Jonathan from Jonathan to himself from himself to Jonathan drawing this strong bow of sighs and ejaculations to the head and sending them out like arrows I am undone for thee my Brother whose Sister Michol I have married a faire a wise ingenuous and faithful wife more wives may I live to enjoy but never more must I look to see such another Brother as now is dead Let my loss and lamentation for ever warrant against all gainsayers the ancient custome of Epitaphs and mournings at the departure and loss of friends Use our near and dear Relations Let Adam and Eve forbear their frolicks Fonsâ—â—d ex Heb. Ser. 1. and retire an hundred years in mournings to see the wages of sinne so severely paid in the slaughter of Abel in the death of the bodie and the abandoning of Cain for the soul in this Equipage and traine let Abraham and Jacob Joseph and Jeremy the High Priest and the Old Prophet the people for Moses Aaron and Samuel and me for Saul and Jonathan the Subjects for Josias Christ for Lazarus behold how he lov'd him his Sisters for the same the widow for her Son St. Paul for Epaphroditus and the good women and neighbours for Dorcas Let the Barbarous Laughing and cruel revels the profane fidling and the buriall of an Asse be banisht to the Pagans and as farre off our Christian funerals as the Antipodes to be so Stoical or stockish as to stiflle our good afffections and to strangle our winds in our baggs with Aeolus is unnaturall ungracious unchristian Apathy The will of God is not resisted with tears and weeping he barrs not our affections but bids us let them out be of like affection weepe with them that weep Rom. 12. what though we cannot help it yet le ts weep the more because we cannot t is some ease to let these swelling waters out le ts weep with Xerxes beholding this numerous army of mankind for that within one age not one of them survives into such a ruine hath the sinne of one involv'd us all le ts weep for our selves that have sustained that losse and let the losers have leave to speak that our sinne hath bereav'd us one of a father another of an husband a master a companion a patron a friend if he were good let them deplore the Churches countries houses townships losse if evill as Absalom whose gracelesse crime was as the Mule that carried his hairy scalpe to the tree of execution yet bewaile him the more Manass Ben. Israel de Creat â—robl 19. as David is observed 8 times to have cryed out for him O Absalom my son my son seven times for that sin of rebellion containning the seven degrees of evill that accomplish such a sinner as naught Belial perverse sinful wicked impostor scornful proud high-minded which lead to those seven staires of the infernal dungeon Sheol Abaddon Beor Shacah Bor Tait Haijon Thelamoth Arets Ecclus 22.11 12. Tactith Weepe seven dayes for him that is dead but for a foole all the dayes of his life weep for a noble friend thirty forty dayes an year yet not without hope as if all were cast away blame not nature with Electra nor kill our selves with Jocasta become not a stony fountain with Niobe let heathen rites be out of fashion with men of better hopes baldnesse vociferations hired counterfeits slaying slaves young men sent to death making tombs for horses or keeping solemn funerals with Crassus for a Lamprey with Hadrian for a hen Catullus for a sparrow but weep and overweep again each teare till ten moneths put an end to mournings To conclude rather then want mourners for so noble Jonathans let the widowed Swans in the River and the Turtles in the wood the flowers in the Garden and the fruits of the Trees let the groves and the walkes the chambers and the walls let the bowels of the poor and the backs of his compliants the towns round about and this Church and Pulpit bear a part in this lamentation and say wo is me for thee my brother Jonathan and that for good consideration in the fifth place Magnentha ti meod 5. Very pleasant hast thou been to me pleasant in thy person very beautiful pleasant in thy expression bountiful beautiful the first born son of Saul the properest man in all Israel 1 Sam. 18.4.14.49 50. and bountiful for Jonathan stript himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David and his garments even to his sword and to his bow and to his girdle His beauty is presumed as begotten in the prime of his fathers abilities of Ahinoam the daughter of Ahimaaz whose name signifies my fair sister Jonathan was then a bird of that Eagle and a whelpe of that Lion both Father and Son so renowned in ver 23. Swifter then Eagles stronger then Lions the Kings of birds and of beasts fortes creantur fortibus grapes grow not out of thorns nor figs of thistles David praiseth in them decorem formae constantiam animi Lyra in loc for outward beauty amiable persons for inward bravery of gallant properties The way to the Temple of Honour was through the Temple of Vertue and a fair step to it is to be the son of