A SERMON Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL Ianuary the 30th Being the day of the Martyrdom of King CHARLES the First By the Bishop of St. Asaph Lord Almoner to Their MAJESTIES Published by Her Majesties Command LONDON Printed for Thomas Iones at the White-Horse without Temple-Bar MDCXCI The BISHOP of St. Asaph's SERMON Preach'd before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL A SERMON Preach'd before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL 2 Chron. xxxv 24 25. And all Juda and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah and all the singing-men and the singing-women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day and they made them an Ordinance in Israel and behold they are written in the Lamentations WE are here met this day to humble our selves before God for one of the greatest Sins that ever was committed by any People that profess'd the true Religion except only the Iews rejecting and crucifying their Messias and to bewail the greatest loss I think the greatest that ever befell any Nation in the death of any one Person both which Sin and which Calamity together I would have parallel'd in one Text but I know not where to find it in Scripture For the Example of our Saviour is too high to be brought into comparison with any other And to go lower as it becomes us when we speak of a mere Man a Temporal Prince for so excellent Goodness in Man for such a Blessing in a temporal King to be so wretchedly lost so wickedly destroyed by them that were blessed with it there is no Example of the like to be met with I say not only in Scripture but not in any Story that I know from the beginning of the World to this day In the Age of Gospel-Story while Christ and his Apostles were here there was then no Christian King upon the Earth and if there had been we may guess what Affection what Obedience what Veneration would have been paid him by them that so abounded in their Precepts of those Duties to Heathen Princes to cruel Tyrants to monsters of Men such as Nero under whom two Apostles knowing they were to suffer Death yet commanded every Soul to be subject to the higher Powers the People to submit to them for the Lords sake and their Pastors to put them in mind to obey them They which taught thus and we are sure they liv'd as they taught how glad would they have been to have had those Duties to pay to such a Prince as we have seen by some great Professors of Religion but quite contrary to their Patterns and Rules most contumeliously treated and abused most sacrilegiously and barbarously murther'd Among the Iews who had many Kings of their own Religion some approv'd of God and others tax'd as they justly deserv'd it is observable that their Carriage towards them all as well the evil as the good was generally such as the Gospel requires of us Christians If there were amongst them any Murtherers of Kings the Scripture is careful to let us know what they were wicked Men Sons of Belial and it shews us how they sped they were put to Death for it according to the Law of Moses it is most careful to separate them from the Generation of Gods People to shew their detestation of such Persons and Practices By what we read we cannot but judge they would have trembled to think of that which they that call'd themselves Gods People had the impiety to do they had the prodigious wickedness to do it and yet they had the face to call themselves Gods People I am sure 't is in vain to look for any thing like this in Scripture But to shew how the Iews demean'd themselves toward their Kings and first to evil Kings I ought to take my first measures from their Behaviour towards Saul and especially from the most memorable instance of David whom God himself having declar'd to be a Man after his own heart we have the divine Approbation of what he said and did in this matter But of his excellent behaviour toward Saul besides many other remarkable instances we have one in the Lesson that was read to you this morning There you heard how when one brought David the News of Sauls death by a sure token that he had kill'd him himself which one would have thought should have been welcome News to one that could never be safe while Saul liv'd and that now upon his death was sure to be his Successor for all that David had such a detestation of the Fact and of the impudence of him that boasted of it that first he caus'd him to be put to death he pronounc'd his Sentence in those memorable words 2 Sam. i. 16. Thy Blood be upon thy head for thy mouth hath testifyed against thee saying I have slain the Lords Anointed And having thus aveng'd his Death how he mourn'd for it afterwards we see in his mourning Song that he compos'd and which was read to you out of the same Chapter But we are novv upon the Death of a good King and to shew the Peoples sense of this and their Behaviour upon it you cannot pitch upon an instance more likely than at the Death of Iosiah A most remarkable instance in two respects First Considering their loss of so excellent a Person And Secondly the many harsh Circumstances of his death For the Person a holy and good Man a just and a merciful Prince such a Prince as came not in many Ages in many hundreds of years They had three Kings in whom they gloried above all other they were David and Hezekiah and Iosias And yet David had faults which one would tremble to think of Hezekiah was not free from Faults as appear'd when God left him 2 Chron. xxxii 31. The least Evil we read of any King in Scripture is of Iosiah Some Indiscretion it was perhaps in him to engage in that War against Pharaoh Necho I dare not say it was sin in him for Scripture hath not said it But if that was not sin I am sure we read of none that he had And in this respect we may place him above David and Hezekiah so the Scripture does in general Words saying that like 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 He was a singular Prince and had a singular mark of it in that Prophesie which named him 300 years before he was born Behold a Child shall be born to the House of David Josiah by Name No small things you may be sure he was to do that God thought worth speaking of and foretelling so many Ages before When Iosias was born and came to be King he did all those things which were foretold of him in that Prophesie He abolisht that Idolatry and Superstition that had grown up under his loose Predecessors He
