most active resolved Enemies in his power did he dismisse with our Saviours caveat unto the blind man Sinne no more His Majesty in this divine clemency which yet some interpreted a cruelty unto Himselfe imitating the Father of mercies who maketh the Sunne of his favour equally to shine upon the just and unjust being so farre from procuring or desiring the death of his Enemies unto which he wanted not inciting animosities from others that he often wished that he could recover those that were already dead Neither are there wanting egregious Monuments of his Kingly munificence and liberality the great acquisitions of his Servants under him shew it from many of whom notwithstanding he had the unhappy returnes of ingratitude desertion and disloyalty And as unto his own Servants he was munificent so especially unto those who were set apart for the service of God whom with those religious Kings Hezekiah Josiah and Constantine he encouraged by giving the portion of God and our pious Auncestors unto them to recover which out of the hands of sacrilegious persons he used many pious endeavours and propounded Compensations which would onely have entrenched upon his owne profit when former Grants from the Crowne of Impropriations for years determined His Majesty alwaies restored them unto the Church conceiving his best and most royall right unto the Goods of the Church which he was otherwise by the Lawes of this Realme invested of to be that of Patronage and Disposition and from this Princely munificence doe I with all the devotion of an humble and hearty thankfulnesse acknowledge to have received a particular encouragement in my profession This nursing Father of the Church knew the best way to support that was by Church maintenance so that by his bounty the Churches in the three Kingdomes were lifted up out of the mire of contemptible poverty and Clergy-men of noted piety and greatest abilities of learning daily increased so that setting aside some few either illiterate wandâ—ing cockbrain'd discontented or unconscionable Levites who were in the great reserve of the sacrilegious and rebellious Jeroboams of our time to secure those two Calves of their Government and Worship which they fought for no Kingdomes of the World were beautified with so many Lights of learning and piety as these Kingdomes Observe the divine graces of this glorious King the unmoveable stability of his faith a firme Rocke which no stormes of popular rage no swelling surges of the multitude nor all the proud billowes of his insulting Adversaries could alter or unsettle in his pious purpose to preserve the Protestant Religion and the Lawes of this Realme how great was the intention of his sacred hope and of what exceeding latitude was his charity which included and enclosed his fiercest and most mortall Enemies But the lively features and faire lineaments of his graces and virtues are best and more largely drawn out by his owne Pencill His works praise him in the Gate his writings present unto us the heavenly pourtraicture of his divine large and grasping Soule these what they are wanting in volume recompensing an hundred fold in worth are the Repertory of all his Actions and the truest Index of his virtues that Book is the quintessence of knowing zeal the store-house of the ripe choice fruits of Christian piety there are the principles of Religion perfectly digested into holy practice there is the true Princely Image of King Charles that Golden Manuall being a stately building of Meditations Consultations Essayes Debates and Devotions raised upon emergent occasions with such judicious artifice of grace adorned with so rich furniture of piety enlarged with so many faire roomes and convenient receipts for grace that it shews his Body was the Temple of the Holy Ghost that there was no corner or vacuity in his great and glorious Soul I doubt not without the height of an Hyperbole to affirme that in what we have of this holy Kings draught we are abundantly repaired in the losse of Solomons physiques for here is a shop full of heavenly medicines for all the maladies of the soule by so much then is their sinne the greater whose malice hath deprived us of those other later pieces of His Majesty What already we have is the greatest monument of piety of any Kings after theirs whose writings become authentique from God as being Pen-men of his own divine dictates since the Creation and shall have continuall and unwearied travailes made unto it in all Languages and Kingdomes by all Men and Women who know love and honour piety prudence and all divine and morall graces and virtues every of which hath its severall atchievement and particular Trophy erected in this one work which will be as long liv'd as Time I conclude this short and generall survey of His Majesties personall virtues worthy of a just Volume and exceeding the limits of a Sermon with that Eulogy and Honour of Praise given unto Constantine the Great by Eusebius he was most deare unto God and proposed by him a great and excellent example of an holy and religious life for all mens imitations The memory