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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12817	Honour and vertue, triumphing over the grave Exemplified in a faire devout life, and death, adorned with the surviving perfections of Edward Lord Stafford, lately deceased; the last baron of that illustrious family: which honour in him ended with as great lustre as the sunne sets within a serene skye. A treatise so written, that it is as well applicative to all of noble extraction, as to him, and wherein are handled all the requisites of honour, together with the greatest morall, and divine vertues, and commended to the practise of the noble prudent reader. By Anth. Stafford his most humble kinsman. This worke is much embelish'd by the addition of many most elegant elegies penned by the most accute wits of these times.	Stafford, Anthony.	1640 (1640)	STC 23125; ESTC S117763	67,272	160

of these two should have the Precedencie but in the end give it to the Gowne in that Good Letters can instructus in the Military Discipline but Armes cannot impart the Knowledge of the Arts I may seeme to some to have dwelt too long on this weighty and necessary Argument of Honour in Generall whose pardon I crave and so proceed in my Method to treate of his Nobilitie by Race who is now my deplored Theam I am utterly void of all insight in Heraldry and therefore can write nothing in this kinde save what I have upon trust but that little I shall deliver shall be back'd with great Authorities That his Ancestors have been Dukes I am confident every man hath heard but how great in Authority and Revenue it may be all men apprehend not I am inform'd by a Knight skilfull and Excellent not only in our English but Forraigne Heraldry also that the Dukes of Buckingham have been so great that Earles have been the Stewards of their Houses and that they have disbursed eight hundred pounds yeerly old Rent in Pensions to Earles Barons Knights and Gentlemen To this worthy Testatour of their Greatnesse I shall yet adde a far greater namely the Right Honorable Henry Earle of Northampton a Lord so omniscient that he seem'd to all learned men living in his time A walking Athens In a speech of his contain'd in a Booke entituled The Arraignment of the Traitours his formall words are these It was a Monke of Henton that seduc'd the late Duke of Buckingham to the Ruine of as great a Name as any Subject in Europe excepting onely the Sirname of a King can demonstrate by which I receive a blemish and all those that descend from him This is enough for mee in that I cannot blazon Coates nor draw Pedigrees and because I am unwilling to disparage some whose Names the Staffords bore in former times and afterwards forsooke them as somwhat too obscure and low for their lofty deeds Wee have all this while dwelt in the Suburbs wee will now enter the Citie and glad our eyes with the splendour of it Imagine all the premises to bee but the Curtain which now being drawne wee will gaze on the Beautifull Piece his Life so pure and innocent to the outward sight in Gods eye who can be justified that what was said of Scipio Nassica may be applyed to him Nihil in vita nisi laudandum aut dixit aut fecit Through his whole Life he never did or spake any thing that was not commendable The first care of his Excellent Parents was to let him know there was a God that made him and they taught him by gesture to acknowledge this Truth ere hee could by speech The erection of his eyes and Hands spake for him ere his Tongue could To learne the Arts and Sciences requires a convenient Ripenesse of Age but it fares not so with Religion which is to be suck'd in with the Mothers or Nurses Milke A Vessell reteines long the sent of that wherewith it is first season'd and therefore hee was taught to name and know his Heavenly Father before his Earthly When he came to have the use of speech hee was instructed every morning with an humble heart and in a submissive phrase to crave the conduct and safeguard of God for that Day and in the same lowly Language to implore his Almighty protection for the ensuing Night Then was hee carried into Gods sacred Temple there to offer up prayers and Vowes due to his Maker True it is that we not only see but handle God in his Creatures but we no where speak univocally and unanimously to him nor hee at all to us but in his Church And that hee might judge of Religion and Goodnesse aright these his solicitous Parents gave him a learned Education for though Learning be not the Adaequate Cause of Vertue that being Assuefaction in Goodnesse yet that it is the Adjuvant all men not Contentious will easily grant Some there be who affirme that Vertue cannot be taught because though the Intellect may be informed of the true forme of Vertue yet the Will by this Instruction cannot be made flexible Experience proving to us that many profoundly Learned are withall damnably Wicked But this falls out by accident when Science meets with a perverse and depraved Nature If we consider Learning in it selfe wee shall finde that though it doe not necessarily engender Vertue yet it moves and enclines the Will to embrace it To this alludes that of Ovid Didicisse fideliter Artes Emollit mores nec sinit esse feros There are