AND who can blame their mourning? or who can forbear to mourn in such a case? Judah was Gods people; Jerusalem his holy Ci­ty; Josiah the best of the Kings of Judah, and taken away by an untimely death. Hìnc illae lachrimae, hence these salt waves and sable weeds. And all Judah, &c.

Kings be the best of the best people; under God the glory and safety of Churches and Nations; whose felicity holds in capite. Gen. 3.15. Even the Kingdom of Christ had long since been overthrown, could the old Serpent have woun­ded the head, as well as he can bruise the heel. Howbeit, his implacable spight declares whereat he doth aim; who seeing his sting too short to reach Christ in Person, perse­cutes him in effigie. He cannot simite the annointed Lord of life, and therefore strikes at the life of the Lords an­nointed. He most labours to deface the glory of them, who most eminently bear Gods Image; and because the Lord hath done Princes the honour, to call them Gods; he envyes them the happiness to dye like men. Psal. 82. He knows right-well, that the fall alone of the Royal Oake and [Page 2]Princely Cedar, will break down the undergrowing Plants, and expose the poor Shrubs to all disasters. And this was the cause of Gods Lebanon, Judah and Jerusalem; of which, when it was too late, the people became sensible. Whilst Josiah lived, perhaps (like other Nations since,) they thought his Office and Dignity unnecessary, troublesome, and burthensome: But by the waters of Babylon they best un­derstood the worth of their late King, under whose gracious Reign they saw peace and truth in Sion. And then all Judah and Jerusalem, &c.

In which words are

• the Person mourned for, and
• the Persons mourning.

Or, here is

• Josiahs death, and
• His peoples grief.

The person here lamented is Josiah, who is considerable in three respects: 1. As a good man. 2. As a good King. And, 3. As being both an excellent man, and an admirable King, cut off in the midst of his years by a bloudy death. And by that time it will be no wonder, that all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

And first, Josiah was a good man. His name promised no less; and he performed no less than his name promi­mised, that is, to be a burning and shining Lord. God fre­quently gives significant names to his most eminent ser­vants. Jacob for wrestling with God is named Israel, Gen. 32.28. The famous Prophet, who was true to his God in sacred things, and yet faithfull to his idolatrous Prince in civil matters, Mark 3.17. had to his name Daniel, that is, the judg­ment of God. The two brethren Apostles, who were to be a terrour to sinners, and a light to the Church, are named by Christ, Boanerges, the Sons of thunder. And this Jo­siah, designed by God for an eternal monument of piety, [Page 3]had his name given long before his being, 1 Kings. 13.2. being in this respect like unto the King of Kings, whose name was given, before he was conceived in the womb, Luke 2.21. Of this Josiah may we say, what Christ said of John the Baptist, John 5.35. He was a burning and a shining light; burning in faith, shining in charity; burning in zeal towards God, shining in goodness among men. And pi­ty it were, (might God think so) that such a man should dye; the world having so small a number, and so great a need of them. When Sauls blind zeal for his rash oath brought Jonathans life in hazard, the whole Army inter­posed for his rescue. Shall Jonathan dye, (said they) who hath wrought this great salvation? God forbid, 1 Sam. 14.45. pity that Jonathan, one that doth good in Israel, should dye at all; more pity it is, that he should dye by the Sword of the wicked. One good mans death, is every good mans wound; So that for a goad man (as the Apostle saith) somke would even dare to dye, Rom. 5.7. And there­fore, when the righteous perish, and no man lays it to heart, it is a most certain sign of greater evil to come, Isal. 57.1. So soon as righteous Lot was secured in Zoar, fire and brimstone from Heaven fell upon Sodom, Gen. 19.24. Jo­ash and his people had no sooner murthered holy Zechari­ah, but God delivered them into the hands of the host of Syria. Good men are as tutelary Angels in their several stations; the wicked world, which cannot endure them, cannot indure without them. Such was Josiah unto Ju­dah and Jerusalem. A good man; so the story of his life recordeth. To him Jobs character aptly squareth, Job 1. Persect and upright, one that feared God and eschewed evil. So that had he been a private person, his vertues must have made him publick; his goodness made him beloved, and therefore his loss the more to be lamented. And all Judah, &c.

