giueth him most singular commendation and doubteth not but that his soule was in peace and rest with God Yea albeit at that time Valentinian had not receiued the Sacrament of Baptisme yet Saint Ambrose is resolued that propter voluntatem votum Baptismi for his desire and wish that he had to be Baptised the Lord had receiued him to mercy Where I may not forget a speech which he vttereth in that Sermon Iustus quacunque morte praeuentus fuerit anima eius in refrigerio crit The righteous man by what kind of death soeuer he be ouer taken or hastily caught away his soule shall be at rest I might rehearse the example of Iouian another famous Emperour who was the man that freed the Roman armie from the danger whereinto Iulian the Apostata going against the Persians had brought it In the midst of their perill the Captains and souldiers assured both of his vertue and his valour proclaimed him for their Emperour But he being a zealous and most resolute Christian and knowing that they not long before to giue contentment to Iulian had turned Heathens and Infidels made answer that himselfe professing for Iesus Christ would neuer take vpon him any gouernment ouer Gentiles which made them by and by returne to the Christian faith Yet this holy and worthy Emperour like to the Sunne breaking foorth after a fearefull storme was presently caught away and taken out of mens sight For going in health to bed he was found dead in the morning and no reason of that hastie change could be imagined but that either he had taken too liberall a supper or was choaked with the sauour of new lime on the walles of the house where he lay or with the smell of bad coles foetore prunarum as Saint Hierome doth deliuer it Nay I might tell of Iosiah whom Ieremy did terme the breath of their nostrels the Anointed of the Lord yet saith withall that he was taken in their nets that is was caught away suddenly He went into battel against Pharao Necho and there was wounded and slaine Iustine Martyr speaking of this most godly king and the maner of his death doth make this obiection why the wicked did not say that Iosias was so slaine and died in such a fashion because hee ouerthrew their idols and their altars Whereby he doth intimate that the maner of men is to giue a hard iudgement on the good as well as vpon the bad if any thing extraordinarie especially in their death do befall them Saint Hierome noteth the same where hee writeth thus Solent aliqui dicere Some men vse to say He who was slaine had not beene killed vnlesse he had beene a fornicator or had committed some sinne The house had not fallen vpon him vnlesse he had beene a malefactor He had not suffered shipwracke had hee not beene an offender But see what saith the holy Scripture Et sanguinem innocentem condemnabunt They shall condemne euen innocent bloud Though the person be innocent yet God sometimes doth suffer the euill man to condemne him This may well be a lesson to men in our time that they be not too quicke nor nimble in giuing vp their verdicts or censures of other men Especially since God disposeth all at his pleasure Since he hath said that All things come alike to all and the same condition is to the iust and the wicked to the good and to the pure and to the polluted to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not Which is to bee vnderstood of externall and outward things since the parties that speake this haue their owne breath in their nostrils and it may be their owne case if God should so determine it it being true that this noble man spake in another cause the very houre that he died Hodie mihi cras tibi It is my turne to day and it may be yours tomorrow I might amplifie this point much farther but I end it with that saying of the Apostle Paul What art thou that condemnest or iudgest another mans seruant He standeth or falleth to his owne master 15 Yet that truth may not be concealed in the matter which now I handle as God dealt with this noble person somewhat extraordinarily in taking him from among vs so it may be well supposed that he gaue him more than an ordinarie coniecture or suspicion that his death was not farre from him The last yeere when he returned after his greeuous sicknesse he spake it more than once to his honorable friends that he had setled his soule and composed it to another world whensoeuer God should call for him Soone after he began to dispose of all those worldly things which the Lord had lent vnto him Of late it was his common speech I am now an old man therefore this or therefore that as I my selfe can witnesse The day before he died writing with his owne hand to one of his grand-childreÌ„ he more than once in that letter vsed this or the like phrase After my death and when I am dead and gone The last morning of his life it was noted by those who were neerest about his Lordship that he was apparently longer at his priuate meditations then commonly hee did vse But the words of his will written with his owne hand may giue great satisfaction to a man of a hard conceit that he did fit himselfe to mortalitie whereof in the former yeere he had had a warning peece I will read his Lordships owne words in which letech man iudge whether it may not bee thought that there was some instinct more then ordinarie Thus then his will beginneth The eternall God of heauen and earth the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost guide and prosper this mine intent and purpose which in