expression of any tongue or penne A Parallell of our gratious Soveraigne Lord King CHARLES with King ALFRED AS Alfred was so is he the yonger sonne of a Royall King and though not anointed King in his younger yeares yet then by eternall providence designed to his kingdomes His education and studious desire of learning his matchlesse piety even in his tender age inferiour to none his frequent accesse to our great provincial Councels his sedulous observations there and in the greatest Courts of Iustice did promise of him what now he is after the death of his most deare brother of famous memory when the burthen of our so great expectation as his hopefull succession lay wholly on him though before he seemed not so agill and valid as his brother yet his care of our welfare which breathed by the breath of him did raise up such vigor and spirit in him that his ability and dexterity in body and his admirable skil and facility in equestriall and other corporall exercises did grow up and increase together He journied not to Rome to Spaine he did whence to say no more his thrice happy return entertained with such wonderfull acclamations and ineffable expressions of joy and gladnesse as this kingdome never knew the like before did quicken and reviue the life and spirit of many sad distressed soules Not long after when by our Salomon his resignation in fulnesse of time of both life and Crowne Sol occubuit by his gracious succession nox nulla sequuta est for as a great Primate observed by Gods grace and his royall fathers prudent education he was confirmata aptata columna a Pillar every way fitted to the State he beares fitted to the difficulties of the times fitted to the State and fitted to the Church before his Crown was scarce setled on his Royall head and ere he was anointed by the hand of the Priest he was not without his cares Coronam cura se quitur the epidemicall sins of our Nation drew from heaven one of the greatest instruments of Gods vengeance the noisome pestilence which miserably infested not onely our great Ierusalem but many other famous Cities and almost all the skirts and corners of our kingdome shortly after seconded with its second the dread and horror of the sword in the times of both which first in the time of contagion turne backe your eyes upon his strict and carefull edict of a generall fast and humiliation by a prescribed forme of prayer throughout all his Kingdome himselfe like another Phinees stood up and prayed and the plague ceased and in a wonderfull manner that Gods great mercies farre surpassed the extent of our hopes his royall thankfulnesse expressed in an uniformity of common prayer in like manner publikely edicted followed nay as if both in one divine conception issued forth with this great deliverance Hee was not as Alfred forced into the field in the very infancy of his raigne nor into any such angustious and distressed recessions yet for perlustration of his Armies and the well ordering his military affaires he forced himselfe not in a progresse of ease but by an expeditious toilesome journey to the remotest and most navigable harbour of his Westerne Region exposing himselfe thereby unto no meane dangers By the space of those few yeares wherein his preparations of defensive warre were against two of the most potent and mightiest Christian Princes of Europe he put not his confidence in his Princes nor in his men of warre either by Sea or Land nor in the childe of man he put not his trust in his bow neither was it his sword that shold help him nor did hee trust in his Chariots nor his Horse nor in his great Navies of Ships nor in any Engines of war nor his warlike provision of all which his copious supply and store exceeded former times but in God his strength and his Redeemer After the sudden and miraculous deliverance frō the Pestilence looke upon no lesse and in as little distance of time his forme of prayer prescribed in the yeare 1626 necessary to bee used in those dangerous times for the safety and preservation of his Majesty and his Realme the like not long after with a generall fast for the preservation of his Majestie his Realmes and all reformed Churches God heard him the Lord of Hostes was with us the God of Iacob was our refuge he made warres to cease hee broke the bow and knapped the speare in sunder He blessed our Alf. and those two great neighbour Princes with a gratious issue of truce and peace at unity they are and their Kingdomes in publike negotiations commerce and affaires of State and God grant they long may be and might they stand with divine providence in the union of our Church aswell as our Common wealth By this you see that upon all occasions God is his refuge and strength a very present helpe in trouble the best armour of a Christian Prince is prayer and humiliation the strength and sinnewes whereof doe