WE are met in the House of Mourning, and I wish that Text of the Preacher, It is better to enter into it than the Eccles. 7. 3. House of Mirth, may prove as acceptable to you, as it is proper to the occasion.

[Page 4] In compliance wherewith, my Text, in every part of it from Top to Bottom, is hung about with Blacks to suit the just and solemn Mourning of this Day; A Day wherein the Lord hath called for Esa. 2. 12. Weeping, and Mourning, and Girding with Sackcloth.

Yet not long since, This very Day, recorded in bloody Letters, was reckon­ed the first Day in our unhappy Kalen­dar: A Day of Liberty and Restauration to the whole Kingdom.

Behold Joy and Gladness, (as it follows in the Prophet) slaying Oxen, and killing Ver. 13. Sheep, eating Flesh and drinking Wine, in their large Thanksgiving Dinners, and Solemn Feasts. What Liberty, no Man could tell, unless a Liberty to the Sword, Jer. 34. 17. to Rapine, and to Plunder. A liberty to profess all Religions except the Right, and exercise any Law but That which was Prescribed.

May I not too truly apply to This Day, the words of Hezekiah? This is a Day of Trouble, of Rebuke, and of Blas­phemy: Esa. 37. 3. Trouble to the whole Nation, [Page 5] Eternal Rebuke to the Actors, Blasphe­my and Reproach to the Protestant Religion, so stained by the Fact wrought on it, that all the Waters which envi­ron our Island can never wash it out: For where was it ever known, that such a King was Murthered by the Sword of Justice, and Pretence of Religion gave aim to the Assasinates Blow? when Those, who by their Office were to Preach Peace, became the Trumpets of Rebellion; when every Pulpit was made a Sconse, from whence no Platform shot more frequent Fire than their Tongues did bitter Words, against the Church, and Psal. 64. 3. against Him who was the Nursing Father of It.

For this Cause, so much of our Sor­row as can be spared from our greater Obsequies, may be allowed to lament this Scandal to the best Reformed Church of England, when we find those Men acting by their sharp Principles, who desir'd to be accounted most opposite to Them: Both assuming the Title of Sa­cerdotes Pap. Masso­vius vit. Pauli 4^t•. Reformati, Reformed and Refor­ming Priests.

[Page 6] Yet need we not much wonder, since in all Ages no Rebellion brake out, which had not the stamp of Religion to make it currant. Florus tells us, the Civil Disturbances of Rome borrowed from hence their Colour, and had their Flamens (who were their Priests) to blow them up. In our own Kingdome, Wat Tyler and Jack Straw had one Ball a Priest, to plead for their Rising, in the Pulpit.

And Littestar, the Dyar of Norwich, who took upon Him the Title of King of Commons (Supprest and Hang'd by Spenser the noble Bishop there) had his Chaplains too.

The French History tells us the furi­ous Crys of Boucher, Guarren, Fruardent, with others, (Thirteen in number) All Chaplains to the Duke of Guise, in all their Pulpits tearmed Charls the Ninth, their King, a Tyrant, and Favourer of Hereticks: Insomuch that the seduced Parisians changed their wonted Accla­mations of God save the King, to God save the Guise, Head of the Catholick [Page 7] League, and Patron of Religion: The Tragical issue whereof was the Mas­sacre of so many Protestants, and shortly after, the Death of the King. A sad Glass to shew the Rise of our late Distempers here; where praying for the King was prohibited by Order: And, (I speak upon knowledge) in some places, none admitted to the Commu­nion but those who fought against Him.

Not to trouble you further, John Knox, and others, were Chaplains in the Scottish Rebellion, in which the Arch­bishop was murther'd, the Churches de­molished, and the Queen forced to fly.

And if any doubt who were the Chaplains to make our People stumble in their Duties, to sollicit our own and the Churches troubles; If nothing ap­pears under Smictymnus his Mask, Ar­cher and Lemuel Tuke (who acted open faced without their Vizors) may suffi­ciently declare: The one whereof Preach'd it lawful to resist the King; The other to kill Him.

[Page 8] These, and many more like these, were the Prologue to that cruel Tragedy on this Day acted: And Chaplains to that general Mischief which the whole King­dome then groaned under.

And I dare boldly affirm, upon what Clod of Earth, in what Field soever, the sharp Battels were fought, the Sparring Blows were made in the Pulpit.

If this Repetition be unpleasing, I beg pardon; it so little pleases me, That from my Soul I wish there never had been cause to give it mention, or make it any part in the luckless Subject of our History.

Yet since our Saviour excus'd the Ointment expended on Him by the Wo­man, Mat. 26. 12, 13. and would not have it forgot, as being done, to bury Him; I hope I may have leave to reflect a little upon those Dead flies, whose onely aim was to cor­rupt the sweet Ointment of our Josiah's Name, which is like Ointment poured out, perfuming all places, with the Example and Memory of his Virtues.

For what the Woman did to Christ in [Page 9] Piety, they did in Malice, to bury Him too, at least to. Antidate his Funeral, by burying His precious Fame, his good Name, before the fatal Stroak which brought his Body to the Grave.

Our Text's Subject is Josiah's Fune­neral, 1. They mourned for Josiah.

Where you have the general Train of 2. Mourners, All Judah and Jerusalem.

Then the Particular, The Prophet Je­remiah 3. lamented for Josiah: The Sing­ing-men, and Singing-women spake of Josiah in their Lamentations to this Day.

