many of high parts and piety have undertaken to clear the Controversie yet for the most part they have rather satisfied themselves than convinced the dissenting party And doubtless many middle-witted men which yet may mean well many Scholars that are not in the highest Form for Learning which yet may preach well men that shall never know till they come to Heaven where the questions stick betwixt Arminius and the Church of England will yet in this world be tampering with and thereby perplexing the Controversie and do therefore justly fall under the reproof of St. Jude for being Busie-bodies and for medling with things they understand not And here it offers it self I think not unfitly to tell the Reader that a friend of Sir Henry Woltons being designed for the imployment of an Ambassador came to Eaton and requested from him some experimental Rules for his prudent and safe carriage in his Negotiations to whom he smilingly gave this for an infallible Aphorism That to be in safety himself and serviceable to his Countrey he should alwayes and upon all occasions speak the truth it seems a State-Paradox for sayes Sir Henry Wotton you shall never be believed and by this means your truth will secure your self if you shall ever be called to any account and 't will also put your Adversaries who will still hunt counter to a loss in all their disquisitions and undertakings Many more of this nature might be observed but they must be laid aside for I shall here make a little stop and invite the Reader to look back with me whil'st according to my promise I shall say a little of Sir Albertus Morton and Mr. William Bedel whom I formerly mentioned I have told you that are the Readers that at Sir Henry Wottons first going Ambassador into Italy his Cosin Sir Albert Morton went his Secretary and am next to tell you that Sir Albertus dyed Secretary of State to our late King but cannot am not able to express the sorrow that possest Sir Henry Wotton at his first hearing the news that Sir Albertus was by death lost to him and this world and yet the Reader may partly guess by these following expressions The first in a Letter to his Nicholas Pey of which this that followeth is a part And My dear Nick When I had been here almost a fortnight in the midst of my great contentment I received notice of Sir Albertus Morton his departure out of this World who was dearer to me than mine own being in it what a wound it is to my heart you that knew him and knew me will easily believe but our Creators Will must be done and unrepiningly received by his own Creatures who is the Lord of all Nature and of all Fortune when he taketh to himself now one and then another till that expected day wherein it shall please him to dissolve the whole and wrap up even the Heaven it self as a Scrole of parchment This is the last Philosophy that we must study upon Earth let us therefore that yet remain here as our dayes and friends waste reinforce our love to each other which of all vertues both spiritual and moral hath the highest priviledge because death it self cannot end it And my good Nick c. This is a part of his sorrow thus exprest to his Nick Pey the other part is in this following Elogy of which the Reader may safely conclude 't was too hearty to be dissembled Tears wept at the Grave of Sir Albertus Morton by Henry Wotton SIlence in truth would speak my sorrow best For deepest wounds can least their feelings tell Yet let me borrow from mine own unrest A time to bid him whom I lov'd farewell Oh my unhappy Lines you that before Have serv'd my youth to vent some wanton cryes And now congeal'd with grief can scarce implore Strength to accent Here my Albertus lies This is that Sable stone this is the Cave And womb of earth that doth his Corps embrace While others sing his praise let me ingrave These bleeding numbers to adorn the place Here will I paint the Characters of woe Here will I pay my tribute to the dead And here my faithful tears in showres shall flow To humanize the flints on which I tread Where though I mourn my matchless loss alone And none between my weakness judge and me Yet even these pensive walls allow my moan Whose doleful Echoes to my plaints agree But is he gone and live I riming here As if some Muse would listen to my lay When all dis-tun'd sit waiting for their dear And bathe the Banks where he was wont to play Dwell then in endless bliss with happy souls Discharg'd from natures and from fortunes trust Whil'st on this fluid Globe my Hour-glass rowls And runs the rest of my remaining dust H. Wotton This concerning his Sir Albertus Morton And for what I shall say concerning Mr. William Bedel I must prepare the Reader by telling him That when King James sent Sir Henry Wotton Ambassador to the State of Venice he sent also an Ambassador to the King of France and another to the King of Spain with the Ambassador of France went Joseph Hall late Bishop of Norwich whose many and useful