A short Discourse of mans fatall end with an vnfaygned, Commendation of the worthinesse of Syr Nicholas Bacon, Knight, Lord Keeper of the great Seale of England: Who disceased the xx. day of February 1578 [by Laurence Ramsay] |
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 | A short Discourse of mans fatall end |  |
A short Discourse of mans fatall end with an vnfaygned, Commendation of the worthinesse of Syr Nicholas Bacon, Knight, Lord Keeper of the great Seale of England: Who disceased the xx. day of February. 1578.
All fleshe is grasse, and all the glory of man is as the flower of grasse, the grasse wythereth, and the flower falleth away, but the worde of the Lorde endureth for euer.
1. Peter. 1. Iames. 1 Sira. 14.
Christ is to vs lyfe, and death to vs aduauntage.
Philip. 1.
Sira. 17. Ephe. 1. Rom. 8. Mat. 25. Ioh. 5. Rom. 8. Sam. 12. Phil. 4. Math. 6. Sam. 12. Eccle. 7 Ephe. 1. 2. Pet. 3. Mat. 24. Iame. 1. Rom. 9.
And takes his choice of vs his sheepe, what wight shal him deny?
But that he may without reiagge his creatures take and saue,
Yea heaue them vp, yea throw thē down, from life vnto the graue:
Reioice we then among the route, which doth this thing confesse,
And pray that God may haue his will, he teacheth vs no lesse.
And thanke him to, for all his giftes, and seeme not for to mourne,
For that which he hath in himselfe, set downe ere we were borne.
All tymes with him is not one houre, to age no subiect is:
All shall decay, yea heauen and earth, such power and glory is his,
Borne all to dye, and dye we must, all flesh shall yeelde to death,
The promisse made welcome the tyme, with fayth let go this breath.
As now of late a worthy man, by God from hence is calde,
Who doth not dye, but lyue for aye, and in the heauens is stalde:
Whose lyfe on earth so well was knowne, to those of thankfull mynde,
That which he did that iustice had, that few lyke him I fynde.
A subiect true, in Councell graue, in sentence briefe and sure,
A mynde bedect with equity, whose fame shall aye indure.
To ritch and poore indifferent, respecting iustice cause,
To mitigate extremities, he sought and had the lawes:
The patron of perswasions and enemy to all vice,
He feared God, he loud his prince, which shewde him very wise:
No patch of popish mynde in him was euer found,
But fauoured those and helpt them to, which did the trueth expound.
Lo this I thinke of duty right, of him thus to reporte,
To giue that thankes which I do owe, to all such worthy sorte:
I not deny but greater Clarkes, may pen and paynte his prayse,
With lofty verse heroicall, as was in Ouids dayes.
But tell the troth, and flatter not, but speake as hart doth thinke
A rarer man not in our dayes, nor lesse at wrong would winke:
Then would this worthy Bacon Knight, and Lord by Princes will,
Whose bodye's dead, whose soule doth lyue, and fame continewes still:
And shall at last ryse vp againe, in shape and perfect blisse,
To take rewarde with the elect, which God doth count as his.
Unto which hap God bring vs all, when hence that we shall wend,
For Gods good feare, and honest lyfe, doth bring a ioyfull end.
FINIS.
L. Ramsey
| A short Discourse of mans fatall end | |