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 a contrary Faction suddenly caused his Commitment to the Tower Sir Henry Wotton observing this though he was not of that Faction for the Earls followers were also divided into their several interests which incouraged the Earl to those undertakings which proved so fatal to him and divers of his Confederation yet knowing Treason to be so comprehensive as to take in even Circumstances and out of them to make such Conclusions as subtle States-men shall project either for their revenge or safety considering this he thought prevention by absence out of England a better security than to stay in it and plead his innocency in a Prison Therefore did he so soon as the Earl was apprehended very quickly and as privately glide through Kent to Dover without so much as looking toward his native and beloved Bocton and was by the help of favourable winds and liberal payment within Sixteen hours after his departure from London set upon the French shore where he heard shortly after that the Earl was Arraign'd Condemned and Beheaded that his Friend Mr. Cuffe was hang'd and divers other persons of Eminent Quality executed The Times did not look so favourably upon Sir Henry Wotton as to invite his return into England having therefore procured of his elder brother the Lord Wotton an assurance that his Annuity should be paid him in Italy thither he went happily renewing his intermitted friendship and interest and indeed his great content in a new conversation with his old acquaintance in that Nation and more particularly in Florence which City is not more eminent for the great Dukes Court then for the great recourse of men of choicest note for Learning and Arts in which number he there met with his old Friend Seignior Vietta a Gentleman of Venice and then taken to be Secretary to the Great Duke of Tâ—â—cany After some stay in Florence he went the 4th time to visit Rome where in the English Colledge he had very many Friends their humanity made them really so though they knew him to be a dissenter from many of their Principles of Religion and having enjoyed their company and satisfied himself concerning some Curiosities that did partly occasion his Journey thither he returned back to Florence where a most notable accident befell him an accident that did not onely find new employment for his choice Abilities but introduce him a knowledge and an interest with our King James then King of Scotland which I shall proceed to relate But first I am to tell the Reader That though Queen Elizabeth or she and her Council were never willing to declare her Successor yet James then King of the Scots was confidently believed by most to be the man upon whom the sweet trouble of Kingly Government would be imposed and the Queen declining very fast both by age and visible infirmities those that were of the Romish perswasion in point of Religion even Rome it self and those of this Nation knowing that the death of the Queen and the establishing of her Successor were taken to be critical dayes for destroying or establishing the Protestant Religion in this Nation did therefore improve all opportunities for preventing a Protestant Prince to succeed Her And as the Pope's Excommunication of Queen Elizabeth had both by the judgement and practice of the Jesuited Papist exposed Her to be warrantably destroyed so if we may believe an angry Adversary a secular Priest against a Jesuite you may believe that about that time there were many endeavours first to excommunicate and then to shorten the life of King James Immediately after Sir Henry Wotton's return from Rome to Florence which was about a year before the death of Queen Elizabeth Ferdinand the great Duke of Florence had intercepted certain Letters that discovered a design to take away the life of the then King of Scots The Duke abhorring the Fact and resolving to endeavour a prevention of it advised with his Secretary Vietta by what means a caution might be best given to that King and after consideration it was resolved to be done by Sir Henry Wotton whom Vietta first commended to the Duke and the Duke had noted and approved of above all the English that frequented his Court. Sir Henry was gladly called by his Friend Vietta to the Duke who after much profession of trust and friendship acquainted him with the secret and beâ—ng well instructed dispatched him into Scotland with Letters to the King and with those Letters such Italian Antidotes against poyson â—s the Scots till then had been strangers to Having partel from the Duke he took up the name and language of an Italian and thinking it best to avoâ—d the line of English intelligence and dangeâ— he posted into Norway and through that Câ—untry towards Scotland where he found the Kâ—ng at Sterling then he used means by Bernard Lindsey one of the Kings Bed-Chamber to procure him a speedy and private conference with His Majesty assuring him That the business which he was to negotiate was of such consequence as had caused the great Duke of Tuscany to enjoyn him suddenly â—o leave his Native Countrey of Italy to impart it to his King This being by Bernard Lindsey mâ—de known to the King the King after a little wonder mixt with jealousie to hear of an Italian Ambassador or Messenger required his name which was said to be Octavio Baldi and appointed him to be heard privately â—t a fixed hour that Evening When Octavio Baldi came to the Presenceâ— Chamber-door he was requested to lay aside his long Rapier which Italian-like he then wore and being entred the Chamber he found there with the King three or four Scotch Lords standing distant in several corrers of the Chamber At the sight of whom he made a stand which the King observing bâ—d him be bold and deliver his Message for he wouâ—d undertake for the secresie of all that were presenâ— Then did Octavio Baldi deliver his Letterâ—s and his Message to the King in Italian which â—hen the King had graciously â—eceived after a little pause Octavio Baldi steps to the Table anâ— whispers to the King in his own Language that he was an English man beseeching Him for a more private conference with His Majesty and that he might be concealed during hâ—s stay in that Nation which was promised and really performed by the King during all his abode there which was about three Months all which time was spent with much pleasantness to the King and with as much to Octavio Baldi himself as that Countrey could afford from which he departed as true an Italian as he came thither To the Duke at Florence he return'd with a fair and grateful account of his employment and within some few Months after his return there came certain News to Florence that Queen Elizabeth was dead and James King of the Scots proclaimed King of England The Duke knowing travel and business to be the best Schools of wisdom and that Sir Henry Wotton had been tutor'd in both advis'd him to return presently to England and joy the King with his new and better Title and there wait upon Fortune for a better employment When King James came into England he found amongst other of the late Queens Officers the Lord Wotton Comptroller of the House of whom he demanded If he knew one Henry Wotton that had spent much time in
