The Quotation of Fathers Philosophers School-men Historians was choice and sparing only when there might be such an Emphasis in the place as might touch and work upon the conscience by reasons which he urged not in respect of the matter to be proved for that stood firm enough upon Gods testimony but of the Auditors weakness whose faith was to be established some concluding others only illustrating all grounded on the Scripture and applied distinctly to the respective members of the Doctrine V. How artificially would he intimate his Observations in his Expositions How orderly would he dispose of them according to the respective Members of his Divisions How pithily would he dispatch his less principal Points which he shewed his people he observed but could not handle discoursing his more Principal ones in the order he raised them and dispatching one before he medled with the other How solidly pithily and prudently he deduced his Proposition waving all vain tedious or controverted subjects in clear Scripture-expression How sweetly would he paraphrase and insinuate them to the Auditors How seasonably would he insist upon the Points most agreeable to the present time and place Being thus furnished this excellent Person first bestowed his pains weekly among the good People of Ely then upon his great success there he was recommended by Mr. Chadderton who kept an Office as it were for the supply of Patrons Schools and other places with hopeful young men to Mr. Cope afterwards Sir Anthony at Hanwell in Oxfordshire and after twenty years continuance there where upon his seven first Sermons he was with the joint consent of Bishop Patron and People legally established preaching constantly every Lords day in the morning catechizing in the afternoon keeping hospitality Sundays and Wednesdays giving himself much to fasting and prayer and upon his Father-in-law Greenham's advice to him when he went to complain of the opposition he met with viz. Son Son when affliction lieth heavie sin lieth light a saying Mr. Dod made use of to his dying day professing that it did him a great deal of good bearing afflictions patiently being wont to say that sanctified afflictions are great promotions He removed to Fenny-Compton in Warwick-shire and thence upon some discontent between him and Bishop Neal to Cannons-Ashbie in Northampton-shire where he obliged most of the Gentry of that greatest County of Gentlemen in England and thence he was invited by Mr. Richard Knightley to Tansley in the same County where his Hospitality and Charity grew so with his Estate that there was not a poor body left in his Neighbourhood he having set them all in a way to live A Father who shall pass nameless is censured by some for his over-curiosity in his conceit rather than Comment Matth. 5. 2. And he opened his mouth and taught them for Christ saith he taught them often when he opened not his mouth by his example miracles c. Here I am sure according to Mr. Dod when his mouth was shut prohibited preaching instructed almost as much as before by his holy demeanour and pious discourse A good Chimist who could extract Gold out of other mens lead and how loose soever the promises of other mens discourse piety was always his natural and unforced conclusion inferred thereupon He had much imployment in comforting such as were wounded in their spirits being sent for not onely nigh at home but also into remote Countries There was a Gentlewoman who had a great worldly Estate and a loving Husband but she was so sadly assaulted with tentations that she often attempted to make away her self Mr. Dod was sent for to come to her and the Lord so blessed his Counsels Exhortations and Prayers that she did not onely recover out of her anguish of spirit but she was afterwards taken notice of for her singular piety and the Lord so ordered that this affliction was not onely the means of her conversion but also of her Husbands so that both of them were a great mercy in the Countrey where they lived promoting Religion according to their power and entertaining and cherishing godly people She lived divers years quieted in her heart and being rich in good works and when she lay on her death-bed Mr. Dod was sent for to her again who spake of Heaven and to fit her for that Glory She told him that she felt the comforts of God and that she could as hardly at that time forbear singing as formerly in child-bearing she could forbear crying and shortly after she died There was a Gentleman related to a Noble Family so perplexed in his mind that he hath been known in hard frosts to go bare-footed that the pain of his feet might divert his thoughts Master Dod was sent for to him who was his spiritual Physician to heal him He always expected troubles and prepared himself for them and put this difference between the affliction for which we are provided and others that the one are but blows on the harness but the other are blows on the flesh Upon a time when an affliction was upon him which went to his very heart and in the expectation whereof he wept yet when he saw that it was the will of God that it should be so he said to one whom he loved I will go and bless God for I believe this shall be for my good He gave himself much to fasting and prayer and when he fasted his custome was to abstain from the dinner of the day before to the supper of the day after his diseases being mostly Feavers in one of which when his Physician Dr. Oxenbridge said to him Well now I have hope of your recovery he answered You think to comfort me by this but you make my heart sad it is as you should tell one who had been sore weather-beaten on the Sea and conceiving that he was arrived at the Haven where his soul longed to be that he must come back again to be tossed with new winds and waves In his greater health and prosperity he would speak how he desired to be dissolved Upon a time a Gentleman blamed him for it saying He liked not servants who would have their wages before they had done their work But he seemed to be constant in this desire alledging these reasons among others That God had given him a setled assurance of Heaven and a sight of the excellency of Heaven and that the Earth was but a prison and Heaven the Palace and there was perfect holiness and happiness He took all occasions to do good when he was in company by godly speeches seasoning those which came to him that unless it were their own fault they might be the better for him Being invited to a great Feast where there were sundry Gentlemen and some of them began to swear he stopt them by discoursing of the greatness of that sin and that he might not burthen their memories he quoted three Chapters every one was the first as the first of Zachary the first
they had done great things for their Sovereign they might suffer greater THE LIFE ACTIONS AND DEATH OF Sir THOMAS WENTWORTH Earl of STRAFFORD Protoâ— Martyr for Religion and Allegiance SIR Thomas Wentworth Earl of Strafford owed his Birth to the best govern'd City London his Breeding to the best modelled School York and a most exact Colledge St. Iohns in Cambr. his Accomplishments to the best Tutors Travel and Experience and his Prudence to the best School a Parliament whither he came in the most active and knowing times with a strong Brain and a large Heart His Activity was eminent in his Country and his Interest strong in King Charles's Parliament where he observed much and pertinently spake little but home contrived effectuallyâ— but closely carried his Designs successfully but reservedly He apprehended the publick Temper as clearly and managed it to his purposes as orderly as any man He spoke least but last of all with the advantage of a clear view of others Reasons and the addition of his own He and his leading Confidents moulded that in a private Conference which was to be managed in a publick Assembly He made himself so considerable a Patriot that he was bought over to be a Courtier so great his Abilities that he awed a Monarchy when disobliged and supported it when engaged the Balance turning thither where this Lord stood The North was reduced by his Prudence and Ireland by his Interest He did more there in two years then was done in two hundred before 1. Extinguishing the very Relicks of the War 2. Setting up a standing Army 3. Modelling the Revenue 4. Removing the very Root and Occasions of new Troubles 5. Planting and Building 6. Setling Ecclesiastical and Civil Courts 7. Recovering the hearts of the People by able Pastors and Bishops by prudent and sober Magistrates by Justice and Protection by Obligations and Rewards 8. Recovering the Churches Patrimony and Discipline 9. Imploying most able and faithful Ministers and Instruments 10. Taking an exact view of all former Presidents Rules and Proceedings 11. An exact correspondence with his Majesty and the Favourites of England None was more conversant in the Factions Intrigues and Designs than he when a Common-wealths-man none abler to meet with them than he when a States-man he understood their Methods kenned their Wiles observed their Designs looked into their Combinations comprehended their Interest And as King Charles understood best of any Monarch under Heaven what he could do in point of Conscience So his Strafford apprehended best of any Counsellour under the Sun what he could do in point of Power He and my Lord of Canterbury having the most particular account of the State of Great Britain and Ireland of any persons living Nature is often hidden sometimes overcome seldom extinguished yet Doctrine and Discourse had much allayed the severity of this Earls Nature and Custom more None more austere to see to none more obliging to speak with He observed pauses in his discourse to attend the motion and draw out the humour of other men at once commanding his own thoughts watching others His passion was rather the vigour than the disorder of his wel-weighed Soul which could dispense its anger with as much prudence as it managed any Act of State He gave his Majesty safe counsel in the prosperity of his Affairs and resolute advice in Extremity as a true Servant of his Interest rather than of his Power So eminent was he and my Lord of Canterbury that Rebellion despaired of success as long as the first lived and Schism of licentiousness as long as the second stood Take my Lord of Strafford as accused and you will find his Integrity and Ability that he managed his whole Government either by the Law or the Interest of his Country Take him as dying and you will see his Parts and Piety his Resolution for himself his Self-resignation for the Kingdoms good his Devotion for the Church whose Patrimony he forbad his Son upon his Blessing Take him as dead you will find him glorious and renowned in these three Characters The first of the best King I looked upon my Lord of Strafford as a Gentleman whose great Abilities might make a Prince rather afraid than ashamed to imploy him in the greatest Affairs of State for those were prone to create in him great confidence of undertakings and this was like enough to betray him to great Errors and many Enemies whereof he could not but contract great store while moving in so high a Sphere and so vigorous a lustre he must nedds as the Sun raise many envious Exhalations which condensed by a popular Odium were capable to cast a Cloud upon the brightest Merit and Integrity Though I cannot in my judgment approve all he did driven it may be by the necessities of Times and the Temper of that People more than led by his own disposition to any heighth 〈◊〉 â—igour of Action c. The second of the best Historian He was a person of a generous Spirit fitted for the noblest Exercises and the most difficult parts of Empire his Counsels were bold yet just and he had a vigour proper for the execution of them Of an eloquence next that of his Masters Masculine and excellent He was no less affectionate to the Church than to the State and not contented while living to defend the Government and Patrimony of it he commended it also to his Son when he was about to die and charged his abhorrency of Sacriledge His Enemies called the majesty of his Mind in his Lieutenancie pride and the undaunted execution of his Office on the Contumacious the Insolency of his Fortune He was censured for that fatal errour of following the King to London and to the Parliament after the Pacification at York And 't was thought that if he had gone over to his Charge in Ireland he might have secured both himself and that Kingdom for his Majesties Service But some attribute this Counsel to a necessity of Fate whose first stroke is at the Brain of those whom it designs to ruine and brought him to feel the effects of popular Rage which himself in former Parliaments had used against Government and to find experience of his own devices upon the Duke of Buckingham Providence teacheth us to abhor over-sine Counsels by mischiefs they often bring upon their Authors The third of Common Fame A Gentleman he was of rare Choice and singular Endowments I mean of such as modelled fashioned accomplished him for State-concernments of a searching and penetrating Judgment nimble apprehension ready and fluent in all results of Council most happy in the vein of Speech which was alwayes round perspicuous and express much to the advantage of his sense and so full stocked with Reason that he might be rather said to demonstrate than to argue As these Abilities raised him to State-Administration so his addressing his applying those Abilities so faithfully in promotion of the Royal Interest soon rendred him
