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A37275
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A sermon preach'd at the parish-church of St. Chad's in Shrewsbury, March 5, 1694/5 being the funeral day of our most gracious sovereign Queen Mary / by Thomas Dawes.
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Dawes, Thomas, 1652?-1715.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing D451; ESTC R24877
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12,749
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32
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asham'd now to think their Civility carry'd them so far beyond the reasons of their Faith But tho' these Holy Men left their Converts here too few by many to raise a Monument to their pretended Learning and Art of Perswasion they forgot not to take their Riches with 'em the vast Treasure by their pious Frauds they had cheated the Nation of Thus we of this National Church are happily restor'd to our Religion it 's free Profession to our Properties to our Laws to our Liberties to our Lives Rid of our urgent Fears and Jealousies all but what the Sons of Trouble studiously strive to nurse in their restless Bosoms Our True Religion has gain'd much honour by the invincible Courage and Constancy of its true Professors which is God's Cause as well as our own Our Government is re-establish'd upon its old best Foundations and all the slubber of our Grief wip'd off till now as we lay a long time a'weeping under the Cross Popery in it's insulting Greatness for ever banish'd our Isles Briefly we have lost nothing but what we could not keep and hope to live as contentedly as we can without and tho' at present ingaged in an expensive Forreign War we fight Honourably in Defence of ourselves and Confederates thereby to lay which must be done with time a sure stable foundation of our Security and common Prosperity for the future And now upon the foot of the Account tell me seriously ye Sons of Wisdom are not these I have named Lovely great Advantages which we owe and confess as many as are impartial next to the good Providence of God to the Care and Vigilance of our Governors and to Her tho not to Her alone whose Obsequies we this day Celebrate She who planted Religion both by Precept and Example in the Court the Head and Fountain of our Government and would have made it all of one piece i. e. Religious took great pains in her Publick and Private Devotion and by her excellent advice and Illustrious Pattern taught others so to do if any other certainly a Nursing Mother of this Church of England which we have reason to think is more indebted to two of our late Queens than well-nigh all the Kings we have had till now since our Happy Reformation Good Edward liv'd but a while and though He did as much as 't was possible for the time being young yet 't was the Rudimental Beginnings only of so great and noble a Design but what we wanted in his was in some good measure compensated by the shortness of the next Reign and especially by the happy Length of that which follow'd close upon it She who did most Queen Elizabeth of ever Blessed Memory the next a Peaceable Learned Prince but came late to our Government succeeded by a Son Religious and Wise who had our Civil Distractions suffer'd him to Live as 't was probable otherwise He might had raised and beautify'd to it 's best advantages our Religious Communion as establish'd but since He could no longer stand He chose to fall a Glorious Martyr with it and when upon our famous Restauration our Regular Worship began again to smile upon us as we did cordially upon it it flourish'd more than a little whise under a Good natur'd King 'till it was again too pitifully beclouded in the last Reign which left it harass'd to the more happy Success and better Government of our King and Queen who had She longer liv'd as She did more than a little in such a narrow stint of time so would have done wonderfully much more for it's Beauty and Prosperity But She is alas untimely Dead not as to Herself but us who promis'd as we had great reason every Day more and more felicity to ourselves under the shadow of Her Government Who as She came with much unwillingness to the Throne so She as willingly resign'd at Gods Command the Burden of it tho' by Her so easily born and taught all Christian Princes by her Illustrious Example how 't is really practicable and their best Interest to be Good and Great at the same time I have excus'd my self already give me leave but this once Alas Christians The Lovely Ornament of our Peace The Beauty of our Regular Devotion A Rare Example of Virtuous Life The Glory of Christian Princes the Greatest of Her Sex the Darling of all Her Good People The Dearest Pledge of God's good Providence our Glorious Princes is Dead and gone Let all our Judah and Jerusalem weep and Mourn for our Good Queen as they did righteously for Josiah 'T is indifferent whether we Lament Her or our Religion they were inseperable in Her and how then shall we distinguish ' em I cannot blame the profuseness of our Grief upon this extraordinary Subject if there