Reader may be pleased to know that his Father was masculinely and lineally descended from a very antient Family in Wales where many of his name now live that deserve and have great reputation in that Countrey By his Mother he was descended of the Family of the famous and learned Sir Tho. Moor sometime Lord Chancellour of England as also from that worthy and laborious Judge Rastall who left Posterity the vast Statutes of the Law of this Nation most exactly abridged He had his first breeding in his Fathers house where a private Tutor had the care of him until the ninth year of his age and in his tenth year was sent to the University of Oxford having at that time a good command both of the French and Latine Tongue This and some other of his remarkable Abilities made one give this censure of him That this age had brought forth another Picus Mirandula of whom Story sayes That he was rather born than made wise by study There he remained in Hart-Hall having for the advancement of his studies Tutors of several Sciences to attend and instruct him till time made him capable and his learning expressed in publick exercises declared him worthy to receive his first degree in the Schools which he forbore by advice from his friends who being for their Religion of the Romish perswasion were conscionably averse to some parts of the Oath that is always tendered at those times and not to be refused by those that expect the titulary honour of their studies About the fourteenth year of his age he was transplanted from Oxford to Cambridge where that he might receive nourishment from both Soils he staid till his seventeenth year all which time he was a most laborious Student often changing his studies but endeavouring to take no degree for the reasons formerly mentioned About the seventeenth year of his age he was removed to London and then admitted into Lincolns-Inne with an intent to study the Law where he gave great testimonies of his Wit his Learning and of his Improvement in that profession which never served him for other use than an Ornament and Self-satisfaction His Father died before his admission into this Society and being a Merchant left him his portion in money it was 3000 l. His Mother and those to whose care he was committed were watchful to improve his knowledge and to that end appointed him Tutors in the Mathematicks and all the Liberal Sciences to attend him But with these Arts they were advised to instil particular Principles of the Romish Church of which those Tutors profest though secretly themselves to be members They had almost obliged him to their faith having for their advantage besides many opportunities the example of his dear and pious Parents which was a most powerful perswasion and did work much upon him as he professeth in his Preface to his Pseudo-Martyr a Book of which the Reader shall have some account in what follows He was now entered into the eighteenth year of his age and at that time had betrothed himself to no Religion that might give him any other denomination than a Christian. And Reason and Piety had both perswaded him that there could be no such sin as Schis me if an adherence to some visible Church were not necessary He did therefore at his entrance into the nineteenth year of his age though his youth and strength then promised him a long life yet being unresolved in his Religion he thought it necessary to rectifie all scruples that concerned that and therefore waving the Law and betrothing himself to no Art or Profession that might justly denominate him he begun to survey the Body of Divinity as it was then controverted betwixt the Reformed and the Roman Church And as Gods blessed Spirit did then awaken him to the search and in that industry did never forsake him they be his own words so he calls the same holy Spirit to witness this Protestationâ— that in that disquisition and search he proceeded with humility and diffidence in himself and by that which he took to be the safest way namely frequent Prayers and an indifferent affection to both parties and indeed truth had too much light about her to be hid from so sharp an Inquirer and he had too much ingenuity not to acknowledge he had found her Being to undertake this search he believed the Cardinal Bellarmine to be the best defender of the Roman cause and therefore betook himself to the examination of his Reasons The Cause was weighty and wilful delays had been inexcusable both towards God and his own Conscience he therefore proceeded in this search with all moderate haste and before the twentieth year of his age did shew the then Dean of Gloucester whose name my memory hath now lost all the Cardinals works marked with many weighty observations under his own hand which works were bequeathed by him at his death as a Legacy to a most dear Friend The year following he resolved to travel and the Earl of Essex going first the Cales and after the Island voyages he took the advantage of those opportunities waited upon his Lordship and was an eye-witness of those happy and unhappy employments But he returned not back into England till he had staid some years first in Italy and then in Spain where he made many useful observations of those Countreys their Laws and manner of Government and returned perfect in their Languages The time that he spent in Spain was at his first going into Italy designed for travelling the Holy Land and for viewing Jerusalem and the Sepulchre of our Saviour But at his being in the furthest parts of Italy the disappointment of Company or of a safe Convoy or the uncertainty of returns for Money into those remote parts denied him that happiness which he did often occasionally mention with a deploration Not long after his return into England that exemplary Pattern of Gravity and Wisdom the Lord Elsemore then Keeper of the Great Seal and Lord Chancellour of England taking notice of his Learning Languages and other Abilities and much affecting his Person and Condition took him to be his chief Secretary supposing and intending it to be an Introduction to some more weighty Employment in the State for which his Lordship did often protest he thought him very fit Nor did his Lordship in this time of Master Donne's attendance upon him account him to be so much his Servant as to forget he was his friend and to testifie it did always use him with much courtesie appointing him a place at his own Table to which he esteemed his Company and Discourse a great Ornament He continued that employment for the space of five years being daily useful and not mercenary to his Friends During which time he I dare not say unhappily fell into such a liking as with her approbation increased into a love with a young Gentlewoman that lived in that Family who was Niece to the Lady Elsemore and daughter to
