Hadadrimmon: OR, Josiah's Lamentation, BEING A SERMON Preached upon the ANNIVERSARY FOR CHARLES I The Royal Martyr.  
By JOHN OVERING, M. A.  
LONDON: Printed by Thomas Johnson. 1670.   

Imprimatur,  
Feb. 9. 1660/ 70. Rob. Grove R. P. Dvo. Episc. land. à Sac. Dom.   

TO THE RIGHT honourable, Sir Samuel Starling, Kt. Lord mayor of the City of London; TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL, Sir John Frederick Kt. President of Christs-Hospital, Sir John Robinson Knight and Baronet, Sir William Peak Kt, Sir Robert Viner Knight and Baronet, Sir Joseph Sheldon Kt. Mr. William Gibbon Treasurer; And the rest of the Governors of the said HOSPITAL.  
Right honourable, and Right Worshipful,  
MY principal Design in this present Dedication, is the Payment of an Old Debt. I count it my Happiness, that I was brought up in your Hospital; and reckon it my Duty to offer the First-Fruits of my Labours, unto your Acceptance. The Subject craves no Patronage; But this small Treatise begs your Favour. Accept this poor Mite, and that God would enrich you, with all the Blessings of Grace here, and Glory hereafter, is, and shall be the daily Prayer, of  
Your humble orator, John Overing.   

HADADRIMMON: OR, Josiah's Lamentation.  II CHRON. XXXV. 24, 25. 
And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiab.  
And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah; and all the singing-men and the singing-women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an Ordinance in Israel: And behold, they are written in the Lamentations.  
THis Day is a day of blackness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of mourning and lamentation, for the best of Kings, the mirror of Princes, hurried away by a violent, and( unto all but himself) untimely death, by the hand of barbarous, traitorous, blood-thirsty men; to the great dishonour of God, the reproach of the Gospel, the shane of the Protestant Religion: but to the unexpressible grief of all good Christians. A wonderful and a horrible thing was on this day committed in the Land; such as no Chronicle hath recorded the like, nor Age can parallel: For though Kings have heretofore been secretly murdered, and in a corner; yet never was such a bare-faced, Heaven-daring Treason( set aside only that Violence which was offered to the Lord of Glory our blessed Saviour) beholded by the Sun; and that acted too under the pretence of Justice, entitling God to so unparallelled a wickedness,& making him such an one as themselves. The consideration whereof cannot but pluck up the sluices of our sorrow, and let in floods of tears, if it were possible, this day, to lament and bewail before the Lord the matchless guilt of this crying sin. Now, I say, this being a black and gloomy day, a day of mourning and bitter lamentation, for the horrid and barbarous Murder of a most virtuous and Religious King, I have chosen a Text of mourning and lamentation, for the untimely death of a Godly and Religious King, King Josiah, the fittest parallel that I can find in the whole Sacred Story, for our late martyred Sovereign.  
Josiah was the best of all the Kings of Judah; there lies not among all the Files of Sacred Records, an evidence of so exemplary and Princely Piety as King Josiah, whose History you may red at large in the Chapter immediately foregoing, and in the former part of this Chapter, as also in Chap. 22. and 23. of the second Book of Kings.  
He restored the Law, even lost; punished and extirpated Idolatry, reformed Abuses, repaired God's House, restored his Worship, settled Religion, encouraged the Priests the Ministers of God, and judiciously ordered the whole Service of God. In a word, such was his signal and exemplary Piety, that the Holy Ghost giveth him this great and gracious Testimony, Like unto him there was no King before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him, 2 Kings 23.25. And besides his Acts of Royal Prudence and public Zeal, as for his personal and private Sanctimony, we red, That his heart was tender, and that he did humble himself before the Lord, 2 Chron. 24.27. A soft and tender heart is the best tempered for God; and what a gracious tenderness was this in Josiah's heart? He doth but once hear the Law red, and in special those dreadful threats of judgement against the Idolatries of his Judah, and he rents h●… Clothes, to show his Heart rent with so●… row, and washes his Bosom with Tear●… is humbled, thus humbled for his Father sins, for his Peoples sins. How many o●… us, after a thousand hammerings of th●… menaces of Gods Law upon our guilty Souls, continue yet obdurate, and insensible of our danger? The very Reading of the Law did thus affect him, the Preaching of it moves not us: The sins of others fetched tears from his eyes, our own sins are not sorrowed for by us.  
