is man to expostulate the Intents Of his high Will or judge of strange Events The rising Sun to mortal sight reveals This earthly Globe but yet the stars conceals So may the sense discover Natural things Divine above the reach of humane wings Then not the Fate but Fates bad instrument Do I accuse in each sad accident Good men must fall rapes incests murthers come But woe and curses follow them by whom God Authors all mens actions not their sin For that proceeds from dev'lish lust within Thou then that suffer'dst by those forms so vile From whom those wicked Instruments did file Thy drossy part to make thy fame shine clear And shrine thy soul in Heavens all glorious Sphere Who being good nought less to thee befell Though it appear'd disguis'd i' th shape of Hell Vanish thy bloud and nerves true life alone In Vertue lives and true Religion In both which thou art deadless O behold If thou canst look so low as earths base mold How dreadful Justice late with lingring foot Now comes like whirlewind how it shakes the root Of lofty Cedars make the stately Brow Bend to the foot how all men see that now The breath of Infamy doth move their sails Whiles thy dear name by loves more hearty gales Shall still keep wing until thy Fames extent Fill ev'ry part of this vast Continent Then you the Syre of their murther'd Son Repine not at his fate since he hath won More honour in his sufferance and his death Succeeded by his vertues endless breath For him and to his Life and deaths example Love might erect a Statue Zeal a Temple On his true worth the Muses might be slain To die his honours web in purest Grain Though for his worth the Muses were all slain His honour'd Works would raise them up again An Elegy upon the untimely Death of Sir Thomas Overbury poisoned in the Tower 'T Would ease our sorrow 't would release our tears Could we but hear those high Celestial Spheres Once tune their motions to a doleful strain In sympathy of what we Mortalls plain Or see their fair Intelligences change Or face or habit when black deeds so strange As might force pitty from the heart of Hell Are hatcht by Monsters which among us dwell The Stars methinks like men inclin'd to sleep Should through their Chrystal Casements scarcely peep Or at least view us but with half an eye For fear their chaster Influence might descry Some murthering hand embrew'd in guiltless blood Blending vile juices to destroy the good The Sun should wed his beams to endless Night And in dull darkness canopy his Light When from the rank stews of adultrous Breasts Where every base unhallowed project rests Is belcht as in defiance of his shine A stream might make even Death it self to pine But those things happen still but ne're more clear Nor with more lustre did these Lamps appear Mercury capers with a winged heel As if he did no touch of sorrow feel And yet he sees a true Mercurian kill'd Whose birth his Mansion with much honour fill'd But let me not mistake those pow'rs above Nor tax injuriously those Courts of Jove Surely they joy to see these Acts reveal'd Which in blinde silence have been long conceal'd And Vertue now triumphant whilest we mourn To think that e're she was foul Vices scorn Or that poor Overburies blood was made A Sacrifice to malice and dark shade Weston thy hand that Couvre-feu Bell did sway Which did his life to endless sleep convay But rest thou where thou art I le seek no glory By the relation of so sad a story If any more were privy to the deed And for the crime should be adjudg'd to bleed To Heaven I pray with rear'd up hands and eyes That as their bodies fall their souls may rise And as those equally turn to one dust So these alike may shine among the just And there make up one glorious constellation Who suffered here in such a differing fashion The Life of Sir VVALTER RALEIGH SIR Walter Rawleigh the Learned Apollo and Oracle of our Nation was one that it seems Fortune had pickt out of purpose to make an example of her mutability or tennis-ball thereby to shew what she could do for she tost him up of nothing and too and fro to greatness and from thence down to little more then to that wherein she found him a mean Gentleman not that he was less for he was well descended and of good Alliance but poor in his beginnings And for my Lord of Oxfords Jeast of him the Jack and an upstart we all know it savours more of emulation and his humour then of truth and it is a certain note of the times that Queen Elizabeth in her choice never took into her favour a meer new man or a Mechanick as Comines observes of Lewis the Eleventh of France who did serve himself with persons of unknown parents such as was Oliver the Barber whom he created Earl of Dunoyes and made him ex secretis consiliis and alone in his favour and familiarity His approaches to the University and Inns of Court were the grounds of his improvement but they were rather excursions then sieges or settings down for he stayed not long in a place and being the youngest brother and the house diminished in patrimony he foresaw his own destiny that he was first to rowl thorow want and disability to subsist other wayes before he could come to a repose and as the stone doth by long lying gather moss he first exposed himself to the Land Service in Ireland a Militia which then did not yield him food and rayment for it was ever very poor nor had he patience to stay there though shortly after he came thither again under the command of the Lord Grey but with his own colours flying in the field having in the interim cast a new chance both in the Low Countries and in a voyage to Sea And if ever man drew vertue out of necessity it was he therewith was he the great example of industery and though he might then have taken that of the merchant to himself per mare per terras currit mercator ad Indos he might also have said and truly with the Philosopher Omnia mea mecum porto for it was a long time before he could brag of more then he carried at his back and when he got on the winning side it was his commedations that he took the pains for it and underwent many various adventures for his after perfection And before he came into the publique note of the world and that it may appear how he came up per ardua per varios casus per tot discrimina rerum not pulled up by chance or by any gentle admittance of Fortune I will briefly describe his native parts and those of his own acquiring which was the hopes of his rising He had in the outward man a good presence in a handsome and well compacted person a strong
What have we not deserved yet O the long-suffering and patience and goodness of our God! O Lord our God we pray thee that thy patience and long-suffering might lead to repentance that thou wouldest be pleased thou who delightest not in the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn from his sins and live that thou wouldest turn us unto thee O Lord and we shall be turned draw us and we shall run after thee draw us with the cords of Love and by the bands of loving kindness by the powerful working of thy holy spirit in our souls working contrition in our hearts and a godly sorrow for all our sins even a sorrow to repentance and a repentance to salvation never to be repented of Lord break those stony hearts of ours by the hammer of thy word mollifie them by the oyl of thy grace smite these rocky hearts of ours by the rod of thy most gracious power that we may shed forth rivers of tears for all the sins we have committed O that thou wouldest make us grieve because we cannot grieve and to weep because we cannot weep enough that thou wouldest humble us more and more in the true sight and sense of all our provocation against thee and that thou wouldest be pleased in the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse us from all our sins Lord let his blood that speaks better things then that of Abel cry louder in thine ears for mercy then all those mischiefs and wickednesses that have been done amongst us for vengeance O besprinkle our polluted but penitent souls in the blood of Jesus Christ that we may be clean in thy sight and that the light of thy countenance may shine upon us Lord be pleased to seal unto our souls the free pardon and forgiveness of all our sins say to each of our souls and say that we may hear it that thou art well pleased with us and appeased towards us Lord do thou by the Spirit assure our spirits that we are thy children and that thou art reconciled to us in the blood of Jesus Christ To this end O Lord create in us new hearts and renew right spirits within us Cast us not away from thy presence and take not thy holy spirit from us but give us the comfort of thy help and establish us with thy free spirit Help us to live as they redeemed ones and Lord let us not any longer by our wicked lives deny that most holy faith whereof our lips have for so long time made profession but let us that call on the name of the Lord Jesus depart from iniquity and hate every evil way Help us to cast away all our transgressions whereby we have transgressed and make us new hearts Carry us along through the pilgrimage of this world supplying us with all things needful for us thy grace alone is sufficient for us Lord let thy grace be assistant to us to strengthen us against all the temptations of Satan especially against those sins whereunto we are most prone either by custom or constitution or most easily provoked O Lord with what affliction soever thou shalt punish us do not punish us with spiritual judgements and desertions Give us not over to our own hearts lusts to our vile lewd and corrupt affections give us not over to hardness and impenitency of heart but make us sensible of the least sin and give us thy grace to think no sin little committed against thee our God but that we may be humbled for it and repent of it and reform it in our lives and conversations and Lord keep us from presumptuous sins O let not them get the dominion over us but keep us innocent