sinking of a Line Move one yeares haste to sow in Hymen's bed Some seed which when thou ere mer't gathered In living buds might fresh and growing save The Grand-sire trunke from rotting in a grave But since the closing of thine eyes alone Wink's many glorious Tapers into none We waile thy death more thy Virginity We lose in that in this posterity Thy soule might still have liv'd in others breath Whose single life is now a numerous death Io. Castillion On the most immature Death of the late young Lord Stafford the last Baron of that Family WHat Nemesis what envious fate Still waites on those who antedate Their yeares by vertue and behind Cast slow pac't age with swiftest mind So 't is wise nature shortest day Allowes to things which post away The long liv'd Olive tree of peace And Lawrell slowly doe increase But the early pledge of Spring The Primrose soone is withering So Ceres oft with too much haste Her yellow dangling lockes doth waste And having rose too soone from bed Before night hangs her drowsie head O see what hopes which raisd were high To aggravate our misery Now blasted as a starre which shone New shot from Heaven are flit and gone Have you seene a Pine tree proud Her head invested in a cloud Which the fatall axe hath throwne Or the giddy whirlewind blowne Whilst th' Hamadryades with floods Of teares doe drowne their mournfull woods And Sylvan his espoused Queene Laments faire hopefull fresh and greene Have you seene a vessell trim Vpon the smiling Sea to swim Whose sayles doe gently swell with aire Of many a Merchants zealous prayer O never ship with greater pride Did on a watry mountaine ride But strait a blustring storme doth rise And dasheth her against the skies Then on a rocke her glory teares No shrikes nor cryes nor clamours heares Or have you seene but newly borne The rosy-finger'd fairest morne Whilest the sprightfull Satyres play And leape to see the golden ray But then a sullen cloud this light Turn's to a darke and dismall night These were Emblems of thy fall Noblest Stafford so I 'de call Vertue by this name she 's knowne And t is more proper then her owne But which deeper wounds with thee Dy'd thy stem and Baronie As that Nymph which by the Pine Liv'd and with the same doth life resigne When the Deluge did deface The booke of nature humane race Reprinted was and found supply From the floating Library But of Stafford w' have lost all Both transcript and originall Onely some margent notes are left To tel's of what we are bereft Here multa desunt which to fill Passeth the learned Criticks skill But as in ruin'd abbyes we Admire their faire deformity And doe build up thoughts from thence To reach the first magnificence So yet of Staffords house doe stand Some sacred reliques which command Our rev'rence and by these we see What was his noble Pedigree Whose earthly armes inter'd doe ly But soule plac't in th' aetheriall skie Shines with star-blaz'd nobility Charles Mason On the Death of the Right Honorable Lord the Lord STAFFORD being the last of that Noble Family VNseasonable Fate vexe not our sence With Balefull sorrowes due forty yeares hence Must Stafford needs expire at twenty foure Because in goodnesse onely he 's three score So have we seene the morning Sun to lay His glory downe and make a rainie day Trust me ye Destinies it was unjust So soone to lay his honour in the dust But we doe fixe our sorrowes as upon A private fate when 't is a publicke one And weepe alas as yet but with one eye If but for one we weepe why here doth lie Not my Lord onely but a Family No no! he 's but the Center-point from whence Our grones and sighes fetch their Circumference Here we must teach our eye to drop a teare Even for the losse of those who never were Griefes mysterie we must for those be sad Who lose a being which they never had Must ye your selves O Parcae women prove In that the greenest of our fruites ye loue Fruites which not cropt had thriv'd into a Tree Of a large branching Geneologie Ye might have seaz'd some puling witlesse Heire And made a younger Brother 't had beene faire And we had Praise and kist those bloody palmes Which in the killing this gave to'ther Almes But you will no such spotted sacrifice Such please not yet for such are in your eyes Are neither good for earth nor yet for Heaven Stafford must onely make your weeke-Bill even He 's good and therefore ripe thus still we finde That good wares first goe off bad stay behinde Will. Wallen Coll. Joan. Soc. Vpon the Death of the young Lord STAFFORD VNequall nature that dost load not paire Bodies with soules too great for them to beare As some put extracts that for soules may passe Still quickning where they are in frailer glasse Whose active gen'rous spirits scorne to live By such weake meanes and slight preservative So high-borne mindes whose dawning 's like the day In torrid climes cast forth a full noone-ray Whose vigorous brests inherit throng'd in one A race of soules by long succession And rise in their descents in whom we see Entirely summ'd a new borne Ancestry These soules of fire whose eager thoughts alone Create a feaver or consumption Orecharge their bodyes lab'ring in the strife To serve so quicke and more then mortall life Where every contemplation doth oppresse Like fits o' th Calenture and kils no lesse Goodnesse hath its extreames as well as sin And brings as vice death and