THE sphere of this Text is Lamentation; the Poles whereon it mov [...], Iosiah and Ieremiah: In the upper the e­theriall part of this sphere w [...] see the bloud of Iosiah; in the nether the watry hemisphere, wee have the teares of Ieremiah. And as the cae­lestiall Spheres, have their first moo­ver above them: So is there in this Text a third person, the Spirit of God; who onely being a­bove the King and the Prophet placed them heere in the Fir­mament of his word, and by this his Testimony hath consoli­dated the blood of Iosiah, and the teares of Jeremiah into fixt Starres; wherein all men may reade their common condition, and Kingdomes calculate their owne Nativities and dissoluti­ons: So in this darke Sphere of Lamentation, Iosiah dying, Ieremiah crying, wee finde yet the Spirit of God testifying; though in the cold Region of the revolting Iudah, both King and Prophet be eclypsed, the one by death, the other by sorrow; yet are they heere caught up into the cleere Orbe of the Scripture (torres eruti deigne) and there memorated to all Po­sterities by the uncloudeable testimony of the spirit of God;Zach. 3.2. in whose sight since the death of his Saints is precious,Psal 116.13.56.8. and he puts all their teares into his bottle; therfore are these things noted in his booke, therefore are Iosiah and Ieremiah recorded heere as Monuments, and their bloud and teares turned into Ru­bies and Pearles, to make Bracelets to adorne the Spouse of Christ.

Heere first wee see in Mourning and dying the condition of [Page 4] us all in this world, sorrow and death play all our game. Lu­gemus, aut lugemur omnes in vicem: It is an hard question, whether at our entring wee begin sooner to weepe, or to dye. But in our progresse whereas dying hath no intervals, sorrow seemes to admit some interludes, but in a wise mans apprehension they are but delusions. Looke into the Stage of the world you shall see two serious Actors, the Dyer, and the Mourner: All the rest play the foole, or the counterfeit; whereupon the judicious spectator,Eccle. 2.2. Solomon, called out to laugh­ter, in [...]anis, thou art mad, and to mirth, Quid frustra deciperis? And the great Iob sayd of himselfe,Job 29.24.31.23. if I laughed on them, they beleeved it not; so seldome did he, so little could he laugh, qui semper, quasi tumentes super se fluctus, timuit Deum, who thought continually he heard God, like the mighty billowes of the Sea rowling over his head: But the Sonne of God, quoti­es ve [...]ò elle, Isai 53 3. Psal. 88.15. how oft did he impropriate the Title of vir dolo­rum, the man of sorrowes? From my youth up thy terrours have I suffered with a troubled minde;Luke 17 50. and againe, I have a Baptisme to be baptized withall, [...], and how am I straightened till this be fulfilled? For well knew the Sonne it was the will of the Father, that sorrow should be the dyet and viands of man in the course of this life, where the feathers and downe wee rest upon have their quills and thistles; the Rose wee smell her pricks, the meate on our Tables cryes out to us, Mors in ollâ, there is death in the pot. This habitu­all sorrow (for the fits of worldly mirth, quamvis non intem­pestivis amaenitatibus, are but recesses from it, and I neither con­demne every act of joy,Gen. 35.18. nor justifie every motion of sorrow) this habituall sorrow, from which Bennoni, the sonne of sor­row, was called Benjamin the sonne of strength, and by which the sorrowfull Iabez became more honourable then all his bre­thren;1. Cron. 4 9. this habituall sorrow, I say this commanding sadnesse, this mastred and well rayned pensivenesse, is wisdome in the minde, valour in the heart, salt in the wit, discipline to the flesh from whence there breakes forth a Majesty in the very countenance. It is indeed the ballance of the soule, without which a light and empty heart, like an unpoysed Barke, dan­ceth [Page 5] aloft to the flattry of the windes, which will quickly lay her low.

But we have every where so many causes of the one of these two, sorrow, that the other, death, might be jealous we forget him, and surprize us suddenly: if with the statue of sorrow in Jeremiah, the spirit of God had not erected also a monu­ment of death in Iosiah: and justly, for the same which David calls the valley of the shadow of death in the 23. Psalme, he calls the valey of Baca in the 84. for sorrow is saith Basil, [...] the shadow of sinne and mor­tality: now, as if a man were placed so high aboue the earth, that night, the shadow of it could not reach to him, he should have continuall day: so those soules onely that have wrought so high, that the [...], the last point of this shadow of sin, Mor­tality, is below their feete, those have no sorrow, unlesse it be to looke downe upon us and see, quantâ sub nocte jaceret no­st [...]a dies, in what a true night of lamentablenesse we walke here on earth, which yet we thicken with grosse conceits of false mirth; the best use then of naturall life, is the thinking on death: O that they were wise saith, Moses, Deut. 32.29. that they would consider their latter end! Sion remembered not her later end, therefore she came down wonderfully,Lam. 1.9. saith our Iere­mie in this Lamentation, yea in spirituall life Paul desired to know nothing here but Jesus Christ, and him dying:1. Cor. 2.2. sleepe like a Publican, takes excise of our life, onely the rest of it is our owne: he that thinkes not on death is asleepe: what wee deny to the one Brother the other takes away. O how I love thee thou meditation on death, since not time but thou measu­rest life and makest it mine! Through this narrow dark optick of the meditation on death; our eyes, help'd with the watry spe­ctacles of teares pierce through the chrystalline Heaven, and looke to eternall life: Iohn confesseth of Peter and himselfe,Jo. 20.10. who ran to the Sepulchre, and presently returned home, that they missed of that dignation which was afforded to Mary, who stayed there looking into the tombe, and weeping: her constant adhering to the Sepulchre had the honour to see the vi­sion of the Angels, and her weeping, the grace to heare the [Page 6] first salutation of her glorified saviour, who appoints saith E­sai to them that mourne,Esay. 61.3. and gives them beauty for ashes, the oile of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heavinesse: thus are we taught in the first place by mourning in Jeremiah, and dying in Josiah; how well mourning be­comes an holy soule, & repente ut emoriantur humani loves, how suddenly death unthrones our mortall Gods.

Mourning and Death were our first lesson, and the second is like unto it, mourning for the dead: Which mourning for the dead in the Text takes hold by this connexture, and of bury­ing the dead in the verse before, and he was buried among his Fathers Tombes, and they mourned for him: This testimony of the spirit of God gives sufficient weight and reverence to the Doctrine. Howbeit in these miserable times, under colour of reforming superstitious abuses, decent and allowed expres­sions of devotion are so endangered to be extirpated, that the piety heere enjoyned must so far enjoy the impiety of the age, as to have a few words bestowed upon the poynt.