their name I heere take in hand and begin Because it is a trueth infallible such as euery Christian ought not onely perfectly to know and stedfastly to beleeue but also continually to meditate and thinke vpon namely that we are borne to die That nothing in this world is more certaine then death nothing more incertaine then the houre of death and that no creature liuing knoweth neither when where nor how it shall please Almightie God to call him out of this mortall life So as heere we liue euery houre nay euery instant a thousand waies subiect to the suddeÌ„ stroke of death which ought to terrifie teach and warne vs to make our selues ready as well in the preparation of our soules to God as by the disposition of all our earthly fortunes to the world whensoeuer it shal please the heauenly power to call vs from this miserable and transitory life vnto that blessed and euerlasting life to come Therefore c. 16 Yet to all this I may adde that by vs who are liuing there is an vse to be made of these thâ—ngs For Exempl â—moriâ—ntum sunt documenta viuentium The examples of men dying are the
turne afterwards but the first must yeeld to the latter when his time is once accomplished els he shall doe wrong to succession Yet this going away and departure out of this world God hath appointed to be the meanes to aduance men vnto heauen Our corruption is the way vnto our incorruption For God meaning for to crowne with the garland of immortalitie those that haue striuen lawfully doth not come downe to them to honour them vpon earth but calleth them vp to him so to glorifie them in heauen Which thing Saint Chrysostome well considered when he spake in this maner He would haue thee to striue below but he crowneth thee aboue for the crowne is not in this place where the striuing is but in a glorious place Doe you not see heere that such champians and chaâ—et-driuers whom they doe most honour are not crowned below in the place of trying masteries but the King calling them vp putteth on their garlands there God doth take with his children the verie selfe-same course Their fight must be on earth but their reward in heauen And thither they may not come till they haue put off this body Their flesh is as a veile which keepeth them from beholding the purity of that secret one In the tabernacle which Moses made there was a veile which was hanged vp betweene the holy place and the holy of holies This was made of foure substances that is blue silke and purple and scarlet and fine linnen which as Iosephus telleth vs and Saint Hierome after him did represent the foure elements of whom our flesh consisteth Such a veile was afterwards in the temple at Hierusalem which at the death of our blessed Sauiour did rent from the top vnto the bottome at which time a man might haue beheld the very Sanctum Sanctorum So when our flesh this veile which keepeth vs from beholding the inuisibilitie of that mightie one shall be rent and torne in peeces by dissolution and by death we shall behold our Creator but neuer vntill that time The old house must to the ground that so the tenant of it may ascend vnto God by a kinde of remooue till the building be new repaired 6 In the next place our flesh is compared to the grasse Grasse than which nothing is more common nothing more vile Which groweth and in an instant is cut downe and then withereth is either deuoured as fodder or if it be of a bigger size is burned in the ouen as Christ himself speaketh Dauid vseth the same comparison The daies of man are as grasse as a flower of the field so flourisheth he Which is thus expressed by Gregory Man may be compared to the grasse quia per natiuitatem viret in carne per iuuent utem candescit in â—â—ore per mortem aret in puluere Because by his birth hee is greene in his flesh by his youth he is white in his blossome by his death he is drie withered in the dust Such is the shortnesse and vncertaintie of our life Saint Iames doth liken it to a vapour that appeareth for a little time and afterward vanisheth away Saint Peter compareth it to a tent or tabernacle which is soone vp and soone downe The old Egyptians called our houses by the name of Innes where we lodge for a night and are gone in the morning Tully termed our life a lodging Ex vita ista discedo tanquam ex hospitio I depart out of this life as out of a lodging Iob calleth it a shadow And in another place My daies are swifter than the shuttle of a weauer Saint Basil doth liken our life vnto a dreame where a man seeth glorious shewes and is wonderfully pleased with them but after a little while he awaketh and all is nothing Homer compareth men vnto leaues which peepe out of the tree and then grow bigger and bigger at last they are at the greatest fresh in shew and greene in colour but then they fade and decay and are driuen off with the winde Some other say that a man is but like vnto an apple which if it be let alone will at length be ripe and of it selfe will fall vnto the ground but peraduenture before that time it is shaken off by a blast or cropped off by a violent hand Lastly other haue likened our being heere in the world vnto a game at chesse where there be degrees of men Kings and Knights and common Pawnes amongst whom one is caught away and by and by another but howsoeuer on the boord they differ in their degree yet when the game is ended and they are swept all into the bagge there is none better than other the meanest lieth aboue and the greatest