consist in the uniformity of religion and conformity of the ministry upon both these the peace and quiet of the Church the Spouse of Christ doe principally depend Our royall Soveraigne had no sooner by the incense of his prayers drawne from heaven a remission of that great contagion upon this land but instantly hee betakes himselfe to a regall course for establishing the peace of his Church and therein agrees with Alfred who in his sanction of the league betweene him and Guthrun did decree ut ecclesiae pax tranquillitas pie inviolateque serventur And for avoiding all offences and innovations in religion our now Alf. with the advice of his reverend Bishops did by his edict declare and publish his utter dislike of all those who did or should adventure to stirre or move any new opinions contrary and differing from the sound and orthodoxall grounds of the true religion here professed and established and did thereby charge all his subjects especially Church-men that they should not by writing preaching printing conferences or otherwise raise any doubts or publish or maintaine any new inventions or opinions concerning religion other than such as are warranted by the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England And that all excuse of ignorance might be taken away his illustrious goodnesse for avoiding diversities of opinions and for the stablishing of consent touching true religion hath caused and commanded the Articles agreed upon by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of both Provinces in the Convocation holden at London Anno 1562 to be reprinted with his royall declaration prefixed thereunto for ratification thereof what zeale and care hee hath had to suppresse and recall any bookes or writings though published by some of great learning that might breed the least doubt and disquiet in points of religion is well knowne For the conformity of the Ministry I find an old Law ratified by King Alf. de
I shall conclude with a thankefull remembrance of some living Authors to whom this Treatise of Alfred must especially ascribe a part of its being Mr. Bryan Twyne sometimes Fellow of Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford for his learned and laborious work touching the Antiquity of Oxford out of which I excerpted many things conducible to my purpose and to Mr. Noel Sparks Fellow and Greek Lecturer of the same house for his faithfull and carefull collections out of Asser. These and many more I consulted with before I brought it to that contexture and forme wherein it now presents it selfe to publike view And so beseeching the Almighty to direct all our actions for his glory and the common good and to blesse us with true piety towards him unfeigned loyalty to our Soveraigne and Christian charity one towards another I rest Yours howsoever you censure me ROBERT POWELL THE LIFE OF ALFRED OR ALVRED THE light of the Lawes of this vertuous magnanimous Prince drawne from the first and best patterne of all Lawes did not onely minister the occasion of compiling a Treatise to be hereto annexed but a just encouragement with my unworthy and unpolish't Pensil to limbe out the life of him who though he died seven hundred thirty three yeares since doth by the moderne practise and imitation of his Lawes and Government still live To speak sufficiently as one saith of so noble a Prince as Alfred was might require eloquence learning and a large Volume I must truly say that tota vita luctamen all his life was a perpetuall warfare against the enemies either of outward or inward peace men or vices And in this short breviary of his life I intend not any long discourse of the various and troublesome affaires of his twenty eight yeares raigne but what concernes his valour vertue and religion his pious and memorable deeds his orderly in the times of war and disorder course and method of a well disposed government This good King who is stiled by one the Mirror of Princes by another Moses his imitator was the Grand-childe of Egbert who first gave this Kingdome the name of England and the fourth and youngest son of Aethelwolphe by the Lady Ogburgh In his child-hood he was a carefull observer and celebrator of peculiar houres in prayers and service of God and so dextrously studious that he had many Psalmes and Prayers by heart which afterwards being gathered into a booke he did continually night and day carry about with him in his bosome as his inseparable companion and as a supply or provision for the worship of God amidst the manifold changes of those times he was a sedulous frequenter and visitor of holy places Etiam ab infantia orandi eleëmosynam dandi gratia diu in oratione tacita prostratus saith mine Author wherein hee followed his Fathers steps who by reason of his monasticke education under Swithun a Monke whom he afterwards made Bishop of Winton