acted that Religious and Reverend Divine Doctor Hewet the golden-tongu'd Chrysostom entered the Lists of Death In this warfare the Doctour put on the spiritual armor of a blessed confidence delivering his minde to the people in these following words I am now become a publick spectacle to men and Angels and I hope God who is omniscient is now beholding me with much pitty and great mercy and compassion and the more because I am now come to that end that his own Son came into the world to to bear witness to the Truth he himself said For this end was I born for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness to the Truth I was brought into the world the Christian world for to bear witness to the truth of the Gospel as a common Christian I was brought into the world the Church as a Minister of his blessed Word and Sacraments Blessed be his name for that great honor and dignity and I came into the world to dye more immediately for the testimony of Jesus which God hath now called me to I came into this world this Commonwealth to be a member thereof to bear witness to the truths of the Customs the Laws the Liberties and Priviledges thereof so I am a Member of the Common-wealth And methinks it seems to me a strange thing that in as much as we all plead for Liberty and Priviledges and I pleading for the Priviledges the Laws the Statutes and the Customs of this Land yet I should dye by those that should stand for the Laws the Statutes and Priviledges of the Land And I am here beheld by those that plead for their Liberties and I hope I am pittied because I here give up my self willingly and freely to be a State-Martyr for the publick good and I had rather dye many deaths my self then betray my fellow-freemen to so many inconveniences that they might be like to suffer by being subject to the wills of them that willed me to this death And it is worthy remembrance that Master Solicitor having impeached me of Treason to the Commissioners of the Court against his Highness I did often when brought before those Commissioners plead for the liberties of the people of England though I had no knowledge of the Law yet I had instructions from those that were learned in the Law and had several Law-cases and Presidents put into my hand though not by them and urged several Law-cases and made my appeal First for the Judicature that I was to be tryed by Whether it were according to Law Whether it were according to the Act and whether it were according to the words of the said Act I did appeal to have the said Act argued by learned Lawyers on both sides and then to be resolved by his Highness own Councel which was denied me This by the by I pressing the Argument made a second Appeal that those Judges if they would give singly their several judgements that it was a just and lawful Court of Judicature I would answer to my Charge I did make another Appeal to those that were his Highnesses Councel and pleaded against me That if they would deliver it to me under their hands to be according to Law I would then go on to plead and answer to the Charge What was then said further my spirits being faint I shall not say much but onely this I was taken in three defaults upon formality of the Court It seems it is a custom in all Courts which I did not know before that if they answer not the third time speaking by the Clerk that then they are guilty of three defaults and proceeded against as mute I had no such knowledge of the Law So they found me guilty of those defaults and when I would have pleaded and resolved to begin to plead I was taken from the Bar. I did the next day make my Petition to the Court in the Painted Chamber two Petitions were presented the same in effect the former the Title was mistaken Yet because the title was mistaken and no answer given therefore it was that another Petition was drawn up to the same effect with a new title given as I remember presented by the Serjeant at Arms and one writ it over in such haste lest they should be drawn out of the Painted Chamber into the Court that I had not time to read it over onely I subscribed my name and there was in the front of the Petition a word left out but what the word was I know not and this was taken so ill as if I had put an affront and contempt on the Court And it was thought they would have heard me plead and then because of that mistake they sent word I should have my answer when I came into the Court and my answer was the sentence of condemnation And therefore I pray with all my soul that God would forgive all those that occasioned the charge to be drawn against me to give such unjust things against me I pray with all my soul that God would forgive all those that upon so slender and small grounds adjudg'd me to dye taking advantage of such simple ignorance as I was in And I had at the very beginning of my pleading engaged their Honours no advantage should be taken against me to my prejudice that in as much as I understood nothing of the Law And having heard that a man in the nicety of the Law might be lost in the severity thereof meerly for speaking a word out of simple ignorance I made it my prayer to them that no advantage might be taken against me to the prejudice of my person And there was to me a seeming consent for the President told there should be no advantage taken against me and upon these Considerations I am afraid there was too great uncharitableness but I pray God forgive them from the very bottom of my soul and I desire that even those that shed my blood may have the bowels of the God of mercy shed for them And now having given you the occasion of my coming hither it is fit I should give you somewhat as concerning my self as I am a Christian and as I am a Cleargy-man First as I am a Christian I thank God I was baptized to the Holy Church so I was baptized to be a Member of the Holy Catholique Church that is the Church of England which I dare say for purity of Doctrine and orderly Discipline till a sad Reformation had spoiled the face of the Church and made it a query whether it were a Church or no I say it was more purely Divine and Apostolical then any other Doctrine or Church in the Christian World whether National or Classical or Congregational And I must tell you That as I am a Member of this Church so I am a Member of the holy Catholique Church and shall give a most just confession of my Faith both negatively and affirmatively negatively I am so a Member
