domestick or private affairs of those persons of whom they Write in which the World is little concerned by these they become so flat that few care to read them for certainly those Transactions are onely fit to be delivered to Posterity that may carry with them some useful peece of knowledge to after-times I have now an Argument before me which will afford indeed only a short History but will contain in it as great a Character as perhaps can be given of any in this age since there are few instances of more knowledge and greater virtues meeting in one person I am upon one account beside many more unfit to undertake it because I was not at all known to him so I can say nothing from my own Observation but upon second thoughts I do not know whether this may not qualify me to write more impartially though perhaps more defectively for the knowledge of extraordinary persons does most commenly biass those who were much wrought on by the tenderness of their friendship for them to raise their Stile a little too high when they write concerning them I confess I knew him as much as the looking often upon him could amount to The last year of his being in London he came always on Sundays when he could go abroad to the Chappel of the Rolls where I then Preached In my life I never saw so much Gravity tempered with that sweetness and set off with so much vivacity as appeared in his looks and behaviour which disposed me to a veneration for him which I never had for any with whom I was not acquainted I was seeking an opportunity of being admitted to his Conversation but I understood that between a great want of health and a multiplicity of business which his Imployment brought upon him he was Master of so little of his time that I stood in doubt whether I might presume to rob him of any of it and so he left the Town before I could resolve on desiring to be known to him My ignorance of the Law of England made me also unfit to Write of a Man a great part of whose Character as to his Learning is to be taken from his skill in the Common Law and his performance in that But I shall leave that to those of the same Robe Since if I engaged much in it I must needs commit many errors Writing of a Subject that is foreign to me The occasion of my undertaking this vvas given me first by the earnest desires of some that have great power over me vvho having been much obliged by him and holding his Memory in high estimation thought I might do it some right by Writing his Life I was then engaged in the History of the Reformation so I promised that as soon as that was over I should make the best use I could of such Informations and Memorials as should be brought me This I have now performed in the best manner I could and have brought into method all the parcels of his Life or the branches of his Character which I could either gather from the Informations that were brought me or from those that were familiarly acquainted with him or from his Writings I have not applied any of the false Colours with which Art or some forced Eloquence might furnish me in Writing concerning him but have endeavoured to set him out in the same simplicity in which he lived I have said little of his Domestick Concerns since though in these he was a great Example yet it signifies nothing to the World to know any particular exercises that might be given to his Patience and therefore I shall draw a Vail over all these and shall avoid saying any thing of him but what may afford the Reader some profitable Instruction I am under no temptations of saying any thing but what I am perswaded is exactly true for where there is so much excellent truth to be told it were an inexcusable fault to corrupt that or prejudice the Reader against it by the mixture of falsehoods with it In short as he was a great example while he lived so I wish the setting him thus out to Posterity in his own true and native Colours may have its due influence on all persons but more particularly on those of that profession whom it more immediately Concerns whether on the Bench or at the Barr. The Reader is desired to correct the Book by the following Errata before he reads it over especially the first fault pag. 15. l. 9. that being the most considerable PAg. 15. l. 9. read indiscreet Men called Obstinacy pag. 39. l. 8. for r. but. pag. 44. l. ult to highly so r. so highly to pag. 50. l. 3. after County r. of pag. 101. l. 8. assignat as salurem r. assignatus salutem pag. 147. l. 10. was r. were pag. 168. l. 20. eternal r. external pag. 172. l. 17. dearlier r. earlier pag. 200. l. 15. foresta r. forestae THE LIFE DEATH OF Sir MATTHEW HALE Kt. LATE Lord Chief Justice of England MATTHEW HALE was Born at Alderly in Glocestershire the first of November 1609. His Grandfather was Robert Hale an Eminent Clothier in Wotton-under-edge in that County where he and his Ancestors had lived for many Descents and they had given several parcels of Land for the use of the Poor which are enjoyed