Fifty Sermons, Sermons · Sermon 43
SERMON XLIII.
A Sermon upon the fist of Novemb. 1622. being the Anniversary celebration of our Deliverance from the Powder Treason.
Intended for Pauls Crosse, but by reason of the weather, Preached in the Church.
LAMENT. 4. 20.
The breath of our nostrils, the Anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits.
The Prayer before the Sermon.
O LORD open thou my lips, and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise; for thou, O Lord, didst make haste to help us, Thou, O Lord, didst make speed to save us. Thou that sittest in heaven, didst not onelyonly looke down, to see what was done upon the Earth, but what was done in the Earth; and when the bowels of the Earth, were, with a key of fire, ready to open and swallow us, the bowels of thy compassion, were, with a key of love, opened to succour us; This is the day, and these are the houres, wherein that should have been acted: In this our Day, and in these houres, We praise thee, O God, we acknowledge thee, to bee the Lord; All our Earth doth worship thee; The holy Church throughout all this Land, doth knowledge thee, with commemorations of that great mercy, now in these houres. Now, in these houres, it is thus commemorated, in the Kings House, where the Head and Members praise thee; Thus, in that place, where it should have been perpetrated, where the Reverend Judges of the Land doe now praise thee; Thus, in the Universities, where the tender youth of this Land, is brought up to praise thee, in a detestation of their Doctrines, that plotted this; Thus it is commemorated in many severall Societies, in many severall Parishes, and thus, here, in this Mother Church, in this great Congregation of thy Children, where, all, of all sorts, from the Lievtenant of thy Lievtenant, to the meanest sonne of thy sonne, in this Assembly, come with hearts, and lippes, full of thankesgiving: Thou Lord, openest their lippes, that their mouth may shew forth thy prayse, for, Thou, O Lord, diddest make haste to helpe them, Thou diddest make speede to save them. Accept, O Lord, this Sacrifice, to which thy Spirit giveth fire; This of Praise, for thy great Mercies already afforded to us, and this of Prayer, for the continuance, and enlargement of them, upon the Catholick Church, by them, who pretend themselves the onelyonly sonnes thereof; dishonoured this Day; upon these Churches of England, Scotland, and Ireland, shaked and threatned dangerously this Day; upon thy servant, our Soveraigne, for his Defence of the true Faith, designed to ruine this day; upon the Prince, and others derived from the same roote, some but Infants, some not yet Infants, enwrapped in dust, and annihilation, this day; upon all the deliberations of the Counsell, That in all their Consultations, they may have before their eyes, the Record and Registers of this Day; upon all the Clergie, That all their Preaching, and their Governement, may preclude, in their severall Iurisdictions, all re-entrances of that Religion, which, by the Confession of the Actours themselves, was the onelyonly ground of the Treason of this day; upon the whole Nobilitie, and Commons, all involved in one Common Destruction, this Day; upon both our Universities, which though they lacke no Arguments out of thy Word, against the Enemies of thy Truth, shall never leave out this Argument out of thy Works, The Historie of this Day; And upon all those, who are any wayes afflicted, That our afflictions bee not multiplyed upon us, by seeing them multiplyed amongst us, who would have diminished thee, and annihilated us, this Day; And lastly, upon this Auditory assembled here, That till they turne to ashes in the Grave, they may remember, that thou tookest them, as fire-brands out of the fire, this Day.
Heare us, O Lord, and hearken to us, Receive our Prayers, and returne them with Effect, for his sake, in whose Name and words, wee make them:
Our Father which art, &c.
The SERMON.
OF the Authour of this Booke, I thinke there was never doubt made; but yet, that is scarce safely done, which the Councell of Trent doth, in that Canon, which numbers the Books of Canonicall Scriptures, to leave out this Book of Lamentations. For, though I make no doubt, but that they had a purpose to comprehend, and involve it, in the name of Ieremy, yet that was not enough; duplicate page duplicate page duplicate page duplicate page duplicate page duplicate page for so they might have comprehended and involved, Genesis, and Deuteronomie, and all between those two, in one name of Moses; and so they might have comprehended, and involved, the Apocalypse, and some Epistles in the name of Iohn, and have left out the Book it selfe in the number.Castro. But one of their own Iesuits, though some, (whom in that Canon they seeme to follow) make this Booke of Lamentations, but an Appendix to the Prophecy of Ieremy, determines, for all that Canon, that it is a distinct Book. Indeed, if it were not, the first Chapter would have been called, the 53 of Ieremy, and not the first of the Lamentations. But that which gives most assurednesse, is, That in divers Hebrew Bibles, it is placed otherwise, then wee place it, and not presently, and immediately after the Prophecy of Ieremy, but discontinued from him, though hee were never doubted to be the Author thereof.
The Booke is certainly the Prophet Ieremies, and certainly a distinct booke, But whether the Book be a history, or a Prophecy, whether Ieremy lament that which hee had seen, or that which he foresees, calamities past, or future calamities, things done, or things to be done, is a question which hath exercised, and busied divers Expositors. But, as we say of the Parable of Dives, and Lazarus, that it is a Historicall parable, and a Parabolicall history, some such persons there were, and some such things were really done, but some other things were figuratively, symbolically, parabolically added: So wee say of Ieremies Lamentation, It is a Propheticall history, and a Historicall prophecy; Some of the sad occasions of these Lamentations were past, when he writ, and some were to come after: for, we may not despise the testimony of the Chalde Paraphrasts, who were the first that illustrated the Bible, in that Nation, nor of S. Hierome, who was much conversant with the Bible, and with that Nation, nor of Iosephus, who had justly so much estimation in that Nation, nor of those later Rabbins, who were the learnedest of that Nation; who are all of opinion, that Ieremy writ these Lamentations, after hee saw some declinations in that State, in the death of Iosiah, and so the Book is Historicall, but when he onelyonly foresaw their transportation into Babylon, before that calamity fell upon them, and so it is Propheticall. Or, if we take the exposition of the others, That the whole Booke was written after their transportation into Babylon, and to be, in all parts, Historicall, yet it is Propheticall still; for the Prophet laments a greater Desolation then that, in the utter ruine, and devastation of the City, and Nation, which was to fall upon them, after the death of Christ Iesus. Neither is any peece of this Booke, the lesse fit to be our Text, this day, because it is both Historicall, and Propheticall, for, they, from whom, God, in his mercy, gave us a Deliverance, this day, are our Historicall Enemies, and our Propheticall Enemies; historically wee know, they have attempted our ruine heretofore, and prophetically wee may bee sure, they will doe so againe, whensoever any new occasion provokes them, or sufficient power enables them.
The Text then is as the Booke presented to Ezckiel; Divisio. Ezck. 2. 20.In it are written Lamentations, and Mournings, and Woe; and all they are written within, and without, says the Text there; within, as they concern the Iews, without, as they are appliable to us: And they concern the Iews, Historically (attempts upon that State Ieremy had certainly seen,) and they concern them prophetically, for farther attempts Ieremy did certainly foresee. They are appliable to us both ways too: Historically, because wee have seen, what they would have done, And Prophetically, because wee foresee what they would doe. So that here is but a difference of the Computation; here is stilo veteri, and stilo nove; here is the Iews Calendar, and the Papists Calendar; In the Jews Calendar, one Babylon, wrought upon the people of God, and in the Papists Calendar, another Babylon: Stilo veteri, in the Jews Calendar, 700 yeare before Christ came, there were pits made, and the breath of their nostrils, The anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits: Stilo nove, in the Papists Calendar, 1600 yeare after Christ came in all fulnesse, in all clearnesse, There were pits made againe, and The breath of our nostrils, The anointed of the Lord, was almost taken in those pits.
