the right Pole of the beatifical Vision and without which we must infallibly expect to split against the Rocks of Eternal Perdition therefore this Pious Prince did think it the greatest Character of his Glory to be truly Religious towards God and to preserve the Honour of the Divine Majesty in his own Soul because in a pure Conscience Gods Face is to be seen and no where else on Earth It is the Mountain of Transfiguration where we may see the Kingdom of God This is the only Isle Patmos where are the Visions and Revelations of the Son of Man It is the Garden God walks in It is the Temple that the Holy Ghost dwells in the Golden Pot the hidden Manna is laid up in it It is Gideon's Fleece which all the Dew of Heaven falls on for he that hath a pure Heart and clear Hands washed not in Water but Innocency may with Holy David compass Gods Altar their Walks are in a Wood dropping Honey their Dwellings on a Mountain of Myrrh and Lodging on a Bed of Spices We read in Holy Writ that the Sun and Moon speak loud their sound is gone out into all the Earth but yet a holy and virtuous Life speaks louder the sound of it is heard in Heaven and causeth Joy among the Angels The sound of it also goes out to the Earth and fills the Mouths of Men with Gladness and Rejoycing It is the manifestation of Grace and Vertue which makes the Lord to be admired in them who fear him This opens every ones Eyes and causes all to confess that God is in them of a Truth practis'd Piety is the most perswading Oratory to Piety and Godliness and all Vertue They who live in the unfruitful Works of Darkness dishonour their Maker it is only the Trees of Righteousness which Glorifie him so saith our Saviour Herein is my Father glorified when you bring forth much Fruit. I need not mention Abraham's Faith nor Job's Patience Elias's Zeal David's Uprightness or Moses's Meekness these things are writ for our Learning not only for our remembrance and speculation but for our practice also and imitation Every Grace and every Virtue of a Christian is a real Sermon to convince the World of its Impiety The Pious Mans Devotions confute Atheistical Prophaneness The Chast Mans Behaviour teaches the wanton Modesty and the Sober Mans Carriage declaims against Excess and bespeaks Sobriety to the Intemperate The Meek Mans Conversation preaches Mercy to the furious Ones and so it is the pious manifestation of Grace and Virtue for which Men bless God and the abundant Grace bestowed on our late Gracious Soveraign his admirable Courage Piety and Patience in the greatest Agony of his Sufferings and with earnest Prayer and Supplication desiring the dissolution of his Earthly Tabernacle speaks him the most Christian King and that Sanctity and Piety as Fruit did grow on this Royal Tree These were the Principles of his Piety and Religion on which this Mighty Monarch served God with Fasting and Prayer like Anna the Prophetess Night and Day in the Temple and with Fear and Reverence worshipped God in his Holy Sanctuary therefore praise waiteth upon him in the Gate for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom a good understanding have all they that do thereafter For the knowledge of God is the Philosophers Stone in Divinity by it we may turn all events into Golden Advantages to our Souls This is the Knowledge that speeds our passage to Eternal Glory that is the shortest cut to Immortal Happiness and the truest Honour is inveloped in this rich Mantle of Wisdom in that it appears God himself is the Grand Teacher thereof Our Wise Solomon as a prudent Deputy under God and a worthy Successor of a Blessed Father served the God of his Father with a perfect Heart and a willing Mind and performed all things in order according to the commandment of David the man of God And 't is also the commendation of his late Majesty as of other good Kings Asa Jehosaphat Hezekiah and Josiah that they did that which was right in the Eyes of the Lord as did David their Father Now as all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for their good King Josiah should not the tide of Englands sorrow swell so high for Britain's Josiah King Charles the Second seeing the parallel consideration is as full of Equity and transforms us into Niobes making our Heads Rivers of Waters and our Eyes Fountains for continual Tears 2. His Princely Goodness to all his People is evidenced First In the rare Christian Grace of Humility though he was the fountain of Honour and advanced above others shining like the Sun in the lower Firmament bright with Rayes of Glory and Greatness yet he did not soar on the wings of Pride