works speak his great merit with the Ambassador of Spain went Ja. Wadsworth and with Sir Henry Wotton went William Bedel These three Chaplains to these three Ambassadors were all bred in one University all of one Colledge all Benefic'd in one Diocess and all most dear and intâ—â—e Friends But in Spain Mr. Wadsworth met with temptations or reasons such as were so powerful as to perswade him who of the three was formerly observ'd to be the most averse to that Religion that calls itself Catholick to disclaim himself a Member of the Church of England and declare himself for the Church of Rome discharging himself of his attendance on the Ambassador and betaking himself to a Monasterial life in which he lived very regularly and so dyed When Dr. Hall the late Bishop of Norwich came into England he wrote to Mr. Wadsworth 't is the first Epistle in his printed Decads to perswade his return or the reason of his Apostasie the Letter seemed to have in it many sweet expressions of love and yet there was something in it that was so unpleasant to Mr. Wadsworth that he chose rather to acquaint his old friend Mr. Bedel with his motives by which means there past betwixt Mr. Bedel and Mr. Wadsworth very many Letters which be extant in Print and did well deserve it for in them there seems to be a controversie not of Religion on only but who should answer each other with most love and meekness which I mention the rather because it seldom falls out so in a Book-War There is yet a little more to be said of Mr. Bedel for the greatest part of which the Reader is referred to this following Letter of Sir Henry Wottons writ to our late King Charles May it please Your
to the following account of Mr. Herberts own practice which was to appear constantly with his Wife and three Neeces the daughters of a deceased Sister and his whole Family twice a day at the Church-prayers in the Chappel which does almost join so his Parsonage-house And for the time of his appearing it was strictly â—t the Canonical hours of Ten and Four and then and there he lifted up pure and charitable hands to God in the midst of the Congregation And he would joy to have spent that time in that place where the honour of his Master Jesus dwelleth and there by that inward devotion which he testified constantly by an humble behaviour and visible adoration he like David brought not only his own Houshold thus to serve the Lord but brought most of his Parishioners and many Gentlemen in the Neighbourhood constantly to make a part of his Congregation twice a day and some of the meaner sort of his Parish did so love and reverence Mr. Herbert that they would let their Plow rest when Mr. Herberts Saints-Bell rung to Prayers that they might also offer their devotions to God with him and would then return back to their Plow And his most holy life was such that it begot such reverence to God and to him that they thought themselves the happier when they carried Mr. Herberts blessing back with them to their labour Thus powerful was his reason and example to perswade others to a practical piety And his constant publick Prayers did never make him to neglect his own private devotions nor those prayers that he thought himself bound to perform with his Family which alwayes were a Set-form and not long and he did alwayes conclude them with that Collect which the Church hath appointed for the day or week Thus he made every dayes sanctity a step towards that Kingdom where Impurity cannot enter His chiefest recreation was Musick in which heavenly Art he was a most excellent Master and compos'd many divine Hymns and Anthems which he set and sung to his Lute or Viol and though he was a lover of reâ—iredness yet his love to Musick was such that he went usually twice every week on certain appointed dayes to the Cathedral Church in Salisbury and at his return would say That his time spent in Prayer and Cathedral Musick elevated his Soul and was his Heaven upon Earth But before his return thence to Bemerton he would usually sing and play his part at an appointed private Musick meeting and to justifie this practice he would often say Religion does not banish mirth but only moderates and sets rules to it And as his desire to enjoy his Heaven upon Earth drew him twice every week to Salisbury so his walks thither were the occasion of many happy accidents to others of which I will mention some few In one of his walks to Salisbury he overtook a Gentleman that is still living in that City and in their walk together Mr. Herbert took a fair occasion to talk with him and humbly begg'd to be excus'd if he ask'd him some account of his faith and said I do this the rather because though you are not of my Parish yet I receive Tythe from you by the hand of your Tenant and Sir I am the bolder to do it because I know there be some Sermon-hearers that be like those Fishes that alwayes live in salt water and yet are alwayes fresh After which expression