begin or how shall I make an End they seem alike difficult But to pursue my proposed Method I will begin with that from which he took his Beginning his Descent He was Great in his Descent His Descent At this Quintilian adviseth us to begin when we commend to Posterity the Memory of a Friend that 's dead And I can produce many Authors that say that St. Luke begins here when he speaks the Praise of St. John Baptist But this is the Work of an Herauld not a Preacher and the Escoucheons speak enough if I be silent They speak him a Branch of an Honourable Stock a Gentleman of an Ancient Race whose Family ever flourished in the First Rank of Norfolk Gentry and is now admitted into Alliance with the Blood Royal Whose Name came into England three Years after the Conquest Lord Cokes Collection of the Pedigree of the Paston Family Mss. The First of them was Wolstanus Paston who was Buried at Backton and after translated with William de Glanvill his Cousin to Bromhall-Abby Founded by the said William This Family was possessed of the Mannors of Paston and Edingthorp in the time of Richard the 2d In the Year 1314 there was a Grant to Clement Paston to have a Chaplain in his House a thing very rarely allowed by Authority and without it never In the 8th Year of Henry the 6th William Paston was made Judge of the Common Pleas to whom the King granted as a special Mark of Favour 100 l. and 10 Marks a Year with two Robes more than the ordinary Fee of the Judges This Judge married the Daughter and Heiress of Sir Edmond Berry by whom he had the Mannors of Oxnead and Marlingford and divers other Lands in Norfolk William Paston Kt. the 8th Son of the Judge married Anne the Daughter of the Duke of Somerset After this I find Sir John Paston by several Adventures there atchieved great Reputation in France and was chosen to be on the Kings Side in the Days of Edward the 4th at the great Turnament against the then Lord Chamberlain and others and was sent to conduct the Kings Sister when she was to be married to Charles Duke of Burgundy Why should I name another Sir John Paston who was appointed amongst others to receive the Princess Catherine from Spain afterwards married to King Henry the 8th From which King there is a Letter of Thanks to be produced to Sir William Paston for his Care in his Preservation of the Emperors Vice-Admiral and other Matters of Courage and Prowess I will but name Clement the Son of Sir John Paston who being Captain of a Ship in a War with France brought the French Admiral St. Blaukert home with him and kept him Prisoner at Castor till he ransomed himself with seven thousand Crowns He was Pentioner to four Kings and Queens and in his declining Years built Oxnead-House and lived in it till Fourscore years Old One of his Daughters was married to Thomas Earl of Rutland Kt. of the Garter This Clement was called by King Henry the 8th his Champion by the Protector in Edward the 6th's time his Souldier by Queen Mary her Seaman and by Queen Elizabeth her Father And what need of more This minds me of the Father of our deceased Lord who was a Kt. and Baronet whose Fame both at Home and Abroad was as great as his Original and who left in the Place he lived in a fresh Memory of his great Parts and Abilities and lasting Monuments of his Travels and Foreign Acquaintance His Mother was the Lady Catherine Bertue Daughter to the late Loyal Valiant and thrice Noble Earl of Lindsey whose Renown shall flowrish as long as our Chronicles shall remember us of Edg-hill Fight where he being General valiantly fought though with the loss of his Life the Battel of his Soveraign No wonder then our Lord was so great so eminent an Assertor of Majesty and of the Religion in the Church of England as established by the Law as a late Dedication justly stiles him when sprang from such Progenitors From two Families mixt with the Noble Blood of many others neither of which was ever sullied with Faction or Rebellion taunted with Error or Schism or blackned with Irreligion or Atheism and to a Mind inclined to Vertue it availeth much to be born well The Place in which he was born was Oxnead Lift up thy Head then Oh Happy Oxnead yea grow Proud and boast that it can be said This Good this Great and Noble Lord was born in thee More Reason hast thou for thy Ostentation in this than any of the seven Cities had which challenged and laid claim unto the Birth of Homer But bar thy Gates against Men of Levelling Principles who deny all Deference and Honour to such as this Lord in his Descent whose Veins were filled in succession of many Ages with Heroick and Generous Blood The glorious Deserts of Honourable Parents are no small Patrimony and ought to be had in Reverence and Esteem But as for me I must confess I have much more delight much more satisfaction in blazoning the Vertues of any Man than his Arms I hasten therefore to the Greatness of his Worth which shall be my second General upon this Occasion He was Great in his Worth His Worth And here oh for the Pencil of an Apelles that I might be able