brave Eccho are not such men worthy of the Honourable tears of Israel or else Israel hath reasoÌ„ to mourn for the senselesnesse and stupidity of their own hearts And for the State and honour of mourning it is an ancient solemnity credited by time and great examples yea and almost the common sense of mankind For both Egyptians and Israelites concurre in weeping for Jacob whose Exequies were performed in great Equipage when he was cared out of Egypt and not to instance in more examples it s said of Hezekiah that all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honour 2 Chron. 32 33. at his death and laid him up in the highest Cell of the Sepulchers of Davids sons such is the convictive Majesty of goodness that this idolatrous-hearted people follow their great Reformer to his grave with honour De purgat lib. 1. c. 3. In vaine doth Bellarmine goe about to prove out of these solemnities that they are done ad juvandas animas Wee find no Law of sacrifices for the dead these expressions are but civill indexes of honourable sorrowes a debt owing to Worthies while they liv'd and the remainder paid at their death Like the after-beames of the Sun which follow him to his bed and we were unworthy heires of their famous acts if out of their owne goods we could not allow them answerable interrment and if any Cynicke in his morosity shall say that it matters not humine an in sublimi putrescat Let him enjoy a Philosophicall rotting in what ditch he please we know there is the buriall of an Asse the graves of the common people which is something above that 2 Chron. 21. 20. and higher yet there is a buriall in the City of David but not in the Sepulchers of the Kings and amongst the Sepulchers of the Kings There are lower and higher Cells Honour will follow after worth and merit even into its grave We doe not lay up the carkasse of every Cole-ship with that respect as that of Drakes was though confessedly the one must rot as well as the other So much for the opening of the point Now I come to the words Doe you not know by their hand to serve in the uses of this point 1. Know ye not You Princes and great men that ye must fall 2. Know ye not You lower Shrubs that these Cedars must fall For you that are Princes and great men I may say of you as Xâ—rxes weeping said of his vast Army within these few lusters of yeares there shall not be one of you standing but all fallen and let me set this deaths-head before you For I have no other dish nor am I likely ever to entertaine such a Table-full of so great guests while I live againe let it therefore First Humble you and give me leave to follow the chariot of your greatnesse with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remember that you must fall Greatnesse hath need of some correctives You are such Pictures that if one stand of the one side of you You are Gods but if he looke upon you on the other side You are men and must dye like men this takes you one step lower nay we may goe lower yet For man being in honour without understanding is like the beasts that perish We are all proud pride is the shirt of the soule which it puts off last when it shifts And every rising ground of authority or power makes us rise in thoughts The very bramble if it get a snatch of authority will be talking of his shadow Oh that you had the meeknes of that Moses whose face did shine but he knew not that I speake this by allusion the skin of his face did shine I would that but every tenth thought of your rising was accompanied with one thought of your falling And yet you have more reason to have death in your eyes then other men because the Venice Glasses and China mettall of your fine and tender bodies will not abide so great a stroak as other earthen pots of courser mettall I will not offer to you those complements with death whereof we read good store in use among great men as the boy that cry'd Memento te mortalem or that of presenting severall sorts of Marble to the Emperor upon his Coronation day that he might then chuse which he would have for his Tombe c. But let me presse the sense of your falling condition to humble you I doe not meane by humilitie a morall familiarity or courtesie toward those of lower ranke which yet is agracefull condescency of Greatnesse But I meane a stooping to the reproofes of the Word of God brought unto you by the Ministers thereof who are but earthen vessels like your selves Submit your cheek to reproofs for your owne fins and of your Families Let not your iniquities take sanctuary in your greatnesse Frowne not your Chaplaines into a meal-mouth'd basenesse so that they dare no more make a darke or oblique reflection upon your darling sins then take a Beare by the tooth If you will bleed out your ill bloud you must pull off your Velvet sleeve and let the â—â—me be bare to the point of the knife Keep no State against God though he speake