and Ambition either fondly to disdain the meanest of his Subjects or proudly to lord it over others nor yet did the Greatness of Majesty make him forget his Parentage or Mortality or to derive his Pedigree from the Off-spring of Death But this illustrious Prince as the Son of Wisdom and it is justified of her Children did know he was cast of the same Mould with those of a lower Species and though he did sit as a God in respect of Imperial Authority yet he must die like Man and rest also in the Bed of Silence and by necessary consequence not neglect holy and serious preparation for it Thus may we discover his Christian Piety by the Virgin-temper of Humility walking in the Steps of his Blessed Saviour and Redeemer beholding him from his Cradle at Bethlehem to his Cross at Jerusalem as a mirrour of Humility And this Pious Prince as a Noble Imitator of his Lord followed the Grand Exemplar of the Christian Religion who bids us learn of him to be meek and lowly therefore he was cloathed with Humility as the Apostle speaks and had it written in the Table of his Royal Heart God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the Humble which now is consummated with Glory for he wants not the envied Crowns of this World having exchanged the shadows of an Earthly Kingdom for one Eternal in the Heavens wearing the Crown of Righteousness and Perseverance in a better World Secondly His admirable Patience or Long-suffering In Long-suffering sayes one of the Ancients the Lord doth inhabit This sublime Spirit indeed possessed the Royal Breast of his late Majesty which raised him above the ordinary Rank of Mankind in a truly Pious Patience under the greatest Sufferings His Christian Meekness Compassionate Kindness Tender-hearted Charity and Pious Patience against all injuries declare him not only one of the greatest Worthies of the English Nation but the Best of Kings and shews that Religion and Vertue as Fruit did grow on this Royal Tree We may without Sword or Fire become Martyrs if we have Patience in our Hearts For true Patience carries with it a singular property that Satan hath not the power
A LOYAL TEAR Dropt on the VAULT OF THE High and Mighty PRINCE CHARLES II. Of Glorious and Happy Memory 2 Chron. 35. 24. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah By HENRY ANDERSON M. A. Vicar of Kingsumborne in Hampshire LONDON Printed for Luke Meredith at the Kings Head in St Paul's Church-Yard 1685. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND FATHER in GOD PETER Lord BISHOP of WINTON AND PRELATE of the GARTER MY LORD THE actings of Providence are no less various than unsearchable and it is both a pleasant and pious Employment to observe and meditate on Gods miraculous proceedings with Mankind For Providential Dispensations are discoveries of the Wisdom and Goodness of God in disposing of the conditions of his People whereby they may best glorifie him in whatever befalls them in this Temporal Life because a true Christian does as seriously study the Celestial Sphere and occurrences of Divine Providence as others do the Terrestrial Globe of this Corruptible Earth And since it has pleased Almighty God to speak to this Nation and Kingdom by the Messenger of Death in taking to his infinite Mercy our late Gracious Soveraign King Charles it must be acknowledg'd the bounty of a Divine Hand and we are bound to adore the Wisdom and Benignity of Heaven as S. Hierom suggested to Paula concerning the Death of Blaesilla whatsoever a good God doth cannot be bad therefore we must submit to the Divine Providence in translating that blessed Prince to a more glorious station to a Kingdom that cannot be shaken which is above all possibility of decay being incorruptible and fades not away Eternal in the Heavens Though the gain be his yet the loss is ours for when a good Prince dies a general damp and consternation seises the hearts of all Loyal Subjects because publick Calamity charges every Man with a rate of sorrow proportionable to the tenure of his understanding and the Memory of his late Majesty may justly oblige all his People to an excess of Tears as a signal of grief and Your Lordship comes in as a Chief Mourner who has had the Emanations of his Royal Favour which incourages my confidence to implore Your Lordships Patronage whereunto if you will vouchsafe to give the least approbation I shall not despair of the more favourable Censures of others and therefore it intreats Your Candid Interpretation and Acceptance of these Dedicatory Lines as a sincere Testimony of my Duty And that Your Lordship would be pleased to place me