with tears having a little Weeping bitterly before the King when the Bill of Attainder Passed before by Sir Dudley Carleton been informed what the Parliament demanded of the King and what the King had granted the Parliament Information that amazed him indeed at first but at last made him infinitely willing to leave this sad world and there managed the last Scene of his life with the same gallantry that he had done all the rest looking death in the face with the same presence of spirit that he had done his enemies Being accompanied besides his own Relations and Servants by the Primate of Armagh who however mis-represented in this matter was much afflicted all along for this incomparable person's hard measure who among other his vertues owned so singular a love to this Reverend and Learned Person that taking his leave of Ireland the last time he was there he begged his blessing on his Knees and the last minute he was in the world desired him to accompany him with his Prayers Addressing his last Speech to him Thus My Lord Primate of Ireland IT is my very great comfort I have your Lordship by me this day in regard I have been known these many years and I do thank God and your Lordship for it that you are here I should be very glad to obtain so much silence as to be heard a few words but I doubt I shall not the noise is so great My Lords I am come hither by the good will and pleasure of Almighty God to pay that last debt I owe to sin which is death and by the blessing of that God to rise again through the merits of Jesus Christ to righteousness and life eternal Here he was a little interrupted My Lords I am come hither to submit to that judgment which hath Passed against me I do it with a very quiet and contented mind I thank God I do freely forgive all the world a forgiveness that is not spoken from the teeth outwards as they say but from the very heart I speak in the presence of Almighty God before whom I stand that there is not a displeasing thought arising in me towards any man living I thank God I can say it and truely too my Conscience bearing me witness that in all my employment since I had the honour to serve his Majesty I never had any thing in the purpose of my heart but what tended to the joynt and individual prosperity of King and People although it hath been my ill fortune to be misconstrued I am not the first that hath suffered in this kind It is the common portion of us all while we are in this life to err we are very subject to be mis-judged one of another There is one thing I desire to free my self of and I am very confident speaking it now with so much chearfulness that I shall obtain your Christian charity in the belief of it I was so far from being against Parliaments that I did always think the Parliaments of England were the most happy Constitutions that any Kingdom or Nation lived under and the best means under God to make the King and People happy For my Death here I acquit all the world and beseech the God of heaven heartily to forgive them that contrived it though in the intentions and purposes of my heart I am not guilty of what I dye for And my Lord Primate it is a great comfort to me that his Majesty conceives me not meriting so severe and heavy a punishment as is the utmost Execution of this Sentence I do infinitely rejoyce in this mercy of his and I beseech God to return it into his own bosome that he may find mercy when he stands in most need of it I wish this Kingdom all the prosperity and happiness in the world I did it living and now dying it is my wish I do most humbly recommend this to every one who hears me and desire they would lay their hands upon their hearts and consider seriously whether the beginning of the Happiness and Reformation of a Kingdom should be written in Letters of Bloud Consider this when you are at your houses and let me never be so unhappy as that the last of my bloud should rise up in judgment against any one of you But I fear you are in a wrong way My Lords I have but one word more and with that I shall end I profess that I dye a true and obedient Son to the Church of England wherein I was born and in which I was bred Peace and prosperity be ever to it It hath been objected if it were an objection worth the answering that I have been inclined to Popery but I say truly from my heart that from the time I was one and twenty years of age to this present going now upon forty nine I never had in my heart to doubt of this Religion of the Church of England nor ever had any man the boldness to suggest any such thing to me to the best of my remembrance And so being reconciled by the merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour into whose bosome I hope I shall shortly be gathered to those eternal happinesses which shall never have an end I desire heartily the forgiveness of every man for any rash or unadvised words or any thing done amiss And so my Lords and Gentlemen farewel farewel all the things of this world I desire that you would be silent and joyn with me in prayer and I trust in God we shall all meet and live eternally in heaven there to receive the accomplishment of all happiness where every tear shall be wiped away from our eyes and every sad thought from our hearts And so God bless this Kingdom and Jesus have mercy upon my soul. AN EPITAPH ON THE Earl of Strafford HEre lies wise and valiant Dust Huddled up 'twixt Fit and Iust Strafford who was hurried hence 'Twixt Treason and Convenience He spent his time here in a mist A Papist yet a Calvinist His Prince's nearest Ioy and Grief He had yet wanted all Relief The Prop and Ruin of the State The peoples violent Love and Hate One in extreames lov'd and abhorr'd Riddles lye here and in a word Here lies Bloud and let it lye Speechless still and never cry Exuâ—ge cinis tuumque â—â—us qui potis es scribe Epitaphium Nequit Wentworthi non esse facundus vel cinis Effare Marmor quem caepisti Comprehendere Macte Exprimere Candidius meretur urna quam quod rubris Notatum est litteris Elogium Atlas Regiminis Monarchichi hie jacet â—assus Secunda Orbis Britannici Intelligentia Rex Politiae Prorex Hiberniae Straffordii virtutum Comes Mens Iovis Mercurii ingenium lingua Apollinis Cui Anglia Hiberniam debuit seipsum Hibernia Sydus Aquilonicum quo sub rubicunda vespera accidente Nox simul dies visa est dextroque oculo flevit Laevoque laetata est Anglia Theatrum Honoris itemque
managing his command over them the better by making himself equal with them When the English at the Spanish Fleet 's approach in 88 drew their Ships out of Plymouth Haven Cambden attributes their success to the Lord Admiral Howard's towing a Cable in his own person the least joynt of whose exemplary hand drew more than twenty men besides 4. By observing as well as commanding them and orderly preferring them as well as observing them neither disheartning nor exasperating true Valour 5. By sharing with his Souldiers in their wants as well as in their other hardships indigency is an honour when it 's the chief Commanders condition Two words to his Souldiers did a brave Prince good service once in a streight I am your fellow-commoner and your fellow-labourer 6. By understanding well the defects and failings of the Garison as well as its accommodation It 's a very remarkable passage that when my Lord Fairfax made three approaches upon three great though not commonly observed disadvantages of the Garison he charmed the Council of War to an opinion of a noble surrender with this Story A man with an Ulcer on his face passed over a Bridge where the passengers were to pay a certain piece of money for every malady of body found about them and was required to pay the accustomed Tribute for the Ulcer in his face But he refusing to pay it the Officer pull's off his hat intending to keep it for a pawn his hat being taken off another malady appears in his bald head Now Sir said the Officer I must have a double Tribute of you Nay saith the Traveller that ye shall not and begins to struggle with the Officer who being too strong for him gave him a foil by means whereof there was a Rupture perceived under his coat The more we strive with these people the more we discover our infirmities This Trust he managed so well that the Queens Majesty interposed earnestly for his preferment in these very expressions in a Letter dated March 13. 1644. Farewel my Dear Heart Behold the mark which you desire to have to know when I desire any thing in earnest* I pray begin to remember what I spake to you concerning Jache Berkley for Master of the Wards And the King in his confinement was very earnest for his company making use of him in all his transactions with the Parliament and Army especially in that fatal escape from Hampton-Court where the Army observing how the King was caressed from all parts of the Kingdom buzzed up and down a jealousie among the Kings followers that he should be assaslinated that he might flie out of the place where he was most secure being near his friends the City and Parliament then well inclined towards him to a place where he was most in danger being far off the Faction having fore-cast that the King in the perplexity of his affairs would cast himself when in danger of his life upon Col. Hammond for his relation to Dr. Hammond his Majesties beloved Chaplain for that very purpose not long before made Governour of the Isle of Wight as he did in the company of Sir Iohn Berkley Col. Io. Ashburnam and Col. Will. Legg who smelt the Plot by the slightness of the Guards that dark and tempestuous Night and a whispering that there was of the King 's going to the Isle of Wight in the Army a Fort-night before and therefore Sir Iohn was for going to Iersey especially when he considered that most of the Advices given the King to escape proceeded from Whaley and those of the Army especially the Letter of Intelligence which he would take upon his Oath was feigned mentioned by Sir W. S. p. 1018. if any where the Advise being to have staid there and cast no fears jealousies or new disputes which the Army aimed at among an already distracted people But as God would have it that his Majesty should not escape those greatest tryals and most glorious acts of patience he had designed him for Hammond to whom they went with the hazard of their lives could be wrought to nothing but some formal civilities and yet they being so far gone into the Net must be trusted to though with the King 's extraordinary Regret Sir Iohn Berkley offering then a desperate attempt for the King's escape at last cast though the King refused it saying That he would always humble himself to Gods good pleasure Nay which was more Sir Iohn would have been taken to let the King escape Therefore the Parliament so strictly enquired after him although his own friends censured him so interpreting this action by the success not considering the numerous difficulties in forming any resolution nor the fallacious representation of affairs to him by those that contrived this whole Plot to take the Parliament off from the King by his disturst of them and confidence in the Army but only looked on his improsperous services according to the fate of unhappy Counsels which is To have that Condemned which is put in Execution and that Practised as best which was never Tried 1. The King was no sooner in the Isle of Wight than the Faction let loose their fury upon the Gentlemen that attended him commanding Hammond to send them up to London to be proceeded against which he refused pretending First The just offence thereby given the King in removing his only Friends and Familiars then his honour engaged as he said for their Indemnity The King himself likewise Interposing that if those Gentlemen were taken away and punished as evil doers for counselling him not not to go out of the kingdom but rather to come to the place where he now is for the ends aforesaid and for their indeavours accordingly to attend him thither he cannot but expect to be dealt with accordingly his case being the same Sir Iohn escaping the danger of this fatal piece of service addressed himself to more in the way of Intelligence and Correspondence between the King and the West between the West and the North and between all these Parts and France where the Queen kept up the King her husband's Reputation and promoted his Interest until being forced from the King he and Colonel Walter Slingsby were secured Anno 1648. at Colonel Trevanions house in Cornewall and underwent all the sad effects of the Tyrannies acted here for twelve years together without any other comfort than some opportunities of serving his Sacred Majesty with better Intention than Success using means and leaving events to God being resolved to win the Roman Consul's Elogy who was commended for not despairing of the Commonwealth his spirit being above his own Fortune and his Enemies too who indeed had put an end to the War yet could not find the way to Peace their souls being unequal to their victory and not able to temper their success but turning those arts and arms wherewith they had prevailed against their Soveraign so true is that of Seneca Scelera dissident against one another until they
of Matthew and the first of Iames and he opened those Scriptures in such sort that they were all hushed and did not again offend in that kind while he was present amongst them The Word of God was his great delight his meditation was of it in the night and his discourse in the day When those that were with him were speaking of earthly things he would finde out some way to bring in Heavenly When he could not sleep in the night he would say That the meditation of the Word was sweeter to him than sleep When he had preached twice on the Sabbath and was a weary yet to those that came to him he would go on afresh in holy Discourses and the comforts which he found in his soul made him sometimes forget his body that he hath been speaking till he was ready to faint His eminency was in frequency aptness freeness and largeness of godly discourse in which respect it may be said of him that in the Countrey where he lived none were known who therein were equal to him But he was Mi cans inter omnes velut inter ignes luna minores He was very merciful himself and to move Parents that were rich to mercy he would say thus You are caring and contriving to lay up for your children but lay up for your selves a good foundation against the time to come being rich in good works you will lay up treasure in the earth which is an unsafe place lay up treasure in Heaven that is the sure and safe place Master Throgmorton an approved good man dying the same year of a Consumption came to Asby not far from Tansley to have the help of Master Dod's comforts and counsels he was oppressed with melancholy and a little before he gave up his soul to Christ What can ye say of him that is going out of the world and can finde no comfort To whom he answered What will you say of our Saviour Christ who when he was going out of the world found no comfort but cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me This speech refreshed Master Throgmorton and within a little space of time after this he went to his heavenly Inheritance Master Dod as he was of a weaned disposition from the World himself so he laboured to wean others He put this difference between rich Christians and poor That for poor Christians their Father kept the purse but the rich Christians keep the purse in their own hands But it might oftner fall out and did and therefore the purse was better in the Fathers hand than in the Christians He was wont to compare wicked men to waves of the Sea those which were of a great Estate were great waves those which were of small estate were small waves but all were restless as waves To a friend of his that raised from a mean estate to worldly greatness he sent word That this was but as if he should go out of a Boat into a Barge or Ship but there ought to be a serious and godly remembrance that while we are in this world we are upon the sea He often repeated this That nothing could hurt us but our own sins and they should not hurt us if we truly repented for them and nothing could do us good but Gods favour and that we should be sure of if we unfeignedly sought it Speaking of Davids penning the 51. Psalm after his murther and adultery put this gloss upon it That hearty and true repentance shall have cause to praise the Lord for his pardoning mercy He said Afflictions were Gods Potions he might sweeten by faith and faithful prayer but we for the most part made them bitter puting into Gods cup the ill ingredients of our own impatience and unbelief He gave this reason why many of Gods people lived uncomfortably for that they shut their ear against what God said where they should open it and they opened their ear to what their carnal reason and Satan and the world said where they should shut it but said he the Psalmist was wiser Psal. 85. 