lay down this Sacrifice be pleased to accept the Oblation from the hands of Yours really both in Love and Service WILLIAM WINSTANLEY The Preface To the still surviving Nobility and Gentry of England THere is no treasure so much enriches the minde of man as Learning there is no Learning so proper for the direction of the life of man as History no History that carries more weight of concernment with it then that of our own Countrey In the undertaking of which great enterprize not a word that the Historian writes but should be laden with the truth of matter as Tacitus sayes of Galba it ought to be Imperatoria brevitate It hath been critically observed by some that most Historians speak too much and say too little I doubt others will think I speak too little and say too much so that it will be difficult to please all My Method shall be first to discourse of History it self next of the rules and directions that are to be observed in the study of it then of Epitomies what they are the admirable use that may be made of them several wayes more respectively as to the particular Lives of Persons afterwards of the use benefit and advantages that accrew by the reading of it concluding with some other Addresses as to the right understanding of this now at last publisht Work History as Sir Walter Raleigh writes makes us acquainted with our dead Ancestours delivering us their memory and fame out of it we gather a policy no less otherwise then eternal by the comparison and application of other mens forepast miseries with our own like errours and ill deservirgs History as it were thus shooting off a warning-piece from which we have the dear bought experience of former and of latter times that in an hour we know what our Predecessours were many years attaining to It makes a young man to be ancient without wrinkles or gray hairs principling him with the experiences the infirmities and inconveniences of old age Thus we clearly perceive how Empires Kingdoms and Commonwealths every where have had their periods but the History of them remains and lives for the instructions of men and the glory of God the chief intent and use of this study being to acknowledge our Creatour who onely is unchangeable and to admire his Wisdom and Providence in humane miscarriages 'T is undeniable that it hath pleased the Divine Disposer of all things to preserve the Arts of reading of men to himself yet as the fruits tell the name of the tree so do the outward works of men so far as their agitations are acted give us to guess at the rest no man can lay continual masques so counterfeit behaviours the things that are forced for pretences having no ground of truth cannot long dissemble their own nature so irresistable is the force of truth the Divine Providence so powerful that howsoever the greatest diligence hath been used to carry all in secret to act with colourable evasions and glosses like Tumblers that are squint-eyed looking one way and aiming another yet in these our days we have known the closest of State secrets brought to light the cunningest consultations and contrivances discovered thus we have seen wicked Politicians seldom happy by their baseness often losing all which either their subtleties fortune or other mens labours had cast upon them and if they retain their ambitions for a life non gaudet tertius Haeres To this purpose one writes excellently History is the mirrour for us to look in which represents to us things past as if they were present and enables us to make a rational conjecture of things to come For this world affordeth no new accidents but in the same sense wherein we call a New Moon which is the old one in another shape and yet no other then what hath been formerly old actions return again furbusht over with some new and different circumstances The Premises considered to all wise men History must bear up be highly esteemed onely what Pilot in so vaste a Sea is able to steer aright except he have discovered those Rocks on which others have split so as to have first rightly poised their errours he that is not sufficiently knowing of the slips of some Authors and the trips that Writers cunningly give one another will never be so wise as to set up for himself I acknowledge in these last instances I have digressed as I would as it were praeire before I arrived at my directions for the reading of History to prepare the Student in the pursuit of which Subject onely I shall throughout the whole thred of them interweave some unworthy Observations of my own yet so as for the main endeavour to keep close to the scope and sense of a late learned Authour whose remaining Manuscripts I could wish for the future good of posterity were committed to the Press The first thing that is to be undertaken in this Enterprize is to attain to some skill both in Ancient and Modern Geography without which History is nothing but a Chaos of improbable and indigested tales as Geography without History is a blank paper then to betake ones self to some little Chronicle not forgetting to shred it into an exact Chronology for the series of the History