Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	king_n	law_n	majesty_n	3,064	5	5.9700	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94101	The subjects sorrow: or, Lamentations upon the death of Britains Josiah, King Charles most unjustly and cruelly put to death by His own people, before His Royal Palace White-Hall, Jan. the 30. 1648. Expressed in a sermon upon Lam. 4. 20. Wherein the divine and royal prerogatives, personall vertues, and theologicall graces of His late Majesty are briefly delivered: and that His Majesty was taken away in Gods mercy unto Himselfe, and for the certain punishment of these Kingdoms, from the parallel is clearly proved.	Brown, Robert, fl. 1668, attributed name.; Juxon, William, 1582-1663, attributed name.	1649 (1649)	Wing S6106B; ESTC R206110	26,786	95

which never was theirs to deny God which God gave them him to acknowledge and worship him These must needs be sorrowes and sufferings as beyond expression so above our conception most terrible tests and trials of all his virtues certainly no man had ever more and more strict examinations of Gods graces in him all which he fully answered with a learned and invincible piety for in all these who ever heard him murmure repine or charge God foolishly who ever heard him accuse raile at or threaten his most confirmed Foes with Job Job 16.20 his eyes still powred out tears unto God whose justice in their greatest injustice he acknowledged and although he vindicated his owne Innocency having wherwith to justisie homselfe before man from theirs yet not before God he cleared the equity of his judgement upon him for acting against his Conscience in the Earle of Straffords death But it was the great and crying guilt of these Nations sinnes Englands principally which made this righteous man fall into the pits of his Adversaries to ripen Gods judgment upon this Nation by that great addition of guilt the shedding of his innocent bloud who had so many characters of Gods supreme power and spirituall graces upon him as must needs make this Crime committed against God draw his speedy and unavoidable vengeance upon them for it God usually punisheth one sinne by suffering Sinners to fall into others and those customary sinnes accompanied with senslessnesse and impenitency which fills up the measure of sin brim-full for judgment to take it off so that this pious Prince fell in the very corruption of Christianity which is of farre more maligne aspect and hath a more malicious influence of impiety upon the actions of men then Atheisme it selfe for then men professe that they know God yet in their works they deny him using the name of God and Religion as Conjurers in their Incantations to perpetrate those things are most contrary unto God and destructive unto Religion for as the Devill never doth more hurt then when he appeares in the likenesse of an Angel of light so are men never so mischievous as when they drive on wicked designes under the shew of Godlinesse Englands former sins which caused this Gods just dereliction the abandoning them up unto greater were their exceeding luxury in turning the grace of God temporal favours into wantonnes the long continuance of their peace the increase of their Trade riches and plenty begot in them a generall insolency and pride so that whē they waxed fat like Jesurun they kicked against God in the Authority and regard due unto his principall Officers the Prince and the Priest Hence the people of England in their generality became self-willed heady high-minded and incorrigible they slandered the footsteps of Gods Anointed smote him with the tongue contended with Gods Priests and usurped that sacred Jurisdiction which God had delegated unto them as those Conspirators did Ye take too much upon you ye Sonnes of Levi since all the people of the Lord are holy under pretence of the Ambition of the Clergy and being like Elihu's new bottels ready to burst with that liquor of flatuous and superficiall knowledge instilled into 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 ease they adventure upon sacriledge 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 upō 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 Joh. 19.7 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 Vit. Const l. 4. c. 29. 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