Mr. Herbert asked him some needful Questions and having received his answer gave him such Rules for the tryal of his sincerity and for a practical piety and in so loving and meek a manner that the Gentleman did so fall in love with him and his discourse that he would often contrive to meet him in his walk to Salisbury or to attend him back to Bemerton and still mentions the name of Mr. George Herbert with veneration and still praises God that he knew him In another of his Salisbury walks he met with a Neighbour Minister and after some friendly Discourse betwixt them and some Condolement for the wickedness of the Times and Contempt of the Clergy Mr. Herbert took occcasion to say One Cure for these Distempers would be for the Clergy themselves to keep the Ember-Weeks strictly and begg of their Parishioners to joyn with him in Fasting and Prayers for a more Religious Clergy And another Cure would be for them to restore the great and neglected duty of Catechising on which the salvation of so many of the poor and ignorant Lay-people does depend but principally that the Clergy themselves would be sure to live unblameably and that the dignified Clergy especially which preach Temperance would avoid Surfeting and take all occasions to express a visible humility and charity in their lives for this would force a love and an imitation and an â—nfeigned reverence from all that knew them And for proof of this we need no other Testimony than the life and death of Dr. Lake late Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells This said Mr. Herbert would be a Cure for the wickedness and growing Atheism of our Age. And my dear Brother till this be done by us and done in earnest let no man expect a reformation of the manners of the Laity for 't is not learning but this this only that must do it and till then the fault must lie at our doors In another walk to Salisbury he saw a poor man with a poorer horse that was fall'n under his Load they were both in distress and needed present help which Mr. Herbert perceiving put off his Canonical Coat and help'd the poor man to unload and after to load his horse The poor man blest him for it and he blest the poor man and was so like the good Samaritan that he gave him money to refresh both himself and his horse and told him That if he lov'd himself he should be merciful to his Beast â—hus he left the poor man and at his coming to his musical friends at Salisbury they began to wonder that Mr. George Herbert which us'd to be so trim and clean came into that company so soyl'd and discompos'd but he told them the occasion And when one of the company told him He had disparag'd himself by so dirty an employment his answer was That the thought of what he had done would prove Musick to him at Midnight and the omission of it would have upbraided and made discord in his Conscience whensoever he should pass by that place for if I be bound to pray for all that be in distress I am sure I am bound so far as it is in my power to practise what I pray for And though I do not wish for the like occasion every day yet let me tell you I would not willingly pass one day of my life without comforting a sad soul or shewing mercy and I praise God for this occasion And now let 's tune our Instruments Thus as our blessed Saviour after his Resurrection did take
become so humble as to banish self-flattery and such weeds as naturally grow there yet they have not been able to kill this desire of glory but that like our radical heat it will both live and dye with us and many think it should do so and we want not sacred examples to justifie the desire of having our memory to out-live our lives which I mention because Dr. Donne by the persuasion of Dr. Fox easily yielded at this very time to have a Monument made for him but Dr. Fox undertook not to persuade how or what it should be that was left to Dr. Donne himself This being resolved upon Dr. Donne sent for a Carver to make for him in wood the figure of an Urn giving him directions for the compass and height of it and to bring with it a board of the height of his body These being got then without delay a choice Painter was to be in a readiness to draw his picture which was taken as followeth Several Charcole-fires being first made in his large Study he brought with him into that place his winding-sheet in his hand and having put off all his cloaths had this sheet put on him and so tyed with knots at his head and feet and his hands so placed as dead bodies are usually fitted to be shrowded and put into the grave Upon this Urn he thus stood with his eyes shut and with so much of the sheet turned aside as might shew his lean pale and death-like face which was purposely turned toward the East from whence he expected the second coming of his and our Saviour Thus he was drawn at his just hèight and when the picture was fully finished he caused it to be set by his bed-side where it continued and became his