diseases in This was thy fate great Staffords thy feirce speed T' outlive thy yeares to throng in every deed A masse of vertues hence thy minutes swell Not to a long life but long Chronicle Great name for that alone is left to be Call'd great and 't is no small Nobility To leave a name when we deplore the fall Of thy brave stem and in thee of them all Who dost this glory to thy race dispence Now knowne to Honour t' end with Innocence Me thinkes I see a sparke from thy dead eye Cast beames on thy deceast Nobility Witnesse those marble heads whom Westminster Adores perhaps without a nose or eare Are now twice raised from the dust and seeme New sculp't againe when thou art plac't by them When thou the last of that brave house deceast Hadst none to cry our Brother but the Priest And this true riddle is to ages sent Stafford is his Fore-father's Monument Richard Godfrey On the untimely Death of the Lord STAFFORD NOt to adorne his herse or give Him another age to live Need we to pretend at wit His worth hath intercepted it Whose every vertue doth require A Muse that onely can admire Death though he strove his utmost fear'd He could not take him unprepar'd H' had ripenesse in his Infancy And liv'd well in Epitomie Of what we hop'd in others he At th' same age had maturity
But he is dead we may outdare Death now as having nought to feare The world hath lost her chiefest blisse Heaven the onely gainer is One blow hath kil'd more then the plague and we In losing one have lost plurality A sense might have beene better spar'd your price We would have thought too but a sacrifice Such as was I saacks Ram that sav'd in one Iust Patriarch a generation One star we may see shoot without a grone But should we lose a constellation 'T would puzzle Astrologie nay almost By losing one your science would be lost Fate 's wisdome see that he might leave our tast In rellish he cut off your choycest last H. B. Vpon the Death of my Lord STAFFORD the last Baron of that Ancient Stocke GRieve not ye Sacred Ancestours of Fame As if this were the carcasse of your Name The Barke now flourishes we may presume He 's planted and not buryed in the Tombe Your famous branches by his fall are blowne His fate becomes your Resurrection Good deeds were all his Progeny whilst he Leaves them no other state but memory The Titles and Revenues let them hoord That doe delight to heare these words My Lord In Stafford I confesse they bore some weight Cause they spoke him as well as this estate It was his Name not Title and that tone Made him not famous onely better knowne Deserts well plac'd shine more It is a tie And reverence to Vertue to be high Should the Sunne falling to the earth fixe here Hee 'd suffer an eclipse from his owne sphere Sure to prevent that old and glorious itch He dy'd before the age of being Rich No Lands was ever he possess'd of save That small unhappy portion of a grave Death did deliver him we may be bold To stile it his redemption from Gold Wealth is a sinne though us'd and to be free Yet never want is but kind usury He was so witty yet sincere that we Dare say he meant ev'n an Hyperbole He could not flatter what he spake was knowne No complement but an expression Postures in him were Vertues for when he Did bend it was not pride but charitie His hat went off so honestly we may Affirme he onely did himselfe betray Not like to those that study the Court stride And learne the decent stitch on the left side He nothing to the streame o' th' Time did owe The Staffords manners from themselves still flow We must despaire thy equall unlesse he Could with thy Titles too inherit thee H. R. On the Death of the Right Honorable Edward Lord Stafford WHen brave Heroick spirits flie from hence That govern'd others by their influence Each Muse with Cypresse crownd instead of Bayes Makes them the subject of their teares and prayes Who were examples living being dead With living Monuments are honoured When other's course earth doth neglected lye That liv'd as if they onely liv'd to die But with what Marble or what Brasse shall we Honour the Noble Staffords memory Whose very Name inscrib'd would lustre give Enough to make those dead materials live The glorious minde dwelt in his Noble brest Did entertaine each Vertue for its guest And what soe're was opposite and foule For ever banisht from his Christan soule He was as good as great and taught the Time By what safe steps men might to Honour climbe Yet ventrous death with his impartiall Darts Hath disunited those his different parts Whilst th' earth doth his more richer earth containe What came from Heaven is thither flowne againe E. B. Medii Templi On the deplored Death of Edward Lord Stafford the last Baron of his Name STay Death and heare a short plea we would crave Onely the mercy of a single grave And that at one stroke thou wouldst kill but one In him thou slayst a generation Then ere thou strikst Death know thy sin for this Not a plaine Murder but Massacre is Compendious slaughter of a Family What yet unknowne Plague shall we title thee What Power art thou what strange Influence That thus usurpst the spleene of Pestilence Can the Grave propagate that there should be As yet a new kinde of mortality Sure I mistake our misery this was not That which we call disease but a Chaine-shot Death hath foregone his Archery and Dart And practises the Canon that dire Art Of murdering