Death is [...], a fatall debt, which wee owe to nature for living after our Father Adam and mourning a natu­rall debt, which our children owe to us for dying before them; deny the living to mourne, and deny the dead are dead. The rude Laconian more reproved the indolency of the Stoick, when he answered him, [...]. My sorrow is the flux of Nature: For the God of Nature is so carefull not to have this piety in mourning for the dead obliterated, that he hath twisted it upon those tender strings of our naturall relations and affections, which wee feele to crack within our selves, when our friends heart strings breake, and then our bowells towle their last knell. The first dyer was Abel, Abel the just, and his Father Adam mourned long for him, till by the birth of Seth he was comforted [...], as by a mortall re­surrection, type of an eternall, saith Nissen; noting that Abel, that is mourning, must continue with Adam till Seth, Achates must attend upon Æneas, till the resurrection, when saith Iohn, Rev. 21.4. there shall be no more death nor sorrow. Those Timons that will neither retaine humanity in themselves, nor indure it [Page 7] in others, what thinke they of the Sonne of God? Whom this slinty wisdome of theirs, and abstracted Divinity could not withold from sorrowing for the dead. No, he was Medi­ator betwixt the living and the dead, and therefore as in his person he assumed our infirmities, so by his practice he justified this sympathy of the living with the dead: He groaned in the spirit, [...], he troubled himselfe, he wept,Jo. 11.33. both in complyance with Martha and Mary his mourning, and for destitution of Lazarus his dying Friend.Job 39.14. This was the spirit of our Dove; not like the Ostrich, that is hardned against her owne, as if they were not hers, and leaves them in the dust, quia privavit eam Deus sapientiâ, saith Iob. because God hath deprived her of wisdome. These vaine glorious contemners of sorrow for the dead, would they wash their horny eyes with teares might see, how death while they deny him one thing, sorrow takes from them two, both their piety and their Friend: Truely these buryers of Nature alive are of the same veines with the Donatisticall Circumcellions, though they have not so much of the bloud in them, and of the same dye, though they be not yet so deepe dipped.

But they are not farther from humanity that are offended with mourning for the dead, then they are from Christianity that quarrel with their burialls and funeralls: consult the Scrip­tures, whereas burying is simply called [...], (the rich man dyed and [...],Luk. 16.22. Gen. 50.2. was buried) the word which both the Septua­gint useth of Jacob in the old Testament, and Mathew in the new, of our Saviour is [...],Mat. 26.12. which signifies not onely bu­riall, but decent funeralls, and is compleated in that word which Luke useth of those devout men who lamented greatly for Stephen, and [...],Act. 8.2. tooke care and order for his fu­nerall: Paul in joines that all things should be done [...],1 Cor. 14.40. decently,Ma. 15.43. and Marke appropriates to Joseph of Arimathea the stile of [...], the honourable Joseph, because of the solemne inhumation, decoravit honesto funere: Mat. 26, 10. this care of burialls and charge of funeralls is by our Saviour called a good worke, by Iacob a deed of mercy, by Luke an Act of devotion,Gen. 47, 29. Act, 8, 2. and Paul makes Ioseph's charge concerning his bones an effect [Page 8] of faith: then not to be needlesly long in shewing that bu­riall refers to the hope of the resurection (and was ordained from God from the beginning,In Act. 8.2. saith Calvin, in honour to the body, to which the resurrection is promised, and which, even after seperation, is candidatum resurrectionis, saith Tertullian) our owne Iosiah in his reformation of both Kingdomes was so religiously respective hereof,2. King 23.18. that he lookt among the tombes carefully, and would not suffer the bones of the Prophet to be disturbed: yea Iesus the blessed, yester­day, to day, and for ever the same, justified the costly, and therefore envied,Mat. 26.12.13. anoynting of his body under the name of Sepulchralis, a Funerall charge. I am sure for the charge of that Funerall Oyntment, her Funerall Sermon shall last till the ge­nerall houre glasse of the world be run, and shall outlive all the long windy Sarments and Canons are bolted against burials and Funerall Sermons, vae tibi, miser, sayd Augustine of Iudas, bonus odor occidit te? The odour of a decent funerall is to a Iudas like the smell of the Angels perfume, that drove the Di­vell away from Tobias. Tob. 8.3. Doth any startle at this illustration as Apocryphall? Let him looke into the Canonicall Scripture, he shall finde that at Moses death God himselfe preacht the Fune­rall Sermon,Josh. 1.2. Deut. 34.6. Jude v. 9. and he that buryed the body, he, saith the Text, was at least an Angel, though the Devill contended against it, and disputed about it. O miserable abusers of the name of Christians! Indeed uncircumcised Iewes, whose soules are too narrow to comprehend the relation of their owne bodies, which unfortunate vessels as long as they have the salt in them, they can put to any lustful or sensuall use, still reserving in themselves spirituality forsooth (as Irenaeus saith the Valentini­ans did) but as soone as they are parted from their soules, they count them no more then dust and corruption, and the slight burialls they afford them but an humane formality, done in the remembrance of the naturall relation they had to the party a­live. Thus they proceede from Stoicisme to Epicurisme; first Pharisees, then Saduces.

