But he is dead we may outdare Death now as having nought to feare The world hath lost her chiefest blisse Heaven the onely gainer is One blow hath kil'd more then the plague and we In losing one have lost plurality A sense might have beene better spar'd your price We would have thought too but a sacrifice Such as was I saacks Ram that sav'd in one Iust Patriarch a generation One star we may see shoot without a grone But should we lose a constellation 'T would puzzle Astrologie nay almost By losing one your science would be lost Fate 's wisdome see that he might leave our tast In rellish he cut off your choycest last H. B. Vpon the Death of my Lord STAFFORD the last Baron of that Ancient Stocke GRieve not ye Sacred Ancestours of Fame As if this were the carcasse of your Name The Barke now flourishes we may presume He 's planted and not buryed in the Tombe Your famous branches by his fall are blowne His fate becomes your Resurrection Good deeds were all his Progeny whilst he Leaves them no other state but memory The Titles and Revenues let them hoord That doe delight to heare these words My Lord In Stafford I confesse they bore some weight Cause they spoke him as well as this estate It was his Name not Title and that tone Made him not famous onely better knowne Deserts well plac'd shine more It is a tie And reverence to Vertue to be high Should the Sunne falling to the earth fixe here Hee 'd suffer an eclipse from his owne sphere Sure to prevent that old and glorious itch He dy'd before the age of being Rich No Lands was ever he possess'd of save That small unhappy portion of a grave Death did deliver him we may be bold To stile it his redemption from Gold Wealth is a sinne though us'd and to be free Yet never want is but kind usury He was so witty yet sincere that we Dare say he meant ev'n an Hyperbole He could not flatter what he spake was knowne No complement but an expression Postures in him were Vertues for when he Did bend it was not pride but charitie His hat went off so honestly we may Affirme he onely did himselfe betray Not like to those that study the Court stride And learne the decent stitch on the left side He nothing to the streame o' th' Time did owe The Staffords manners from themselves still flow We must despaire thy equall unlesse he Could with thy Titles too inherit thee H. R. On the Death of the Right Honorable Edward Lord Stafford WHen brave Heroick spirits flie from hence That govern'd others by their influence Each Muse with Cypresse crownd instead of Bayes Makes them the subject of their teares and prayes Who were examples living being dead With living Monuments are honoured When other's course earth doth neglected lye That liv'd as if they onely liv'd to die But with what Marble or what Brasse shall we Honour the Noble Staffords memory Whose very Name inscrib'd would lustre give Enough to make those dead materials live The glorious minde dwelt in his Noble brest Did entertaine each Vertue for its guest And what soe're was opposite and foule For ever banisht from his Christan soule He was as good as great and taught the Time By what safe steps men might to Honour climbe Yet ventrous death with his impartiall Darts Hath disunited those his different parts Whilst th' earth doth his more richer earth containe What came from Heaven is thither flowne againe E. B. Medii Templi On the deplored Death of Edward Lord Stafford the last Baron of his Name STay Death and heare a short plea we would crave Onely the mercy of a single grave And that at one stroke thou wouldst kill but one In him thou slayst a generation Then ere thou strikst Death know thy sin for this Not a plaine Murder but Massacre is Compendious slaughter of a Family What yet unknowne Plague shall we title thee What Power art thou what strange Influence That thus usurpst the spleene of Pestilence Can the Grave propagate that there should be As yet a new kinde of mortality Sure I mistake our misery this was not That which we call disease but a Chaine-shot Death hath foregone his Archery and Dart And practises the Canon that dire Art Of murdering by the hundreds Thus alone We lose not Stafford but a Legion Take a friends counsell yet grim fate and stay Doe not bereave thy selfe of future prey Let him survive to a large Progenie Which will be but a number that must dye Visit some Friery there thy wrath expresse There where Religion is barrennesse That were a thrifty cruelty and to save This Youth were mercy would enrich thy grave Cheate not our hopes thus riddling Destiny When we did pray Stafford might multiply As numberlesse as are the sands there 's none Meant such a fatall propagation His owne dust for an Off spring our best prayers Forbid such sad increase Atomes for Heires Howere be not so speedy gods but give Him breath till he has taught us how to live Must we thus wholly lose him and such worth Ere in Example he can bring it forth And must this be his period cannot we Expresse a man beyond his Elegie And Epitaph can we pen History What if long-liv'd this little one would be Where is your Art Genethliakes who dare From the Brachygraphy of some Prophet starre Transcribe the life of every birth if Fate And your great skill be such Death comes too late To prejudice your knowledge and you can When he has seiz'd the Corps reprieve the Man And pen him a long-liv'd Example though He had beene borne a livelesse Embryo I pray goe calculate and tell us then What Stafford in his ripe yeares would have been Describe him at some Canon guarded Hill Leading his daunted Generall and we will Lessen our present despaire into feare And tremble lest our Stafford should fall there Then prosecute your story till his yeares List him among the graver headed Peeres And in the bustle of some fcard-state-rent Let 's heare him tutoring a Parliament Alas such thoughts but aggravate our crosse Instead of comfort summing up our losse Cease then all prattle with the Grave and Herse Silence suites better then the saddest Verse Ri. Paynter Ioan. Ox. To the Memory of the Right Honorable the Lord STAFFORD the last Baron of his Family Great soule of Stafford T Was not for want of Merit that thy Herse So long hath lack'd it's tributary Verse Things whose fraile mem'ry scarce outlives the time Their Elegies a reading may have a Rime In halfe an houre flung on them Earthen plate 'S fram'd at a turne when the rich Porcelane's date Is a full Age Raptures that doe befit Objects of wonder are the fruites of Wit And choice not Fury This kept Phaebus Quire Silent so long that nought but hallow'd fire And purest gums might crowne thine Vrne yet still They find thy
give their winking o're You doe no hurt there 's more to shine Which else perhaps had not beene seene Or if we take them All away We shall be blam'd no more than day But if we put out the Sunnes light We may bid the whole World Good-Night Not meerely 'cause it is the Sunne But chiefely 'cause it was but One For had we Two who could repine Though One did Set so One did shine Thus stands it with thee death and us That hast affronted the state thus Could not one House suffice nay Towne But must you pull our None-such downe Could your transcendent Envie ayme Not at the Person but the Name Must Stafford dye True States-men say That even Kingdomes have their day Nor dare Iavouch they erre A Kingdome 's a Particular A Name 's Eternall and a Race Is bound to neither Time nor Place Now therefore thinke what thou hast done And burst thou foolish Sceleton Sithence we shall beleeve your spite Not your Power infinite For though here lyes the Corps of Stafford dead His Name and Epitaph can't be Buried Io. Goad Ioan. Ox. On the much lamented death of the Lord STAFFORD A Name too great for numbers fit for those Let loose their eyes and weepe as 't were in prose And yet a theame too vast for eyes here The greatest thing lamented is the Teare And when we have sate up to hang the Herse We can't be thought to weep our Lord but verse So great that we but tole his flame and chime His gloryes growing Sextons but in Ryme Who when he is deliver'd best will beare A fame like moderne faces blotted faire Whom we conceale in phrase so vast a Taske We write him to a beauty in a maske Though he might blow a quil to vers whil'st men Envie to see the Poet in the Pen For who can thinke