'Tis opportune to look back upon old times, and contemplate our Forefathers. Great examples grow thin, and to be fetched from the passed world. Simplicity flies away, and iniquity comes at long strides upon us. We have enough to do to make up our selves from present and passed times, and the whole stage of things scarce serveth for our instruction. A compleat peece of vertue must be made up from the Centos of all ages, as all the beauties of Greece could make but one handsome Venus.
When the bones of King Arthur were digged up9,
the old Race might think, they beheld therein some Originals of
themselves; Unto these of our Urnes none here can pretend relation, and
can only behold the Reliques of those persons, who in their life giving
the Laws unto their predecessors, after long obscurity, now lye at their
mercies. But remembring the early civility they brought upon these
Countreys, and forgetting long passed mischiefs; We mercifully preserve
their bones, and pisse not upon their ashes.
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