stirred all of all estates to the consideration of their states and did much affect his highnesse as appeared both by his great attention and commendation thereof Blessed Prince by this Esay 38 1. preparing as Hesekias was warned to set his house in order because he must die Learne hence yee Courtly Gallants yee that prorogue the tearme of your lifes as the Prophet spake Zephany yee that put farre from you the day of the Lord set your houses in order you must die an account must be made did yee but know what houre the theefe Death will come yee would watch if at that time the house bee not built by faith or built and not prepared by hope or prepared and not swept by repentance or swept for a time and not dayly set in order by meditation of mortalitie If there be no care of the spirituall Oeconomy at that day at that houre yee shall drinke the bitter cuppe of the dregges of destruction O then al of yee that eat as if yee did not care to liue and yet build as if yee did not thinke to die yee that preferre Hagar before Sara Bern. Gen. 16 3. Gen. 30.4 and neglect Rahel in regard of Bilha yee that respect not that poore pining fainting Inmate the soule stand in your watchtowers looke towards the vvest to the setting of the sunne dispose of your bodies your soules that your eyes may see your salvation One put his barnes in order and that night they tooke away his soule Achitophel put his house in order and that day he went and hanged himselfe Esay 38.1 but Hesekias set his house in order set his soule in order and so recovered health to body and soule Princes doe partake of a kind of omnipotency their braue followers potentate friends Beaux maiesticke roabes treasured vp riches delicate fare faire Palaces pleasures as if Paradise were recovered their delights as if heaven were come to dwell on earth as the nation of the Iewes cary with them a Savour of their stained stemme murtherous progeny so all these vanities cary a sent and shew of earthly perishing mortalitie Sorrow sicknesse death be Courtiers and of great command they haue their groomes in every office of the house To say no more If Salomon in all his royalty did remember his Creator in the daies of his youth before the evill dayes came Eccles 12.1 before the yea s drew nigh wherein hee might say I had no pleasure therein then linger no longer whosoever thou art in the morning sowe thy seed worke while it is day provide with Ioseph the barnes before the famine Gen. 41. Gen. 6.13 Luk. 15.11 Luk. 16.1 and with Noah the Arke before the flood Let the prodigall child vniust steward vnwise virgin serue thee as examples to terrifie thee But to incite thee to rowse vp that panting fainting breath of thy soule Remember the carefull resolution of this rare Prince whose mintadge may lend character to all the world 5 When the sunne of his Highnesse life was ascending to the meridian his and our Ecclipse began before the noone-tide of nature the night of death set vpon him When all the worlds Eccho of him was that which Antigonus spake of Pyrrhus maximum futurum si senesceret Pluz then did that great Tyrant death first beate then batter all the naturall forces all the principall parts of his bodily fortresse The besiege was not long but cruell when HEE forecasting the worst of events and encountering them before they came caried this character of the valiant D. Hall Char. of val often to looke death in the face and with a religious constancie to passe by it with a smile at once shewing both his content and contempt of death O you vaine froathy fondlings of the world who are enimies to God because strangers to goodnesse in whom custome of sinne hath left no sense of shame and desire of life no feare of death learne hence and tremble at the lesson what it is to walke early and dayly with your maker learne what it is to provide deaths paymēt before the day Shall he that was Natures mirrour the delight and delicacy of mankind being as deere to the world as heauen deare to him shall HE so ballace himselfe with holy wisdome that he provides to floate steddily in the midst of his tempestuous shipwrack shal he in the strength of nature heate of blood beautie of youth and glory of his time prepare so timely at once both to welcome and contemne death And will yee yee earthly Glowormes neglect so certaine vncertaine a point of state as the prevention of death by provision for death your daily surfets nightly riots hourely quarrels are attended not only with surquedry but mortalitie If ever place or age time or person had had a priviledge or immunitie frō death then yee might continue to flatter your selues and to betray your soules but whenas all that soiourne vpon the face of the earth must returne into the wombe and tombe of the earth that the Arkes of your bodies bee full of holes and yee take water at a thousand breaches when that art of offence the duell whereof the divell is the Master is so frequent that beyond the ancient but abhorrent māner of humane murthers as the infants of Bethlehem in the cradles Eglon in the parlour Saul in the mountaine Mat. 2.16 Iudg. 3.12 1. Sam. 26. 