A Sermon ON The 30th of January BEING The day on which that Sacred MARTYR King CHARLES the First was murdered By JOHN KING D. D. and Dean of Tuam in Ireland Lamentation 5.16 The Crown is fallen from our head Woe unto us that we have sinned London Printed for John Playford at his Shop in the Temple 1661. LAMENT 4.20 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 PUblick Calamities charge every man with a rate of sorrow proportionable unto the tenure of his Understanding put him upon a serious enquiry of the Causes and Consequences of them and exact from him a diligent provision of means to stop or divert them Calamity like the floud is now lifted up above our Earth and hath almost covered the highest Hills of our temporal felicity could our sorrow swell as high as that the sense of our present and impending miseries would drown us if we search into the causes of them we shall find those in our selves our sins their sad consequences are by so much the superabounding matter of our just fear by how much they go beyond our knowledge nay even conjecture and all our power to prevent them such is the inundation of miseries now prevailing over the three Kingdoms Would you see the head of these overflowing Cataracts this Text will make the discovery unto you 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 The Words are the ground-work and foundation on which the Prophet Jeremiah raised the whole sorrowfull structure of his Lamentations composed on the mournful Obsequies of the best of the Kings of Judah Josiah hurried away by a violent and unto all but himself untimely death made a mourning Ordinance for Israel and enjoyned as the signal expression of their grief and deep sense of the future numerous and unavoidable Calamities would by his death befall them Judah's sins having provoked God unto so speedy execution of those Judgements formerly denounc'd against them that they might not longer plead the priviledges of their Princes piety to reprieve their punishments God removes this remora unto his justice their good King from them that he might bring upon them the fierceness of his great wrath he plucks down their hedg and fence their devout Prince from them that he might rush in upon them by unexpected judgments to destroy them there lies not among all the files of sacred Records an evidence of so exemplary and princely Piety as King Josiah 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 yet the sins of his People drew upon him a violent death acknowledged worthy of a longer life the peoples sins put the religious and deserving Prince into the toyles of his persecuters they hunt after his precious life and he falls into their pits He who stood in the Gap to hinder the way of the Destroyer that bulwark that stood betwixt them and the furious batteries of Gods wrath was now torne down just cause then had the Prophet to fear the sharp assaults of Gods judgements ready to storm the Kingdome of Judah and to break out into this dolorous Lamentation as pointing at the spring and source of their sorrows and calamities The breath of our Nostrils c. How is the happiness of a Kingdom twisted with the welfare of a religious King how close doth the ruine of a people follow the loss of a pious Prince A good King is a Rampire and security unto his Kingdom that being slighted the destruction thereof is an easie undertaking yet who so apt to sap and undermine these their own fortifications as the people themselves foelices nimiùm bona si sua norint Sufficiently happy if they knew the things which belonged unto their welfare Sufficiently happy if they were not so industrious to make themselves unhappy Josiah was the best of Princes yet by the sinnes of his people pushed into the fatall pits of his Adversaries and his fall proves the utter destruction and downfall of the people themselves this Consideration makes them mourn for their deceased King weep Elegies and lament thus The breath of our Nostrils c. A spreading and thick Cloud whence lasting showres of tears might continually descend That the breath c. The words not to torture them offer unto us two things First Gods Letters patents of the royall prerogatives and beneficiall priviledges granted unto King Josiah and that in these 3 eminent and significant expressions 1. He was the breath of their Nostrils 2. The Anointed of the Lord. 3. Of whom they said Under the shadow of his wings they should live among the Heathen Secondly there is the Nulling of these letters patents of Josiah He was taken in their pits God by a violent death reversed them The Prophet and