sight as I have removed Israel and will cast off this City Jerusalem which I have chosen and the house of which I have said my name shall be there 2 King 23.26.27 So that for the great sin of the Land was this blessed King snatched from his People by untimely death as a punishment not of his but of their iniquity According as Huldah the Prophetesse had informed the Messenger sent to her by him 2 King 22. from ver 15. to 20. Thus saith the Lord Tell the man that sent you to me Thus saith the Lord Behold I will bring evil upon this place and upon the Inhabitants thereof even all the words of the book which the King of Judah hath read because they have forsaken me and have burnt Incense to other gods to provoke me to anger Therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place and shall not be quenched But to the King of Judah that sent you Thus shall you say to him Thus saith the Lord God of Israel as touching the word which thou hast heard because thine heart was tender and thou hast humbled thy selfe before me when thou heardest what I said against this place and against the Inhabitants thereof to make it a desolation and a curse and hast rent thy clothes and hath wept before me I have also heard thee saith the Lord Behold therefore I will gather thee unto thy Fathers and thou shalt be gathered unto thy Grave in peace and thy eies shall not see all the evill that I will bring upon this Land Now that this judgement pronounced might be accomplished upon the Nation This godly and religious King was unhappily drawn into a destructive War Pharaoh Necho King of Egypt going to War against Carchemish King of Assyria to the river Euphrates Iosiah is drawn in to aid the Assyrians Necho sends Ambassadours to disswade him from it what have I to do with thee thou King of Iudah I come not against thee this day but against the House wherewith I have war for God commanded me to make hast for bear thee from medling with God who is with me that he destroy thee not Nevertheless Iosiah would not turn his face from him but disguised himself that he might fight with him and hearkned not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God and came to fight with him in the valley of Megiddâ— And in this battel he lost his life Vers 23. And the Archers shot at King Josiah and the King said to his Servants have me away for I am sore wounded His Servants therefore took him out of that Chariot and put him into the second Chariot that he had and they brought him to Jerusalem and he dyed and was buried in one of the Sepulchres of his Futhers And then followes my mournful Text And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah and Jeremiah lamented for Josiah c. Jusiah dyed by a fatall arrow as our Iosiah by a dismall blow to the unexpressible griefe of his People the Church of God decay of Religion and damage of the State which the Nation being sensible of betake themselves as our Nation now doth to a generall lamentation and a bitter mourning And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned c. and Jeremiah c. Wherein we have 1. The Person lamented and mourned for and that was Iosiah a godly and religious King yet slain by cruell hand The Archers shot him wounded him sore and he dyed 2. The sad lamentations made for him where we have 1. The generality of the mourners The whole Land mourned the whole Church and Nation of the Jews All Iudah and Ierusalem Jeremiah the Prophet all the singing men and singing women all the People both City and Country Prophets and others This was the greatest mourning that we read of Therefore the very quintessence of mourning is set forth by this Zach. 12.11 In that day there shal be a great mourning in Ierusalem like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Magiddon And that not without cause whether the worth of the man the good that he did or the evill that followed upon his death be considered 2. The continuation of this mourning It was not only for a time for a day or two or a week or two a month or two and no more but it was continued from time to time from year to year by an Ordinance made for it in Israel It was a custom amonst the Iews to have publick mourners at their Funerals both men and women who used to make lamentations in dolefull Tunes at the death of Persons of worth as appeares Eccl. 12.5 Man goeth to his long home and the Mourners go about the streets In these lamentations they used to make mention of the parties deceased and to mourn for them Thus they did for Iosiah in their solemn mournings for others making mention of the great losse of him Insomuch that it became a constant custom and as it were a setled Law or Ordinance to make mention of the sad loss of Josiah in their dolefull Elegies Or it may be that by reason of the losse of so worthy a King a speciall Law was enacted for it as our Nation and State hath now piously and prudently done that at all other solemn mournings there should be mourning for Josiah and that publike Mourners observed the same This is meant when 't is said And made them an Ordinance in Israel 3. The Record for the commemoration of this holy man in the continued mourning for him And behold they are written in the Lamentations Some conceive the Lamentations of Jeremiah registred in sacred Scripture to be here meant which seemes to them to be hinted Lam. 4.20 The breath of our nostrils the anoynted of the Lord is taken in their Pits c. But the most reject this and think there might be some other Lamentations remaining then upon record and wherein the losse of Josiah was set down And all Iudah and Ierusalem mourned for Iosiah and Ieremiah lamented for Iosiah c. I shall not now by reason of my very short warning exactly handle every branch of the text but only gather for you from hence three generall observations wherin I shall comprise and bind up together as with a threefold cord the whole sum and substance of the Text. 1. That the child the dearest child of God may undergo a violent death and this I gather from the Person lamented Iosiah a good and godly King a blessed Saint yet slain by cruell hands The Archers shot him 2. That it hath been an ancient custom among the people of God to mourn for the dead And this I gather from the mourners in the Text The Church of God Iudah and Ierusalem Ieremiah the prophet All betaking themselves to sad and solemn mourning for Josiahs death 3. That the death especially the violent death of a good King is a ground of a great mourning to all good people Good Iosiah being so unhappily slain Iudah and