is vnderneath Thus both the spirit of God and the iudgement of wise men by significant similitudes would riuet it in into vs and fasten it as with a naile into our cogitations that our daies are but vanitie our continuance heere but momentame our abode on earth but vncertaintie 7 Now lest it should be said that with some it may bee thus but with other otherwise it is farther added that All flesh is grasse Men are all of the same molde and returne to the same substance The wise woman of Tecoah could speake in generall to Dauid We must needs die and we are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered vp againe Heere shee ioineth herselfe with Dauid My Lord we needs must die you a man and I a woman you a Soueraigne I a subiect Dauid himselfe knew this when lying in his death-bed he spake thus vnto Salomon I go the way of all the earth Death is the way of all flesh So holy Iob I know that thou wilt bring me to death and to the house appointed for all the liuing So S. Paul to the Hebrewes It is appointed vnto men that they shall once die and after that commeth the iudgement Where the indefinite proposition is equiualent to a generall Death saith Seneca is the hauen whither euery ship must go some come sooner and some come later but there they all must ariue Perhaps when a ship is entring into the mouth of the hauen there commeth a blast of winde and driueth it out againe but that will not serue the turne it must backe to the same place The speech is true of all Vitaperpetuo auolat neque potest retincri mors quotidie ingruit neque potest resisti Life alway flieth away and cannot be held backe and death daily doth grow on and cannot be resisted In this one point all conditions are alike The yoong may and the old must The difference is no more but the one come vnto death and death commeth to the other Death saith Saint Bernard non miseratur inopiam non diuitias reueretur c. pitieth not the pouertie of one nor standeth in awe of the riches of another
he ioyed no way apparantly as neither on the other side he gaue testimonie of griefe for the death of one of his sonnes who died a very few dayes before the time of his triumph with which patience he also tooke the death of another of them within a few dayes after But albeit in all that he did beare himselfe with great constancie yet in another case hee had other cogitations For hauing ouerthrowen in battell Perseus the king of Macedonia and hauing chased him vp and downe so that there was small hope to escape Perseus writeth letters to him that he would yeeld into his hands his kingdome and his person which when Aemilius had receiued he could not stay from weeping remembring the inconstancie and mutabilitie of all states and conditions So did that noble Marcellus in his entrance into that rich citie Syracusae when he had long besieged it and at last by composition it was surrendred vnto him the teares trickled from his eyes to see so woorthy a place now brought into captiuitie Scipio another Romane when he saw the citie Carthage raced downe vnto the ground though it had beene enemie to his countrey yet could not forbeare to weepe to thinke that empires and nations were so subiect to ouerturning Thus did the grauest and wisest men that were among the olde Romans in the happiest and most glorious things that euer did befall them while they were heere amongst men Such meditations as these were would well become Gods best seruants to lay it vnto their heart that the heigth of earthly felicity being taken in it selfe is but store of the lightest vanitie Grasse is no better than grasse and flowers are no better than flowers these fade the other withereth 9 The reason of the whole now followeth The spirit of the Lord bloweth vpon it God dissolueth all at his pleasure and marke with what facilitie this matter is brought about but as with a puffe of the winde or as with the blast of the mouth That breath which made the world can marre a man in a moment The Lord sayth of himselfe I kill and I giue life I wound and I make whole neither is there any that can deliuer out of mine hand Hanna the mother of Samuel in her song remembreth this The Lord killeth and maketh aliue bringeth downe to the graue and raiseth vp And my Prophet in the same Chapter whence my text is taken He speaking of God bringeth the Princes to nothing and maketh the Iudges of the earth as vanitie These things teach vs the Lords power and his sway ouer men Hee setteth them in a standing place like sentinels in a watch and when he list he dischargeth them When he calleth for the greatest there is no way of auoiding there is no meanes of withdrawing there is no place for absenting there is no course of resisting And so I end this Proclamation 10 What I haue spoken all this while touching the maine of my text is verified in that spectacle which is now before our eyes which can not chuse but be vnto vs a memoriall of mortalitie For heere we are to celebrate the funerall solemnitie of an honourable personage a graue Counseller of Estate a great Officer of the Crowne a faithfull seruant vnto his Maiestie Touching whom since you expect that something should be sayd I shall draw the beginning of that which I must deliuer from a witnesse beyond all exception and that is the late Queene of euerlasting memorie Her Maiestie not long before her death being pleased as 〈◊〉 seemeth with some speciall piece of seruice which his Lordship had done vnto