Nobles a true born Eaglet looking on the sun of gallantry and a princely Lion scorning the affronts of low-bred-currs and whiplets Pearls are begotten of the Orient dews and the fair bed of Whitspar the Spaniards call el madre del ore the mother of gold Dion Chrysostome tells of a family at Thebes that had hereditarily a lance branded in their flesh as a mark of honour by nature See Causinus Eabl Tiraquel de leg con lib. 9 Arsen de Conjug without which they were reputed illegitimate and Bastards nobleness goes by Blood and the word of God itself thrives not but upon good ground an honest and noble heart Doves delight in white houses and the Dove-like Spirit of God takes up her lodging in the fairest coats A Bishop of Millain retained none into his family but the fairest he could choose his reason was Improbitas in egregio corpore vix comperta foule conditions are scarcely found in faire complexions St. Chrysostom notes it of the beggars of his time that from beauteous persons they would expect a bounteous almes God Man and Nature give the preeminence and principality to the fairest even among Blackmores and who will not choose to eat out of the clean dish to lodge in the fairest linnen and his companion to be as Joseph or Jonathan of a sweet complexion What an increase of grace is it to come from a gracious deportment Causâ—â— Embl. and how grand an imposture to behold a fine Gentleman like the Caspian Bird stalk forth and turn him about stately like a Crane with a scarlet back and a green breast a white neck powdered here and there with spots of yellow and to the disgrace of all to come off with a
wounded not his Liver Eyes or Ears The quiver of Christ puts three better into your hands The 1. is the Light of Scripture in this the Man of God must guide and give you aim 2. Is the Death of Nature this directs you to the life of grace The 3. is the day of Censure which keeps you in the fear of God The three first of Satans arrows he was free from and afraid of The three last he was much exercised in and well acquainted with his Example he hath bequeathed to you The Legacy Dear Mistris he hath left to you is comprised in three Counsels Have Purity in your Religion Erpenius Arab. Prov. Patience in your Condition and Prudence in your Conversation To you all and as many as follow these Rules peace be upon them and mercy and upon the Israel of God Gal. 6.16 which is in fine the vote of Your loving Countryman and humble Servant in Christ Jesus RICHARD HUNT JONATHANS BOW 2 SAM 25.26 Oh Jonathan thou wast slaine in thine high places I am distressed for thee my Brother Jonathan very pleasant hast thou been unto me thy love to me was wonderful passing the love of women IT was a solemn custome of the Hebrews to visit the graves of their Friends thereby to remind themselves of their mortalitie Novarin schedas lib. 5. sect 73. and the Bells of Aarons priestly coat were placed in the fringe and bottome of his garment to signifie to the people Origen in Exod. 28. that their passing-bell was alwayes tolling that they might consider their latter ends the bottome of life to them and the judgement to follow after Death David the sweet Singer of Israel accordingly hath lost a friend and for his commemoration and obsequies is musing on a Funeral Song whose name and title must be new and singular which himself will compose and set and then commit in charge to the men of Judah and their children sons and daughters to sing in the houses and streets all abroad as well as to the Choristers in the Quire This singular friend is Jonathan who deserves to have a Song and Lesson set to himself and that is this the Bow of Jonathan so called not for any surmised meaning to set up Artillery in the Common-wealth of Judah Willet ad locum as it was commonly mistaken but to set up and advance the life and death of Jonathan a master at that art of shooting and so excellent a Bowman that he might without arrogancy compare what all that were past challenge all then present and set a sample to all posterity so famous in their Ages Alex. ab Alex. 2 Sam. 22. as that Sythians Parthians Persians and Roman Emperors at the Bow and unexampled skill of shooting might learn of him From the Blood of the slain and the fat of the mighty the Bow of Jon. turned not back That this is the proper and approved sense and intention of David in this Title and that the men of Judah should learn the tune is the importance of the Hebrew word Chesheth the word Bow set emphatically and independently by it self without relation before or after it Serrar Sancher Cor. a Lap. Mariana and Mr. Greg. on the Plar The Seventy Translation sounds no discord but a Ditty dedicate to Lamentation to the same tune the vulgar Latine the report of Josephus that the Elegie continued to his time the custome of Israel to endite their sonnets in this sort and the consent of Gentile Authors to give some signal name and title to