LACRYMAE ECCLESIAE OR The mourning OF HADADRIMMON For Englands IOSIAH Delivered in two Sermons Janu. 30. 1660. at the solemn Fasting and Humiliation for the Martyrdom and horrid Murder of our late gracious King Charles the First of ever blessed Memory In the Church of the Borough of Blechingley in the County of Sury By Wil. Hampton Rector of the said Church In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem as the Mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddon Zach. 12.11 Nunc requiescit in sinu Abrahae dulcis amicus noster nam quis alius tali animae locus Aug. de Nebridio LONDON Printed for VVil. Hope at the sign of the blew Anchor on the North side of the Royall Exchange 1661. To the Right Honourable Charles Lord Cokaine Viscount Cullen Grace Mercy and Peace be multiplyed Right Honourable and my very good Lord As you have been a great sufferer in your Person and Estate to the loss of more then thirty thousand pounds for your fidelity and loyalty to his late Majesty of blissed memory and yet were cheared more with the continuall feast of a good and a quiet Conscience as I have heard you confesse then you could have been had you saved your estate and gained ten times that sum by engaging on the other side for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords anoynted and be guildesse 1 Sam. 26.9 So no less sorrow for his sad sufferings and chiefly that last fatall blow brought upon his sacred Person by the furious rage of merciless and bloody men when a sword did even pierce through your heart as your Lordship hath often expressed in my hearing in my house whither you were pleased to retire your self aster your releasment from Oxford and at other times and to honour me with your presence when we did in private poure forth our souls together in utter detestation of that horrid Fact and in bitter lamentation for it Therefore upon this account I think not these Sermons more due to any one then your self as also for the many obligations that lie upon me for your manifold favours and respects to me even from your youth up till now It is framed in a low and plain stile sitted for a Country Auditory and it hath alwaies been my desire and endeavour to condescend to the meanest capacity My warning was very short for such a work having scarce two dayes to prepare by notice given me by a worshipfull Neighbour one of our late Burgesses in the late healing Parliament of such a day to be kept of which I knew nothing before And although the short warning the exhaustion of my Spirits in Preaching twice the Lords day preceding together with my age might have pleaded my excuse for such a task and confind me to praying and weeping Yet as nothing seemes hard to a willing mind my cordial affection to the duty for I have in my secret prayers long wished I might live to see such a day as this wherein we might in publick as wel express our detestation of as lamentation for that monstrous and bloody Act put me on with the assistance of the Divine Spirit to a performance beyond my strength and expectation The dead Letter cannot be answerable to the lively Delivery which was to the content of my Auditory which that day was great many of the adjoyning Parishes where no notice was given of the day repairing to my Church And which was to my content as it drew teares from mine so from the eyes of a great part of my hearers which is the best commendation of a Preacher The Lord grant it may work upon their Souls to whose sight it shall come whose hearts or hands or fingers were defiled with that innocent blood that they may be deeply humbled and moved to repentance for such a crimson scarlet sin and find Mercy and obtain Pardon from Heaven by having their hearts sprinkled with that blood which speakes better things then the blood of Abel And that it may blunt and alleviate the asperity of their Spirits who have great thoughts of heart and those evill too against this blessed Change a work even of Omnipotency And against our dear and gracious Soveraign whom God long preserve a King of such asweet Christian temper for Wisdom Discretion Meekness Gentleness Pitty Piety Mercy as is too good for such a churlish and unthankful People Thus commending this poor labour to the blessing of God and your Lordship and family to his grace and safe protection I humbly take my leave and remain Your Honours humble Servant in the work of Christ W. Hampton From my Study in Blechingley February 12 1660. The mourning of Hadadrimmon for Englands Josiah The Text. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their Lamentations to this day and made them an Ordinance in Israel and behold they are written in the Lamentations 2 Cron. 35.4 25. THis day is a day of blackness and gloominess a day of clouds thick darkness a day of mourning for a good and a religious King cut off by untimely violent death to the unexpressible griefe of all good Christians by the trayterous heads trecherous hearts and bloody hands of wicked and ungodly men yet great pretenders to holiness above all other Now I say this being a black day a day of mourning I have chosen a Text of mourning of mourning for a godly and a religious King Josiah the fittest parallel I can find in the whole sacred book for our Martyred Soveraign Josiah was one of the best of all the Kings of Iudah whose History you may read at large in the foregoing Chapter and in the former part of this Chapter and also in the 22 and 23. book of the Kings He came to the Crown young at eight yeares old and sought the Lord while he was yet young in the eight year of his raign and the twelfth year began the great work for advancing Religion and Piety He purged Ierusalem of Idolatry reformed abuses repaired Gods House restored his worship regarded his Ministers kept such a Passeover as had not been kept before since the dayes of Samuel the Prophet neither did all the Kings of Israel keep such a Passeover as Iosiah kept Vers 18. 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 arose there any like him 2 King 23.25 And though he was thus good and zealous yet for the peoples sin was he taken away by a violent death as it followeth Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath where with his anger was kindled against Iudah because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withall And the Lord said I will remove Jerusalem out of my
Commonwealth and surely he is no good and dutiful childe that will not mourn for his fathers death especially if he see him slain and murthered by bloody hands in such a case not to shed tears were a sign of a graceless and godless son and certainly they are no good children no loyal or dutiful subjects that mourn not for the horrid slaughter and barbarous assassination of their civil father 3. A good King is the light of our eyes and breath of our nostrils yea the very life of our lives a principal means under God of our temporal weal and being under whose shadow and protection we enjoy our selves and all in safety life goods and estate He is the Minister of God to thee for good Rom. 13.4 And is it not a sad thing to have such a pillar broken down such a one taken away by cruel hands What can be expected to follow but ruine rapine confusion and misery oppression and calamity as we have felt by woful experience and will not all that have any goodness that delight not to live by devouring others lament for the loss of such a one 4. A good King is under God a principal cause of our well-being in relation to spiritual things for our souls benefit it is under him and by his power and Law that we are preserved to live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty 1 Tim. 2.2 therefore the loss of him must needs be deplorable as opening a wide gap to all prophaneness and dissolute living It was a sad time with Israel when there was no King in Israel every man did what was good in his own eyes Iudg. 17.6 and to what exorbitances and villanies will not the corrupt nature of man left to its own liberty and actuated by satanical fury break out in such an Anarchy will not this make a good heart mourn 5. A good King is a nursing Father of the Church so called in Scripture phrase it is by his care and providence by his good example and diligence in the service of God and in the holy duties of his worship that Religion is upheld and the practise of it furthered and the Church maintained in a flourishing condition Regis ad exemplum to tus componitur orbis people are much inclined to follow the example of the Prince And can good people that wish well to Sion and are well affected to Religion to the service and worship of God see such a one snatch'd from them by violent death to the great decay of Religion abolishing of the solemn worship of God and the bringing in a Babel-like confusion of hearts and Tongues as we have seen to our reproach to the breaking of our hearts to the joy and derision of our enemies and not be filled with extreme grief and betake themselves to great and bitter mourning 6. A good King is the Bridegroom of the Commonwealth the Husband of his people and hence it hath been an ancient custome at the Inauguration or Coronation of Kings to deliver them a Ring as a pledge or token of wedding them to their people and will not the children of the Bride-chamber mourn when the Bridgeroom is taken away from them Christ himself in the Gospel assures us that they will and shall mourn in that day And here I pray take notice that they are no children of the Bridechamber that mourn not for such a loss what then are they that rejoyce Can the Bride a loving Spouse endure to see her dear Husband assassinated murthered by cruel Butchers and that in the Bridechamber in his own house or at his own gates Can she endure for ever to have him separated from her or to have his head separated from his body before her eyes without shrieking out and wringing hands without bitter tears and doleful lamentations surely no And how then can good people good Christians good Subjects call to mind the murdering of a good King at the door of his own Royal Palace by some of his own people of his own subjects and servants without bleeding hearts weeping eyes and mournful spirits These may stand as so many grounds or arguments to confirm the point in hand that the death especially the violent death of a good King is a ground of great mourning to all good people To all these I might add the confusion that follows such a black deed The barbarous murder of a good King is commonly attended with a deplorable Chaos of confusion both in Church and State The plotters and actors in such a foul work are none of the best yea they are the very worst and vilest of men men of hard hearts and seared consciences of wild large and loose principles who having swallowed Royal blood do easily glut themselves with the blood of Nobles and other of their fellow subjects and like ravening Wolves