hourly object till his death and was then given to his dearest friend and Executor Dr. King who caused him to be thus carved in one entire piece of white Marble as it now stands in the Cathedral Church of St. Pauls and by Dr. Donne's own appointment these words were to be affixed to it as his Epitaph JOHANNES DONNE Sac. Theol. Professor Post varia Studia quibus ab annis tenerrimis fideliter nec infeliciter incubuit Instinctu impulsu Sp. Sancti Monitu Hortatu REGIS JACOBI Ordines Sacros amplexus Anno sui Jesu 1614. suae aetatis 42. Decanatu hujus Ecclesiae indutus 27. Novembris 1621. Exutus morte ultimo Die Martii 1631. Hic licet in Occiduo Cinere Aspicit Eum Cujus nomen est Oriens Upon Monday following he took his last leave of his beloved Study and being sensible of his hourly decay retired himself to his bed-chamber and that week sent at several times for many of his most considerable friends with whom he took a solemn and deliberate farewell commending to their considerations some sentences useful for the regulation of their lives and then dismist them as good Jacob did his sons with a spiritual benediction The Sunday following he appointed his servants that if there were any business undone that concerned him or themselves it should be prepared against Saturday next for after that day he would not mix his thoughts with any thing that concerned this world nor ever did But as Job so he waited for the appointed time of his dissolution And now he had nothing to do but to dye to do which he stood in need of no longer time for he had studied long and to so happy a perfection that in a former sickness he called God to witness he was that minute ready to deliver his soul into his hands if that minute God would determine his dissolution In that sickness he beg'd of God the constancy to be preserved in that estate for ever and his patient expectation to have his immortal soul disrob'd from her garment of mortality makes me confident he now had a modest assurance that his Prayers were then heard and his Petition granted He lay fifteen dayes earnestly expecting his hourly change and in the last hour of his last day as his body melted away and vapoured into spirit his soul having I verily believe some Revelation of the Beatifical Vision he said I were miserable if I might not dye and after those words closed many periods of his faint breath by saying often Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done His speech which had long been his ready and faithful servant left him not till the last minute of his life and then forsook him not to serve another Master but dyed before him for that it was become useless to him that now conversed with God on earth as Angels are said to do in heaven onely by thoughts and looks Being speechless he did as St. Stephen look stedfastly towards heaven till he saw the Son of God standing at the right hand of his Father and being satisfied with this blessed sight as his soul ascended and his last breath departed from him he closed his own eyes and then disposed his hands and body into such a posture as required not the least alteration by those that came to shroud him Thus variable thus vertuous was the Life thus excellent thus exemplary was the Death of this memorable man He was buried in that place of St. Pauls Church which he had appointed for that use some years before his death and by which he passed daily to pay his publick devotions to Almighty God who was then served twice a day by a publick form of Prayer and Praises in that place but he was not buried privately though he desired it for beside an unnumbred number of others many persons of Nobility and of eminency for Learning who did love and honour him in his life did shew it at his death by a voluntary and sad attendance of his body to the grave where nothing was so remarkable as a publick sorrow To which place of his Burial some mournful Friend repaired and as Alexander the Great did to the grave of the famous Achilles so they strewed his with an abundance of curious and costly Flowers which course they who were never yet known continued morning and evening for many dayes not ceasing till the stones that were taken up in that Church to give his body admission into the cold earth now his bed of rest were again by the Masons art so levelled and firmed as they had been formerly and his place of Burial undistinguishable to common view Nor was this all the Honour done to his reverend Ashes for as there be some persons that will not receive a reward for that for which God accounts himself a Debtor persons that dare trust God with their Charity and without a witness so there was by some grateful unknown Friend that thought Dr. Donnes memory ought to be perpetuated an hundred Marks sent to his two faithful Friends and Executors towards the making of his Monument It was not for many years known by whom but after the death of Dr. Fox it was
