A SERMON Preached in the Parish-Church of St. Swithin London March 10th 1694 5. Upon the Much Lamented Death Of our Most Gracious Queen By THO. BOWBER M. A. Formerly of Wadham Colledge Oxon. LONDON Printed for William Rogers at the Sun over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet 1695. To the Right Honourable Sir Iohn Summers Kt. Lord Keeper of the Great SEAL of ENGLAND and one of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Council My Lord IT needs not create Wonder in any to find your Lordships great Name in the Front of this Sermon who will but consider the Faithful Service you did and the great veneration you had for that Excellent Princess of whom in Mournful Accents it speaks The Performance how mean soever is the natural product of just Grief and Sorrow for the Common Loss of us all and therefore needs not fear a favourable acceptance from your Honour But my Lord there is another Reason that entitles this Dedication to your Lordship I must always gratefully remember a singular instance of your Favour and Kindness to me and I thought I could not better express my Gratitude than by making a publick Acknowledgment thereof The Discourse I here present your Lordship with has nothing to recommmend it but Truth and Plainness Astonishing Grief such as ours slights and disdains the mean and useless Ornaments of empty Rhetorick My chief Aim and Design in Preaching it was to make Men better to which Pious end they having so great an Example set before them for their imitation I hope it may conduce now in Submission to the importunities of several some of which for their Piety and Friendship had great influence over me it appears in publick That God Almighty may long continue your Lordship the Delight of this Kingdom for the Impartial distribution of Justice and the Reformation of the Abuses and Corruptions of the late Times is the most sincere and hearty prayer of My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Devoted and Obliged Servant THO. BOWBER 2 Chron. XXXV 24. The latter part of the Verse And all Judah and Jerusalem Mourned for Josiah MAN tho formed in respect of his Body of Corruptible Principles yet these did the Almighty so equally Poise so harmoniously Attemper that the Divine Workmanship had it not dasht itself in pieces might have been for ever free from Corruption For in so blissful a Condition God Created Man with such light of Understanding holiness of Will Affections so Regular and with such Strength and Ability to have withstood the Temptations of the Serpent that he might not only have seated himself in Immortality but have conveyed it down to his Posterity But aspiring to a more high and exalted degree of Happiness than the all-wise God had thought fit to place him in he fell from his Original Excellency and Forfeited his Incorruptibility That Decree Gen. 2. v. 17. In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye took then immediately Life and Vigour and an universal Mortality came into the World every one became obnoxious to Death and all past Generations are but Monuments of its Reign and Triumph The Young Dye with the Old the Rich with the Poor the Wise with the Foolish Good Josiah as well as Wicked Ahab Could Goodness or Greatness Youth or Beauty or any other Human Excellency have been any security against Death our most Incomparable Princess had still Sate upon that Throne which She sola tely Adorn'd with Her Royal Presence but to our unspeakable Grief and the Astonishment of all round about us She was quickly snatcht away by Death and no doubt in Mercy as good Josiah was that her Eyes might not see the Evil which we know not how soon may befall us without a speedy Reformation Her Prayers doubtless as well as Josiah's had a mighty Energy in them to turn away the fierce Anger of God and to encline Him to Mercy Yet whatever Benefit we we might reap from them in Her Life-time we were soon Deprived of Her and that in a time when we thought Happiness at Hand and our selves Embracing it A Lovely Scene of Affairs had but just presented itself with a very Charming Aspect a Check was given to our Enemies abroad the King to the great Rejoycing of His Royal Consort and People returned home in Safety and a Loyal Parliament Assembled ready and prepared to Execute whatever might truly tend to the Honour of the Nation and the Interest of Church and State so that the Hearts of all good Men did exceedingly Rejoyce and they already anticipated that Happiness which they expected without interruption to Enjoy This was the goodly posture of Affairs when we were all surprised by an unexpected turn of Providence And this was the State of Judah when Josiah was gathered to his Fathers the Jews then promised themselves some long Prosperity when on a sudden a fatal Arrow from the Egyptian Host cut off their King and Hopes together It was indeed said of him That he should be gathered to his Grave in peace for he had no open Enemies none that made War against him yet not harkning to the words of Pharaoh Neco who went up to War against the King of Assyria by the River Euphrates not harkning I say to his Words from the Mouth of God would needs Fight him in the Valley of Megiddo where receiving a sore Wound he was carried in a Chariot to Jerusalem where he dyed and was buried in one of the Sepulchres of