be any Venial Sin we Christians can commit surely this is it the great extremity of our present Sorrow and tho' we reasonably conclude this our great Concern will touch the hardest heart in the whole Nation yet if there be any who cannot weep for it and us I hope without injury we may take leave to weep for ourselves and them 'T were well the reasons of our Sorrow were not real as we believe they are upon impartial view Tho' yet we are not in the least unthankful but know how to prize all the Blessings we have left behind our Good King and Royal Family But these all Mourn as well as we and we humbly think we have as great a cause as any tho' all this we know is fruitless and in vain But how can tender hearts express themselves and their passionate resentments in a milder way not that we should seem fondly envy Her her Happiness above who stood ever the fairest Candidate for an Immortal Crown But we beg leave here thus to acknowledge and confess our many obligations and to embalm and preserve her Sacred Memory to perpetual Generations with the Dearest expressions of our most unfeigned Love I fear I have held you too long in this Melancholly Scene I have done then only mind you very briefly of two things to which our present Affliction seems nighest ally'd The reasons I mean that lye uppermost to our knowledge and are most Legible in such an harsh Providence as this is 1. Either by this sort of Discipline God in his infinite wisdom has a mind to mean us from an over fondness we are too apt to create to ourselves of any Humane Help we think stands nighest our Temporal Happiness and then 't will teach us Patience Thus we know He exercised the People of the Jews when under th' immediate Jurisdiction of his Theocracy in Egypt in the Wilderness in Canaan and after when they were embodied and had Kings as th' other Nations depriving 'em of Success oftimes by many secret methods of his good Providence thereby to hold 'em the closer to himself in their Dependence and the Counsel of his own Divine Will who has many more ways for our Succour in the unerring Conduct of his Eternal Wisdom than we can imagine Or 2. God punishes us thus severely for our manifold abominable sins as He did the Jews oftimes particularly here in the matter of Josiah and then Mourning is the least part of what we have to do which concerns us most in a speedy Reformation of our Wicked Lives lest otherwise upon our continued provocations our Judgment as it proceeds from the Divine Justice should thus conclude our Good King too whom God long preserve with th' other Royal Branches this needs every good sober Christians consideration Finally If our Grief be real upon the sence of our great Loss it supposes we understand the worth of Good Princes and consequently as we now Mourn for Her whose Funeral Day we celebrate so we from henceforth apply ourselves with all dutiful and Loyal Love and Fidelity to Him who is now in the Throne and to this good end shun and disencourage the most we can in ourselves and others all causeless Jealousies and turbulent Counsels which in the effect should any way cool and diminish from our cheerful Obedience and learn to submit ourselves Dutifully to our Governors as well as to Pray for 'em That God would grant our King a long and an happy Reign over us and that we and all his Subjects duly considering whose Authority he hath may faithfully serve honour and humbly obey Him according to God's Holy Word and Ordinance and that He may ever study to Preserve thy People committed to his Charge in Wealth Peace and Goodliness Grant this O Merciful Father for thy Dear Sons sake Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen FINIS
A SERMON Preach'd at the PARISH-CHURCH OF St. Chad's in SHREWSBVRY March 5.1694 5 BEING THE Funeral Day of our Most Gracious Sovereign Queen Mary By THOMAS DAWES B. D Minister of the Church of St. MARY in the said Town LONDON Printed by F. C. for Gabriel Rogers in Shrewsbury and are to be Sold by John Whitlock near Stationers-Hall 1695. To the Right Worshipful Samuel Adderton Esq Mayor And other the Members of the Corporation Together with the Gentry c. of the Town of Shrewsbury WHen my Service was desired to assist on the much Lamented Occasion of our Good Queens Funeral Day I confess I thought the Solemnity so agreeable to my own particular respect and Duty that as a Son of the Church I could not well refuse But when afterwards your Requests proceeded so much farther than I had reason to expect and your Importunity would not easily admit of any Excuse I am more unwillingly forced thus a second time to Gratifie you by appearing more publick than I intended which I am sensible might as well have been spared were it not for your Serious Regard to the common Loss in which I own a real Concern and in so doing am sure to approve my self more acceptably as I am Your most Affectionate Humble Servant THO. DAWES 2 Chron. Chap. 35. latter part of the 24 v. He Dyed and was Buried in one of the Sepulchres of his Fathers and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah COuld our Grief be always hid and modestly conceal'd we Christians