It is then Ieremies, and it is a distinct Book; It concernes the Iews, and it concerns us too; And it concernes us both, both wages, Historically, and Prophetically. But whether Ieremy lament here the death of a good King, of Iosiah, (for so Saint Hierome, and many of the Ancients, and many of the Iewes themselves take it, and thinke that those words in the Chronicles, have relation to these Lamentations,2. 35. 25. And Ieremy lamented for Iosiah, and all the people speake of him, in their Lamentations,) Or whether he lament the transportation and the misery of an ill King, of Zedekiah, (as is more ordinarily, and more probably held by the Expositours) we argue not, we dispute now; we imbrace that which arises from both… That both good Kings, and bad Kings, Iosiah, and Zedekiah, are the anointed of the Lord, and the breath of the nostrills, that is, The life of the people; and therefore both to be lamented, when they fall into dangers, and consequently both to be preserved by all means, by Prayer from them who are private persons, by counsell from them, who have that great honour and that great charge, to be near them in that kinde, and by support and supplly, from all, of all sorts, from falling into such dangers.
These considerations will, I thinke, have the better impression in you, if we proceed in the handling of them thus: First, the main cause of the Lamentation was the Ruine, or the dangerous declination of the Kingdome of that great and glorious State, The Kingdome; But then they did not seditiously sever the King, and the Kingdome, as though the Kingdome could doe well, and the King ill, That safe, and he in danger, for they see cause to lament, because misery was fallen upon the Person of the King; perchance upon Iosiah, a good, a religious King; perchance but upon Zedekiah, a worse King; yet which soever it be, they acknowledge him to be Vnctus Domini, The anointed of the Lord, and to be Spiritus narium, The breath of their nostrills: When this person therefore, was fallen into the pits of the Enemy, the Subject laments; but this lamenting because he was fallen, implies a deliverance, a restitution, he was fallen, but he did not ly there: so the Text, which is as yet but of Lamentation, will grow an houre hence to be of Congratulation; and then we shall see, That whosoever, in rectified affections, hath lamented a danger, and then congratulated a deliverance, he will provide against a relapse, a falling again into that or any other danger, by all means of sustaining the Kingdome and the King, in safety and in honour.
Our first step then in this Royall progresse,1. Regnum. is, That the cause of this Lamentation, was, the declination, the diminution of the Kingdome. If the Center of the world should be moved but one inch out of the place, it cannot be reckoned, how many miles, this Island, or any building in it, would be thrown out of their places; A declination in the Kingdome of the Jewes, in the body of the Kingdome, in the soul of the State, in the form of Government, was such an Earth-quake, as could leave nothing standing. Of all things that are, there was an Idea in God; there was a modell, a platform, an examplar of every thing, which God produced and created in Time, in the mind and purpose of God before: Of all things God had and Idea, a preconception; but of Monarchy, of Kingdome, God, who is but one, is the Idea; God himselfe, in his Unity, …s the Modell, He is the Type of Monarchy. He made but one World; for, this, and the next, are not two Worlds; This is but the Morning, and that the everlasting Noon, of one and the same Day, which shall have no Night: They are not two Houses; This is the Gallery, and that the Bed-chamber of one, and the same Palace, which shall feel no ruine. He made this one World, but one Eye, The Sunne; The Moone is not another Eye, but a Glasse; upon which, the Sunne reflects. He made this one World, but one Eare, The Church; He tells not us, that he heares by a left Eare, by Saints, but by that right Eare, the Church he doth. There is One God, One Faith, One Baptisme, and these lead us to the love of one Soveraign, of Monarchy, of Kingdome. In that Name, God hath convayed to us the state of Grace, and the state of Glory too; and he hath promised both, in injoining that Petition, Adveniat Regnum, Thy Kingdome come, Thy Kingdome of Grace here, Thy Kingdome of Glory hereafter. All forms of Government have one and the same Soul, that is, Soveraignty; That resides somewhere in every form; and this Soveraignty is in them all, from one and the same Root, from the Lord of Lords, from God himself, for all Power is of God: But yet this form of a Monarchy, of a Kingdome, is a more lively, and a more masculin Organe, and Instrument of this Soul of Soveraigntie, then the other forms are: Wee are sure Women have Soules as well as Men, but yet it is not so expressed, that God breathed a Soule into Woman, as hee did into Man; All formes of Government have this Soule, but yet God infuseth it more manifestly, and more effectually, in that forme, in a Kingdome: All places are alike neare to Heaven, yet Christ would take a Hill, for his Ascension; All governments may justly represent God to mee, who is the God of Order, and fountaine of all government, but yet I am more eased, and more accustomed to the contemplation of Heaven, in that notion, as Heaven is a kingdome, by having been borne, and bred in a Monarchy: God is a Type of that, and that is a Type of Heaven.
This form then,Iudaeis promissa. in nature the noblest, in use the profitablest of all others; God always intended to his best-beloved people, God always meant that the Jews should have a King, though he prepared them in other forms before; As hee meant them peace at last, though he exercised them in Warre, and meant them the land of promise, though he led them through the Wildernesse; so he meant them a King, though he prepared them by Iudges. God intended it in himselfe, and he declared it to them, 400 yeares before he have them a King,Deut. 17. 14. he instructed them, what kinde of King they should set over them, when they came to that kinde of government: And long before that he made a promise,Gen. 49. 10. by Iacob to Iudah of a Kingdome, and that the Scepter should not depart from him, till Siloh came. And when God came neare the time, in which he intended to them that government, in the time of Samuel, who was the immediate predecessor to their first King, Saul, God made way for a Monarchy; for Samuel had a much more absolute authority, in that State, then any of the Judges had; Samuel judged them, and in their petition for a King,1 Sam. 8. 5. they ask but that, Make us a King to judge us; Samuel was little lesse then a King; and Sauls reign, and his, are reckoned both in one number, and made as the reign of one man;Acts 13. 21. when it is said in the Acts, that Saul reigned 40 yeares, Samuels time is included in that number, for all the yeares, from the death of Eli, … to the beginning of David, are but 40 years. God meant them a Kingdome in himselfe, promised them a kingdome in Iudah, made Laws for their kingdome in Deuteronomy, made way for the kingdome in Samuel, and why then was God displeased with their petition for a Kingdome?
It was a greater fault in them, then it could have been in any other people, to ask a King; not that it was not the most desirable form of government, but that God governed them, so immediately, so presentially himselfe, as that it was an ingratefull intemperance in them, to turn upon any other meanes; God had ever performed that which he promised them, in that which comprehended all, Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me, Exod. 19. 5.above all people; And therefore Iosephus hath expressed it well; All other people are under the forme of Democrati…, or Aristocrati…, or such other formes, composed of men; Sed noster Legislator, Theocratiam instituit, The Jews were onelyonly under a Theocrati…, an immediate government of God, he judged them himselfe, and hee himselfe fought their battels: And therefore God says to Samuel, They have not rejected thee, Thou wast not King, But they have rejected mee, I was. To bee weary of God, is it enough to call it a levity? But if they did onelyonly compare forme with forme, and not God himselfe with any forme, if they did onelyonly thinke Monarchy best, and beleeve that God intended a Monarchy to them, yet yet to limit God his time, and to make God performe his promise before his day, was a fault, and inexcusable. Daniel saw, that the Messiah should come within seventy weekes: Daniel did not say, Lord, let it bee within fifty weekes, or let it bee this weeke: The Martyrs under the Altar, cry Vsqueque Domine, How long Lord, but then, they leave it there, Even as long as pleaseth thee: Their petition should have been, Adveniat regnum …words…, Let us have that Kingdome, which because thou knowest it is good for us, thou hast promised to us; But yet Fiat voluntas tua, Let us have it then, when thy Wisdome sees it best for us:1 Sam. 12. 12. You said to mee (says Samuel, by way of Reproofe and Increpation) You said, Nay but a King shall reigne over us; Now, that was not their fault; but that which followes, The unseasonablesse and inconsideration of their clamorous Petition, You said a King shall reigne over us, when the Lord your God, was your King; They would not trust Gods meanes, there was their first fault: And then, though they desired a thing good in it selfe, and a good intended to them, yet they fixed God his time, and they would not stay his leisure; And either of these, To aske other things then God would give, or at other times, then God would give them, is displeasing to him: Use his meanes, and stay his leisure.