Sacriledge and a third of Christian Obedience to Princes the last being occasioned by Gretzerus the Jesuite And it is observable that when in a time of Churchtumults Beza gave his reasons to the Chancellor of Scotland for the abrogation of Episcopacy in that Nation partly by Letters and more fully in a Treatise of a threefold Episcopacy which he calls Divine Humane and Satanical this Dr. Saravia had by the help of Bishop Whitgift made such an early discovery of their intentions that he had almost as soon answered that Treatise as it became publick and therein discovered how Beza's opinion did contradict that of Calvins and his adherents leaving them to interfere with themselves in point of Episcopacy but of these Tracts it will not concern me to say more than that they were most of them dedicated to his and the Church of Englands watchful Patron John Whitgift the Archbishop and printed about the time in which Mr. Hooker also appeared first to the World in the publication of his first four Books of Ecclesiastical Polity This friendship being sought for by this learned Doctor you may believe was not denied by Mr. Hooker who was by fortune so like him as to be engaged against Mr. Travers Mr. Cartwright and others of their judgement in a Controversie too like Dr. Saravia's so that in this year of 1595 and in this place of Borne these two excellent persons began a holy friendship increasing daily to so high and mutual affections that their two wills seemed to be but one and the same and their designs both for the glory of God and peace of the Church still assisting and improving each others vertues and the desired comforts of a peaceable piety which I have willingly mentioned because it gives a foundation to some things that follow This Parsonage of Borne is from Canterbury three miles and near to the common Road that leads from that City to Dover in which Parsonage Mr. Hooker had not been Twelve months but his Books and the innocency and sanctity of his life became so remarkable that many turn'd out of the Road and others Scholars especially went purposely to see the man whose life and learning were so much admired and alas as our Saviour said of St. John Baptist What went they out to see a man cloathed in purple and fine linnen no indeed but an obscure harmless man a man in poor Cloaths his Loyns usually girt in a course Gown or Canonical Coat of a mean stature and stooping and yet more lowly in the thoughts of his Soul his Body worn out not with Age but Study and Holy Mortifications his Face full of Heat-pimples begot by his unactivity and sedentary life And to this true character of his person let me add this of his disposition and behaviour God and Nature blest with so blessed a bashfulness that as in his younger dayes his Pupils might easily look him out of countenance so neither then nor in his age did he ever willingly look any man in the face and was of so mild and humble a nature that his poor Parish Clerk and he did never talk but with both their Hats on or both off at the same time And to this may be added that though he was not purblind yet he was short or weak-sighted and where he fixt his eyes at the beginning of his Sermon there they continued till it was ended and the Reader has a liberty to believe that his modesty and dim-sight were some of the reasons why he trusted Mrs. Churchman to choose his Wife This Parish-Clerk lived till the third or fourth year of the late Long Parliament betwixt which time and Mr. Hookers death there had come many to see the place of his Burial and the Monument dedicated to his memory by Sir William Cooper who still lives and the poor Clerk had many rewards for shewing Mr. Hookers Grave-place and his said Monument and did alwayes hear Mr. Hooker mentioned with commendations and reverence to all which he added his own knowledge and observations of his humility and holiness and in all which Discourses the poor man was still more confirm'd in his opinion of Mr. Hookers vertues and learning but it so fell out that about the said third or fourth year of the Long Parliament the then present Parson of Borne was Sequestred you may guess why and a Genevian Minister put into his good Living this and other like Sequestrations made the Clerk express himself in a wonder and say They had Sequestred so many good men that he doubted if his good Master Mr. Hooker had lived till now they would have Sequestred him too It was not long before this intruding Minister had made a Party in and about the â—aid Parish that were desirous to receive the Sacrament as in Geneva to which end the day was appointed for a select Company and Forms and Stools set about the Altar or Communion-Table for them to sit and eat and drink but when they went about this work there was a want of some Joint-stools which the Minister sent the Clerk to fetch and then to fetch Cushions when the Clerk saw them begin to sit down he began to wonder but the Minister bad him cease