Schoole with the same countenance Malefactors looke on the Gibbet I cannot say whether his alacrity in receiving or his care in executing his Tutors commands were the greater The esteeme of the holy Prophets Apostles and Fathers of the Church had this Vertue in ought to advance it much in our esteeme God bound man to obedience presently after his creation in the state of innocencie the breach whereof hee severely punish'd Noah readily obey'd all Gods commands when the Floud was at hand The swift obedience of Abraham was admirable when without any delay at all he made haste to sacrifice his sonne and with his owne hands to let out his own blood It is worthy our observation that when ever the Children of Israel or any of Gods servants fought with or against his will they had accordingly good or bad successe God told that if hee willingly executed all his precepts hee would ever fixe the Throne of his Kingdome in Hierusalem but on the contrary if he did not perform them he would cut Israel from off the face of the earth Therefore saith S. Gregory is obedience better then sacrifice because by sacrifice anothers flesh but by obedience our own wils are subdued slaine and offerd up to the Almightie An obedient man saith Saint Bernard deferres not the execution of a command but straight prepares his eares to heare his Tongue to speake his feet to walke his hands to worke and all his thoughts are fix'd on the will of his Commander And in another place the same Father saith That there is no doubt but hee deserves more grace and favour who prepares and makes himselfe readie to receive a command then hee who willingly executes the same To this alludes that of Plantus Pater adsum Impera quid vis neque tibi ero in mora Neque latebrosè me abs tuo conspectu occultabo And that of Terence Facis ut te decet cum isthoc quod postulo impetro cum gratia Wee will conclude this point with that which Ovid speaks of Achilles Qui toties socios toties exterruit hostes Creditur annosum pertinuisse senem The next that presents it selfe to our view is Charity a Vertue that will usher any man to Gods presence who is ambitious of that greatest of Glories This Love is the King of all the passions of the soule and motions of the Heart he attracts all the rest to him and renders them conformable to himselfe His Essence consists in doing good works readily diligently frequently Let us heare that excellent Father Saint Augustine magnifie this Vertue In Charity saith hee the poore are rich and without it the rich are poor This sustaines us in adversitie tempers us in prosperity fortifies us against unruly passions and makes us joyfully do good works This was it made Abel delightfull in Sacrifice Noah secure in the Floud Abraham faithfull in his peregrination Moses merry amidst injuries and David meek in tribulation This made the fire a playfellow to the Children in the Furnace This caused Susanna to be chast above the temptations of man Anna after the use of man and the blessed Virgin without the knowledge of man This animated Paul to be free in arguing Peter humble in obeying the Christians gentle in their confessions and Christ himselfe prone to pardon sinners What shall I say should I speake with the tongues of men and Angels and want Charitie I were nothing it being the soule of Divine Knowledge the Vertue of Prophesie the salvation contained in the Sacraments the fruit of Faith the riches of the poore and the life of the dying He addes A man may have all the Sacraments and yet be evill but he cannot have Charitie and be so Againe Science if it be alone is puffed up with pride but because Charitie edifies she suffers not Knowledge to swell He calls it in another place the cement of soules and the societie of the Faithfull Saint Hierome commends it to us in these words I do not remember any one hath died an ill death who willingly perform'd the Works of Charity the reason is because hee hath many Intercessours and it is a thing impossible that the prayers of many should not penetrate the sacred eares of God Sweetly saith St. Gregory As many boughs spring from one root so many Vertues are deriv'd from Charitie alone in which not rooted no branch of goodnesse can flourish To these Suffrages I will adde that of Hugo O divine Charitie I know not how I should speake more in thy prayse then that thou didst draw God from Heaven to Earth and didst exalt Man from Earth to Heaven Needs must thy force be great since by thee God was so humbled and Man so exalted In so few yeares as fourteene a man can expect onely a propension to this and all other Vertues yet he that looks for no small progresse in this and most of the other for the practice of some are not incident to that tender age shall not have his expectation deceiv'd For his Charity I may truly averre that it was extensive not onely to his friends and acquaintance but to the poore to strangers and enemies also Some friends he chose both for support and ornament as appeares by his love and imitation of his truly good and great Guardian the Earle of Arundell Lord Marshall of England for no sooner had age ripened his judgement but hee elected him for the object of his affections and