to promise a Draught something worthy the Original The only Commendation of his Picture would be its Likeness to him and this puts me in mind to say something of his Face which will be ever before me which God had adorned with an exact Symmetry and Pleasant Countenance so that every Look was a Prevailing Argument to beget Love and Admiration in the Beholders But the Cabinet is not so Beautiful as the Diamond that shines in its Bosom And it will please me and profit you most to speak of his Intellectual Worth whereof I might mention as many Branches almost as I have Minutes left for the Remainder of my Discourse To avoid Prolixity what I can I will reduce all to these His Friendship his Affability his Learning his Prudence his Magnanimity His Friendship towards Men was as general as his Acquaintance with them Friendship He was of a Nature so Kind so Sweet so Courting all of a Disposition so Prompt so ready so chearful in receiving all that he had no Enemies except such as deserved no Friends Where he placed Affection and allowed of Intimacy his Friendship let my Experience give its Grateful Testimony was as firm as immoveable as a Rock It was not all the starch'd Stratagems of Politick Heads nor crafty Artifices of pretending Admirers that could unsettle him to his Friend He was very unapt very uneasie to hear Ill of those of whom himself had conceived Well It was a Disease to him and made him Sick to have an Accusation brought against any whom he had set his Love on the Accuser in thi kind always lost
himself but our Good Lord kept his Friend Nothing would make him desert his Friend unless it were his Friends deserting him and his Majesties Sevice For this he shak'd off many or rather they shak'd off themselves and yet pretend to be as true Servants to the King as himself was or he that speaks but observe they 'l serve the King as the Fanaticks say they serve God not according to the Ancient Institutions of Religion but their own Way according to their Humour So these pretend to serve the King but not according to the Ancient Fundamental Laws of the Realm and if they were let alone they would I fear me do the Kings Business their own Way too His Conversation was always pleasant unaffected towards his Betters familiar towards Inferiors undissembled towards any Assability and of easie Access towards all and to none more freely than to the Clergy of the Church of England whom he loved whom he welcomed and to whom he opened his Embraces always upon the very account they were such He gave Respect to the Lowest Honour to the highest always begging the Bishops Blessing upon his Knee That he would pray to God for him He was of so great Comity and Civil Vrbanity that as it is said of him in the Comedian Never any departed Sad out of his Presence unless it was to depart and as the same Comedian speaks it too None ever came at him but they might learn something from him His Learning was very Comprehensive extending to whatsoever was worthy by a Gentleman to be known nay I must say it was profound too Learning for he dived into the Bottom of whatsoever he set himself to enquire into He was no Smatterer or superficial Sciolist but had digested the whole Encyclopedy of Arts and Sciences and was fully accomplished with all that from Studies at home or Travels abroad could be expected in a Person of his Rank He was if not initiated yet perfected in the Rudiments of Learning under that most Eminently Learned and fully Experienced Schole-Master Dr. Richard Busby at St. Peters Colledge in Westminster and that Master hath often and to this day will for as I take it he yet lives and long may he live to the Good of after Ages tell how Pregnant this Young Plant was and what great Hopes he gave of succeeding Fruit. From thence he went and enrolled his Name in Trinity Colledge in Cambridge where he heightned his Parts by such Exercises as were suitable to his Quality and perfected them by Conversation And leaving there a Good Name behind him he cross'd the Seas and after some few Months spent in the Court of France where he received many Remarks of Favour from the King and Queen he returned well skilled in the Lingua and furnished with a keen and sharpned Wit with a Wit very Great but Innocent very Smart but Harmless His Discourses were well imbelished with quaint Stories and witty Jests and yet never did he spend his Jest to lose his Friend and what is not usually met with though he was generally full of Discourse yet was he always inoffensive and never impertment In Poetry he was very dextrous and when he repeated any thing out of the Greek Latin French Italian or other Poets which he did frequently it was hard to say whether the Author or he made the Sense And when any began any thing out of the Ancient or Modern Historians he seldom failed to go on and to tell what followed So happy was he in his Memory even to Admiration Nay the common Observation failed in him and he was a remarkable Exception to that General Rule That a great Wit and a good Memory are seldom