thunder and lightning by the mouth of dust like your selves A man never makes worse use of his greatnesse then by it to cast a muzzle over the mouth of sound and searching reproofes And it is a just judgment of God upon such men that they should have Prophets that will say to Ahab Goe up and prosper Secondly Quicken you to activity in your places while you live that you may serve your generation according to the will of God before you dye and see corruption otherwise you are but blind lights in golden Candlesticks You are in great debt both to the Church and Common-wealth they have trusted you with all they have and your bond is good but yet be not offended if they call hard upon you to pay your debts for you are mortall men and we know not what Heires or Executors you may leave behind you The Creditor is oftentimes broken in the Debtors death Get death into your minds and it will put life into your actions what you found made of poore Bricke leave in stately Marble and be not like many who while they are rising appeare very active and stirring men but when they are up doe freeze into a benummed slownesse like Bels that strike thicke when they are rising and afterwards when they are at full pitch are set put your selves on with this spurre I must shortly dye How should I live fruitfully The night will come how should I labour while it is day I wish well to things that are good but Bene â—ogitare est bene somniare a good thinker is but a good dreamer nothing more sads and duls the heart when one comes to dye than his neglect of such opportunities which Gods providence or his owne place have pâ—t into his hand
Robert Earle of Essex his Excellence Generall of the Army Imployed for the defence of the Protestant Religion the safety of his Maties Person and of the Parliament the preseruation of the Lives Liberties of the Subiects Aetatis suae 56. THE HEARSE OF THE Renowned THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ROBERT EARLE OF ESSEX and Ewe Viscount Hereford Lord Ferrers of Chartley Bourchier and Lovaine sometime Captaine Lord Generall of the Armies raised for the defence of King and Parliament As it was represented in a Sermon preached in the Abbey Church at Westminster at the Magnificent Solemnity of his Funerall Octob. 22. 1646. By RICHARD VINES Eccles 12. 5. Man goeth to his long home and the mourners goe about the streets Published by Order of the House of Peeres LONDON Printed by T. R. and E. M. for Abel Roper at the Sign of the Sun against Dunstans Church in Fleet-street 1646. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE The House of PEERES Assembled in PARLIAMENT Right Honorable I Have performed what service I am able to the memory of the renowned Lord deceased And to the Commands of that Right Honorable and Noble Triumvirate which gave being to this Sermon And to your Lordships by whose Order I have adventured upon this Publication All men except such whose either morosity or malignity doth account vetera in laude praesentià in fastidio must acknowledge the worth the valour the faithfulnesse which lie under the Robes you weare and that it is not a meere borrowed Opinion which makes you Honorable but the reflection or rebounding back of that upon you which went first out from you But this Sermon will teach you that Titles of Honour are written in dust and that Princes and great men must fall their very Monuments are mortall and will in time be found as Archemedes his Tomb by Cicero in vepretis over-growne with Thorns and Bryers and that light of memory which shines after your Sun-set is but like the Moon which wanes also by degrees No glory that 's woven in the finest Tapestry of this world but will lose colour decay and perish but saving grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a possession for eternity your zealous agency for the Church and State will carry you as far towards Immortality as any other Chariot in this world It s as much as nothing when one can say no more of a man then is said of some great ones that they reigned and died The Gen. 36. 33. Lord give you hearts actuated with zeal for God together with a right temperament of counsels knowing that you are over a people who as Tacitus saith nec totā servitutem pati possunt nec totam libertatem and if your fall do come before you see or reap the fruit of your labours The Lord make you such as may take comfort with you and leave Honour behinde you so prayeth Your Lordships most humble and unworthy servant in and for Jesus Christ RICHARD VINES Die Veneris 23. Octob. 1646. ORdered by the Lords in Parliament assembled That this House gives thanks to Master Vines for the great pains by him taken yesterday in the Sermon hee preached at the solemnization of the Funerall of the Earle of Essex deceased And hee is hereby desired to Print and Publish the same which is not to be Printed by any but by Authority under his own hand Jo. Browne Cleric Parliamentorum I appoint Abel Roper to print this Sermon Richard Vines A SERMON PREACHED At the Solemnization of the Funerall of the Right Honorable ROBERT Earle of ESSEX c. Right Honorable c. AS that Lot sent forth to attach a particular man Josh 7. 