labore magno sed ridiculo inani But this obscurity is worst when affected when they do as Persius of whom one saith Legi voluit quae scripsit intelligi noluit quae legerentur Some affect this darknesse that they may be accounted profound whereas one is not bound to believe that all the water is deep that is muddy He is not curious in searching matters of no moment Captain Martin Forbisher fetcht from the farthest northern Countries a ships lading of minerall stones as he thought which afterwards were cast out to mend the high wayes Thus are they served and misse their hopes who long seeking to extract hidden mysteries out of nice questions leave them off as uselesse at last Antoninus Pius for his desire to search to the least differences was called Cumini sector the Carver of cumine seed One need not be so accurate for as soon shall one scowr the spots out of the moon as all ignorance out of man When Eunomius the Heretick vaunted that he knew God and his divinity S. Basil gravells him in 21 questions about the body of an ant or pismire so dark is mans understanding I wonder therefore at the boldnesse of some who as if they were Lord Mashalls of the Angels place them in ranks and files Let us not believe them here but rather go to heaven to confute them He neither multiplies needlesse nor compounds necessary Controversies Sure they light on a labour in vain who seek to make a bridge of reconciliation over the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betwixt Papists and Protestants for though we go 99 steps they I mean their Church will not come one to give us a meeting And as for the offers of Clara's and private men besides that they seem to be more of the nature of baits then gifts they may make large profers without any Commission to treat and so the Romish Church not bound to pay their promises In Merionethshire in Wales there are high mountains whose hanging tops come so close together that shepherds on the tops of severall hills may audibly talk together yet will it be a dayes journey for their bodies to meet so vast is the hallownesse of the vallies betwixt them Thus upon sound search shall we find a grand distance and remotenesse betwixt Popish and Protestant tenents to reconcile them which at the first view may seem near and tending to an accomodation He is resolute and stable in fundamentall points of Religion These are his fixed poles and axletree about which he moves whilest they stand unmoveable Some sail so long on the Sea of controversies toss'd up and down to and fro Pro and Con that the very ground to them seems to move and their judgements grow scepticall and unstable in the most settled points of Divinity When he cometh to Preach especially if to a plain Auditory with the Paracelsians he extracts an oyl out of the driest and hardest bodies and knowing that knotty timber is unfit to build with he edifies people with easie and profitable matter WILLIAM WHITACRES Dr. of D Kinges Professor and Master of S nt Iohns Coll in Cambridge where He died An o 1595. Aged 47 yeares W. Marshall sculp CHAP. 5. The life of Dr. VVHITAKER WIlliam Whitaker born at Holm in the County of Lancaster of good parentage especially by his mothers side allied to two worshipfull families His reverend unckle Alexander Nowell Dean of S. Pauls the first fruits of the English Confessours in the dayes of Queen Marie who after her death first return'd into England from beyond the Seas took him young from his parents sent him first to Pauls School thence to Trinity Colledge in Cambridge where he so profited in his studies that he gave great promises of his future perfection I passe by his youthfull exercises never striving for the garland but he wonne and wore it away His prime appearing to the world was when he stood for the Professours place against two Competitours in age farre his superiours But the seven Electours in the Universitie who were to choose the Emperour of the Schools preferring a golden head before silver hairs conferr'd the place on Whitaker and the strict form of their Election hath no room for corruption He so well acquitted himself in the place that he answered expectation the strongest opponent in all disputes and lectures and by degrees taught envie to admire him By this time the Papists began to assault him and the Truth First Campian one fitter for a Trumpeter then a Souldier whose best ability was that he could boast in good Latine being excellent at the flat hand of Rhetorick which rather gives pats then blows but he could not bend his fist to dispute Whitaker both in writing and disputing did teach him that it was easier to make then maintain a challenge against our Church and in like manner he handled both Duraeus and Sanders who successively undertook the same cause solidly confuting their arguments But these Teazers rather to rouze then pinch the Game onely made Whitaker find his spirits The fiercest dog is behind even Bellarmine himself a great scholar and who wanted nothing but a good