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
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
thus employed is no longer bare and common Oyle but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gifâ— of Grace which however vilified by Enthusiastiques and Solifidians betokens the Grace 〈◊〉 Christ unto Kings and prescribe necessary submission and duty unto their Subjects We are not whatever phantastique men may presume â—o spirituall in this life but that we stand in need of outward representations to carry on our faith and hope unto things spirituall the greatest favours unto lapsed mankind are the Sacraments where the visible and corporeall Elements are the meanes to convey by faith spirituall graces and the whole benefit of Christs sufferings unto us the sublimated and metaphysicall Professours of our times endeavour too irreverent a close with Almighty God they will have no King but Christ no Unction but that of the Spirit which is not that sober peaceable Spirit that leadeth into all truth but the Spirit of giddinesse Elihu's spirit the spirit of their belly which leadeth into all errour Carnal interests constraining them to shake off Gods Government in Princes to effect which the most compendious way is to throw all Ceremony which is unto Religion as the Scaberd unto the Sword to preserve it from the rust of contempt as Saint Augustinâ— speaks The sacred regards of Unction of King of Priest of Prophet of Churches of Tythes stand betwixt them and their sacrilegious ends they must be removed no railes or bounds must be set unto them they will up into the Mount and run the hazard if not of temporall flames yet certainly without hearty repentance of the Everlasting burnings These men who will be solely swayed by the guidance of their own spirit which being as various as the severall tempers of the Continents it inhabits will make Religion full of uncertainties meerly imaginary and wholly depending upon the doubtfull Insufficiencies of mens weak Conceptions so that hereby the essentiall truths of Religion must needs daily decay the substance thereof be reduced into the smoake of every mans unbounded Fancy and the Christian faith will die by degrees But Unction puts Gods Dominion into the Kings hands that must not be resisted for it is the resisting of God himselfe It is the very language of the Holy Ghost unto the â—en revolted Tribes that they resisted thâ— Kingdome of God in the hands of the Sonnes of David and Josephus assignes this the Cause of the subversion of them no memory of them being left The sedition saith he that they moved against Rehoboam establishing hiâ— Servant for their King was the originall of their mischiefs Ammon was a most wicked and idolatrous Prince yet God punished the Treason of his Servants against him because he was Gods Anointed Many sacred regards are by Unction conveyed from God unto Princes great cause then had the Prophet and people of Judah to lament the death of their good King Josiah The Anointed of the Lord That he was fallen into their pits 3. Of whom we said Vnder the shadow of his wings we shall live among the Heathen King Josiah his regall prerogatives and personall vertues were a protection unto his people he was the fountaine of their liberty and safety The happinesse of Subjects depends upon the wel-being of their Kings and the preservation of the Regall dignity is a sure pledge of Gods goodnesse the continuance of his favour unto a people for this cause is it that when the Apostle had exhorted that prayers should be made for all men 1 Tim. 2.1 as though this precept were too universall he reduceth it v. 2. unto Kings and adds the reason that ye may lead a quiet and peaceable life and for the same cause did the Prophet command the Israelites to pray for the King of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar This consideration also made Davids Subjects apprice his life at so high a rate is not now thy life worth ten thousand of ours The King is the Head of the people there is a sacred and neare relation betwixt them a disease or paine in the Head causeth a discrasie in the whole body an indisposition throughout all the members So the calamity and sufferings of the King affecteth every conscientious man in his Kingdome this honest zeale and pious sympathy between thâ— Heâ—d 〈…〉 the King and the people made our Prophet and the men of Judah so passionately bewaile the losse of their good King Josiah they promised unto themselves a lasting security in this life Of whom we said Under the shadow of his wings we shall live among the Heathen Gods grant of Regall prerogatives unto Josiah afforded not onely protection as the Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings our Saviours allusion to defend them from the Birds of prey but a strength also and vigorous warmth to make them grow up unto an ability to guard themselves and dwell with safety among the Heathen the known Enemies of their Nation and profession when then this Royall Oake was cut down and they deprived of the thriving benefits of its shelter their sorrows must needs plentifully spring up from the sense