continued bounty might intitle themselves to be his Alms-people for all these he made provision and so largely as having then six children living might to some appear more than proportionable to his Estate I forbear to mention any more lest the Reader may think I trespass upon his patience but I will beg his favour to present him with the beginning and end of his Will In the Name of the blessed and glorious Trinity Amen I John Donne by the mercy of Christ Jesus and by the calling of the Church of England Priest being at this time in good health and perfect understanding praised be God therefore do hereby make my last Will and Testament in manner and form following First I give my gracious God an intire sacrifice of body and soul with my most humble thanks for that assurance which his blessed Spirit imprints in me now of the salvation of the one and the Resurrection of the other and for that constant and chearful resolution which the same Spirit hath establisht in me to live and dye in the Religion now professed in the Church of England In expectation of that Resurrection I desire my body may be buried in the most private manner that may be in that place of St. Pauls Church London that the now Residentiaries have at my request designed for that purpose c. And this my lâ—st Will and Testament made in the fear of God whose mercy I humbly beg and constantly relie upon in Jesus Christ and in perfect love and charity with all the world whose pardon I ask from the lowest of my servants to the highest of my Superiors written all with my own hand and my name subscribed to every page of which there are five in number Sealed Decem. 13. 1630. Nor was this blessed sacrifice of Charity expressed onely at his death but in his life also by a cheerful and frequent visitation of any friend whose mind was dejected or his fortune necessitous he was inquisitive after the wants of Prisoners and redeemed many from thence that lay for their Fees or small Debts he was a continual Giver to poor Scholars both of this and foreign Nations Besides what he gave with his own hand he usually sent a Servant or a discreet and trusty Friend to distribute his Charity to all the Prisons in London at all the Festival times of the year especially at the Birth and Resurrection of our Saviour He gave an hundred pounds at one time to an old Friend whom he had known live plentifully and by a too liberal heart and carelesness became decayed in his Estate and when the receiving of it was denied by the Gentlemans saying He wanted not for as there be some spirits so generous as to labour to conceal and endure a sad poverty rather than those blushes that attend the confession of it so there be others to whom Nature and Grace have afforded such sweet and compassionate souls as to pity and prevent the Distresses of Mankind which I have mentioned because of Dr. Donne's Reply whose Answer was I know you want not what will sustain nature for a little will do that but my desire is that you who in the dayes of your plenty have cheered and raised the hearts of so many of your dejected friends would now receive this from me and use it as a cordial for the cheering of your own and so it was received He was an happy reconciler of many differences in the Families of his Friends and Kindred which he never undertook faintly for such undertakings have usually faint effects and they had such a faith in his judgement and impartiality that he never advised them to any thing in vain He was even to her death a most dutiful Son to his Mother careful to provide for her supportation of which she had been destitute but that God raised him up to prevent her necessities who having sucked in the Religion of the Roman Church with her Mothers Milk spent her Estate in foreign Countreys to enjoy a liberty in it and died in his house but three Moneths before him And to the end it may appear how just a Steward he was of his Lord and Masters Revenue I have thought fit to let the Reader know that after his entrance into his Deaneâ—y as he numbred his years he at the foot of a private account to which God and his Angels were only witnesses with him computed first his Revenue then what was given to the Poor and other Pious Uses and lastly what rested for him and his he then blest each years poor remainder with a thankful Prayer which for that they discover a more than common Devotion the Reader shall partake some of them in his own words So all is that remains this year Deo Opt. Max benigno Largitori à meâ— ab iis Quibus haec à me reservantur Gloria gratia in aeternum Amen So that this year God hath blessed me and mine with Multiplicatae a sunt super Nos misericordiae tuae Domine Da Domine ut quae ex immensâ Bonitate tuâ— nobis elargiri Dignatus sis in quorumcunque Manus devenerint in tuam Semper cedant gloriam Amen In fine horum sex Annorum manet Quid habeo quod non accepi à Domino Largitur etiam ut quae largitus est Sua iterum fiant bono eorum usu ut Quemadmodum nec officiis hujus mundi Nec loci in quo me posuit dignitati nec Servis nec egenis in toto hujus anni Curriculo mihi conscius sum me defuisse Ita liberi quibus quae supersunt Supersunt grato animo ea accipiant Et beneficum authorem recognescant Amen But I return from my long Digression We left the Author sick in Essex where he was forced to spend much of that Winter by reason of his disability to remove from that place And having never for almost twenty years omitted his personal attendance on His Majesty in that month in which he was to attend and preach to him nor having ever been left out of the Roll and number of Lent-Preachers and there being then in January 1630. a report brought to London or raised there that Dr. Donne was dead That report gave him occasion to write this following Letter to a dear friend Sir This advantage you and my other friends have by my frequent fevers that I am so much the oftner at the gates of Heaven and this advantage by the solitude and close imprisonment that they reduce me to after that I am so much the oftner at my prayers in which I shall never leave out your happiness and I doubt not among his other blessings God will add some one to you for my prayers A man would almost be content to dye if there were no other benefit in death to hear of so much sorrow and so much good testimony from good men as I God be blessed for it did upon the report of my death yet I
Italy is observed to breed the most vertuous and most vicious men of any Nation these two having been long complained of at Rome in the name of the State of Venice and no satisfaction being given to the Venetians they seised their persons and committed them to prison The justice or injustice of such power then used by the Venetians had formerly had some calm debates betwixt the present Pope Clement the Eighth and that Republick for he did not excommunicate them considering as I conceive that in the late Council of Trent it was at last after many Politique disturbances and delayes and indeavours to preserve the Popes present power declar'd in order to a general reformation of those many Errours which were in time crept into the Church that though Discipline and especial Excommunication be one of the chief sinews of Church government and intended to keep men in obedience to it for which end it was declar'd to be very profitable yet it was also declar'd and advised to be used with great sobriety and care because experience had informed them that when it was pronounced unadvisedly or rashly it became more contemn'd then fear'd And though this was the advice of that Council at the Conclusion of it which was not many years before this quarrel with the Venetians yet this prudent patient Pope Clement dying Pope Paul the fiâ—t who succeeded him being a man of a much hotter temper brought this difference with the Venetians to a much higher Contention objecting those late acts of that State to be a diminution of his just power and limited a time for their revocation threatning if he were not obeyed to proceed to excommunication of the Republick who still offered to shew both reason and ancient custom to warrant their Actions But this Pope contrary to his Predecessors moderation required absolute obedience without disputes Thus it continued for about a year the Pope still threatning Excommunication and the Venetians still answering him with fair speeches and no performance till at last the Popes zeal to the Apostolick Sea did make him to excommunicate the Duke the whole Senate and all their Dominions and then shut up all their Churches charging the whole Clergy to forbear all sacred Offices to the Venetians till their Obedience