which will both help the understanding and the memory it being as it were the fractions of time Read Herodians Lives of the Emperours Justin which is a general Compendium of all then Plutarchs Lives an exact Systome of the Greek and Roman Affairs which of all Nations were season'd with the greatest wisdom extract Political Observations without which History is little worth and Fables were as good as Histories yet under the veil of Fables lies hid all the Divinity and Philosophy of the wise Ancients That common fault of reading for pleasure as the idle people do to pass away the time is to be avoided this at the best is but a supine labour Be diligent to collect from variety of events experience and civil wisdom by observing both Moral and Political Actions the parties the causes the state of them and parallel them with others of the like nature for it may prove vertue to one and vice to another the doing of an action wisdom in one madness in another and so continually fortunate or unfortunate which might be made good by several examples which for brevity I shall omit Here also the Historian amongst other difficulties will meet with these troublesom curiosities and more then niceties as they are too usually mistakes as touching sums of money numbers of Souldiers Ships the slain in Battle computation of Time differences of Names Titles c. wherein Authours agree not and it were to be wished that the assured Notes of such particulars were to be had These things I insert onely as cautions To proceed the Student having first in his reading gained forth his remarks and gleaned his observations into heads he is next to commit them to paper for though
Whitel of a Clock which moving all the rest hath not of its self any sensible motion or as we see the Circum-ambulation of the lower Spheres yet see not the primum mobile whose Revolution whirles them round about Lastly to consider the great delight of this Study then which what can be greater then in History as she reinforces Antiquity from her ruines what can be nobler then to make the gray head of time white again what more pleasant then to look back on that which is not to see great Empires more unknown in their Originals then the Fountain head of the Nile break out with such violent Cataracts that they have either over-run or terrified the amazed world and then in the height of their glory pulled down by some unexpected and improbable means and in a manner so annihilated that they have kept no Tract of their greatness save what is found in a piece of paper To draw to a conclusion to my own Addresses as to the right understanding of this Volume I must for my own part freely acknowledge that it is more then the Work of one man were he of never so strong forces to compose a passible contexture of the whole History of England indeed somewhat I might say for my self as it is well known I have spent some years in these Studies but withal I know quam sit magnum dare aliquid in manus hominum especially in this kinde where more is expected then hath been delivered before in respect of answering the height of some insatiate curiosities this I must write for my self what I may profess in singlenesse of heart that the ambition of my design hath been to keep close to truth which to me hath seemed more amiable then all other worldly Interests to which purpose I have rendred her as she is pictured naked without any unnecessary tires and advantages of Wit and Eloquence it having been my chiefest endeavour to set down things in an even and quiet order not quarrelling with the belief of Antiquity nor obseuring the least particle of truth which I know needs not though falshood requires supporters Thus as to the Authority of what I have writ I have bound my self to the truth of History onely retaining to my self the right of an Authour my own liberty As for the Method Manner and Phrase of writing for my Authours I have prefixed a Catologue of them that my Reader may know that I have not like the men of the times done things ex tempore if every where I have not charged my Book with them it is because the History for the Impartiality of it is Authour to its self onely to avoid too often citations where I could not go abroad as one writes the rest I have taken in at the window I acknowledge I had many supplies besides my own some years continued studies I have conversed with the most knowing persons of unquestionable esteem interested in most of the late Actions I have had the use of their Manuscripts consulted with Records turned over many Volumes so that my Reader as to the grand composure of this Work shall finde nothing so loose though one Life sometimes relates to another but that with Lipsius his soder he may cement them together in their main position as they will lead him by the hand into the Escurial of the History One writes that our Historians are now adayes not crook-back'd as is reported of the Jews but crook-sided warped and bowed to the right or to the left for my part I have declared my self unbyassed that posterity may know that some durst still write Truth whilest other mens fancies are more light then their hands As it is impossible for any man to ground a true History upon the printed Pamphlets of these times such things as passe the Presse without controul so lamentable is our condition that in such a Harvest of Printing we should have so few true Historians on the one side being either stifled with Pamphlets or on the other oppressed with monstrous swelled Volumes able to wear out the eyes with reading the hand in turning or the memory in receiving I must beg pardon if I have imitated Tacitus of whom one may say without partiality that he hath written the most matter with the best conceit in the fewest words of