by the hundreds Thus alone We lose not Stafford but a Legion Take a friends counsell yet grim fate and stay Doe not bereave thy selfe of future prey Let him survive to a large Progenie Which will be but a number that must dye Visit some Friery there thy wrath expresse There where Religion is barrennesse That were a thrifty cruelty and to save This Youth were mercy would enrich thy grave Cheate not our hopes thus riddling Destiny When we did pray Stafford might multiply As numberlesse as are the sands there 's none Meant such a fatall propagation His owne dust for an Off spring our best prayers Forbid such sad increase Atomes for Heires Howere be not so speedy gods but give Him breath till he has taught us how to live Must we thus wholly lose him and such worth Ere in Example he can bring it forth And must this be his period cannot we Expresse a man beyond his Elegie And Epitaph can we pen History What if long-liv'd this little one would be Where is your Art Genethliakes who dare From the Brachygraphy of some Prophet starre Transcribe the life of every birth if Fate And your great skill be such Death comes too late To prejudice your knowledge and you can When he has seiz'd the Corps reprieve the Man And pen him a long-liv'd Example though He had beene borne a livelesse Embryo I pray goe calculate and tell us then What Stafford in his ripe yeares would have been Describe him at some Canon guarded Hill Leading his daunted Generall and we will Lessen our present despaire into feare And tremble lest our Stafford should fall there Then prosecute your story till his yeares List him among the graver headed Peeres And in the bustle of some fcard-state-rent Let 's heare him tutoring a Parliament Alas such thoughts but aggravate our crosse Instead of comfort summing up our losse Cease then all prattle with the Grave and Herse Silence suites better then the saddest Verse Ri. Paynter Ioan. Ox. To the Memory of the Right Honorable the Lord STAFFORD the last Baron of his Family Great soule of Stafford T Was not for want of Merit that thy Herse So long hath lack'd it's tributary Verse Things whose fraile mem'ry scarce outlives the time Their Elegies a reading may have a Rime In halfe an houre flung on them Earthen plate 'S fram'd at a turne when the rich Porcelane's date Is a full Age Raptures that doe befit Objects of wonder are the fruites of Wit And choice not Fury This kept Phaebus Quire Silent so long that nought but hallow'd fire And purest gums might crowne thine Vrne yet still They find thy
Honour and Vertue Triumphing over the Grave Exemplified in a faire devout Life and Death adorned with the surviving perfections of EDWARD Lord STAFFORD lately deceased the last Baron of that Illustrious Family which Honour in him ended with as great Lustre as the Sunne sets within a serene Skye A Treatise so written that it is as well applicative to all of Noble Extraction as to him and wherein are handled all the Requisites of Honour together with the greatest Morall and Divine Vertues and commended to the practise of the Noble Prudent Reader By Anth. Stafford his most humble Kinsman This Worke is much embelish'd by the Addition of many most Elegant Elegies penned by the most accute Wits of these Times LONDON Printed by J. Okes for Henry Seile at the Tigres Head in Fleet-street over against St. Dunstans Church 1640. To my much honour'd Lord Thomas Lord Howard chief of the Howards Earle of Arundell and Surrey Earle Marshall of England Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter and one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Councell c. My very good Lord THe Fame of your Lordships Heroick Vertues invites me to present to your gracious acceptance this Treatise of which Honour is the Theam Indeed to whom more fitly can shee make her addresse then to your Lordship through whose Veins she runs from whose Bosom shee flows in whose Actions shee shines and by whose Protection shee is secured from the insolent Affronts of the Vulgar Being distressed shee makes You her faire Sanctuarie being wounded she makes you her soveraigne Balme Nay which draweth neere to a wonder many put their Honour into Your hands esteeming it more safe there then in their owne This is the first cause of my Dedication The next is that the true Child of Honour the deplored Subject of this Book was a Debtor to Your Lordship for his Education whose Advancement in Vertue Honour and Estate You made the greatest part of Your Studie And to say the Truth where could such a Guardian be found for him as Your Lordship since between the renowned Ancestours of You both Vertue and Bloud hath long since engendred a strict Friendship and between whom there was a neare similitude of good and evill Destiny both having amply shared of Infortunity and Glory I may adde that there cannot be a more lovely Sight then to behold an ancient lofty Cedar sheltring with his Branches from the Rage of weather a Young one of the same Kinde aspiring to the same Height had not the Frost of Death immaturely nipt this Noble Plant it were an Heresie to doubt that he would have flourisht under the care of a Lord whose Vertue is too immense for one Region to containe and whose Perfections are so many and so transcendent that they are able not onely to adorn these more Polisht Parts of the World but to civilize also the more Barbarous and to