2. Chr. 32.21 Ishbosheth on his bed Zenaeherib in the Temple all other places whatsoever forraine and domesticke stream with the blood of single combat of which bloody issue your selues be the Authors the actors the abettors To which adde the namelesse and helplesse infirmities by outrages and sicknesses wherevnto yee are subiect And vpon this consideration turne your eyes inwardes into your owne Anatomies obserue whether yee need Cautions in this kind that seeing examples moue not precepts may prevaile 6 But whither goe I Blessed Prince he was both an apt scholler and an excellent Master his vnderstanding was illumined with the beames of divine truth God acquainted him with his word and in his word with his will Hee made sure for his soule accounted it no safety to bee vnsetled in the foreknowledge of his finall estate How were the devout and frequent observations of his morning religious offices without intercession privately continued as if with David he had vowed Psal 5.3 My voice shalt thou heare in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my praier vnto thee This our morning starre preventing the morning watch in his morning offring as if to him Omnis dies esset vltimus dies Iob. 1. Ps 55.18 Rupertus Vitriacus Bon avent Aust in Psal Vespere Dominus in cruce mane in resurrectione meridie in ascensione enarrabo vespere patientiā morientis annuntiabo mane vitam resurgentis orabo vt exaudiat meridie sedens ad dextram Patris Sanctuary
Rhene when the Gratious vertuous Princesse Psal 45. his highnesse sister was al glorious her cloathing of wrought gold when shee was to be brought to her Illustrious Palatine in rayments of needle worke the Virgins that were her fellowes to beare her Companie when with all ioy and gladnesse shee was to be brought to enter into her Princes Palace that in steed of her Parents shee might haue children whom shee might make Princes in forraine lands Then when righteousnesse looked downe from heaven and all the Christian world resulted with ioyfull acclamation some fewe Curs of Antichrist excepted Then that even then this blessed Prince to be willing to leaue the world and his happy soule to be contented to be loosed from the fetters of the flesh How should it amaze those subterranean Moles who desire to haue their portion still in this life crying faciamus his tabernacula Who when Death serveth the execution vpon them are most vnwillingly drawne Math. 17. and pulled from worldly delights as beasts from their dennes with malevolence violence roaring out as lamentable a farewell to their soules as Adrianus the Romane Emperour who cryed out Animula vagula blandula c. That his fondling and darling soule was now fleeting he knew not vnto what darknesse danger it should passe where now shoulde be hits lodging now that it was to loose hits former delight and sporting he knew not the pace the place the passage the entertainment how farre was he from him whose motto was Nec pudet viuere nec piget mori frō all the Saints of God that know they are but translated dissolued gathered to their fathers fallen a sleepe their life is hid for a time that they lay downe their tabernacles lie downe in peace sleepe in the Lord rest in hope wait their change that death is only a ferry a boat a bridge to convay them into another place or as a Groome that lights a taper into another roome But ô humane witchcraft that so enchanteth those two divinely polished tables of the soule the wil vnderstanding cheating the affections in the one checking the meditations of the other Why do not the gallant walking Ghosts of this godlesse-age provide more willingly to entertaine the divorce dissolution of their earthly frame why so dayly do they incur the death of both parts when as their defluxion and consuming course is daily manifested every minute they liue being a steppe vnto death every action pulling away some part of their beloved life when like a candle continually burning they are howrely dying and yet as vnwilling to die as weake to resist death the head a skull the breath smoake the eie water the braine dirt the hart dust the body a house of clay Scal. Exer. 148. and men themselues are not men but peeces and fragments of men as Scaliger told Cardā and no waies to passe to life but by the gate of death as the Israelits could not passe to Caanan but by the dead sea and as an ancient compareth our body disposed into the fower humors vnto the veile of the Temple composed of the 4. Colours as this vaile must be removed before the entrance can be obtained into the Sanctū Sāctorum so must the body put of mortality to indue it selfe with immortality But the fleeting Meteors of this fond age neglect the Contemplation hereof and being no more able to abide death then quiet in thinking on the feare