denied them for Richard was call'd to rock the Cradle and the rest of their welcome was so like this that they staid but till next morning which was time enough to discover and pity their Tutors condition and having in that time remembred and paraphrased on many of the innocent recreations of their younger dayes and other like diversions given him as much present comfort as they were able they were forced to leave him to the company of his wife Joan and seek themselves a quieter Lodging But at their parting from him Mr. Cranmer said Good Tutor I am sorry your lot is fall'n in no better ground as to your Parsonage and more sorry that your Wife proves not a more comfortable Companion after you have wearied your self in your restless studies To whom the good man replied My dear George If Saints have usually a double share in the miseries of this life I that am none ought not to repine at what my wise Creator hath appointed for me but labour as indeed I do daily to submit mine to his Will and possess my soul in patience and peace At their return to London Edwin Sandys acquaints his fatherâ— who was then Bishop of London and after Archbishop of York with his Tutors sad condition and sollicits for his removal to some Benefice that might give him a more comfortable subsistence which his father did most willingly grant him when it should next fall into his power And not long after this time which was in the year 1585 Mr. Alvie Master of the Temple dyed who was a man of a strict Life of great Learning and of so venerable Behaviour as to gain so high a degree of love and reverence from all men that he was generally known by the name of Father Alvie At the Temple-Reading next after the death of this Father Alvie he the said Archbishop of York being then at Dinner with the Judges the Reader and Benchers of that Society met with a Condolement for the death of Father Alvie an high commendation of his Saint-like life and of his great merit both to God and man and as they bewail'd his death so they wish't for a like pattern of Virtue and Learning to succeed him And here came in a fair occasion for the Bishop to commend Mr. Hooker to Father Alvies place which he did with so effectual an earnestness and that seconded with so many other Testimonies of his worth that Mr. Hooker was sent for from Draiton Beauchamp to London and there the Mastership of the Temple proposed unto him by the Bishop as a greater freedom from his Countrey cares and the advantage of a better Society and a more liberal Pension than his Countrey Parsonage did afford him But these Reasons were not powerful enough to incline him to a willing acceptance of it his wish was rather to gain a better Countrey living where he might see Gods blessings spring out of the Earth and be free from Noise so he exprest the desire of his heart and eat that bread which he might more properly call his own in privacy and quietness But notwithstanding this aversness he was at last perswaded to accept of the Bishops proposal and was by Patent for Life made Master of the Temple the 17 th of March 1585. he being then in the 34 th year of his age And here I shall make a stop and that the Reader may the better judge of what follows give him a character of the Times and Temper of the people of this Nation when Mr. Hooker had his admission into this place a place which he accepted rather than desired and yet here he promised himself a virtuous quietness that blessed Tranquillity which he alwayes prayed and labour'd for that so he might in peace bring forth the fruits of peace and glorifie God by uninterrupted prayers and praises for this he alwayes thirsted and yet this was denied him For his admission into this place was the very beginning of those oppositions and anxieties which till then this good man was a stranger to and of which the Reader may guess by what follows In this character of the Times I shall by the Readers favour and for his information look so far back as to the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth a time in which the many pretended Titles to the Crown the frequent Treasons the Doubts of her Successor the late Civil War and the sharp Persecution that raged to the effusion of so much blood in the Reign of Queen Mary were fresh in the memory of all men and begot fears in the most pious and wisest of this Nation lest the like dayes should return again to them or their present posterity And the apprehension of these dangers begot a hearty desire of a settlement in the Church and State believing there was no other probable way left to make them sit quietly under their own Vines and Fig-trees and enjoy the desired fruit of their Labours But Time and Peace and Plenty begot Self-ends and these begot Animosities Envy Opposition and Unthankfulness for those very blessings for which they lately thirsted being then the very utmost of their desires and even beyond their hopes This was the temper of the Times in the beginning of her Reign and thus it continued too long for those very people that had enjoyed the desires of their hearts in a Reformation from Rome became at last so like the grave as never to be satisfied but were still thirsting for more and more neglecting to pay that Obedience and perform those Vows which they made in their dayes of adversities and fear so that in short time there appeared three several Interests each of them fearless and restless in the prosecution of their designs they may for distinction be called The active Romanists The restless Non-conformists of which there were many sorts and The passive peaceable Protestant The Counsels of the first considered and resolved on in Rome the second in Scotland in Geneva and in divers selected secret dangerous Conventicles both there and within the bosom of our own Nation the third pleaded and defended their Cause by establisht Laws both Ecclesiastical and Civil and if they were active it was to prevent the other two from destroying what was by those known Laws happily establisht to them and their Posterity I shall forbear to mention the very many and dangerous Plots of the Romanists against the Church and State because what is principally intended in this digression is an account of the Opinions and Activity of the Non-conformists against whose judgement and practice Mr. Hooker became at last but most unwillingly to be ingaged in a Book-war a War which he maintained not as against an Enemy but with the spirit of meekness and reason In which number of Non-conformists though some might be sincere well-meaning men whose indiscreet Zeal might be so like Charity as thereby to cover a multitude of their Errours yet of this party there were many that were
that Faction given with all the Library to Hugh Peâ—ers as a Reward for his remarkable service in those sad times of the Churches Confusion and though they could hardly fall into a fouler hand yet there wanted not other Endeavours to corrupt and make them speak that Language for which the Faction then fought which indeed was To subject the Soveraign Power to the People But I need not strive to vindicate Mr. Hooker in this particular his known Loyalty to his Prince whilest he lived the Sorrow expressed by King James at his Death the Value our late Soveraign of ever-blessed Memory put upon his Works and now the singular Character of his Worth by you given in the passages of his Life especially in your Appendix to it do sufficiently clear him from that Imputation and I am glad you mention how much value Thomas Stapleton Pope Clement the VIII and other Eminent men of the Romish Perswasion have put upon his Books having been told the same in my Youth by Persons of worth that have travelled Italy Lastly I must again congratulate this Undertaking of yours as now more proper to you then any other person by reason of your long Knowledge and Alliance to the worthy Family of the Cranmers my old Friends also who have been men of noted Wisdom especially Mr. George Cranmer whose Prudence added to that of Sir Edwin Sandys proved very useful in the Completing of Mr. Hookers matchless Books one of their Letters I herewith send you to make use of if you think fit And let me say further you merit much from many of Mr. Hookers best Friends then living namely from the ever renowned Archbishop Whitgift of whose incomparable Worth with the Charactâ—â— of â—he Times you have given us a more short and significant Account then I have received from any other Pen. You have done much for Sir Henry Savile his Contemporary and familiar Friend amongst the surviving Monuments of whose Learning give me leave to tell you so two are omitted his Edition of Euclid but especially his Translation of King James his Apology for the Oath of Allegeance into elegant Latine which flying in that dress as far as Rome was by the Pope and Conclave sent to Salamanca unto Francisous Suarez then residing there as President of that Colledge with a Command to answer it When he had perfected the Work which he calls Defensio Fidei Catholicae it was transmitted to Rome for a view of the Inquisitors who according to their custom blotted out what they pleased and as Mr. Hooker hath been used since his Death added whatsoever might advance the Popes Supremacy or carry on their own Interest commonly coupling Deponere Occidere the Deposing and Killing of Princes which cruel and unchristian Language Mr. John Saltkel his Amanuensis when he wrote at Salamanca but since a Convert living long in my Fathers house often professed the good Old man whose Piety and Charity Mr. Saltkel magnified much not onely disavowed but detested Not to trouble you further your Reader if according to your desire my Approbation of your Work carries any weight will here find many just Reasons to thank you for it and for this Circumstance here mentioned not known to many may happily apprehend one to thank him who heartily wishes your happiness and is unfainedly Chichester Novem. 17. 