A SERMON ΟΝ ΤΗΕ MARTYRDOM O F K. CHARLES I. LUKE Xxiii. 28. Daughters of Jerufalem, weep not for me, but weep for your felves, and for your Children. T HIS is a Day of Trouble, nals of our Nation, and the Calendar of our Church, by the fad Sufferings of an excellent Prince, В 2 3 SERM. Prince, who fell a Sacrifice to the I. Rage of his Rebellious Subjects; and, by his Fall, derived Infamy, Mifery, and Guilt, on them, and their finful Pofterity. We are met here, to acknowledge our Sin, to express our publick Deteftation of it, and to deprecate the Vengeance which hath purfued, and doth ftill, I fear, purfue us on the Account of it. In order to raise and improve these good Thoughts and Difpofitions, I have pitch'd on the Words spoken by our Blessed Saviour in his fad Proceffion towards Calvary, as the Ground of our present Meditations, -- Daughters of Jerufalem, &c. Since Providence fo order'd it, that one of the Leffons for that Day, whereon the Royal Martyr fuffer'd, and which was read to him juft before his ascending the Scaffold, fhould contain an Account of the Paffion of our Lord; and the fame Leffon is ftill by Authority appointed to be read in these annual Affemblies; I may bę be allowed, I hope, from the History SERM. of that Paffion, written by St. Luke, I. to take the Words you have heard, and apply them to the Subject I am now about to handle, without incurring the Imputation of drawing unfeemly Parallels, and without giving Offence to any, but those, who are Offended with the Anniversary it felf, and with our folemn and devout Manner of observing it. As Jefus went to his Crucifixion, St. Luke tells us, that there followed him a great Company of People, and of Women, which also bewailed and lamented him. But Jefus, turning unto them, faid, Daughters of Jerufalem, Weep not for me, but weep for your felves, and for your Children: For, behold, the Days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the Barren, and the Wombs that never bare, and the Paps that never gave fuck! His present Sufferings, and approaching Death, withheld him not from reflecting with Concern on the Calamities, which were ready to oB 3 vertake SERM. Vertake others, on his Account. And, I. because the Women who follow'd him to Calvary, out of a Tenderness of Nature peculiar to their Sex, indulged themselves in the loudest Expreffions of Grief; therefore to These he particularly addreffes the Admonition of the Text; directs them to turn their well-meant Compaffion from him upon themselves, to referve all their Tears for a Time, now at hand, when the whole Nation of the Jews would be call'd to a strict Account for fpilling his Blood, and be made an astonishing Inftance of Divine Vengeance. The good Prince, whofe unhappy Fate we commemorate, did in this, as well as other refpects, follow the Steps of the great Captain of his SalHeb. ii. vation, who was made perfect thro' Suf10. ferings: For the laft Moments of his Life, which his Murderers allow'd him, were employ'd in awakening a drowfy Nation into a Senfe of its Guilt, and a Dread of its impending Punishment. Secure of his own In nocence |