many forcible convincing Reasons why a learned man is more apt to follow Vertue then an unlearned Amongst many other I will onely produce four The first is that by studying the Arts and Sciences the thoughts of man are averted from dwelling on corporeall things the ordinary objects of his Affections and by that means the occasions are cut off that usually allure him to be enamour'd on Vice Secondly he who is a curious searcher into the Nature and causes of things judgeth of them aright and esteemes them as they are Hence it comes to passe that he magnifies things truly great and contemnes those equally base and is nothing at all moved with such Events as in the Vulgar beget Terror and Astonishment Thirdly through the Knowledge of things Naturall and Supernaturall hee discernes many causes why wee should adhere to Vertue and detest Vice For hee who understands the Nature and Excellencie of God will desire to be like him and hee who knows that God hath created all things under the Sunne for him will be enflam'd with a divine love towards him and approve himselfe gratefull and serviceable to this his Heavenly Benefactour Likewise hee who espies in the bruite creatures themselves Images of Vertues in some that of Fortitude in others that of Temperancie and Chastitie in all an Instinct and Industry in undergoing those Offices they are made for and which are proper to them will easily be induced to thinke it a shame and dishonour to him if he having the use of Reason and having the stampe of the Deity upon him should be found defective in his Duty Fourthly and lastly Learning layes before us the true Forme of Vertue and furnisheth us with Examples of brave accomplish'd men with the rewards and Glory they purchas'd by their Perfections and on the contrary the ignominious and horrid ends of such as have liv'd and died mancipated to their owne sordid enormous Imperfections the Meditation whereof will render a knowing man an Admirer of Goodnesse and a loather of Wickednesse They who are so obstinate as to reject these Reasons in favour of Good Letters will surely be ore-borne and have their Judgements rectified and reform'd by the Authoritie of great Men who have declared themselves Fautours of Erudition This Example of Alexander subjecting himselfe to bee the Disciple of Aristotle shall bee the Leader

Honour and Vertue Triumphing over the Grave Exemplified in a faire devout Life and Death adorned with the surviving perfections of EDWARD Lord STAFFORD lately deceased the last Baron of that Illustrious Family which Honour in him ended with as great Lustre as the Sunne sets within a serene Skye A Treatise so written that it is as well applicative to all of Noble Extraction as to him and wherein are handled all the Requisites of Honour together with the greatest Morall and Divine Vertues and commended to the practise of the Noble Prudent Reader By Anth. Stafford his most humble Kinsman This Worke is much embelish'd by the Addition of many most Elegant Elegies penned by the most accute Wits of these Times LONDON Printed by J. Okes for Henry Seile at the Tigres Head in Fleet-street over against St. Dunstans Church 1640. To my much honour'd Lord Thomas Lord Howard chief of the Howards Earle of Arundell and Surrey Earle Marshall of England Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter and one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Councell c. My very good Lord THe Fame of your Lordships Heroick Vertues invites me to present to your gracious acceptance this Treatise of which Honour is the Theam Indeed to whom more fitly can shee make her addresse then to your Lordship through whose Veins she runs from whose Bosom shee flows in whose Actions shee shines and by whose Protection shee is secured from the insolent Affronts of the Vulgar Being distressed shee makes You her faire Sanctuarie being wounded she makes you her soveraigne Balme Nay which draweth neere to a wonder many put their Honour into Your hands esteeming it more safe there then in their owne This is the first cause of my Dedication The next is that the true Child of Honour the deplored Subject of this Book was a Debtor to Your Lordship for his Education whose Advancement in Vertue Honour and Estate You made the greatest part of Your Studie And to say the Truth where could such a Guardian be found for him as Your Lordship since between the renowned Ancestours of You both Vertue and Bloud hath long since engendred a strict Friendship and between whom there was a neare similitude of good and evill Destiny both having amply shared of Infortunity and Glory I may adde that there cannot be a more lovely Sight then to behold an ancient lofty Cedar sheltring with his Branches from the Rage of weather a Young one of the same Kinde aspiring to the same Height had not the Frost of Death immaturely nipt this Noble Plant it were an Heresie to doubt that he would have flourisht under the care of a Lord whose Vertue is too immense for one Region to containe and whose Perfections are so many and so transcendent that they are able not onely to adorn these more Polisht Parts of the World but to civilize also the more Barbarous and to make an Athens of Madagascar The Oblation of my Teares and Supplications