A SERMON Preached before Sir MARMADVKE LANGDALE At his entrance into BARVVICK By I. K. a Native of the same place sometimes Preacher of Gods word there Hosea Chap. 3. vers 5. Afterward shall the children of Israel returne and seeke the Lord their God and David their King and shall feare the Lord and his goodnesse in the latter dayes Printed in the Yeare 1648. And Ieremiah lamented for Iosiah 2 Cron. 35.25 THE sphere of this Text is Lamentation the Poles whereon it movâ—â—â— Iosiah and Ieremiah In the upper the etheriall part of this sphere wâ—â—â— see the bloud of Iosiah in the nether the watry hemisphere wee have the teares of Ieremiah And as the caelestiall Spheres have their first moover above them So is there in this Text a third person the Spirit of God who onely being above the King and the Prophet placed them heere in the Firmament of his word and by this his Testimony hath consolidated the blood of Iosiah and the teares of Jeremiah into fixt Starres wherein all men may reade their common condition and Kingdomes calculate their owne Nativities and dissolutions So in this darke Sphere of Lamentation Iosiah dying Ieremiah crying wee finde yet the Spirit of God testifying though in the cold Region of the revolting Iudah both King and Prophet be eclypsed the one by death the other by sorrow yet are they heere caught up into the cleere Orbe of the Scripture torres eruti deigne and there memorated to all Posterities by the uncloudeable testimony of the spirit of God Zach. 3.2 in whose sight since the death of his Saints is precious Psal 116.13.56.8 and he puts all their teares into his bottle therfore are these things noted in his booke therefore are Iosiah and Ieremiah recorded heere as Monuments and their bloud and teares turned into Rubies and Pearles to make Bracelets to adorne the Spouse of Christ Heere first wee see in Mourning and dying the condition of us all in this world sorrow and death play all our game Lugemus aut lugemur omnes in vicem It is an hard question whether at our entring wee begin sooner to weepe or to dye But in our progresse whereas dying hath no intervals sorrow seemes to admit some interludes but in a wise mans apprehension they are but delusions Looke into the Stage of the world you shall see two serious Actors the Dyer and the Mourner All the rest play the foole or the counterfeit whereupon the judicious spectator Eccle. 2.2 Solomon called out to laughter inâ—anis thou art mad and to mirth Quid frustra deciperis And the great Iob sayd of himselfe Job 29.24.31.23 if I laughed on them they beleeved it not so seldome did he so little could he laugh qui semper quasi tumentes super se fluctus timuit Deum who thought continually he heard God like the mighty billowes of the Sea rowling over his head But the Sonne of God quoties veâ—ò elle Isai 53 3. Psal 88.15 how oft did he impropriate the Title of vir dolorum the man of sorrowes From my youth up thy terrours have I suffered with a troubled minde Luke 17 50. and againe I have a Baptisme to be baptized withall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and how am I straightened till this be fulfilled For well knew the Sonne it was the will of the Father that sorrow should be the dyet and viands of man in the course of this life where the feathers and downe wee rest upon have their quills and thistles the Rose wee smell her pricks the meate on our Tables cryes out to us Mors in ollâ there is death in the pot This habituall sorrow for the fits of worldly mirth quamvis non intempestivis amaenitatibus are but recesses from it and I neither condemne every act of joy Gen. 35.18 nor justifie every motion of sorrow this habituall sorrow from which Bennoni the sonne of sorrow was called Benjamin the sonne of strength and by which the sorrowfull Iabez became more honourable then all his brethren 1. Cron. 4 9. this habituall sorrow I say this commanding sadnesse this mastred and well rayned pensivenesse is wisdome in the minde valour in the heart salt in the wit discipline to the flesh from whence there breakes forth a Majesty in the very countenance It is indeed the ballance of the soule without which a light and empty heart like an unpoysed Barke danceth aloft to the flattry of the windes which will quickly lay her low But we have every where so many causes of the one of these two sorrow that the other death might be jealous we forget him and surprize us suddenly if with the statue of sorrow in Jeremiah the spirit of God had not erected also a monument of death in Iosiah and justly for the same which David calls the valley of the shadow of death in the 23. Psalme he calls the valey of Baca in the 84. for sorrow is saith Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the shadow of sinne and mortality now as if a man were placed so high aboue the earth that night the shadow of it could not reach to him he should have continuall day so those soules onely that have wrought so high that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last point of this shadow of sin Mortality is below their feete those have no sorrow unlesse it be to looke downe upon us and see quantâ sub nocte jaceret nost â—a dies in what a true night of lamentablenesse we walke here on earth which yet we thicken with grosse conceits of false mirth the best use then of naturall life is the thinking on death