The perpetuation of this solemn 4. Mourning; And made them an Ordinance in Israel.

The Record kept of Them: Behold 5. they are written in the Lamentations.

When we mention Josiah, we men­tion 1 Subject. Josiah. the best Prince that ever sate upon the Throne of Judah: One who did 2 Kings 22. 2. right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of David his Father.

One not less zealous for the House of the Lord, than for the Service in it: For he caused the Temple to be Repair­ed, [Page 10] and the Law of God diligently to be cap. 22. 3. Read in it.

Yea, so great was His desire to restore the Temple to its former Lustre, That he took down all those Houses joyning to 2 Kings 23. 7. the House of God, which either Defiled, or Defamed it, by their Neighbour­hood.

But that Josiah is not my scope.

My Scene must here change from Judaea to Great Brittain; from Judah's King to our Own, who fell under worse hands than Pharaoh Necho. Vers. 21.

He fairly warned Josiah, and persua­ded him to decline the Fight, wherein 2 Chron. 33. 20, 21. God's Ordinance, which sent him against Euphrates, made his Arm too strong to be resisted.

But our Pharaoh Necho, and his Com­plices, did all they could, by false Oaths and Flatteries, to bring their Master within the Reach of their Blow, and take the Anointed of the Lord in their Pits. Lament. 4 20.

A Fact so horrid, that it is easier to bewail in Tears, than utter in Words.

Indeed, the grateful Duty to a Dead [Page 11] Master, and the Allegeance to such a King, make all expressions I can use, too narrow for the Argument; upbraiding my Inabilities with that practical truth: Nihil difficilius quam magno dolori paria Seneca Con sol. ad Po­lyb. cap. 22. verba invenire. Nothing is more difficult than to match so great a Sorrow with Language equal to it.

So that with Nazianzen, upon an oc­casion somewhat like this, I might wish another Jeremy in my stead, [...] Greg. Na­zianz. Orat. 21. in Laud. Athanas. [...], who onely was able to frame a Lamentation proportionable to the cause, and invent a Threne, worthy of his excellent Pen, and of the Subject.

The Piety of our Josiah being not In­feriour to that Elder Josiah, and his Mo­ral virtues every way equal.

So great and meritorious a Person as Josiah, is not to be narrowed by the common Expressions of a bewailing Tongue, nor will any Rhetorick suffice, unless assisted and supplied, where Words fall short, by the number of the Mourn­ers, 2. General Train of Mourners. as here it was;

All Judah, Jerusalem, &c.

[Page 12] Nothing is so Natural as to Lament the Dead Man goeth to his long home, and the Mourners go about the Streets. Eccles. 12. 5.

The Stoicks indeed, by their rigid pre­cepts, Virgil, Aeneid. 11. labour'd to seal up the fountains of our Eyes, pronouncing it unmanly for our Sex to melt in Tears. Ennius was of the same humour: Nemo me lachymis de­coret, nec funera faxit; He would have no weeping at his Grave, nor Funeral so­lemnity: Nay, Ludovicus Cortusius, Pata­vinus by his last Will, forbad Mourning Drexel. Prodrom: Cap. 1. for him, and because he would have no shew of a Funeral, he ordered, that the Black Monks, habited like Mourners, should not be invited to his Burial. But Solon, wiser than all three, thought his Memory disparaged, if he deserv'd so little of Lacedaemon, that none were found to bewail his Loss: His words were [...] He did expect some Tears dropt over his Hearse, and some Train of Mourners to attend him to his Funeral Pile.

[Page 13] They are miserable Men, who go out of the World, as it were in the Dark, neither miss'd nor bewail'd by any.

Josiah you see had many, All Judah All Judah and Jerusa­lem. and Jerusalem. A less proportion of Mourners would not suit his Funeral.

When Masters of private Families Dye, those in the Houshold are Mourn­ers by Custom. But when the Pater Patriae, the common Father of the King­dom, the Lord Paramont, and Master of us all Dyes, the whole Confluence of the People, by an universal Summons, are call'd together as sharers in the So­lemnity.

When our Saviour was Born, there was Luk. 2. 1. a general Tax went from Augustus to be levied through the World.

VVhich Tax was but a concurrent shadow of the universal Homage, due to the New Born King, whose Empire ex­tended not over Judaea onely, but the whole VVorld, as King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.

And sure, when soever his great Vice­gerents leave the VVorld, it is fit, that [Page 14] their Death, which is (as one calls it) Fatalis Nativitas, a Fatal Birth, should be Solemnized by a Tribute of Tears levied upon the whole Kingdom.

If that Tyrant John Basiliwick, D. of Muscovy, exacted Phialas sudore plenas, a Tribute of Sweat wip'd from his Subjects brows, and kept in Glasses and Bottles for him to see; sure a good Prince dying may expect a Subsidy of Tears Bottl'd up, and Sorrow kept in store, to weep bitterly for such a Loss.

It is held an usual Duty at the King's Coronation, to bring Contributary wood to make a Bonfire: 'Tis then (Ratione Contrariorum) an equal Duty, when He is un-crowned by Death, to bring some Contributary water falling from our eyes, to Quench that fire again.

Nicephorus Gregoras writes, that in their Naemia, those mournful Exequies for the Lib. 10. Emperour, the People wished the whole River of Nilus drawn up into their Eyes, that so they might raise a Mourning pro­portionable to the Loss. And at the [Page 15] Burial of Titus the Mourning was so ge­neral, That omnes tanquam in propriâ do­luerunt Eutropius in Tito. orbitate, as Eutropius expresseth it; All sorts of men thought themselves concern'd in that Pretious Loss, Lamen­ting as disconsolate Orphans deprived of their Father.

