MY text is like the time which the Christian world now solēnizeth, and shal to the worlds end. Both are divided, text and time, into two parts▪ in the former whereof is death, life in the later, corrup­tion, dissolution in the one, repa­ration and resurrection in the o­ther. The difference is, that the subiect of the chan­ges & vicissitudes in my text, are two differēt persons, David and Salomon, Father and Sonne; one dieth and giveth ouer reigning, the other beginneth his reigne and liueth on. But the subiect of change in this an­niversary and perpetuall rememoration is a David to [inveni Davidem servum meum, oleo Sancto meo vnxi eum, ver. 9. Psal. 21.] and the Sonne of David [Hosanna filio David, 2 [...]. Math. 9.] and the successor of David, [Dabit ei dominus sedem David patris eius, 1. Luk. 17.] But this David, and this Sonne and successor of David, are one and the same person that both died and liued, suffered and conquered, lost (in the eie of the world) & recovered his kingdome.

I thinke my selfe happy that the comming so neare [Page 2] togither, of two such in their seueral kindes so great fe­stiuities (the foote of the one, you see, treadeth vpon the heele of the other, this feast which we now hold is the vigilles and forerunner to that other feast) the ce­lebration of one of which, we owe as Christians, of the other, as the childrē of this Land, & English subiects, giueth mee so iust an occasion, togither with my prin­cipal aime at the one, to haue a collateral, sidelong as­pect at the other, and in the full body of the one, which my purpose and taske is to describe, to descrie some shaddow, semblāce of the other (for in them both, was the falling & rising of a king, in thē both, for the time both the bale & blisse of Israel) & whilest I am casting my treasure (the richest of the riches of Gods spirit that my sinful soule hath receiued, the best of my me­ditations and speech) into the treasury of this happie daie, to which we all come to offer frō the abundance of our harts and bounden duety we ought, & owe, to our David deceased, & our Salomon that now is, I may also cast in a mite by the way, & for introduction sake, in honor of my ever-blessed Saviour, the king of kings, who was dead and is aliue, and liveth for evermore A­men, and in remembrance of his [...], world-sauing passion the price of our soules, & that his posthum [...] immortalitas, conquest ouer death, after death, the precedent and pledge of our eternal hap­pinesse.

How small an alteration of words will fit the whole frame and tenor of my text, vnto that other King, the antitype of David and Salomon? whose kingdome was not of this world, he vsed no legions of Angels or mē, [Page 3] neither chariots nor horsemen, he had no pallace nor Court, not so much as the hole of a Foxe to couch in, no crowne, but of thornes, no sceptre, but reedes, noe throne, but his crosse; yet was he a king indeed, factus est principatus super humerum eius, & Constitui regem meum super Sion, and held and stiled to be a king, yea9. Es. 2. Psal. the king of the Iewes, and that with a pen of adamant [quod scripsi, scripsi] what I haue written I haue writ­ten, and wil not goe from it. Thus then maie we read his storie. Igitur Iesus filius David regnavit, &c. Thus Iesus the sonne of Dauid of the roote of Js [...]ai reigned over al Israel (for to the house of Israel was he sent) & the space that hee reigned over Israel was (the later of the two numbers in my text) three and thirtie yeares. So long as he liued he reigned simul filius, simul Caesar, a King from his birth where is hee that is BORNE king of the Iewes? Thirtie yeares reigned he in Hebron, a pri uate and retired life vnder the name & habitt of a car­penters sonne, & three yeares in Ierusalē, in the light and admiration of the whole world. And hee died, the good shepheard for the life of his sheepe; J might saie, after a pilgrimage of few and evil daies: in aetate non bona; and neither full of daies for abscissus est de terrâ viuentiū 53. Es. He was cut out of the land of the liuing, Dauid is said to haue slept, because his death was natural, and quiet, this was violent; nor full of ri­ches, that had not a shrowd, but lent him, to be wrapt in, nor full of honor, that with many a vah, & wagging the head, & fy vpon thee, fy vpon thee, crucify him, cru­cify him, was exiled the world; and so far of from Sa­lomon his sonne to raigne in his stead, that is, from any [Page 4] hope of successi [...]on, that the hearts of very disciples brake & they saie one to another Nos sperabamus, we hoped it had beene he that should haue restored Israell 24. Luc. but our hope faileth vs as the sommer waters. But J wil keepe the line of my text, and saie, in the lā ­guage therof, he died, not old, but in a good age, hauing liued long enough, satis naturae, bycause, satis gratiae, to purchase the good of his people, satis gloriae, to pro­cure the glory of his owne name: ful of daies, for though he were soone dead (non dimidiauit dies suos) he saw not the halfe of threeskore & tē years▪ ▪which is the life of a mā, yet fulfilled he much time. Ful of rich­es. Ladē with the spoiles of the Gētiles, & his bosome filled with the souls of his Saints (every soule richer thē a world) as a mowers with sheaues: full of honor, whē the face of whole nature chāged at his death: the sun being clothed in black, the pillers of the earth rocking, the vaile of the tēple rending hir garmēts, & the rocks not their garments, but their hearts, the graues of the dead opening their more then bra [...]en gates, & disclo­sing their slaine: finally death it selfe vanquished, principalities and powers triumphed, Satan and his whole kingdome trodden vnder foot. And after al this, not Salomō, his Sonne, to reigne in his steede, but himselfe, a greater then Salomon, heire apparant to his own king­dome, succeeder in his owne throne, one and the selfe same Phoenix, out of his owne ashes rose and reigned over all Israell, and to the ends of the earth, and of his kingdome shall there neuer be an end.

I come now to the prototypes, the right David & Salomon which my text speaketh of. Thus David the Diuision. [Page 5] Sonne of Ishai, &c. Where you see there are two per­sons, David and Salomon; and accordingly two partes, first the cession or decease of the one, secondly the suc­cession and supply of the other.

In the person of David, I obserue especially the 2.Dauid. principal verbes, Regnauit, he reigned▪ and mortuus est, he died; for in these two, is his whole storie comprised.

Of the former it is said, Regnavit super vniversum Israelem. I will not so much nūber as weigh my words.