But secondly, Look upon Josiah King of Judah, and King in Jerusalem; and then common reason will teach na­ture to pay more than an ordinary tribute of sighs and tears at his last obsequies. Publick persons Herses may justly challenge the distilliation of private persons eyes. All rivulets and little torrents empty themselves into the main Ocean. Can any man forbid, or fault this holy water? Dethroned and enthralled Princes, have had this paid them by their enslaved Subjects, Cum nil nisì flere relictum, when they were able to do no more, and could do no less. The Church of God in all ages hath bewailed the loss of eminent Persons, though drop'd away with age, and ga­thered to their fathers with the Long Rake of silent time. The death of old father Jacob, was bewailed by his sons seven dayes, with a great and very sore lamentation, Gen. last. 10. And the Canaanites called it a grievous mourn­ing, vers. 11. It made an impression even in the Aliens and Insidels.

Thus when Moses the faithfull Prince and Ruler was dead, all Israel mourned for him thirty dayes in the plains of Moab, Deut. last. vers. 8. So great a loss hath a whole Nation in one Moses, that they may prosecute his assum­ptions, as Elisha did Elijah, saying, My father, my father, the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof! 2 King. 2.12. Chariots are both for War and Peace; and in both, good Princes are Israels chariots. Without them Nations may have Jehu-drivers for a time; who Phaeton-like may set the world on fire, and with the Aegyptians, drown all in a red Sea of bloud, violence, and destruction; so by wofull experience, teaching all Judah and Jerusalem to mourn for one Josiah.

All Nations are taught of God, by the light of nature, to reverence their Kings whilst they live; and to lament them being dead.

The Romanes had their vast Funeral piles, and massy co­lumns for their Caesars. Jus Gentium est obedire Regibus, S. Aug. It is the Law of Nations to obey Kings. Cons. The Law of Nations, is the Law of God written in the heart. The Law of Christians is the will of God written both in the heart, and in the holy Scriptures. The Heathens Law is more dark; the Christians more clear: And therefore the Christian Prince is bettet instructed how to rule his Subjects; the Christian Subjects better informed, how to obey their Soveraignes. They should better understand the value of a King than Heathens; and therefore more lament his loss. Whatsoever the Babylonians did for their Nebuchadnezzar, or the Persians for their Cyrus; this the people of God did: All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

So much is peace and prosperity tyed unto Soveraignty, and entailed to the Crown, that it fareth amongst men, as with Virgils Bees; Rege incolumi mens omnibus una est, Amisso rupêre fidem. When the King is lost, then instead of hony making, there is gall and heart-breaking; the waxing fabricks are demolisht; and Drones devour the labours of the industrious. Then appear factions and fracti­ons, sects and schisms; then armed swarms encounter, and tumble down dead together like Abners and Joabs men (2 Sam. 2.16.) as though they could agree in nothing, but to disagree among themselves. So ominous is the death of a King to a whole Nation, that well may all Judah and Jeru­salem mourn for one Josiah.

And the better the King, the greater the grief; and we have a Proverb, which saith, Seldome come the better; which speaks that old woman Himera, who prayed for the Tyrant Dionysius, a great deal wiser than them, whose hearts and heads are ever given to change: with whom to have [Page 6]nothing to do, is the Counsel of the wise Solomon, Prov. 24.21.

All changes are of dubious consequence. A Kings tran­slation, often signifies no less than a Nations dissolution; that the world may see a genuine sympathy between King and people, as well as between the head and body natural. Such was the case between Judah and their Josiah.