from the great offence O Lord our strength and our Redeemer And Lord sanctifie unto us all thy methods and proceedings with us fitting us for all further tribulations and tryals whatsoever thou in thy divine pleasure shalt be pleased to impose upon us Lord give us patience constancy resolution and fortitude to undergo them that though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we may fear none ill knowing that thou O Lord art mercifully with us and that with thy rod as well as with thy staff thou wilt support and comfort us and that nothing shall be able to separate us from thy love which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. And gracious God we beseech thee be thou pleased to look mercifully and compassionately on thy holy Catholique Church and grant that all they that do confess thy holy Name may agree together in the truth of thy holy Word and live in unity and godly love Thou hast promised O Lord the gates of hell shall not prevail against thy Church perform we beseech thee thy most gracious promises both to thy whole Church and to that part of it which thou hast planted and now afflicted in these sinful Lands and Nations wherein we live arise O Lord and have mercy upon our Sion for it is time that thou have mercy upon her yea the time is come for thy servants think upon her stones and it pittieth them to see her in the dust Lord maintain thine own cause rescue the light of thy truth from all those clouds of errours and heresies which do so much obscure it and let the light thereof in a free profession break forth and shine again among us and that continually even as long as the Sun and Moon endures To this end O Lord bless us all and bless him the posterity which in Authority ought to rule over and be above us Bless him in his soul and in his body in his friends and in his servants and all his relations Guide him by thy Counsel prosper him in all undertakings granting him a long prosperous and honourable life here upon earth and that he may attain to a blessed life hereafter And gracious God look mercifully upon all our Relations and do thou bring them to the light of thy truth that are wandering and ready to fall Confirm them in thy truth that already stand show some good token for good unto them that they may rejoyce O let thy good hand of providence be over them in all their wayes And to all orders and degrees of men that be amongst us give religious hearts to them that now rule in Authority over us Loyal hearts in the subjects towards their Supream and loving hearts in all men to their Friends and charitable hearts one towards another And for the continuance of thy Gospel among us restore in thy good time to their several places and callings and give Grace O Heavenly Father to all Bishops Pastors and Curates that they may both by their Life and Doctrine set forth thy true and lively word and rightly and duly administer thy Holy Sacraments And Lord bless thy Church still with Pastors after thine own heart with a continual succession of faithful and able men that they may both by Life and Doctrine declare thy truth and never
might enjoy her as his Wife for these and other notorious offences being boldly reprehended by Dunstan he banished him the Realm at whose departure the devil is said to rejoyce and to laugh aloud at the West end of the Church to whom Dunstan as it were by way of Prophecy said Well thou adversary do not so greatly rejoyce at the matter for thou doest not now so much rejoyce at my departure but by Gods grace thou shalt be as sorrowful for my return All the time of King Edwy's reign which was but short for Tyrants seldome are long lived he remained at the Monastery of Gaunt in Flanders where he received much friendship from the Governour of that Countrey but Edwy dying his brother Edgar succeeded in the Kingdome who unraveling the web his brother had weaved recalled Dunstan out of banishment making him first Bishop of Worcester after of London and last of all bestowed the Archbishoprick of Canterbury upon him This Edgar had Dunstan in high estimation by whose advice the English being given to excessive quaffing he put down many Ale-houses and would suffer but one to be in a Town and the more to deterr them from this swinish vice he ordained certain cups with pins or nails and made a law that whosoever drunk past that mark at one draught should undergo a certain penalty No doubt this was an act acceptable unto God and great need hath these times of another Edgar or Dunstan to deterr people from this beastly sin and to put down the multiplicity of Alehouses which now abound in every corner of which one of our modern Poets as followeth The way to Churches is o'regrown with grass But to the Alehouse fair and plain to pass And what is it think you doth cause it so But more to th' Alehouse then to Church do go Then what may we expect of this same evil Some may to God but most will to the devil Edgar dying great troubles ensued about the election of one of his sons to succeed him most of the Nobles combining for young Ethelred Dunstan and the Monks standing as stiffly for Prince Edward at last a Council being assembled to argue the matter the Archbishop came in with his Banner and Cross and not staying for further debating presented Prince Edward for their lawful King and the assembly consisting most of Clergy-men drew the approbation of the rest and so he was Crowned King at Kingstone by Archbishop Dunstan the year of our Lord 975. These troubles thus quieted about the Crown far greater arose concerning the Church for Alferus Duke of Mercia favouring married Priests would suffer no Monks to live in his Province on the other side Edelwyn Duke of East-Anglia and Brightnoth Earl of Essex favouring the Monks expulsed the married Priests out of their jurisdictions These sparks at last increast to such a flame that it was deemed nought but the blood of one side would quench the same but upon better advice they laid arms aside and referred the matter to be debated in a Council at Winchester where the Monks cause as being worsted had undoubtedly had the foyl had they not referred the matter to be decided by the Rood where the Council sate to this Oracle Saint Dunstan desired them to pray and to give diligent ear to what it should speak for the juggling Monks had placed a Man behinde a Wall who through a trunck delivered these words to the beguiled Priests God forbid it should be so God forbid it should be so you judged well once but ye may not change well again But this deceit of the Monks being discerned by the Priests another assembly was held at Cleve in Wiltshire where whilst they were arguing with bitter invectives against each other the joysts of the loft wherein they sat suddenly brake and down fell the floar with the people thereon many were mained and some slain onely Archbishop Dunstan remained unhurt for the posts whereon his chair was set as it were by miracle remained untouched By this fall of the Floar fell the cause of the Priests and Dunstan deemed a demy God To this wooden miracle of his popish writers add another of the same nature namely how a huge beam of a house being sunk out of the frame and like to ruinate the whole building with onely making the sign of the Cross thereon with his fingers he made it return to his former place All the time of King Edwards reign was Dunstan had in high esteem but he being too good a Prince to live in so bad an age was bereft of his life by the cruelty of his step-mother that her own son might succeed in the kingdome Dunstan disallowing this act of the Queens refused to Crown her son King at length against his will he was compelled to solemnize his rights at Kingston on Thames the 14. of Aprill 979. This Ethelred favoured not greatly the Monks and therefore he was as little respected of them in their writings who report him to be sloathful person neither forward in action nor fortunate in proceedings at the time of his Baptism he is said to defile the Fount with his ordure whereupon Dunstan being troubled in his minde By the Lord saith he and his blessed Mother this childe shall prove to be a slothful person But the greatest matter laid to his charge was his making War upon the Bishop of Rochester whose peace being it would not be procured without the payment of a hundred pound in Gold Dunstan sent him word that since he made more account of Gold then of God more of money then of Saint Andrew Patron of the Church of Rochester and more of covetousness then of him being the Archbishop the mischiefs which the Lord had threatned should shortly come to pass but the same should not chance whilst he was alive he is likewise said to have foreseen the invasions of the Danes and to have foretold the miseries that soon after fell upon the English Nation as that they should not be free from Blood and the Sword till there came a people of an unknown tongue that should bring them to thraldome which predictions of his soon after his death came to passe as appears in the following Life of King Edmund this Clergy-man now waxing old the thread of his life being spun out to the last he was forced to yield to that from which none are exempted to the tyranny of death having tasted liberally in his time of the favours of Fortune which notwithstanding could not keep him from dying so true is that of the ancient Poet. Each living Corps must yield at last to death And every life must lose his vital breath The soul of man that onely lives on high And is an image of eternity He dyed on a Saturday the 25. of May the Year of our Lord 989. Happy in this that he lived not to see the miseries of his Countrey which happened presently after his death The Life of EDMUND IRONSIDE THe learned
