overthrown and then he proceeds to discover that way which Natural men and some others have mistaken to be the way by which they hope to attain true and everlasting happiness and having discovered the mistaken he proceeds to direct to that True way by which and no other everlasting life and blessedness is attainable and these two wayes he demonstrates thus they be his own words that follow That the way of Nature This the way of Grace the end of that way Salvation merited presupposing the righteousness of mens works their Righteousness a Natural ability to do them that ability the goodness of God which created them in such perfection But the end of this way Salvation bestowed upon men as a gift presupposing not their righteousness but the forgiveness of their Unrighteousness Justification their Justification not their Natural ability to do good but their hearty Sorrow for not doing and unfeigned belief in him for whose sake not doers are accepted which is their vocation their Vocation the Election of God taking them out of the number of lost Children their Election a Mediator in whom to be elected this mediation inexplicable mercy this mercy supposing their misery for whom he vouchsafed to dye and make himself a Mediator And he also declareth There is no meritorious cause for our Justification but Christ no effectual but his Mercy and sayes also We deny the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we abuse disanul and annihilate the benefit of his Passion if by a proud imagination we believe we can merit everlasting life or can be worthy of it This belief he declareth is to destroy the very essence of our Justification and he makes all opinions that border upon this to be very dangerous Yet nevertheless and for this he was accused Considering how many vertuous and just men how many Saints and Martyrs have had their dangerous opinions amongst which this was one that they hoped to make God some part of amends by voluntary punishments which they laid upon themselves because by this or the like erroneous opinions which do by consequence overthrow the merits of Christ shall man be so bold as to write on their Graves such men are demned there is for them no Salvation St. Austin saies errare possum Haereticus esse nolo And except we put a difference betwixt them that err Ignorantly and them that Obstinately persist in it how is it possible that any man should hope to be saved give me a Pope or a Cardinal whom great afflictions have made to know himself whose heart God hath touched with true sorrow for all his Sins and filled with a Love of Christ and his Gospel whose eyes are willingly open to see the truth and his mouth ready to renounce all errour this one opinion of merit excepted which he thinketh God will require at his hands and because he wanteth trembleth and is discouraged and yet can say Lord cleanse me from all my secret sins shall I think because of this or a like errour such men touch not so much as the Hem of Christs Garment if they do wherefore should I doubt but that vertue may proceed from Christ to save them no I will not be afraid to say to such a one you err in your opinion but be of good comfort you have to do with a merciful God who will make the best of that little which you hold well aâ—d not with a captious Sophister who gathereth the worst out of every thing in which you are mistaken But it will be said The admittance of Merit in any degree overthroweth the foundation excludeth from the hope of mercy from all possibility of Salvation And now Mr. Hookers own words follow What though they hold the truth sincerely in all other parts of Christian Faith although they have in some measure all the Vertues and Graces of the Spirit although they have all other tokens of Gods Children in them although they be far from having any proud opinion that they shall be saved by the worthiness of their deeds although the onely thing that troubleth and molesteth them be a little too much dejection somewhat too great a fear arising from an erroneous conceit that God will require a worthiness in them which they are grieved to finde wanting in themselves although they be not obstinate in this opinion although they be willing and would be glad to forsake it if any one reason were brought sufficient to disprove it although the onely cause why they do not forsake it ere they dye be their Ignorance of that means by which it might be disproved although the cause why the Ignorance in this point is not removed be the want of knowledge in such as should be able and are not to remove it Let me dye sayes Mr. Hooker if it be ever proved that simply an Errour doth exclude a Pope or Cardinal in such a case utterly from hope of life Surely I must confess that if it be an Errour to think that God may be mercifull to save men even when they err my greatest comfort is my error were it not for the love I bear to this error I would never wish to speak or to live I was willing to take notice of these two points as supposing them to be very material and that as they are thus contracted they may prove useful to my Reader as also for that the answers be arguments of Mr. Hookers great and clear reason and equal Charity Other exceptions were also made against him as That he prayed before and not after his Sermons that in his Prayers he named Bishops that he kneeled both when he prayed and when he received the Sacrament and sayes Mr. Hooker in his defence other exceptions so like these as but to name I should have thought a greater fault then to commit them And 't is not unworthy the noting that in the manage of so great a controversie a sharper reproof than this and one like it did never fall from the happy pen of this Humble man That like it was upon a like occasion of exceptions to which his answer was Your next argument consists of railing and of reasons to your Railing I say nothing to your Reasons I say what follows And I am glad of this fair occasion to testifie the Dove-like temper of this meek this matchless man and doubtless if Almighty God had blest the Dissenters from the Ceremonies and Discipline of this Church with a like measure of Wisdom and Humility instead of their pertinacious zeal then Obedience and Truth had kissed each other then Peace and Piety had flourished in our Nation and this Church and state had been blest like Jerusalem that is at unity with it self But this can never be expected till God shall bless the common people with a belief that Schism is a Sin and That there may be offences taken which are not given and That Laws are not made for private men to dispute but to Obey And this also may be
Viri seraphici Joannis Donne Quadragenarij Effigies vera Qui post eam aetatem Sacris initiatus Ecclesiae S ti Pauli Decanus obijt An̄o Dōm 1631 o AEtatis suae 59 o THE LIVES Of D r. John Donne Sir Henry Wotton M r. Richard Hooker M r. George Herbert Written by IZAAK WALTON To which are added some Letters written by Mr. George Herbert at his being in Cambridge with others to his Mother the Lady Magdalen Herbert written by John Donne afterwards Dean of St. Pauls Eccles. 44. 7. These were honourable men in their Generations LONDON Printed by Tho. Newcomb for Richard Marriott Sold by most Booksellers 1670. To the Right Honorable And Reverend Father in GOD GEORGE Lord Bishop of Winchester and Prelate of the most noble Order of the Garter My Lord I Did some years past present you with a plain relation of the life of Mr Richard Hooker that humble man to whose memory Princes and the most learned of this Nation have paid a reverence at the mention of his name And now with Mr. Hookers I present you also the life of that pattern of primitive piety Mr. George Herbert and with his the life of Doctor Donne and your friend Sir Henry Wotton all reprinted The two first were written under your roof for which reason if they were worth it you might justly challenge a Dedication And indeed so you might of Doctor Donnes and Sir Henry Wottons because if I had been fit for this Undertaking it would not have been by acquir'd Learning or Study but by the advantage of forty years friendship and thereby the hearing of and discoursing with your Lordship which hath inabled me to make the relation of these Lives passable in an eloquent and captious age And indeed my Lord though these relations be well-meant Sacrifices to the Memory of these Worthy men yet I have so little Confidence in my performance that I beg pardon for superscribing your name to them And desire all that know your Lordship to apprehend this not as a Dedication at least by which you receive any addition of honour but rather as an humble and a more publick acknowledgment of your long continued and your now daily Favours of My Lord Your most affectionate and most humble Servant Izaak Walton To the Reader THough the several Introductions to these several Lives have partly declared the reasons how and why I undertook them yet since they are come to be review'd and augmented and reprinted and the four are become one Book I desire leave to inform you that shall