cause to defend and generally writing ingeniously using sometimes slenting seldome down-right railing Whitaker gave him all fair quarter stating the question betwixt them yielding all which the other in reason could ask and agreeing on terms to fall out with him plaid fairly but fiercely on him till the other forsook the field Bellarmine had no mind to reinforce his routed arguments but rather consigned over that service to a new Generall Stapleton an English man He was born the same yeare and moneth wherein Sr. Thomas More was beheaded an observation little lesse then mysticall with the Papists as if God had substituted him to grow up in the room of the other for the support of the Catholick cause If Whitaker in answering him put more gall then usuall into his ink Stapleton whose mouth was as foul as his cause first infected him with bitternesse and none will blame a man for arming his hands with hard and rough gloves who is to meddle with bryers and brambles Thus they baited him constantly with fresh dogs None that ran at him once desired a second course at him and as one observes Cum nullo hoste unquam constixit quem non fudit fugavit He filled the Chair with a gracefull presence so that one needed not to do with him as Luther did with Melanchthon when he first heard him reade abstract the opinion and sight of his stature and person lest the meannesse thereof should cause an undervaluing of him for our Whitakers person carried with it an excellent port His style was manly for the strength maidenly for the modesty and elegant for the phrase thereof shewing his skill in spinning a fine thred out of course wool for such is controversiall matter He had by his second wife a modest woman eight
judgement is clear and quick to discover the mark and his hands as just in Shooting as in dealing aright Some sports being granted to be lawfull more propend to be ill then well used Such I count Stage-playes when made alwayes the Actours work and often the Spectatours recreation Zeuxis the curious picturer painted a boy holding a dish full of grapes in his hand done so lively that the birds being deceived flew to peck the grapes But Zeuxis in an ingenious choller was angry with his own workmanship Had I said he made the boy as lively as the grapes the birds would have been afraid to touch them Thus two things are set forth to us in Stage-playes some grave sentences prudent counsells and punishment of vitious examples and with these desperate oathes lustfull talk and riotous acts are so personated to the life that wantons are tickled with delight and feed their palats upon them It seems the goodnesse is not portrayed out with equall accents of livelinesse as the wicked things are otherwise men would be deterr'd from vitious courses with seeing the wofull successe which follows them But the main is wanton speeches on stages are the devils ordinance to beget badnesse but I question whether the pious speeches spoken there be Gods ordinance to increase goodnesse as wanting both his institution and benediction Choak not thy soul with immoderate pouring in the cordiall of pleasures The Creation lasted but six dayes of the first week Prophane they whose Recreation lasts seven dayes every week Rather abbridge thy self of thy lawfull liberty herein it being a wary rule which S. Gregory gives us Solus in illicitis non cadit qui se aliquando à licitis caute restringit And then Recreations shall both strengthen labour and sweeten rest and we may expect Gods blessing and protection on us in following them as well as in doing our work For he that faith grace for his meat in it prayes also to God to blesse his sauce unto him As for those that will not take lawfull pleasure I am afraid they will take unlawfull pleasure and by lacing themselves too hard grow awry on one side CHAP. 14. Of Tombes TOmbes are the clothes of the dead a Grave is but a plain suit and a rich Monument is one embroyder'd Most moderate men have been carefull for the decent interment of their corps Few of the fond mind of Arbogastus an Irish Saint and Bishop of Spires in Germany who would be buried near the Gallows in imitation of our Saviour whose grave was in mount Calvary near the place of execution 'T is a provident way to make ones Tombe in ones life-time both hereby to prevent the negligence of heirs and to mind him of his mortality Virgil tells us that when bees swarm in the aire and two armies meeting together fight as it were a set battel with great violence cast but a little dust upon them and they will be quiet Hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta Pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescunt These stirrings of their minds and strivings vast If but a little dust on them be cast Are straitwayes stinted and quite overpast Thus the most ambitious motions and thoughts of mans mind are quickly quell'd when dust is thrown on him whereof his fore-prepared Sepulchre is an excellent remembrancer Yet some seem to have built their