the modell of his actions A copy drawne from so faire an originall you will say could not prove deform'd Others hee chose for delight and all hee lov'd with a heart wherein Truth kept her Court Some he would to his power so suddenly secretly and cunningly relieve that they often times found their wants supplyed before they knew from whence the benefit came resembling in this a Physician who cures his patient unawares before he dreams of a recovery Hee approved that speech of Diogenes Manus ad amicos non complicatis digitis extendi oportere That a closed hand is not to bee reached out to a Friend Where he discovered a compleat worth he disdained not to be a suitor and first to make an offer of his service in imitation of a Husbandman who first tilleth and soweth the ground and then expects the fruit of his labour His word and the effect of it were as inseparable as heat and fire This true property of a Gentleman the Ancients decipher'd to us when they painted a Tongue bound fast to a Heart He was no importunate or severe Exactor of the returne of a love answerable in greatnesse to his owne wisely and nobly considering that hee is no true friend who is alwayes no more a friend then his friend is Marry I must confesse hee was exceedingly curious and cautious in his choice following in that the counsell of Bias the Philosopher Amicos sequere quos non pudeat elegisse Follow such friends whom to have chosen you need
not be asham'd Hee applauded that of Anacharsis Multo melius est amicum unum egregium quam gregarios multos possidere It is farre better to enjoy one brave Friend then many meane and vulgar Hee knew that they who in haste and without mature advise contract friendship suffer the same inconveniencie as they do who greedily and hastily devoure sundry meates which they can neither quickly with ease and safety cast up nor retaine He discreetly weighed that friendship made with the wicked is as unstable Vice the Basis whereon it is built As the Ocean with great labour strives to worke all dead bodies to the shore so a generous friendship expells all such as are lost and dead in sinne It is not enough to be wise and good our selves but we must not keepe the foolish and the wicked company except we will incurre the censure of the World and be our selves thought such Vice and the Vitious he fought with after the manner of the Parthians flying If his dearest friend had solicited him to joyne with him in any act not warranted by Vertue he would have answered him with Pericles who to an intimate friend that woed him to forsware himselfe in his behalfe replyed I am my friends friend as farre as the Altars As if he should had said I will passe for thee through all miseries dangers and shipwracks save that of Conscience which like a Maid of Honour I must preserve inuiolated and immaculate As he was extreamly nice and carefull not to entertaine debauch't friends so was hee also resolv'd not to admit of many He was not ignorant that a River which hath many Armes and out-lets is alwayes in danger of being low and drye Plutarch maintaines hee cannot be faithfull and honest who hath a herd of friends because many may want his Faith and assistance at one and the same time to all which hee cannot bee serviceable But those he had once judicially chosen and on whom he had fixed his affection hee still regarded with the same countenance whether they were in a flood or an ebbe of Fortune cleane contrary to the course of flaterers and dissemblers who fawne on their friends in aboundance and forsake them in penury not unlike in this to Flies which came in swarmes to a Kitchin full of flesh and abandon it empty His affection to his friends tooke nothing from his care and love of the poore It was not hidden from him that the chiefe worke of mercy is to have pitty on a mans owne soule hee therefore first endeavoured to mundifie his owne heart knowing that God more than man respects the pure minde of the giver True it is he was in his Nonage and had no great store out of which his Liberallity should flow but all hee could spare Charity dispos'd of God Crownes the intent where he findes not the faculty Legitimate Mercy proceedes not from a full purse but a free bosome He that in his heart compassionates his neighbours infortunity deserves more of him and in the sight of God than hee who gives him onely a materiall Almes for hee who gives parteth onely with his outward substance but he who affords the indigent sighes teares and groanes imparts that which comes from within from the very Center of the soule He kept to himselfe onely what was necessary and the superfluous he imparted to the Needy Hee piously meditated that Poverty is a consecrated Field that quickly returnes the sower a plentifull harvest It fares with spirituall as with temporall Husbandry unlesse seed be scattered no encrease can be expected He laid up his Treasure in his true eternal Country Heaven He thought continually that he heard the voice of his Saviour thus saying I was thy Benefactor now make me thy Debtour become my Vsurer and thou shalt centuply receive the Summe thou disbursest In obedience to his command he assisted as farre as in him