draw my speech into a narrower coÌ„passe As Paul witnesseth of himselfe 2. Cor. 12. so he both spent and was spent amongst you You caÌ„nnot truly say of him Ditavimus Abrahamum we haue made Abraham rich he hath not a shoe-thread more thaÌ„ he brought at his first comming P. Scipio being called by the Senate to giue an account of his administration in Afâ—icke made aunswere thus for himselfe Whereas I haue subdued all Africke to your government I haue brought away nothing therehence that may bee called mine but onely a sirname What hath this reverend Prelate gained and carried away vvith him by continuing amongst you these many yeares saue onely the name of an Archbishope In the consideration of whose estate I cannot but remember a speech that Cato vsed in A. Gellius I haue neither house nor plate nor any garment of price in mine handes If I have any thinge I vse it if not I know who I am The worlde blameth mee for wantinge manye thinges and I them that they know not hovv to want I neede not apply the speech But vvill you haue the reason of all this Nepotianus noster aurum calcans schedulas consectatur Our Nepotian conteÌ„ned gold and wholy gaue himselfe to follow his study And I am sure the commendation is that which Bernard gaue to Martin in his 4. of consideration Nonne alterius secâ—res est transire per terram auri sine auro Is it not an heavenly disposition and fit for the other vvorld to liue in a countrey where a man may be rich and not gather riches Now touching the other member of my speech his travaile and paines in his function hee delt both the gospell of Christ and himselfe amongst you whose saying ever was that which hee also tooke from a famous light of this land One that was Iulium sydus a Iewell of his age vvhere shoulde a preacher die but in the pulpit Oporteâ— imperatorâ—m in acie stantem mori a Generall must die in the field vpon his feete and surely hee thoroughly perfourmed it For when the infirmity of his body was such that the least moving and stirring thereof by travaile drew his bloud from him even then he drew out his breasts and fed you with the milke of Gods most holye vvorde whereas the Dragons of the vvildernesse are cruell in their best health and regard not their young ones Lastly which is the last of all because the end is both triall and perfection and in this sense Vnus dies par omni One day is as much as all the rest for it is aterninatalis the birth day of eternity and as the tree falleth so it lyeth and as we goe out of this life so wee shal bee restored to that other that you may not thinke he did as the manner of feastes is at the beginning set forth good wine and then that which is worse or that he kept one hoofe backe from the full sacrifice I will shortly repeat vnto you what his end was Wherein I must vse that protestation before that Seneca somwhere vsed Nunquam par fuit imitator authori There is no equality betwixt one that imitateth and the author himselfe and a thing done by way of repetition and rememoration must needes come short of the truth Notwithstanding this I can constantly affirme in generall that all other cares and consultations which the world might haue drawne him vnto laid aside and not so much as named he only applied himselfe to make some profession promulgation of his faith Which he rathest chose to doe as the Apostle speaketh Act. 10. not to all the people but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to vs witnesses then Chaplaines in his house chosen of God to the same dispensation of the faith wherein himselfe had beene His speach was to this effect I haue sent for you to this end that before my departure I might giue some testimony of that faith wherein I haue hitherto lived and am now to die What I haue received of the Lord that I haue ever delivered I haue red much written much often disputed preached often yet never could I finde in the booke of God any grouÌ„d for Popery neither haue I knowne any point of doctrine received in the church of England that is not consonant vnto the word of God VVherefore he exhorted me my colleague beeing then absent to continue in that building wherein I had already laide my foundation and because I was nowe his ghostly father which was the vnworthy name a father bestowed vpon me a childe in comparison required that I would not neglect to repaire vnto him twise or thrise before his ending I told him that having often in his life ministred so good comfortes to others he could not want comfort to himselfe He graÌ„ted it but because omnis homo mendax wherein we tooke his meaning to be that a man might flatter and beguile himselfe therefore he a gaine required my resort vnto him I replied that I thought it the best and I feared would be the last service that ever I shoulde doe vnto him Howbeit the comfortes which I had to giue I coulde but powre into the outwarde eares and that it must be the spirit of God which inwardly comforteth the conscience