of his piety and glorious reputation of his virtues shall be for ever precious and whatever Dogs barke against it alwaies remaine a fixed and shining Starre of the greatest magnitude in the firmament of Honour And thou carnall Prophet who walkest by the light of thine own eyes and callest thy darknesse light thou who as the Jewes unto our Saviour didst reach the Vinegar and Gall unto Gods Anointed in the Agony of his sufferings offered'st that false furious and forc'd application of Scriptures which thy counsels must fill up with an interpretation as the event shewes know that there is a lying and seducing Spirit in thee that thâ—u wrestest the Scripture unto thine owne damnation thou Sorcerer and chief Witch of these times full of all subtility and all mischief thou child of the Devill thou Enemy of all righteousnesse wilt thou not cease to pervert the right wayes of the Lord Thy Epicurean and sublunary Divinity cannot admit that a violent death should be a singular testimony of Gods favour yet here thou seest it in Josiah wilt thou have all temporall judgments to be punishments due unto sinne will not thy triumphant wickednesse let thee know that some afflictions are for Tryals and the additions of grace and glory unto Gods Children and therefore the chief marks of Gods favour As in our gracious King Charles who was also taken away from the evill to come in Gods mercy unto him which thou even thou unto the shame and confusion of thy face although thou hast hardned it shalt see in the approaching day of Englands calamity which in a great part is procured and hastned by thy infernall counsels thou needst not to have given that Scripture such a violent stretch so to streine it as to make it reach from Assyria unto England or to travaile so farre for a reason why
them by the giddy preachments and undigested swelling and tedious prayers of their Lecturers who reduced all Religion unto lip-worship and canting Scriptures Hence came it to passe that contemning the old paths the truth of the reformation in the Protestant Religion they contended unto bloud to corrupt by their phanatick Alterations the pure Doctrine Evangelical discipline established in the Church of England to effect which with the more â—ase they adventure upon sacriledgâ— to carry on that they must pull down Episcopacy the fence of the Church and here the King as a nursing Father interposing they render Him unable by encroaching upon his Prerogatives quarrelling him seize upoÌ„ his Strenghs Arme fight against him imprison and then Murther Him which last Act of Rebellion though the greatest part of the first Engagers may be thought never to have intended yet they may see the first violation of their Obedience due unto His Majesty punished by a guilt thus farre of his Innocent bloud that that power which they raised spilt it So dangerous it is to vary from a Christian Principle or to do evil that good may come of it God onely having power to direct limit and determine any evill action so that look over the pedigree of Englands sins through the severall descents thereof and you will find it thus Peace begot wealth that plenty that pride that vanity that curiosity that contention that hate of the Clergy that Sacriledge that the downfall of Bishops that the contempt of the KING that War that imprisonment and that the murther of the King a murther the most horrid murther that ever the Sun saw for Subjects to take away their King's life without the prescription of a single example or a law nay even against all laws divine and humane to Try him after the form of a Judiciary proceeding this is to entitle God unto the greatest sin to establish iniquity by a Law and to make God such as themselves Thus the Jews dealt with our Saviour We have a Law and by that Law he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God although there was no such Law but a new-made Law a Juncto-law Straffords law Canterburies law the King's law consequent Laws Laws without names or cognizance made because he was KING Neither doth their power any more prove the equity of this Fact the great scandal of the Christian name and height of Anabaptistical fury than the Devils power which is from God doth justifie his malice which is from himself They have now indeed made King Charles a glorious King prov'd him glorious in his personal Vertues glorious in his divine Graces but most glorious in the Christian Constancy of his glorious Sufferings for Gods Cause the true Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of the three Kingdomes thus hath God extorted a truth from them for this spake they not of themselves but God forceing their testimony they prophesied As we have seen His Majesties sufferings and their causes our sins so let us reflect upon their punishments as the Springs from which our sorrows should arise The exceeding avarice and hypocrisie two noted Court-sins with which the greatest Christian Prince Constantine was abused of the State-Grandees the deep pits wherein they laid the fatall snares into which pious King CHARLES fell will be visibly punished for God