hayle and lusty at 80. than David was at 70. That Promise in the Psalm Thou shalt see thy childrens children and peace upon Israel was abundantly made good to him as to Childrens children and though he lived to see both domestick and foreign wars yet before he died he saw peace upon our English Israel which God of his mercy long continue And as he was full of daies so he filled these daies with all sorts of good actions he well knew the worth of time which we for the most part undervalue and accounting every minute pretious took care to spend not only his daies but his hours well so that his gray hairs being found in a way of righteousness were a crown to him and what Scaliger said of Strisset may no less justly be said of him it was pity ut aut senium senem faceret aut lex naturae vita privaret either that age should have made him old or the law of nature bereaved him of life As to Riches and honour it is true he came far short of David yet he wanted not his share of either God was pleased so far to bless his honest indeavours in that Calling wherein his Providence had placed him that he enjoyed a liberal portion of this worlds goods nor did he want those honors which were suitable to him David indeed was a King and so the supreme person in his kingdom He was whilst Lord Mayor chief officer of this City during his continuance in which Place he did by virtue of his office represent the King's person Whatsoever honor in the City he was capable of he was chosen to Master of his Company Alderman of a Ward President of St. Thomas his Hospital several times Burgess in Parliament though the iniquity of the times would not permit him to sit Sheriff Lord Mayor After which he at length became and so continued for some years as Benazah was said to be a mighty man among the 30. the first among the 26. the eldest Alderman upon the bench that had served in the Office of a Lord Mayor to whom is given that honourable title of the Father of the City nor had he only all this honour from the City but his King also gave him the greatest honour he was capable of in his station making him not only a Knight but a Barronet which descends upon Posterity I mention these not as if riches or honours or both were abstractively considered Topicks of Commendation but in as much as they are conferred by God sometimes upon good men as the encouragements and made use of by them as the Instruments of virtue and so they were to him he being a bountiful steward of his riches nor did his dignities so much honour him as he them I cannot say of him as Christ said lo a greater than Solomon He was greater or richer than David nay much inferiour no nor yet better than David nor yet so good But thus much I dare say it was his laudable ambition to be as good he indeavoured to tread in Davids footsteps and what is said in my Text concerning David I shall confidently affirm of him and that in both translations He was one who served his own generation by the will of God and who in his own generation served the will of God Throughout the age of his life he was through God's Providence instated in manifold Relations intrusted with various offices conversant in several imployments in all which he had no cause to complain with him who said Omnia fui nihil profui I was every thing and profited nothing All of them being as so many Cutts and Chanels through which did run his several vertues and graces And now as he said of St. Cyprian Onerosum enumerare It would be a burdensome task to enumerate all particulars since Inopem me copia fecit Plenty makes me poor and I have so much to say that I know not where to begin If you please I will begin with that which is in Solomons language the beginning of wisdom namely the fear of the Lord. He was eminent for Religion and Devotion That Orthodox Religion which is professed in the Church of England he faithfully adhered to cordially owning her Doctrine and Discipline Hierarchy and Liturgy and though he lived in an inconstant age wherein it was the mode to change Religions as women do fashions he proved not a reed oâ— a willow but an Oak stedfast and immoveable Great was his respect to the Orthodox and Orthoprax Clergy Those who were Sufferers he charitably relieved Those who were Labourers he bountifully encouraged The very feet of them that served at the Altar were beautiful in his eies and I should be very ingrateful if I should not acknowledg my self though most unworthy to have had a Benjamen's share in his Favour Schismatical Conventicles he ahhorred but duly frequented the Church Assemblies I was for many yeares an ocular witness of his attendance on the Publick Ordinances where he was a Joint Petitioner at the Throne of Grace a Judicious Auditor of God's word a diligent receiver of the Lord's Supper from the monethly administration whereof I do not remember he was absent if in Town and in health and though it was an age wherein irreverence was in fashion and Devotion decryed as superstition he was exemplary for his reverent behaviour in God's house seldom at Prayers but upon his knees unless want of room hindred him his head still uncovered at the reading and preaching of Gods word and alwaies kneeling at the Holy Communion nor was he only as I fear