his Fathers and what great Impression his Death made upon all the People is here Expressed And all Judah and Jerusalem Mourned for Josiah Which words teaching us that it hath been the Practise of the Church mournfully to Resent the Death of Religious Princes the Method I shall confine my self to in the Prosecution of them will be 1st Of all to offer some Reasons in General to show That the Death of good Princes is matter of great Mourning and Lamentation to a People or Kingdom 2dly I shall Enquire more particularly into the great Cause the Jews had to Mourn for the Death of good Josiah 3dly Upon the sad Occasion of the Death of our late most Excellent Princess I shall set before you the great reason we all have to Mourn for so Great and Irreparable a Loss 4thly and Lastly I shall apply what hath been spoken in Two or Three Natural Inferences 1st The Death of Religious Princes is matter of great Mourning and Lamentation and surely were it not so there had never been such Lamentations for their Death Recorded in the Sacred Scriptures When Moses the Servant of the Lord Dyed the Children of Israel are said to weep for him in the Plains of Moab thirty days Deut. 34. v. 8. When Samuel Dyed all the Israelites were gathered together and Lamented him 1 Sam. 25. v. 1. When Hezekiah slept with his Fathers all Judah and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem did him Honour at his Death 2 Chron. 32. v. 33. And this Mourning for
Josiah in the Text was a very great Mourning 't is said to be as the Mourning of Hadradrimmon in the Valley of Megiddon Zech. 12. v. 11. Eus Ecc. Hist de vita Constantini lib. 4. cap. 65.67 And when Constantine the Great Dyed how greatly did the Tribunes Centurions the whole Order of Judges and Magistrates Lament his Death all places were filled with doleful Shrieks and Lamentations that the common Good of them all was taken from them These Instances plainly prove That to make doleful Resentments upon occasion of the Death of good Princes was the practice of the Church of God and a Practice 't is as Old and Ancient as the Church it self for 't is founded upon the Law of Nature How pleasing and agreeable to Nature is it to Weep and Grieve for the Death of our Natural Parents especially if they be Good Much more then surely if we have any true Zeal for Religion any regard for the Publick Good ought we to express our Grief when the Fathers of our Country are by Death taken from us For 1st A Religious Prince is a great Blessing to a Nation a promised Mercy Isaiah 49. v. 23. 'T is said Kings shall be thy nursing Fathers and their Queens thy nursing Mothers A Godly Prince is an unspeakable Blessing such a ray of Divine Love and Favour to a Nation as bespeaks a very peculiar and distinguishing Providence presiding over it Because the Lord loved Israel for ever therefore made he thee King speaking to Solomon to do judgment and justice 1 King 10. v. 9. or to establish them for ever as 't is rendred 2 Chron. 9. v. 8. When Princes are endued with Wisdom Piety and the Fear of God 't is at once the greatest Lustre and Glory to themselves and the greatest Mercy and Blessing which a People can enjoy Blessed be thou O Land when thy King is the son of Nobles and thy Princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness On the other hand An Irreligious Prince is a sure Token of Gods heavy Displeasure against a People and of sore Judgments and Desolations to be poured out upon them Wo unto thee O Land when thy King is a Child and thy Princes eat in the morning Eccl. 10. v. 16. when thy King is a Child that is in Understanding such was Rehoboam in the midst and strength of his Age a Child of one and forty Years old 2dly Princes have a very great Influence upon their People either to diffuse and spread the true Religion or Idolatry and Prophaneness throughout their Territories Thousands nay almost whole Nations and Kingdoms imitating and following their Examples for what Entertainment Religion meets with at Court the like for the most part it finds throughout the Kingdom A Religious King therefore is a mighty Instrument both to establish the true Religion and to engage his Subjects in the ways thereof by setting over them faithful Pastors Men of Learning Integrity and Piety such as shall feed them with the spiritual Food of sound Knowledge and win them by the Prevalency of their own good Examples Jehosophat a Religious Prince sent Princes and with them Levites and Priests to Teach in all the Cities of Judah and Asa his Father a good King commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their Fathers and to do the Law and the Commandments and what great Influence it had on the People you may find in the 2 Chron. 