make an Athens of Madagascar The Oblation of my Teares and Supplications to God not availing to keep him here J have sent my Vowes after him and have given him a Funerall Equipage consisting of the Testimonies of brave good and knowing Men which will eternize him on Earth as his Goodnesse will in Heaven I confesse freely I was unwilling to leave him to the Mercy of some grosly ignorant Chronologer of the Times in whose Rubbish Posteritie might unhappily have found him lying more ruin'd then his glorious Predecessours were by the Tyranny of Time or the Cruelty of Princes Now in the last place I must most humbly beseech Your Lordship to take notice that his whole Name have made an affectionate but an imprudent Choice of me to be their weak Oratour to render Your Lordship submissive and due thanks for the Good You did or intended him and withall to make You a Religious Promise of their Prayers to God and their Prayses to Men as in particular I doe of the vowed faithfull service of Your Lordships most humble loyall Servant Anthony Stafford To the Vertuous and excellent Lady the Countesse of Arundell MADAM THE causes why I make this Dedication apart to Your Ladyship are divers The first is that sweete Lord the lamented Subject of this Booke in whose praise my Muse ending will expire like a Phoenix in a Perfume Hee was extreamly oblig'd to Your Ladyship in particular and therefore You deserve particular and infinite thankes from all of his Blood and Name of which I am one who have ever had your Vertues in admiration The second is that You Madam are none of those Romance Ladyes who make Fiction and Folly their Study and Discourse and appeare wise onely to Fooles and Fooles to the wise By reading nothing else but Vanity they become nothing else themselves They make a more diligent enquiry after the deedes of Knights and Ladies errant than after the Acts of Christ and his Apostles The losse of their time is their just punishment in that they spend a whole Life in reading much and yet is that much nothing But you Madam are capable of the most profound grave Misteries of Religion and daily peruse and meditate Bookes of Devotion You despise the bold Adventures of those Female Follies and piously surveigh the lives of the Female Saints You have render'd yourselfe a most accomplish'd Lady on Earth by imitating our blessed Lady which is in Heaven who as she was here the first Saint of the Militant Church so is she there the first of the Church Triumphant having learn't that she spent al her houres in works of Charity you trace her steps knowing that Shee and Vertue trod but one path Hence it comes that you are at no time so angry as with the losse of an oportunity to succour the distressed and that you are as indefatigable in doing good as heaven in motion Hence it is that the impetuous force of a Torrent may bee as well stopped as the constant flood of your goodnesse which never stayes till it have water'd and relieved all within its Ken commendable either for Knowledge or Vertue My third and last scope in placing your Character in the Front of this Treatise is that like a Starre it may strike a lustre throughout this Booke and by its light chase away the darknesse Oblivion would else cast upon it Questionlesse it will breede a holy emulation in any of your Sexe who shall here learne that there is a Lady whose vertues are come to the Age of Consistence and can grow no further and from whom not only her posterity but her Ancestors also receive honour They in this resembling the Morne who though she precedes the Sun receives her splendour from him Thus sweet thus excellent Madam I have received you from those who have beene truly happy in being daily witnesses of all your Words and Actions I conclude with this protestation made in me by Truth her selfe that I am so constant an honourer I had almost said an Adorer of Vertue whereever I finde it especially when
Schoole with the same countenance Malefactors looke on the Gibbet I cannot say whether his alacrity in receiving or his care in executing his Tutors commands were the greater The esteeme of the holy Prophets Apostles and Fathers of the Church had this Vertue in ought to advance it much in our esteeme God bound man to obedience presently after his creation in the state of innocencie the breach whereof hee severely punish'd Noah readily obey'd all Gods commands when the Floud was at hand The swift obedience of Abraham was admirable when without any delay at all he made haste to sacrifice his sonne and with his owne hands to let out his own blood It is worthy our observation that when ever the Children of Israel or any of Gods servants fought with or against his will they had accordingly good or bad successe God told that if hee willingly executed all his precepts hee would ever fixe the Throne of his Kingdome in Hierusalem but on the contrary if he did not perform them he would cut Israel from off the face of the earth Therefore saith S. Gregory is obedience better then sacrifice because by sacrifice anothers flesh but by obedience our own wils are subdued slaine and offerd up to the Almightie An obedient man saith Saint Bernard deferres not the execution of a command but straight prepares his eares to heare his Tongue to speake his feet to walke his hands to worke and all his thoughts are fix'd on the will of his Commander And in