by them to this day This Robert acquired an Estate of ten Thousand Pound which he divided almost equally amongst his five Sons besides the Portions he gave his Daughters from whom a numerous Posterity has sprung His Second Son was Robert Hale a Barrister of Lincolns-Inn he Married Ioan the Daughter of Matthew Poyntz of Alderly Esquire who was descended from that Noble Family of the Poyntz's of Action Of this Marrage there was no other Issue but this one Son His Grandfather by his Mother was his Godfather and gave him his own Name at his Baptism His Father was a Man of that strictness of Conscience that he gave over the practise of the Law because he could not understand the reason of giving Colour in Pleadings which as he thought was to tell a Lye and that with some other things commonly practised seemed to him contrary to that exactness of Truth and Justice which became a Christian so that he withdrew himself from the Inns of Court to live on his Estate in the Country Of this I was informed by an Ancient Gentleman that lived in a friendship with his Son for fifty Years and he heard Judge Iones that was Mr. Hales Contemporary declare this in the Kings-Bench But as the care he had to save his Soul made him abandon a Profession in which he might have raised his Family much higher so his Charity to his poor Neighbours made him not only deal his Alms largely among them while he lived but at his Death he left out of his small Estate which was but 100 l a Year 20 l. a Year to the Poor of Wotton which his Son confirmed to them
the immoral and irreligious Principles and Practices that had so long vexed his Righteous Soul And therefore began a great design against Atheisme the first part of which is only Printed of the Origination of Mankind designed to prove the Creation of the World and the truth of the Mosaical History The Second part was of the Nature of the Soul and of a future State The Third part was concerning the Attributes of God both from the abstracted Idea's of him and the Light of Nature the Evidence of Providence the notions of Morality and the voice of Conscience And the Fourth part was concerning the Truth and Authority of the Scriptures with Answers to the Objections against them On writing these he spent Seven years He Wrote them with so much Consideration that one who perused the Original under his own hand which was the first draught of it told me he did not remember of any considerable Alteration perhaps not of twenty words in the whole Work The way of his Writing them only on the Evenings of the Lords Day when he was in Town and not much oftner when he was in the Country made that they are not so contracted as it is very likely he would have writ them if he had been more at leisure to have brought his thoughts into a narrower Compass and fewer words But making some Allowance for the largeness of the Stile that Volum that is Printed is generally acknowledged to be one of the perfectest pieces both of Learning and Reasoning that has been Writ on that Subject And he who read a great part of the other Volumes told me they were all of a piece with the first When he had finished this Work he sent it by an unknown hand to Bishop Wilkins to desire his Judgment of it But he that brought it would give no other Account of the Authour but that he was not a Clergy man The Bishop and his worthy Friend Dr. Tillotson read a great deal of it with much pleasure but could not imagine who could be the Author and how a Man that was Master of so much Reason and so great a variety of Knowledge should be so unknown to them that they could not find him out by those Characters which are so little Common At last Dr. Tillotson guessed it must be the Lord Cheif Baron to which the other presently agreed wondring he had been so long in finding it out So they went immediately to him and the Bishop thanking him for the Entertainment he had received from his Works he blushed extreamly not without some displeasure apprehending that the Person he had trusted had discovered him But the Bishop soon cleared that and told him he had discovered himself for the learning of that Book was so various that none but he could be the Author of it And that Bishop having a freedom in delivering his opinion of things and Persons which perhaps few ever managed both with so much plainness and Prudence told him there was nothing could be better said on these Arguments if he could bring it into a less Compass but if he had not leisure for that he thought it much better to have it come out though a little too large than that the World should be deprived of the good which it must needs do But our Iudge had never the opportunities of revising it so a little before his Death he sent the first part of it to the Press In the beginning of it he gives an Essay of his Excellent way of Methodizing things in which he was so great a Master that whatever he undertook he would presently cast into so perfect a Scheme that he could