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LETTER III.

TO THE SAME.

26 SIR, Bugden, 1 Dec. 1625. "With the remembrance of my love and "best affections unto you-Being very fenfible "of that great good will you have ever borne

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me, I thought it not unneceffary to take this "courfe with you, wch I have done with no "other Frynd in the worlde, as to defire you to "be no more troubled with this late accident

befallen unto me, than you fhall understand I "am myfelfe. There is nothing happened " which I did not forefee & (fithence the death "of my dear Maifter) affuredly expect, nor

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laye it in my power to prevent, otherwise "than by the facrififinge of my poor eftate, and "that wch I efteem farre above the fame, my "reputation. I knowe you love me too well, "to wifh that I fhould have been lavishe of "either of thefe, to continue longer (yeat noe

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longer than one man pleased) in this glorious "miferye and fplendid flaverie, wherein I have

lived (if a man may call fuch a toilinge a livinge) for these five years almoft. I loofinge "the Seals I have loft nothinge, nor my ser"vants by any fault of mine, there being nothing either layde or fo much as wifpered to

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my charge. If I have not the opportunitie I "hadd before to serve the King, I have much "more conveniency to ferve God-wch I em"brace as the onelye end of Gods love provi"dence to me in this fudden alteration.

<< For your Sonne Owen Wynne (who toge "ther with my debts is all the object of my "worldlye thoughts & cares) I will performe "towards him all that he can have expected "from me, if I live; & if I dye, I have per"formed it allreadye.

"You neede not feare any miffe of me, being "so just and reserved in all your defires & re"quefts; having alfoe your Eldefte Sonne "neare the Kinge & of good reputation in the "Court, who can give you a good account of 66 any thinge you fhall recommend unto him.

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Hoping therefore that I fhall ever hold the "fame place I did in your love, wch was first "fixed on my perfon, not my late place, & wch "I will deferve by all the freyndlye & lovinge "offices which fhall lie in my power, I end with cc my prayer unto God for the continuance of r your health, & due reft your very affured "loveinge Friend and Cozen

"Jo. LINCOLN."

was

"This learned Prelate," fays Wilson, "of a comely and stately prefence; and that, "animated with a great mind, made him appear

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very proud to the vulgar eye; but that very

temper raised him to aim at great things, "which he effected: for the old ruinous body "of the Abbey-church of Westminster was new "clothed by him; the fair and beautiful Library "of St. John's in Cambridge was a pile of his " erection; and a very complete Chapel built "by him at Lincoln College in Oxford (merely "for the name of Lincoln, having no intereft "in nor relation to that University); thefe," observes Wilson, "were arguments of a great "mind: how far from oftentation * (in this "frail body of flesh) cannot now be deter"mined, because the benefit of publique actions "fmooths every fhore that piles up the build« ing.

"But that," continues Wilson," which "heightened him most in the opinion of those "who knew him beft, was his bountiful mind "to men in want, he being a great patron to fupport, where there was merit that wanted fupply; amongst the rest M. du Moulin † (a

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❝ very

*Tacitus fays, "Contemptú fame virtutes contemnuntur.” Pierre de Moulin, a celebrated Proteftant Minifter in France, author of many books on religious controverfy. He

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very famous Proteftant Minifter of France) "in the perfecution there driven into England "for refuge. refuge. The Bishop hearing of him, spoke to Dr. Hacket, his Chaplain, to make "him a vifit from him; and because, faith he, "think the man may be in want in a strange

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country, carry him fome money (not naming "the fum, because he would founde the depth "of his Chaplain's minde). Doctor Hacket, "finding the Bishop nominate no proportion, "told him he could not give him leffe than twenty pounds. I did demurre upon the "fum, faid the Bishop, to try you. Is twenty "pounds a gift for me to give a man of his

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parts and deferts? Take a hundred pounds, "and present it to him from me, and tell him "he fhall not want, and I will come fhortly and "vifit him myself. Which he after performed, ❝and made good his promise in fupplying him "during his abode in England."

According to Wilfon, "After a fpeech of "James the First to his Parliament, the Lord "Keeper Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, and Speaker of the House of Peers, (who always "ufes to make the King's mind be further

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came to England in the year 1615, with a plan of a general union of all the Proteftant churches. The University of Leyden offered him their Divinity Profefforship, which he refufed. He died in 1658, at the age of 90.

VOL. I.

GG

"known

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"known if there be caufe,) told the Houfes of "Lords and Commons, that after the eloquent

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speech of his Majefty, he would not fay any' thing; for as one of the Spartan Kings, being "afked whether he would not willingly hear a man that counterfeited the voice of a nightin

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gale to the life, made answer, that he had "heard the nightingale; fo, for him to repeat "or rehearse what the King had faid, was (ac"cording to the Latin proverb) to enamel a "gold ring with ftuds of iron. He doubted 66 not but that the King's speech, like the Ora"tions of Æfchines, had left in their minds a

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fting; and as an Historian said of Nerva, that

having adopted Trajan, he was immediately "taken away, ne poft divinum et immortale fac"tum, aliquid mortale faceret, so he could not "dare, after his Majefties divinum et immortale "dictum, mortale aliquid addere.

"This is not inferted," adds the acute and neglected Historian, "to fhew the pregnancy "and genius of the man, but the temper of the "times, wherein men made themselves lefs than

men, by making Kings little lefs than Gods. "In this the Spanish bravery is much to be ad"mired, and the French do not much come "fhort of them, who do not idolize their Kings "with Sacred, Sovereign, Immortal, and ora"culous expreffions, but in their humblest peti

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