any Historian For my own part I am so greedy of well doing as that nothing suffices the appetite of my care herein I had rather be master of a small piece handsomely contrived then of vast Rooms ill proportioned and unfurnisht As for this Piece which I have extracted out of divers Historians and contracted into a brief Epitome I have endeavoured to set down in it all remarkable passages in as little room as I could the Compendiousness whereof will be useful and acceptable to most sorts of men as first to those who by reason of their other studies and employments in the world have no leasure to read over the many Volumes of Histories which have been written in reading of this they shall not need to spend much time which is but short and every wise man will be willing to husband it as well as he can 2. To those who have no patience to dwell too long upon prolix and tedious Histories from reading of which many are deterred as growing weary before they be half way despairing ever to attain the end of their journey 3. To these also Quibus res angusta domi who either cannot because of their narrow means or will not because of their narrow mindes part with too much money on Books in this they that cannot reach to the price of a long Gown may buy a short Cloak Lastly the benefit will accrew to all men who read this History that they shall buy at a far cheaper rate the experiences of others recorded here then they can buy their own for they that live long and travel far pay soundly for their experience but they who read Histories enjoy the experience of all that lived before which is far greater and much cheaper My onely fear is lest by essaying or epitomizing I should trespass too much on the soil of other mens inventions or judgements as to prejudice truth or the persons whose mutual off-springs they are but these things being but by the by the Reader will not much set by them I shall therefore come to the main and most important considerations this History though it begins with a distance of time yet the discerning Reader shall finde that it is not so far off that the foot-steps of time are worne out and for those passages that have come nearest to our times I have in my inquisitions gone betwixt the Bark and the Tree what I have mentioned in Letters I know from whose closet they came they are many of them never before printed of the Caballa of State of those of which Sir Robert Naunton sayes if they could have been procured would have told pretty tales of the
the feast of Bacchus and Priapus of old it being a time more fit for our devotion then mirth His wife was named Guinever Daughter to the King of Biscay and near Kinswoman to Cador Duke or Earl of Cornwall a Lady who for her beauty was the miracle of her times had it not been accompained with a vicious minde not onely abusing her self by unlawfully accompanying with Mordred son to Lotho Kng of Picts but also in her husbands absence consented to be his wife so rarely is beauty and chastity found to dwell in one body that it hath caused many writers for the faults of some few to condemn the whole sex amongst the rest take these of an Epigramatist A woman is not to be credited If you will credit me though she be dead And again in another place There is not one good woman to be found And if one were she merits to be Crown'd Together with the old Adage Falere flere nere Haec tria sunt muliere Thus some in their critick fancies think all women to be bad and others again as much contrary think them all to be good certainly every man speaks as he findes and by the knowledge of one passes judgement of all the rest That they are all bad I cannot think it and that they are all good I could never finde it sure he that thought them all good was too much feminine and he that concluded them all to be bad had forgotten that ere he had a mother But to return to our History King Arthur to increase the courage of his Souldiers instituted the Order of Knights of the Round Table that he might reward the well deserving with titles of Honour none were admitted into this order but such of the Nobility as were most renouned for vertue and Chevalry they were in all the number of 150 the chiefest of them being Sir Lancelot Sir Tristram Sir Lamrock Sir Gawine and others These were all recorded for Knights of great renown and had not King Arthurs valour been most transcendent each of them might have passed for no less then a Worthy though they must fall short of the deeds of King Arthur of whom it is written that in one battel against the Saxons with his Sword named Callibourn he slew above 800 of them so much his valour exceeded all others if my Authors words exceed not the truth In twelve set Battels besides several Skirmishes is he said to have returned victor from the slaughter of the Saxons the names of the places where these battels were fought take here out of Ninius The first was at the mouth of the River Gleyn The second third fourth and fifth nigh unto the River Douglass in Lineux The sixth upon the River Bassus The seventh in the wood Calidon The eighth besides the Castle called Guynien The ninth at Carlien in Wales The tenth by the Sea side in a place called Trachenrith or Rithowode The eleventh upon a hill named Agned Cathergonien The twelfth at Bathe or Bathen-hill King Arthur in these battels having broken the force of the Saxons and not onely forced them to pay him tribute but to receive Majestrates of his appointment yet thought the glory of his actions to suffer an eclipse if his victories were atcheived onely in Great Brittain therefore with a well selected Army he passes over into Norway subduing the same with all the Regions thereabouts causing the people of those Countries to receive the Chistian Religion and obtained