in Prose a man so cleere His thoughts did suffer sight and soule appeare That he that searcht his hearty words might find That breath was th' exhalation of his mind Such faith his tongue did weare you might have vow'd He spoke his brest only thought alowd You might his meaning through his blood have spyde Too pure deform'd dissembling to hide As to his Virgin soule Nature had drawne In so refined flesh a Vayle of Lawne So was he borne cut up that now we cou'd Learne vertues from the Doctrine of his bloud Which we might see preach Valtur and espye His veine to make an Auditor of the Eye And runne conclusions for from hence we try'd Which was a flood of valour which just Tyde Learning from his wise heat that in an Ill A spirit might couragiously sit still That one might dare be quiet and afford To thinke all mettall lyes not in the sword And Cutlers make no mindes Armour no doubt Does well but none can be inspir'd without So did her chide the Flame o th' wilder youth That fights for Ladyes hayre or lesse their truth His blood discreetly boyl'd did make it cleere It is the minde makes old and not the yeere That we may prompt his stone to say lyes here Stafford the Aged at his foure-teenth yeere Io. Howe Sacred to the Memory of the Right Honourable the Lord STAFFORD being the last Baron of his Name T' Is high Presumption in us that are The feete so almost excrement to dare Turne eyes and weeape a puddle rivulet Over thy herse which Nobles have beset We teem'd too fast and too much issue had That let us blood as rules of Physick bad But this gnawes our land's heart Nobilitie And is more cruell in Epitomie By making us in this one Staffords fall To celebrate the exequies of all Why wouldst thou yeeld so soone to death alas Thou hast too speedily finisht thy race Thou ought'st not pretty flowre have hung thy head Till thou wast ripe and blown hadst scattered Some seedes about thy bed where in a shade Thou mightst have slept by thy sonne-flowers made When with strong bulwork of posterity T' hadst fortify'd thy decay'd Ancestry Built up thy ruin'd house allay'd our feares And wert foure-score as wel in sons as yeares O then and not til then thou shouldst have tri'd Whether our tender love would let thee'ave di'd Tho. Snelling of S. Iohns Oxf. On the memory of the late Lord STAFFORD HAdst thou stood firme our eyes had yet bin dry Not in their Vrnes but in thy brest did lye All thy stockes honour Memphis never knew Amongst her wonders Pyramid like you Stately how ere great families they shroud And scepter'd lines yet farre beneath a cloud With pearly drops that all may cleerely see Thou wast the jewell of Nobility We cannot hope that our distracted cryes Will please amongst their well-tun'd harmonies Our Elegies not weepe but are to be Wept at and want themselves an Elegie Yet frowne not on our verse and teares of jet Ah never any sorrow truer let Who can but sluce his heart throughout his eyes When Youth Nobility Hope Stafford dyes I summe not up thy beauty comelinesse Nor thousand graces which thy soule did blesse For like to gamesters whom their lucks have crost We feare to know the utmost we have lost Thou didst not by Example States false glasse Dresse thy behaviour and thy life's face Nor wast sufficient ground that thou shouldst do This vice because Lord such a one did so Thy eyes when once had but a point let in Of lust the other spying the little sinne Would send a visive ray as messenger To tell that if it would not drop a teare And quench that sparke he would not his mate dwell Then wept the sinfull eye and all was well Thus each part just as in Philosophie Would Rule and Maxime to the other be O what disease then shall we wish may meete With that disease which took away this sweete That envious disease and which out-vies Even the Pestilence in cruelties For that mongst hundreds true its poyson thril'd But they were troope and so ill humour spil'd Thou in few yeares couldst such a height attaine Orelook'd the hills and peer'd above the raine Our teares are too too low and watry eyes Doe leese themselves in search of such a rise The losse was ours thy Pyramid did grow Still broad nigh heaven decreas'd to us below The Vertues built thee and the graces came And with all sweetnesse polished thy frame Honour thy Mistresse there with glorious hand Full often made her splendid impresse stand For she lov'd Stafford each adoring eye In thee insculpt read all nobility So wert thou to the world hy heaven lent The life of new old vertues monument Thy soule was large and able to containe More than the worthes of many ages gaine The Vertues of thy Ancestors all knit Could not it fill were proud to enter it And thou encreasd'st that happie stock so well As who will reckon all the starres may tell Of heaven which hath it and us rob'd in spite Or feare that they should be
Honour and Vertue Triumphing over the Grave Exemplified in a faire devout Life and Death adorned with the surviving perfections of EDWARD Lord STAFFORD lately deceased the last Baron of that Illustrious Family which Honour in him ended with as great Lustre as the Sunne sets within a serene Skye A Treatise so written that it is as well applicative to all of Noble Extraction as to him and wherein are handled all the Requisites of Honour together with the greatest Morall and Divine Vertues and commended to the practise of the Noble Prudent Reader By Anth. Stafford his most humble Kinsman This Worke is much embelish'd by the Addition of many most Elegant Elegies penned by the most accute Wits of these Times LONDON Printed by J. Okes for Henry Seile at the Tigres Head in Fleet-street over against St. Dunstans Church 1640. To my much honour'd Lord Thomas Lord Howard chief of the Howards Earle of Arundell and Surrey Earle Marshall of England Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter and one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Councell c. My very good Lord THe Fame of your Lordships Heroick Vertues invites me to present to your gracious acceptance this Treatise of which Honour is the Theam Indeed to whom more fitly can shee make her addresse then to your Lordship through whose Veins she runs from whose Bosom shee flows in whose Actions shee shines and by whose Protection shee is secured from the insolent Affronts of the Vulgar Being distressed shee makes You her faire Sanctuarie being wounded she makes you her soveraigne Balme Nay which draweth neere to a wonder many put their Honour into Your hands esteeming it more safe there then in their owne This is the first cause of my Dedication The next is that the true Child of Honour the deplored Subject of this Book was a Debtor to Your Lordship for his Education whose Advancement in Vertue Honour and Estate You made the greatest part of Your Studie And to say the Truth where could such a Guardian be found for him as Your Lordship since between the renowned Ancestours of You both Vertue and Bloud hath long since engendred a strict Friendship and between whom there was a neare similitude of good and evill Destiny both having amply shared of Infortunity and Glory I may adde that there cannot be a more lovely Sight then to behold an ancient lofty Cedar sheltring with his Branches from the Rage of weather a Young one of the same Kinde aspiring to the same Height had not the Frost of Death immaturely nipt this Noble Plant it were an Heresie to doubt that he would have flourisht under the care of a Lord whose Vertue is too immense for one Region to containe and whose Perfections are so many and so transcendent that they are able not onely to adorn these more Polisht Parts of the World but to civilize also the more Barbarous and to make an Athens of Madagascar The Oblation of my Teares and Supplications to God not availing to keep him here J have sent my Vowes after him and have given him a Funerall Equipage consisting of the Testimonies of brave good and knowing Men which will eternize him on Earth as his Goodnesse will in Heaven I confesse freely I was unwilling to leave him to the Mercy of some grosly ignorant Chronologer of the Times in whose Rubbish Posteritie might unhappily have found him lying more ruin'd then his glorious Predecessours were by the Tyranny of Time or the Cruelty of Princes Now in the last place I must most