Tombes therein to bury their thoughts of dying never thinking thereof but embracing the world with greater greedinesse A Gentleman made choice of a fair stone and intending the same for his Grave-stone caused it to be pitched up in a field a pretty distance from his house and used often to shoot at it for his exercise Yea but said a wag that stood by you would be loath Sir to hit the mark And so are many unwilling to die who notwithstanding have erected their Monuments Tombes ought in some sort to be proportioned not to the wealth but deserts of the party interred Yet may we see some rich man of mean worth loaden under a tombe big enough for a Prince to bear There were Officers appointed in the Grecian Games who alwayes by publick authority did pluck down the Statues erected to the Victours if they exceeded the true symmetrie and proportion of their bodies We need such nowadayes to order Monuments to mens merits chiefly to reform such depopulating Tombes as have no good fellowship with them but engrosse all the room leaving neither seats for the living nor graves for the dead It was a wise and thrifty law which Reutha King of Scotland made That Noblemen should have so many pillars or long pointed stones set on their sepulchres as they had slain enemies in the warres If this order were also enlarged to those who in peace had excellently deserved of the Church or Commonwealth it might well be revived Overcostly Tombes are onely baits for Sacriledge Thus Sacriledge hath beheaded that peerelesse Prince King Henrie the fift the body of whose Statue on his Tombe in Westminster was covered over with silver plate guilded and his head of massy silver both which now are stollen away Yea hungry palats will feed on courser meat I had rather M r Stow then I should tell you of a Nobleman who sold the monuments of Noblemen in S. Augustines Church in Broadstreet for an hundred pound which cost many thousands and in the place thereof made fair stabling for horses as if Christ who was born in a stable should be brought into it the second time It was not without cause in the Civill Law that a wife might be divorc'd from her husband if she could prove him to be one that had broken the Sepulchres of the dead For it was presum'd he must needs be a tyrannicall husband to his wife who had not so much mercy as to spare the ashes of the departed The shortest plainest truest Epitaphs are best I say the Shortest for when a Passenger sees a Chronicle written on a Tombe he takes it on trust some Great man lies there buried without taking pains to examine who he is M r Cambden in his Remains presents us with examples of Great men that had little Epitaphs And when once I ask'd a witty Gentleman an honoured friend of mine what Epitaph was fittest to be written on M r Cambdens Tombe Let it be said he CAMBDENS REMAINS I say also the Plainest for except the sense lie above ground few will trouble themselves to dig for 't Lastly it must be True Not as as in some Monuments where the red veins in the marble may seem to blush at the falshoods written on it He was a witty man that first taught a stone to speak but he was a wicked man that taught it first to lie To want a Grave is the cruelty of the living not the misery of the dead An English Gentleman not long since did lie on his death-bed in
enemies ships held it first with his right hand and when that was cut off with his left and when both were cut off yet still kept it with his teeth so the conscience of our Atheist though he bruise it and beat it and maim it never so much still keeps him by the teeth still feeding and gnawing upon him torturing and tormenting him with thoughts of a Deity which the other desires to suppresse At last he himself is utterly overthrown by conquering his own conscience God in justice takes from him the light which he thrust from himself and delivers him up to a feared conscience and a reprobate mind whereby hell takes possession of him The Apostle saith Acts 17.27 That a man may feel God in his works But now our Atheist hath a dead palsey is past all sense and cannot perceive God who is everywhere presented unto him It is most strange yet most true which is reported that the armes of the Duke of Rohan in France which are fusills or lozenges are to be seen in the wood or stones throughout all his countrey so that break a stone in the middle or lop a bough of a tree and one shall behold the grain thereof by some secret cause in Nature diamonded or streaked in the fashion of a lozenge yea the very same in effect is observed in England for the resemblances of starres the armes of the worshipfull family of the Shugburies in Warwickshire are found in the stones within their own mannour of Shugbury But what shall we say The armes of the God of heaven namely Power Wisdome and Goodnesse are to be seen in every creature in the world even from worms to men and yet our Atheist will not acknowledge them but ascribes them either to Chance but could a blind painter limme such