1664. Sir Your ever-faithful and affectionate old Friend Henry Chichester THE LIFE OF D r. JOHN DONNE late Dean of S t Paul's Church LONDON The Introduction IF that great Master of Language and Art Sir Henry Wotton the late Provost of Eaton Colledge had liv'd to see the Publication of these Sermons he had presented the World with the Authors Life exactly written And 't was pity he did not for it was a work worthy his undertaking and he fit to undertake it betwixt whom and the Author there was so mutual a knowledge and such a friendship contracted in their Youth as nothing but death could force a separation And though their bodies were divided their affections were not for that learned Knight's love followed his Friends fame beyond death and the forgetful grave which he testified by intreating me whom he acquainted with his designe to inquire of some particulars that concern'd it not doubting but my knowledge of the Author and love to his memory might make my diligence useful I did most gladly undertake the employment and continued it with great content 'till I had made my Collection ready to be augmented and compleated by his curious Pen but then Death prevented his intentions When I heard that sad news and heard also that these Sermons were to be printed and want the Authors Life which I thought to be very remarkable Indignation or grief indeed I know not which transperted me so far that I reviewed my forsaken Collections and resolv'd the World should see the best plain Picture of the Authors Life that my artless Pensil guided by the hand of truth could present to it And if I shall now be demanded as once Pompey's poor bondman was The grateful wretch had been left alone on the Sea-shore with the forsaken dead body of his once glorious lord and master and was then gathering the scatter'd pieces of an old broken boat to make a funeral pile to burn it which was the custom of the Romans who art thou that alone hast the honour to bury the body of Pompey the great so who I am that do thus officiously set the Authors memorie on fire I hope the question will prove to have in it more of wonder then disdain But wonder indeed the Reader may that I who profess my self artless should presume with my faint light to shew forth his Life whose very name makes it illustrious but be this to the disadvantage of the person represented Certain I am it is to the advantage of the beholder who shall here see the Authors Picture in a natural dress which ought to beget faith in what is spoken for he that wants skill to deceive may safely be trusted And if the Authors glorious spirit which now is in Heaven can have the leasure to look down and see me the poorest the meanest of all his friends in the midst of this officious dutie confident I am that he will not disdain this well-meant sacrifice to his memory for whilst his Conversation made me and many others happy below I know his Humility and Gentleness was then eminent and I have heard Divines say those Vertues that were but sparks upon Earth become great and glorious flames in Heaven Before I proceed further I am to intreat the Reader to take notice that when Doctor Donn's Sermons were first printed this was then my excuse for daring to write his life and I dare not now appear without it The Life MAster John Donne was born in London of good and vertuous Parents and though his own Learning and other multiplyed merits may justly appear sufficient to dignifie both Himself and his Posteritie yet the
most glad to renew his intermitted friendship with those whom he so much loved and where he had been a Saul though not to persecute Christianity or to deride it yet in his irregular youth to neglect the visible practise of it there to become a Paul and preach salvation to his beloved brethren And now his life was as a Shining light among his old friends now he gave an ocular testimony of the strictness and regularity of it now he might say as St Paul adviseth his Corinthians Be ye followers of me as I follow Christ and walk as yee have me for an example not the example of a busie-body but of a contemplative a harmless an humble and an holy life and conversation The love of that noble society was expressed to him many wayes for besides fair lodgings that were set apart and newly furnished for him with all necessaries other courteesies were daily added indeed so many and so freely as if they meant their gratitude should exceed his merits and in this love-strife of desert and liberality they continued for the space of two years he preaching â—uthfully and constantly to them andâ— they liberally requiting him About which time the Emperour of Germany died and the Palsgrave who had lately married the Lady Elizabeth the Kings onely daugher was elected and crowned King of Bohemia the unhappy beginning of many miseries in that Nation King James whose Motto Beati pacifici did truly speak the very thoughts of his heart endeavoured first to prevent and after to compose the discords of that discomposed State and amongst other his endeavours did then send the Lord Hay Earl of Doncaster his Ambassadour to those unsetled Princes and by a special command from his Majesty Dr Donne was appointed to assist and attend that employment to the Princes of the Union for which the Earl was most glad who had alwayes put a great value on him and taken a great pleasure in his conversation and discourse and his friends of Lincolns Inne were as glad for they feared that his immoderate study and sadness for his wives death would as Jacob said make his daies few and respecting his bodily health evil too and of this there were some visible signs At his going he left his friends of Lincolns-Inne and they him with many reluctations for though he could not say as S. Paul to his Ephesians Behold you to whom I have preached the Kingdom of God shall from henceforth see my face no more yet he believing himself to be in a Consumption questioned and they feared it all concluding that his troubled mind with the help of his unintermitted studies hastened the decays of his weak body And God turned it to the best for this employment to say nothing of the event of it did not onely divert him from those too serious studies and sad thoughts but seemed to give him a new life by a true occasion of joy to be an eye-witness of the health of his most dear and most honoured Mistress the Qu. of Bohemia in a forraign Nation and to be a witness of that gladness which she expressed to see him Who having formerly known him a Courtier was much joyed to see him in a Canonical habit and more glad to be an ear-witness of his excellent and powerful Preaching About fourteen moneths after his departure out of England he returned to his friends of Lincolns-Inne with his sorrows moderated and his health improved and there betook himself to his constant course of Preaching About a year after his return out of Germany Dr. Cary was made Bishop of Exeter and by his removal the Deanry of St. Pauls being vacant the King sent to Dr. Donne and appointed him to attend him at Dinner the next day When his Majesty was sate down before he had eat any meat he said after his pleasant manner Dr. Donne I have invited you to Dinner and though you sit not down with me yet I will carve to you of a dish that I know you love well for knowing you love London I do therefore make you Dean of Pauls and when I have dined then do you take your beloved dish home to your study say grace there to your self and much good may it do you Immediately after he came to his Deanry he employed work-men to repair and beautifie the Chappel suffering as holy David once vowed his eyes and temples to take no rest till he had first beautified the house of God The next quarter following when his Father-in-law Sir George Moor whom Time had made a lover and admirer of him came to pay to him the conditioned summe of twenty pounds he refused to receive it and said as good Jacob did when he heard his beloved son Joseph was alive It is enough You have been kind to me and mine I know your present condition is such as not to abound and I hope mine is or will be such as not to need it I will therefore receive no more from you upon that contract and in testimony of it freely gave him up his bond Immediately after his admission into his Deanry the Vicarage of St. Dunstan in the West London fell to him by the death of Dr. White the Advowson of it having been given to him long before by his honourable friend Richard Earl of Dorset then the Patron and confirmed by his brother the late deceased Edward both of them men of much honour By these and another Ecclesiastical endowment which fell to him about the same time given to him formerly by the Earl of Kent he was enabled to become charitable to the poor and kind to his friends and to make such provision for his children that they were not left scandalous as relating to their or his Profession and Quality The next Parliament which was within that present year he was chosen Prolocutor to the Convocation and about that time was appointed by his Majesty his most gracious Master to preach very many occasional Sermons as at St. Paul's Cross and other places All which employments he performed to the admiration of the Representative Body of the whole Clergy of this Nation He was once and but once clouded with the Kings displeasure and it was about this time which was occasioned by some malicious whisperer who had told his Majesty that Dr. Donne had put on the general humour of the Pulpits and was become busie in insinuating a fear of the Kings inclining to Popery and a dislike of his Government and particularly for his then turning the Evening Lectures into Catechising and expounding the Prayer of our Lord and of the Belief and Commandments His Majesty was the more inclineable to believe this for that a Person of Nobility and great note betwixt whom and Dr. Donne there had been a great friendship was at this very time discarded the Court I shall forbear his name unless I had a fairer occasion and justly committed to prison which begot many rumours in the common people who in this Nation