their tracts and poesies This Monodie nene or Lamentation funeral was recorded in the Canon and lest that should miscarry or not be exposed to common view behold it is written in the Book of Jasher where every one might read it a Letanie to be sung and a Legacie entailed to the use and memory of Jonathan and generations after him that bare the Burden of the Song O Jonathan Hence by the way we learn that Interpreters are not all in one tune and the opinions of men are of like authority unless reason and learning shew the difference Titles of Musick Lessons are not to be tampered with by unskilful hands lest they mistake a figure for a vulgar forme and dance a false measure after their own fancy like him that took Orpheus harpe supposing to himself like our unstinted fumblers that he made good musick how unskilfully soever he handled it being as St. Paul says to Timothy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men that love to hear themselves to sing or play Next to this we may consider with Solomon 2. Eccles 9.11 that the Race goes not alwayes with the swift as Asahel Mercer ex Midras Ibid. nor the Battle with the strong as Abner nor Bread to to the wise as Solomon nor Riches to men of understanding as Job nor Favour to men of skill as Moses for the swift sahel was overtaken the valiant Abner was slaine the wise Solomon by report beg'd his bread Job the wealthy was wasted to a potsheard and Moses lives not to enjoy a foot of the promised land And Jonathan how art thou made as heire apparent to the fortunes and successes of the most or all of them Proverbs how art thou cut down with the helve of thine own wood how wounded with the feathers of thine own wing how set in the stocks of thine own making how taken in thine own toyle falne in thine own pit roaring in thine own Bull slain by the bow of the Philistims thine own master-piece and weapon how doth time and chance untimely take thee away O Jonathan how wast thou slaine But now my Errand is to bend this Bow another way to teach the children of this coast and country the use of the Bow An ancient way of Triumphs was to erect great Arches or Bows of marble to the honour of worthy Patriots who had been Vindicators of their country against Enemies Pancirol de â—rcubus triumâ—h part 1. tit 28. and true deservers of renown and fame in these were written and inscrib'd the noble acts and atchievements done in memory of the actors hereof were thirty six at Rome and one thousand in the Eastern parts as in China This might be the mind of David and under favour of more knowing judgements may serve to instruct us that passe by to read and consider the merits and noble vertues of our deceased Friend and countreys Worthy who after many testimonies of grace and vertue exhibited in his life was at the last shot by a deadly Philistines arrow that drank up his Spirits riding a summers progress under the Sun that Apollo that in the camp of mankinde smites with his darts of Epidemical diseases here and there to Death Homer Il. 1. leaving us with David to erect his Arch to write his acts and publish his memorial When also all the hearts of the hearers may be so taken like untoucht instruments to resound and eccho
to Saul Artabanus to Cinnamus Sir Tho. Eâ—iol lib. 3. cap. 6. or Ferdinando the Protector to the Castilian Princes faithfully rendred and performed For religion as Jonathan profest and maintained the faith of Abraham and Israel his fathers so he the Church of England eldest daughter to Rome planted here by the Apostles of Christ confirmed and propagated by King Lucius without a license from the Pope making some suite for his counsel but owing none to his court which religion came along though lesse visible in her professors like those rivers that runne under ground or as the Orinoque thorough the salt sea retaining still her fresher water untill at last it brake forth again and was conspicuous to the world in the confession of Augusta and the protestation at Spiers and the Apologies of the Church of England A religion like Christ it s own Law-giver the first and the last the true and pure Elixar Rev. 1.17 drawn out of the new Testament and into that casting off all scum and froth of corrupt times contraction at last resolving it self for when death calls the adversaries to the bar and gives them the book to attest the whole truth nothing but the truth then Bellarmine untwists with Penelope his laborious webb of workes and makes up the whole piece with the onely Tutissimum of trust in Gods mercy for fear of vain-glory and uncertainty of mans righteousness and in this mind and religion he makes his last wil with Lord have mercy on me not as a rewarder of Merits Geor. D. of Saxonic but as an almoner of Pardons Another great Lord a great Anti-protestant in his life is perswaded at his death by his Chancellor to the truth of his own usual saying he is the best Bow-man that shootes next to the mark