was a man zealously and piously addicted And of all his sonnes Alfred was most heire apparant to his fathers devotion and vertues though not to his Crown and Kingdome When he was not above five yeares old yet senior virtutibus quà m annis Aethelwolphe his father being warned thereto in a dreame by the voice of an Angell Adulphe Rex dilecte Dei quid moraris mitte filium postgenitum c. did upon this vision if it may receive any credite by an honourable Convoy of Swithun Bishop of Winton other Nobles send this blessed youngling to the Bishop of Rome to be anointed King of England certaine it is he was there and was humbly presented by Swithun to Pope Leo the fourth who as if divining and presaging his future fortune and succession to his fathers Crown did in the yeare of Christ eight hundred fifty five annoint him a King in the presence of his Father saith Rossus and it was about the time that Lewis the second succeeded Lotharius in the Empire of Rome Aethelwolphe not many yeares after his return from Rome died and his three elder sonnes Ethelbald Ethelbert and Etheldred successively raigned and dying left the Kingdome distracted by continuall conflicts with the Danes and Alfred having faithfully served his brothers as Viceroy in each of their sevâ—ral raignes survived and in the twenty second yeare of his age and the nineteenth yeare of the Emperour succeeded in his Kingdome in a yeare wherein eight severall battels had beene given to the Danes by the Saxons and himself within one moneth after his Coronation forced into the field by the Pagan Danes at Wilton where the end of the fight was more successefull than the beginning and procured the first truce betweene the Danes and Saxons yet so implacable were those Heathens against this pious Prince that like wilde and savage Boares after many overthrowes they would continually whet their tuskes to give new onsets After this truce about the yeare eight hundred seventy five Halden the Danish King having the fresh supply and aide of Guthrun and other Danish Leaders Viceroyes at least did both by Sea and Land continually exercise this gracious Prince in a defensive warfare but not without some perillous imbroylements he did inforce them to the treatie of a second peace and then more than ever they did before to any they tooke a solemnâ— Oath to depart the Countrey but eft-soones perfidiously violated the same and for further preparation of warre marched with an Armie towards Exeter Alfred approached them in such wise and so fiercely encountred them as that they were enforced to deliver pledges for performance of their former agreement of departure for no oathes would serve to binde the consciences of those lawlesse Miscreants Hence they departed and drew into Mercia and having usurped the government of the Kingdome from the River of Thames forward no termes nor tyes of truce could containe them from continuall incursions and invasions upon this noble Prince under the conduct of Guthrun called by some Gurmund The remnant of those disbanded Atheists mustered up themselves and about the first yeare of his raigne invaded the Countrey of West-saxia and pitched their Tents about Chipnam in Wiltshire where they infested the whole Countrey and so overlaid King Alfred with their united forces that by extremity hee was necessitated to make his recesse into obscure places almost inaccessible for fennes and marshes having nothing of his great Monarchie left unto him but that part of the Kingdome since knowne and distinguished by the Counties of Hampton Wilts and Somerset In this distresse one of his greatest Courts for residence was an Iland now knowne by the name of Athelney in the County of Somerset anciently in the Saxon called Aethelingarg that is Nobilium insula so termed by reason of the Kings abode and the concourse of his Nobles unto him this place is as famous to us for the shelter of Alfred from the Danish pursuit as the Minturnian
incense of his prayers to the Throne of Heaven which course he constantly observed in the silent houres of night and at all seasons aswell in the times of prosperity and victorious successe as also in all adverse and doubtfull variations of war or State or afflictions of sicknesse and infirmity of body in all which he had his vicissitude of participation He was the first lettered Prince in this Kingdome since it had its nomination of England and had the happinesse to be disciplined under the care of Plegmundus a man of excellent learning and eminent parts who was borne in Mercia and from the solitary life of an Eremite in the Island of Chester called to be a Tutor to this noble Prince who at that time found the number of Learned men to bee so scarce and few by reason of the continuall devastations of warres which are alwayes incompatible with lawes and literature as that with incessant