THIS Text presents you with the Herse of Abner; a Prince and a great man fal­len in Israel: This day presents you with a paralell Herse of a Prince, and a great man fallen in England; both of them magnificently attended with the drooping statelines [Page 3] of publike and universall lamentation.

That I may set up some lights about the Herse of Abner, you may please to call to minde:

• 1. His Office.
• 2. His Project.
• 3. His Fall.
• 4. His Funerall.

1. His Office was Captaine of the Host, or stylo no­vo, Lord Generall of the Forces of Israel; it was not so much because he toucht King Saul in bloud, being Cousin-Germane, as in respect of this high com­mand, that he is called, A Prince, and a great man.

2. His Project which he had upon the Anvile now at his death, was the reducement of all Israel unto the Scepter of David; herein his Project concurr'd with Gods; but took rise in him, from an ill or suspicious ground. Ishbosheth doth but question him for familiar usage of a Concubine of Sauls (which if true, was in those times accounted a kinde of Crimen Majestatis) and this heats his bloud, for great Instruments will not beare a checke) and thereupon his Stomack brings him off to David. God useth the sins and great Spirits, or animosities, of great men (though they be not carried by Conscience) to bring to birth his owne purposes and promises made to his Davids.

3. His Fall; which was by the hand of pretended revenge, but reall emulation; the spirit of Caesar and Pompey was in Joab, before it was in them: He could not abide a corrivall or equall. Let great Comman­ders looke to this; Ambition is a Planet that must have a whole Orbe to it selfe, and is impatient of Consort.

4. His Funerall; and that was solemne and hono­urable [Page 4] in Hebron; now the royall City, and former­ly the Sepulchrall of Abraham, Isaac, &c. At which, David was chiefe mourner, for he followed the Bed or Herse, verse 31. and he was the Oratour that made the speech of Lamentation; as he had before done for Saul and Jonathan, 2 Sam. 1. 19.

Now for the Hersebefore you, let us see how farre it paralells with this in the Text.

1. The Prince or great man fallen this day in Eng­land was Captaine Lord Generall of the Host of Eng­land. There is agreement in the Office and Title; the Text could not be proper to any fallen under our Meridian unto this day: but unto this new starre created by the Parliament, and arising in this Hori­zon, about July 1642. and now eclipsed or fallen.

2. His project is written in a copy fairer then the originall, and goes farre beyond that of Abner. The reducement of divided Israel into one hive is some­what alike in both. But here is no effeminate spark that raiseth the spirit of this great man into a flame; no such cause of his engagement, but the defence of those pupill twinnes, the two bleeding sisters ready to dye in each the others bosome, the liberty and pro­perty of the Subjects of England.

3. His fall is cleere of the disaster in Abners story; he falls not by the hand of some unworthy and villa­nous desert or of him, made bold by his vanquish­ment or flight, as Pompey did; nor by the just fury of an oppressed Senate as Caesar did; nor by the arts and stratagems of a treacherous death as Abner did; The hand of Joab is not in all this; but by an Euthanasy (which Augustus wisht for) a faire death. Hee dyed in peace.

[Page 5] 4. His Funerall for the state of it certainly over­matches the patterne. Here are the two Houses of Parliament, the map of all England in two globes, powring out their sorrowes, and paying their kisses of Honourable farewell to his tutelar sword.

The Princes of the Land that quarter with him in in honour and in bloud, doe quarter with his herse this day in blacke and mourning.

The flowre of the renowned City of London (far surpassing the meanness of Abners Hebron) doe traile their teares after his Herse, and are come to put upon him their civicam coronam, their civicall crown of Honour, propter servatos cives for their saved Citi­zens.

The reverend Judges and the Worthies of that gowne, doe present the mourning teares of the lawes that pay this tribute for their freedome from all An­tinomian prerogative.

The honourable souldiery, those great names which while they wore his Orenge in the field, could have daunted death it selfe, doe now in change of colour weepe over him (and what marble weepes not in such change of weather?) David that could take a lion by the beard, yet weepes at the Herse of Abner.

The gowne also hath its ranke with the sword in this great Army of mourners. The Assembly of Divines whose prayers hee somtimes valued and re­quested, neede not be distreined for their contribu­tions of teares & grief, they must wrap up in a cloth, and lay up behind the Ephod this Goliah'-conque­ring sword in memory of a very cordiall and noble Patron.

Lastly, what should I say of those starres that come not into any constellation. I meane persons of quali­ty not within the rankes, yet within the line of this Lamentation, together with that infinite multitude of all sorts, from Cedars to the hysop, that doe not onely come to fill their eyes, but to empty them? I must conclude, to say as the cryer of the Ludi saecu­lares at Rome, (which were but once in a hundred yeares.) Come and see that which ye never saw before, Plin. l. 7. c. 28. nor shall ever see againe.

If yet it be replyed that Abners Funerall hath one point or two of State above us, David a mourner, Da­vid an oratour. I say but this; The teares of David were at this time in great part Compurgators of that suspicion which he might lye under; of having a fin­ger in that wherein Joab had his hand, which kinde of teares we have not, nor could wish to have, though Davids; only in the orator, David, that made the speech wee are exceeded; and I am glad that such a State as this is inferiour and deficient in nothing, but that wherein my poore service lies.

By this unparallelling parallell, you may easily see that my discourse will be divided between two noble Generalls: and first let us come to the Text, wherein David speakes something of the dead, and something to the living.

Of the dead. That a Prince and great man is fal­len this day in Israel.