become my Reader that when I look back upon my mean abilities 't is not without some little wonder at my self that I am come to be publickly in print And though I have in those Introductions declar'd some of the accidental reasons yet let me add this to what is there said that by my undertaking to collect some notes for Sir Henry Wottons writing the life of Doctor Donne and Sir Henry's dying before he perform'd it I became like those that enter easily into a Law-sute or a quarrel and having begun cannot make a fair retreat and be quiet when they desire it And really after such a manner I became ingag'd into a necessity of writing the life of Doctor Donne Contrary to my first Intentions And that begot a like necessity of writing the life of his and my honoured friend Sir Henry Wotton And having writ these two lives I lay quiet twenty years without a thought of either troubling my self or others by any new ingagement in this kind But about that time Doct. Ga. then Lo. B. of Exeter publisht the Life of Mr. Ric. Hooker so he called it with so many dangerous mistakes both of him and his Books that discoursing of them with his Grace Gilbert that now is Lord Arch bishop of Canterbury he injoyned me to examine some Circumstances and then rectifie the Bishops mistakes by giving the World a truer account of Mr. Hooker and his Books and I know I have done so And indeed till his Grace had laid this injunction upon me I could not admit a thought of any fitness in me to undertake it but when he had twice injoyn'd me to it I then trusted his judgment and submitted to his Commands considering that if I did not I could not forbear accusing my self of disobedience And indeed of Ingratitude for his many favours Thus I became ingaged into the third Life For the life of Mr. George Herbert I profess it to be a Free-will-offering and writ chiefly to please my self but not without some respect to posterity for though he was not a man that the next age can forget yet many of his particular acts and vertues might have been neglected or lost if I had not collected and presented them to the Imitation of those that shall succeed us for I conceive writing to be both a safer and truer preserver of mens Vertuous actions then tradition I am to tell the Reader that though this life of Mr. Herbert was not by me writ in haste yet I intended it a Review before it should be made publick but that was not allowed me by reason of my absence from London when 't was printing so that the Reader may finde in it some double expressions and some not very proper and some that might have been contracted and some faults that are not justly chargable upon me but the Printer and yet I hope none so great as may not by this Confession purchase pardon from a good natur'd Reader And now I wish that as Josephus that learned Jew and others so these men had also writ their own lives and since 't is not the fashion of these times that their friends would do it for them before delayes make it too difficult And I desire this the more because 't is an honour due to the dead and a debt due to those that shall live and succeed us For when the next age shall as this do's admire the Learning and clear Reason which Doctor Sanderson the late Bishop of Lincoln hath demonstrated in his Sermons and other writings who if they love vertue would not rejoyce to know that this good man was as remarkable for the meekness and innocence of his life as for his great learning and as remarkable for his Fortitude in his long and patient suffering under them that then call'd themselves the Godly Party for that Doctrine which he had preach'd and printed in the happy daies of the Nations and the Churches peace And who would not be content to have the like account of Doctor Field and others of noted learning And though I cannot hope that my example or reason can perswade to this Yet I please my self that I shall conclude my Preface with wishing that it were so J. W. ERRATA If these mistakes which spoil the sence be first corrected by the Reader he will do me some and himself a greater Courtesy Doct. Donne Pag. 29. lin 15. r. perform 30.
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
Winchester who then was the Kings Almoner About this time there grew many disputes that concerned the Oath of Supremacy and Allegiance in which the King had appeared and engaged himself by his publick writings now extant and his Majesty discoursing with Mr. Donne concerning many of the reasons which are usually urged against the taking of those Oaths apprehended such a validity and clearness in his stating the Questions and his Answers to them that his Majesty commanded him to bestow some time in drawing the Arguments into a method and then write his Answers to them and having done that not to send but be his own messenger and bring them to him To this he presently applyed himself and within six weeks brought them to him under his own hand-writing as they be now printed the Book bearing the name of Pseudo-martyr When the King had read and considered that Book he perswaded Mr. Donne to enter into the Ministry to which at that time he was and appeared very unwilling apprehending it such was his mistaking modesty to be too weighty for his Abilities and though his Majesty had promised him a favour and many persons of worth mediated with his Majesty for some secular employment for him to which his Education had apted him and particularly the Earl of Somerset when in his height of favour who being then at Thâ—obalds with the King where one of the Clerks of the Council died that night and the Earl having sent for Mr. Donne to come to him immediately said Mr. Donne To testifie the reality of my Affection and my purpose to preferre you Stay in this Garden till I go up to the King and bring you worâ— that you are Clark of the Council doubt not my doing this for I know the King loves you and will not deny me But the King gave a positive denyal to all requests and having a discerning spirit replyed I know Mr. Donne is â— learned man has the abilities of a learned Divine and will prove a powerful Preacher and my desire is to prefer him that way After that time as he professeth The King descended to a perswasion almost to a solicitation of him to enter into sacred Orders which though hâ— then denyed not yet he deferred it for almost three years All which time he applyed himself to an incessant study of Textual Divinity and to the attainment of a greater perfection in the learned Languages Greek and Hebrew In the first and most blessed times of Christianity when the Clergy were look'd upon with reverence and deserved it when they overcame their opposers by high examples of Vertue by a blessed Patience and long Suffering those onely were then judged worthy the Ministry whose quiet and meek spirits did make them look upon that sacred calling with an humble adoration and fear to undertake it which indeed requires such great degrees of humility and labour and care that none but such were then thought worthy of that celestial dignity And such onely were then sought out and solicited to undertake it This I have mentioned because forwardness and inconsideation could not in Mr. Donne as in many others be an argument of insufficiency or unfitness for he had considered long and had many strifes within himself concerning the strictness of life and competency of learning required in such as enter into sacred Orders and doubtless considering his own demerits did humbly ask God with St. Paul Lord who is sufficient for these things and with meek Moses Lord who am I And sure if he had consulted with flesh and blood he had not put his hand to that holy lough But God who is able to prevail wrestled with him as the Angel did with Jacob and marked him mark'd him for his own mark'd him with a blessing a blessing of obedience to the motions of his blessed Spirit And then as he had formerly asked God with Moses Who am I So now being inspired with an apprehension of Gods particular mercy to him in the Kings and others solicitations of him he came to aâ—â—â— King Davids thankful question Lord who am I thaâ— thou art so mindful of me So mindful oâ— me as to lead me for more then forty years through this wilderness of the many temptations and various turnings of a dangerous life so merciful to me as to move the learnedâ—st of Kings to descend to move me to serve at thy Alter so merciful to me as at last to move my lâ—â—a to imbrace this holy motion thy motions will and do imbrace And I now say with the blessed Virgin Be it with thy servant as seemeth best in thy sight and so blessed Jesus I â—â— take the cup of Salvation and will call upoâ— thy Name and will preach thy Gospel Such strifes as these St. Austine had wheâ— St. Ambrose indeavoured his conversion to Christianity with which he confesseth he acquaiâ—â—ted his friend Alipius Our learned Author a man sit to write after no mean Copy dâ— the like And declaring his intentions to â—â— dear friend Dr. King then Bishop of London man famous in his generation and no strangth to Mr. Donnes