curious pictures or else to Nature which is a mere slight of the devil to conceal God from men by calling him after another name for what is natura naturans but God himself His death commonly is most miserable either burnt as Diagoras or eaten up with lice as Pherecydes or devoured by dogs as Lucian or thunder-shot and turn'd to ashes as Olimpius However descending impenitent into hell there he is Atheist no longer but hath as much religion as the devil to confesse God and tremble Nullus in inferno est Atheos ante fuit On earth were Atheists many In hell there is not any All speak truth when they are on the rack but it is a wofull thing to be hells Convert And there we leave the Atheist having dwelt the longer on his Character because that speech of worthy Mr. Greenham deserves to be heeded That Atheisme in England is more to be feared then Popery To give an instance of a speculative Atheist is both hard and dangerous hard for we cannot see mens speculations otherwise then as they cloth themselves visible in their actions some Atheisticall speeches being not sufficient evidence to convict the speaker an Atheist Dangerous for what satisfaction can I make to their memories if I challenge any of so foul a crime wrongfully We may more safely insist on an Atheist in life and conversation and such a one was he whom we come to describe CHAP. 7. The life of CESAR BORGIA CEsar Borgia was base-son to Rhoderick Borgia otherwise called Pope Alexander the sixth This Alexander was the first of the Popes who openly owned his bastards whereas his Predecessours counting fig-leaves better then nothing to cover their nakednesse disguised them under the names of Nephews and God-sonnes he was such a savage in his lust as nakedly to acknowledge his base children and especially this Cesar Borgia being like his Father in the swarthinesse of the complexion of his soul. His Father first made him a Cardinall that thereby his shoulders might be enabled to bear as much Church-preferment as he could load upon him But Borgia's active spirit disliked the profession and was ashamed of the Gospel which had more cause to be ashamed of him wherefore he quickly got a dispensation to uncardinall himself The next hindrance that troubled his high designes was that his elder brother the Duke of Candia stood betwixt him and preferment It is reported also that these two brothers justled together in their incest with their own sister Lucretia one as famous for her whoredomes as her namesake had formerly been for her chastity The throne and the bed cannot severally abide partners much lesse both meeting together as here they did Wherefore Cesar Borgia took order that his brother was kill'd one night as he rode alone in the city of Rome and his body cast into Tyber and now he himself stood without competitour in his fathers and sisters affection His father was infinitely ambitious to advance him as intending not onely to create him a Duke but also to create a Dukedome for him which seemed very difficult if not impossible for he could neither lengthen the land nor lessen the sea in Italie and petty Princes therein were already crouded so thick there was not any room for any more However the Pope by fomenting the discords betwixt the French and Spanish about the kingdome of Naples and by embroyling all the Italian States in civill dissensions out of their breaches pick'd forth a large Principality for his sonne managed in this manner There is a fair and fruitfull Province in Italie called Romania parcelled into severall States all holding as feodaries from the Pope but by small pensions and those seldome paid They were bound also not to serve in armes against the Church which old tie they little regarded and lesse observed as conceiving time had fretted it asunder souldiers generally more weighing his gold that entertaineth them then the cause or enemy against whom they fight Pope Alexander set his sonne Borgia to reduce that countrey to the Churches jurisdiction but indeed to subject it to his own absolute hereditary Dominion This in short time he effected partly by the assistance of the French King whose pensioner he was and by a French title made Duke Ualentinois and partly by the effectuall aid of the Ursines a potent Family in Italie But afterward the Ursines too late were sensible of their errour herein and grew suspicious of his greatnesse For they in helping him to conquer so many petty States gathered the severall twigs bound them into a rod and put it into his hands to beat them therewith Whereupon they began by degrees to withdraw their help which Borgia perceived and having by flattery and fair promises got the principall of their Family into his hands he put them all to the sword For he was perfect in the devilish art of dealing an ill turn doing it so suddenly his enemies should not heare of him before and so soundly that he should never heare of them afterwards either striking alwayes surely or not at all And now he thought to cast away his crutches and