But yet,Dabat. though God were displeased with them, he executed his own purpose; he was angry with their manner of asking a King, but yet he gave them a King: Howsoever God be displeased with them, who prevaricate in his cause, who should sustaine it, and doe not, Gods cause shall be sustained, though they doe it not. We may distinguish the period of the Jewish State well enough, thus, that they had Infantiam, or pueritiam, their infancy, their minority, in Adam, and the first Patriarchs till the flood: that they had Adolescentiam, A growing time, from Noah, through the other Patriarchs, till Moses: and that they had Iuventu…em, a youth and strength from Moses, through the Judges, to Saul: but then they had Virilitatom, virilem, atatem, their established vigor, under their Kings; and after them, they fell in s…nectutem, into a wretched and miserable decay of old age, and decrepitnesse: their kingdome was their best State; and so much,Ezek. 16. 3. God in the Prophet, intimates pregnantly, when refreshing to their memories, in a particular Inventory, and Catalogue, all his former benefits to them, how he clothed Ierusalem, how he fed, her; how he adorned her, he summed up all, in this one, & profecisti in regnum, I have advanced thee, to be a kingdome: there was the Tropique, there was the Solstice, farther then that, in this world, we know not how God could goe; a kingdome was really the best State upon Earth, and Symbolically, the best figure, and Type of Heaven. And therefore, when the Prophet Ieremy, historically beheld the declination of this kingdome, in the death of I…osiah, and prophetically foresaw the ruines thereof, in the transportition of Zedekiah, or, if he had seen that historically too, yet prophetically he foresaw the utter devastation, and depopulation, and extermination, which scattered that nation, soon after Christ, to this day, (and God and no man knows, for how long,) when they, who were a kingdome, are now no where a village, and they who had such Kings, have now no where a Constable of their owne, historically, prophetically, Ieremy had just cause of lamentation for the danger of that kingdome.
We had so also, for this our kingdome, this day; God hath given us a kingdome, not as other kingdomes, made up of divers Cities, but of divers kingdomes, and all those kingdomes were destined to desolation, in one minute. It was not onelyonly the destruction of the persons present, but of the kingdom… for to submit the kingdome to the government of a forein Prelate, was to destroy the Monarchy, to annihilate the Supremacy, to ruine the very forme of a kingdome; a kingdome under another head, besides the King, is not a kingdome, as ours is. The oath that the Emperour takes to the Pope, is by their authours called Iuramentum Sidelitatis, an oath of Allegiance; and if they had brought our Kings, to take an oath of Allegiance so, this were no kingdome. Pope Nicolas the second, went about to create two kingdomes, that of Tuscan, and that of Lombardy; his successors have gone about to destroy more; for to make it depend upon him, were to destroy our kingdome. That they have attempted historically; and as long as these Axiomes, and Aphorismes remaine in their Authors, that one shall say, that De jurs? by right all Christian kingdomes doe hold of the Pope, and De facto, are forfeited to the Hope, and another shall say, that Christendome would be better governed if the Pope would take the forfeiture, and so bring all these Royall farmes, into his owne demesne, we see also, their propheticall desire, their propheticall intention, against this kingdome, what they would doe: In their Actions we have their history, in their Axioms we have their prophecy.
Ieremy lamented the desolation of the kingdome, Regnum in Rege.but that, expressed in the death, and destruction of the King. Hee did not divide the King and the kingdome, as if the kingdome could do well, and the King in distresse: Umnipotentia Dei, Asylum haeresic…rum; it is well said, by more then one of the ancients, that the Omnipotence of God, is the Sanctuary of Heretiques: when they would establish any heresie, they flye to Gods Almightinesse. God can doe All, therefore he can doe this. So, in the Roman Church, they establish their heresie of Transubstantiation; And so, their deliverance of soules not from Purgatory onelyonly, but from Hell it selfe. They think to stop all mouths with that, God can do it, no man dares deny that; when as, if that were granted, (which, in such things, as naturally imply contradiction in themselves, or contradiction to Gods word, cannot be granted, for God cannot do that, God cannot lye,) yet though God can do it, concludes not that God will do it, or hath done it: Omnipotenti… Dei Asylum haereticorum, The omnipotency of God, is the Sanctuary of Heretiques, and so, Salus Regni, is Asylum proditorum, Greater Treasons, and Seditions, and Rebellions have never been set on foote, then upon colour, and pretence, of a care of the State, and of the good of the Kingdome. Every where, the King is Sponsus Regni, the husband of the Kingdome; and to make love to the Kings wife, and undervalue him, must necessarily make any King jealous: The King is Anima Regni, The soule of the Kingdome; and to provide for the health of the body, with the detriment of the soule, is perverse physick: The King is Caput Regni, The head of the Kingdome; and to cure a Member, by cutting off the head, is ill surgery: Man and wife, soule and body, head and members, God hath joyned, and those whom God hath joyned, let no man sever. Salus Regni, Asylum Proditorum, To pretend to uphold the Kingdome, and overthrow the King, hath ever been the tentation before, and the excuse after, in the greatest Treasons. In that action of the Iews, which we insisted upon before,1. Sam. 8. in their pressing for a King, The Elders of Israel were gathered together, and so far they were in their way, for this was no popular, no seditious Assembly of light and turbulent men, but The Elders; And then, they came to Samuel, And so farre they were in their right way too, for they held no counsels apart, but came to the right place, for redresse of grievances, to their then highest Governour, to Samuel: When they were thus lawfully met, they forbeare not to lay open unto him, the injustice of his greatest Officers, though it concerned the very Sonnes of Samuel; and thus farre they kept within their convenient limits; But when they would presse Samuel to a new way of remedy, to an inconvenient way, to a present way, to their own way, and referre nothing to him, what care soever they pretended of the good of the State, it is evident, that they had no good opinion of Samuel himself, and even that displeased God, That they were ill affected to that person, whom he had set over them. To sever the King, and the Kingdome, and pretend the weale of the one, without the other, is to shake and discompose Gods building.
Historically this was the Jewes case, when Ieremy lamented here, if he lamented the declination of the State, in the death of the King Iosiah, And if he lamented the transportation of Zedekiah, and that that crosse were not yet come upon them; Or if he lamented the future devastation of that Nation, occasioned by the death of the King of Kings Christ Jesus, when he came into the world, this was their case prophetically: Either way, historically, or prophetically, Ieremy looks upon the Kingdome, but yet through that glasse, through the King.