too many are Religious in the Church but his Family praying with and for them and giving wholesome Counsels to them That Character which Almighty God giveth concerning Abraham for I know him that he will command his Children and his houshold after him to keep the way of the Lord did justly belong to him whose care it was to bring up his Children in the fear and instruct his servants in the ways of the Lord and his resolve was that of Joshua I and my house will serve the Lord. Finally trace him not only from God's house to his own but from his chamber to his closet and there you might have found him daily setting time apart for his meditations and devotions nor could any secular affairs divert him from God's Service and therefore when his occasions called him forth sooner he would still rise the earlier that he might begin the day with God with whom he always also closed it up Thus during his age and generation in this world he served his God and no less careful was he to serve his King remembring that Fear the Lord and the King are joyned together by Solomon He was a strenuous asserter of Monarchical Government Nor can I pass by one argument which he often used upon that account where Almighty God by his Prophet Ezekiel reconing up the manifold blessings he had conferr'd upon his
People Israel mentioneth this among the rest as none of the least thou didst prosper into a Kingdom by which is clearly intimated that those nations are most prosperous which are under Kingly Government nay that Kingly Government is a prosperity to a people He was I dare say among the number of the mourners in Sion for all the Abominations which were committed and especially for that execrable treason in murthering the Father and banishing the Son nor did he cease to be an importunate Petitioner at Heaven gates for the restauration of King and Church Upon the account of his Loyalty to Charles the first of blessed memory When Lord Mayor his house was searched by the rebels then in power supposing there to have found the King the year after he was cast into the Tower and there kept a Prisoner and for several years put by all Publick offices and imployments they finding him a man that would not be moulded into their several formes nor make shipwrack of his Conscience to serve their interests Upon the account of his Loyalty to Charles the Second Whom God Almighty prosper during his Exile he hazarded his estate and life by sending him considerable summes of money beyond sea and when the Blessed time came of his joyful Return to his Throne though he was in the 73. year of his age which might have been a just excuse for his staying at home this aged Banzillai went not only over Jordan river but crossed the Sea to attend his Soveraign home Next to God and the King I dare say the City of London was written upon his heart wherein he spent by far the greatest part of his life and hath now breathed his last Here through God's blessing he got and here he spent a considerable part of his estate in the Citie 's service He was of so publick a spirit that when his Son in Law brought him the first news of his being chosen Sheriff of London he immediately dismissed the particular business about which he was and never after personally followed his trade but gave himself up to the City concernes It was his study to know the Customes and usages the liberties and priviledges of the City and accordingly his endeavour in his several capacities to preserve and maintain them He was not only in word but in deed an Assistant a Guardian yea a Pillar of the Right Worshipful Company of Drapers He was a vigilant President of Saint Thomas his Hospital which probably had been ruined before this but that his sagacity and industry discovered the fraud of an unjust steward In the Court of Aldermen he was as an Oracle very subservient by his grave and prudent counsels to the Cities Government He was so far from self-seeking that when he was Lord Mayor he did not make those advantages which usually are by selling the vacant places Whilst a private tradesman he was exact so far as I ever heard in commutative Justice in his bargains and contracts of buying and selling and when a publick Magistrate he was no less conscientious of distributive Justice between man and man so that what Lampridius said of Alexander Severus he was Virbonus reipublicae necessarius a good man and very needful for the Common wealth may be affirmed of him in reference to the City he was not only a good man but exceedingly useful by his Justice and prudence for the Cities welfare I must not forget to tell you how he served the Town where he received his first breath by building there and endowing a Free-School with a considerable maintenance for the education of Children How he hath served the University of Cambridge by erecting an Arabick Lecture and setling upon the Lecturer 40 l. per annum for his pains in reading it hereby testifying himself to be a lover of learning to which indeed none is an enemy but the ignorant and therefore he could not having himself a very competent measure of knowledg Nor were these munificent works to bear the date of their beginning from his death but the one began 20 and the other 30 years ago nor is their