To the living. Know yee not. It concernes you to Vatablus in Annot. know, or I would have you take notice both of it, & that I am weake this day, though annointed King, and that the sonnes of Zeruiah are too hard for me, so that I cannot execute justice at present upon the [Page 7] bloody hand that hath given us this stroke.

Concerning that which is spoken of the dead, therein you shall finde the reason or spring of the teares of this lamentation. A Prince and a great man fallen, and fallen, this day in Israel. This day in-Israel hath the Emphasis in it. In this nick of time wherein Israel was upon the point of reducement by the agency and usefull contributions of this great man, who seemed to be the onely Pilot that could have put the ship into quiet harbour, or at least a ve­ry great steers-man in the worke. This day is hee fallen, and so Israel, if not more alienated by his fall, yet remaineth in distraction and unsettlement: and this day wherein I cannot give them just reparation, if they should demand it of mee; if any shall deny that there is any accent or emphasis in the word this day in Israel, doe but borrow the reflexion of light from the story, and that will cleare it.

I shall not crumble that I have to say into literall and syllabicall minuts, least I be of their number: qui Gallius. Doct. verborum minutijs rerum frangunt pondera, but will draw up the matter into this theam or head;

The fall of a Prince and a great man in the time of his agency and usefulnesse for the settlement of the di­stractions of Israel, is just reason of a sad and solemne lamentation.

This point I will open by parts, and those words. Know yee not, shall bring up the uses of it, in the rear.

1. The subject of this lamentation is a Prince and a great man.

Prince to our English eares, sounds the first mascu­line branch or surcle shooting from the stem of Ma­jestie. But the Scripture which speakes no Treason, [Page 8] gives this title to Captains in War, and generally to men [...], in headship or power, whether Milita­ry Judg. 4. 2. 2 King. 9. 5. or Senatorian; yea, though a man bee but the fore-man of his ranke.

Great man is a note of some singular eminencie a­bove the ordinary trees of the wood, and is a title gi­ven even to a Nabal that hath 3000. sheep and 1000. 1 Sam. 25. 2. goats, which is the meanest ranke of greatnesse.

But where a great man is added to a Prince, it may well import as much as magnificent, a man of power­ful interest, great valour, honourable atchievements, noble activity in his place. Magnus is an addition or hatchment by which Alexander, Pompey, Carolus, &c. have beene sirnamed, for their great services or ex­ploits. So that a man by his orb or place he is set in, is Princeps: but by his influence and beams of worth, raying from him upon the sublunary Commons, he is Magnus. It is an excellent conjunction, a Prince and great man. According to style of honour with us, a man may be noble by birth, discent, or blood. And though I be none of the new Switzers, that could wish Princes Canton'd into the common level; yet I may put you in mind that Antiquity of Race is but a Moss of time growing upon the back of worth or vertue: And if a man carry not the primigeniall vertue with him, which first made his race noble, he is but a flower by change of soile degenerated into a weed, as having nothing in him but the wax or mat­ter, without the form and stamp of Noblenesse. And you know also that Nobility is often times the crea­ture of a Prince his fancy; which when there is no intrinsecall worth to be the supporter of it, is (as Charren saith) but Nobility by parchment. It's a Cap. d [...] Nobilitate. [Page 9] brave consociation, when the goodnesse and activity that makes you great, is as high as the place which makes you Princes: for if that crazy fancy take a man which possest some great ones; they would be called Gods, and personate an ostentation of greatnesse a­bove men; it may bewray pride & madnesse; but can never so far deceive the sense of underlings, but that they will say as the Cobler did to Caligula, in that state and humour, that hee was [...] a great Dotard. It is the acting of your power and place, which makes you great. I cannot teach you to be princes, Fortuitum est; but I can tell you how to be great men: not great in the glasse which Parasiti­call flattery holds before you, but indeed; and that is thus: Fill the sphere of your activity, the Church and State, the Towne or Countrey, with the power­full and benigne influences that flow from intrinse­call worth: make the times the better for you: Con­straine by your example your inferiours to know God, and reform their Families. Let not Profanesse hide it selfe under the wing of your patronage, nor lessen it self by the greatnesse of your examples. Im­partial & speedy Justice, with sweet refreshing Mer­cy, will make you great men in the Commonwealth; Zeal and Syncerity for God and his House, will make you great men in the Church. He that will be a great man, must draw his lines to the center of publike good: private ends never make a great man.

2. The subject of this Lamentation is, one Prince, one great man. Yee are called (as some interpret the word,) the Corners of the people; the Shields, the Gods, the Saviours, the Shepheards of the people, the Mini­sters of God for Good, Benefactors, &c. Now the fall of one great Tree makes a great gappe in the hedge; [Page 10] the Eclipse of one of the greater ruling Luminaries benights the world. Our Lives, Liberties, &c. are all bound up in you: we poor men steal into our Graves, with no greater noyse than can be made by a branch of Rosemary, or a blacke Riband: No body takes notice of the Gloeworme, that goes out in the hedge bottome: No Comet or Prodigie, or Earth-quake tolls us the knell of our departure; but one of you is carried forth by the teares of all ISRAEL, provided that you be what your Names import, publick men, common Sanctuaries of the oppressed, Cities of Refuge, Altars of protection; for otherwise you may be such as that your death would be more worth then your lives, and then, though you may be able to put men into black, you cannot put them into mourning: your death cannot be worth a teare, when your lives are not worth a prayer.