Yet this Great, this Royal Pattern of Piety, King Josiah, who was thus good, thus gracious, was for the sins of his People snatched away by a violent death. The thread of his precious Life was untimely snapped asunder, as a punishment not of his, but their iniquity.  
Judahs sins had so exceedingly provoked God, that he was resolved now no longer to withhold the execution of those Judgments formerly denounced against them. To this end he first removes the Remora unto his Justice( this good King), plucks down their Hedge and Fence, their Religious Prince, that so his Judgments might rush in upon them without stop, and destroy them. How is the Happiness of a Kingdom twisted with the Welfare of a Religious King? How close doth the Misery and Calamity of a People follow the Loss of a Pious Prince? It proved so here, and therefore well might they mourn for his decease.  
This good and godly King is unhappily drawn into a destructive War: Pharaoh Necho King of Egypt comes up to fight against the King of Assyria; Josiah is drawn in to aid the Assyrians: That he might be the less noted in the battle, he disguiseth himself: The fatal Arrow of an Egyptian Archer finds him out in the throng, and gives him his deaths Wound: His changed Chariot is now turned into a Bier, to carry his bleeding Corps to his Grave in Jerusalem.  
What eye doth not now pity and lament the untimely end of good Josiah? Whom can it choose but affect, to see a Religious, Just, virtuous Prince, thus violently snatched away? Indeed Josiah happily gained by it; In stead of a froward People, he is by this means sorted with Saints and Angels; in stead of a fading and corruptible Crown, he is possessed of an eternal. But his gain is his Subjects loss; though he be happy, they, as their sins had deserved, were miserable. All their Prosperity and Felicity was butted in the Grave with him. This makes them ready to weep out their eyes for sorrow; to betake themselves( as our Nation this day doth) to a general mourning and bitter lamentation. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. And Jeremiah, &c.  
In which Words you may observe with me these Particulars.  
1. The Person so bitterly lamented and mourned for, Josiah, a Godly and Religious King; yet slain by a cruel hand, snatched away by a violent death. Neither Goodness nor Greatness can exempt man from the sorest sufferings, the sharpest kind of death. Solomon hath observed it long since, and Experience in all Ages hath verified his Observation, That here, in respect of Temporals, All things come alike to all, there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked, &c. which should teach us not to be censorious of other, to judge rashly of them, in regard of Gods outward Dispensations towards them, lest we condemn the Generation of the Righteous.  
2. Here is the sad lamentation and bitter mourning which was made for him; Described,  
1. By the generality of the Mourners. The whole Land wore the Blacks of Sorrow, the whole Church and Nation of the Jews made Lamentations for him. The Prophet Jeremy is the chief Mourner, composeth Josiah's Funeral Elegies( the Book of the Lamentations) gives them unto the skilful Choire to chant forth: He begins the first sad Note, the Singing-men and Singing-women join in Consort with him, and all Judah and Jerusalem make up the sad Chorus in this general sorrow. A mourning, this made the highest prescript of mourning, the utmost bounds and confines of sorrow, Zech. 12.11. In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddon. And that not without just cause, whether we consider the worth and excellency of the Person, the Happiness which they enjoyed during his life, or the Misery that followed upon his death.  