Philosopher Plutarch reports that Marcus Tullius that eloquent Orator obtained the name of Cicero by reason he had a thing upon the tip of his nose as it had beeen a riche pease whereupon they sirnamed him Cicero because Cicer in English signifieth a riche pease So likewise we read of Ovid that darling of the Muses that he got the name of Nasonis from the greatness of his Nose and in the perusual of our English Histories we shall meet with many of the like examples as of William the Second sirnamed Rufus from his red face Richard the First got the name of Cordelion from his inexpugnable and Lion like heart even so this famous Prince whose life we now relate was sirnamed Ironside from his notable courage and strength of body to endure all such pains as is requisite for a Souldier not so called as some would have it for that he used to go alwayes in armour He was third son to Ethelred commonly called the unready the eldest living at his Fathers death his two Brothers dying in defence of their Countrey made way for him to succeed in the Kingdome which notwithstanding was with much opposition as well of Forreigners as his natural Subjects so that he inherited his Fathers troubles as well as his Crown and might be said to be a King without a Kingdome The most part of the Clergy and many of the Nobility out of hatred to the Father rejected the Son and at Southampton chose Canutus for their King this Canutus was King of the Danes who for six and thirty years together had miserably oppressed the English Nation turning all into ruine wheresoever he came Churches and Monasteries were made subject to his desolations and Church-men and Monks felt his cruel and merciless doings Wife Daughter and Maid these cruel Danes abused at their pleasures yea they forced the chaste Nuns to their filthy pollutions insomuch that some of them to save their chastities destroyed their beauties deforming their bodies to keep their souls pure To redresse these enormities Edmund like another Maccabeus stood up for his Countrey and being Crowned at Kingstone by Levingus Archbishop of Canterbury he hasted to London being then besieged by Canutus where he soon forced the Danes to raise their siege and winter themselves in the Isle of Sheepie But the Spring come they suddainly assailed the West of England and were as suddainly themselves encountred by Edmund who with great courage though with a small Army gave them Battel at Penham in Dorcetshire where many of these destroyers were themselves destroyed the rest for fafety flying towards Salisbury Edmund having recruited and refreshed his Army hasted after them and at Sheorstan in Worcestershire a second Battel was fought where Edmund behaved himself most gallantly executing the office both of a hardy Souldier and valiant Commander and undoubtedly the Danes had received a great overthrow had not Duke Edrick who for his many treasons was sirnamed the Traytor cut off the head of a Souldier resembling Edmond and holding it aloft thus cryed to the English Fly ye wretches fly and get away for your King is slain behold here is his Head but Edmond hearing of this treacherous stratagem hasted to show himself to his Souldiers whose sight so revived their drooping spirits that had not the approaching night prevented them they had obtained that day a most glorious victory Duke Edricks life had paid for his treason had he not presently fled to the enemy who afterwards excusing the fact as being mistaken in the countenance of the man as he was willing to save the lives of the English he was afterwards received into favour again There were slain on both sides by the report of writers no fewer then 20000 Souldiers which may very well be true considering the Battel lasted two whole dayes and that of Canutus side were many English who fought with a most furious and desperate hatred to the Danes so true is that expression of the Poets The highest fury raigns in civil War And Countrey men in fight most cruel are The Danes by stealth breaking up their camp in the night time hasted towards London which City they earnestly desired to conquer and where their ships lay in manner of a siege but Edmonds coming forced them to discamne who entred the City in a triumphant manner and two dayes after gave them Battel at Brentford where notwithstanding in passing the Thamesis he lost many of his men yet obtained he the victory and forced them to their ships But as if the fable of Hydra had been turned to a verity though they were suppressed in one place yet with double strength they encreased in another and though Edmond in person obtained many a Victory yet by his Subjects disloyalty and Duke Edricks treachery what he got in one place he lost in another so that sometimes he and sometimes Canutus were reputed as alternate Kings as the fate of War was either with or against them as a Poet writes of the successes of those times Now one side wins anon doth lose again This week doth Edmond next Canutus reign The Danes altogether minding mischief and to make havock of all wheresoever they came whilst Edmond was retired into the West with great booties and spoils returned to their ships and sailing up the river of Medway pitched their tent near Oteford in Kent Edmond as willing to save as they to destroy hasted after and pitched not far from his enemies Camp where he exhorted his Souldiers to remember their former victories and not to droop at the fight of them whom so often they had vanquished that the onely way to victory was to fight valiantly whilst cowards were causers of their own overthrow that those whom they dealt with were their ancient enemies accustomed to robberies enriched with rapines fatned with man-slaughters and tainted with perjuries their cause being thus just he desired them to fight valiantly and God would crown their endeavours with good success the edge of their valours whetted sharp by this oration with a general shout presaging victory they fell upon the Danes whom they discomfitted and slew of them to the number of four thousand five hundred and lost of their own onely six hundred This Victory might have put a Period to the Wars had not Duke Edrick disswaded Edmond from pursuing after them alledging the danger of ambush and the overwearied bodies of his Souldiers so that Canute thereby had leasure in safety to pass over into Essex Where beginning again to rob and spoil the Countrey many of the English for fear submitted themselves unto him but the restles Ironside hasted after them and at Ashdone three miles from Saffron Walden another Battel was fought where the Danes being at the point to have lost the day the traiterous Edrick revolted to their side by which treachery the English were overthrown In this bloody Battel the flower of the English Nobility lost their lives as Duke Alfred Duke Goodwyn Duke Athelward Duke
being a Captain and principal man of his retinue might come to aid him in his Wars for he himself being a warlike Prince had a desire to make some trial of the Discipline of the English Sir John Hawkwood hereupon undertaketh the service behaving himself so valiantly in several Assaults and Skirmishes that the Lord Barnaby for his valour importuned him to be his Son in Law and gave him in marriage the Lady Dowager his Daughter with the value of ten thousand Florences of yearly revenue for her portion By reason of this alliance his pay was encreased and his name became famous all over Italy for it was judged his deserts were not small that so great a Prince as Barnaby would ally himself with him yet notwithstanding all this upon some further hopes conceived he revolteth from Barnaby and joyneth himself with his enemy so true is that of Lucan Nulla fides pietasque viris qui castra sequntur Venalesque manus ibi fas ubi maxima merces Nor faith nor conscience common Souldiers carry Best pay's their right their hands are mercenary By reason of this revolt many of the Towns of Lombardy came to be wasted by the outragious spoils of the English men amongst other they took the Towns of Faera and Banacanallo whereof he sold one to the Marquess of East for twenty thousand Crowns and the other he kept Having both his Forces and pay encreased he determines to seek new adventures going first to the aid of Pope Gregory the twelfth and having with great commendation recovered the Cities of Province that had revolted from him for his service therein was worthily rewarded with the dominion of five Towns From him he went to the Florentine and not long after to the Pisans from thence to the Florentines again under whom he served with such a number of our Nation both horse-men and foot-men that all Italy feared him with that success and increase of his honour and glorious renown that he was reputed to be the best Souldier of that age for he had learned by his long experience in the Wars having an exceeding ripe and quick conceit to force occasions to frame his resolutions and to make speedy execution being also as the opportunity required both hot in his fight and notable for his delayes in so much as sundry great Captains who were afterward highly renowned proceeded out of his School as from an exact master of Martial affairs The exploits that he had atchieved with good success were accounted for sure grounds and principles of Discipline as well amongst his very enemies as also amongst his own followers After many Victories obtained and an incomparable Renown amongst all men he deceased an aged man at Florence the Senate in reward of his well deserving honoured his ashes with a stately Tomb and the Statue of a man at Arms having chiefly by his conduct courage and valour preserved that City The Italian Writers both Poets and Historians highly celebrating his matchless Prowess enstile him Anglorum decus decus addite genti Italicae Italico praefidiumque solo Englands prime honour Italy's renown Who held their honours up from sinking down His Friends and Executours here in England raised a Monument or Tomb for him at Sible Heningham where he was born arched over and engraven to the likeness of Hawks flying in a Wood and founded such was the Religion of those times a Chauntry there