another place the same Father saith That there is no doubt but hee deserves more grace and favour who prepares and makes himselfe readie to receive a command then hee who willingly executes the same To this alludes that of Plantus Pater adsum Impera quid vis neque tibi ero in mora Neque latebrosè me abs tuo conspectu occultabo And that of Terence Facis ut te decet cum isthoc quod postulo impetro cum gratia Wee will conclude this point with that which Ovid speaks of Achilles Qui toties socios toties exterruit hostes Creditur annosum pertinuisse senem The next that presents it selfe to our view is Charity a Vertue that will usher any man to Gods presence who is ambitious of that greatest of Glories This Love is the King of all the passions of the soule and motions of the Heart he attracts all the rest to him and renders them conformable to himselfe His Essence consists in doing good works readily diligently frequently Let us heare that excellent Father Saint Augustine magnifie this Vertue In Charity saith hee the poore are rich and without it the rich are poor This sustaines us in adversitie tempers us in prosperity fortifies us against unruly passions and makes us joyfully do good works This was it made Abel delightfull in Sacrifice Noah secure in the Floud Abraham faithfull in his peregrination Moses merry amidst injuries and David meek in tribulation This made the fire a playfellow to the Children in the Furnace This caused Susanna to be chast above the temptations of man Anna after the use of man and the blessed Virgin without the knowledge of man This animated Paul to be free in arguing Peter humble in obeying the Christians gentle in their confessions and Christ himselfe prone to pardon sinners What shall I say should I speake with the tongues of men and Angels and want Charitie I were nothing it being the soule of Divine Knowledge the Vertue of Prophesie the salvation contained in the Sacraments the fruit of Faith the riches of the poore and the life of the dying He addes A man may have all the Sacraments and yet be evill but he cannot have Charitie and be so Againe Science if it be alone is puffed up with pride but because Charitie edifies she suffers not Knowledge to swell He calls it in another place the cement of soules and the societie of the Faithfull Saint Hierome commends it to us in these words I do not remember any one hath died an ill death who willingly perform'd the Works of Charity the reason is because hee hath many Intercessours and it is a thing impossible that the prayers of many should not penetrate the sacred eares of God Sweetly saith St. Gregory As many boughs spring from one root so many Vertues are deriv'd from Charitie alone in which not rooted no branch of goodnesse can flourish To these Suffrages I will adde that of Hugo O divine Charitie I know not how I should speake more in thy prayse then that thou didst draw God from Heaven to Earth and didst exalt Man from Earth to Heaven Needs must thy force be great since by thee God was so humbled and Man so exalted In so few yeares as fourteene a man can expect onely a propension to this and all other Vertues yet he that looks for no small progresse in this and most of the other for the practice of some are not incident to that tender age shall not have his expectation deceiv'd For his Charity I may truly averre that it was extensive not onely to his friends and acquaintance but to the poore to strangers and enemies also Some friends he chose both for support and ornament as appeares by his love and imitation of his truly good and great Guardian the Earle of Arundell Lord Marshall of England for no sooner had age ripened his judgement but hee elected him for the object of his affections and the modell of his actions A copy drawne from so faire an originall you will say could not prove deform'd Others hee chose for delight and all hee lov'd with a heart wherein Truth kept her Court Some he would to his power so suddenly secretly and cunningly relieve that they often times found their wants supplyed before they knew from whence the benefit came resembling in this a Physician who cures his patient unawares before he dreams of a recovery Hee approved that speech of Diogenes Manus ad amicos non complicatis digitis extendi oportere That a closed hand is not to bee reached out to a Friend Where he discovered a compleat worth he disdained not to be a suitor and first to make an offer of his service in imitation of a Husbandman who first tilleth and soweth the ground and then expects the fruit of his labour His word and the effect of it were as inseparable as heat and fire This true property of a Gentleman the Ancients decipher'd to us when they painted a Tongue bound fast to a Heart He was no importunate or severe Exactor of the returne of a love answerable in greatnesse to his owne wisely and nobly considering that hee is no true friend who is alwayes no more a friend then his friend is Marry I must confesse hee was exceedingly curious and cautious in his choice following in that the counsell of Bias the Philosopher Amicos sequere quos non pudeat elegisse Follow such friends whom to have chosen you need