holy numbers weave A Crown of Sacred Sonnets sit to adorn A dying Martyrs brow or to be worn On that blest head of Mary Magdalen After she wip'd Christs feet but not till then Did he fit for such Penitents as she And he to use leave us a Letanie Which all devout men love and doubtless shall As times grow better grow more Classicall Did he write Hymns for Piety and Wit Equal to those great grave Prudentius writ Spake he all Languages Knew he all Laws The grounds and use of Physick but because 'T was mercenary wav'd it went to see That happy place of Christs Nativity Did he return and preach him preach him so As since St. Paul none ever did they know Those happy souls that hear'd him know this truth Did he confirm thy ag'd convert thy youth Did he these wonders and is his dear loss Mourn'd by so few few for so great a Cross. But sure the silent are ambitious all To be close Mourners at his Funerall If not in common pity they forbear By Repititions to renew our care Or knowing grief conceiv'd and bid consumes Mans life insensibly as poyson fumes Corrupt the brain take silence for the way To'inlarge the soul from these walls mud and clay Materials of this body to remain With him in Heaven where no promiscuous pain Lessens those joyes we have for with him all Are satisfied with joyes essentiall Dwell on these joyes my thoughts oh do not call Grief back by thinking on his Funerall Forget he lov'd me waste not my swift years Which haste to Davids seventy fill'd with fears And sorrows for his death Forget his parts They find a living grave in good mens hearts And for my first is daily paid for sin Forget to pay my second sigh for him Forget his powerful preaching and forget I am his Convert Oh my frailty let My flesh be no more heard it will obtrude This Lethargy so shou'd my gratitude My vows of gratitude shou'd so be broke Which can no more be than his vertues spoke By any but himself for which cause I Write no Incomiums but this Elegy Which as a Free-will offering I here give Fame and the World and parting with it grieve I want abilities fit to set forth A Monument great as Donne's matchless worth April 7. 1631. Iz Wa. FINIS THE LIFE OF S r HENRY WOTTON SOMETIME Provost of Eaton Colledge There are them that have left a name behinde them so that their praise shall be spoken of Ecclus. 44. 8. LONDON Printed by Thomas Newcomb for Richard Marriot and sold by most Booksellers 1670. THE LIFE OF Sir HENRY WOTTON SIR Henry Wotton whose Life I now intend to write was born in the year of our Redemption 1568. in Bocton-hall commonly called Bocton or Bougton place in the Parish of Bocton Malherb in the fruitful Country of Kent Bocton-hall being an ancient and goodly structure beautifying and being beautified by the Parish Church of Bocton Malherb adjoyning unto it and both seated within a fair Park of the Wottons on the Brow of such a Hill as gives the advantage of a large Prospect and of equal pleasure to all Beholders But this House and Church are not remarkable for any thing so much as for that the memorable Family of the Wottons have so long inhabited the one and now lie buried in the other as appears by their many Monuments in that Church the Wottons being a Family that hath brought forth divers Persons eminent for Wisdom and Valour whose Heroick Acts and Noble Imployments both in England and in forraign parts have adorn'd themselves and this Nation which they have served abroad faithfully in the discharge of their great trust and prudently in their Negotiations with several Princes and also serv'd it at home with much Honour and Justice in their wise managing a great part of the publick affairs thereof in the various times both of War and Peace But lest I should be thought by any that may incline either to deny or doubt this Truth not to have observed Moderation in the commendation of this Family And also for that I believe the Merits and Memory of such persons ought to be thankfully recorded I shall offer to the consideration of every Reader out of the testimony of their Pedegree and our Chronicles a part and but a part of that just Commendation which might be from thence enlarged and shall then leave the indifferent Reader to judge whether my errour be an excess or defect of Commendations Sir Robert Wotton of Bocton Malherb Knight was born in the year of Christ 1463. He living in the Reign of King Edward the fourth was by him trusted to be Lieutenant of Guisnes to be Knight Porter and Comptroller of Callais where he dyed and lies honourably buried Sir Edward Wotton of Bocton Malherb Knight Son and Heir of the said Sir Robert was born in the year of Christ 1489. in the Reign of King Henry the Seventh He was made Treasurer of Callais and of Privie-Councel to King Henry the Eight who offered him to be Lord Chancellour of England but saith Hollinshed out of a virtuous modesty he refused it Thomas Wotton of Bocton Malherb Esquire Son and Heir of the said Sir Edward and the Father of our Sir Henry that occasions this relation was born in the year of Christ 1521. He was a Gentleman excellently educated and studious in all the Liberal Arts in the knowledg whereof he attained unto a great perfection who though he had besides those abilities a very Noble and plentiful estate and the ancient Interest of his Predecessors many invitations from Queen Elizabeth to change his Country Recreations and Retirement for a Court-Life offering him a Knight-hood she was then with him at his Bocton-hall and that to be but as an earnest of some more honorable and more profitable imployment under Her yet he humbly refused both being a man of great modesty of a most plain and single heart of an antient freedom and integrity of mind A commendation which Sir Henry Wotton took occasion often to remember with great gladness and thankfully to boast himself the Son of such a Father From whom indeed he derived that noble ingenuity that was alwayes practised by himself and which he ever both commended and cherish'd in others This Thomas was also remarkable for Hospitality a great Lover and much beloved of his Country to which may justly be added that he was a Cherisher of Learning as appears by that excellent Antiquary M. William Lambert in his perambulation of Kent This Thomas had four sons Sir Edward Sir James Sir John and Sir Henry Sir Edward was Knighted by Queen Elizabeth and made Comptroller of Her Majesties Houshould He was saith Cambden a man remarkable for many and great Imployments in the State during her Reign and sent several times Ambassadour into Forraign Nations After her death he was by King James made Comptroller of his Houshold and called to be of his
Privy-Councel and by him advanced to be Lord Wotton Baron of Merley in Kent and made Lord Lieutenant of that County Sir James the second son may be numbred among the Martial men of his age who was in the 38 of Queen Elizabeths Reign with Robert Earl of Sussex Count Lodowick of Nassaw Don Christophoro son of Antonio King of Portugal and divers other Gentlemen of Nobleness and Valour Knighted in the Field near Cadiz in Spain after they had gotten great Honour and Riches besides a notable retaliation of Injuries by taking that Town Sir John being a Gentleman excellently accomplished both by Learning and Travel was Knighted by Queen Elizabeth and by her look'd upon with more then ordinary favour and intentions of preferment but Death in his younger years put a period to his growing hopes Of Sir Henry my following discourse shall give an account The descent of these fore-named Wottons were all in a direct Line and most of them and their actions in the memory of those with whom we have conversed But if I had look'd so far back as to Sir Nicolas Wotton who lived in the Reign of King Richard the second or before him upon divers others of great note in their several Ages I might by some be thought tedious and yet others may more justly think me negligent if I omit to mention Nicholas Wotton the fourth Son of Sir Robert whom I first named This Nicholas Wotton was Doctor of Law and sometime Dean of Canterbury a man whom God did not onely bless with a long life but with great abilities of mind and an inclination to imploy them in the service of his Country as is testified by his several Imployments having been sent nine times Ambassadour unto forraign Princes and being a Privy Councellor to King Henry the eighth to Edward the sixth to Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth who also after he had during the Wars between England Scotland and France been three several times and not unsuccessfully imployed in Committies for setling of peace betwixt this and those Kingdomes dyed saith learned Cambden full of Commendations for Wisdom and Piety He was also by the Will of King Henry the eighth made one of his Executors and chief Secretary of State to his Son that pious Prince Edward the sixth Concerning which Nicholas Wotton I shall say but this little more That he refused being offered it by Queen Elizabeth to be Arch-bishop of Canterbury and that he dyed not rich though he lived in that time of the dissolution of Abbeys More might be added but by this it may appear that Sir Henry Wotton was a Branch of such a kindred as left a Stock of Reputation to their Posterity such Reputation as might kindle a generous emulation in strangers and preserve a noble ambition in those of his name and Family to perform Actions worthy of their Ancestors And that Sir Henry Wotton did so might appear more perfectly then my Pen can express it if of his many surviving friends some one of higher parts and imployment had been pleased to have commended his to Posterity But since some years are now past and they have all I know not why forborn to do it my gratitude to the memory of my dead friend and the renewed request of some that still live solicitous to see this duty