of so great and irrepaâ—â—able a losse and the fear of those stormes which now threatned to overturne their felicity But the depth of this sorrow was not to be fathomed when they found the bottomlesse Abysse of their own sinnes the head thereof that notwithstanding the great priviledges of Josiah's Regall dignity and pieâ—y that the fiercenesse of Gods greater wrath was so kindled against Judah that the Lord said I will remove Judah out of my sight as I have removed Israel and therefore that his fury without obstruction or let might be powred out upon them God suffers the breath of their Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord of whoâ— they said Under the shadow of his wings they should live among the Heathen Good King Josiah the life of their Religion Law he who was empowred by God with the Supreme Authority had a divine grant of humane Indemnity and Inviolability their righteous Justicer their Physitian their nursing Father their Protectour and the great Conservator of their Liberty and Safety To fall into their pits to die by the hands of his Adversaries being the second consideration in the Text. 2. The breath of our Nostrils c. was taken in their pits Here is the nulling of Gods letters patents and the grant of Regall prerogatives and beneficiall priviledges made unto King Josiah by a violent death God for the punishment of the people of Judah's sinnes takes away their pious Prince by the power of his Enemies The force of the relation betwixt the head and the members the King and the People is the true reason why God punisheth the best of Kings with temporall judgments for the offences of his Subjects as here in Josiah The anger of the Lord was moved against Israel and he moved David to number the people 2 Sam. 24.1 The divine Justice vindicated that sin of the King upon the people for whose
taking away a good King from a People is an evidence of his heavy displeasure and a certain Prognostique of the many miseries he will bring upon them That a violent death proves a temporall blessing unto a King when it takes from him the sight and sense of his Subjects sufferings That a violent death may justly be reputed a departing in peace compared with a continuance of the sence of troubles and durable calamity That all men are strictly and deeply engaged unto the most solemn sorrow for the calamity of their King as caused by their sins and ushering in their approaching miseries Let us see whether our Kingdomes may not truly calculate their griefs by the Ephimerides of Judah's sorrow we have had a British Josiah whose Graces and Prerogatives fully answered the proportion and size of their pattern Could Judah's sinnes snatch away their pious King JOSIAH from them and do not we conceive that our sins have hurried our Religious King CHARLES from us Was King Josiah's death the In-let of Judah's miseries and do not we suppose that King Charles his life may be the period of our temporall happiness and his death the first act of that tragicall Woe which is to be presented upon the Theatre of this Kingdome likely to continue longer than the now-living Spectators We have had as great an Ebbe of Felicity in the loss of our King Charles as Judah had in her Josiah's should not the Tyde then of our sorrows run as high as theirs Surely the parallel considerations of the Vertues and Prerogatives of both these pious Kings of the causes of their Calamities and the sad consequences attending them will command an equality of ours with Judah's sorrow we will a little invert the method Begin with King Charls his divine and regal Prerogatives next shew his personall Vertues and Graces then his Sufferings point at their Causes and conclude with our own constrained Sorrows England in her best and loudest language the Law hath largely declared the sacred soveraignty of her Kings spoke them Gods Vicars assigned unto them the fulness of Regall power laid forth their jurisdiction by as large bounds as the Scripture doth King Josiah's or any other Kings of Israel or Judah Are not these legall registred and publick acknowledgments That every man is under the King and he under God onely That he is not inferiour unto his Subjects even collectively considered That he is a mixt person and capable of Spirituall Jurisdiction through holy Unction That he is the fountain of Honour hath the sole power to pardon and punish Offenders to leavy War to make Peace to constitute Officers That he can do no wrong Do not these expressions amount unto The breath of our Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord c. And these are the Regall peculiars of the Kings of England inseparably annexed unto their Crown and Dignity which he that runneth may read being written in those large and known characters of the Law Certainly these significant delineations of the sacred and regall power of the Kings of England were copied out of the holy Scriptures which those that now wrest them and make that fair Face of the Holy Ghost a vizard alterable unto the disguise of their personated piety and hypocritical practice seeing will not see Doubtless the Crown of England was held from the