sighs and groanes he would not daily cease to bemone the want of such men and with assiduity of earnest prayers to implore a supply from that Omnipotent w th soone gave a gratious issue to his desires for not many moneths after his inauguration to the Kingdome he obtained the comfortable service and attendance of Withfrithus called by some Werefridus who was consecrated Bishop of Worcester on Whitsunday 872. And for his singular learning was had in high estimation by King Alfred and by his command translated the dialogues of S. Gregorie out of the Latine into the Saxon or English dialect he wanted not all the helpes advise and instructions of Plegmundus his Tutor who was afterwards Anno 889. consecrated Archbishop of Canterburie Those he consulted with night and day taking sweet comfort aswell in their discourses as in their lectures and rehearsals of many learned books and workes and never thought himselfe happy longer than he had the fruition of their or such like pleasing companies by meanes whereof he attained the knowledge of most bookes and ability to understand them by himselfe without any of their interpretacions his regall desire of Arts and learning rested not at home but extended it selfe by messages and Embassages beyond the Seas for men of the most exquisit learning that could be heard of out of France he obtained Grimbald and Scotus men famous in their times for their great singular learning out of the remotest parts of Wales he sent for Asser who wrote his life and divers others of like parts he drew from other places Asser as himselfe affirmeth abode with the King in his Court by the space of eight moneths before his returne to Wales in which time he constantly read divers bookes unto him for saith he it was his custome both night and day amidst all other impediments both of mind and bodie to be ever versed in reading books himselfe or hearing them read by others and tooke a great felicity to translate bookes especially meetre into the vulgar then Saxon tongue and commanded others to do the like wherby he acquired such perfection therein as that the Art of Poësie was much honoured by ascribing to him the title of Poet. This religious Monarch out of his immoderate thirst of the Artes and liberall Sciences modestly conceiving the want thereof in himselfe to be more than it was did apply the greater care for the education of his children In which charge Asser being recalled from Wales had the principal imployment and was vouchsafed the name of Schoolemaster to his children being two sonnes and three daughters by his one and only Queene No lesse tender was he in the trayning up and tutoring of the children of his Nobility under the same masters and in the same method of discipline For the perpetuall propagation of learning he revived and repaired the old and erected and endowed new Schooles and Colledges as so many seed plots and nurseries of Religion and vertue Some write that he did first institute the Vniversity of Oxford the institution of that famous Achademie was doubtlesse long before but if vivification and redemption from oblivion and ruine be proportionable to a worke of creation it is not a graine in the ballance who should deserve the greatest honour of that renowned Seminary either the first founder or Alfred the refounder For amidst the many mournefull demolitions of stately monuments by the Danish and Saxon warres Oxford had her deplorable part and sufferance in the exile of her Muses in her houses and structures All by warres laid wast and even with the dust little or nothing left to demonstrate what her former beauty had beene save onely the Monasterie of S. Frideswide For repairing the wasts and spoiles of that sacred place Alfred bestirres himselfe and there for the studies of Divinity Philosophy and other Artes did raise up the fabrick of three magnificent Colledges then called by the name of his schooles one for divinity another for Philosophy and a third for Grammer one of which three is now knowne by the name of Vniversity Colledge In this revived Seminary he designed and appointed severall Readers and Professors to whom hee allotted large and liberall stipends The first divinity reader was Neote the second sonne of his father by his Queene Iudith daughter of Charles the bald Emperour and King of France whom he married upon his second returne from Rome a man of admired learning to whose forwardnes and direction in the reëdification of this ancient Nursery that place did owe a special part of her being Asser as propense and zealous to his power in advising and furthering the perfection of that worke was the Grammar and Rhetoricke reader hither hee sent Aethelward his second son and first and last child who was borne about An. 880. And thereby gave example to al the greatest Nobles of his Kingdome to send their sons thither and to honour their education with the company of the young Prince This worke of restitution was begun saith one An. Dom. 874. And doubtlesse it could not be presently finished and furnished the government thereof began to flourish betweene the yeares 882. 