He must be more than blind, that reads not Gods anger in the loss of a good King; seeing he tells us plainly, that his wrath is shown in the fate of a bad one, Hosea 13.11. I gave thee a King in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath. Holy David discerned Gods judgment against the Land in Sauls overthrow, and thus he laments it, 2 Sam. 1.19. The beauty of Israel is slain upon the high places. Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon. At the 21. verse, he curseth the very field, wherein that fatall battel was fought; Ye mountain; of Gilboah, let there be no dew, nor rain upon you, nor fields of offerings; for there the shield of the neighty was vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he not been annointed with oyle. At the 24. verse, he calls upon the Land to mourn; Ye daughters of Israel weep for Saul, who cloathed you with scarlet, &c. So much are a Nation concerned to bewaile the fall of a Prince, though a Saul, and rejected of God.

But then, put Good to King, and the Good is multiply­ed; put Best to King, and then no other mortal person can come near it. Behold the Josiah, the best of Judahs Kings. Never had they such a King; and therefore never such a loss; never such a cause of mourning. And all Ju­dah, &c.

Josiah came to the Crown a child, 2 Chron. 34.1. at eight years of age; whose tender youth excelled in piety, many Antients his Predecessors. He was senex in juventute, spending those [Page 7]youthfull dayes in religious exercises, which the generallity drive away in vain and idel excursions. In the eighth year of his Raigh, he sought after the God of David his Father; in the twelfth year he sets upon reformation, purging the Land from heathenish prophamation. Then brake he down the Altars of the Idols, and burnt the bones of their Priests. And as he beat down superstition, so he built up true Religion; which two parts by Authority duely exe­cuted make a true reformation. Many are zealous pre­tenders to pull down superstition; but few attend or intend to advance Religion. Many cry down Diana, meerly to get the silver shrines into their close cupboards. The greedy grasping and misemploying, of the ancient devo­ted endowments of this Nation, give just occasion to so­ber-minded persons to say, whatsoever the crimes of the Papists might be; the zeal of the demolishers was too much byaz'd to the left hand: and whether or no the first founders meant well, the confounders did ill. So did not Josiah. He purged the Temple, and restored the sacrifi­ces of God; he rent his cloathes at the reading of the Book of God, because of his peoples transgression; for which he received an answer of approbation from God, and a comfortable promise, that he should go to his grave in peace, Ver. 27, 28 and not see the evil that God should bring upon that place.

After which answer from God, Josiah's zeal was not qnenched, but enflamed. He caused all his people to serve the Lord; and all his dayes they departed not from following the Lord God of their Fathers. Ver. last. And well it had been for them, that Josiah had lived as long as Meihuselah: for Judah's Religion fell to the ground, together with Josiah.

This Chapter speaks his zeal for Gods glory; that he kept so magnificent a passeover, as none ever before, or after him. He did not take to himself any thing from [Page 8]Gods offerings; Ver. 7. but gave freely of his own to the offer­ings of God: thirty thousand Lambs and Kigs, and three thousand Bullocks. Well did Josiah deserve that accla­mation from his people, which Daniel gave to King Da­rius, Dan. 6.21. Oh King live for ever. Here was zeal worth the beholding. When Jehu boasted of his zeal, he could shew nothing for it, but channels running with Royall bloud, and heaps made of Princes heads, 2 King. 10. Josiah held a better sacrifice. And much need not be said in praise of him, of whom God himself hath said this, 2 King. 23.25. Like unto him was there no King before him, that turn­ed to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul; nei­ther after him arose there any like him. Solomon had his Idolatry; (to say no more) and David was found in the matter of Uriah: but we read of no capitall crime in the life of just Josiah. As he was a good man, so a better King. When goodness and greatness go hand in hand to­gether, how great is that goodness! how good that great­ness! There are many in the world, who had been good men, had they not aimed to be great men; but having aspired to high places, became neither good Rulers, nor good persons: Trebell. Apoll. like Saturninus, who told his own souldi­ers that advanced him (and they soon found his words true) that they had spoiled a good Captain, and made an evil Prince. Little hope can be of that Kings Raign, to whom popular confusion gives right and title. No King is like to him, that cometh to the Scepter in the Name of God, and holds it according to his Commission. Such a one was good Josiah, descended from David, of the Royall Tribe of Judah. Such a Kings death may well force tears to flow from all Judah and Jerusalem.