8. he would hear none of them all I will hear what the Lord God will speak His Preaching was searching and when some did suppose that he had Informers and Spies because he came so close to them he answered That the Word of God was searching and that if he was shut up in a dark Vault where none could come at him yet allow him but a Bible and a Candle and he should Preach as he did He had an excellent gift in similitudes which did flow freely and frequently from him as all those knew who either heard him Preach publickly or discourse privately He called Death the friend of Grace though it were the enemy of Nature and whereas the Word and Sacraments and Prayer do but weaken sin death builds it Speaking of prayer he said a man was never in a hard condition unless he had a hard heart and could not pray Having Preached out of that Text O woman great is thy faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt He invited some women to Dinner and told them it was a usual saying Let a Woman have her will and then she shall be quiet Now the way for a woman to have her will is to have a strong faith and to pray as that woman in the Gospel did Upon a time when he had Preached long so that it was somewhat late before he went to dinner he said You shall have some Gentlemen will follow Hounds from seven in the morning till four or five in the afternoon because they love the cry of Dogs which to me was unpleasant hearing So if we love the Word we should be content though the Minister stood above his hour And he added me thinks it much better to hear a Minister preach than a Kennel of Hounds to bark Speaking of recreation he said he marvelled what the vocation of many was who were so eager for recreation And if we should come into a house and see many Physick-boxes and Glasses we would conclude some body is sick So when we see Hounds and Hawks and Cards and Dice we may fear there is some sick soul in that Family He told some friends that if he were to pass sentence who was a rich man he would not look into his Purse or Chest how much gold he had laid up but look into his heart what promises were treasured up there For we count him rich that is rich in bonds and the pleading of the promises in prayer is suing of the bonds Speaking to a Minister who was to go to a place where there was but small means he told him That his care was to Preach and do God service and then God would provide for him When he preached at Fausley was much resorted unto he told a godly man of his acquaintance that if the Country knew so much by him as he knew by himself they would not have him in so much admiration
The third particular is the poor Church of England It hath flourished and been a shelter to other Neighbor Churches when storms have driven upon them But alas now it is in a storm it self and God only knows whether or how it shall get out And which is worse than a storm from without it is become like an Oak cleft to shivers with wedges made out of its own body And at every cleft profanneness and irreligion is entring in While as Prosper speaks men that introduce profaneness are cloaked over with the Name Religionis Imaginariae of Imaginary Religion for we have lost the substance and dwell too much in Opinion And that Church which all the Jesuits machinations could not ruine is now fallen into danger by her own 4. The last particular for I am not willing to be too long is my self I was born and baptized in the bosom of the Church of England Established by Law in that Profession I have ever since lived and in that I come now to die What clamors and slanders I have endured for laboring to keep an Uniformity in the external service of God according to the Doctrine and Discipline of this Church all men know and I have abundantly felt Now at last I am accused of High-Treason in Parliament a Crime which my soul ever abhorred This Treason was Charged to consist of two parts an endeavor to subvert the Laws of the Land And a like endeavor to overthrow the true Protestant Religion Established by Law Besides my answers to the several Charges I protested mine innocency in both Houses It was said Prisoners protestations at the Bar must not be taken I must therefore come now to it upon my death being instantly to give God an account for the truth of it I do therefore here in the presence of God and his holy Angels take it upon my death that I never endeavored the subversion either of Law or Religion and I desire you all to remember this protest of mine for my innocency in this and from all Treasons whatsoever I have been accused likewise as an Enemy to Parliaments No I understand them and the benefit that comes by them too well to be so But I dislike the misgovernments of some Parliaments many ways and I had good reason for it for Corruptio optimi est pessima And that being the highest Court over which no other hath Jurisdiction when 't is misinformed or misgoverned the subject is left without all Remedy But I have done I forgive all the world all and every of those bitter Enemies which have persecuted me And humbly desire to be forgiven of God first and then of every man And so I heartily desire you to joyn in prayer with me His Graces Prayer upon the Scaffold O Eternal God and Merciful Father look down upon me in Mercy in the Riches and Fulness of thy Mercies Look upon me but not till thou hast nailed my Sins to the Cross of Christ but not till thou hast bathed me in the Blood of Christ not till I have hid my self in the Wounds of Christ that so the punishment due unto my sins may pass over me And since thou art pleased to try me to the uttermost I most humbly beseech thee give me now in this great instance full patience proportionable comfort and a heart ready to die for thine honor the Kings happiness and this Chuches preservation And my zeal to these far from arrogancy be it spoken is all the sin humane frailty excepted and all incidents thereto which is yet known to me in this particular for which I come now to suffer I say in this particular of Treason But otherwise my sins are many and great Lord pardon them all and those especially what ever they are which have drawn down this present Judgment upon me And when thou hast given me strength to bear it do with me as seems best in thine own eyes Amen And that there may be a stop of this issue of blood in this more than miserable Kingdom O Lord I beseech thee give grace of Repentance to all blood-thirsty people But if they will not repent O Lord confound their designs defeat and frustrate all their designs and endeavors which are or shall be contrary to the glory of thy great Name the truth and sincerity of Religion the establishment of the King and his Posterity after him in their just Rights and Priviledges the Honor and Conservation of Parliaments in their just Power the Preservation of this poor Church in her Truth Peace and Patrimony and the settlement of this distracted and distressed People under their ancient Laws and in their native Liberties And when thou hast done all this in meer mercy for them O Lord fill their hearts with thankfulness and with religious dutiful obedience to thee and thy Commandements all their days So Amen Lord Jesu Amen And receive my soul into thy bosom Amen Our Father which art in Heaven c. The Lord Arch-bishop's Prayer as he Kneeled by the Block LOrd I am coming as fast as I can I know I must pass through the shadow of death before I can come to see thee But it is but Vmbra Mortis a meer shadow of death a little darkness upon Nature but thou by thy Merits and Passion hast broke through the jaws of death So Lord receive my soul and have mercy upon me and bless this kingdom with plenty and with brotherly love and charity that there may not be this effusion of Christian blood amongst them for Jesus Christ his sake if it be thy will Many there was to see so able an Head struck off at one blow as it was upon these words of his spoken aloud Lord receive my Soul And more crouded to see so good a man buried at his own Church of Barking in London by the Common-prayer which was Voted down at the same time that he was Voted to dye in hope both of that resurrection which he hath had already with the Cause he dyed for being removed in Iuly 1663. from Barking in London to Saint Iohns Colledge in Oxford with his friend and successor in that Colledge the Deanery of the Chappel Bishoprick of London and Arch-bishoprick of Canterbury raised by him where he was Interred with these Monuments The first by Dr. M. Lluelin then Student of Christ-church An Elegy on the most Reverend Father in God William Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury Attached the 18. of December 1640. Beheaded the 10. of January 1644. Most Reverend Martyr THou since thy thick Afflictions first begun Mak'st Dioclesian's days all Calm and Sun And when thy Tragick Annals are compil'd Old Persecution shall be Pitty stil'd The Stake and Faggot shall be Temperate Names And Mercy wear the Character of Flames Men Knew not then Thrift in the Martyrs Breath Nor weav'd their Lives into a four years Death Few ancient Tyrants do our Stories Taxe That slew first by delays then by the Axe But these Tiberius like alone
To be disabled for ever after from Preaching at Court 6. To be for ever disabled of having any Ecclesiastical Dignity in the Church of England 7. To be uncapable of any secular Office or Preferment 8. That his books are worthy to be burned and his Majesty to be moved that it may be so in London and both the Universities According to the third Branch of this Censure he was brought to the Bar Iune twenty three and injoyned this Submission on his knees I do here in all sorrow of heart and true repentance acknowledge those many errors and indiscretions which I have committed in preaching and publishing the two Sermons of mine which I called Religion and Allegiance and my greatâ— fault in falling upon this Theam again and handling the same rashly scandalously and unadvised in my own Parish-Church in St. Giles in the Fields the fourth of May last past I humbly acknowledge these three Sermons to have been full of dangerous Passages Inferences and scandalous Aspersions in most part of the same And I do humbly acknowledge the just proceedings of this honorable House against me and the just Sentence and Judgement passed upon me for my great offence And I do from the bottom of my heart crave pardon of God the King this Honorable House and the Common-weal in general and those worthy Persons adjudged to be reflected upon by me in particular for those great offences and errors And according to the first he was imprisoned in the Tower untill that Parliament was dissolved and then in recompence of his Sufferings and Services he was preferred 1. To the Rich Parsonage of Stâ—mon-Rivers in Essex then void by Bishop Mountague his Fellow-sufferers Preferment Iuly 16. with a Dispensation to hold it with the Vicarage of St. Giles 2. To the Deanery of Worcester May. 1633. And 3. To the Bishoprick of St. Davids Dec. 1635. with a pardon drawn Ian. 1628. according to His Majesties Pardon of Grace to his Subjects at his Coronation with some particulars for the pardoning of all errors committed either in speaking writing or printing whereby he might be hereafter questioned How afterwards he was apprehended 1640. suddenly confined severely fined heavily plundered violently and persecuted from place to place continually that for the two last years of his Life not a week passed over his head without either a Message or an Injury he desired God not to remember against his Adversaries and adjured all his Friends to forget Onely the faults alledged against him must not be forgot for besides the aforesaid Sermons first warranted by a Bishop for the Press as containing only the same points delivered with offence from the Pulpit which Serjeant Heal delivered with applause in a Parliament who said That he marvelled the House stood so much either at the granting of a Subsidy or time of payment when all we have is her Majesties and she may lawfully at her pleasure take it from us and that she had as much right to all our Lands and Goods as to any Revenue of the Crown and that he had Presidents to prove it and to be suffered for once and the old demurrer is Deus non punit in id idem he was charged I. with Popish Innovations by which you are to understand his care to reduce the Cathedrals he belonged to to order and decency As for instance it is reckoned as his fault that he gave the Archbishop of Canterbury Sept. 24. 1635. this account concerning his Services in the Church of Worcester 1. An Altar-stone of Marble erected and set upon four Coâ—umes 2. The Wall behinde the Altar covered with Azure Coloured stuffe with a White silk lace down each seam 3. The Altar it self adorned with a Pall an upper and lower front 4. A perfect Inventory taken of all Ornaments Vestments and Implements of the Church as well sacra as focalia divers Vestments and other Ornaments of the Church as Copes Carpets Fronts c. being turned into Players Caps Coats and imployed to that use by the direction of Mr. Nathaniel Thomkins burnt and the Silver extracted put into the treasury of the Church 5. The Kings Scholars being forty usually coming tumultuously into the Chore ordered to come in Bimatim and to do reverence towards the Altar II. He was accused for conversing with Papists whereof many in his Parish loved his Company which was no more than his prudent civility to gain them by his worth and addresses to him who were reported to have gained him to them when all that knew him understood well that like the Lapwing he fluttered furthest from his nest having at once the closest and therefore the smoothest way of conveying his Design and Project III. He was looked upon as sociable and jovial whereby you must understand a good nature ready to communicate its self in instruction to the ignorant in free discourses to the wise in civil mirth and a becoming chearfulness among his friends usually saying at his Table that there were three things requisite to one good Meal to pray heartily to eat heartily and in a sober way to laugh heartily In an orderly Hospitality among his rich Neighbours and Charity among his poor ones especially the modest whose craving he expected not but prevented some grounds will rather burn than chap though otherwise he was as severe in reducing disorderly Beggars as he was pittiful in relieving impotent and unfortunate Expectants usually saying That King Edward the sixth was as Charitable in granting Bridewell for the punishment of Sturdy Rogues as in bestowing St. Thomas Hospital for the relief of the poor and helpless Liking the Picture of Charity drawn with Honey in the one hand to feed Bees and a Whip in the other to drive away Drones In a frakness and freedom among his Tenants whose thriving he consulted as much as his own esteeming three particulars the honor of a Church 1. Punctual Discipline 2. An Exemplary Clergy And 3. Improving Tenants King William Rufus not so tender in other sacred points as he was conscientious in this had two Monks come to him to buy an Abbots place who outvied each other in the sums they offered while a third Monk stands by and saith nothing to whom the King said what wilt thou give for the place Not a Penny answered he for it is against my Conscience Then quoth the King thou of the three best deservest the Place and thou shalt have it Three Tenants at one time standing in competition about a considerable Lordship to be Let by the Doctor one offering a great Fine and a small Rent the second proposing a small Fine and a great Rent and the third no Fine and a good reasonable Rent with the improvement of the Vicarage and the Church Nay said the Doctor this is my Tenant that comes not to ensnare me with great overtures for my self but to treat with me upon fair proposals for the Church expecting nothing from him but his prayers to God for the
