they might be blessed and happy for ever Let the Officers of the Army mourn for she Cloathed them in Scarlet and put on Ornaments of Gold upon their Apparel Lastly Let all the Inhabitants of the Land Mourn For the Beauty of Israel the Glory of our Nation is now clad and wrapt up in Mourning And now having filled our Hearts with a deep sense of Grief for the Death of our Pious Princess what we are chiefly and more especially to Bewail is our Sins which are the true cause of all the mischief done us and will if not timely and sincerely repented of do us more Let us then lay our Hands upon our Breasts and weep bitterly that the Floods of Impiety are risen to such an height that they break through all Banks all Bounds all Laws as if they had got the Ascendency of the Word and were out of the reach and above the check of an Almighty Power Jeremiah complaining of the many and heinous Sins of Judah tells us that Prophaneness was gone forth into all the Land and that Men were grown Impudent in Sinning Were they ashamed when they had committed abominations nay they were not ashamed neither could they blush Jer. 8. v. 12. And can we when we reflect upon the common Practices of this dissolute Age and how greatly Iniquity abounds among us think our selves deserving a better Character It is manifest that there is an excess of Corruption and Degeneracy among us that neither the most endearing Mercies nor the most terrible Judgments can reclaim us that Religion notwithstanding the great helps and advantages it meets with than which perhaps no Age had ever greater is in a very low and languishing Condition hardly able to come up to the Character of the Church of Laodicea being fallen from luke-warmness to somewhat farther distant from the Temper which God requires So that without endeavouring to aggravate that which already exceeds all Number and Measure we may safely sit down with this perswasion that we as well as the Jews have done enough to make God angry with us and least we should continue to provoke his Anger against us let us not only Mourn for our own Sins and the Sins of the Land by fits and starts but let us instantly manifest the truth reality and sincerity of our Sorrow by an outward entire Reformation of Life and an inward change of Mind this will prove the most effectual Method to turn away the fierceness of God's Anger that we Perish not Thirdly and Lastly Are Religious Princes a mighty Blessing to a Nation This then should teach us to set a very great and due value upon our present Sovereign and to fix all that Love and Affection that was divided between the Royal Pair upon him alone it was for our Sins as well as the Tryal of his Christian Valour that Heaven so unexpectedly smote him in the most tender part to allay and sweeten therefore so severe an affliction Let us esteem the early acknowledgments of Duty and Loyalty among the least of those many and innumerable Services we stand indebted to him let us prize him as God's Vice-gerent as the anointed of the Lord as the Breath of our Nostrils Let us offer our most humble and devout Prayers to God for him beseeching him to Crown His Arms with success both by Sea and Land that he may be a terror to his and our Enemies to cover him with his Providence as with an impenetrable Shield to preserve his Sacred Person from all the Plots and Attempts of his Enemies both at home and abroad and after a long and happy Reign here on Earth to change a Fading into an Incorruptible Crown of Glory to be worn in the highest Heavens Now to God the Father God the Son God the Holy Ghost three Persons but one Eternal God he ascribed all Glory and Honour Dominion and Majesty both now and for ever FINIS
Josiah in the Text was a very great Mourning 't is said to be as the Mourning of Hadradrimmon in the Valley of Megiddon Zech. 12. v. 11. Eus Ecc. Hist de vita Constantini lib. 4. cap. 65.67 And when Constantine the Great Dyed how greatly did the Tribunes Centurions the whole Order of Judges and Magistrates Lament his Death all places were filled with doleful Shrieks and Lamentations that the common Good of them all was taken from them These Instances plainly prove That to make doleful Resentments upon occasion of the Death of good Princes was the practice of the Church of God and a Practice 't is as Old and Ancient as the Church it self for 't is founded upon the Law of Nature How pleasing and agreeable to Nature is it to Weep and Grieve for the Death of our Natural Parents especially if they be Good Much more then surely if we have any true Zeal for Religion any regard for the Publick Good ought we to express our Grief when the Fathers of our Country are by Death taken from us For 1st A Religious Prince is a great Blessing to a Nation a promised Mercy Isaiah 49. v. 23. 'T is said Kings shall be thy nursing Fathers and their Queens thy nursing Mothers A Godly Prince is an unspeakable Blessing such a ray of Divine Love and Favour to a Nation as bespeaks a very peculiar and distinguishing Providence presiding over it Because the Lord loved Israel for ever therefore made he thee King speaking to Solomon to do judgment and justice 1 King 10. v. 9. or to establish them for ever as 't is rendred 2 Chron. 