concerning this Archbishop's piety, wisdom, learning and government, were published in print, he that would have adventured to write any thing more of him might justly have been condemned of indiscretion. Therefore, as a burden that I am not able to undergo, I forbear to enter into any particular relation of their speeches and sentence. His funeral was very honourably (as befitted his place) solemnized at Croydon the 27th of March following, 1604, where the Earl of Worcester and the Lord Zouch did him the honour in attending the hearse and carrying his banners: Doctor Babbington, Bishop of Worcester, made his funeral sermon; who likewise was his pupil in Cambridge, and performed that duty (among many other due observances of him in his life-time) with very great commendation, chusing for his text a portion of Scripture most fitting the worthiness of his person. But Jehoida waxed old, and was full of days and died. An hundred and thirty years old was he when he died. And they buried him in the city of David, with the kings, because he had done good in Israel, and toward God and his house. (2 Chron. xxiv. 15, 16.) Having now committed the body of this most reverend personage (which was sometime the mansion of a most excellent soul) unto his grave (where it rests in assured expectation of a glorious resurrection) I will, for conclusion, speak somewhat of the outward shape and proportion thereof. He was of a middle stature, of a grave countenance, and brown complexion, black hair and eyes; he wore his beard neither long nor thick. For his small timber, he was of a good quick strength, straight and well shaped in all his limbs to the habit of his body, which began somewhat to burnish towards his latter years. And And thus, gentle Reader, that I may not extend this discourse beyond the period of his life, who was the subject thereof, I withdraw my pen from paper, intreating either thy friendly acceptance of this my labour, or thy farther pains in writing and publishing some more complete and learned observations of thine own, touching this renowned Archbishop's actions and fame, which could not, without great shame unto myself and others his followers, be buried in darkness with his body. |