2. The Continuation of this general and solemn Mourning and Lamentation; It lasted not only for a day or two, or a week or two, or a month or two, and no more; but it was continued from time to time, from year to year, by an Act or Ordinance made for it in Israel. It was a Custom among the Jews to have public Mourners at their Funerals, both Men and Women, who used to make Lamentations in most doleful Tunes, at the death of Persons of Worth and Honour; as appeareth Eccles. 12.5. Man goeth to his long home, and the Mourners go about the streets. These Mourners in their Lamentations were wont to make mention of the Parties deceased: Thus they did for Josiah in their solemn Mournings for others, making mention of their great loss and miss of him: Insomuch that it became a constant Custom, and as it were an established Law or Ordinance, to make mention of the sad loss of Josiah in all their doleful Elegies.  
Or it may be, that by reason of the loss of so worthy a King, a special Law was Enacted for it( as our Parliament hath piously and prudently done) that at all other solemn Mournings, there should be Mourning and Lamentations made for Josiah, and that the public Mourners observed the same. This I take to be the meaning of those Words, And made them an Ordinance in Israel.  
3. Here is the Record for the Commemoration of this Religious King, in the continued Mourning for him; And behold, they are written in the Lamentations. Some conceive the Lamentations of Jeremy to be here meant, which were composed upon this sad occasion: The Death of Josiah, and the numerous Calamities which by his death he foresaw would befall the Jews, being the ground work and foundation on which the Prophet Jeremy did erect the whole sorrowful Structure of that Book; which seems to be hinted, Lam. 4.20. The breath of our nostrils, the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen. But the most reject this, and think there might be some other Lamentations remaining then upon Record, and wherein the loss of Josiah was set down. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, &c.  
The Time will not give me leave to handle every Branch of the Text( a great part whereof is already spent) I shall present you therefore with one general Observation, wherein I shall comprise and bind up together the whole sum and substance of the Text.  
That the death, especially the violent and untimely death of a good and gracious King, is a just ground of bitter mourning and lamentation to all good People. This good King Josiah being so unhappily slain, Judah and Jerusalem, the whole Land and Nation of the Jews, all the good People both in Church and State, betake themselves to doleful Lamentations. A Truth this so apparent, it needs not much proof; yet it may be further illustrated and cleared upon these accounts.  
1. The death of a Friend, and Friend, doth occasion sorrow; much more of achoice Friend, a common Friend, especially if he fall into the hands of cruel Thieves and merciless Murderers, and come to a barbarous and bloody end: Surely this must needs be a cause of great mourning to all that did bear any loving respect unto him. And is not a King, a good King, a Friend, a choice Friend, to all his People, being the Minister of God for their good? Must not then his death, a violent and bloody death, most unjustly and barbarously brought upon him, occasion sad hearts and weeping eyes among those who have any spark of good Nature, Loyalty, or Affection towards him?  
2. A good King is not only a Friend, but a Father; Rex Pater Patriae, the Father of the country, the Father of the Common-wealth; yea, and a Nursing Father of the Church too, so called in Scripture-phrase. And surely he is no dutiful Child, that will not lament his Fathers death; especially if he see him slain and butchered by bloody hands. And certainly they are no dutiful Children, no Loyal Subjects, that mourn not for the horrid Slaughter, the barbarous Assassination of their Civil Father.  
3. A good King is the Bridegroom of the Common-wealth, the Husband of his People: And hence it hath been a Custom anciently retained at the Inauguration or Coronation of Kings, to deliver them a Ring, as a Token or Pledge of Wedding them to their People: And will not the Children of the Bride-chamber mourn, when the Bridegroom is taken from them? Can a loving Bride, a loyal Spouse, endure to see her dear Husband assassinated, murdered, without shrieking and crying out, without ringing of hands, and making doleful Lamentations? Surely no. And how then can good Subjects call to mind the barbarous Butchering of a Religious King, without bleeding hearts, and mournful spirits? Thus you see, if we consider him in his Relations to his People, The death, especially the violent death of a good King, is a just ground of bitter mourning to all good People. To this I may add the consideration of the great Blessings and Benefits we enjoy by the Life, the sad Calamities and Confusions which follow upon the Death of a good King: And that both in respect of Temporals, and Spirituals.  