maintenance only setled for some term of years but as we usually express it for ever by which means he hath not only served his own but succeeding Generations nay in that Arabick lecture he hath served those remote Eastern parts of the world upon which account at the desire of the Reverend Master Wheelock now with God he was at the charge of printing the Persian Gospels and transmitting them into those parts yea by these wayes he endeavoured to serve the Lord Christ promoting the Christian Religion and to use his own Language throwing a stone at the forehead of Mahomet that grand Impostor Thus he was serviceable in his Generation to the will of God Honor of Christ Welfare of the City Benefit of Country and University nor was he awanting to serve the Poor neither by his Charity his hands were frequently open whilst he lived upon all occasions and notwithstanding many late great damages to his estate he hath given considerable legacies to the poor of several Parishes to Hospitals to Ministers widows and such like at his death all which I cannot now stay particularly to enumerate Finally let me not tire your Patience if to the rest of his graces and vertues I adde his Patience whereby he served the will of God in suffering To serve the will of God in doing good was his meat and drink to submit to his will in suffering evil was his Antidote and Cordial The truth is this good mans coat like Josephs was particoloured his wine mixed with water nay with gall and wormwood many doleful losses he met with as to his worldly goods some disastrous crosses in his near Relations such as himself said he could not have born were it not for this Book pointing to the Bible which lay before him but there he met still with that which comforted him frequently among others making use of that Passage of Job to his wife Shall we receive good at the hands of God and shall we not receive evil The latter years of his life have been years of Pain to him by reason of that Disease of the Stone in the bladder whereof at last he died A stone so weighty that it exceeded 25 ounces so grievous that a little before his death it made him roar but yet not murmur God graciously supporting him under the weight and sustaining him under the pain of it and indeed the Providence of God was singularly remarkable in that having a stone of so vast a bigness in his bladder his pain was comparatively so little his life so long for had there not been as it were a way pav'd or rather a channel cut through the stone for his Water to pass the stoppage of it must of necessity have very much added to his smart lessened his days He hath now taken his leave of this world and truly I may
raised by God to break these horns when God hath any great work to do either to pull down Babylon or build up Sion he will send Carpenters to accomplish it and surely thus to be imploy'd by God in the accomplishment of his Will is no small Honour Yea for this end doth that God who can when he pleaseth do his own work without means vouchsafe as it were to single out some persons in several ages to be serviceable to his Decrees in the protection of his Church that he may clothe them with renown and consequently we ought to fulfil this design of God by giving them all respect and honour which they are capable to receive and we to give I cannot close up this without taking notice that this is no Apology no nor so much as the least excuse for those egregious persecutors oppressors usurpers which have in their generations been destructive to the places where they lived among whom Oliver Cromwel the late cursed Monster of men deserveth to be looked upon as a nonsuch I say this is no plea for them that in some sence it may be said of them they served the will of God for they only serve his permissive not his effective will and besides what is said of the Assyrian king howbeit he meaneth not so neither doth his heart think so is fitly applicable to them they design not to serve the will of God but their own covetous ambitious and revengefull Lusts only God is pleased to suffer and make use of those horrid Wickednesses and Violences which they act upon others and for the bringing about of his own most just Counsels and righteous Decrees so that howsoever some of them adding hypocrisie to their villany have pretended the Glory of God yet by their abominable actions they have discovered their intentions to be nothing less and though they have after a sort served the will of God yet it was besides nay against their will since at the same time and in the same thing whereby unwittingly and unwillingly they have fufilled Gods secret will of decree they have wittingly and wilfully violated his revealed will of command And therefore in a far other Notion is this of David's serving Gods will to be understood in the Text namely his ready accomplishment of of Gods decree in saving his Church and destroying his enemies by these warrantable means which his word alloweth and his providence hath offered to him which as it was highly commendable in him so justly imitable by us upon the like occasions But Secondly he served Gods will of decree and that passively in respect of himself by his willingness to suffer whatsoever evil God allotted to