3. 10. even in those days in the days of King Iosiah as you read in the 6th Verse of that Chapter Yet that hypocritical People was protected by this Religious Prince God's Judgment could not come at them till he was taken out of the way But when he was removed they lay bare to the Vengeance of God Then he would have a full blow at them then wrath was to be poured out upon them to the uttermost Then God's Judgments were to rush in upon them like the breaking in of the Sea Then they were to suffer those things which to hear of were enough to make ones Ears tingle 2 Kings xxi 12. Ier. xix 3. And if they understood this as we are certain they might and Jeremy did understand it we cannot wonder that all Juda and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah and Jeremy especially Since they saw and he saw it especially their Walls and Bulwarks were broken down by that good King Josia's death They had lost that good Prince of whom they were not worthy and were now to expect those things of which they were most worthy They had great cause therefore to lament themselves before God They could not but do it voluntarily that were sensible of their Condition And they did well to make a Law for it to oblige them that were not sensible But beside this Cause which was peculiar to them there was another in Common to them and us and all Nations that is considering their own Sin and God's punishment of it For the death of a good King is a great publick Calamity And such Calamities are always for the sins of the People I begin first with the Punishment for of that we are most apt to be sensible And yet many are not sensible of that not of a publick punishment till it comes home to themselves till it touches their own Persons and Families 't is pity that such should ever want such punishment But for such as have a sense of Publick Affairs they cannot but be deeply sensible of this that the loss of a good King is a great Calamity to a Nation The death of any King is a loss unless God change him for a better But he must be extream bad that is not better then none at all It was never worse with Israel then when there was no King amongst them for then every one did what was good in his own Eyes In the 4 last Chapters of the Book of Judges God says this four times over as fit for more than common Observation But specially there is a great loss of a good King a good Example a good Governour one that makes it his business to do all that can be done for the protecting and uniting of his People for the preserving and advancing of Truth and Peace of Religion and Righteousness among them Such a nursing Father to the Church such a Wise Manager of the State such a Fortress and Bulwark to his Nation when he is taken away from them what can they think of it If they are not lost to all Sense they cannot but be sensible of this A good King being so great a Blessing to a Nation vve have cause to impute the loss of him to our Sins We are taught so in sundry places of Scripture And therefore vve are taught to lament for those Sins both National and Personal for our ovvn sins and the sins of our Nation For our own sins in the first place It should be every ones care when we bewail the Publick Calamities to consider that such are for the sins of the Nation But the Nation is made up of Individual Persons and I am one of those Individuals therefore I am to search into my own sins I speak now as being one that lived and sinned in those times to lay my hand upon my breast to examin my own heart and seriously to consider how far I contributed to that publick Guilt which brought down this publick Judgment upon us And as far as I find I contributed to it to confess and bevvail my ovvn sins before God to ask pardon and that I may be capable of it to mourn deeply and heartily and to shew the proof of it in my real amendment that as I have throvvn in my Talent into the National sin so I may do my part in promoting the National Reformation If I have no sin of my own to mourn for vvhich in strict speaking is impossible but if I have no presumptuous and clamorous sin to answer for or if my sins are of a latter date which is the case of the greatest part of you that hear me yet for such they are all to consider themselves as Members of this Nation and mourn for the sins of the Nation for those Epidemical sins that brought down such a publick Judgment upon us For so doing we have the Examples of Ez. 9. 3. of Neh. 9. 16. of Daniel 10. 1. How did those Holy Men Mourn and humble themselves before God for the sins of Ages past that brought upon them the Babylonian Captivity And yet that Captivity also was past when they poured out their Souls before God in tears for the sins of their Fathers How much more have Holy Men lamented for the sins of their own Age The Prophet David on this account poured out Rivers of Tears Psal. 119. 136. The Prophet Ieremy 9. 1. Wish'd that his head were Water and his Eyes a Fountain of Tears to bewail the sins of his Nation But especially our blessed Saviour himself tho' he had no sin yet he had Tears for them that had Luke 19. 42. He beheld Ierusalem and wept over it saying Oh that thou hadst known even in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace but now they are hid from thine Eyes Tears are of no use without hearty endeavours where endeavours may be used and we have reason to hope they may do good And therefore these also were applied by those Holy Men whom I have mentioned And these also are required of us even our utmost Endeavours every one within the Sphere of his Calling to bring others to a sight and sense of their Sins and to persuade them to join with us every one by his particular to help on the publick Reformation This is the end of all Judgments which are not to final Destruction Isaia 27. 9. This is the fruit of them to take away our sin And this is the end of our Sorrow 2 Cor. 7. 10. Godly Sorrow works Repentance to Salvation not to be repented of And this is the end of our Fast days as God teaches us Ioel 2. 12. Turn you to me with all your hearts with fasting and with weeping and with mourning and rent your hearts and not your Garments and turn you to the Lord your God So Hosea xiv 1 2. O Israel turn unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thy iniquity take with thee words and turn to the Lord say unto him take away