wondering and lock the Church-door to whom he replied Pray take you the Keyes and lock me out I will never come more into this Church for all men will say my Master Hooker was a good Man and a good Scholar and I am sure it was not used to be thus in his dayes And the report says the old man went presently home and dyed I do not say dyed immediately but within a few dayes after But let us leave this grateful Clerk in his quiet Grave and return to Mr. Hooker himself continuing our observations of his Christian behaviour in this place where he gave a holy Valediction to all the pleasures and allurements of Earth possessing his Soul in a vertuous quietness which he maintained by constant Study Prayers and Meditations his use was to preach once every Sunday and he or his Curate to Catechise aâ—ter the second Lesson in the Evening Prayer his Sermons were neither long nor earnest but uttered with a grave zeal and an humble voice his eyes alwayes fixt on one place to prevent his imagination from wandring insomuch that he seem'd to study as he spake the design of his Sermons as indeed of all his Discourses was to shew Reasons for what he spake and with these Reasons such a kind of Rhetorick as did rather convince and perswade than frighten men into piety studying not so much for matter which he never wanted as for apt illustrations to inform and teach his unlearned Hearers by familiar Examples and then make them better by convincing Applications never labouring by hard words and then by needless distinctions and sub-distinctions to amuse his Hearers and get glory to himself but glory only to God Which intention he would often say was as discernable in a Preacher as an Artificial
Sonnet to usher them to your happy hand Micham July â—â— 1607 Your unworthiest Servant unless your accepting him have mended him Jo. Donne To the Lady Magdalen Herbert of St. Mary Magdalen HEr of your name whose fair inheritance Bethina was and jointure Magdalo An active faith so highly did advance That she once knew more than the Church did know The Resurrection so much good there is Deliver'd of her that some Fathers be Loth to believe one Woman could do this But think these Magdalens were two or three Increase their number Lady and their fame To their Devotion add your Innocence Take so much of th' example as of the name The latter half and in some recompence That they did harbour Christ himself a Guest Harbour these Hymns to his dear name addrest J. D. These Hymns are now lost to us but doubtless they were such as they two now sing in Heaven There might be more demonstrations of the Friendship and the many sacred Indearments betwixt these two excellent persons for I have many of their Letters in my hand and much more might be said of her great prudence and piety but my design was not to write hers but the life of her Son and therefore I shall only tell my Reader that about that very day twenty years that this Letter was dated and sent her I saw and heard this Mr. John Donne who was then Dean of St. Pauls weep and preach her Funeral Sermon in the Parish-Church of Chelsey near London where she now rests in her quiet Grave and where we must now leave her and return to her Son George whom we left in his Study in Cambridge And in Cambridge we may find our George Herberts behaviour to be such that we may conclude he consecrated the first fruits of his early age to vertue and a serious study of learning And that he did so this following Letter and Sonnet which were in the first year of his going to Cambridge sent his dear Mother for a New-years gift may appear to be some testimony But I fear the heat of my late Ague hath dryed up those springs by which Scholars say the Muses use to take up their habitations However I need not their help to reprove the vanity of those many Love-poems that are daily writ and consecrated to Venus nor to bewail that so few are writ that look towards God and Heaven For my own part my meaning dear Mother is in these Sonnets to declare my resolution to be that my poor Abilities in Poetry shall be all and ever consecrated to Gods glory And MY God where is that ancient heat towards thee Wherewith whole showls of Martyrs once did burn Besides their other flames Doth Poetry Wear Venus Livery only serve her turn Why are not Sonnets made of thee and layes Upon thine Altar burnt Cannot thy love He ghten a spirit to sound out thy praise As well as any she Cannot thy Dove Out-strip their Cupid easily in flight Or since thy wayes are deep and still the same Will not a verserun smooth that bears thy name Why doth that fire which by thy power and might Each breast does feel no braver fuel choose Than that which one day Worms may chance refuse Sure Lord there is enough in thee to dry Oceans of Ink for as the Deluge did Cover the Earth so doth thy Majesty Each Cloud distills thy praise and doth forbid Poets to turn it to another use Roses and Lillies speak thee and to make