never afterwards Correct it He runs out Copiously upon the Argument of the Impossibility of an Eternal Succession of Time to shew that Time and Eternity are inconsistent one with another And that therefore all Duration that was past and defined by Time could not be from Eternity and he shews the difference between successive Eternity already past and one to come So that though the latter is possible the former is not so for all the parts of the former have actually been and therefore being defined by Time cannot be Eternal whereas the other are still future to all Eternity so that this reasoning cannot be turned to prove the possibility of Eternal Successions that have been as well as Eternal Successions that shall be This he follows with a Strength I never met with in any that Managed it before him He brings next all those Moral Arguments to prove that the World had a beginning agreeing to the Account Moses gives of it as that no History rises higher than near the time of the Deluge and that the first Foundation of Kingdoms the Invention of Arts the Beginnings of all Religions the gradual Plantation of the World and Increase of Mankind and the Consent of Nations do agree with it In managing these as he shews profound Skill both in Historical and Philosophical Learning so he gives a Noble Discovery of his great Candor and Probity that he would not Impose on the Reader with a false shew of reasoning by Arguments that he knew had Flawes in them and therefore upon every one of these he adds such Allays as in a great measure lessened and took off their force with as much Exactness of Judgment and strictness of Censure as if he had been set to Plead for the other Side And indeed Sums up the whole Evidence for Religion as impartially as ever he did in a Tryal for Life or Death to the Iury which how Equally and Judiciously he always did the whole Nation well knows After that he Examines the Ancient Opinions of the Philosophers and inlarges with a great variety of curious Reflections in answering that only Argument that has any appearance of Strength for the Casual production of Man from the origination of Insects out of putrified Matter as is commonly supposed and he concluded the Book shewing how Rational and Philosophical the Account which Moses gives of it is There is in it all a sagacity and quickness of Thought mixed with great and curious Learning that I confess I never met together in any other Book on that Subject Among other Conjectures one he gives concerning the Deluge is that he did not think the Face of the Earth and the Waters were altogether the same before the Universal Deluge and after But possibly the Face of the Earth was more even than now it is The Seas possibly more dilated and extended and not so deep as now And a little after possibly the Seas have undermined much of the appearing Continent of Earth This I the rather take notice of because it hath been since his Death made out in a most Ingenious and most Elegantly Writ Book by Mr. Burnet of Christ's Colledge in Cambridge who has given such an Essay towards the proving the possibility of an universal Deluge and from thence has Collected with great Sagacity what Paradise
four Executors It was this Acquaintance that first set Mr. Hale on a more enlarged pursuit of Learning which he had before confined to his own Profession but becoming as great a Master in it as ever any was very soon he who could never let any of his time go away unprofitably found leisure to attain to as great a variety of knowledge in as Comprehensive a manner as most Men have done in any Age. He set himself much to the Study of the Romane Law and though he liked the way of Judicature in England by Juries much better than that of the Civil Law where so much was trusted to the Iudge yet he often said that the true Grounds and Reasons of Law were so well delivered in the Digests that a man could never understand Law as a Science so well as by seeking it there and therefore lamented much that it was so little Studied in England He looked on readiness in Arithmetick as a thing which might be useful to him in his own Imployment and acquired it to such a Degree that he would often on the Sudden and afterwards on the Bench resolve very hard Questions which had puzled the best Accomptants about Town He rested not here but Studied the Algebra both Speciosa and Numerosa and went through all the other Mathematical Sciences and made a great Collection of very excellent Instruments sparing no cost to have them as exact as Art could make them He was also very Conversant in Philosophical Learning and in all the curious Experiments and rare Discoveries of this Age And had the new Books Written on those Subjects sent him from all Parts which he both read and examined so Critically that if the Principles and Hypotheses which he took first up did any way prepossess him yet those who have differed most from him have acknowledged that in what he has Writ concerning