will not be mocked The pride vanity sacriledge rebellion and the cruel murther of His Majesty will have particular judgments levell'd against these sins every mans sin even of those who have fought for His Majesty who have yet fought against him by their sins hath given force unto this great stroke and wound given unto these Kingdoms in His Majesties death and therefore ought every man to proportion his sorrow unto his sins As King Josiah from Judah so the strong Baricado King Charles is taken away betwixt Gods judgments and this Kingdom the great and wide In-let of all misery is made by his death could our sorrows answer them like a Torrent it would overflow all the banks of Reason and grow too big to be carried away by the channels of our senses behold every spring of Jeremiah and Judahs sorrow open to send forth these flowing streams of affliction upon us and all arise from the same head The breath of our Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits of whom we said Under his shadow we shall live among the Heathen Those heavy judgments which the Prophet Jeremiah foresaw impending and after came to pass by King Josiahs death are in a great part by King Charles his death already come upon us Gods House his beautiful house is laid waste the Heathen have entred into the Sanctuary they have made a noise in the House of the Lord as in the day of a solemn Feast So that they who in the beginning pretended God Religion the Church their Cause have dealt with us as that Faction among the Jews who called â—hemselves The Zealous in the war with Titus did under pretence of defending Religion and the Law they possessed themselves of the Temple yet were themselves the first who put fire with their own hands into the holy places How hath the avarice and carnall interests of the Teachers of these times corrupted the purity of our Religion as Judahs so Englands onely Prophets have seen vain and foolish things for her and they have not discovered her iniquity to turn away her captivity but have seen for her false burthens and causes of banishment they have shed the bloud of the just K. Charles in the midst of her Englands greatest Adversaries are chief and her Enemies prosper Servants do bear rule over us and there is none to deliver us out of their hand They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghils Princes are hanged by their hands and the faces of the Elders are not honoured War desolation and famine with their sad effects foretold in these Lamentations appear in our Horizon already like Elihu's little Cloud which will shortly overspread our whole English firmament and all these calamities have and will fall upon us because the Crown is fallen from our Head the British Josiah King Charles is taken from us and we have no comforter and how great and just causes of our sorrows are all these Calamities But let this sorrow have the full advantage in its fall to adde motion unto all the turning wheels of our afflicting griefs the fall from our great happiness in his Majesties Government Let London let England let Scotland let Ireland let every of them Remember as Jerusalem did in the dayes of her afflictions and her miseries all the pleasant things that she had in the dayes of old All the pleasant things they had in the blessed dayes of King Charles his blessed Reign the glory and truth of her Religion the just execution of
taking away a good King from a People is an evidence of his heavy displeasure and a certain Prognostique of the many miseries he will bring upon them That a violent death proves a temporall blessing unto a King when it takes from him the sight and sense of his Subjects sufferings That a violent death may justly be reputed a departing in peace compared with a continuance of the sence of troubles and durable calamity That all men are strictly and deeply engaged unto the most solemn sorrow for the calamity of their King as caused by their sins and ushering in their approaching miseries Let us see whether our Kingdomes may not truly calculate their griefs by the Ephimerides of Judah's sorrow we have had a British Josiah whose Graces and Prerogatives fully answered the proportion and size of their pattern Could Judah's sinnes snatch away their pious King JOSIAH from them and do not we conceive that our sins have hurried our Religious King CHARLES from us Was King Josiah's death the In-let of Judah's miseries and do not we suppose that King Charles his life may be the period of our temporall happiness and his death the first act of that tragicall Woe which is to be presented upon the Theatre of this Kingdome likely to continue longer than the now-living Spectators We have had as great an Ebbe of Felicity in the loss of our King Charles as Judah had in her Josiah's should not the Tyde then of our sorrows run as high as theirs Surely the parallel considerations of the Vertues and Prerogatives of both these pious Kings of the causes of their Calamities and the sad consequences attending them will command an equality of ours with Judah's sorrow we will a little invert the method Begin with