To this his auÌ„swere was The spirit of God doth assure my spirit that I am the childe of God I yet proceeded You haue seene long peace and many good daies in Israell I hope also shall depart in peace and leaue peace behinde you Neither know I any thing in the world wherewith your conscience should be troubled He finally concluded I die in perfite peace of conscience both with God and man So he licensed me to depart not willing he said to trouble me any more at that time Indeede it was the last trouble that ever in breath he put me vnto For the next entraÌ„ce I made was iustly to receiue his last and deepest gaspe Of whome what concerneth mine owne private estate I say no more but as Phillip said of Hipparchus being gone He died in good time for himselfe but to me to soone Thus he that was ever honourable in the vvhole race of his life was not without honour at his death For as Sophocles commeÌ„ded Philoctetes at what time he was killed himselfe he killed others gloriously Hee fought a good fight both in defence of the faith and in expugnation of heresies schismes seditions which infest the Church I call that labour of his because hee made none other at that time his last will and testament Wherein the particular legacies which he bequeathed were these 1. To my selfe which I holde more precious than the finest gold fatherly exhortation to go forward in plaÌ„ting the gospel of Christ which I had begun 2. To the Papists wholsoÌ„e admonitioÌ„ to relinquish their errours having no grouÌ„d in the scriptures And let theÌ„ wel advise theÌ„selues that at such a time when there is no cause to suspect
as never were more rare in the rarest Queene and in the sex of woman-hode carry admiration Why doe I saye woman-hode Vertue is tied neither to revenew nor kinde Iulita a vvoman one that witnessed a good confession for the name of Christ as shee was going to the stake to be burnt exhorted womeÌ„ that they should not complaine of the weakenes of nature because first they were made of the same matter whereof man was finished Secondly to the image of the same God Thirdly as fit and as capable to receive any goodnes Fourthly invested into the like honour Why not saith shee Seeing vvee are kinned vnto men in all respectes For not their flesh alone was taken for the creation of women but wee are bones of their bones for which cause vvee are endebted to God for courage patience virility aswell as men And Basile addeth his owne advise that setting excuse of their sexe aside they shoulde set vpon piety and see vvhither nature hath debarred them of any thing that was common to men I note it the rather because I know it greeveth Abimelech at the heart that a vvoman shoulde cast downe a milstone vpon his head to kill him and therefore hee calleth his page to thrust him thorough that men might not say A woman slew him It greeveth Abimelech of Rome and his whole faction that the church of England and the whole estate of our land vnder the government of a woman shoulde bee better able to defend it selfe against his tyranny than any country in Christendome Their heartes breake with envy hereat their tongues and pennes dissemble not their grudge at the foeminine primacie that a woman should bee the head vnder Christ of the church of Englande But as Chrisostome sometimes spake of Herodias and Iohn Baptist so by a contrary application of their manners may I of two as vnlike as ever fire and water the one to Herodias the other to Iohn Baptist Mulier totius mundi caâ—ut truncavit A woman hath beheaded within her realmes and dominions the falsely vsurpinge and surmised heade of the whole worlde Her father and brother of most famous memory had broken his leggs before as they brake the leggs of the theeues vpon the crosse the one his right legge of rentes and revenewes the milke and hony of our lande the other his left legge of idolatrous worshippes the doctrine of men false and erronious opinions wherewith the children of this realme had beene poisoned a longe time Queene Elizabeth hath bruised his heade for though his legges were broken hee began to gather strengh againe Hee now commaundeth not liveth not within our land saving in a few disordered and luxate members which as the parts of an adder cutte a sunder retaine some life for a time but never I trust shall growe into a body againe neither ever is hee likely to revive amongst vs vnlesse the Lord shall raise him vp for a plague to our vnthankefulnesse And therefore as they saide of Tarquinius Priscus in Rome a Corinthian borne and a straunger to their city hee hath vvell deserved by his vertues that our city shall never repent it of chusing a straunger to the king so by her gracious and religious government amongst vs hath her most excellent Maiesty worthily purchased that England shall never be sory that a woman was the Queene thereof When shee came to her crowne shee found the country as Augustus the city of Rome of bricke