3. The subject of this Lamentation is, a Prince & A great man fallen. Death is a fall from every thing but grace: some do fall from a higher Scaffold; great men fall divers stories, from Honour, Riches, Offi­ces; others from the surface of a level ground, having nothing to fall from but naked life. Saints dye, the gods doe fall: I need not stand to prove it, there is not one of you great men, but shall be the proofe of this point shortly. The Law of Death runs thus: All Honours, Titles, &c. to the contrary, in any wise notwithstanding: & there is no Prerogative to check this Law. I will not garnish this Deaths-head with fine fragments of Poetry, and such stuffe: nor would I at all set it before you as a standing dish, were I not surrounded with so great a Corone of Princes and great men: and haply some of you may be of Lewis [Page 11] the Eleventh his minde, that charged all about him that they should not name the terrible word Death; which yet you must heare of; for it is the way of all the earth; the house of all the living; your long home, or house of perpetuity: of which its said, Job 3. 14. 1 King. 2. 2. Job 30. 2 [...] Luciannecy. Kings, Counsellours, Princes, small and great, are there; and there [...]: their bones and skeletons have no Inscription or Titles of Honour remaining on them.

The way to this house of all the living, is (as one saith) sanguinea, or lactea; the bloudy or the milkie; that is, the common, naturall, or usuall way.

The former is troden by great men: the Prince in my Text was sent home this way; and so was the first man in the world that dyed. The Sword hangs in a hair over the heads of great ones, who are often cut Adrian the fourth Acts and Monum. off by the hand of emulation and animosity. That slaughter-house of Rome (where it hath been practi­sed by the Popes themselves, who (as one of them said) do rather succeed Romulus, making his way by blood, then Peter) hath sent out cruell Emissaries to cut off famous men by a meritorious knife. How hap­pily may you the Worthies of our Israel call to mind the goodness of that great God, who hath bound the hands of such assassinating blood-suckers from exe­cuting their fury upon you, all this while, that you by renowned industry and zeale, have given provo­cations to Rome and Hell.

The Common way is troden by you great ones too: for ye Gods do die, and ye Princes shall fall like other men. If you run your Genealogies high enough, you will finde your selves but as other men, in the fretum or narrow sea of Mankinde that [Page 12] divided the two Ocean worlds, the Arke of Noah: and thence if ye hold your way upward, you will be found the sons of Adamah, common dust: And you that are the highest dust, raised up a puff of winde of Honour above other men, are laid, like the small dust, with one drop of rain. There is a great Arbi­ter of all things, that can thunder the proud Empe­rour under his bed, and write the great King at three or foure words into trembling: That can send Adrian the fourth Acts and Monum. a Fly to fetch the Triple Crown before his Tribu­nal, and make a hair, or the kernel of a Raisin, as mortall as Goliah his spear: That can unspeake the whole world into nothing, and blowe down a great bubble with an easie breath: That by drawing one nail, can throw down the stateliest building, and undresse your souls by unpinning one pin. If he take the Bridle off the head of that fire that's in you, it presently burns you up, by a Fever. If he loose the water, it drownes you, by a Dropsie. If he lay his hand upon your mouth, he takes away the airy difference betweene sleep and death. He saith to Moses, Go up and die: and it follows after, Moses my servant is dead. Every man hath a day which is called His day: and death never makes re­turne, 1 Sam. 28. 10. Non est inventus in baliva nostra.

4. The subject of this Lamentation is a Prince and a great man fallen in the time of his agency & useful­nesse for the settlement of the destractions of Israel. The key of the story unlocks the sense of these words This day in Israel. It was a time that the promise of God to David was at the birth, and the Midwivery of Abner was offered. Let Abner otherwise be what he will for a man; God may use an Egyptian midwife to bring forth the child of an Israelite. But this great man [Page 13] falls in the very nicke of time, before the good issue of his designes. Let me point out this Observation to you:

Its not unusuall, that great builders catch a fall when they are upon the scaffold aboute their worke.

Oh how it amazeth the faith of Gods people, when the star that led them out of their own Coun­trey, goes out of sight before it have brought them to their journeys end. That youngling world of Reformation in Luthers time, had a sore temp­tation, when it must see the fall (as I may say) of the Electour of Saxony and others that were pillars of hope. Moses must live no longer then to bring Israel into the plains of Moab: himselfe is allowed but a prospect of that he hoped to have enjoyed, and to have brought Israel into We are not with­out presidents: our eyes have seen some of our grea­ter lights eclipsed, pleno orbe, when they have been at their Full. The great God that hides his Coun­sels, knows his Works from the begining to the end, and he takes off such Instruments that he may shew that he doth not need, is not tied to any tool: for he made the great world without any. When he saith Faciamus, he speaks to himselfe alone; not to him­selfe and man. Thus he makes way for some other Providence to come upon the Stage, and brings a­bout his Worke by a more crooked Instrument, which wee imagined should be done by a strait one. So Israel is speedily reduced to David, though Abner fall. Or he humbles his people just before his pro­mises take effect; and first strikes them dumb before he open their mouthes in a Benedicite; that the low­linesse of his handmaidens may break forth into a [Page 14] Magnificat: or the time is not yet come that Israel is to be brought out of Egypt: and therefore though Moses begin to rescue the Israelite, and slay the Egyptian, yet he must flee for it, and be hidden for Fourty years. Or else he pulls the stool of our con­fidence from under us, because we sit down upon it: or else pulls up the sluce of some judgements which have been hindr'd by some Lot or great man, or whatsoever it be. We see that God writes the Names of our best and greatest men in the shell, and takes them away by a kind of Ostracisme. All the help, hope, and comfort is, that God hath all instruments eminently in himselfe, and can raise up a Ioshua in steed of Moses. Wherefore if his Disciples cannot cast out the evill Spirit, let us come to himselfe, and make our selves as sure of his Word by faith, as he is sure of his word by promise; for though Ioseph die in Egypt, yet he layes his bones at stake, that God will surely visit his Israel, Gen. vlt. ver. 25.