the Torricellian Experiment and of the Rarefaction and Condensation of the Air he shews as great an Exactness and as much Subtilty in the Reasoning he builds on them as these Principles to which he adhered could bear But indeed it will seem scarce Credible that a man so much imployed and of so severe a temper of Mind could find leisure to Read Observe and Write so much of these Subjects as he did He called them his Diversions for he often said when he was weary with the Study of the Law or Divinity he used to Recreate himself with Philosophy or the Mathematicks To these he added great skill in Physick Anatomy and Chyrurgery And he used to say no man could be absolutely a Master in any Profession without having some skill in other Sciences for besides the Satisfaction he had in the knowledge of these things he made use of them often in his Imployments In some Examinations he would put such Questions to Physitians or Chyrurgeons that they have professed the Colledge of Physitians could not do it more Exactly by which he discovered great Judgment as well as much Knowledge in these things And in his Sickness he used to Argue with his Doctors about his Distempers and the Methods they took with them like one of their own Profession which one of them told me he understood as far as Speculation without Practice could carry him To this he added great Searches into Ancient History and particularly into the roughest and least delightful part of it Chronology He was well acquainted with the Ancient Greek Philosophers but want of occasion to use it wore out his Knowledge of the Greek Tongue and though he never Studied the Hebrew Tongue yet by his great Conversation with Selden he understood the most curious things in the Rabinical Learning But above all these he seemed to have made the Study of Divinity the cheif of all others to which he not only directed every thing else but also arrived at that pitch in it that those who have read what he has Written on these Subjects will think they must have had most of his time and thoughts It may seem Extravagant and almost Incredible that one man in no great Compass of years should have acquired such a variety of Knowledge and that in Sciences that require much Leasure and Application But as his Parts were quick and his Apprehensions lively his Memory great and his Judgements strong so his Industry was almost Indefatigable He rose always betimes in the Morning was never idle scarce ever held any discourse about Newes except with some few in whom he confided entirely He entered into no Correspondence by Letters except about necessary Business or matters of Learning and spent very little time in Eating or Drinking for as he never went to publick Feasts so he gave no Entertainments but to the Poor for he followed our Saviour's direction of feasting none but these literally And in Eating and Drinking he observed not only great Plainness and Moderation but lived so Philosophically that he always ended his Meal with an Appetite So that he lost little time at it that being the only Portion which he grudged himself and was disposed to any Exercise of his mind to which he thought fit to apply himself immediately after he had Dined by these means he gained much time that is otherwise unprofitably wasted He had also an admirable equality in the temper of his mind which disposed him for what ever Studies he thought fit to turn himself to And some very uneasy things which he lay under for many years did rather engage him to than distract him from his Studies When he was called to the Barr and began to make a Figure in the World the late unhappy Warrs broke out in which it was no easie thing for a Man to preserve his Integrity and to live Securely free from great danger and trouble He had read the Life of Pomponius Atticus Writ by Nepos and having observed that he had passed through a time of as much Distraction as ever was in any Age or State from the Wars of Marius and Scilla to the beginnings of Augustus his Reign without the least blemish on his Reputation and free from any Considerable Danger being held in great Esteem by all Parties and courted and favoured by them He set him as a Pattern to himself and observing that besides those Virtues which are necessary to all Men and at all times there were two things that chiefly preserved Atticus the one was his engaging in no Faction and medling in no publick Business the other was his constant favouring and reliveing those that were lowest which was ascribed by such as prevailed to the Generosity of his Temper and procured him much Kindness from those on whom he had exercised his Bounty when it came to their turn to Govern He resolved to guide himself by those Rules as much as was possible for him to do He not only avoided all publick Imployment but the very talking of News and was always both Favourable and Charitable to those who were deprest and was
