by fo grateful a king nor by so observing an age, how ready, how opportune and reasonable, how royal and fufficient her fuccours were, whereby fhe enlarged him at that time, and preferred him to his better fortune; and ever fince in thofe tedious wars, wherein he hath to do with a hydra, or a monster with many heads, the hath fupported him with treasure, with forces, and with employment of one that fhe favoureth moft.

6. Her Protection of the Low Countries.

Let me reft upon the honourable and continual aid and relief she hath gotten to the diftreffed and defolate people of the Low Countries-a people recommended unto her by ancient confederacy and daily intercourse, by their cause fo innocent, and their fortune fo lamentable. And yet, notwithstanding to keep the conformity of her own proceeding never stained with the least note of ambition or malice, she refused the fovereignty of divers of thofe goodly provinces offered unto her with great

inftance (infiftence), to have been accepted with great contentment both of her own people and others, and justly to be derived either in respect of the hoftility of Spain, or in respect of the conditions, liberties, and privileges of thofe fubjects, and without charge, danger, and offence to the king of Spain and his partizans. She hath taken upon her their defence and protection, without any farther avail or profit unto herself than the honour and merit of her benignity to the people that hath been pursued by their natural king only upon paffion and wrath, in fuch fort that he doth confume his means upon revenge.

7. Remaining a Virgin.

To speak of her fortune, that which I did referve for a garland of her honour; and that is, that she liveth a virgin and hath no children; fo it is that which maketh all her other virtues and acts more facred, more auguft, more divine. Let them leave children that leave no other memory in their times :

Revolve in

Brutorum æternitas, foboles. hiftories the memories of happy men, and you shall not find any of rare felicity but either he died childless, or his line spent soon after his death, or else was unfortunate in his children. Should a

man have them to be flain by his vaffals, as the pofthumous of Alexander the Great was? or to call them his impofthumes, as Auguftus Cæfar called his? Perufe the catalogue: Cornelius Sylla, Julius Cæfar, Flavius Vefpafianus, Severus, Conftantinus the Great, and many others. Generare et liberi, humana ; creare et operari, divina.

8. Her Undying Fame.

These virtues and perfections, with fo great felicity, have made her the honour of her times, the admiration of the world, the fuit and afpiring of greatest kings and princes, who yet durft never have afpired unto her but as their minds were raised by love. But why do I forget that words do extenuate (= attenuate) and embase matters of so great weight? Time is her beft commender,

which never brought forth fuch a prince, whose imperial virtues contend with the excellency of her perfon; both virtues contend with her fortune; and both virtues and fortune contend with her fame. (From A Difcourfe in Praise of his Sovereign'; but let the whole magnificent piece of cloquence be ftudied.)

A CONFESSION OF FAITH
(Before 1603).

If anyone wishes to read a SUMMA THEOLOGIE, digefted into the finest English of the days when its tones were fineft, he may read it here.-JAMES SPEDDING.

I believe that nothing is without beginning but God; no nature, no matter, no fpirit, but one only and the fame God. That God, as He is eternally almighty, only wife, only good, in His nature, fo He is eternally Father, Son, and Spirit in Perfons.

I believe that God is fo holy, pure, and jealous as it is impoffible for Him to be pleafed in any creature, though the

work of His own hands; so that neither angel, man, nor world could stand, or can stand, one moment in His eyes without beholding the fame in the face of a Mediator; and, therefore, that before Him with whom all things are present the Lamb of God was slain before all worlds; without which eternal counsel of His it was impoffible for Him to have defcended to any work of creation; but He should have enjoyed the blessed and individual fociety of Three Perfons in Godhead for ever.

But that out of His eternal and infinite goodness and love, purpofing to become a Creator and to communicate with His creatures, He ordained in His eternal counfel that one Perfon of the Godhead should in time be united to one nature and to one particular of His creatures; that fo in the Person of the Mediator the true ladder might be fixed, whereby God might defcend to His creatures, and His creatures might afcend to God; fo that God, by the reconcilement of the Mediator, turning His countenance towards His creatures (though not in the fame light and degree), made way unto the difpenfation