16. did move gradatim and by steps taking first the Tribe then the Family then the House and at last the Man after which manner of progression though at fewer steps Jonathan was also taken 1 Sam 14. 42. So doe the trackes or vestigia appearing to your eye lead you at two or three removes to the most sad occasion of this extraordinary and magnificent solemnity The Escocheons which are the Index of the Family do speak first and tell the name of that honourable Family which this Lot hath taken And this sable field of men charged with a stately Herse honoured with so great a confluence of names and titles of honour granted either by the Sword or Gowne whether Honourable Worshipfull or Reverend and that in this place where the Dij majorum gentium have their Shrines where the Lions of England have usually put off their exuvias and where Majestie and highnesse have laid up what of Mortality they had doth proclaime him to bee some Prince or great name of that Family whom the Lot hath taken But then the Military Equipage the mourning Drumme the broken Launce the insignia Instruments of Warre reversed and in a mournful posture The Truncheon in a dead hand doe speake the very man It is Jonathan that is taken And shall Jonathan dye that hath wrought so great salvation in Israel It is alas too late to say shall Jonathan dye This Jonathan cannot be rescued by the love of Israel therefore I must sadly lay the Scene in one that is already 1 Sam. 14. 45. fallen for do not yee know that there is a Prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel 2 SAM 3. 38. Know yee not that there is a Prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel THIS Text presents you with the Herse of Abner a Prince and a great man fallen in Israel This day presents you with a paralell Herse of a Prince and a great man fallen in England both of them magnificently attended with the drooping statelines of publike and universall lamentation That I may set up some lights about the Herse of Abner you may please to call to minde 1. His Office 2. His Project 3. His Fall 4. His Funerall 1. His Office was Captaine of the Host or stylo novo Lord Generall of the Forces of Israel it was not so much because he toucht King Saul in bloud being Cousin-Germane as in respect of this high command that he is called A Prince and a great man 2. His Project which he had upon the Anvile now at his death was the reducement of all Israel unto the Scepter of David herein his Project concurr'd with Gods but took rise in him from an ill or suspicious ground Ishbosheth doth but question him for familiar usage of a Concubine of Sauls which if true was in those times accounted a kinde of Crimen Majestatis and this heats his bloud for great Instruments will not beare a checke and thereupon his Stomack brings him off to David God useth the sins and great Spirits or animosities of great men though they be not carried by Conscience to bring to birth his owne purposes and promises made to his Davids 3. His Fall which was by the hand of pretended revenge but reall emulation the spirit of Caesar and
War and generally to men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in headship or power whether Military Judg. 4. 2. 2 King 9. 5. or Senatorian yea though a man bee but the fore-man of his ranke Great man is a note of some singular eminencie above the ordinary trees of the wood and is a title given even to a Nabal that hath 3000. sheep and 1000. 1 Sam. 25. 2. goats which is the meanest ranke of greatnesse But where a great man is added to a Prince it may well import as much as magnificent a man of powerful interest great valour honourable atchievements noble activity in his place Magnus is an addition or hatchment by which Alexander Pompey Carolus c. have beene sirnamed for their great services or exploits So that a man by his orb or place he is set in is Princeps but by his influence and beams of worth raying from him upon the sublunary Commons he is Magnus It is an excellent conjunction a Prince and great man According to style of honour with us a man may be noble by birth discent or blood And though I be none of the new Switzers that could wish Princes Canton'd into the common level yet I may put you in mind that Antiquity of Race is but a Moss of time growing upon the back of worth or vertue And if a man carry not the primigeniall vertue with him which first made his race noble he is but a flower by change of soile degenerated into a weed as having nothing in him but the wax or matter without the form and stamp of Noblenesse And you know also that Nobility