with some Addition and with this Regulation that it should be distributed among such poor House-keepers as did not Receive the Alms of the Parish for to give it to those was only as he used to say to save so much Money to the Rich who by Law were bound to relieve the poor of the Parish Thus he was descended rather from a good than a Noble Family and yet what was wanting in the insignificant Titles of High Birth and Noble Blood was more than made up in the true worth of his Ancestors But he was soon deprived of the Happiness of his Fathers Care and Instruction for as he lost his Mother before he was three years old so his Father died before he was five so early was he cast on the Providence of God But that unhappiness was in a great measure made up to him For after some opposition made by Mr. Thomas Poyntz his Uncle by his Mother he was committed to the care of Anthony Kingscot of Kingscot Esquire who was his next Kinsman after his Uncles by his Mother Great care was taken of his Education and his Guardian intended to breed him to be a Divine and being inclined to the way of those then called Puritans put him to some Schools that were Taught by those of that party and in the 17 th year of his Age sent him to Magdalen-Hall in Oxford where Obadiah Sedgwick was his Tutor He was an extraordinary Proficient at School and for some time at Oxford But the Stage Players coming thither he was so much corrupted by seeing many Playes that he almost wholly forsook his Studies By this he not only lost much time but found that his Head came to be thereby filled with such vain Images of things that they were at best Improfitable if not hurtful to him and being afterwards sensible of the Mischief of this he resolved upon his coming to London where he knew the opportunities of such Sights would be more frequent and Inviting never to see a Play again to which he constantly adhered The Corruption of a Young Man's mind in one particular generally draws on a great many more after it so he being now taken off from following his Studies and from the Gravity of his deportment that was formerly Eminent in him far beyond his Years set himself to many of the vanities incident to Youth but still preserved his Purity and a great probity of Mind He loved fine Clothes and delighted much in Company and being of a strong robust Body he was a great Master at all those Exercises that required much Strength He also learned to Fence and handle his Weapons in which he became so expert that he worsted many of the Masters of those Arts but as he was exercising himself in them an Instance appeared that shewed a good Judgment and gave some hopes of better things One of his Masters told him he could teach him no more for he was now better at his own Trade than himself was This Mr. Hale lookt on as flattery so to make the Master discover himself he promised him the House he lived in for he was his Tenant if he could hit him a blow on the Head and bad him do his best for he would be as good as his word so after a little Engagement his Master being really Superiour to him hit him on the Head and he performed his promise for he gave him the House freely and was not unwilling at that rate to learn so early to distinguish flattery from plain and simple truth He was now so taken up with Martial matters that instead of going on in his design of being a Scholar or a Divine he resolved to be a Souldier and his Tutor Sedgwick going into the Low-Countries Chaplain to the Renowned Lord Vere he resolved to go along with him and to trail a Pike in the Prince of Orange's Army but a happy stop was put to this Resolution which might have proved so fatal to himself and have deprived the Age of the great Example he gave and the useful Services he afterwards did his Country He was engaged in a Suite of Law with Sir William Whitmore who laid claim to some part of his Estate and his Guardian being a Man of a retired temper and not made for Business he was forced to leave the University after he had been three Years in it and goe to London to sollicite his own business Being recommended to Serjeant Glanvill for his Councellor and he observing in him a clear apprehension of things and a solid Judgement and a great fitness for the study of the Law took pains upon him to perswade him to forsake his thoughts of being a Souldier and to apply himself to the study of the Law and this had so good an effect on him that on the 8 th of November 1629. when he was past the 20 th Year of his Age he was admitted into Lincolns-Inn and being then deeply sensible how much time he had lost and that Idle and Vain things had over-run and almost corrupted his mind he resolved to Redeem the time he had lost and followed his Studies with a diligence that could scarce be beleived if the signal effects of it did not gain it Credit He Studied for many years at the rate of 16 Hours a day he threw aside all fine Clothes and betook himself to a plain fashion which he continued to use in many points to his dying day But since