Nay Barbarians themselves who had been conquer'd by the Sword of Germa­nicus did bear their share in the sorrow for his Death.

I know Buchanan whose study was to Buchanan dejure Regni apud Scotos. diminish Princes and contract their Grandeur, tells us, that a King, though he be better and greater than any particular Sub­ject, yet He is less than the whole Aggregate and Multitude of His Subjects.

But a Text more authentick than his tells us, in the Person of King David,

Thou art better than ten Thousands of us, which you must not take for a confin'd 2 Sam. 18. 3. number of so many, but Indefinite, nay Infinite the Originall is [...].

So here you see the King set in skale with the whole Kingdom, for All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

[Page 16] Which transcendent Lamentation grew into a Proverb, Like the mourning of Zach. 12. 11. Hadadrimmon in the vally of Megiddo.

Where give me leave to tell you, Though Abulensis thought this Hada­drimmon a person then King of Syria, in whose assistance Josiah engag'd against Pharaoh Necho, who therefore in grati­tude bewailed his death so excessively, that it became Proverbiall; Yet Baroni­us will have Hadadrimmon to be only the place where Josiah fell. Baron Annal

This Rite of mourning had Josiah, And though our own Josiah deserved no less then He, and had it from all that under­stood His value; yet at the time of his cutting off, it was reputed so great a crime to express any shew of sorrow for Him, that a mourning suit was look'd on as the Livery of a Malignant and an af­front to the State, may Libell upon the Murtherers.

My selfe knew some assaulted meerly for their Habit, and hardly escaping with life.

By which you see the misery of Judaea, [Page 17] under his Captivity, translated to Eng­land, where Ne fletus quidem gratuitus, It Hieron in Sophoniam. was dangerous to mourn, and men were forc'd to fine for their sorrow expres­sed at the murder of our unparalleled Josiah.

The Large and numerous Train which attend the Funeral shew the Greatness of the Person, but the Quality of the Mourners speak his Vertue and Merit: 3. The Prophet Jeremiah la­mented, &c. It did so here when the Prophet Jeremiah lamented for Josiah.

The better the Persons are that attend, the greater is the honour done to the Dead.

When Christ wept at the Grave of John 11. 63. Lazarus, the Jews look'd on it as a spe­cial Evidence of his affection, See how he loved him. And though Saul deserv'd not such an honour from Samuel, having so oft revolted from the command of God sent by that Great Prophet, yet was it the demonstration of a scarcely paral­leled Love, that Samuel mourned for Saul all his Days, and this before his Death.

That the Prophet Jeremiah did no [Page 18] less for Josiah, the Threnes and Lamen­tations by him left to Posterity shew, divers whereof were particularly appli­cable to him, telling the VVorld how well this excellent Prince deserv'd, Like 2 King. 15. 25. whom there never was any before, neither succeeded any to equal him.

That the Subject of our Funeral this Day solemnized was as meritorious as Josiah, I speak not in the custom of those who in their funeral Sermons oft times bely the Dead, atributing Vertues to them whereof, whilest they liv'd, they were not guilty. But my own know­ledge, confirm'd by an attendance upon him for many years, makes me confidently rise to this Superlative.

The Hebrews make Jeremiah Chief Mourner; Maximè lugebat: which was partly out of Pitty, for that he ran upon a Danger whereof he was forewarn'd, Justin Mar­tyr. indeed forbidden to encounter Pharaoh Necho, as Justin Martyr infers. But espe­cially in remembrance of His Vertue and Piety: His singular love to Gods Service and care of the Temple, both in [Page 19] adorning it, and ordering the Provision for the Priests.

That our Gratious Josiah took as great care to preserve the Churches Patri­mony, and protect the Priestly Office, against those Sacrilegious Harpies who made the spoil of both their aim, let the charge given to his Treators at Ux­bridge testifie, with several other expres­sions in his Declarations.

Therefore Jeremiah, and the Schools of the Prophets had reason to lament. Discipulorum inter jubeo plorare catervos,

And the House of Levi had cause to Zach. 12. 14. Mourn Apart.

And Plorent Sacerdotes, Let the Priests weep betwixt the Porch and the Joel. 2 17. Altar.

Many whereof, when He was cut off had neither maintenance from the Altar at which they served, nor so much as a Porch to shelter their unhoused heads from the injury of the weather.

The loss of such a Patron might just­ly cause the whole Church to Lament, To turn the Songs of the Temple into Howl­ings, Amos 8. 3 [Page 20] to change our Anthems into Dirges and Ditties of Lamentation, as it did in vers. 10. Josiah's dayes, when the Singing Men and Singing Women spake of Josiah in their La­mentations. The Singing Men and Singing Women made menti­on of Him. spake of Jo­siah in their Lamentati­ons.

What strange Contrarieties doth Na­ture and Custom, put betwixt our Be­ginning and our End.

VVhen we come into the VVorld Tears and Lamentation are our Pro­logue.

The first Voice I uttered, was Crying as all others use. But at our going hence, Mu­sick Wisd 7. 3. Ushers us to our Grave. VVhen I consider the truth of that saying, Musica in luctu importuna, Musick in a time of mourning is an importunity both unwel­come and unseasonable,

May I not justly wonder what use the Singing Men and Singing Women had at Funerals?