15.12 13. verses Thus Josiah made all that were present in Israel to serve even to serve the Lord their God and all his days they departed not from following the Lord the God of their Fathers but in his Sons days who did Evil in the sight of the Lord they returned to Idolatry for all the chief of the Priests and the People transgressed very much after all the abomination of the Heathen and Polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem In * Vide Euseb Zozom Theodor. Ecc. Hist et Magdeburg Ecc. Hist the Reign of Constantine the Great the first Christian Emperour what Numbers what Multitudes of Proselytes were daily added to the Church And what effectual Care was there taken to suppress Heresies and to reconcile differences in Opinion but yet in the time of the Arian Emperours the wonderful growth of Arianism gave occasion to that Complaint of St. Hierom that almost the whole World Mourned to see itself become Arian Thus in Julian the Apostates Reign they returned to Idolatry and did with the utmost Zeal espouse it Contending as eargerly for Error as Truth itself 3ly Religious Princes are the Defence of a People they are as the Walls of a Nation as the Chariots and Horse-men thereof The Psalmist Ps 47. v. 9 calls them the Shields of the Earth for by their Prayers they engage the Irresistible Strength of Heaven to be on their Side Whilst the Governours and Princes of Israel and Judah were Religious and kept close to the Service of God they were Victorious and Triumphant as in the Days of Joshua and the Elders who out-liv'd him and as in David's Asa's Jehosaphat's and Hezekiah's Reigns But when they forsook the Lord their God his Word and Ordinances they soon fell as a Prey into the greedy Jaws of the Assyrian Monarchs by whom they were carried away Captive At least good Princes stave and keep off the Execution of Judgments upon a Nation when they cannot by all their Prayers and Tears turn them away Hezekiah when such black Clouds of Wrath did hang over Judah and Jerusalem that Micah Prophesied chap. 3. v. 12. That Zion should be Plowed as a Field and Jerusalem should become heaps and the Mountain of the house as the high places of the Forest did yet so far prevail that Peace and Truth Flourished in his Days And in Josiah's Reign when that Nation was in such deep Arrears to the Almighty that the Execution of all the Threats and Judgments Denounced against them was ready to take place yet by Prayer and Humiliation did this good King so far mitigate the Divine Wrath that it did not lay hold on them during his Life When good Princes are taken away from a People 't is like the breaking down the Bounds of the Sea a passage is thereby laid open for the Divine Wrath to break in upon and overwhelm them Well therefore may the Death of good Princes be thought matter of great Mourning and Lamentation to a Kingdom or People I proceed 2dly To enquire more particularly into the great cause of the Jews Universal Mourning for the Death of Josiah to which Enquiry we shall receive abundant satisfaction if we do but Contemplate the greatness of the Loss they sustained by his Death which I shall endeavour to set forth by describing First His Great and Extraordinary Piety Secondly His Zeal against Idolatry Thirdly His Publick Spirit Fourthly The time of his Death First He was a Prince of most Illustrious Piety one of the brightest
Now that She did so greatly promote and encourage Religion amongst us is a plain proof an undeniable Argument that like Her Pious Grandfather that great Luminary of Religion both in his Life and Death She truly loved that Church in the Communion of which She was Baptized Educated and so lived and dyed Nothing was wanting in Her to bring Religion into the greatest Vogue and Reputation Had it pleased the Almighty to have lengthned out Her Life Vice must have sneaked into Corners and the Person of Honour and the Gentleman had needed no other Distinction but their Virtues than which nothing can be more becoming them Secondly She was a very Zealous Princess so Zealous against the Idolatry of the Romish Church that in that case like Levi of old for which he is so highly extolled in Sacred Writ She knew neither Father or Mother When Israel fell first to Idolatry and Moses said who is on the Lord's side The Sons of Levi stood on the Lords side and appeared against Idolatry even so our Queen by appearing against Idolatry proved Herself to be on the Lord's side and that in a time of imminent Peril and Danger Thirdly She was of a very Publick Spirit for when the Roman Eagle began to expand its spreading wings and we were possessed with the justest Fears and dangers she with an humble Trust and Confidence in Divine Mercy readily parted with whatever was dear to her nay with her Royal dearest Husband for a time who in the most dreadful Season of the Year ventured on a very dangerous Expedition seconded with innumerable Difficulties to rescue us from the daily Rapes committed upon our Laws and Liberties and to preserve and continue the beauty of the Gospel among us for which the Hearts of all good Men did then tremble as much as the Heart of Eli for the Ark of God when he understood it was in danger of being taken by the Philistines with so much gallantry and greatness of Mind mixt with the most submissive Resignation to the Will of Heaven did this most tender Wife and truly Wise Princess behave herself in order to prevent a near-approaching Bondage worse than that of Israel in Egypt for that was only on their Bodies but this on our Souls And it might have been of as long continuance too as theirs in Egypt was when for the long space of four hundred years they Groaned under the heavy yoak and burden thereof The Queen considering the large and capacious Endowments of Her Mind had doubtless as clear and bright perceptions as any Person what great dangers Her truly Loving and as truly beloved Husband would in all probability expose His