The duty of the Day, and the order of the Text, invites us to an application of this branch too. Our adversaries did not come to say to themselves, Nolumus Regnum hoc, we will not have this Kingdome stand,Luke 14. 14. the materiall Kingdome, the plenty of the Land, they would have been content to have, but the formall Kingdome, that is, This forme of Government, by a Soveraigne King, that depends upon none but God, they would not have. So that they came implicitely … Nolumus Regnum hoc, we will not have this Kingdome governed thus, and they came explicitely to a Nolumus Regem hunc (as the Jewes were resolved of Christ) We will not have this King to governe at all. Non hunc? Will you not have him? you were at your Nolumus hanc long before; Her, whom God had set over you, before him, you would not have. Your, not Anniversary, but Hebdomadary Treasons, cast upon her a necessity of drawing blood often, and so your Nolumus h…nc, your desire that she were gone, might have some kinde of ground, or colour: But for your Nolumus hunc, for this King who had made no Inquisition for blood, who had forborne your very pecuniary penalties, who had (as himself witnesses of himself) made you partakers with his Subjects of his own Religion, in matters of grace, and in reall benefits, Psal. 2. 1.and in Titles of Honour, Quare fremuerant, Why did these men rage, and imagine a vaine thing? What they did historically, we know; They made that house, which is the hive of the Kingdome, from whence all her honey comes; that house where Iustice her self is conceived, in their preparing of Laws, and inanimated, and quickned and borne by the Royall Assent, there given; they made that whole house one Murdring peece, and charged that peece with Peers, with People, with Princes, with the King, and meant to discharge it upward at the face of heaven, to shoot God at the face of God, Him, of whom God hath said, Dii estis, You are Gods, at the face of God, that had said so, as though they would have reproached the God of heaven, and not have been beholden to him for such a King, but shoot him up to him, and bid him take his King again, with a nolumus hunc regnare, we will not have this King to reign over us. This was our case Historically, and what it is Prophetically, as long as that remains to bee their doctrine, which he, against whom that attempt was principally made, found by their examination; to be their doctrine, That they, and no Sect in the world, but they, did make Treason an article of Religion, That their Religion bound them to those attempts, so long they are never at an end; Till they dis-avow those Doctrines, that conduce to that, prophetically they wish, prophetically they hope for better successe in as ill attempts.
It is then the kingdome that Ieremy laments; but his nearest object is the King; Hee laments him. First, let it be, (as with S. Hierome, many of the Ancients, and with them, many of the later Rabbins will have it) for Josiah, for a good King, in whose death, the honour, and the strength of the kingdome took that deadly wound, to become tributary to a forain Prince: for, to this lamentation they refer those words of the Prophet, which describe a great sorrow,Zech. 12. 11. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Ierusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon, in the valley of Megiddon; which was the place, where Iosiah was slain; There shall be such a lamentation (says the Prophet, in this interpretation) as was for the death of Iosiah. This then was for him; for a good King. Wherein have we his goodnesse expressed?2 Reg. 22. 2. Abundantly. Hee did that which was right in Gods fight; (And whose Eye need he fear, that is right in the Eye of God?) But how long did he so? To the end; for, Nero, who had his Quinquennium, and was a good Emperour for his first five years, was one of the worst of all: Hee that is ill all the way, is but a Tyran, Hee that is good at first, and after ill, an Angels face, and a Serpents taile make him a Monster; Iosiah began well, and persevered so, He turned not aside to the right …and, nor to the left. That is, (if we apply it to the Iosiah of our times) neither to the fugitive, that leaves our Church, and goes to the Roman, nor to the Separatist, that leaves our Church, and goes to none. In the eighteenth year of his reign, Iosiah undertook the reparation of Gods house; If we apply this to the Iosiah of our times, I think, in that year of his reign, he visited this Church, and these wals, and meditated, and perswaded the reparation thereof.2…. 25. In one word, Like unto Iosiah, there was no King before, nor after. And therefore there was just cause of lamentation for this King, for Iosiah; historically for the very loss of his person, prophetically for the misery of the State, after his death.
Our errand is to day, to apply all these branches to the day; Those men who intended us, this cause of lamentation this day, in the destruction of our Iosiah, spared him not, because he was so, because so, because he was a Iosiah, because he was good; no, not because he was good to them, his benefits to them, had not mollified them, towards him: for that is not their way; Both the French Henries were their own, and good to them; but did that rescue either of them, from the knife? And was not that Emperour, whom they poisoned in the Sacrament, their own, and good to them? and yet was that, any Antidote against their poison? To so reprobate a sense hath God given them over herein, as that, though in their Books, they ly heaviest upon Princes of our Religion, yet truly they have destroyed more of their own, then of ours. Thus it is Historically in their proceedings past: And Prophetically it can be but thus, since no King is good, in their sense, if he agree not to all points of Doctrine with them: And when that is done, not good yet, except he agree in all points of Iurisdiction too; and that, no King can doe, that will not be their Farmer of his Kingdome. Their Authours have disputed Auferibilitatem Papae, whether the Church of God might not be without a pope, they have made a problematicall, a disputable matter, and some of their Authours have diverted towards an affirmation of it; but Aufleribilitas potestatis, to imagine a King without Kingly Soveraignty, never came into probleme, into disputation. We all lamented, and bitterly, and justly, the losse of our Deborah, though then we saw a Iosiah succeeding: but if they had removed our Iosiah, and his Royall children, and so, this form of government, where, or who, or what had been an object of Consolation to us?
The cause of lamentation in the losse of a good King, Rex malus.is certainly great, and so it was, if Ieremy lamented Iosiah; but if it were but for zedekiah, an ill King, (as the greater part of Expositors take it) yet the lamentation you see, is the same. How ill a King was Zedekiah? 2 Reg. 24. 19.As ill, as Iosiah was good, that's his measure. He did evill in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Iehoiakim had done; Here is his sinne, sinne by precedent; and what had Iehoiakim done?2 Reg. 25. ult. He had done evill in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his Fathers had done. It is a great, and a dangerous wickednesse, which is done upon pretext of Antiquity; The Religion of our Fathers, the Church of our Fathers, the Worship of our Fathers, is a pretext that colours a great deale of Superstition. He did evill, as his Fathers; there was his comparative evill: And his positive evill, (I meane, his particular sinne) was,2. C…. 36. 12. Ver. 13. That he humbled not himself to Gods Prophets, to Ieremy speaking from the mouth of the Lord; there was irreligiousnesse; And then, He broke the Oath which he had sworne by God, there was per…idiousnesse, faithlesnsse; And lastly, He stiffned his neck, and hardned his heart, from turning to the Lord of Israel, there was impenitiblenesse: Thus evill was Zedekiah, irreligious to God, treacherous to man, impenitible to himself, and yet the State, and men truly religious in the State, the Prophet lamented him; not his spirituall defections, by sinne; for, they did not make themselves Judges of that; but they lamented the calamities of the Kingdome, in the losse even of an evill King.