Might we not say, as God doth, Take Amos 5. 23. from me the noise of your Songs, I will not hear the Melody, &c.

Sure those who feel the weight, and know the apprehension of a just grief, [Page 21] raised from a deserving Cause, need no Helpers to improve it.

And yet in all Ages, and in all places, there have been such.

The Romans had their Praeficas (Tan­quàm in hoc ipsum Praefectas saith one) who like Counterverse led to the Chorus in their Dirges for the Dead. And Jeremy the Prophet bids Call for the Mourning Jerem. 9. 17: Women Skilful to Lament.

'Tis true, Threnodiae primum à Simonide inventae. Their Funeral Songs were first invented by Symonides in Greece. But be­sides these, they had [...], Instru­ments used at Funerals according to the Scaliger. Quality of the Person who dyed. For meaner People Iibias, Pipes; for the No­ble, Trumpets.

VVhen Jairus his Daughter lay dead, the Text tells you, there were Minstrels, Math. 9. 23. who were put out by our Saviour. The Reason given by the Jews for coming to those places was, that by their sad Tones they might work upon the Affections and encrease the Mourning. VVe in our practice have none but Bells [Page 22] for the Common sort, and Trumpets for the Prince.

And surely it is not meerly conceit, that though they are the same Bells, which Ring at a Coronation, and at a Funeral, yet our Passion, intent upon the Subject, believes they sound more sad and heavy for this Last than for the first.

'Tis just so in the Trumpet, whose shril and Lofty Sounds give spirit to a Triumph, but at their Masters Hearse their dull and hoarser Accents plainly seem to groan.

Yet this is not all: However the He­brew reads the Singing Men and Singing Women, the Greek hath it [...], The Nobles of either Sex. And justly might they so do.

Ammianus Marcellinus, bewailing the death of the Emperor, says, Post cujus La­chrimosum interitum, unius exitio quis (que) ima­ginem Ammianus Marcellinus. periculi sui considerans, documento re­centi similia formidabat. His Fall did warne all those who were in the next station of honour below him, That Their condition [Page 23] He was shaken, could not be long secure, Ululat Abies quià cecidit Cedrus, Well Zach. 11. 2. might the Firr-tree Lament being of lower growth, when the Lofty Cedar fell. It was a Prophetick warning given by our excel­lent Josiah, when He found some of His Nobles cool and stagger'd in their Duty towards Him, They themselves would one day find the mischief, nor must look to retain their Lustre long, when He their Great Luminary was Eclipsed, Per quem Nobiles Nobiliores facti; As when the Fountain of Honour was diminished, the Streams deriv'd from it must needs fail.

He, I say, gave them This Prophetick warning, and some of them found it veri­fied.

For when the proud Levellers of that time took the confidence to invite the Peers to quit their Station, and sit with them in the House of Commons,

Upon a Contest betwixt a very mean Person and a great Peer, one of the most Insolent of the Party, to whom Complaint was made, scornfully answer­ed, [Page 24] He hoped to see the time That a faithful blue Apron should be as good as a Blue Ribbon.

Therefore most justly Plorent Proce­res, Let the Peers mourn no less than the Priests. Both which have Reason to speak of Josiah to this Day in their Lamenta­tions.

To perpetuate the Memory of which Solemn Lamentation, That neither the Person nor the occasion should be unre­membred,

They made them an Ordinance in Israel. 4. And made them an Or­dinance, &c.

VVe have know'n many Ordinances in our late wicked Times to carry on the VVar and prosecute the Life of our Josiah.

'Tis well we have here one Ordinance to bewail the Facts, and Repent our selves.

The Prophet David calls the Grave the Land of forgetfulness, where we forget and are forgotten. Psal. 88. 12.

And elsewhere He Complains, I am forgot as a Dead man out of mind. Psal. 31. 21.

[Page 25] But Josiah found a Preservative to keep his memory alive after Death.

As the Daughters of Israel by an esta­blished Judg. 11. 40. custom yearly bewail'd the Daughter of Jephtha, so did the surviving Israelites Lament Josiah, and so we our late Martyr'd Soveraign. The Children Zach. 7. 3. of the Captivity had their solemn wee­ping in the fifth moneth; we have ours in the first.

It was the Old fashion at Funerals, when they committed the Body to the Earth, to Salute and take their sad fare­well of the Deceased Party at once; we shall not need to do that, nor yet be­speak our Incomparable Josiah, as Virgil did the Brave and Noble Pallas, Sal­ve aeternum mihi maxime Palla-Aeter­numque vale. O thou who wert as e­minent for thy goodness, as great in thy Titles, Receive our last Vale­diction in the Tears of us who are left behind.

Here is an Ordinance to keep Thee Fresher, than all the spices which Em­balm thy Body.

[Page 26] Nicephorus writes that in Chabda, a City in India, when the Husband dyed, the wife Niceph. Calixto Lib. 8. Cap. 38. was a perpetuall Mourner at his Grave.

Should we follow the Son of Syrachs rule, to Weep for our Loss as he is worthy, we should never give over, never be out of Mourning. But truely say, Vigilant ꝙ me i sine fine dolores.

A story tells us, that at Zeilan in Asia, the Inhabitants believe Adam and Eve to have Purchas Pil­grims Asia. lib. 5. cap. 17. wept three hundred years for their Mur­thered Son Abel; from whose Tears a puri fying water sprang wherein Pilgrims washed.