But you, beloved, conceive rightly of the mystery which is your hope: the seperation and dissolution of the body, though [Page 9] it seem to nature like the irrecoverable falling drop of raine into the Sea, takes not away the naturall relation of the bo­dy which is twofold. One of the materiall body to it pri­vate soule, of which Iob sayd,Job 19.26. though after my skin wormes destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for my selfe, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reines be consumed within me. And Paul, this corruptible must put on incorruption,Cor. 15.53. this despi­cable, this numericall corruptible, arguing from the exem­plary cause the second Adam, to all the faithfull; and a­gaine concluding from the finall cause to all men generally, wee must all appeare before the Tribunall of Christ, that e­very one may receive in his body the things he hath done.Cor. 5.10. Whereupon, as Hierome reports, the Church of Aquileia, that when they pronounce the beliefe (observe that of an­cient the beliefe was rehearsed in the Congregations, for visible confession of the faith is the forme of the visible Church) speake that Article emphatically, of this flesh, pointing every one to his forehead: Of the latter relati­on of the mysticall body, which is the body and soule of the believer to Christ, know you not, saith Paul, 1 Cor. 6.15. that your bo­dies are the members of Christ? And againe, this is a great mystery, but I speake of Christ and the Church:Eph. 5.31. For that, two shall be one flesh, veriùs intelligitur, saith August­ine, de Christo & Ecclesiâ, hath its full truth in Christ and the Church: Now the reason why God would suffer this ves­sell of flesh consigned to glory, fall into corruption, and not translate it presently as he was able, into corruption, may be thus gathered from his word. It stood with the wise­dome and power of the great Maker (all whose gifts are [...]) not to let that earthen vessell which himselfe had framed in the confines of spirituality, and now by the envy of the Devill was blemished, to continue ever in that deformity; but rather to returne it into the lumpe, and mould it over againe; and this councell of the Almighty wee reade first foretold in the old Testament,Jer. 18.6. then fulfilled in the new. God is the Potter, and wee the clay, saith the same our Ieremy who prophesied of the buying of the Pot­ters [Page 10] field,Mat. 27.9. when by the envyer of the Potter this vessell was de­formed, Iesus Christ overcomming the Malignant defacer, purchased of God with the price of his owne bloud the moul­ding againe of the Vessell which he had redeemed from the e­nemy: Wherefore he gave us a manifest tryall in his owne bo­dy, which though he suffered to dye to purchase the remaking of all the rest; yet it (as it needed no new molding for any staine, and to be returned into the lumpe, so) could not be held of death, nor see corruption. So the grave is the Potters field, purchased with Christs bloud, and burying the placing of the shivered vessell in Godslimbeck, to be new cast, when he shall with fire calcine the whole masse of the world, & carnis au­rum è limi sordibus excusato censu eliquabit, saith Tertullian, alluding to that of Malachy, Mal. 3.17. And they shall be mine in the day when I make up my jewels.

Therefore, my beloved Brethren, be stedfast, unmovea­ble, alwaies abounding in every worke of the Lord, and duty of devotion: forasmuch as you know your labour is not in vaine in the Lord, but what is done herein to the Body is not Bodily, but Spirituall, and full of glorious hope; as if your now departing soule should whisper thus to the Body, feare not deare sister, our instant seperation, nor thy folow­ing dissolution: I know that our Redeemer liveth, and I have intrusted him with thee; so that he is both a Proprietary, and a D [...]positary, and by this my last Testament I bequeath thee to him, who with his owne bloud purchased of the great Pot­ter thy reparation, and whom the God of Peace brought againe from the dead by the bloud of the everlasting Testament: I know whom I have trusted, and I am perswaded that he is a­ble to keepe thee whom I have committed unto him against that day.

Wee have learn'd from the Text that Religious mourning, and decent buriall are to be performed to every Christian, and that sorrow and death continue, after Noah, a generall inunda­tion we finde, in that J [...]siah dyed, and Jeremiah lamented.

And Jeremiah lamented. Observe how the spirit of God dwels upon, and delights in enlarging this Testimony: what [Page 11] an honourable Crowne of suffrages encompasseth this, Jeremiah lamented. First imediately before the Text, the tide of teares brake in upon Hierusalem; then surrounded Juda, then over­flowed all Judah and Hierusalem, universus Juda, & Hieru­salem luxerunt: yet still the floud swells, and with it the ex­pression of the spirit of God moving upon the sad face of the waters, and Jeremiah lamented: as if all the for­mer teares had beene in Jeremiah's teares drown'd, crown'd, wept over againe. Then presently after the Text (for, like a Sepia, Jeremiah deales his black dole round about him) first all the singing men and the singing women, the whole quire, re­plicant, resownd Jeremiah's epicediall anthemes: further they made them an ordinance in Israell, these pious Homilies are in­joyned to both Kingdomes by an Ecclesiasticall constitution: can there be any more yet? yea, Ecce scripta sunt, Behold they are written in the Lamentations, recorded, and acknow­ledged by the spirit of God as his owne: made part of Gods word; so that we may say, to this day God laments for the King by Jeremiah.

Jeremiah lamented, one of the Priests,Jer. 1.1. of the sonnes of A­ron: sacerdos è sacerdotibus, saith Hierome, to whose holy order Gods owne word made it a prophanation to mourne for the dead:Levit 21.1. upon the death of the King the divine Law admits a prohibition; upon such an occasion the head used to sacred unction, is bedowed with teares, and the water hath got above the oile, thus Jeremiah the Priest lamented.

Jeremiah lamented, the Prophet, the egregious Prophet,Jer. 1.5.10. san­ctified in the wombe, knowne before formed, set over the Nations and Kingdomes to root out and pull downe, to build and to plant. This Jeremiah the Prophet lamented.

Ieremiah had oft had just cause to mourne for himselfe:v. 8. in the 20 chapter I cryed out, I cryed, violence and spoile: because the word of the Lord was made a reproach to me, and a diri­sion dayly. In the 18 chapter they said come, let us divise de­vices against Jeremie, let us smite him with the tongue.v. 18. In the 37 chapter, he was apprehended and accused of treason,v. 15. and falling away to the enemies of the State, and thereupon [Page 12] smitten and cast into the dungeon: yet all this writ him not in the black letter, and great charactet of a Lamenter; but now some occasion hath presented it selfe, that by the penne of the spirit of God chronicles him a Lamenter to all posterities. O Lord what is done that thy Jeremie, (quid ruus Æneas?) thy owne Jeremie,Jer. 25.15. whom thou appointedst, to give the cup of thy fury into the hands of all Nations, must now himselfe drinke it up, and againe fill it with eyes, and with those lips empty it againe? as the Canaanites said of Josephs mourning for his Father Israell:Gen. 50.11. this is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: this is such a catyclisme of teares that to finde the object of them, and observe the swelling of this Nilus whose head yet lies higher) we must search higher then the Prophet himselfe: and higher then the Prophet himselfe if we will search, we must mount up to a paramount; for so are we directed by him that was himselfe both King and Prophet: know ye not, quo­niam Princeps, 2 Sam. 3.38. & maximus, that a Prince, and he the grea­test, is fallen this day in Israell? would then Gyant sorrow finde a fit object? ascend above the Prophet to the King: would it have a fit mouth to expresse it selfe? Returne from the King to the Prophet: So as the oyle on both their heades is above all liquors, sorrow becomes superlative, both for matter and manner, lamentation in her exaltation, both for subject and ob­ject; Ieremiah and Iosiah: All mourne but as Hierome reades it, Ieremias maximè, and justly, maximē pro maximo, The King is dead, and the Prophet must be chiefe Mourner at the Funerall: 'Tis his place. 'tis his portion, 'tis his honour; stand back pu­ling vulgars, make roothe for Ieremiahs sorrow: Pull all those blubberd papers off the Herse. Heere's one short endlesse Epi­taphe, Ieremiah lamented for Iosiah, the Priest and the Prophet for the King.