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Causab Exc. 16. 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 life of authority so the execution of them is the life of the Law Herein a pious Prince being eminently the representer of his God and may be said the breath of his Subjects as unto their civil and religious life in making and executing such Laws as may dispose them in order unto God and salvation But this divinely alluding and cryptick similitude appropriate unto a pious Prince to be the breath of our Nostrils hath not a more lively feature of divine resemblance then the vigorous exemplarity of personal piety in the Prince himself his example giving life reputation and lustre unto Religion in which sense is it that a King is tearmed 2 Sam. 14.17 2 Sam. 21.17 An Angel of God the light or Candle of his people from all these Considerations good K. Josiah was justly acknowledged the breath of their Nostrils he restored the Law even lost punished extirpated Idolatry setled the Church restored Religion encouraged the Priests judiciously ordered the whole service of Gods houses and for his personal sanctimony besides these Acts of royal prudence and zeal the Holy Ghost affords him this great and gracious testimony 2. Chro. 34.27 that his heart was tender and that he did humble himself before God his chief care solicitude was to decline those things that would offend God and preserve his Conscience a clear and unspotted glasse wherein the glorious Image of divine holinesse did shew it self transparent in the whole conduct of his actions yet this great and royal pattern of piety the life of their Religion and Law was taken in their pits for the sins of his Subjects he fell into the fatall snares of his Adversaries yea notwithstanding he bare yet a more visible cognizance and livery of Gods own divine and supream Authority being The Anointed of the Lord Gods Christ sacred by holy Unction unto God Unto no materiall thing hath God fastned such significations of his Graces unto mankind as unto Oyle the whole influence of Gods jurisdiction over man being as the most lasting pieces are drawn in Oyle represented unto us by a mysterious application thereof through Unction therewith of those unto whom God hath by a deputation conferred the great and chief Places of Trust for the exercise of his supreme power over mankind as the Kingly Priestly and Prophetick Offices they whom God had delegated unto these subservient Offices of Supreme Authority and constituted his own under-Officers having the Warrant for the execution of their Places signed by the outward Act of sacred Unction Euseb Ecc. Hist l. 1. c. 3. The Title Anointed sayes Eusebius is of great reverence and glorious delivering types and symbols of heavenly things and secret images and representations full of mystery But whereas Priests and Prophets in Scripture are barely called Vncti Anointed for Kings the style alwayes runs Vncti Domini the Lords Anointed God having given unto Kings by a more immediate consignation greater relations and proportions of his power than unto either the Priest or the Prophet Kings were by divine instinct of God Euseb ubi supra unto his Prophet anointed with Oyl and made Christs or anointed that they should resemble Christ because they by themselves resemble the image and figure of regal and principal power which is seen in the onely and true Christ So Saint Augustine speaking of Saul's Unction Civ Dei l. 17. c. 6. which made David fear even to touch him saith Oleum illud c. mysticè accipiendum magnum Sacramentum intelligendum est That Oyl with which Saul was anointed and from that Crisme or Unction was termed Anoinned is to be understood mystically and is a great Sacrament so the Ancients usually termed the representations of things holy When Sylvester the Bishop of Rome anointed Constantine Consignationem Spiritus Sancti adhibuit sancti Chrismatis Vnctione dicens signet te Deus sigillo fidei In nomine c. saith the Author He gave a Consignation of the Holy Ghost Lib. Vet. Concil by the Unction of the holy Oyle saying Almighty God imprint in thee the seal and character of his faith In the name of the Father c. Now the plenitude of the Regall power derived from Unction is visible in these proportions of similitude 1. Unction conferred upon them Vim supereminentis Domini the power of absolute and supreme Authority † Oleum magnum aliquid significat omnibus enim humoribus supereminet Aug. de verb. D. ser 23. Eccle. 