performed these have had a power to perswade me to undertake it which truly I have not done but with some distrust of mine own Abilities and yet so far from despair that I am modestly confident my humble language shall be accepted because I present all Readers with a Commixture of truth and Sir Henry Wotton's merits This being premised I proceed to tell the Reader that the father of Sir Henry Wotton was twice married first to Elizabeth the Daughter of Sir John Rudstone Knight after whose death though his inclination was averse to all Contentions yet necessitated he was to several Suits in Law in the prosecution whereof which took up much of his time and were the occasion of many Discontents he was by divers of his friends earnestly perswaded to a re-marriage to whom he as often answered That if ever he did put on a resolution to marry he was seriously resolved to avoid three sorts of persons namely those that had Children that had Law-suits that were of his Kindred And yet following his own Law-suits he met in Westminster-Hall with one Mistress Morton Widow to Morton of Kent Esquire who was also engaged in several suits in Law and he observing her Comportment at the time of hearing one of her Causes before the Judges could not but at the same time both compassionate her Condition and yet so affect her Person that although there were in her a concurrence of all those accidents against which he had so seriously resolved yet his affection to her grew then so strong that he resolved to solicite her for a Wife and did and obtained her By her who was the Daughter of Sir William Finch of Eastwell in Kent he had Henry his youngest son His Mother undertook to be Tutoress unto him during much of his Childhood for whose care and pains he paid her each day with such visible signes of future perfection in Learning as turned her imployment into a pleasing-trouble which she was content to continue till his Father took him into his own particular care and disposed of him to a Tutor in his own House at Bocton And when time and diligent instruction had made him fit for a removal to an higher Form which was very early he was sent to Winchester-School a place of strict Discipline and Order that so he might in his youth be moulded into a Method of living by Rule which his wise Father knew to be the most necessary way to make the future part of his life both happy to himself and useful for the discharge of all business whether publick or private And that he might be confirmed in this regularity he was at a fit age removed from that School to New-Colledge in Oxford both being founded by William Wickham Bishop of VVinchester There he continued till about the eighteenth year of his Age and was then transplanted into Queens-Colledge where within that year he was by the chief of that Colledge perswasively injoyned to write a play for their private use it was the Tragedy of Tancredo which was so interwoven with Sentences and for the Method and exact personating those humours passions and dispositions which he proposed to represent so performed that the gravest of that society declared he had in a sleight imployment given an early and a solid testimony of his future abilities And though there may be some sower dispositions which may think this not worth a memorial yet that wise Knight Baptista Guarini whom learned Italy accounts one of her ornaments thought it neither an uncomely nor an unprofitable imployment for his Age. But I pass to what will be thought more serious About the nineteenth
of his Country But the word for lye being the hinge upon which the Conceit was to turn was not so expreâ—s'd in Latine as would admit in the hands of an enemy especially so fair a construction as Sir Henry thought in English Yet as it was it slept quietly among other Sentences in this Albo almost eight years till by accident it fell into the hands of Jasper Scioppius a Romanist a man of a restless spirit and a malicious Pen who with Books against King James prints this as a Principle of that Religion professed by the King and his Embassadour Sir Henry Wotton then at Venice and in Venice it was presently after written in several Glass-Windowes and spitefully declared to be Sir Henry VVottons This coming to the knowledge of King James he apprehended it to be such an oversight such a weakness or worse in Sir Henry VVotton as caused the King to express much wrath against him and this caused Sir Henry VVotton to write two Apologies one to Velserus one of the Chiefs of Augusta in the Universal Language which he caus'd to be printed and given and scattered in the most remarkable places both of Germany and Italy as an Antidote against the venemous books of Scioppius and another Apology to King James which were both so ingenious so clear and so choicely Eloquent that his Majesty who was a pure Judge of it could not forbear at the receit thereof to declare publickly That Sir Henry VVotton had commuted sufficiently for a greater offence And now as broken bones well set become stronger so Sir Henry Wotton did not only recover but was much more confirmed in his Majesties estimation and favour then formerly he had been And as that man his friend of great wit and useful fancy gave in a Will of his a Will of conceits his Reputation to his Friends and his Industry to his Foes because from thence he received both so those friends that in this time of tryal labored to excuse this facetious freedom of Sir Henry Wottons were to him more dear and by him more highly valued and those acquaintance that urged this as an advantage against him caused him by this errour to grow both more wise and which is the best fruit errour can bring forth for the future to become more industriously watchful over his tongue and pen. I have told you a part of his imployment in Italy where notwithstanding the accusation of Scioppius his interest still increas'd with this Duke Leonardo Donato after whose death as though it had been an intail'd love it was still found living in the succeeding Dukes during all the time of his imployment to that State which was almost Twenty years All which time he studied the dispositions of those Dukes and the other Consultors of State well knowing that he who negotiates a continued business and neglects the study of dispositions usually fails in his proposed ends But this Sir Henry Wotton did not for by a fine sorting of fit Presents curious and not costly entertainments alwayes sweetned by various and pleasant discourse with which and his choice application of stories and his so elegant deliver'd of all these even in their Italian Language he first got and still preserv'd such interest in the State of Venice that it was observ'd such was either his merit or his modesty they never denyed him any request But all this shewes but his abilities and his fitness for that Imployment 'T will therefore be needful to tell the Reader what use he made of the Interest which these procured him and that indeed was rather to oblige others then to enrich himself he still endeavouring that the reputation of the English might be maintain'd both in the German Empire and in Italy where many Gentlemen whom Travel had invited into that Nation received from him chearfull Entertainments advice for their behaviour and shelter or deliverance from those accidental storms of adversity which usually attend upon Travel And because these things may appear to the Reader to be but Generals I shall acquaint him with two particular Examples one of his merciful disposition and one of the Nobleness of his Mind which shall follow There had been many English Souldiers brought by Commanders of their own Country to serve the Uenetians for pay against the Turk and those English having by Irregularities or Improvidence brought themselves into several Gallies and Prisons Sir Henry Wotton became a Petitioner to that State for their Lives and Inlargement and his request was granted so that those which were many hundreds and there made the sad Examples of humane misery by hard imprisonment and unpitied poverty in a strange Nation were by his means released relieved and in a comfortable Condition sent to thank God and him for their Lives and Libertyes in their own Country And this I have observed as one testimony of the compassionate Nature of him who was during his stay in those parts as a City of Refuge for the Distressed of this and other Nations And for that which I offer as a Testimony of the Nobleness of his mind I shall make way to the Readers clearer understanding of it by telling him that Sir Henry Wotton was sent thrice Embassadour to the Republick of Uenice and that at his second going thither he was employed Embassador to several of the German Princes and to the Emperour Ferdinando the second and that his employment to him and those Princes was to incline them to equitable Conditions for the restauration of the Queen of Rohemia and her Descendents to their Patrimonial Inheritance of the Palatinate This was by his eight months constant endeavours and attendance upon the Emperour his Court and Counsel brought to the probability of a succesful Conclusion without bloodshed there being at that time two opposite armies in the field but as they were treating the Armies met and there was a battle fought the managery whereof was so full of miserable errours on the one side so Sir Henry Wotton expresses it in a dispatch to the King and so advantagious to the Emperour as put an end to all Hopes of a succcessful Treaty so that Sir Henry seeing the face of Peace altered by that Victory prepared for a Removal from that Court and at his departure from the Emperour was so bold as to remember him That the Events of every Battel move â—n the unseen wheels of Fortune which are this moment up and down the next and therefore humbly advised him to use his Victory so soberly as still to put on thoughts of Peace Which advice though it seemed to be spoke with some Passion his dear Mistress the Queen of Bohemia being concerned in it was yet taken in good part by the Emperour who was much pleased with his carriage all the time that he resided in his Court and said That the King his Master was look'd on as an Abettor of his Enemy the Palsgrave but yet he took him to be a Person of much Honour and