in the number of those that honour Your true Worth not only as to Episcopal Jurisdiction inspecting the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made You Overseer but also to Your Bounty and Liberality which sounds as far as your Name and displays the Ensign of Your Dignity worthy of double Honour for Your Generous and Brave Mind al must needs acknowledge and pay You Homage and Obeisance as Joseph's Brethren did to him with the greatest Veneration in which respect my most honoured Diocesan I am no less than Your Lordship's most Obedient Son and humble Servant HENRY ANDERSON A LOYAL TEAR Dropt on the VAULT OF THE High and Mighty PRINCE CHARLES II. THE frequent Objects of Mortality even of the greatest Monarchs daily presented before our Eyes should make us carefully to manage the moments of our Mortal Life Walking circumspectly not as Fools but as Wise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 redeeming the time because it is enacted by the Statute Law of Heaven semel mori and written indelibly in the Dust That all must Dye If Adam had stood in his Primitive Glory and not fell from his Original Purity in the state of Innocency we had not known what Death or Misery had meant but continued a piece of Immortality to this very Day but Adam in an instant after he had sinned became Mortal no sooner Sin entred into his Soul but mortality and corruption immediately entered into his Body then the parcels of Dust that were bound together by the bond of innocency were shaken loose by the grosser spots of Sin our first Parents disobedience contracted and involv'd their Posterity in a Labyrinth of Miseries and our Misery is not of yesterday but as antient as the first Criminal and our perplexities almost coaeval with Humane Nature The Day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely Dye viz. thou shalt be guilty of Death and thy Body shall that very hour become Mortal subject to infinite number of Chances Diseases and Old Age continually decaying unto the last Destruction of this Bodily Mass languishing to its fatal period and hastening to the dark Cells of the Grave which are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dormitories and sleeping Places of the Dead till the joyful Morning of the Resurrection Death insults over the frailties of Mankind for all the Tombs and Charnels of the World are but so many Monuments of Deaths Conquests and the instability of Humane Greatness how all things on this side Heaven are fleeting and transitory If I should procure you a Painter to pencil Death he would shew you a grim Anatomy with a lean Body a pale Face and a wann Countenance c. That which hath devoured the World so many times over like Pharaoh's lean Kine is as lean as ever The Bell still toles for the voluptuous Epicure and the Earth that insatiable Grave longs for his corpulent Body to feast Worms The swift motion of the Heavens roles up the thread of our Lives and the fleet Horse on which Death runs is still posting after us Crowns nor Scepters can't secure from the Artillery of Death There is no confidence to be placed in Humane Prosperity for neither Kingdom Empire nor any Greatness whatsoever can secure their owners from ruine Behold Andronicus cloathed in Purple adored by Nations commanding the East his Temples enriched with a Royal Diadem the Imperial Scepter in his Hands and his very Shoes studded with Oriental Gemms yet pays his Life as Tribute to Death so that the Majesty of the greatest Monarchs are subject to perish Think upon this seriously that the Gates of Death are ever open and the Enemy lies continually in ambush to assault u◠nay there is not a Vein or Artery but is a Room in Natures Work-house wherein our humours as so many Cyclops's are forging those Instruments of Mortality and in an instant hurry us into our Graves Every Day Hour and Moment wears away a part of our Life and so much as is already spent so far we are already Dead So that the longest liver as the Antediluvian Patriarchs witness is no more but only longer a dying than others It is appointed saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto Men once to dye but after this to Judgment where they shall receive for the deeds of the Body whether it be good or evil They that have done good to the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto eternal damnation This proclaims our happiness or