I dare not say what a Torrent shall grow from our Sorrow for so Inex­pressible a Loss; but the Duration of it shall, if the World lasts so long, Treble this Account of Time.

The Apostle sayes, Abel, though Dead, speakes yet: so doth our Dead Soveraign Heb. 11. 4. speak this Day from every Pulpit, nor will the Voice of his Blood be silenced whilst there is a Tongue to proclaim or Memory to retain it.

And as the famous Aegyptian Syno­phanes, [Page 27] having lost his Son, Statuam dolori consecravit, Consecrated to Sorrow a Pillar to stand as his Monument: so in our Ordinance, for the perpetuating of this day (though other Tomb or Sta­tute He hath none) we raise a Column to the memory of his Pretious Name, which malice cannot stain, or Time decay.

And for an Inscription upon this Pillar the sighs of a whole Land shall be Record­ed, and the Lamentation of a people ne­ver worthy of such a Prince. Turkish History p. 476.

Bajazet these cond, in token of his Sor­row for his Son, wrote his Letters in Black Paper with white Characters.

We need not put our grief into such Phantastick Dress as he did, seeing our Loss is more nobly writ in Mourning Hearts and Thoughts suitable to the Occasion: All which endorsed upon our Looks, and bound together, are suffici­ent to make a Volume large as Ezekiels Ezek. 2. 10. written within and without with Lamenta­tions and Mournings and Wo.

Unto these the Last clause in the Text seems to refer you.

[Page 28] Behold, they are written in the Lamenta­tions. 5. Writen in the Lamen­tations.

What Lamentations for Josiah these are I dispute not: Some believe They were not those extant in the end of Je­remies Prophecy, at least not all of them, but fram'd purposely for him, though lost by the injury of Time, or neglect of such who ought to have preserved them.

Sure I am we can never want matter of Lamentation for our unparallel'd Josiah: Our Annual Sorrow, not apt to grow barren by continuance, will prompt us to New forms suitable to their Argument.

First, whil'st we consider the Person, Endowed with all the Vertues and per­fections which might adorn a Prince.

Secondly, when we reflect not onely up­on his Loss, but upon the manner of it, and the Circumstances of his Death, sufficient to wring out Tears from Marble.

Whil'st we consider his Vertues, I may truely pronounce, Never did any sit upon the English Throne, who could in all perfections match Him,

As Niceph. Gregoras of the Emperour, [Page 29] so may I of Him; [...], I cannot recount all his Vertues, and without praevarication I dare omit none which I know.

His Religion was so constant in the practice of it, That not all the Glories of the Court, exhibited in their most so­lemn Revels and Masques, could divert, nor His Journies of Recreation, when He came home wet and weary, could in­terrupt it: I am able to give signal instan­ces in both.

His Temperance never stained by any excess of Meat or Drink

His Chastity never tempted to those Wandrings which Beauty invites.

Let his profession made to some of his Royal Branches, the Night before his Jan. 29. 1648. Death, witness that.

His strength of Reason and Acuteness of Judgment the Conference in the Ile of Wight testifies, which was manag'd Chief­ly by himself against all the Knot of Divines (so they are call'd) there combin'd to oppose him; who, when They neither had Ingenuity to sub­mit [Page 30] to his Reasons, nor any Argu­ments of their own to convince Him, Those weak Opponents left Him with this Complement,—That they wished such a Pen, in the hand of such Abilities, might ever be imploy'd in a Sub­ject worthy of it.

The same was evidenced before in his Entercourse at New-Castle with Mr. Hinderson; who of an Antagonist in Dispute prov'd a Convert, and upon His Death-bed, not only confessed the rare Endowments of his Royal Master, but left it as a Legatory Charge to his Countrey-men, That they should value Him as a Jewel whose worth they hither­to understood not. Withall professing, That he believed him no whit inferi­our to the Best of all the Kings in Judah.

Nay, I dare be bold to affirm, without Partiality or Assentation, That all the vertues which singly adorned Every one of them were United and Conjoined in Him.

For the Excellency of His Pen, let me refer any to the Declarations sent to the Parliament, and his Answers to theirs; which whosoever judicially weighs, will find his wrote by so Masterly a Hand, that in respect of theirs, they look'd like Tintarits or Holbens Pieces compared to a Painter of Signs.

Odi istam quadrante dignam Eloquen­tiam: Hieron. so little weight did Those pension'd Scriblers hold, compared to him.

And truely that Cardinal of France did not Him more Right, or himself Honour, in any thing, than in that Em­blem (said to be his) wherein a single hand was decipher'd holding a Great Pen, and an infinite Number of lesser Pens held up against it; which verified in Him the old saying which you shall find mention'd in Aullus Gellius, Unus Cato mihi pro centum Millibus, et Plato instar omnium: One like him might stand against an hundred [Page] thousand Peruse his Cabbinet, for the o­pening whereof a Commitee of Pick­locks was appointed; who, after a Stu­dious Search, and long sumbling about it, discover'd nothing, but what was vi­sible to the whole Kingdom, His Reso­lution to adhere to the Protestant Religion, and constant affection to His Royal Consort, That Excellent Lady! Who never refus'd Trouble Abroad, nor fear'd Danger at Home, when she might any way assist Him in his Distress.

Which was plainly seen, when at one Time her Return from Holland was wel­com'd by a Bullet shot from the mouth of a Cannon: And at another time putting to Sea, She had a Chase Peece sent after Her for a farewel.