Royal Person to yet so fixt so intense to the Eternal Honour of Her Sex were Her Thoughts upon the Glory of God and the Publick Good that she found no satisfaction within Herself till our Rights which did then Bleed were Asserted and the Welfare of all the Protestants in Europe which then lay at Stake was in some good measure secured Had She lived to have seen a setled Peace what great and glorious things might both Church and State have expected from Her Fourthly She came to the Throne by a signal hand of Providence so very visible and conspicuous were the Rays of Divine Wisdom Power and Goodness in bringing it to pass that the worst of Men must with Pharaoh's Magicians cry out this is the finger of God We were then in a very low and helpless Condition our Hair was shorn our Strength quite gone all outward means failed us and we saw nothing but Death and Destruction before us and yet this was the Critical Minute wherein Infinite Wisdom found out a way for our Deliverance and the Thunder of God's Power the Arms of his Omnipotency brake asunder whatever hindred it Salvation arose as light out of darkness for God in Judgment remembred mercy Now that our Illustrious Princess was taken from us soon after so great a Diliverance as this may strike Dread into our Hearts and chill our Spirits For tho She was gathered to Her Grave in Peace yet for ought we know it may be a sad Presage of many Miseries and Calamities ready to betide us Mercies and Deliverances when abused turn into Judgments In Josiah's days God offered the Jews Mercy but whatever ties and Obligations lay upon them to reform and amend they would not hearken to the voice of God nor turn from their Evil ways which proved their utter Ruin and Destruction And I pray God that our ingratitude and unreformedness under our late great Deliverance may not end in one of the sorest Judgments that ever yet befel this Nation if it be so we have none to blame but our selves but yet from former instances of Gods Love and Goodness towards us we need not doubt but that he hath still Mercy in store for us The only thing wanting is an Heart truly sincere and duly qualified to receive the same at his hands Fourthly and Lastly What remains further to be added is to consider the Lessons and Instructions to be learnt from this Discourse the more closely we apply to our selves what hath been spoken the greater Benefit we shall reap from it First Then If the Death of Religious Princes be matter of great Mourning We may hence take just occasion to upbraid the folly of such who are so far from condoling the death of our most Religious Princess that they Rejoyce and Triumph at it For the Conviction of Men so degenerate and void of all Natural Affection to their Country as well as Prince it may not be inexpedient or unseasonable to argue thus That if the thickest Darkness be more desireable than Light if the heaviest Bondage be a more discreet choice than liberty or the sight of Fields streaming with Blood be more amiable and lovely than Peace then here is a sort of Men who may rejoyce but if to be deprived of the brightness and purity of the Gospel to be harassed with Anti-Christian Tyranny and and to be involved in Confusion and Blood be sore Judgments which every one that loves his Religion and Country must own upon a Nation then they ought to pay the just Tribute of Tears to the Death and Obsequies of our Great and Merciful Princess Secondly Did all Judah and Jerusalem Mourn for the Death of Josiah Let then all Persons among us of what Rank and Quality soever learn to Mourn for the Death of our Royal Sovereign the Queen Let the Nobles Mourn for their Mighty Princess is fallen whose chief care was to support the Protestant Interest and Religion throughout all Europe Let the inferior Dispensers of God's Word and Sacraments Mourn for they have lost the best of Queens who was a true tender Nursing Mother to the best of Churches Let the more immediate Attendants on Her Majesty mourn for they have lost a Queen whose great design was not only to make them Great and Honourable here but also truly Religious that
Stars that did ever Shine on the Throne of Israel or Judah There are some special remarks of his Piety In the Eighth Year of his Reign that is the Sixteenth Year of his Age for he was eight years old when he began to Reign whilst he was yet young he began to seek after the Lord Solomon also sought the Lord God of his Fathers whilst he was young but his Piety was strangely Clouded and Eclipsed in his elder years for it came to pass when Solomon was old that his Wives turned away his heart after other Gods 1 Kings 11. v. 4. But Josiah's Seeking of the Lord was as clear as the Morning as bright as the Sun it knew no Declension His Piety did surpass that of all the Kings of Israel and Judah which were before him The Holy Ghost gives this High and Honourable Character of him that like unto him there was no King before him that turned to 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 Other Kings there were in Israel and Judah of very high Elevations in Gifts and Graces whose Hearts were sincere and perfect with the Lord and lifted up in his Ways yet they had some foiles their Beauty was sullied with some spots and blemishes But this good King was unspotted in his Reputation and so innocent in his Life