afraid to be Happy Indeed were our Tombs the Everlasting Repositories of our moulded Ashes and the Grave a sad Closet of Eternal Sleep a Man had some reason to tremble at the apprehensions of Death and since the Day cannot arise but through the shadows of the Night and there is no transition to Heaven and Eternal Life but through the Chambers of a Temporal Death we should be content to go that way to Glory that our Saviour went before Venerable Job under the sad Tragedy of Misery with a Triumphant kind of Joy laid up in his Bosome this joyful expectation I know my Redeemer liveth and though Worms destroy this Body yet in my Flesh shall I see God The same individual Bodies that died will be raised Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the Grave shall hear his voice and come forth And the Resurrection of our Bodies is assured by Christs Testimony the veracity of Christ is witnessed by his Resurrection for Christ is the first-fruits of them that sleep As the first Fruits are a sure demonstration and evidence of the near approach and drawing on of the Harvest so the Resurrection of Christ is a sure ground of hope and comfort for assuring us that all those who dye Christs Disciples shall rise to a Blessed Immortality He shall make us partakers of his Glory and bring us into those everlasting Habitations where dwells an undisturbed Peace where neither Diseases approach the Body nor Vices have access unto the Mind where shall be life without fear of Death and Joys without mixture of Sorrow In the Primitive Times at Funerals they were wont to sing Psalms of Thanksgiving The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Triumphant Song of St Paul O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory bringing them as Champions to the Grave as those that have passed the Pikes and finished their Course and kept the Faith and have conquered the World Sin and Death What cause is there now of Sorrow or Lamentation but rather of Joy and Gladness when we consider Deaths Errand it is our convoy to Heaven the dawning of an Eternal Day and Eve of a Glorious Festival the way wherein we must walk to Happiness If old Jacob when he saw the Chariots come from Aegypt his Heart did leap within him because he should see his Son Joseph We may imagine what a comfort it will be in the beatifical Vision when Adam shall see all his Grand-Children the Sons of Enos together Abraham his faithful Seed Moses his true Israelites Aaron his Spiritual Posterity John the Baptist shall see his Penitents Peter his Converts Paul his Followers the Angels shall see all their Wards God all his Sons Christ all his Members What a glorious appeaing will there be What a ravishing Heavenly Quire What an Anthem shall there be gloriously sung when the Gates of Heaven shall be as it were shut there being no more to enter and these made welcome by the mutual and ineffable embracements of God and Christ Christ now and his Believers like Joseph and Benjamin falling about each others Necks not weeping but shouting for Joy O that this confideration might have its proper operation in the Hearts and Minds of all so as to fear God and practise Religion that we may obtain a Glorious Reward for all Ornaments and Excellencies whether of Art Nature or Policy are but a dead thing unless they be animated and quickned with the power of Religion and fear of God therefore whether we aim at a Temporal or Spiritual good Religion is mainly to be magnified Many Blessings belong to the Religious which they enjoy in this Life The Riches of Grace are poured on them and the Word of Life is preach'd unto them their Thoughts are Heavenly and Hearts the Throne of the Holy Ghost their Tongues talk of the Praises of the Almighty and their Feet stand in the Temple of the Lord their Prayers are like Incense and the lifting up of their Hands as an Evening Sacrifice Who will not now become Religious to wear a Crown that never shall have an end after Death to have Angels their Companions and Saints their Fellows Heaven their dwelling Place and Pleasures of Paradise the recompence of their Reward If sumptuous and stately Buildings do delight what Habitation is so Magnificent and Glorious as the New Jerusalem If Riches what so Rich as that whose Foundation and Wall are of Precious Stones and Gates of Orient Pearls If Honour what Honour comparable to this to be Servants of the Most High the Sons of so mighty a King and Heirs of so Glorious a Kingdom where neither the Teeth of Time can consume nor Rancor of Envy deprive of Honour nor Power of Adversary spoil its Glory being endless and Incomprehensible There is no such gain as trading to Heaven to be Merchant Adventurers for Happiness all other things are nothing let this so raise your apprehensions as your Lives may be an Argument to prove it for