All which Hazards then, and Afflicti­ons since, when exiled from Her Own, she suffer'd, like that Undaunted Queen Zenobia, with so much Magnanimity and such high Resolution, as became the Daughter of Her Great Father Henry the fourth.

And I heartily wish, Her Story may [Page 33] be particularly transmitted to Posterity, that the Example of so Peerless a Wife, and the Barbarous usage she underwent, may never be forgot.

Where give we leave to say, Though the Rifling this Cabbinet prov'd one of the highest Honours as well to the Ow­ner as to Her, yet was it by Those (whose Valour was always less than their Spight) intended a Brand of Eternal De­famation. Nor ever can the Actors ac­quite Themselves from the baseness of the Action, whereof a Noble Enemy Would never have been Guilty.

When there was hot war betwixt Philip King of Macedon, and the Thebanes, whose Scouts had intercepted some Let­ters which pass'd betwixt the King and his Queen Olympia, Mother to Alexander the Great, without Violating the seals They sent them back, holding it an un­manly insolence to pry into the written passages betwixt Man and VVife.

But why do I mention the demeanour of a Noble Enemy, compar'd to those who in all their Actings (I say in [Page 34] all) declar'd, that They never understood the Rules either of humanity or Honour.

And as they us'd the Cabbinet, so did they that Incomparable Jewel found in it too, Our Blessed Kings Portraiture, Which those infamous Raylours, whom the Proud Faction kept in pay, went a­bout to persuade the world was none of His. Did not the Papers, all writ by his own hand, refute that Libel, Look upon the Matter, and you may Conclude, None but the Heart of a King Enlarg'd by God could Indite It; And if you con­sider the Style, Loquela prodit, No Pen I ever knew, either then, or since, but His own, could write it.

One of them, and indeed the most Malicious in the Pack, who calls him­self Iconoclastes, so shamelessly rails, That as St. Paul said to Simon Magnus, so might I to him, Thou art in the Gall of Bitterness: And as the Apostle charged Act. 8. 23. Elymas the Sorcerer for Mischief and per­verting the Truth; so it is very memorable Act. 13. 10. This Wretch had the fate of Elymas, Strook with Blindness to his Death.

[Page 35] There is mention'd in the Prophet Scriptura Ezekiae; The writing of Heze­kiah: Esa. 38. 9. What this was I will not dispute. But sure I am, Our Hezekiah hath left the written Account of His Solitude and Suf­ferings upon so firm a Record, that the Incomparable Author needs no Monu­ment but his Book. That is in Nazian­zen's Phrase [...], a Living column. Gregor Na­zianz. Orat in Laudem Basilii.

Nor needs he any sheet of Lead to en­wrap Him: His own pretious Sheets will preserve Him, And cause admiring Posterity to look upon Him as a Second Ecclesiastes, sadly preaching to the world the Misery of Mankind, and the vanity of all humane Glories, verify'd in the Greatest of Men, and in the Best of Princes.

If the Loss of so Excellent a Person as this may justly raise our Lamentation: The Manner and Circumstance which brought Him to His End must needs en­crease it.

To parallel which unhappy Passages, I never found any History Divine or Hu­mane, excepting only the History of His Great Masters sufferings under the Jews.

[Page 36] In his Meditations upon Death at Carisbrook He tells the world, As he had leisure enough, so cause more than enough, to Meditate and prepare for Death, knowing there were but few steps between the Prisons and Graves of Princes.

And els-where He professeth it his Great­est Comfort, That he had the Honour to imitate his Saviours Example in suffering for Righteousness, though obscured by the fowlest charges of Tyronny and Injustice. pag. 146. How did he Rejoice and bless God on that very day, which was to Him his last on Earth, when from that worthy Praelate [...] who had leave then to attend him, he understood that Chapter of Mathew the Seven and Twentieth, which is the History of our Saviours passion, was not chosen by him to suit his purpose, but was the proper Lesson appointed by the Rubriok and order of the Church for the Morning Service? I say, how did he rejoyce, That his own sufferings held such Conformity with his Saviours, unto whom in very, few hours he was ready to resign Himself!

Indeed, whil'st I recount the steps and [Page 37] passages which carri'd Him to His Grave, There is scarcely any Circumstance of our Blessed Saviours Passion, with Humility and Duty be it spoken) unto which his carry'd not some resemblance.

The Clamour of the Jews upon the First (Away with him) and the Tumultuous Luk. 23. 18. Exclamations of an enraged People upon the Last.

Caiaphas Prophecy upon the First, Joh. 18. 14. That One must dye for the People;

And Cromwells Profession heard to fall from him at Childerly, near Cambridge, when he was in the Armies Power, against the Last; It was not fit that Man should live.

The Tampering with Judas to Betray him, I draw not into the Parallel, I must not say he was Betray'd, but Parted with He was.

And yet the High Price set upon him car­ries this Excuse; perhaps as those who ex­pose Land to Sale ina very high demand, unto which they believe the purchaser would not rise, do in effect deny the Sale; so I hope this Price, which they could not expect might be easily laid down, shewed a desire to Keep Him still Themselvs.

[Page 38] Yet when this was done, and His im­placable Enemies had his Person in their power, Though they wanted not Will to Destroy him, They wanted a colour for their Murtherous Purpose.

When Christ was brought to Pilate by the Jews, and He plainly told them he found no fault in him, They reply'd they Luk. 23. 4, 14. had a Law, and by That Law, he was to Die.