people of Judah well knew the sacred and royal prerogatives of their deceased King yet acknowledge these glorious priviledges taken away by his death for their punishment The breath of our nostrils an high and emphatique expression borrowed from the chiefe and choicest work of the Creation Man whom when God formed out of the dust of the earth he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and he became a living Soul thus contriving within this trunk of dust and clay the inimitable hability of his own deity from him is this significant and effective operation in an inferior and remiss degree attributed unto his Vicegerent King Josiah that as in the natural body Life and all the animal faculties and principles of action owe their Original unto the infusion of Gods breath the Soul So a man a Subject considered in a politick respect hath the life of his Civil Constitution from the King and as the rational faculties planted in the Understanding Memory and Will are from the Soul so the religious actions of men refer their growth unto the Prince in which respects is it that the King is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Minister of God an august denomination implying him the chief Officer for the exercise of sacred Jurisdiction great in regard both of the Author thereof God and the end thereof Mans good This royal Jurisdiction consisting in the Legislative and Executive power of Kings to make and execute Laws for regulating the actions of men as well in the outward and religious worship of God as in civil conversation that as the Soul is the fountain of corporal motion and rational action so the Laws divine and humane of which the King is the proper Custos are the beginning and rule of all civil and religious actions and as to make Laws is the
transgressions he was suffered to sin Divinely holy Gregory secundum meritum plebiâ—â—m disponuntur Corda Rectorum According unto the deserts of the People the hearts of the Governors are disposed the just Judge punished the fault of the Offender upon them who had caused him to offend What an impious absurdity is it to slie in the face of our Prince for those errors which receive their birth strength from our own native corruptions we should rather say as Iob tels his supercilious Reprovers why persecute wâ— him since the ground of the matter is found in me Where the Prince is vitious the accusation properly lies against the Subjects whose sins make him so for as the prosperity of the King is the sure earnest of Gods favour unto a people as Saba shews the Israelites from the glory of King Salomons Court so is the oppression and misery even of the worst of Kings an infallible mark of Gods anger resting upon a pâ—ople as in King Saul Josiah's single default fighting with Pharaoh Necho without Gods allowance brings the punishment of a violent death upon him for that onely registred errour into which the peoples sin had pushed him their sins were now ripe for punishment by his one offence for whose punishment he was suffered even then to offend that so their judgments might commence from his death whose guilt permitted not unto him a longer life He fell into their pits a speech taken from Hunters who way-lay those Beasts they chase setting snares and toyles for them in those paths and places they run unto for refuge that they might know that since God had divested Josiah their sacred head of all Regal Prerogatives and let him fall by the practises and power of his cruel Foes they could no longer urge a respite from the execution of those judgments given against their former transgressions but acknowledge and bewail this sad and evil occurrent the violent death of their King the fatal consequence of their own sins for which there was now a recession of God in his Government by Josiah from them and an abandoning them up into the hands of Strangers and Usurpers from whom they could not but expect all the wearisom traverses of Tyranny the heavy weight of a continued Oppression and all those not to be reckoned unhappy inconveniences which attend upon a Government obtained by conquest supported by force and maintained and actuated by the Law of the sword so that even this violent death appears an absolute assurance of Gods mercy and goodness unto King Josiah to take him out of this life that he might not behold those wofull and thronging miseries which were ready to rush in upon and bear down the present for his sake onely happy condition of his Subjects which would have procured unto him more anxiety than the consideration of undergoing ten thousand violent