Indeed there is such a sympathy and continuation of nature betwixt King and Priest,Psal. 77.20. that David acknowledged but one hand in Moses and Aaron; of ancient Pontificium capitis was the Kings, and Pectorale judicii the Priests: From the begin­ning the Diadema, and the Insula, the Crowne, and the Miter were swadled together in the primogeniture, which necessity, [Page 13] and [...] is expressed by the same Hebrew word Cohen, signifying both King and Priest, and though by necessary dis­pensation in this world this kindred of Unctions obtaine in most places severall stations and officials; yet wee both enjoy now spiritually,1 Pet. 2.9. and expect eternally heereafter a reunion of both a Royall Priesthood, a Kingdome of Priests: In the meane time God hath neither committed the people to a King onely in a secular care,Exod. 19 6. nor to the Priest onely to be catechised in the principles, and taught the Mysteries of Divinity; but the King is to provide them meanes, and keepe them to the use thereof to their supreme felicity, and the Priest to direct them to discharge those offices and actions, which in other men are meerely morally good, in order to the same eternall capacity, and upon default, durum judicium erit his qui praesunt, saith So­lomon, Wisd. 6.6. sharpe judgement shall be to them that are in high pla­ces. Wherefore whether in Gods just chastisments, or mens unjust opposition; the King and the Priest are like Hypocrates twinnes, both joy and grieve together: so Jeremie in this Lamentation,Lament. 2.6. God hath rejected in his indignation the King and the Priest, and Hosee of the other Kingdome,Hos. 3.4. Israell shall abide many dayes without a King and a Prince, and an E­phode: at once Moses had his Dathan, and Aaron his Chorah: at once Hierusalem her Samaria, and the Temple it Dan and Bethel: the anoynted heads have such a symbolicall quality, that like Gods owne Harpstrings equally tuned, and set to one another, the one cannot be struck but the other shakes; ye cannot touch his Anointed and doe his Prophets no harme: whereupon their grand and leading enemy, strains himselfe and puts to all his force (as Samson did) to pull downe at once the two pillars of the State the King, and the Priest, as know­ing that when there is no King in Israell, then there is no open vision, but the word of God is precious even in the multitude of Micah's Jonathans. Justly then, if the King be either natu­rally dead, as Josiah here, or civilly, and unnaturally, as Da­vid by Absolom, the Prophet is he that must Lament, when the breath of the nostrils is gone, what is the breath of the mouth but a groane?

[Page 14]Did then Jeremiah's sorrow looke through Josiah, as wa­ters runne through pipes to waters, to that cloude which upon this sun-set must obscure his Office, and dignity? indeede our first parents, covering themselves with leaves, taught their children so to plume their yas thoughts before they let them fly abroade, that our complaints for the most part looke at o­thers when they aime at our selves: and this simulation of love and sorrow none meet with so often as Kings, who therefore are often sold, said Diocletian, by their favourites: for their fortunes can easily exhale and exalt vapours (which somtimes turn to State terrifying comets) but their vertues cannot make them sixt starres: their dependance suddenly Creates crocodile friends, that weepe not out of love of the King, but them­selves, that looke upon the King as their benefactour, not as the publique good; for that requires a largenesse, and singlenes of heart: an heart not like the horse-leech crying ever, give, give; but like a cleare glasse, which receiving the King as the light of Gods countenance, diffuseth the beames all abroad, and improves the warmth to the common good: but the con­trary contraction of heart comes from those three which Paul rankes in the first file of the murraines of our times,2 Tim. 3.2. selfelove, coveteousnesse, and pride. The first two, selfelove, and cove­teousnesse, adulterating the love, and abusing the favour of the King: make way to the third, pride, to abollish hate of him, to induce hate, and to elevate respect, and to breed con­tempt of him, which is more dangerous then hate Now this shruken coldnesse, and selfaiming hath so spred through the poyson of the enemy of mankinde and order, that the sin­cere and large-hearted love of a King, as a King, is so rare (pau­ci Reges non regna colunt) that it may be reckond among Panci­rollus his vetera deperdita: but the resisting him, even to open warre, one of Goodwin's, nova reperta, yea from licentious­nesse in contemning the person, this Luciferian infection is growne up to boldnesse to contemne the profession, Pride hath budded,Ezech. 7.10. saith Ezechiel, violence is risen up into a rod of wickednesse. The Donatists in Constantine's time objected to the Orthodox Divines, Quid vobis cum Regibus terrae, quos [Page 15] nunquam Christianitas nisi invides sensit? what have you to doe with the Kings of this world, who have ever beene ene­mies to Christianity? neither were they so confuted by Au­gustine, but that the Cadmean progeny is revived in our age, faecunda vulpa saecula, when a cursed Nadab hath dared to throw this strange fire from the Alter Damascenum upon our Alter, innatum est omnibus Regibus contrà Christum odium, all Kings beare an inbred hate to Christ.

These are the foxes that spoile our Vine,Cant. 2.15. Rev. 9.3. and our tender Grapes: these are the Locusts that come, saith John, out of the bottomlesse pit, and have no King,Prov. 30.27. saith yet go forth by bands. And certainely this self-love, coveteousnesse, and pride (which corrupts the love to the person, and counter­mines to the authority of the King, and to do both, divides both) is a symtome of Gods rejection of a Kingdome, and the people. Breake an entire looking-grasse, that one perfect face, [...], which shined in it while it was whole, appeares no more: but in place of it so many breaches, so many puppit phisnomies strive to represent the great face, and mock the sight. Marcellinus observes that the glory of Rome began to retrograde when the great ones began to seeke every one his owne ends, and impropriate to himselfe, hinc le­ges, & plebiscita, coactae, Et cum consulibus turbantes jura Tribuni; so a private Tricipitina wrought a publique precipi­tation. The Prophet Hosee, Hos. 10.3.1. when he was to prophesie that now Israell should say, I have no King, premised this disposi­tion to the Anarchie, Israell is an emptying Vine, that fructi­fies onely to it selfe, that doth [...], luxuriate it selfe, but beares no fruit to the dresser: a people whose shoulders, like the Acephali, are aboue the face: see what the depravation, and deprivation of the love of a King can doe.