of death they wish to fly even from thēselues and to be discharged frō being guided by so ill a guest as their owne soule they wish their portion to continue in this life they can be cōtent to stay here for ever The base wealth false pleasures vaine hopes lying promises fained friendship short glory fading beauty of this dull and dungeon-like life yeelds them sufficient satisfaction otherwise to be sequestred from these itching toies bewitching ioies and to leaue the world they are most loathsomly loath they answere they know where they are whither they shall goe they know not and herevpon in the instant of their trāsmigration they are so vnwilling to leaue the world hence is it that they begin to feele the flames of Hell before they goe downe to the graue before them horror behinde them terror on the one side sinne on the other shame fire in the hand a serpent at the heart terrors of the night sting of conscience feare of hell torture them and their vnwillingnes to die is most willing to torment them But I proceed my subiect is sorrow whom I follow 10 How sorrowful a day was this Vigil of his death How watry that day the 5. of November which should haue beene the day of feare and fire and fury if that Tragedy which Antichrist and hell plotted had been acted How was this day the day of Ioy and Iubile for deliverance I say how was the glory and beauty thereof changed by this Ecclipse of the Princely sunne The Lord even then visiting vs Lament 2.22 as Ieremy complaineth in the Lamentations Lord thou hast called vs in a solemne day and now terrors are round about vs. A day that at the institution thereof did occasion more cause of ioy to vs thē any ordinary day of deliuerance to the Iewes our deliverance greater our enimies more cruell their snares more fearefull the mischeefe more miserable the misery more generall and the proiect more horrid and terrible then ever any we read of among Iewes or Gētiles Graecians or Barbarians or the history of any estate hath read heard or registred in times Chronology A day wherein they cryed of Zion downe with it downe with it even to the ground Wherein the Oracles of our wisdome the Chariots of our Israell the sacred Reverence of our Clergy had beene devoured the learned Guardians of our Iustice the whole estate of our weale-publike by a publicke woe had beene blasted and blemished and consumed A day that should haue been mother to the fowlest monster and monstrous plot that ever was purposed or performed facinus tale quod nec Poeta fingere nec Histrio sonare nec mimus imitari poterat even in that day wherein wee were freed and delivered by a miraculous hand from this hell-borne horror intended against vs. O how was this daie altered by the publicke sorrow for vertues sicknesse This fift day feare possessed City and Court a day that though Pythagoras and Hesiod count to bee most infortunate yet was never ominous or inauspitious to vs witnes the gracious preservation of the Lords Annointed on the 5 of August and this 5 of November Now many hearty prayers were in fiery Chariots sent vp to heauē to implore divine maiestie that this day we might not be led into the temptation of such a tempestuous shipwracke as the losse of our Prince Hesiod Virgil. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Hesiod and Quintam fuge is Virgils caution and Rhodiginus giveth the reason Coel.
12 And now death Natures midwife began her final act of dissolution this fatall day friday a day which long before his highnesse accounted dismall proved to be the day of blacknesse and darknesse a day of clowds gloomishnes there never was since the time of Christ the like and Lord let never be the like any more after it even to the yeares of many generations Now the infallible signes of vnsatisfiable death approaching the disiointing Cōvulsions trembling agonies came vpō him Nature wasting like a dying Lampe in that day his starres begin to be darkned the keepers of his house to tremble the strong men to bow themselues the grinders to cease they that looke out of the window to be darkened Now the siluer Cord is ready to be loosed the golden pitcher breaking at the fountaine and the wheele breaking at the Cesterne Now now HEE is going to his long home and the mourners go about in the street O miseram faciem orbis O wofull countenance of a Court that now appeared the Eccho and reclamation of sighes sobs the throwes of sorrow of outcryes and vnspeakeable Lamentation sounded not only in that wofull house and therein in the Chambers of death but in all the Court all the city men passing along by each other as if they had bin come out of the graues Teares groanes heavy lookes dissheveld lockes and lamentations filling all places speach life seeming to be strangers to men the saddest time sablest world that ever our Country knew It exceeds invention to imagine it and is able to cast a perpetual dampe vpon the vnderstanding that shal conceiue it my hand