is often times the creature of a Prince his fancy which when there is no intrinsecall worth to be the supporter of it is as Charren saith but Nobility by parchment It 's a Cap. d◠Nobilitate brave consociation when the goodnesse and activity that makes you great is as high as the place which makes you Princes for if that crazy fancy take a man which possest some great ones they would be called Gods and personate an ostentation of greatnesse above men it may bewray pride madnesse but can never so far deceive the sense of underlings but that they will say as the Cobler did to Caligula in that state and humour that hee was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great Dotard It is the acting of your power and place which makes you great I cannot teach you to be princes Fortuitum est but I can tell you how to be great men not great in the glasse which Parasiticall flattery holds before you but indeed and that is thus Fill the sphere of your activity the Church and State the Towne or Countrey with the powerfull and benigne influences that flow from intrinsecall worth make the times the better for you Constraine by your example your inferiours to know God and reform their Families Let not Profanesse hide it selfe under the wing of your patronage nor lessen it self by the greatnesse of your examples Impartial speedy Justice with sweet refreshing Mercy will make you great men in the Commonwealth Zeal and Syncerity for God and his House will make you great men in the Church He that will be a great man must draw his lines to the center of publike good private ends never make a great man 2. The subject of this Lamentation is one Prince one great man Yee are called as some interpret the word the Corners of the people the Shields the Gods the Saviours the Shepheards of the people the Ministers of God for Good Benefactors c. Now the fall of one great Tree makes a great gappe in the hedge the Eclipse of one of the greater ruling Luminaries benights the world Our Lives Liberties c. are all bound up in you we poor men steal into our Graves with no greater noyse than can be made by a branch of Rosemary or a blacke Riband No body takes notice of the Gloeworme that goes out in the hedge bottome No Comet or Prodigie or Earth-quake tolls us the knell of our departure but one of you is carried forth by the teares of all ISRAEL provided that you be what your Names import publick men common Sanctuaries of the oppressed Cities of Refuge Altars of protection for otherwise you may be such as that your death would be more worth then your lives and then though you may be able to put men into black you cannot put them into mourning your death cannot be worth a teare when your lives are not worth a prayer 3. The subject of this Lamentation is a Prince A great man fallen Death is a fall from every thing but grace some do fall from a higher Scaffold great men fall divers stories from Honour Riches Offices others from the surface of a level ground having nothing to fall from but naked life Saints dye the gods doe fall I need not stand to prove it there is not one of you great men but shall be the proofe of this point shortly The Law of Death runs thus All Honours Titles c. to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding there is no Prerogative to check this Law I will not garnish this Deaths-head with fine fragments of Poetry and such stuffe nor would I at all set it before you as a standing dish were I not surrounded with so great a Corone of Princes and great men and haply some of you may be of Lewis the Eleventh his minde that charged all about him that they should not name the terrible word Death which yet you must heare of for it is the way of all the earth the house of all the living your long home or house of perpetuity of which its said Job 3. 14. 1 King 2. 2. Job 30. 2◠Luciannecy Kings Counsellours Princes small and great are there and there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their bones and skeletons have no Inscription or Titles of Honour remaining on them The way to this house of all the living is as one saith sanguinea or lactea the bloudy or the milkie that is the common naturall or usuall way The former is troden by great men the Prince in my Text was sent home this way and so was the first man in the world that dyed The Sword hangs in a hair over the heads of great ones who are often cut Adrian the fourth Acts and Monum off by the hand of emulation and animosity That slaughter-house of Rome where it hath been practised by the Popes themselves who as one of them said do rather succeed Romulus making his way by blood then Peter hath sent out cruell Emissaries to cut off famous men by a meritorious knife How happily may you the Worthies of our Israel call to mind the goodness of that great God who hath bound the hands of such assassinating blood-suckers from executing their fury upon you all this while that you by renowned industry and zeale have given provocations to Rome and Hell The Common