and observation of all the writings and actions of the wise In his conversation he ever applyed himselfe to those who had deservedly gain'd a fame in good Letters or had acquir'd wisedome by Experience whose sage precepts and admonitions hee as greedily dranke in as a thirsty Traveller doth Water from a cleare fountaine These he made the mirrour wherein he daily dress'd and compos'd his mind which was a Paradise into which the Serpent never enter'd but he receiv'd a suddaine repulse Two times especially hee made choyse of to prepare and examine himself the Morning the Evening In the first he forecast what was that day to bee done in the later he cald to minde what that day he had done To doe good was his fixed resolution and when he had the power to doe harme like the true sonne of Prudency he never had the will wheras the Nature of a foole is when he hath not the ability then to have the will to doe mischiefe This Vertue was defused cleane through all his endeavours nay through his very habit gesture and discourse which were neither too mimical too anticke nor too grave but sutable to the modesty required in so greene an Age Impudency which Politicians prophanely call the gift of God he hated so in others that hee never gave it countenance nor harbour himselfe In his Discourse he warily proportion'd his words to the bignesse of the subject he spake of in imitation of a Mariner that fits his Sayles to the smalnesse or vastnesse of his Vessell As slender men lightly weare their cloaths loose and large a little to augment their bulke so small wits who want matter enlarge themselves in words whereas indeed that speech is best which comprehends most sence in fewest words as wee esteeme that Coyne most which in a small compasse includes a great value Hee was not hasty to speak or in speaking but in both prudently observ'd a decency He was very carefull not onely what he vented but what hee heard that it relished not of Immodesty Levity or Vice for he held that what ever it was a villany to act it was also a villany to harken to Hee talked alwayes opportunely and appositively never above his knowledge He derided those who with a great dinne utter'd nothing but high profound Non-sence resembling in that the Cypresse trees which are great and tall but beare no fruit A visit given to a wise but sick man by one of these babling curious impertinents afflicts him more than his disease His owne secrets those of his friends or of the state he neither reveal'd nor pryed into for he was sure he could at any time speake what he had conceal'd but he could not conceale what he had once spoken En la boca serada moxca no entra sayes the Spanish Proverbe Into a mouth closed a Flie never enters Hee had happily read or heard that Anacharsis the Philosopher was accustomed to sleep with his right hand on his mouth and his left on his secrets being of opinion that the Tongue more than Concupiscence needed a bridle Not to be tedious I may boldly because truely averre that Prudency was the generall of his Demeanour Speech and Actions and gave to all of them a Wise and safe Conduct You see pious Reader what embellishment what Ornaments his Life like a sparkling Jewell was set with and I imagine you cannot believe so faire a beginning could have a foule end You cannot surely be at once so stupid and uncharitable If you can you shall quickly be convinc'd of your Errour and shall see this Sun-set with the same glory in which he rose First in his sicknesse that led to his death he made use of his patience a Vertue which miraculously overcomes by yielding As he would not shunne his death so he would not hasten it but used all lawfull and possible meanes to prevent it no otherwise than the Master of a Ship who when the sayles are rent asunder the Mast cut downe by the boarde and a Leake sprung in the ship yet still labours for life and leaves no way unsought to preserve it But when hee saw his inconstant Mistresse Nature ready to abandon him and that as well Necessity forced as God cald him hence then selfe-love the Lifes Jaylour could no longer with-hold him from readily running into the Armes of Death who he knew would soone usher him into the imbraces of his Saviour He beheld Death no otherwise then a Pilot does the Winds and the Sayles that will bring him to his desired Haven He endured the terrible approach and the furious assaults of Death with so undaunted a resolution of a man and so firme unmoved a beliefe of a Christian that he became at once a pleasing and sad spectacle to his friends who believed he could not so patiently undergoe such paine and torments without the extraordinary assistance of some Beatificall vision We see many in the darke are afraid of every thing but the comfortable light expells all feare so it is for those who are blinded with the Mist Atheisme and Impiety have cast before their eyes to doubt and tremble security becomes such as live and dye in the true Light and are illustrated with the beames of Gods favour as was this Patient of Heaven who not being curable here was thither to be translated Before the comming of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles they feared Death and forsooke their Lord but when they were once illuminated from above they undauntedly appear'd before Tyrants and constantly suffer'd Martyrdome Having sent his desires long before to cast Anchor in Heaven hee longingly expected his owne passage with a calme patient and contented minde wherein no distemper ever stay'd but as an unwelcome stranger At length when he perceived all his senses were