1. A good King, next under God, is a principal cause of our Temporal Well-being. 'tis under his Shadow and Protection that we enjoy our Lives, Liberties, Estates. What can be expected but ruin and Rapine, Violence and Oppression, so that we have nothing which we can call our own, as we have seen by woeful experience, when we are without such a King? And is it not a sad thing then to be deprived of such a King? Will not all that delight not to live upon the Plunder and Spoil of others, lament the Loss of such an one?  
2. A good King is next under God, a principal cause of our well-being, in reference to spiritual things, such as concern our Souls: It is under him, and by virtue of those good Laws enacted by him, that we are preserved to live a quiet and a peaceable Life in all godliness and honesty; and therefore the Loss of such a King must needs be deplorable, as opening a wide Gap to all licentiousness and wickedness, irreligion and profaneness. It was a sad time in Israel, when there was no King there, then every man did what was good in his own eyes, judge. 7.6. To what Exorbitancy and villainies will not the corrupt heart of man left to its own liberty; and actuated by Satanical fury, breath out in such an Anarchy? As we have seen to the reproach of our Profession, the grief of our Hearts, the joy and derision of our Enemies: So that all this considered, is not the Point clear, That the Death, especially the violent Death of a good King, is a just ground of bitter lamentation to all good people?  
Let us now apply this Truth to ourselves.  
See then in the first place what great cause of Mourning and Lamentation we have this day, who have seen a Josiah, a Good and Religious King, cut off by the hand of Violence. Let us a little parallel Josiah in my Text, with our martyred Josiah, that seeing his excellent Worth, we may be the more sensible of his exceeding Loss, and find what just cause we have to mourn.  
1. Josiah was a very Pious and Religious Prince: It was his Care to Reform Religion according to the Law of God, found in the Temple by Hilkiah the High-priest. To this Reformed Religion he adhered, cleaving to the Lord with all his heart, and walking in all the ways of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand, or to the left, 2 Kings 22.2.  
So our martyred Josiah was zealously affencted to the true Reformed Protestant Religion, which he firmly professed, and constantly clavae unto; Though his malicious Adversaries, in the beginning of our late Troubles, blasted him with Popery, as though he had been a Papist, or at least Popishly affencted and inclined;( A Slander as false as the father of lies could invent, and one of their most cunning Engines, whereby Absolom-like, they stolen away the hearts of his people) yet he continued Constant in it to his last Breath, and sealed it with his Blood: And that unparalleled Book, His {αβγδ} which he wrote and left behind him, wherein he commends the Protestant Religion to His Son( our now most Gracious Sovereign) to be constantly embraced and professed by him; which he found by proof to be the best of all Religions, and nearest to the Apostolical Primity and Purity: I say this Bok shall stand as a Lasting Monument to all Posterity, to the perpetual shane of those malicious Slanderers and Traducers.  
2. Josiah was very zealous for the House of God, took great care for the Repairing and Beautifying of the Temple, 2 Kings 22.31. 2 Chron. 35.20. So our Josiah was zealous for the Repairing and Beautifying of all the Houses of God through the Land, especially that great Mother-Church( the Ornament of this City) a great part of the Charge whereof he took upon Himself; which with his fall, fell to ruin apace, and( O shane to Christianity!) made for many years by our pretended Reformers, not only a Den of Thieves, but a Stable for Horses.  