Lord paramount of Dominion God by as free noble and regall a tenure as any under Heaven And from him by a lineall and unquestionable right of succession had King Charles the investure thereof and grant of all these royall acknowledged Prerogatives untill without any divine or humane warrant He was violently disseized of them and taken in their pits These were his sacred and regall Prerogatives Let us now look into that spacious field of His personall Vertues a fragrant tract having the sweet smell of A field which the Lord hath blessed and since time wil not permit the perusal of every pleasant walk of grace and the delightful Ambits of his vertues let us as Moses from Mount Nâ—bo take a general and distant survey of this blessed circuit flowing with milk and honey King Charles his Celestial gifts and graces A Jove principium His religious piety renders iâ— self glorious in his great love fear and honour of God His zeal and devout frequency in prayer receiving the Sacraments and reading the holy Scriptures his reverence in Gods House his attention unto Godâ— word preached the esteem he had of Gods Messengers his hatred of Heresie and the zealous care he had as it was consistent with charity to propagate the true worship of God the Protestant Religion this in the purity thereof he established by his Laws enlarged with his Regall Authority cleansed from that Rust it had contracted through the Atheism and ignorance of the Times by the contemptibleness of the outward worship adorned with Decency and Order in the publique service and with cost upon the places dedicate unto that service but chiefly he beautified it with the glorious example of his holy life and encouragement of the Officers thereof whom he rewarded with the rewards of Honour and Maintenance His Royall Palace as Theodosius Juniors was a constant Receipt for learned and pious Prelats whom he entertained and cherished as the Servants of the great God and Dispensers of the mysteries and means of Grace which as it was an especiall and infallible mark of the sincerity of his humble piety so through the supercilious irreligion of the times did that which should have most endeared him unto Christians draw neglect and contempt upon him from them and those Great ones too who love nothing of Christianity but the naked name he knew that Church-maintenance was the best Nurse of Religion and therefore no weight of difficulties could so press upon him to alien Gods portion the Patrimony of the Church to preserve which from the sacrilegious invasion of the first movers of these Troubles who thought the best way to shake off Government was to destroy Religion and the most effectuall and quick course to destroy Religion to take away Church-maintenance He tendred the sale of so much Crown-land as would amount unto the value of the Church-land That great and strict care he took to keep the Throne and Kingdom of God in his Soul His Conscience inviolable shews that although he made his abode among Men yet his Conversation was in Heaven The continuall acknowledged remorse he was seized with for consenting against the dictate of his Conscience unto the Earl of Strafford's death speaks him another David and A Man after Gods own heart such were the tender impressions that Act ever left in him as David when he cut off the skirt of Sauls garment his heart smote him and indeed his Majesty found that fate which the Rabbins assigne unto David's fact that he found no heat in his cloaths afterwards So His Majesty found not that comforting warmth in the advices of others which he
most active resolved Enemies in his power did he dismisse with our Saviours caveat unto the blind man Sinne no more His Majesty in this divine clemency which yet some interpreted a cruelty unto Himselfe imitating the Father of mercies who maketh the Sunne of his favour equally to shine upon the just and unjust being so farre from procuring or desiring the death of his Enemies unto which he wanted not inciting animosities from others that he often wished that he could recover those that were already dead Neither are there wanting egregious Monuments of his Kingly munificence and liberality the great acquisitions of his Servants under him shew it from many of whom notwithstanding he had the unhappy returnes of ingratitude desertion and disloyalty And as unto his own Servants he was munificent so especially unto those who were set apart for the service of God whom with those religious Kings Hezekiah Josiah and Constantine he encouraged by giving the portion of God and our pious Auncestors unto them to recover which out of the hands of sacrilegious persons he used many pious endeavours and propounded Compensations which would onely have entrenched upon his owne profit when former Grants from the Crowne of Impropriations for years determined His Majesty alwaies restored them unto the Church conceiving his best and most royall right unto the Goods of the Church which he was otherwise by the Lawes of this Realme invested of to be that of Patronage and Disposition and from this Princely munificence doe I with all the devotion of an humble and hearty