shee turned it into marble Shee founde it in the sandes she set it vpon a rocke the foundation of prophets and apostles shee founde it a lande of images ignorances corruptions vanities lies shee hath hitherto preserved it and I hope shall leave it to posterity a lande possest of the truth and seasoned with the gospell of Christ crucified This this is the savingest salvation that the Lorde hath this the blessing and happinesse that we enioy vnder her gracious government besides our peace such as our fathers never presumed to hope for plenty prosperity corporall benefites in that we lend and borrowe not not onely our milke but our bloud mony and men too to those that want and when wee ringe our belles for ioy and give eare to the noise of timbrelles and tabrets others are frighted with other kindes of soundes the neying of horses roaring of great ordinance howling of women and children to see their orbities and miseries before their eies I say this is the blessing vvee reape that the gospell is free by her procurement our consciences not enthralled to the ordinances of men our zeale rectified by knowledge and our religion reformed by the statutes of the highest God Now as we have great reason to singe merily vnto the Lorde and vvith a good courage Salvation is the Lordes for these graces so vvhat was the cause of her owne so many miraculous deliverances both before and since shee sate vpon the seate of her fathers but the same Salvation that by saving her saved vs I am sure shee was in daunger either of vvolves or of butchers when her rightuous soule cried Tanquam ovis and as a sheepe was shee led to the slaughter or not far from it When her innocency coulde not be her shield but though shee were free from crime and God and man might iustly have cleared her yet shee was not free from suspicion When she feared that the scaffolde of the Lady Iane stood for an other tragedie wherein her selfe should haue plaide the wofullest part Since which almost despaired escapes but that her time as David spake and her soule was in the handes of that Lord who deposeth and setteth vp Princes how it hath fared vvith her both at home and abroade we al know partly from trayterous and false-hearted Achitophels which haue served her with an hearte and an hearte partely from the bloudy bishops of Rome and their pernicious seminaries as full of mischiefe to Christendome as ever the Troian horse to the inhabitants of Troy partly from the king of Spaine whose study long hath beene to bee the Monarke of Europe of whom it is true that they spake of another Philippe of Macedon that hee bought the more part of Greece before hee conquered it so he buyeth countries before he winneth them and would doe that by his Indian gold which will be little ease for him to doe by men They haue long maliced her and I trust long shall and malice shall doe the nature of malice that is drinke out the marrowe and moysture of those that foster it and bring their devises vpon their owne heades as Nadab and Abihu were consumed with the fire of their owne censors So long as Salus Iehovae endureth which is as long as Iehovâ—h himselfe our hope shall not perish He hath even sworne by his holinesse as he did to David his servaunt not to faile Queene Elizabeth He that prevented her with liberall blessings before shee tooke the scepter into
favour and partiality to the religion established no place lefte to dissemble with God or man Tanti meriti tanti pectoris tāti oris tantae virtutis episcopu as Augustine spake of Cypriā so worthy so wise so well spoken so vertuous so learned a Byshope gaue such counsaile vnto them 3. To all the members of the Church of England vnity of soule and heart to embrace the doctrine authorized And lastly to himselfe peace and rest in the assured mercies of God This peace he hath plentifull fruition of vvith the God of peace For though he seemeth in the eies of the foolish to be dead yet is he in peace And like a true Hebrew he hath eaten his last passeover amongst vs and it is past from death to life where with vnspeakable ioy of heart he recompteth betweene himselfe and his soule Sicut audivimus sic et vidimus As I haue heard so now haue I seeene and felt in the citty of our God and with the blessed Angells of heaven and all the congregation of first borne singeth the songue of Moses a songue of victory and thanksgiving rendring all blessing honour glory power to him that sitteth vpon the throne and the Lambe that was killed and that vndefiled Spirit which proceedeth from them both by whome hee was sealed vp at his death to his everlasting redemption A SERMON PREACHED IN YORKE THE SEVENTEENTH DAY OF NOVEMBER IN THE YEARE OF our Lorde 1595. being the Queenes day Printed at Oxford by Ioseph Barnes 1599. 