the way of an active conformity to the Church is to crack the sinews of Government for it weakens the hands and damps the spirit of the obedient And if only scorn and rebuke shall attend men for asserting the Churches dignity many will chuse rather to neglect their duty in the Churches service only to be rewarded with that that shall break their hearts too That very little he had got in the time of peace he lost in the time of war their practices and designs had been a long time the subject of his smart reproofs and his estate now become a prey to their revenge To see the good man escape them in his Clarks habit that had been certainly murthered in his own when it was safe to be any thing but a Minister and withal to hear the chearful man smile out his old Motto I have as much as I desire if I have as much as I want and I have as much as the most if I have as much as I desire 'T was a spectacle that had melted any spirit but that in which the custom of cruelty had taken away the conscience of it whom yet he was very tender of according to his usual Maxim Nature may induce me to shew so much care of my self as to look to my adversaries reason shall perswade me to shew so much wit as to beware of those that deceived me once but Religion hath taught me so much love as to be injurious to none For estate Abundance he thought a trouble want a misery honor a burthen business a scorn advancement dangerous disgrace odious but competency a happiness I will not climb lest I fall nor lye on the ground lest I am trod on He for carriage He did so much forâ— think what he would promise that he might promise only what he would do that he would often do a kindness and not promise it and never promise a kindness and not to do it In Religion His heart spake more devoutly than his tongue when as too many peoples tongues speak more piously than their hearts The good man hath oftentimes God in his heart when in his mouth there is no good mentioned The Hypocrite hath God often in his mouth when the fool hath said in his heart there is no God The tongue speaks loudest to men the heart truest to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Its pity to part intimate Friends the one dying under the sense the other under the fear of this Nations Calamity THE Life and Death OF Dr. JOHN BARKHAM JOhn Barkham that said he had lived under a good Government and was afraid to live any longer lest he should see none at all was born in the City of Exeter bred in Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford whereof he was Fellow Chaplain afterwards to Archbishop Bancroft and Parson of Bocking in Essex Much his Modesty and no less his Learning who though never the publick Parent of any was the careful Nurse of many Books who otherwise had expired in their Infancy had not his care preserved them He set forth Dr. Crackenthorp his Posthume Book against Spalato and was helpful to Iohn Speed in the composing of his English History â—ea he wrote the whole Life of the Reign of King Iohn which 〈◊〉 â—he King of all the Reigns in that Book for profound Penning discoverable from the rest of the different style and much Scripture cited therein Mr. Guillim in his Heraldry was much beholden to this Doctors Emendations He was a greater lover of Coyn than of Money rather curious in the Stamps than covetous for the Mettal thereof That excellent Collection in Oxford Library was his gift to the Arch-bishop before the Archbishop gave it to the University richer in M. SS than Printed Books and richer in the skill he had by the phrase and Character to fill up the defects and guess at the meaning of a Moth-eaten Record than in the possession of the Paper when the Factious were admitted to look upon his Rarities they did him the kindness to supect him of his Religion thinking that the rust of his old Inscriptions cankered his Soul with as old Superstition When it is in the study of Antiquity as it is in that of Phylosophy a little skill in either of them inclines men to Atheism or Heresie but a depth of either study brings them about to their Religion When both extreams as he called them to the virtue of the Church of England the Partizans of Rome and Geneva the men of the old Doctrine and the new Discipline met with any little remnant of Antiquity that made for them they ran to him with it and he would please himself infinitely with a story which hath been since his death Printed the story was this A Nobleman who had heard of the extream age of one dwelling not far off made a journey to visit him and finding an aged person in the the Chymney corner addressed himself to him with admiration of his age till his mistake was rectified so Oh Sir said the young old man I am not he whom you seek for but his Son my Father is further off in the Field They mistaking middle Antiquity for Primitive History wherein he was so versed that he had not the Fathers books only but their hearts not their History only but their Piety So strict in his life that he went among Fathers himself being observed as much a rule to others as they were to him Skilled he was in many Tongues and yet a man of a single heart When God made him rich he made not himself by coveteousness poor and if God had made him poor he could have made himself by contentment rich Bishop Vsher and he had one useful quality above many others that they understood men better than they did themselves and so employed men that could not tell what to do with themselves upon what was most suitable to them and most profitable to the publick having Dr. Iames his motion much upon their spirits that all the Manuscripts of England should be collected and compared A design that would have proved very beneficial to the Protestant considering how many M. SS England hath still notwithstanding her loss at the dissolution of Monasteries if prosecuted with as great indeavor as it was proposed with good intention You would think you were at St. Augustine and St. Cyprians House when you saw the poor at the Doctors doors the Neighbors welcome at his Table young Scholars in his Study Bibles and other godly books in each room of his house the Servants and all the Houshold so used to Psalms and Chapters that they spoke familiarly the holy Language the hours of Devotion and Instruction constantly observed the people being at all the returns of duty in Gods service to forget their own business though in their own business they never forgot Gods service When you saw a man making the errors of men the subject of his grief not of his discourse so prudently
reproving sin as to spare the person and yet so discreetly tender towards the person as not to countenance sin A man that would not give his heart the lie with his tongue by not intending what he spoke or his tongue the lie with his actions by not performing what he promised that had rather friendly insinuate mens errors to themselves than detractingly blaze them to others a man that would not put off his Devotion for want of leisure nor his Charity for want of Ability that thought it better to deny a request for that was onely discourtesie than not to perform a promise for that is injury that would not rebuke as the Philosopher would beat his servant in anger angry reproofs being like scalding potions that work being to be done with compassion rather than passion Many excellent books were dedicated to him its pity but there should be an intire book made of him Vivere Deo incepit eodem quo credebat Deum vixisse hominibus nempe Mortii 25. 1641. Ne dignissimum virum qui nil servâ—ra dignum perire passus est vel fuisse seri nepotes nesciant hoc Monumentum aeter â—itati sacrum esse voluit W. D. E. A. Qui cordicitus amavit Pristinae sidei virum decoctum generosum pectus honesto Annex we to both their Lives THE Life and Death OF IOHN DAVENANT Lord Bishop of Salisbury THeir good Friend who told Dr. Ward when he saw what his and other mens indulgence to dissenting persons was like to come to that he was ashamed to live when he should have nothing left him but to live and when such immoderate courses were taken by them against Government for whom he and others had so often interceded for moderation from the Government to see the most irreligious things done under the pretence of Religion to see that he that had with so much success moderated Controversies in the Schools offered expedients in Convocations decided the Debates of Synods his prudent directions interpositions seasonable and obliging Authority contributing much to the peaceable end of that Convention governed Universities perswaded Kings nay and by reason of his agreement with the Faction in some Doctrines done them many favours in Discipline could not among the leading men of the party that he had so much obliged by their Oaths and their Allegiance by the honor of Religion and the dangers of it by love to Brethren or respect to the designs of enemies by the spirit of Peace and the God of love by their bowels towards their Country or their Fosterity the Children yet unborn by the prayers and tears of their ancient Friend and a Reverend Bishop gain so much as Christian accommodation and mutual forbearance but after a most excellent Tract of the Peace of the Christian world wherein he taught how that the few necessary things wherein men agreed should be of more power to unite them than the indifferent things wherein they dissented should have power to divide them That the Christian world might have unity in the few Fundamentals that are necessary liberty in the things that were indifferent and so Charity in all things despairing of perswading men to peace by Arguments who were set on War and Tumults by their Lusts which were to be subdued rather than convinced He died of an old Consumption improved with new grief for the misery of those times which he fore-saw sad and saw dangerous April 1641. being though his Father was a Citizen living in Watling-street London extracted of an ancient Family of Davenants-Land in Essex he was remarkably born in the seventh Month after Conception and such Births if well looked too prove vigorous and as remarkably preserved in the first half seven years from his Birth falling down an high pair of stairs and rising at the bottom with so little harm that he smiled They say when Chryâ—omes smile it is because of some intercourse between them and the little ones Guardian Angels when this Infant smiled it was certainly at the preservation of him by such an Angel and beyond all these preferred when his Father in his life-time not allowing him to be Fellow no more than he would his rich Relations to one of whom he said when he had given his voice against him Cousin I will satisfie your Father that you have worth but not want enough to be one of our Society he was against his will made Fellow of Queens the Provost alledging to him that Preferment was not always a relief for want but sometimes an encouragement for worth and against seven Competitors made Margaret Professor Dr. Whitacre having when present at some of his youthful exercises the earnest of his future maturity pronounced that he would in time prove the honor of the Vniversity when but a private Fellow of a Colledge and before three others chosen Master of Queens when not forty years of age and Bishop of Salisbury upon the death of Dr. Toulson his Brother-in-law that he might provide for his Sister and her numerous family when he had not a Friend at Court but the King The rest of his Life take in this Epitaph Hic jacâ—t omne gâ—nae eruditionis modesta Epitome Cui judicium quod asservit Maxime discretiorum quicquid uspiam est literarum Hebraicarum Ethnicarum aut Christianarum omnes linguas artes historias quicquod praedicarunt patres disputarunt Scholastici decreverunt consilia in sobriam pacificam practicam concox it Theologiam Quae in concionibus dominat a est Scholis Imperavit Synodis leges dedit Prudens pariter ac simplex ille ille cui severior vita quam opinio ut pote strictius vitam agens quam sententiam Doctrina magna lux ecclesiae exemplo major Cujus libri omnes una hac notabantur Inscriptione Praefuit qui Profuit qui Regem venerabatur sed timebat Deum non tam suo quam publico morbo succubuit Aprilis 3. 1641. extremam in haec verba agens animam Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum THE Life and Death OF THOMAS HOWARD Earl of Arundel THomas Howard Earl of Arundel and Surrey the first Earl and Earl Marshal of England and Knight of the Garter Son to Philip Earl of Arundel Grand-son to Thomas Duke of Norfolk Gandfather to Thomas now Duke of Norfolk to whom the honor of that Dukedom was restored 1661. by his Majesty King Charles the Second which was lost for his Ancestors great kindness to his Great Grand-Mother Mary Queen of Scots whose life Thomas the foresaid Duke of Norfolk endeavored to save with the loss of his own and Courting her love lost his Mistress Queen Elizabeth who spilt that bloud then called amorous rather than traiterous that he intended to make Royal and to prevent a Marriage between him and the Queen of Scots divorced his Head from his Body making him contented to lie in his Ancestors cold Grave for aspiring to a Queens warm