of the Pope to have Norway confirmed to the Crown of this Realm causing it to be called the Chamber of Brittain Then sailing into France he put Frolo Governour there for the Romans to flight and afterwards in combate manfully slew him But notwithstanding his wonderfull atchievements yet Lucius Hiberus the Roman Legate demanded of him a Tribute for Brittain which he not onely denyed but also threatned to have a tribute from Rome as appeareth in his letters sent unto the Senate where I finde it thus written in an old Manuscript Vnderstand among you of Rome that I am King Arthur of Brittain and freely it hold and shall hold and at Rome hastily will I be not to give you truage but to have truage of you for Constantine that was Hellens Son and other of mine Ancestors conquered Rome and thereof were Emperours and that they had and held I shall have yours Goddis grace and accordingly he set forward against Lucius Hiberus who with great power and vain confidence came marching against him where after a long and bloody fight the Romans were discomfited their General killed and his slain body sent to the Senate for the tribute of Brittain Whilst Arthur was thus busied in conquering Kingdoms abroad he had well near lost his kingdome at home for in his absence his Couzen Mordred confederating himself with Cerdicus King of the West Saxons usurped the kingdome which when Arthur understood he returned into Brittain and at Cambula in Cornwall this brittish Hector encountring with Mordred slew him but himself being deadly wounded was conveyed to Glastenbury where he dyed on the 21 day of May in the year of our salvation 542. when he had victoriously governed the Brittains the space of six and twenty years Here might we end his life were he not further remembred by our Modern Authours viz. how in the last year of the reign of King Henry the Second more then 600. years after the time of his death his body was found in the Church-yard of Glastenbury betwixt two Pyramides therein standing he was laid no lesse then sixteen foot deep in the ground for fear as Hollinshead writes the Saxons should have found him and surely the searchers for his body would have never digged so deep had they not at seven foot depth found a mighty broad stone to which a leaden Crosse was fastened and in that side that lay downwards in barbarous Letters according to the rudenesse of that Age this Inscription was written upon that side of the lead that was towards the stone Hic jacet sepultus inclytus Rex Arturius In Insula Avolonia Here lieth King Arthur buried in the Isle of Avalonia Nine foot deeper in the trunk of a tree was his body found buried his bones being of a marvellous bignesse the space of his forehead betwixt his two eyes if I could believe this Historians strange narration was a span broad and his shin-bone being set in the ground reached up to the middle thigh of a very tall man ten wounds appeared in his scull one whereof was very great and plain to be seen his wife Queen Guinever lay buried likewise with him the tresses of whose hair the last of our excrements that perish finely platted and of colour like the burnisht gold seemed whole and perfect until it was touched but then to shew what all beauties are it immediately fell to dust Henry de Bloys then Abbot of that house translated their bones into the great new Church for the old one was burned not long
natural wit and a better judgement with a bold and plausible tongue whereby he could set out his parts to the best advantage and to these he had the adjuncts of some general learning which by diligence he enforced to a great augmentation and perfection for he was an undefatigable reader whether by Sea or Land and none of the least observers both of men and the times And I am confident that among the second causes of his growth that variance between him and the Lord Grey in his descent into Ireland was a principall for it drew them both before the Councel Table there to plead for themselves where what advantage he had in the cause I know not but he had much the better in the telling of his tale and so much that the Queen and the Lords entertained no ordinary considerations of his person and his parts for from thence he came to be known and to have access to the Queen and to the Lords and then we are not to doubt how such a man might rise by his compliance the most expeditious way of progression Whether Leicester had then cast in a good word for him to the Queen I cannot determine but true it is he had gotten Queen Elizabeths ear at a trice and she began to be taken with his elocution and loved to hear his reasons to her demands and the truth is she took him for a kinde of Oracle which nettled them all yea those that he relyed on began to take his sudden favour for an allarum and to be sensible of their own supplantation and to project his which made him shortly after sing Fortune my foe c. So that finding his favour declining and falling into a recess he undertook a new peregrination to leave that Terra infirma of the Court for that of the Wars and by declining himself and by absence to expell his and the passion of his enemies which in Court was a strange device of recovery but that he knew there was some ill office done him that he durst not attempt to minde any other wayes then by going aside thereby to teach envy a new way of forgetfulness and not so much as to think of him Howsoever he had it alwayes in minde never to forget himself and his device took so well that at his return he came in as Romans do by going backwards with the greater strength and so continued to her last great in her grace and Captain of the Guard One observation more may not be omitted namely that though he gained much at the Court yet he took it not out