That man must have a large comprehension, that shall adventure to say of any King, He is an ill King; he must know his Office well, and his actions well, and the actions of other Princes too, who have correspondence with him, before he can say so. When Christ sayes,Mat. …. 37. Let your communication be yea, yea, and nay, nay, for whatsoever is more then this, (that is, when it comes to swearing) that cometh of evill, Saint Augustine does not understand that, of the evill disposition of that man that sweares, but of them, who will not beleeve him, without wearing; Many times a Prince departs from the exact rule of his duty, not out of his own indisposition to truth, and clearnesse, but to countermine underminers.Vers. 26. That which David sayes in the eighteenth Psalme, David speaks, not of man, but of God himself; Cum perverso perveriêris, With the froward, thou wilt show thy self froward; God, who is of no froward nêature, may be made froward; with crafty neighbours, a Prince will be crafty, and perchance false with the false. Alas, (to looke into no other profession but our owne) how often do we excuse Dispensations, and pluralities, and non-residencies, with an Omnes faciunt, I do, but as other men of my profession, do? Allow a King but that, That he does but as other Kings do, Nay, but this, He does but as other Kings put him to a necessity to do, and you will not hastily call a King an ill King. When God gives his people for old shoes, and sells them for nothing, and, at the same time, gives his and their enemies abundance, when God commands Abraham, to sacrifice his own and onelyonly Sonne, and his enemies have Children at their pleasure, as David speaks, To give your selves the liberty of humane affection, you would think God an ill God; but yet, for all this, his children are to him, a Royall Priesthood, and a holy Nation; and all their tears are in his bottles, and registred in his booke, for all this. When Princes pretermit in some things, the present benefit of their Subjects, and confer favours upon others give your selves the liberty to judge of Princes actions, with the affections of private men, and you may think a King an ill King: But yet, we are to him, as David sayes,2 Sam. 19. 12. His brethren, his bone, his flesh, and so reputed by him. God himselfe cannot stand upright in a naturall mans interpretation, nor any King in a private mans. But then, how soone our adversaries come to call Kings, ill Kings, we see historically, when they boast of having deposed Kings, Quia minus utiles, Because some other hath seemed to them, fitter for the Government; and we see it prophetically, by their allowing those Indictments, and Attainders of Kings, which stand in their books De Syndicatu, That that King which neglects the duties of his place (and they must prescribe the duty, and judge the negligence too) That King that exercises his Prerogative, without just cause (and they must prescribe the Prerogative, and judge the cause,) That that King that vexes his Subjects, That that King that gives himselfe to intemperate hunting (for in that very particular they instance) that in such cases, (and they multiply these cases infinitely) Kings are in their mercy, and subject to their censures, and corrections. We proceed not so, in censuring the actions of Kings; we say, with St. Cyrill, Impium est dicere Regi, Iniquè agis; It is an impious thing, (in him, who is onelyonly a private man, and hath no other obligations upon him) to say to the King, or of the King, He governs not as a King is bound to do: we remit the judgement of those their actions, which are secret to God; and when they are evident, and bad, yet we must endevour to preserve their persons; for there is a danger in the losse, and a lamentation due to the losse, even of Zedekiah, for even such are uniti Domini, The anoynted of the Lord, and the breath of our nostrils.
First, (as it lies in our Text) The King is spiritus narium, Spiritus Narium.the breath of our uostrills. First, Spiritus, is a name, most peculiarly belonging to that blessed Person of the glorious Trinity, whose Office it is to convay, to insinuate, to apply to us the Mercies of the Father, and the Merits of the Sonne: He is called by this Name, by the word of this Text, Ruach, even in the beginning of the Creation, God had created Heaven and Earth, and then The Spirit of God, sus…labat, saith Pagnins translation, (and so saith the Chalde Paraphrase too) it breathed upon the waters, and so induced, or deduced particular formes. So God hath made us, a little World of our own, This Iland; He hath given us Heaven and Earth, The truth of his Gospel, which is our earnest of Heaven, and the abundance of the Earth, a fruitfull Land; but then he, who is the Spirit of the Lord, he who is the breath of our nostrills, Incubat aquis, (as it is said there in the Creation) he moves upon the waters, by his royall and warlike Navy at Sea, (in which he hath expressed a speciall and particular care) And by the breath and influence of his providence throughout the Land, he preserves, he applies, he makes usefull those blessings unto us.
If this breath, that is, this power, be at any time sourd in the passage, and contract an il savor by the pipes that convay it, so, as that his good intentions are ill executed by inferiour Ministers, this must not be imputed to him; That breath that comes from the East, the bed and the garden of spices, when it is breathed out there, is a persume, but by passing over the beds of Serpents and pu…refied Lakes, it may be a breath of poyson in the West: Princes purpose some things for ease to the people, (and as such, they are sometimes presented to them) and if they prove grievances, they tooke their putrefaction in the way, that is, their corruption, from corrupt executors of good and wholesome intentions; The thing was good in the roote, and the ill cannot be removed in an instant.
But then,Spiritus sermo. we carry not this word Ruach, Spirit, so high; though since God hath said that Kings are Gods, the Attribute of the Holy Ghost and his Office, which is, to apply to man the goodnesse of God, belongs to Kings also; for, God gives, but they apply all blessings to us. But here, we take the word literally, as it is in the Text; Ruach, spirit, is the Breath that we breathe, the Life that we live; The King is that Breath, that Life, and therefore that belongs to him. First our Breath, that is, serme, our speech belongs to him; Be faithfull unto him, and speake good of his Name, is commanded by David of God. To Gods Anointed, we are not faithfull, if we doe not speake good of his Name. First, there is an internall, speech in the heart, and God lookes to that; the foole hath said in his heart, there is no God; though he say it but in his heart, yet he is a foole: for, as wise as a Politician would thinke him, for saying it in his heart, and comming no further, yet even that is an overt act with God, for God seeth the heart. It is the foole that saith in his heart, there is no God, and it is the foole that saith in his heart, I would there were no King. That enormous, that infamous Tragedy of the Levites Concubins, and her murder, of which it is said there,Iud. 19. 30. There was no such thing seen, nor done before, (and many things are done, which are never seen) with that emphaticall addition, Consider of it, advise, and say your minde, hath this addition too, In those dayes there was no King in Israel; If there had beene any King, but a Zedekiah, it could not have been so:Eccles. 10. 20. Curse not the King, not in thy thoughts: for, they are sinnes that tread upon the heels of one another, and that induce one another, to conceive ill of Gods Lievtenant, and of God himselfe; for so the Prophet joyneth them, They shall fret themselves, Esay 8. 21.and curse their King, and their God: He that beginneth with the one, will proceed to the other.
Thus then he is our Breath; our Breath is his; our speech must be contained, not expressed in his dishonour; not in misinterpretations of his Actions; jealousies have often made women ill; incredulitie, suspiciousnesse, jealousie in the Subject, hath wrought ill effects upon Princes, otherwise not ill. We must not speake ill; but our duty is not accomplished in that abstinence, we must speake well: And in those things, which will not admit a good interpretation, we must be apt to remove the perversenesse and obliquity of the act from him, who is the first mover to those who are inferiour instruments. In these divers opinions which are ventilated in the Schoole, how God concurreth to the working of second and subordinate causes, that opinion is I think, the most antient, that denies that God workes in the second cause, but hath onelyonly communicated to it, a power of working, and rest himselfe. This is not true; God does work in every Organ, and in every particular action; but yet though he doe work in all, yet hee is no cause of the obliquity, of the perversenesse of any action. Now, earthly Princes are not equall to God; They doe not so much as work in particular actions of instruments; many times, they communicate power to others, and rest wholly themselves; and then, the power is from them, but the perversenesse of the action is not. God does work in ill actions, and yet is not guilty, but Princes doe not so much as worke therein, and so may bee excusable; at least, for any cooperation in the evill of the action, though not for countenancing, and authorising an evill instrument; but that is another case.