But if super had stood alone in my text, & regnavit 1. Super. had beene away, it had attributed some dignity vnto David more then others. Where man is over but beasts, as the shepheard over his flocke (which was sometimes the case of David) and as Amos over his heardes; nay, where beasts but ouer beasts, as the tal­lest and goodliest Bee is over the Bees, and the armies of Grashoppers and Ants haue their leaders, where­soever super is found, it importeth a superiority, ex­cellencie, preheminence, and a kinde of ability, vertue and skil, which the inferiours submit themselues vnto. Thus the minde is over the body, reason ouer the ap­petite, the head ouer the foote, the Sun and Moone o­ver the rest of the starres, because God hath enriched, magnified them, with some greater measure of grace, and dignified them with a note of honour more then others.

But here is more then a super in my text: a superi­ority2. Regnauit super. Senec. supreme, [...], an high commaunding authority, man ouer man [nullum morosius animal, nec maiori arte tractādum] not as a father is ouer his sons, nor a Lord over his servants, nor a captaine ouer his [Page 6] hundreths and fifties, over limited and determinate chardges, not by iudicature alone as Samuell and the Iudges, nor by way of Lieutenantship, deputation, subordinate prefecture whatsoever, but as a King o­ver subiects. Regnavit, he reigned: a proconsul, viceroy for God, a mortall God, imago (the next, and most glori­ous vpon earth) administrantis omnia Dei; able to say of himselfe, Ego ex omnibus mortalibus placui, electus (que) sum, qui in terris deorum vice fungerer: I am chosenId. out of thousands, to sit in the seat of God, and execute his iudgements.3. Super Is­raelem.

There is yet more. Super Israelē. Og was king over Basan, Seon ouer the Ammorits, & others ouer other the kingdomes of Canaan. Infamous kings, infamous kingdōs, the names of the one writtē, the carkasses of the other, laid & buried in the earth. Great Assuerus o­ver an 127. prouinces, the great Emperor of the Turks over 72 kingdomes, 3. Empires, to omit the rest, were not comparable to Dauid, reigning ouer Israell. TheAugust. rest are populus non populus, by the phrase of the holie ghost; turba that is, turbata multitude▪ a body without an ey, Israel is the people, the peculiar, the inheritance, the beloued treasure, the Sonne, the first borne of the Lord, & the king over Israel, primogenitus regum, ex­celsus 89. Psal. 27▪ praeregibus terrae: where though there bee not multiplicata gens, as els where, yet is there magnificata laetitia, lesse store of people, more abundāce of grace, not vasta eremus, a wast desert, but ciuitas vnita, or­nata Sparta, hortus aromaticus, ager cui benedixit do­minus 27. Gen. 7. a Citty at vnitie in it selfe, a sancti­fied Country, a garden of spices, a feild that the Lorde [Page 7] hath blest, as hauing the true worship and feare of the Lord, and the booke of the Law of God to direct both the king as touching his ordinances, and the people concerning their obedience: where the king is not as in other countries, only murorum, for outward and bo­dily4. Super v­niuersū Isr▪ defense, but sacrorum also, to see to the honour & service of God, ‘Rex idem hominum Christi (que) sacerdos.’ There yet remaineth a fourth point to make vp a qua­drate and perfitt honor of the king, & blessing of God vpon him▪ and that is super vniuersum Isr. over al Is­raell. There are, that are but reguli, or regij, [...] as the 4. of Ioh. such as in likelyhood were the 31. Kings that fought against Iosuah 12. Ios. & those other fiue that Abraham followed and put to flight only with his houshold seruants, and in the opinion of some writers, the 3. frendes of Iob, and those 3. supposed kings of Colen of whom Caesar Baronius, (the Casar, & Di­ctator of writers, as one tearmeth him) reporteth, that by an accustomable phrase of scripture, they may bee tearmed Kings, as Lords are wont to be of seueral townes, and citties. David, far differently, is king ouer all Israell▪ Not as Charles the 7. of France, beeing excluded, the rest of his Kingdome, was called in sport Rex Biturigum. ‘Rex sine terrâ,’ not as Saul at the first, when but a band of men follow­ed him, whose hart, the Lord had touched, the other asked, how shall he saue vs? Not as Dauid himselfe whilest1. Sā. 10. 27 Isboseth, vsurpeth against him: Dauid is King ouer al Israel. So as hitherto he is, 1. a principall man, a go [Page 8] uernour, and superiour, bycause super; 2. a principall superiour, a King, because regnauit; 3. a principal king, because super Israelem; 4. an obsolute monarke, a sole and a whole king, because regnauit super vniuersum Isr. These are the 4. wheeles, whervpon the heigth of his honor runneth: witnesse the Lord himselfe, when he capitulateth with him. 2. Sam. 12. 7. after this man­ner. I haue anointed thee king ouer Israell, and haue gi­uen thee the house of Israell and Iudah, & siparua sunt ista, if this bee too little (as indeed, it was very great) then J wil giue thee much more.

Now we haue seene the honour, let vs a while exa­mine the person, on whom it is cōferred. Regnavit su­per Person. vniversum Israelem, who? Filius Isai. The Son of Isai. Where is Ionathan the meane time, or some o­ther of the Sonnes of Saul, the king his predecessour? at leastwise, a man of the tribe of Beniamin, from whence their first king was taken? Who is this Isai, that his Sonne should be aduanced to the kingdome? The most that I finde of him in the booke of God is, that he was an Ephrathite of Bethleem Iuda, et erat vir 1. Sā. [...]7 1 [...]. 1. Sā. 18, 1 [...] in diebus Sanl senex, & grādaevus inter viros, that is, at the vttermost (with the helpe of the English marginal note,) accompted among them that bare office. David himselfe when first the eldest daughter of Saul, Merab, was profferred vnto him at his combate with Goliah, asked, Quis ego sum? VVho am I? or what my condition, or what the kin [...]ed of my father in Israel, that I shoulde be sonne in Law to the King? Afterwardes when Mi­chel was designed to him and the seruants of the King [...]. 23. were sent to proue him, his answere was, seemeth it a [Page 9] smal thing vnto you to become sonne in law to the king? Ego autem sum vir pauper & tenuis. To conclude, The Sonne of Isai, grew in the end, to be a proverbe and word of reproach, as in the speech of Saul to the Ben­iamites, Heare now yee sonnes of Iemini, will the sonne 1. Sam. 22. 7 of Isai giue every one of you fieldes and vineyards, &c. that yee haue all conspired against me? So Doeg the Edo­mite, when he complained of Ahimelech & the Lords Priests. I saw (said he) the sonne of Isai there: it wasIbid. 9. the best title he would vouchsafe him.