for the good of his soul The Life of GEOFFERY CHAUCER THis famous and learned Poet Groffery Chancer Esquire was supposed by Leland to have been born in Oxfordshire or Barkshire but as it is evident by his own words he was born in the City of London as we have it from him in his Testament of Love Also in the City of London that is to me so dear and swéet in which I was forth grown and more kindely love have I to that place then any other in yerth as every kindely creature hath full appetite to that place of his kindely ingendure and to wilne rest and peace in that stede to adide thilke peace should thus there have béen broken which of all wise men is commended and desired For his Parentage although Bale he termeth himself Galfridus Chaucer nobili loco natus summae spei juvenis yet in the opinion of some Heralds otherwise then his vertues and learning commended him he descended not of any great House which they gather by his Arms and indeed both in respect of the name which is French as also by other conjectures it may be gathered that his Progenitours were Strangers but whether they were Merchants for that in places where they have dwelled the Arms of the Merchants of the Staple have been seen in the glass windows or whether they were of other callings it is not much necessary to search but wealthy no doubt they were and of good account in the Commonwealth who brought up their son in such sort that both he was thought fit for the Court at home and to be employed for matters of State in Forreign Countreys His Education as Leland writes was in both the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge as appeareth by his own words in his Book entituled The Court of Love and in Oxford by all likelihood in Canterbury or in Merton Colledge with John Wickliffe whose opinions in Religion he much affected For who shall read his Works will finde him not covertly but with full mouth to cry out against the vices and enormities of the Priests in those times Hear him in the Plough-mans tale Mennes Wives they wollen hold And though that they béen right sorry To speak they shall not be so bold For sompning to the Consistorey And make hem say mouth I lie Though they it saw with her eye His lemman holden oppenly No man so hardy to ask why Improving his time in the University he became a witty Logician a sweet Rhetorician a grave Philosopher a Holy Divine a skilful Mathematician and a pleasant Poet of whom for the sweetness of his Poetry may be said that which is reported of Stesichorus and as Cethegus was tearmed Suadae Medulla so may Chaucer be rightly called the pith and sinnews of Eloquence and the very life it self of all mirth and pleasant writing besides one gift he had above other Authours and that is by the excellencies of his descriptions to possesse his Readers with a stronger imagination of seeing that done before their eyes which they read then any other that ever writ in any tongue By his travel also in France and Flanders where he spent much time in his young years but more in the latter end of the Reign of King Richard the second he attained to a great perfection in all kinde of learning as Bale and Leland report of him Circa postremos Richardi secundi annos in Galliis floruit magnamque illic ex assidua in literis exercitatione gloriam sibi comparavit Domum reversus forum Londinense Collegia Leguleiorum qui
what he would have been had the Fates allowed him a longer life Witness such time when the French Ambassadours came over into Englad to negotiate a Marriage between the Duke of Anjou and Queen Elizabeth when for their entertainment a solemn Justs was proclaimed where the Earl of Arundel Frederick Lord Windsor Sir Foulk Grivel and he were chief Challengers against all commers in which challenge he behaved himself so gallantly that he wan the reputation of a most valiant Knight Not long after the Netherlanders oppressed with the tyanny of the Duke D' Alva under the King of Spain implored the assistance of Queen Elizabeth which matter being debated in Councel she condescended to become their Defendress and thereupon Articles being drawn five thousand Foot and a thousand Horse-men were sent under the command of Sir John Norris a renowned Souldier all retained at her Majesties pay which monethly amounted to twelve thousand five hundred twenty six pound Sterling accounting fifty six dayes to the moneth For which Moneys so disbursed the Towns of Flushing and Brill with two Sconces and the Castle of Ramekins in Holland were delivered as Pledges till the Money was repaid Over Flushing and the Castle of Ramekins was Sir Philip Sidney appointed Governour His Motto was Vix ea nostra voco who during those Wars behaved himself being entred into the Cock-pit of War most gallantly At the taking of a certain great Town named Axell where within an English mile of the Town calling so many of his Souldiers together as could conveniently hear him he expressed himself to this effect That all such of his Countreymen that exposed their lives to the hazard of Battle ought to be advised of three things First the justness of the cause Secondly for whom they fight Thirdly against whom they fight For the first the justness of the cause were it onely for the defence of the Gospel it were sufficient but the malice of the Spaniards did most evidently appear in their late attempts for Ireland and should they seat themselves in these Nertherland Provinces they might expect the same tyranny for England Then next the people for whom they drew their Swords were their Neighbours alwayes Friends and Well-willâ—â—â— to the English as contrarily those against whom they were to fight men of another Religion enemies to God and his Church a people whose unkindeness both in nature and life doth so excell that God would not leave them unpunished Furthermore he perswaded them that they were Englishmen whose valour the world both feared and admired and therefore now they should acquit themselves like English-men for their own credit and honour of their Countrey Which oration wrought in them such resolutions that they all vowed to live and die in that Service How the Dutch have since deserved their then assistance of the Queen or the blood of a Sidney as they have since demeaned themselves the world may judge Amongst other of his successes he also took in the strong Town of Dorpe But in the full career of his Victories encountering with the Spaniards near to a place called Zutphen when the triumphant Laurells were ready to crown his Brows he was unfortunately shot in the thigh which is the rendezvouz of nerves and sinnews which caused a Feaver that proved so mortal that twenty five dayes after he died of the same the night of whose death was the noon of his age and the loss of Christendom His Body was conveyed into England and most honourably interred in the Church of St. Paul in London over which was fixed this Epitaph England Netherland the Heavens and the Arts All Souldiers and the world have made six Parts Of the noble Sidney for none will suppose That a small heap of stones can Sidney inclose England hath his body for she defence shed The Heavens his Soul the Arts his Fame All Souldiers his grief the World his good name Certain it is saith one that he was a noble and matchless Gentleman of whom may be justly written without Hyperbole or fiction as it was of Cato Vticensis that he seemed to be born to do that onely which he went about To speak more of him were to speak less The Life of ROBERT EARL of LEICESTER Ingenio gravis arte potens magnusque favore Principis incertam liquit post funera famam THe Earl of Leicester the Grand Politician and Proteus of those times was one of Queen Elizabeths early favourites the first whom she made Master of the Horse he was the youngest Son then living of the Duke of Northumberland beheaded primo Mariae and his Father was that Dudley which our Histories couple with Empson and so much infamed for the Catterpillers of the Common-wealth during the Reign of Henry the Seventh who being a noble extract was executed the first year of Henry the Eighth but not thereby so extinct but that he left a plentifull estate and such a Son who as the Vulgar speaks it could live without the teat for out of the ashes of his Fathers infamy he rose to be a Duke and as high as subjection could permit or Sovereignty endure and though he could not finde out any appellation to assure the Crown in his own person yet he projected and very nearly affected it for his Son Gilbert by intermarriage with the Lady Jane Grey and so by that way to bring it about into his Loins Observations which though they lie behinde us and seem impertinent to the Text yet are they not extravigant for they must lead and shew us how the after passages were brought about with the dependances and on the hinges of a collatterall workmanship and truly it may amaze a well settled Judgement to look into those times and to consider how this Duke could attain to such a pitch of greatness His Father dying in ignomy and at the Gallows his estate confiscate and that for pilling and polling by the clamour and crusifige of the people but when we better think upon it we finde that he was given up but as a Sacrifice to please the people not for any offence committed against the person of the King so that upon the matter he was a Martyr of the Prerogative and the King in Honour could do do less then give back to his Son the priviledges of his blood with the acquirings of his Fathers Profession for he was a Lawyer and of the Kings Council at Law before he came to be ex interioribus consiliis where besides the licking of his own fingers he got the King a mass of Riches and that not with the hazard but the loss of his fame and life for the Kings fathers sake Certain it is that his son was left rich in purse brain which are good foundations and fall to ambition and it may be supposed he was on all occasions well heard of the King as a person of mark and compassion in his eye but I find not that he did put up for advancement during Henry the Eights