should render them capable of Absolution But this act of the Popes did the more confirm the Venetians in their resolution not to obey him And to that end upon the hearing of his Interdict they presently published by sound of Trumpet a Proclamation to this effect That whosoever hath received from Rome any Copy of a Papal interdict publish'd there well against the Law of God as against the Honour of this Nation shall presently render it to the Councel of Ten upon pain of death Then was the Inquisition presently suspended by Order of the State and the Flood-gates being thus set open any pleasant or scoffing wit might safely vent it self against the Pope either by free speaking or in Print Matters thus heightned the State advised with Father Paul a holy and Learned Fryer the Authour of the History of the Council of Trent whose advice was Neither to Provoke the Pope nor lose their own Right he declaring publickly in Print in the name of the State That the Pope was trusted to keep two Keyes one of Prudence and the other of Power And that if they were not both used together Power alone is not effectual in an Excommunication And thus it continued till a report was blown abroad that the Venetians were all turned Protestants which was believed by many for that it was observ'd the English Ambassadour was so often in conference with the Senate aud his Chaplain Mr. Bedel more often with Father Paul And also for that the Republick of Venice was known to give Commisâ—â—on to Gregory Justiniano then their Ambassadour in England to make all these proceedings known to the King and to crave a Promise of his assistance if need should require and in the mean time the King's advice and judgment which was the same that he gave to Pope Clement at his first coming to the Crown of England that Pope then moving him to an Union with the Roman Church namely To endeavour the calling of a free Council for the settlement of peace in Christendom And that he doubed not but that the French King and divers other Princes would joyn to assist in so good a work and in the mean time the sin of this Breach both with his and the Venetians Dominions must of necessity lie at the Pope's door In this contention which lasted several years the Pope grew still higher and the Venetians more resolv'd and careless still acquainting King James with their proceedings which was done by the help of Sir Henry Wotton Mr. Bedel and Padre Paulo whom the Venetians did then call to be one of their Consultors of State and with his Pen to defend their Cause which was by him so performed that the Pope saw plainly he had weakned his Power by exceeding it and offered the Venetians Absolution upon very easie terms which the Venetians still slighting did at last obtain by that which was scarce so much as a shew of acknowledging it For they made an order that in that day in which they were absolv'd there should be no publick rejoycing nor any Bonefires that night lest the Common people might judg they were absolved for committing a fault These Contests were the occasion of Padre Paulo his knowledge and interest with King James for whose sake principally Padre Paul compiled that eminent History of the remarkable Council of Trent which History was as fast as it was written sent in several sheets in Letters by Sir Henry VVotton Mr Bedel and Mr. Bedel and others unto King James and the then Bishop of Canterbury in England and there first made publick both in English and in the universal Language For eight years after Sir Henry Wottons going into Italy he stood fair and highly valued in the Kings opinion but at last became much clouded by an accident which I shall proceed to relate At his first going Embassadour into Italy as he passed through Germany he stayed some dayes at Augusta where having been in his former Travels well known by many of the best note for Learning and Ingeniousness those that are esteemed the Virtuosi of that Nation with whom he passing an evening in merriments was requested by Christopher Flecamore to write some Sentence in his Albo a Book of white paper which for that purpose many of the German Gentry usually carry about then and Sir Henry Wotton consenting to the motion took an occasion from some accidental discourse of the present Company to write a pleasant definition of an Embassadour in these very words Legatus est vir bonus peregre mismissus ad mentiendum Reipublicae causâ Which Sir Henry Wotton could have been content should have been thus Englished An Ambassadour is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good
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
with her presence I leave to the most hopeful Prince the Picture of the elected and crowned Queen of Bohemia his Aunt of clear and resplendent vertues through the clouds of her Fortune To my Lords Grace of Canterbury now being I leave my Picture of Divine Love rarely copied from one in the Kings Galleries of my presentation to his Majesty beseeching him to receive it as a pledge of my humble reverence to his great Wisdom And to the most worthy Lord Bishop of London Lord high Treasurer of England in true admiration of his Christian simplicity and contempt of earthly pomp I leave a Picture of Heraclitus bewailing and Democritus laughing at the world Most humbly beseeching the said Lord Archbishop his Grace and the Lord Bishop of London of both whose favours I have tasted in my life time to intercede with our most gracious Soveraign after my death in the bowels of Jesus Christ That out of compassionate memory of my long Services wherein I more studied the publick Honour then mine own Utility some Order may be taken out of my Arrears due in the Exchequer for such satisfaction of my Creditors as those whom I have Ordained Supervisors of this my â—ast Will and Testament shall present unto their Lordships without their farther trouble Hoping likewise in his Majesties most indubitable Goodness that he will keep me from all prejudice which I may otherwise suffer by any defect of formality in the Demand of my said Arrears To for a poor addition to his Cabinet I leave as Emblems of his attractive Vertues and Obliging Nobleness my great Load-stone and a piece of Amber of both kindes naturally united and onely differing in degree of Concoction which is thought somewhat rare Item A piece of Christal Sexangular as they grow all grasping divers several things within it which I bought among the Rhâ—â—tian Alps in the very place where it grew recommending most humbly unto his Lordship the reputation of my poor Name in the point of my debts as I have done to the forenamed Spiritual Lords and am heartily sorry that I have no better token of my humble thankfulness to his honoured Person It ' I leave to Sir Francis Windebank one of his Majesties principall Secretaries of State whom I found my great friend in point of Necessity the four Seasons of old Bassano to hang near the Eye in his Parlour being in little form which I bought at Venice where I first entred into his most worthy Acquaintance To the above named Doctor Bargrave Dean of Canterbury I leave all my Italian Books not disposed in this Will I leave to him likewise my Viol de Gamba which hath been twice with me in Italy in which Country I first contracted with him an unremovable Affection To my other Supervisor Mr. Nicholas Pey I leave my Chest or Cabinet of Instruments and Engines of all kinds of uses in the lower box whereof are some fit to be bequeathed to none but so entire an honest man as he is I leave him likewise forty pound for his pains in