ready to forsake him being innocently ambitious to retaine to the last his knowledge of all things he suddainly by a holy Art drew the vastnesse of his memory into a Compendium and remembred God onely in whom are all things in whose Fatherly eternall protection we confident and submissively leave him In this bud of Honour two things are deservedly to be lamented First that it dyed under the hand of a Royall Gardner who meant to underprop and cherish it Secondly that it so soone faded All men will confesse his infortunity was great in departing this life in the Reigne of a Prince great in the Union of the Roses greater in that of the Lawrells but greatest of all in the love of his people He knowes full well that full ill it went with man-kind if the Almighty Maker of all things should confine his favour to one onely and neglect the rest of Humanity and therefore as a god on earth in imitation of of the Heavenly distributes his favours amongst all his subjects but not eodem gradu because they are not ejusdem meriti Like the Sunne he strives to impart the light of his countenance to all
lesse infinite And man no more looke up since stars shine dim To vertues light and heaven was nigh in him Thy vertues growth hath our endeavours chid Wee le raise no Pile to thee great Pyramid B. Ollivier On the death of the Lord STAFFORD IF from thy Sacred Ashes did arise Another Phoenix breathing spiceries Such as thy blossomes did since funerall fire Refined in full age thine Honoured Sire In whom you both might seeme againe t' returne Our griefes had all beene buried in thy Vrne Nor vexe the quiet Muses for a Verse To be thy Off-spring or adorne thy Herse Who leav'st Succession unto none of thine And but in such liv'st in no other Line But now her selfe Nature begins to feare And startles to behold now here now there A family extinct which though she strive With all her Art and strength to keepe alive It vanisheth Great Stafford thou shalt be To Nature a sad instance and to me Lest by Inductions she her selfe might be Concluded in short time Vacuitie When the whole Fabricks into nothing hurld And the great fadeth as the lesser world Pillars of flesh not stones and Imagrie Preserve the dead in Living Memory The blossome cropt before 'ts growne to a Peare Is no more worth than if 't had ne're beene there Which grown might from its kernels have begun In other grounds a new Plantation The poore mans Only lamb should have bin spar'd It was his Onely One 's there no regard Of One and Onely One This One may grow In time into a number Whence may flow Succeeding Millions This One being lost The hopes of all futurity are crost Happy who first by his Victorious hand Won honour to his house whose Name did stand In the first front and after liv'd to see His sonnes continue his Nobilitie But he who ends his Honour and his Name In his sweete youth and early hopes when fame Is scarce upon the wing to tell the Earth His Ancestors his Honours and his birth Dies leaving teares his onely Legacie Which must be wept and payd from every eye This gives our teares new birth nor doth contract Our sad Laments onely into one Act Such as was thy appearance form'd of clay Array'd with and bereft of Honour in a day But will when ere we turne the booke of Fame Create new griefe when we shal read thy Name With this unhappie mention He dy'd Young And without issue Here doth end the Line Of th' Ancient Staffords Family Thus Time Becomes their Period also and the End Which should each action crowne to thee doth lend A double lesse in whose one death doe dye More than thy selfe Thy Auncient Family Tell me old Time Chiefe Register of Things Who writ'st the fates of Commons and of Kings Was not a Tribe once precious in the Eye Of the Almighty though once doom'd to dye And perish all yet some were left to be Preserv'd and raise up a new Progenie So lest no branch of David should be left To bud till Shiloh came Ioash by theft Escapes the bloody stroke onely this One Continues Kingdome and succession For one out of a numerous race to die We know is common when the race doth lie In One and that One leaves no one behind Besides a fruitlesse name Nature's unkind My owne Creation 's but a blisse begun Which is made perfect in succession E. Marow On the Death of the most Noble Lord STAFFORD IMpartiall Nature sham'st thou not that we Should ever brand thee thus with cruelty Must all feele the like death Must vertuous then Be subject to corruption like bad men Thus thou wouldst have it be but he whose breath Thou enviously hast stopt shall not know death He who by Children thou deni'dst should give A life to 's Name makes it himselfe to live He was borne Noble and his life did so Answer his birth that it was hard to know Which way he was most Noble which most good By his owne vertues or his Parents blood In him liv'd all his Ancestors his fall Proves not his onely but their funerall He was not his Stocks bare Epitomy Nor was he like but one o' th' Family He did resemble All What dyed in him Was seene againe reviv'd and live in him Life to the dead he gave And though a Son His Fathers Fathers Father was become And now he that was like his friends in all things tried To be more like 'hem and as they did dyed With him fals th' house of th' Staffords and t is well It might have longer stood not better fell R. Pul. Sacred to the Memory of the