King Charls his divine and regal Prerogatives next shew his personall Vertues and Graces then his Sufferings point at their Causes and conclude with our own constrained Sorrows England in her best and loudest language the Law hath largely declared the sacred soveraignty of her Kings spoke them Gods Vicars assigned unto them the fulness of Regall power laid forth their jurisdiction by as large bounds as the Scripture doth King Josiah's or any other Kings of Israel or Judah Are not these legall registred and publick acknowledgments That every man is under the King and he under God onely That he is not inferiour unto his Subjects even collectively considered That he is a mixt person and capable of Spirituall Jurisdiction through holy Unction That he is the fountain of Honour hath the sole power to pardon and punish Offenders to leavy War to make Peace to constitute Officers That he can do no wrong Do not these expressions amount unto The breath of our Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord c. And these are the Regall peculiars of the Kings of England inseparably annexed unto their Crown and Dignity which he that runneth may read being written in those large and known characters of the Law Certainly these significant delineations of the sacred and regall power of the Kings of England were copied out of the holy Scriptures which those that now wrest them and make that fair Face of the Holy Ghost a vizard alterable unto the disguise of their personated piety and hypocritical practice seeing will not see Doubtless the Crown of England was held from the Lord paramount of Dominion God by as free noble and regall a tenure as any under Heaven And from him by a lineall and unquestionable right of succession had King Charles the investure thereof and grant of all these royall acknowledged Prerogatives untill without any divine or humane warrant He was violently disseized of them and taken in their pits These were his sacred and regall Prerogatives Let us now look into that spacious field of His personall Vertues a fragrant tract having the sweet smell of A field which the Lord hath blessed and since time wil not permit the perusal of every pleasant walk of grace and the delightful Ambits of his vertues let us as Moses from Mount Nâ—bo take a general and distant survey of this blessed circuit flowing with milk and honey King Charles his Celestial gifts and graces A Jove principium His religious piety renders iâ— self glorious in his great love fear and honour of God His zeal and devout frequency in prayer receiving the Sacraments and reading the holy Scriptures his reverence in Gods House his attention unto Godâ— word preached the esteem he had of Gods Messengers his hatred of Heresie and the zealous care he had as it was consistent with charity to propagate the true worship of God the Protestant Religion this in the purity thereof he established by his Laws enlarged with his Regall Authority cleansed from that Rust it had contracted through the Atheism and ignorance of the Times by the contemptibleness of the outward worship adorned with Decency and Order in the publique service and with cost upon the places dedicate unto that service but chiefly he beautified it with the glorious example of his holy life and encouragement of the Officers thereof whom he rewarded with the rewards of Honour and Maintenance His Royall Palace as Theodosius Juniors was a constant Receipt for learned and pious Prelats whom he entertained and cherished as the Servants of the great God and Dispensers of the mysteries and means of Grace which as it was an especiall and infallible mark of the sincerity of his humble piety so through the supercilious irreligion of the times did that which should have most endeared him unto Christians draw neglect and contempt upon him from them and those Great ones too who love nothing of Christianity but the naked name he knew that Church-maintenance was the best Nurse of Religion and therefore no weight of difficulties could so press upon him to alien Gods portion the Patrimony of the Church to preserve which from the sacrilegious invasion of the first movers of these Troubles who thought the best way to shake off Government was to destroy Religion and the most effectuall and quick course to destroy Religion to take away Church-maintenance He tendred the sale of so much Crown-land as would amount unto the value of the Church-land That great and strict care he took to keep the Throne and Kingdom of God in his Soul His Conscience inviolable shews that although he made his abode among Men yet his Conversation was in Heaven The continuall acknowledged remorse he was seized with for consenting against the dictate of his Conscience unto the Earl of Strafford's death speaks him another David and A Man after Gods own heart such were the tender impressions that Act ever left in him as David when he cut off the skirt of Sauls garment his heart smote him and indeed his Majesty found that fate which the Rabbins assigne unto David's fact that he found no heat in his cloaths afterwards So His Majesty found not that comforting warmth in the advices of others which he