pen heart all my faculties sinke vnder this burden I lacke Agamemnons vaile The delight of mankinde expectation of nations is expiring where how whence is Comfort to bee had I shal never forget ever to pity those poore souls with wringing hands breaking harts whose shrikes and outcries are able to pearce Adamāt Are sins more prevailing then prayers Where is the power and violence of praier which opened and shut and sealed vp heaven brought downe fire and staied the sunne in the firmament No hope no helpe all miracles ceased No balme in Gilead nothing in the strength and extracts of nature no Elixir in Art to recover to repaire this irrecoverable consumption It was providence that disposed it and doth silence question But was the charge so strict as that the great Tyrant Death would smite neither small nor great but Israels Prince the Ioshua Iosiah Maiesties first borne Religions second Must the Rose be blemished before it was fully bloomed or the fig tree blasted before it was time to bring forth fruit O crueltie of that savage monster Death O Death thou child of sinne and father of confusion hast thou not already triumphed enough in funerall solemnities thy applause in the cries of widdowes and orphans by the disorder and desolation of thy vniversall dominion that as many ages as haue beene since the world was created so many conquests hast thou obtained and yet thy all devouring throat the graue vnsatisfied But againe I see the finger of providence imposing silence forbidding question Yet my eares tingle with the dolefull tune of that wofull time The bell now calleth him to the triumphant Church by day Death durst not approach by night he vndertakes this deed of darknesse The redoubled sound of that solemne but sorrowfull knell strooke all hearts with a chilling killing feare now hope was without helpe the ayer was troubled with the scriching outcries and all knees bowed all faces plentifully bedewed the world in an extasie as if some especiall part of nature were dissoluing Now were the last prayers of the family who without intercession were all that day assisted by many honourable and infinite lamentably sobbing soules whereof the Chappell vestry entry and whole Court were ful all ioyning with strong cries weeping eyes bleeding hearts did commend his blessed soule to be bathed in the pretious blood of his Saviour And so not long after quietly patiently blessedly he expired and yeelded his spirit into the hands of his immortall maker Even then when that inauspicious aspect of the planets did portēd some ominous disaster when only Saturne and Iupiter appeared aboue and Sol Mars Mercury Venus and Luna lay hid below not daring to be witnesses of that heavie and horrid effect of that horrible coniunction Learne hence all yee firre trees that Cedars may fal and Princes the Gods of the earth may die They are men helplesse men mortall men corruptible men in the frames of their bodies and in the cogitations of their minds Happy therefore is he that hath the God of Iacob for his refuge Happy is hee whose hope is in the Lord his God! And blessed be our God who in the vnconceavable wisdome of his divine wil hath freed blessed Prince HENRY from the fetters of the flesh Who when he had shewed him the world to loath the world enfranchised him from this earthly prison and dungeon and possessed him now with greater libertie Where being exalted in greatest glory hee is nowe in his presence where there is fulnesse of ioy and at his right hād pleasure for euermore Where there is an immortall immarcessible crowne wherewith already hee is adorned in that kingdome of continuance where sorrow shal never be felt sicknesse never be feared where ioy cannot be touched with sadnesse nor health tainted with sicknesse where there is all good without any evill and all trouble all punishment and all feare is done away And finally blessed bee that God who hath out of his fountaine of goodnesse once againe opened the windowes of the mornings mercy and restored a new light to those sorrowfull soules who sate in darknesse and in the shadow of death and hath restored the voice of ioy and gladnesse vnto our most gracious K. IAMES and the family of St IAMES by the setling of that house and the happy shining of our day starre CHARLEMAINE the apparant heire of his blessed Brothers vertues and titles the Parallel of former and absolute patterne of future Princes whose stemme and stock long may it florish vnder the branches of those Royall Cedars his renowned Parents that so with much happinesse his Highnesse may bring forth his fruit in due season to all good mens good and Gods great glory Amen