thankfulnesse acknowledge to have received a particular encouragement in my profession This nursing Father of the Church knew the best way to support that was by Church maintenance so that by his bounty the Churches in the three Kingdomes were lifted up out of the mire of contemptible poverty and Clergy-men of noted piety and greatest abilities of learning daily increased so that setting aside some few either illiterate wandâ—ing cockbrain'd discontented or unconscionable Levites who were in the great reserve of the sacrilegious and rebellious Jeroboams of our time to secure those two Calves of their Government and Worship which they fought for no Kingdomes of the World were beautified with so many Lights of learning and piety as these Kingdomes Observe the divine graces of this glorious King the unmoveable stability of his faith a firme Rocke which no stormes of popular rage no swelling surges of the multitude nor all the proud billowes of his insulting Adversaries could alter or unsettle in his pious purpose to preserve the Protestant Religion and the Lawes of this Realme how great was the intention of his sacred hope and of what exceeding latitude was his charity which included and enclosed his fiercest and most mortall Enemies But the lively features and faire lineaments of his graces and virtues are best and more largely drawn out by his owne Pencill His works praise him in the Gate his writings present unto us the heavenly pourtraicture of his divine large and grasping Soule these what they are wanting in volume recompensing an hundred fold in worth are the Repertory of all his Actions and the truest Index of his virtues that Book is the quintessence of knowing zeal the store-house of the ripe choice fruits of Christian piety there are the principles of Religion perfectly digested into holy practice there is the true Princely Image of King Charles that Golden Manuall being a stately building of Meditations Consultations Essayes Debates and Devotions raised upon emergent occasions with such judicious artifice of grace adorned with so rich furniture of piety enlarged with so many faire roomes and convenient receipts for grace that it shews his Body was the Temple of the Holy Ghost that there was no corner or vacuity in his great and glorious Soul I doubt not without the height of an Hyperbole to affirme that in what we have of this holy Kings draught we are abundantly repaired in the losse of Solomons physiques for here is a shop full of heavenly medicines for all the maladies of the soule by so much then is their sinne the greater whose malice hath deprived us of those other later pieces of His Majesty What already we have is the greatest monument of piety of any Kings after theirs whose writings become authentique from God as being Pen-men of his own divine dictates since the Creation and shall have continuall and unwearied travailes made unto it in all Languages and Kingdomes by all Men and Women who know love and honour piety prudence and all divine and morall graces and virtues every of which hath its severall atchievement and particular Trophy erected in this one work which will be as long liv'd as Time I conclude this short and generall survey of His Majesties personall virtues worthy of a just Volume and exceeding the limits of a Sermon with that Eulogy and Honour of Praise given unto Constantine the Great by Eusebius he was most deare unto God and proposed by him a great and excellent example of an holy and religious life for all mens imitations The memory of his piety and glorious reputation of his virtues shall be for ever precious and whatever Dogs barke against it alwaies remaine a fixed and shining Starre of the greatest magnitude in the firmament of Honour And thou carnall Prophet who walkest by the light of thine own eyes and callest thy darknesse light thou who as the Jewes unto our Saviour didst reach the Vinegar and Gall unto Gods Anointed in the Agony of his sufferings offered'st that false furious and forc'd application of Scriptures which thy counsels must fill up with an interpretation as the event shewes know that there is a lying and seducing Spirit in thee that thâ—u wrestest the Scripture unto thine owne damnation thou Sorcerer and chief Witch of these times full of all subtility and all mischief thou child of the Devill thou Enemy of all righteousnesse wilt thou not cease to pervert the right wayes of the Lord Thy Epicurean and sublunary Divinity cannot admit that a violent death should be a singular testimony of Gods favour yet here thou seest it in Josiah wilt thou have all temporall judgments to be punishments due unto sinne will not thy triumphant wickednesse let thee know that some afflictions are for Tryals and the additions of grace and glory unto Gods Children and therefore the chief marks of Gods favour As in our gracious King Charles who was also taken away from the evill to come in Gods mercy unto him which thou even thou unto the shame and confusion of thy face although thou hast hardned it shalt see in the approaching day of Englands calamity which in a great part is procured and hastned by thy infernall counsels thou needst not to have given that Scripture such a violent stretch so to streine it as to make it reach from Assyria unto England or to travaile so farre for a reason why