883 about which time Grimbald was made in the presence of that victorious Prince the first Chancellor of that Vniversity to make this worke more absolute he obtained the grant of many priviledges unto the schollers of this place from Martin the second Pope of Rome which he confirmed with his own grant of many honourable infranchisements and immunities From the same Pope he obtained a relaxation of all tribute to the Saxon schoole at Rome As hee was every way royall and magnificent in this ever blessed act of restauration so he was studious in the preservation therof in peace and concord a great dissension and perillous about the yeare 886 arose amongst the schollers the parties in this faction were Grimbald and such learned men as he brought thither with him and the old schollers who had their abode there at the time of Grimbalds
yeares after his raigne consumed with fire with no small part of the Citie could speake for it selfe it would not be silent of his magnificent bounty The revenewes of his Kingdome he was as studious to husband as his time which that he might the better ascertaine and know his own which is the best part of thrift confine his expences unto the provent of his estate he enjoyned a generall survey of the kingdome to bee made and certified unto him and that with the particulars of his whole estate to be deduced into a booke which he committed to safe custodie within his treasury at Winchester The one halfe of his wealth he faithfully devoutly resolved to bestow in the service of him whom he ever served but to avoid the guilt of violating that caution of sacred Scripture Si recte offeras recte autem non dividas peccas He studied discreely to divide what he did religiously devote Therefore by a holy and divine direction of all the income of his annuall revenew he caused a twofold division to be made wherof one part for divine the other part for secular affaires 1 That part for Gods service he commands a quadruple subdivision to bee exactly and carefully made The first part whereof was to bee distributed to the poore of each nation wherin his hand was ever open to cast his bread upon the waters his bounty and almes-deeds were not circumscribed at home but liberally dispersed abroad and not onely to those of his owne and neighbouring nations but to others of forreigne and remote parts as if hee should have therein said Tros Tiriusque mihi nullo discrimine habetur In the yeare 888 hee sent by Athelmus Bishop of Winton much treasure of his owne together with a large collection of his well disposed subjects unto Marianus then Pope of Rome consigning a portion thereof to be conveyed to Hierusalem Another time by Sigelmus Bishop of Sherborne a large Almes or offering of his owne into India there was scarce any Countrey where the poore had not a portion of his bounty 2 The second part was allotted to his Monasteries for the support and maintenance of them 3 The third part was sequestred and appropriated for the benefit and indowment of his great Schoole or Academie at Oxford which hee had stored with many Students 4 The fourth he laid aside as a portion for all the bordering Monasteries in Saxonie and Mercia and in some yeares to releeve and repaire severall Churches by turnes in Brittaine Fraunce Ireland and other places The other moytie of his estate he did wholly addict to the service of the secular affaires which he carefully commanded to bee tripartited 1 Whereof the first part was yearely conferred on those of his military imployment whom he highly esteemed as also upon his meniall officers and Ministers who garded his person and guided his Court and being lifted into a trinall Company each of them wayted a moneth by turnes and then had two moneths recession for their ease and disâ—â—â—ch of their owne affairâ—â— 2 Tâ—â— second part on the Masters and Workemen of his Fabrickes whom he had in great numbers procured selected and sent for out of many nations The third portion he reserved for reliefe of strangers whom the deserved fame of his vertue goodnesse and bountie drew out of all parts to admire him and whether they sought and asked it or not to bee partakers of his liberall largesse which to every one according to their dignitie and desert hee did aboundantly dispose In all this if vertue and piety were hereditary hee might justly challenge a descent therof from Aethelwolphe his father a Prince more affected to devotion than Action who being a Subdeacon was by the dispensation of Pope Leo afterwards made King and gave the tenth of his kingdomes tribute with exemption of regall service