of soule so did he season sanctifie himselfe as Iob sacrificed to sanctifie his sonnes so did he pray against his sinnes commune with his owne heart in his chamber and was still and thought not this enough but that with David more fervently more frequently he would praise the Lord in the Congregation and that as that holy prophet professeth instātly yea and continually vespere mane meridie in the morning evening and at noone did he praise the Lord not only as some interpreters iudge because these three parts of the day were consecrated by those three prime acts of our redemption the evening by Christs passiō the morning by his resurrectiō the noone by his blessed Ascension but also because these times haue alwaies by the faithfull of all ages beene hallowed by divine orisons and therefore in chamber and closet our Solomon observed these knowing that actions both of difficultie and weight are drawne to perfection by often vse And therefore seeing it is a very hardmatter either to praie or to die either willingly or well all ought both timelie and diligently to exercise themselues that by praying often and so consequently by dying often in the end men may both pray and die easily and willingly O then all yee drowsie Night-birds arise from your beds of sloth Rev. 6.8 cary the watch of praier be vigilant over your owne soules looke vpon the pale horse and him that sitteth thereon whose name is death Provide that yee be not sodainely surprised and dy before yee begin to liue It is weaknesse to be vnwilling to that which is necessary to be done it is necessary to die and it is necessary for dying well often to pray often to meditate vpon thy death A day wil come when thy evening shal be shut vp be thou mighty thou canst not resist be thou rich thou canst not corrupt be thou never so wise thou canst neither appease nor avoid DEATH Which in the principall strength and beauty of age plungeth the thoughts of the worldly interrupteth the enterprises of the worthy breaketh the studies of the learnedst croppeth of the flowrishing hopes of the fairest the same God telleth Princes yee are Gods et homines coelestibus aequat and yet they shall die like men sceptra ligonibus aequat 7 Which meditation extracted by the Limbique of contemplation into vertuous action indued and endowed our PRINCE with an humble holy patience in all the stormy invasions of his sicknesse having so conquered himselfe as sorrowes could not conquer him his experiments sage for their truth though young for their time had drawne out rules of confidence and patience which he did oppose against all the feares of distrust he knew whom he trusted and how farre death could lead him his shield was of a mettall not so hard as flexible as it was never missed so never pierced he both saw endured a divine hand invisibly striking and in those sensible scourges he did not murmur His hopes were so strōg that they insult over the greatest discouragements his apprehensions so deepe that whē he once fastened he sooner left his life thē his hould his holy patience invincible as full of faith as void of fury being thē aboue nature when below himselfe his paines faintings heats tossings cōvulsiōs not able to distract his person or disturb his patience whē after a lingring growing encreasing possessiō of some pestilent humor sicknesse had surprised his head Laur. Anat. Sacram Palladis arcem the watchtower of the whole body domicilium sensuum propugnaculum as Laurentius calleth it yet his patience increased with his disease with a tongue calmlie free a forhead Socrates-like resolute and firme with a setled countenance he consults the Pilots of his bodily vessell and in their distraction while he suffers and is silent and beholders pitie him and his torments cannot disease him he refers all peaceably patiently to the will of his maker Zanch. as if hee had learned that lesson of Zanchius Oramus Domine fiat volūtas tua facta est feramus In all this when not master of his health yet master of himselfe subduing passion to reason bowing to beare the burden Bern. he verified that of Bernard Submittitur sensus non amittitur nec deest dolor sed superatur sed contemnitur Learne hence yee impatient and passionate whirlewinds yee who hoise vp sailes in your tempests whose words be wounds breath blood behold but not without amazement a Princely soules calme in the midst of a bodily storme whose resolution was as that sometimes of Tertullian Totum licet seculum pereat Tertul. dum patientiam lucrifaciam rather would hee that the world should perish vnto him then his patience perish Learne if yee are not as farre past the boundes of nature as grace yee fiery monsters who as if yee were borne vnder the torrid zone whose spleneticall phreneticall passions like the surges of the sea breake the vessels of your vnderstanding and reason who are stirred with lesse then a word and are more turbulent then a torrent who in the least disasters are ready to blaspheme God and die whose proceedings are as heady as your words hasty and lookes peremptory who never looke how innocent but how strong yee are and will rather vsher then smother an iniurie making your sword the first of tryals murther the fruit of the sword whose societie admits no safetie