having slain the Shepherd sport themselves in tearing and worrying the sheep and to conclude make no bones of the greatest evil so it may promote their wicked designs And must not this needs bring on a rueful confusion 1. There follows a Chaos of confusion in the Church when a good King is murdered if the murderers escape they new-model Religion and fit it to their own Standard and make it a meer Machiavillian politick Engine to prop and boulster up their usurped power When Ieroboam wrested the ten Tribes from the house of David with his new Kingdome he set up a new Religion for fear least if the people kept to their old Religion they would return to their old King 1 King 12.26 27 28. Ieroboam said in his heart Now shall the Kingdome return to the house of David if this people go up to do sacrifice in the House of the Lord at Ierusalem then shall the heart of this people burn again unto their Lord even to Rehoboam King of Iudah and they shall kill me Whereupon he took counsel and made two calves and set the one in Bethel and the other in Dan and pretended all to be done for the good and ease of the people it is too much for you to go up to Ierusalem whereas it was for his own base ends and according to his new Religion he made a new sort of Priests not of the sons of Aaron according to Gods Ordination but whosoever would might be a Priest for that State-Religion and served well enough to serve calves He made of the lowest and meanest of the people Priests of the high places whosoever would he consecrated him and he became one of the Priests of the high places and this thing became a sin unto the house of Ieroboam even to cut it off and to destroy it from off the face of the earth 1 King 13.33 34. I need not tell you how exactly the late Tyrants our Masters followed his steps the sad thought of it is too fresh in our memories Our old true and established Religion must be thrown down and turned out both for government discipline
doctrine manner of worship and Divine Ordination as if all had been nought and a boundless toleration given for a monstrous many headed new Religion and Priests start up of the meanest and lowest of the people many boldly intruded upon that holy work to administer the Word and Sacraments without a lawful call and separation to it they climbed up and crept in the wrong way like thieves and robbers Iohn 10. they consecrated themselves with audacious and sacrilegious presumption rushing upon that sacred Function and came not in by the door of Divine Ordination which none ever durst presume to do since the Apostles time till these daies of confusion and these were the Priests of the high places these these the only men in those disorderly times who having never taken holy Orders were thought most worthy to be mounted to the high places of preferment 2. A Chaos of confusion follows also in the state They which kill the Heir to gain the inheritance and stone Naboth to seize his Vineyard must maintain with a vast expence of blood and treasure what they have unjustly gotten by which means the poor people are oppressed and squeezed harrowed and peeled to the very bones We have found and felt this true what sore oppressions unsupportable taxes and over-heavy burthens besides devouring free-quarter when our Lord-Danes boasted that all was theirs and that they had more to do in our houses and with our goods expertus loquor then we our selves have we undergone since the oppression and murder of our good King Besides there is a vast confusion after such a fact by reason of contestations between Competitors as was in the Roman Empire upon Caesars death between Octavius Lepidus Marcus Antonius and others there is a furious busling and strugling who shall be Master and Supreme now one strives for it and now another now one hath it and then another now one Government is up and then another and so the oppressed people in this time of confusion are the greatest sufferers pelted and buffeted between both tumbled and tossed and emptied from one vessel to another till their purses are as empty of money as their hearts of content or their lives of comfort Now then seeing such a Chaos of confusion both in Church and State follows upon the murder or violent death of a good King as we all alas can too feelingly and knowingly speak is not the point clear that the death especially the violent death of a good King is a ground of great mourning to all good people for I am sure none will grant them to be good people unless themselves may be Judges and their own mouths praise them who applaud a Chaos of confusion in Church and State and delight like Sharks Harpies and Cormorants to fish in troubled waters or like Tories to live upon spoil and rapine because there out they have formerly sucked no small advantage I hasten on to the application of this truth to all our souls Vse 1. First then see here what great cause we have of sad mourning and of great lamentation who have seen a Iosiah a good and religious King our great our chief friend our common Father our Bridegroom our dear Husband snatched from us by bloody hands and by a violent death well may this day be called a bitter day as the mourning for one only son or the mourning of Hadadrimmon for Englands Iosiah Let us a little parallel Iosiah in my Text with our Iosiah that so seeing his excellent worth we may be the more sensible of this exceeding loss and find what cause we have for great mourning 1. Iosiah was a very pious and religious Prince well affected to Religion to the true Religion the reformed Religion as it was by his care reformed and restored according to the Law of God found in the Temple by Hilkiah the High-Priest to this he adhered cleaving to the Lord with all his heart and walking in all the wayes of David his father and turned not aside to