abilities For he had been Chaplain to the Lord Chancellor at the tiâ—â— of Mr. Donnes being his Lordships Secretaryâ— That Reverend man did receive the news wiâ—â— much gladness and after some expressions â—â— joy and a perswasion to be constant in his pious purpose he proceeded with all convenient speed to ordain him both Deacon and Priest Now the English Church had gain'd a second St. Austine for I think none was so like him before his Conversion none so like St. Ambrose after it and if his youth had the infirmities of the one his age had the excellencies of the other the learning and holiness of both And now all his studies which had been occasionally diffused were all concentred in Divinity Now he had a new calling new thoughts and a new imployment for his wit and eloquence Now all his earthly affections were changed into divine love and all the faculties of his own soul were ingaged in the Conversion of others In preaching the glad tidings of Remission to repenting Sinners and peace to each troubled soul. To these he app'yed himself with all care and diligence and now such a change was wrought in him that he could say with David Oh how amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord God of Hosts Now he declared openly that when he required a temporal God gave him a spiritual blessing And that he was now gladder to be a door-keeper in the house of God then he could be to injoy the noblest of all temporal imployments Presently after he entred into his holy profession the King sent for him and made him his Chaplain in ordinary and promised to take a particular care for his preferment And though his long familiarity with Scholars and persons of greatest quality was such as might have given some men boldness enough to have preached to any eminent Auditory yet his modesty in this
perceive it went not through all for one writ to me that some and he said of my friends conceived I was not so ill as I pretended but withdrew my self to live at ease discharged of preaching It is an unfriendly and God knows an ill-grounded interpretation for I have alwayes been sorrier when I could not preach than any could be they could not hear me It hath been my desire and God may be pleased to grant it that I might dye in the Pulpit if not that yet that I might take my death in the Pulpit that is dye the sooner by occasion of those labours Sir I hope to see you presently after Candlemas about which time will fall my Lent-Sermon at Court except my Lord Chamberlain believe me to be dead and so leave me out of the Roll but as long as I live and am not speechless I would not willingly decline that service I have better leisure to write than you to read yet I would not willingly oppress you with too much Letter God bless you and your Son as I wish Your poor friend and servant in Christ Jesus J. Donne Before that month ended he was appointed to preach upon his old constant day the first Friday in Lent he had notice of it and had in his sickness so prepared for that imployment that as he had long thirsted for it so he resolved his weakness should not hinder his journey he came therefore to London some few dayes before his appointed day of preaching At his coming thither many of his friends who with sorrow saw his sickness had left him onely so much flesh as did onely cover his bones doubted his strength to perform that task and did therefore disswade him from undertaking it assuring him however it was like to shorten his life but he passionately denied their requests saying he would not doubt that that God who in so many weaknesses had assisted him with an unexpected strength would now withdraw it in his last employment professing an holy ambition to perform that sacred work And when to the amazement of some beholders he appeared in the Pulpit many of them thought he presented himself not to preach mortification by a living voice but mortality by a decayed body and dying face And doubtless many did secretly ask that question in Ezekiel Do these bones live or can that soul organize that tongue to speak so long time as the sand in that glass will move towards its centre and measure out an hour of this dying mans unspent life Doubtless it cannot and yet after some faint pauses in his zealous prayer his strong desires enabled his weak body to discharge his memory of his preconceived meditations which were of dying the Text being To God the Lord belong the issues from death Many that then saw his tears and heard his faint and hollow voice professing they thought the Text prophetically chosen and that Dr. Donne had preach't his own funeral Sermon Being full of joy that God had enabled him to perform this desired duty he hastened to his house out of which he never moved till like St. Stephen he was carried by devout men to his Grave The next day after his Sermon his strength being much wasted and his spirits so spent as indisposed him to business or to talk A friend that had often been a witness of his free and facetious discourse asked him Why are you sad To whom he replied with a countenance so full of cheerful gravity as gave testimony of an inward tranquillity of mind and of a soul willing to take a farewell of this world And said I am not sad but most of the night past I have entertained my self with many thoughts of several friends that have left me here and are gone to that place from which they shall not return And that within a few dayes I also shall go hence and be no more seen And my preparation for this change is become my nightly meditation upon my bed which my infirmities have now made restless to me But at this present time I was in a serious contemplation of the providence and goodness of God to me who am less than the least of his mercies and looking back upon my life past I now plainly see it was his hand that prevented me from all temporal employment and it was his Will that I should never settle nor thrive till I entred into the Ministry in which I have now liv'd almost twenty years I hope to his glory and by which I most humbly thank him I have been enabled to require most of those friends which shewed me kindness when my fortune was very low as God knows it was and as it hath occasioned the expression of my gratitude I thank God most of them have stood in need of my requital I have liv'd to be useful and comfortable to my good Father-in-law Sir George Moore whose patience God hath been pleased to exercise with many temporal Crosses I have maintained my own Mother whom it hath pleased God after a plentiful fortune in her younger dayes to bring to a great decay in her very old age I have quieted the Consciences of many that have groaned under the burthen of a wounded spirit whose prayers I hope are available for me I cannot plead innocency of life especially of my youth But I am to be judged by a merciful God who is not willing to see what I have done amiss And though of my self I have nothing to present to him but sins and misery yet I know he looks not upon me now as I am of my self but as I am in my Saviour and hath given me even at this time some testimonies by his Holy Spirit that I am of the number of his Elect I am therefore full of joy and shall dye in peace I must here look so far back as to tell the Reader that at his first return out of Essex to preach his last Sermon his old Friend and Physitian Dr. Fox a man of great worth came to him to consult his health and that after a sight of him and some queries concerning his distempers he told him That by Cordials and drinking milk twenty dayes together there was a probability of his restauration to health but he passionately denied to drink it Nevertheless Dr. Fox who loved him most intirely wearied him with sollicitations till he yielded to take it for ten dayes at the end of which time he told Dr. Fox he had drunk it more to satisfie him than to recover his health and that he would not drink it ten dayes longer upon the best moral assurance of having twenty years added to his life for he loved it not and that he was so far from fearing death which is the King of terrors that he longed for the day of his dissolution It is observed that a desire of glory or commendation is rooted in the very nature of man and that those of the severest and most mortified lives though they may
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
