memories doe bue deceiue themselues A good Name is a pretious Oyntment powred foorth the perfume of it filleth all the house Thus much of the vvords of my Text. COncerning this occasion of meeting let me also borrow your parience and attention Though I know you haue saued me a labour in the application and your vnderstandings in their cleare light haue seene that this honorable Knight of whom there is now but thus much left euen a morsell fitte for the Wormes and atenant for the house aud a guest for the bedd in the darke of which Iob speaketh Hee hath beene my Teate the Abner the Great and Worthie man whom I haue personated all this while and our Sceane lieth in our Israel and that this fight is the Catastiophe of our Tragedy Yet I beseech you let mee pay the debt which I owe to his loue of mee and the duetie which I acknowledge tributarie to his memory at least to say to you of him as David did of his Abner Knovv ye not that a great c. A man great in his birth and descent as you all know linked by mariage in a most Honorable Familie of a goodly a louely personage of an casie and affable nature where his discretion found it fitt to be so of a daring and hardie spirit of a sterne and sower aspect against the enemies of his Soueraigne magnanimously valiant in his vndertakinges wise in his counsailes speedy and resolute in his executions valuing his worthy life lesse then the common good of his Countrey Witnesse that aduentueous expedition of his Irish seruice where he wrote his volour in the blood of the opposites and filled the care of this Kingdome with the welcome tydinges of his victories Hee was iudicious in the finding out of Virtue magnificent and bounteous in the reward of it 〈…〉 spare in speach but when occasion prompted him rather performing then promising his fauoure and loue where he saw desert Great in the fauoure of the late Maiestie of this Land and succeeding in his loue who succeeded in her greatnes great in his employment and office of trust and charge and for which he forgate not his duetie to God in all humble thankes giuing amongst his dying meditations very fortunate and succesfull great in the loue of the common man that went vnder his charge for the eye that saw him blessed him and euery tongue of theirs beare witnesse of his righteous dealing Great in his estate and means of maintenance for like a Tree planted by the Riuers of vvaters so hee grew and so did God giue him a plentifull encrease But that which maketh all this greatnesse a great deale greater hee had an vnderstanding to know God and an affection to loue him I must not flatter the remembrance of flesh and blood so farre as to exempt him from offending with other men I know that humanitie and infirmitie are indiuiduall But I am his witnesse that he looked vpon his life past with a censorious eye hee charged himselfe with his defaultinges without excuse or mittigation of his sinnes euen with detestation of his vnthriftines of good howers and sorrow for the losse of so pretious minutes that should hane been better spent and with most serious deprecation of Gods wrath It pleased him in my attendaunce vpon his honourable Father in Law into Spayne wherein this worthy Knight had a great place of Commaund and Charge it pleased him in this expedition to take knowledge of mee and often to vouchsafe me his conference and being desirous to sing the songe of the Lord in a strange Land he receiued at my hands the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ accompanied with many worthy Knights Gentlemen of qualitie in one of the Harboroughs of that Land where there was peace for our persons but not for our religion Yea many wayes he testified to mee his loue of God and of our Religion Hee looked iudicially into the difference betweene vs and the Church of Rome touched with commiseration of the darknes wherein they lyued and wishing encrease of zeale amongst vs and knowledge with them After his returne it pleased Almighty God by his last Sicknes to put him in minde that hee must set his House in order For he must die This he maturely regarded and after the setling of his Estate he reserued the remaine of his time as a vacation from all temporall thoughts and consecrated it to his preparation for his remooue of the body that he might dwell with the Lord. It pleased him then to remember his acquaintaunce with mee and when hee had dispatched a Messenger with his Letters to mee to entreat my resort to him I preuented expectation for the vnwelcome newes of his dangerous Sicknesse was to mee messenger enough to call vpon mee to doe so Honourable a Friende my last seruice Hee receiued my free and voluntarie visitation with more then thankes and desirous to be priuate with mee to this purpose he bespake mee First he tolde me of his present weaknes and appeared to mee sensible of his danger of death and therefore protested an earnest desire to spend that short time of life limitted then to him in a religious preparation for that end Hee began at the acousing of his former leawd life so he was pleased to call it with a sorrowfull detestation of it and complayning to mee of his present infirmitie which had so weakened his memorie vnderstanding that he could not lay him selfe so open before God as he desired nor comprehend in fitte wordes his suite to God for pardon of his sinnes and the assistance of his holy Grace to the last gaspe as he wished Hee earnestly desired mee to conceiue a forme of confession of his sinnes to God and a Prayer for those mercies which I might leaue with him when I should depare from him This I soone satisfied him in for I had more vse herein of my memorie of that which he had deliuered