They are our breath then; Our breath is theirs, in good interpretations of their actions;1 Tim. 2. 1. and it is theirs especially, in our prayers to Almighty God, for them. The Apostle exhorts us to pray; for whom? first, for all men in generall; but in the first particular, that hee descends to, for Kings. And both Theodoret, and Theophylact, make that the onelyonly reason, why the Apostle did not name Kings first, Vt non videatur adulari, lest hee should seeme to flatter Kings: Whether mankinde it selfe, or Kings, by whom mankinde is happy here, be to be preferred in prayer, you see both Theodoret, and Theophylact, make it a probleme. And those prayers, there enjoyned, were for Infidel Kings, and for persecuting Kings; for even such Kings, were the breath of their nostrils; their breath, their speech, their prayers were due to them. But then, beloved, a man may convey a Satir into a Prayer; a man may make a prayer a Libell; If the intention of the prayer be not so much, to incline God to give those graces to the King, as to tell the world, that the King wants those graces, it is a Libell. We say sometimes in scorn to a man, God help you, and God send you wit; and therein, though it have the sound of a prayer, wee call him foole. So wee have seen of late, some in obscure Conventicles, institute certain prayers, That God would keep the King, and the Prince in the true Religion; The prayer is always good, always usefull; but when that prayer is accompanied with circumstances, as though the King and the Prince were declining from that Religion, then even the prayer it selfe is libellous, and seditious; Saint Paul, in that former place, apparels a Subjects prayer well, when hee sayes, Let prayers bee given with thanks; Let our prayers bee for continuance of the blessings, which wee have, and let our acknowledgement of present blessings, bee an inducement for future: pray, and praise together; pray thankfully, pray not suspiciously: for, beloved in the bowels of Christ Jesus, before whose face I stand now, and before whose face, I shall not be able to stand amongst the righteous, at the last day, if I lie now, and make this Pulpit my Shop, to vent sophisticate Wares, In the presence of you, a holy part, I hope, of the Militant Church, of which I am, In the presence of the whole Triumphant Church, of which , by him, by whom I am that I am, I hope to bee, In the presence of the Head of the whole Church,1. Cor. 7. 44. who is All in all, I, (and I thinke I have the Spirit of God,) (I am sure, I have not resisted it in this point) I, (and I may bee allowed to know something in Civill affaires) (I am sure I have not been stupefied in this point) doe deliver that, which upon the truth of a Morall man, and a Christian man, and a Church man, beleeve to be true, That hee, who is the Breath of our nostrils, is in his heart, as farre from submitting us to that Idolatry, and superstition, which did heretofore oppresse us, as his immediate Predecessor, whose memory is justly precious to you, was: Their wayes may bee divers, and yet their end the same, that is, The glory of God; And to a higher Comparison, then to her, I know not how to carry it.
As then the Breath of our nostrils, our breath, is his, that is, our speech, first, in containing it, not to speak in his diminution; then in uttering it amongst men; to interpret fairly, and loially, his proceedings; and then in uttering it to God, in such prayers for the continuing thereof, as imply a thankfull acknowledgement of the present blessings, spirituall and temporall, which we enjoy now by him; So farre, Breath is speech; but Breath is life too, and so our life is his. How willingly his Subjects would give their lives for him, I make no doubt, but hee doubts not. This is argument enough for their propensenesse and readinesse, to give their lives, for his honour, or for the possessions of his children; That though not contra voluntatem, not against his will, yet Praeter voluntatem, without any Declaration of his will, or pleasure, by any Command, they have been as ready voluntarily, as if a Presse had commanded them. But these ways, which his wisdome hath chosen for the procuring of peace, have kept off much occasion of triall, of that, how willingly his Subjects would have given their lives for him. Yet, their lives are his, who is the breath of their nostrils: And therefore, though they doe not leave them for him, let them lead them for him; though they bee not called to die for him, let them live so, as that may bee for him; to live peaceably, to live honestly, to live industriously, is to live for him; for, the sinnes of the people endanger the Prince, as much as his owne. When that shall bee required at your hand, then die for him; In the meane time, live for him; live so, as your living doe not kindle Gods anger against him, and that is a good Confession, and acknowledgement, That hee is the breath of your nostrils, That your life is his.
As then the breath of our nostrils,Animd. Gen. 2. 7. is expressed by this word in this Text, Ruach, spiritus, speech, and life, so it is his. When the breath of life was first breathed into man, there is called by another word, Neshamah, and that is the soule, the immortall soule: And is the King the breath of that life? Is hee the soule of his Subjects so, as that their soules are his; so, as that they must sinne towards men, in doing unjust actions, or sinne towards God, in forsaking, and dishonouring him, if the King will have them? If I had the honour to aske this question, in his royall presence, I know he would bee the first man, that would say No, No; your souls are not mine, so. And, as hee is a most perfect Text-man, in the Booke of God, (and by the way, I should not easily feare his being a Papist, that is a good Text-man) I know hee would cite Daniel, saying, Though our God doe not deliver us, yet know, O King, that we will not worship thy Gods; Act. 5. 29.And I know hee would cite S. Peter, We ought to obey God, rather then men; And he would cite Christ himself, Feare not them, (for the soule) that cannot hurt the soule. He claimes not your souls so: It is Ruach here, it is not Neshamah; your life is his, your soule is not his, in that sense. But yet, beloved, these two words are promiscuously used in the Scriptures; Ruach is often the soule; Neshamah; is often the temporall life; And thus farre, the one, as well as the other, is the Kings, That hee must answer for your soules; so they are his; for hee is not a King of bodies, but a King of men, bodies and soules; nor a King of men onelyonly, but of Christian men; so your Religion, so your soules are his; his, that is, appertaining to his care, and his account. And therefore, though you owe no obedience to any power under heaven, so as to decline you from the true God, or the true worship of that God, and the fundamentall things thereof, yet in those things, which are, in their nature but circumstantiall, and may therefore, according to times, and places, and persons, admit alterations, in those things, though they bee things appertaining to Religion, submit your selves to his directions; for here, the two words meet, Ruach, and Neshamah, your lives are his, and your souls are his too; His end being to advance Gods truth, he is to be trusted much, in matters of indifferent nature, by the way.
He is the word of our Text, Spiritus, as Spiritus is the Holy Ghost, so farre, by accommodation, as that he is Gods instrument to convey blessings upon us; and as spiritus is our breath, of speech, and as it is our life, and as it is our soule too, so farre, as that in those temporall things which concern spirituall, (as Times of meeting, and much of the manner of proceeding when we are met) we are to receive directions from him: So he is the breath of our nostrils, our speech, our lives, our soules, in that limited sense, are his.
But then, did those subjects of his (And I charge none but his subjects, with this plot, for, I judge not them who are without) from whom God deliverd us this day, did they think so of him, That he was the breath of our nostrils? If the breath be soure, if it bee tainted and corrupt, (as they would needs thinke, in this case) is it good Physick for an ill breath, to cut off the head, or to suffocate it, to smother, to strangle, to murder that man? Hee is the breath of their nostrils; They owe him their speech, their thanks, Iob 30. 1.their prayers, and how have these children of fooles made him their song, and their by-word? How have these Drunkards, (men drunke with the Babylonian Cup) made Libels against him?Act. 17. 18. How have those Seminatores verborum, word-scatterers, defamed him, even with contrary defamations. Heretofore, that he persecuted their Religion, when he did not; now, that he hath left his own Religion. He is their breath, they owe him their tongues, and how foully do they speak; and they owe him their lives, and how prodigally do they give away their lives to others, that they might take away His? He is their breath, (as breath is the soule) that is, Accomptant for their soules, and how have they raised themselves out of his Audit, and withdrawne themselves from his Allegiance? This they have done historically, and to say prophetically, what they would do, first, their Extenuation of this fact, when they call it an enterprise of a few unfortunate Gentlemen. And then their Exaltation of this fact, when they make the principall person in it, a Martyr, this is prophecy enough, that since they are not ashamed of the Originall, they will not be afraid to copy it often, and pursue the same practises, to the same end.