whom he was very intimate walking with him in his Summer-Parlour thought to please him with a motion of putting out a summe of his money to interest on good security Master Sutton shewing a dislike told him that he had other purposes and for the lawfulness of Usury he was not so fully convinced of it but that he did believe that the most confident Usurer that ever lived would give the best bag he had on his death-bed to be cleared of that case of conscience He being asked by his friend what he would then do with his money he answered that he was onely as treasurer and disposer for poor and wanting persons which words of his agreed with his mind as the end of his Life declared For as he determined with himself so he afterwards built an Hospital having first got a Grant from K. James confirmed by Act of Parliament To this purpose having bargained with Tho. Earl of Suffolk for a House then called the Seat of the Carthusians now the Charter-House which was much out of repair this with many thousands of pounds he bought of the Earl though some asperse him and report that he got it into his hands first by fraud the Deeds being intrusted to him that he kept them by which subtilty he had the advantage to make his own market I cannot believe this but if it were true he had great need if it could stand him in any stead to fly to that Scripture which the Romanists make so much use of Charity covers a maltitude of sins But to passe by this diversion this House questionlesse he bought lawfully of the Earl which he turned into an Hospital When he was very old and considering how soon his crazinesse and weaknesse might set a period to his life and not knowing what injuries the present or future Ages might act against his Charity he took such care to confirm his will by the Royal power and the Laws of the Land that except it hath been abused by the corruption of some particular covetous persons it hath not been otherwise violated The particulars of his Testament are too large to be inserted here I refer the Reader to the printed Copy I shall onely out of it instance a few particulars He bestowed upon his Kindred Friends and Servants vaste summes of money besides six thousand pounds a year to the Hospital For the performance whereof he chose honest wise and experienced Executours His Will being thus perfected he fell deadly sick at his House at Hackney near London in the year of our Lord 1611. he died Not long after his death the House began to be turned into an Hospital though after his decease this good work with several quirks and pretences of Law was oposed as to the very foundation of it the Kings ears being abused At last such was the faithful zeal of those that were intrusted God assisting them in so honourable actions that the Institution came to perfection by a quiet possession to the use appointed with a Library as a gift worthy of such an Hospital In this House fourscore old men are maintained which should be decayed Gentlemen and Souldiers according to the Doners intent who are to have an allowance both for their bodies and souls There is also a School for thirty children of poor parents though I am credibly informed rich persons of late years that make the greatest friends soonest get their children in an abuse of the Will of the deceased and a crying oppression of the poor These Children have their constant diet and clothing There are several other stipends for the Governour Overseers Physicians nad Chyrurgeons of the Hospital together with an annual allowance and an ample stipend assigned to a learned Minister who in the Chappel on the Lords Day is to preach to the Hospitallers with prayers twice every day in the week An honourable gift to the end of the world bestowed on the distressed members of our Saviours body Master Sutton was first buried in Christs-Church in London but afterwards removed and interred in the Chappel of his Hospital the Charter-House where a costly Monument was erected for him by his Executours The Papists that glory so much of their good works cannot shew a nobler foundation for a particular person of his quality To conclude though our actions of Charity are never so great foolishly thought by them meritorious yet if not the effects of a true saving faith they are lost and a man may for all his Charity go to the Devil And though the Catholiques would plead from the form of the last judgement Matthew 25. that God accepts men to Life for their deeds of Charity feeding clothing relieving c. yet the Scripture fully testifies that God neither accepts these nor our selves for them no further then they are the effects of a true faith our persons being first justified by faith in Christ then God will crown our works This according to the holy Writ we acknowledge that Charity for the perpetuity of it excells all other Graces when we have possession of those pleasures that we believed and hoped what longer use is there of faith and hope but our Love shall not end with our lives we shall everlastingly love our Maker Saviour Sanctifier Angels and Saints where no discontent shall breed any jar in our Halelujahs To conclude as the use of Mr. Suttons Love and Charity was a comfort and delight to him on earth what can we think it will be to him in heaven The Life of the most Noble Sir FRANCIS BACON Viscount of Saint ALBANES AFter I had bestowed much pains and strictly enquired the transactions of the life of this incomparable Knight having finisht it with all the ingenuity care and impartiality of a studious minde I at last had the happiness to meet with it in Latine exactly and admirably done by Doctour Raleigh his Chaplain who as he discharged his faithful trust in publishing of some of his Works I thought my self obliged to do him the right of the alone setting forth of his Life more especially as no person better knew him then this Reverend Doctour I have onely translated what he did word for word neither adding nor detracting Sir Francis Bacon the Honour of his age and Countrey the credit and ornament of Learning was born at York-House in the Strand a noted Street adjoyning to the City of London on the 22. day of January in the year of mans salvation MDLX His Father was that famous Councellour to Queen Elizabeth and while he liv'd one of the chief Props and Pillars of her Kingdom Sir Nicholas Bacon Knight Keeper of the great Seal of England a Heroe of approved wisdom judgement moderation and integrity His Mother was Anne a Daughter of Sir Edward Cook who had the education of Edward the Sixth King of England a Lady both of singular Piety and Vertue and eminently learned having no mean skill especially considering her Sex in the Greek and Latine Tongues sprung from such
as envy is alwayes attendant on the best deserving so did some malicious person whisper in the Kings ear that Doctor Donne had preacht a Sermon that implied a dislike of his Government the King herewith incens'd sent for him to answer the accusation which was so satisfactory as gave the King exceeding great content who with much earnestness said to some of his Councel My Doctor is a very honest man He was made Dean in the fiftieth year of his age and in the fifty fourth year a dangerous sickness seized him which turned to a spotted Feaver and ended in a Cough that inclined him to a Consumption During this sickness he wrote this heavenly Hymn expressing the great joy he then had in the assurance of Gods mercy to him A Hymn to God the Father Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun Which was my sin though it were done before Wilt thou forgive that sin through which I run And do run still though still I do deplore When thou hast done thou hast not done For I have more Wilt thou forgive that sin which I have won Others to sin and made my sin their door Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun A year or two but wallowed in a score When thou hast done thou hast not done For I have more I have a sin of fear that when I have spun My last thred I shall perish on the shore But swear by thy self that at my death thy Son Shall shine as he shines now and heretofore And having done that thou hast done I fear no more But it pleased God to restore him to his health and to adde unto his life five years more August 1630. being with his Daughter Mistress Harvy at Abrey-hatch in Essex he fell into a Feaver which with the help of his constant infirmity vapors from the Spleen brought him into a Consumption yet notwithstanding his disability the first Friday in Lent being come which was his old constant day he was appointed to preach on he resolved not to decline that service and although some of his Friends perswaded him from undertaking it fearing it might be a means to shorten his dayes he passionately denied their requests saying He would not doubt that God who in many weaknesses had assisted him with an unexpected strength would now withdraw it in his last employment His Text was To God the Lord belong the issues from death Many that saw his tears and heard his hollow voice professing they thought the Text prophetically chosen and that Doctour Donne had preacht his own Funeral Sermon He would often desire if that God would be pleased to grant it that he might die in the Pulpit if not that yet that he might take his death in the Pulpit that is die the sooner by occasion of those labours And indeed we may justly conceive that God granted his requests for after his Sermon was over hastening to his house he never moved out of it until like St. Stephen He was carried by devout men to the grave During the time of his sicknesse his spirits being much spent which made him unapt to discourse a Friend asked him Why are you sad to whom he replyed after this manner I am not sad I am in a serious contemplation of the mercies of my God to me and now I plainly see it was his