to mee then of my inuention for that which I was to delyuer to him His sorrowes had the true face of woe and his feeling of his owne griefe for finne was so sensible his zeale so feruent his humiliation made him so deiected that I saw in him a true mirrour and president of repenting in good earnest O let mee heare the tongue speake which is prompted by a soule truely humbled before God Hee vsed this forme of Prayer with an affection sanctified and a Spirit wayned from this world And this done he desired mee now to supply the weakenes of his memorie by calling into his remembraunce those thinges which are most fitte to be the last thoughts of a dying man I spared not my best endeuour herein and entertained him with all the comfortes which I could Hee heard mee attentiuely vnderstandingly consentfully and beleeuingly And confessed this doctrine of Peace which passeth all vnderstanding to be the best Phisicke and that onely which now he desired Thus commending him to my earnest Prayers to God hee dismissed mee pro testing that he had much cheared and refreshed his ouercharged spirit with these holy exercises hee desired mee to repaire to him the morning following betimes this I did gladly and full of hope that the Lord would haue mercy on vs that he might liue When I came hee gaue mee a louing and chearefull welcome and then desired mee not to depart from him till I had seene the last of him Hee told mee of the sorrowes which he had sustained the night past and that he saw no possibilitie of life beyonde the morning following he found such decay in himselfe then I vnderstood how in the night past he had called vpon God and what good watch he kept that if at midnight or at the dawning God had sent for him hence hee might not be vnprouided Hee then in the hearing of vs all present made his confession of sinnes and prayers to God so earnestly and effectually that when he requested vs all to pray to God for him hee taught vs to be importunate and that it past not good manners to take no nay of our God I neuer sowed my comfort in a better ground for I began to reape ere I had done sowing Hee heard our prayers for him with grea◠content comfort This whole day was spent in prayers and reading of those things to him which might best endeare to him the ioyes of Heauen and when he felt his decay more sensible he desired our prayers to God for him againe as loth to loose the aduantage of any minute of that short time of his life and after vs hee sayd the Lords Prayer to our great reioycing in his zeale who grieued so much for his weakenesse and hee testified to vs witnesses the Religion and Fayth wherein hee died I desired him to be plaine and true to me in one demaunde I shewed him how those that are in miserie as Iob speaketh seeke after death and reioyce when they can finde the Graue but their miserie and wearines of suffering bringeth foorth in them these defires But for him who had plentie of all that his heart could wish for his meanes of maintenance greatnesse in his place honour 〈…〉 s employments 〈…〉 ce with his Soueraigne loue with the 〈…〉 tude and the common language of all men to applaude his noble desertes of the state in which hee liued I enquired therefore if hee who bad so many prouocations to desire to liue could be content to forsake this life and all these thinges Hee smiled cheerefully and protested that hee dyed as willingly as that poore man mentioned in Iob that had nothing but miserie to forsake for Heauen was his hope and GOD his exceeding great reward Shortly after hee began to decay more and more and slumbring out a little time after some pange and strong Conuulsions hee fell into this last sleepe leauing teares in euery beholders eye and deuiding amongst vs his friendes and followers a well witnest sorrow and leauing this body of clay to these our last obsequies Thus leauing him with God and to God commending our selues I conclude I haue but planted and watered the Lord giue the encrease FINIS
A SERMON Preached at the Funerall of that most Honorable and worthie Knight S. Richard Leueson Vice-Admirall of England Who dyed at London the 2. of August and was interred at VVooluer Hampton in the Countie of Stafford the 2. day of September following Anno Domi. 1605. By SAMVEL PAGE Batchelour in Diuinitie and Vicar of Deptforde in Kent LONDON Printed by William White dwelling in Cow-lane neere Holborne Conduit 1605. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE HIS especiall good Lord the Earle of Nottingham the Lord high Admirall of England c. SAMVEL PAGE wisheth all encrease of Honour MY especiall good Lord the Loue which that Honorable Knight Sir Richard Leueson did deserue from mee hath made my eare so impatient of any imputation by which he may be traduced to the world that passing amongst the throng of variable sensures and obseruing how Emulation and Enuie of his Worth striueth to burie his Honour in the same dust with his life-lesse body I could not but wonder that so many faire parts of vertue and goodnes in him could be so slightly skipt ouer and that so cursory eyes as beheld them could so dwell vpon the errours and mis-heedings of his youth It concerneth mee whom he chose out of all his acquaintance to breath his last words in my eares and to make me the eye and the tongue witnesse of his ende to doe him this right to satisfie with my testimonie such who being better acquainted with his course of life then my selfe was might finde in it more to dislike and might therefore suspect his death to those and for discharge of my duetie to my honourable friende though departed I haue caused these Papers to speake more publiquely that which in a full hearing