of receiving doing good Not is there a sharper corrosive than the reflection upon those dayes and times that have passed over him Male aliud nihil agentem The highest hils are the barrennest ground and I would that saying did not so truly square to great Ones that is that the goodliest Trees as Cedars c. doe either beare none or the worst Fruit. Great parts and abilities without exercise and putting forth are but secret and unknowne Mines of Silver and Gold which lye hid in an unfruitfull and unprofitable soyle And therfore you the great and Noble Worthies in whose hands are the Publike Faith the Publike Mercy the Publike Justice and the Publike Peace be good and let your goodnes make you quicke dispensers of what you have in Stewardship because the time is short and the word redde rationem may be given suddenly look upon us as mortall men who shall not live long to receive and upon your selves who shall not live long to give the fruits of your hands And because the Occasion invites me let me propound an object to your charitable justice that is the relief of those great sufferers who have bin great doers I meane the first adventurers with this great Commander when he first cut through the Alps. As for the great and doubtfull matters that are under your hand I would not be thought so rash as to wish you to precipitate A Pilot among shelves and rocks may be too quick A Cunctator sometime saved the Common-wealth only thus I may pray that when the Haven lyes faire before you and is without barre you may fortiter occupare set in stifly lest new waves raised by crosse winds carry you backe into the Main againe 3. Arme you against your fall that the day therof may be to you as the Passion-day of the Martyrs was called the birth-day of Eternity Nequaquam morte mortemini was the inlet of our sin and misery keeps the doore open to sin still The Epicure hath his Armour against death a senselesse consideration of it as of a nothing or a not being The great Spirit hath his Armour too A contempt of death out of principles of Valour and Honour but neither of these Armours can keep the arrow from the quicke There is a terrible clause in the Statute of dying And after that the judgement Nor yet will I goe about to arme you with this meditation that we shall have a shorter journey from death to life again than we had from not being unto life or that which is cited by Gerard out of Luther that all the time that hath run or shall run out from the beginning to the end shall seeme to Adam when he riseth againe but tanquam somnus unius horae as the sleep of the body for one houre But if you will breake the fall which else will breake you then you Gods must become Saints for all Gods are not Saints the death of Saints is more precious then the death of Gods Grace is speciall baile against death there is no gall and vinegar in it to be drunk by them for whom Christ hath already drunke it Death saith the Apostle is yours because contributory and subservient to your happines That life which is hid with Christ in God is out of the reach of death our Saviour proves Abraham to be living because God had long after his death said I am the God of Abraham Those that are confederate with God in Covenant must always live that the Covenant may not be dissolved by the death of the one party There is a way then to break the teeth of death and to be immortall Have God for your God labour to have something in you that is immortall besides your very souls lay up for your selves a treasure beyond the sea of death that when this membrana dignitatis as Seneca cals it a thin skin of honour breaks you may not be quite bankrupts enrich your souls with the power of godlines which is profitable to all things The place of Princes the magnificence and great works of great men The faith and godlines of poore men doe make a rare composition Do not in stead of disarming death arme it rather against you by putting a sword into the hand of it The more service that you may doe by the advantage of ground you stand upon the heavyer will your accounts be if your greatnes be made a Stage and Theater for to act the parts of luxury lasciviousnes oppression upon What difference is there between such gods and those in Homer of whose drunkennesse and adulteries there is frequent mention let me speake one word to you young Noblemen and Gentlemen Learne you the way of godlinesse that may free you from the loosenesse and vanitie incident to greatnesse for when you have given florem Diabolo the floure of your time to lusts of youth your fall may come before you can so much as give faecem Deo the dregs thereof to God I conclude this point with that which one observes upon Gods seeing all the works that he had made that they were very good for then immediately saith he followed the Sabbath or rest of God which though our salvation be not of workes may signifie thus much to you that when you shall come to a retrospect upon your wayes and works and find them so empty of and contrary unto God there can be no expectation of a Sabbath or rest unto your soules and therefore wash ye make ye cleane c. Isa 1. 