On the contrary, the love of men to their King comes from him, by whom Kings raigne over men: this God imprin­ted first by nature in that manifest impression which the pub­lique benefit of a King makes in all men, quantò discords liber­tate samentibus utilius sit u [...]um esse, an serviant, saith Plinie, that it is better for men to be subject to one, then to be all­waies [Page 16] jangling in untuned liberty: who is, saith Cyprian, pax populi, tutamen patriae, &c. the peace of the people, the security of the Countrey, the immunity of the Commonalty, the joy of men: Wherefore before the Emperours gate in Rome was an Oake planted betwixt two Bay-trees; signify­ing that the felicity of the people depends upon the vertue and prosperity of the King. The Macedonians were sensible of this, who being put to slight by the Illyrians, sent the next day for their Infant King into the field in his cradle, and then rallying their forces overthrew the Illyrians; shewing that the day before they wanted not valour, but a King; Even a dumbe man had conned this dictate of Nature so perquire, that seeing the King assaulted, he brake the string of his tongue, and cryed out, [...], If thou beest a man, doe not kill a King.

Againe God confirmed this mandate of love to a King by the Magna Charta of his word (God spake once,Psal 62.11. twice I heard it, once for the matter, twice for the manner) There went saith the sacred History,Sam. 10.26. with the King a band of men, whose hearts God had touched, but the children of Belial despised him who toucht their hearts? [...] Sam 9.20. And on whom sayd the Prophet to the King, is all the desire of Israel; is it not on thee and thy Fathers house?2 Sam. 21, 17. The Israelits acknowledged to their King, thou art the light of Israel, thou art worth ten thousand of us. And when the Spirit of God came upon the Generall of the Army of Iudah, 2 Sam. 18.3. he said to the King, thine are wee David, and on thy side, thou Sonne of Iesse: Peace, peace be to thee, and peace be to thy helpers, for thy God helpeth thee. And least yet Lucifers behaviour should incarnate on earth (for some turbulent spirits, saith Calvine, count not Christs Kingdome advanced, nor themselves at Christian liberty, unlesse they shake off all humane subjection) God hath coupled together and fastned to his owne assertion the vindication of Kings, and joyned together his owne and their both love and despight. The Lord his God is with him,Numb. 23.21. and the shout of a King clangor victoriae Regis, is among them: who strove against Moses and Aaron, when they strove against the Lord? And againe, [Page 17] their King shall passe before them, and the Lord on the head of them: But facing about, he cursed God and the King, was the high attaindure of any person, and the dire curse of a Nation; they shall fret themselves, and curse their King and their God. Thus both Nature and Scripture injoyne and knit to the love of the true God, the true love of the King, even of Iulian the temporall Lord, saith Augustine, for the eternall Lords sake. Nature in Esops last charge to his Sonne En­nus, [...], chvming to the Scripture Peters injunction to all Christians, Feare God, Honour the King.

Now if it be impiety not to mourne for their deaths, for whose lives it is iniquity not to pray, if Samuel mourned for a rejected King, and David told the Daughters of Iudah, of an evill King, that it was he that cloathed them with scarlet and delights, and put the Ornaments of gold upon their apparell; if the word of God that injoynes love of the living, justifie sorrow for dying Kings (quod defles illud amasti) How could the man whose eies were open which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, who was not ignorant that a people is in better condition under an evill King, then without all government, who perceived that in their Kings untimely death, the Lord of Hostes called to weeping and mourning; who was both Priest and Prophet, how could he but lament for Iosiah?

Yea lament he did, yea lament, & ausus & potuit, though Pharoah were in the Land yet warme with the Royall blood: Yea he durst not but lament greatly; and professe sorrow for his Kings death, least the peoples slighting or soone forgetting it might be imputed to his example (tali dedicatore nostri gemi­tus gloriamur, but that rather they might say with Tertullian in the like case) his love rejoyceth in sorrow, and triumphs in black, as the devotion of those that preferred the pitty in bur­ning Steven, before the feare of their owne lives. He durst mourne for his King yea mourne he did for Iosiah, tanquam pro unigenito, saith Zachary, as for an onely sonne, tanquam pro primogenito, as for a first borne Sonne the mourning of Hada­drimmon [Page 18] in the valley of Megiddo was like the mourning for the great shepheard, Christ, saith the same Zachary, Zach. 12.11. who now in Josiahs death had broken both his staves, Beauty and Bandes: For Josiah, as for Jesus: for Josiah dying among them, as for Jesus departing from them, pro Christo Domini, ac pro Christo Domino: Wherefore the Spirit of God, who enrolled in the booke of Jasher, and bad teach the chil­dren of Judah the staves of Sauls funerall song called the Bow, hath also eternized among his owne dictated manuscripts, Je­remiahs lamentations for Iosiah.

In which Lamentations that particular (or rather generall) verse, Lament. 4.20. The breath of our nostrills, the Anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, may be called the nave of the wheele, whose severall beames integrate that whole booke. Calvin upon this place taunts the reverend Hierom with grosse errour, for saying that this booke of Lamentations was Ieremi­ahs funerall song for Iosiah; and addes, that the cited verse is wrested to Iosiah: And yet the same Calvin himselfe in ano­ther place of his Comments saith, in 12 Zach. 11. and justi­fies it (against his owne exposition upon the place) from Scrip­ture, that Jeremias in hoc lugubri carmine respexit propriè ad Josiam, sicuti testatur sacra historia, in this mournefull song did ayme properly at Iosiah, as the holy History of the Bible testifieth: Then coting particularly the foresaid verse, he adds, after Iosiahs death (in cujus animâ vivebat anima populi, in whose soule the one soule of the people lived) that people was a meere carcase, and the taking away of Iosiah was an evident signe of Gods wrath against them, and that Gods favour was extinct with that King, quia felicitas populi, because the hap­pinesse of the people depended upon the King, & Regia digni­tas, and the Regall Dignity was a sure pledge of Gods favour to them.

