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A94101 The subjects sorrow: or, Lamentations upon the death of Britains Josiah, King Charles most unjustly and cruelly put to death by His own people, before His Royal Palace White-Hall, Jan. the 30. 1648. Expressed in a sermon upon Lam. 4. 20. Wherein the divine and royal prerogatives, personall vertues, and theologicall graces of His late Majesty are briefly delivered: and that His Majesty was taken away in Gods mercy unto Himselfe, and for the certain punishment of these Kingdoms, from the parallel is clearly proved. Brown, Robert, fl. 1668, attributed name.; Juxon, William, 1582-1663, attributed name. 1649 (1649) Wing S6106B; ESTC R206110 26,786 95

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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 irrepairable 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 piety that the fiercenesse of Gods greater wrath was so kindled against Judah that the Lord said I will remove Judah out of my sight 2 Chron. 24.26 27. 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 whom 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 transgressions he was suffered to sin Ep. l 2. ep 6 Justus Jadex peccantis vitium ex ipsorum animadversione corripuit ex quorum causa peccavit Divinely holy Gregory secundum meritum plebium 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 flie in the face of our Prince for those errors which receive their birth strength from our own native corruptions Job 19.28 we should rather say as Iob tels his supercilious Reprovers why persecute we 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 1 Kings 10.9 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 people 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 beat 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 feels every pricking pang and painfull touch of their troubles 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 2 Chron. 34.27 28. 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 Isa 57 1. 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 2 Chron. 20.19 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
THE SUBJECTS SORROW OR LAMENTATIONS Upon the Death of Britains JOSIAH KING CHARLES Most unjustly and cruelly put to Death by His own People before his Royal Palace White-Hall Jan. 30. 1648. Expressed in a SERMON upon Lam. 4.20 Therein the Divine and Royal Prerogatives Personal Vertues and Theological Graces of His late Majesty are briefly delivered AND ●●at His Majesty was taken away in Gods mercy unto Himself and for the certain punishment of these Kingdoms from the Parallel is clearly proved 2 Chron. 35.24 ●●d all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah Isaiah 57.1 ●●e righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart 〈◊〉 merciful men are taken away none considering 〈◊〉 the righteous is taken away from the evil to come Euseb Pamph. vit Const m. l. 4. c. 57. ●resanè hunc Honorem adeptus est ut Dei Volunta●●te quod eo morte sepultum est tamen apud homines regnaret London Printed in the Year 1649. 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 2 Chron. 35.25 hurried away by a violent and unto all but himself untimely death made a mourning Ordinance for Israel Calvin 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 2 Kings 23.25 26 27. God removes this remora unto his justice their good King from them Lam. 2.6 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 nimium 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 whenee 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 Gen. 2.7 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 Rom. 13.3 in which respects is it that the King is termed 〈◊〉
them they lament and mourn with a great and grievous mourning 2 Chron. 35.24 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 Zech. 11.1 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 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 Vicarius Dei estis in regno vestro Antiq brit p. 5 Rex Vicarius summi Regis Leg. Ed. Reg. c. 17. Lamb. 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 See Jud. Jenk Lex Terrae 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 of 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 Nebo take a
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 De vit Const l. 1. c. 1. 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 Hugh Peters 2 Sam. 16.9 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 Vineger and Gall unto Gods Anointed in the Agony of his sufferings offered'st that false furious Isa 14.18 19 20. 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 Acts 13.10 that thou 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 Rev. 2.10 and therefore the chief marks of Gods favour As in our gracious King Charles Dan. 12.10 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 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 the neighbourhood of his sacred earthly remains must needs refricate the scarce skinn'd sorrowes of London when they should have such a standing and still present Monument of their former happinesse in His Majesties peaceable Government and of their new misery 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 Theod. l. 3. c. 9. 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 Eph. 2.2 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 therefore many are the troubles of the righteous and no meer man had ever more then righteous 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
insinuates those ready inclinations and endeavours in Kings to procure the peace of their Subjects and in order unto peace to make Cessations and Truces which when broken even by Davids General he was sentenced as for murther 2 Chron. 17.8 9. 4. The free Election of their Servants and disposition of all Offices in Church and State 5. To pardon unto Offenders their lives 2 Sam. 20.4 1 Kings 3.27 Esth 3.1 1 Kings 2. Acts 25.10.1 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 Euseb Ecc. Hist l. 4. c. 14. 