and so rejecting all other aimes given by his Priests dies Protestant See â—enrad Dieteric Dom. passâ—p 2. obs 1. fixing the arrow of his faith in the onely and pure white of Christs merits A religion which Father Sherer commends to his penitent at last without mention of his former ambageous trifles the Confessor confessing to the sick Sir we use to deal one way with the sound and well but another with the sick and weak Thus the wounded Fowl betakes her self to firm land and leaving her vagaries in the water as Balaam all his Essayes against the truth of Israel Num. 23.10 cries out Let me die the death of the the protestant righteous and let my last end be like unto his Of this religion was the generation of our worthies fathers to three or foure ascents whose noble examples have watered these parts as the four rivers falling from the mountaines of the Moon watered Paradise In this religion to see and observe his Bow and bent his practise in his timely readiness like a morning starre or Lucifer resorting and calling out his family to the publick service of God how have I been comforted and cheared and for the order and harmony in private and at home Jeromâ— I may say with Jerom Videbar mihi interesse choris Angelorum Methought I was among the Quire of Angels and when the bow of death gave him that lamentable blow of which though he left his life yet he took his religion away with him what time he made his compellation to the witnesses round about him that as in the profession of the Church of England he had lived so he resolved to die and in that mind he departed To adde a testimony of his own not setting aside the brethen of the Allobrogick plat-form good God how didst thou incline his heart with Jonathan to Samuel and the men of God to the Clergy constant to their order and of the Orthodox affection Let the house of Aaron now confesse what signal loves they have received as if his house had been a Naioth or Colledge for the entertainment of scholars and an Academy for their resort his nature being composed as Daniels Ish chemdoth a man of desires or a desirable man as Cymbalum mund Dan. 10 11. Palamed to invite them and his various expressions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Nightingal of the Muses to detaine them received with such lowly greeting entertained with such smiling and lovely embraces Theodaret 5.7 fed with such wholesome dishes lodged in the choicest chambers accompanied with so gratefull a presence dismist with such courteous adieus as if Jonathan had strived to ingratiate David or Samuel Theodosius the B. Ambros in ob Val. Meletius with kissing his eyes or lips or Valentinian Saint Ambrose Quem Salutem sibi quandam venturam arbitrabatur whom when he saw he thought some special healthfulness was coming towards him And when maturity invited him to mariage who was the choicest pearl in his eye but the vertuous Margaret allyed collaterally to that mother of pearle his late deceased parent To which choice he was not invited onely by the eyes for beauty that Moon is soon clouded changed or Eclipsed nor by the fingers which values a woman no higher then her portion nor by the eares which by credulity is often cheated with reports but by Solomons character 〈◊〉 1.10 〈◊〉 Her price is farre above pearls and let her own workes praise her in the gates In this his choice he seems to have had a mindful reflection on that name and merit in his mother who like another Rachel Ruth 4 â—â— did build the house of Israel and did famously in Bethlehem that house of bread Here the armes of Lucie and Spencer were enquartered and enclasped in one coate the Pike-fish taken in a net or knot Here Lucie with his match is met As taken with a Spencers net Eros and Anteros love and relove so lively acting interchangeably their parts that oh the pitty they were so soon parted the fight would have made a wise mans heart rejoyce to see it so little or no gall was there in this Junoes sacrifice but all the water turned into wine John 2. and may she bear also his religion name love and just interest in estate as his coat of armes in honour and memorial of such a Jonathan And could my speech reach to the ears of all his brothers and sisters I would appeal to their report whether the losse of their late loving and provident parents was not much eas'd and lightned by his supporting hand becoming a second father in performance and a second mother in compassion how did this Lucifer send light morning-influence motion to fortifie their matches improve their fortunes in all proceedings so long as he appeared oriental Lord of the house and in a right aspect or conjunction with those of lesser magnitudes exceeding the examples of this age as much as Jonathan did of his or the morning starre the scarce appearing twinklers of the times And you his Tenants and servants whom he might say with Pyrrhus he never sent away to wear black clothes in sorrow