hand that prevented me from all temporal employment And I see it was his will that I should never settle nor thrive until I entered into the Ministery in which I have now lived almost twenty years I hope to his glory and by which I most humbly thank him I have been enabled to requite most of those friends that shewed me kindeness when my fortunes were low And as it hath occasioned the expression of my gratitude I thank God most of them have stood in need of my requital I have been useful and comfortable to my good father-in-law Sir George More whose patience God hath been pleased to exercise by many temporal crosses I have maintained my own Mother whom it hath pleased God after a plentiful fortune in her former times to bring to a great decay in her very old age I have quieted the consciences of many that groaned under the burthen of a wounded spirit whose prayers I hope are available for me I cannot plead innocency of life especially of my youth but I am to be judged of a merciful God who hath given me even at this time some testimonies by his holy Spirit that I am of the number of his elect I am full of joy and shall die in peace He lay fifteen dayes earnestly expecting his hourly change his speech which had long been his faithful servant remained with him till his last minute In his very last hour as his body melted away and vapourated into spirit his soul having some revelation of the beatifical vision he said I were miserable if I might not die And after many periods of his faint breath with these words Thy Kingdom come thy will be done he rendred up his soul to him that gave it him He was buried in Saint Pauls Church attended with many persons of Nobility and Eminency after his burial some mournful friends repaired and as Alexander the Great did to the grave of the most famous Achilles so they strewed his with curious and costly flowers Nor was this though not usual all the honour done to his reverend ashes for some person unknown to perpetuate his memory sent to his two Executors Doctour King and Doctour Montford an hundred Marks towards the making of a Monument for him which they faithfully performed it being as lively a representation as in dead Marble can be made of him The recreation of his youth were Poety in which he was so happy as if Nature with all her varieties had been made to exercise his great wit and high fancy nor did he leave it off in his old age as is witnessed by many of his Divine Sonnets and other high holy and harmonious composures as under his Effigies in these following verses to his printed Poems one most ingeniously expresses This was for youth strength mirth and wit the time Most count their golden age but 't was not thine Thine was thy later years so much refin'd From youths dross mirth and wit as thy pure minde Thought like the Angels nothing but the praise Of thy Creatour in those last best dayes Witness this Book thy Emblem which begins With love but ends with sighs and tears for sins He left behinde him many fruits of his labours as six-score Sermons all writ with his own hand a large and laborious Treatise entituled Biathanatose concerning self-murther The resultance of fourteen hundred Authours most of them analized with his own hand Nor were these onely found in his study but all businesses that past of any publique consequence in this or any of our Neighbour-Kingdoms he abreviated either in Latine or in the Language of the Nation and kept them
the things most valued most feared by mortal man Life or Death To say Sir that there hath not been a strife in me were to make me less man then God knoweth mine infirmities give me And to call a destruction upon my self and young children where the intentions of my heart at least have been innocent of this great offence may be believed will finde no easie content from flesh and blood But with much sadness I am come to a resolution of that which I take to be best becoming me to look upon that which is most principal in it self which doubtless is the prosperity of your sacred Person and the Commonwealth infinitely before any private mans interest And therefore in few words as I put my self wholly upon the Honour and Justice of my Peers so clearly as to beseech your Majesty might please to have spared that Declaration of yours on Saturday last and intirely to have left me to their Lordships so now to set your Majesties conscience at liberty I do most humbly beseech your Majesty in prevention of mistakes which may happen by your refusal to pass this Bill And by this means remove praised be God I cannot say this accursed but I confess this unfortunate thing forth of the way towards that blessed agreement which God I trust shall ever establish between you and your Subjects Sir my consent shall more acquit you herein to God then all the world can do besides To a willing man there is no injury done And as by Gods grace I forgive all the world with a calmness and meekness of infinite contentment to my dislodging soul so Sir to you can I give the life of this world with all the chearfulness imaginable in the just acknowledgement of your exceeding favours And onely beg that in your goodness you would vouchsafe to cast your gracious regard upon my poor Son and his three Sisters less or more and no otherwise then as their in present unfortunate Father may hereafter appear more or less guilty of this death God long preserve your Majesty Your Majesties most faithful and humble Subject and Servant Strafford Tower 4. May 1641. Whereupon the next morning the King signed the Bill a Commission being drawn up for his Execution It is reported that this Speech the Earl intended to have spoken on the Scaffold but being intercepted he delivered it to his Brother Sir George VVentworth from whose original Copy under the Earls own hand this is word for word transcribed People of my Native Countrey I wish my own or your Charity had made me fit to call you Friends It should appear by your concourse and gazing aspects that I am now the onely prodigeous Meteor towards which you direct your wandring eyes Meteors are the infallible Antecedents of Tragical events and do commonly level their malevolent operation upon some remarkable person At this present I am become my own prodigy and the cross influence will appear in my too sudden Execution and this fear is onely left me the consequence will produce a greater effusion then mine I would to God my bloud would cure your sad hearts of all their grievances though every drop thereof were a soul on which a life depended I could tender it with as much alacrity as some nay the most of you are come to triumph in my fatal expiration In regard I have been by you my native Countrey whose wisdom and justice in respect of the generality of it is no way questionable voted to this untimely end I have not one sylable to say in justification of my self or those actions for which I suffer onely in excuse of both give me leave to say my too much zeal to do my Master service made me abuse his Regal Authority and howsoever I have been one most unfortunate yet at all times a favourite in the prosecution of my places and offices Yet as I shall answer before the dreadful tribunal whereunto your just anger hath before nature doomed me my intents were fairer then my actions but God knows the over-greatness of my spirits severity in my government the witchcraft of authority and flattery of multitudes to sharpen it are but ill interpreters of my intention which that you may believe I have no argument but improtestation which hath but this circumstance to confirme it that it proceeds from a dying man If I should take upon me to make a relation of all the particulars of my Arraignment and Attainder it would but too much prorogue your longing expectation of my shameful death besides it would be needless in respect I should but say over again what I said before the Parliament and perhaps be as little believed though the terms on which I then answered be far different from my attestation now that being before my condemnation and this after it besides there were multitudes to catch it as fast as I uttered it and doubtless you shall have it upon every stall-post for I have been and whilest I breath am the pestilence which rages through your mindes your estates and trades and you will read the bills of your losses though the disease that brought the destruction be removed Having nothing in this world but a little breath which within a few minutes is to be expired I should not use it to this purpose but that custom upon these directions prescribes my warrant for it and further that I might be an example to great persons that they may know the favour of a great King is not equivalent to the breath of Nations and that it is a thousand times better and more noble for a Lion to play with a Glove then to tear it nor is it proper for a Dove to soar with Eagles wings and the rather because the necessity of the times requires that I should dye onely for example He that gave conscience to you all that are willing to accept it my Royal Master did in his own conscience once declare me guiltless of those facts for which this death is come upon me but heaven which hath made your general clamours the organ of my destiny thought me not worthy to enjoy this life I have abused and from your voices as from the lips of Oracles I have received my woful doom wherein my charity at this hour cannot nor will accuse you of the least injustice but still I trench upon your patience and linger in the thing you came to look for my death A little a little more and I have done for a testimony of my Faith and Religon be pleased to understand that I have professed and do now dye in the true Protestant Religion not in any points deviating in my belief from the fundamental grounds authorized by the Church of England I would say more of this but that I desire my private ejaculations may be my last meditations onely because I know there is not any one of you at ods with my soul or person though with my facts and vices I cannot doubt but your
