Diary of John Manningham Part 34

151. It was the thirst I had both crownes to weare, And from a captiues state my selfe to reare.

159. Guyse whoe did lay the egges that I should hatch Sawe subjects hearts in England would not bend To treason, nor his force noe hold could catch To bring to pa.s.se the thing wee did entend, He therefore caused the Pope a pardon send To such as should by violent stroke procure Hir death whose fall my rising might procure.

_Tyborne tippets, i. e. halters._[151]

[Footnote 151: Note of Manningham on a phrase in stanza 160.]

163. At length, by full consent of Commonweale, In Englishe Parliament it was decreed, By cutting of a withered branche to heale Theyre body burdened with a fruitles weede, Which was by hir it touched most indeede Withstoode by pitty, which could not take place Because it did concerne a common case.

165. In body yet wee Adams badge doe weare, And to appeare before G.o.ds throne doe feare.

_Appeald to forrein princes._

167. For of releif I promises had store, But when, alas! it stoode my lyfe upon I found them fayle; my life and all was gone.

168. Proofes were produced; it seemed I should confes A murder purposed, and some treacherousnes Against a queene, my cosen and my frend, Whoe from my subiects sword did me defend.

[Sidenote: fo. 94^b.]

170. And soe the cause did seeme to stand with mee, That ones decay must others safety bee.

172. Thus I convict must satisfy the lawe, Not of revenge which hatred did deserue, But of necessity, by which they say [sawe?]

My onely death would hir in lyfe preserve, Which I reioice soe good a turne did serve, That haples I might make some recompence By yielding vp the life bred such offence.

178. I did rather others facts allowe, Then sett them on to actions soe vnkinde, Though many tymes myselfe was not behinde To blowe the fyre which others seemed to make.

174. To doe or to procure, to worke or will, With G.o.d is one, and princes hold the same.

179.[152] What favour should I from my foes expect If soe vnkindely frends did deale with me?

If that my subiects doe my faults detect, I cannot looke that straungers should me free; They should have propt or bent my budding tree In youth, whilst I as yet was pliant wood And might have proued a plant of tymber good.

[Footnote 152: 184, Fry.]

180.[153] Howe seldome natures richest soyle doth yeild A bower where virtue may hir mansion build.

[Footnote 153: 179, Fry.]

182.[154] Tell them that bloud did always vengeance crave Since Abel's tyme untill this present day, Tell them they lightly loose that all would haue, That clymers feete are but in ticle stay, That strength is lost when men doe oversway, That treason neuer is soe well contrived That he that useth it is longest lyved.

[Footnote 154: 181, Fry.]

* * * * *[155]

[Footnote 155: We have omitted here the mottoes in a Lottery, drawn upon the occasion of a visit paid by Queen Elizabeth to Lord Keeper Egerton, which have been printed already by the Percy and Shakespeare Societies and in Nichols's Progresses.]

[Sidenote: fo. 96.

6 Feb. 1602.]

AT THE TEMPLE CHURCHE, DR. ABBOTTES,[156] Deane of [Winchester.[157]]

[Footnote 156: Dr. George Abbot, Dean of Winchester, from 1599-1600 to 1609, when he was appointed Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, and in 1611 translated to the see of Canterbury. (Hardy's Le Neve, i.

26, 556, iii. 22.)]

[Footnote 157: Blank in original.]

His text, 59 of Isay, v. 12: "For our tresspa.s.ses are many before thee, and our synnes testify against us, for our trespa.s.ses are with us, and we knowe our iniquities."

He began with a commendacion of this prophet for the most eloquent and evangelique, in soe much that St. Jerome said he might rather be placed amongst the Evangelists then the Prophets.

All men are synners. "Our trespa.s.ses." When Christ taught his disciples to pray, it was one peticion, "Forgive us our trespa.s.ses:" to lett them knowe that they were his chosen disciples, yet they were not without synn.

Some may say they have liued _sine crimine, sine querela, sed nemo absque peccato_.

Hence we must learne not to be presumptuous, but to worke out our salvacion with feare and trembling, since all are synners. 2. Not to despayre, since the best haue synned.

Our synnes are before G.o.d, his eyes are 10,000 tymes brighter then the sunne, nothing hid from his knowledge. Synne is like a smoke, like fyre, it mounteth upward, and comes even before G.o.d to accuse us; it is like a serpent in our bosome, still ready to sting us; it is the diuels daughter. A woman hath hir paynes in travaile and delivery, but rejoyceth when she seeth a child is borne; but the birth of synn is of a contrary fashion; for all the pleasure [is] in the bringing forth, but when it is finished and brought forth, it tormenteth us continually; they haunt us like the tragicall furies.

[Sidenote: fo. 96^b.

6 Feb. 1602.]

In the afternoone, MR. CLAPHAM; his text, Math. xxiv. 15.

"Lett him that readeth consider it." He said this chapter is not to be understoode of doomesday, but of the destruction of Jerusalem; and that the 28 v. "Wheresoever the dead carcase is, thither doe the eagles resort," cannot be applied to the resurrection and congregacion of the saints into state of glory with Christ, as some notes interpret, but of the gathering togither of Christes people in the kingdome of grace: for Christ in his kingdome of glory cannot be sayd a carcase, but nowe he may, because he is crucified. And the 29 v. "The sunne shall be darkened, and the moone shall not give hir light, and the stars shall fall from heaven," he expounded thus, That the temporall and ecclesiasticall state of the Jewes in Jerusalem, and the starres, i. e.

their magistrates, shall loose their authority.

He expounded the opening the seven seales in the Revelacion to have reference to sundry tymes, and the 6. to the destruction of Jerusalem. 7 tymes 7 makes a weeke of yeares, the Jewes true Jubilee, wherein 7 trumpets should be blowne.

The best expositor of the Revelacion a n.o.bleman in Scotland,[158] whoe hath taken Christian and learned paynes therein, yet fayled in the computacion of the beginning of the yeares.

[Footnote 158: Napier of Merchiston, the inventor of Logarithms. His work ent.i.tled "A plain Discovery of the whole Revelation of St.

John" was printed at Edinburgh in 1593, by Waldegrave. It went through many editions and was translated into the princ.i.p.al languages of Europe.]

The Revelacion might be better understood if men would better studye it; and that it may be understood, and hath good use, he alledged the word, 1. 3. "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the wordes of this prophesy, and keepe those thinges which are written therein;" which were vayne unles it might be understoode.

[Sidenote: fo. 97.

Feb. 1602.]

Towards the end of his sermon he told his auditory howe it had bin bruited abroade, as he thought by some Atheists or Papists whose profest enemy he is, that this last weeke he had hanged himselfe, but some of his friends, he said, would not believe it, but said some other had done it; yet others that like him not for some opinion, said it was noe marvaile yf he hanged himselfe, for he had bin possest of the diuel a good while, "but I thinke rather," said he, "they were possessed that said soe, and yet not soe possessed as some hold possession now a dayes, that is essentially," and here he shewed his opinion that there can be noe essentiall possession: 1. Because the diuel can effect as much without entering into the person as yf he were essentially in him, and then it is more then needes. 2. Because there cannot be a.s.signed anie proper token or signe to knowe that anie is essentially possessed. Which signe must be apparent in all such as are soe possessed, and not in anie others. This opinion of his, he said, he would hold till he sawe better reason to the contrary.

[Sidenote: fo. 97^b.