5. All this that hath been said, a Prince, a great man fallen at such a time, is just reason of sad and so­lemne lamentation; and therefore David and Israel is in this mourning posture: such a man whose in­fluence had a large circumference or sphaere while he lived, is followed by an honour and sorrow of the same compasse when he dyes: You Princes and great men, death will tell what the world thought of you; while you live (it may be) Sycophants & flat­terers lay their egges in your eares, and hatch mon­strous opinions in you of your greatnesse. Such Rooks usually build in the highest Trees; and on the other side, envy & detraction may breath upon the glasse of your reputation, that it shall not (while you [Page 15] live) report so cleare an Image of you, but death wil make thorow-lights in you; that you shall be seen on both sides; sorrows will not, cannot be tongue-tyed; you will then begin to reape your due. Then the world breaks out into these expressions; Hee was a brave man, He was a great Courtier, that could not be curbed with a white staffe, to bee of counsell to subvert the freedomes of his Countrey; He was a Captain that could draw a line, but not to the igno­ble center of his private ends; He was a Justice that would scatter the drunkards from their Ale-bench, and did not understand the language of a bottle or a basket; He was a Nehemiah, whose kindnesses were great which he shewed to the house of God, and the Offices thereof; He was a Minister that could not on­ly thunder in his Doctrine, but lighten in his Life; He was a Papinian (a great Lawyer) but hee would not defend Imperiall and arbitrary exorbitances, though he dyed for it; He was a man that appeared & stood for the truth, and for God in the worst times, when the Summer birds were hidden in their hollow Trees; He was a man firm and fixed, and studied not the neutral art of putting off the cap to one, and ma­king a leg to another. And is not this a brave Eccho, are not such men worthy of the Honourable tears of Israel? or else Israel hath reasō to mourn for the sense­lesnesse and stupidity of their own hearts. And for the State and honour of mourning, it is an ancient solemnity credited by time, and great examples, yea, and almost the common sense of mankind. For both Egyptians and Israelites concurre in weeping for Ja­cob, whose Exequies were performed in great Equi­page when he was cared out of Egypt; and not to in­stance [Page 16] in more examples, its said of Hezekiah, that all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, did him ho­nour 2 Chron. 32, 33. at his death, and laid him up in the highest Cell of the Sepulchers of Davids sons, such is the con­victive Majesty of goodness, that this idolatrous-hearted people follow their great Reformer to his grave with honour. De purgat. lib. 1. c. 3.

In vaine doth Bellarmine goe about to prove out of these solemnities, that they are done ad juvandas animas. Wee find no Law of sacrifices for the dead, these expressions are but civill indexes of honoura­ble sorrowes, a debt owing to Worthies while they liv'd, and the remainder paid at their death: Like the after-beames of the Sun, which follow him to his bed; and we were unworthy heires of their famous acts, if out of their owne goods we could not allow them answerable interrment; and if any Cynicke in his morosity shall say, that it matters not, humine an in sublimi putrescat, Let him enjoy a Philosophicall rotting in what ditch he please; we know, there is the buriall of an Asse; the graves of the common people, which is something above that 2 Chron. 21. 20. and higher yet, there is a buriall in the City of Da­vid, but not in the Sepulchers of the Kings, and a­mongst the Sepulchers of the Kings, There are low­er and higher Cells. Honour will follow after worth and merit even into its grave. We doe not lay up the carkasse of every Cole-ship with that respect as that of Drakes was; though confessedly the one must rot, as well as the other.

So much for the opening of the point; Now I come to the words, Doe you not know, by their hand to serve in the uses of this point.

• [Page 17]1. Know ye not, You Princes and great men that ye must fall.
• 2. Know ye not, You lower Shrubs, that these Ce­dars must fall.

For you that are Princes and great men, I may say of you as X [...]rxes weeping, said of his vast Army, with­in these few lusters of yeares, there shall not be one of you standing, but all fallen, and let me set this deaths-head before you: For I have no other dish, nor am I likely ever to entertaine such a Table-full of so great guests while I live againe; let it therefore,

First, Humble you, and give me leave to follow the chariot of your greatnesse, with [...], re­member that you must fall. Greatnesse hath need of some correctives. You are such Pictures, that if one stand of the one side of you, You are Gods; but if he looke upon you on the other side, You are men, and must dye like men: this takes you one step lower; nay, we may goe lower yet; For man being in honour without understanding, is like the beasts that perish. We are all proud; pride is the shirt of the soule, which it puts off last when it shifts: And every rising ground of authority or power, makes us rise in thoughts. The very bramble, if it get a snatch of au­thority, will be talking of his shadow. Oh that you had the meeknes of that Moses, whose face did shine, but he knew not that (I speake this by allusion) the skin of his face did shine. I would that but every tenth thought of your rising, was accompanied with one thought of your falling: And yet you have more reason to have death in your eyes then other men, be­cause the Venice Glasses, and China mettall of your fine and tender bodies, will not abide so great a stroak as other earthen pots of courser mettall; I will not [Page 18] offer to you those complements with death, whereof we read good store, in use among great men; as the boy that cry'd, Memento te mortalem; or that, of pre­senting severall sorts of Marble to the Emperor upon his Coronation day, that he might then chuse which he would have for his Tombe, &c. But let me presse the sense of your falling condition to humble you. I doe not meane by humilitie a morall familiarity or courtesie toward those of lower ranke, which yet is agracefull condescency of Greatnesse: But I meane, a stooping to the reproofes of the Word of God, brought unto you by the Ministers thereof, who are but earthen vessels like your selves: Submit your cheek to reproofs, for your owne fins, and of your Fa­milies. Let not your iniquities take sanctuary in your greatnesse; Frowne not your Chaplaines into a meal-mouth'd basenesse, so that they dare no more make a darke or oblique reflection upon your darling sins, then take a Beare by the tooth. If you will bleed out your ill bloud, you must pull off your Velvet sleeve, and let the [...]me be bare to the point of the knife: Keep no State against God, though he speake thunder and lightning by the mouth of dust like your selves. A man never makes worse use of his greatnesse, then by it to cast a muzzle over the mouth of sound and searching reproofes. And it is a just judgment of God upon such men, that they should have Prophets, that will say to Ahab, Goe up and prosper.