of the Exchequer or meerly out of the Queens Purse but by his Wit and the help of the Prerogative for the Queen was never profuse in the delivering out of her Treasure but payed many and most of her servants part in money and the rest with grace which as the case stood was taken for good payment leaving the arrear of recompence due to their merit to her great successour who payed them all with advantage our Rawleigh excepted who fortunately in the very first beginning of his Reign fell into his displeasure by combining with the Lords Cobham and Gray Sir Griffin Markham George Brook Esquire and several others to destroy the King raise sedition commit slaughter move rebellion alter Religion subvert the State to procure Invasion leavy War and to set up the Lady Arabella Steward c. of all which crimes being arraigned he was found guilty and condemned But King James being a Prince of peace unwilling to stain the beginning of his Reign with blood contented himself with onely his Imprisonment this following Letter to his Favorite having saved his life Sir Walter Raleigh to the Duke of Buckingham If I presume too much I humbly beseech your Lordship to pardon me especially in presuming to write to so great and so worthy a Person who hath been told that I have done him wrong I heard it but of late but most happy had I been if I might have disproved that villany against me when there had been no suspicion that the desire to save my life had presented my excuse But my worthy Lord it is not to excuse my self that I now write I cannot for I have now offended my Sovereign Lord for all past even all the World and my very Enemies have lamented my loss whom now if his Majesties mercy alone do not lament I am lost Howsoever that which doth comfort up my soul in this offence is that even in the offence it self I had no other intent then his Majesties service and to make his Majesty know that my late enterprize was grounded upon a truth and which with one ship speedily set out I meant to have aspired or have died being resolved as it is well known to have done it from Plimouth had I not been restrained Hereby I hoped not onely to recover his Majesties gracious Opinion but to have destroyed all those Malignant Reports that had been raised of me That this is true that Gentleman whom I so much trusted my Keeper and to whom I opened my heart cannot but testifie and wherein I cannot be believed living my death shall witness yea that Gentleman cannot but avow it that when we came back to London I desired no other treasure then an exact description of those places in the Indies That I meant to go hence as a discontented man God I trust and my own actions will disswade his Majesty whom neither the loss of my Estate thirteen years Imprisonment and the denial of my pardon could beat from his service or the opinion of being accounted a fool or rather a distract by returning as I did ballanced with my love to his Majesties person and estate had no other place in my heart It was the last severe Letter from my Lords for the speedy bringing of me up and the impatience of dishonour that first put me in fear of my life or enjoying it in a perpetual Imprisonment never to recover my Reputation lost which strengthened me in my late and too late lamented resolution If his Majesties Mercy doth not abound if his Majesty do not pitty my old age and scorn to take the extreamest and utmost advantage of my errours if his Majesty in his great charity do not make a difference betwixt offences proceeding from a life saving naturall impulsion without all ill intent and those of an ill heart and that your Lordship remarkable in the world for the nobleness of your disposition do not vouchsafe to become my successour whereby your Lordship shall binde a hundred Gentlemen of my Kindred to honour your Memory and bind me for all that time my life which your Lordship shall beg for me to pray to God that you may ever prosper and ever binde me to remain Your most humble Servant W. Raleigh He remained prisoner in the Tower above thirteen years during which time he writ that Elabourate Work entituled the History of the World which Book for
place was taken up by his Syvla Sylvarum or Natural History a work written in English And these were the fruits which ripened in the shade of the fore-mentioned five years The Books composed before that five years space I here pass by but it was fully determin'd by him at the command of the late most Serene King Charles to have compil'd the History of Henry the Eighth King of England but that Work proceeded not beyond designation onely it pleasing God to put a period to the life of this most famous Authour Yet there is extant a certain taste of that History which a few morning hours of one day brought forth publisht in English amongst his Miscellany Works and from thence you may discern the Lion by his claw The Vertues of this Heroe and the rich endowments of his mind were so many that to commemorate them would take up no less space then the whole course of life those faculties which you shall finde in other men though not of the meanest parts to lie dissever'd and solitary in him appear'd to be united and as it were joyn'd in Wedlock these were a ready and acute wit a faithfull memory a penetrating judgement and a flowing eloquution Of the former three his Books abundantly testifies of which as Hirtius saith of Julius Caesar As well and truly others may judge as we also know with what ease and celerity he writ them But of the fourth namely his Eloquution I judge it not amiss to mention that which I have heard the famous Sir Walter Raleigh a man endow'd with singular vertues and who well deserves to have his judgement rely'd on once discoursing viz. That the Earl of Salisbury was a