A Sermon ON The 30th of January BEING The day on which that Sacred MARTYR King CHARLES the First was murdered By JOHN KING D. D. and Dean of Tuam in Ireland Lamentation 5.16 The Crown is fallen from our head Woe unto us that we have sinned London Printed for John Playford at his Shop in the Temple 1661. LAMENT 4.20 The breath of our Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits of whom we said Under his shadow we shall live among the Heathen PUblick Calamities charge every man with a rate of sorrow proportionable unto the tenure of his Understanding put him upon a serious enquiry of the Causes and Consequences of them and exact from him a diligent provision of means to stop or divert them Calamity like the floud is now lifted up above our Earth and hath almost covered the highest Hills of our temporal felicity could our sorrow swell as high as that the sense of our present and impending miseries would drown us if we search into the causes of them we shall find those in our selves our sins their sad consequences are by so much the superabounding matter of our just fear by how much they go beyond our knowledge nay even conjecture and all our power to prevent them such is the inundation of miseries now prevailing over the three Kingdoms Would you see the head of these overflowing Cataracts this Text will make the discovery unto you The breath of our Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits of whom we said Under his shadow we shall live among the Heathen The Words are the ground-work and foundation on which the Prophet Jeremiah raised the whole sorrowfull structure of his Lamentations composed on the mournful Obsequies of the best of the Kings of Judah Josiah hurried away by a violent and unto all but himself untimely death made a mourning Ordinance for Israel and enjoyned as the signal expression of their grief and deep sense of the future numerous and unavoidable Calamities would by his death befall them Judah's sins having provoked God unto so speedy execution of those Judgements formerly denounc'd against them that they might not longer plead the priviledges of their Princes piety to reprieve their punishments God removes this remora unto his justice their good King from them that he might bring upon them the fierceness of his great wrath he plucks down their hedg and fence their devout Prince from them that he might rush in upon them by unexpected judgments to destroy them there lies not among all the files of sacred Records an evidence of so exemplary and princely Piety as King Josiah Like unto him there was no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might according to all the Law of Moses neither after him arose there any like him yet the sins of his People drew upon him a violent death acknowledged worthy of a longer life the peoples sins put the religious and deserving Prince into the toyles of his persecuters they hunt after his precious life and he falls into their pits He who stood in the Gap to hinder the way of the Destroyer that bulwark that stood betwixt them and the furious batteries of Gods wrath was now torne down just cause then had the Prophet to fear the sharp assaults of Gods judgements ready to storm the Kingdome of Judah and to break out into this dolorous Lamentation as pointing at the spring and source of their sorrows and calamities The breath of our Nostrils c. How is the happiness of a Kingdom twisted with the welfare of a religious King how close doth the ruine of a people follow the loss of a pious Prince A good King is a Rampire and security unto his Kingdom that being slighted the destruction thereof is an easie undertaking yet who so apt to sap and undermine these their own fortifications as the people themselves foelices nimiùm bona si sua norint Sufficiently happy if they knew the things which belonged unto their welfare Sufficiently happy if they were not so industrious to make themselves unhappy Josiah was the best of Princes yet by the sinnes of his people pushed into the fatall pits of his Adversaries and his fall proves the utter destruction and downfall of the people themselves this Consideration makes them mourn for their deceased King weep Elegies and lament thus The breath of our Nostrils c. A spreading and thick Cloud whence lasting showres of tears might continually descend That the breath c. The words not to torture them offer unto us two things First Gods Letters patents of the royall prerogatives and beneficiall priviledges granted unto King Josiah and that in these 3 eminent and significant expressions 1. He was the breath of their Nostrils 2. The Anointed of the Lord. 3. Of whom they said Under the shadow of his wings they should live among the Heathen Secondly there is the Nulling of these letters patents of Josiah He was taken in their pits God by a violent death reversed them The Prophet and people of Judah well knew the sacred and royal prerogatives of their deceased King yet acknowledge these glorious priviledges taken away by his death for their punishment