the right hand or to the lest 2 King 22.2 So our Iosiah was very pious and zealously affected to Religion to the true reformed Protestant Religion which he firmly professed and cleaved to And though his adversaries in the beginning of our troubles blasted him with Popery as if he had been a Papist a slander as false as the Father of Lies could invent and one of their most cunning Engines whereby Absalem-like they stole away the hearts of his people and brought him so low yet he continued constant in it to his last breath and sealed it with his blood and that unparallell'd book which he wrote and left behinde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein he commends that Religion to his son our now gracious Soveraign to be constantly imbraced and professed by him which he found by proof to be the best of all Religions and neerest to the Apostolical primity and purity I say this shall stand as a lasting monument to all posterity to the perpetual shame of those malitious Traducers Out of that divine book so I may call it for much of a divinely inspir'd spirit appears in it give me leave to add some of his own sweet words to the Prince of Wales If you never see my face again I do require and entreat you as your Father and your King that you never suffer your heart to receive the least check against or disaffection from the true Religion established in the Church of England I tell you I have tryed it and after much search and many disputes have concluded it to be the best in the world not only in the community as Christian but also in the special notion as reformed keeping the middle way between the pomp of superstitious tyranny and the meanness of fantastick Anarchy And a little after The scandal of the late troubles which some may object and urge to you against the Protestant Religion established in England is easily answered to them or your own thoughts in this that scarce any one who hath been a beginner or an active prosecutor of this late War against the Church the Law and me either was or is a true lover imbracer or practiser of the Protestant Religion established in England which neither gives such rule nor ever before set such examples 2. Iosiah was very zealous for Gods house he took great care for the repairing of the Temple and the beautifying of it 2 King 22.3.1 Chron. 35.20 So our Iosiah was zealous for the houses of God in the year of his raign he took order that the Temples and Churches through the Kingdome should be repaired and beautified and attempted and to a good degree brought on the reparation of that great Mother-Church the old Ornament of our Metropolis or great City famous for the antiquity of it and for its great bulk being reputed for its building the greatest pile in the Christian world great part of which charge he took upon himselfe which with his fall is falling
down apace as also are many other Churches within the Land That O shame to Christianity by our great reformers for many years made not only a den of theeves but a stable for horses As the barbarous Turks dealt with that renouned Temple of St. Sophia in Constantinople when they had conquered that imperial City 3. Josiah was a great friend to the Clergy to the Prophets and Ministers of God the Priests the Levites and gave them encouragement in their Service 2 Cron. 35.2 So was our Iosiah a great lover and respecter of Godly and learned men of able and Orthodox Divines a great benefactor to the Universities and Schools of learning the greatest countenancer cherisher and encourager of the Clergy and Ministers of England of any King before him A tender nurse a most propitious Father of the Church Hear his own words in the foresaid heavenly booke Pag. 208. I am so much a friend to all Church-men that have any thing in them beseeming that sacred function that I have hazarded mine own interest chiefly upon conscience and constancy to maintain their rights whom the more I looked upon as Orphans and under the sacrilegious eyes of many cruell and rapacious reformers So I thought it my duty the more to appear as a Father and Patron of them and the Church And again speaking of the harsh deniall of his Chaplains attendance during his imprisoment But my Agony must not be relieved with the presence of one good Angel for such I account a learned godly and discreet Divine and such I would have all mine to be And again As I owe to the Clergy the protection of a Christian King I desire from them the benefit of their gifts and prayers which I look upon as more prevalent then my own or other mens by how much they flow from minds more enlightned and affections lesse distracted then those which are encumbred with secular affaires besides I think a greater blessing and acceptableness attends these duties which are performed as proper to and within the limits of the calling to which God and the Church have specially designed and consecrated some men And lastly Pag. 214 I must confess I bear with more griefe and impatience the want of my Chaplaines then of any other my Servants and next if not beyond in somethings to the being sequestred from my wife and children since from these indeed more of earthly and temporary affections but from those more of heavenly and eternal improvements may be expected What more cordiall expressions could come from a pious soul of love and affection to that calling 4. Iosiah was a great promoter and furtherer of Gods publike and solemn worship that it might be decently and reverently performed as appears by that most famous and solemn Passeover which he kept in this Chapter which was done by his command and to which he contributed upon his own charge super abundantly thirty thousand Lambs and Kids and three thousand great cattell 2 Chron. 