Merit and did therefore desire him to accept of that Jewel as a Testimony of his good opinion of him which was a Jewel of Diamonds of more value then a thousand pounds This was received with all Circumstances and terms of Honour by Sir Henry Wotton but the next morning at his departing from Vienna at his taking leave of the Countess of Sabrina an Italian Lady in whose House the Emperour had appointed him to be lodg'd and honourably entertained He acknowledged her Merits and besought her to accept of that Jewel as a testimony of his gratitude for her Civilities presenting her with the same that was given him by the Emperour which being suddenly discovered by the Emperour was by him taken for a high affront and Sir Henry Wotton told so To which he replyed That though he received it with thankfulness yet he found in himself an indisposition to be the better for any gift that came from an Enemy to his Royal Mistress the Queen of Bohemia for so she was pleased he should alwayes call her Many other of his services to his Prince and this Nation might be insisted upon as namely his procuration of Priviledges and courtesies with the German Princes and the Republick of Venice for the English Merchants and what he did by direction of King James with the Venetian State concerning the Bishop of Spalato's return to the Church of Rome But for the particulars of these and many more that I mean to make known I want a view of some papers that might inform me his late Majesties Letter-Office having suffered a strange alienation and indeed I want time too for the Printers Press-stayes so that I must haste to bring Sir Henry Wotton in an instant from Venice to London leaving the Reader to make up what is defective in this place by this small supplement of the inscription under his Armes which he left at all those houses where he rested or lodged when he returned from his last Embassie into England Henricus Wottonius Anglo-Cantianus Thomae optimi viri filius natu minimus a serenissimo Jacobo I. Mag. Britt Rege in equestrem titulum adscitus ejusdemque ter ad Rempublicam Venetam Legatus Ordinarius semel ad confaederatarum Provinciarum Ordines in Juliacensi negotio Bis ad Carolum Emanuel Sabaudiae Ducem semel ad unitos superioris Gâ—rmaniae Principes in Conventu Heilbrunensi postremo ad Archiducem Leopoldum Ducem Wittembergensem Civitates imperiales Argentinam Ulmamque ipsum Romanorum Imperatorem Ferdinandum secundum Legatus Extraordinarius tandem hoc didicit Animas fieri sapientiores quiescendo To London he came that year in which King James dyed who having for the reward of his forreign service promised him the reversion of an Office which was fit to be turned into present money for a supply of his present necessities and also granted him the reversion of the Master of the Rolls place if he out-lived charitable Sir Julius Caesar who then possessed it and then grown so old that he was said to be kept alive beyond Natures Course by the prayers of those many poor which he daily relieved But these were but in hope and his condition required a present support For in the beginning of these imployments he sold to his elder brother the Lord Wotton the Rent-charge left by his good Father and which is worse was now at his return indebted to several persons whom he was not able to satisfie but by the Kings payment of his Arrears due for his forreign Imployments He had brought into England many servants of which some were German and Italian Artists this was part of his condition who had many times hardly sufficient to supply the occasions of the day For it may by no means be said of his providence as himself said of Sir Philip Sidney's wit That it was the very measure of congruity He being alwayes so careless of money as though our Saviours wores Care not for to morrow were to be literally understood But it pleased God that in this juncture of time the Provostship of His Majesties Colledge of Eaton became void by the death ofâ— Murray for which there were as the place deserv'd many earnest and powerful Suiters to the King Sir Henry who had for many years like Siciphus rolled the restless stone of a State imployment and knowing experimentally that the great blessing of sweet content was not to be found in multitudes of men or business and that a Colledge was the fittest place to nourish holy thoughts and to afford rest both to his body and mind which his age being now almost threescore years seemed to require did therefore use his own and the interest of all his friends to procure it By which means and quitting the King of his promised reversionary Offices and a piece of honest policy which I have not time to relate he got a Grant of it from His Majesty And this was a fair settlement for his mind but money was wanting to furnish him with those necessaries which attend removes and a settlement in such a place and to procure that he wrote to his old friend Mr. Nicholas Pey for his assistance of which Nicholas Pey I shall here say a little for the clearing of something that I shall say hereafter He was in his youth a Clerk or in some such way a servant to the Lord Wotton Sir Henry's brother and by him when he was Comptroller of the Kings Houshold was made a great Officer in His Majesties house This and other favours being conferred upon Mr. Pey in whom was a radical honesty were alwayes thankfully acknowledged by him and his gratitude exprest by a willing and unwearied serviceableness to that Family even till his death To him Sir Henry Wotton wrote to use all his inâ—â—â—â— at Court to procure Five hundred pounds of his Arrears for less would not settle him â—â—â— Colledge and the want of it wrinkled â—â—â—â—â— with care 't was his own expression and thâ—r being procured he should the next day after find him in his Colledge and Invidiae remedium writ over his Study door This money being part of his Arrears was by his own and the help of honest Nicholas Pey's interest in Court quickly procured him and he as quickly in the Colledge the place where indeed his happiness then seemed to have its beginning the Colledge being to his mind as a quiet Harbor to a Sea-faring-man after a tempestuous voyage where by the bounty of the pious Founder his very Food and Rayment were plentifully provided for him in kind where he was freed from all corroding cares and seated on such a Rock as the waves of want could not probably shake where he might sit in a Calm and looking down behold the busie multitude turmoyl'd and tossed in a tempestuous Sea of dangers And as Sir William Davenant has happily exprest the like of another person Laugh at the graver business of the State Which speaks men rather wise than
fortunate Being thus setled according to the desires of his heart his first study was the Statutes of the Colledge by which he conceiv'd himself bound to enter into Holy Orders which he did being made Deacon with convenient speed shortly after as he came in his Surplice from the Church-service an old Friend a person of Quality met him so attired and joyed him of his new habit to whom Sir Henry Wotton replied I thank God and the King by whose goodness I now am in this condition a condition which that Emperor Charles the Fifth seem'd to approve who after so many remarkable Victories when his glory was great in the eyes of all men freely gave up his Crown and the many cares that attended it to Philip his son making a holy retreat to a Cloysteral life where he might by devout meditations consult withGod which the rich or busie men seldom do and have leisure both to examine the errors of his life past and prepare for that great day wherein all flesh must make an account of their actions And after a kind of tempestuous life I now have the like advantage from him that makes the out-goings of the morning to praise him even from my God whom I daily magnifie for this particular mercy of an exemption from business a quiet mind and a liberal maintenance even in this part of my life when my age and infirmities seem to sound me a retreat from the pleasures of this world and invite me to contemplation in which I have ever taken the greatest felicity And now to speak a little of the employment of his time After his customary publick Devotions his use was to retire into his Study and there to spend some hours in reading the Bible and Authors in Divinity closing up his meditations with private prayer this was for the most part his employment in the Forenoon But when he was once sate to Dinner then nothing but chearful thoughts possess'd his mind and those still increased by constant company at his Table of such persons as brought thither additions both of Learning and Pleasure but some part of most dayes was usually spent in Philosophical Conclusions Nor did he forget his innate pleasure of Angling which he would usually call his idle time not idely spent saying he would rather live five May-months than forty Decembers He was a great lover of his Neighbours and a bountiful entertainer of them very often at his Table where his meat was choice and his discourse better He was a constant Cherisher of all those youths in that School in whom he found either a constant diligence or a genius that prompted them to Learning for whose encouragement he was beside many other things of necessity and beauty at the charge of setting up in it two rowes of Pillars on which he caused to be choicely drawn the pictures of divers of the most famous Greek and Latin Historians Poets and Orators perswading them not to neglect Rhetorick because Almighty God has left Mankind affections to be wrought upon And he would often say That none despised Eloquence but such dull souls as were