The breath of our nostrils an high and emphatique expression borrowed from the chiefe and choicest work of the Creation Man whom when God formed out of the dust of the earth he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and he became a living Soul thus contriving within this trunk of dust and clay the inimitable hability of his own deity from him is this significant and effective operation in an inferior and remiss degree attributed unto his Vicegerent King Josiah that as in the natural body Life and all the animal faculties and principles of action owe their Original unto the infusion of Gods breath the Soul So a man a Subject considered in a politick respect hath the life of his Civil Constitution from the King and as the rational faculties planted in the Understanding Memory and Will are from the Soul so the religious actions of men refer their growth unto the Prince in which respects is it that the King is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Minister of God an august denomination implying him the chief Officer for the exercise of sacred Jurisdiction great in regard both of the Author thereof God and the end thereof Mans good This royal Jurisdiction consisting in the Legislative and Executive power of Kings to make and execute Laws for regulating the actions of men as well in the outward and religious worship of God as in civil conversation that as the Soul is the fountain of corporal motion and rational action so the Laws divine and humane of which the King is the proper Custos are the beginning and rule of all civil and religious actions and as to make Laws is the
Saul insomuch though he were his irreconcilable Adversary he would not even stretch forth his hand against him he had not the new way to expound Scriptures unto his own distorting passions though that course was pressed upon him with the advantage of a Crown he checks the wrested and carnall application The Lord forbid that I should do this thing yea when the Son of a stranger an Amalekite who might perhaps plead ignorance of the sacred relations by Unction although Saul had already received his deaths wound beside that it might be counted a kind of rescue to save him from being taken Prisoner and come alive into the enemies hands and that he might seem also to have merited by preserving the Regalia the Crown and royal Habiliaments from the Enemy and presenting them unto the lawful Successor David yet he is so awed with the sacred regards conveyed unto King Saul by Unction that he punisheth him with death for shortning Sauls life as for the breach of a known and natural right How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand against the Lords Anointed David honoured Saul for his holy Unction living and revenged him being dead A King in his Kingdom is solo Deo minor inferior unto God onely sayes Tertullian and then surely above his people Deo subditus subject to God onely sayes St. Ambrose unto Valentinian Princeps legibus solutus est that the King is free from the power of the Law is a Maxime as old as Christianity that is from the penalties of it Laws have onely a directive no coercive power over him though not as a moral man yet in his politick consideration he is above the Law Divino sunt judicio reservandi Reges Kings stand or fall unto their own master God satis est ad poenam quod Deum habeant ultâ—rem it is sufficient that God will punish their Crimes he is the onely Judge not the people unto whom our Appeal lies against the injuries of their proceedings in such cases our proper address is unto Gods Tribunal if arbitrary Government Oppression Murther Sacriledge Demonaick possession Witchcraft of all which sins King Saul was notoriously guilty could give sufficient warranty unto his punishment by his Subjects and were the people competenâ— Judges the peoples hate of Saul and Davids merit from them and suffrings from Saul might probably lead him to propound the people an High Court of Justice but informed by a better spirit than that which actuates these times he puts up his Charge against Saul even when his life was in his power unto God unto whom the judgment of Kings belongs in these words The Lord judge between thee and me and the Lord avenge me of thee but mine hand shall not be upon thee yea afterwards upon Sauls continuance of his mortal hatred and bloudy persecution of David and his Followers and that Abishai preached unto David the modern doctrine the divine and infallible equity of outward Successes that God had delivered King Saul into his hands and offered himself a ready Executioner of the fact David countermands â—is active and interessed malice cloaked with usual pretensions of Religion and Liberty Destroy him not for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless but he refers for remedy unto the proper Court of Justice against Kings the Lord shall smiâ—e him or this day shall come to dye or he shall descend in Battel and perish the Lord forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the Lords Anointed Saul had not Innocency and yet he had Sanctity not of Life but of