deaths a good Prince having so strong a sympathy with his Subjects sufferings that he feâ—ls every pricking pang and painfull touch of their ttoubles in which respect this violent death was an incomparable favour unto him and which at first sight procures our wonder proves his greatest temporall blessing and the gracious reward of his eminent piety and so much the Holy Ghost tels us Because thine heart was tender and thou didst humble thy self before God when thou heardest his words against this place and against the inhabitants thereof and humbledst thy self before me and didst rend thy clothes and weep before me I have even heard thee also saith the Lord. Behold I will gather thee to thy Fathers and thou shalt be gathered unto thy Fathers in peace neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place and upon the inhabitants of the same So that as the Prophet Isaiah speaks we may Lay it to heart that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come Hezekiah's piety likewise found this divine favour a respite from the sight of those judgments his peoples sins had contracted that there should be peace and truth in his dayes and he thankfully and humbly acknowledgeth the greatness of that mercy These sad Considerations quickly pull up all the sluces of sorrow and let in flouds of tears to overwhelm them they lament and mourn with a great and grievous mourning All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah a mourning wherein the whole Kingdom wore the blacks of sorrow a mourning renowned for the universal and sad solemnity thereof a mourning made the highest prescription of mourning the utmost bounds and confines of sorrow as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo where every family of the whole Kingdome distinguisht themselves by the variety and solitariness of their sorrow every family mourning apart the Princes of the bloud apart the Priests apart the People by their several Families apart and all their Wives apart every part of every Family having a several share in this general sorrow and a particular part in this common sadness and Lamentation for Josiah the Priest and Prophet Jeremiah he is the chief Mourner composeth Josiah's Funeral Elegies this Book of the Lamentations gives them unto the skilful Quire to chaunt forth he begins the first sad Note the Singing-men and Singing-women consort with him in the doleful plaints and all Judah and Jerusalem make up the sad Chorus in this general sorrow Just cause had every man in Judah and Jerusalem to mourn for Josiah's death since every mans sin had made way by a severall wound to take away Josiah's life and so must needs bear a share in the crying guilt of his bloud which nothing but a floud of penitent tears could wash away This makes every mans particular sorrow as several lines meet in the centre of the Text the common cause of their teeming grief The breath of our Nostails the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits of whom we said Vnder his shadow we shall live among the Heathen From these sacred Truths naturally flow these divinely informing Conclusions That a good Prince is the life of Religion Law and civill Conversation That Kings by holy Unction as by Gods visible deed and conveyance are invested with the supreme Authority Inviolability and Indempnity and therefore to think reverently of them consecrated with so many mysterious regards and relations the characters of Gods supreme jurisdiction over man That Vnction suggests unto Kings that duty they stand obliged in unto their Subjects in the impartial distribution of justice to heal them to comfort them to nourish them That a good King is designed by God a Protector of his Subjects and the Conservator of their Liberty Safety and Peace That the best King may be punished with the greatest temporall punishment for the sins of his Subjects That the Errors of Kings take their rise from their Subjects sins That God first taketh away a good King before he will bring judgments upon his Subjects That Gods violent