if we do expect Salvation Mercy and Glory at the Hands of the Almighty we must be active in well doing Obedient to his Laws Confident in his Promises and Religious in his Service that so being followers of the Blessed Saints who are departed out of this Life in the Faith of Christ directing our Lives after their Good Example and particularly of this Pious Prince who has changed the Terrestrial Paradise of all his Kingdoms to be partaker of a Celestial One which is beyond the Power of Empire and grasps greater things than Authority or Command can compass his Name survives his Life and is anagram'd in the choicest Memories and stands in Renown amongst the greatest Worthies that either Pole can boast of being Embalm'd in Honour and whose Actions blossom in the Dust A voice from Heaven has declared Happiness to the Righteous Because blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord even so saith the Spirit for they rest from their labours and their works follow them NOW after the dayes of Mourning in England for the Death of Britain's Josiah the Great and Good King James the Second hath given us a day of rejoycing in the peaceable Accession to the Imperial Throne of these Kingdoms which hath been long and happily enjoyed by his Royal Ancestors and by an unquestionable Right and lineal Succession descends on his Sacred Majesty We have great cause to rejoyce when we consider our happiness that it hath pleased the Almighty God to give us for our King a Prince of the same Blood Son of Charles the Martyr and Brother to Charles the Good and Great and His Sacred Majesty has attained the Character of James the Just who is not only an Inheritor of the Crowns of his Royal Progenitors in all the Triumphs and Glories of a Coronation but of their Virtues And since the Blood of the Martyrs is the Seed of the Church it is the happiness of this Nation that the Seed of that Glorious Martyr of happy Memory is still to reign over us which turns our Tears into Joy and Exultation of Spirit praising and glorifying God for so great a Benefit We adore the Divine Goodness and acknowledge it a Miracle of Mercy by which he kept his Sacred Majesty in Store a Blessing in reserve for us who in the depth of our Affliction hath vouchsafed to bring us from Death to Life again by guiding us through the Horror of our Fears into a State of Security and Comfort by his Princely Word and Promise to follow the Example of our late Dread Sovereign in Clemency and Tenderness to his People And with equal Gratitude and hearts full of Duty and Allegiance we pay the Tribute of Thanks to his Sacred Majesty for his most Indulgent Declaration that he will take our Lives Liberties and Religion into his immediate Protection and the inviolable Steddiness of his Royal Word is that on which we rely with an intire Confidence for the Support and Enjoyment of our Establisht Religion a Religion that has been as his Majesty graciously observes and ever will be for the Maintenance of Monarchy And as our Church is the Rule to us of a pure and unspotted Loyalty so it is not possible we should lose the one since his most Illustrious Majesty is so graciously pleas'd to preserve the other And what can we desire more on this side Heaven than that we live under his auspicious Reign safe in our Religion and Properties What better pledges could we have asked for them than what we have his Sacred Word which hath made us intirely secure and hath left us nothing now to wish or pray for save only that it would please Almighty God by a merciful and over ruling Providence to defeat the Malice and to frustrate and disappoint all the Conspiracies of his Enemies And we humbly beseech the Great God the King of Kings to preserve his Sacred Majesty in Health and Happiness to prosper all his Affairs at home and abroad and make all his Subjects truly Loyal and Obedient and establish his Royal Throne many and many Years that he may long and happily Reign over us to the utmost period of Humane Nature and when the Crown shall slide from his Sacred Temples be at last translated to an Eternal Throne of Glory Amen Amen FINIS Gen. 3. 19. Gen. 2. 17. Gen. 5. Heb. 9. 27. Eccl. 12. 14. Matt. 25. 31. 32. Ib. 34. 41. M 〈…〉 25. 46. Dan. 12. 2. 18. 14. Psal 146. 4. Eccl. 2. 1 Eccl. 11. 9. Job 17. 14. Job 4. 19. Cant. 2. 3. Prov. 20. 28. Psal 19. 1. Isal 61. 8. John 25 8. 2 Chron. 8. 14. 2 Chr. 35. 24. Matt. 11. 29. 1 Pet. 5. 5. Jam. 4. 6. Tom. 2. Matt. 5. 41. Psal 112. 9. Isai 57. 2. Job 19. 25 26 27. Joh. 5. 28. John 11. 25. Acts 10. 38 39 40 41. 1 Cor. 15. 20. 1 Cor. 15. 14 15. 1 Cor. 15. 5. Revel 14. 13.