the Unction which even in wicked men is holy saith Saint Augustine The first and best Christians continued their practice towards their most reâ—â—actory and imperious Emperors when Valentinian the Younger dispossessed the Orthodox of their Churches in Millain and gave them unto the Arians Saint Ambrose the Bishop onely offered up his supplications unto God to alter the Emperors purposes Adversus Arma Lacrymae meae Arma sunt against Armes teares are my defensive weapons aliter nec debeo nec possum repugnare no other way ought I or can I resist saith he the carriage of the Citizens of Millaine was the same exhibiting their Petition unto the Emperour they all crie out Rogamus non pugnamus We humbly intreat you oh Emperour we fight not against you The testimony of Plynius secundus given unto Trajan that the Primitive Christians practiced nothing against the received Laws and were ready rather to suffer then oppose procured them not onely a respite from their bloody persecution but also the free exercise of their Religion Teares and Prayers unto God and humble supplications unto Princes the ancient Christians held the onely powerfull means to divert their miscarriages they never denyed them any duty of Subjection Saint Austustine witnesseth that this was the behaviour of the Christian Souldiers even under Julian the Apostata an Idolater When Maximus entred Italy with a great Army under pretence of restoring the Orthodox ejected by Valentinian who patronized the Arrians he was held by the Orthodox but for a Tyrant and was so far from receiving assistance from them that they overthrew him and established Valentinian And as Unction is the divine seal of supreme power Indempnity Inviolability unto Kings so doth it likewise suggest unto them the duty of the Regall Administration towards their Subjects That as Oyle is of a spreading diffusive quality So in the Prince is required Impartiality and Justice equally distributive unto all As Oyle likewise hath in it a lenitive and healing vertue So should the Supreme Magistrate be an Healer and binder up of the wounds and sores of his Subjects Oyle hath in it also an especiall vertue to comfort and strengthen the parts unto which it is applyed So is a King the Minister of good unto his Subjects for good he is to cherish vertue to esteem honest and commendable Action in which sense are Kings stiled by our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benefactors Luke 22.25 Adde hereunto that Oyle is of a nourishing and cheering quality and taken as sustenance is of easie fine distribution causing a good and wholsome nutriment therefore it is reckoned among the principall blessings of a land so is the Grace and Countenance of a King of a nourishing and improving operation The Kings favour is like the dew upon the grasse Prov. 19.12 in which respect God promiseth unto the Christian Church that Kings should be nursing Fathers and Queens the nursing Mothers thereof Isa. 49.23 Thus we see the many sacred Impressions of Divine Jurisdiction imposed by God himself on Kings through holy Unction whereby his Dominion over Mankind is delegated unto Kings the Lords Anointed God by this Symbole and outward signe agreeable and connaturall unto man consigning the ordinary exercise of his Government over Mankind unto them so that the holy Oyle
thus employed is no longer bare and common Oyle but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gifâ— of Grace which however vilified by Enthusiastiques and Solifidians betokens the Grace 〈◊〉 Christ unto Kings and prescribe necessary submission and duty unto their Subjects We are not whatever phantastique men may presume â—o spirituall in this life but that we stand in need of outward representations to carry on our faith and hope unto things spirituall the greatest favours unto lapsed mankind are the Sacraments where the visible and corporeall Elements are the meanes to convey by faith spirituall graces and the whole benefit of Christs sufferings unto us the sublimated and metaphysicall Professours of our times endeavour too irreverent a close with Almighty God they will have no King but Christ no Unction but that of the Spirit which is not that sober peaceable Spirit that leadeth into all truth but the Spirit of giddinesse Elihu's spirit the spirit of their belly which leadeth into all errour Carnal interests constraining them to shake off Gods Government in Princes to effect which the most compendious way is to throw all Ceremony which is unto Religion as the Scaberd unto the Sword to preserve it from the rust of contempt as Saint Augustinâ— speaks The sacred regards of Unction of King of Priest of Prophet of Churches of Tythes stand betwixt them and their sacrilegious ends they must be removed no railes or bounds must be set unto them they will up into the Mount and run the hazard if not of temporall flames yet certainly without hearty repentance of the Everlasting burnings These men who will be solely swayed by the guidance of their own spirit which being as various as the severall tempers of the Continents it inhabits will make