I deliuered to those which were present at his Funerals and I protest herein my sinceritie for as al my seruice done to him had beginning in my loue of his vertue So neither my labour was mercenary with him nor my penne hired for it is sufficiently knowen that I neuer receiued from him more then the rich reward of his thanks acknowledgment of that cōfort which he receiued from mee which I hold so deare a recompence that I could sow dayly to reape but such an Haruest What I haue herein deliuered I present vnto your Honour beseeching you who haue vouchsafed to be the Patrone of my Studies to receiue this and herewithall my most humble duetie Debtford this 8. December 1605. Your Honours Chaplaine in all duetie and seruice Samuell Page 2. Sam 3. vers 38. And the King said to his Seruants Know ye not that a Prince and a great Man is fallen this day in Israel ABNER is dead DAVID the King is become a mourner hee followed the Beare of Abner to the Graue When hee came to the Sepulchre hee lift vp his voyce and wept He bemoned his death to the people hee refused his meate till the Sunne was downe And in this Verse he pleadeth the cause of his griefe to his Seruantes and makes them sensible of his losse Knovv ye not that there is c. See how artificiall sorrow is in telling of her owne tale heere is not a word in this speach of the Kinges but it hath the taste and the relish of the greiued heart where it grew 1 It is not a feare or danger or some infirmitie of his friend that mooueth him but a fall a fall as low as the Earth and as deepe as the Graue 2 It is not the fall of any artificiall structare or composition but of a man a Man is fallen Heere is the dissolution of a little World a pile of the curiousest Architecture and the maister peece of the most skilfull builder Consult not herein the practise of humane inhumanitie which holdeth the life of man cheape and vnderualueth so rare a creature with low-priz'd estimation but consult Nature Hoc natura prescribit vt homo homini quicunque fit ob eam ipsam Causam tantum quod homo sit consultam velit This sayth Cicero is the document of Nature that a man should seeke the good of a man euen for this alone because he is a man 3 This man for whom Dauid makes this moane is none of them that are wearie of the light because God doth humble them and being vile and sitting with the Dogges of the flocke hunt after death But a great man is fallen great in the proofe of his vertue in the aduenture of his person in his aduancement to be the fauorite of a King in his imployment to be one of the supporters of a mightie Kingdome a Prince and a great man that is a principall great man in Israel 4 Hee is fallen in Israel and it is so much blood let out of Israels veynes some of that locke cut off wherein Sampsons strength lay and Israel being the enuie of all the Kingdomes of the world the Archers shooting at it and greeuing it as old Iaacob said of Ioseph If it had been sowen with the seede of valiant men it could haue set them all on worke to keepe violent intruders from inuasion and assault Therefore Israel had a great losse in the death of Abner 5 All this not a griefe of auncient times as Hecuba sayd of Troy Troia i am vetus est malum Troy is an old greife but it is a fresh woe instantly pressing and oppressing the sence for he is fallen To day 6 Doe you not kn 〈…〉 this saith Dauid had you an hope of his person and haue you no greife for his death Could your glad eares receiue the tydinges of his ioyning with our forces and do you with dry eyes see him by death disioyned from vs againe Thus doth Dauid keepe a scoare of his owne losses Beholde heere is Abner a Prince yet he is fallen a Great man yet a man fallen in Israel for Death hath left no place priuiledged no person free I will confine my present Discourse to these three perticular poyntes 1 I obserue a difference betweene man and man in this title ginen to Abner a great man 2 I finde the greatest subiect to mortalitie is fallen 3 I note in Dauid a desire that notise be taken of this losse Doe you not knovv 1. Of the difference betweene man and man This is not in respect of the maker for God hath not made some men himfelfe and deuolued the rest to inferiour iournimen vnder him but we are all alike beholding to him for our creation not in respect of the matter for we were all digged out of the same Pitte But the difference is in the vse seruice of men and that is directed in all well menaged States by their manners and merites Tullies rule of a mans Fortune that is of his condition of life is this Suis ea cuique fingitur moribus It is such as his behauiour and carriage makes it The best men seeke Honour and they seeke it best euen in the merrite of their owne worth not in the groundlesse
opinion of an vndiscerning multitude and therefore they make their liues presidents of liuing to others and their whole comportsment exemplary deseruing well Some for aduice others for execution Some for Artes some for the Tongues some for the Sword some for the Compasse some in the Chambers of Princes some in the Field making merite still the true lustre of their greatnes Paulum sepaltae distat inertiae celata virtus Vertue that commeth not abroade is little better then vnseenâ— vnskilfulnesse which the Poet spâ—ke not to encourage men to put all their Vertue vpon the Stage and to set it alwayes in the common eye with base prostitution for this is an ambitious begging of popular ayer But he admonisheth to keepe Vertue in breath with exercise to giue it life in action and not suffer it to keepe house too much or to rust with rest and idlenesse Thus shall not a man trust to hereditary Dignitie and spend vpon that