nor acquaintance any trāquillitie O yee bloodhounds is the life of man no more pretious or the iustice of God for blood no more rigorous that without respect I say not of Christian but Pagan patience yee familiarly destroy your brethren for whō Christ hath died Yee posterity and tribe of Cain when any small disgrace nay the least distast a tale a toy a breath a word a syllable The lye will edge to revengefull impatience behold him holy soule from whom al his paines redoubling of his pangs the violence and virulence of humours in his troubled heart tormented head parched tongue schortched throat inflamed body and fired blood could not extort any sparkes of impatient passion 8 Thus in him never was divorce between devotion patience Holy soule how prevalent was devotion in him by which hee cast so often sweet wood into his bitter waters how did Gods spirit by this subdue his reason regenerate his will purifie his nature how by this in his extremitie hourely did he walke with his maker and talke with him familiarly celestial spirits affording him company and service all the roomes of his holy hart set a part for holinesse Which habit was obtained by the former acquisition of it in those many vertuous actions of his tender age when in the 14 yeare of his time he approved himselfe to be a religious hearer iudicious observer and obsequious obeyer of the word of his maker his gracefull gravitie giving much life to those sermons which were heard by him but
his practise much more Among many others this one remarkable monument shall rest with renowne vpon his memorie he abhorred an oath laying besides the Obeliske of imputation a pecuniary mulct vpon those his followers and family who were found faulty in swearing which monies were duly distributed to the poore Neither can I here omit his religious answer made vnto one that wondred at his sports to obserue his highnesse freedome from oathes hee answeres I never knew any sport worth an oath This holinesse so early began ended not sicknesse diseased it not sorrow disordred it not He shewed his owne care of serving God then in his daily calling vpon him commanding in the entrance of his sicknesse that the ordinary howres prayers in his Closet should be duly observed as if hee had derived pietie as well as royaltie from Ioshuah his example whose speech was Iosh 24.15 I and my house will serue the Lord besides the prayers which often he desired to bee vsed at his highnesse bed-side wherein a learned and Reverend n = * D Milborn Deane of Rochester Deane then assisting fearing to distemper his pained head with any lowd voice his highnesse earnestly calleth and willeth him to speake more openly such was his happy and harty respect to his religious prayers As also his desire and delight to receaue those heavenly plentifull instructions and to partake in those holy powerfull devotions of the most Reverend Archb. who daily did both visit and perfect that good worke in him so that neither the dulnesse of the disease drowsinesse of his head dimnesse of his eies or disturbances of his whole afflicted body could hinder the divine part from her great solace in so great sorrow Learne hence yee profane vnseasoned soules who never name God but in oathes never thinke vpon him but in extremitie yee sencelesse gracelesse Gallants to whom will is a law appetite a Lord reason a servant and religion a drudge a time will come when you shall not knowe how to thinke vpon God because yee beginne to learne but then the Apostle questioneth you how can yee call vpon him in whom yee haue not beleeued Rom. 8. Thinke you to liue with him whom yee haue reiected from liuing with you because this is the ende of all knowledge entertaine yee this knowledge only in the end of your liues How many great ones haue slept their sleepe and found nothing when lying vpon the altar of their death beds to sacrifice their bodies for the sinne of their soules the hart like a peece of dead flesh hath beene without sense of loue of feare of care of paine from the deafe stroakes of a wrath revenging cōscience These harts surbated with cares surfeted with riots as they haue no naturall traduction of goodnesse so no celestiall infusion of grace Mercury hath gouerned their braine Iupiter their liver Mars their gall Saturne their spleene Laur. Anat. but Sol the sunne of righteousnes had never any power over never any place in their harts O stony steely hardnes of hearts which no blowes can breake to whom nothing shall be granted though it may bee required because nothing was performed which was commanded O loathsome soule poore and bare and naked can al thy compassing friends infuse no one teare into thine eyes one drop of comfort into thy hart one repentant sighe from thy soule one graine of faith into thy spirit one mite of mercy one iot of ioy into thy conscience O dumbe dumpe shall the world Eccho thy sinnes hell eccho thy sorrowes Art thou in thy passage and knowest that