to God not availing to keep him here J have sent my Vowes after him and have given him a Funerall Equipage consisting of the Testimonies of brave good and knowing Men which will eternize him on Earth as his Goodnesse will in Heaven I confesse freely I was unwilling to leave him to the Mercy of some grosly ignorant Chronologer of the Times in whose Rubbish Posteritie might unhappily have found him lying more ruin'd then his glorious Predecessours were by the Tyranny of Time or the Cruelty of Princes Now in the last place I must most humbly beseech Your Lordship to take notice that his whole Name have made an affectionate but an imprudent Choice of me to be their weak Oratour to render Your Lordship submissive and due thanks for the Good You did or intended him and withall to make You a Religious Promise of their Prayers to God and their Prayses to Men as in particular I doe of the vowed faithfull service of Your Lordships most humble loyall Servant Anthony Stafford To the Vertuous and excellent Lady the Countesse of Arundell MADAM THE causes why I make this Dedication apart to Your Ladyship are divers The first is that sweete Lord the lamented Subject of this Booke in whose praise my Muse ending will expire like a Phoenix in a Perfume Hee was extreamly oblig'd to Your Ladyship in particular and therefore You deserve particular and infinite thankes from all of his Blood and Name of which I am one who have ever had your Vertues in admiration The second is that You Madam are none of those Romance Ladyes who make Fiction and Folly their Study and Discourse and appeare wise onely to Fooles and Fooles to the wise By reading nothing else but Vanity they become nothing else themselves They make a more diligent enquiry after the deedes of Knights and Ladies errant than after the Acts of Christ and his Apostles The losse of their time is their just punishment in that they spend a whole Life in reading much and yet is that much nothing But you Madam are capable of the most profound grave Misteries of Religion and daily peruse and meditate Bookes of Devotion You despise the bold Adventures of those Female Follies and piously surveigh the lives of the Female Saints You have render'd yourselfe a most accomplish'd Lady on Earth by imitating our blessed Lady which is in Heaven who as she was here the first Saint of the Militant Church so is she there the first of the Church Triumphant having learn't that she spent al her houres in works of Charity you trace her steps knowing that Shee and Vertue trod but one path Hence it comes that you are at no time so angry as with the losse of an oportunity to succour the distressed and that you are as indefatigable in doing good as heaven in motion Hence it is that the impetuous force of a Torrent may bee as well stopped as the constant flood of your goodnesse which never stayes till it have water'd and relieved all within its Ken commendable either for Knowledge or Vertue My third and last scope in placing your Character in the Front of this Treatise is that like a Starre it may strike a lustre throughout this Booke and by its light chase away the darknesse Oblivion would else cast upon it Questionlesse it will breede a holy emulation in any of your Sexe who shall here learne that there is a Lady whose vertues are come to the Age of Consistence and can grow no further and from whom not only her posterity but her Ancestors also receive honour They in this resembling the Morne who though she precedes the Sun receives her splendour from him Thus sweet thus excellent Madam I have received you from those who have beene truly happy in being daily witnesses of all your Words and Actions I conclude with this protestation made in me by Truth her selfe that I am so constant an honourer I had almost said an Adorer of Vertue whereever I finde it especially when

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

and whither his beames cannot reach thither his warmth extends Though all cannot enjoy the honour of his presence all are sharers in the comfort of his benefits We are not more happy in living than this brave deceased Lord was unfortunate in immaturely dying under so gratious a King diligent in the search after desert and magnificent in rewarding it who in all probability upon a proofe made of his faith and merit might in him have raised his whilome great House to that Height from which Tyranny unmercifully threw it downe I say to the same Height not the same Titles As concerning the immaturity of his Death I willingly acknowledge the suddaine unexpectted deprivation of one so deare and so hopefull must needs be bitter and grievous to all those whom blood friendship or acquaintance had link'd to him Yet ought they not to grieve immoderately the sorrow of a Christian being by Christ himselfe bounded and confin'd Wee may deplore the absence of our departed friends but we must not too much bewayle their deaths because they are with God As not to feele sorrow in sad chances is to want sence so not to beare it with moderation is to lack understanding since it is fit that griefe should rather bewray a tender then a dejected minde The effects of our sorrow must not too long out-live the cause We moysten not the earth with pretious