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bishop of Lincoln, preached his funeral sermon, which soon after was printed with

proaches and contumelies against the royal family, was held very meritorious ." This is talking with a great air of authority indeed! was there no colour or ground for suspicion of foul play, when Buckingham himself owned that he had recommended the plaister and drink to the king, and had them administered to him, without consulting the physicians? was there no ground for such a suspicion, when some of his majesty's own physicians believed it, and the king himself attributed the cause of his trouble to the plaister and drink which the duke had given him? had the house of commons no colour or ground to impeach the duke of Buckingham for his behaviour in this affair? or were they the authors of the scandalous and libellous discourses that were raised about it? A writer who gives himself such a strange liberty of censuring, ought to be pretty sure he is in the right, or otherwise he stands but a very poor chance of being believed. Will. Sanderson, very roundly says, "that what Buckingham gave James to drink was a posset drink of milk and ale, hartshorn, and marygold flowers, ingredients harmless and ordinary. And though," says he, "the doctors were offended that any one durst assume this boldness (of applying the plaister) without their consent; by after examination, all men then were assured of the composition, and a piece thereof eaten down by such as made it; and the plaister many months afterwards in being for further tryal of any suspition of poyson ".

Clarendon, vol. I. p. 24.

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Sanderson's Reign of K. James, p. 592, he had given almost the very same account before, in his Aulicus Coquinariæ, p. 194.

the title of Great Britain's Salomon ", full of the most gross flattery, and palpable

The reader must give what credit to this he thinks it deserves, for my own part, I doubt it is apocryphal.

77 Dr. Williams preached and printed his funeral sermon, with the title of Great Britain's Salomon ] This sermon is a curiosity and deserves to be known, as it gives us a specimen of the gross flattery of those times. His text was 1 Kings xi. 41, 42, and part of 43 verse. "And the rest of the words of Salomon, and all that he did, and his wisdome, are they not written in the book of the acts of Salomon; and the time that Salomon reigned in Hierusalem over all Israel, was forty years. And Salomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father." After having mentioned the text he begins thus : "Most high and mighty, most honourable, worshipful and well beloved in our Lord, and Saviour Jesus Christ; it is not I, but this woful accident that chuseth this text." He proceeds then to consider it as applicable to Solomon; and afterwards compares him, and James, "first as it were in one general lump, or mould," says he, "that you may see by the oddness of their proportion, how they differ from all kings besides. And then with a particular examination of the parts of my text, that you may observe by the several members, how well they resemble the one the other.

“For the bulke or the mould, I dare presume to say, you never read in your lives, of two kings more fully paralleled amongst themselves, and better distinguished from all other kings besides themselves. King Salomon is said to be unigenitus coram matre sua, the only sonne of his mother, Prov. 4. 3. So was king

untruths; insomuch that instead of cele brating his memory, he has only exposed

Salo

James. Salomon was of a complexion white, and ruddy, Canticl. v. 10. So was king James. Salomon was an infant king, puer parvulus, a little child, 1 Chron. xxii. 5. so was king James a king at the age of thirteen months. Salomon began his reign in the life of his predecessor, 1 Kings 1. 32. so, by the force and compulsion of that state, did our late soveraigne king James. Salomon was twice crowned, and anoynted a king, 1 Chron. xxix. 22. so was king James. Salomon's minority was rough through the quarrels of the former soveraigne; so was that of king James. Salomon was learned above all the princes of the east, 1 Kings iv. 30. so was king James above all the princes in the universal world. Salomon was a writer in prose and verse, 1 Kings iv. 32 so in a very pure and exquisite manner was our sweet soveraigne king James. mon was the greatest patron we ever read of to church and churchmen; and yet no greater (let the house of Aaron now confess) than king James. Salomon was honoured with ambassadors from all the kings of the earth, 1 Kings iv. last verse; and so you know was king James. Salomon was a main improver of his home commodities, as you may see in his trading with Hiram, 1 Kings v. 9, and, God knows, it was the daily study of king James. Salomon was a great maintainer of shipping and navigation, 1 Kings x. 14. a most proper attribute to king James. Salomon beautified very much his capital city, with buildings and water-works, 1 Kings ix. 15. so did king James. Every man lived in peace under his vine, and his figtree, in the days of Salomon, 1 Kings iv. 25. and so

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it.James, by his queen, Anne of Denmark, had issue besides Charles who suc

they did in the blessed days of king James. And yet towards his end king Salomon had secret enemies, Razan, Hadad, and Jeroboam, and prepared for a warre upon his going to his grave; so had, and so did king James. Lastly, before any hostile act we read of in the history, king Salomon died in peace, when he had lived about 60 years, and so you know did king James "."

One would think this had been enough of all conscience; but the right reverend preacher proceeds according to the method of his text, " to polish and refine the members of this statue in their division, and particular. In his stile," says he, "you may observe the Ecclesiastes, in his figures the Canticles, in his sentences the Proverbs, and in his whole discourse reliquum verborum Salomonis, all the rest that was admirable in the eloquence of Salomon.— -From his

saying I come to his doings. Quæ fecerit, all that he did. Every action of his sacred majesty was a virtue, and a miracle to exempt him from any parallel amongst the moderne kings and princes. Of all christian kings that ever I read of, he was the most constant patron of churches and churchmen.- -I will speak it boldly, in the presence here of God and men, that I believe in my soul and conscience, there never lived a more constant, resolute, and settled protestant in point of doctrine than our late soveraigne.- Through all Europe no more question was made of his being just, than of his being king. He was resolute enough, and somewhat too forward in those unapproachable places

• Great Britain's Salomon, p. 37.

ceeded him, and Elizabeth, who married

(the Highlands) scattering his enemies as much with his example, as he did with his forces. Besides these adventures of his person, he was unto his people, to the hour of his death, another cherubim with a flaming sword, to keep out enemies from this paradice of ours."

After flourishing upon his political wisdom and learned works, he goes on to let his hearers know "that as he lived like a king, so he died like a saint. All his latter days he spent in prayer, sending his thoughts before into heaven, to be the harbingers of his happy soul. Some foure days before his end he desired to receive the blessed sacrament, and said he was prepared for it by faith and charitie. He repeated the articles of the creed, and after the absolution had been read and pronounced, he received the sacrament with that zeal and devotion, as if he had not been a fraile man, but a cherubim cloathed with flesh and blood, he twice, or thrice repeated Domine Jesu, veni cito; and after the prayer usually said at the hour of death, was ended, his lords and servants kneeling, without any pangs or convulsions at all, dormivit Salomon, Salomon slept. And his soul,” adds the good bishop, "severed from the dregs of the body, doth now enjoy an eternal dreaming in the presence of God, environed no more with lords and knights, but with troupes of angels, and the souls of the blessed, called in this text his fore-runners or fathers; and Salomon slept with his fathers."-This was the character given of James before those who were acquainted well with him and yet I believe there is no one, who reads it now but will think it somewhat too panegyrical for the

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a Great Britain's Salomon, p.73.

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