Religion full of uncertainties meerly imaginary and wholly depending upon the doubtfull Insufficiencies of mens weak Conceptions so that hereby the essentiall truths of Religion must needs daily decay the substance thereof be reduced into the smoake of every mans unbounded Fancy and the Christian faith will die by degrees But Unction puts Gods Dominion into the Kings hands that must not be resisted for it is the resisting of God himselfe It is the very language of the Holy Ghost unto the â—en revolted Tribes that they resisted thâ— Kingdome of God in the hands of the Sonnes of David and Josephus assignes this the Cause of the subversion of them no memory of them being left The sedition saith he that they moved against Rehoboam establishing hiâ— Servant for their King was the originall of their mischiefs Ammon was a most wicked and idolatrous Prince yet God punished the Treason of his Servants against him because he was Gods Anointed Many sacred regards are by Unction conveyed from God unto Princes great cause then had the Prophet and people of Judah to lament the death of their good King Josiah The Anointed of the Lord That he was fallen into their pits 3. Of whom we said Vnder the shadow of his wings we shall live among the Heathen King Josiah his regall prerogatives and personall vertues were a protection unto his people he was the fountaine of their liberty and safety The happinesse of Subjects depends upon the wel-being of their Kings and the preservation of the Regall dignity is a sure pledge of Gods goodnesse the continuance of his favour unto a people for this cause is it that when the Apostle had exhorted that prayers should be made for all men 1 Tim. 2.1 as though this precept were too universall he reduceth it v. 2. unto Kings and adds the reason that ye may lead a quiet and peaceable life and for the same cause did the Prophet command the Israelites to pray for the King of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar This consideration also made Davids Subjects apprice his life at so high a rate is not now thy life worth ten thousand of ours The King is the Head of the people there is a sacred and neare relation betwixt them a disease or paine in the Head causeth a discrasie in the whole body an indisposition throughout all the members So the calamity and sufferings of the King affecteth every conscientious man in his Kingdome this honest zeale and pious sympathy between thâ— Heâ—d 〈…〉 the King and the people made our Prophet and the men of Judah so passionately bewaile the losse of their good King Josiah they promised unto themselves a lasting security in this life Of whom we said Under the shadow of his wings we shall live among the Heathen Gods grant of Regall prerogatives unto Josiah afforded not onely protection as the Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings our Saviours allusion to defend them from the Birds of prey but a strength also and vigorous warmth to make them grow up unto an ability to guard themselves and dwell with safety among the Heathen the known Enemies of their Nation and profession when then this Royall Oake was cut down and they deprived of the thriving benefits of its shelter their sorrows must needs plentifully spring up from the sense of so great and irrepaâ—â—able a losse and the fear of those stormes which now threatned to overturne their felicity But the depth of this sorrow was not to be fathomed when they found the bottomlesse Abysse of their own sinnes the head thereof that notwithstanding the great priviledges of Josiah's Regall dignity and pieâ—y that the fiercenesse of Gods greater wrath was so kindled against Judah that the Lord said I will remove Judah out of my sight as I have removed Israel and therefore that his fury without obstruction or let might be powred out upon them God suffers the breath of their Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord of whoâ— they said Under the shadow of his wings they should live among the Heathen Good King Josiah the life of their Religion Law he who was empowred by God with the Supreme Authority had a divine grant of humane Indemnity and Inviolability their righteous Justicer their Physitian their nursing Father their Protectour and the great Conservator of their Liberty and Safety To fall into their pits to die by the hands of his Adversaries being the second consideration in the Text. 2. The breath of our Nostrils c. was taken in their pits Here is the nulling of Gods letters patents and the grant of Regall prerogatives and beneficiall priviledges made unto King Josiah by a violent death God for the punishment of the people of Judah's sinnes takes away their pious Prince by the power of his Enemies The force of the relation betwixt the head and the members the King and the People is the true reason why God punisheth the best of Kings with temporall judgments for the offences of his Subjects as here in Josiah The anger of the Lord was moved against Israel and he moved David to number the people 2 Sam. 24.1 The divine Justice vindicated that sin of the King upon the people for whose