9. v. 8. When Princes are endued with Wisdom Piety and the Fear of God 't is at once the greatest Lustre and Glory to themselves and the greatest Mercy and Blessing which a People can enjoy Blessed be thou O Land when thy King is the son of Nobles and thy Princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness On the other hand An Irreligious Prince is a sure Token of Gods heavy Displeasure against a People and of sore Judgments and Desolations to be poured out upon them Wo unto thee O Land when thy King is a Child and thy Princes eat in the morning Eccl. 10. v. 16. when thy King is a Child that is in Understanding such was Rehoboam in the midst and strength of his Age a Child of one and forty Years old 2dly Princes have a very great Influence upon their People either to diffuse and spread the true Religion or Idolatry and Prophaneness throughout their Territories Thousands nay almost whole Nations and Kingdoms imitating and following their Examples for what Entertainment Religion meets with at Court the like for the most part it finds throughout the Kingdom A Religious King therefore is a mighty Instrument both to establish the true Religion and to engage his Subjects in the ways thereof by setting over them faithful Pastors Men of Learning Integrity and Piety such as shall feed them with the spiritual Food of sound Knowledge and win them by the Prevalency of their own good Examples Jehosophat a Religious Prince sent Princes and with them Levites and Priests to Teach in all the Cities of Judah and Asa his Father a good King commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their Fathers and to do the Law and the Commandments and what great Influence it had on the People you may find in the 2 Chron. 15.12 13. verses Thus Josiah made all that were present in Israel to serve even to serve the Lord their God and all his days they departed not from following the Lord the God of their Fathers but in his Sons days who did Evil in the sight of the Lord they returned to Idolatry for all the chief of the Priests and the People transgressed very much after all the abomination of the Heathen and Polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem In * Vide Euseb Zozom Theodor. Ecc. Hist et Magdeburg Ecc. Hist the Reign of Constantine the Great the first Christian Emperour what Numbers what Multitudes of Proselytes were daily added to the Church And what effectual Care was there taken to suppress Heresies and to reconcile differences in Opinion but yet in the time of the Arian Emperours the wonderful growth of Arianism gave occasion to that Complaint of St. Hierom that almost the whole World Mourned to see itself become Arian Thus in Julian the Apostates Reign they returned to Idolatry and did with the utmost Zeal espouse it Contending as eargerly for Error as Truth itself 3ly Religious Princes are the Defence of a People they are as the Walls of a Nation as the Chariots and Horse-men thereof The Psalmist Ps 47. v. 9 calls them the Shields of the Earth for by their Prayers they engage the Irresistible Strength of Heaven to be on their Side Whilst the Governours and Princes of Israel and Judah were Religious and kept close to the Service of God they were Victorious and Triumphant as in the Days of Joshua and the Elders who out-liv'd him and as in David's Asa's Jehosaphat's and Hezekiah's Reigns But when they forsook the Lord their God his Word and Ordinances they soon fell as a Prey into the greedy Jaws of the Assyrian Monarchs by whom they were carried away Captive At least good Princes stave and keep off the Execution of Judgments upon a Nation when they cannot by all their Prayers and Tears turn them away Hezekiah when such black Clouds of Wrath did hang over Judah and Jerusalem that Micah Prophesied chap. 3. v. 12. That Zion should be Plowed as a Field and Jerusalem should become heaps and the Mountain of the house as the high places of the Forest did yet so far prevail that Peace and Truth Flourished in his Days And in Josiah's Reign when that Nation was in such deep Arrears to the Almighty that the Execution of all the Threats and Judgments Denounced against them was ready to take place yet by Prayer and Humiliation did this good King so far mitigate the Divine Wrath that it did not lay hold on them during his Life When good Princes are taken away from a People 't is like the breaking down the Bounds of the Sea a passage is thereby laid open for the Divine Wrath to break in upon and overwhelm them Well therefore may the Death of good Princes be thought matter of great Mourning and Lamentation to a Kingdom or People I proceed 2dly To enquire more particularly into the great cause of the Jews Universal Mourning for the Death of Josiah to which Enquiry we shall receive abundant satisfaction if we do but Contemplate the greatness of the Loss they sustained by his Death which I shall endeavour to set forth by describing First His Great and Extraordinary Piety Secondly His Zeal against Idolatry Thirdly His Publick Spirit Fourthly The time of his Death First He was a Prince of most Illustrious Piety one of the brightest
Now that She did so greatly promote and encourage Religion amongst us is a plain proof an undeniable Argument that like Her Pious Grandfather that great Luminary of Religion both in his Life and Death She truly loved that Church in the Communion of which She was Baptized Educated and so lived and dyed Nothing was wanting in Her to bring Religion into the greatest Vogue and Reputation Had it pleased the Almighty to have lengthned out Her Life Vice must have sneaked into Corners and the Person of Honour and the Gentleman had needed no other Distinction but their Virtues than which nothing can be more becoming them Secondly She was a very Zealous Princess so Zealous against the Idolatry of the Romish Church that in that case like Levi of old for which he is so highly extolled in Sacred Writ She knew neither Father or Mother When Israel fell first to Idolatry and Moses said who is on the Lord's side The Sons of Levi stood on the Lords side and appeared against Idolatry even so our Queen by