a handful of men in comparison of his vast Army the effect of which fight was that the Scots went home by weeping cross complaining they had lost more by Hamilton then ever they got by Lesley Soon after followed the surrender of Colchester and within five hours after the surrender the deaths of Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle What motives induced the General to more severity against them then the rest I know not but certain it is never was the message of death though the terriblest summons that can come to nature entertained by any with more magnanimity and undaunted resolution then it was by them Never did Roman with greater courage nor Christian with firmer confidence court grim death then did this matchless pair of Heroes Sir Charls Lucas was the first design'd to dye who having retired himself a while for prayer with a pious and humble commendation of his soul into the hands of God he stood up remembring no doubt that saying It behoveth a General to dye standing and tearing open his Doublet he exposed his naked Breast crying out Now Rebels do your worst he was immediately dispatched on the place Sir George Lisle's turn was next who beholding that sad spectacle the dead body of his dearest friend fell upon it and kissed it as if he meant to breathe into it another soul with a free but true relation of his vertues and endowments he often would redouble these words In how short a moment has a brave spirit expired well this priority was due to thee but I shall not be long behinde thee my death which is now at hand shall restore thee to me After this standing up and taking five pieces of Gold out of his pocket he gave one to his Executioners and the other four he sent to four friends in London then turning to the standers by he said Oh how many do I see here about me whose lives I have saved in hot blood and now must mine be taken away most barbarously in cold blood sure the like was never heard of among the Gothes and Vandals or the veriest Barbarians in the world in any age after which words and some few invocations upon the name of Jesus he was also dispatched as he stood in an Heroick posture courting grim death with a spritely countenance and a greedy expectation I have heard it reported by divers credible persons that on the ground where Sir Charles Lucas fell when he was shot there hath grown no Grass where the print of his body was still remaining bare notwithstanding round the same the Grass flourished with verdancy what this should signifie concerning his guilt or innocency as the wayes of God are unsearchable so shall I not determine any thing but leaving every one to his own opinion please my self with the onely traditional relation of it This Epitome which I have derived to posterity is but as a glimpse or sparkling to the radiant beams of this Carbuncle of Honour The Life of King CHARLES KIng Charles the First was born at Dumfermling in Scotland November 19. Anno Dom. 1600. He was not next Heir to the Crown then having an elder Brother Prince Henry of admirable parts but God countermanding Natures dispose by taking away his Brother left him the Heir Male to the Brittish Diadem At the death of his Father he had attained to twenty five years of age whereof the most part of one was spent in Spain in making addresses to the Lady Infanta in the quality of a Wooer and although he attained not the end for which he went yet it gave him a tincture of travel and experience more worth perchance then the mark he aimed at attaining by this means to a greater degree of that which made Vlysses so famous Quod mores hominum multorum videt urbes Amongst other Curiosities I have met with a Letter of Pope Gregories to win him to his Religion when he was Prince which I have inserted with his answer A Copy of the Letter written from Pope Gregory the Fifteenth to Charles Prince of Wales then being in Spain Most noble Prince Salutation and Light of the Divine Grace Forasmuch as Great Brittain hath alwayes been fruitful in Vertues and in Men of great worth having filled the one and the other world with the glory of her renown she doth very often also draw the thoughts of the Holy Apostolical Chair to the consideration of her praises And indeed the Church was but then in her infancy when the King of kings did chuse her for his Inheritance and so affectionately that we believe the Roman Eagles have hardly out-passed the Banner of the Cross Besides that many of her Kings instructed in the knowledge of the true Salvation have preferred the Crosse before the Royall Scepter and the Discipline of Religion before Covetousness leaving examples of Piety to other Nations and to the Ages yet to come So that having merited the Principalities and first places of blessedness in Heaven they have obtained on Earth the triumphant Ornaments of true holiness And although now the State of the English Church is altered we see nevertheless the Court of Great Brittain adorned and furnished with Moral Vertues which might serve to support the charity that we bear unto her and be an ornament to the name of Christianity if withal she could have for her defence and protection the Orthodox and Catholique Truth Therefore by how much the more the Glory of your most Noble Father and the apprehension of your glorious inclination delights us with so much more zeal we desire that the Gates of the Kingdom of Heaven might be opened unto you and that you might purchase to your self the love of the Universal Church Moreover it being certain that Gregory the Great of most blessed memory hath introduced to the English people and taught to their Kings the Law of the Gospel and the respect of Apostolical Authority we as inferiour to him in Holiness and Vertue but equal in Name and Degree of Dignity it is very reasonable that we following his blessed footsteps should endeavour the salvation of those Provinces especially at this time when your Design most Noble Prince elevates us to the hope of an extraordinary advantage therefore as you have directed your journey to Spain towards the Catholique King with desire to ally your self to the House of Austria we do much commend your Design and indeed do testifie openly in this present business that you are he that takes the principal care of our Prelacy For seeing that you desire to take in marriage the Daughter of Spain from thence we may easily conjecture that the ancient seeds of Christian Piety which have so happily flourished in the hearts of the Kings of Great Brittain may God prospering them revive again in your soul And indeed it is not to be believed that the same man should love such an Alliance that hates the Catholique Religion and should take delight to oppress the Holy Chair
being by the divine disposal from the foregoing part of his life as strange as ever I have read in History His last words were to this effect Christian People I come hither to dye I am brought hither to dye and that I may dye Christian like I humbly beseech the assistance of your Christian prayers that by the benefit of them my passage may be the more easie Yet because men in that condition which it hath pleased God to reduce me to give the more credit to Speech in the discharge of my duty towards God I shall use a few words and so conclude I pray all of you joyn with me to praise this Almighty God to whom I desire to render all hearty thanks as for all his mercies so in particular for this that he hath brought me hither that whereas I owe a debt to sin and to nature that now I can pay the debt to nature I can pay it upon the account of Grace And because it is fit to render the blessed account of that hope that is in me I shall tell you to the praise of Almighty God that I have been born and bred up in the Doctrine of the Church of England I have no negative Religion believing to be saved by the onely merits of my Saviour Jesus Christ and whatsoever else is profest in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England authorized by Law humbly beseeching Almighty God to restore unto this Church her peace prosperity and patrimony whereof I have been an obedient and a loving however an unworthy Son and now both my hope being confident and my faith perfected there remains onely Christian Charity Charity we carry into heaven Charity on earth that I leave beseeching all whomsoever I have offended to forgive me as I from the bottom of my heart do all whomsoever blessing Almighty God for the happy advantage he takes to bring me the sooner to heaven I bless Almighty God that he hath given me this advantage as he hath been merciful to me before the foundation of the world in my Saviour so that now he hath in mercy honoured me with a suffering for his name in obedience to his Commandment On this day sevennight I was summoned before that Justice which condemned me on Friday last praised be Almighty God that by this way he hath brought me nearer to himself My charge I presume is publick as my punishment is visible if there have been any thing in the management of my part being unskilful having discontinued my own countrey many years I shall beseech the Christian Charity of all you my beloved Countrey-men to impute it rightly to the ignorance of my unskilful wayes of managing of affairs it was objected unto me there that I had a vanity of delighting in strange tongues I do acknowledge that I was best skilled in the Italian but free from that vanity I thank Almighty God and therefore I would in defence of my life if it had been the custom here or the Judges favour have used that language which was almost as natural to me as my mother tongue It was objected that I did not so freely as a thorow-paced Cavalier own my Master I was told since I came into England this skill I have in our Laws that a legal denyal in Law might be tollerable I hope I did not exceed the