Secondly, Quicken you to activity in your places while you live, that you may serve your generation according to the will of God before you dye, and see corruption; otherwise, you are but blind lights in gol­den Candlesticks: You are in great debt, both to the Church and Common-wealth, they have trusted you [Page 19] with all they have, and your bond is good; but yet be not offended, if they call hard upon you to pay your debts, for you are mortall men, and we know not what Heires or Executors you may leave behind you. The Creditor is oftentimes broken in the Debtors death; Get death into your minds, and it will put life into your actions; what you found made of poore Bricke, leave in stately Marble, and be not like many, who while they are rising, appeare very active and stirring men; but when they are up, doe freeze into a benum­med slownesse, like Bels that strike thicke when they are rising, and afterwards when they are at full pitch, are set; put your selves on with this spurre, I must shortly dye: How should I live fruitfully? The night will come, how should I labour while it is day? I wish well to things that are good: but (Bene [...]ogitare est bene somniare) a good thinker is but a good dreamer; no­thing more sads and duls the heart when one comes to dye, than his neglect of such opportunities which Gods providence, or his owne place have p [...]t into his hand of receiving & doing good. Not is there a shar­per corrosive, than the reflection upon those dayes and times that have passed over him, Male, aliud, nihil, agentem. The highest hils are the barrennest ground, and I would that saying did not so truly square to great Ones (that is) that the goodliest Trees, as Ce­dars, &c. doe either beare none, or the worst Fruit. Great parts and abilities without exercise and put­ting forth are but secret and unknowne Mines of Sil­ver and Gold, which lye hid in an unfruitfull and un­profitable soyle. And therfore, you the great and No­ble Worthies, in whose hands are the Publike Faith, the Publike Mercy, the Publike Justice, and the Pub­like Peace; be good, and (let your goodnes make you) [Page 20] quicke dispensers of what you have in Stewardship, because the time is short, and the word redde rationem may be given suddenly, look upon us as mortall men, who shall not live long to receive, and upon your selves, who shall not live long to give the fruits of your hands. And because the Occasion invites me, let me propound an object to your charitable justice, that is, the relief of those great sufferers who have bin great doers, I meane the first adventurers with this great Commander, when he first cut through the Alps. As for the great and doubtfull matters that are under your hand, I would not be thought so rash, as to wish you to precipitate: A Pilot among shelves and rocks may be too quick; A Cunctator sometime saved the Common-wealth; only thus I may pray, that when the Haven lyes faire before you, and is without barre, you may fortiter occupare, set in stifly, lest new waves, raised by crosse winds, carry you backe into the Main againe.

3. Arme you against your fall that the day therof may be to you (as the Passion-day of the Martyrs was called) the birth-day of Eternity. Nequaquam morte mortemini, was the inlet of our sin and misery, & keeps the doore open to sin still; The Epicure hath his Ar­mour against death: a senselesse consideration of it, as of a nothing, or a not being. The great Spirit hath his Armour too; A contempt of death out of principles of Valour and Honour; but neither of these Armours can keep the arrow from the quicke; There is a terri­ble clause in the Statute of dying, And after that the judgement. Nor yet will I goe about to arme you with this meditation, that we shall have a shorter journey from death to life again, than we had from not being, unto life, or that which is cited by Gerard out of Lu­ther, [Page 21] that all the time that hath run, or shall run out from the beginning, to the end, shall seeme to Adam when he riseth againe, but tanquam somnus unius horae, as the sleep of the body for one houre; But if you will breake the fall, which else will breake you, then you Gods must become Saints (for all Gods are not Saints) the death of Saints is more precious then the death of Gods; Grace is speciall baile against death, there is no gall and vinegar in it to be drunk by them, for whom Christ hath already drunke it: Death (saith the Apo­stle) is yours, because contributory and subservient to your happines; That life which is hid with Christ in God, is out of the reach of death, our Saviour proves Abraham to be living, because God had long after his death, said, I am the God of Abraham. Those that are confederate with God in Covenant, must always live, that the Covenant may not be dissolved by the death of the one party. There is a way then to break the teeth of death, and to be immortall: Have God for your God; labour to have something in you that is immor­tall besides your very souls; lay up for your selves a treasure beyond the sea of death, that when this mem­brana dignitatis (as Seneca cals it) a thin skin of honour breaks, you may not be quite bankrupts; enrich your souls with the power of godlines, which is profitable to all things. The place of Princes, the magnificence and great works of great men; The faith and godlines of poore men doe make a rare composition. Do not in stead of disarming death, arme it rather against you, by putting a sword into the hand of it. The more ser­vice that you may doe by the advantage of ground you stand upon, the heavyer will your accounts be, if your greatnes be made a Stage and Theater for to act the parts of luxury, lasciviousnes, oppression upon. What [Page 22] difference is there between such gods, and those in Ho­mer, of whose drunkennesse and adulteries there is frequent mention; let me speake one word to you, young Noblemen, and Gentlemen, Learne you the way of godlinesse, that may free you from the loose­nesse and vanitie incident to greatnesse; for when you have given florem Diabolo, the floure of your time to lusts of youth; your fall may come before you can so much as give faecem Deo, the dregs thereof to God.