O that they were wise saith Moses Deut. 32.29 that they would consider their latter end Sion remembered not her later end therefore she came down wonderfully Lam. 1.9 saith our Ieremie in this Lamentation yea in spirituall life Paul desired to know nothing here but Jesus Christ and him dying 1. Cor. 2.2 sleepe like a Publican takes excise of our life onely the rest of it is our owne he that thinkes not on death is asleepe what wee deny to the one Brother the other takes away O how I love thee thou meditation on death since not time but thou measurest life and makest it mine Through this narrow dark optick of the meditation on death our eyes help'd with the watry spectacles of teares pierce through the chrystalline Heaven and looke to eternall life Iohn confesseth of Peter and himselfe Jo. 20.10 who ran to the Sepulchre and presently returned home that they missed of that dignation which was afforded to Mary who stayed there looking into the tombe and weeping her constant adhering to the Sepulchre had the honour to see the vision of the Angels and her weeping the grace to heare the first salutation of her glorified saviour who appoints saith Esai to them that mourne Esay 61.3 and gives them beauty for ashes the oile of joy for
Propheticall breath so in Propheticall teares it is embalmed and continued to all Posterities which shall wonder and be amazed even the Kings of the earth and all the Inhabitants of the world Lament 4.12 and not believe that the enemy could have entred the ports of the Daughter of Zion having so religious a King under whose shadow they lived securely among the Heathen Lament 4.20 But hearing withall that this King was so taken away they shall acknowledge that the God of Israel dealt therein with that people and Josiah in the same manner as he dealt once with David and them 2 Sam. 24 1. He that suffered David to sinne in numbring the people for the sinne of a number whom he would destroy suffering also Josiah so zealous for the Law and the weale of the people to goe against the word in the mouth and fall by the sword in the hand of Necho 2 Chron. 35 22. That the Bulwarke which stood in the way of the destroyer once broken downe the floud of the wrath of God quâ data porta ruat might thenceforth breake in upon a rebellious Nation that so they might be punished by his death who was suffered to slip for their punishment and by whose righteous life they would not be reformed As for that one act of Josiahs going to war against Pharoh piety forbids us to thinke that Iosiah would have done it had he beene forbidden by the mouth of Ieremiah or any of Gods Prophets But in the mouth of Pharoah what more authority could this interdiction expect from Iosiah then that commination from the mouth of Zenacherib obtained of Hezekiah 2 King 18.25 Indeede wee who now have the story written since by the holy Ghost reade that Iosiah hearkned not to the word of Necho from the mouth of God 2 Chron. 35 2â— But if this were a ruine and such an one was Moses his at the waters of Meribah so subtile that it must be a quick eye can discerne it wee may say with Gregory pro qualitatibus subditorum disponuntur acta regentium the actions of Kings are by Gods permission and overruling hand disposed according to the desert of their Subjects justus interim Judex c. In the meane time the just Iudge vindicates those sinnes of the King at their hands for whose sake he was suffered to slip Heere the sinne of Iudah came to it height in their greater guiltinesse of his lesser sinne Their sinne had it complement in his slip and their punishment it beginning from his death O the just and unsearcheable judgements of the great King From this judgement wee are taught how sacred a relation is betwixt a King and his people so strong so neare is it that he that atempts to part them had better halfe cleave a great Oake and forcing the sides to open stand betwixt them at their suddaine clapping together againe See the piety of this potent relation on the Kings part in Moses Exod. 32.32 O forgive the sinne of this people or else blot me out of the booke thou hast written See it in David what have these sheepe done Let thy hand be upon me and my fathers house 2 Sam. 24.17 On the Subjects part how strong and indelible this naturall love to their King is though indeede the wife be more subject to the tempter wee reade in those sensitive creatures in which Rege incolumi mous omnibus una amisso rupere fidem in naturall men which upon the violent death of their King even after a good successour was possessed have never rested till the doers were punished as in DomitiaÌ„ some have died for pitty to their King as in Otho and the best Optimus Emperor executed that which Nerva coted to him out of Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But where the knowledge of God was this zeale was ever more warme The people sayd to Samuel who is he that sayd Saul shall not raign over us Bring the men that wee may put them to death 1 Sam â— 1 1â— And the same people that were deluded by Absolom to rebell against David their King after the fit was over were so â—ealous for him that they were at strife through all the Tribes of Israel who should be first in bringing back the King and expiating their rash folly with redoubled Loyalty 2 Sam. 19.42 The strength of this relation is the reason that God