The Close, Exeter.
* * * * *
The "Epistle Dedicatorie," as well as the title-page, appears to be wanting
in J. H. S.'s copy of Robert Cawdray's _Store-house_, which was "printed by
Thomas Creede, London, 1609." From this we find that it was dedicated to
"his singular benefactors, Sir John Harington, Knight, as also to the
Worshipfull James Harington, Esquire, his brother," whose "great kindness
and favourable good will (during my long trouble, and since)" the author
afterwards "calls to mind," and also the "manifold curtesies and benefites
which I found and received, now more than thirtie years agoe (when I taught
the Grammar School at Okeham in Rutland, and sundrie times since) of the
religious and vertuous lady, _Lucie Harington_ your Worship's Mother, and
my especial friend in the Lord." Would this be the "lady, a prudent woman,"
who "had the princess Elizabeth committed to her government" (vide Fuller's
_Worthies_, Rutlandshire)?
J. H. S.'s Query recalls two examples of the "magnetic needle simile" (Vol.
vi. and vii. _passim_), which Cawdray has garnered in his _Store-house_,
and which fact would probably account for their appearance in many sermons
of the period, as the book being expressly intended to "lay open, rip up,
and display in their kindes," "verie manie most horrible and foule vices
and dangerous sinnes of all sorts;" and the "verie fitte similitudes" being
for the most part "borrowed from manie kindes and sundrie naturall things,
both in the Olde and New Testament," and being as the writer says "for
preachers profitable," would find a place on many a clerical shelf; and its
contents be freely used to "learnedly beautifie their matter, and brauely
garnish and decke out" their discourses. I fear that I have already
encroached too much on your valuable space, but send copies for use at
discretion. In the first, the "Sayler's Gnomon" is used as an emblem of the
constancy which ought to animate every "Christian man;" and in the second,
of steadfastness amidst the temptations of the world. I shall be glad to
know more of Cawdray than the trifles I have gathered from his book:
"Euen as the Sayler's Gnomon, or rule, which is commonly called the
mariner's needle, doth alwayes looke towards the north poole, and will
euer turne towards the same, howsoeuer it bee placed: which is
maruellous in that instrument and needle, whereby the mariners doo
knowe the course of the windes: Euen so euerie Christian man ought to
direct the eyes of his minde, and the wayes of his heart, to Christ;
who is our north poole, and that fixed and constant north starre,
whereby we ought all to bee governed: for hee is our hope and our
trust; hee is our strength, whereupon wee must still relie."
"Like as the Gnomon dooth euer beholde the north starre, whether it be
closed and shutte uppe in a coffer of golde, siluer, or woode, neuer
loosing his nature: So a faithfull Christian man, whether hee abound in
wealth, or bee pinched with pouertie, whether hee bee of high or lowe
degree in this worlde, ought continually to haue his faith and hope
surely built and grounded uppon Christ: and to haue his heart and minde
fast fixed and settled in him, and to follow him through thicke and
thinne, through fire and water, through warres and peace, through
hunger and colde, through friendes and foes, through a thousand
perilles and daungers, through the surges and waues of enuie, malice,
hatred, euill speeches, rayling sentences, contempt of the worlde,
flesh, and diuell: and, euen in death itselfe, bee it neuer so bitter,
cruell, and tyrannicall; yet neuer to loose the sight and viewe of
Christ, neuer to giue ouer our faith, hope, and trust in him."