nothing out of humor nor maintain any thing out of fashion because he said he desired to say nothing that he must recall and to do nothing that he should repent He deferred not the duty he durst not deny because he reckoned his life by moments the minute past being irrecoverable and that to come uncertain the present only ours The more men delay repentance the more work they have to do and the less time to do it in his last hour therefore finding him rather willing to go than contented to carry having nothing to do but to dye He would not suffer us to measure our want of goodness by others store nor our store of it by others want for the crooked must be measured by the streight and not by the more crooked teaching us to measure Gods blessings not by our wants but by our deserts He did not wonder at the various effects of the doctrine he taught any more than at the divers effects of the Physick he would sometimes prescribe and he would say that a good Divine should have something in him of the good Physician both succeeding according to the capacity of the Patient for under unprofitableness we should blame not Gods means but our own hearts when we profit we should not thank our own hearts but God and his means The way to be long young is to be old betimes he said and the way to live always was to dye daily the thoughts of the dissolution of soul and body which is the natural death being the best means to prevent the dissolution of soul and body which is the spiritual death and death becomes the beginning of a mans happiness and not the end Consideration was the main part of his work and he would have made it the main part of ours all the evils in the world he would say being capable of a prevention by these two words quid foci And by that which as it was the peculiar faculty so was the proper happiness of a man Reflexion and suffering reason to check and controul the Appetite and faith to govern reason when urged much with his stiffness in the points of Obedience and Rebellion If I did not think these doctrines true said he I would never have published them and since I think they are true I dare not renounce them Which puts us in mind of his smart check to Back-sliders If the profession of Religion was not good why did you enter into it if it was why do you not continue in it It was an endless thing he thought to be solicitous about fame for that lies in the power of many a short work to take care of Conscience for that is in the power of one Upon some good words bestowed on him by the men of the times that heard ill he startled with Why what have I done that these should speak well of me Parcat cognatis maculis similis fera Let thy estate serve thy occasions it was his last words to his Brother thy occasions thy self thy self thy soul thy soul thy God To take Resolution he urged us to upon good grounds and not to forsake them but upon good reason prescribing to us a solid judgment and not fond opinions and if we maintain opinions to do it because they are true and not because they are ours Christian Liberty he asserted and Christian Licentiousness he bewailed He would satisfie Nature and not humor it stand still rather than go out of his Calling flow to chuse a friend and slower to change him courteous to all intimate with a few saying our Saviour had many Hearers but a few Disciples his acquainted he reckoned his neighbor his friend himself he scorned no man for his meanness nor humored any for their wealth advising young men not to cease to be good Christians by desiring to be esteemed good Companions In stead of a Cato set before thee said he to Mr. I. S. set before thee a God whose eye is always upon thee and therefore keep thy eye always upon him doing nothing to which thou mayest willingly desire Gods absence or canst not desire his assistance He was very earnest with us to keep this much upon our hearts that the good we receive is not for our own sake nor the good we do by our own power He was unwilling that we should repine at sufferings as other mens faults if they be not blessings it is our own He saw his own mortality in other mens death and his own frailty in their sins so thinking of death as to be afraid of sin that led to worse and so reflecting on sins as not to be afraid of death that led to better He charged us in the beginning of the times to make not the best men our rule for they that in all things follow him that may err will be sure in some things to fall into error He compared what he did with what he suffered being infinitely taken with this consideration that he had received more good than he had done and done more evil than he suffered Often repeating to us the saying as he did recommend to us the solid and safe works of Bishop Davenant in an Emphatical Prayer which he made for half a quarter of an hour before he died reserving that strength which standers by thought he had lost when for many days he had not spoke though not speechless for his last hour wherein he thanked God for that his fatherly correction because in all his life time he never had one heavy affliction which made him often much suspect with himself whether he was a true Child of God or no till that his last sickness If I have lived well I have lived long enough would he say to those that were impatient to hear that he should dye if otherwise too long to desire to be here still is to desire to be still out of heaven Child would he say to a friend never think it too soon to be serious for it may be too late to put off amendment with hope of living is to loose eternal life by presuming on a temporal one In the beginning of the troubles he much inculcated that rule that we should intend the publick good as well as our private advantages because by providing for a mans own particular he may wrong the publick whereas by effecting good to the community a man must do good to himself whence all creatures do that as more good which is good to the more measuring good not by what it is in it as to us but by what it is in its self He thought he should not fear death the last change that was acquainted with a life so full of changes It s pity he would say to Ladies that came to him that Beauty which is an ornament should become a snare the worst money is that which is spent about fashions and the worse time more precious than money that is employed in Dressing since God hath made you beautiful in
others eyes let it be your care to be so in his At Church he wished them to empty themselves of this world to be conversant in the next to shut their eyes that their ears might be open In Neighborhood he would wish them to love others as themselves in the kind unseigned in Friendship to love others as themselves in the degree ardently Injuries shew that thou art able to revenge but not willing lest thou do that injury by incroaching on him to God which thou complainest of in thy Neighbour courtesies shew thou art willing to requite though not able if you live not for your selves but to God God will not live for himself but for you Let your conceit be low and your desires high God being able to render your capacity as great as you know your worth is little He would unwillingly converse with a man that would forget himself by an unreasonable anger or his friend and company by an unseasonable jest He loved his Body which he had common with a Beast in subordination to his Soul which he had common with Christ. His words which were few went far in his house but his example further being he said angry for small faults to prevent greater and pleased with the least good to encourage men to do better He would hear no ill of a friend nor speak any of an enemy his rule being tell nothing of another that thou wouldst not have told him He would come to free Entertainments and to costly ones to hospitable but provident Tables where that was thought too much for him that was too much for his friends estate saying he is not a friend that expects more than a man is able and he is not his own friend that doth less do all like your selves so that you weaken not your self nor your estate Company he said like Climates altered complexions It is hard for a good man not to be the worse for bad company and for bad company to be the better for a good man The poor were sure of relief in his Vestry or House since it was his common saying that we cannot with comfort call upon God for our daily Bread if we denied his poor that called upon us for our daily Crumbs He had in every Sermon something that suited every condition from the highest to the lowest and in every Prayer something that suited with every want his arrows hit where he did not aim as the Bell clinketh to the foolish as he thinketh so a Sermon soundeth to a mans ear according to his heart THE Life and Death OF Dr. THOMAS WESTFIELD Bishop of Bristol MOurnful Ieremy of Great Saint Bartholomews and the powerful Boanerges of Lumbard-street were loving in their lives and in their death were not divided the thunder of the one is aptly followed by the showers and tears of the other who would melt those hearts the other broke Dr. Westfield our Gildas both the Wife and the Querulous though as he no murmurer no complainer impious against God or uncharitable against Man complaining without cause or without measure but only inveighing against the sins and bemoaning the sufferings of his time when he might call some that called themselves Clergy as Gildas did Montes malitiae and the Brittains too generally as the other doth Atramentum saeculi Whose Preaching without a Parable was mourning to his people his lips and eyes by a strange Metathesis changing their offices these out-did the oratory of those for tears are very vocal he in the Prophets phrase dropping his words though soft and silent yet warm and melting ones and his doctrine not in a Metaphor distilling like the Rain and descending on his people like Dew the Holy Spirit falling on him like the Dove innocent and mournful was Native and Schollar of St. Maries in Ely Scholar and Fellow of Iesus Colledge in Cambridge born 1573. when two Girls Agnes Bridges about twenty years of age and Rachel Pinder about twelve deceived many Ministers in London and dying 1644. when few young London Ministers were made use of to Impose upon the whole Nation He was taught under Bishop Felton who was happy in his assistants two of them being preferred Bishops and more in his Chaplains all of them reputed learned and religious men how to manage a Cure before he injoyed one whence it was his usual observation That Curacies which young men were so impatient of though some men when elder maintained them were Nurseries wherein young raw and unexperienced men that could not continue in the University under Learned Tutors and Governors might finde an University in the Country under grave and sober Pastors gaining that stock of Learning and Experience in business by the direction and example of wise-men upon their Charges which they might lay out upon their own he found happiness in this world as they that study the Philosophers-Stone without any desire to finde it he was neither stupidly ignorant of the Affairs of the world nor scornfully regardless of his concerns in it but submissively contented with Gods allotment a-about it The French are said to have so graceful a behavior that all postures that they are in and all attire that they put on becomes them this good man became any condition and every condition became him as if he had been born to that alone Others affected a more high way of talking than he which he compared to a Kites high-flying in the Air that would yet vouchsafe to condescend to a Carrion upon the ground but he continued in a higher way of living than they being happy in an humble height whereby he did truly what the Emperor is said Ironically to do viz. descendere in Coelum he could not indure to hear men tell their friends what others said ill of men behinde their backs it being all one as to go and tell a man what is said of him when he is dead Let your prayers he would say be as frequent as your wants and your thanksgiving as your blessings miss not the Confession and Absolution in publick unless you have no sins to repent or no care to be forgiven them Think not the worse of the Ordinance of God for the sins of the Administrator those that are ill themselves may through Gods blessing that is not confined to the person but to the thing be Instruments of good to others It was our Saviours rule Do as they say the Stone sheweth the way that cannot stir in it and the Bell calleth others to Church that heareth not it self A sickly Physician may Cure and a loose Divine may Save acquaint your selves rather with Gods Commandments than his Decrees and conclude thy Salvation rather from a diligent observing of Gods Revealed will than a curious search into his secret one When people pleaded Conscience for known sin he would say It was sad when the greatest restraining from sin was the great pretence to it and tell them their Conscience was