35.7 So our Iosiah was a zealous furtherer of the publike and solemn worship of God that it might be performed with all holy devotion decency and reverence not negligently irreverently rudly and slovenly And which is to be pitied and with a fountain of tears to be lamented this his pious zeal for Gods house and worship and Ministers for the true Protestant Religion for the Church and its Patrimony and for the ancient and orderly Government and Discipline therof was the great crime that provoked the Sectaries to hasten his destruction 5. Iosiah was a King unblameable in regard of any notorious personal crime we find him not noted for any remarkeable personal evill as most of the former Kings had been fome are said to be good and some bad but the best of them had their naevus their spots and blemishes we read of Davids Adultery and of Solomons Idolatry but none was stamped upon Iosiah The greatest blemish I can possible discover in him was a little too much wilfulnesse his rash and unadvised rushing into that fattall battell at Megiddon for which the good man paid dear So our Iosiah was of unblameable life more entire and free from any notorious personal crime as searing drunkennesse whoredom or the like then most of the Kings before him no such like as these could be charged upon him even his most bitterest enemies could not taxe him had they espied any blemish no doubt we should have heard it again and again 6. Josiah was a Prince of a soft heart and a tender conscience Thine heart was tender and thou hast humbled thy self before me saith the Lord 2 King 22.19 So our Iosiah was of a soft heart and very tender conscience how did his conscience check and trouble him when by restless importunity he had yeelded compliance for plenary consent it was not as he said to the Act for the Earle of Straffords death which in his Iudgement and conscience he could not be satisfied was just by any clear Law he confesseth he did never bear any touch of conscience with greater regret How did he mourn like a Dove and complain of itin the bitterness of his soul How meekly did he mention it with griefe as the main thing troubling him at the time of his Martyrdom acknowledging that the giving way to an unjust sentence might besome cause that the Lord permitted such an unjust sentence to be executed upon him What is it that made him so firm and constant to uphold the Church in her just and ancient Rights Government and Patrimony but his tender Conscience which as also his Oath perswaded him that Epistcopacy with some smal regulations was most Ancient Universall Divine and Apostolical and therefore could not yeeld to the extirpation of that Government and to the alienation of the Church-revenues without wounding his conscience with some stain of perjury sacraledge and impiety This tendernesse of conscience and the immeasurable and unmercifull pressing him against it struck him to the heart and stuck nearer to him then any thing else as we find it at large in his wofull complaints uttered between God and his own soul in his Soliloquies This his tenderness of conscience was a clear evidence of a godly gracious and sanctified soul wicked and ungenerate men feel no such cheeks of conscience at sin Though sin be an unspeakable burden like a talent of lead yet the weight of it doth not trouble them so as to seek ease from the Lord. They complain not with David My sin is ever before me and mine iniquities are gone over my head and are like asore burden too heavy for me to bear The Philosophers observe that no Element is heavy in its own place in the Sea let a man be in the bottom of it although he hath the whole Sea on his back yet he feeles not the weight of it but let him take but a bucket full out of the Sea out of its place and then he shall feel how heavy it is So unregenerate
and gracelesse persons though they have a huge weight of sin upon them yet they feel it not their consciences are not pressed nor troubled with it because it is in its proper place But the child of God is sensible of the least sin even the appearance of evill and trembles under the weight of it because there it is out of his own place and proper Element A soft heart a tender conscience checking of sin argues a divine impression upon it if the true fear of God and of his dreadfull Majesty 7. Iosiah was a King as devout to God so devoted to his peoples good good to his people full of goodnesse to his people In the verse following my text there is mention of the acts of Josiah and his goodness Now the rest of the Acts of Josiah and his goodness or kindness ver 26. His Acts and his goodness or kindness are joyned together because he did many Acts of goodness and kindness to his people what an Act of bounty and kindnesse to his people was it to be at that vast charge in the Passe over feast for their ease and benefit before mentioned So our Iosiah did many good Acts in relation to his people In the beginning of the long Parliament he passed sundry Acts of grace and goodness for the ease and comfort of his people as for taking away ship mony for taking away all illegall taxes for the taking down the Star-Chamber Court and the high Commission Court which were found to be oppressive to his people for a trienniall Parliament and other enough to have made abundant and ample reparations for any former miscarriages of his Officers and Ministers had he been to deal with reasonable and moderate men and more he would have done and more he intended to do yea more then could in reason be required had his precious life been spared But the greedy appetite of some could not be satisfied without innocent blood royall blood as the Jews would rest in nothing but our Saviours crucifige crucifige crucifie him crucifie him though they pull'd the horrid guilt of it upon themselves and upon their children Thus you have heard what a King what a good King we had