bounds of that in any thing for God forbid that I should be ashamed of serving so good so pious so just a Master putting off his hat for this I rejoyce and I humbly beseech Almighty God to fill my heart and my tongue and all that hear me this day with thankfulness for it As to the business that another construction had been made and believed here then what was there the righteous God knoweth it if any weakness were in the management that was mine I was sent to serve and protect not to injure any as God acquits me of the intention of matter of fact as having not done any manner of evil that way however here understood blessed be his holy name again putting off his hat so those Gentlemen of the Turky Company if they would might acknowledge for they know it very well the impossibility of my doing them any manner of harm Whereas that of the Embassy objected against me that my Master honoured me with it though I was never worthy of it I was his messenger and Internuntio for the conservation onely of his good Subjects of all the Merchants untill such time as he could confirme that Gentlemen now Resident or to send any other and they themselves know that there was an unpossibility as I bless God there was an innocency in me unto any such intention to do them harm for my Masters commands were point blank the contrary I was onely sent for their good as I never owned the title so the very letters themselves speaking no other I never did so much as think of any manner of address to the Grand Signior but gave him the letter from my Master the rest of the English Nation that were there present may when they please assert so much This I would insert that those Gentlemen as they have been losers by the miscarriages of others may now have a breach of their charity with me but if it be as it seems it is now in this Countrey a sin to be loyal I hope my God hath forgiven that when it is upon harmless employment not invading any according to my just Masters order for indeed I have been alwayes bred up in the Religion of Loyalty my Allegiance hath been incorporated into my Religion and I have thought it a great part of the service due from me to Almighty God to serve the King again putting off his hat He said I need not make any apology for any thing in relation to the present Affairs in England for were I as I spake beformy Judges were I as evil as my sentence here hath made me black it were impossible for me to have prejudiced any body in England or to England belonging in that employment but I bless God for his infinite mercy in Jesus Christ who hath taken me to himself by this manner of way it was the best Physick for the curing of my soul and those that have done it have no more Power then that of my body I leave nothing behinde me but that I am willing to part withal all that I am going to is desirable and that you may all know that Almighty God hath wrought in me a total denyal of my self and that there is that perfect reformation of me within of my own corruptions by the blessed assistance of his holy spirit I desire Almighty God in the abundance of the bowels of his mercy in Jesus Christ not onely to forgive every enemy if any such be in the world here or wheresoever but to bring him into his bosom so much good and particular comfort as he may at any time whether the cause
for fear or favour backslide or depart from the same and give them the assistance of thy Spirit that may enable them so to preach thy word that may keep the people upright in the midst of a corrupted and corrupt generation And good Lord bless thy people every where with hearing ears understanding hearts conscientious souls and obedient lives especially those over whom I have had either lately or formerly a charge that with meek heart and due reverence they may hear and receive thy holy word truly serving thee in righteousness and holiness all the dayes of their lives And we beseech thee of thy goodness and mercy to comfort and succour all those that in this transitory life be in trouble sorrow need sickness or any other adversity Lord help the helpless and comfort the comfortless visit the sick relieve the oppressed help them to right that suffer wrong set them at liberty that are in prison restore the banished and of thy great mercy and in thy good time deliver all thy people out of their necessities Lord do thou of thy great mercy fit us all for our latter end for the hour of death and the day of judgement and do thou in the hour of death and at the day of judgement from thy wrath and everlasting damnation good Lord deliver us through the cross and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ In the mean time O Lord teach us so to number our our dayes and me my minutes that we may apply our hearts to true wisdom that we may be wise unto salvation that we may live soberly godly and righteously in this present world denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts Lord teach us so to live that we may not be afraid to dye and that we may so live that we may be alwayes prepared to dye that when death shall seize upon us it may not surprise us but that we may lift up our heads with joy knowing that our redemption draws nigh and that we shall be for ever happy being assured that we shall come to the felicity of the chosen and rejoyce with the gladness of the people and give us such a fulness of thy holy Spirit that may make us stedfast in this faith and confirme us in this hope indue us with patience under thy afflicting hand and withal a chearful resolution of our selves to thy divine disposing that so passing the pilgrimage of this world we may come to the Land of promise the heavenly Canaan that we may reign with thee in the world to come through Jesus Christ our Lord in whose blessed name and words we further call upon thee saying Our Father c. Let thy mighty hand and out-stretched arme O Lord be the defence of me and all other thy servants thy mercy and loving kindness in Jesus Christ our salvation thy true and holy word our instruction thy grace and holy Spirit our comfort and consolation to the end and in the end through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen His Speech and Prayer ended with much meekness and spiritual consolation He submitted his neck to the stroak of the Axe to as great a loss of the Church of Christ and of all good men as hath happened in our times I have the more enlarged my self that my Reader might not without a kinde of a consternation or possession of strange amazement pass by the concernments of this blessed Heroe The same day of Doctor Hewets tryal was also tryed John Mordant of Clement Danes Esquire with whom he was a fellow-prisoner the charge against him was for combining with Henry Bishop of Parham in Sussex Gent. Hartgil Baron and Francis Mansil with divers others for raising War against Oliver Lord Protector in the behalf of Charles Stuart and confering with J. Stapely Esq Henry Mallory and others how to effect the same and delivering Commissions to several persons in the name of and as from the said Charles Stuart c. He stood long upon it as did the Doctor before to have Councel assigned him and that he might be tryed by a Jury but finding it would not be granted he at last pleaded not guilty many witnesses deposited against him yet he by his ingenuity so cleared himself that notwithstanding many endeavours to the contrary he was discharged July the 17. following Collonel Ashton and John Betley were executed the one in Tower-street the other in Cheapside Collonel Ashton was the first being drawn on a Sled that Worthy Divine Doctor Warmestry submitting for the good of a poor Christians soul to lye along with him upon the Sled that he might lose no time for his spiritual converse They were drawn from Newgate to Towerstreet over against Mark-lane end where a Gibbet was erected As he ascended the Ladder Doctor Warmestry said Almighty God who is a strong Tower be with thee and make thee know and feel that there is no other name under heaven whereby to attain everlasting life but by the name of Jesus The Blessing of God the Father the Son and Holy Ghost be with you henceforth and for ever Amen He being upon the Ladder exprest a great deal of confidence he had in the merits and mercies of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ not doubting but that through the red Sea of his blood he should arrive at the heavenly Canaan and in little space behold his Saviour whom his soul so much longed after Then fixing his eyes upon the multitude he spake to this effect I am brought here to a shameful death I am an English man borne and as many know a Gentleman born I was drawn into this business by several persons and am now brought here for my former sins God hath delivered me several times from several judgements he hath visited me at this time because I slighted and did not pursue that repentance that I promised Therefore I desire all good people to leave off their sins for Christ his sake and become new men for it is that that brings all men to ruine I beseech God of mercy have mercy upon my soul Lord God I come to thee Lord the Father of heaven have mercy upon me O God the Son Redeemer of the world have mercy upon me O God the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son have mercy upon me Remember not my offences but spare me good Lord God I beseech thee spare thy servant whom thou hast redeemed for thy dear Sons sake I have no more to say but desire the prayers of all good people Having ended his Speech he committed his spirit into the hands of God and having said Lord have mercy upon my soul he was turned off the Ladder and instantly cut down his belly ripped up and his bowels burnt in a fire ready prepared for that purpose he being not yet dead then was his head cut off and his body divided into four quarters put into a basket and conveyed back to Newgate Next they proceeded and fetcht John Betley for there was a great deal