life of authority so the execution of them is the life of the Law Herein a pious Prince being eminently the representer of his God and may be said the breath of his Subjects as unto their civil and religious life in making and executing such Laws as may dispose them in order unto God and salvation But this divinely alluding and cryptick similitude appropriate unto a pious Prince to be the breath of our Nostrils hath not a more lively feaâ—ure of divine resemblance then the vigorous exemplarity of personal pieâ—y in the Prince himself his example giving life reputation and lustre unto Religion in which sense is it that a King is tearmed An Angel of God the light or Candle of his people from all these Considerations good K. Josiah was justly acknowledged the breath of their Nostrils he restored the Law even lost punished extirpated Idolatry setled the Church restored Religion encouraged the Priests judiciously ordered the whole service of Gods houses and for his personal sanctimony besides these Acts of royal prudence and zeal the Holy Ghost affords him this great and graâ—ious testimony that his heart was tender and that he did humble himself before God his chief care solicitude was to decline those things that would offend God and preserve his Conscience a clear and unspotted glasse wherein the glorious Image of divine holinesse did shew it self transparent in the whole conduct of his actions yet this great and royal pattern of piety the life of their Religion and Law was taken in their pits for the sins of his Subjects he fell into the fatall snares of his Adversaries yea notwithstanding he bare yet a moâ—e visible cognizance and livery of Gods own divine and supream Authority being The Anointed of the Lord Gods Christ sacred by holy Unction unto God Unto no materiall thing hath God fastned such significations of his Graces unto mankind as unto Oyle the whole influence of Gods jurisdiction over man being as the most lasting pieces are drawn in Oyle represented unto us by a mysterious application thereof through Unction therewith of those unto whom God hath by a deputation conferred the great and chief Places of Trust for the exercise of his supreme power over mankind as the Kingly Priestly and Prophetick Offices they whom God had delegated unto these subservient Offices of Supreme Authority and constituted his own under-Officers having the Warrant for the execution of their Places signed by the outward Act of sacred Unction The Title Anointed sayes Eusebius is of great reverence and glorious delivering types and symbols of heavenly things and secret images and representations full of mystery But whereas Priests and Prophets in Scripture are barely called Vncti Anointed for Kings the style alwayes runs Vncti Domini the Lords Anointed God having given unto Kings by a more immediate consignation greater relations and proportions of his power than unto either the Priest or the Prophet Kings were by divine instinct of God unto his Prophet anointed with Oyl and made Christs or anointed that they should resemble Christ because they by themselves resemble the image and figure of regal and principal power which is seen in the onely and true Christ So Saint Augustine speaking of Saul's Unction which made David fear even to touch him saith Oleum illud c. mysticè accipiendum magnum Sacramentum intelligendum est That Oyl with which Saul was anointed and from that Crisme or Unction was termed Anoinned is to be understood mystically and is a great Sacrament so the Ancients usually termed the representations of things holy When Sylvester the Bishop of Rome anointed Constantine Consignationem Spiritus Sancti adhibuit sancti Chrismatis Vnctione dicens signet te Deus sigillo fidei In nomine c. saith the Author He gave a Consignation of the Holy Ghost by the Unction of the holy Oyle saying Almighty God imprint in thee the seal and character of his faith In the name of the Father c. Now the plenitude of the Regall power derived from Unction is visible in these proportions of similitude 1. Unction conferred upon them Vim supereminentis Domini the power of absolute and supreme Authority Oyle denoting Soveraignty in that being mixed with any Liquor it maintains a superiority in the supernatation appearing still uppermost the Exercise of which supreme Authority consisted in the making and abrogating of Laws Civill and Ecclesiasticall which in matters indifferent and not against the clear evidence of Gods word should bind the Conscience David Solomon Hezekiah Josiah ordered the Affaires of the Jewish Church and Socrates tells us that after the Emperours became Christians matters of the Church wholly depended upon them and that it was by their summons and pleasures that the greatest Counsels were called and therefore Constantine the Great would usually say unto the Bishops Vos intra ego extra Ecclesiam Episcopus à Deo sum constitutus ye are Bishops within the Church and without the