But admit, the sonne of Isai must be king ouer Is­raell. Dauid filius Isai. Why David filius Isai, this sonne of Isai more then all the rest? If Eliab the sonne of Isai, in whom Sa­muell the Seer saw enough to enable him to the king­dome, surely the anointed of the Lord is before him, his1. Sam. 16. 6 primogeniture, stature, many things making therevn­to, or if Abinadab the second, or Shammah the third, or any one of the eldest, it might lesse haue beene wō ­dred at. Are there no more but these? said Samuell; the father answered, Adhuc reliquus est parvulus, & pascit oves. There is yet behinde a little one, that keepeth my sheepe. But that gleaning, is more then all the other haruest: reliquiae salvabuntur, & reliquiae regnabunt. This same reliquus, & parvulus, & pastor ovium, this little, and least, and absent, neglected, vnsanctified, not called to the sacrifice, scarce euer thought vpon, must be king ouer Jsraell. So the Lord himselfe putteth him in minde of the best that he saw in him, Ego tulite de pascuis sequentem greges. What shall we say to this,2. Sam. 7. 8 but that he who is rex regum, & dominuus dominanti­um, & Deus Deorum, ens entium, and causa causarum, [Page 10] God and Lord ouer all, & as dominus vitae, to giue vs breath and being, so dominus gloriae, to bring vs to pro­motion; hee whose throne is the heauen of heauens, and the earth his footstoole, whose garment Majesty, and his diademe perfit beauty, and the sceptre of his kingdome, a sceptre of equity, who sitteth vpon the circle of the earth, and diuideth this punctum among the sonnes of men, whose priuiledge and right vnque­stionable, is, per me reges regnant, & his might vncon­querable, Dominus regnavit, ira [...]cantur populi. The Lord is King be the people never so vnpatient; hee that putteth downe the mighty from their seat, & exalteth the humble and meeke, that setteth seruants on horse backe, and maketh Princes to walke on foote, whichEccles. 10. lifteth the poore out of the dust, & placeth them with the Kings of the earth, which weigheth the Kings in a ballance, and findeth them to light, and maketh the iudges of the earth vanity, nothing, as if they had ne­ver40. Esd. beene planted, neuer sowen; Finally, hee at whose feete, the Kings in the Reuelation cast downe their Crownes, as if in effect they saide, Non nobis Do­mine non nobis, Lord these are not ours, wee tooke them at thy handes, thine is the kingdome, and pow­er, and glorie, for euer and euer: I saie, hee that is all in all, to shew the libertie of his actions and so­veraigntie of his power, and that promotion com­meth neither from the East, nor from the VVest, but from himselfe alone, chooseth the weake things of the worlde, to confounde the strong, &c: and things that in comparison, are not, to bring to nought things that are. If Ionathan had beene elected to the king­dome, [Page 11] hee might haue saide, Dignitas mea electa est: if Eliab, at as mea electa est. God respecteth neither. VVith him are olde and young, noble and ignoble, weake and strong, all alike. For as hee gi­veth the place, so grace also; annointeth both with oile, and with his Spirit; inuesteth into honour, and inspireth with abilitie for gouernment, both at once. For so it is saide, that from that date forward, (that the oile was powred vpon his head) the Spirit of the Lorde prospered or grewe exceedingly, vpon Da­vid. Meruailous is the dispensation of God in the di­sposition of earthlie kingdomes. Some reigne by V­surpation, some by election, some by succession, some by acquisition and purchase of sworde, some by sortition or augurie, some by imposition from men, as Herode was put vpon the Jewes, others from God, as Saul appointed ouer Jsraell. Some are borne of Kings, and no Kings: other, Kings, that had not Kings to their Fathers. Some, nati ad reg­num, heires apparant to the Crowne, yet misse it, others, nati regno▪ of whom the world neuer thought. The wheele of Gods prouidence is euer in motion, and holdeth a strange course, according to the verse: Regnavi (saith one King in his declination) regno (saith an other in his possession, and at the height of the wheele) regnabo, (saith a thirde in his ascension) sum sine regno, the fourth cast out of his kingdome. David was neither, natus ad regnū, borne to a kingdome, nor any Son of a king, had no one suffrage in election, pre­tended no title to succession in the earth, much lesse sought to be king by intrusion, yet by imposition and [Page 12] ordination from God, is appointed king ouer Israell. Hitherto you haue heard, I that the sonne of Isai, 2. David the sonne of Isai, 3. was over, 4. reigned ouer, 5.Vers, 27. Israel, 6. all Israell. It followeth. And the space that hee reigned over Israell, was 40. yeares, seuen yeares reigned he in Hebron, and 33. yeares reigned he in Ie­rusalem. So as, he not only reigned, but reigned long, to weete, fourty years, the time alowed by God, to ma­ny, the worthiest Judges and kings. Gedeon iudged Is­rael 40. yeares, Dauid was king 40; Salomon his sonne 40; Asa 40, Queene Elizabeth 40 & vpwardes; our Gracious Soueraigne that now is, ouer Scotland al­readie 40 with aduantage. J hope our Kalenders, and Chronicles, shal report to posteritie, ouer England, no lesse. Amen. sic loquatur dominus Deus domini mei regis. Jt was the word of Benaias 1. Reg. 1. 36. Saul Act. 13. is also said to haue reigned 40. yeares, but by the iudgment of the learned, twenty of those yeares mustAbulen. be accōpted to the iudicature of Samuel. Jt is a signe that they honored patrē saeculi the father of eternity, & with their gouermēt blest their mother, & natiue con­try, that their daies were so lōg, not only of life, but of reigne, in the Land which the Lord their God gaue thē. 10. Eccle. Petrarch. Omnis potent atûs vita breuis, saith the sonn of Sirach. Hominum breuis, regum breuior, and (by later experi­ence it was found) pontificum breuissima. Men liue not lōg, kings a shorter time, Popes, shortest of al, of some of which might be verified (as Tully somtimes spake of their Consul) habuimus vigilantes pontifices, they skarse euer slept in the roume. Dauid by the fauour of God, both liueth, and reigneth long. For the clearer [Page 13] distinction, and elucidation of the times, it is added, seauen yeares in Hebron, which was as it were, the2. Sam. 5. Abulen. childhood, and apprentiship of his gouernment; (the storie addeth 6 moneths more, but scriptura non cu­rat de minimis: albeit there were some kings, that at­tained not to his 6 monethes, for Shallum reigned but a moneth, Iehoiakim, but three, Zacharias, but sixe▪ & J could name you wel nigh seauen Kings, that fulfil­led not his seauen yeares: and three and thirtie yeares reigned he in Ieru salem, that is to saie, built his taber­nacle in the sun, which was but that iust time, that he liued and raigned vpon earth, cuius regnum is regnū in 145. Psal. saeculum, & dominium eius à generatione, in generatio­nem. Et mortuus est, and he died. J haue noted vnto youvers. 28. strang compositions before. The sonne of Isai rigned, whose familie was not so high; and Dauid the sonne of Isai reigned, whose person was not so lightly▪ but the straingest of all is behind, the composition & con­glutination of the 2 principal verbes in my Text, Reg­nauit & mortuus est▪ reigned & yet died. For doe kings die? terreni emoriuntur Ioues? whose eares are beaten with daily acclamations in their courts. O king liue for euer! for whom their people powre forth▪ their conti­nual supplications, God saue king Dauid, God saue king Salomon? whose life, and saluation, they sweare by (by the life of Pharao) as they would sweare by the liuing42. Gen. 15▪ God, viuit dominus? wherof Tertulliā taxeth the Gen­tiles, Tertul in Apolog. Citiùs apud vos per omnes deos quàm per vnum ge­nium Caesaris peieratur? Certaine it is, these also dy. Regnauit is a reigning worde in my Text, as beeing fowre times repeated, in euery seuerall member ther­of [Page 14] for example, he reigned ouer Israel, and the space that he reigned, & seuen yeares, reigned he in Hebrō, and 33. yeares reigned he in Ierusalem. If the Latitude of his rule could not secure him (super vniuersum) me thinketh the Longitude & continuance, might haue prescribed for him (40. annis) if Hebrō, the daughter, & one of the princesses of Iudah, were to weake, yet Ie­rusalem the mother, & Empresse of the earth, might haue protected him. But hauing reigned thus far, and thus long, thus quietly in Hebron, and thus gloriously in Ierusalem, yet mortuus est, he died. Death spareth none, ‘Sceptra ligonibus aequat.’ she seeth no difference, because hir eies are out. One calleth hir [...] impudent, for vsing best and worst a­like,3. Iob. Parvus & magnus ibi sunt▪ there are the great & small. Constantinus imperator & famulus meus. said Nazianzene; Ossa Agamemnonis & Thersitis, high and low, mingled to gether, without difference. If you9. Trip. hist. 30. wil know the reason, it is that which S^t Ambrose gi­ueth to Theodosius the Emperour, after the murther of 7000. at Thessalonica, Coaequalium hominum prin­ceps es ô imperator & conseruorum; O Emperour!, thou art Prince ouer men, thy equales in nature, and fellow­servants: that which Macedonius the Eremite deliuer­edIbid. cap. 32 to the officers of the sāe Emperour, whē they were speeding to Antioch, about a like errand, Dicite impe­ratori, non es imperator solummodò, sed etiam homo; Go tell the Emperour, that he is not only an Emperour, but a man also. I haue said you are Gods, but yee shall die like men. Nolite de Rebus mortalibus immortalia cogitare. 82, Psal▪ 6. 7 Orat. 12. Nazian.