16 17. The second Know ye not is spoken to you the lower shrubs You are to know that your great men may fall in the very time of their usefulnesse and service for your good In their losse bewaile your sins for though you feele not the stroke while the wound is fresh and green yet afterwards you will find the want of such as are worthy instruments when wee expect they should doe great things God by taking them away interrupts the cast Put not therefore your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no salvation for his breath goeth forth and in that very day his thoughts perish Ps 146. 3 4. even his projects and intentions for your good dye in the wombe and are abortive If we leane hard upon the reed it breaks the sooner and wee are laid flat on the ground God will not let his people enjoy that long which they prize too much some worme shall smite that gourd and it shall wither and though many great men are not likely to be blasted by the confidence of the people yet our sad experience teacheth us that we smell too much to our sweetest flowers and so wither them I Shall now come to the paralell Herse of that Prince and great man fallen this day in England of whom though modestie it selfe may without blushing speak in a magnificent stile yet have my thoughts waved me too and fro it not being easie to be
way is troden by you great ones too for ye Gods do die and ye Princes shall fall like other men If you run your Genealogies high enough you will finde your selves but as other men in the fretum or narrow sea of Mankinde that divided the two Ocean worlds the Arke of Noah and thence if ye hold your way upward you will be found the sons of Adamah common dust And you that are the highest dust raised up a puff of winde of Honour above other men are laid like the small dust with one drop of rain There is a great Arbiter of all things that can thunder the proud Emperour under his bed and write the great King at three or foure words into trembling That can send Adrian the fourth Acts and Monum a Fly to fetch the Triple Crown before his Tribunal and make a hair or the kernel of a Raisin as mortall as Goliah his spear That can unspeake the whole world into nothing and blowe down a great bubble with an easie breath That by drawing one nail can throw down the stateliest building and undresse your souls by unpinning one pin If he take the Bridle off the head of that fire that 's in you it presently burns you up by a Fever If he loose the water it drownes you by a Dropsie If he lay his hand upon your mouth he takes away the airy difference betweene sleep and death He saith to Moses Go up and die and it follows after Moses my servant is dead Every man hath a day which is called His day and death never makes returne 1 Sam. 28. 10. Non est inventus in baliva nostra 4. The subject of this Lamentation is a Prince and a great man fallen in the time of his agency usefulnesse for the settlement of the destractions of Israel The key of the story unlocks the sense of these words This day in Israel It was a time that the promise of God to David was at the birth and the Midwivery of Abner was offered Let Abner otherwise be what he will for a man God may use an Egyptian midwife to bring forth the child of an Israelite But this great man falls in the very nicke of time before the good issue of his designes Let me point out this Observation to you It s not unusuall that great builders catch a fall when they are upon the scaffold aboute their worke Oh how it amazeth the faith of Gods people when the star that led them out of their own Countrey goes out of sight before it have brought them to their journeys end That youngling world of Reformation in Luthers time had a sore temptation when it must see the fall as I may say of the Electour of Saxony and others that were pillars of hope Moses must live no longer then to bring Israel into the plains of Moab himselfe is allowed but a prospect of that he hoped to have enjoyed and to have brought Israel into We are not without presidents our eyes have seen some of our greater lights eclipsed pleno orbe when they have been at their Full. The great God that hides his Counsels knows his Works from the begining to the end and he takes off such Instruments that he may shew that he doth not need is not tied to any tool for he made the great world without any When he saith Faciamus he speaks to himselfe alone not to himselfe and man Thus he makes way for some other Providence to come upon the Stage and brings about