lay all that wanted He that gives indifferently to all shall ever bee mercifull but he who sits upon the Lifes of the poore and judgeth them according to their faults not their necessities shall seldome or never doe good We ought to cast our eye on nature not on the person according to that of Aristotle who being reprehended for succouring a Lewd but poore man replyed De Humanitati non Homini I give to Humane Nature not to the man He murders the poor who denyes him that whereby he subsists Most accursed is he who shuts up in his Coffers the Health and Life of the distressed In vain he lifts up his hands to heaven who extends them not to the succor of the afflicted It is a lovely ruine and a pleasing spectacle to Christ to see a devoute man undoe himself with his own hands in freely and readily bestowing al that he hath on the naked But oh it is deservedly to be lamented that the whilome downy open hands of mercy are now shut and brawny and that most men either out of a flinty Nature or out of a needlesse feare to be thought Vaine-glorious leave to bee pious To the former hard-hearted brood whom no misery of another can move I wil say with Pliny If they merit the Epithets of wise valiant they shall not be denyed them but we will never grant they shall be stiled wise and valiant men Men since they have unman'd themselves lost their bowels and cast off all Humanity The later who make Vaine-glory their scruple I can assure that the Benefit is not despicable before God which is confirm'd in the sight of men but that which is done to the end men may see it From his pronesse in giving we now come to his readinesse in forgiving another office of Charity executed with farre greater difficulty than any of the former To love desert in friends or supply the wants of the needy reason and Nature invite us but to suffer disgraces and intollerable injuries from worthles men is a thing they both abhorre for that of Seneca is most true Duplicat dolorem sustinentis indignitas Inferentis The griefe of the sustainer is doubled by the indignity of the Afflictor Appositively to this Cicero Qui se non defendit nec obsistit injuriae sipotest tam est in vitio quam si parentes aut amicos aut patriam deserat Hee who defendeth not himselfe and repelleth not an injury if he can commits as great a crime as he that forsakes his Parents Friends or Countrey It is a thing not very hard for flesh and blood to rejoyce in God and his Blessings but very difficult it is to take pleasure in all Slanders Infamy and Persecutions for his sake for that gentle submissive soule into which Ambition nor the least thought of honour ever entered would yet most gladly avoyd all abuses and dishonours But our now truely blessed one the beloved Theme wee now handle had learnt this holy humble Art of him whose life was nothing but a continued passion All injuries intended or
acted against himselfe he could freely pardon but those which were directed against the Majesty and dignity of his Maker he could not endure In such a case a holy Fury becomes the Child of God It favour'd in his opinion of more piety and wisedome to overcome a slight injury that reached not to his Parentage or Religion with silence than with a tart replye having found in Story that small words have overthrowne great Cities No wrong being equall to that which is done with reproach and contumely in that to an Heroicke Spirit the losse of blood is not so grievous as that of Reputation We will now descend from the Divine to the Morall Vertues amongst which Valour according to the generall vulgar beliefe is the first required in a Lord or Cavallier Therefore the Poets feigne the god of Warre himselfe to bee borne in Thrace because the people of that Country are hardy and couragious This was to denote that Fortitude usuall resides amongst men of a generous and lofty straine whose Education leads them to knowledge in good Letters which at once informes them of the Renown of their Ancestors and that the image of Fame was ever placed before the Temple of Mars to intimate that the great exploits of daring and undaunted men are by her carried into every corner of the earth It will not bee amisse here to insert the judgements of the Fathers of the Church passed on this vertue St. Austin shall be the Chorus Qui vera virtuta fortis est nec temerè audet nec in inconsultè timet He who is truely valorous neither dares rashly nor feares unadvisedly That of St. Hierome deserves our observation Fortitudo via Regia est aqua declinat ad dextram qui temerarius est pertinax ad sinistram qui formodolosus est pavidus Fortitude is the Kings high way from which he swarves on the right hand who is foole hardy and obstinate He on the left hand who is cowardly and fearefull Wisely and pertinently Cassiodorus Vir vocatus a viribus qui nescit in adversis toleraÌ„do deficere aut in prosperis aliqua elatione se jactare sed animo stabili defixus et Coelestium rerum contemplatione firmatur manet semper in pavibus Man is so called from his strong and manly mind which knowes not how to faint in suffering adversity nor to boast insult in prosperity but fixed in a stable resolution and confirmed by the contemplation