not capable of it He would also often make choice of some Observations out of those Historians and Poets and would never leave the School without dropping some choice Greek or Latin Apothegm or sentence that might be worthy of a room in the memory of a growing Scholar He was pleased constantly to breed up one or more hopeful Youths which he picked out of the School and took into his own Domestick care and to attend him at his Meals out of whose Discourse and Behaviour he gathered observations for the better compleating of his intended work of Education of which by his still striving to make the whole better he lived to leave but part to Posterity He was a great Enemy to wrangling Disputes of Religion concerning which I shall say a little both to testifie that and to shew the readiness of his Wit Having in Rome made acquaintance with a pleasant Priest who invited him one Evening to hear their Vesper Musick at Church the Priest seeing Sir Henry stand obscurely in a corner sends to him by a Boy of the Quire this question writ in a small piece of paper Where was your Religion to be found before Luther To which question Sir Hâ—nry presently under-writ My Religion was to be found then where yours is not to be found now in the written Word of God The next Vesper Sir Henry went purposely to the same Church and sent one of the Quire-boyes with this Question to his honest pleasant friend the Priest Do you believe all those many Thousands of poor Christians were damâ—d that were Excommunicated because the Pope and the Duke of Venice could not agree about their temporal power Speak your Conscience To which he under-writ in French Monsieur excusay moy To one that asked him Whether a Papist may be saved he replyed You may be saved without knowing that Look to your self To another whose earnestness exceeded his knowledge and was still railing againâ— the Papists he gave this advice Pray Sir forbear till you have studied the Points better for the wise Italians have this Proverb He that understands amiss concludes worse And take heed of thinking The farther you go from the Church of Rome the nearer you are to God And to another that spake indiscreet and bitter words against Arminius I heard him reply to this purpose In my travel towards Venice as I past through Germany I rested almost a year at Leyden where I entred into an acquaintance with Arminius then the Professor of Divinity in that University a man much talk'd of in this Age which is made up of opposition and Controversie And indeed if I mistake not Arminius in his expressions as so weak a brain as mine is may easily do then I know I differ from him in some points yet I profess my judgement of him to be that he was a man of most rare Learning and I knew him to be of a most strict life and of a most meck spirit And that he was so mild appears by his Proposals to our Master Perkins of Cambridge from whose Book of the Order and Causes of Salvation which was first writ in Latin Arminius took the occasion of writing some Queries to him concerning the consequents of his Doctrine intending them 't is said to come privately to Mr. Perkin's own hands and to receive from him a like private and a like loving Answer But Mr. Perkins dyed before those Queries came to him and 't is thought Arminius meant them to dye with him for though he lived long after I have heard he forbore to publish them but since his death his sons did not And 't is pity if God had been so pleased that Mr. Perkins did not live to see consider and answer those proposals himself for he was also of a most meek spirit and of great and sanctified Learning And though since their deaths
to foretell his death for which he seemed to those many friends that observed him to be well prepared and still free from all fear and chearful as several Letters writ in his bed and but a few dayes before his death may testifie And in the beginning of December following he fell again into a Quartan Fever land in the tenth fiâ— his better part that part of Sir Henry Wotton which could not dye put off Mortality with as much content and chearfulness as humane frailty is capable of he being in perfect peace with God and man And thus the Circle of his Life that Circle which began at Bocton and in the Circumference thereof did first touch at Winchester-School then at Oxford and after upon so many remarkable parts and passages in Christendom That Circle of his Life was by Death thus closed up and compleated in the seventy and second year of his Age at Eaton Colledge where according to his Will he now lies buried dying worthy of his Name and Family worthy of the love and favour of so many Princes and Persons of eminent Wisdom and Learning worthy of the trust committed unto him for the Service of his Prince and Country And all Readers are requested to believe that he was worthy of a more worthy Pen to have preserved his Memory and commended his Merits to the imitation of Posterity AN ELEGIE ON Sir HENRY WOTTON WRIT By Mr ABRAM COWLEY WHat shall we say since silent now is he Who when he spoke all things woul'd silent be Who had so many languages in store That only fame shall speak of him in more Whom England now no more return'd must see He 's gone to Heaven on his fourth Embassie On Earth he travail'd often not to say H 'ad been abroad to pass loose time away For in what ever land he chanc'd to come He read the men and manners bringing home Their Wisdom Learning and their Pietie As if he went to Conquer not to see So well he understood the most and best Of Tongues that Babel sent into the West Spoke them so truly that he had you 'd swear Not only liv'd but been born every where Justly each Nations speech to him was known Who for the World was made not us alone Nor ought the Language of that man be less Who in his brest had all things to express We say that Learning 's endless and blame Fate For not alowing life a longer date He did the utmost bounds of Knowledg finde And found them not so large as was his minde But like the brave Pellean youth did mone Because that Art had no more Worlds then one And when he saw that he through all had past He dy'd least he should Idle grow at last A. Cowley FINIS M r RICHARD HOOKER Author of those Learned Bookes of Ecclesiasticall pollitie The LIFE OF Mr. RICH. HOOKER THE AUTHOR of those Learned Books OF THE Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity Psal. 145. 4. One generation shall praise thy works to another Prov. 2. 15. The tongue of the wise useth knowledge rightly LONDON Printed by Tho Newcomb for Rich Marriot sold by most Booksellers M.DC.LXX To his very Worthy Friend Mr. Isaac Walton upon his Writing and Publishing the Life of the Venerable and Judicious Mr. Richard Hooker I. HAyle Sacred Mother British Church all hayle From whose fruitful Loyns have sprung Of Pious Sons so great a throng That Heav'nt oppose their force of strength did fail And let the mighty Conquerors o're Almighty arms prevail How art thou chang'd from what thou wert a late When destitute and quite forlorn And scarce a Child of thousands with thee left to mourn Thy veil all rent and all thy garments torn With tears thou didst bewail thine own and childrens fate Too much alas thou didst resemble then Sion thy pattern Sion in ashes laid Despis'd Forsaken and betray'd Sion thou dost resemble once agen And rais'd like her the glory of the World art made Threnes only to thee could that time belong Bâ—t now thou art the lofty Subject of my Song II. Begin my Verse and where the doleful Mother sate As it in Vision was to Esdras shown Lamenting with the rest her dearest Son Blest CHARLES who his Forefathers has outgon And to the Royal join'd the Martyrs brighter Crown Let a new City rise with beautious state And beautious let its Temple be and beautiful the Gate Lo how the Sacred Fabrick up does rise The Architects so skilful All So grave so humble and so wise The Axes and the Hammers noise Is drown'd in silence or in numbers Musicall 'T is up and at the Altar stand The Reverend Fathers as of Old With Harps and Incense in their hand Nor let the pious service grow or stiff or cold Th' inferiour Priests the while To Praise continually imploy'd or Pray Need not the weary hours beguile Enough 's the single Duty of each day Thou thy self Woodford on thy humbler Pipe must play And tho but lately entred there So gracious those thou honour'st all appear So ready and attent to hear An easie part proportion'd to thy skill may'st bear III. But where alas where wilt thou fix thy choice The Subjects are so noble all So great their beauties and thy art so small They 'll judge I fear themselves disparag'd by thy voyce Yet try and since thou canst not take A nameâ— so despicably low But 't will exceed what thou canst do Tho thy whole Mite thou away at once shouldst throw Thy Poverty a vertue make And that thou may'st Immortal live Since Immortality thou canst not give From one who has enough to spare be ambitious to receive Of Reverend and Judicious Hooker sing Hooker does to th' Church belong The Church and Hooker claim thy Song And inexhausted Riches to thy Verse will bring So far beyond it self will make it grow That life his gift to thee thou shalt again on him bestow IV. How great blest Soul must needs thy Glories be Thy Joyes how perfect and thy Crown how fair Who mad'st the Church thy chiefest care This Church which owes so much to thee That all Her Sons are studious of thy memory 'T was a bold work the Captiv'd to redeem And not so only but th'Oppress'd to raise Our aged Mother to that due Esteem She had and merited in her younger dayes When Primitive Zeal and Piety Were all her Laws and Policy And decent Worship kept the mean It 's too wide stretch't Extreams between The rudely scrupulous and extravagantly vain This was the work of Hookers Pen With Judgement Candor and such Learning writ Matter and Words so exactly fit That were it to be done agen Expected 't would be as its Answer hitherto has been RITORNATA To Chelsea Song there tell Thy Patrons Friend The Church is Hookers Debtor Hooker His And strange 't would be if he should Glory miss For whom two such most powerfully contend Bid him chear up the Day 's his own And he shall never die Who