A pair of Cheeks of them is thy abuse Why should I Womens eyes for Chrystal take Such poor invention burns in their low mind Whose fire is wild and doth not upward go To praise and on thee Lord some Ink bestow Open the bones and you shall nothing find In the best face but filth when Lord in thee The beauty lies in the discovery G. H. This was his resolution at the sending this Letter to his dear Mother about which time he was in the Seventeenth year of his Age and as he grew older so he grew in learning and more and more in favour both with God and man insomuch that in this morning of that short day of his life he seem'd to be mark'd out for vertue and to become the care of Heaven for God still kept his soul in so holy a frame that he may and ought to be a pattern of vertue to all posterity and especially to his Brethren of the Clergy of which the Reader may expect a more exact account in what will follow I need not declare that he was a strict Student because that he was so there will be many testimonies in the future part of his life I shall therefore only tell that he was made Minor Fellow in the year 1609. Batchelor of Art in the year 1611. Major Fellow of the Colledge March 15. 1615. And that in that year he was also made Master of Arts he being then in the 22 d year of his Age during all which time all or the greatest diversion from his Study was the practice of Musick in which he became a great Master and of which he would say That it did relieve his drooping spirits compose his distracted thoughts and raised his weary Soul so far above Earth that it gave him an earnest of the joyes of Heaven before he possest them And it may be noted that from his first entrance into the Colledge the generous Dr. Nevil was a cherisher of his Studies and such a lover of his person his behaviour and the excellent endowments of his mind that he took him often into his own company by which he confirm'd his native gentileness and if during this time he exprest any Error it was that he kept himself too much retir'd and at too great a distance with all his inferiours and his cloaths seem'd to prove that he put too great a value on his parts and parentage This may be some account of his disposition and of the employment of his time till he was Master of Arts which was Anno 1615. and in the year 1619. he was chosen Orator for the University His two precedent Orators were Sir Robert Nanton and Sir Francis Nethersoll The first was not long after made Secretary of State and Sir Francis not long after his being Orator was made Secretary to the Lady Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia In this place of Orator our George Herbert continued eight years and manag'd it with as becoming and grave a gaity as any had ever before or since his time For He had acquir'd great Learning and was blest with a high fancy a civil and sharp wit and with a natural elegance both in his behaviour his tongue and his pen. Of all which there might be very many particular evidences but I will limit my self to the mention of but three And the first notable occasion of shewing his fitness for this employment of Orator was manifested in a Letter to King James who had sent the University his Book
this years resolutions he therefore did set down his Rules in that order as the World now sees them printed in a little Book call'd The Countrey Parson in which some of his Rules are The Parsons Knowledge The Parson on Sundayes The Parson Praying The Parson Preaching The Parsons Charity The Parson comforting the Sick The Parson Arguing The Parson Condescending The Parson in his Journey The Parson in his Mirth The Parson with his Church-wardens The Parsons Blessing the People And his behavior toward God and man may be said to be a practical Comment on these and the other holy Rules set down in that useful Book A Book so full of plain prudent and useful Rules that that Countrey Parson that can spare 12 d. and yet wants is scarce excusable because it will both direct him what he is to do and convince him for not having done it At the Death of Mr. Herbert this Book fell into the hands of his friend Mr. Woodnot and he commended it into the trusty hands of Mr. Bar. Oly. who publish't it with a most conscientious and excellent Preface from which I have had some of those Truths that are related in this life of Mr. Herbert The Text for his first Sermon was taken out of Solomons Proverbs and the words were Keep thy heart with all diligence In which first Sermon he gave his Parishioners many necessary holy safe Rules for the discharge of a good Conscience both to God and man And deliver'd his Sermon after a most florid manner both with great learning and eloquence And at the close of his Sermon told them That should not be his constant way of Preaching and that he would not fill their heads with unnecessary Notionsâ— but that for their sakes his language and his expressions should be more plain and