his hand a Walking-staff with which he professed he had travelled through many parts of Germany and he said Richard I do not give but lend you my Horse be sure you be honest and bring my Horse back to me at your return this way to Oxford And I do now give you Ten Groats to bear your charges to Exeter and here is Ten Groats more which I charge you to deliver to your Mother and tell her I send her a Bishops Benediction with it and beg the continuance of her prayers for me And if you bring my Horse back to me I will give you Ten Groats more to carry you on foot to the Colledge and so God bless you good Richard And this you may believe was performed by both Parties But alas the next News that followed Mr. Hooker to Oxford was that his learned and charitable Patron had changed this for a better life Which may be believed for that as he lived so he dyed in devout meditation and prayer and in both so zealously that it became a religious question Whether his last Ejâ—culations or his Soul did first enter into Heaven And now Mr. Hooker became a man of sorrow and fear of sorrow for the loss of so dear and comfortable a Patron and of fear for his future subsistence But Dr. Cole raised his spirits from this dejection by bidding him go chearfully to his Studies and assuring him he should neither want food nor rayment which was the utmost of his hopes for he would become his Patron And so he was for about nine months and not longer for about that time this following accident did befall Mr. Hooker Edwin Sandys then Bishop of London and after Archbishop of York had also been in the dayes of Queen Mary forced by forsaking this to seek safety in another Nation where for some Years Bishop Jewell and he were Companions at Bed and Board in Germany and where in this their Exile they did often eat the bread of sorrow and by that means they there began such a friendship as lasted till the death of Bishop Jewell which was in September 1571. A little before which time the two Bishops meeting Jewell began a story of his Richard Hooker and in it gave such a Character of his Learning and Manners that though Bishop Sandys was educated in Cambridge where he had oblieged and had many Friends yet his resolution was that his Son Edwin should be sent to Corpus-Christi Colledge in Oxford and by all means be Pupil to Mr. Hooker though his Son Edwin was not then much yonger for the Bishop said I will have a Tutor for my Son that shall teach him Learning by Instruction and Vertue by Example and my greatest care shall be of the last and God willing this Richard Hooker shall be the Man into whose hands I will commit my Edwin And the Bishop did so about twelve moneths or not much longer after this resolution And doubtless as to these two a better choice could not be made for Mr. Hooker was now in the nineteenth year of his age had spent five in the University and had by a constant unwearied diligence attained unto a perfection in all the learned Languages by the help of which an excellent Tutor and his unintermitted Study he had made the subtilty of all the Arts easie and familiar to him and usefull for the discovery of such Learning as lay hid from common Searchers so that by these added to his great Reason and his Industry added to both He did not onely know more of Causes and effects but what he knew he knew better then other men And with this Knowledge he had a most blessed and clear Method of Demonstrating what he knew to the great advantage of all his Pupils which in time were many but especially to his two first his dear Edwin Sandys and his as dear George Cranmer of which there will be a fair Testimony in the ensuing Relation This for his Learning And for his Behaviour amongst other Testimonies this still remains of him That in four years he was but twice absent from the Chappel prayers and that his Behaviour there was such as shewed an awful reverence of that God which he then worshipped and prayed to giving all outward testimonies that his Affections were set on heavenly things This was his Behaviour towards God and for that to Man it is observable that he was never known to be angry or passionate or extream in any of his Desires never heard to repine or dispure with Providence but by a quiet gentle submission and resignation of his will to the Wisdome of his Creator bore the burthen of the day with patience never heard to utter an uncomly word and by this and a grave Behaviour which is a Divine Charm he begot an early Reverence unto his Person even from those that at other times and in other companies took a liberty to cast off that strictness of Behaviour and Discourse that is required in a Collegiate Life And when he took any liberty to be pleasant his Wit was never blemisht with Scoffing or the utterance of any Conceit that border'd upon or might beget a thought of Looseness in his hearers Thus milde thus innocent and exemplary was his Behaviour in his Colledge and thus this good man continued till his death still increasing in Learning in Patience and Piety In this nineteenth year of his age he was December 24. 1573 admitted to be one of the twenty Scholars of the Foundation being elected and so admitted as born in Devon or Hantshire out of which Countries a certain number are to be elected in Vacancies by the Founders Statutes And now as he was much encouraged so now he was perfectly in oâ—porated into this beloved Colledg which was then noted for an eminent Library strict students and remarkable â—cholars And indeed it may glory that it had Cardinal Poole Bishop Jewel Doctor John Reynolds and Doctor Thomas Jackson of that Foundation The First famous for his Learned Apology for the Church of England and his Defence of it against Harding The Second for the learned and wise Menage of a publique Dispute with John Hart of the Romish perswasion about the Head and Faith of the Church and then printed by consent of both parties And the Third for his most excellent Exposition of the Creed and other Treatises All such as have given greatest satisfaction to men of the greatest Learning Nor was this man more Note-worthy for his Learning than for his strict and and pious Life testified by his abundant love and charity to all men And in the year 1576. Febr. 23. Mr. Hookers Grace was given him for Inceptor of Arts Doctor Herbert Westphaling a man of note for Learning being then Vice-chancellour And the Act following he was compleated Master which was Anno 1577. his Patron Doctor Cole being Vice-chancellour that year and his dear friend Henry Savill of Merton Colledge being then one of the Proctors 'T was that
sake whom I beseech to bless you with daily encrease of his manifold gifts and the blessed graces of his holy Spirit London Octob. 9. 1579. Your HONOURS in Christ to command JOHN REYNOLDS This Expulsion was by Dr. John Barfoote Chaplain to Ambrose Earl of Warwick and then Vice-president of the Colledge I cannot learn the pretended cause but that they were restor'd the same Month is most certain I return to Mr. Hooker in his Colledge where he continued his studies with all quietness for the space of three years about which time he enter'd into Sacred Orders and was made Deacon and Priest and not long after was appointed to preach at St. Pauls Cross. In order to which Sermon to London he came and immediately to the Shunamites house which is a House so called for that besides the Stipend paid the Preacher there is provision made also for his Lodging and Dyet two days before and one day after his Sermon this house was then kept by John Churchman sometimes a Draper of good Note in Watling-street upon whom Poverty had at last come like an armed man and brought him into a necessitous condition which though it be a punishment is not alwayes an argument of Gods disfavour for he was a vertuous man I shall not yet give the like testimony of his Wife but leave the Reader to judge by what follows But to this house Mr. Hooker came so wet so weary and weather-beaten that he was never known to express more passion than against a Friend that dissuaded him from footing it to London and for finding him no easier an Horse supposing the Horse trotted when he did not And at this time also such a faintness and fear possest him that he would not be perswaded two dayes quietness or any other means could be used to make him able to preach his Sundayes Sermon but a warm Bed and Rest and Drink proper for a Cold given him by Mrs. Churchman and her diligent attendance added unto it enabled him to perform the office of the day which was in or about the Year 1581. And in this first publick appearance to the World he was not so happy as to be free from Exceptions against a point of Doctrine delivered in his Sermon which was That in God there were two Wills an Antecedent and a Consequent Will his first Will that all Mankind should be saved but his second Will was that those only should be saved that did live answerable to that degree of Grace which he had offered or afforded them This seemed to cross a late Opinion of Mr. Calvins and then taken for granted by many that had not a capacity to examine it as it had been by him and hath been since by Dr. Jackson and Dr. Hammond and others of great Learning who believe that a contrary Opinion trenches upon the Honour and Justice of our merciful God How he justified this I will not undertake to declare but it was not excepted against as Mr. Hooker declares in an Orational Answer to Mr. Travers by John Elmer then Bishop of London at this time one of his Auditors and at last one of his Advocates too when Mr. Hooker was accused for it But the justifying of this Doctrine did not prove of so bad consequence as the kindness of Mrs. Churchmans curing him of his late Distemper and Cold for that was so gratefully apprehended by Mr. Hooker