Church I am a Bishop appointed by God he was Communis Episcopus the common and ecumenicall Bishop in his Empire It gave them power to denounce Warre the merum Imperium and absolute power of the Sword being his from God Ordo ille naturalis mortalium paci accommodus hoc poscit ut suscipiendi belli authoritas atque Concilium penes principem sit even natural order accommodate unto the peace of mankind requiring this that the power of making War remâ—ins wholly in the Prince which when the people usurped we see they were punished Numb 14.44 3. To conclude peace and make Confederations and Leagues as King David and King Solomon did the Olive from which Oyle comes is the Embleme of Peace and Unction notably insinuates those ready inclinations and endeavouâ—s in Kings to procure the peace of their Subjects and in order unto peace to make Cessations and Truces which when broken even by Dâ—vids General he was sentenced as for murther 4. The free Election of their Servants and disposition of all Offices in Church and State 5. To pardon unto Offenders their lives reprieve or to punish them with death as in Joab's and Shimei's case 6. To receive Appeals from all other Judicatures that absolute submission unto the supreme Magistrate being taught Christians as Polycarpus the holy Martyr and Bishop told the Proconsul which brings no hurt unto the salvation of our Souls and Religion And from this divine signature of supreme power in Kings by Unction flows their indempnity and inviolability in word and deed they are not to be smitten even with the tongue much less the hand Against thee onely have I sinned sayes David which St. Ambrose expounds by his absolute exemption from humane Judicature There is no rising up against a King sayes Salomon who may say unto him what doest thou David acknowledged the Image of God by holy Unction in the worst of Kings
His Majesty should not have a royall interment with His Auncesters the causes were nearer thee Let me assigne them First it had been a Condemnation of your selves to have allowed him solemne and Kingly Funeralls unto whom you gave so unjust and cruell a death that were to build up what you were resolved to destroy Next you could not but know that â—he neighbourhooâ— of his sacred earthly remains must needs refricate the scarce skinn'â— sorrowes of London whâ—n they should have such a standing and still present Monument of their former happinesse in His Majesties peaceable Government and of their new miseâ—y in your Tyranny which would serve also this being the place of the greatest confluence to recrude the griefe of the whole Kingdome and probably beget such compunction and reluctancy in both City and Kingdome as would testifie it selfe by their attempt to cast you downe headlong from your new and wickedly acquired Dominion Another reason was lest the nearnesse of his Body whom you murthered might too frequently offer unto you the horror of your Guilt and redouble unto you those inward cheques and lashings of your Consciences which you cannot be without and so impede and trouble your Counsels The Devill at the Oracle of Apollo of Daphne could not give his Answers unto Julian the Apostate who sent to consult him about his undertakings against the Persians so long as the body of the Martyr Babylas lay by him so it is to be presumed that the same Spirit which the Apostle saith powerfully worketh in the Children of disobedience might be hindred in his cooperation and influence upon those unto whom he hath consigned the chief exercise of his power in our English world if King Charles his sacred reliques were lodged so nigh unto them as Westminster and therefore Windsor was neare enough But from the view of His Majesties undeniable matchlesse Virtues let us passe on unto that of His sufferings Sinfull envie never failes to give a malicious attendance upon virtue which by how much the more it is illustrious with so much the greater rancour doth she dog and persecute it and â—herefore many are the troubles â—f the righteous and no meer man had ever more then righteâ—us King Charles behold and see if any sorrows and suffrings were like unto His. See one of the most potent Monarchs of Europe loved at home and feared abroad most injuriously and strictly Imprisoned debarred from the most deare society of the most virtuous and best Wife from the converse and sight of his most sweet hopefull Children from the attendance of his most faithfull Servants from Gods house from Gods publique worship all Gods Servants forc'd to cohabite with Beasts brutish savage and wicked Men these to be made the Instruments of their cruelty unto him who were his sworne Subjects and Servants upon whom all civill and divine obligations of duty and affection unto His Majesty rested and that upon pretensions of Religion and liberty of which He was the truest and most undoubted Defender to lie under the weight and wounds of so many scandals reproaches wants and miseries besides the most grievous sense of the sufferings of his Kingdoms and best Subjects to be daily tortured with so many iterated unreasonable Propositions and insolent Demands to be racked