practical in his future Sermons And he then made it his humble request That they would be constant to the Afternoons Service and Catechising And shewed them convincing reasons why he desir'd it and his obliging example and perswasions brought them to a willing conformity to his desires The Texts for all his Sermons were constantly taken out of the Gospel for the day and he did as constantly declare why the Church did appoint that portion of Scripture to be that day read And in what manner the Collect for every Sunday does refer to the Gospel or to the Epistle then read to them and that they might pray with understanding he did usually take occasion to explain not only the Collect for every particular day but the reasons of all the other Collects and Responses in our Service and made it appear to them that the whole Service of the Church was a reasonable and therefore an acceptable Sacrifice to God as namely that we begin with Confession of our selves to be vile miserable sinners and that we begin so because till we have confessed our selves to be such we are not capable of that mercy which we acknowledge we need and pray for but having in the prayer of our Lord begg'd pardon for those sins which we have confest And hoping that as the Priest hath declar'd our Absolution so by our publick Confession and real Repentance we have obtain'd that pardon Then we dare proceed to beg of the Lord to open our lips that our mouths may shew forth his praise for till then we are neither able nor worthy to praise him But this being suppos'd we are then fit to say Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost and fit to proceed to a further service of our God in the Collects and Psalms and Lands that follow in the Service And as to these Psalms and Lauds he proceeded to inform them why they were so often and some of them daily repeated in our Church-service namely the Psalms every Month because they be an Historical and thankful repetition of mercies past and such a composition of prayers and praises as ought to be repeated often and publickly for with such Sacrifices God is honour'd and well-pleased This for the Psalms And for the Hymns and Lauds appointed to be daily repeated or sung after the first and second Lessons were read to the Congregation he proceeded to inform them that it was most reasonable after they have heard the will and goodness of God declar'd or preach't by the Priest in his reading the two Chapters that it was then a seasonable Duty to rise up and express their gratitude to Almighty God for those his mercies to them and to all Mankind and say with the blessed Virgin That their Souls do magnifie the Lord and that their spirits do also rejoyce in God their Saviour And that it was their Duty also to rejoyce with Simeon in his Song and say with him That their eyes have also seen their salvation for they have seen that salvation which was but prophesied till his time and he then broke out in expressions of joy to see it but they live to see it daily in the History of it and therefore ought daily to rejoyce and daily to offer up their Sacrifices of praise to their God for that and all his mercies A service which is now the constant employment of that blessed Virgin and Simeon and all those blessed Saints that are possest of Heaven and where they are at this time interchangeably and constantly singing Holy Holy Holy Lord God Glory be to God on High and on Earth peace And he taught them that to do this was an acceptable service to God because the Prophet David sayes in his Psalms He that praiseth the Lord honoureth him He made them to understand how happy they be that are freed from the incumbrances of that Law which our Fore-fathers groan'd under namely from the Legal Sacrifices and from the many Ceremonies of the Levitical Law freed from Circumcision and from the strict observation of the Jewish Sabbath and the like And he made them know that having receiv'd so many and so great blessings by being born since the dayes of our Saviour it must be an acceptable Sacrifice to Almighty God for them to acknowledge those blessings and stand up and worship and say as Zacharias did Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath in our dayes visited and redeemed his people and he hath in our dayes remembred and shewed that mercy which by the mouth of the Prophets he promised to our Fore-fathers and this he hath done according to his holy Covenant made with them And we live to see and enjoy the benefit of it in his Birth in his Life his Passion his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven where he now sits sensible of all our temptations and infirmities and where he is at this present time making intercession for us to his and our Father and therefore they ought daily to express their publick gratulations and say daily with Zacharias Blessed be that Lord God of Israel that hath thus visited and thus redeemed his people These