the solicitation of my Arrears and am sorry that my ragged Estate can reach no further to one that hath taken such care for me in the same kind during all my forreign Imployments To the Library at Eaton Colledg I leave all my Manuscripts not before disposed and to each of the Fellows a plain Ring â—of Gold enameld black all save the verge with this Motto within Amor unit omnia This is my last Will and Testament save that shall be added by a Schedule thereunto annexed Written on the first of October in the present year of our Redemption 1637. And subscribed by my self with the Testimony of these Witnesses Nich. Oudert Geo. Lash H. Wotton ANd now because the mind of man is best satisfied by the knowledge of Events I think fit to declare that every one that was named in his Will did gladly receive their Legacies by which and his most just and passionate desires for the payment of his debts they joyned in assisting the Overseers of his Will and by their joynt endeavours to the King then whom none was more willing conscionable satisfaction was given for his just debts The next thing wherewith I shall acquaint the Reader is That he went usually once a year if not oftner to the beloved Bocton-hall where he would say he found both cure for all cares by the company which he called the living furniture of that place and a restorative of his strength by the Connaturalness of that which he called his genial aire He yearly went also to Oxford But the Summer before his death he changed that for a journey to Winchester Colledge to which School he was first removed from Bocton And as he returned from Winchester towards Eaton Colledge said to a friend his Companion in that Journey How usefull was that advice of a Holy Monk who perswaded his friend to perform his Customary devotions in a constant place because in that place we usually meet with those very thoughts which possessed us at our last being there And I find it thus far experimentally true that at my now being in that School and seeing that very place where I sate when I was a boy occasioned me to remember those very thoughts of my youth which then possessed me sweet thoughts indeed that promised my growing years numerous pleasures without mixtures of cares and those to be enjoyed when time which I therefore thought slow pac'd had changed my youth into manhood But age and experience have taught me that those were but empty hopes And though my dayes have been many and those mixt with more pleasures than the sons of men do usually enjoy yet I have alwâ—â—es found it true as my Saviour did fore-tell Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof Nevertheless I saw there a succession of boyes using the same recreations and questionless possessed with the same thoughts that then possessed me Thus one generation succeeds another both in their lives recreations hopes fears and dâ—aths Aâ—ter his return from Winchester which was about nine Moneths before his death he fell into a dangerous Fever which weakned him much he was then also much troubled with an Asthma or continual short spitting but that infirmity he seemed to overcome in a good degree by leaving Tobacco which he had taken somewhat immoderately And about two moneths before his death in October 1639. he again fell into a Fever which though he seem'd to recover yet these still left him so weak that those common infirmities which were wont like civil Friends to visit him and after some short time to depart came both oftner and at last took up their constant habitations with him still weakning his body of which he grew dayly more sensible retiring oftner into his Study and making many Papers that had past his Pen both in the dayes of his youth and business useless by fire These and several unusual expressions to his Friends seemed
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
possest with a high degree of spiritual wickedness I mean with an innate restless pride and malice I do not mean the visible carnal sins of Gluttony and Drunkenness and the like from which good Lord deliver us but sins of a higher nature because they are more unlike God who is the God of love and mercy and order and peace and more like the Devil who is not a Glutton nor can be drunk and yet is a Devil but I mean those spiritual wickednesses of malice and revenge and an opposition to Government Men that joyed to be the Authors of misery which is properly his work that is the enemy and disturber of Mankind and greater sins than Gluttony or Drunkenness though some will not believe it And of this party there were also many whom prejudice and a furious Zeal had so blinded as to make them neither to hear reason nor adhere to the wayes of peace Men that were the dregs of Mankind whom Pride and Self-conceit had made to overvalue their own pitiful crooked wisdom so much as not to be asham'd to hold foolish and unmannerly Disputes against those men whom they ought to reverence and those Laws which they ought to obey Men that labour'd and joyed to find out the faults and to speak evil of Government and then to be the Authors of Confusion Men whom Company and Conversation and Custom had at last so blinded and made so insensible that these were sins that like those that perisht in the gainsaying of Core so these dyed without repenting of these spiritual wickednesses of which the practises of Copinger and Hacket in their lives and the death of them and their adherents are God knows too sad examples and ought to be cautions to those men that are inclin'd to the like spiritual wickednesses And in these Times which tended thus to Confusion there were also many others that pretended a tenderness of Conscience refusing to take an Oath before a lawful Magistrate and yet these men in their secret Conventicles did covenant and swear to each other to be assiduous and faithful in using their best endeavours to set up the Presbyterian Doctrine and Discipline and both in such a manner as they themselves had not yet agreed on To which end there were many that wandred up and down and were active in sowing Discontents and Sedition by venemous and secret murmurings and a dispersion of scurrilous Pamphlets and Libels against the Church and State but especially against the Bishops by which means together with indiscreet Sermons the common people became so phanatick as to believe the Bishops to be Antichrist and the only obstructers of Gods Discipline and then given over to such a desperate delusion as to find out a Text in the Revelation of St. John that Antichrist was to be overcome by the Sword So that those very men that began with tender and meek Petitions proceeded to Admonitions then to Satyrical Remonstrances and at last having numbred who was not and who was for their Cause they got a supposed certainty of so great a Party that they durst threaten first the Bishops then the Queen and Parliament to all which they were secretly encouraged by the Earl of Leicester then in great favour with Her Majesty and the reputed Cherisher and Patron general of these pretenders to Tenderness of Conscience his design being by their means to bring such an odium upon the Bishops as to procure an Alienation of their Lands and a large proportion of them for himself which avaritious desire had so blinded his reason that his ambitious and greedy hopes had almost put him into a present possession of Lambeth-house And to these undertakings the Non-conformists of this Nation were much encouraged and heightned by a Correspondence and Confederacy with that Brotherhood in Scotland so that