that he thought himself bound in conscience to believe all that she said so that the good man came to be perswaded by her that he was a man of a tender constiâ—tion and that it was best for him to have a Wife that might prove a Nurse to him such an one as might both prolong his life and make it more comfortable and such a one she could and would provide for him if he thought fit to marry And he not considering that the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light but like a true Nathanael fearing no guile because he meant none did give her such a power as Eleazar was trusted with when he was sent to choose a Wife for Isaac for even so he trusted her to choose for him promising upon a fair Summons to return to London and accept of her choice and he did so in that or the year following Now the Wife provided for him was her Daughter Joan who brought him neither Beauty nor Portion and for her Conditions they were too like that Wife 's which is by Solomon compar'd to a dripping house so that he had no reason to rejoyce in the Wife of his Youth but too just cause to say with the holy Prophet Woe is me that I am constrained to have my habitation in the tents of Kedar This choice of Mr. Hookers if it were his choice may be wondred at but let us consider that the Prophet Ezekiel sayes There is a wheel within a wheel a secret Sacred wheel of Providence especially in Marriages guided by his hand that allows not the race to the swift nor bread to the wise nor good wives to good men and he that can bring good out of evil for Mortals are blind to this Reason only knows why this blessing was denied to patient Job to meek Moses and to our as meek and patient Mr. Hooker But so it was and let the Reader cease to wonder for Affliction is a Divine dyet which though it be not pleasing to Mankind yet Almighty God hath often very often imposed it as good though bitter Physick to those children whose Souls are dearest to him And by this means the good man was drawn from the tranquillity of his Colledge from that Garden of Piety of Pleasure of Peace and a sweet Conversation into the thorny Wilderness of a busie World into those corroding cares that attend a married Priest and a Countrey Parsonage which was Draiton Beauchamp in Buckinghamshire not far from Alesbury and in the Diocese of Lincoln to which he was presented by John Cheny Esquire then Patron of it the 9 th of December 1584. where he behaved himself so as to give no occasion of evil but as St. Paul adviseth a Minister of God in much patience in afflictions in anguishes in necessities in poverty and no doubt in long-suffering yet troubling no man with his discontents and wants And in this condition he continued about a year in which time his two Pupils Edwin Sandys and George Cranmer took a journey to see their Tutor where they found him with a Book in his hand it was the Odes of Horace he being then like humble and innocent Abel tending his small allotment of sheep in a common field which he told his Pupils he was forced to do then for that his servant was gone home to Dine and assist his Wife to do some necessary houshold business When his servant returned and released him his two Pupils attended him unto his house where their best entertainment was his quiet company which was presently
to wish what they were not able to hope for that they should be like the beasts that perish And wicked company which is the Atheists Sanctuary were so bold as to say so though the worst of Mankind when he is left alone at midnight may wish but cannot then think it a belief that there is no God Into this wretched this reprobate condition many had then sinned themselves And now when the Church was pestered with them and with all these other Irregularities when her Lands were in danger of Alienation her Power at least neglected and her Peace torn to pieces by several Schisms and such Heresies as do usually attend that sin for Heresies do usually out-live their first Authors when the Common people seemed ambitious of doing those very things that were attended with most dangers that thereby they might be punish'd and then applauded and pitied when they called the Spirit of opposition a Tender Consciouce and complained of persecution because they wanted power to persecute others when the giddy multitude raged and became restless to find out misery for themselves and others and the Rabble would herd themselves together and endeavour to govern and act in spight of Authority In this extremity of fear and danger of the Church and State when to suppress the growing evils of both they needed a man of prudence and piety and of an high and fearless fortitude they were blest in all by John Whitgift his being made Archbishop of Canterbury of whom Sir Henry Wotton that knew him well for he was his Pupil gives this true Character That he was a man of Reverend and Sacred memory and of the primitive temper such a temper as when the Church by lowliness of Spirit did flourish in highest examples of Virtue And though I dare not undertake to add to this excellent and true character of Sir Henry Wotton yet I shall neither do right to this Discourse nor to my Reader if I forbear to give him a further and short account of the life and manners of this excellent man and it shall be short for I long to end this digression that I may lead my Reader back to Mr. Hooker where we left him at the Temple John Whitgift was born in the County of Lincoln of a Family that was ancient and noted to be both prudent and affable and Gentile by nature he was educated in Cambridge much of his Learning was acquired in Pembroke-Hall where Mr. Bradford the Martyr was his Tutor from thence he was remov'd to Peter-house from thence to be Master of Pembroke Hall and from thence to the Mastership of Trinity Colledge About which time the Queen made him Her Chaplain and not long after Preâ—end of Ely and then Dean of Lincoln and having for many years past look'â— upon him with much reverence and favour gave him a fair testimony of both by giving him the Bishoprick of Worcester and which was not a usual favour forgiving him his First-fruits then by constituting him Vice-president of the principality of Wales And having experimented his Wisdom his Justice and Moderation in the menage of Her affairs in both these places She in the 26 th of Her Reign made him Archbishop of Canterbury and not long after of Her Privy Council and trusted him to manage all Her Ecclesiastical Affairs and Preferments In all which Removes he was like the Ark which left a blessing upon the place where it rested and in all his Imployments was like Jchoida that did good unto Israel These were the steps of this Bishops ascension to this place of dignity and cares in which place to speak Mr. Cambdens very words in â— is Annals he devoutly consecrated both his whole life to God and his painful labours to the â—â—od of his Church And yet in this place he met with many oppositions in the regulation of Church-affairs which were much disordered at his entrance by reason of the age and remisness of Bishop Grindall his immediate Predecessor the activity of the Non-consormists and their chief assistant the Earl of Leicester and indeed by too many others of the like Sacrilegious principles With these he was to encounter and though he wanted neither courage nor a good cause yet he foresaw that without a great measure of the Queens favour it was impossible to stand in the breach that was made into the Lands and Immunities of the Church or to maintain the remaining rights of it And therefore by justifiable sacred Insinuations such as St. Paul to Agrippa Agrippa believest thou I know thou believest he wrought himself into so great a degree of favour with Her as by his pious use of it hath got both of them a great degree of Fame in this World and of Glory in that into which they are now entred His merits to the Queen and Her favours to him were such that She called him Her little black Husband and called his Servants Her Servants and She saw so visible and blessed a sincerity shine in all his cares and endeavours for the Churches and for Her good that She was supposed to trust him with the very secrets of Her Soul and to make him Her Confessor of which She gave many fair testimonies and of which one was that She would never eat Flesh in Lent without obtaining a Licence from her little black Husband and would often say She pitied him because She trusted him and had eased Her self by laying the burthen of all Her Clergy-cares upon his shoulders which he managed with prudence and piety I shall not keep my self within the promised Rules of brevity in this account of his Interest with Her Majesty and his care of the Churches Rights if in this digression I should enlarge to particulars and therefore my desire is that one Example may serve for a Testimony of both And that the Reader may the better understand it he may take notice that not many years before his being made Archbishop there passed an Act or Acts of Parliament intending the better preservation of Church-lands by recalling a power which was vested in others to Sell or Lease them by lodging and trusting the future care and protection of them only in the Crown And amongst many that made a bad use of this power or trust of the Queens the Earl of Leicester was one and the Bishop having by his Interest with Her Majesty put a stop to the Earls sacrilegious designs they two fell to a open opposition before Her after which they both quitted the Room not friends in appearance but the Bishop made a sudden and a seasonable return to Her Majesty for he found Her alone and spake to Her with great humility and reverence and to this purpose I Beseech Your Majesty to hear me with patience and to believe that Yours and the Churches safety are dearer to me than my Life but my Conscience dearer than both and therefore give me leave to do my Duty and tell You that Princes are deputed Nursing Fathers