accompanied with a sound Iudgment The Wise settling Affairs in the County must make his Enemies confess he neither wanted Judgment nor Prudence Prudence nor Conduct by which he reduced things to a much better Condition than he found them brought many back unto their Loyalty confirmed others in it and when the Times looked grim upon him stopt the Career and put Spoaks into the Chariot-wheels of those that drove Iehu-like towards a Commonwealth And though in Popular Appearances the Kings Friends and his with Tricks and Artifices have been outnumbred yet he had Gold always to set against their Dross and with his Weight much outdid their Number in all Elections But I am not willing no not to mention our then Divisions and Confusions when we seem'd all broke in Pieces each fixing upon other Names of Reproach even then by advancing the Kings Honour and Interest he gained the Affections of the Loyal Party made them all his own and at his death left the Number of them almost double to what he found them Thus by his Prudent Management he acquired great Fame to himself great Peace to the County and great Satisfaction to all Good and Honest Men. Nay hereby even whether they would or no he took possession of many Hearts to the Admiration of all that would not love him Would not love him did I say Yes 't is true some did not they lov'd not him that did not love the King they lov'd not him that did not love the Church and his Service to the King and the Church he valued more than he did their Love Sure I am they did not love him that vilified his Person lessened his Parts undervalued his Prudence and reproached his Religion That mercilesly and unchristianly without colour of the Laws of Man or Conscience towards God pierced the Sides of his heartiest Friends to give him a Wound a Stab When his Friends for his Sake must be taken into Custody and squeezed in an Arbitrary Skrew or Hands as harsh and cruel They persecuted his Friends for his sake and with double Spight prosecuted him because he owned them for his Friends but to proceed When Men in great Place began to write after the Copy of Forty One when Accusations were invited Calumny rewarded nay managed with great Art and Power Then was this Noble Peer threatned with an Impeachment Articles as the Common Vogue went were ready and such was the height of Malice that his Friends were to be made yea forced to be Witnesses against him Then was he threatned with a Stone-doublet as the ruder Language of Norfolk phras'd it with Confinement in the Tower as the finer Phrase of London stiled it Yet in all this I never saw him daunted his Countenance fall or his Courage fail He out-brayed his Enemies with his Innocence and even then was more than usually constant in the House of Peers to testifie that he was not by all the Noise they made broke into any Affrightment for Shame or Fear of what he had done And when his Enemies 5thly like Aesop's Viper had lick'd the File till their Tongues bled Magnanimity he remain'd invulnerable They accused him for going about to subvert the Fundamental Laws and Liberties of the People the way by which
great Stassord fell and Canterbury who both in their Stations like this Noble Lord supported nothing more For the Rule is sure the Axiom infallible To defend the Kings Prerogative is the best way to secure the Peoples Liberties nay Lives But then such is the blind Zeal of Malice He must be impeach'd for Invading the Kings Prerogative the Honour and Maintenance whereof was dearer to him than his Life Nay themselves had just before made his advancing it too High his Crime Their own Surmises were the Bills of Accusation but the Splendor of his Integrity to the King and Government soon dispersed all these Clouds and set him in a higher Sphear as we shall hear presently I have read that Hippasus the Pythagorean being asked after his Advance what he had done made Answer I have done nothing yet for no man envies me They that do Great things as this our Lord did cannot escape the Tongues and Teeth of Envy but if Envy be the Accuser there is no defence for Innocence if Calumnies must pass for Evidence the bravest Heroes the best Men in the World shall always be the most reproached Persons Well! in despight of all they said and of all they did this Magnanimous Heroe remain'd firm in his Worth unblemished in his Honour and what I must speak to as my third General unshaken and therefore Great in his Loyalty Here I heartily wish that Speech he made To justisie the Succession of the Crown in its Lineal Descent when so many were made against it had passed the Press 〈…〉 it would loudly have proclaimed his Parts and Loyalty together His Loyalty which he brought into the World with him which he derived from his Ancestors Loyal Blood running in their Veins through all Successions This he improved in his Education it being to my knowledge the great Endeavour of his forementioned Schoolmaster even in the worst of Times to plant Loyalty in the Hearts of the Youth under his Tuition and Care where he found kind and