that we cannot charge him with any thing unbecoming his Profession Secondly He was a very Zealous Prince a Burning Lamp of Zeal for the Glory of God and Purity of his Worship the most Zealous of the Kings that did ever sit on the Throne of Israel or Judah in rooting out Idolatry In the twelfth year of his Reign he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places and the groves and the carved Images and the molten Images and they brake down the Altars of Baalim in his Presence and the Images that were on high above them he cut down and the Groves and the carved Images and the molten Images he brake in pieces and made dust of them and strewed it upon the Graves of them that had Sacrificed unto them and he burnt the bones of the Priests upon their Altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem 2 Chron. 34. v. 3 4 5. Of other Reforming Kings 't is noted That they took away the Altars of the strange Gods the high places brake down the Images and cut down the Groves Howbeit the High Places were not taken away they took away some but not all but this good King destroyed all the Monuments all the Reliques of Idolatry as you may read at large in the 2 Kings chap. 23. from the 4th to the end of the 20th verse Thirdly He was of a very publick Spirit for when he understood by the words of the Law That great was the Wrath of the Lord that was to be poured out upon Judah and Jerusalem because their Fathers kept not the Word of the Lord he commanded Hilkiah the Priest and others saying go enquire of the Lord for me and for them them that are left in Israel and Judah concerning the words of the book that is found And he endeavoured partly by Penitential Tears and deep Humblings of himself to allay the Divine Wrath and Indignation for his heart was tender and he did humble himself before God and partly by entering into a Covenant with God the sum and tenor of which was to walk after the Lord and to keep his Commandments and his Statutes with all his Heart and with all his Soul and to perform the words of the Covenant which are written in the Book of Moses And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and in Benjamin to enter into the Covenant and to stand to it and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the Covenant of God the God of their Fathers as you may find it written 2 Cron. 34. verses 31 32. All this did this good King to avert were it possible imminent Judgments and threatned Desolations but he came to the Throne in such an ill time when they had so highly offended the Majesty of Heaven and so increased his Anger through their many Sins and repeated Provocations that notwithstanding all this great Reformation and the keeping of such a Passover as never was kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the Prophet yet the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath wherewith his anger was kinled against Judah because of all the provocations that Manasses had provoked him withal Fourthly Josiah was taken away when their Hopes and Expectations of some lasting Prosperity both in Church and State were advanced to the highest pitch Therefore Jeremiah thus Laments his Death The breath of our nostrils the anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits of whom we said under his shadow we shall live among the Heathen Lam. 4. v. 20. I am apt to think that this was not spoken of Zedekiah as some would have it for under such a Wicked and Idolatrous Prince they could not promise themselves any safety and when Josiah Dyed all their swelling hopes of future Prosperity expired and dyed with him then the Godly amongst them expected nothing but a Deluge of Sin and Misery to break in upon them For their splendid Reformation was only superficial a meer veil of Hypocrisie as Jeremiah who Prophesied in Josiah's Days complains Her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned to the Lord with her whole heart but feignedly or in falshood Jer. 3. v. 10. Having given some Account of the Jews great and universal Mourning for the Death of Josiah I come Thirdly To set before you the reasons of our Mourning for the Death of our late most Excellent Princess which well weighed are of force to dissolve three Kingdoms into Tears For First She was a Princess of most Illustriand Singular Piety She Sacrificed the Flower of Her Age and Time to the Service of the Great God from whom She had Her Being No Person had a greater sense of Religion or was more sincere in Her Devotions in which she was as constant as the returns of Day and Night the lofty Elevations of her Soul and her daily flights to Heaven did plainly show that Her Conversation was there also and that She had Communion and Fellowship with God the Father and with Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant Her Life was so exactly Correspondent to Her Profession that She became the greatest Ornament and Example of true Piety that these later Ages have produced That Honourable Character given Josiah that like unto him there was no King before him may in some respect well become Her For She was the first of all the Kings and Queens that sate upon the British Throne who appointed After-noon Sermons to be Preached every Sunday at her Chapel in White-hall which She was pleased to Honour and Countenance with Her Royal Presence