2. King 23 25. Like vnto him was there no king before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soule c. THE remembrance of Iosias is like the perfume that is made by the arte of the Apothecarie it is svveete as hony in all mouthes and as musicke at a banquet of vvine he behaued himselfe vprightly in the reformation of the people and tooke away all abominations of iniquitie hee directed his hearte vnto the Lorde and in the time of the vngodlie hee established religion vvhich to haue done in a better season the zeale of the people and favour of the time advauntaging him had beene lesse praise The lande vvas sowen with none other seede saue idolatrie and iniquitie vvhen he came vnto it For by that vvhich is written of him we may know what he reformed All idolatrous both Priestes and monuments whether Chemarims or blacke friars Priestes of Baal of the sun moone or planets though founded and authorized by both ancient and late kings before him namely in these recordes by Salomon Ahaz Manasses Ieroboam togither with their high places or valleyes their groues altars vesselles vvheresoever hee found them either in Ierusalem or Iudah in Samaria or Bethel in the temple or in the courtes of the temple vpon the gates or in the kings chambers not sparing the bones of the Priestes either living or deade but raking them out of their graues besides the impure Sodomites and their houses sooth-sayers and men of familiar spirites he destroyed defiled cut downe burnt to ashes bet to powder threwe into the brooke and left no signe of them Hee followed both a good rule and a good example His rule is here specified according to all the law of Moses his example in the chapter before hee did vprightly in the sight of the Lord an◠walked in all the waies of David his father and bowed neither to the right hande nor to the lefte Hee was prophecied of three hundred yeares vpward before his birth a rare singular honour that both his name should be memorable after his death as heere we finde it and written in the booke of GOD before ever his partes were fashioned His actes are exactelye set downe in this and the former Chapters and in the second of Chronicles and foure and thirteeth vpon the recital wherof is this speach brought in by waie of an Epiphoneme or acclamation advancing Iosias aboue all other kings and setting his head amongst the stars of God The testimonie is very ample which is here given vnto him that for the space almost of fiue hundred yeares from the first erection of the kingdome to the captivity of Babylon vnder the government of 40. kings of Iudah and Israell there was not one found who either gaue or tooke the like example of perfection In the catalogue of which kings though there were some not many vertuous and religious David Salomon Asa Iehosaphat Iehu Ioash Amasia Iothan Hezekias yet they haue all their staines their names are not mentioned without some touch The wisdome honor riches happines of Salomon every way were so great that the Queene of Saba worthily pronounced of him Blessed be the Lord thy God which loved thee c. Will you know his blemish but Salomon loved many out-landish women and they broughte him to the loue of many out-landish Gods so he is noted both for his corporall spiritual whordomes Asa the son of Abiam did right in the eies of the Lord as did David his father 1. King 15. his heart was vpright with the Lord all his daies he put downe Maachah his mother for idolatrie The bitter hearbe that marreth al this is but he put not downe the high places Iehosaphat did well hee walked in all the waies of Asa his father declined not ther-from but did that which was right in the eies of the Lord 1. Kin. 22. neverthelesse the high places were not taken away Iehu did well God gaue him this testimony 2. King 10. because thou haste diligently executed that which was right in mine eies therefore shall thy sonnes vnto the fourth generation sit on the seate of Israell but Iehu regarded not to vvalke in the vvaies of the Lorde God of Israell vvith all his heart Amafiah did well he did vprightlie in the sight of the Lord 2. King 14. yet not like David his father David himselfe so much renowned as the principall patterne of that royall line to be imitated by them yet hath a scarre vpon his memory hee did that which was right in the sight of the Lord and turned from nothinge that hee commaunded him all the daies of his life 1. King 15. thus farre good saue onelie in the matter of Vriah the Hittire Onelie Iosias is without spotte or vvrinckle like vnto him was there no king And as in the number of bad kinges Rehoboam did ill Ieroboam worse for hee sinned and made Israell to sinne but Omri vvorse than all that went before him 1. King 16. yet Ahab worse than all before him in the same place so in the number of the good though Salomon did wel Iehosaphat perhaps better David best of al yet Iosias is beyonde the vvhole companie vvhich either went before or came after him Like vnto him was there no king It had beene a great praise to Iosias to haue had none better than himselfe to haue matched the vertues and godlines of his progenitours