from a Natural beauty He never failed the Sunday before every Ember-week to give notice of it to his Parishioners perswading them both to fast and then to double their devotions for a learned and pious Clergy but especially the last saying often That the life of a pious Clergy-man was visible Rhetorick and so Convincing that the most Godless men though they would not deny themselves the enjoyment of their present lusts did yet secretly wish themselves like those of the strictest lives And to what he perswaded others he added his own example of Fasting and Prayer and did usually every Ember-week take from the Parish-Clerk the Key of the Church-door into which place he retir'd every day and lockt himself up for many hours and did the like most Frydayes and other dayes of Fasting He would by no means omit the customary time of Procession perswading all both rich and poor if they desired the preservation of Love and their Parish Rights and Liberties to accompany him in his Perambulation and most did so in which Perambulation he would usually express more pleasant Discourse than at other times and would then alwayes drop some loving and facetious observations to be remembred against the next year especially by the boyes and young people still inclining them and all his present Parishioners to meekness and mutual kindnesses and love because Love thinks not evil but covers a multitude of Infirmities He was diligent to inquire who of his Parish were sick or any wayes distrest and would often visit them unsent for supposing that the fittest time to discover those Errors to which health and prosperity had blinded them and having by pious reasons and prayers moulded them into holy resolutions for the time to come he would incline them to confession and bewailing their sins with purpose to forsake them and then to receive the Communion both as a strengthning of those holy resolutions and as a seal betwixt God and them of his Mercies to their Souls in case that present sicknesse did put a period to their lives And as he was thus watchful and charitable to the sick so he was as diligent to prevent Law-sutes still urging his Parishioners and Neighbours to bear with each others infirmities and live in love because as St. John sayes he that lives in love lives in God for God is love And to maintain this holy fire of love constantly burning on the Altar of a pure heart his advice was to watch and pray and alwayes keep themselves fit to receive the Communion and then to receive it often for it was both a confirming and a strengthning of their graces this was his advice And at his entrance or departure out of any house he would usually speak to the whole Family and bless them by name insomuch that as he seem'd in his youth to be taught of God so he seem'd in this place to teach his precepts as Enoch did by walking with him in all holiness and humility making each day a step towards a blessed Eternity And though in this weak and declining Age of the World such Examples are become barren and almost incredible yet let his memory be blest with this true Recordation because he that praises Richard Hooker praises God who hath given such gifts to men and let this humble and affectionate Relation of him become such a pattern as may invite Posterity to imitate his vertues This was his constant behaviour at Borne so he walk't with God thus he did tread in the footsteps of primitive piety and yet as that great example of meekness and purity even our blessed Jesus was not free from false accusations no more was this Disciple of his this most humble most innocent holy man his was a slander parallel to that of chaste Susannah's by the wicked Elders or that against St. Athanasius as it is recorded in his life for that holy man had heretical enemies and which this Age calls Trepanning the particulars need not a repetition and that it was false needs no other Testimony than the publick punishment of his Accusers and their open confession of his Innocency 't was said that the accusation was contrived by a dissenting Brother one that endur'd not Church-Ceremonies hating him for his Books sake which he was not able to answer and his name hath been told me but I have not so much confidence in the relation as to make my Pen fix a scandal on him to posterity I shall rather leave it doubtful till the great day of Revelation But this is certain that he lay under the great charge and the anxiety of this accusation and kept it secret to himself for many months and being a helpless man had lain long under this heavy burthen but that the protector of the innocent gave such an accidental occasion as forced him to make it known to his two dearest friends Edwyn Sandys and George Cranmer who were so sensible of their Tutors sufferings that they gave themselves no rest till by their disquisitions and diligence they had found out the fraud and brought him the welcome News that his Accusers did confess they had wrong'd him and beg'd his pardon To which the good mans reply was to this purpose The Lord forgive them and the Lord bless you for this comfortable News Now I have a just occasion to say with Solomon Friends are born for the dayes of adversity and such you have prov'd to me and to my God I say as did the mother of St. John Baptist Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the day wherein he looked upon me to take away my reproach among men And oh my God neither my life nor my reputation are safe in mine own keeping but in thine who didst take care of me when I yet hanged upon my mothers breast blessed are they that put their trust in thee O Lord for when false Witnesses were risen up against me when shame was ready to cover my face when I was bowed down with an horrible dread and went mourning all the day long when my nights were restless and my sleeps broken with a fear worse than death when my Soul thirsted for a deliverance as the Hart panteth after the rivers of waters then thou Lord didst hear my complaints pity my condition and art now become my deliverer and as long as I live I will hold up my hands in this manner and magnifie thy mercies who didst not give me over as a prey to mine enemies Oh blessed are they that put their trust in thee and no prosperity shall make me forget those dayes of sorrows or to perform those vows that I have made to thee in the dayes of my affliction for with such Sacrifices thou O God art well pleased and I will pay them Thus did the joy and gratitude of this good mans heart break forth and 't is observable that as the invitation to this slander was his meek behaviour and Dove-like simplicity for which he was remarkable so his Christian
charity ought to be imitated for though the spirit of revenge is so pleasing to Mankind that it is never conquered but by a supernatural grace being indeed so deeply rooted in humane Nature that to prevent the excesses of it for men would not know Moderation Almighty God allows not any degree of it to any man but sayes Vengeance is mine And though this be said by God himself yet this revenge is so pleasing that man is hardly perswaded to submit the menage of it to the Time and Justice and Wisdom of his Creator but would hasten to be his own Executioner of it And yet nevertheless if any man ever did wholly decline and leave this pleasing passion to the time and measure of God alone it was this Richard Hooker of whom I write for when his Slanderers were to suffer he laboured to procure their pardon and when that was denied him his Reply was That however he would fast and pray that God would give them repentance and patience to undergo their punishment And his prayers were so far returned into his own bosom that the first was granted if we may believe a penitent behaviour and an open confession And 't is observable that after this time he would often say to Dr. Saravia Oh with what quietness did I enjoy my Soul after I was free from the fears of my Slander and how much more after a conflict and victory over my desires of Revenge About the Year 1600 and of his Age 46 he fell into a long and sharp sickness occasioned by a cold taken in his passage betwixt London and Gravesend from the malignity of