3. Josiah was a great Friend to the Clergy, to the Prophets and Ministers of God, the Priests and Levites, giving them great Encouragement in their Service, 2 Chron. 35.2. So was our Josiah, a great Lover and Respecter of Learned and Pious Men; The greatest Countenancer and Encourager of the Clergy and Ministers of England of any King before him; A tender Nurse, a most propitious Father of the Church and Church-men; so that no weight of difficulties could so press upon him, as to alienate Gods portion, the Churches Patrimony: To preserve which from the Sacrilegious hands of the first Movers of the Rebellion, He tendered the Sale of so much Crown-land as would amount to the Value of the Church-land. Hear his own Words in that Heavenly Book of His: I am so much a Friend unto Church-men, that hath any thing in them beseeming that Sacred Function, that I have hazarded mine own Interest, chiefly upon Conscience, and Constancy to maintain their Rights, whom the more I look upon as Orphans, and under the Sacrilegious hands of many cruel and rapacious Reformers, so I thought it my duty the more to appear as a Father, and Patron of them and the Church.  

He had thoroughly learned King Lemuels L●sson which his mother taught him, It is not for kings to drink wine, nor for Princes strong drink. And for Chastity, he might give that as his Motto, Marriage is honourable, the Bed undefiled.  4. Josiah was a King unblamable as to any notorious personal Crime; we do not find him noted with any remarkable Miscarriage, as most of his Predecessors had been; Some are said to be good, and some bad, but the best of them had their spots and blemishes: We red of Davids Adultery, of Solomons Idolatry, but we do not red that Josiah was any where taxed with any such scandalous sin.  
So our Josiah was of a most unblamable Life and Conversation, free from any notorious personal Crime; as Swearing, Drunkenness, Uncleanness, &c. being the most chased, Temperate Prince that ever swayed Englands sceptre; even his most malicious enemies must in this respect be his Compurgators.  
5. Josiah was of a soft Heart, a tender Conscience, 2 Kings 22.12. So was our Josiah; How did his Conscience check and trouble him, when by restless opportunity he had yielded Compliance( for plenary Consent it was not, as himself said) to the Act for the Earl of Strafford's Death, which in his judgement and Conscience he could not be satisfied was just and legal? How did he mourn like a Dove, and complain in the bitterness of his Soul? How was he seized with continual remorse for it, and did mention it as the main thing which did trouble him at his Martyrdom? Acknowledging that the giving way to an unjust Sentence, might be some cause that the Lord permitted so unjust a Sentence to be executed upon himself? And what greater Evidence of a gracious and sanctified Soul, than this soft Heart, this tender Conscience?  
6. Josiah was a King as devout to God, so devoted to the good of his people. In the verse following my Text, there is mention of the acts of Josiah, and his goodness: Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his goodness, or kindness. His acts and his goodness or kindness, are joined together, because he did many acts of goodness and kindness to his People: So our Josiah had a large Heart for the good of his People; as his many Concessions to his last Parliament did abundantly declare, denying nothing they legally challenged, and indulging so much of grace and favour, as all Ages cannot parallel, being bountiful above all his Royal Ancestors; And yet ready to consent further, if any reasons could be produced to invite greater Favours, requesting His Parliament in one of His Messages, only to make known what was wanting to the Kingdoms happiness, and he would cheerfully supply it.  
By this which you have heard, though far more might be added, you may guess what a good, what a gracious King we had, and what a Blessing we enjoyed in Him; so eminently good, that I could wish all the Kings and Princes of the world were altogether such as He was, except his Bonds, the heavy pressure of his unmerited Sufferings.  