befall him in his Generation he was a man who experienc'd both conditions of life namely prosperity and adversity nor was he more thankful for the one than patient under the other and that because it was Gods will for so runs his own language I was dumb and opened not my mouth because it was thy doing very observable to this purpose is that expression of his humble resignation where he saith of his return to Jerusalem If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me back but if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good to him And in this notion this character belongs to every good man whose name like that of a Deacon to whom St. Austin writeth an Epistle is quod vult Deus what God will he is willing to be any thing or nothing as God shall dispose of him This saith St. Chrysostom is the property of a servant of God to be well pleased with his severe as well as gracious dispensations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only when he smileth but when he frowneth when he delivereth but when he afflicteth as to say with Ely Dominus est It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good and as that Nobleman answered his king when he said You must go on hunting with me non oportet nam Lubens volo It is not I must but I will with all readiness so did David saying Oh God my heart is ready my heart is ready and let the same frame of spirit and temper of heart be in every one of us 2. Besides this notion of serving Gods Will that is his Decrees both by doing and suffering since so far as consists with the Analogy of faith and the reason of the context it is best to expound Scripture in its largest sence I must not omit the notion of serving Gods will that is his Commandments which are the signification of that which God would have us to avoid and perform We find in the 119th Psalm David often praying to God teach me thy statutes and teach me the way of thy statutes and make me to understand the way of thy precepts and accordingly he professeth that Gods testimonies were his meditation and that all the day nay his eyes prevented the night-watches that he might meditate in Gods word nor was this only that he might know but do them and therefore he prayeth Teach me good Judgement and Knowledge and a good understanding have they that do his commandments and again Oh that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes and again make me to go in the path of thy Commandments Thus like a good servant he desired first to know his Masters will and then to doe it And as he served the will of God so he performed that service 1. Cordially rejoycing in the way of Gods statutes making his testimonies his delight Yea and in another Psalm he saith I delight to do thy will oh my God yea thy Law is in my heart 2. Speedily his resolve is not only to go but run the way of Gods Commandments in his practice he made haste and delayed not to keep Gods Commandments as well knowing that though in other cases haste maketh waste yet in this delay breedeth danger 3. Universally not that he was without particular failings and those gross ones too but as he saith himself he had respect to all Gods Commandments not wilfully living in the breach of any and again I hate every false way so that the bent of his heart was against all sin and the course of his life was conformable to all virtue and accordingly it is said of him at the 22 verse of this Chapter he did fulfil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all Gods will 4. Constantly in his generation or age that is to the end of his life and therefore he saith not only I have chosen the way of truth but I have stuck unto thy Testimonies and again Thy Testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever and I have inclined my heart to perform thy Statutes alway even unto the end All which considered well might he not only say but ingeminate it Oh Lord
liveth saith the Psalmist and shall not see death there were never any but two Enoch and Elias and I may say What man is he that dieth and shall not see corruption there was never any but one the holy one of God But otherwise all that lie in the grave rot for which reason the same word in Hebrew signifieth both the grave and corruption I have said saith Job to corruption Thou art my Father and to the Wormes You are my Mother my Sister and this as appeareth by the foregoing words in reference to the grave wherein though some by embalming are preserved longer than others for so say some was Alexander's body kept from putrefaction above an hundred years yet sooner or later all rot for which cause our body is called by St. Paul vile body or according to the Greek body of humiliation A consideration which may very well be matter of abasement to the strongest man beautifullest woman that their strength must degenerate into weakness their colour into paleness and both at last into rottenness though withall let it not too much discourage us since as the rotting of the grain in the ground maketh way for its springing up and fructifying so shall the corrupting of our bodies in the grave And therefore let us in the multitude of our thoughts within us touching the grave look beyond it at that day when as St. Paul assureth us