Thus this word, Josiah is dead, was to Iudah another Icha­bod, where is the glory? The beauty of Israel is stayned by thy waters, O Megiddo: with Iosiah, vale Lex, vale Moses, farewell the Arke, farewell the milke and honey of the promi­sed Land: upon the setting of this Sunne the Manna in the pot [Page 19] melts, the blossomes on Aarons red blast, and the Almonds be­come bitter Almonds: From Iosiahs death the Prophet dates the fall of Hierusalem. By the violation of Iosiahs head Hieru­salem her selfe is become sacrum caput and her Epitaphe is pre­pared in this word, Iosiah is dead, that is (as Chrysostome ex­poundes that of the Angel to the blessed Virgine, Luke, 1.31. They shall call his name) [...], the peo­ple and the successe, [...] shall finde and verifie that Iosiah is dead. O Ieremy, would thou hadst been onely a mourner here and not a Prophet; but I finde thee no where more a Prophet then in mourning heere. The Prophet knew that in Gods pur­pose Hierusalem was now [...], devoted to ruine, that the Temple was already demolished in her patterne in the Mount, that the Angels had deserted the Sanctuary, and the peo­ple were casheered in the High Counsell in Heaven; yet was it e­nough for deploring Hierusalē, Temple, Sanctuary, people & all, to lament one Iosiah, even divine providence so disposing that so pretious an head should not be violate till God had rejected the whole body, Luke, 23.31. si haec in viridi, quid fiet in aridâ; if this be done in the greene tree, what shall become of the dry one? Needes must the people be outlawed, when their King is thus rapt from them, in whom they had truely [...], as Plato said, [...], whose arme was a measure, and whose religious minde was a Law to them; and what but epidemi­call death could be expected, when the devotion of so zealous an head could kindle no fire in the paraliticall body: He that delivered Abrahams Couzen, vexed with the filthy conversati­on of the Sodomites, 2 Pet. 2.7. knew how to deliver Davids owne, and reserve a rebellious Generation to emminent judge­ment: Wherefore to the soule of Iosiah the Angel called, as once to Lot the husband, Gen. 19 22. Escape thou and flye a­way to bright Zoar, the mountaine of the vision of God, and leave thy unbelieving wife (who of [...] is become [...]) to be made to all Nations a monument of rejecting the Law, and not hearkning to her King and husband; what pane­giriques would the heathen (who knew not God, onely had naturall love of loyalty and vertue) have made, had they had a [Page 20] King that would have suffered losse of power, estate, glory, li­berty, wife and children; yea whatsoever stupified Subjects prefer before a King, rather then consent to the prophaning of Gods service, and the enslaving the persons and estates of his people; nothing could make their misery more miserable, nor more convict them of their rebellion, then that their best King was made their last. Indeed this honour was due to Iosiahs pie­ty, and this solace to his Funerals that none should succeed him, whom none could second, and that by the sequell of Iosiahs death all Kingdomes might learne how much the weale of a State depends upon the life, and how close the ruine of it fol­lowes upon the want of a religious King: All were defective saith the sonne of Syrach, but David, Hezechiah, and Iosiah. Our Posterity will reade a Chronicle of England, not Apocry­phall, that will make them as much wonder at us, as admire the story; till this day all were defective but Elizabeth, Iames, and Charles, when of three vertuous and religious Kings, the third is untimely taken away, the people that by having the two first would not learne to appretiate a King, are by the losse of the third taught what it is to have none. Daughters of Hie­rusalem, Ieremy weepes not for Iosiah, but weepes for you and your children; for sinne the Mother, and desolation the broode, lest the dayes come, lest the lamentable dayes come, in which they shall say, blessed are the Inhabitants that have no possessi­ons, and the parents that are not indebted to children for edu­cation.

The Spirit of God testifieth heere the blood of Iosiah, and the teares of Ieremiah, to the end that the people should trace the teares of the Prophet through the bloud of the King; first to their owne impending punishment, and thence to their past sinnes: For if you looke, O Daughtet of Iudah to the acts of Jeremiah himselfe, he had already lived long, if to your owne aggravation of wrath, too long; if to your neede of such a King to stand in the gap, he dyed too soone, if to the honour of his owne remembrance he shall never dye, but all Posterities shall copie out from Josiah.

And the remembrance of Josiah shall be like the compositi­on of the perfume made by the art of the Apothecary, sweet as honey in all mouthes, as musick at a banquet of wine, Eccles. 49.1. For that name that entred before his mortall life, goes not out with it and that which attended not for his birth, will not waite on his death: But as it was imposed by Propheticall breath, so in Propheticall teares it is embalmed, and continued to all Posterities, which shall wonder and be amazed (even the Kings of the earth and all the Inhabitants of the world, La­ment. 4.12.) and not believe that the enemy could have entred the ports of the Daughter of Zion, having so religious a King, under whose shadow they lived securely among the Heathen, Lament 4.20. But hearing withall that this King was so taken away, they shall acknowledge that the God of Israel dealt therein with that people and Josiah in the same manner as he dealt once with David and them, 2 Sam. 24 1. He that suffe­red David to sinne in numbring the people, for the sinne of a number whom he would destroy, suffering also Josiah, so zea­lous for the Law and the weale of the people, to goe against the word in the mouth, and fall by the sword in the hand of Necho, 2 Chron. 35, 22. That the Bulwarke which stood in the way of the destroyer once broken downe, the floud of the wrath of God, quâ data porta ruat, might thenceforth breake in upon a rebellious Nation, that so they might be punished by his death, who was suffered to slip for their punishment, and by whose righteous life they would not be reformed▪ As for that one act of Josiahs going to war, against Pharoh, piety for­bids us to thinke that Iosiah would have done it, had he beene forbidden by the mouth of Ieremiah, or any of Gods Prophets. But in the mouth of Pharoah what more authority could this interdiction expect from Iosiah, then that commination from the mouth of Zenacherib obtained of Hezekiah; 2 King. 18.25. Indeede wee who now have the story written since by the holy Ghost reade that Iosiah hearkned not to the word of Ne­cho from the mouth of God, 2 Chron. 35.2 [...]. But if this [Page 22] were a ruine (and such an one was Moses his at the waters of Meribah, so subtile that it must be a quick eye can discerne it) wee may say with Gregory, pro qualitatibus subditorum dis­ponuntur acta regentium; the actions of Kings are (by Gods permission and overruling hand) disposed according to the de­sert of their Subjects, justus interim Judex, &c. In the meane time the just Iudge vindicates those sinnes of the King at their hands, for whose sake he was suffered to slip: Heere the sinne of Iudah came to it height, in their greater guiltinesse of his lesser sinne. Their sinne had it complement in his slip, and their punishment it beginning from his death. O the just and un­searcheable judgements of the great King: From this judge­ment wee are taught how sacred a relation is betwixt a King and his people; so strong, so neare is it, that he that atempts to part them, had better halfe cleave a great Oake, and forcing the sides to open, stand betwixt them at their suddaine clapping together againe: See the piety of this potent relation on the Kings part in Moses, Exod. 32.32. O forgive the sinne of this people, or else blot me out of the booke thou hast written: See it in David, what have these sheepe done? Let thy hand be u­pon me and my fathers house, 2 Sam. 24.17. On the Subjects part, how strong and indelible this naturall love to their King is (though indeede the wife be more subject to the tempter) wee reade in those sensitive creatures, in which Rege incolumi mous omnibus una▪ amisso rupere fidem, in naturall men, which upon the violent death of their King (even after a good succes­sour was possessed) have never rested till the doers were puni­shed, as in Domitiā some have died for pitty to their King, as in Otho and the best, Optimus, Emperor executed that which Ner­va coted to him out of Homer, [...] ▪ But where the knowledge of God was, this zeale was ever more warme. The people sayd to Samuel, who is he that sayd Saul shall not raign over us? Bring the men that wee may put them to death, 1 Sam [...] 1.1 [...]. And the same people that were deluded by Absolom to rebell against David their King, after the fit was over, were so [...]ealous for him, that they were at strife through all the Tribes of Israel, who should be first in [Page 23] bringing back the King, and expiating their rash folly with re­doubled Loyalty, 2 Sam. 19.42.