good Oratour but a bad Writer and contrariwise that the Earl of Northampton was a good Writer but a bad Oratour but that Sir Francis Bacon excell'd in both as well in speaking as in writing Often came this thought into my minde that if ever God in these last times vouchsaft to enlighten any mortal man with a certain ray of humane Science doubtless it was this very man whom he so enlightned for though our Authour had been a diligent peruser of Books yet it cannot be granted that he took his knowledge out of Books onely but out of certain principles and notions kindled within which nevertheless he not rashly but with great caution and deliberation divulged That Work of his called Novum Organum to which he himself attributes the first place among his works was certainly no idle dream or comment of his own brain but as it were a fixt and radicated notition the off-spring of many years and hard labor I found among the Archives of his Lordship about a dozen Copies written with his own hand of this Novum Organum new labour'd and brought back to the Forge from year to year and every year more exactly polisht and corrected until at length it grew up to that Volume in which it was publisht just as some sort of creatures are wont to lick their young ones until such time as they bring them to a certain form and firmness of members In the composing of his Books he chiefly aim'd at the life and vigour of expression and perspicuity of Words rather then Elegancy or the quaint order of Phrase and as he was writing or dictating he would often ask whether his sense was very clear and perspicuously rendred as one who knew it to be equal that words should wait upon things not things upon words and if by chance he had lighted upon a more polite stile then ordinary as among us he was ever counted a grand master of English Eloquence it therefore happened as being a difficult thing for him to shun it for he was not overmuch taken with subtilties and allusions of words but alwayes set himself industriously to avoid them well knowing that such kinde of vanities were nothing else but deviations or wandrings from the intended aim and that they did not a little hurt and detract from the gravity and dignity of stile When he us'd to read he would not dwell so long upon a Book as to glut or weary himself for though he read much yet it was with great judgement and a rejection of all the Refuse that commonly we shall meet withal in most writers yet he still intermingled with his studies a convenient relaxation of minde as gentle walking riding in a Coach or on a Horse and that not swift but leasurely playing at Bowls and other exercises of the like nature nor did he give way to the loss of any time for as soon as he returned home he presently and without the least delay set himself afresh to reading and meditation so that he suffered not any moment or particle of time to perish or pass away in vain His Table you might well call a repast for the ears as well as for the belly not unlike those Attick Nights or the Banquets of the Deipnosophists at which men might feast their mindes and intellects no less then their bodies I have also known some men of excellent wit who profess that they betook themselves to their Common-place books as often as they arose from his Table He never counted it any glory to baffle or put to the blush any of his guests or those that discourst with him as some delight to do but whatsoever their parts or faculties were he was still ready to cherish and help them forward nor was it his custom to arrogate to himself onely the liberty of speech but to permit unto those that sate with him the freedom of speaking when ever it came to their turn adding this also that he would most willingly hear any one discourse in his own Art and was still forward to incite and draw him on to that manner of discourse as for himself he contemn'd no mans observations nor was he asham'd to light his own Lamp at anothers Candle His speeches and common sayings were scarce ever called in doubt as he discourst all heard him willingly no man opposing as if the things he uttered had been rather Oracles then sayings which I judge must be attributed either to the exact weighing of his words before he uttered them in the ballance of truth and reason or else to the esteem that all men had of him Whence that kinde of argumentation in which a controversie was held pro and con his Table was scarce acquainted with or if any such by chance did intervene it was manag'd with great submission and moderation I have aften observ'd and it was taken notice of by many noble persons that if haply any occasion fell out into discourse of repeating another mans speech he was still furnisht with a way to bring it forth in a new and better dress so that the Author of it might perceive his own saying brought to him back again more elegantly apparell'd then when he sent it from him although in sense and substance no whit injur'd as if to use handsome forms