patience she condemned them for deserving such punishment She never had blow from or jarre with her husband she so suppled his hard nature with her obedience and to her great comfort saw him converted to Christianity before his death Also she saw Augustine her sonne formerly vitious in life and erroneous in doctrine whose soul she bathd in her Tears become a worthy Christian who coming to have his eares tickled had his heart touched and got Religion in to boot with the eloquence of S. Ambrose She survived not long after her sonnes conversion God sends his servants to bed when they have done their work and her candle was put out as soon as the day did dawn in S. Augustine Take an instance or two of her signall piety There was a custome in Africk to bring pulse bread and wine to the monuments of dead Saints wherein Monica was as forward as any But being better instructed that this custome was of heathenish parentage and that Religion was not so poore as to borrow rites from Pagans she instantly left off that ceremony and as for pietie's sake she had done it thus long so for pietie's sake she would do it no longer How many old folks now adayes whose best argument is use would have flown in their faces who should stop them in the full career of an ancient custome There was one Licentius a novice-convert who had got these words by the end Turn us again O Lord God of hosts show us the light of thy countenance and we shall be whole And as it is the fashion of many mens tongues to echo forth the last sentence they learnt he said it in all places he went to But Monica over-hearing him to sing it in the house of office was highly offended at him because holy things are to be suted to holy places and the harmonie could not be sweet where the song did jarre with the place And although some may say that a gracious heart consecrateth every place into a Chapell yet sure though pious things are no where unfitting to be thought on they may somewhere be improper to be uttered Drawing near her death she sent most pious thoughts as harbingers to heaven and her soul saw a glimpse of happinesse through the chincks of her sicknesse-broken body She was so inflamed with zeal that she turned all objects into fewell to feed it One day standing with S. Augustine at an East-window she raised her self to consider the light of Gods presence in respect whereof all corporall light is so farre from being match'd it deserves not to be mentioned Thus mounted on heavenly meditations and from that high pitch surveying earthly things the great distance made them appear unto her like a little point scarce to be seen and lesse to be respected She died at Ostia in Italy in the fiftie sixth yeare of her age Augustine closing her eyes when through grief he had scarce any himself CHAP. 3. The good Husband HAving formerly described a good Wife she will make a good Husband whose character we are now to present His love to his wife weakeneth not his ruling her and his ruling lesseneth not his loving her Wherefore he avoideth all fondnesse a sick love to be praised in none and pardoned onely in the newly married whereby more have wilfully betrayed their command then ever lost it by their wives rebellion Methinks the he-viper is right enough served which as Pliny reports puts his head into the she-vipers mouth and she bites it off And what wonder is it if women take the rule to themselves which their uxorious husbands first surrender unto them He is constant to his wife and confident of her And sure where jealousie is the Jailour many break the prison it opening more wayes to wickednesse then it stoppeth so that where it findeth one it maketh ten dishonest He alloweth her meet maintenance but measures it by his own estate nor will he give lesse nor can she ask more Which allowance if shorter then her deserts and his desire he lengtheneth it out with his courteous carriage unto her chiefly in her sicknesse then not so much word-pitying her as providing necessaries for her That she may not intrench on his prerogative he maintains her propriety in feminine affairs yea therein he follows her advice For the soul of a man is planted so high that he overshoots such low matter as lie levell to a womans eye and therefore her counsell therein may better hit the mark Causes that are properly of feminine cognizance he suffers her finally to decide not so much as permitting an appeal to himself that their jurisdictions may not interfere He will not countenance a stubborn servant against her but in her maintains his own Authority Such husbands as bait the mistris with her maids and clap their hands at the sport will have cause to wring them afterwards Knowing she is the weaker vessell he bears with her infirmities All hard using of her he detests desiring therein to do not what may be lawfull but fitting And grant her to be of a servile nature such as may be bettered by beating yet he remembers he hath enfranchised her by marrying her On her wedding-day she was