humbly beseech Your Lordship to take notice that his whole Name have made an affectionate but an imprudent Choice of me to be their weak Oratour to render Your Lordship submissive and due thanks for the Good You did or intended him and withall to make You a Religious Promise of their Prayers to God and their Prayses to Men as in particular I doe of the vowed faithfull service of Your Lordships most humble loyall Servant Anthony Stafford To the Vertuous and excellent Lady the Countesse of Arundell MADAM THE causes why I make this Dedication apart to Your Ladyship are divers The first is that sweete Lord the lamented Subject of this Booke in whose praise my Muse ending will expire like a Phoenix in a Perfume Hee was extreamly oblig'd to Your Ladyship in particular and therefore You deserve particular and infinite thankes from all of his Blood and Name of which I am one who have ever had your Vertues in admiration The second is that You Madam are none of those Romance Ladyes who make Fiction and Folly their Study and Discourse and appeare wise onely to Fooles and Fooles to the wise By reading nothing else but Vanity they become nothing else themselves They make a more diligent enquiry after the deedes of Knights and Ladies errant than after the Acts of Christ and his Apostles The losse of their time is their just punishment in that they spend a whole Life in reading much and yet is that much nothing But you Madam are capable of the most profound grave Misteries of Religion and daily peruse and meditate Bookes of Devotion You despise the bold Adventures of those Female Follies and piously surveigh the lives of the Female Saints You have render'd yourselfe a most accomplish'd Lady on Earth by imitating our blessed Lady which is in Heaven who as she was here the first Saint of the Militant Church so is she there the first of the Church Triumphant having learn't that she spent al her houres in works of Charity you trace her steps knowing that Shee and Vertue trod but one path Hence it comes that you are at no time so angry as with the losse of an oportunity to succour the distressed and that you are as indefatigable in doing good as heaven in motion Hence it is that the impetuous force of a Torrent may bee as well stopped as the constant flood of your goodnesse which never stayes till it have water'd and relieved all within its Ken commendable either for Knowledge or Vertue My third and last scope in placing your Character in the Front of this Treatise is that like a Starre it may strike a lustre throughout this Booke and by its light chase away the darknesse Oblivion would else cast upon it Questionlesse it will breede a holy emulation in any of your Sexe who shall here learne that there is a Lady whose vertues are come to the Age of Consistence and can grow no further and from whom not only her posterity but her Ancestors also receive honour They in this resembling the Morne who though she precedes the Sun receives her splendour from him Thus sweet thus excellent Madam I have received you from those who have beene truly happy in being daily witnesses of all your Words and Actions I conclude with this protestation made in me by Truth her selfe that I am so constant an honourer I had almost said an Adorer of Vertue whereever I finde it especially when
that in estimable Diamond is set in Honour as it is in you Madam that should I round the World in your Ladiships service I should esteeme it a Voyage far short of Your Merit and my Duty and that I should not thinke the highest Title Imagination can reare a greater addition to me than is the submissive stile of Your Ladyships most humble loyall Servant ANTHONY STAFFORD To the noble Reader IT hath beene the manner of Ancient Times to commend their Dead rather to testifie a good affection to bewaile their losse and to hold out the Lampe of their vertuous Lives to others left behind then to gratifie the deceased Thus David commended Saul and Abner Elizaeus Elias and Nazianzen Bazill Ber bewailed Malachie complaining that his very bowels were pulled from him And J may truly averre that Death tore out my Heart when hee bereft me of that sweetest Lord of whose rare Gifts and Graces this ensuing Discourse is composed That I deferr'd till now to doe him this right and to administer comfort to his vertuous Mother and the rest of his Noble and deare Friends who still keepe warme his Ashes with their Teares was for a wise consideration no base neglect A green wound abhorres the hand of the Surgeon which after it patiently endures nay longingly expects Jn like case the Griefs of the minde being newly entred are not easily expelled but at first reiect all consolation given them whereas afterward they become obedient to Reason and readily admit of those Remedies which at first they refused There are so many reasons comprehended in this following Treatise why his Friends should not grieve too immoderately for him that I will onely here adde this that they should not too violently lament his departure out of a World where Vice is naturall Vertue but counterfeited or at the best well acted Here wee discover her but through a Cloud Let them apply that usuall saying of the Rabbies to their sad soules The godly even in their Death are alive but the wicked in their Life are dead Jf a Heathen could boldly averre Nunc Epaminondas vester nascitur quiasic moritur In so dying your Epaminondas is now reborne may not we with greater confidence affirme the same of him Thus much of the excellent subiect now to the Worke it selfe Jn this Age fertile in Coriats barren of Sydneys and Raleighs that Booke must come into the World with a good Angell to defend it that escapes the severe censures of malevolent spirits with whom it is a wicked custome to damne by Tradition and traduce Authours before they peruse them As Cankers commonly cleave to those Roses which are best grown and spread So these envious Detractours commonly fasten their venemâ—us Teeth on Works to which Fame promiseth Eternitie This ought not to deterre Good and Knowing Men from publishing their Labours who herein should imitate the Sunne which though the Atheist and the Jmpious are unworthy of his Light shines forth still and with his Beames glads the Earth and all the Movers on it The onely Recompence J desire of my ingenious Readers is that they would vouchsafe not to reade this Treatise out but that they would be pleased in imitation of the Sortes Virgilianae to take the Staffordian Lot that is to practise in their lives the first Page Chance shall direct them to in the opening of it since there is not one in this Worke which containes not some lovely Vertue or other of that deare Lord deceased by enlarging of whose Fame J have taken the Advantage to render my owne lesse obscure This small favour J hope my Noble Readers will not denie their Servant A. S. Imprimatur Samuel Baker August 9. 1639. HONOVR AND VERTUE Triumphing over the Grave Or the life of the late Lord Stafford NOne of Wisdomes Children will either despaire or be confident of any thing in this inferiour World all things are subject to such a strange Revolution Wee often see the money destined to set out a Triumph imployed in furnishing a Funerall and the purple together with these great preparations turned into Balmes Blackes and Cypresse Pluto sometimes snatcheth Hymens Torch out of his hand and leads the new linked couple from the Bridall Bed into his solitary Vault Nay it hath been recorded that an Execution hath bin chang'd into a Coronation and a Scaffold built for a Delinquency hath become a Throne of Glory Wee have many certain signes of Danger and Sicknesse none of Security there being in one part or other daily examples of men that die singing laughing eating and drinking The strongest Humane Fabricke Nature ever built a crumme going down awry destroyes Force and Chance take away the Yong and Maturity the Old Nothing visible that is not mortall no Object hath sense lesse fading then itselfe The generall Tide washeth all passengers to the same shore some sooner some later but all at the last Every man must take his course when it comes never fearing a thing so necessary yet alwayes expecting a thing so uncertaine Our Intemperancy prepares a Feast for Death and is therefore called the Mother of