of heavenly things remayns evermore fearelesse The Heathens themselves differd not in opinion from these holy men as Cicero testifies in his Rhetoricks Sicut scientia remota justitia caliditas potius quà m sapientia appellanda est sic animus ad periculum paratus si sua cupiditate non aliena utilitate impellitur Temeritatis potius nomen habet quam Fortitudinis As Knowledge not accompanied with Justice is rather to be called Craft then Wisdome so a minde readie to encounter danger if it be driven thereunto by its owne desire and pleasure not the publick profit meriteth rather the name of Temerity then Valour In the same place hee thus defines Fortitude Fortitudo est immobilis inter adversa gloriosa animi claritudo res arduas pulchrè administrans quae nec adversis infestando frangitur nec prosperis blandiendo elevatur Fortitude is an unmoved glorious serenity of the mind fairly administring things difficult which is neither broken nor dejected with the frowns of Fortune nor puffed up with her smiles This Vertue is justly admir'd of all truly understood and practised but by a few Some think it valour to kill themselves some to injure and provoke others and almost all believe that a valiant man ought to feare nothing For the first that a man ought not to lay violent hands on himselfe all good Christians conclude Aristotle thus cryes this self-murther done Mollitudinis est laboriosa fugere It argues a man of Effeminacie to seek by Death to flie from the troubles and labours of this life This Philosopher and the Pythagoreans held that as a souldier ought not to leave his station without the command of his Generall So no man should dare to goe out of this life without the leave of God and Nature that gave it him Wee will therefore spare the proofe of a thing so universally granted by all Christians and many Philosophers But withall the strength of Divinity and Philosophy I shall never bee able to convince the greater part of Mankind of another errour almost as damnable as this and that is a foolish and pernicious Tenent that they may lawfully send Challenges and accept of them though the occasion of the quarrell be Wine Dice or prostituted Women Nay many a man is the Martyr of Temperancie and is kill'd because hee will not excessively drinke I knew two Gentlemen of great qualitie and little wit fall out in a Taverne upon a protestation of the greatnesse of their mutuall love each to other In this ardencie each strove for prioritie in affection One said Thou art dearer to me then I to thee whereupon the other replied with the Lie and was run thorough in the place where he stood Monsieur de la Noue a gâ—â—lant and learned French Captaine demonstrates the misery of these Duels upon slight occasions by an infortunitie that befell himselfe in the like case Hee being importun'd by a Gentleman of his Nation not Acquaintance to be his Second willingly and thankfully condiscended to his Request for indeed the French think themselves never so much honour'd as when their friends value them at so high a rate as to put their Honours and Lives into their custodie Well this brave Second associated his Principall into the Field where they were to fight two to two He no sooner arrived there but with grief and horrour hee beheld his neerest Kinsman and dearest friend hee had in the World ready to encounter him as being the opposite Second You may easily conceive what a combat there was in his noble brest betweene Honour and Affection but the former being a Tyrant quickly overcame and suppress'd the later and violently hal'd this great Commander to combate his Friend who there fell under his sword I will omit all other examples for all come short of this Non mediocris animi est fortitudo saith Saint Ambrose quae sola defendit ornamenta virtutum omnium Fortitude beares no meane dejected minde which alone defends the Graces and Ornaments of all the other Vertues Sure I am the most part of our Gentry put it to a cleane contrary use and exercise it onely in the defence of Vice and her deformed Litter These silly brothers of the Sword either by the force of Drinke Fury or Ignorance are rendred as stupid as the Natives of Barbary are with the excessive eating of Opium which hurries them into Quarrels that Grace and Nature both tremble at The Spartans ever before a battaile tempered and allaid the choler of
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