[Page 15]Thus farre of these two, regnavit & mortuus est. But is there an end of him? Quod mortuum, mortuum? Is that that is once dead, euer dead? Perijt memoria cū sonitu? Is euerie liuing dog better then this dead Liō? Is he dead and buried in the land of forgetfulnes & his honour laid in the dust with him? Saith the Epicure a­right, There is one condition to the wise & foolish, to man & beast? Or as David asked cōcerning the death of Abner, Died Abner as a foole dieth? So aske I, on be­halfe2. Sam. 3. 33 of Dauid, died hee an ignominious & disgraceful death? He died indeed, and death was aduantage vn­to him. What other rest to the troubles of his life? Post omnes procellas vnus portus mortis, he died, and pretious in the sight of the Lorde, was the death of this Saint. Sancti and vncti, an anointed Saint. Mortuus est, that is, emeritus est, he hath fought his fight, & hath had his passe, Nunc dimittis: but hee is spiced with odours and perfumes after his death, and accompani­ed to his graue with foure or fiue of his deare friends, and indiuiduall companions, which honour his exe­quies and funerals, more then all the solemnities canNaz. Orat. 40. doe, quas mortui mortuis praestant, and make his death as renowned and celebrious to the world, almost, as e­ver his life and reigne was. These are 1. Senectus bona, a good age. 2. fulnes of daies. 3. fulnes of riches. 4. fulnes of honour. 5. succession of his owne bowels. Mortuus est & quasi non est mortuus, quia reliquit similem, Salomon his Sonne is king after him.

