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A48854 A sermon preached before the Queen at White-Hall, January the 30th being the day of the martyrdom of King Charles the First by the Bishop of St. Asaph, Lord Almoner to Their Majesties. Lloyd, William, 1627-1717. 1691 (1691) Wing L2715; ESTC R20281 14,688 38

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all our Iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render thee the Calves of our Lips This ought to have been the Fruit of their Lamentation for Iosia but for want of this it did them no good their Iniquity was their ruine That ours may not be so to us God grant we may mend that fault in our Lamentation 'T is our business on this day to lament our Iosiah above 40 years after as the Iewish Church did theirs 140 years after his Death I shall first consider the Cause of our Lamentation and then our Duty in consequence of it On both these Heads I have much more to say then I can bring within my time But if I do exceed I hope you will bear with me for I suppose I hinder nothing but what may well be spared on this day Our business on this day is to lament for the Death of our Iosiah that most excellent Prince on whose Name his greatest Adversaries have fastned no more nor indeed no other blame then God hath left upon the Memory of Iosiah But whatsoever good we read of in Iosiah it is known to all that knew him to have been eminently in that Prince whom we lament on this day They were both alike born and bred up in the true Religion But herein the advantage was on our Iosia's side that this was he true Christian Religion which as far excels the Iewish as the clear Sun-shine doth the light of a dark misty day And as we have reason to believe that Josiah had studied his Religion for he as well taught as commanded both his Priests and People their Duties so had our Josia He understood his Religion throughly It was his judgment that indear'd it to his Affection And with both these together like a true Defender of the Faith he maintain'd it all ways against all sorts of Adversaries Especially he was a most zealous observer and assertor of God's Worship as was Josia He was an heroick Pattern of all Virtues as was Josia He was like Iosias in all the Divine Perfections of his Life and for our Sins he was too like him in suffering an untimely and violent Death So the Parallel runs quite through between the two Persons and it doth not fall short in any part of that Duty that was paid to their Memories All that my Text saith was done upon the Death of Iosia we have seen and yet see the same done to the Memory of our King All true Servants of God in our Church do and will for ever bewail and lament for him We have a Set Form prescrib'd for it which was read to us upon this day And it is to be read yearly upon this day for as my Text saith it is made an Ordinance throughout Israel But in the Lamentation of the Iews for Iosia there was as I have shewn a just Reflection made by Ieremiah especially upon those Sins of the Nation for which God depriv'd them of that Blessing that they enioy'd in such an excellent Prince The like was made afterwards by Daniel and by Ezra and by Nehemia upon those Sins of their People in those Times which provoked God afresh to send down his Judgments upon them to their utter destruction This is that we have reason to fear and their way to prevent it must be ours Our Reflections upon the Sins of this Nation as well before the Kings Death as since even to this day in order to our Amendment these are the most useful and necessary Ingredients of our Lamentation And this will be more requir'd of Us then it was of the Iews in respect of that much greater Light which God hath given Us. We shall find in our Account that we are the Disciples of Christ and that in the upper Form of his School whatsoever we think of it We have his Religion in as great perfection as ever it was in any Nation This advantage we have had by our Reformation from Popery Ever since God hath given us the free use of the Scriptures and together with it those helps of Learning that never were before in any Age which singular Blessings of God to set forth to you as they deserve would be the business of a Book and not of the end of a Sermon Now what returns to God have we made for all this I must needs say for an Age after the Reformation of Religion there seem'd to be a great Reformation of Mens Lives There was then a zeal for Religion kindled in their hearts by seeing so many holy Men burn for it in Queen Mary's days But when that heat was over their first love I may call it as they cool'd to Religion so they went off by degrees from their Primitive Purity and Holiness It was but too visible in this blessed Monarch's Reign that they that had the Conduct then of Religion had not the same zeal for it that they had whom God made the Instruments of our Reformation They were indeed more concern'd than they for external things but not so much for that which is the Soul and Life of Religion This gave occasion to others to fly out another way They call'd every thing of external Worship Popery They were against all Imposition even in lawful things They made such a noise against it as turn'd Mens heads They so scar'd them with little things made great by false Lights that they run into the greatest Evils to avoid them Into a War the worst sort of it a Civil War a bloody Rebellion that drew a long Train of Calamities after it It came to this at last We lost the best King that God ever gave to this Nation How we lost him I tremble to say and yet we all know it is the saddest part of our Lamentation on this day It soon appeared what a blow this gave to Religion by the general dissolution of Order and of Discipline in the Church And to the Nation likewise by the Confusions that followed which if they had run a little further we should soon have ceas'd to be a Nation In this miserable condition when we lay as it were gasping for Life it pleased God out of the Cloud to look upon us He gave us as it were a New Life a Resurrection from the dead He restor'd us when it was visible that none but he could do it It was such a mercy to this Nation such a heap of Mercies together that all Nations stood amaz'd at it We cannot but be astonish'd our selves if we consider what opportunities God put then into their hands They that were at the Helm needed but ask and have whatsoever they thought fit to settle both Church and State To have secured Truth and Peace and Unity and Love and Holiness in a word all that pleases God and all that makes a People happy We have cause for ever to lament the loss of these Opportunities But how much more the wretched purposes to which they were misapplyed For the gratifying of Mens