like S. Paul free born and priviledged from any servile punishment He is carefull that the wounds betwixt them take not ayre and be publickly known Jarres conceald are half reconciled which if generally known 't is a double task to stop the breach at home and mens mouths abroad To this end he never publickly reproves her An open reproof puts her to do penance before all that are present after which many rather study revenge then reformation He keeps her in the wholsome ignorance of unnecessary secrets They will not be starved with the ignorance who perchance may surfet with the knowledge of weighty Counsels too heavy for the weaker sex to bear He knows little who will tell his wife all he knows He beats not his wife after his death One having a shrewd wife yet loth to use her hardly in his life time awed her with telling her that he would beat her when he was dead meaning that he would leave her no maintenance This humour is unworthy a worthy man who will endeavour to provide her a competent estate yet he that impoverisheth his children to enrich his widow destroyes a quick hedge to make a dead one CHAP. 4. The Life of ABRAHAM I Intend not to range over all his life as he stands threesquare in relation Husband Father Master We will onely survey and measure his conjugall side which respecteth his wife We reade not that ever he upbraided her for her barrennesse as knowing that naturall defects are not the creatures fault but the Creatours pleasure all which time his love was loyall to her alone As for his going in to Hagar it was done not onely with the consent but by the advice of Sarah who was so ambitious
haunted by Faries and paid a shrewd rent for the same at each half years end Now a Gentleman asked him how he durst be so hardy as to live in the house and whether no Spirits did trouble him Truth said the Farmer there be two Saints in heaven vex me more then all the devils in hell namely the Virgin Mary and Michael the Archangel on which dayes he paid his rent CHAP. 14. The good Master of a Colledge THe Jews Anno 1348. were banished out of most countreys of Christendome principally for poysoning of springs and fountains Grievous therefore is their offense who infect Colledges the fountains of learning and religion and it concerneth the Church and State that the Heads of such houses be rightly qualified such men as we come to character His learning if beneath eminency is farre above contempt Sometimes ordinary scholars make extraordinary good Masters every one who can play well on Apollo's harp cannot skilfully drive his chariot there being a peculiar mystery of Government Yea as a little allay makes gold to work the better so perchance some dulnesse in a man makes him fitter to manage secular affairs and those who have climbed up Parnassus but half way better behold worldly businesse as lying low and nearer to their sight then such as have climbed up to the top of the mount He not onely keeps the Statutes in his study but observes them for the maintaining of them will maintain him if he be questioned He gives them their true dimensions not racking them for one and shrinking them for another but making his conscience his daily Visitour He that breaks the Statutes and thinks to rule better by his own discretion makes many gaps in the hedge and then stands to stop one of them with a stake in his hand Besides thus to confound the will of the dead Founders is the ready way to make living mens charitie like S r Hugh Willoughby in discovering the Northern passage to be frozen to death and will dishearten all future Benefactours He is principall Porter and chief Chappell-monitour For where the Master keeps his chamber alwayes the scholars will keep theirs seldome yea perchance may make all the walls of the Colledge to be gate He seeks to avoid the inconvenience when the gates do rather divide then confine the scholars when the Colledge is distinguished as France into Cis Transalpina into the part on this and on the otherside of the walls As for out-lodgings like galleries necessary evils in populous Churches he rather tolerates then approves them In his Elections he respecteth merit not onely as the condition but as the cause thereof Not like Leofricus Abbot of S. Albans who would scarce admit any into his Covent though well deserving except he was a Gentleman born He more respects literature in a scholar then great mens letters for him A learned Master of a Colledge in Cambridge since made a reverend Bishop and to the great grief of good men and great losse of Gods Church lately deceased refused a Mandate for choosing of a worthlesse man fellow And when it was expected that at the least he should have been outed of his Mastership for this his contempt King James highly commended him and encouraged him ever after to follow his own conscience when the like occasion should be given him He winds up the Tenants to make good musick but not to break them Sure Colledge-lands were never given to fat the Tenants and