I conclude this point with that which one observes upon Gods seeing all the works that he had made, that they were very good, for then immediately (saith he) followed the Sabbath, or rest of God, which (though our salvation be not of workes) may signifie thus much to you, that when you shall come to a retrospect upon your wayes and works, and find them so empty of, and contrary unto God, there can be no expecta­tion of a Sabbath or rest unto your soules; and there­fore, wash ye, make ye cleane, &c. Isa. 1. 16, 17.

The second, Know ye not, is spoken to you, the lower shrubs. You are to know that your great men may fall in the very time of their usefulnesse and service for your good. In their losse, bewaile your sins: for though you feele not the stroke while the wound is fresh and green, yet afterwards you will find the want of such as are worthy instruments, when wee expect they should doe great things; God by taking them a­way, interrupts the cast. Put not therefore your trust in Princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no salvation; for his breath goeth forth, and in that very day his thoughts perish, Ps. 146. 3, 4. even his projects and intentions for your good, dye in the wombe, and are abortive. If we leane hard upon the reed, it breaks the sooner, and wee are laid flat on the ground. [Page 23] God will not let his people enjoy that long, which they prize too much, some worme shall smite that gourd, and it shall wither; and though many great men are not likely to be blasted by the confidence of the people, yet our sad experience teacheth us, that we smell too much to our sweetest flowers, and so wi­ther them.

I Shall now come to the paralell Herse of that Prince and great man fallen this day in England, of whom, though modestie it selfe may without blushing speak in a magnificent stile, yet have my thoughts waved me too and fro, it not being easie to be moderatour of the Arguments that are for speech, or silence: Not be­cause the matter will surpasse the work-manship, and the copiousnesse of the subject shame, the penury of my expression; but because on the one hand it is argued, that Funerall Encomiastickes of the dead, are very often confections of poyson to the living; for many, whose lives speake nothing for them, will draw the example into consequence, and be thereby led in­to hope, that they may presse a hackny Funerall Ser­mon to carry them to Heaven when they dye; especi­ally, if such for whom no file could be rough enough while they lived, be smooth-filed when they are dead: on the other hand it may be said, That though cōmon graves have no inscription, yet Marble Tombes are not without some Epitaph. Heroicall examples should not go with a common passe, but with a Trom­pet. David afforded this Honorary to Saul and Abner, and (which is to be observed) he drew not any line in their pictures with a black coale, which yet he might have done, for both of them had too much shadow if he would have used it; but he dealt with them as the Painter did with Antigonus, who had but one eye, he [Page 24] drew his Picture, imagine lusca halfe-faced, and so bu­ried the deformitie out of the beholders sight.

Neither is this all, which makes me stand in a slip­pery place, but the various senses and censures too, which are very likely to be found in this great multi­tude: Some that hated the sound of his Drums and Trumpets, will not patiently endure the Ecchore-sounding to their dis-affected eares. And some againe are indifferently content to heare some good words of his Epitaph, because it begins with Hîc jacet, here he lyes; as Caracalla said to them that desired, that some honours might be spent upon his Brother Geta, now dead out of his way: Sit divus (saith he) modo non sit vivus, honour him as you will, so as he doth not live. The most voyces will doubtlesse vote, that it is need­lesse to set up a Candle to the Sunne, for his story is yet alive in all mens memories, and the stage where­on he acted it, is yet warme. The truth is, I had rather leave him to the history, which I hope the honourable Houses have bespoken, and to that Homer that shall be the praco of this Achilles. But because his name would sometime have passed me clear through all Guards, and probably hath not as yet lost that vertue; and that this State and presence speakes him with more eloquence, then I, so that I can but run the hazard of being an imperfect interpreter by word, of that ho­nour, which your selves doe speake by signes. And since death hath put him beyond pride, all beyond en­vy, and my selfe beyond flattery, what if wee make a short Index of his Story, and audit his d [...]bentur in the mean time, not drawing him in full proportion, but as Ezekiel pourtrayed the Citie of Ierusalem upon a Tile, which wil indeed be more suitable to the posture we are in; for deepe sorrowes make no long orations, Leves loquuntur curae, ingentes stupent.

Since then it must be so, jacta est alea; I shall im­pose upon my self this law, not to build his Monument of common stones, nor trouble my self and you, to ga­ther such flowers to cast upon his grave, as grow in common fields, nor descend or stoope to any thing which is beneath Heroicall.

His Nobilitie and his Noblenesse, though they might each of them adorne his Monument, yet the third, which is his Excellency, is the transcendent.

For his Nobilitie; He was sprung of an exceeding faire, an ancient Stem, which doth branch forth into the great and Noble Families of the Princes and great men of England, and he was the third of this Ti­tle which was inoculate into that Stem, by Q. Eliza­beth of famous memory, But Titles of Honour must dye as well as men; and because this renowned streame carries it's name no further, I shall omit all matter of Heraldry, as not becomming me at this time and place.