not their rule but their guide so far only can Conscience justifie our actions as it is its self justified by his word He was to the last he said contented to live and yet desirous to dye his little saying he called it was let it be your first care to be good to your selves and your next to make others so Let it trouble you more to do a fault than to hear of it being more sorry that it is true than that it is known never think to be free from censures or faulty while thy Neighbors and thy self are but men He was the man that received no Opinion upon Credit and vented none upon Discontent embracing Doctrines that might save rather than fancies that might raise him Speaking what he thought not what others though good men yet but men said who he said should be his Copies no longer than they agreed with the Original The man that entertained whatever God sent thankfully and did whatever God commanded chearfully that spared no mans sins for the persons sake nor reflected on no mans person for his sins sake That feared more to do ill than to suffer it the Author of this rule fear to do any thing against that God whom thou lovest and thou wilt not love to do any thing against that God whom thou fearest He did not easily entertain Friendship with a man without considerable Acquaintance nor easily part with a Friend he had entertained without a very great fault he would say that he must have no friend that would have a friend with no fault Every man though his Adversary was his Neighbor that needed him How much pleased was he to hear another commended how much more if he had occasion to commend him himself the first he would do without repining and the second without detracting He forgave many that he said he must reprove because shewing them their fault was instructing them in their duty never loving a man the less for an injury though trusting him less being throughly satisfied when the party was throughly sorry It was he said common to him with God to suffer injuries to exercise his patience therefore it should be proper to him as it was to God to forgive them to exercise his Charity In fine a good man he was without noise a provident man without perplexity merry without lightness grave without morosity bountiful without waste These and many other his good virtues recommended him first to Hornsey near London and his faithfulness and success there opened his way to St. Bartholomews the Great in London as his prudence and gravity did to the Arch-Deaconry of S. Albans in Hertford-shire and his worthy mannagement of these inferior Places and Offices purchased to him the good degree of a Bishoprick and that at Bristol which was offered him Anno 1616. to maintain him and then refused by him because he said he wanted not subsistence and again 1641. that he might maintain it and then accepted because Episcopacy wanted such a devout and well-reputed man to support it For when his Majesty was resolved to chuse his new Bishops 1641. out of the most sound for judgement and unblameable for conversation the Learned Dr. Prideaux Kings Professor of Divinity at Oxford for the good repute his painful and learned Lectures procured him at home and abroad was made Bishop of Worcester Dr. Winniffe Dean of St. Pauls for his Gravity Learning and Moderation Bishop of Lincoln Dr. Brownrigge Master of Catherine Hall for quick and solid parts in Disputing and Preaching Bishop of Exeter Dr. King Arch-Deacon of Colchester for his general accomplishments as an obliging Gentleman a great Scholar a devout Christian an incomparable Preacher a Generous Liberal and Hospitable Clergy-man the pious and popular Son of a pious and popular Father Doctor Iohn King Bishop of London Dr. Iohn Westfield for many years the painful and profitable Preacher of Great St. Bartholomews London Bishop of Bristol Surely to use the words of the Historians Si urbi defensa â—uisset his dextris if Divine Providence had appointed that Episcopacy should have stood at that time more probable persons could not have been picked out of England envy and malice might feed upon their own flesh their teeth finding nothing in the foresaid elects to fasten upon But Episcopacy was so far from faring the better for them that they fared the worse for it Insomuch that many who loved them much in their Gowns did not at all like them in their Rockets Nothing was thought too much for him by the Earl of Holland and other Persons of Quality before the troubles and nothing too little since To disturb his Devotion they removed and burnt the Rails he had set about the Lords-Table to interrupt his quiet they made him sue for his right who had for many years not known what it was to ask it they who were glad formerly to converse with him in their Houses would not have Communion with him at Church and he whose tears and natural perswasive faculty for Bishop King said he was born an Orator was reckoned powerful and heart searching preaching was neglected as the formal man of the dead Letter He preached the first Latine Sermon at the Erection of Sion Colledge upon this Text Benedic Sioni Domine and the last English Sermon at a Visitation upon this Text For Sions sake I will not hold my peace he used often the story of Mr. Dods being strangely moved at midnight without any reason in the world to visit a Neighbor to whom when he said he was come but knew not why the Neighbor answered You know not why you came but God doth that sent you for I was but just now under a temptation to make away my self and he applied it thus that he would never go to visit any out of Complement but Conscience looking up to God that he might bless his presence in the Family whether he went to rebuke the temptations any of the people thereof might lie under As he made not that wearisom which should be welcome by the tediousness of his Sermons never standing above his Glass which he said was Mr. Robert Boltons way nor keeping a Glass unless upon an extraordinary occasion above a quarter of an hour so he made not that common which should be precious by the courseness or cursoriness of them he never offered God or his people what cost him nothing being unless surprized to an extempore performance for which he desires to be rather excused than commended of Demosthenes his minde who never spoke what he had not studied being wont to say That he shewed how he honored and reverenced the people of Athens because he was careful what he spake to them desiring to admire rather than imitate them who made preaching their nature and could discourse Sermons It cost him as much pains to set his own Sermon on his heart that he might speak to the hearts of the people as it did to get them into his head he
that speaks from his belly called Ventri loquus seems to be another at further distance which whispers and when a man speaketh from the heart the speech seems to come from one at distance and that is God He kept up all Ordinances Prayers Sermons and Sacraments in equal esteem as Scipio in a Controversie between two who should have the sâ—aling Crown due to him that first climbed the walls gives it to them both knowing that they both got up the wall together Especially taking care of Catechizing priding him self as much as Luther did in this Character Discipulus Catechismi that men studying the dark corners of Divinity might not lose themselves in the beaten Road of it looking upon Catechizing as the way of settling Religion at first and maintaining it still Our Saviour is observed not to preach against Idolatry Usury Sabbathâ— breaking among the Jews because not so dangerous in an age wherein saith one Iniquity was spun with a finer thred but against spiritual pride and hypocrisie this his Servant connived not at Debauchery the confessed bewailed and lamented sins of one part of the Nation but was very severe against Sacriledge Disobedience Curiosity and Hypocrisie the maintained sins of the other Mens Consciences he said flew in their faces for the one and would reform them but their Consciences were made parties for the other and would harden them Those sins he said were to be preached against that were grown into so much reputation as to be preached for He looked upon it as equally impertinent to confute an old Heresie which time had confuted and to spend time in reproving those sins which every ones heart reproved him for He read much but orderly drawing up his notions as the King of Sweden used to do his men not above six deep because he would not have them lie in useless Clusters but so that every particular might be drawn into Service but meditated more dispiriting his Books into himself He was glad to go from London to Bristol to avoid the tumults but he was gladder to be translated from Bristol to Heaven quite heart-broken with the Rebellion He never though almost fifty years a Preacher went up a Pulpit but as Luther said he trembled such an aw and reverence of God was upon his heart he preached but once before the King at Oxford and he fainted so great his modesty before men that gracious Prince under whom it was incouragement enough to be a good Divine speaking to the people to pray for him for he said It might be any mans Case and wishing him to retire saying he was a good man and he would with patience wait for him as he did untill the good Bishop being a little refreshed came up again and preached the best Sermon and the last that ever he made What good opinion the Parliament as it was called had of him though not over-fond of Bishops appears by the insuing Order which with the following particulars are transcribed from his Daughter Elizabeths Mouth and Papers The Thirteenth of May 1643. from the Committee of Lords and Commons for Sequestration of Delinquents Estates Upon Information in behalf of the Bishop of Bristol that his Tenants refuse to pay him his Rents It is ordered by the Committee that all Profits of his Bishoprick be restored to him and a safe Conduct be granted him to pass with his Family to Bristol being himself of great age and a person of great Learning and Merit Io. Wylde About the midst of his Life he had a terrible Sickness so that he thought to use his own expression in his Diary that God would put out the Candle of his life though he was pleased only to snuff it By his Will the true Copy whereof I have he desired to be buryed in his Cathedral Church near the Tomb of Paul Bush the first Bishop thereof and as for my worldly Goods Reader they are his own words in his Will which as the times now are I know not well where they be nor what they are I give and bequeath them all to my dear Wife Elizabeth c. he protested himself on his death-bed a true Protestant of the Church of England and dying Iunii 28. 1644. lyeth buryed according to his own desire above-mentioned with this Inscription Hic jacet Thomas Westfield S. T. D. Episcoporum Infimus peccatorum primus Obiit 25 Junii Anno M D C X L I I. Senio maerore confectus Tu Lector Quisquis es Vale Resipisee Epitaphium ipse sibi dictavit vivus Monumentum Vxor Maestissima Elizabeth Westfield Marito Desideratissimo posuit superstes Thus leaving such as survived him to see more sorrow and feel more misery he was seasonably taken away from the evil to come and according to the Anagram made on him by his Daughter Thomas Westfield I Dwell the most safe Enjoying all happiness and possessing the reward of his pains who converted many and confirmed more by his constancy in his Calling THE Life and Death OF The Right Honourable ROBERT Earl of LINDSEY I Find in the Observations upon the States-men and Favorites of England this honorable person thus consecrated to Immortality He and his whole Family I know not whether more pious or more valiant whether more renowned abroad as Confessors for their Religion or at home as Champions for their Country have been in this last Age an Ornament or Defence to the Crown equally reverenced by the Subjects of it and honored by the Soveraigns This honorable Lords Ancestors were Richard â—irâ—ue and Katherine Ducthess of Suffolk so eminently known for their patience and constancy in suffering for Religion in Q. Maries days in the Palatinate His Father was Peregrine Bertuâ— in his Mothers right Lord Willoughâ—y of Fresâ—y so famous for his valour success and conduct in acting for Religion in Queen Elizabeths time when Commander in Chief 1. Of the second Army of five that the Queen sent to aid the French King 2. Of the third fourth and fifth Brigade she bestowed on the assistance of the Dutch and of the Garrison she intrusted with the keeping of Berwick and the Borders The stout Souldier that brooking not the assiduity and obsâ—quiousness of the Court was wont to say That he was none of the Reptilia which could creep on the ground and that a Court became a Souldier of good skill and a great spirit as a Bed of Doun would one of the Tower â—yons That undaunted man who when an insulting challenge surprized him a Bed of the Gout returned this answer That although he was lame of his Hands and Feet yet he would meet him with a piece of a Rapier in his Teeth That Hero who taking a choice Gennet managed for the war and intended a Present to the King of Spain and being importuned by the Spanish General to return it with an overture of his own choice whether a 1000 l. down or 100 l. a year during his life for it made this magnanimous
midst of horror and tumults his soul was sereâ—e and calm As humble he was as patient Honor and Nobility to which nothing can be added hath no better way to increase than when secured of its own greatness it humbleth it self and at once obligeth love and avoideth envy His carriage was a condescending as Heroick and his speech as weighty as free he was too great to envy any mans parts and virtues and too good to encourage them many times would he stoop with his own spirit to raise other mens He neglected the minutes and little circumstances of compliance with vulgar humors aiming at what was more solid and more weighty Moderate men are applauded but the Heroick are never understood Constant he was in all that was good This was his Heroick expression when sollicited by his Wives Father to desist from his engagement with the King Leave me to my Honor and Allegiance No security to him worth a breach of trust no interest worth being unworthy His conduct was as eminent in war as his carriage in peace many did he oblige by the generosity of his minde more did he awe with the hardiness of his body which was no more softned to sloath the dalliances of a Court than the other was debauched to carelessness by the greatness of his fortunes His prudence was equal to his valor and could entertain dangers as well as despise them for he not only undeceived his enemies surmises but exceeded his own friends opinion in the conduct of his Souldiers of whom he had two cares the one to his discipline the other to preserve them therefore they were as compleatly armed without as they were well appointed within that surviving their first dangers they might attain that experience and resolution which is in vain expected from young and raw Souldiers To this conduct of a General he added the industry of a Souldier doing much by his performances more by his example that went as an active soul to enliven each part and the whole of his brave Squadron But there is no doubt but personal and private sins may oft times overballance the justice of publick engagements Nor doth God account every Gallant a fit instrument to assert in the way of war a righteous Cause the event can never state the justice of any Cause nor the peace of men consciences nor the eternal fate of their souls They were no doubt Martyrs who neglected their lives and all that was dear to them in this world having no advantageous design by any innovation but were religiously sensible of those â—ies to God the Church their Country which lay upon their souls both for obedience and just assistance God could and I doubt not but he did through his mercy crown many of them with eternal life whose lives were lost in so good a Cause the destruction of their bodies being sanctified a means to save their souls Such who object that he was extreamly wild in his youth put me in minde of the return which one made to an ill natured man in a Company who with much bitterness had aggravated the loose youth of an aged and godly Divine You have proved said he what all knew before with much pains that Paul was a great Persecutar before he was Converted Besides that as many then spake more demurely than they lived he lived more strictly than he spake taking that liberty in his discourse he did not in his actions Hem Fides inconcussa invictus animus qui occidi potuit non potuit vinci animam efflans precando pro rege pro quo non licuit amplius pugnare Huic loco ossa Legavit pro oraculâ— ubi post obitum Peregrinatus tandem quievis semel mortus Bis tumulatus ter fletus quater Faelix Quem puduit animam a tergo exire THE Life and Death OF EDWARD Lord HERBERT Of Cherbury EDward Herbert Son of Richard Herbert Esquire and Susan Newport his Wife was born at Mountgomery-Castle and