What have we not deserved yet O the long-suffering and patience and goodness of our God! O Lord our God we pray thee that thy patience and long-suffering might lead to repentance that thou wouldest be pleased thou who delightest not in the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn from his sins and live that thou wouldest turn us unto thee O Lord and we shall be turned draw us and we shall run after thee draw us with the cords of Love and by the bands of loving kindness by the powerful working of thy holy spirit in our souls working contrition in our hearts and a godly sorrow for all our sins even a sorrow to repentance and a repentance to salvation never to be repented of Lord break those stony hearts of ours by the hammer of thy word mollifie them by the oyl of thy grace smite these rocky hearts of ours by the rod of thy most gracious power that we may shed forth rivers of tears for all the sins we have committed O that thou wouldest make us grieve because we cannot grieve and to weep because we cannot weep enough that thou wouldest humble us more and more in the true sight and sense of all our provocation against thee and that thou wouldest be pleased in the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse us from all our sins Lord let his blood that speaks better things then that of Abel cry louder in thine ears for mercy then all those mischiefs and wickednesses that have been done amongst us for vengeance O besprinkle our polluted but penitent souls in the blood of Jesus Christ that we may be clean in thy sight and that the light of thy countenance may shine upon us Lord be pleased to seal unto our souls the free pardon and forgiveness of all our sins say to each of our souls and say that we may hear it that thou art well pleased with us and appeased towards us Lord do thou by the Spirit assure our spirits that we are thy children and that thou art reconciled to us in the blood of Jesus Christ To this end O Lord create in us new hearts and renew right spirits within us Cast us not away from thy presence and take not thy holy spirit from us but give us the comfort of thy help and establish us with thy free spirit Help us to live as they redeemed ones and Lord let us not any longer by our wicked lives deny that most holy faith whereof our lips have for so long time made profession but let us that call on the name of the Lord Jesus depart from iniquity and hate every evil way Help us to cast away all our transgressions whereby we have transgressed and make us new hearts Carry us along through the pilgrimage of this world supplying us with all things needful for us thy grace alone is sufficient for us Lord let thy grace be assistant to us to strengthen us against all the temptations of Satan especially against those sins whereunto we are most prone either by custom or constitution or most easily provoked O Lord with what affliction soever thou shalt punish us do not punish us with spiritual judgements and desertions Give us not over to our own hearts lusts to our vile lewd and corrupt affections give us not over to hardness and impenitency of heart but make us sensible of the least sin and give us thy grace to think no sin little committed against thee our God but that we may be humbled for it and repent of it and reform it in our lives and conversations and Lord keep us from presumptuous sins O let not them get the dominion over us but keep us innocent from the great offence O Lord our strength and our Redeemer And Lord sanctifie unto us all thy methods and proceedings with us fitting us for all further tribulations and tryals whatsoever thou in thy divine pleasure shalt be pleased to impose upon us Lord give us patience constancy resolution and fortitude to undergo them that though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we may fear none ill knowing that thou O Lord art mercifully with us and that with thy rod as well as with thy staff thou wilt support and comfort us and that nothing shall be able to separate us from thy love which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. And gracious God we beseech thee be thou pleased to look mercifully and compassionately on thy holy Catholique Church and grant that all they that do confess thy holy Name may agree together in the truth of thy holy Word and live in unity and godly love Thou hast promised O Lord the gates of hell shall not prevail against thy Church perform we beseech thee thy most gracious promises both to thy whole Church and to that part of it which thou hast planted and now afflicted in these sinful Lands and Nations wherein we live arise O Lord and have mercy upon our Sion for it is time that thou have mercy upon her yea the time is come for thy servants think upon her stones and it pittieth them to see her in the dust Lord maintain thine own cause rescue the light of thy truth from all those clouds of errours and heresies which do so much obscure it and let the light thereof in a free profession break forth and shine again among us and that continually even as long as the Sun and Moon endures To this end O Lord bless us all and bless him the posterity which in Authority ought to rule over and be above us Bless him in his soul and in his body in his friends and in his servants and all his relations Guide him by thy Counsel prosper him in all undertakings granting him a long prosperous and honourable life here upon earth and that he may attain to a blessed life hereafter And gracious God look mercifully upon all our Relations and do thou bring them to the light of thy truth that are wandering and ready to fall Confirm them in thy truth that already stand show some good token for good unto them that they may rejoyce O let thy good hand of providence be over them in all their wayes And to all orders and degrees of men that be amongst us give religious hearts to them that now rule in Authority over us Loyal hearts in the subjects towards their Supream and loving hearts in all men to their Friends and charitable hearts one towards another And for the continuance of thy Gospel among us restore in thy good time to their several places and callings and give Grace O Heavenly Father to all Bishops Pastors and Curates that they may both by their Life and Doctrine set forth thy true and lively word and rightly and duly administer thy Holy Sacraments And Lord bless thy Church still with Pastors after thine own heart with a continual succession of faithful and able men that they may both by Life and Doctrine declare thy truth and never