sometimes punisheth a King for the peoples sake as heere in Iosiah sometimes the people for the Kings sake as in Saule 2 Sam. 21.1 And sometimes lets the King transgresse that he may punish the people as in David 2 Sam. 24.1 This solemne course of Almighty God in punishing is the strength of the current of Jeremiahs Lamentations for Iosiah so drawing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the people from that one act of Iosiah to consideration of their past sinnes and from the death of Iosiah to their present judgement and so to God himselfe And this is the decumanus fluctus now have teares swelled to their Land-marke springing from sorrow for common death and vulgar mourners to the chiefe mourner the Prophet and the hyperocall sorrow for a King then rising from the death of a King to the losse of a Iosiah thence to the consequent of the losse it diffuseth then swelleth againe to the departure of the great shepheard thence passeth to the motive cause of all these sinne At last it mounts up to the efficient and disposer Almighty God So our Ieremy in this Lamentation for Iosiah Lament 3.42.39 Wee have transgressed and rebelled and thou hast not pardoned and againe wherefore doth a living man murmure a man for the punishment of his sinne For even those whom God hath forsaken grieve at their punishment they have not cryed to me with their heart when they howled upon their beds saith Hosee Hos 7.14 but this is a signe that the party under punishment is yet a man a live man when the soule stumbles not and stops either murmuring at the punishment or at the second cause quarrelling but leaping over and rising above both second causes and punishment ascends to God arguing thus with our Ieremy in this Lamentation Lament 3.37 Who is he that saith it and it comes to passe when the Lord commandeth it not Out of the mouth of the most high proceedes not evill and good Thus persuing our sinnes to God wee finde in him both judgement and mercy judgement by which he hath but from us to punish mercy in which he hath of his seminarium miserecordiarum to be gratious and repent him of the evill upon the evils repentance 2 Cor. 1.3 Whereas if wee stay in our afflictions either out of dulnesse or impatience at the second causes and instruments by higher pressures wee become hardened and dejected by greater moreover in the men that oppresse us wee shall finde onely insultation and matter of provocation is my complaint saith Iob Iob â—1 4. to man if it were so how should not my spirit be
mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heavinesse thus are we taught in the first place by mourning in Jeremiah and dying in Josiah how well mourning becomes an holy soule repente ut emoriantur humani loves how suddenly death unthrones our mortall Gods Mourning and Death were our first lesson and the second is like unto it mourning for the dead Which mourning for the dead in the Text takes hold by this connexture and of burying the dead in the verse before and he was buried among his Fathers Tombes and they mourned for him This testimony of the spirit of God gives sufficient weight and reverence to the Doctrine Howbeit in these miserable times under colour of reforming superstitious abuses decent and allowed expressions of devotion are so endangered to be extirpated that the piety heere enjoyned must so far enjoy the impiety of the age as to have a few words bestowed upon the poynt Death is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fatall debt which wee owe to nature for living after our Father Adam and mourning a naturall debt which our children owe to us for dying before them deny the living to mourne and deny the dead are dead The rude Laconian more reproved the indolency of the Stoick when he answered him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My sorrow is the flux of Nature For the God of Nature is so carefull not to have this piety in mourning for the dead obliterated that he hath twisted it upon those tender strings of our naturall relations and affections which wee feele to crack within our selves when our friends heart strings breake and then our bowells towle their last knell The first dyer was Abel Abel the just and his Father Adam mourned long for him till by the birth of Seth he was comforted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as by a mortall resurrection type of an eternall saith Nissen noting that Abel that is mourning must continue with Adam till Seth Achates must attend upon Æneas till the resurrection when saith Iohn Rev. 21.4 there shall be no more death nor sorrow Those Timons that will neither retaine humanity in themselves nor indure it in others what thinke they of the Sonne of God Whom this slinty wisdome of theirs and abstracted Divinity could not withold from sorrowing for the dead No he was Mediator betwixt the living and the dead and therefore as in his person he assumed our infirmities so by his practice he justified this sympathy of the living with the dead He groaned in the spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he troubled himselfe he wept Jo. 11.33 both in complyance with Martha and Mary his mourning and for destitution of Lazarus his dying Friend Job 39.14 This was the spirit of our Dove not like the Ostrich that is hardned against her owne as if they were not hers and leaves them in