sterve the scholars but that both might comfortably subsist Yea generally I heare the Muses commended for the best Landladies and a Colledge-lease is accounted but as the worst kind of freehold He is observant to do all due right to Benefactours If not piety policy would dictate this unto him And though he respects not Benefactours kinsmen when at their first admission they count themselves born heirs apparent to all preferment which the house can heap on them and therefore grow lazy idle yet he counts their alliance seconded with mediocrity of desert a strong title to Colledge-advancement He counts it lawfull to enrich himself but in subordination to the Colledge good Not like Varus Governour of Syria who came poore into the countrey and found it rich but departed thence rich and left the countrey poore Methinks 't is an excellent commendation which Trinity Colledge in Cambridge in her records bestows on Doctour Still once Master thereof Se ferebat Patremfamilias providum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nec Collegio gravis fuit aut onerosus He disdains to nourish dissension amongst the members of his house Let Machiavills Maxime Divide regnabis if offering to enter into a Colledge-gate sink thorow the grate and fall down with the durt For besides that the fomenting of such discords agrees not with a good conscience each party will watch advantages and Pupils will often be made to suffer for their Tutours quarrells Studium partium will be magna pars studiorum and the Colledge have more rents then revenues He scorneth the plot to make onely dunces Fellows to the end he may himself command in chief As thinking that they who know nothing will do any thing and so he shall be a figure amongst cyphers a bee amongst drones Yet oftentimes such Masters are justly met with and they find by experience that the dullest horses are not easiest to be reined But our Master endeavours so to order his elections that every Scholar may be fit to make a Fellow and every Fellow a Master CHAP. 14. The life of Dr. METCALF NIcholas Metcalf Doctour of Divinity extracted out of an ancient and numerous family of Gentry in Yorkshire was Archdeacon of Rochester Chaplain to John Fisher the Bishop thereof by whom this our Doctour was employed to issue forth the monies for the building of S. Johns Colledge in Cambridge For Margaret Countesse of Richmond and Derby intending to graft S. Johns Colledge into the old stock of S. Johns Hospitall referr'd all to the Bishop of Rochester and he used Metcalf as an agent in all proceedings which did concern that Foundation which will inferre him to be both a wise and an honest man Some make him to be but meanly learned and one telleth us a long storie how a Sophister put a fallacie upon him à sensu diviso ad sensum compositum and yet the Doctours dimme eyes could not discern it But such trifles were beneath him and what wonder is it if a Generall long used in governing an armie hath forgotten his school-play and Fencers rules to put by every thrust Doubtlesse had not his learning been sufficient Bishop Fisher a great clerk himself would not have placed him to govern the Colledge But we know that some count all others but dry scholars whose learning runneth in a different channell from their own and it is possible that the great distance betwixt men in matter of Religion might hinder the new learning in
for a Paragon of his age and place having the fewest vices with so many virtues Indeed he was somewhat given to women our Chronicles fathering two base children on him so hard it is to find a Sampson without a Dalila And seeing never King or Kings eldest sonne since the conquest before his time married a subject I must confesse his Match was much beneath himself taking the double reversion of a subjects bed marrying Joan Countesse of Salisbury which had been twice a widow But her surpassing beauty pleads for him herein and yet her beauty was the meanest thing about her being surpass'd by her virtues And what a worthy woman must she needs be her self whose very garter hath given so much honour to Kings and Princes He dyed at Canterbury June the eighth 1376 in the fourty sixth yeare of his age it being wittily observed of the short lives of many worthy men fatuos à morte defendit ipsa insulsitas si cui plus caeteris aliquantulum salis insit quod miremini statim putrescit CHAP. 21. The King HE is a mortall God This world at the first had no other Charter for its being then Gods Fiat Kings have the same in the Present tense I have said ye are Gods We will describe him first as a good man so was Henry the third then as a good King so was Richard the third both which meeting together make a King complete For he that is not a good man or but a good man can never be a good Sovereigne He is temperate in the ordering of his own life O the Mandate of a Kings example is able to do much especially he is 1 Temperate in his diet When Aeschines commended Philip King of Macedon for a joviall man that