But then thirdly look upon this best of Kings taken away by an untimely death, cut off in the midst of his dayes, [Page 9]the thirty ninth of his age; and by the hand of an uncir­cumcised Egyptian. And who but such a black Infidel would have aimed to kill so fair a King?

But oh! what makes Josiah expose his sacred Person to their black darts and venemous malice? In this alone (set­ting humane frailty aside) was Josiah to be blamed, of all that we read of him. Pharaoh Necho King of Egypt came up to the River Euphrates, to fight with the King of Assy­ria; and Josiah not interessed in the quarrell, engaged against the King of Egypt, prompted (perhaps) by State-policy to remove so bad a neighbour: but God had a fur­ther purpose in it, that Josiah being taken away, Judah and Jerusalem might smart for their transgressions, committed in the dayes of King Manasseh. So mcuh the Word of God informeth us, 2 King. 23.26, 27. Thus deep are Gods judgements. Manasseh the Grandfather, and his people fill Jerusalem with bloud and abominations; and Josiah the Grandchild a pious and tender-hearted Prince, must be slain in battell, by the hand of a cursed Infidel, and made the Prologue to the Nations tragedy.

This may seem to call in question Gods providence, or at least his promise; for how doth Josiah go to his grave in peace, when he is slain in battell?

The answer is this; here in one act doth God shew mercy and severity: mercy to Josiah: severity against Ju­dah. It was a mercy to him, that he lived not to see the evil, which they lived to feel. They that understand not how he died in peace, let them know, he died in peace with God, and that peace passeth all understanding. Who­so hath that peace, need not fear Egyptian arrows: but he that hath it not, dies untimely though he live long; and dies unhappily, though a naturall death. What an arrow did to Josiah, a feaver or any other disease might have [Page 10]done; and of necessity something must do. The arrow that slew him, wounded all Judah and Jerusalem. It was to him the arrow of Gods deliverance; to them the arrow of Gods vengeance: it was to him but a single death; but to them, a manifold judgement. Not the Sun, but the sublunary creatures suffer by the Suns eclipse. Josiah was delivered from a rebellious people, to keep a perpetuall holy day with Saints and Angels; whilest they have leave to sigh and groan under a long Babylonish servitude. And then all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. And so come we to the persons mourning.

And all Judah, &c. Judah was Jacobs fourth son by Leah, and predicted to be the head of that stock, whence Christ lineally was to be derived according to the flesh, Gen. 49.8. The whole Tribe is here put in the name of their great Progenitour. So, all Judah, all the Princes and Nobles were perfect Royallists. None of them at­tempted, none conspired, none rejoyced, but all lament­ed at the death of good King Josiah. It would have been an eternall blot to the Tribe, had not the branches cast their leaves, when the stock was so cut down. They must have been bastard imps, and degenerate plants, that had been otherwise affected for Josiah. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned, &c.

Jerusalem was the Royall City, and residence of Kings; the Metropolis, Psal. 122. the joy of the whole earth. There were the liverly Oracles, the Courts Civil and Ecclesiasticall, the Priests and Levites, the Judges and Elders. There was Mount Sion, whose gates God loved more than all the dwellings of Jacob, Psal. 87.1. This Jerusalem, this great and glorious City, All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

As then Judas the traitor was not born; nor had the [Page 11]Priests learned to betray, or to buy and sell their King in the Temple. Though bad they were, yet so bad they were not. They did not then rejoyce, but mourn for the untimely death of Princes. To this all Judah and Jerusalem by their noble extraction, and by their civil and sacred education held themselves obliged; being far unlike to some great Cities, which prodigiously have rebelled against those good Kings, under the shadow of whose wings, they have grown warm in wealth, and cold in obedience. But Jerusalem held firm to Josiah in his life; and they most heartily bewail his death. And all Judah, &c.