8.4 1 Pet. 2.13 Oyle denoting Soveraignty in that being mixed with any Liquor it maintains a superiority in the supernatation appearing still uppermost the Exercise of which supreme Authority consisted in the making and abrogating of Laws Civill and Ecclesiasticall which in matters indifferent and not against the clear evidence of Gods word should bind the Conscience David Solomon Hezekiah Socrat proae l. 5. Josiah ordered the Affaires of the Jewish Church and Socrates tells us that after the Emperours became Christians matters of the Church wholly depended upon them and that it was by their summons and pleasures that the greatest Counsels were called and therefore Constantine the Great would usually say unto the Bishops Vos intra Euseb de vit Const m. l. 4. c. 24. ego extra Ecclesiam Episcopus à Deo sum constitutus ye are Bishops within the Church and without the Church I am a Bishop appointed by God he was Communis Episcopus the common and ecumenicall Bishop in his Empire Rom. 13.4 Psal 47.9 Cont. Faust Manic l. 22. c. 75. It gave them power to denounce Warre the merum Imperium and absolute power of the Sword being his from God Ordo ille naturalis mortalium paci accommodus hoc poscit ut suscipiendi belli authoritas atque Concilium penes principem sit even natural order accommodate unto the peace of mankind requiring this that the power of making War remains wholly in the Prince which when the people usurped we see they were punished Numb 14.44 3. To conclude peace and make Confederations and Leagues as King David and King Solomon did 2 Sam. 10.19 1 Kings 4.24 1 Kings 5.12 1 Kings 2.5 6. the Olive from which Oyle comes is the Embleme of Peace and Unction notably

insinuates those ready inclinations and endeavours in Kings to procure the peace of their Subjects and in order unto peace to make Cessations and Truces which when broken even by Davids General he was sentenced as for murther 2 Chron. 17.8 9. 4. The free Election of their Servants and disposition of all Offices in Church and State 5. To pardon unto Offenders their lives 2 Sam. 20.4 1 Kings 3.27 Esth 3.1 1 Kings 2. Acts 25.10.1 reprieve or to punish them with death as in Joab's and Shimei's case 6. To receive Appeals from all other Judicatures that absolute submission unto the supreme Magistrate being taught Christians Euseb Ecc. Hist l. 4. c. 14. as Polycarpus the holy Martyr and Bishop told the Proconsul which brings no hurt unto the salvation of our Souls and Religion And from this divine signature of supreme power in Kings by Unction flows their indempnity and inviolability in word and deed they are not to be smitten even with the tongue much less the hand Against thee onely have I sinned sayes David Psal 5.1 which St. Ambrose expounds by his absolute exemption from humane Judicature There is no rising up against a King sayes Salomon who may say unto him what doest thou Si non habebat Saul sacramenti sanctitatem quid in eo venerabatur David Aug. Cont. lit pet l. 2. c. 48. David acknowledged the Image of God by holy Unction in the worst of Kings 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 1 Sam. 24.6 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 David Saulem propter sacro-sanctam Unctionem honoravit vivum vindicavit occisum Aug. Cont. lit pet l. 2. c. 48. In Apol. Ep. l. 2. Ep. 13. Dig. vet l. 1. tit 3. H. leg 30. Tho. Aq. Ia. IIae q. 96. a. 5. ad IIIm 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 Yvo Carnot Ep. 171. Divino sunt judicio reservandi Roges Kings stand or fall unto their own master God satis est ad poenam quod Deum habeant ult●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 competent 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 1 Sam. 24.14 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 his 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 1 Sam. 26.9 10. the Lord shall smite 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 Saul non habebat Innocentiam tamen habebat sanctitatem non vitae suae sed sacramenti Dei quod in malis hominibus sanctum est ubi supra 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 refractory 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 Amb. Ep. l. 2. Ep. 13 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 Euse Hist Ecc. l. 3. c. 27. Theod. l. 3. f. 19. 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 Quod debitum non reddiderunt in quo Christiani non sunt terrenis regibus obsequi Aug. Con. 31.