to maintaine the ministery of God and his Church And in his last journey to Rome did confirme the pay of peeterpence to Leo IIIIth then Pope of Rome and his successours to the end that no Englishman should do pennance in bonds Adde unto Alfreds then unmatchable pietie his royall gratitude which ingratitude being the worst of vices is the best of vertues Asser makes ample relation of his munificence to him after his eight moneths abode in his Court yet with his excuse Non ideo se dedisse parva illa quòd sequenti tempore nollet dare majora which promise hee made good shortly after in bestowing the Bishopricke of Sherborne upon him in the yeare 873. His old Host of Athelnry hee afterwards well requited by advancing him to the Bishoprick of Winchester Anno Christi 879. He was not so carefull in apportioning his estate and time as he was in disposing the local government of his now setled Monarchie the league betweene him and Guthrun being so firmely established and before he could not doe it he did all things stato statuto tempore a president for all Princes yea and for all persons in imitation of Iethro his councell to Moses He was the first that reduced this confused Kingdome into an orderly rule of subordinate government And observing the old rule of Divide impera did divide this land into Shires hundreds and tythings respectively appointing the prepositure of them to severall Officers and Ministers now called Sherifs Constables and Tythingmen But no government could bee without Lawes and herein Moses is still his ensample who having first selected his wisemen and placed such to be rulers over thousands hundreds fifties and tens then and not before Iura dabat populo hee gave laws to the people froÌ„ the mouth of eternity it self Alfred with a religious majesty begins his Lawes Loquutus est Dominus ad Mosem hos sermones cites all the decalogue and then proceeds with the Lawes comprised in the 21 22 and part of the 23 Chapters of Exodus all which and the confirmation of these with the Lawes of King Inus and other his Ancestors I have elsewhere at large expressed He caused a booke containing Decreta judiciorum collected by King Ethelbert to bee written in the Saxon characters which the injury of times hath utterly suppressed Lawes without execution are but Vmbratiles cloudes without raigne shadowes without substance hee was therefore prepared jus sacere as well as jus dicere He was not sparing to administer justice and to dispose of affaires of most weight in his owne person Taediosus or districtus examinandae in judiciis veritatis arbiter existebat hoc maximè propter pauperum curam qui in toto regno praeter illum solum nullos aut paucissimos habebant jutores he was a most solicitous umpire in examining the equity and verity of judicatory proceedings and that principally for the cause of the poore who besides him alone had none or very few advocates or assistants he was the Patron and protector of Widdowes and Orphanes As
formula vivendi ministrorum Dei it goes with an inprimis praecipimus Dei ut ministri constitutam vivendi formulam curent observent That the Ministers of God should observe a regular forme of living and certainly it was meant by that Law as well in their habit and vestiture as in their condition and gesture doth not the parallell hold in our times witnesse the prudent care of the severall Bishops within their Diocesses by his Highnesse gratious and provident directions that the Ministers in their lives and conversations might bee lights and examples to others and by their Clericall and conformable habites they might with respect to their callings bee distinguished from others God hath his proper day and time for the more especiall and peculiar advancement of his worship And albeit his Highnes Ecclesiasticall lawes are armed with competent power to redresse the transgressing of either yet hee hath given a liberty for unsheathing the sword of his secular justice to propugne and maintaine that selected day and time There were good Laws made before the Conquest one by King Alf. De ijs qui die dominico sua negotia agunt for repressing under a great mulcte all servile and prophane workes upon the Lords day no speciall law of that subject were ever since made but in the time of our Alf. in whose first Parliament the first Law enacted was for punishing abuses committed on that day and in the second and last Parliament the first Law made was for further reformation of the breaches profanations of that day by Carriers and others And whereas his Highnesse pursuing the example of his deare Father directed by the primitive practice of former times for the ease and comfort of his well deserving people hath by his Princely declaration vouchsafed a liberty to his subjects concerning lawfull sports to be used that day without impediment or neglect of Divine