His Noblenesse was of a high and honourable eleva­tion; He was a man of fixed principles, and of a mas­culine resolution, of an inviting familiarity in a state­ly presence; too generous to be cruell, too great a Pa­triot to be Courted; his compasse without trepida­tion or variation, had constantly stood right to that Pole; the good of his Country, which he kept in his eye, both when he wore the Gowne, and Sword: He was fidè Romana & Anti-Romana, of Roman faithful­nesse, and of Anti-Roman faith: A Senatour that ho­noured his Robes. The teares of England, of his ser­vants, of his tenants, do speake him in a better langu­age then the most eloquent Marble is able: Though tenants teares be no commendation to a living land­lord, yet are they credit to the dead.

The Character of his Excellency, may be that which David sometime gave to Abner, the great man in my Text; Art not thou a valiant man, and who is like thee in all Israel? When the time was come that Ianus Temple must be open'd here in England, by the Por­ter that onely hath the key of it, Necessitie, and those orphane sisters (before spoken of) Libertie and Pro­pertie were to chuse their Guardian, Champion and Vindex; you the Honourable Trustees, looked out for a Dictator, in whose hands you might deposite, the ve­ry being, safety, freedom, lives, Senatus populique Roma­ni, of the Parliament and people of England, and hap­pily pitcht your eye and choyce upon this man, who was stirpe & ingenio bellicosus, One that had honour to give credit to the Cause he undertooke, reputation to vindicate his undertaking from contempt of ene­mies; Interest, whose Drum could presse an Army; dexteritie to manage the Sword, Counsell to direct it, Valour to use it, & faithfulnesse to discharge it. And he was the man you then resolv'd to live and dye with. It was the greatest honour in the world, to be credited with the infinite depositum of the life and being of the Parliament of England. And at this time, when you had assigned this Theater to act his part upon, it was the highest honour to him, that he would undertake to Pilot a Ship so laden with so great a fraught, through the tempestuous and angry Seas which then began to swell and be intractable, when this poore Kingdome, knew not for the most part, how to weare Buffe and Steele, untill taught by him; in whom that ancient Chivalry and Valour of England (which had left it's Monuments in France and other parts of the world, but of later times almost emasculate and grown obsolet) was concenter'd, and by transmigration had layd [Page 27] it selfe up in him: He was the man that was to breake the yce, and set his first footing in the Red Sea; a Her­cules, but not in bivio; a man resolved, when others hung in suspence; fixt, when some starres of greatest magnitude were moved with trepidation, or erratick. That filled the breach, when many lay post principa, & behind the hedge. No Proclamation of Treason could cry him down, nor threatning Standard daunt him: That in that misty morning, when men knew not each the other, whether friend or foe, by his arising dis­pel'd the fogge, and by his very name, commanded thousands into your service. Such as were for Refor­mation, and groaned under pressures in Religion, he tooke by the hand, and they him: Such as were Patri­ots, and would stand up for common Liberties, he tooke by the hand, and they him, and so became the bond or knot of both, as the Axletree of the world upon which both the Poles doe move: And this must be his honour alone for ever; for though Ioshua also doe admirably when he comes to it, yet it is Moses that first leads forth Israel by their Armies.

Thus he enter'd, and for his deportment upon the Stage, and the experience he gave of himselfe, who knowes not it? Such was his personall valour, as if no­thing but steele had gone to his composition. The in­stances are famous; In that great battell at Edge-hill, where this Kingdome had her first Crisis upon a Sab­bath day, (our wars have now fulfilled above halfe a weeke of yeares) when he had lost a wing yet he flew a­bout, Et nullo discrimine, notum, dux an miles erat; He shewed his Army there what a man they had adven­tured with, in their first Voyage; No, I prae sequar, Captaine, but one whose Valour gave the word sequi­mini me, with whose steele (its no disparagement to [Page 28] say, that) his for ever famous Chieftaines sharpned their edge, and so that hill was made a standing Tro­phee, your enemies (Right Honourable) from that day begun to take you for a Parliament.

I must leave to the large Map of his Story, those many memorables & victories, which bear his name; for even great places doe not always find any room in a little Map, and shall instance him but in one other particular, that famous expedition to Gloucester, when we were at a very low water, and this Eagle had then also moulted his feathers, and having imped them with renowned Londoners, did fight the greatest part of that long march thither, where the then Governour whom I may (borrowing Cicero his word) call hujus Regni Stator, the Stator of the Kingdome of England, (because he tooke the enemy his horse by the bridle in his full career, and stopt him, and being resolved to sell that City to them by the candle) was rescued be­fore the candle dropt, by this noble Champion, who retreating from that Tropick, fought his way backe againe through hunger and hardship: and because this Retreat should not be like an empty field without some charge, He scattered that great Army near New­bery, and to you this renowned City, reddidit Legiones, restored your valiant Legions, and restored England to it selfe; An unparalell'd Expedition.

His Faithfulnes was like Touch or Marble without any streaming flaw, no Honours, Offices, or whatso­ever beares the name of greatnesse could bribe it. The two Indies would have bin as dirt: He knew the Pole he must saile by, and steered not by a mercenary Com­passe. He had espoused the Senate and Liberties of England, and was resolved, aut liberare fidem, aut sol­vere animam.

His ends, so far as one may learne the marke by the Archers eye, were not private interests, respects, or parties, to be served upon the ashes of publike ruins. Talk of gold to souldiers of fortune, He was Themi­stocles. A right line drawne from the Center you set him, would have cut the center of his aimes and ends. Had you falne upon such a Merchant as would have been eccentricke to you, and have cauponated the war to raise his private interest, or have put in the great fraught he was trusted with, and consigned the Carga­zone, to some Royall Port, oh, what a Ferall Table of Proscriptions, (like that of Syllae's) might have bin set up amongst us; and your lives have bin bargain'd for, and sold as that Triumvirate did the lives of the Se­natours of Rome.