out of his undoubted Royal Rights to make so many Concessions such great Condescentions in his propensness unto peace which notwithstanding his Enemies never meant to be tormented if it were possible unto perjury sacriledge and Atheisme and to have no other Conditions propounded for the Enjoyment of his Crownes and Kingdomes then that which the Devill made unto our Saviour All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall downe and worship me to offer his owne that which never was theirs to deny God which God gave them him to acknowledge and worship him These must needs be sorrowes and sufferings as beyond expression so above our conception most terrible tests and trials of all his virtues certainly no man had ever more and more strict examinations of Gods graces in him all which he fully answered with a learned and invincible piety for in all these who ever heard him murmure repine or charge God foolishly who ever heard him accuse raiâ—e at or threaten his most confirmed Foes with Job his eyes still powred out tears unto God whose justice in their greatest injustice he acknowledged and although he vindicated his owne Innocency having wherwith to justifie homselfe before man from theirs yet not before God he cleared the equity of his judgement upon him for acting against his Conscience in the Earle of Straffords death But it was the great and crying guilt of these Nations sinnes Englands principally which made this righteous man fall into the pits of his Adversaries to ripen Gods judgment upon this Nation by that great addition of guilt the shedding of his innocent bloud who had so many characters of Gods supreme power and spirituall graces upon him as must needs make this Crime committed against God draw his speedy and unavoidable vengeance upon them for it God usually punisheth one sinne by suffering Sinners to fall into others and those customary sinnes accompanied with senslessnesse and impenitency which fills up the measure of sin brim-full for judgment to take it off so that this pious Prince fell in the very corruption of Christianity which is of farre more maligne aspect and hath a more malicious influence of impiety upon the actions of men then Atheisme it selfe for then men professe that they know God yet in their works they deny him using the name of God and Religion as Conjurers in their Incantations to perpetrate those things are most contrary unto God and destructive unto Religion for as the Devill never doth moâ—e hurt then when he appeares in the likenesse of an Angel of light so are men never so mischievous as when they drive on wicked designes under the shew of Godlinesse Englands former sins which caused this Gods just dereliction the abandoning them up unto greater were their exceeding luxury in turning the grace of God temporal favours into wantonnes the long continuance of their peace the increase of their Trade riches and plenty begot in them a generall insolency and pride so that wheÌ„ they waxed fat like Jesurun they kicked against God in the Authority and regard due unto his principall Officers the Prince and the Priest Hence the people of England in their generality became self-willed heady high-minded and incorrigible they slandered the footsteps of Gods Anointed smote him with tâ—â—â—â—ngue contended with Gods â—â—iests and usurped that sacred Jurisdiction which God had delegated unto them a those Conspirators did Ye take too much upon you ye Sonnes of Levi since all the people of the Lord are holy under pretence of the Ambition of the Clergy and being like Elihu's new bottels ready to burst with that liquor of flatuous and superficiall knowledge instilled into
them by the giddy preachments and undigested swelling and tedious prayers of their Lecturers who reduced all Religion unto lip-worship and canting Scriptures Hence came it to passe that contemning the old paths the truth of the reformation in the Protestant Religion they contended unto bloud to corrupt by their phanatick Alterations the pure Doctrine Evangelical discipline established in the Church of England to effect which with the more â—ase they adventure upon sacriledgâ— to carry on that they must pull down Episcopacy the fence of the Church and here the King as a nursing Father interposing they render Him unable by encroaching upon his Prerogatives quarrelling him seize upoÌ„ his Strenghs Arme fight against him imprison and then Murther Him which last Act of Rebellion though the greatest part of the first Engagers may be thought never to have intended yet they may see the first violation of their Obedience due unto His Majesty punished by a guilt thus farre of his Innocent bloud that that power which they raised spilt it So dangerous it is to vary from a Christian Principle or to do evil that good may come of it God onely having power to direct limit and determine any evill action so that look over the pedigree of Englands sins through the severall descents thereof and you will find it thus Peace begot wealth that plenty that pride that vanity that curiosity that contention that hate of the Clergy that Sacriledge that the downfall of Bishops