Now to have such a King snatched from us by a violent and bloody death, is it not a sad Loss, and much to be lamented? He was slain, not as Josiah in my Text, by foreign Enemies, by strangers of another Nation, and in the heat of battle, but murdered in could blood, and that by some of his own Subjects and Servants, who had sworn Allegiance and Fidelity to him, who had Declared, Promised, Protested, solemnly Vowed and Covenanted to Protect, Preserve and Defend him; O damnable hypocrisy! For these to murder him, and that not in prevate( as other Traitors have dealt with their Princes) but to do it openly, as men solemnly wicked, and under pretence and show of Justice, O hellish mockery! as it were in defiance of Heaven, and in the sight of the Sun, in opposition to all Laws, both divine and human, against the light of their own Consciences. The Powder-plotters were modest Traitors to these, they wrought under ground and in darkness; their Treason crept into the Cellar, as being ashamed of itself; but this was acted upon the Scaffold in the open light, without shane or blushing; So that all circumstances and aggravations considered which might be name, I dare be bold to say, It was the most daring, horrid, execrable murder, next to the Crucifying of the Lord of Life, that ever was committed under the Sun. Oh what Tongue can express the foulness of this Fact! the execrableness of this Parricide! For such a King to be thus murdered, is the saddest ground of Mourning that ever this Nation had; Therefore for this, O England, gird thee with Sackcloth, lament and howl, as it is Jer. 4.8. Oh for Jeremiahs wish, That our head were water, and our eyes fountains of tears, that we might weep night and day for the Loss of such a King; So for that horrid Sin which was this day committed in the Land, the shedding of the Innocent Blood of the Lords Anointed; a sin surpassing the deeds of the wicked; a sin that no Nation or People, though never so barbarous, were guilty of, that we can red of in any History.  
Oh let us beseech the Lord to pardon it, to acquit the Land of it, that it may no longer cry for Vengeance, and call for Judgements to be continued upon us: Lord lay not the guilt of that Blood this day  shed, upon the whole Nation; for thou hast many among us, who have neither hands nor hearts defiled with it, who did with abho●rency of Soul detest, and in much bitterness of spirit mourn for that abominable Fact; Lay it home, O Lord, lay it home to the Hearts and Consciences of all those who are yet living that had a hand in it, that they may see the heinousness of their sin, lament it, and repent of it, that so they may obtain pardon and forgiveness, out of the riches of thy abundant Mercies in Christ Jesus, that the Innocency of thy blessed Martyr may be cleared, our Religion vindicated, thy Judgements averted, and thy Mercy glorified, in the Conversion of so great sinners.  
And as for this horrid Fact, so for all our other sins and provocations, let us mourn, which helped forward this judgement, which so highly incensed the Lord against us, as to deliver both us and our King into the hands of such cruel and blood-thirsty men; yea, let us not onely bitterly mourn for, but unfeignedly turn from them, that so we turning from our evil ways, and ceasing from sinning, the Lord may cease from punishing, and turn from his wrathful indignation.  
To draw to an end: See what cause we have to pour forth our most humble Prayers and hearty Supplications to the Most High and Mighty King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, for his merciful and powerful Protection and Preservation of our Most Gracious Sovereign Lord the King; That this Land may never have the like cause of Mourning; That he may be like his Royal Father, another Josiah,( onely such Tragical act or end excepted) which the good Lord avert: whilst others are plotting against him, let us be praying for him.  
Oh pray we then, that as the Lord hath even by a Miracle preserved His Majesty from the peril of the Sword, and rescued him from the midst of his blood-thirsty Enemies, and restored him to his just Rights, so he will vouchsafe still to be his Rock and his Fortress, his Defence and his Strong Tower; That his Sacred Person may never come under the power, or be at the mercy of such whose mercies are cruel, whom nothing could suffice but the Blood of a Righteous and Religious King; and( as we have just cause to fear) who being leavened with such Antichristian Principles, thirst no less after the Sons blood, than they did after his Fathers.  
Lord therefore disappoint their Plots, and confounded their Devices; let their intended Mischiefs come upon their own heads, and their cruelty fall on their own pates, so shall the King rejoice in thy strength, exceeding glad shall he be of thy Salvation; and so we thy people and sheep of thy pasture shall give thee thanks for ever, and will be showing forth thy praise from one generation to another; so shall thy Name be glorified, thy Truth defended, thy Gospel propagated, our Breaches repaired, thy Church comforted: which we humbly beseech thee to grant, O Father of Mercies, for his sake who is the Son of thy love; To whom with thee, and the blessed Spirit of Grace and Truth, be all Honour, Praise and Glory, Adoration and Obedience, now, and for ever.  
AMEN.