The strength of this relation is the reason that: God sometimes punisheth a King for the peoples sake, as heere in Iosiah, some­times the people for the Kings sake, as in Saule, 2 Sam. 21.1. And sometimes lets the King transgresse, that he may punish the people, as in David, 2 Sam. 24.1. This solemne course of Almighty God in punishing is the strength of the current of Jeremiahs Lamentations for Iosiah; so drawing, [...], the people from that one act of Iosiah to consideration of their past sinnes, and from the death of Iosiah to their present judge­ment, and so to God himselfe.

And this is the decumanus fluctus; now have teares swelled to their Land-marke, springing from sorrow for common death, and vulgar mourners to the chiefe mourner the Prophet, and the hyperocall sorrow for a King; then rising from the death of a King, to the losse of a Iosiah, thence to the conse­quent of the losse it diffuseth, then swelleth againe to the de­parture of the great shepheard, thence passeth to the motive cause of all these, sinne. At last it mounts up to the efficient and disposer, Almighty God: So our Ieremy in this Lamenta­tion for Iosiah, Lament. 3.42.39 Wee have transgressed and rebelled, and thou hast not pardoned; and againe, wherefore doth a living man murmure, a man, for the punishment of his sinne? For even those, whom God hath forsaken, grieve at their punishment (they have not cryed to me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds, saith Hosee, Hos. 7.14) but this is a signe that the party under punishment is yet a man, a live man,, when the soule stumbles not, and stops either mur­muring at the punishment, or at the second cause quarrelling; but leaping over and rising above both second causes and pu­nishment, ascends to God, arguing thus with our Ieremy in this Lamentation, Lament. 3.37 Who is he that saith it, and it comes to passe, when the Lord commandeth it not? Out of the mouth of the most high proceedes not evill and good: Thus persuing our sinnes to God, wee finde in him both judgement and mercy; judgement by which he hath (but from us) to pu­nish [Page 24] mercy, in which he hath (of his seminarium miserecordia­rum) to be gratious, and repent him of the evill, upon the e­vils repentance. 2 Cor. 1.3. Whereas if wee stay in our affli­ctions, either out of dulnesse or impatience at the second causes and instruments, by higher pressures, wee become hardened, and dejected by greater; moreover in the men that oppresse us, wee shall finde onely insultation and matter of provocati­on, is my complaint saith Iob, Iob [...]1, 4. to man, if it were so, how should not my spirit be troubled? And David, let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man, 1 Chron. 22.13. And our Ieremy in this Lamentation, Lament. 3.21.22. This I recall to minde, therefore I have hope, it is of the Lords mercy that wee are not consumed, because his compassions faile not.

Upon this apprehension of both judgement and mercy in God Ieremy was comforted, and expressed it in this Lamenta­tion, that wee through patience and comfort of the Scripture may have hope, the same word Littenoth signifies both Lamen­tation and consolation; for comfort takes best from one that laments with us, and he condoles truely that useth all meanes to comfort: I called upon thy name O Lord, and thou didst heare my voice, Lament. 3.53.54.55.56.57.58. Thou drew­est neere in that day, and sayedst, when I called feare not, O Lord thou hast pleaded the causes of my soule, thou hast redee­med my life. Thou hast redeemed, observe Ieremy, that lamen­ted for the losse of Iosiah his King, was comforted in the pro­mise of Jesus his Redeemer.

Thus the soule, having at last wrought up to Gods judge­ment, findeth there mercy also And in this mercy of God meetes againe with the great Shepheard that had deserted it, and from this shepheard obtaines grace, both to repent of it owne ruine (which offended God and blancht the shepheard) and to judge charitably of others in the same condition: By which grace it proceedes to patience, both to endure the pre­sent affliction and to waite for deliverance, Heb. 11.35. (whe­ther present deliverance, or a better resurrection, Mat. 12.20.) when and in what manner, the wisdome of God shall (by sen­ding [Page 25] forth judgement unto victory upon impenitent sinners, and the Sonne of righteousnesse with healing to contrite hearts) worke out the redemption, Mal. 4.2.