Physicians This goodly Tree of Life is surcharg'd with Fruit some fall by clusters some single all once Every thing riseth with the Condition of a Fall and all Encreases have their Diminutions This is the firme Bond that compasseth and girdeth fast the Bundle of Mortalitie Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne That all this is true the Noble Subject of this Book is a faire yet sad Example much to be lamented because much to be admir'd of whom somthing I must speak though it come as short of his inestimable Worth as I doe of an accomplish'd Oratour And here I must crave pardon of the judicious Reader if I draw not his perfections to the life My Apologie may be a just complaint that my stile is fetter'd by the idle Censures of Schismaticall Fools whose purblinde souls cannot discerne betweene a fawning Flattery and a due prayse who have hardly language good enough to make themselves understood much lesse to perswade others except it be never to read them againe I could without the aide of any Rhetoricke at all pen one of their dimme foggy Lines wherein there is nothing considerable that I would not reduce into a poesie for a Ring so that they might weare their own story on what finger they please But there are more then humane helps required to give a Heröe his true Character whose magnanimous soule harbours not a thought small enough to enter into their narrow passive brains As in the Ancient Sacrifices it was not lawfull to kindle the Altars of the Gods with any materiall common Fire but with the pure Rayes of the glorious Sun So a divine flame is required to illuminate that Spirit which undertakes to characterise the soules of great and eminent Men I confesse freely the the wings of my invention flag and are not able to beare her to the Summity of her
their Souldiers with the melodie of the Flute and other instruments that so their anger might not deface their Reason We had need of some charming Musick to qualifie the heate and rage of our Rorers Hardly will they endure the Test of the Scripture who cannot undergo that of Aristotle First sayes he a valiant man fights not for feare of Infamy or Reprehension Secondly not for the awe hee stands in of Military Discipline Thirdly not out of confidence of his skill in the Military Art or of his own strength and armature Fourthly not being urged thereto by the violence of naturall passions as Anger Griefe Lust and the like Fiftly not out of ignorance of his enemies force nor out of feare of servitude or hope of bootie Sixtly a valiant man is the Champion of honestie for which onely hee is to combate all that oppose it He could not imagine any thing in excellencie above Honesty which he still makes his utmost scope not being so blessedly subtile as to discerne God and his Church Examine wel all these Requisites of Valour and how many now a dayes shall we discover and allow valiant most men fighting against all the Rules of Honesty and the Laws of God If our Nobility and Gentry shall diligently peruse ancient Histories they shall finde that their renowned Ancestours never ascended to the Throne of Honour this way Debaushes Quarrels and Duels were not the degrees by which they mounted They singl'd not out an enemy in the field upon exchange of idle words never drawing their swords but to rescue their Countrey out of the jawes of Ruine or their Prince from the Height of a Breach or from the Centre of the Enemies Battalion The Valour not thus nobly imploy'd they reputed no other then a womanish choler a simple passion and a feeble revenge unworthy of a man magnanimous Certainly our Gallants cannot but imagine the great Alexander and the mightie Iulius to be nothing inferiour to them in this Vertue yet did not they judge that a foolish hastie word should be put in ballance with a Life These Masterspirits of the World were utterly ignorant what reparation of Honour the Lie claimed and of the circumstances in managing a Quarrell which these Hacksters make our yonger sort believe to be a Mystery and by this ridiculous Science get their Livings Those great Worthies concluded that the offence alwayes return'd upon his head that offerd it From these single bloudy Encounters what can Gentlemen expect other then if they kill to have their Lands confiscated to the King and if married to have their Wives and Children live by the succour of the Knapsack to leave infamy to their Posterity and to have no other Historiographer then the Hangman whereas their lives lost in a set Battaile would make them ever live in the best Chronicles of theirs and after times Now suppose they fall themselves under their enemies hands what can ensue but a burial of their Names together with their bones and without Gods infinite extraordinary mercy the damnation of their soules These Duels and the Horse-races of our Gentry so much in request with them have two goodly originals The first began amongst the slaves of Haniball after he had passed the Alpes and the later amongst the Butchers of Barnet who their London Markets once ended soundly dows'd in drinke used to run home for wagers What will these Fighters say if I prove to them out of the great Secretary of Nature Aristotle that a man may feare and yet be valiant First saith he a valiant man may dread all things shamefull and wicked and the Infamy of himselfe and his Secondly he may feare all things so dreadfull that they exceed the power of Humane Nature to withstand as Thunder Lightning Earthquakes Inundations and the like which yet he feares not so that they shall make him forget to do the office of a man resolved Nay hee stops not there but maintaines that a valiant man may flie from an enemy without being justly branded with cowardise in case hee findes his Life may be more profitable to his Countrey then his Death Hee cannot then be said to shun death out of pusillanimity but to reserve himselfe for a greater good But I desire to be read by my owne Light for I would not have any man thinke that I inferre by this Invective against the abuse of this Heroick Vertue that I counsell any Gentleman to endure grosse Injuries of a high nature such as may disparage his whole Race Countrey Religion or hazard the safety of his person for of these foule wrongs all Nations allow a Repulsion and the Ancients called this harmlesse defence Incorruptam Tutelam Therefore Mars was pictured with his Bosome open to shew unto us that worthy men ought to expose themselves to all dangers for the preservation of their Honour This deare Gentleman whose losse wee condole had not yet received force and vigour to make a demonstration of the externall valour but the internall he had abundantly as appeared by many seeds of true Magnanimity which both by his carriage and speech were easily to be discern'd in him Such sparkes as these of a great minde the Romans discover'd in Cato yet a childe and by those judg'd of his future Greatnesse Two of these as most remarkable I shall here insert not onely to delight but to confirme and strengthen the mindes of my Readers He and his brother Caepio being educated in the House of their Unkle Livius Drusus it happened that the Latines were at that time suitours for the obtaining of a City and that one of the chiefe of them Popedius Silo was entertain'd and lodg'd in the House of Drusus Popedius one day amongst the rest talking and jesting familiarly with the children said to them Will not you intercede with your Unkle that wee may have a Citie granted us To this Caepio fairly and readily assented and promis'd his utmost aid but Cato silent and sullen look'd on him with a brow knit which Popedius observing in a feigned fury tooke the childe up in his armes and held him out of the window threatning to let him fall unlesse hee granted his request Notwithstanding all his threats Cato still continued his silence and his frowns whereupon Popedius set him down againe and whispered this softly to his friends standing by What will this childe doe when he comes to be a man I believe wee shall not obtaine by his consent one voice from the people of Rome Another proofe of his Magnanimity hee gave in the time of Sylla Being about the age of fourteen Sarpedon his Tutour carried him to salute Sylla who civilly and gently receiv'd him in remembrance of the friendship he had contracted with his father The palace of Sylla was then no better then a slaughter-house into which men were carried bound and there suffered all kinde of wracks and tortures and after those death it selfe The heads of proscribed men were as commonly and openly carried