and what a blessing in him Now to have such a Iosiah taken from us is it not a sad losse and by a violent and bloody death is it not a sad case He was slain not as Iosiah in my text by strangers of another Nation and in the hear of battell but murdered in cold blood and that by some of his own Subjects and Servants who had sworn allegeance and fidelity to him who had declared promised professed protested vowed covenanted to protect preserve and defend him and to make him a glorious King O damnable Hypocrisie for these to murder him and that not in private as other Traytors have dealt with their Princes but to do it openly with great pomp and artifice as men solemnly wicked and under pretence and shew of Justice Oh hellish mockery of justice added to cruelty and malice as it were in defiance of Heaven in the sight of all Israel and in the sight of the Sun in opposition to all Laws both of God and man against the light of their own consciences This was a sad and a black fact The Powder-plotters were a great deal more modest they did their work under ground and in darkness as being ashamed of it But these played a game above board in the open light with an harlots face without shame or blushing so that all circumstances and aggravations considered that might be named it was the most daring and horrid act of immanity and iniquity that was ever perpetrated under the Sun next to the crucifying of the Lord of Life an act not to be equalized in any history not only of Holy Writ but also of prophane and heathen Authors For such a King to be thus murthered is the faddest ground of mourning that ever the good people of this Nation had therefore for this O England gird thee with sackcloth lament and howl Ier. 4.8 yea wallow and rowl thy self in ashes make thee mourning as for an only son yea bitter lamentation Ier. 6.26 and as it is Zach. 11.2 howl firre tree for the Cedar is fallen And let us everyone wish with the Prophet O that mine head were full of water and mine eyes a fountain of tears to weep day and night for the slain the Ruler of the people Ier. 9.1 or as it is Ier. 14.17 Let mine eyes run down night and day and let them not cease for the Virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach and with a very grievous blow O that blow that very grievous blow made the greatest breach upon the sons and daughters of Sion upon all true children of this Church that ever was made to the piercing of their hearts and wounding of their spirits and bleeding of their very souls therefore weep and mourn for this let our hearts be filled with bitter grief and our eyes with brinish tears And as for the loss of such a King so much more let us mourn for that wonderful and horrid sin which was this day committed in the Land the shedding of his innocent blood a sin over passing the deeds of the wicked a sin that no Nation no people ever committed Let us beseech the Lord to pardon it to acquit the Land of it that it may no longer cry for vengeance and call for judgements to be continued upon us and cause him to poure out his fury upon us in blood Let the blood of sprinkling the blood of Christ speak better things then the blood of Abel Abel's blood cryed for vengeance and so may the blood of this righteous one but the blood of Christ cryes for mercy Holy Father let that blood of thy dear Son out-cry the other and bring down mercy upon the Land O deliver us and be merciful to us in regard of that crying sin for it was great Lord lay not the guilt of that blood this day shed upon the whole Nation for thou hast many among us who having neither hands not hearts defiled in it did with abhorrency of soul detest and loath and in much bitterness of spirit mourn for that odious fact Thou who art the searcher of hearts and knowest our thoughts knowest this to be true Lay it home to their consciences who had a hand in it and are yet living that they may see the greatness of their sin and be moved to great sorrow and bitter repentance and obtain pardon out of thy great and abundant mercies in Christ that the innocency of thy blessed Martyr may be cleared our Religion vindicated from the scandal and out Nation cleared from the vengeance of that blood and thy mercy glorified in the conversion of so great sinners And as for this horrid fact so for all our other sins and provocations let us mourn which helped forward this judgment for our personal sins
and for our National sins we have all contributed to that stock of sin which brought that stroak of divine vengeance upon the Land Let us weep in the bitterness of out souls for the great and crying sins of the Land our mourning repining unthankfulness for former mercies our barrenness and unfruitfulness under the means of grace our swearing and blasphemy our excess and drunkenness our hatred and uncharitableness our irreligiousness and prophaneness and all other our heinous sins which so highly provoked the Lords anger to deliver up both us and our King into the hands of such merciless and blood-thirsty men let us I say mourn for them in the bitterness our souls and beseech the Father of heaven to pardon them all for the merits sake of his dear Son And as we mourn for our provoking sins so let us turn from them subdue and mortifie them that so we turning from our evil wayes and ceasing from sinning the Lord may cease from punishing and turn from his wrathful indignation and restore to us his wonted blessings and favors as praised be his name he hath in great mercy begun Our sins our sins have been the cause of this judgment and of all the judgments following it O let us stir up our hearts with indignation against our sins as the Jews took hold of Paul crying men of Israel help this is the man that teacheth every where against the people so should we lay hold on our sins which are the