brought to Court by the Earl of Pembrooke where he was Knighted by King Iames who sent him over Embassador into France Afterwards King Charles the First Created him Baron of Castle-Island in Ireland and some years after Baron of Cherbury in Mountgomery-shire He was a most excellent Artist and rare Linguist studied both in Books and Men and himself the Author of two Works most remarkable viz. A. Treatise of Truth written in French so highly prized beyond the Seas and they say it is extant at this day with great honor in the Popes Vatican And an History of King Henry the Eighth wherein his Collections are full and authentick his Observation judicious his Connexion strong and coherent and the whole exact He Married the Daughter and sole Heir of Sir William Herbert of St. Iulians in Monmouth-shire with whom he had a large inheritance in England and Ireland and died in August Anno Domini 1648. having designed a fair Monument of his own invention to be set up for him in the Church of Mountgomery according to the Model following Vpon the ground a Hath-pace of fourteen Foot square on the middest of which is placed a Dorick Column with its right of Pedestal Basis and Capitols fifteen Foot in height on the Capitol of the Column is mounted a Vrn with a heart flamboul supported by two Angels The foot of this Column is attended with four Angels placed on Pedestals at each corner of the said Hath-pace two having Torches reverst Extinguishing the Motto of Mortality the other two holding up Palms the Emblems of Victory When this Noble Person was in France he had private Instructions from England to mediate a Peace for them of the Religion and in case of refusal to use certain menaces Accordingly being referred to Luynes the Constable and Favourite of France he delivereth him the Message reserving his threatnings till he saw how the matter was relished Luynes had hid behind the Curtains a Gentleman of the Religion who being an ear-witness of what passed might relate to his friends what little expectations they ought to entertain from the King of Englands intercession Luynes was very haughty and would needs know what our King had to do with their affairs Sir Edward replyed It is not to you to whom the King my Master oweth an account of his actions and for me it is enough that I obey him In the mean time I must maintain That my Master hath more reason to do what he doth than you to ask why he doth it Nevertheless if you desire me in a gentle fashion I shall acquaint you further Whereupon Luynes bowing a little said very well The Embassador answered That it was not on this occasion only that the King of Great Britain had desired the Peace and Prosperity of France but upon all other occasions when ever any War was raised in that Country and this he said was his first reason The second was That when a Peace was setled there his Majesty of France might be better
the abstractions refined what was rugged for many ages lost its horror and pleased and the thornes of Philosophy turned Roses by him that the Theatre was thin to his School and Comedy was not half so good entertainment as his Philosophy So ravishing by the comeliness of his presence for his body was as handsome as his soul and the beauties of his discourse in his Sermons made up of learned and holy extasies that by a strength mixed with sweetness vigorous and fair he winged up his hearers hearts to the same height with his own expressed strict vertue into the greatest pleasure strowed the streight way to ease and delight chained up all thoughts to his ravishing with a Masculine vigor his hearers not only by way of perswasion but command He speaks and streight our thoughts are his not ours What 's in our souls his Verse controuls We quit our minds and he commands our powers He shufstes souls with us And frames us thus or thus We change our humors as his discourse doth flowers In fine to have a person compleat in the circle both of Arts and Vertues Whose universal Genius did know The whole worlds posture and mixt Idiom too But these as modern faculties his soul Reared higher up learnt only to controul In abler Works and Tengues yet more refin'd Thou wed'st thy self till they grew to thy mind They were so wrapt about thee none could tell A difference but that Cartwright did excell So just a Poet that Ben. Iohnson our ablest Judge and Professor of Poetry said with some Passion My Son Cartwright writes all like a man What had Ben. said had he read his own Eternity in that lasting Elegy given him by Mr. Cartwright or that other by his good friend Mr. Robert Waring neither of which pieces are easily to be imitated dropping not a line against the Laws either of Art or Vertue the best times best ready and clear to teach and please in whom Poetry now expiring as dying things contract all their strength and vigor to one great action collected all its rich Beauties Wit Art Iudgement in one rich soul That fill'd the Stage the Schools and Pulpit too An universal Wit All things and men could fit So shap'd for ev'ry one As born for that alone Not as where Growth Sense Reason one controuls But as if he had had three rational souls He wrote so brave a Verse that none knew which Is best the Art or Wit it s all so rich His fancies are all New His Language choice and true The whole Contexture wrought Above our reach or thought Dramatick Lyrick and Heroick thou Knew'st when to vary shapes and where and how Confined neither to one shape nor to one language being as Elegant in Latine Greek French and Italian as in English sense and reason speak all Languages To have the same person cast his net and catch souls as well in the Pulpit as the Stage and as well in the Schools as in both Where language he to sence did reconcile Reducing reason into square and file Whose stubborn knots retain'd their strength though spread And moulded in a soft and even thread When that his Voice did charm th' attentive throng And every ear was hook'd unto his tongue The numerous praess closing their souls in one Stood all transform'd into his passion To see all Learning like unpolished Jewels framed into Figures smoothed into pleasure and a Miracle of Industry and Wit sitting sixteen hours a day at all manner of knowledge and by the happy Alchymis of wit turning the Axioms of Aristotle the Problems of Euclide the summes of Aquinas the Code of Iustinian the Contexture of History the learning of Rabbines the Mythology of Gentilism the Fathers Councels Martyrologyes and Liturgicks and Christians the Poetry Oratory and Criticism of the world into a good Man a great Schollar a most ingenious Poet and Orator and an excellent Preacher in whom hallowed fancies and reason grew Visions and holy passions Raptures and Extasies and all this at thirty years of age When he dyed Proctor of the University 1643. of a Malignant Fever then raging in that Garrison and heart-grief expressing its self thus I see the seeds of miseries that will continue an age and a blot upon our Nation and Religion that will last with the world Dr. Lluelin on the Death of Mr. W. Cartwright THey that have known thee well search'd thy parts Through all the Chain of Arts Thy apprehension quick as active light Clear Iudgment without night Thy fansie free yet never wild or mad With wings to fly and none to gadde Thy Language still in Rich yet comely Dresse Not to expose thy minde but to expresse They that have known thee thus sigh and confess They wish they 'd known thee still or known thee less To these the wealth and beauties of thy minde Be other Vertues joyn'd Thy modest soul strongly confirm'd and hard Ne're beckned from its guard But bravely fixt midst all the baits of Praise Deeming that Musick treacherous Layes Those put that Rate and Price upon thy breath Great Charles enquires thy health the Clouds thy death For nobler Trophies can no Ashes call Kings greet thy safety Thunder speaks thy fall THE Life and Death OF Mr. DUDLEY DIGGES YOunger Son of Sir Dudley Digges Master of the Rolls and Fellow of All-Souls in Oxford whose pregnant soul inured from its Childhood to great and rich thoughts by an innate habit of observing it was his friend Mr. Masters of New Colledge that vast Scholar general Artist and Linguist and soring Wit rule to Pâ—pils look on nothing without an observation a great Memory raised by meditation method exercise and discourse he reading few things that he did not cast into some choice thoughts which he set down in writing or expressed in converse He finding that true which the Rabby propounds as experimental he learned much of his Masters or Books by taking in their notions more of his Fellows and Companions by strengthning his notions with theirs and twisting rayes by a fansie corrected in its luxuriancesâ— a while by others judgement the Beaumont to this Fletcher Whose thoughts and his thoughts dresse appear'd both such That 't was his happy fault to do too much And when by marking the arguments reasons of their alteration why that phrase least proper this passage more cautious and advised he was able to make his own by his own which let it smile but not giggle inflamed by that only way to be excellent imitation When the great soul of the Author lies upon the capable soul of the Reader as Elishas body upon the Child phancy upon phancy reason upon his reason till he be warmed and quickened into the same great accomplishments by an exact and unerring reason that apprehended things in the same order and coherence they subsist whose Idea answered the order of the world as near abating humane frailties as that did the first Idea
Zerâ—bbabel who repaired the Temple and restored its beauty but he was the Ioshuah the High-priest who under him ministred this blessing to the Congregations of the Lord. But his care was not determined in the exterior part only and accessaries of Religion he was careful he was prosperous in the interior to reduce that Divine and Excellent Service of our Church to publick and constant Exercise to Unity and Devotion and to cause the Articles of the Church of England to be accepted as the rule of publick Confessions and Perswasions here that they might be populus unius labii of one Heart and of one Lip building up our hopes of heaven upon a most holy Faith and taking away that Shibboleth which made this Church lisp too undecently or rather in some little degree to speak the Speech of Ashdod and not the Language of Canaan and the excellent and wise pains he took in this particular no man can demonstrate or reproach but he that is not willing to confess that the Church of England is the best Reformed Church in the World God by the prosperity of his labours and a blessed effect gave testimony not only of the piety and wisdom of his purposes but that he loves to bless a wise instrument when it is vigorously exerted in a wise and religious labour He overcame the difficulty in defiance of all such pretences as were made even from Religion it self to obstruct the better procedure of real and material Religion These were great things and matter of great envy and like the Fiery Eruptions of Vesuvius might with the very Ashes of Consumption have buried another man At first indeed as his blessed Master most Holy Jesus had so he also had his annum acceptabilem At first the product was nothing but great admiration at his stupendious parts and wonder at his mighty diligence and observation of his unusual zeal in so good and great things But this quickly passed into the natural Daughters of Envy Suspition and Detraction the spirit of Obloquy and Slander His zeal for recovering of the Church Revenues was called Oppression and Rapine Covetousness and Injustice his care of reducing Religion to wise and justifiable Principles was called Popery and Arminianism and I know not what names which signifie what the Authors are pleased to mean and the People to construe and to hate The intermedial prosperity of his person and fortune which he had as an earnest of a greater reward to so well meant labours was supposed to be the production of illiberal arts and ways of getting and the necessary refreshment of his wearied spirits which did not always supply all his needs and were sometimes less than the permissions even of prudent charity they called Intemperance Dederunt enim malum Motelli Naevioâ— poetae their own surmises were the three Bills of Accusation and the splendor of his great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or doing of good works was the great probation of all their calumnies But if Envy be the Accuser what can be the Defences of Innocence Saucior invidiae morsu quaerenda medola est Dic quibus in terris sentiet aeger opem Our B.S. knowing the unsatisfiable angers of Men if their Money or Estates were medled with refused to divide an Inheritance amongst Brethren It was not to be imagined that this great person invested as all his Brethren were with the infirmities of Mortality and yet imployed in dividing and recovering and apportioning of Lands should be able to bear all that reproach which jealousie and suspicion and malicious envy could invent against him But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Sophocles And so did he the affrightments brought to his great fame andreputation made him to walk more warily and do justly and walk prudently and conduct his affairs by the measures of the Laws as far as he understood and indeed that was a very great way But there was aperta Iustitia clausa Manut Justice was open but his Hand was shut and though every Slanderer could tell a Story yet none could prove that ever he received a Bribe to blind his Eyes to the value of a Pair of Gloves It was his own expression when he gave Glory to God who had preserved him Innocent But because every mans Cause is right in his own Eyes it was hard for him so to acquit himself that in the Intrigues of Law and Difficult Cases some of his enemies should not seem when they were heard alone to speak reason against But see the greatness of Faith and Prudence and how greatly God stood with him when the numerous Armies of vexed people Turba gravis paci placidaeque inimica quieti heaped up Catalogues of Accusations when the Parliament of Ireland imitating the violent Procedures of the then disordered English when this glorious Patron was taken from his Head and he was disrobed of his great defences when the Petitions were invited and Accusations furnished and Calumny was rewarded and managed with Art and Power when there was above two hundred Petitions put in against him and himself denied leave to answer by Word of Mouth when he was long Imprisoned and Treated so that a guilty man would have broken into affrightment and pittiful and low considerations yet then he standing almost alone like Callimachus at Marathon invested with Enemies and covered with Arrows defended himself beyond all the powers of Guiltiness even with the defences of Truth and the bravery of Innocence and answered the Petitions in Writing sometimes twenty in a day with so much Clearness Evidence of Truth Reallity of Fact and Testimony of Law that his very Enemies were ashamed and convinced they found that they had done like Aesops Viper they licked the File till their Tongues bled but himself was wholly invulnerable They were therefore forced to leave their Muster-rolls and decline their Particulars and fall to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to accuse him for going about to subvert the Fundamental Laws the way by which great Strafford and Canterbury fell which was a device when all reasons failed to oppress the Enemy by the bold Affirmation of a Conclusion they could not prove they did like those Gladiatores whom the Romans called Reâ—iaries when they could not Stab their Enemies with their Daggers they threw Nets over him and covered him with a general mischief But the Martyr King Charles the First of most Glorious and Eternal Memory seeing so great a Champion likely to be oppressed with numbers and despair sent what rescue he could his Royal Letter for his Bayl which was hardly granted to him and when it was it was upon such hard terms that his very delivery was a persecution So necessary it was for them who intended to do mischief to the publick to take away the strongest Pillars of the House This thing I remark to acquit this great man from the tongue of slander which had so boldly spoken that it was certain some thing would stick yet was impotent and unarmed that it