apt Ground This his Loyalty I mean he consummated by his own Judgment and Approbation he thought of nothing he valued nothing that concern'd himself when the Kings Honour or Interest fell in his way His Father yet alive and his Domestick Circumstances very streight out of his Superfluities shall I say yea Necessities he supplied his Majesty with Money whilst in Exile Nay I had it from himself That he borrowed to give fearing his Soveraign might Want His Father being dead at his First Step into Publick Affairs when he entred the Honourable House of Commons and took his place as Burgess for Rising-Chase in this County the First Parliament after his Majesties most Happy Restauration he was the Member he the Person that moved and put to vote A Supply proportionable to His Majesties Great Necessities at that Time upon which that Parliament to their Eternal Honour be it spoken gave the King Two Millions and an Half of Money Sometime after this he entertained the King Queen and Duke and all their Nobles and Servants in Attendance a Night in Oxnead-House where was prepared a most Sumptuous Supper which cost him three times more than Earls Daughters had heretofore unto their Portions Provisions superabundantly Plentiful and all Accommodations answerable Thus as it is said Araunah did to David did he as a King give unto the King Nor can I omit to remark from his own Mouth that the King had no sooner put himself under his Roof but he told this Honourable Baronet That he was now Safe in the House of his Friend The Tables being spread and Sideboards richly adorned with Plate the King took Notice of some more Remarkable Pieces which gave occasion to Sr. Robert to tell him That his House was once better furnished and he could have welcomed his Majesty with greater Plenty of it had not a Blew Ribbon that attended on his Majesty with a White Staff plunder'd it from his Father by Trunks full Here the King diverted himself with a delightful View of the House and its Situation and what he found within Left many Gracious Acknowledgments of Kindness from his Host and next day took his Leave But not long after as an honorary Reward his Majesty by Letters Patents changed Sir Robert Paston into Viscount Yarmouth Baron of Paston the Ancient Seat of this Family and so he qualified him for what in a short space he put into his Hands his own Vicegerency and made him Lord Lieutenant in this County of Norfolk In the Conduct whereof his unusual Diligence and unexpected Zeal in Publick Affairs begat Wonder and Admiration in most and by his great Care and noble Designs for his Majestics Interest and Service he soon made himself great and dear to the King his Master I have often heard him tell with great Complacency The Free Access he had unto his Majesty upon all Occasions What a Kind Ear his Majesty gave unto all his Addresses Proud of nothing that ever I observed but that great Trust and Confidence his Majesty placed in him Proud And well he might for when all others frowned upon him the King smiled and Publickly Embraced him in the House of Lords more than once declaring He had found him Trusty and Faithful Nay some that hear me heard the King say That whatsoever Service and Respects they shewed the Lord Yarmouth their Lord Lieutenant in this City he took it done to himself or to that purpose In a word such was his Loyalty he valued not his Ease though his Body was unwieldy he spared not his Cost tho' his Pocket did not overflow he regarded not his Health though for many years it hath not been much when Publick Occasions called him forth to his Princes Service But whatever Wonder and Admiration all this had raised it soon passed into the natural Daughters of Envy Suspicion and Detraction into the Spirit of Obloquy and Slander and brought upon him great Vexation and many Troubles Envy that lâ—ke the Fire of Vetruvius broke out upon him and might with the very Ashes have buried another enclined and enspirited him with the more real and greater Vigour And now though his best Actions had an ill Name and an ill Sense put upon them by others yet his Majesty who sees as an Angel of God made better Constructions of them and as a further Testimony of his Royal Favour gave him another Title yet more Honourable and made him Earl of Yarmouth and so restored him to that Fame and Reputation in which his first Procedures had invested him And because both the Daughters of Envy have blown upon it I will be his Assertor That great was his Love to the Ancient Loyal and Honourable Corporation of Norwich because the Members of that Body generally speaking loved the King This one Qualification was enough to Entitle an Enemy to his Love But I am sure they found him their Friend and manger the blasts of Calumny the New Charter shall remain a Token of it