here they became so bold that one told the Queen openly in a Sermon She was like an untamed Heyfer that would not be ruled by Gods people but obstructed his Discipline And in Scotland they were more confident for there they declared Her an Atheist and grew to such an height as not to be accountable for any thing spoken against Her nor for Treason against their own King if spoken in the Pulpit shewing at last such a disobedience to Him that His Mother being in England and then in distress and in prison and in danger of death the Church denied the King their prayers for her and at another time when He had appointed a day of Feasting the Church declared for a general Fast in opposition to His Authority To this height they were grown in both Nations and by these means there was distill'd into the minds of the common people such other venemous and turbulent principles as were inconsistent with the safety of the Church and State and these vented so daringly that beside the loss of life and limbs they were forced to use such other severities as will not admit of an excuse if it had not been to prevent Confusion and the perillous consequences of it which without such prevention would have been Ruine and Misery to this numerous Nation These Errours and Animosities were so remarkable that they begot wonder in an ingenious Italian who being about this time come newly into this Nation writ scoffingly to a friend in his own Countrey to this purpose That the Common people of England were wiser than the wisest of his wiser Nation for here the very Women and Shop-keepers were able to judge of Predestination and determine what Laws were fit to be made concerning Church-government and then what were fit to be obeyed or abolisht That they were more able or at least thought so to raise and determine perplext Cases of Conscience than the wisest of the most learned Colledges in Italy That men of the slightest Learning and the most ignorant of the Common people were mad for a new or Super or Re-reformation of Religion and that in this they appeared like that man who would never cease to whet and whet his knife till there was no steel left to make it useful And he concluded his Letter with this observation That those very men that were most busie in Oppositions and Disputations and Controversies of finding out the faults of their Governors had usually the least of Humility and Mortification or of the power of Godliness And to heighten all these Discontents and Dangers there was also sprung up a generation of Godless men men that had so long given way to their own lust of delusion and so highly opposed the blessed motions of his Spirit and the inward light of their own Consciences that they had thereby sinned themselves into a belief which they would but could not believe into a belief which is repugnant even to humane Natuâ—e for the Heathens believe that there are many gods but these had sin'd themselves into a belief that there was no God so finding nothing in themselves but what was worse than nothing began
Sacriledge and a third of Christian Obedience to Princes the last being occasioned by Gretzerus the Jesuite And it is observable that when in a time of Churchtumults Beza gave his reasons to the Chancellor of Scotland for the abrogation of Episcopacy in that Nation partly by Letters and more fully in a Treatise of a threefold Episcopacy which he calls Divine Humane and Satanical this Dr. Saravia had by the help of Bishop Whitgift made such an early discovery of their intentions that he had almost as soon answered that Treatise as it became publick and therein discovered how Beza's opinion did contradict that of Calvins and his adherents leaving them to interfere with themselves in point of Episcopacy but of these Tracts it will not concern me to say more than that they were most of them dedicated to his and the Church of Englands watchful Patron John Whitgift the Archbishop and printed about the time in which Mr. Hooker also appeared first to the World in the publication of his first four Books of Ecclesiastical Polity This friendship being sought for by this learned Doctor you may believe was not denied by Mr. Hooker who was by fortune so like him as to be engaged against Mr. Travers Mr. Cartwright and others of their judgement in a Controversie too like Dr. Saravia's so that in this year of 1595 and in this place of Borne these two excellent persons began a holy friendship increasing daily to so high and mutual affections that their two wills seemed to be but one and the same and their designs both for the glory of God and peace of the Church still assisting and improving each others vertues and the desired comforts of a peaceable piety which I have willingly mentioned because it gives a foundation to some things that follow This Parsonage of Borne is from Canterbury three miles and near to the common Road that leads from that City to Dover in which Parsonage Mr. Hooker had not been Twelve months but his Books and the innocency and sanctity of his life became so remarkable that many turn'd out of the Road and others Scholars especially went purposely to see the man whose life and learning were so much admired and alas as our Saviour said of St. John Baptist What went they out to see a man cloathed in purple and fine linnen no indeed but an obscure harmless man a man in poor Cloaths his Loyns usually girt in a course Gown or Canonical Coat of a mean stature and stooping and yet more lowly in the thoughts of his Soul his Body worn out not with Age but Study and Holy Mortifications his Face full of Heat-pimples begot by his unactivity and sedentary life And to this true character of his person let me add this of his disposition and behaviour God and Nature blest with so blessed a bashfulness that as in his younger dayes his Pupils might easily look him out of countenance so neither then nor in his age did he ever willingly look any man in the face and was of so mild and humble a nature that his poor Parish Clerk and he did never talk but with both their Hats on or both off at the same time And to this may be added that though he was not purblind yet he was short or weak-sighted and where he fixt his eyes at the beginning of his Sermon there they continued till it was ended and the Reader has a liberty to believe that his modesty and dim-sight were some of the reasons why he trusted Mrs. Churchman to choose his Wife This Parish-Clerk lived till the third or fourth year of the late Long Parliament betwixt which time and Mr. Hookers death there had come many to see the place of his Burial and the Monument dedicated to his memory by Sir William Cooper who still lives and the poor Clerk had many rewards for shewing Mr. Hookers Grave-place and his said Monument and did alwayes hear Mr. Hooker mentioned with commendations and reverence to all which he added his own knowledge and observations of his humility and holiness and in all which Discourses the poor man was still more confirm'd in his opinion of Mr. Hookers vertues and learning but it so fell out that about the said third or fourth year of the Long Parliament the then present Parson of Borne was Sequestred you may guess why and a Genevian Minister put into his good Living this and other like Sequestrations made the Clerk express himself in a wonder and say They had Sequestred so many good men that he doubted if his good Master Mr. Hooker had lived till now they would have Sequestred him too It was not long before this intruding Minister had made a Party in and about the â—aid Parish