The end, beloved, of every Text wee preach to you is, that you winde your selves into the truth it holds forth: And the aime of this my present Text is, that you conforme your selves to it celestiall semblance. To be selfe centred is earthly and sensuall; but to move for the publick good is heavenly and spirituall: If therefore there be any fellowship of the spirit, saith Paul, 2 Philip. 4. Looke not every one on his owne things, but on the things of others; for by embracing this [...], as Ignatius speakes, this true gallantry of harmo­nious love (while every one seekes the good and bewailes the evill of every one) a private evill is so divided, that it is heavy to no man, and a particular good so communicated, that it re­doundes to all. Now, he that will seeke the good of all, must observe the course which he takes who rules all (heere our Text requires conformity to an higher heaven then the materiall) and diffuse as he diffuseth, else he may confound when he thinkes to communicate. And wee read that God led his peo­ple, while he delighted in them, by the hand of Moses and Aa­ron: But that in his displeasure, the Sunne, the greater light is turned into blood, and the lesser, the Moone into water, Ps. 77.20. Wee have heere the spirit of God testifying, in Josiah dying and Ieremiah crying,

Parumnè ad vos, said Ieremy in this Lamentation, Lament. 1.12. (as leaving this bridge for Posterity to passe from Iudah to England) Is it nothing to you? Yea our Syon may asselfe the words and go on with them: Behold and see, si major est ullus dolor quam dolor meus, that lesser is all other sorrow then my sorrow: I have had successively (I would, I could say succes­fully) three religious, vertuous, orthodox Princes, Elizabeth, James ▪ and Charles. I had a glorious face of a Church▪ a Church, the very eye and excellency of all other Churches. In Henry the 7. by my King I was freed from the division of Roses, bit­terer then wormewood, sharper then the thistle: In Henry 8. I shaked off by my King the Ecclesiasticall Tyranny of Anti-christ: [Page 26] In Edward 6. purity of Religion sprang up with my King, which though it was watred with the bloud of Martyrs under Mary, that sister without breasts; yet grew it the more glorious under those my three envies of all Kingdomes, Eliza­beth, Iames, and Charles: But now facta est in pace amaritudo mea amarissima ▪ may I say with the sick Hezekiah, behold upon my peace is come great bitternesse, Esay 38.17. My bitternesse was great in the opposition of Hereticks, greater in the death of my children, the Martyrs; but now in my peace my bitter­nesse is become greatest, by the desolation of my dearest chil­dren, the King and the Prophet. Of whom since God had pro­mised me, Zach. 6.13. The counsell of peace shall be betwixt them both; I sayd with my selfe, as Iob did, I shall dye in my nest, my bow shall be renewed in my hand▪ Iob 29 18.30.26. But when I lookt for light, eruperunt tenebrae, then darkenesse surprised me; Ægyptian darkenesse, my waters were turned into bloud, & my Land brought forth frogs in my Kings cham­bers; palpable darkenesse; not onely such as learned judge­ments can discerne, but such as all hands but the actours feele and tremble at.

Parumnè ad vos (turning againe for the people) is it nothing to you? is the case of Iosiah so lamented by Ieremiah nothing to you? Ier. 5.31. Doe my people love to have it so? And what will you doe in the end thereof? Shall that of Iosiah be verified in you? Esay. 26.11. Lord when thy hand is lifed up, they will not see, but they shall see. They will not see that the guilt proceeds from them; but they shall see that the judgement runs to them They will not see that the judgement lookes at them▪ while it is snatching at the Crowne, and the Ephod; but they shal see it and be astonisht, when (those being taken away) it shall seize on them irrecoverably. This [...], by whatsoever sinister passages and tumults it makes now an eddy at the King and Prophet, will winde about againe, and with a crooked turne empty direct judgement elsewhere. It is your glory, that as the vindication of God and the King, the sympa­thy of the King and the Prophet; so the welfare and ruine of the people and the King make up a trinity of combinations, [Page 27] a threefold corde that cannot be broken: If you serve the Lord and not rebell against his word, both you and your King shall be nigh unto the Lord your God; but if you doe wicked­ly, you shall be consumed both you and your King, said Samu­el to the desirers of change of Government.

Beloved, if that conformity to the celestiall semblance of the Text (in being every one in commune bonus, good not to himselfe alone, but to the publique, in his private calling) would satisfie the whole end of the Text and our present case, I could dismisse you with a compendious method of that duty; namely that (since every mans civill activity cannot extend so largely) his devotion may come home to every mans doore, to his Sonnes, and his Daughters, to his Garners, his sheepe and oxen, to his peace and tranquillity, yea to his disposure to the Lord his God; For all this is done by praying for the King. This were enough in a composed State, but it is not so with me, sayd Job once, Iob 9.35. The greatest of all the men of the East, and our Syon now, my Crowne is cast to the ground, and the Sunne is gone downe upon my Prophets. Mic. 3.6.

Therefore when the foundations are cast downe, what shall the righteous doe? As he propoundes our case who had expe­rience of it, and he addes the resolution, the Lord is in his holy Temple, the Lords Throne is in Heaven, Psalm. 11.3.4. Ob­serve the Symetry of the partes; on earth foundations in the plurall, the King and the Priest; but unity in the patterne in Heaven the Lord, yet (in proportion to the building on earth) expressed likewise as in the plurall, the Temple and the Throne. If then you would have your dayes on earth as the dayes of Heaven, as Moses exhorted the Israelites, Deut. 11.21. Doe as he commandeth in whom Heaven and Earth are revealed and reconciled. Render to Caesar, and render to God, Math. 22, 21. Heere's both Caesar propounded and God, and yet but one [...]; yea and first it is sayd to Caesar: For of the good wee can render to God, Caesar is the Minister to us, and what obe­dience wee render to Caesar is rendred to God as the termina­tive object. After all the rendring to Caesar there remaines a rendring to God, and in all the rendring to Caesar there is a fur­ther [Page 28] rendring to God. Render therefore to Caesar, and render to God, sed & ipsum Caesarem reddite Deo, but restore Caesar himselfe to God; as he is a foundation restore him to God by acknowledging him to be from God, as he is a shaken founda­tion, restore him to God, to the service that God hath ordai­ned him for, and to the meanes to performe the same: For you owe to the patterne in Heaven (and through the foundati­on on earth must render) justitiam Throno, Templo preces, justice to the Throne, prayers to the Temple; the Throne in Heaven requires of you justice too, and the Temple in Heaven prayers for the King on earth. Discite justitiam moniti, & non tem­nere Divos. Take heede Subjects, how you deale with Kings, he that must judge betwixt you is a King, not a Subject. Re­store then to God his King, lest you be like those Gyants, the Aloades, that sacrificed to their God Mars, and yet fettred his hands. Let us conclude with our Ieremy, and his Lamentati­on, Lament 5. vers. 21.22. Turne us unto thee, O Lord, and wee shall be turned; renew our dayes as of old, unlesse thou hast utterly rejected us, and cast the nice upon us.

Gloria Deo & Christo.