the honour of reclaiming him from the idleness of his former course of Life is due to the memory of that Eminent Lawyer Serj. Glanvil and since my Design in Writing is to propose a Pattern of Heroick Virtue to the World I shall mention one passage of the Serjeant which ought never to be forgotten His Father had a fair Estate which he intended to settle on his Elder Brother but he being a Vicious young Man and there appearing no hopes of his Recovery he setled it on him that was his Second Son Upon his Death his Eldest Son finding that what he had before looked on as the threatnings of an angry Father was now but too certain became Melancholly and that by degrees wrought so great a change on him that what his Father could not prevail in while he Lived was now effected by the severity of his last Will so that it was now too late for him to change in hopes of an Estate that was gone from him But his Brother observing the reality of the change resolved within himself what to do so he called him with many of his Friends together to a Feast and after other Dishes had been served up to the Dinner he ordered one that was covered to be set before his Brother and desired him to uncover it which he doing the Company was surprized to find it full of Writings So he told them that he was now to do what he was sure his Father would have done if he had lived to see that happy Change which they now all
them into it since a Faction upon that would arise in the Church which they thought might be more Dangerous than the Schism it self was Besides they said if some things were now to be changed in Complyance with the humour of a party as soon as that was done another party might demand other Concessions and there might be as good reasons invented for these as for those Many such Concessions might also shake those of our own Communion and tempt them to forsake us and go over to the Church of Rome pretending that we changed so often that they were thereby inclined to be of a Church that was constant and true to her self These were the reasons brought and cheifly insisted on against all Comprehension and they wrought upon the greater part of the House of Commons so that they passed a Vote against the receiving of any Bill for that Effect There were others that opposed it upon very different ends They designed to shelter the Papists from the Execution of the Law and saw clearly that nothing could bring in Popery so well as a Toleration But to tolerate Popery bare-faced would have startled the Nation too much so it was Necessary to hinder all the Propositions for Union since the keeping up the differences was the best Colour they could find for getting the Tolleration to pass only as a slackning the Laws against Dissenters whose Numbers and Wealth made it adviseable to have some regard to them and under this pretence Popery might have crept in more covered and less regarded So these Councils being more acceptable to some concealed Papists then in great Power as has since appeared but too Evidently the whole Project for Comprehension was let fall and those who had set it on foot came to be looked on with an ill eye as secret Favourers of the Dissenters Underminers of the Church and evey thing else that Jealousie and distaste could cast on them But upon this occasion the Lord Cheif Baron and Dr. Wilkins came to contract a firm and familiar Friendship and the Lord Cheif Baron having much Business and little time to spare did to enjoy the other the more what he had scarce ever done before he went sometimes to Dine with him And though he lived in great Friendship with some other eminent Clergy-men as Dr. Ward Bishop of Salisbury Dr. Barlow Bishop of Lincoln Dr. Barrow late Master of Trinity Colledge Dr. Tillotson Dean of Canterbury and Dr. Stillingfleet Dean of St. Pauls Men so well known and so much Esteemed that as it was no wonder the Lord Cheif Baron valued their Conversation highly so those of them that are yet alive will think it no lessening of the Character they are so deservedly in That they are reckoned among Iudge Hale's Friends yet there was an intimacy and freedom in his converse with Bishop Wilkins that was singular to him alone He had during the late Wars lived in a long and entire Friendship with the Apostolical Primate of Ireland Bishop Usher Their curious searches into Antiquity and the Sympathy of both their Tempers led them to a great Agreement almost in every thing He held also great Conversation with Mr. Baxter who was his Neighbour at Acton on whom he looked as a Person of great Devotion and Piety and of a very subtile and quick Apprehension their Conversation lay most in Metaphysical and abstracted Idea's and Schemes He looked with great Sorrow on the Impiety and Atheism of the Age and so he set himself to oppose it not only by the shining Example of his own Life but by engaging in a Cause that indeed could hardly fall into better hands And as he could not find a Subject more worthy