her grew at large to discourse touching this Noble man as an honorable person and a Counseller of Estate in writing hath aduertised me Her Highnesse was then pleased to decipher out his life by seuen steps or degrees The first was his yoonger daies the time of his scholarship when first in that famous Vniuersitie of Oxford and afterward in the Temple where he tooke the degree of Barrister he gaue tokens of such pregnancie such studiousnesse and iudgement that he was held no way inferiour to any of his time or standing And of this there remaine good tokens both in English and in Latine published vnto the world The second was his trauell when being in France and Italy he profited very much in the languages in matter of story and State whereof this Common-wealth found great benefit in his Lordships elder yeeres in the deepest consulations that belonged vnto this kingdome And being prisoner in Rome for the space of foureteene daies which trouble was brought vpon him by some who hated him for his loue to religion and his dutie to his Soueraigne he so prudently bare himselfe that by the blessing of God and his temperate kind of cariage he was freed out of that danger The third step which her Maiestie did thinke good to obserue was vpon returne into England his comming vnto her Court where on diuers occasions he bountifully feasted her Highnesse and her Nobles and so he did to forren Embassadors At that time hee entertained Musitians the most curious which any where hee could haue and therein his Lordship excelled vnto his dying day Then was his discourse iudicious but yet wittie and delightfull Thus he was in his yoonger daies a scholar and a traueller and a Courtier of speciall estimation 11 The fourth step of his life noted by her most sacred Maiestie was his imployment of higher nature in Embassages beyond the seas As first when his Lordship was sent to the French King Charles the ninth partly to congratulate his mariage with the daughter of Maximilian the Emperour and partly about other weighty affaires touching both the kingdomes At which time his Lordship was so honorably attended with Gentlemen of choice qualitie and was so magnificent in his expence as was admirable to the French honorable to his countrey and gaue much contentment vnto his Soueraigne The Chronicles at large relate the maner of it Secondly when afterward in a seruice of tickle nature he was imploied into the Low Countries where notwithstanding the sharpe sight which by some was caried ouer him yet his Lordship behaued himselfe so warily and discreetly that no blame could be fastened on him The fift time obserued was his temper and moderation after his returns from thence when her Maiestie to giue contentation to a great personage in those daies of high imploiment was pleased to command him vnto his owne house there priuately to remaine till her farther pleasure was knowen Where his Lordship did beare himselfe so dutifully and obsequiously vnto her Highnesse command that in all the time of his restraint for nine or ten moneths space hee neuer would endure either openly or secretly either by day or by night to see either wife or childe A rare example of obedience and obseruance vnto his Soueraigne The sixt degree which was noted by that most renowmed Ladie was
it spareth not the parentage of any man nor his behauiour nor his age for the old it standeth ready in the gates for the yoong it licth in ambush The Poet could say of death that it is that Quò Pius Aeneas quò Tulius diues Ancus whether Aeneas with his piety and Tullus with his riches and Ancus with his valour did go Puluis vmbra sumus we are but dust and shadow Nay it is a thing so assured that in a sort a man may say we are more certaine to die than that euer we were borne since there is but one way onely to come into the world but a thousand waies to goe out of it as Gregorie Nazianzene obserued as by fire and by water by the teeth of wilde beasts by famine or sword or pestilence and infinite meanes besides And as the rule is generall for persons and for degrees so also is it for places no one place being exempt or priuileged from death Which Socrates himselfe did rightly vnderstand when after his condemnation being told by his friends that if he would giue liking thereunto they would by violence take him from the officers or otherwise conuey him away he not onely gaue no consent to that proiect of theirs but also smiled at them asking whether they knew any place without the territorie of Athens to the which death might not approch And as pretie a speech was that of Hormisda the Persian who being by his king sent in ambassage to Constantius the Roman Emperour was caused by Constantius to walke vp and downe to view the citie Rome There hee beheld the glorious monuments of the place the Capitol the Pantheon the Temple of peace the Forum of Traian the Amphitheater and the Bathes with many other matters of excellent workemanship But being asked by the Emperour what he thought of Rome or what was his iudgement concerning it he replied that it was the most glorious Citie that was in the world and that as hee supposed there was not such another in all the earth but this saith he doth please me or as other report it this one thing doth displease me that I see men die at Rome as they doe in other places The speech was most true and fitteth all other cities We all then may resolue that wheresoeuer we be or of what calling soeuer