Happyly when you heard of his death, you might2 haue imagined some hasty and vntimely end. No, but as a ricke of corne, that is brought into the barne in [Page 16] due season, in his olde age, which of good is the best age. O veneranda Senectus, indignus adte pervenire, quimetuit▪ indignus pervenisse, qui accusat. Or, the life2. that he led was a wretched and loathed life, according to the saying of the wise, Non ille multùm vixit, sed diu fuit, it was not a vitall life, much like the Mariners at sea, that is tossed vp and downe, and riddeth little ground, Non ille multùm navigat, sed multùm iactatur. No▪ but in Senectute bonâ, in a good, quiet, peace­able olde age. Or, the time that he spent vpon earth,3. was worthlesse and base: he not empty of daies, but his daies empty of him. He past thē in ease and idlenes ‘telluris invtile pondus.’ No, he was full of daies, bestowed them on the welfare of his people, and ser­vice of Gods Church. Or, it may be he died a beggar,4. left his kingdome a province, and tributary, his people seruants, and bondmen, his children eunuches: No, but rich, and full of riches. Or, he died optantibus cun­ctis, 5. no man lamenting his death, Ah our Lord, Alas for our king: No, but honoured, and full of honour. Or lastly, his candle went quite out at his death, and his6 memoriall became as the dunge: No, for Salomon his sonne reigned in his steede. This last, of successiō, is the later person and part of my text, therefore I forbeare it to his place. But the other fowre (for senectus & bo­na are both in one) good age, fulnes of daies, of riches, and honour, are like those fowre bearers 2. Marc. 3. Which carried the bed of the palsey man, so these the coffin and herse of David, and bring him to his last home, 1. senectus bona, from nature, he liued long, 2. fulnes of daies, from vertue, he liued well: 3. fulnesse of [Page 17] riches (they will commonly say from fortune, we saie) from prouidence, 4. fulnes of honor, from opinion and estimation of the world.

Many neuer see the face of old age, they die young1. In. Senc­tute. and vnripe, in the flowre and strength of their race. Primogenitus mortis, the first begotten of death, or some one of his eldest and forwardest sonnes assaulteth thē in their prime. Good Iosias died not in his bed, ▪nor in the heigth of his age. But say they reach home to olde age, which is, secundùm naturam, and inevitabilis; a man that is suffered to liue, groweth old by course, & shall die of age, yet they obtaine not senectutem bo­nam, Bon [...] ▪ a good olde age, it may be Senectus mala: ipsa mor­bus, it selfe without other sicknes, Onus 80. annorum, as shee spake in the Comedy, a burthen and lading of fourescore yeares, wherein they become sibimetipsis graves, burthensome and irkesome to themselues. It was old Barzillai his complaint to the king, I am this2. Sam. 19 day 80. yeares old: Can I discerne betweene good &2. Chro. 16 1. Reg, 15 euill? Hath thy seruant any tast, &c. VVhy should thy ser­vant be a burthen to my Lord the King? Asa was old, & in his old age diseased in his feet, & his disease was ex­treame. Many haue senectutem bonam, but not bonum 2. Plenus dierum senectutis: when the haruest of their yeares is come, they yeelde not those fruits to themselues of patience and pietie, to the world of wisdome, and vertue, they should doe: but according to the prouerbe, senex est, & non est, they are and are not old, old in yeares, but pueri sensibus, pueri moribus, pueri centum annorum, children in vnderstanding, manners, experience, ele­mentarij senes, old men not out of their first rudimēts, [Page 18] now beginning to learne; in whom though there be not pueritia, there is puerilitas, that is, they are full of daies, but empty of goodnes. So were, Ieroboam, with many others, inveterati dierum malorum, old enough, but voide of grace.

Allow all this, they are blest with age, and good age, 3. P [...] diuiti­arum. and fulnesse of daies, strength of nature, quicknesse of sense, vigor of minde, yet they want the goods (vsually and vulgarly called) of fortune. And what more mi­serable according to the prouerbe, then [...], a penurious olde man? Especially a King, that is, affixus fastigio, bound to his state, and must euer abounde as a king? VVhat a dishonourable exigent was Ezekias driuen to, when to performe demandes,2. Reg. 18. to the King of Assur, hee was enforced to sende him the treasure of the Kings house, yea the treasure of the Lordes house, and to plucke of the plates of the Temple dores, and couerings of the pillers?2. Reg. 12. The like did Iehoash before to Hazael King of A­ram, Ereptum principi illud in principatu beatissi­mum, quòd nihil cogitur, thus the libertye of a King, one of the fairest gemmes of his crowne, is taken from him.