Sunne or Moone wee nothing at all wonder or grieve because wee know either Starre will reassume its former splendour So wee who are conscious of the divine promise of Immortality should undismay'd believe the death of this our honour'd friend no other then a passage to a better eternal life I wil conclude with this double consolation to all his Honourers First that hee died with that matchlesse comfort The love of all men and heard yet living the judgement men would passe on him dead and was as it were present with Posterity Secondly that whereas here hee ranne a perpetuall hazard in that hee carried a heavenly Treasure in an Earthy Vessell hee now lives in an unmoved Securitie and that Treasure is enclosed in a Magazine to which the Heavens are Walls and the Angels Warders It is now high time to cover this sweet beautifull issue who with the Rose and Violet is lay'd downe to sleepe in the Bosome of his first Mother the Earth and shal enjoy though it may be not so suddaine yet as certaine a Spring as they and which is more an everlasting FINIS ELEGIES VPON THE DEATH OF THE LAST LORD STAFFORD AS over-rich-men find it harder farre T' employ what they possess then poore men are Such is the state of those who write of thee Whilst in that larger field displaid they see All objects which may helpe invention in They know not where to end where to begin And as into this Labyrinth they fall Loth to omit the least praise lose them all Then whilst some stile thee with the glorious name Of lineall heire to Mighty Buckingham And tels the greatnesse of thy line that springs From such as could raise up and throw downe Kings I le not looke backe but with the Indians runne To meete and court thee as my rising Sunne My offrings to thy mem'ry shall be seene In telling what thou wert or wouldst have beene Why say I wouldst when the most jealous eye Could find no want though in thine infancy Which some say promist much this I disdaine For where the gifts are promises are vaine Since in this noble youth who did not see The old mans wisdome young mans industrie An humble Majesty that could tell how To scorne a league with pride yet make it bow Whose courage was not in extreames like ours With ebs and flowes causd by the passions powers But was a constant ever grafted love To blessed goodnesse and the powers above Who though he joyed in this fraile mortall life As one whose soule had felt no ingor'd strife Nor labour'd with impatient hast like some To breake their prison ere the freedome come Yet when the ever seeing power had found So faire a flowre planted in barren ground Whose glorious beauties which that frame inspir'd Were envyed more then followed or admir'd Resolv'd to take what he had onely lent As giving him reward us punishment Then death was welcome and he so resign'd Not feeling griefe to leave nor feare to find That such his parting was as might be said Whilst he staid here he liv'd not but obey'd That happy call which all cleare soules expect Whose doubtfull states are chang'd to be elect Let then such friends as mourne the sad decay Of his great house in him the onely stay Lift up their wondring eyes and for him looke In Angels Quires not in a Heralds Booke Yet though the roote be taken hence to plant Where heavenly moisture it can never want There yet remaines a branch shall ever shine Engrafted in the noble Howards line Iohn Beaumount Vpon the Death of the most hopefull the Lord STAFFORD MVst then our Loves be short still Must we choose Not to enjoy onely admire and loose Must Axioms hence grow sadly understood And we thus see 'T is dangerous to be good So Bookes begunne are broken off and we Receive a fragment for an History And as 't were present wealth what was but debt Lose that of which we were not Owners yet But as in bookes that want the closing line We onely can conjecture and repine So must we heere too onely grieve and guesse And by our fancy make what 's wanting lesse Thus when rich webs are left unfinished The Spider doth supply them with her thred For tell me what addition can be wrought To him whose Youth was even the bound of thought Whose buddings did deserve the Robe whiles we In smoothnesse did the deeds of wrinckles see When his state-nonage might have beene thought fit To breake the custome and allow'd to sit His actions veil'd his age and could not stay For that which we call ripenesse and just day Others may waite the staffe and the gray-haire And call that Wisedome which is onely Feare Christen a coldnesse temp'rance and then boast Full and Ripe Vertue when all action 's lost This is not to be noble but be slacke A Stafford ne're was good by th' Almanacke He who thus stayes the season and expects Doth not gaine habits but disguise defects Heere Nature outstrips Culture He came try'd Strait of himselfe at first not rectifi'd Manners so pleasing and so handsome cast That still that overcame that was shewne last All mindes were captiv'd thence as if 't had beene The same to him to have beene lov'd and seene Had he not bin snatchd thus what drive hearts now Into his nets would have driven Cities too For these his Essaies which began to win Were but bright sparkes which shew'd the Mine within Rude draughts unto the picture things we may Stile the first beames of the encreasing day Which did but onely great discoveries bring As outward coolenesse shewes the inward spring Nor were his actions to content the sight Like Artists Pieces plac'd in a good light That they might take at distance and obtrude Something unto the eye that might delude His deeds did all most perfect then appeare When you observ'd view'd close and did stand neere For could there ought else spring from him whose line From which he sprung was rule discipline Whose Vertues were as Bookes before him set So that they did instruct who did beget Taught thence not to be powerfull but know Shewing he was their blood by living so For whereas some are by their bigge lippe knowne Others b' imprinted burning swords were showne So they by great deeds are from which bright fame Engraves free reputation on their name These are their Native markes and it hath bin The Staffords lot to have their signes within And though this firme Hereditary good Might boasted be as flowing with the blood Yet he nere graspt this stay But as those who Carry perfumes about them still scarce doe Themselves perceive them though anothers sense Sucke in th' exhaling odours so he thence Ne'r did perceive he carry'd this good smell But made new still by doing himselfe well T' embalme him then is vaine where spreading fame Supplies the want of spices where the Name It selfe preserving may for Ointments passe And he still