His Counsell and wisedome was such as argued him to be a man that knew conduct; He had a fine finger to find out, and skilfull to untie or cut the knot, In fore­sight of danger his eyes were open; but when he came to execute his Councels, his eyes were shut against all impressions of feare and terrour.

His love and respect to the Souldiery, such as became a brave Christian. He would not Turkishly fill ditch­es, or stop Canon with them. His hand of reliefe was not shut or short to rescued prisoners. He affourded honourable respect to naked and wounded valour. His countenance paid and arm'd his souldiers, when sometimes they wanted both: and no wonder if his Schoole bred such a gallant Infantry which had such a Master, and such an Usher.

In summe. This Camillus was a second Romulus. His Monument needs no inscription, for his Epitaph is written in the hearts of men. Nothing but ESSEX, the Great, the Valiant, the Faithfull, the Parliaments [Page 30] Essex; the Essex of England, and the Tutelar thereof: who added to his Noble Coronet all the Militarie Crownes, saving that which is called Navall, or the Sea-Crowne, which is due to another most Noble Worthy, more faithfull than the Element he was then the Master of.

For his death, the Forlorne hope it sent out before it, was but sleightly, the Physicians thought him bailable, but death lay in ambuscado in a full body, & suddenly surprized him with a dying sleep, and now we are erecting of his Monument, one of the seven wonders of the World was a Tombe. And if the No­ble and Famous men who fought under his Banner, shall please to be set in for his supporters, it will be such a Squadron-Monument as will have no Brother in England, untill the time doe come (and I wish it may be long first) that the most renowned and excel­lent Champion that now governes the sword of Eng­land, must now lay his bones by him, and then there will be the Alpha and Omega of such a Story as shall render God fearfull in prayses, doing wonders by the first hand of him that led us through the untrodden paths of the wildernesse, and by the second hand of him that hath made Victory (which Homer calls [...], a Jack on both sides) to change its name; who if he shall have but one stone out of each City or strong Hold taken by his Armes, to make his Tombe, it will be such a Monument that every stone of it will speak a History, and some a Miracle: Or if that cannot be, it will be enough that he lay his head upon an immor­tall Turff taken out of Naseby field: God thought Moses, or rather made him the fittest man to begin, & lead Israel forth, and he honored Ioshua with the com­pleating of the worke, neither doth Ioshua eclipse the [Page 31] worth of Moses, nor he the worth of Ioshua; and so cra­ving pardon of my boldnesse with your patience, I have endeavoured to speak wthout reflections upon any, nor did I mean to tread on the foot or toe of any man, there­by to raise my speech the higher, as knowing that this Prince and great man needed not to pull downe the stones of any other mans Monument to build his, who had enow in his owne Quarry, as being (nex [...] [...]e Honou­rable Parliament) that first man from whom we passe to our posterity the conveyancies of our liberty and safe­ty. Et nati natorum, & qui nascentur ab illis. I have no more but this; He lived a good Generall, He dyed a Generall good; and therefore a lamentation to all Israel, and so I leave him in his Bed of Honour, and draw the Curtains, and put out the lights.

Only a word at parting, and first my Lords to you, we may know how great the Tree that's fallen, was, by the vacuity or void place it leaves behind it. We look upon you as them that will endeavour to prevent the vacuum by acting from that noble principle which moves to the universall and common good; the losse we have sustained is great, though he never had wore Buff but only Par­liament Robes, and they say that when a limbe or part of a man is cut off, anima retrahitur, the soule is retracted. I wish the Philosophy may be verefied in the retraction of his reality and faithfulnesse unto you; that so he may remaine among you in quintessence and vertue, being as it were divided among you, as they say of Romulus, that he was discerpt by the Senate, when he dyed, and every Senatour got a piece of him. Let nothing that was ex­emplary in him be put in his grave, that neither we nor our posterity may have cause to write upon his Statue, as they did upon that of Brutus, utinam viveres.

As for his Military worth; If any shall apply them­selves [Page 32] to copy it out, or some young Noble Spark shall please to goe to Schoole to his Monument, their lesson is, Disce Miles militare, Galba est. Here they shal be taught how to excell, fide & armis, How to have mettell in their Coat, as well as Colour; How to carry themselves so, as they may legere exercitum, non emere, win an Army and not presse, silence mutinies, or perswade the souldiery with one [...]ord Quirites, and in a word how to be an Es­sex, not a Caesar, who converted his Arms against the Se­nate, and therefore hath a blot in his Copy to this day.

I must conclude with you the most Honourable Se­nate of England; It would be too much presumption in me to thanke you for this Honour of your presence and sorrowes; Its a great thing to be made immortall by an immortall Parliament: All the Honour which belongs to your servants and instruments, redounds to you; what they get or receive is but handed by them to you the owners; should we write downe but fifty to them, when there is a hundred due, the losse would be yours. It was a stately deportment to entertaine the newe [...] of this great Champion and Senatour his death, as the old Romans used to entertaine sad tydings, mutatis vestibus, and to ho­nour your sorrow with an adjournment: This is the way to breed more Essex's: Its Honour that breeds a souldier; Take honour out of his eye, and you cut off the spurres from his heeles. My wishes are, first, that you may never have occasion to create any moe then you have done by the name of Excellency: secondly, that if you must, there may be such men, with whom in safety you may lay up your lives, and thirdly, that you may have the happines to pitch upon them. Amen.