And a poor All they were, God knoweth; but his one only Tribe of Judah was now free from bondage. En quò discordia cives perduxit miseros! See whither civil dis­cord brings the wretched people! They first disunited in the dayes of Ieroboam; from which time, corruption upon corruption followed, untill all Israel for their sins were car­ried captive by the King of Assyria, and none left, but this Tribe of Judah only. And now even the glass of Ju­dah was fast running out, and to hasten it, was much sha­ken by the sad fall of their Josiah. This judgement was their passing Bell. Now he was gone that stood in the gap, and there was no sence for Heavens thunderclaps. And now all Judah, &c.

Grande doloris ingenium, sorrow maketh men truly in­genious: want puts the best esteem upon Gods mercies. When Israel had enjoyed Samuel from his infancy to his old age; though they could not find a fault in him, yet they grew weary of him: but when he was dead, they all lamented him, 1 Sam. 25.1. It is one of the vulgar er­rours, and may be put in our English Calendar, Praesentem odimus, amissum querimur, whom we hate present, we bewail when gone. Perhaps Josiah, when with them, [Page 12]pleased not all parties. Qui multitudini praeest, multis displiceat, He that rules over the multitude must di­splease many. Probably, to the favourers of Idolatry Josiah seemed sacrilegious; to the sacrilegious, to be su­perstitious; and to the lazy Israelite, to be too severe and zealous. Benè facere, & malè pati Regium, To do well, and hear illis Kingly. Howbeit, whatsoever they thought of him in his life, they all bemoan his death. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned, &c.

Now began their sorrow; never more were they to see such another King in that Nation, that they might know the difference between a Native Prince and a Babylonish Tyrant. No sect nor sex escaped the Caldeans rod. So generall the misery; so generall the mourning. From the Prince on the Throne, to him that sits on the dung­hill; all are concerned to mourn for one Josiah.

The Prophet Jeremy having a deeper insight into this wound of the Nation, than the generallity; lamented not only himself, but taught all the people to lament also, as the following Verse sheweth. All the singing men and singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations, and made them an Ordinance in Israel: and behold they are writ­ten in the Lamentations. Jeremiah an eminent Prophet was most sensible of the loss of Josiah an excellent King. De arte nemo nisi artifex, An Artist best judgeth of art; and good men of good men. The Book of Lamentations was composed by the Prophet, In perpetuam rei memoriam. Jeremy and his holy contemporaries, made Josiah's death a matter of mourning, unto all generations, by a Law and Ordinance; to teach even us, that we ought to be humbled for, and retain the memory of the untimely death of godly Kings. It was an ominous presage, that Judah was commanded to mourn by an Ordinance; and [Page 13]mark the sequell: About two and twenty years and six moneths after Josiah's death, the Caldeans came, and ruin­ed Prince, Nobles, Priests and people, carring the poor remnant into captivity, where they continued threescore and ten years. After more than fourscore years, had they greater cause to mourn that pious Prince's fall, than the first day. The child, whose father was unborn when Josiah was slain, had cause to curse those swarth Egyptians. So long liv'd are those sorrows, which have their birth at the Prince's death. A nation is soon wounded; but the wound is not so soon healed. And now having seen Ju­dah's and Jerusalem's case, we come to make it our own; and to act the second part of Jeremy's lamentation.

But how or where well to begin, or end our lamentati­on; alas, I know not. None but Apelles his Pencill, was thought sit to draw Great Alexander's picture; and it would require another Jeremiah, to speak to purpose of our Josiah.

To declare our Late King of ever blessed memory, his life and vertues, his miseries, and death; and in all these our own sin and shame; who is sufficient for these things?

Yet nevertheless, as the Jeremiah's of the times may compose Books: so the poor Levites may come in, to bear a part in the sorrowfull song.

The mean person may have as true a sense of this mise­ry, though not so full a one, as the great ones.