his Worke by a more crooked Instrument which wee imagined should be done by a strait one So Israel is speedily reduced to David though Abner fall Or he humbles his people just before his promises take effect and first strikes them dumb before he open their mouthes in a Benedicite that the lowlinesse of his handmaidens may break forth into a Magnificat or the time is not yet come that Israel is to be brought out of Egypt and therefore though Moses begin to rescue the Israelite and slay the Egyptian yet he must flee for it and be hidden for Fourty years Or else he pulls the stool of our confidence from under us because we sit down upon it or else pulls up the sluce of some judgements which have been hindr'd by some Lot or great man or whatsoever it be We see that God writes the Names of our best and greatest men in the shell and takes them away by a kind of Ostracisme All the help hope and comfort is that God hath all instruments eminently in himselfe and can raise up a Ioshua in steed of Moses Wherefore if his Disciples cannot cast out the evill Spirit let us come to himselfe and make our selves as sure of his Word by faith as he is sure of his word by promise for though Ioseph die in Egypt yet he layes his bones at stake that God will surely visit his Israel Gen. vlt. ver 25. 5. All this that hath been said a Prince a great man fallen at such a time is just reason of sad and solemne lamentation and therefore David and Israel is in this mourning posture such a man whose influence had a large circumference or sphaere while he lived is followed by an honour and sorrow of the same compasse when he dyes You Princes and great men death will tell what the world thought of you while you live it may be Sycophants flatterers lay their egges in your eares and hatch monstrous opinions in you of your greatnesse Such Rooks usually build in the highest Trees and on the other side envy detraction may breath upon the glasse of your reputation that it shall not while you live report so cleare an Image of you but death wil make thorow-lights in you that you shall be seen on both sides sorrows will not cannot be tongue-tyed you will then begin to reape your due Then the world breaks out into these expressions Hee was a brave man He was a great Courtier that could not be curbed with a white staffe to bee of counsell to subvert the freedomes of his Countrey He was a Captain that could draw a line but not to the ignoble center of his private ends He was a Justice that would scatter the drunkards from their Ale-bench and did not understand the language of a bottle or a basket He was a Nehemiah whose kindnesses were great which he shewed to the house of God and the Offices thereof He was a Minister that could not only thunder in his Doctrine but lighten in his Life He was a Papinian a great Lawyer but hee would not defend Imperiall and arbitrary exorbitances though he dyed for it He was a man that appeared stood for the truth and for God in the worst times when the Summer birds were hidden in their hollow Trees He was a man firm and fixed and studied not the neutral art of putting off the cap to one and making a leg to another And is not this a
No Proclamation of Treason could cry him down nor threatning Standard daunt him That in that misty morning when men knew not each the other whether friend or foe by his arising dispel'd the fogge and by his very name commanded thousands into your service Such as were for Reformation and groaned under pressures in Religion he tooke by the hand and they him Such as were Patriots and would stand up for common Liberties he tooke by the hand and they him and so became the bond or knot of both as the Axletree of the world upon which both the Poles doe move And this must be his honour alone for ever for though Ioshua also doe admirably when he comes to it yet it is Moses that first leads forth Israel by their Armies Thus he enter'd and for his deportment upon the Stage and the experience he gave of himselfe who knowes not it Such was his personall valour as if nothing but steele had gone to his composition The instances are famous In that great battell at Edge-hill where this Kingdome had her first Crisis upon a Sabbath day our wars have now fulfilled above halfe a weeke of yeares when he had lost a wing yet he flew about Et nullo discrimine notum dux an miles erat He shewed his Army there what a man they had adventured with in their first Voyage No I prae sequar Captaine but one whose Valour gave the word sequimini me with whose steele it s no disparagement to say that his for ever famous Chieftaines sharpned their edge and so that hill was made a standing Trophee your enemies Right Honourable from that day begun to take you for a Parliament I must leave to the large Map of his Story those many memorables victories which bear his name for even great places doe not always find any