all her Church-cares by his wise Menage of them he gave her faithful and prudent Counsels in all the Extremities and Dangers of her Temporal Affairs which were many he lived to be the Chief Comfort of her Life in her Declining age to be then most frequently with her and her Assistant at her private Devotions to be the greatest Comfort of her Soul upon her Death-bed to be present at the Expiration of her last Breath and to behold the closing of those Eyes that had long looked upon him with Reverence and Affection And let this also be added that he was the Chief Mourner at her sad Funeral nor let this be forgotten that within a few hours after her death he was the happy Proclaimer that King James her peaceful Successour was Heir to the Crown Let me beg of my Reader to allow me to say a little and but a little more of this good Bishop and I shall then presently lead him back to Mr. Hooker and because I would hasten I will mention but one part of the Bishops Charity and Humility but this of both He built a large Almes-house near to his own Palace at Croyden in Surry and endowed it with Maintenance for a Master and twenty eight poor Men and Women which he visited so often that he knew their Names and Dispositions and was so truly humble that he called them Brothers and Sisters and whensoever the Queen descended to that lowlines to dine with him at his Palace in Lambeth which was very often he would usually the next day shew the like lowliness to his poor Brothers and Sisters at Croydon and dine with them at his Hospital at which time you may believe there was Joy at the Table And at this place he built also a fair Free-School with a good Accommodation and Maintenance for the Master and Scholars Which gave just occasion for Boyse Sisi then Embassadour for the French King and Resident here at the Bishops death to say The Bishop had published many learned Books but a Free-school to train up Youth and an Hospital to lodge and maintain aged and poor People were the best Evidences of Christian Learning that a Bishop could leave to Posterity This good Bishop lived to see King James settled in Peace and then fell sick at his Palace in Lambeth of which when the King had notice he went to visit him and found him in his Bed in a declining condition and very weak and after some short discourse betwixt them the King at his departure assured him He had a great Affection for him and a very high value for his Prudence and Vertues and would indeavour to beg his life of God To which the good Bishop replied Pro Ecclesia Dei Pro Ecclesia Dei which were the last words he ever spake therein testifying that as in his Life so at his Death his chiefest care was of Gods Church This John Whitgift was made Archbishop in the year 1583. In which busie place he continued twenty years and some moneths and in which time you may believe he had many Tryals of his Courage and Patience but his Motto was Vincit qui patitur And he made it good Many of his many Trials were occasioned by the then powerful Earl of Leicester who did still but secretly raise and cherish a Faction of Non-conformists to oppose him especially one Thomas Cartwright a man of noted Learning sometime Contemporary with the Bishop in Cambridge and of the same Colledge of which the Bishop had been Master in which place there began some Emulations the particulars I forbear and at last open and high Oppositions betwixt them and in which you may believe Mr. Cartwright was most faulty if his Expulsion out of the University can incline you to it And in this discontent after the Earls death which was 1588 Mr. Cartwright appeared a chief Cherisher of a Party that were for the Geneva Church-government and to effect it he ran himself into many dangers both of Liberty and Life appearing at the last to justifie himself and his Party in many Remonstrances which he caused to be printed and to which the Bishop made a first Answer and Cartwright replyed upon him and then the Bishop having rejoyned to his first Reply Mr. Cartwright either was or was perswaded to be satisfied for he wrote no more but leftâ— the Reader to be judge which had maintained their Cause with most Charity and Reason After some silence Mr. Cartwright received from the Bishop many personal Favours and retired himself to a more private Living which was at Warwick where he was made Master of an Hospital and lived quietly and grew rich and where the Bishop gave him a Licence to Preach upon promises not to meddle with Controversies but incline his Hearers to Piety and Moderation and this Promise he kept during his Life which ended 1602 the Bishop surviving him but some few moneths each ending his daies in perfect Charity with the other And now after this long Digression made for the Information of my Reader concerning what follows I bring him back to venerable Mr. Hooker where we left him in the Temple and where we shall find him as deeply engaged in a Controversie with Walter Trevers a Friend and Favorite of Mr. Cartwrights as the Bishop had ever been with Mr. Cartwright himself and of which I shall proceed to give this following account And first this That though the Pens of Mr. Cartwright and the Bishop were now at rest yet there was sprung up a new Generation of restless men that by Company and Clamours became possest of a Faith which they ought to have kept to themselves but could not men that were become positive in asserting That a Papest cannot be saved insomuch that about this time at the Execution of the Queen of Scots the Bishop that preached her Funeral Sermon which was Doctor Howland then Bishop of Peterborough was reviled for not being positive for her Damnation And beside this Boldness of their becoming Gods so far as to set limits to his Mercies there was not onely one Martin Mar-prelate but other venemous Books daily printed and dispersed Books that were so absurd and scurrilous that the graver Divines disdained them an Answer And yet these were grown into high esteem with the Common people till Tom Nash appeared against them all who was a man of a sharp wit and the Master of a scoffing Satyrical merry Pen which he imployed to discover the Absurdities of those blind malitious sensless Pamphlets and Sermons as sensless as they Nash his Answer being like his Books which bore these Titles An Almond for a Parrot A Fig for my God-son Come crack me this Nut and the like so that his merry Wit made such a discovery of their Absurdities as which is strange he put a greater stop to these malicious Pamphlets than a much wiser man had been able And now the Reader is to take notice That at the Death of Father Alvie who was
upon himself his Relations and Friends before it could be finisht sent for him from London to Chelsey where he then dwelt and at his coming said George I sent for you to persuade you to commit Simony by giving your Patron as good a gift as he has given to you namely that you give him back his Prebâ—nd for George it is not for your weak body and empty purse to undertake to build Churches To which he desir'd he might have a Dayes time to consider and then make her an Answer And at his return to her at the next Day when he had first desired her blessing and she given it him his next request was That she would at the Age of Thirty three Years allow him to become an undutiful Son for he had made a kind of Vow to God that if he were able he would Re-build that Church And then shew'd her such reasons for his resolution that she presently subscribed to be one of his Benefactors and undertook to sollicit William Earl of Pembroke to be another who subscribed for 50 l. and not long after by a witty and persuasive Letter from Mr. Herbert made it 50 l. more And in this nomination of some of his Benefactors James Duke of Lenox and his brother Sir Henry Herbert ought to be remembred and the bounty of Mr. Nicholas Farrer and Mr. John Woodnot the one a Gentleman in the Neighbourhood of Layton and the other a Goldsmith in Foster-lane London ought not to be forgotten for the memory of such men ought to out-live their lives Of Mr. Farrer I shall hereafter give an account in a more seasonable place but before I proceed farther I will give this short account of Mr. John Woodnot He was a man that had consider'd overgrown Estates do often require more care and watchfulness to preserve than get them and that there be many Discontents that Riches cure not and did therefore set limits to himself as to the desire of wealth And having attain'd so much as to be able to shew some mercy to the Poor and preserve a competence for himself he dedicated the remaining part of his life to the service of God and being useful for his Friends he prov'd to be so to Mr. Herbert for beside his own bounty he collected and return'd most of the money that was paid for the Re-building of that Church he kept all the account of the charges and would often go down to state them and see all the Workmen paid When I have said that this good man was a useful Friend to Mr. Herberts Father to his Mother and continued to be so to him till he clos'd his eyes on his Death-bed I will forbear to say more till I have the next fair occasion to mention the holy friendship that was betwixt him and Mr. Herbert About the year 1629. and the 34 th of his Age Mr. Herbert was seiz'd with a sharp Quotidian Ague and thought to remove it by the change of Air to which end he went to Woodford in Essex but thither more chiefly to enjoy the company of his beloved Brother Sir Henry Herbert and other Friends In his House he remain'd about Twelve Months and there became his own Physitian and cur'd himself of his Ague by forbearing Drink and eating no Meat no not Mutton nor a Hen or Pidgeon unless they were salted and