that were desirous to receive the Sacrament as in Geneva to which end the day was appointed for a select Company and Forms and Stools set about the Altar or Communion-Table for them to sit and eat and drink but when they went about this work there was a want of some Joint-stools which the Minister sent the Clerk to fetch and then to fetch Cushions when the Clerk saw them begin to sit down he began to wonder but the Minister bad him cease wondering and lock the Church-door to whom he replied Pray take you the Keyes and lock me out I will never come more into this Church for all men will say my Master Hooker was a good Man and a good Scholar and I am sure it was not used to be thus in his dayes And the report says the old man went presently home and dyed I do not say dyed immediately but within a few dayes after But let us leave this grateful Clerk in his quiet Grave and return to Mr. Hooker himself continuing our observations of his Christian behaviour in this place where he gave a holy Valediction to all the pleasures and allurements of Earth possessing his Soul in a vertuous quietness which he maintained by constant Study Prayers and Meditations his use was to preach once every Sunday and he or his Curate to Catechise aâ—ter the second Lesson in the Evening Prayer his Sermons were neither long nor earnest but uttered with a grave zeal and an humble voice his eyes alwayes fixt on one place to prevent his imagination from wandring insomuch that he seem'd to study as he spake the design of his Sermons as indeed of all his Discourses was to shew Reasons for what he spake and with these Reasons such a kind of Rhetorick as did rather convince and perswade than frighten men into piety studying not so much for matter which he never wanted as for apt illustrations to inform and teach his unlearned Hearers by familiar Examples and then make them better by convincing Applications never labouring by hard words and then by needless distinctions and sub-distinctions to amuse his Hearers and get glory to himself but glory only to God Which intention he would often say was as discernable in a Preacher as an Artificial
called Basilicon Doron and their Orator was to acknowledge this great honour and return their gratitude to His Majesty for such a condescention at the close of which Letter he writ Quid Vaticanam Bodleianamque objicis hospes Unicus est nobis Bibliotheca Liber This Letter was writ in such excellent Latin was so full of Conceits and all the expressions so suted to the genius of the King that he inquired the Orators name and then ask'd William Earl of Pembroke if he knew him whose answer was That he knew him very well and that he was his Kinsman but he lov'd him more for his learning and vertue than for that he was of his name and family At which answer the King smil'd and asked the Earl leave that he might love him too for he took him to be the Jewel of that University The next occasion that he had to shew his great Abilities was with them to shew also his great affection to that Church in which he received his Baptism and of which he profest himself a member and the occasion was this There wâ—s one Andrew Melvin a Gentleman of Scotland who was in his own Countrey possest with an aversness if not a hatred of Church-government by Bishops and he seem'd to have a like aversness to our manner of Publick Worship and of Church-prayers and Ceremonies This Gentleman had travail'd France and resided so long in Geneva as to have his opinions the more confirm'd in him by the practice of that place from which he return'd into England some short time before or immediately after Mr. Herbert was made Orator This Mr. Melvin was a man of learning and was the Master of a great wit a wit full of knots and clenches a wit sharp and satyrical exceeded I think by none of that Nation but their Bucanen At Mr. Melvins return hither he writ and scattered in Latin many pieces of his wit against our Altars our Prayers and our Publick Worship of God in which Mr. Herbert took himself to be so much concern'd that as fast as Melvin writ and scatter'd them Mr. Herbert writ and scatter'd answers and reflections of the same sharpness upon him and them I think to the satisfaction of all un-ingaged persons But this Mr. Melvin was not only so busie against the Church but at last so bold with the King and State that he rayl'd and writ himself into the Tower at which time the Lady Arabella was an innocent prisoner there and he pleas'd himself much in sending the next day after his Commitment these two Verses to the good Lady which I will under-write because they may give the Reader a taste of his others which were like these Causa tibi mecum est communis Carceris Ara-Bella tibi causa est Araque sacra mihi I shall not trouble my Reader with an account of his enlargement from that Prison or his Death but tell him Mr. Herberts Verses were thought so worthy to be preserv'd that Dr. Duport the learned Dean of Peterborough hath lately collected and caus'd them to be printed as an honourable memorial of his friend Mr. George Herbert and the Cause he undertook And in order to my third and last observation of his great Abilities it will be needful to declare that about this time King James came very often to hunt at New-market and Royston and was almost as often invited to Cambridge where his entertainment was suted to his pleasant humor and where Mr. George Herbert was to welcome him with Gratulations and the Applauses of an Orator which he alwayes perform'd so well that he still grew more into the Kings favour insomuch that he had a particular appointment to attend His Majesty at Royston where after a Discourse with him His Majesty declar'd to his Kinsman the Earl of Pembroke That he found the Orators learning and wisdom much above his age or wit The year following the King appointed to end His progress at Cambridge and to stay there certain dayes at which time he was attended by the great Secretary of Nature and all Learning Sir Francis Bacon Lord Virulam and by the ever memorable and learned Dr. Andrews Bishop of Winchester both which did at that time begin a desir'd friendship with our Orator Upon whom the first put such a value on his judgement that he usually desir'd his approbation before he would expose any of his Books to be printed and thought him so worthy of his friendship that having translated many of the Prophet Davids Psalms into English Verse he made George Herbert his Patron of them by a publick dedication of them to him as the best Judge of Divine Poetry And for the learned Bishop it is observable that at that time there fell to be a modest debate about Predestination and Sanctity of life of both which the Orator did not long after send the Bishop some safe and useful Aphorisms in a long Letter written in Greek which was so remarkable for the language and matter that after the reading of it the Bishop put it into his bosom and did often shew it to Scholars both of this and forreign Nations but did alwayes return it back to the place where he first lodg'd it and continu'd it so near his heart till the last day of his life To these I might add the long and intire friendship betwixt him and Sir Henry Wotton and Dr. Donne but I have promis'd to contract my self and shall therefore only add one testimony to what is also mentioned in the Life of Dr. Donne namely that a little before his death he caused many Seals to be made and in them to be ingraven the figure of Christ crucified on an Anchor which is the emblem of hope and of which Dr. Donne would often say Crux mihi Anchora These Seals he sent to most of those friends on which he put a value and at Mr. Herberts death these Verses were found wrap't up with that Seal which was by the Doctor given to him When my dear Friend could write no more He gave this Seal and so gave ore When winds and waves rise highest I am sure This Anchor keeps my faith that me secure At this time of being Orator he had learnt to understand the Italian Spanish and French Tongues very perfectly hoping that as his Predecessor so he might in time attain the place of a Secretary of State being then high in the Kings favour and not meanly valued and lov'd by the most eminent and most powerful of the Court Nobility This and the love of a Court-conversation mixt with a laudable ambition to be something more then he then was drew him often from Cambridge to attend the King who then gave him a Sine Cure which fell into His Majesties disposal I think by the death of the Bishop of St. Asaph It was the same that Queen Elizabeth had formerly given to her Favourite Sir Philip Sidney and valued to be worth an hundred and twenty pound per