And since it hath pleased God to bring me to the task of this sad day; I desire you to assist me herein, that what is wanting in elocution, may be made up in godly sorrow and contrition, concerning the sad story of our Josiah.

As Hezekiah said, (2 King. 19.3.) so may I, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy.

A day of trouble; for it caused the Nation many dayes [Page 14]and years of trouble; and how many more it may, God knows: who in his just judgement, hath smitten man and beast with manifold plagues and punishments. And for all this, his wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

A day of rebuke it is, from all them that are round about us. The Papists retort upon us all those crimes, where­with we charged the Jesuites, as equivocation, perjury, sedition, rebellion, treason, and murthering of Kings.

And a day of blasphemy it is; for Jews, Turks, Pagans and Infidels scoff at Christian Religion, and say; Lo these are Christs Disciples, who have cast aside their Masters precepts, neither give God nor Caesar his due, neither fear God, nor regard man. Yea, it is to be feared, that by this bloody dayes work the Devil hath gotten many an Atheist. Many persons seeing so righteous a Prince fall by so wicked hands, in so horrid a manner, were apt to conclude, it was in vain to serve God any longer. For this every faithfull person may cry out with the Prophet Jeremy, chap 9.1. Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, &c.

A true Josiah our Late Soveraign was indeed, a bright and shining Lord, conspicuous in his high affection for Gods glory, and the welfare of his people. To this end was he born, to bear witness to the truth; and ( horresco referens) for this was he murthered. Full well might he say, Psal. 69.9. with David in his meditations, to the Lord; The zeal of thy house hath even consumed me.

His name Charles signifieth magnanimous, valiant; a name famous long since, for Charles Martell, and Charles the Great, Kings of France: but now more famous for Charles Martyr, Charles the good King of, Charles the too good King for England. He was (even his enemies being [Page 15]Judges) worthy of the Kingdome, had he not been own­er of it; but because owner of it, held unworthy of life. Such paradoxes are held in Satan's Schools. A King he was, whom all Nations admired, but his own; in this al­so like his Saviour, Mat 13.57 who had no honour in his own Coun­trey.

A Prince he was, who was the glory of Europe, and the shame of his own degenerate people born in Scotland; and but that he was born there, I should have said of it, Joh. 1.46. as Nathanael of Nazareth, Can there any good thing come out thence? I would be loth to say that he rob'd the Nationall stock; but (saving to each truly worthy person his re­spective dignity) this I may safely say, as was said of Jo­siah: Before him arose no such King (God knows what may be after him) in our Judah and Jerusalem. The great­er cause have we all to mourn for our Josiah.

He was a King, who had made an absolute conquest over himself; having his passions in better obedience, than any Prince hath his Subjects. He was pious and discreet; heroick, yet withall patient; in his prosperity sober and moderate; in his adversity magnanimous and constant; in his judgement profound, yet not despising counsell; in his determinations deliberate; and in defence of the truth invincible.

The coal which the Seraphim laid upon Esay's lips, Isa. 6.7. was bestowed upon his Pen; whereby he drew out his own Picture in those excellent Pieces, which he left behind him, for the world to look upon with wonder and reverence.

There may weread his zeal truly ballanc'd with profound knowledge, piety, and modesty; his grief for the ruines of Gods Church, and his people; his care for his friends; his charity for this enemies; his commiseration of others, and courage in his own afflictions: and in all so even a tem­per; [Page 16]that never any came nearer him, who at his Cross did say, Luk. 23.34. Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Thus God takes the most spotless Lambs for sacrifice. For his piety and acute inspection into sacred mysteries, he was as much a Priest as a King: and for his divine fore­knowledge, as much a Prophet; a Trismegistus, thrice great; in this age unparaleld. A real Defender of the Faith, whose Quill wounded to the death with invincible Arguments, both Hereticks and Schismaticks. A true Beauclerk, and best deserving that Title; as much a Scho­lar as a Prince; as much a Christian as either; and as much all in one, as ever was any mortall one. In brief, he was, and he is, not only to this Nation, but to all Christendome, a mirrour to think how he lived; a grief to think how he died. Then let all our Judah and Jerusa­lem mourn for our Josiah.