and observation of all the writings and actions of the wise In his conversation he ever applyed himselfe to those who had deservedly gain'd a fame in good Letters or had acquir'd wisedome by Experience whose sage precepts and admonitions hee as greedily dranke in as a thirsty Traveller doth Water from a cleare fountaine These he made the mirrour wherein he daily dress'd and compos'd his mind which was a Paradise into which the Serpent never enter'd but he receiv'd a suddaine repulse Two times especially hee made choyse of to prepare and examine himself the Morning the Evening In the first he forecast what was that day to bee done in the later he cald to minde what that day he had done To doe good was his fixed resolution and when he had the power to doe harme like the true sonne of Prudency he never had the will wheras the Nature of a foole is when he hath not the ability then to have the will to doe mischiefe This Vertue was defused cleane through all his endeavours nay through his very habit gesture and discourse which were neither too mimical too anticke nor too grave but sutable to the modesty required in so greene an Age Impudency which Politicians prophanely call the gift of God he hated so in others that hee never gave it countenance nor harbour himselfe In his Discourse he warily proportion'd his words to the bignesse of the subject he spake of in imitation of a Mariner that fits his Sayles to the smalnesse or vastnesse of his Vessell As slender men lightly weare their cloaths loose and large a little to augment their bulke so small wits who want matter enlarge themselves in words whereas indeed that speech is best which comprehends most sence in fewest words as wee esteeme that Coyne most which in a small compasse includes a great value Hee was not hasty to speak or in speaking but in both prudently observ'd a decency He was very carefull not onely what he vented but what hee heard that it relished not of Immodesty Levity or Vice for he held that what ever it was a villany to act it was also a villany to harken to Hee talked alwayes opportunely and appositively never above his knowledge He derided those who with a great dinne utter'd nothing but high profound Non-sence resembling in that the Cypresse trees which are great and tall but beare no fruit A visit given to a wise but sick man by one of these babling curious impertinents afflicts him more than his disease His owne secrets those of his friends or of the state he neither reveal'd nor pryed into for he was sure he could at any time speake what he had conceal'd but he could not conceale what he had once spoken En la boca serada moxca no entra sayes the Spanish Proverbe Into a mouth closed a Flie never enters Hee had happily read or heard that Anacharsis the Philosopher was accustomed to sleep with his right hand on his mouth and his left on his secrets being of opinion that the Tongue more than Concupiscence needed a bridle Not to be tedious I may boldly because truely averre that Prudency was the generall of his Demeanour Speech and Actions and gave to all of them a Wise and safe Conduct You see pious Reader what embellishment what Ornaments his Life like a sparkling Jewell was set with and I imagine you cannot believe so faire a beginning could have a foule end You cannot surely be at once so stupid and uncharitable If you can you shall quickly be convinc'd of your Errour and shall see this Sun-set with the same glory in which he rose First in his sicknesse that led to his death he made use of his patience a Vertue which miraculously overcomes by yielding As he would not shunne his death so he would not hasten it but used all lawfull and possible meanes to prevent it no otherwise than the Master of a Ship who when the sayles are rent asunder the Mast cut downe by the boarde and a Leake sprung in the ship yet still labours for life and leaves no way unsought to preserve it But when hee saw his inconstant Mistresse Nature ready to abandon him and that as well Necessity forced as God cald him hence then selfe-love the Lifes Jaylour could no longer with-hold him from readily running into the Armes of Death who he knew would soone usher him into the imbraces of his Saviour He beheld Death no otherwise then a Pilot does the Winds and the Sayles that will bring him to his desired Haven He endured the terrible approach and the furious assaults of Death with so undaunted a resolution of a man and so firme unmoved a beliefe of a Christian that he became at once a pleasing and sad spectacle to his friends who believed he could not so patiently undergoe such paine and torments without the extraordinary assistance of some Beatificall vision We see many in the darke are afraid of every thing but the comfortable light expells all feare so it is for those who are blinded with the Mist Atheisme and Impiety have cast before their eyes to doubt and tremble security becomes such as live and dye in the true Light and are illustrated with the beames of Gods favour as was this Patient of Heaven who not being curable here was thither to be translated Before the comming of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles they feared Death and forsooke their Lord but when they were once illuminated from above they undauntedly appear'd before Tyrants and constantly suffer'd Martyrdome Having sent his desires long before to cast Anchor in Heaven hee longingly expected his owne passage with a calme patient and contented minde wherein no distemper ever stay'd but as an unwelcome stranger At length when he perceived all his senses were ready to forsake him being innocently ambitious to retaine to the last his knowledge of all things he suddainly by a holy Art drew the vastnesse of his memory into a Compendium and remembred God onely in whom are all things in whose Fatherly eternall protection we confident and submissively leave him In this bud of Honour two things are deservedly to be lamented First that it dyed under the hand of a Royall Gardner who meant to underprop and cherish it Secondly that it so soone faded All men will confesse his infortunity was great in departing this life in the Reigne of a Prince great in the Union of the Roses greater in that of the Lawrells but greatest of all in the love of his people He knowes full well that full ill it went with man-kind if the Almighty Maker of all things should confine his favour to one onely and neglect the rest of Humanity and therefore as a god on earth in imitation of of the Heavenly distributes his favours amongst all his subjects but not eodem gradu because they are not ejusdem meriti Like the Sunne he strives to impart the light of his countenance to all
seene lye coffind as in glasse Whiles thus his bud dims full flowres and his sole Beginning doth reproach anothers whole Comming so perfect up that there must needes Have beene found out new Titles for new deeds Though youth and lawes forbid which will not let Statues be rais'd or him stand Brasen yet Our mindes retaine this Royalty of Kings Not to be bound to time but judge of things And worship as they merit there we doe Place him at height and he stands golden too A comfort but not equall to the crosse A faire remainder but not like the losse For he that last pledge being gone we doe Not onely lose the Heire but th' honour too Set we up then this boast against our wrong He left no other signe that he was young And spight of fate his living vertues will Though he be dead keepe up the Barony still Will. Cartwright On the much lamented Death of the Lord Stafford T Is not t' enbalme his name or crowne his herse That our sad thoughts flow in our eyes verse Or t' adde a lustre to his dimmed name Which onely now must shine in Heaven and Fame This were to hold a Taper out by night And cry thus shone the glorious Suns faire light To view his rising splendor at our noone Were in a shadow to set out the Sun Nor doe we Cypresse bring in hope of Bayes As death makes many Poets now a dayes Our teares flow by instinct and a cold frost Seazing