lesse infinite And man no more looke up since stars shine dim To vertues light and heaven was nigh in him Thy vertues growth hath our endeavours chid Wee le raise no Pile to thee great Pyramid B. Ollivier On the death of the Lord STAFFORD IF from thy Sacred Ashes did arise Another Phoenix breathing spiceries Such as thy blossomes did since funerall fire Refined in full age thine Honoured Sire In whom you both might seeme againe t' returne Our griefes had all beene buried in thy Vrne Nor vexe the quiet Muses for a Verse To be thy Off-spring or adorne thy Herse Who leav'st Succession unto none of thine And but in such liv'st in no other Line But now her selfe Nature begins to feare And startles to behold now here now there A family extinct which though she strive With all her Art and strength to keepe alive It vanisheth Great Stafford thou shalt be To Nature a sad instance and to me Lest by Inductions she her selfe might be Concluded in short time Vacuitie When the whole Fabricks into nothing hurld And the great fadeth as the lesser world Pillars of flesh not stones and Imagrie Preserve the dead in Living Memory The blossome cropt before 'ts growne to a Peare Is no more worth than if 't had ne're beene there Which grown might from its kernels have begun In other grounds a new Plantation The poore mans Only lamb should have bin spar'd It was his Onely One 's there no regard Of One and Onely One This One may grow In time into a number Whence may flow Succeeding Millions This One being lost The hopes of all futurity are crost Happy who first by his Victorious hand Won honour to his house whose Name did stand In the first front and after liv'd to see His sonnes continue his Nobilitie But he who ends his Honour and his Name In his sweete youth and early hopes when fame Is scarce upon the wing to tell the Earth His Ancestors his Honours and his birth Dies leaving teares his onely Legacie Which must be wept and payd from every eye This gives our teares new birth nor doth contract Our sad Laments onely into one Act Such as was thy appearance form'd of clay Array'd with and bereft of Honour in a day But will when ere we turne the booke of Fame Create new griefe when we shal read thy Name With this unhappie mention He dy'd Young And without issue Here doth end the Line Of th' Ancient Staffords Family Thus Time Becomes their Period also and the End Which should each action crowne to thee doth lend A double lesse in whose one death doe dye More than thy selfe Thy Auncient Family Tell me old Time Chiefe Register of Things Who writ'st the fates of Commons and of Kings Was not a Tribe once precious in the Eye Of the Almighty though once doom'd to dye And perish all yet some were left to be Preserv'd and raise up a new Progenie So lest no branch of David should be left To bud till Shiloh came Ioash by theft Escapes the bloody stroke onely this One Continues Kingdome and succession For one out of a numerous race to die We know is common when the race doth lie In One and that One leaves no one behind Besides a fruitlesse name Nature's unkind My owne Creation 's but a blisse begun Which is made perfect in succession E. Marow On the Death of the most Noble Lord STAFFORD IMpartiall Nature sham'st thou not that we Should ever brand thee thus with cruelty Must all feele the like death Must vertuous then Be subject to corruption like bad men Thus thou wouldst have it be but he whose breath Thou enviously hast stopt shall not know death He who by Children thou deni'dst should give A life to 's Name makes it himselfe to live He was borne Noble and his life did so Answer his birth that it was hard to know Which way he was most Noble which most good By his owne vertues or his Parents blood In him liv'd all his Ancestors his fall Proves not his onely but their funerall He was not his Stocks bare Epitomy Nor was he like but one o' th' Family He did resemble All What dyed in him Was seene againe reviv'd and live in him Life to the dead he gave And though a Son His Fathers Fathers Father was become And now he that was like his friends in all things tried To be more like 'hem and as they did dyed With him fals th' house of th' Staffords and t is well It might have longer stood not better fell R. Pul. Sacred to the Memory of the most Vertuous Edward Lord Stafford the last Baron of his Illustrious Family SO is the ancient Rocke that still sent forth Iewels of clearer light and constant worth By ruder hands still