Waters they were distill'd for nobler ends either by their Odour to delight us or by their operation to preserve our health Our Teares are Waters of too high a price to be prodigally powred into the dust of any Graves But we unwisely court sorrow and as a Lover alwaies espyes something in his Mistris that in his opinion exalts her above her Sexe so wee labour to finde out causes for our excessive griefe and to prove our present losse unequall'd though indeed it have many paralells As the light handling of a Nettle makes it sting us but the hard griping of it prevents that harme so wee should not stroke and cherish our griefes but out of Divinity and Humanity compose a probe that may search them to the quicke Hee who heateth an Iron takes it not out by that part which the fire hath enflamed but by that end which remained without Nor should wee take our afflictions by the wrong end but if wee can finde any comfort to arise from them wee should discreetly lay hold on that Hee who comes into a Rosary findes every Rose guarded with innumerable Thorns yet he warily gathers the one without being pricked by the other The most bitter accident hath a graine of sweetnesse and Consolation in it which a wise man extracts and leaves the Gall behind To apply this out of the subitary death of this Noble Gentleman wee may cull many comforts True it is that Death is sayd to kill the old by Maturity and the young by Treachery and that unripe untimely ends are by all extreamly pittied but if we will harken to Reason issuing out of the mouths of the most profound Philosophers she will tell us that brevity of Life is to be preferred before longevity If we will give beliefe to Seneca he will assure us that Nature never bestowed a greater Benefit on man than shortnesse of Life it being so full of Cares Feares Dangers and Miseries that Death is become the Common wish of all men afflicted He who dyes soone should no more complaine than he whose Navigation in a rough troubled sea is quickly ended We account not those the best trees that have withstood the rage of many Winters but those who in the least time have borne the most fruit Not hee who playes longest but sweetliest on an Instrument is to bee Commended Compared with Eternity the longest and the shortest Life differ not Life is not a constant Fountaine but a fickle Floud that quickly rises and as suddainly falls Some have compared life to a Bird in a Childes hand which sometimes flies away before hee can well fasten his hold on it By the vertue of that Organ wherewith wee first behold the shine of the sun by the defect of the same we are brought into the darknesse and shadow of death It is so it is so Hee that built this faire Fabricke would have nothing stable and permanent in it but himselfe This goodly rationall subtle creature Man above the Stars themselves and next to God himselfe in Dignity able to penetrate into the deepest secrets of Nature to observe the motions of the heavens to compasse both heaven and Earth in a thought is onely immortall here below by succession Generation being as restlesse as corruption The mistocles rightly affirmes that no creature is so miserable as Man in that none but he knows the use of life yet when with great studie and industry hee hath attain'd to that knowledge he is by death depriv'd both of life and it together Age brings to us experience in one hand and Death in the other Iust were the teares and sweet was the Humanity saith Pliny of that Royall and youthful * Graecian who wept to thinke that not one of that glorious immense Army hee then commanded should survive one Age Such a gentle commiseration of humane frailty made Anselme thus cry out O durus Casus Heu quid perdit homo quid invenit perdi dit beat itudinem ad quam factus est invenit mortem ad quam factus non est O hard hap Alas What did man lose What did he finde Hee lost the blessednesse to which he was made and found death to which he was not made Shal then the valiant the learned have a harder fate then fools in so soon parting with those Crownes which Mars and Apollo have placed on their heads shall they so suddenly be deprived of the comfort of that faire Fame which with bloud and sweat with fasting and watching they have purchas'd Yes yes Caesar shall never terrifie the World again with his valour nor Cicero charme it with his eloquence The sword of the one and the pen of the other have now with their Lords the same eternall and unprofitable rest Alas alas Mans is as brittle as glasse but not so conserveable As he encreases in growth his life decreases As whether one sleeps or wakes in a ship under saile he is insensibly as it were carried away towards his intended Port so what ever we are doing we unawares sail towards the region of death Time deals with man Arithmetically He first addes to his Beauty and multiplies his Graces and then hee substracts all these and makes a long lasting Division between him and Nature It were strange if we should think wee shall never arrive there whither wee are ever going Plutarch writes of creatures in a certain part of the World which are borne in the morning are in their prime at noon grow aged towards the evening and are dead ere night Had these reasonable soules as wee have