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 irrepairable 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 piety that the fiercenesse of Gods greater wrath was so kindled against Judah that the Lord said I will remove Judah out of my sight 2 Chron. 24.26 27. 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 whom 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 transgressions he was suffered to sin Ep. l 2. ep 6 Justus Jadex peccantis vitium ex ipsorum animadversione corripuit ex quorum causa peccavit Divinely holy Gregory secundum meritum plebium disponuntur Corda Rectorum According unto the deserts of the People the hearts of the Governors are disposed the just Judge punished the fault of the Offender upon them who had caused him to offend What an impious absurdity is it to flie in the face of our Prince for those errors which receive their birth strength from our own native corruptions Job 19.28 we should rather say as Iob tels his supercilious Reprovers why persecute we him since the ground of the matter is found in me Where the Prince is vitious the accusation properly lies against the Subjects whose sins make him so for as the prosperity of the King is the sure earnest of Gods favour unto a people 1 Kings 10.9 as Saba shews the Israelites from the glory of King Salomons Court so is the oppression and misery even of the worst of Kings an infallible mark of Gods anger resting upon a people as in King Saul Josiah's single default fighting with Pharaoh Necho without Gods allowance brings the punishment of a violent death upon him for that onely registred errour into which the peoples sin had pushed him their sins were now ripe for punishment by his one offence for whose punishment he was suffered even then to offend that so their judgments might commence from his death whose guilt permitted not unto him a longer life He fell into their pits a speech taken from Hunters who way-lay those Beasts they chase setting snares and toyles for them in those paths and places they run unto for refuge that they might know that since God had divested Josiah their sacred head of all Regal Prerogatives and let him fall by the practises and power of his cruel Foes they could no longer urge a respite from the execution of those judgments given against their former transgressions but acknowledge and bewail this sad and evil occurrent the violent death of their King the fatal consequence of their own sins for which there was now a recession of God in his Government by Josiah from them and an abandoning them up into the hands of Strangers and Usurpers from whom they could not but expect all the wearisom traverses of Tyranny the heavy weight of a continued Oppression and all those not to be reckoned unhappy inconveniences which attend upon a Government obtained by conquest supported by force and maintained and actuated by the Law of the sword so that even this violent death appears an absolute assurance of Gods mercy and goodness unto King Josiah to take him out of this life that he might not behold those wofull and thronging miseries which were ready to rush in upon and beat down the present for his sake onely happy condition of his Subjects which would have procured unto him more anxiety than the consideration of undergoing ten thousand violent deaths a good Prince having so strong a sympathy with his Subjects sufferings that he feels every pricking pang and painfull touch of their troubles in which respect this violent death was an incomparable favour unto him and which at first sight procures our wonder proves his greatest temporall blessing and the gracious reward of his eminent piety and so much the Holy Ghost tels us 2 Chron. 34.27 28. Because thine heart was tender and thou didst humble thy self before God when thou heardest his words against this place and against the inhabitants thereof and humbledst thy self before me and didst rend thy clothes and weep before me I have even heard thee also saith the Lord. Behold I will gather thee to thy Fathers and thou shalt be gathered unto thy Fathers in peace neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place and upon the inhabitants of the same So that as the Prophet Isaiah speaks we may Lay it to heart Isa 57 1. that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come Hezekiah's piety likewise found this divine favour a respite from the sight of those judgments his peoples sins had contracted 2 Chron. 20.19 that there should be peace and truth in his dayes and he thankfully and humbly acknowledgeth the greatness of that mercy These sad Considerations quickly pull up all the sluces of sorrow and let in flouds of tears to overwhelm

with more judgement bethought those things that were to be spoken or who ever fitted his Consult thoughts with a more handsome and cleane apparell of speech and maturity of weighed words This Age shewes not a man able to take up his Princely pen his style may well be the object of mens wishes never of their imitation unto an equality of like perfection This his princely prudence receives likewise further illustrations from his Justice in the free and equall administration thereof unto all some surreptions and corruptions in particular Officers of State as they are not to be defended so whilst men are men they will hardly be avoided but the sweet influence of His Majesties justice upon all appeares in the Peace of His Kingdomes the serenity of His people the tranquility of Publique affaires the increase of Trade the growing riches of His Subjects and the universall happinesse of His Government these three Kingdomes being thrice happy untill the Helme of Government was wrested out of His sacred hands and now we see since these State-emperiques have practised upon the body politique with what strong convulsions and mortall maladies it is affected The best experienced Physician under Heaven and He onely who could have cured England from the diseases of her