no sooner is thy candle out but the large history of thy life shall be openly read Is the impostume of thy lies lusts oathes oppressions now breaking the vaile of hypocrisie now to be remoued and thy memory to become as odious to all men as thy life was tedious to good men hast thou beene vnhappy in thy birth vngodly in thy being and must thou bee vngratious in thy end Consider this ô all yee that forget God least he suddainely take yee away when there shall be none to helpe you strike of all delaies which haue already devoured too much of the good time Cast anker see if you may shun the dāgers as eminent as imminēt shake of the viper avoid the enimy the avēger fly frō the indignatiō like to fall vpō you least that time which yet yee may take overtake yee and then yee haue neither power to resist nor patience to beare nor place to avoid Let not hoary sinnes bring home heavy horrours season your selues bath and embalme your soules least your bodies be their sepulchers and you their murtherers begin early if the sixt houre be past overslip not the ninth if the ninth be past foreslow not the eleventh stay not til the last houre for he that doth somtimes doth not all times giue a daies wages for an houres worke Qui promisit poenitenti veniam non promisit omni peccanti poenitentiam Looke vpon that Princely patterne of goodnesse who in young yeares being holy and devout stedfast in faith ioyfull through hope rooted in charitie hath passed the waues of this troublesome world and is finally come to the land of everlasting life 9 And sweet Prince how willingly did HE submit himselfe both to his visitation to the end therof his death when lifting vp his minde to heaven he discovered that so bright and beautifull glory and contemned al things on earth enfolded in a mistie darknesse Divine Eagle piercing beyond the orbe of the sun when neglecting in paines the body which was to be a nest of wormes he desireth in ioies to satisfie his soule which was to be a Companion of Angels Heroicall spirit who willingly entred the Combat with the last enimy that is to be destroied Death when vpon the Vigil of his departure being visited by that most Reverend Prelate the Archb. his Grace and religiously questioned by his Grace whether he could willingly submit himselfe to the will of God so far as the stroak of death his highnes replyed yes willingly with all my heart and though not with so great liberty of tongue as loue in heart manifested hereby that he was not so sure to dy as to be restored so outfaced his death with his resurrection with his ever-living loue of ever-lasting life O heroicall nay more O Angelicall spirit fined and polished in this furnace of his affliction that so freely so faithfully is readie to forsake all and to follow the Lambe whither soever he goeth Rev. 7. who with white hands and a cleane soule was fit to serue and to attend his Saviour yea even then to sing with Simeon Luk. 2.28 Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Then I say when the earth partaked so much of the beauty of heaven so many delights so many pleasures so many Triumphant magnificent Tropheys for the ioyning of those two royal Virgin riuers Thames and
Rodig lib. 8. cap. 9. that vpon the fift day the furies doe governe it being the day of their birth The fift day the Gyants began their warres against heaven shipwracks earthquakes tempests devastations being even proper to this day and the Brumalia being kept in the same month of NoveÌ„ber and about the 5 day had the dedication à sonitu tonitrus fulminis Yet neither this month nor this day Hosp de origine Fest Novemb. were ever yet vnhappy to vs til now and now beganne we to tremble though we had scaped the fift daies furies and the Brumalia the Winters feast which was intended yet now the Ioy of our heart was humbled Lam 5.15 and feare was on every side But Thou continuest holy O thou worship of Israel O Lord let it never be forgotten that thou didst please to spare and forbeare the great iudgement of this day and this day didst not so overshadowe vs with sorrow as to take away our Iosias in the celebritie of our preservation to extinguish our ioy vtterly by Hadadrimmons lamentation A meditation that should stirre vp al those vnfaithfull vnthankfull soules among vs who neglect the Lords favour and the remembrance of his holinesse in the deliverance of this day It was his infinite mercy that this day he let not our enimies laugh vs to scorn or to triumph over vs but deferred Prince HENRYES death one day further Yet certainely hee suffered this heavy iudgement to fall vpon vs so neere to this time because we are so forgetfull of his marvailous deliverance from the dangerous engins prepared against that time It is not vnworthy the observation Ioseph that most of the great iudgements fell vpon Israel vpon the daies of their solemne feasts surely for the prophanesse and vnthankfulnesse of them for those blessings receaued which