And if all Judah and Jersalem mourned; much more cause have we. They were not immediately guilty of the death of their King, nor any otherwise, than by the pro­vocation of their sins. They contrived not Josiah's mur­ther; they did not confederate with the cursed Egyptians; they fell not from obedience; they took not up Arms against him; they did not buy and sell him; they did not pretend a Law; erect a Scaffold to butcher him, nor make his Royall Palace his slaughter-house; they did not triumph over the dead Kings Corps, and justifie the fact; oh no: but what an Egyptian did, they bewail and lament, bathing the bloody Corps with tears, and embalming his precious memory with a set form of lamentation. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

Thus was the case of our Josiah far beyond theirs; and most near to that of our blessed Saviour. Inter malitiam [Page 17]& avaritiam, Between the malice of some, and the ava­rice and ambition of others (as Christ between the thieves) was he crucified. Some corrupt and stinking Elders, some bloody hypocriticall Priests, and some pharisaicall Zelots, pretend to do God service, by violating his holy Commandements.

Here a Judas comes with his, Quantum dabitis? What will ye give me, and I will betray him? There a temporizing Courtier, who eat bread at his Table, lift up his heel against him. Such practices Heathens have ab­horred. Am I a Jew? (said Pilate to Christ) thine own Nation and the chief Priests have delivered thee unto me. His own Nation, even those, who by all Laws of God and man were obliged to defend him. This was a heavy aggravation of Christs sufferings; and so it was of our gracious Soveraigns. The base Scots sold him; as base English bought him; the receiver and the thief are both in one predicament: and the Nation may say to either party, as Simon Peter said to Simon Magus, Pecunia tua tibi sit in perditionem, Act. 8.20. They money perish with thee.

How hath this wounded and stained our Church and Nation! And we, whither have we caused our shampe to go? If the guilt of a brothers blood cryed to Heaven for vengeance, as God told Cain, Gen. 4.10. then how much more the blood of a father, the common father of three Christian Kingdomes? If Saul's death were deplorable, yet he a wicked person, and the Philistines none of his Sub­jects; then how much more this case, 2 Sam 4.11. where wicked Sub­jects, like Baanah and Rhecab have murther'd a righteous man, and their most gracious King, at his own house, in his Royall Jerusalem? How ought this to afflict us? Know ye not that there is a Prince, and a great man fallen this day in our Israel? He is fallen, and with him fell Judah and [Page 18] Jerusalem; Judah, the Nobility and Gentry, Laws and Justice; Jerusalem, Church and Religion, doctrine and discipline, piety and morality. The Civil State was forth­with corupted in practice, the Ecclesiasticall in judgement and worship. Thus all Judah and Jerusalem have cause to mourn for our Josiah.

And all, all indeed have cause to mourn. The Princes Nobility and Gentry have cause to mourn; to think what a breach the Lord hath made upon them, by the propha­nation of the Scepter, and dishonour of the Diadem. For whose honour of life can be safe, where Kings shields are thus vilely cast away?

The Bishops and Pastors of the Church have cause to mourn; for since the death of that Defender of the Faith, prophaneness, heresies, and schismes have revived and flourished; saving truths and orthodox Ministers have lan­guished; they that sold the truth, have with the wages of iniquity bought preferment; Et probit as laudatur & alget, and honesty is only praised and starved.

The common people have cause to mourn; the cheat of the publick Faith hath weaken'd their private credits; tax­es have exhausted their purses; others have eaten up their labours; and the evil spirits (I mean the miseries) which were quickly raised, are not like soon to be conjured down. Well may the whole Land mourn for the misemployed wealth, wherewith they purchased the death of their most gracious King; and (without Gods wonderfull mercy upon their hearty repentance) misery and vengeance on themselves and their posterities.

