace and Saintship gives Title to the power of Government He would have had as clear and unquestionable a right to his own Crown and Sceptre on account of his Christian Graces and Vertues as he had on the account of his natural and legal Inheritance 3. As for his Government it was mild and gentle just and legal agreeable to the publick Laws and fundamental Constitutions of this Nation As he was always inclinable to pardon injuries so he was always carefull to doe none For who was ever oppress'd by his Power or injur'd by his Authority Whose liberties did he invade or whose rights did he usurp Whose Ox or whose Ass did he take Or who ever could truly complain of any wrong which he did them Indeed there were one or two Passages in his administration which make a loud Out-cry in the Nation and were improv'd to the most malicious and destructive purposes against him But whatever Causes or Counsels mis-led him into those Errours and Mistakes it is plain that they did not proceed from any design which he had of overturning the legal Establishment and setting up an arbitrary Power in the room of it as his malicious and implacable Enemies falsly accus'd him For never any Prince could be more liberal in his Concessions and indulgent in his Grants than he was to allay the jealousies and remove the fears of his People For to assure them that he desir'd no more power than the Laws allow'd him he was content to enjoy less and parted with some of his own legal Rights to convince his Subjects that he had no intention to usurp upon theirs and divest himself of such essential and fundamental Prerogatives of his Crown as did in some measure Unking him that so he might let them see how far he was from any thoughts of governing as a Tyrant Now how happy might these Nations have been under the indulgent Government of such a Prince if they had but understood their own happiness and would but have been contented to have enjoy'd it as their duty and their interest oblig'd them But as it is not in the power of the wisest and best of Kings to make their Subjects happy against their own wills so if Subjects will be querulous and murmuring under Peace and Plenty if they will be unaccountably fearfull and unreasonably jealous and fansie Hobgoblins and Bugbears ready to seize and devour when there appears nothing but their Guardian-angel to defend and protect them If they will be seditious and turbulent under the best of Governments and the best of Kings their Follies are both their Sins and their Punishments and as they stand accountable to God and Man for their Guilts so they may thank themselves for the mischievous Consequences of them But though our contemptuous thoughts of a Blessing and ingratefull behaviour under it may keep us from reaping the happy and comfortable effect of it yet they cannot change the Nature nor lessen the Worth of it but the Enjoyment of it will be a Happiness and the Deprivation of it a Loss notwithstanding our mistaken opinions and scornfull neglect or despightfull treatment of it And therefore though many rejoyc'd at the death of our Royal Martyr and others were stupidly unconcern'd at it yet all wise and good Men consider'd it as it really was a Publick Loss and resented it as a general Calamity and were affected with a pungent Grief and express'd a passionate Sorrow for it And they had extraordinary reason for so doing as will farther appear if 2. We consider the Manner of his Death for his Death was neither in the common course of Nature nor according to the ordinary periods of it but it was violent and untimely for he fell by the hands of cruel and bloudy-minded Men and was ravished from us when in all appearance he