Lusts for the wrecking of their Revenge for the enriching of themselves and their Friends For them that had no such designs they seem'd to live like Men without any Instead of glorifying God they fell to drinking of Healths Instead of being stricter in Religion they grew looser in their Lives Instead of frequenting God's Worship they fill'd the Play-houses and worse places Instead of adorning the Gospel they expos'd it to the scorn of our Adversaries Instead of composing Differences among our selves they were rather for widening them This was bad enough otherwise but much the worse through their fault that should have mended these things Instead of Reforming they us'd ways to debauch us more and instead of Uniting they us'd ways to inflame our Divisions It was a Riddle that any Government should suffer such things till at last it appear'd they were not only suffer'd but design'd The design of it was plainly this to bring in Popery again And that had certainly return'd It had prevail'd over us e're this time if God had not wonderfully deliver'd us from it It pleas'd God to give us a second Resurrection more wonderful then the former The marks of Gods Hand were so visible in it at first and are so daily more and more that he is blind that doth not see them There is enough one would think to convince even the Atheist to the belief of a Providence But whosoever doth believe it should consider the work of God and whosoever considers cannot but see what it drives at and he that sees that how can he but comply with his Design It is plainly the design of God by this turn to establish the Protestant Religion in these Kingdoms And in order to that to unite us among our selves all that can unite in Worship and the rest in their Interests and Affections And especially to unite us in that common design of driving out all immorality and prophaneness out of this Kingdom It is not sense it is a plain contradiction to call that a Reform'd Religion which hath not the power of reforming Men's Lives It is the purifying and Reforming of these that is the chief business of Religion And this is the chief design of God's Providence in this Revolution That this is Gods design he hath shewn us particularly by giving us such Princes as enjoin us nothing but what they are Patterns of themselves I know not what can be a clearer token of the design of Gods Providence than this But hath this good Providence of God the effect that he designs and may justly expect at our hands We are so far from it yet that it is a shame to say what all Men know We are now as to our Morals perhaps as bad as ever we were I fear I said too much in saying perhaps It is too sure it is notorious to all the World There never was louder Swearing never more open Drunkeness never more impudent Adultery such daily Robbing and Killing not only in Houses but in the open Streets And if this Licentiousness should run on what will it come to in time This is a Lamentation and shall be for a Lamentation We are so far from being fit for those Mercies and Blessings which we had otherwise all the reason in the World to expect and to hope for under their Majesties Government that now on the contrary we have reason to fear that God will have mercy on us no more that having tryed the utmost means to do us good when those fail he should give us over as incorrigible My Principal hope is in the Mercies of God Not his Ordinary Mercies for we seem to be past them but I speak it with respect to those absolute Promises that he hath given to his Church to be fulfilled in this Age. God's Promises will be made good to his Church though we deprive our selves of the benefit of them It was an absolute promise that God made to Abraham that he would bring his Seed out of Egypt and that he would seat them in the promis'd Land And God was as good as his word though of all them that came out of Egypt only two had the full benefit of it all the rest of them died in the Wilderness God will fulfill his Promises to them and only them that are careful to perform the Conditions He preserv'd righteous Lot that was griev'd with the filthy Conversation of them with whom he liv'd in Sodom when that City was destroyed And at the destruction of Ierusalem he did set a mark upon them that mourn'd for the abominations of Jerusalem He will do the like for all them that fear his Name he will preserve them from the common destruction They sha●● be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in the day that ● make up my Iewels I will spare them as a Ma● spares his own Son that serves him Then shall y●● discern between the righteous and the wicked betwee● him that serves God and him that serves him no●● Mal. iii. two last Verses God grant that this may be the lot of all th●● hear me this day God grant this blessing effect● our Lamentations that beholding the Judgment of God considering those that are past and dreading those that are to come we may fear to 〈◊〉 against God we may not only keep our selves unspotted from the World but do all we can to save others from Sin and Death snatching them as the Apostle saith like Brands out of the fire At present it would be a greater thing to stop the growing course of wickedness then it will be afterwards to restore Religion and Vertue And restor'd I trust it will be to a greater lustre then ever by their Majesties Zeal and Wisdom and Diligence which will be wholly applyed to this business when God hath well discharg'd them of the other the great burden of War that is now upon their hands God grant a speedy and happy issue of it for his Mercies sake through Iesus Christ our Lord. FINIS Ecclesiasticus xlix 4. 2 Kin. xxiii 25. 1 Kin. xiii 2. Amos viii 8 9. 10. 2 Kings xxiii 27. 2 Chron. xxx 28.