our Palsie-joynts told what was lost Before the fat all knell not a dirge sung Nere a sad peale of Elegies was rung No bearded wonder or propheticke flame Vsher'd the ruine of his house and name Yet then we melted in a chilling sweat And every fainting brest did something threat Not each dayes wonder some strange newes come Creeping upon us like the generall doome And this was Staffords death in his owne fall A world of people felt their funerall And lost a being they nere had for he Writ not a man but House or Familie Thus have I seene a little silken clew Of compleated twists at the first view Comprised in a palme but ravel'd out And drawne to lines the thread will winde about Countries or townes Great shade the fate was thine Who by the issue of thy Noble line Might soone have peopled Kingdomes but thy all Is now wound up in a small urne or ball And all thy vertues in sad weedes doe lye Onely spun out into thy memory Thus have we lost what goodnesse knew to dwell In flesh and clay more worth then we dare tell As for an Epitaph upon his stone Write this Here lie a thousand Lords in one Geo. Zouch A. M. N. C. OX On the Death of the Noble Lord STAFFORD OThers to Staffords Herse Encomiums give Not that his worth but that their wit may live My Muse hath no such aime it is lesse praise To beare Apollo's then his fun'rall Bayes Nor is 't the Lord I mourne what is 't to me Who am no Herald if a Baron die I doe not hope for fees I 'me none of those That pay downe teares for legacies or clothes My solemne griefe flowes in a Nobler tide Soone as I heard one so well qualifi'd Had put off clay the fright not newes strucke deepe And made my eye of Vnderstanding weepe He was no Pagiant Courtier such as can Onely make legs like a fine Gentleman Though 's outside shew'd all that the nicer eye Of critique Madams could desire to see Yet was his soule more gay his ample brest Was in a silken disposition drest And with Heroicke habits richly lin'd The Vertues had no Wardrob but his mind As th' Honours and the Lands so he alone The worth of all his Ancestours did owne And yet that He is dead so dead that here Is nought preserves his name but 's tombe sheire That Noble Stocke is spent injurious Fate To make a House so ancient desolate Felton kild Englands George and with his knife Onely not cut the thred of others life We had some comfort left in that his blood Was not quite spilt after his fall he stood Transcrib'd in pretty Emblems which we all Read as true Copies of th' Originall But none survives this Phaenix 't is our woe To have this Sunne not set but put out too The Gard'ner weepes not when his Lillies die If they their seed leave as a Legacie But should an onely Flower the Gardens gem Wither in her full pride and of her stem Bequeath no slip the poore mans eyes each plot Of ground would wet without his water-pot No wonder 't is that reverend Arundell And other Lords doe grone out Staffords knell Since at his fall a Race of Heroes dyed Which can't but by Creation be supply'd Ri. West On the Death of the Lord STAFFORD WHat trust to titles shame t' our hopes ther 's gone One who was none can say how many a one Muses you are too few to waite on 's Ghost Wandring in sorry sheetes to tell what 's lost His Peerelesse Body earth'd some eyes may weepe As if they had never seene him but asleepe But those who view'd with somewhat more then eye The finer beauties of thy mind put by The griefe of teares and call their Consistory Of inward Powers to lament thy story Perfection which might tempt the Scribes of Fate To voluntary pennance force their hate Recoyle upon themselves to Nature sweare Rebatement of such rigour Was 't not severe To cast the blackenesse of dead night so soone On Noble lustre entring into noone How is deluding Heav'n thus pleas'd to whet Our hopes for Harvest and then blight the Wheate This was not all great Ghost we connot free Thee from contempt of sad Mortalitie Thou thought'st enough thy star should guide the wise To honour which thy selfe meant to despise Thy high-borne Spirit ripening into Man Deem'd that so scant a measure must needs span Short of thy merit so sliding out o' th' roule Of earthy Titles thou wouldst shift thy soule But yet me thinkes though Heav'n envy our soyle Such vertuous Simples Mercy should not spoile A Garden of it's onely verdant pride Vntill some hopefull plants were set beside The plucks-up Olive that the same sweete veine Might spring and flourish in high bloud againe Our stocke of Honour's is rooted up yet greene Whose draught 's uncoppyed must no more be seene An ancient house in this new rubbish lyes Here urn'd the ashes of whole Families As if the Church in need of Ornaments Should hence her number have of monuments Proud exercise of Sextons who dare live By fatall dust and looke that piety give To see this shrine and know that in this One There liv'd and dy'd a Generation No member of a Tribe who fils this Tombe He 's Sepulchre of Staffords name in whom A Race and Field is lost a Pedegree And Catalogue of Heroes Could not presaging feares which oft divine i th' fall of one the
sinking of a Line Move one yeares haste to sow in Hymen's bed Some seed which when thou ere mer't gathered In living buds might fresh and growing save The Grand-sire trunke from rotting in a grave But since the closing of thine eyes alone Wink's many glorious Tapers into none We waile thy death more thy Virginity We lose in that in this posterity Thy soule might still have liv'd in others breath Whose single life is now a numerous death Io. Castillion On the most immature Death of the late young Lord Stafford the last Baron of that Family WHat Nemesis what envious fate Still waites on those who antedate Their yeares by vertue and behind Cast slow pac't age with swiftest mind So 't is wise nature shortest day Allowes to things which post away The long liv'd Olive tree of peace And Lawrell slowly doe increase But the early pledge of Spring The Primrose soone is withering So Ceres oft with too much haste Her yellow dangling lockes doth waste And having rose too soone from bed Before night hangs her drowsie head O see what hopes which raisd were high To aggravate our misery Now blasted as a starre which shone New shot from Heaven are flit and gone Have you seene a Pine tree proud Her head invested in a cloud Which the fatall axe hath throwne Or the giddy whirlewind blowne Whilst th' Hamadryades with floods Of teares doe drowne their mournfull woods And Sylvan his espoused Queene Laments faire hopefull fresh and greene Have you seene a vessell trim Vpon the smiling Sea to swim Whose sayles doe gently swell with aire Of many a Merchants zealous prayer O never ship with greater pride Did on a watry mountaine ride But strait a blustring storme doth rise And dasheth her against the skies Then on a rocke her glory teares No shrikes nor cryes nor clamours heares Or have you seene but newly borne The rosy-finger'd fairest morne Whilest the sprightfull Satyres play And leape to see the golden ray But then a sullen cloud this light Turn's to a darke and dismall night These were Emblems of thy fall Noblest Stafford so I 'de call Vertue by this name she 's knowne And t is more proper then her owne But which deeper wounds with thee Dy'd thy stem and Baronie As that Nymph which by the Pine Liv'd and with the same doth life resigne When the Deluge did deface The booke of nature humane race Reprinted was and found supply From the floating Library But of Stafford w' have lost all Both transcript and originall Onely some margent notes are left To tel's of what we are bereft Here multa desunt which to fill Passeth the learned Criticks skill But as in ruin'd abbyes we Admire their faire deformity And doe build up thoughts from thence To reach the first magnificence So yet of Staffords house doe stand Some sacred reliques which command Our rev'rence and by these we see What was his noble Pedigree Whose earthly armes inter'd doe ly But soule plac't in th' aetheriall skie Shines with star-blaz'd nobility Charles Mason On the Death of the Right Honorable Lord the Lord STAFFORD being the last of that Noble Family VNseasonable Fate vexe not our sence With Balefull sorrowes due forty yeares hence Must Stafford needs expire at twenty foure Because in goodnesse onely