But in this case Our Jews had no Law: The Law was yet to make, and the Heads of the proud Faction laid toge­ther resolv'd to erect a-new, One of Cas­sius Mensuraque Juris Vis erat. his Tribunals, and write the Law thereby enacted like Dracoes, in Blood; I mean their High Court of Justice.

Whose Character the Psalmist gives Psal. 94. 20, 21. you; They imagine mischief as a Law. They gather them together against the Soul of the Righteous, and condemn the Innocent Blood.

But this brought not their design to effect. Quomodo te torques, O Malitia? O Malice, how dost thou torture thy brain! Now they have invented a Law, They cannot find a Judge to Execute It.

[Page 39] The Office is tendered to all the Robe here left behind. Amongst whom (I speak it to their Reputation, and the Counterballance of many errours which might be imputed during the distempers) not one was found to accept the Office; All of them leaving it to the Law-ma­kers themselves, and saying in effect (as Pilate to the Jews) Take ye him, and Joh. 18. 31. Judge him according to your own Law.

Untill a Man at last appear'd, capaci­tated only by his Ignorance and Impu­dence: This wretch Commissioned by them, as Doeg the Edomite was by Saul 1. Sam. 22. 18. for the Murther of Ahimelech, Fall thou upon him, undertook the cruel Task.

And truely in the Manage of that foul Business, Pilate shew'd himself the more Civil Person; Indeed, the Better Chri­stian.

Pilate, upon the Evidence given in by the Jews (to shew that nothing alledged by them convinc'd his Judgment) Took Water and washed his hands, Mat. 27. 24. professing he was Guiltless of the Blood of that Just Person.

[Page 40] But that Purple Radamanth profest Nothing should satisfie him, But to wash his hands in His Soveraign's Blood.

Besides, when Our Saviour stood si­lent amidst the Clamorous Accusations Joh. 19. 10. of the Jews, Pilate invited the Pri­soner to speak, Answerest thou no­thing? Marc. 15. 4. &c.

But this Barbarous Wretch, who sate in Pilate's place, denyed his Soveraign the Liberty of answering for himself; Sir, I must interrupt you, you may not be permitted to speak of Law or Reason: (Alas, these were not the Rules of their proceeding.) The Authority of the People is Superiour here, and (what­ever God sayes to the Contrary), you are now Subordinate and Subject to Them.

This was the sence of that Reverend Praesidents speech in this Case, though contrary to Pilate's, who was the Praesident and Praefect of Judaea.

Let me proceed in my Parallel; If the Mocks and Derisions of the Souldiers Mat. 27. 29. [Page 41] added to the sufferings of Christ, Ours did the same to Their King, using Acts of the highest Scorn, even to the Interrupting his private Devotions, and words (if possible) worse than their Actions;

Spitting in his face, as in His Masters, from rotten unwholsome mouths not Mat. 26. 67. worthy to be named here.

Nay, upon the Day when that fatal Sentence was pronounced, To sever the Wisest and Best Head in His Three King­domes from His Body, a wretched mis­creant, whose best education was from the Dray-cart, then sitting as one of the Judges (in which ungratious Pack there were few of better breeding) had the Impudence to say unto him, Now Stroak­er cure thy self: Alluding to those Mira­culous Cures performed by the Regal-Touch, which mock was equivalent to that of the Jews:

He saved others Himself He could not Mat. 27. 42. Luk. 23. 33. save.

I have but one more, Their Obstinacy and Impenitence for the Murther com­mitted; which appears, when it was [Page 42] moved in the House wherein they sate, that the Names of all those Regicides, who had the confidence to condemn their Soveraign, might in all places for which They serv'd be engraven in Plates of Brass, that Posterity might never for­get such renowned Patriotts. Poor de­ceived Men! As if that sinful Act of theirs were not, like the Sin of Judah, engraven with a Pen of Iron, to be recorded Jer. 17. 1. at their Final Account.

I beseech you now judge, what doth this Impudence of Theirs differ from the Cry of the Impoenitent Jews, His Blood be upon us, and upon our Children. Mat. 27. 25.

And truly, I speak it with much Chris­tian Sorrow; It hath been observed, That not One of those Men who Mur­thered Him, at the time of his Execution did express the least poenitent Remorse for the Bloody Fact by Them committed.

VVhether then our Jewish Sanedrim, Our High Court of Justice, did not in all particulars, at least match the Jews, if not exceed them, Let the VVorld judge.

Nor indeed know I any thing which [Page 43] might conclude them Not Jews, But that They wanted the Seal of their Cursed Covenant, I mean That Circumcission, which the Law of Moses and the Law of the Land appoints for such horrid Mur­derers.

Think not, I beseech you, That I come to whet the Sword of Justice, or shar­pen the Ax, my Office is rather to blunt it.

My intent of coming to this place is to invite Mourners fit for such a Funeral; as all Judah and Jerusalem for the first Jo­siah, so The whole Kingdom and the City, for the Celebration of our Own Josiah's exequies.

For All are involved in the misery of this Day; In one kind or other all were Contributors unto it, Not only Those who voted in the Cursed sentence, But Those who voted their Commission to Sit. All Those who by their Raised Forces abetted the Bloody Fact; All Those who approv'd it when it was Done; All Those who did not endeavour to hinder it, if they had Power: Lastly, All Those who [Page 44] do not heartily detest the Bloody Fact, and bewail the Person taken from us, with a Lamentation worthy so Irrepa­rable a Loss.