SAMUEL MARSH Dean of York DOctor Marsh born Feb. 6. 1586. at Finchamsted in Herts and bred Fellow of All-Souls took to his book and became a Scholar against the will of his friends and a Divine against his own upon the same occasion that others become Physicians for being serupulous and inquisitive he spent so much time in settling his own soul that before he was aware he was immersed in that noble Science and Art of saving others Art I say for it was his Motto He that winneth souls is wise and he did profess to a friend as Bishop Williams once did that though he had gone through several honorable employments yet he would take more comfort in begetting one soul to God in travailing in birth till Christ were formed in an immortal spirit than in gaining all the honors in the world to himself he was one of those Reverend Divines the late King desired to converse with in his solitude and to advise with in his Treaties and one of them the Parliament feared most making the Kingdom his Church when he had none and instilling every where wholesome notions and rectified apprehensions into mens minds as likewise implanting the truth after godliness in their hearts teaching men not to be linked to this or that body of men in a design but with all good Christians in Communion many were his afflictions but according to that Text he said he kept up the heart of his Hearers with Preaching upon it God delivered him out of them all He could have lived as a Physician a Lawyer as well as a Divine he did as Nazianzen said of Philagrius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 play the Philosopher in his sufferings calling his tribulations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 learned afflictions full of great instructions which taught he said much real Christianity and made his soul of a more strong able and athletick habit and temper speaking in his distresses that he hoped he had learned all that for which God sent it and that he thought God kept us so long in that dispensation under those pressures and sufferings that Patience might have its perfect work and that the world might see what the true Protestant Religion was able to do what might power and virtue there was in it to bear up souls under the greatest misfortunes This would he say is the time to let men see we can live up at the same rate as we have formerly discoursed Four things he had a special care of in the late times 1. The Confirmation of well-affected People and the grounding of their Children from house to house where he was the more welcome by the sweetness and chearfulness of his converse 2. The furnishing of private Schools and Families with those excellent Scholars and honest Men to whom Zenodotus his Proverb was very applicable in those times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Either he is dead or he teacheth School Expressing himself about that Care of his as Sir Walter Mildmay did about Emanuel Colledge whereof he was Founder That he set Acorns which others might live to see Oaks 3. The restraining of the Kings friends from rash and exorbitant expressions or actions That the Tyranny to use his own words might wear its self out upon their patience which might seed its self upon their peevishness 4. To widen his Majesties Interest by matching his friends to some of his not implacable and more generous foes who should espouse their Cause as well as their Relations intermarriages as he observed by the care God took in that case among his own people being able to turn the humor of any Nation In fine having saved the Plate and Books of Sion-Colledge in London when he was President having bestowed his own upon the Church to which he owed it hating to enrich private Families into Pride with the publick emoluments of the Church given to Piety and having led an exact and an exquisite life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a conversation so studied that it was in all things consonant with its self in most unaffected gravity wonderful simplicity and a stern Countenance proportionable to the vigor and strength of his Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a look that was not one key below his intent eager and sprightly minde wholly careful of the things he hoped for and regardless of the things he saw He died in a good old age 1662 3. Dr. Samuel Marsh Iocus Protervae Ludicrumque fortunae sed major ipsa Pallidoque Livore utriusque victor hoc jacet Busto nequid Aevi saeculique vis possit diesque long a deleat viri nomen devinxit ipsum Marsh sibi tempus Doctor Marsh his name puts me in minde of Dr. Thomas Paske whom he used to call his Glass so faithful a friend he was in discovering to him his defects and so good an example in proposing to him a pattern of perfection Against his will Master of Clare-hall Vice-chancellor of Cambridge 1621 2. when the contest was between Dr. Micklethwait and Dr. Preston about the Lecture at Trinity Church in that University without his knowledge made Archdeacon of London Minister of Much-haddam in Hertfordshire and St. Mary Magdalen Bermondsey A Gentleman that did nothing so chearfully as suffer for his late Majesty and his Son eighteen years Modestly refuse first and then unhappily miss a Bishoprick under his Majesty that now is and dye The right square man and honest Cube that throw him where you would fell upon his base denying himself he injoyed the world none being able to deal more severely with him that he did with himself no condition afflicting him because no condition surprized him according to his usual saying That distresses were like Cockatrices if they see you first they kill you if you see them first you kill them Si tantum sperare dolorem preferre soror potero Disappointments kill some but as the Consumption did Dr. Butler who died of it as he said because he never feared it No wonder he was not ambitious of gain and preferment who was so civil in the in joyment of it that he would say He would not go to Law with his Parishioners for any part of his Tyths because if he lost their love as he must do if he were contentious he lost all probability of doing them that good for which he had all his Tyths Protesting that he had rather gain his Neighbours by spending all his Tyths in Hospitality than lose one by laying it all in his Purse Wherefore I hope he will see as many of his People happy about him in heaven as he saw of his Scholars and Pupils eminent here on earth three Bishops four Privy-Counsellors two Judges three Doctors of Physick one day appointing to Reverence that Person to whose Rules and Examples they owed their Merit as they did to their Merit their Greatness being much beholding to his Method Rules and Choice Books more to his Watchful Observation and most of all to his
till he died Ianuary 28. 1653. Vir pius Doct us integer frugi de republica Ecclesâ—a optime meritus Vtpote quam utram instruxit affatim numerosa pube literaria Mr. Harrison of Leedes of whom I may say in reference to the Doctrine and Devotion of our Church as it is said of Aquinas in reference unto Aristotle That the Genius and Spirit of them was transplanted into him so naturally did he express them in his life and so bountifully relieve the assertors of them out of his estate giving many a pound privately to maintain Temples of the Holy-Ghost distressed throughout the kingdom and some hundreds to enlarge and repair the Church of God at Leeds notwithstanding the Sequestration of his Estate and the many troubles of his person for which build him a house make him fruitful and fortunate in his posterity Mr. George Sandys youngest Son of Arch-bishop Sandys a most accomplished Gentleman and observant Travailer who having seen many Countries after the Vote for the Militia liked worst of any his own and having translated many good Authors was translated himself to heaven 1643. having a Soul as Vigorous Spriteful and Masculine as his Poems dextrous at Inventing as well as Translating and in being an Author himself as setting out others till drooping to see in England more barbarous things than he had seen in Turkey It was for grief forc'd to make another and its last Voyage to the most Holy-land THE Life and Death OF The most Illustrious and Heroick JAMES GRAHAM Marquess of Montross A Man born to make his Family the most Noble as it was the most Antient in Scotland where his Grandfather was Lord Chancellor in King Iames his Reign and his Father Ambassador to several Princes and Lord President of the Sessions in King Charles his Reign He being bred a Souldier and Captain of the Guard in France was by Hamilton invited over into England to address himself to his Majesty while his Majesty was on design to disoblige him possessed with prejudice against him Upon this affront he thought from the King he goeth to the Covenanters whose interest he promoted much by the respect he had in that Country and the abilities he was Master of himself till hearing a muttering amongst them upon the Borders of deposing his Majesty he waiting a just opportunity sent Letters of his submission to him which were stollen out of the Kings pocket and sent to the Scots and resolutions for him in pursuit whereof after his return upon the Pacification he formed a League among the Loyal Nobility and Gentry to prevent the storm arising from the Covenant entred into by the people and after a tedious Imprisonment at Edenburgh all transactions between him and his Majesty being discovered by some of the Bed-chamber 1643. came Post with the Lord Ogleby to the Queen then newly landed at Bridlington to open to her the danger Scotland was in if his Majesty armed not his loyal Subjects in time before the Rebels raised themselves wherein he was overborn by Hamiltons Counsel as his was afterwards by the Rebels and afterwards having dived more into the Covenanters design by being thought for the affronts put upon him at Court and his retirement thereupon inclined toward them to the King at Gloucester to discover to him the Scots resolution to assist the English discovered by Henderson to him with a design to satisfie him which the King abused by Hamilton believed not till Hamilton himself writes that they were upon the Borders When my Lord advising his Majesty to send some Souldiers out of Ireland into the West of Scotland to set him with some York-shire Horse into the heart of that Kingdom to deal with the King of Denmark for some German Horse to furnish him with Arms from Foreign parts and to put a Touchstâ—ne Protestation to all the Scots about his Majesty entred Scotland with some 1400 poor Horse and Foot relieving several Garrisons and taking in some in his way though all assistance failed him but that of his own great spirit commending a design from which all men disswaded him to its own Justice and Gods blessing upon it knowing he must perish resolved to die honourably and seeing his men fickle returned them to the King keeping only two with him able and honest Sir William Rollock and Mr. Chibbalds wiâ—h whom he traversed Scotland to understand the state of it and at last formed a few Irish sent over and the Athol men who loved him well into a Body both to encourage his Friends and amaze his Enemies who were astonished to see him whom they thought to be penned up with a few ragged men on the Borders of England marching so formidably in the heart of Scotland as to â—ight 600â— Foot and 700 Horse who were so confident of beating him that one Frederick Carmichael a cried up Scots Minister said in his Sermon Sept. 1. when they fought that if ever God spake word of truth out of his mouth he promised them in his name assured victory that day by Perth without one Horse and but Powder for two Charges which he ordered to be made in the Enemies teeth with a shout all the Ranks one over the head of the other discharged at once and to be followed by the Irish whom he placed in the main Body of his men to secure them from the Scottish Horse against whom lest they should fall on him in the Front Rear and Flank he drew his men in the most open Order after a gracious invitation to them to lay down their Arms and joyn with him in setling the Peace of their Country he routed them to the loss of 4000 taken and slain and 7 miles pursuit and the taking of Perth without the least harm to the obstinate Citizens and after that with 1500 Foot and 44 Horse overthrew the Commissioners of the Covenanters with their Army of 4000 Foot and 600 Horse Sept. 12. 1644. falling in amongst them having â—lanked his Foot with his few but brave Horse with great execution to Aberdeen whence recovering the North he sent to bring in his Friends and force his Enemies to his assistance holding a great Army of Argyles of 11000 Foot and 2000 Horse in play with such success that they supplied him with Ammunition and lost in two Skirmishes 2000 men notwithstanding that Argyle by his subtlety had corrupted most of his prime men from him and at last by a surprising march over untrodden places frighted all Argyles Foot into a dispersion the Traitor himself hardly escaping to Perthâ— leaving his own Country to my Lords mercy who blessed God that ever he got safe out of it as he did 5000 more which Argyleâ— had got together in the Low-Lands to rescue his Country coming by strange passages known only to Cow-herds and Huntsmen upon them unawares and overcoming them first by his power and afterwards by his kindness whereby he subdued all those parts either to their