Service prohibiting the same to all wilfull and negligent Recusants that shall not resort to their owne Parish Churches to heare Divine Service before their going to the said recreations this gratious indulgence hath of late disquieted the spirits of some unquiet humorists But let the consequence bee discreetly weighed and all men will perceive a double benefit arise thereby for the propagation of Gods service 1. In incouraging the younger sort of people who are most subject to desire of recreations with more alacrity to frequent their Church that they might injoy their harmelesse pastime 2. In retaining the Parishioners to the discipline of their owne Pastors from stragling abroad to other mens Cures a thing too frequent and most perillous to conformity As the service of God hath its principall dependance on devout prayer so the devotion of prayer is quickned and much improved by fasting and abstinence at times prefixed by the Lawes which may be termed Gods time Alfred made a Law de jejunijs Liber si indictum jejunium cibo sumpto dissolverit mulcta ipsa legis violatae paena plectitor c. A Free-man for the violation of a Fast was to pay a penalty some say five markes a servant to be beaten or to redeeme it with monie His Majesty ever since his raigne hath had a most watchfull eye by orders and Proclamations yearely published to revive and command the due execution of his Lawes made against eating and selling of flesh in Lent and other times prohibited and finding that divers Officers and Ministers were remisse in the punishing and prevention of such abuses did by a strict edict command all his people that his Lawes should be duely executed upon all that should offend either in eating or venting of flesh at times inhibited or not fasting upon the dayes by his Lawes appointed God hath also a name which must not bee taken in vaine our Soveraigne for his pious observation of that may bee proposed for imitation to all the Princes and people of the world no rash oathes nor temerous execrations breathe out of his sacred mouth and that saving Name by which God ownes our redemption is had in high esteeme with him It is said of K. Alfred that God sometimes permitâ—ed his adversaries an insultation over him ut sciret saith mine Author unum esse omnium Dominum cui curvatur omne genu that hee might know that there was one IESVS CHRIST to whom all knees should bow It is Gods precept or rather protestation Isay 45. ver 23. In memet ipso juravi I have sworne by my selfe the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousnesse and shall not returne Vnto me every knee shall bow it is the practise of our Church and still may it continue Ad nomen Iesu curvetur omne genu Let every knee bow at the name of Iesus As God hath his dayes and times so his Places Churches and sacred Oratories for his adoration and invocation of his great Name the wisdome and munificent piety of ancient times hath within this Island erected such stately and magnificent Churches as doe far surpasse all other places in the Christian world were it not then great pitie that such famous fabricks should by the injury of times bee suffered to moulder away and be demolished for want of timely reparations And here let mee pause a while and admire his Highnesse tender zeale for supporting the Houses and Temples of GOD and his beginning with that goodly and glorious structure which was first begunne in our Kingdome and dedicated to St. Paul the great threshing-floore of thâ—s Dominion purchased and erected by the pious Davids of former Ages and consecrated for a Temple to the GOD of Iacob and herein his Majesty doth inherit his Fathers Royall intentions It is said of London That it is Camera Regis Cor reipublicae tanquam Epitome totius regni The Kings chamber the heart of the Common-wealth and as it were a Summary of the whole kingdome What shall I then terme this holy place which is the very center of that imperiall chamber but Sanctum Sanctornm the Mother-church of the whole land where all publike benedictions are first rendred all apprecations for blessings and all deprecations of publike calamities are resounded and ecchoed out unto the eares of Heaven Twice hath his Highnesse vouchsafed his presence at severall Auditories in that place Once as a glorious Starre that followeth the Sun He attended his Royall Father about thirteene yeares since to heare a holy and a powerfull embassage on the behalfe of that Ancient Temple delivered by the mouth and meditations of a learned Prelate upon a foundation laid a Text chosen out of a Kingly Prophet Psalme 102. VER 13. Thou shalt arise and have mercie upon Syon for the time to favour her yea the set time is come VER 14. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones and favour the dust thereof And in such an assemblie was it that to use his owne words Hee