But graunt them to bee rich also. Yet misse they4 Pl hono [...]s. honour, (which was the only thing that Saul requested of Samuell, to honour him before the people;) and leaue their kingdomes, as some of the Popes are saide their Sees, who were then accompted good, when they did nothing memorable, neither good nor euill. Bonus Benedict [...] [...] Pontifex, nihil memoriâ dignum reliquit: and alike, Nisi podagram habuisse [...] nesciremus, but for the [Page 19] gowte, wee shoulde not knowe that euer hee was Pope. David hath all these togither, Aristotles fe­licitie, cumulated and heaped vp, of all kindes of goods, of bodie, minde, and fortune. Hee dieth olde, and in a good olde age, in the iustest point & pe­riode of age, in his threescore and tenth yeare, nei­ther sooner, nor later, but the verie middle and vm­bilicke of natures prefined time, olde, not ouer olde, vetus not vetus, a right capularis senex, [...], then, and not sooner, ripe for his graue, yet of quicke senses, that hee may truely saie, cum infirmor, fortior sum: besides full of daies, profitable to his Countrey, and seruiceable to Gods Church all his life long, a man after Gods owne heart, and pleasing to his people, (saith the storie) in all that hee did. Hee was full of his nightes to, hee spent not them amisse: Everie night wash I my my bed: I may adde, full of his howres, In the morning, at middaie, and in the evening, wil I praise thee. And, not rich alone, but full of ri­ches, satur, as one that desired no more; Looke vpon his offering towardes the Temple of the Lorde in this verie Chapter, whereof hee witnesseth, de peculio meo, all this haue I giuen of mine owne store: Vers. 3▪ and lastlie, full of honour, so that the name of Da­vid was vsed as patterne to all the good Kings of Iu­dah, that euer succeeded him, hee vvalked in the waies of his Father David. To which you may adde, as not the least part of his honour, that he was solemn­ly buried, neither in a dunghill as some, nor in a com­mon field, as others, nor yet in a privat garden, nor in the sepulchre of his father and familie, but in the [Page 20] citty of Dauid, and in a roiall sepulcher, appointed for the kings of Israel. So far of Dauid. We are now come to the later person, and part of my Text. ‘Et regnauit Salomon filius eius pro eo. [...]. Part.’ 1. Filius eius, his sonne, in bonis eius non luxuriabitur alius, a stranger shal not revell in his kingdome. 2. fili­us eius, his sonne, that is, the sonne of a king. Blessed art thou ô land, when thy Prince is the sonne of nobles. 3. fi­lius Eccles. 10. eius, his sonne, the sonn of a wife, not a concubine, Spuria vitulamina, non dabunt radices altas. 4. Salo­mon Sap. 4. his sonne, not Ammon, his incestuous, nor Abso­lon his treacherous, nor Adoniah his ambitious sonne: Salomō the pacificus, king of Salem prince, of peace; Salomō the wise, able to speake of trees, from the ce­dar in Libanus, to the hysope one the wal, & of beasts, and fowles, and creeping things, and fishes, wiser thē al the children of the east, and the wisemen of Egypt; 1. Reg. 4. Salomon the learned, the speaker of sentences, the di­uine,, the writer of books, the preacher, the mirrour of al earthly princes. 5. No marvaile that of him it is said, regnauit pro eo, he reigned in his stead, not onlie, post eum, after him, to take his predecessors place, so did Manasses for Ezechias, a bramble, for a vine, so Ie­hoaaz, for Iosias, rex magis hoste nocens, so diuers the like Kings, the bad, in place of the good, spottes, for starres, but pro eo, for him, to supply the misse, of their former king, to stand vp in the gap, that the losse bee not seene, that whither Dauid, or Salomō, be king, they finde no difference, al seemeth one to thē, The rule is, Iniquiores sumus erga relictos, amissorum desiderio: and Sublatum ex oculis quaerimus: as hee that digged, and [Page 21] skraped at the graue of Antiochus, being askt what he did, answered Antiochum refodio. I would faine digge vp Antiochus againe, wee saie, the former, euer the better, here is it not so, for Salomon filius pro eo, Salo­mon the sonne, is in his fathers stead.

I haue not spoken vnto you, in the riddle of Samsō, Applicatiō. nor in the parable of the woman of Tekoah. My trum­pet hath not giuen an vncertaine sound. The book of my speech was not claspt, he that ran, might read, & vnderstand, what my meaning was. Mutatis nomini­bus, Israell, is this Isle, Dauid, was Elizabeth, and Salo­mon, is our Soueraigne, that now reigneth.

It agreeth wel with my Text, that as the sonne of Isai, so the daughter of king Henry (therein she excel­led David, shee was the daughter of a puissant king;)1. The dau­ghter of K. Henry. 2 Eliza­beth the daughter. & as David the son of Isai, so Elizabeth the daughter of King Henry, the third, the last, the vnlikeliest, a bro­ther and sister, betweene hir and the Crowne; and as David from the sheep-fold, so Elizabeth from a prison, & frō a state worse then a milke paile in Woodstock­parke.—notwithstanding al this Reigned, & wel wor­thy3, Reigned. to reigne, a queene ouer men, a queene ouer queenes, a queene ouer hir selfe, because a maiden-queene: virtus tua meruit imperium & virtuti addidit forma▪ suffragium; what wanted shee either to body or minde to make hir an absolute queene? and shee reig­ned Over all Israell, ouer all hir dominions at once,4 Over. all. without any difference of Hebron or Ierusalem, an ab­solute Monarke, and Empresse frō the first to the last: therein shee ouergoeth David. And the space that shee reigned, was aboue fortie yeares, therein also5. 40▪ years. [Page 22] shee exceedeth David.

Et mortua est, and she died. And, ô yee my senses, &6. & she di­ed. meditations, dy with hir death, thinke not of it. & thē, the harp of my tongue, be hung vp to the roofe of my mouth, and sound not, hir being in Babylon, lying in a strange land. Silence, admire, & adore hir, whom noe speech can Honour. She died, & so did Dauid, & Sa­lomon, before hir, so hir father, and Grandfather, so al the kings, and kingdomes, monarkes, and monarkies, of the earth; so the Phenix of womanhode, the virgin mother of Christ, so Christ, the sauiour of the world, the virgin sonne, of that virgin mother. But she died as Dauid did.

In senectute, hir old age, the 70^th. yeare of hir life,7. In age. shee wanted but halfe a step, as it were, 5. or sixe mo­nethes to the ful end of hir race. And

In Senectute bona. Therin, she, before Dauid. Clothes8. A good old a ge. could not warme him, and they were driuē to prouide him a nurse, to cherish him. It was not so with hir▪ she died before she was old, hir ey was not dymme, hir na­tural force not abated, which was the blessing of Mo­ses 34. Deut. and of Caleb, 14. Iosua; who being foure­skore and fiue yeares old, was that daie as strong, as9. Ful of daies. when Moses first sent him to view the land. Ful of daies and Jas ful of matter▪ My spirit within mee, compel­eth mee to speake, but where shal J first begin, or how shal J make an end? As those that drawe the whole world into a map, doe it aliquanto detrimento magni­tudinis, nullo dispendio veritatis, so all J can do, for this present, is but to point at hir principal, and princely, nay heroical, and heauenly vertues. Hir Maiestie and [Page 23] presence meete for a Queene, ( [...]) hir wisedome, learning, knowledge of tongues, elo­quence, moderation, elemency, iustice, temperance (I thinke as of anie prince vnder the roofe of heauen) chastity, magnanimity, puissance (more then credible in hir sexe) piety, loue towards hir country, hir God, were they hir true inherent graces, or are they my en­forced glosses & fictions? The very malice of enimies that sought continuallie to contract & abbreuiate hir daies, was àn argument of their fulnes, because shee was melior quàm viuere expediebat, to good for them to endure, through the abundance of hir vertues. All these, J am forced to passe ouer, non ingratus sed op­pressus vincor magnitudine. I am ouerborne, with nū ­ber and greatnesse.