greatest disturbers and cry to the Lord for help against them as we read of Marcus Antonius when Iulius Caesar was murdered in the Senate house and some sought to pacifie the business he brought forth Caesars coat all bloody rent and cut and spread it before the people Look here sayes he you have your Emperours coat thus bloody and torn whereupon the people were presently in an uproar and cryed out to slay the murderers Thus looking upon this horrid bloody fact and the other judgements crowding in upon us of late years and considering that our sins have been the murderers and authors of all these mischiefs our hearts should be raised to fly upon our sins with indignation and not be satisfied without the destruction of them which have wrought so much distraction among us Vse 2. If the violent death of a good King be a ground of great mourning to all good people see here what good people they are who mourn not nor ever did mourn upon this account what good people they are who plotted contrived abetted assisted and acted in that black and bloody work the horrid murder of our dear Soveraign what good people they were who gloried in it rejoyced in it and justified it being done as I my self heard one say that the taking off of the head of that blessed King was the greatest and worthiest piece of Justice that ever was We know who they were and of what principles they were whose hands were dipt in that blood and whose fingers were defiled with the iniquity The Sectarian party Anabaptists Quakers Independents fifth Monarchists of a new stamp were the sticklers in that detestable black business and the approvers applauders of it Judge wha they are They have indeed of late usurped to themselves the name of Saints good people the well affected of the Nation pious precious men the holy the godly men the holy the godly party as if all other were reprobates to them Whether they be such or no let their workes speak and let the world judge and the Lord himself shall judge If murder aeason homicide parricide regicide hypocrisie perjury immrnity cruelty be piety then let them be Saints Solomon saith That the mercies not of the Saints but of the wicked are cruel from such Saints and from their mercies good Lord deliver us Vse 3. See what cause we have to bless God for the late blessed and healing Parliament which hath endeavoured to avert Gods wrath and to acquit the Land of that innocent blood by disavowing the deed and by Justice upon the Traytors and murderers and to vindicate our Nation and Religion from that shame and reproach which the adversaries cast upon both though unjustly for that horrid fact whereas neither our Nation nor Religion liked or allowed it but loathed abhorred and detested it it was devised hatched and perpetrated by a Sectarian Anabaptistical fanatick party who as the Act saith were as far from being true Protestants as from being true subjects all true Protestants did abominate it and in bitterness of soul mourned in secret for it And blessed also may they be for enacting this Law and Ordinance in our Israel for an anniversary fasting and humiliation in relation to it a thing my soul desired that so we may have liberty and opportunity to express our detestation of it and lamentation for it in publick Vse 4. See what cause we have to pour forth our humble prayers and most hearty supplications to the most high for his mercifull and powerful protection and preservation of our most gracious Soveraign that now is such a son of such a father that this land may never have the like cause of mourning that he may be a second Josiah only any such tragick act or end excepted which the good Lord avert for the glory of God and for the joy and comfort of this Church and Nation That as he hath even miraculously kept him from the peril of the sword and rescued him from the midst of his furious enemies brought him back to his people and restored him with little less then a miracle to his just rights and placed him on his Fathers Throne so he will vouchsafe to be his defence and strong Tower to hide him under the shadow of his wings until uniquity be overpast That his sacred person may never come under the power or be at the mercy of such Saints or rather Satanists whom nothing could suffice but the blood of a righteous King the Lords anointed and as we have just cause to fear who being levened with such sowre principles thirst no less after his Lord therefore disappoint their plots and confound them in their wicked devices Let all that rise up against him be like Sisera and Iabin who perished at Endor and became as the dung of the earth make them and their Princes like Oreb and Zeb yea make all their leaders like as Zeba and Salmunah O our God make them like a wheel and as the stubble before the wind persecute them even so with thy tempest and make them afraid with thy storms make their faces ashamed let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a cloak let their mischief come upon their own heads and their cruelty fall on their own pates so shall the King rejoyce in thy strength exceeding glad shall he be of thy salvation for why the King putteth his trust in the Lord and in thy mercy O thou most high let him not miscarry so we thy people and sheep of thy pasture shall give thee thanks for ever and will be shewing forth thy praise from one generation to another so shall thy name be glorified thy son magnified thy truth defended thy Gospel propagated our breaches repaired thy poor Church comforted which we humbly beseech thee to grant O Father of mercies for his sake who is the Son of thy love and our only Saviour Jesus Christ the righteous to whom with thee and the blessed Spirit of Grace and Truth one Almighty and ever-living God be all honour praise and glory adoration and obedience now and for ever Amen FINIS