which he was never recovered for till his death he was not free from thoughtful Dayes and restless Nights but a submission to his Will that makes the sick mans Bed easie by giving rest to his Soul made his very languishment comfortable and yet all this time he was sollicitous in his Study and said often to Dr. Saravia who saw him daily and was the chief comfort of his life That he did not beg a long life of God for any other reason but to live to finish his three remaining Books of POLITY and then Lord let thy servant depart in peace which was his usual expression And God heard his prayers though he denied the Church the benefit of them as compleated by himself and 't is thought he hastened his own death by hastening to give life to his Books But this is certain that the nearer he was to his death the more he grew in Humility in Holy Thoughts and Resolutions About a month before his death this good man that never knew or at least never consider'd the pleasures of the Palate became first to lose his appetite then to have an aversness to all food insomuch that he seem'd to live some intermitted weeks by the smell of meat only and yet still studied and writ And now his guardian Angel seem'd to foretell him that the day of his dissolution drew near for which his vigorous Soul appear'd to thirst In this time of his Sickness and not many dayes before his Death his House was rob'd of which he having notice his Question was Are my Books and written Papers safe And being answered That they were his Reply was then it matters not for no other loss can trouble me About one day before his Death Dr. Saravia who knew the very secrets of his Soul for they were supposed to be Confessors to each other came to him and after a Conference of the Benefit the Necessity and Safety of the Churches Absolution it was resolved the Doctor should give him both that and the Sacrament the day following To which end the Doctor came and after a short retirement and privacy they return'd to the company and then the Doctor gave him and some of those friends which were with him the blessed Sacrament of the body and blood of our Jesus Which being performed the Doctor thought he saw a reverend gaity and joy in his face but it lasted not long for his bodily Infirmities did return suddenly and became more visible in so much that the Doctor apprehended Death ready to seize him yet after some amendment left him at Night with a promise to return early the day following which he did and then found him in better appearance deep in Contemplation and not inclinable to Discourse which gave the Doctor occasion to require his present Thoughts to which he replied That he was meditating the number and nature of Angels and their blessed obedience and order without which peace could not be in Heaven and oh that it might be so on Earth After which words he said I have lived to see this world is made up of perturbations and I have been long preparing to leave it and gathering comfort for the dreadful hour of making my account with God which I now apprehend to be near and though I have by his grace lov'd him in my youth and fear'd him in mine age and labour'd to have a conscience void of offence to him and to all men yet if thou O Lord be extreme to mark what I have done amiss who can abide it and therefore where I have failed Lord shew mercy to me for I plead not my righteousness but the forgiveness of my unrighteousness for his merits who dyed to purchase pardon for penitent sinners and since I owe thee a death Lord let it not be terrible and then take thine own time I submit to it let not mine O Lord but let thy Will be done with which expression he fell into a dangerous slumber dangerous as to his recovery yet recover he did but it was to speak only these few words Good Doctor God hath heard my daily petitions for I am at peace with all men and he is at peace with me and from that blessed assurance I feel that inward joy which this world can neither give nor take from meâ— More he would have spoken but his spirits failed him and after a short conflict betwixt Nature and Death a quiet Sigh put a period to his last breath and so he fell asleep And here I draw his Curtain till with the most glorious company of the Patriarchs and Apostles the most Noble Army of Martyrs and Confessors this most learned most humble holy man shall also awake to receive an eternal Tranquillity and with it a greater degree of Glory than common Christians shall be made partakers of In the mean time bless O Lord Lord bless his Brethren the Clergy of this Nation with effectual endeavours to attain if not to his great learning yet to his remarkable meekness his godly simplicity and his Christian moderation for these bring peace at the last And Lord let his most excellent Writings be blest with what he design'd when he undertook them which was Glory to Thee O God on High Peace in thy Church and Good Will to Mankind Amen Amen This following Epitaph was long since presented to the World
in memory of Mr. Hooker by Sir William Cooper who also built him a fair Monument in Borne Church and acknowledges him to have been his Spiritual Father THough nothing can be spoke worthy his fame Or the remembrance of that precious name Judicious Hooker though this cost be spent On him that hath a lasting Monument In his own Books yet ought we to express If not his Worth yet our Respectfulness Church-Ceremonies he maintain'd then why Without all Ceremony should be dye Was it because his Life and Death should be Both equal patterns of Humility Or that perhaps this only glorious one Was above all to ask why had he none Yet he that lay so long obscurely low Doth now preferr'd to greater Honours go Ambitious men learn hence to be more wise Humility is the true way to rise And God in me this Lesson did inspire To bid this humble man Friend sit up higher AN APPENDIX To the LIFE of Mr. RICH. HOOKER ANd now having by a long and laborious search satisfied my self and I hope my Reader by imparting to him the true Relation of Mr. Hookers Life I am desirous also to acquaint him with some observations that relate to it and which could not properly fall to be spoken till after his death of which my Reader may expect a brief and true account in the following Appendix And first it is not to be doubted but that he dyed in the Forty-seventh if not in the Forty-sixth year of his Age which I mention because many have believed him to be more aged but I have so examined it as to be confident I mistake not and for the year of his death Mr. Cambden who in his Annals of Queen Elizabeth 1599. mentions him with a high commendation of his life and learning declares him to dye in the year 1599. and yet in that Inscription of his Monument set up at the charge of Sir William Cooper in Borne Church where Mr. Hooker was buried his death is said to be in Anno 1603. but doubtless both mistaken for I have it attested under the hand of William Somner the Archbishops Register for the Province of Canterbury that Richard Hookers Will bears date Octob. 26. in Anno 1600. and that it was prov'd the third of December following And that at his death he left four Daughters Alice Cicily Jane and Margaret that he gave to each of them an hundred pound that he left Jone his Wife his sole Executrix and that by his Inventory his Estate a great part of it being in Books came to 1092 l. 9 s. 2 d. which was much more than he thought himself worth and which was not got by his care much less by the good huswifery of his Wife but saved by his trusty servant Thomas Lane that was wiser than his Master in getting money for him and more frugal than his Mistress in keeping of it of which Will I shall say no more but that his dear friend Thomas the father of George Cranmer of whom I have spoken and shall have occasion to say more was one of the witnesses to it One of his elder Daughters was married to one Chalinor sometime a School-master in Chichester and both dead long since Margaret his youngest Daughter was married unto Ezekiel Chark Batchelor in Divinity and Rector of St. Nicholas in Harble down near Canterbury who dyed about 16 years past and had a son Ezekiel now living and in Sacred Orders being at this time Rector of Waldron in Sussex she left also a Daughter with both whom I have spoken not many months past and find her to be a Widow in a condition that wants not but far from abounding and these two attested unto me that Richard Hooker their Grandfather had a Sister by name Elizabeth Harvey that liv'd to the Age of 121 Years and dyed in the month of September 1663. For his other two Daughters I can learn little certainty but have heard they both dyed before they were marriageable and for his Wife she was so unlike Jeptha's Daughter that she staid not a comely time to bewail her Widdow-hood nor liv'd long enough to repent her second Marriage for which doubtless she would have found cause if there had been but four months betwixt Mr. Hookers and her death But she is dead and let her other infirmities be buried with her Thus much briefly for his Age