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."
Sigma.
Stockton.
Robert Cawdray, the author of A Treasurie or Store-house of Similes, was a Nonconformist divine of learning and piety. Having entered into the sacred function about 1566, he was presented by Secretary Cecil to the rectory of South Luffenham in Rutlandshire. After he had been employed in the ministry about twenty years, he was cited before Bishop Aylmer and other high commissioners, and charged with having omitted parts of the Book of Common Prayer in public worship,
and with having preached against certain things contained in the book. Having refused, according to Strype, to take the oath to answer all such articles as the commissioners should propose, he was deprived of his ministerial office. Mr. Brook, however, in his Lives of the Puritans, states that though he might at first have refused the oath, yet that he afterwards complied, and gave answers to the various articles which he proceeds to detail at length. He was cited again on two subsequent occasions; and, on his third appearance, being required to subscribe, and to wear the surplice, he refused, and was imprisoned, and ultimately deprived. He applied to Lord Burleigh to intercede on his behalf, and his lordship warmly espoused his cause, and engaged Attorney Morrice to undertake his defence, but his arguments proved ineffectual. Mr. Cawdray, refusing to submit, was brought before Archbishop Whitgift, and other high commissioners, May 14, 1590, and was degraded and deposed from the ministry and made a mere layman. The above account is abridged from Brook's Lives of the Puritans, London, 1813, pp. 430-43.
Ἁλιεύς.