most Vertuous Edward Lord Stafford the last Baron of his Illustrious Family SO is the ancient Rocke that still sent forth Iewels of clearer light and constant worth By ruder hands still pillag'd of it's store Safe onely when they thought 't would yeild no more The Sun discov'ring a fresh drop of light That might contest with him and prove as bright Doth bid his beames that exudation steale Before the moisture into stone congeale So in the aged Rose tree whose buds were Such that we might affirme th'were stars grew there After it long had yeelded growing Fires Still snatch'd to seede the ravishers desires The cold doth kill that bud that last shoots forth And robs us of all hopes of afterworth Thus here the heat and there the frost doth more Spoile then the Robbers Fingers did before But we can pardon fate when that the crosse Extends it selfe unto no greater losse Then of a Gem or Flowre But when that hand Shall snatch such living Iewels let me stand Senselesse and stupid as that Rocke and be Wretched and fruitlesse as that wither'd tree Fancy a morne that promis'd all delight Day ere afforded yet unto the sight Clouded by suddaine darkenesse whiles the houres Were busie yet to dresse it with fresh flowres And you have fanci'd expectation Crost But not like that of him we now have lost Fancy a sparke that Time would soone have blowne Into a throng of flames that would have growne Vnto the pitch of lustre as it bore The Pyramid higher and fill'd more and more Dasht by a suddaine violent showre and then Know you are short of this as sparkes of men Witnesse thou Deity of my pensive Muse His Sacred soule that I no Art doe use To raise a noted griefe from fancy'd losse Making the teares when I have made the crosse Alas the causes are too just For where Hath Knowledge any glories that his cleare Mind did not reach at Where hath Action ought Of Fame and worth that he would not have sought No Flowre in all that Garden or in this That would not have been proud to be stil'd his Bays most retir'd from Light and Sun had beene By his search found and by his shewing seene For whereas others thinke high birth and blood Vertues entaild and all that 's well borne good Though he might boast in this an ample share As the world knowes Vertue and this Lord were As undivided still as Light and Heate That the Inherent Dowry he the seate Yet he nere would his Birth to Vertue swell But thought it onely might set Vertue well Made it the Ouch not Iewell and from thence Did raise new Titles of preheminence Thus each day added to him and we may Say if we view his mind he did die gray Nor let me suffer misbeliefe because You knew him yet not man by Time and Lawes Soules such as his sore and produce high things When others have as yet scarce hope of wings His Genius did rich glories then beget And shew when lower could not Bud as yet Thus Regions neare the Sun doe Fields afford Throng'd with the choysest Flowres and richly stor'd When the remoter places sleepe and show Onely a garment of benumming Snow When I consider all this snatcht I must Wish that my teares could animate his dust But being we cann't call backe lost good nor blesse Our selves with him reviv'd I here professe My brest his Marble and doe thence become Both the bewailer of him and the Tombe Anthony Stafford FINIS Where a worthy man of a faire Line is born and bred is necessary to be knowne it is here proved against all clownish Infidels that there is such a thing as a Gentleman Amongst all Nations the Dane is the greatest Adorer of Nobilitie A never fading Honour is not the gift of Fortune but of Vertue It is here proved by reason that Nobility depends not on the will of Fortune Nothing is more remote from the nature of true Nobility than an ancient stocke void of vertue It is here by example confirmed that Descent is no sound Argument of true Nobility Honour and Vertue conjoyned out-shine solitary Merit Arts Arms should be the study of the more Noble The Dukes of Buckingham have beene so great that Earles have bin Stewards of their Houses His pious Education Religion is to be suckt in with the milke His learned Education Though learning be not the Adaequate cause of Vertue it is the adjuvant Great men have declared themselves fautors of Learning Humillity extolled in it selfe and him Obedience commended in it selfe and him His obedience to his parents Two rare examples of filiall duty and pietie His obedience to his Tutors Charitie praised in it selfe and him His love to his Friends His curiositie in the choice of his friends A herd of Friends hee lov'd not His love to the poore His ready forgiving of injuries Valour magnified in it selfe and him All men admire few understand what valour is Two admirable signes of Cato's future valour discover'd in him yet a childe Temperancie extolled in it selfe and him Drunkennesse dispraised Gluttony reprehended Justice exalted in it selfe and him Two stupendious presidents of Justice Prudencie commended in it selfe and him His Death His Patience Two things to bee lamented in his Death His infortunity in dying so immaturely in the Reigne of so gracious a Prince The immaturity of his Death Brevity of life to be preferred before Longevity * Xerxes God hath set down a period beyond which Nature her selfe shall not passe This World compared to a Theatre Death to a Christian not a punishment but a tribute