The greatest of the Kings enemies have greatest cause to mourn, both upon a sacred, and a civil account. Upon a facred; because their souls lye at stake for that bloody sa­crifice: and upon a civil, because they now see the axe [Page 19]laid to them in justice which they brought upon others un­justly. For having Agag's cruelty, 1 Sam. 15.33. they suffer Agag's doom; which was this; As thy sword hath made women childless; so shall thy mother be childless among women. And it comes upon them, as upon him, when they said, Surely the bitterness of death is past. And God grant that they all may be true mourners, that their scarlet sins may be made white by the blood of Christ Jesus. It is not our part to rejoyce at any mans misery; and far is it (I thank God) from my thoughts to do so. But I should be cruell, if in this business I should not be strict in laying open the atroci­ty of the crime.

My hearts desire for all those that hear me this day, and for all those that do not, is, that they may be saved. And I hope no man will count me an enemy, because I tell him the truth. It is sorrow unto repentance that bringeth salva­tion, 2 Cor. 7.10. The work of this day calls for mourn­ing, for more than an ordinary mourning. And the bles­sing of Christ is pronounced to mourners, Mat. 5.4. My prayer is, that God would first give every man true sor­row of heart, for all his sins, and more especially for this great sin; and then that he would give him the comfort of his holy Spirit, as he did to David in the time of his great need, that he may not be swallowed up of overmuch grief. I shall say no more to set forth the ugliness of this monster, this black deed; for I am charitably perswaded, that eve­ry one here present doth more abhor it in his heart, than I am able to conceive or express. And therefore let no man misunderstand me, and think, because I have (as I ought) throughout this Discourse, and upon all other occasions, eternally condemned the fact, that therefore I have ever­lastingly damned all persons concerned in it. God forbid. There was hope, and place of repentance, yea, and infal­lible [Page 20]means of salvation, for them that had their hands stained with the blood of Christ Jesus. When S ^t Peter had laid the crime home most severly to them, and they were pricked in their hearts, and said, Men and brethren what shall we do? Act. 2.37. he did not bid them lye down and perish; but repent and save themselves from that unto­ward generation. And upon this there were converted that day, three thousand souls. And God grant that this dayes preaching, may be proportionably, as effectuall through­out this Nation.

Brethren, we are all guilty of this dayes crime, though after sundry manners; well then, let us not be angry one with another any longer: but let every man be angry with himself for his sinfull wayes. Let us condemn our selves, and God will not condemn us. If we confess our sins, God is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Let there be no more discord; let us henceforth fear God and the King, and love one another, as he hath commanded us. Give me leave to use that phrase of speech, which hath been long abused; let us associate against the common enemy. The common enemy is the Devil; his dominion is sin; and his Kingdome is enlar­ged by our divisions. Let us strive to beat down sin in our selves, and to advance the Kingdome of Christ, which consists in righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Ghost, Rom. 14.17.

This Text I have chosen for the day, calls to us unani­mously for mourning; the occasion I have shewed you to be a very sad one. As for our Josiah, our Late gracious King; our sorrow reacheth not to him. Injuriam facit Martyri, qui orat pro Martyre, He injures the Martyr that prays for him. Let our mourning then be for our selves, [Page 21]and for our sins, which helped forward his death and our own misery. Methinks I hear his glorious soul saying to us, as our Saviour did to the Daughters of Jerusalem, Luk. 23.28. Weep not for me, but for your selves and for your children. Ye know what followeth in the next words; and we know not how nearly they may concern us. Judah and Jerusalem rued Josiah's death full many a year after; indeed they never did outgrow it. And we the people of this Land (for ought we know) may every year more and more have cause to mourn for our Josiah.

The Lord give us all a true insight into our selves, and our own dangers. The Lord be mercifull unto us, and re­store the voice of joy and health into our dwellings. Deliver us from blood-guiltiness Oh God, thou that art the God of our strength, and our tongues shall sing of thy righteousness. Grant this O Lord for Jesus Christs sake our Saviour and Redeemer. Amen.

Laus Doe.