he 's three score So have we seene the morning Sun to lay His glory downe and make a rainie day Trust me ye Destinies it was unjust So soone to lay his honour in the dust But we doe fixe our sorrowes as upon A private fate when 't is a publicke one And weepe alas as yet but with one eye If but for one we weepe why here doth lie Not my Lord onely but a Family No no! he 's but the Center-point from whence Our grones and sighes fetch their Circumference Here we must teach our eye to drop a teare Even for the losse of those who never were Griefes mysterie we must for those be sad Who lose a being which they never had Must ye your selves O Parcae women prove In that the greenest of our fruites ye loue Fruites which not cropt had thriv'd into a Tree Of a large branching Geneologie Ye might have seaz'd some puling witlesse Heire And made a younger Brother 't had beene faire And we had Praise and kist those bloody palmes Which in the killing this gave to'ther Almes But you will no such spotted sacrifice Such please not yet for such are in your eyes Are neither good for earth nor yet for Heaven Stafford must onely make your weeke-Bill even He 's good and therefore ripe thus still we finde That good wares first goe off bad stay behinde Will. Wallen Coll. Joan. Soc. Vpon the Death of the young Lord STAFFORD VNequall nature that dost load not paire Bodies with soules too great for them to beare As some put extracts that for soules may passe Still quickning where they are in frailer glasse Whose active gen'rous spirits scorne to live By such weake meanes and slight preservative So high-borne mindes whose dawning 's like the day In torrid climes cast forth a full noone-ray Whose vigorous brests inherit throng'd in one A race of soules by long succession And rise in their descents in whom we see Entirely summ'd a new borne Ancestry These soules of fire whose eager thoughts alone Create a feaver or consumption Orecharge their bodyes lab'ring in the strife To serve so quicke and more then mortall life Where every contemplation doth oppresse Like fits o' th Calenture and kils no lesse Goodnesse hath its extreames as well as sin And brings as vice death and diseases in This was thy fate great Staffords thy feirce speed T' outlive thy yeares to throng in every deed A masse of vertues hence thy minutes swell Not to a long life but long Chronicle Great name for that alone is left to be Call'd great and 't is no small Nobility To leave a name when we deplore the fall Of thy brave stem and in thee of them all Who dost this glory to thy race dispence Now knowne to Honour t' end with Innocence Me thinkes I see a sparke from thy dead eye Cast beames on thy deceast Nobility Witnesse those marble heads whom Westminster Adores perhaps without a nose or eare Are now twice raised from the dust and seeme New sculp't againe when thou art plac't by them When thou the last of that brave house deceast Hadst none to cry our Brother but the Priest And this true riddle is to ages sent Stafford is his Fore-father's Monument Richard Godfrey On the untimely Death of the Lord STAFFORD NOt to adorne his herse or give Him another age to live Need we to pretend at wit His worth hath intercepted it Whose every vertue doth require A Muse that onely can admire Death though he strove his utmost fear'd He could not take him unprepar'd H' had ripenesse in his Infancy And liv'd well in Epitomie Of what we hop'd in others he At th' same age had maturity
and whither his beames cannot reach thither his warmth extends Though all cannot enjoy the honour of his presence all are sharers in the comfort of his benefits We are not more happy in living than this brave deceased Lord was unfortunate in immaturely dying under so gratious a King diligent in the search after desert and magnificent in rewarding it who in all probability upon a proofe made of his faith and merit might in him have raised his whilome great House to that Height from which Tyranny unmercifully threw it downe I say to the same Height not the same Titles As concerning the immaturity of his Death I willingly acknowledge the suddaine unexpectted deprivation of one so deare and so hopefull must needs be bitter and grievous to all those whom blood friendship or acquaintance had link'd to him Yet ought they not to grieve immoderately the sorrow of a Christian being by Christ himselfe bounded and confin'd Wee may deplore the absence of our departed friends but we must not too much bewayle their deaths because they are with God As not to feele sorrow in sad chances is to want sence so not to beare it with moderation is to lack understanding since it is fit that griefe should rather bewray a tender then a dejected minde The effects of our sorrow must not too long out-live the cause We moysten not the earth with pretious Waters they were distill'd for nobler ends either by their Odour to delight us or by their operation to preserve our health Our Teares are Waters of too high a price to be prodigally powred into the dust of any Graves But we unwisely court sorrow and as a Lover alwaies espyes something in his Mistris that in his opinion exalts her above her Sexe so wee labour to finde out causes for our excessive griefe and to prove our present losse unequall'd though indeed it have many paralells As the light handling of a Nettle makes it sting us but the hard griping of it prevents that harme so wee should not stroke and cherish our griefes but out of Divinity and Humanity compose a probe that may search them to the quicke Hee who heateth an Iron takes it not out by that part which the fire hath enflamed but by that end which remained without Nor should wee take our afflictions by the wrong end but if wee can finde any comfort to arise from them wee should discreetly lay hold on that Hee who comes into a Rosary findes every Rose guarded with innumerable Thorns yet he warily gathers the one without being pricked by the other The most bitter accident hath a graine of sweetnesse and Consolation in it which a wise man extracts and leaves the Gall behind To apply this out of the subitary death of this Noble Gentleman wee may cull many comforts True it is that Death is sayd to kill the old by Maturity and the young by Treachery and that unripe untimely ends are by all extreamly pittied but if we will harken to Reason issuing out of the mouths of the most profound Philosophers she will tell us that brevity of Life is to be preferred before longevity If we will give beliefe to Seneca he will assure us that Nature never bestowed a greater Benefit on man than shortnesse of Life it being so full of Cares Feares Dangers and Miseries that Death is become the Common wish of all men afflicted He who dyes soone should no more complaine than he whose Navigation in a rough troubled sea is quickly ended We account not those the best trees that have withstood the rage of many Winters but those who in the least time have borne the most fruit Not hee who playes longest but sweetliest on an Instrument is to bee Commended Compared with Eternity the longest and the shortest Life differ not Life is not a constant Fountaine but a fickle Floud that quickly rises and as suddainly falls Some have compared life to a Bird in a Childes hand which sometimes flies away before hee can well fasten his hold on it By the vertue of that Organ wherewith wee first behold the shine of the sun by the defect of the same we are brought into the darknesse and shadow of death It is so it is so Hee that built this faire Fabricke would have nothing stable and permanent in it but himselfe This goodly rationall subtle creature Man above the Stars themselves and next to God himselfe in Dignity able to penetrate into the deepest secrets of Nature to observe the motions of the heavens to compasse both heaven and Earth in a thought is onely immortall here below by succession Generation being as restlesse as corruption The mistocles rightly affirmes that no creature is so miserable as Man in that none but he knows the use of life yet when with great studie and industry hee hath attain'd to that knowledge he is by death depriv'd both of life and it together Age brings to us experience in one hand and Death in the other Iust were the teares and sweet was the Humanity saith Pliny of that Royall and