occasion to interpret the Scripture to Cleopas and that other Disciple which he met with and accompanied too in their journey to Emmaus so Mr. Herbert in his path toward Heaven did daily take any fair occasion to instruct the ignorant or comfort any that were in affliction and did alwayes confirm his precepts by shewing mercy And he was most happy in his Wifes unforc'd compliance with his acts of Charity whom he made his Almoner and paid constantly into her hand a tenth penny of what money he receiv'd for Tythe and gave her a power to dispose that to the poor of his Parish and with it a power to dispose a tenth part of the Corn that came yearly into his Barn which trust she did most faithfully perform and would often offer to him an account of her stewardship and as often beg an inlargement of his bounty for she rejoyc'd in the employment and this was usually laid out by her in Blankets and Shooes for some such poor people as she knew to stand in most need of them This as to her Charity And for his own he set no limits to it nor did ever turn his face from any that he saw in want but would relieve them especially his poor Neighbours to the meanest of whose Houses he would go and inform himself of their wants and relieve them chearfully if they were in distress and would alwayes praise God as much for being willing as for being able to do it And when he was advis'd by a friend to be more frugal because he might have Children his answer was He would not see the danger of want so far off but being the Scripture does so commend Charity as to tell us that Charity is the top of Christian vertues the covering of sins the fulfilling of the Law the life of Faith And that Charity hath a promise of the blessings of this life and of a reward in that life which is to come being these and more excellent things are in Scripture spoken of thee O Charity and being all my Tythes and Church-dues are a Deodate from thee O my God make me O my God so far to trust thy promise as to return them back to thee and by thy grace I will do so in distributing them to any of thy poor members that are in distress or do but bear the image of Jesus my Master Sir said he to his friend my Wife hath a competent maintenance secur'd her after my death and therefore as this is my prayer so this my resolution shall by Gods grace be unalterable This may be some account of the excellencies of the active part of his life and thus he continued till a Consumption so weakned him as to confine him to his House or to the Chappel which does almost join to it in which he continued to read Prayers constantly twice every day though he were very weak in one of which times of his reading his Wife observ'd him to read in pain and told him so and that it wasted his spirits weakned him and he confess'd it but said His life could not be better spent than in the service of his Master Jesus who had done and suffered so much for him But he said I will not be wilful for Mr. Bostock shall be appointed to read Prayers for me to morrow and I will now be only a hearer of them till this mortal shall put on immortality And Mr. Bostock did the next day undertake and continue this happy employment till Mr. Herberts death This Mr. Bostock was a learned and vertuous man an old friend of Mr. Herberts and then his Cuâ—are to the Church of Fulston which is a mile from Bemerton to which Church Bemerton is but a Chappel of ease And this Mr. Bostock did also constantly supply the Church-service for Mr. Herbert in that Chappel when the Musick-meeting at Salisbury caus'd his absence from it About one month before his death his friend Mr. Farrer for an account of whom I am by promise indebted to the Reader and intend to make him sudden payment sent Mr. Edmund Duncon who is now Rector of Fryer Barnet in the County of Middlesex from his House of Gidden Hall which is near to Huntington to see Mr. Herbert and to assure him he wanted not his daily prayers for his recovery and Mr. Duncon was to return back to Gidden with an account of Mr. Herberts condition Mr. Duncon found him at that time lying on his Bed or on a Pallet but at his seeing Mr. Duncon he rais'd himself vigorously saluted him and with some earnestness inquir'd the health of his brother Farrer of which Mr. Duncon satisfied him and after a conference of Mr. Farrers holy life and the manner of his constant serving God he said to Mr. Duncon Sir I see by your habit that you are a Priest and I desire you to pray with me which being granted Mr. Duncon ask'd him what Prayers to which Mr. Herberts answer was O Sir the Prayers of my Mother the Church of England no other Prayers are equal to them but at this time I beg of you to pray only the Litany for I am weak and faint and Mr. Duncon did so After which and some other discourse of Mr. Farrer Mrs. Herbert provided Mr. Duncon a plain Supper and a clean Lodging and he betook himself to rest This Mr. Duncon tells me and that at his first view of Mr. Herbert he saw majesty and humility so reconcil'd in his looks and behaviour as begot in him an awful reverence for his person and sayes his discourse was so pious and his motion so gentile and meek that after almost forty years they remain still fresh in his memory The next morning Mr. Duncon left him and betook himself to a Journey to Bath but with a promise to return back to him within five dayes and he did so but before I shall say any thing of what discourse then fell betwixt them two I will pay my promis'd account of Mr. Farrer Mr. Nicholas Farrer who got the reputation of being call'd Saint Nicholas at the age of six years was born in London and doubtless had good education in his youth but certainly was at a fit age made Fellow of Clare-Hall in Cambridge where he continued to be eminent for his temperance and learning About the 26 th year of his Age he betook himself to Travel in which he added to his Latin and Greek a perfect knowledge of all the Languages spoken in the Western parts of our Christian world and understood well the principles of their Religion and their manner and the reasons of their worship In this his Travel he met with many perswasions to come into a communion with that Church which calls it self Catholick but he return'd from his Travels as he went eminent for his obedience to his Mother the Church of England In his absence from England Mr. Farrers father who was a Merchant allow'd him a liberal maintenance and not long after his