we must come to the gates of death That we might not hope to auoid this the Patriarkes and the Prophets haue gone that way before vs That wee may not dread the sharpnesse of it the Sonne of God himselfe by sustaining death in his flesh hath sanctified death vnto vs. 8 A man would haue thought that by this time sufficient had beene sayd But yet farther to imprint all into our cogitation the Prophet speaketh on All the grace thereof is as the flower of the field The grasse withereth the flower fadeth As if he should haue subioyned that if in the life of man there be any thing more faire more amiable more goodly more specious more illustrious than the common qualitie yet this is but like to the flower The flower is more sightly than the grasse more pleasing vnto the eye more fragrant vnto the smell yet it endureth the common qualitie of withering and fading Yea many times the fairer and the gayer the flower is the sooner it is gathered and cropped off by the hand So it is with those things which this world esteemeth most glorious Authority estimation youth beauty pompe strength all the delights of this earth are transitorie and vaine Dauid setteth men as high as possibly they may go I haue sayd Ye are gods and ye all are children of the most High but he bringeth them downe as low But yee shall die as a man and ye Princes shall fall like others There be many things in this world of high esteeme with men goodly houses glorious clothes daintie fare curious gardens musicke baths plate and possessions yet of these S. Austen sayd truly Quamuis insana gaudia non sint gaudia Although these mad and foolish ioyes are in trueth no ioyes yet be they as they are and let them delight as much as possibly they can aufert omnia ista vnafebricula if there come but one fit of an ague the comfort of them is gone To the same purpose Saint Basil for when hee hath described the glory and the ornaments of Princes and great persons he addeth That if there come but one ill night one little touch of a feuer some paine of the side or imperfection in the lungs abijt illa vniuersa scena all the play is marred the shew is quite disgraced Where wee may note that Saint Basil doth terme our life but a play And so also doth Saint Chrysostome likening men vnto stage-players among whom one is a King a second stands for a Captaine a third serues for a Mariner and other haue other parts but this is only while they are vpon the stage for the shew being ended they are then but themselues all fellowes and all alike Euen so in life there is difference there be degrees of callings but in rottennesse and the graue the best and worst are equall There no difference may be found betweene Absason with his beautie and Lazarus with his blaines There it is true which Lucian causeth one to report that when he came amongst the dead he could there see no difference betweene Nireus the faire and Thersites the foule betweene Irus the begger and Vlysses the Prince betweene Pirrhias the cooke and Agamemnon the king Now if these things be so why doe men set their hearts on the glory of this world Nay why do Christian men embrace it and admire it and adore it and doat vpon it since Heathen men haue discouered the vanitie thereof and done strange things about it That Saladine who was so great an enemie to the Christians and wan from them the Holy land lying vpon his death-bed gaue charge that his inner garment his shirt as it may be thought or rather his shrowd being put on the end of a speare should be carried before his coarse now going to be buried and that a Herald should crie that Saladine the great Lord and Gouernour of Asia carried nothing away with him but that shirt or that shrowd Where if it should be obiected that he grew to this contemplation when immediatly he was to leaue the world I may tell you of other persons who in their strength and vigor haue had as good meditations Titus that Romane Emperour hauing set out shewes and spectacles for a hundred daies together to demonstrate the magnificence of that Empire on the last day of those sights in the presence of all the people did breake foorth into teares vpon a consideration that all that pompe was vanished and dissolued into nothing It is sayd of Paulus Aemilius that when he had his triumph for three whole dayes together
instructions of the liuing When in this present spectacle wee may sensibly beholde that life is so vncertaine that we may say with Plinie Whereas there be in men innumerable signes of death there is no assured signe of safetie and of securitie in the yongest or the strongest let vs remember the counsell of our Master and Sauiour Wake therefore for yee know not what houre your master will come either by death or by the last and generall iudgement Let vs be like the wise virgins euer readie with oile in our lamps the oile of faith and good life Let vs say to our selues as God sayd to Hezechiah Put thine house in an order for thou shalt die and not liue Let vs speake thus to our soules Let vs not weaue the spiders-web that is bestow all our labour vpon that which is but vaine but weake and of no profit Let vs not fasten our selues to this transitorie world making that to be our ioy our comfort and delight but let our minde be setled on some thing of higher nature Let vs daily pray to God as Moses sometimes prayed Teach vs so to number our daies that we may apply our hearts vnto wisdome which must be the wisdome spirituall