VVell may I say to the whole King­dom, as Christ to the VVomen who followed Him Lamenting to his Cross, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for your selves. So may I bid Luk. 23. 28. the Sons and Daughters of our Jerusalem, weep, not so much for Him, as for your selves and for your Children; VVho All, more or less, were instrumental in the Tragedy of this Day.

All Ages, Old and Young: VVith sorrow must we remember the time when Old men, who needed a Staff to under prop them, Ty'd to their Swords, with feeble Knees knocking one against the other faster than the Drum beat, to shew their good will to the Cause, went tottering about the Streets: Nay, Young Boys, as if they had been taught to suck in Their Parents Rebellion with their Milk, mar­ch'd up and down in a warlike manner.

All Conditions and Professions, whether [Page 45] of Law or Gospel: VVhat the First did too many can well remember: And what the Last did, This whole City yet rings of. Nay, in that Sphere where I am plac'd, I dare affirm, no Romance yields Example of more Lunatick prancks than some play'd, who transform'd themselvs from Ministers to Captains and Colo­nels.

A strange Metamorphosis! We read in Esay of Swords converted into Plow-Shares Esa. 2. 4. and Spears into Sithes: But, till of late, never heard of Ink-horns converted into Bandileres, and Pens into Pistols.

And as all Conditions, so all Sexes, concur­red in the production of this mischief.

We had a Maiden Troop rais'd and maintained by their Contribution who went under that Style: Nay, in that Ci­ty which my self have best reason to know, A Band of Women led by One, who took upon Her the Office and Title of a Captain, with Drums beating, and Colours flying, marched daily through the Streets.

And to shew, This Sex is almost as [Page 46] good for Fortification as for Fight, at that time when in These very Streets the Drum, by a Ridiculous and Scandalous Beat, call'd together Men of the Spade and Mattock, to go dig in the Works cast up to keep out their King; some La­dies, to express their Zeal to the Cause, ap­pear'd upon the Ramparts, and set their hands, not accustomed to such Tasks, unto the Spade.

That vertuous Woman, whom Solo­mon in his Character describes, dealeth in Prov. 31. 13. 19. Wool and Flax, not Iron; And layes Her hand to the Distaff, not the Spade.

Wherefore upon this occasion I cannot but remember, that when our Late Ma­ster was told divers Ladies wish'd ill to his Cause; He reply'd, He was confident no VVoman of Vertue and Honour would be against Him.

I do not summon These Daughters of Jerusalem to weep at this Funeral; Tears Dropt from such Eyes upon this Glorious Dust would dishonour it: Nor am I so skilful an Herald as to tell where, to Rank these Ladies for the Cause, unless [Page 47] with the Chaplains for the Covenant: Let them weep together, and lament the several Scandals, by either of them brought, by the One upon Their Sex, by the Other upon their Function.

I come hither (in the Prophet Zepha­nies Zephaniah 3. 18. Phrase) To gather them that are Sor­rowful for the Solemn Assemblies, The Fasts and long winded Exercises inten­ded only to draw on That Mischief which we This Day bewail, And unto whom the Reproach of these Transactions is a Bur­then. Ibid.

Such as These whom I have mentioned have work enough To weep for Them­selves. As indeed we all have, and To Cover the Altar with our Tears. Mal. 2. 23.

Nor is it our Duty to weep only, but to Pray.

The Prophet bids us come with weep­ing and Supplications. Jer. 31. 9.

In the first to Lament our own Sins which were contributors to this Irrepa­rable Loss: In the Last to Deprecate the future Miseries which, upon the Ac­count of His Blood, hang over this Nation.

[Page 48] When the Lamenter cries The Lam. 5. 16. Crown is Fallen, He goes on, Wo unto us for we have Sinned.

'Tis True that, sometimes Plectun­tur Achivi, The People are punished for the Princes fault: As at Davids Num­bering the People, The Sheep died for the Shepherds Offence: Quid Oves istae? cryes David.

But Samuel tells Israel, when God 1. Sam. 12. 14. had given them a King, If they con­tinued in Their Obedience, not rebelling against his Command, They should Enjoy their King: But if ye shall do wick­edly, Vers. 25. ye shall be consumed both ye and your King.

I can therefore impute to None but our selves, The Loss of Our King. For Those many Crying Sins of the Land, was Our Glorious Sun Darkned at the Height of His Lifes Noon, and His Spreading Beams quenched in His own Blood. Ac­cording to that Threat from God by His Prophet Amos: I will cause the Sun to go down at Noon, and Amos 8. 9. [Page 43] Darken the Earth in the Clear Day.

VVe have therefore Just Cause to Pray, that the Happy Light sprang from the Loins of our Late Buried Sun may long continue His Lustre, not lessened by our unthankfulness, nor darkned by Our Sins.

That, according to the Example of so unparallel'd a Parent, He may continue a Patron of the Protestant Religion, and Pro­tectour of the Liberties of His Subjects; As, Blessed be God, He doth.

Lastly, That as He happily Inherits His Kingdoms, so He may Inherit His Vertues too: But that those Vertues may never be put to that Cruel Bloody Test unto which the Piety and Patience of His Martyr'd Fa­ther were, this Day sixteen years, Put:

That God, who hath Power to grant, and Will to assent, when He is faithfully sup­plicated, Accept our humble Supplicati­ons, for His Beloved Son's sake our Gratious Intercessour.

AMEN.