the Year of his Death his Estate his Wife and his Children I am next to speak of his Books concerning which I shall have a necessity of being longer or shall neither do right to my self or my Reader which is chiefly intended in this Appendix I have declared in his Life that he proposed eight Books and that his first four were printed Anno 1594. and his fifth Book first printed and alone Anno 1597. and that he liv'd to finish the remaining three of the proposed eight but whether we have the last three as finish't by himself is a just and material Question concerning which I do declare that I have been told almost 40 Years past by one that very well knew Mr. Hooker and the affairs of his Family that about a month after the death of Mr. Hooker Bishop Whitgift then Archbishop of Canterbury sent one of his Chaplains to enquire of Mrs. Hooker for the three remaining Books of Polity writ by her Husband of which she would not or could not give any account and that about three months after the Bishop procured her to be sent for to London and then by his procurement she was to be examined by some of Her Majesties Council concerning the disposal of those Books but by way of preparation for the next dayes examination the Bishop invited her to Lambeth and after some friendly questions she confessed to him That one Mr. Charke and another Minister that dwelt near Canterbury came to her and desired that they might go into her Husbands Study and look upon some of his Writings and that there they two burnt and tore many of them assuring her that they were Writings not fit to be seen and that she knew nothing more concerning them Her lodging was then in King-street in Westminster where she was found next morning dead in her Bed and her new Husband suspected and questioned for it but declared innocent of her death And I declare also that Dr. John Spencer mentioned in the life of Mr. Hooker who was of Mr. Hookers Colledge and of his time there and betwixt whom there was so friendly a friendship that they continually advised together in all their Studies and particularly in what concern'd these Books of Polity This Dr. Spencer the three perfect Books being lost had delivered into his hands I think by Bishop Whitgift the imperfect Books or first rough draughts of them to be made as perfect as they might be by him who both knew Mr. Hookers hand writing and was best acquainted with his intentions And a fair Testimony of this may appear by an Epistle first and
to the following account of Mr. Herberts own practice which was to appear constantly with his Wife and three Neeces the daughters of a deceased Sister and his whole Family twice a day at the Church-prayers in the Chappel which does almost join so his Parsonage-house And for the time of his appearing it was strictly â—t the Canonical hours of Ten and Four and then and there he lifted up pure and charitable hands to God in the midst of the Congregation And he would joy to have spent that time in that place where the honour of his Master Jesus dwelleth and there by that inward devotion which he testified constantly by an humble behaviour and visible adoration he like David brought not only his own Houshold thus to serve the Lord but brought most of his Parishioners and many Gentlemen in the Neighbourhood constantly to make a part of his Congregation twice a day and some of the meaner sort of his Parish did so love and reverence Mr. Herbert that they would let their Plow rest when Mr. Herberts Saints-Bell rung to Prayers that they might also offer their devotions to God with him and would then return back to their Plow And his most holy life was such that it begot such reverence to God and to him that they thought themselves the happier when they carried Mr. Herberts blessing back with them to their labour Thus powerful was his reason and example to perswade others to a practical piety And his constant publick Prayers did never make him to neglect his own private devotions nor those prayers that he thought himself bound to perform with his Family which alwayes were a Set-form and not long and he did alwayes conclude them with that Collect which the Church hath appointed for the day or week Thus he made every dayes sanctity a step towards that Kingdom where Impurity cannot enter His chiefest recreation was Musick in which heavenly Art he was a most excellent Master and compos'd many divine Hymns and Anthems which he set and sung to his Lute or Viol and though he was a lover of reâ—iredness yet his love to Musick was such that he went usually twice every week on certain appointed dayes to the Cathedral Church in Salisbury and at his return would say That his time spent in Prayer and Cathedral Musick elevated his Soul and was his Heaven upon Earth But before his return thence to Bemerton he would usually sing and play his part at an appointed private Musick meeting and to justifie this practice he would often say Religion does not banish mirth but only moderates and sets rules to it And as his desire to enjoy his Heaven upon Earth drew him twice every week to Salisbury so his walks thither were the occasion of many happy accidents to others of which I will mention some few In one of his walks to Salisbury he overtook a Gentleman that is still living in that City and in their walk together Mr. Herbert took a fair occasion to talk with him and humbly begg'd to be excus'd if he ask'd him some account of his faith and said I do this the rather because though you are not of my Parish yet I receive Tythe from you by the hand of your Tenant and Sir I am the bolder to do it because I know there be some Sermon-hearers that be like those Fishes that alwayes live in salt water and yet are alwayes fresh After which expression Mr. Herbert asked him some needful Questions and having received his answer gave him such Rules for the tryal of his sincerity and for a practical piety and in so loving and meek a manner that the Gentleman did so fall in love with him and his discourse that he would often contrive to meet him in his walk to Salisbury or to attend him back to Bemerton and still mentions the name of Mr. George Herbert with veneration and still praises God that he knew him In another of his Salisbury walks he met with a Neighbour Minister and after some friendly Discourse betwixt them and some Condolement for the wickedness of the Times and Contempt of the Clergy Mr. Herbert took occcasion to say One Cure for these Distempers would be for the Clergy themselves to keep the Ember-Weeks strictly and begg of their Parishioners to joyn with him in Fasting and Prayers for a more Religious Clergy And another Cure would be for them to restore the great and neglected duty of Catechising on which the salvation of so many of the poor and ignorant Lay-people does depend but principally that the Clergy themselves would be sure to live unblameably and that the dignified Clergy especially which preach Temperance would avoid Surfeting and take all occasions to express a visible humility and charity in their lives for this would force a love and an imitation and an â—nfeigned reverence from all that knew them And for proof of this we need no other Testimony than the life and death of Dr. Lake late Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells This said Mr. Herbert would be a Cure for the wickedness and growing Atheism of our Age. And my dear Brother till this be done by us and done in earnest let no man expect a reformation of the manners of the Laity for 't is not learning but this this only that must do it and till then the fault must lie at our doors In another walk to Salisbury he saw a poor man with a poorer horse that was fall'n under his Load they were both in distress and needed present help which Mr. Herbert perceiving put off his Canonical Coat and help'd the poor man to unload and after to load his horse The poor man blest him for it and he blest the poor man and was so like the good Samaritan that he gave him money to refresh both himself and his horse and told him That if he lov'd himself he should be merciful to his Beast â—hus he left the poor man and at his coming to his musical friends at Salisbury they began to wonder that Mr. George Herbert which us'd to be so trim and clean came into that company so soyl'd and discompos'd but he told them the occasion And when one of the company told him He had disparag'd himself by so dirty an employment his answer was That the thought of what he had done would prove Musick to him at Midnight and the omission of it would have upbraided and made discord in his Conscience whensoever he should pass by that place for if I be bound to pray for all that be in distress I am sure I am bound so far as it is in my power to practise what I pray for And though I do not wish for the like occasion every day yet let me tell you I would not willingly pass one day of my life without comforting a sad soul or shewing mercy and I praise God for this occasion And now let 's tune our Instruments Thus as our blessed Saviour after his Resurrection did take