celestiall and eternall And this is so much the rather to be desired in this life because as we reade in Salomon if the tree doe fall toward the South or toward the North in the place that the tree falleth there it shall be that is as Olympiodorus and Saint Bernard do expound it as a man doth die either in the fauour or the disfauour of God so he must remaine immutabiliter irretractabiliter without changing or recalling Therefore men while they doe liue should cary themselues warily as being euer assured that they are in the eye of God and that he is among them in their greatest consultations and most honourable assemblies God standeth sayth Dauid in the Congregation of Princes he is a Iudge among Gods A Iudge to see and examine them a Iudge to strike and call vnto him whom and when it pleaseth him Let him euer be before our eyes that when he shall send for vs we may appeare with readinesse with alacritie and with confidence before the Throne of his Grace Which God the Father grant vs for his Sonne Christ Iesus his sake to both whom with the Holy Ghost be laud and praise and glorie now and euermore Amen TO THE READER BEcause there is mention made in this Sermon of a Ring sent vnto that Honorable person by his most sacred Maiestie the humble acceptance whereof is set downe with so gratefull remembrance of his dutie and deuotion to his Highnesse and because the words otherwise imply a great deale of obseruable matter I haue thought it not amisse to offer them to more publike view as they are deliuered by his Lordship in his last will which is as followeth ALso I giue will and bequeath vnto my sayd wel-beloued sonne ROBERT Lord BVCKHVRST after my decease for and during his life onely out of those Iewels of Golde Pearle and Precious stone which I keepe and reserue as Iewels for my selfe the sole vse and occupation only of one Ring of Golde enameled blacke and set round ouer all the whole Ring with Diamonds to the number of twentie whereof fiue Diamonds being placed in the vppermost part of the said Ring do represent the fashion of a Crosse and the other fifteene are set round and ouer all the sayd Ring And after the decease of my said sonne BVCKHVRST then I giue will and bequeath the like sole vse and occupation only of the said Ring vnto my Nephew RICHARD SACKVILLE his eldest sonne for and during his life only And after his decease then vnto the next heire male begotten of the bodie of the sayd RICHARD SACKVILLE my Nephew for and during his life only And so from heire male to heire male of the SACKVILLS after the decease of euery of them seuerally and successiuely for and during the life and liues only of euery such heire male seuerally and successiuely charging and earnestly requiring all and euery of my said heire males before specified euen as they regard the last request of him by whose great trauell care and industrie if the Diuine prouidence of God that hath vouchsafed to giue it shall so please to continue it they are like to receiue the addition and aduancement of so great honor possessions and patrimonie that although percase in this strict course of the common lawes of this Realme the Entaile of goods and chattels may hardly stand vpright that yet for the preseruation and continuance of this gift of mine intended by mee to remaine as an heire-lome to the house and familie of the SACKVILLS so long as almightie God according to the effects of his former goodnesse vnto that house by the continuance thereof during the space of so many hundred yeeres past shall please to vpholde the same they and euery of them will forbeare in any sort to oppugne it or to bring it in question or to brandle and controuert the will of their so well deseruing Ancestour and specially in a matter so honest reasonable fit and conuenient as this is but rather with all willing readie and contented mindes to suffer the same to passe as an heire-lome from heire male to heire male according to the true intent and meaning of this my last will and Testament in that behalfe Which said Ring set all ouer with twentie Diamonds as is aforesaid I desire charge my said sonne BVCKHVRST vpon my blessing and in like sort all other the heires male whom God shall vouchsafe from age to age to raise vnto my house and familie and vnto whom if the Highest so please my heartie desire and meaning is the said Ring set with twenty Diamonds as is aforesaid may lineally and successiuely descend and come for euer namely that with all prouident care and heedfull circumspection they will safely keepe retaine and preserue the said Ring whensoeuer and as often as he shall come to their hands and possession euen as one of the greatest gifts and iewels which in true estimation all circumstances considered I haue to leaue vnto them And to the intent they may know how iust and great cause both they and I haue to holde the said Ring in so high esteeme it is most requisite that I doe heere set downe the whole course and circumstance how and from whom the said Ring did come to my possession which was thus In the beginning of the moneth of Iune 1607 this Ring thus set with twentie Diamonds as is aforesaid was sent vnto me from my most gracious Souereigne King Iames by that honorable personage the Lord Hay one of the Gentlemen of his Highnesse Bed-chamber the Court then being at Whitehall in London and I at that time remaining at Horsley house in Surrey twentie miles from London where I lay in such extremitie