University of Virginia Library

An Elegy and Epitaph on the death of the right worshipful Sir NATH. BRENT Knight, Doctor of Law, and Judg of the Prerogative Court, who exchanged this present life in the year 1653.

Dry eyes depart, all that come hither shall
Not go, but flow unto our Funeral:
This Mare mortuum admits of none
But such a Fleet, whose sails with sighs are blown.
If any Merchant hath by war and weather,
Lost both his ship, and lading, bring him hither:
That Proselite which our Religion bears,
Must learn from us not to drop Beads, but tears:
We hate Disputers, they are of our Ranks,
Whose Maxims are to suffer and give thanks.
Our sorrows do not with that man accord,
Whose point of doctrine is upon his sword:
Therefore no States-man comes, unless he cou'd
Vent as much water, as he hath drawn bloud:
His Donatives are too severely dealt,
That wears the Key of heaven at his Belt;
And not for our Society, the loss
We have sustain'd, allows of no such dross:
We have inter'd a man, whose firtil name
Enrich'd his Title, and gave Spurs to Fame,
Whose noble well-weigh'd actions might impart
New rules unto the Mathematique Art.
One whose Religion never understood
How to gain heaven by the right of blood;
Who thought no man more desperate then he
That could not bless and love his enemy;
That to be courteous only to our friends,
Is but the subtil issue of self-ends:
He was a man, whose wide extended store
Gave thankful invitations to the poor;
Who nere thought that mans charity profound,
That dol'd a farthing from a thousand pound;
One whose essential vertues did out-vy
A zealot in his best formality;
His meanest acts (in every mans esteem)
Did shine more bright then other men could seem:
The perfect'st Hieroglyphick of all good,
That hath (of late) been mix'd with flesh and blood,
More real merit in his soul did lye,
Then any Metaphor can magnifie.
Good Readers let our eyes perswade your ears,
And what we want in tongues, take out in tears.