stocke of Honour which his noble ancestors haue left him neither shall hee basely purchase precedence and priority with the Penny nor diue by cunning insinuation into the fauour of Princes by flattering their amisses All these are the Balles of Fortune racketed vpon high but not abyding there but falling downe againe These spring tides haue their neapes these are very Meteors making a portentose shew of light awhile but soone put out For when this Curtayne of Greatnes drawne betweene them and the deceiued eyes of men shall be withdrawen when this ouer-guilding with false Honour shall begin to weare off and their vnworthinesse looke like it selfe stript and naked When they shall vnlearne the art of Seeming shall it not then be sayd vnto them What fruite haue you now of these thinges where of you are ashamed Ler Honour then follow Vertue and let Vertue be content with it selfe S. Augustines rule is Gloria nostra est testimonium Conscientiae nosirae Our glorie is in the testimonie of our owne Conscience The first Adam sought Honour and it fledde from him The second Adam fledde from Honour and it ouertoke him The vse of this instruction is this to prouoke euery of you according to the measure of Gods endowment of Grace to stirre vp in your selues those faire partes of Vertue and goodnes by which your God may be most glorified in his creature your Countrie may haue the benefite of your seruice your King the vse of your Vertue and all men the example of it Seneca sayth Recie facii fecisse merces est To haue done well is the reward of well doing therefore if Riches buy away or Fauoure giue away from you your wel-deserued Honoures yet God hath promised to be your portion and exceeding great reward It will be a great euidence against you that you neuer loued Vertue and goodnes truely if you do neglect them when you see your selues neglected for Honourable actions are not to be vndertaken in regarde of the honour which we gayne by them but that God may be honoured by vs in them Our Sauiour hath enformed vs that they which seeke the prayse of men haue their rewarde heere I will conclude this first poynt with the saying of S. Chrisostome Honâ—â— verus est in virtute animi True honour is in the vertue of the minde and for all other that goe for honours heere let vs say with the same learned father Honores non sunt imâ— ministeria They are not Honours but meere seruices 2 Though I haue found as much difference betweene man and man as betweene high and low rich and poore great and small yet I haue set mine eye in the second place vpon the mortaliue of Great Men because my Text saith A great man is fallen It hath cost the liues of the greatest to exemplifie this to vs from Adam the Father of vs all by whose disobedience Sinne came into the world and by Sinne Death euen to this moment of time wherein thousands are breathing their last in sundry places and by sundry sorts of death Where be those great ones euen the greatest of the Sonnes of men which haue ouerrunne Kingdomes people with an inundation of power and taught the Earth to groane and tremble vnder the burthen of their Armes Did not God blow vpon them and they withered And did not the whire wind take them away as stuble Esa 40. 24. When Iob was out of taste with his life he wisht that he had gone immediatly from the wombe to the Graue for sayth hee I should haue slept then and been at rest with the Kinges and Counsay lours of the Earth which haue builded them selues desolate places or with the Princes that had gold and haue filled their houses with siluer Iob 3. 13. Dignitie friends followers wealth plentie the best supporters that euer the world could find of temporall happines giue way when Death commeth The Centution sayth to his seruant Goe and he goeth Death sayth to the Centurion Come and he commeth Deaths Nettes are not Cobwebbes to take none but small Flyes nor Snares for none but small Birdes If great Men should not die small men should not liue Vnrestrayned geatnes growes saluage but the thought of Death makes it come to hand and become tame All the life of some is a rize from one aduancement to another till they haue lost themselues in their owne greatnes but they shall fall euen from the greatest It was so decreed in Paradice when wee were all yet in the loynes of our first Parents before there was any such difference betweene vs in dignitie For out of it wert thou taken because thou art Dust and to Dust shalt thou returne Gen. 3. 19. Dust is our first and last The most neat the most cutious amongst vs shall not brush off this dust till we rise againe euen till our mortall do put on immortalitie Reu. 6. 8. S. Iohn looked and behold a pale Horse his name that sate vpon him is Death Death is an Horseman you see to shew his speede and his Horse is pale which is the complexion of departing and dying men This ryder hath ouertaken Abner a Great man in Israel This filles the eyes of Dauid full of teares till they runne ouer 1 The vse of this obseruation is to vnderstand that Princes haue their sorrowes Luctus sayth Tully est agritudo ex eius qui charus est acerbo interitu Mourning is a sorrow conceiued at the death of a deare Friend In this griefe is impartiall the friendes of Kinges are as mortall as the friendes of Subiectes It is not in the Cotages of the poore or vnder the roofe of the Widow only in the Hospitals of the diseased onely or in the darke Dungeons of the imprisoned but in the Palaces of Princes in the Bed-chambers of Kinges nay in their bosomes and the inmost conclaues of their breastes Luctus et vltrices posuere cubilia curae Sorrow and sad vnrest haue taken vp their lodging Abner dyeth in the nonage of King Dauides