TO THE HONOURABLE EDWARD MOUNTAGUE, ESQUIRE, SON AND HEIR TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDWARD LORD MOUNTAGUE OF BOUGHTON. It is a strange casualty which an historian * reporteth of five earls of Pembroke successively, (of the family of Hastings,) that the father of them never saw his son,-as born either in his absence or after his death. I know not whether more remarkable, the fatality of that-or the felicity of your-family; where, in a lineal descent, five have followed one another, the father not only surviving to see his son of age, but also (yourself excepted, who in due time may be) happy in their marriage, hopeful in their issue. These five have all been of the same Christian name. Yet is there no fear of confusion, to the prejudice of your pedigree, which heralds commonly in the like cases complain of; seeing each of them being, as eminent in their kind, so different in their eminency, are sufficiently distinguished by their own character to posterity. Of these, the first a judge; for his gravity and learning famous in his generation. The second, a worthy patriot, and bountiful housekeeper; blessed in a numerous issue; his four younger sons affording a bishop to the church, a judge and peer * CAMDEN'S Britannia in Pembrokeshire. to the state, a commander to the camp, and an officer to the court. The third was the first baron of the house; of whose worth I will say nothing, because I can never say enough. The fourth, your honourable father; who, because he doth still (and may he long) survive, I cannot do the right which I would to his merit, without doing wrong (which I dare not) to his modesty. You are the fifth in a direct line; and let me acquaint you with what the world expecteth (not to say requireth) of you to dignify yourself with some select and peculiar desert; so to be differenced from your ancestors, that your memory may not be mistaken in the homonymy of your Christian names; which to me seemeth as improbable, as that a burning beacon (at a reasonable distance) should not be beheld; such the brightness of your parts, and advantage of your education. You was bred in that school which hath no superior in England; and successively in those two universities, which have no equal in Europe. Such the stock of your native perfection, before grafted with the foreign accomplishments of your travels: so that men confidently promise themselves to read the best, last, and largest edition of Mercator's Atlas in your experience and discourse. That good God who went with you out of your native country, and since watched over you in foreign parts, return with you in safety in due time, to his glory, and your own good; which is the daily desire of Your Honour's most devoted servant, THOMAS FULLER. THE CHURCH HISTORY OF BRITAIN. BOOK XI. SECTION I. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 1, 2. News of the King's Death brought to Whitehall. His solemn Funerals. 1 Charles I. A.D. 1625. THE sad news of king James's death was soon brought to Whitehall, Sunday, March 27th, at that very instant when Dr. Laud, bishop of St. David's, was preaching therein. This caused him to break off his sermon in the midst thereof,* out of civil compliance with the sadness of the congregation; and the same day was king Charles proclaimed at Whitehall. King On the seventh of May following, king James's funerals were performed very solemnly, in the collegiate church at Westminster; his lively statue being presented on a magnificent hearse. Charles was present thereat. For, though modern state used of late to lock up the chief mourner in his chamber, where his grief must be presumed too great for public appearance; yet the king caused this ceremony of sorrow so to yield to the substance thereof, and pomp herein to stoop to piety, that in his person he sorrowfully attended the funerals of his father. 3, 4. Dr. Williams's Text, Sermon, and Parallel betwixt King Solomon and King James. Exceptions taken at his Sermon. Dr. Williams, lord keeper and bishop of Lincoln, preached the sermon, taking for his text 2 Chron. ix. 29, 30, and part of the 31st verse, containing the happy reign, quiet death, and stately burial of king Solomon. The effect of his sermon was to advance a parallel * See his own Diary on that day. |