the dust quia privavit eam Deus sapientiâ saith Iob. because God hath deprived her of wisdome These vaine glorious contemners of sorrow for the dead would they wash their horny eyes with teares might see how death while they deny him one thing sorrow takes from them two both their piety and their Friend Truely these buryers of Nature alive are of the same veines with the Donatisticall Circumcellions though they have not so much of the bloud in them and of the same dye though they be not yet so deepe dipped But they are not farther from humanity that are offended with mourning for the dead then they are from Christianity that quarrel with their burialls and funeralls consult the Scriptures whereas burying is simply called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rich man dyed and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 16.22 Gen. 50.2 was buried the word which both the Septuagint useth of Jacob in the old Testament and Mathew in the new of our Saviour is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 26.12 which signifies not onely buriall but decent funeralls and is compleated in that word which Luke useth of those devout men who lamented greatly for Stephen and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 8.2 tooke care and order for his funerall Paul in joines that all things should be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 14.40 decently Ma. 15.43 and Marke appropriates to Joseph of Arimathea the stile of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the honourable Joseph because of the solemne inhumation decoravit honesto funere Mat. 26 10. this care of burialls and charge of funeralls is by our Saviour called a good worke by Iacob a deed of mercy by Luke an Act of devotion Gen. 47 29. Act 8 2. and Paul makes Ioseph's charge concerning his bones an effect of faith then not to be needlesly long in shewing that buriall refers to the hope of the resurection and was ordained from God from the beginning In Act. 8.2 saith Calvin in honour to the body to which the resurrection is promised and which even after seperation is candidatum resurrectionis saith Tertullian our owne Iosiah in his reformation of both Kingdomes was so religiously respective hereof 2. King 23.18 that he lookt among the tombes carefully and would not suffer the bones of the Prophet to be disturbed yea Iesus the blessed yesterday to day and for ever the same justified the costly and therefore envied Mat. 26.12.13 anoynting of his body under the name of Sepulchralis a Funerall charge I am sure for the charge of that Funerall Oyntment her Funerall Sermon shall last till the generall houre glasse of the world be run and shall outlive all the long windy Sarments and Canons are bolted against burials and Funerall Sermons vae tibi miser sayd Augustine of Iudas bonus odor occidit te The odour of a decent funerall is to a Iudas like the smell of the Angels perfume that drove the Divell away from Tobias Tob. 8.3 Doth any startle at this illustration as Apocryphall Let him looke into the Canonicall Scripture he shall finde that at Moses death God himselfe preacht the Funerall Sermon Josh 1.2 Deut. 34.6 Jude v. 9. and he that buryed the body he saith the Text was at least an Angel though the Devill contended against it and disputed about it O miserable abusers of the name of Christians Indeed uncircumcised Iewes whose soules are too narrow to comprehend the relation of their owne bodies which unfortunate vessels as long as they have the salt in them they can put to any lustful or sensuall use still reserving in themselves spirituality forsooth as Irenaeus saith the Valentinians did but as soone as they are parted from their soules they count them no more then dust and corruption and the slight burialls they afford them but an humane formality done in the remembrance of the naturall relation they had to the party alive Thus they proceede from Stoicisme to Epicurisme first Pharisees then Saduces But you beloved conceive rightly of the mystery which is your hope the seperation and dissolution of
the body though it seem to nature like the irrecoverable falling drop of raine into the Sea takes not away the naturall relation of the body which is twofold One of the materiall body to it private soule of which Iob sayd Job 19.26 though after my skin wormes destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my selfe and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my reines be consumed within me And Paul this corruptible must put on incorruption Cor. 15.53 this despicable this numericall corruptible arguing from the exemplary cause the second Adam to all the faithfull and againe concluding from the finall cause to all men generally wee must all appeare before the Tribunall of Christ that every one may receive in his body the things he hath done Cor. 5.10 Whereupon as Hierome reports the Church of Aquileia that when they pronounce the beliefe observe that of ancient the beliefe was rehearsed in the Congregations for visible confession of the faith is the forme of the visible Church speake that Article emphatically of this flesh pointing every one to his forehead Of the latter relation of the mysticall body which is the body and soule of the believer to Christ know you not saith Paul 1 Cor. 6.15 that your bodies are the members of Christ And