occasioned the institution of those feasts And why should wee not forever hereafter stand in awe trembling and fearing how the Lord hath afflicted vs so neere our solemn feast day And though he had delivered vs from the violence and malevolence of meÌ„ Divels yet if we turne not he caÌ„ whet his sword bend his bow as he did by that arrow that strook Israels Iosiah 12 It is as true as terrible iudgement may be prolonged but when the mouth of the Lord hath spoken by no power it can be avoided The sixt day ensued which as if it had had a divine dispensation to breake the sixt coÌ„mandement slew our PRINCE A day that hath beene Principibus infesta infausta witnesse the death of Richard the first the sixt of Aprill 1199 Henry the second the 6 of Iuly 1189 Edward the first the 6 of Iuly 1307 our last Edward blessed K. Edward the 6. on the 6 of Iuly 1553 as also this 6 day of November wherein our Iulium sydus Prince HENRYES sunne did set Divine soule how readily did it moue to its Center how constantly all the stormes could not shipwrack the arke of his faith all the surges could not sinke his pretious soule He continued victoriously Constant is assured to see the Lord in the land of the living The beames of his faith did reflect vpon him and kept life beyond life in him when the last symptomes the harbingers of death appeared in that dismall period of that fatall day the violence of convulsions and fury and extremity of the disease appearing then most terribly because it was never to appeare againe In that sparke of life his last best Physitian the most Religious most Reverend Archb. his Grace being his highnesse heaveÌ„ly remembrancer by many hearty holy exhortations to assure him with assured Constancy of Gods mercy to lift vp his hart to prepare him to meete the Lord and calling more earnestly and lowdly because the organs of speech and hearing were deprived of vse his highnesse being earnestly moved to manifest by signes his apprehension of these divine exhortations and his assent herevnto he lifted vp his holy hands vnited afterwards his eies bent to heaven froÌ„ whence not long after appeared in his deliverance his salvation Learne hence all yee vnmindfull vnfaithful vnconstant weather-beaten worldlings who like reeds tossed of the winde never coÌ„tinue in one stay whom the least blast of affliction doth so amate and amaze as that God is forgotten and being vnbeleeving Scepticks beleeue no more then yee see and feare no more then yee feele and therefore are sure to want the Continuance of Constancie at your deaths because you were never acquainted with it in your life When all your members and faculties are surprised all paines perplexities enlarged when the sorrowes of death compasse yee about the floods of wickednesse make yee afraid then how horrid will it be that out of all your former lifes extraction no one drop either of Comfort or CoÌ„stance may be distild When the aking head panting hart faultring tongue shortning breath beating veines crazed minde and crackt memory shall disturbe and distract all your facultâ—es and not only your heavenly but even earthly cogitations when the dumbe mouth numbed hands stiffe ioints pale lips vanishing strength and expiring life be the forerunners of a dolefull fearefull death and the want of a religious settled constant memory shall then bring the woe of a wanton minde and yee shall by a scourge of Conscience receiue a beginning in this life of your full torments in the flames of hell the eternall iustice making you executioners of your owne faults the hart hope of life being but a bubble a smoake a lie a fury Wâ—sd 5. Esay 28. Prov. 11. Iob. 11. as Salomon Esay and Iob haue described it wanting the sweet solace of the soule and that assurance which the Saints haue in all your anguishes and extremities neither obtaining acceptance with God nor repentaÌ„ce from God a Graue-stone lying vpon your harts sealed with the sense of Gods iudgements pressed downe with the rubbish and ruines of the decayed monuments of ancient transgressions your foundation laid not vpoÌ„ the rocke but on the sands and in the sea where waues and windes beat on every side wheÌ„ all those old friends but new enimies lie in ambush the corrupters of iudgement seducers of will Traitors of vertue flatterers of vice Pyoners of Courage murtherers of Comfort the extinguishers of all peace in conscience or ioy in spirit Whereas to a resolved soule to a Constant Christian even in the pangs of death he then chiefly seemeth to be the liuely and louely image of his maker having his reason and vnderstanding cleere his will and affections ordinate his sensuall faculties not only restrained from evill but constrained to be serviceable to do good and howsoever his corporall state be in an Ecclipse wanteth as much in sense as it aboundeth in sorrow yet his soule is triumphing reioycing in God his Saviour ready to sing his Nunc dimittis as this Princely Saint