would drink freely Demosthenes answered that this was a good quality in a spunge but not in a King 2 Continent in his pleasures Yea Princes lawfull children are farre easier provided for then the rabida fames of a spurious ofspring can be satisfied whilest their Paramors and Concubines counting it their best manners to carve for themselves all they can come by prove intolerably expensive to a State Besides many rebellions have risen out of the marriage-bed defiled He holds his Crown immediately from the God of Heaven The most high ruleth in the kingdomes of men and giveth them to whomsoever he will Cujus jussu nascuntur homines ejus jussu constituuntur Principes saith a Father Inde illis potestas unde spiritus saith another And whosoever shall remount to the first originall of Kings shall lose his eyes in discovering the top thereof as past ken and touching the heavens We reade of a place in Mount Olivet wherein the last footsteps they say of our Saviour before he ascended into heaven are to be seen that it will ever lie open to the skies and will not admit of any close or covering to be made over it how costly soever Farre more true is this of the condition of absolute Kings who in this respect are ever sub dio so that no superiour power can be interposed betwixt them and heaven Yea the Character of loyalty to Kings so deeply impress'd in Subjects hearts shews that onely Gods finger wrote it there Hence it is if one chance to conceive ill of his Sovereigne though within the cabinet of his soul presently his own heart grows jealous of his own heart and he could wish the tongue cut out of his tell-tale thoughts lest they should accuse themselves And though sometimes Rebels Atheists against the Gods on earth may labour to obliterate loyalty in them yet even then their conscience the Kings Aturney frames Articles against them and they stand in daily fear lest Darius Longimanus such a one is every King should reach them and revenge himself He claimeth to be supreme Head on earth over the Church in his Dominions Which his power over all persons and causes Ecclesiasticall 1. Is given him by God who alone hath the originall propriety thereof 2. Is derived unto him by a prescription time out of mind in the Law of Nature declared more especially in the Word of God 3. Is cleared and averred by the private Laws and Statutes of that State wherein he lives For since the Pope starting up from being the Emperours Chaplain to be his Patron hath invaded the rights of many earthly Princes many wholsome Laws have been made in severall Kingdomes to assert and notifie their Kings just power in Spiritualibus Well therefore may our King look with a frowning face on such whose tails meet in this firebrand which way soever the prospect of their faces be to deny Princes power in Church-matters Two Jesuites give this farre-fetch'd reason why Samuel at the Feast caused the shoulder of the Sacrifice to be reserved and kept on purpose for Saul to feed on because say they Kings of all men have most need of strong shoulders patiently to endure those many troubles and molestations they shall meet with especially I may well adde if all their Subjects were as troublesome and disloyall as the Jesuites The best is as God hath given Kings shoulders to bear he hath also given them armes to strike such as deprive them of their lawfull Authority in Ecclesiasticall affairs He improves his power to defend true Religion Sacerdotall Offices though he will not doe he will cause them to be done He will not offer to burn incense with Uzziah yet he will burn Idolaters bones with Josiah I mean advance Piety by punishing Profanenesse God saith to his Church Kings shall be thy Nursing-fathers and their Queens thy Nursing-mothers And oh let not Princes out of State refuse to be so themselves and onely hire others it belonging to Subjects to suck but to Princes to suckle Religion by their authority They ought to command Gods Word to be read and practised wherein the blessed Memory of King James shall never be forgotten His Predecessour in England restored the Scripture to her Subjects but he in a manner restored the Scripture to it self in causing the New Translation thereof whereby the meanest that can reade English in effect understands the Greek and Hebrew A Princely act which shall last even when the lease of Time shall be expired Verily I say unto you wheresoever this Translation shall be read in the whole realm there shall also this that this King hath done be told in memoriall of him He useth Mercy and Iustice in his proceedings against Offenders Solomon saith The throne is established by Iustice and Solomon saith The throne is upholden by Mercy Which two Proverbs speak no more contradiction then he that saith that the two opposite side-walls of an house hold up the same roof Yea as some Astronomers though erroneously conceived the Crystalline Sphere to be made of water and therefore to be set next the Primum mobile to allay the heat thereof which otherwise