Let it be Iosiah then,Vnctus Domini. let it be Zedekiah, he was the Breath, the life of his Subjects, (and that was the first attribute) and he was The Anoynted of the Lord, which is the other. Vnction it self alwayes separated that which was anoynted from prophane, and secular use; unction was a religious distinction. It had that signification in practise, before any Law was given for it; when Iacob had had that vision upon the stone,Gen. 28. 18. which made him see, that that place was the house of God, and the gate of heaven, then he tooke up that stone which he had stept upon, and set it up for a pillar, and anoynted it. This was the practise in nature; and then the precept in the Law, was, as for the Altar it self, so for many other things. belonging to the service of God in the Temple,Exod 29. 36. Thou shalt anoynt them, to sanctifie them. Thus it was for things; and then, if we consider persons, we see the dignity that anoynting gave; for it was given but to three sorts of persons, to Kings, to priests, and to Prophets: Kings, and Priests had it, to testifie their ordinary, and permanent, and indelible jurisdiction, their power is laid on in Oyle; And Prophets had it, because they were extraordinarily raised to denounce, and to execute Gods Judgements, upon persons that were anoynted, upon Priests, and upon Kings too, in those cases, for which, they were then particularly imployed. Thus then it is, anoynted things could not be touched, but by anoynted persons, and then anoynted persons could not be touched, but by persons anoynted; The Priest not directed, but by the King; The King, as King, not corrected, but by the prophet: And this was the State, that they lamented so compassionately, That their King, thus anoynted, thus exempted, was taken prisoner, saw his Sonnes slaine in his presence, and then had his owne eyes pulled out, was bound in chains, and carried to Babell.
And lesse then this, in himself, and in his Sonne, and in all, was not intended this day, against our, not Zedekiah, but Iosiah: for death (speaking in nature) hath all particular miseries in it. An anoynted King (and many Kings anoynted there are not) and he that is anoynted prae Consortibus suis, above his fellow Kings, (for, I think, no other King of his Religion, is anoynted) The anoynted of the Lord, who in this Text hath both those great names, Meshiach Iehovah… Christus Domini, as though he had been but the Bramble anoynted for King of the Trees, Iudg. 9. 8.and so made the fitter fuell for their …ire, as though (as Davids lamentation is for Saul) He had not been anoynted with Oyle, 2 Sam. 1. 21.This eye of God, he by whom God looks upon us, This hand of God, he by whom God protects us, This foote of God, he by whom, in his due time, (and Vsquequo Domine, How long, O Lord, before that time come?) God shall tread downe, his owne, and our enemies, was swallowed and devoured by them, in their confidence of their owne plot, and their infallible assurance of his perishing. So it was historically; And how it stands prophetically, that is, What such as they were, would do for the future; as long as they write, (not in Libels clandestinely and subreptitiously stollen out,Coquaeus. fo. 18. but avowed by publique Authority) That our Priests are no Priests, but the Priests of …aal, for so they write, That the conspiracy of this day, being against him, fol. 39.who oppressed Religion, was as just, as that against Caesar, who did but oppresse the State,fol. 43. And that they write, That those who were the actors herein, are therefore saved, because at their execution, they submitted all to the Romane Church,fol. 78. and were content, if the Church condemned it, then to repent the Fact, for so they write also, That the Religion of our present King, is no better, then the Religion of Ieroboam, fol. 65.or of Num… Pompilius, for so they write too, that the last Queene, though an Heretique, yet because she was Anointed, did cure that disease, The Kings evill, but because, in scorne thereof, the King refused to be anointed at his Coronation, therefore hee cannot cure that disease, and so non dicendus unctus Domini, he is not to be called the Anointed of the Lord, says that Author, (for all these are the words of one man, and one, who had no other provocation to say all this but onelyonly the Kings… Apology for the oath of Allegiance) by retaining in their avowed books, and by relying upon such Authors, and Authorities as these, which remaine for their future instruction, we see their dispositions for the future, and judge of them prophetically, as well as historically.
Now the misery which is here lamented,Captus. the declination of the kingdome, in the person of the King, is thus expressed, He was taken in their pits; taken, and taken in pits, and taken in their pits, are so many staires, so many descents, so many gradations (rather degradations) in this calamity. Let it bee Iosiah, let it bee Zedekiah; They were taken; taken, and never returned; Let it bee our Iosiah, and will it hold in that application? Was hee taken? Hee was plotted for, but was hee Taken? When hee himselfe takes publique knowledge, that both at home and abroad, those of the Romane persuasion, assured themselves, of some especiall worke, for the advancement of their cause, at that time, when they had taken that assurance, hee was so taken, taken in that their assurance, infallibly taken in their opinion; so, as this kingdome was taken in their opinion, who thought their Navy invincible; so this King was taken in their assurance, who thought this plot infallible.
Hee was taken,Fovea. and in fovea, in a pit, says the Text; If our first translation would serve, the sorrow were the lesse, for there it is, he was taken in their net; now, a man that flattereth, spreadeth a net, and a Prince that discerns not a flatterer, from a Counsellor, is taken in a net; but that's not so desperate, as in a pit: In Iosiahs case, it was a pit, a Grave; in Zedekiahs case, it was a pit, a prison: in our Iosiahs case, it was fully, as it is in the Text, not in fovea, but in foveis, Foveis.plurally, in their pits, in their divers pits; death in the mine where they beganne, death in the Cellar where they pursued their mischiefe.
And then it was in foveis Illorum, Illorum.in their pits, says the Text; but the Text does not tell us, in whose; in the verse before, it is said, our persecutors did this, and this, then it followes, Hee was taken in their pits; In the persecutors pits certainely; but yet,2 Chron. 35. 23. who are they? If it were Iosiah that was taken, the persecutor was Necho, King of Egypt, for from his army, Iosiah received his deaths wound: If it were Zedekiah, the persecutor was Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, for hee carried Zedekiah into captivity. Certainly the holy Ghost knew well enough, and could have spoken plaine, whose these pits were, but it pleased him to forbeare names. Certainly our Iosiah knowes well enough, whose, those pits, which were digged for him, were; but, according to his naturall sweetnesse, to decline the drawing of more bloud, then necessarily hee must, or the laying of imputations and aspersions upon more, then necessarily hee must, hee hath forborne names. The holy Ghost knowes better then all the expositors, in all our Libraries, who digged those pits, our Iosiah knowes, better then all wee, who come but to celebrate, and solemnize the deliverance, whose hands, and whose counsails were in the digging of these pits too. Hee was taken, says our Text: fuit, hee Was. Fix that in Iosiah, who was taken, and never taken back: fix it in Zedekiah, who was taken, and never taken back; they both perished; in both them, there is just cause, of perpetuall, and permanent lamentation, and no roome left, for the exercise of any other affection. But transfer it to our Iosiah, and then, Hee was taken, is, Hee was but taken; God did not suffer his holy one to see Correction, nor God did not suffer his Anointed, to perish in this taking; And so the lamentation is become (as wee said at first) a Congratulation, so our Vae is an Euge, our exclamation turned to acclamation; and so our De profundis, is a Gloria in excelsis, The pit, the vault is become a hill, from whence we may behold the power of our great God; this Sepher kinoth, the book of Lamentations, is become Sepher tehillim, the book of Psalmes, and thanksgivings; And Davids Bonus es omnibus, Lord thou art good to all, is come to Moses non taliter, Lord thou hast not done so well, with any nation, as with us; for when we might have fear'd a dereliquisti, that God had forsaken us, we had S. August appropinquavi & nesciebam, we came nearer & nearer to God, and knew it not, we knew not our danger, and therefore knew not his speciall Protection. It was one particular degree of his mercy, to proceed so: As it is an ease to a man, not to heare of his friends sicknesse, till he heare it, by hearing of his recovery, so God did not shake us, with the knowledge of the danger, till he established us, with the deliverance: And by making his servant, and our Soveraigne, the blessed means of that discovery, and that deliverance, he hath directed us, in all apprehensions of dangers, to rely upon that Wisdome, in civill affaires, affaires of State, and upon that Zeale, in causes of Religion, which he hath imprinted in that soule. Historically, God hath done great things for us, by him; Prophetically, God hath great things to doe for us, and all the Christian world, and will make him, his Instrument to doe them.