need no stronger Antidote than that of our Religion as it teaches us Submission to all Gods Providences when they look unfavourably to our Temporal Interests Thus we have often in silence put our hands upon our mouths and with Reluctancy stop'd th' eruption and clamour of many of our Sorrows and would have done so now and stoop'd particularly under our Fate which is our pressure very sensible but that our Loss is so confessedly great and our Passions in their resentments more than usually high lavish and indeed ungovernable All Afflictions we find by woful experience are not equal and of the same size and magnitude 'T is alas more than once we have lost a Dear Friend who living stood very nigh our tender heart and when Dead we could not but Lament but seldom so loud as now when we are forced to exchange our Patience for our Pious Sorrow we Weep and mean it so as we think it is our Religious Duty to bewail I need not name th' Occasion when I see here all Faces gather Blackness and strive with concern zealously to augment the serious Pomp of our Funeral Lamentation We have lost but could our Loss be utter'd I am not able equally to express your Grief who want Words so many to express my own But here this Day when all the English Nation Mourns as we do and the vast Deluge of our Tears swells so universally wide that they waft a far of our Sorrow as they roal from shore to shore and drown our Neighbours too as well as we how can we refrain Let this day pass ever then for a Day of Sorrow Yet tho' I cannot possibly excuse your Mourning give me leave to inquire a little into the Nature of our Common Distress thereby to justifie our Grief as approveable to all Mankind and to shew how 't is not only a violent hasty Tempest of our sensual Passion but a calm deliberate sound resentment if our Sorrow be capable of so much Moderation which has invited us hither to Condole together the Death of our Good Queen To this end I have pitch'd upon one of the Greatest Instances in the History of the Antient Jewish Church Josiah by name famous for Goodness and Virtue with a real Zeal for the Worship and Honour of the true God which is all indeed besides what is less Lustre and Magnificence which raises and supports the Throne of Majesty We find here his Good Subjects of all sorts assembled 't is like as well as we all over the Land Town and Countrey to Mourn and Lament his Funeral He Dyed and was Buried says the Text in one of the Sepulchres of his Fathers i. e. in the Sepulchres of the Kings and all Judah and Jerusalem mourn'd for Josiah The Royal Person here spoke of and Lamented was a King of Judah inclusive of the Tribe of Benjamin which were the only two which remained whole of the Twelve all the rest excepting some few persons having gone off generally long before from the true Church of God as then 't was into Idolatry at the fraudulent Instigation of a wicked King Jeroboam who made Israel to sin and not long after into remediless Captivity under the Tyranny of the Heathen their Neighbours There had been some Good and many Bad Kings 'till the succession of Josiah whose Government commenc'd about 385 years after the Death of King David the second in order but yet the first of their Religious Kings Josiah was a Good Son of a very Bad Father Amon who was the Son of Manasseh Manasseh went off and apostatiz'd from his Religion and turn'd a profess'd Idolater He did evil after the Abominations of the Heathens Built High places and Altars to Baal c. made his Son to pass through the Fire a cruel bloody Sacrifice or rather here a kind of Lustration to the Idol Molech so prevalent is Superstition and Bigottry even to the loosing the strongest Bond of Natural affection You 'll see his History more at large here Cap. 33. 2 Kings 21. where 't is said v. 20. He Amon did evil in the sight of the Lord as did Manasseh his Father They were both Father and Son immediately descended of that Good King Hezekiah who did much for the Worship of the true God and confiding in his Religious Integrity and the favour and protection of th' Almighty he manfully withstood the Blasphemy of Sennacherib here Cap. 32. 2 Kings 18 There passed 56 years betwixt the Reign of Hezekiah and Josiah all which time the Government was wretchedly Debauch'd with Idolatry and other grievous Abominations for which Mannasseh is drove out of his Kingdom into a Forreign Land From all which you will easily guess there was more than a little for our Religious Prince to do when he came to the Throne and intended a Thro-Reformation and the the truth is He did not Delay but set presently about it with all his power which will better appear if we consider how He came very young to the Crown 2 Kings 22. and here Cap. 34. but what he wanted in Age He made up in Virtue He was says Josephus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of an excellent Disposition and naturally inclin'd to Virtue and good Life which is a mighty Character of a Young Prince agreeable to what the Antient Scripture says of him from whence the Antiquary took it When this Godly man was but 20 years old He began to purge Judah and Jerusalem