Diary of John Manningham Part 17

[Sidenote: fo. 38^b.

21 Aprill.]

Dr. Parry told howe his father was Deane[91] of Salisbury, kept a sumptuous house, spent aboue his reuenewe, was carefull to preferr such as were men of hope, vsed to haue showes at his house, wherein he would have his sonne an actor to embolden him.

[Footnote 91: Not Dean, but Chancellor. He was collated in 1547, deprived during the reign of Queen Mary, but restored shortly after the accession of Queen Elizabeth. He died in 1571. (Hardy's Le Neve, ii. 651, 652.)]

He shewed me the sermon he made at Court last Good Fryday; his text was, "My G.o.d, my G.o.d, why hast thou forsaken me?" It was right eloquent and full of sound doctrine, grave exhortacions, and heavenly meditacions.

_Vox horrentis_, forsaken; _Vox sperantis_, My G.o.d; _Vox admirantis_, Why hast thou, &c. Mee! There was in Christ _Esse naturae, Esse gratiae, Esse gloriae_. G.o.d's presence 2^x [_duplex_?] by essence, by a.s.sistance; dereliction, withdrawing, and retyring.

I returned to Bradborne.

Shee[92] would have sent a part of a gammen of bacon to the servants; my cosen said he loued it well, &c.; and, because he wold not send that she would, shee would not that he would, and grewe to strange hott contradiction with him. After, when shee sawe him moued (and not without cause) shee fell a kissing his hand at table, with an extreeme kinde of flattery, but neuer confest shee was to violently opposite.

[Footnote 92: Evidently his cousin's wife.]

[Sidenote: fo. 39.

22 Aprill.]

The _fleur de luce_, as we call it, takes his name, I thinke, as _Fleur de Lis_, which _Lis_ is a river in Flanders neere Artoys.

[Sidenote: 26.]

I came from my cosens to London.

[Sidenote: 27.]

Perpetuityes are so much impugned because they would be preiudiciall to the Queenes proffit, which is raysed dayly from[93] fines and recoueryes.

[Footnote 93: for in MS.]

One Parkins of the Inner house a very complementall gentleman; a barrester but noe lawyer.

[Sidenote: 28.]

In the Star Chamber the benche on that part of the roome where the Queenes armes are placed is alwayes vacant; noe man may sitt on it, as I take it, because it is reserued as a seate for the Prince, and therefore before the same are layed the purse and the mace as notes of autority.

[Sidenote: 30.]

Those which name such as they ought not, and such as they knowe to be vnfitt, to be Sheriues of London, doe but goe a woll-gathering, purposing to fleece such men. (_Cosen Onsloe._) And they goe a fis.h.i.+nge for some 100_l._ or 2, as they nominated my cosen this yeare.

[Sidenote: fo. 39^b.

October, 1602.]

One Mr. Ousley of the Middle Temple, a yong gallant, but of a short cutt, ouertaking a tall stately stalking caualier in the streetes, made noe more a doe but slipt into an ironmongers shop, threwe of his cloke and rapier, fitted himselfe with bells, and presently cam skipping, whistling, and dauncing the morris about that long swaggerer, whoe, staringly demaunding what he ment; "I cry you mercy," said the gent., "I tooke you for a May pole." (_Ch. Da. nar._)

[Sidenote: 9.]

Sniges nose looked downe to see howe many of his teethe were lost, and could neuer get up againe. (_Th. Ouerbury of Sniges crooked nose._)

Sir Frauncis Englefields house ouerthrowne by the practice of Mr.

Blundell of the Middle Temple, whoe, being put in speciall trust, tooke a spleen vpon a small occasion against the heir, and presently in his heate informed the Earl of Ess.e.x, that such a conveyaunce was made of soe goodly an inheritaunce in defraud of the Queen, and soe animated him to begg it, to the vtter ruine of that house. (_Mr. Curle nar._)

One told a jest, and added, that all good wittes applauded it; a way to bring one to a dilemma, either of arrogance in arriding, as though he had a good witt too, or of ignoraunce, as thoughe he could not conceiue of it as well as others.

[Sidenote: fo. 40.

10 Oct. 1602.]

AT PAULES CROSSE.

Dr. Spenser[94] preached. He remembred in his prayer the Companie of the Fishmongers, as his speciall benefactors while he lived in Oxford; his text the 5 of Isay, v. 4.

[Footnote 94: Dr. John Spenser, fellow-student with Hooker at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and president of that college from 1607 to 1614. Wood states (Ath. Oxon. ii. 145) that he was "a noted preacher and a chaplain to King James I." It was to him that upon Hooker's death his MSS. were delivered over for completion of the Ecclesiastical Polity. The sermon of which Manningham took such copious notes was printed in 1615, after Dr. Spenser's death, under the editors.h.i.+p of Hamlet Marshall, his curate. The author of the Christian Year speaks of it as "full of eloquence and striking thoughts; the theological matter almost entirely, and sometimes the very wordes, being taken from those parts of Hooker in which he treats of the visible church." (Hooker's Works, ed. Keble, i.

xxiii.)]

We are soe blind and peruerse by nature, that wee are soe farre from the sence of our owne imperfections and the terror of our synn, that either not seing or not acknowledging our owne weaknesses, wee runne headlong into all wickednes, and hate soe much to be reformed, that G.o.d is fayne to deale pollitikely with vs, propounding our state vnto vs in parables, as it were an others case, that thereby drawing man from conceit of himselfe, which would make him partiall, he might draw an uncorrupt iudgment of him self from him selfe. Soe dealt the Lord with David by the parable of the poore mans sheepe, and soe here he taketh up a comparison of the vine, to shewe Israell their ingrat.i.tude.

Parables are proportionable resemblances of things not well understoode; they be vayles indeed, which couer things, but being remoued give a kinde of light to them which before was insensible, and makes them seeme as though they were sensible.

The things considerable in the text are, first, The churche, resembled by the vine. 2. G.o.ds benefits towards the Churche expressed in the manner of his dressing the vine. 3. The fruit expected, grapes, iudgment and righteousnes. 4. The fayling and ingrat.i.tude, by bringing forth sower and wylde grapes; oppression and crying. 5. G.o.d's judgment, vers.

6.

[Sidenote: fo. 40^b.]

In the Church he considered, what it is, and where it is.

The Churche is compared most aptly to the vyne, for neither of them spring naturally. _Non sumus de carne, nec voluntate hominis, sed bene-placito Dei._ 2. Both spring, and growe, first in weakenes, yet then they claspe their little hands and take hold on of an other, and soe going on _cresc.u.n.t sine modo_, the increase without measure, as Pliny sayth. 3. Noe plant more flouris.h.i.+ng in the summer, none more poore and bare[95] in winter. All followe the Church in prosperitie, and the rich, the mighty, the wise, in persequution fall away like leaves.

4. Bring forth fruit in cl.u.s.ters, which cheres the hart. G.o.d and men and angels reioyce when the Church aboundes in workes of righteousnes and true holines. 5. Both have but one roote, though manie branches; Christ is the true foundacion, other then this can no man lay. 6. The branches are ingrafted, and as in planting all are tyed alike with the outward bond, yet all proue not alike, soe all haue the same profession and outward meanes, yet all growe not nor fructifie alike: but it is the inward grace that maketh the true branche; as he is a Jewe that is one within. Rom. ii. 28, 29.

[Footnote 95: "here Naked" in interlined in the MS. as another reading.]