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 Psal 5.1 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 Si non habebat Saul sacramenti sanctitatem quid in eo venerabatur David Aug. Cont. lit pet l. 2. c. 48. David acknowledged the Image of God by holy Unction in the worst of Kings Saul insomuch though he were his irreconcilable Adversary he would not even stretch forth his hand against him he had not the new way to expound Scriptures unto his own distorting passions though that course was pressed upon him with the advantage of a Crown he checks the wrested and carnall application The Lord forbid that I should do this thing 1 Sam. 24.6 yea when the Son of a stranger an Amalekite who might perhaps plead ignorance of the sacred relations by Unction although Saul had already received his deaths wound beside that it might be counted a kind of rescue to save him from being taken Prisoner and come alive into the enemies hands and that he might seem also to have merited by preserving the Regalia David Saulem propter sacro-sanctam Unctionem honoravit vivum vindicavit occisum Aug. Cont. lit pet l. 2. c. 48. In Apol. Ep. l. 2. Ep. 13. Dig. vet l. 1. tit 3. H. leg 30. Tho. Aq. Ia. IIae q. 96. a. 5. ad IIIm the Crown and royal Habiliaments from the Enemy and presenting them unto the lawful Successor David yet he is so awed with the sacred regards conveyed unto King Saul by Unction that he punisheth him with death for shortning Sauls life as for the breach of a known and natural right How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand against the Lords Anointed David honoured Saul for his holy Unction living and revenged him being dead A King in his Kingdom is solo Deo minor inferior unto God onely sayes Tertullian and then surely above his people Deo subditus subject to God onely sayes St. Ambrose unto Valentinian Princeps legibus solutus est that the King is free from the power of the Law is a Maxime as old as Christianity that is from the penalties of it Laws have onely a directive no coercive power over him though not as a moral man yet in his politick consideration he is above the Law Yvo Carnot Ep. 171. Divino sunt judicio reservandi Roges Kings stand or fall unto their own master God satis est ad poenam quod Deum habeant ult●rem it is sufficient that God will punish their Crimes he is the onely Judge not the people unto whom our Appeal lies against the injuries of their proceedings in such cases our proper address is unto Gods Tribunal if arbitrary Government Oppression Murther Sacriledge Demonaick possession Witchcraft of all which sins King Saul was notoriously guilty could give sufficient warranty unto his punishment by his Subjects and were the people competent Judges the peoples hate of Saul and Davids merit from them and suffrings from Saul might probably lead him to propound the people an High Court of Justice but informed by a better spirit than that which actuates these times he puts up his Charge against Saul even when his life was in his power unto God unto whom the judgment of Kings belongs in these words 1 Sam. 24.14 The Lord judge between thee and me and the Lord avenge me of thee but mine hand shall not be upon thee yea afterwards upon Sauls continuance of his mortal hatred and bloudy persecution of David and his Followers and that Abishai preached unto David the modern doctrine the divine and infallible equity of outward Successes that God had delivered King Saul into his hands and offered himself a ready Executioner of the fact David countermands his active and interessed malice cloaked with usual pretensions of Religion and Liberty Destroy him not for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless but he refers for remedy unto the proper Court of Justice against Kings 1 Sam. 26.9 10. the Lord shall smite him or this day shall come to dye or he shall descend in Battel and perish the Lord forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the Lords Anointed Saul had not Innocency Saul non habebat Innocentiam tamen habebat sanctitatem non vitae suae sed sacramenti Dei quod in malis hominibus sanctum est ubi supra and yet he had Sanctity not of Life but of the Unction which even in wicked men is holy saith Saint Augustine The first and best Christians continued their practice towards their most refractory and imperious Emperors when Valentinian the Younger dispossessed the Orthodox of their Churches in Millain and gave them unto the Arians Saint Ambrose the Bishop onely offered up his supplications unto God to alter the Emperors purposes Adversus Arma Amb. Ep. l. 2. Ep. 13 Lacrymae meae Arma sunt against Armes teares are my defensive weapons aliter nec debeo nec possum repugnare no other way ought I or can I resist saith he the carriage of the Citizens of Millaine was the same exhibiting their Petition unto the Emperour they all crie out Rogamus non pugnamus We humbly intreat you oh Emperour we fight not against you The testimony of Plynius secundus given unto Trajan that the Primitive Christians practiced nothing against the received Laws and were ready rather to suffer then oppose procured them not onely a respite from their bloody persecution Euse Hist Ecc. l. 3. c. 27. Theod. l. 3. f. 19. but also the free exercise of their Religion Teares and Prayers unto God and humble supplications unto Princes the ancient Christians held the onely powerfull means to divert their miscarriages Quod debitum non reddiderunt in quo Christiani non sunt terrenis regibus obsequi Aug. Con. 31.
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 raile at or threaten his most confirmed Foes with Job Job 16.20 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 justisie 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 more 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 whē 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 the tongue contended with Gods Priests and usurped that sacred Jurisdiction which God had delegated unto them as 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 ease they adventure upon sacriledge 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 upō 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 Joh. 19.7 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 Vit. Const l. 4. c. 29. 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 Lam. 1.10 2.7 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 Jos Bell. Jud. l. 2. C●● 2. who called themselves 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 Lam. 2.14 4.13 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 1.5 and her Enemies prosper 5.8 Servants do bear rule over us and there is none to deliver us out of their hand 4.5 They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghils 5.12 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 5.16 King Charles is taken from us 1.9 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 1.7 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 her Laws her peace her riches her plenty her liberty at home and her protection and honour abroad 2.15 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 1.1 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 1.16 mine eye mine eye runneth down with wa●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 is 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 fiery Charriot Vi. Const l. 4. c. 73. 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 afficted 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 bespeaks 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 Lam. 5.21 22. 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