appearing against Idolatry proved Herself to be on the Lord's side and that in a time of imminent Peril and Danger Thirdly She was of a very Publick Spirit for when the Roman Eagle began to expand its spreading wings and we were possessed with the justest Fears and dangers she with an humble Trust and Confidence in Divine Mercy readily parted with whatever was dear to her nay with her Royal dearest Husband for a time who in the most dreadful Season of the Year ventured on a very dangerous Expedition seconded with innumerable Difficulties to rescue us from the daily Rapes committed upon our Laws and Liberties and to preserve and continue the beauty of the Gospel among us for which the Hearts of all good Men did then tremble as much as the Heart of Eli for the Ark of God when he understood it was in danger of being taken by the Philistines with so much gallantry and greatness of Mind mixt with the most submissive Resignation to the Will of Heaven did this most tender Wife and truly Wise Princess behave herself in order to prevent a near-approaching Bondage worse than that of Israel in Egypt for that was only on their Bodies but this on our Souls And it might have been of as long continuance too as theirs in Egypt was when for the long space of four hundred years they Groaned under the heavy yoak and burden thereof The Queen considering the large and capacious Endowments of Her Mind had doubtless as clear and bright perceptions as any Person what great dangers Her truly Loving and as truly beloved Husband would in all probability expose His Royal Person to yet so fixt so intense to the Eternal Honour of Her Sex were Her Thoughts upon the Glory of God and the Publick Good that she found no satisfaction within Herself till our Rights which did then Bleed were Asserted and the Welfare of all the Protestants in Europe which then lay at Stake was in some good measure secured Had She lived to have seen a setled Peace what great and glorious things might both Church and State have expected from Her Fourthly She came to the Throne by a signal hand of Providence so very visible and conspicuous were the Rays of Divine Wisdom Power and Goodness in bringing it to pass that the worst of Men must with Pharaoh's Magicians cry out this is the finger of God We were then in a very low and helpless Condition our Hair was shorn our Strength quite gone all outward means failed us and we saw nothing but Death and Destruction before us and yet this was the Critical Minute wherein Infinite Wisdom found out a way for our Deliverance and the Thunder of God's Power the Arms of his Omnipotency brake asunder whatever hindred it Salvation arose as light out of darkness for God in Judgment remembred mercy Now that our Illustrious Princess was taken from us soon after so great a Diliverance as this may strike Dread into our Hearts and chill our Spirits For tho She was gathered to Her Grave in Peace yet for ought we know it may be a sad Presage of many Miseries and Calamities ready to betide us Mercies and Deliverances when abused turn into Judgments In Josiah's days God offered the Jews Mercy but whatever ties and Obligations lay upon them to reform and amend they would not hearken to the voice of God nor turn from their Evil ways which proved their utter Ruin and Destruction And I pray God that our ingratitude and unreformedness under our late great Deliverance may not end in one of the sorest Judgments that ever yet befel this Nation if it be so we have none to blame but our selves but yet from former instances of Gods Love and Goodness towards us we need not doubt but that he hath still Mercy in store for us The only thing wanting is an Heart truly sincere and duly qualified to receive the same at his hands Fourthly and Lastly What remains further to be added is to consider the Lessons and Instructions to be learnt from this Discourse the more closely we apply to our selves what hath been spoken the greater Benefit we shall reap from it First Then If the Death of Religious Princes be matter of great Mourning We may hence take just occasion to upbraid the folly of such who are so far from condoling the death of our most Religious Princess that they Rejoyce and Triumph at it For the Conviction of Men so degenerate and void of all Natural Affection to their Country as well as Prince it may not be inexpedient or unseasonable to argue thus That if the thickest Darkness be more desireable than Light if the heaviest Bondage be a more discreet choice than liberty or the sight of Fields streaming with Blood be more amiable and lovely than Peace then here is a sort of Men who may rejoyce but if to be deprived of the brightness and purity of the Gospel to be harassed with Anti-Christian Tyranny and and to be involved in Confusion and Blood be sore Judgments which every one that loves his Religion and Country must own upon a Nation then they ought to pay the just Tribute of Tears to the Death and Obsequies of our Great and Merciful Princess Secondly Did all Judah and Jerusalem Mourn for the Death of Josiah Let then all Persons among us of what Rank and Quality soever learn to Mourn for the Death of our Royal Sovereign the Queen Let the Nobles Mourn for their Mighty Princess is fallen whose chief care was to support the Protestant Interest and Religion throughout all Europe Let the inferior Dispensers of God's Word and Sacraments Mourn for they have lost the best of Queens who was a true tender Nursing Mother to the best of Churches Let the more immediate Attendants on Her Majesty mourn for they have lost a Queen whose great design was not only to make them Great and Honourable here but also truly Religious that