and dying Persons and he the well and sound He received with great desire the Absolution of the Church from the mouth of the Minister who sate up all night with him and some few hours after About eight a Clock in the morning fetching one single Sob he died and sweetly reposed himself in the Bosom of the Blessed Jesus He died a Good Christian as he had lived like a Gentleman his own wish and often repeated Expression He died a True and Loyal Protestant a sound Member of the Church of England he departed in her Faith which they of Rome call Heresie and they of Geneva Popery His Death was such as Augustus used to wish for himself an Euthanasia a Civil Easie and Well-Natur'd Death Thus was he taken from our Eyes in the same manner the Jews say Moses was by a Kiss of Gods Mouth A Death indeed but Gentle and Serene without Trouble and Amazement without Impatience and Temptation And in the very Point of Death he seemed to taste of the Sweet of Eternal Peace that Happy Rest of the Life Above where he sits among them That are about the Throne clothed in White with a Crown of Gold upon his Head And let it be our Care so to live that every one of us may have a Place within the Rounds there to sing Eternal Halelujahs to him that siteth upon the Throne To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God be all Blessing and Honour and Power and Glory for Ever and Ever Amen Glory be to God on High POSTSCRIPT READER IT not being in may Power to keep this Sermon any longer from going abroad I thought good to Advertise Thee now thou hast perused it that there is nothing omitted nor added to what was said in the Pulpit But having there not said all that was in my Papers I present thee with this Postscript to shew thee That the Five Corporations in the County of Norfolk as earnestly strove to have a Share in this most Noble Peer as those Cities intimated in the Sermon did to have a Right to the Birth of Homer Thetford The First that called him Hers was Thetford who chose him her Representative in that Happy Convention that brought in his Gracious Majesty whose Reign God grant may be Long and Prosperous out of his almost Twenty Years Exile where this Honourable Lord then Sir Robert Paston offered up his First Fruits of Loyalty in putting it to Vote as I am credibly informed What Day should be set for his Sacred Majesties Restauration His Majesty being set upon the Throne our Noble Earl served in the succeeding Parliament for Rising Rising where as the Sermon tells thee he put the Vote for two Millions and an half For which he was celebrated in a Peotical Pamphlet under the Character of Maximillian Paston The Honourable House of Commons having that Bill sent it up by him to the House of Lords at whose Bar he presented it to His Majesties own Hand and that Night received Thanks for it from the Kings own Mouth Not many Years since he made a Visit to Kings-Linne Kings Linne where he was welcomed with a most extraordinary Reception and Magnificent Feast and upon their Invitation given him he honoured that Loyal Town with taking up his Freedom amongst them Yarmouth enjoyed him several Years their Lord High Steward and gave him when admitted Yarmouth a Reception answerable to that Character and made him a very Noble Present Norwich was as near in Service and Affection to his Person as it stands in Situation to his House Norwich took all Occasions of manifesting their High Esteem of him always gave him a Welcom in a Body when he came into the County Four times chose his Eldest Son William Lord Paston now Earl of Yarmouth their Burgess in Parliament and at last Vnanimously resigned their Charter to their Most Gracious Soveraign by the Hands of this Noble Lord and his Son Whose Affections are as great to that City as his Fathers were And in Memory of their many Obligations to his Father and himself is pleased to own himself their present Recorder It were but just here to tell thee with what Courage this Young Gentleman in all those Parliaments opposed the then growing Faction who as it now appears had then contrived a most Bloody Conspiracy against the Sacred Life of our King and his Royal Brother together with all that dar'd when they were in the height of their Ruff appear to be Loyal But being to give the Just Praise of the Dead I shall only tell thee that the whole County of Norfolk shewed at once the Value and Honour they had for this our deceased Lord when in their Address from Thetford Assizes 1682. to his most Sacred Majesty to Congratulate his Royal Highness the Duke of York's Return to Court the whole Body of the Gentry subscribed their Thanks for setting this Lord in Lieutenancy over them owning the Happiness of the County to the Prudent Management of this their Loyal Lord Lieutenant Thus died our Noble Earl upon the 8th of March 1682. who was born upon the 29th of May. 1631. As if Nature had eminently designed him to follow his Soveraign in all Future Services Whose Birth was on the same Day in the Year preceeding He lived most Beloved of all and died by all most Lamented and with great Appearance and Concourse of all Degrees of Men was Honourably Interred at Oxnead WHERE GOD GIVE HIM A JOYFUL RESURRECTION FINIS ERRATA Page 27. line 3. for enclined read enlivened The same Page line 4. for real read zeal