by such a constant Dyet he remov'd his Ague but with inconveniencies that were worse for he brought upon himself a disposition to Rheums and other weaknesses and a supposed Consumption And it is to be Noted that in the sharpest of his extream Fits he would often say Lord abate my great affliction and increase my patience but Lord I repine not I am dumb Lord before thee because thou doest it By which and a sanctified submission to the Will of God he shewed he was inclinable to bear the sweet yoke of Christian Discipline both then and in the latter part of his life of which there will be many true Testimonies And now his care was to recover from his Consumption by a change from Woodford into such an air as was most proper to that end And his remove was from Woodford to Dantsey in Wiltshire a noble House which stands in a choice Air the owner of it then was the Lord Danvers Earl of Danby who lov'd Mr. Herbert much and allow'd him such an apartment in that House as might best sute Mr. Herberts accomodation and liking And in this place by a spare Dyet declining all perplexing Studies moderate exercise and a chearful conversation his health was apparently improv'd to a good degree of strength and chearfulness And then he declar'd his resolution to marry and to enter into the Sacred Orders of Priesthood These had long been the desires of his Mother and his other Relations but she liv'd not to see either for she dyed in the year 1627. And though he was disobedient to her about Layton Church yet in conformity to her will he kept his Fellowship in Cambridge and his Orators place till after her death and then declin'd both And the last the more willingly that he might be succeeded by his friend Robert Creighton who now is Dr. Creighton and the worthy Dean of Wells I shall now proceed to his Marriage in order to which it will be convenient that I first give the Reader a short view of his person and then an account of his Wife and of some circumstances concerning both He was for his person of a stature inclining towards Tallness his body was very strait and so far from being cumbred with too much flesh that he was lean to an extremity His aspect was chearful and his speech and motion did both declare him a Gentleman and were all so meek and oblieging that both then and at his death he was said to have no Enemy These and his other visible vertues begot him so much love from a Gentleman of a Noble fortune and a near Kinsman to his friend the Earl of Danby namely from Mr. Charles Danvers of Bainton in the County of Wilts Esq That Mr. Danvers having known him long and familiarly did so much affect him that he often and publickly declar'd a desire that Mr. Herbert would marry any of his Nine Daughters for he had so many but rather his Daughter Jane than any other because Jane was his beloved Daughter And he had often said the same to Mr. Herbert himself and that if he could like her for a Wife and she him for a Husband Jane should have a double blessing And Mr. Danvers had so often said the like to Jane and so much commended Mr. Herbert to her that Jane became so much a Platonick as to fall in love with Mr. Herbert unseen This was a fair preparation for a Marriage but alas her father dyed before Mr. Herberts retirement to Dantsey yet some friends to both parties procur'd their meeting at which time a mutual affection entered into both their hearts
return into England he had by the death of his father or an elder brother an Estate left him that enabled him to buy Land to the value of 500 l. a year the greatest part of which Land was at Little Gidden four or six miles from Huntington and about 18 from Cambridge which place he chose for the privacy of it and the Hall which had the Parish-Church or Chappel belonging and adjoining near to it for Mr. Farrer having seen the manners and vanities of the World and found them to be as Mr. Herbert sayes A nothing between two Dishes he did so contemn the World that he resolv'd to spend the remainder of his life in mortifications and in devotion and charity and to be alwayes prepar'd for Death And his Life was spent thus He and his Family which were like a little Colledge and about Thirty in number did most of them keep Lent and all Ember-weeks strictly both in fasting and using all those prayers that the Church hath appointed to be then used and he and they did the like on Fridayes and on the Vigils or Eves appointed to be fasted before the Saints dayes and this frugality and abstinence turn'd to the relief of the Poor but this was but a part of his charity none but God and he knew the rest This Family which I have said to be in number about Thirty were a part of them his Kindred and the rest chosen to be of a temper fit to be moulded into a devout life and all of them were for their dispositions serviceable and quiet and humble and free from scandal Having thus fitted himself for his Family he did about the year 1630. betake himself to a constant and methodical service of God and it was in this manner He did himself use to read the Common prayers for he was a Deacon every day at the appointed hours of ten and four in the Church which was very near his House and which he had both repair'd and adorn'd for it was fall'n into a great ruine by reason of a depopulation of the Village before Mr. Farrer bought the Mannor And he did also constantly read the Mattins every morning at the hour of six either in the Church or in an Oratory which was within his own House And many of the Family did there continue with him after the Prayers were ended and there they spent some hours in singing Hymns or Anthems sometimes in the Church and often to an Organ in the Oratory And they sometimes betook themselves to meditate or to pray privately or to read a part of the New Testament or to continue their praying or reading the Psalms and in case the Psalms were not all read in the day then Mr. Farrer and others of the Congregation did at Night at the ring of a Watch-bell repair to the Church or Oratory and there betake themselves to prayers and lauding God and reading the Psalms that had not been read in the day and when these or any part of the Congregation grew weary or faint the Watch-bell was rung sometimes before and sometimes after Midnight and then a part of the Family rose and maintain'd the Watch sometimes by praying or singing Lands to God or reading the Psalms and when after some hours they also grew weâ—â—y or â—aâ—nt then they rung the Watch-bell and were reliev'd by some of the former or by a new part of the Society which continueâ— their devotions as hath been mentioned until morning And it is to be noted that in this continued serving of God the Psalter or whole Book of Psalms was in every four and twenty hours sung or read over from the first to the last verse and this done as constantly as the Sun runs his Circle every day about the World and then begins it again the same instant that it ended Thus did Mr. Farrer and his happy Family serve God day and night Thus did they alwayes behave themselves as in his presence And they did alwayes eat and drink by the strictest rules of Temperance eat and drink so as to be ready to rise at Midnight or at the call of a Watch-bell and perform their devotions to God And 't is fit to tell the Reader that many of the Clergy that were more inclin'd to practical prety and devotion then to doub ful and needless Disputations did often come to Gidden Hall and make themselves a part of that happy Society and stay a week or more and join with Mr. Farrer and the Family in these Devotions and assist and ease him or them in their Watch by Night and these various Devotions had neverless than two of the domestick Family in the Night and the Watch was alwayes kept in the Church or Oratory unless in extreme cold Winter-nights and then it was maintain'd in a Parlor which had a fire in it and the Parlor was fitted for that purpose and this course of piety and great liberality to his poor Neighbours Mr. Farrer maintain'd till his death which was in the year 1639. Mr. Farrers and Mr. Herberts devout lives were both so noted that the general report of their sanctity gave them occasion to renew that slight acquaintance which was begun at their being Contemporaries in Cambridge and this new holy friendship was maintain'd without any interview but only by loving and endearing Letters And one testimony of their friendship and pious designs may appear by Mr. Farrers commending the considerations of John Valdesso a Book which he had met with in his Travels and Translated out of Spanish into English to be examin'd and censur'd by Mr. Herbert which Book Mr. Herbert did read and return back with many marginal Notes as they be now printed with that excellent Book and with them Mr. Herberts affectionate Letter to Mr. Farrer This John Valdesso was a Spaniard and was for his Learning and Vertue much valued and lov'd by the great Emperour Charles the fifth whom Valdesso had followed as a Cavalier all the time of his long and dangerous Wars and when Valdesso grew old and weary of the World he took his fair opportunity to declare to the Emperour that his resolution was to decline His Majesties Service and betake himself to a quiet and contemplative life because there ought to be a vacancy of time betwixt fighting and dying The Emperor had himself for the same or other reasons put on the same resolutions but God and himself did then only know them and he did for those or other reasons desire Valdesso to consider well of what he had said but keep his purpose within his own breast till they two had another like opportunity of a friendly Discourse which Valdesso promis'd In the mean time the Emperour appoints privately a day for him and Valdesso to receive the Sacrament publickly and appointed an eloquent and devout Fryer to preach a Sermon of contempt of the World and of the happiness sand benefit of a quiet and contemplative life which the Fryer did most affectionately