youthful * Graecian who wept to thinke that not one of that glorious immense Army hee then commanded should survive one Age Such a gentle commiseration of humane frailty made Anselme thus cry out O durus Casus Heu quid perdit homo quid invenit perdi dit beat itudinem ad quam factus est invenit mortem ad quam factus non est O hard hap Alas What did man lose What did he finde Hee lost the blessednesse to which he was made and found death to which he was not made Shal then the valiant the learned have a harder fate then fools in so soon parting with those Crownes which Mars and Apollo have placed on their heads shall they so suddenly be deprived of the comfort of that faire Fame which with bloud and sweat with fasting and watching they have purchas'd Yes yes Caesar shall never terrifie the World again with his valour nor Cicero charme it with his eloquence The sword of the one and the pen of the other have now with their Lords the same eternall and unprofitable rest Alas alas Mans is as brittle as glasse but not so conserveable As he encreases in growth his life decreases As whether one sleeps or wakes in a ship under saile he is insensibly as it were carried away towards his intended Port so what ever we are doing we unawares sail towards the region of death Time deals with man Arithmetically He first addes to his Beauty and multiplies his Graces and then hee substracts all these and makes a long lasting Division between him and Nature It were strange if we should think wee shall never arrive there whither wee are ever going Plutarch writes of creatures in a certain part of the World which are borne in the morning are in their prime at noon grow aged towards the evening and are dead ere night Had these reasonable soules as wee have
they would have also the same passions They would after our womanish custome lament their untimely death who die before noon esteeme them happy that live till the evening and yet bewaile them too who depart at night Our fond whining were seasonable and to purpose if it could prevent the death of our friends or call them from the dead but it savours of a vain foolish arrogant ambition to desire they should be privileged and exempted from the fatall common condition of Mankinde since wee cannot be ignorant that God hath set down a period beyond which Nature her self shal not passe Nothing representeth better to us this world then a theater wheron one acts a King another a Lord a third a Magistrate others again play the base servil parts of fools messengers mutes Some of them stay stare strut look big a long time on the Stage others only shew themselvs without speaking one word as soon as they come on go off againe to conclude all have their Exits So we poore Mortals who are sent by our provident omnipotent Creator into this world to undergo several charges some wherof are honorable some ignominious have al an egresse out of this life aswel as an ingresse allotted us Some a long time be at this earthly Stage with the Majestie of a Tragedian others are fools sneak up down to the laughter of all men others again lie manacled bed-rid or which is the worst of Fates distracted Some no sooner enter but they go out again as did that child in the besieged depopulated desolate town of Saguntum who by an instinct of Nature no sooner put his head out of his Mothers wombe but he pull'd it in again as divining the approching destruction of his Citie and himself To continue the similitude As hee who acted an Emperor the Play once done is no better then he who represented a slave so the Grave as Horace saith equals all the King the Beggar Pertinently to this S. Ambrose We are born naked saith he and die naked there is no difference between the carcasses of the rich and the poore save that the former stinke worse through a repletion with excrements which surfets of delicious fare have left behinde This world is Deaths region about it as a triumpher over all flesh he rides his circuit Since then his cōming is so necessary so inevitable whether he comes in the dawne the noon or twilight of life let us bid him welcome What should hinder us to doe so I cannot tell since as there is no ship but in one Voyage or other dasheth not against some hidden rock or shelf so the most happy life is not free from infinite crosses and disasters Yet though every man knows the inconveniences perils of this life saith S. Austin and that he must once die yet all men seeke to shun and defer the houre of death not onely the heathen but they to who believe the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting To our reproch the holy Father spake this for though it be no shame for a Gentile to fear death whose onely scope of life is to see and be seen to know be known yet to a Christian it is whose aime and desire should be not onely to serve God faithfully here but also to raigne gloriously with him hereafter What is necessarily to be done a wiseman does voluntarily let us not therefore with the foolish Tyrant in Lucian either with tears prayers or bribes vainly think to perswade inexorable Death but wisely consider that wee are neither the first nor the last All have gone before and must follow us Nay not a man dies that hath not at the same time many to accompany him who arrive at the house of Death by severall waies Life is a due debt to God and Nature as long as we have it we enjoy a benefit when wee are deprived of it wee have no wrong Let us then daily render it backe to him that gave it since hee is a bad debtour who unwillingly payes As a Souldier the signe once given readily obeyes the command of his Generall and armed at all poynts followes him through all Dangers and faceth Death himselfe so must we chearefully observe the very Beck of our Heavenly Commander and through all miseries and destruction it selfe make our way to him Death should be no longer formidable to us since our Redeemer hath taken out his sting and hee is now no other then an old toothlesse Dragon It is a foolish thing to delight in sleep and abhorre Death sleepe being onely a continuall imitation of it Hee that seriously contemplates the priviledges and advantages that accompany a Christian Death will be in love with it It is the Refuge of the afflicted and the end of all earthly evils It takes not life from us but presents it to the custodie of Eternity It is not an end but an intermittance of life nor no longer a punishment but a Tribute and we are gainers by it As he who hath a long time layne in a darke dungeon is beyond imagination joyfull when he comes to the light so the soule when shee is freed from the vapours and clouds in which the flesh involv'd her is ravish'd with delight While shee is yet in the body though her ambition reach at Heaven yet is shee still clogg'd with that heavy masse of earth and cannot so nimbly and nobly operate as she would She may fitly be call'd the Guest and the Body the Host that makes her pay dearly for her clayie lodging For if a Magistrate be vexed and busied to subdue and pacifie the Rebels of a seditious Citie needs must the soule be troubled and afflicted who hath a harder office assign'd her which is to bridle and restrain the vitious inordinate dissolute affections which are inseparable adjuncts to her while shee hath a conjunction with the body The prerogatives of Death being so many and so certaine let us no longer condole the decease of this our compleatly noble Friend but congratulate his happy departure hence and his safe arrivall in the Imperiall Heaven When Proculus Iulius had reported to the Romans that hee had seene Romulus and that assuredly hee was a God a Wonder it was saith Livie how much they gave credit to this Tale and how greatly the misse of Romulus both amongst the Commons and Souldiers was by this beliefe of his Immortalitie digested Much more should our sorrow be mittigated by the confidence we have that this our blessed Friends soule is ascended to him from whom it descended When Brasse or Gold is melted to make the Statue of some great deserving Man wee say not that the Mettall is lost but dignified In like case when a Body is turn'd into its first Principles Dust and Ashes wee who have an eye to the glorious Resurrection of it thinke not it is utterly ruin'd but dissolv'd to be refin'd As in the Eclipse of the