that the contempt of the KING that War that imprisonment and that the murther of the King a murther the most horrid murther that ever the Sun saw for Subjects to take away their King's life without the prescription of a single example or a law nay even against all laws divine and humane to Try him after the form of a Judiciary proceeding this is to entitle God unto the greatest sin to establish iniquity by a Law and to make God such as themselves Thus the Jews dealt with our Saviour We have a Law and by that Law he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God although there was no such Law but a new-made Law a Juncto-law Straffords law Canterburies law the King's law consequent Laws Laws without names or cognizance made because he was KING Neither doth their power any more prove the equity of this Fact the great scandal of the Christian name and height of Anabaptistical fury than the Devils power which is from God doth justifie his malice which is from himself They have now indeed made King Charles a glorious King prov'd him glorious in his personal Vertues glorious in his divine Graces but most glorious in the Christian Constancy of his glorious Sufferings for Gods Cause the true Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of the three Kingdomes thus hath God extorted a truth from them for this spake they not of themselves but God forceing their testimony they prophesied As we have seen His Majesties sufferings and their causes our sins so let us reflect upon their punishments as the Springs from which our sorrows should arise The exceeding avarice and hypocrisie two noted Court-sins with which the greatest Christian Prince Constantine was abused of the State-Grandees the deep pits wherein they laid the fatall snares into which pious King CHARLES fell will be visibly punished for God will not be mocked The pride vanity sacriledge rebellion and the cruel murther of His Majesty will have particular judgments levell'd against these sins every mans sin even of those who have fought for His Majesty who have yet fought against him by their sins hath given force unto this great stroke and wound given unto these Kingdoms in His Majesties death and therefore ought every man to proportion his sorrow unto his sins As King Josiah from Judah so the strong Baricado King Charles is taken away betwixt Gods judgments and this Kingdom the great and wide In-let of all misery is made by his death could our sorrows answer them like a Torrent it would overflow all the banks of Reason and grow too big to be carried away by the channels of our senses behold every spring of Jeremiah and Judahs sorrow open to send forth these flowing streams of affliction upon us and all arise from the same head 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 Those heavy judgments which the Prophet Jeremiah foresaw impending and after came to pass by King Josiahs death are in a great part by King Charles his death already come upon us Gods House his beautiful house is laid waste the Heathen have entred into the Sanctuary they have made a noise in the House of the Lord as in the day of a solemn Feast So that they who in the beginning pretended God Religion the Church their Cause have dealt with us as that Faction among the Jews who called â—hemselves The Zealous in the war with Titus did under pretence of defending Religion and the Law they possessed themselves of the Temple yet were themselves the first who put fire with their own hands into the holy places How hath the avarice and carnall interests of the Teachers of these times corrupted the purity of our Religion as Judahs so Englands onely Prophets have seen vain and foolish things for her and they have not discovered her iniquity to turn away her captivity but have seen for her false burthens and causes of banishment they have shed the bloud of the just K. Charles in the midst of her Englands greatest Adversaries are chief and her Enemies prosper Servants do bear rule over us and there is none to deliver us out of their hand They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghils Princes are hanged by their hands and the faces of the Elders are not honoured War desolation and famine with their sad effects foretold in these Lamentations appear in our Horizon already like Elihu's little Cloud which will shortly overspread our whole English firmament and all these calamities have and will fall upon us because the Crown is fallen from our Head the British Josiah King Charles is taken from us and we have no comforter and how great and just causes of our sorrows are all these Calamities But let this sorrow have the full advantage in its fall to adde motion unto all the turning wheels of our afflicting griefs the fall from our great happiness in his Majesties Government Let London let England let Scotland let Ireland let every of them Remember as Jerusalem did in the dayes of her afflictions and her miseries all the pleasant things that she had in the dayes of old All the pleasant things they had in the blessed dayes of King Charles his blessed Reign the glory and truth of her Religion the just execution of