her Laws her peace her riches her plenty her liberty at home and her protection and honour abroad England was the perfection of beauty and the joy of the whole earth The Kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the Adversary and Enemy should have entred into the Gates of our Jerusalem London that Churches should be turned into stables Gods Houses made Courts of Guards the Royall Palaces made Garrisons the Tythes the portion of Gods Ministers made the Souldiers salary that the Law should be turned into wormwood our Religion and Liberty measured out unto us by the Pikes length the decisions of the Sword become the Principles of Faith and that which is the cause of all this mechanick persons Trades-men who will certainly marr never can mend so great concernments they never before handled or were acquainted with the sole Moderators of Publick affairs and the chief Princes and Potentates of our Kingdom But now The glory is departed from our Israel the Arke of God is taken and how is England become a Widow made a prey unto cruel people and skilful to destroy who daily force and prostitute her unto their wicked purposes for these things let England and every true-hearted Englishman say I weep mine eye mine eye runneth down with waâ—er because the Comforter King CHARLES that should relieve my soul is far from me The breath of our Nestrils the Anointed of the Lord c. The life of our Religion of our Laws of our Liberties is taken from us the Image of Gods power in supreme Authority Indemnity Inviolability is taken from us our Physition our nursing Father our Comforter our Protectour is taken from us for our sins was taken in their pits so that now we want the wings of his protection among these Heathen among whom we live we are now made very Slaves unto the worst of Heathen a people without God without Faith without Law without Rule without Reason without Humanity without all these and whose unruly will onely iâ— unto them all these These calamities are all fallen upon us because The breath of our Nostrils c. pious King Charles is taken from us like Elias in a â—iery Charriot or as Constantine the Great after his death was impressed on a Coyn pluck'd up by a divine hand into Heaven that his eyes might not see nor his righteous soul be afflicted with all the evil which is come upon us to consume us wo unto us for we have sinned These are but the contracted heads of those miseries which we shall all read over in the vast Volumes of our approching woes and justly besâ—eaks such sorrows as might transform us into Niobes make our heads Rivers of sorrows and our eyes Fountains for continual tears The Lord in mercy look upon us and wipe away these tears from our eyes and their causes our sins from our souls and since the bloud of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church in mercy unto his Church restore the seed of his Martyr King Charles the First unto the Government of these Kingdoms that Religion Peace and Liberty may be restored unto us I conclude these ours as the Prophet doth his Lamentations Turn thou unto us O Lord and we shall be turned renew our dayes as of old if thou hast not utterly dejected us Hear our prayers O Lord for thy Sons sake unto whom with the Holy Ghost be ascribed c. FINIS 2 Chrâ— 35.25 Calvin 2 King 23.25 27. Lam. 2â— Gen. ◠〈◊〉 13.3 â—ab â— 16. â—am 14. â—am 21. â—hro 27. â— Ecc. â— 1. Euseb. supra Civ D. â— l. 17. c. â— â— Vet. â—cil â—â—eum â—num â—uid â—ficat â—ibus 〈◊〉 huâ—â—bus â—remiâ— Aug. â—â—rb D. â— 23. â—e 8.4 â—t 2. Socraâ— proae l. 5. Euseb. vit Coâ— m. l. 4â— 24. Rom. â— 4. Pâ—al 47 Cont. Faust. â— Maniâ— 2â— c. 7 â—m 10. â—ngs 4. â—ngs 5. â—ngs â— â—hron â— 9. 2 Samâ— 4. 1 Kinâ— 27. Esth. â— 1 Kinâ—â— Acts â— 10.1 Euseb. Hist. l. â— c. 14. Psal. 5. â—on â—â—bat 〈◊〉 saâ—menti â—ctitaâ— quid â—o veâ—abatur â—vid â—g Cont. â—et l. 2. â— â—am 24. David Sauleâ— proptâ— sacroâ—â—ctam â—â—ctioneâ— honorâ— vivumâ— viâ—diâ— occisuâ— Aug. â— lit oâ—t c. 48. In Apâ— Ep. l. 2. Ep. 13â— Dig. vâ— l. 1. tit H. leg 3â— Tho. Aâ— Ia. IIâ— 96. a. 5â— III m. 〈◊〉 Carâ— Ep. â— 1 Saâ— 14. â—m 26. ◠〈◊〉 non â—â—ebat â—â—ocenâ—◠〈◊〉 haâ—â—at sanâ—â—tem 〈◊〉 vitae â—â—sed saâ—â—menti 〈◊〉 quod â—alis â—â—inibus â—tum â—ubi 〈◊〉 Amb. 〈◊〉 l. 2. Ep. â— Eusâ— Hiâ— Ecc. l. 3â— c. 27. Theod. l 3. f. 19. 〈◊〉 deâ—m non â—dideâ—â— in 〈◊〉 Chriâ—â—ni non 〈◊〉 terreâ—regibus â—equi â—g Con â—in â—l 118. Ps. 114. â—â—om â— 7 cap. â—â— 14. Psal. 133.2 Lev. 19.15 Luk. 10 34. Isa. 3.7 Rom. 13 4. Psal. 104 15. Cyril Cat. 3. Job 32.18 â—â—nt 〈…〉 l. 12.11 â—od 19. â— 2 Châ— 13. 〈…〉 c. 14 〈◊〉 â—3 24 Jer. â— 2 Saâ— 3. 1 Sam 17. 2 Châ—â— 24. â— Job â— 2 〈◊〉 34.17 Isa. 57. â—hron 19. â—hron 24. ch 11.1 â—â—rius â—estis â—egno 〈◊〉 Anâ—rit p. 5 â— Vicaâ— summi â—is Leg. Reg. c. Lamb. â—ud â— Lex 〈◊〉 Socra c. 22. â—â—ngs Euseb. Const. l. 4. c. 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 l. â— 1. 〈…〉 16. Isa. 14 18 19 20. Acts 13 10. â— 2.10 〈◊〉 12. â—â—eod l. c. 9. Eph. 2.2 〈◊〉 16. â— 19.7 Vit. Coâ— l. 4. c. 2 Lam. â— 2 7â— Jos. 〈◊〉 Jud. l. â— c. 12. 〈◊〉 2.14 â— 13 â— 5 â— 8 â— 5 â— 12 5.1 1.9 1.7 â— 15 1.1 1.1 â—onst â— 73. â— 21