pillag'd of it's store Safe onely when they thought 't would yeild no more The Sun discov'ring a fresh drop of light That might contest with him and prove as bright Doth bid his beames that exudation steale Before the moisture into stone congeale So in the aged Rose tree whose buds were Such that we might affirme th'were stars grew there After it long had yeelded growing Fires Still snatch'd to seede the ravishers desires The cold doth kill that bud that last shoots forth And robs us of all hopes of afterworth Thus here the heat and there the frost doth more Spoile then the Robbers Fingers did before But we can pardon fate when that the crosse Extends it selfe unto no greater losse Then of a Gem or Flowre But when that hand Shall snatch such living Iewels let me stand Senselesse and stupid as that Rocke and be Wretched and fruitlesse as that wither'd tree Fancy a morne that promis'd all delight Day ere afforded yet unto the sight Clouded by suddaine darkenesse whiles the houres Were busie yet to dresse it with fresh flowres And you have fanci'd expectation Crost But not like that of him we now have lost Fancy a sparke that Time would soone have blowne Into a throng of flames that would have growne Vnto the pitch of lustre as it bore The Pyramid higher and fill'd more and more Dasht by a suddaine violent showre and then Know you are short of this as sparkes of men Witnesse thou Deity of my pensive Muse His Sacred soule that I no Art doe use To raise a noted griefe from fancy'd losse Making the teares when I have made the crosse Alas the causes are too just For where Hath Knowledge any glories that his cleare Mind did not reach at Where hath Action ought Of Fame and worth that he would not have sought No Flowre in all that Garden or in this That would not have been proud to be stil'd his Bays most retir'd from Light and Sun had beene By his search found and by his shewing seene For whereas others thinke high birth and blood Vertues entaild and all that 's well borne good Though he might boast in this an ample share As the world knowes Vertue and this Lord were As undivided still as Light and Heate That the Inherent Dowry he the seate Yet he nere would his Birth to Vertue swell But thought it onely might set Vertue well Made it the Ouch not Iewell and from thence Did raise new Titles of preheminence Thus each day added to him and we may Say if we view his mind he did die gray Nor let me suffer misbeliefe because You knew him yet not man by Time and Lawes Soules such as his sore and produce high things When others have as yet scarce hope of wings His Genius did rich glories then beget And shew when lower could not Bud as yet Thus Regions neare the Sun doe Fields afford Throng'd with the choysest Flowres and richly stor'd When the remoter places sleepe and show Onely a garment of benumming Snow When I consider all this snatcht I must Wish that my teares could animate his dust But being we cann't call backe lost good nor blesse Our selves with him reviv'd I here professe My brest his Marble and doe thence become Both the bewailer of him and the Tombe Anthony Stafford FINIS Where a worthy man of a faire Line is born and bred is necessary to be knowne it is here proved against all clownish Infidels that there is such a thing as a Gentleman Amongst all Nations the Dane is the greatest Adorer of Nobilitie A never fading Honour is not the gift of Fortune but of Vertue It is here proved by reason that Nobility depends not on the will of Fortune Nothing is more remote from the nature of true Nobility than an ancient stocke void of vertue It is here by example confirmed that Descent is no sound Argument of true Nobility Honour and Vertue conjoyned out-shine solitary Merit Arts Arms should be the study of the more Noble The Dukes of Buckingham have beene so great that Earles have bin Stewards of their Houses His pious Education Religion is to be suckt in with the milke His learned Education Though learning be not the Adaequate cause of Vertue it is the adjuvant Great men have declared themselves fautors of Learning Humillity extolled in it selfe and him Obedience commended in it selfe and him His obedience to his parents Two rare examples of filiall duty and pietie His obedience to his Tutors Charitie praised in it selfe and him His love to his Friends His curiositie in the choice of his friends A herd of Friends hee lov'd not His love to the poore His ready forgiving of injuries Valour magnified in it selfe and him All men admire few understand what valour is Two admirable signes of Cato's future valour discover'd in him yet a childe Temperancie extolled in it selfe and him Drunkennesse dispraised Gluttony reprehended Justice exalted in it selfe and him Two stupendious presidents of Justice Prudencie commended in it selfe and him His Death His Patience Two things to bee lamented in his Death His infortunity in dying so immaturely in the Reigne of so gracious a Prince The immaturity of his Death Brevity of life to be preferred before Longevity * Xerxes God hath set down a period beyond which Nature her selfe shall not passe This World compared to a Theatre Death to a Christian not a punishment but a tribute