Riches, is the least of al others, though she lent her10. of riches neighbours abroad, borrowed not, and both kept, and left, a magnificent state, yea & supported sta [...]es, holpe to releiue kings, patronized Countries. For which, & for al the rest, hir honour shalbe obscured & darkned,11. And. ho­nor. when sunne, and moone shal haue noe light. Black vapours, and fogges of Egypt, wil rise vp against the sunne, dead flies, wil atteint the swetest ointments of Apothecaries, and dead dogges, haue not spared to revile David himselfe. Some haue sought to dishonor hir, both with lipps, and libells, whose tongues haue beene [...]ed hot at the fire, and their pennes, deep dipt in the brimstone of hel. The Lord rebuke them. But such honour, had this Angel on earth, whilst she liued [Page 24] and now Saint in heauen, that the ey, that faw her, blest hir, and the eare that heard hir, gaue witnesse to hir, and as if Christendome were to [...]kant a bound, for hir glory, Turkes, & Mores renowned hir. To strā ­gers of al sorts, it seemed some part of their earthly happinesse, that they were able to saie, Romam vidi, Theodosium vidi,, vtrum (que) simul vidi: I saw England, J saw Q. Elizabeth, I saw them both together, a glorious Queene, a flourishing kingdome.

Her bodie is in the sepulchre of kings, hir bones in their chamber of rest, hir soule with hir God, hir name in the booke of life, hir crowne in heauen, hir inheri­tance with Saints, hir remembrance on earth, hir glo­ry with hir people, and the sweet perfume, of hir fame and renowne, shal fil the whole house of this land, to daie, and to morrow, and in the daies, of our childrēs children.

Vpon the death of our David, there were that had prophecied of vs, as sometimes they did of the Chri­stians, Ad certum tempus sunt Christiani, posteà peri­bunt & redibunt idola. Protestants shall not long be. The Gospell shall downe, and the Masse vp againe. S^t. Auctin answereth them, Verùm tu cùm expect as mi­ser infidelis, vt tran seant Christiani, transis ipse sine In Psal. 70. Christianis. Thou perishest (wretched dog) the Chri­stians abide will. Inimici Deimentiti sunt ei, thus the [...]1. Psal. haters of God are found liers vnto him. When God and nature had wrought their worke, in closing vp hir eies that was the eie and sparke of Israell, what could God and Grace haue done more, to haue closed vp our [Page 25] wounds whereof we were bleeding, and might haue bled to death, then that Salomon hir Son shoulde reigne Mortuus est & regn. in bir stead?

My text maketh hast to succession, David dieth, & Sa­lomon reigneth, no interregnum, or space betweene: both are embraced in the same periode, only a small point to distinguish them. Ruit super imperatorem imperium. A kingdome cannot stande without a King. The euer waking prouidence of God, ha­sted no lesse for vs, Mortua est, & regnavit: One and the selfe-same morning about the thirde watch of the night, saw the falling of a great Prince in Israell, with­in an howre or two of the sun, saw not the dawning, but the faire rising and appearing of an other. ‘Sol occubuit, nox nulla sequuta est.’ Hir Sonne reigned, No stranger vnto vs, no sonne nor2. Reg, fili­us. daughter of Spaine, nor Sonne from that Sonne of per­dition, no Catholicke King (as they falsly vsurpe the name) but borne in the same continent, descended of the same bloud, knowne by the same language, bred in the same religion. And though not filius vteri (for hir pignora were hir merita, hir vertues hir issue) yet fi­lius regni, the next to inherit the kingdome. I haue heard from an honourable person (whose wisedome and fidelity I rest vpon) though shee were euer tender3. Salomō ▪ filius. and sparing in that point, because solem Orientem om­nes, we are all prone to worship the sun rising, and am­bulant omnes cum adolescente secundo, qui consurgit PRO [...]O, that being asked not many howres before hir death, who should succeed hir, in hir throne, shee an­swered,4. Eccles. No filius terrae: who then? None but a King: [Page 26] what king? VVho but the king of Scots, the right was his, as much as to saie, Salomon filius meus, as when Bethshabe came to David, not long before his end, &1. Reg 2. said vnto him, My Lord o King, the eies of al Israel are vpon thee, vt indices eis, quis sedere debeat in solio tuo; and Nathan seconded hir, My Lord o King, hast thou said, Let Adonias reigne after mee? the king an­swered Bethshabe, Salomon filius tuus regnabit post me: 4. Pro eâ. post me, & pro me. after me, and for me, that J bee not mist. It is true, that through the vse of so many Halcy­on yeares, we were growen to a great daintinesse. Sic imbuti, vt non possemus nisi optimū ferre, so long inv­ [...]ed with an excellent Queene, that none could haue liked vs, but as excellent a King. What shal I then say Mortua est & quasi nō est mortua, quia reliquit similē? plus quam similis hic. preteritis melior, venienti­bus author, a paragon to those that are past, a patterne to al that shal come after.

I could leaue my Text behinde in a number of cir­cumstances.5. For Salomon filius, in my Text, was Salo­mon 1. Chr. 29. puer, Salomon very yonge: Salomonem filium meum elegit deus adhuc puerum & tenellum, and you knowe what that meaneth, Dabo pueros principes eorum 3. Esay, but Salomon filius in my application is Sa­lomon vir, Salomon a man, in the pe [...]fit aequili­brium and stablest state of his age, and both [...] and [...] a man, and a king, of ripest perfection, as hauing sitten so longe at the sterne of a mightie6. kingdome. Salomon filius in my Text, was but filius, a sonne, no other sonne from him, but Salomon filius in my application, is Salomon pater, a father of ma­ny [Page 27] children, of either sexe, whom hee may liue by the will of God, to make princes ouer diuerse nations. Loquutus es Domine Deus de domo servi tui in lon­ginquum. 2. Sam. 7. VVee trust Lorde thou haste spoken of the house of thy seruant, for manie generations to come, ‘Et coept is non deerit fascibus haeres’ that Shiloh shal come againe before the sceptre of our Israell shall depart from one of this line.