restor'd and establish'd the true Religion according to the Scriptures Which Scriptures were lost say the Iews through disuse in the Reign of King Amon his Father and it appears in his Story how he brought them to light and restor'd them unto their Authority and Dignity You read how Zealously and Industriously he provided for the Worship of God for the place of it by repairing and beautifying of the Temple for the Service by furnishing it with Vessels and Utensils for the Solemnity of it appointing Musick according to the Commandment of David for the Festivals of it he made all Israel and Iuda to be present at the Passover he brought all their Religions into one he had that Exercis'd in one manner and in one place he made all that were present in Israel to serve the Lord their God 2 Chron. xxxiv last verse All this the Scripture saith of him and approves in him and therefore we are sure he did well in it And as well one would think he might have expected at Gods hands especially if we consider those Scriptures of the Jewish Dispensation which stirred men up to Obedience with the Promise of Temporal Blessings and deterred them from sin with the threatning of temporal Punishments Among those promised Blessings are Peace and long Life for which who in Iosias's Case would not have thought he might have taken God's word But with this excellent Prince it seem'd to fall out on the contrary For great and just cause as I shall shew you but it may seem very strange the mean while when he had done all that in him lay to advance the Kingdom of God in an hour unlook'd for his Kingdom was at an end and his Life with it Both these were cut off in the 37th year of his Age which is but half the Age of Man the Noon of it as 't is term'd in that Prophesie Amos viii 8 9 10. 'T is a remarkable Prophesie I shall first read you the Words and then I shall shew you the Accomplishment The words are Shall not the Land tremble for this and every one Mourn that dwelleth therein And it shall rise up wholly as a Flood and it shall be cast out and drowned as by the Flood of Egypt And it shall come to pass in that day saith the Lord God that I will cause the Sun to go down at Noon and I will darken the Earth in the clear Day And I will turn your Feasts into Mourning and all your Songs into Lamentations and I will bring up Sackcloth upon all Loyns and baldness upon every head And I will make it as the mourning of an only Son and the end thereof as a bitter day All this Rabbi Salomon Iarchi observes was fulfil'd upon the death of Iosiah The King of Egyt there specified Pharaoh Necho or the Lame Wars with the King of Babylon and Iosiah's Country lying between them he marches through it with an Army without his leave nay against his Prohibition Which injurious attempt against his honour and safety while Iosiah endeavoured to oppose he engag'd himself in a War which soon after cost him his Life One Arrow puts an end to that Holy Life that good Reign that Righteous Government by which he thought he had secured a lasting peace to himself and his Kingdom So good Iosiah is gone and Iudah and Ierusalem with him Gone are all those Blessings they enjoy'd and hoped for by his means There was nothing more to be lookt for but a bitter day a day of Captivity a bitter day according to Amos's Prophecy which they knew and which if you read over again you cannot wonder at that which follows in my Text All Iuda and Ierusalem c. For the method of my Discourse upon this Text First I shall consider what the People of God did in that Age upon the Death of Iosiah Secondly I shall consider the Reasons of their doing it Thirdly I shall consider how it is applicable to our Occasion First What they did it appears in my Text they lamented him at present they laid up their Lamentations for future times They had a set Form drawn up for that purpose and they made a Law that that Form should be observed and so it was unto this day saith the Text that is for above 100 years how much longer we know not but so long we are sure it continued For it continued from Iosiah's Death at least till the writing of this Story and this was written much above a hundred years after Iosiahs's Death Secondly For the Reasons of it which are not in my Text they are easy to be collected out of this Chapter compared with other places of Scripture It appears they had great cause to lament the death of Iosiah and that not for any loss it was to him but for the great loss to Gods Church and People First And principally for the cause of it that was for their Sins And Secondly For the punishment of their Sins they were punish'd at present in the want of his good Example and Government and for the future great cause they had to fear it might portend and bring on the ruine of their Nation For the Third part of my Discourse that is what we are to do in our Circumstances it will be very easy to judge when we have consider'd what they did in theirs First At present they lamented King Iosiah's Death as being no doubt a great Calamity to their Church and to their Nation Saith my Text All Juda and Jerusalem mourned for Josias in the Arab. Translation they were cast down with vehement Grief for Josias in the Syriac Translation they laid up mourning and lamentation for Josiah it was a great a publick a lasting Calamity it deserv'd a great a publick a lasting lamentation Especially my Text saith the Prophet Jeremiah lamented for Josiah the vulgar Translation adds Ieremia's Maxime Ieremiah above all others No question but as he best knew the worth of Iosiah so he most grieved for the irreparable loss in his Death But was that all I suppose not for Ieremiah was a Prophet he foresaw the sad consequence of this loss to his Nation He felt how it Shook the Foundation of their Happiness He was concern'd not only for the present but for after times as a wise and good Man he lamented with them of the present Age as being also a Prophet he lamented for them of future Ages And to engage the whole Church to mourn and lament with him he provided a Form both for the present and for the future Their publick Forms in the time of Solomon's Temple were no other that I know but Hymns suited to their occasions whether ordinary on their Sabbaths and New Moons and other Festivals or extraordinary on their Fasts and Days of Thanksgiving For every Fast-day they had a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Song of Lamentation Iosiah deserv'd a yearly Fast up-upon the day of his Death Ieremiah compos'd the Office for it