our Lord Jesus shall change our vile body and when as the same Apostle tells us Mortality shall put on immortality and corruption shall put on incorruption ANd thus I have given you an account of Saint Pauls narrative concerning King David But another narrative is and that justly at this time expected from me concerning the Life and Death of the Right Worshipful and Right Worthy Knight Sir Thomas Adams Knight and Barronet There is no less than a threefold obligation to wit of Piety Equity and Charity laid upon us of publishing the excellencies of those who have done worthily and been famous in their Generation since as Saint Basil hereby 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we glorifie the Lord in and for his servants and that is Piety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we honour the dead in their memory and that is equity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we rejoyce and benefit the People by their examples and that is Charity As Physicians and Chirurgians do very much advance their knowledg by Anatomising the bodies of dead men so we either are or may be much better'd in our practise by a delineation of the graces of dead Saints and therefore though this eminent servant of God and of his generation being taken out of this valley of Bacah and carried to that mount of Joy where beholding the glorious Deity he sings eternal Halelujahs stands in no need of any praises from us Yet it is needful very needful for us who are left behind that we may be stirred up to follow his choyce example And now what Paterculus saith of Aemilius Paulus he was vir in tantum laudandus in quantum virtus ipsa intelligi potest I may fitly apply to him the circumference of his Encomium may very well take in all the lines of virtue which meet in him as in their Center and I could heartily wish that as those Confessours truly said in their epistle to Saint Cyprian Vigorous expressions were correspondent to the glorious actions or rather Passions of those Martyrs whom he commended so I could now draw the Picture of this Worthy not only at the length but to the life But alas my Pencil giveth so rough a draught that I am afraid I shall but disfigure him whilst I go about to commend him so that I am ready to draw back my hand whilst I am drawing his lineaments and therefore shall desire as he did who wrote the life of Saint Cyprian that quicquid minus dixero minus enim dicam necesse est If I shall say less as less I must needs say than he deserveth it may not derogate from his honour but be imputed to my unskilfulness and if any shall think I say too much I shall ascribe it to their ignorance since none who knew him but must needs have a high value for him nor shall I say more of him than what not only very credible information but for the most part my own personal knowledg will warrant me having had the honour of more than 20 years acquaintance with him 15. whereof he was the chief inhabitant of that Parish wherein I was an unworthy Labourer The truth is as Titus Vespasian was called deliciae generis humani the delight of mankind so was he the Darling of the City so generally well reputed and reported of that I suppose it will be said of this Panegyrick concerning him what one said who met with a book called Herculis encomium The praise of Hercules Quis Lacedaemoniorum unquam vituperavit who ever dispraised him to wit that knew him His very outward aspect was amiable nay venerable and his presence as the appearance of some benign Star having a pleasing influence upon all that looked upon him But could you have viewed his inside behold that virtuous soul which inhabited his comely body how would it have ravished you and yet though we could not directly we might reflexively and that both from his words and works The Tongue of the Just saith Solomon is as choyce silver of which the Trumpets under the Law were made because of its sweet sound and again the lips of the righteous feed many to wit with wholesome counsels and comforts keeping as it were open table for all comets such was his tongue frequently tip'd with silver nay golden sayings which he brought forth out of the treasure of his memory such were his lips with which as well nay better then with his bountiful table he fed not only his children and servants but all who conversed with him among whom I can truly say I never went to him but I did or might come away from him bettered by his gracious and prudent discourse Nor was he only as I doubt too many are a man of words his goodness was not only at his tongues but his fingers ends That of our Saviour concerning himself my works testifie of me is though in a far inferiour way verifyed of him at least we may make use of what Solomon saith concerning the virtuous woman His works did praise him in his gates so that he was not only in respect of his words a sweet and pleasing voice but of his works a burning and shining light It is said of David that he died in a good old age full of riches and honours The age to which this worthy Patriot attained was old elder then David exceeding it eleven years for whereas David lived but 70 he was above 81. years old when he died and if Davids were a good old age his was better being more