Now,Auxilia. we reserved at first, for the last gaspe, and for the knot to tie up all, this Consideration: That he that was truely affected in the sad sense of such a danger, and the pious sense of such a deliverance, would also use all means in his power, to secure the future, that that Kingdome, in that King, might alwayes bee safe, from the like dangers. No doubt, our Iosiah doth that, in that which appertaineth unto him; and all, that is, The care of all, appertaineth unto him. If God had made him his Rod, to scourge others with Warres and Armies, we might be affraid, that when God had done his worke by him, he would cast the rod in the fire, God doth not alwayes blesse those Instruments, who love blood, though they pretend his Glory. But since God hath made him his Dove, to flie over the world, with the Olive branch, with indevours of Peace, in all places, as the Dove did, so he shall ever bring his Olive branch to the Arke, that is, endevour onelyonly such peace, as may advance the Church of God, and establish peace of Conscience in himself.
That care,Ne peccemus. on his part, shall preserve him: And for his preservation, and ours in him, these things are to be done on our part: First, let us returne to God, so, as God may looke upon us, clothed in the righteousnesse of Christ; who will not be put on, as a fair gowne, to cover course clothes; but first put off your sinnes, and then put on him; sinnes of the Time, sinnes of your Age, sinnes of your Sex, sinnes of your Complexion, sinnes of your Profession; put off all; for your Time, your Age, your Sex, your Complexion, your Profession, shall not be damned; but you, you your selves shall Doe not thinke that your Sundayes zeale once a weeke, can burn our all your extortions, and oppressions, and usury, and butchery, and simony, and chambering and wantonnesse practised from Monday to Saterday. Doe not thinke it to bee so with the Spirituall man, as with the Naturall: In a Naturall body, a great proportion of Choler will rectifie a cold, or old, or …leginatique man, he is the better, for having so much choler; but a vehement zeale on Sunday, doth not rectifie the sixe dayes sinner: To cry out then, I am sterved for want of an afternoon Sermon, and to fast all the weeke long, so as never to taste how sweet the Lord is, in thy cleansing thy heart, and withdrawing thy hand from sinne, this is no good diet; Not onelyonly upon you Allegiance to God, but upon your Allegiance to the King, be good: No Prince can have a better guard, then Subjects truly religious. Quantus … patri… est vir just…s, is S. Ambrose his holy exclamation, What a wall to a City, what a Sea, what a Navy to an Iland, is a holy man? The sins of former times,2 Reg. 23. 26. the sins and provocations of M…nasseh, lay heavy upon Iosiah, as well as God loved him. The sins of our daies, our sins, may open any Prince to Gods anger. This is the first way of preserving our Iosiah, to turn away the wrath of God, by our abstinence from future sinnes, after our repentance of former.
A second is,Honor. to uphold his honour and estimation with other men; especially amongst strangers that live with us, who for the most part, value Princes so, as they finde their subjects to value them. Ambassadors have ever been sacred persons, and partakers of great priviledges. A Prince, that lives as ours, in the eye of many Ambassadors, is not as the children of Israel, in the midst of Canaanites, and Iebusi…es, and Ammonites, who all watched the destruction of Israel; but he is in the midst of Tu…el…r Angels, Nationall Angels, who study (by Gods grace, & as it becomes us to hope) the peace and welfare of the Christian State. But then all strangers in the land, are not noble, and candid, and ingenuous Ambassadors; & even Ambassadors themselves may be tri…led to an undervalue of the Prince, by rumours, and by disloyal, and by negligent speaches, from the Subject; we have not yet felt Solomons whippes; but our whinings and repinings, and discontents may bring us to Rehoboams Scorpions. 1 Reg. 12. 11.This way hath a part, in the Kings safetie, and in our safety, to hold in our selves, and to convay to strangers, a good estimation of that happy government, which is truly good in it self.
And then a third,Subsidia. and very important way towards his preservation, is, a cheerful disposition, to supply, and to support, and to assist him, with such things as are necessary for his outward dignity. When God himselfe was the immediate King of the Israelites, and governed them, by himself, he took it ill, that they would depart from him, who needed nothing of theirs, for there could be no other King, but must necessarily be supplyed by them: And yet, consider, Beloved, what God, who needed nothing, took: The sacrifices of the Jews,2 Chron. 35. were such, as would have kept divers Royall houses: Take a bill of them, but in one Passeover, that Iosiah kept, and compare that and other the like, with the smalness of the land, that they possessed, and you will see, that that they gave, was a very great proportion. Now, it is the service of God, to contribute to the King as well as to the Priest: He that gives to a Prophet, shall have a Prophets reward; he that gives to the King, shall have a Kings reward, a Crown: in those cases, where to give to your King, is to give to God, that is, where the peace of the State, and the glory of God in his Gospel depends much, upon the sustentation of the estimation, and outward honour and splendour of the King: preserve him so, and he shall the lesse be subject to these dangers, of such falling into their pits.
But lastly,Religio. and especially, let us preserve him, by preserving God amongst us, in the true, and sincere profession of our Religion. Let not a mis-grounded, and disloyall imagination of coolness in him,1 Iohn 4. 3. cool you, in your own families. Omnis spiritus, qui solvit Iesum, says the Apostle, in the Vulgat, every spirit that dissolves Jesus, that embraces not Iesus intirely, All Iesus, and All his, All his Truth, and all that suffer for that Truth, is not of God. Doe not say, I will hold as much of Jesus, as shall be necessary, so much as shall distinguish me from a Turk, or a Iew, but if I may be the better, for parting with some of the rest, why should I not? Doe not say, I will hold All, my self, but let my wife, or my son, or one of my sons, goe the other way, as though Protestant, and Papist were two severall callings; and, as you would make one son a Lawyer, another a Merchant, you will make one son a Papist, another a Protestant. Excuse not your own levity, with so high a dishonor to the Prince; when have you heard, that ever he thanked any man, for becoming a Papist? Leave his dores to himselfe; The dores into his kingdome, The Ports, and the dores in his kingdome, The prisons; Let him open and shut his dores, as God shall put into his minde: look thou seriously to thine own dores, to thine own family, and keep all right there. A Thief that is let out of New-gate is not therefore let into thy house; A Priest that is let out of prison, is not therefore let into thy house neither: still it may be felony, to harbour him, though there were mercy in letting him out. Cities are built of families, and so are Churches too; Every man keeps his owne family, and then every Pastor shall keep his flock, and so the Church shall be free from schisme, and the State from sedition, and our Iosiah preserved, Prophetically for ever, as he was Historically this day, from them, in whose pits, the breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken. Amen.