Salomon filius in my text, regnavit pro eo, a man for7. a man. Salomon filius in my application pro eâ, a man for a woman. Is that nothing? Though, nec Cen­sum nec sexum eligit Deus, God is not tyed to sexe nor substaunce, and wee shall neuer repent vs that our leader so many yeares was a Deborah, not a Barak, and amongst the daughters of men, I thinke the earth neuer bare a worthier, but hir, that bare the Lord of heauen and earth, yet cateris paribus; [...] Arist. Pol, [...], nature hath more enabled the stronger sexe to vndergoe this burthen.

But the summe and comprehension of all is, that this filius is Salomon filius, Salomon hir Sonne. That8. Salomō. is, Rex pacificus, a verie vinculum pacis, communis terminus, betwixte nation and nation, that hath pulled downe the wall of partition, and is come ouer on this side of Iordan, and planted the Tribes of his Jsraell, his people on both sides the riuer, and ioined not Roses, but Realmes togither, the Au­gustus of this latter vvorlde, that hath broken swords into sithes, & speares into Mattocks, the stiller of wars & extinguisher of rebellions, nec timens bella nec pro­vocans, [Page 28] seeking after peace, not shunning his enimies. Againe, Salomō the wise, a Prince of incōparable wis­dom. As that queene of the South came to the other, so this Queene of the North (hir selfe the wōder of the world) might haue stood & wondred at the wisedome of this Salomō. Hath he neuer spoken sentences, & pa­rables, and reasoned of trees, & beasts, and birdes, like an other Chrysippus, de quâlibet re propositâ, rather a right Salomō indeed? hath he neuer opened his mouth in Parliament, & held the eares of his Nobles, & Cō ­mons, with the cheine of his tongue, not lesse then some howres togither, without intermission, and that with truer & purer eloquence then euer Tertullus did, & delivered not opinions, but oracles, of the most im­portant affaires? Neuer sitten in counsell and overloo­ked his eies? Never beene present, as great Constan­tine, at the conferences of his Bishops, not an hearer, but a iudge & decider of controuersies? Haue we not heard him in this place assoiling arguments, defining states of questiōs, in both your Philosophies, law, phy­sicke, diuinity, not without astonishmēt of your selues the professours? Js there almost a worthier & promp­ter textuary in the world (witnes his dayly & howrely eiaculations) in that booke of the Law, which by the law of the Lord ought neuer depart from the hand of17. Deut▪ a king, & for which he should euer be calling Da ma­gistrum? hath he never written bookes, yea and inter­preted, commented vpon the holy scriptures them­selues? VVhat can I adde O Salomon the learned, the Philosopher, the Diuine, the Writer, the Ecclesiastes, a Salomon in all points.

[Page 29]To omit his theories, with manie experiments & proofes, of his practick wisdome, wherin hee hath a­boūded, since he came into this land; the interpreting of that Caiphas-like prophecy (in the hart of him that wrot) but happy & evāgelicall letters (as the goodnes of God disposed thē) against those bloudy daies of Pur, (it was a [...] indeede, wherein puluis pyrius, had the cheefe part) and out of a blase of paper, collecting a blast of that neuer enough abhorred, abominated powder-treason, I take not to bee lesse, if not much more, then Salomons doome betwixt, the 2. harlots.

Postremò adhuc nemo extitit, cuius virtutes nullo vi­tiorum confinio laederentur. At principi nostro quant [...] Plin 2. of Traian▪ concordia, quantus (que) concentus omniūl audum, omnis (que) gloriae contigit? Of those many vices, wherein Princes take a liberty, and sin by authority, ‘quâ iuvat reges eant,’ for wilt thou say to a king, thou art wicked? Or to Princes, yee are vngodly? The very wormes that growe34. Iob. out of their fulnes & affluence, the mothes that breed in their robes, what one can you reckon, that leaueth an aspersion of scandall vpon his sacred and inteme­rated name? As for his many vertues, on the contrary, meet for a most honorable person & a thrice heroical king, if the tongues of men be silent, the trumpes of God and Angels shal sound thē forth. But, they say, we should praise a king, as we honor God, sentiendo Copi­osiùs quàm loquendo, that is, the best defense I can make of my silēce or shortnes of speech. I will therfore spare your eares, & trust your harts to make my ditch a sea, & out of your conscience & knowledge of his vnvalu­able worthines, each man in his private soule to fill vp [Page 30] the volume of his condigne praises.

For an end of all. Vellem si rerum natura pateretur, Auson. of Gratian. Xenophon Attice in aeuum nostrū venires, tu qui ad Cyri virtutes exequendas votum potiùs, quàm historiam com­modasti, cum diceres non qualis esset sed qualis esse debe­ret. Si nunc in tēpora ista procederes, in nostro Iacobo cerneres quod in Cyro tuo uon vider as, sed optar as. If Xe­nophon were now aliue, to write the storie, hee should see that in King Iames, which he rather wisht, thē saw in his Cyrus. He should see enough, and blessed be the name of God, we see so much, that we are wel contēt­ed to saie, Nihil his bonis accidere posset, nisi vt per­petua sint. Amen, amen faueas beneficijs tuis, be fauo­rable, o Lord! to thyne owne fauours, and adde con­tinuance, and perpetuitie, to thy blessings. Fiat manus tua super virum dextrae tuae, & super filium hominis quem confirmasti tibi. Thy hand be ever vpon the man 80. Psal. of thy right hand, thine anointed, chosen seruant, and vpon the sonne of man, the sonne of ancient kings, whō thou hast made so strong for thy selfe, thy Christ, thy Church, thy Gospel, thy People. Blesse him with all thy blessings of heauen and earth; blesse him at his go­ing out, and his coming in, waking, & sleeping; blesse his house, and the house of his Kingdome; blesse his vine & his oliue branches, his Lands, and his Seas, his warres, and his peace, his bodie, and his soule, his life, & his death; and blessed be thy glorious name, from this time forth, to the worldes end. Amen.