their Land put under a Curse or defiled with Innocent Blood Let the Armies of Egypt and Pharaoh Necho answer for it Jerusalem and Judah had no hand in it Josiah was not murder'd by His own Subjects nor try'd condemn'd and executed by Men whom he had patronis'd and promoted to Wealth and Honour Josiah was not brought to the Bar or Scaffold by Men who fought against his Person by his own Commission nor did he die by the hand of Thieves and Robbers who when they had slain the Heir divided among them the Inheritance Josiah's Enemies were all of them of another Countrey and had never vow'd Duty nor sworn Allegiance to him and such Men may have by the Laws of Nature and Nations a greater Liberty to invade and make War then Men born and educated in his own Dominions But then If the King of Judah only fallen in Battle and slain by a foreign Enemy caused so general Lamentation and such as was continued through the Reigns of all the succeeding Kings till the Babylonish Captivity and which was observed even in the time of Cyrus and the Persian Monarchy as the last Chapter of 2 Chron. does sufficiently evince How much greater and more lasting Humiliation should Ours be who have the Guilt of Innocent Blood at our own Doors A Prince who was Himself all Pity and Compassion sentenced and put to Death by cruel and bloody Men a King who had been a kind Father to his People worry'd and devour'd by his own Children here is Guilt that may demand Humiliation till the Day of Judgment The Almighty has ever declared to the World That the Blood of the poorest Innocent defiles the Land and that whole Kingdoms and Countries have a long time lain under the Curse and Cry of it Ancient Wise Men fill'd their Tragedies and loaded their Scenes with God's Judgments upon Murder Theatres groaned under the weight of publick Guilt and Towns and Cities felt the Calamity especially upon the Effusion of Royal Blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord says Oedipus in Sophocles What a storm of Vengeance falls upon our City for this King's Blood The very Heathen Gods seem not to have been at rest till the Blood of Innocents was atoned for or revenged and the Saints in Heaven and Souls of Martyrs now with God though them selves all flaming Charity and Love to Mankind yet call for Vengeance upon the Earth for the Innocent Blood that has been shed upon it And I saw says S. John Rev. 6.9,10 under the Altar the Souls of them that were slain for the Word of God And they cryed with a loud Voice saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth So that in Case of Blood even Mercy it self turns cruel and calls for Justice and cannot rest till it be reveng'd And now whether we believe Moses or S. John or even Sophocles the Tragedian They all with one Voice conclude That a Drop of Innocent Blood is enough to bring a Deluge of Misery upon a Nation But who will deny That Innocent Blood was shed as on This Day and in This Land and not only the Blood of a Man who had done no harm but under whom we might have enjoy'd both Wealth and Honour who nourished Arts encouraged Learning advanced Religion maintain'd the Peoples Liberties pardon'd great Offenders and at last was betray'd and put to Death by many of those who had been forgiven by him All Nations have owned That Kings are Fathers of their Countrey and the Voice of Civiliz'd and Learned Nations is the Voice of Nature and of God Now for a Man to murder his own Father is of all sins of the worst kind the very worst and most clamorous and cries loudest to Heaven for Vengeance In short then The People had no sin to answer for when Josiah died and yet they had Mourning by an Ordinance and by a Law but in our case the People of This Nation slew their own Prince and had their Hands dyed in the Blood of their Sovereign of Him who by Birth Title Possession Care Kindness Courtesie and every thing that could either give or purchase Right was Father of his Countrey It is not very difficult to discern how the Almighty has ever since chastised and scourged This Nation and how that horrid Murder and Effusion of Sacred Blood has been the Cause of many publick Calamities This Land has since groaned under His Death was accompanied with the Blood of Thousands other great Men and He went to Heaven with a royal Army of Martyrs to attend upon Him Then it was That Men's Honesty was their Crime and Wealth and good Estates were to others as bad as Felony It were endless to reckon up how many brave Men were oblig'd to fly for their Lives to pray for Sanctuary and Protection in a Foreign Land to take Service in another Nation thereby to escape a most wretched Bondage and Captivity in their own Countrey We have been ever since and may be not without Reason under Fears and Jealousies of a Foreign Religion even the Blessings and Sweets of the Restauration were made bitter to us by the Wormwood and Gall of Superstition infused into our Cup and by the endeavours which have been used to bring our Souls into Bondage Only the Wisdom and Goodness of Heaven in this mighty Revolution we hope may free us from those Apprehensions of Superstition coming in among us the Equivocal Offspring of that otherwise happy Restauration But still we must remember who first drove those Kings into a Countrey where they might be taught Superstition and that if they had not when young been pursued out of their own Land they would not have been tempted by the Gods of other Kingdoms if they had been Educated under their own Father in their own Countrey under their own Laws and suffered to breath their own Native Air they might have been zealous Patrons of the Religion and Interest of their own Nation and the Miseries we have laboured under upon that account will in a good measure lye at the doors of those who drove them out of the Church into the Idols Temple And having thus far assign'd and apply'd the Reasons of Judah's Lamentation give me leave to sum up what other things I have interwoven with this Discourse I have shewn First That the downfall of that good King whom we now lament taking all the Miseries that did belong to it from first to last was a most visible mark of God's Displeasure and may be so severe a Judgment as this Land never felt since it was a Nation Secondly That God's Judgments upon a People ought not to be neglected much less to be made our Pastime and entertain'd with Raillery and Ridicule Solomon says God scorns the scorners and that He will laugh when their Fear cometh Thirdly That the Peoples shedding the Blood of their Soveraign was a Publick Crime as well