distemper without opening her veines is taken away from her she lies now in the hands of young and desperate Practitioners it is to be feared unlesse God prevent their violent administrations and corrosive potions with Antidotes of mercy in stead of mending her they will end her health life and liberty Look upon this true Christian fortitude in the magnanimity of his carrying on with Constancy of Resolution his weightiest Affaires even in their greatest difficulties in his confidence with Gods assistance to overcome them in his exceeding patience in a tollerance free from despondency in the greatest molestations and pressures to compose them and in his matchlesse and Kingly perseverance even in the fornace of affliction and hottest flames of adversity as Gods Cause to maintaine them He went unto the Scaffold tanquam Apis ad Alveare as a Bee unto his Hive with our Saviour as a Lamb unto the slaughter and cheerfully undrest himself unto his spirituall repose Observe his great temperance his exemplary chastity so rare a vertue in a Prince of so active firme a constitution so farre free from uncleannesse that it had a refined purity from all lasciviousnesse of either gesture or speech his abstinence in his feeding gave unto him constancy in health and readinesse unto action and his sobriety in drinking whom the Sun nor all the Sons of Men ever saw overcome or disguised by ingurgitations of strong Liquors made him unconquerable by Wine or Women His divine clemency even in the heat and cruelty of the bloudy rage of his Adversaries is a contemplation will raise us up unto the very top of admiration whose life after they had butchered his dearest and nearest Servants did he take away how many of his 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 the Rectory of Sligo 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 wandring 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

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 Lam. 1.10 2.7 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 Jos Bell. Jud. l. 2. C●● 2. who called themselves 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 Lam. 2.14 4.13 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 1.5 and her Enemies prosper 5.8 Servants do bear rule over us and there is none to deliver us out of their hand 4.5 They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghils 5.12 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 5.16 King Charles is taken from us 1.9 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 1.7 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 her Laws her peace her riches her plenty her liberty at home and her protection and honour abroad 2.15 England was the perfection of beauty and the joy of the whole earth The Kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the Adversary and Enemy should have entred into the Gates of our Jerusalem London that Churches should be turned into stables Gods Houses made Courts of Guards the Royall Palaces made Garrisons the Tythes the portion of Gods Ministers made the Souldiers salary that the Law should be turned into wormwood our Religion and Liberty measured out unto us by the Pikes length the decisions of the Sword become the Principles of Faith and that which is the cause of all this mechanick persons Trades-men who will certainly marr never can mend so great concernments they never before handled or were acquainted with the sole Moderators of Publick affairs and the chief Princes and Potentates of our Kingdom But now The glory is departed from our Israel 1.1 the Arke of God is taken and how is England become a Widow made a prey unto cruel people and skilful to destroy who daily force and prostitute her unto their wicked purposes for these things let England and every true-hearted Englishman say I weep 1.16 mine eye mine eye runneth down with wa●er because the Comforter King CHARLES that should relieve my soul is far from me The breath of our Nestrils the Anointed of the Lord c. The life of our Religion of our Laws of our Liberties is taken from us the Image of Gods power in supreme Authority Indemnity Inviolability is taken from us our Physition our nursing Father our Comforter our Protectour is taken from us for our sins was taken in their pits so that now we want the wings of his protection among these Heathen among whom we live we are now made very Slaves unto the worst of Heathen a people without God without Faith without Law without Rule without Reason without Humanity without all these and whose unruly will onely is unto them all these These calamities are all fallen upon us because The breath of our Nostrils c. pious King Charles is taken from us like Elias in a fiery Charriot Vi. Const l. 4. c. 73. or as Constantine the Great after his death was impressed on a Coyn pluck'd up by a divine hand into Heaven that his eyes might not see nor his righteous soul be afficted with all the evil which is come upon us to consume us wo unto us for we have sinned These are but the contracted heads of those miseries which we shall all read over in the vast Volumes of our approching woes and justly bespeaks such sorrows as might transform us into Niobes make our heads Rivers of sorrows and our eyes Fountains for continual tears The Lord in mercy look upon us and wipe away these tears from our eyes and their causes our sins from our souls and since the bloud of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church in mercy unto his Church restore the seed of his Martyr King Charles the First unto the Government of these Kingdoms that Religion Peace and Liberty may be restored unto us I conclude these ours as the Prophet doth his Lamentations Turn thou unto us O Lord Lam. 5.21 22. and we shall be turned renew our dayes as of old if thou hast not utterly dejected us Hear our prayers O Lord for thy Sons sake unto whom with the Holy Ghost be ascribed c. 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