room in a little Map and shall instance him but in one other particular that famous expedition to Gloucester when we were at a very low water and this Eagle had then also moulted his feathers and having imped them with renowned Londoners did fight the greatest part of that long march thither where the then Governour whom I may borrowing Cicero his word call hujus Regni Stator the Stator of the Kingdome of England because he tooke the enemy his horse by the bridle in his full career and stopt him and being resolved to sell that City to them by the candle was rescued before the candle dropt by this noble Champion who retreating from that Tropick fought his way backe againe through hunger and hardship and because this Retreat should not be like an empty field without some charge He scattered that great Army near Newbery and to you this renowned City reddidit Legiones restored your valiant Legions and restored England to it selfe An unparalell'd Expedition His Faithfulnes was like Touch or Marble without any streaming flaw no Honours Offices or whatsoever beares the name of greatnesse could bribe it The two Indies would have bin as dirt He knew the Pole he must saile by and steered not by a mercenary Compasse He had espoused the Senate and Liberties of England and was resolved aut liberare fidem aut solvere animam His ends so far as one may learne the marke by the Archers eye were not private interests respects or parties to be served upon the ashes of publike ruins Talk of gold to souldiers of fortune He was Themistocles A right line drawne from the Center you set him would have cut the center of his aimes and ends Had you falne upon such a Merchant as would have been eccentricke to you and have cauponated the war to raise his private interest or have put in the great fraught he was trusted with and consigned the Cargazone to some Royall Port oh what a Ferall Table of Proscriptions like that of Syllae's might have bin set up amongst us and your lives have bin bargain'd for and sold as that Triumvirate did the lives of the Senatours of Rome His Counsell and wisedome was such as argued him to be a man that knew conduct He had a fine finger to find out and skilfull to untie or cut the knot In foresight of danger his eyes were open but when he came to execute his Councels his eyes were shut against all impressions of feare and terrour His love and respect to the Souldiery such as became a brave Christian He would not Turkishly fill ditches or stop Canon with them His hand of reliefe was not shut or short to rescued prisoners He affourded honourable respect to naked and wounded valour His countenance paid and arm'd his souldiers when sometimes they wanted both and no wonder if his Schoole bred such a gallant Infantry which had such a Master and such an Usher In summe This Camillus was a second Romulus His Monument needs no inscription for his Epitaph is written in the hearts of men Nothing but ESSEX the Great the Valiant the Faithfull the Parliaments Essex the Essex of England and the Tutelar thereof who added to his Noble Coronet all the Militarie Crownes saving that which is called Navall or the Sea-Crowne which is due to another most Noble Worthy more faithfull than the Element he was then the Master of For his death the Forlorne hope it sent out before it was but sleightly the Physicians thought him bailable but death lay in ambuscado in a full body suddenly surprized him with a dying sleep and now we are erecting of his Monument one of the seven wonders of the World was a Tombe And if the Noble and Famous men who fought under his Banner shall please to be set in for his supporters it will be such a Squadron-Monument as will have no Brother in England untill the time doe come and I wish it may be long first that the most renowned and excellent Champion that now governes the sword of England must now lay his bones by him and then there will be the Alpha and Omega of such a Story as shall render God fearfull in prayses doing wonders by the first hand of him that led us through the untrodden paths of the wildernesse and by the second hand of him that hath made Victory which Homer calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Jack on both sides to change its name who if he shall have but one stone out of each City or strong Hold taken by his Armes to make his Tombe it will be such a Monument that every stone of it will speak a History and some a Miracle Or if that cannot be it will be enough that he lay his head upon an immortall Turff taken out of Naseby field God thought Moses or rather made him the fittest man to begin lead Israel forth and he honored Ioshua with the compleating of the worke neither doth Ioshua eclipse the worth of Moses nor he the worth of Ioshua and so craving pardon of my boldnesse with your patience I have endeavoured to speak wthout reflections upon any nor did I