againe this is a great mystery but I speake of Christ and the Church Eph. 5.31 For that two shall be one flesh veriùs intelligitur saith Augustine de Christo Ecclesiâ hath its full truth in Christ and the Church Now the reason why God would suffer this vessell of flesh consigned to glory fall into corruption and not translate it presently as he was able into corruption may be thus gathered from his word It stood with the wisedome and power of the great Maker all whose gifts are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to let that earthen vessell which himselfe had framed in the confines of spirituality and now by the envy of the Devill was blemished to continue ever in that deformity but rather to returne it into the lumpe and mould it over againe and this councell of the Almighty wee reade first foretold in the old Testament Jer. 18.6 then fulfilled in the new God is the Potter and wee the clay saith the same our Ieremy who prophesied of the buying of the Potters field Mat. 27.9 when by the envyer of the Potter this vessell was deformed Iesus Christ overcomming the Malignant defacer purchased of God with the price of his owne bloud the moulding againe of the Vessell which he had redeemed from the enemy Wherefore he gave us a manifest tryall in his owne body which though he suffered to dye to purchase the remaking of all the rest yet it as it needed no new molding for any staine and to be returned into the lumpe so could not be held of death nor see corruption So the grave is the Potters field purchased with Christs bloud and burying the placing of the shivered vessell in Godslimbeck to be new cast when he shall with fire calcine the whole masse of the world carnis aurum è limi sordibus excusato censu eliquabit saith Tertullian alluding to that of Malachy Mal. 3.17 And they shall be mine in the day when I make up my jewels Therefore my beloved Brethren be stedfast unmoveable alwaies abounding in every worke of the Lord and duty of devotion forasmuch as you know your labour is not in vaine in the Lord but what is done herein to the Body is not Bodily but Spirituall and full of glorious hope as if your now departing soule should whisper thus to the Body feare not deare sister our instant seperation nor thy folowing dissolution I know that our Redeemer liveth and I have intrusted him with thee so that he is both a Proprietary and a Dâ—positary and by this my last Testament I bequeath thee to him who with his owne bloud purchased of the great Potter thy reparation and whom the God of Peace brought againe from the dead by the bloud of the everlasting Testament I know whom I have trusted and I am perswaded that he is able to keepe thee whom I have committed unto him against that day Wee have learn'd from the Text that Religious mourning and decent buriall are to be performed to every Christian and that sorrow and death continue after Noah a generall inundation we finde in that Jâ—siah dyed and Jeremiah lamented And Jeremiah lamented Observe how the spirit of God dwels upon and delights in enlarging this Testimony what an honourable Crowne of suffrages encompasseth this Jeremiah lamented First imediately before the Text the tide of teares brake in upon Hierusalem then surrounded Juda then overflowed all Judah and Hierusalem universus Juda Hierusalem luxerunt yet still the floud swells and with it the expression of the spirit of God moving upon the sad face of the waters and Jeremiah lamented as if all the former teares had beene in Jeremiah's teares drown'd crown'd wept over againe Then presently after the Text for like a Sepia Jeremiah deales his black dole round about him first all the singing men and the singing women the whole quire replicant resownd Jeremiah's epicediall anthemes further they made them an ordinance in Israell these pious Homilies are injoyned to both Kingdomes by an Ecclesiasticall constitution can there be any more yet yea Ecce scripta sunt Behold they are written in the Lamentations recorded and acknowledged by the spirit of God as his owne made part of Gods word so that we may say to this day God laments for the King by Jeremiah Jeremiah lamented one of the Priests Jer. 1.1 of the sonnes of Aron sacerdos è sacerdotibus saith Hierome to whose holy order Gods owne word made it a prophanation to mourne for the dead Levit 21.1 upon the death of the King the divine Law admits a prohibition upon such an occasion the head used to sacred unction is bedowed with teares and the water hath got above the oile thus Jeremiah the Priest lamented Jeremiah lamented the Prophet the egregious Prophet Jer. 1.5.10 sanctified in the wombe knowne before formed set over the Nations and Kingdomes to root out and pull downe to build and to plant This Jeremiah the Prophet lamented Ieremiah had oft had just cause to mourne for himselfe v. 8. in the 20 chapter I cryed out I cryed violence and spoile because the word of the Lord was made a reproach to me and a dirision dayly In the 18 chapter they said come let us divise devices against Jeremie let us smite him with the tongue v. 18. In the 37 chapter he was apprehended and accused of treason v. 15. and falling away to the enemies of the State and thereupon smitten and cast into the dungeon yet all this writ him not in the black letter and great charactet of a Lamenter but now some occasion hath presented