of himself so there were few in the Age that understood it so well and could manage it more Skilfully The occasion that first led him to Write about it was this He was a strict observer of the Lords Day in which besides his constancy in the publick Worship of God he used to call all his Family together and repeat to them the Heads of the Sermons with some Additions of his own which he fitted for their Capacities and Circumstances and that being done he had a Custome of shutting himself up for two or three Hours which he either spent in his secret Devotions or on such profitable Meditations as did then occur to his thoughts He writ them with the same simplicity that he formed them in his Mind without any Art or so much as a thought to let them be published He never Corrected them but laid them by when he had finished them having intended only to fix and preserve his own Reflections in them So that he used no sort of care to polish them or make the first draught perfecter than when they fell from his Pen These fell into the hands of a worthy Person and he judging as well he might that the Communicating them to the World might be a publick service Printed two Volumes of them in Octavo a little before the Authors Death Containing his CONTEMPLATIONS I. Of our latter End II. Of Wisdome and the fear of God III. Of the knowledge of Christ Crucified IV. The Victory of faith over the World V. Of Humility VI. Iacobs Vow VII Of Contentation VIII Of Afflictions IX A good method to entertain unstable and troublesome times X. Changes and Troubles a Poem XI Of the Redemption of time XII The great Audit XIII Directions touching keeping the Lords Day in a Letter to his Children XIV Poems Written upon Christmass-day In the 2 d. Volume I. An Enquiry touching Happiness II. Of the Chief end of Man III. Upon 12 Ecles 1. Remember thy Creator IV. Upon the 51. Psal. v. 10. Create a clean heart in me with a Poem V. The folly and Mischeif of Sin VI. Of self Denial VII Motives to Watchfulness in reference to the Good and Evil Angels VIII Of Moderation of the Affections IX Of Worldly hope and Expectation X. Upon 13. Heb. 14. We have here no Continuing City XI Of Contentedness and Patience XII Of Moderation of Anger XIII A preparative against Afflictions XIV Of Submission Prayer and Thanksgiving XV. Of Prayer and Thanksgiving on Psal. 116.12 XVI Meditations on the Lords Prayer with a Paraphrase upon it In them there appears a Generous and true Spirit of Religion mixt with most serious and fervent Devotion and perhaps with the more advantage that the Stile wants some Correction which shews they were the genuine Productions of an excellent Mind entertaining it self in secret with such Contemplations The Stile is clear and Masculine in a due temper between flatness and affectation in which he expresses his thoughts both easily and decently In writing these Discourses having run over most of the Subjects that his own Circumstances led him chiefly to consider he began to be in some pain to chuse new Arguments and therefore resolved to fix on a Theam that should hold him longer He was soon determined in his Choice by
abroad not only for his Health but he thought it opened his Mind and enlarged his thoughts to have the Creation of God before his Eyes When he set himself to any Study he used to cast his design in a Scheme which he did with a great exactness of Method he took nothing on Trust but pursued his Enquires as far as they could go and as he was humble enough to confess his Ignorance and submit to Mysteries which he could not comprehend so he was not easily imposed on by any shews of Reason or the Bugbears of vulgar Opinions He brought all his Knowledge as much to scientifical Principles as he possibly could which made him neglect the Study of Tongues for the bent of his Mind lay another way Discoursing once of this to some they said they looked on the Common Law as a Study that could not be brought into a Scheme nor formed into a Rational Science by reason of the Indigestedness of it and the Multiplicity of the Cases in it which rendered it very heard to be understood or reduced into a Method But he said he was not of their mind and so quickly after he drew with his own hand a Scheme of the whole Order and Parts of it in a large sheet of Paper to the great Satisfaction of those to whom he sent it Upon this hint some pressed him to Compile a Body of the English Law It could hardly ever be done by a Man who knew it better and would with more Judgment and Industry have put it into Method But he said as it was a Great and Noble Design which would be of vast Advantage to the Nation so it was too much for a private Man to undertake It was not to be Entred upon but by the Command of a Prince and with the Communicated Endeavours of some of the most Eminent of the Profession He had great vivacity in his Fancy as may appear by his Inclination to Poetry and the lively Illustrations and many tender strains in his Contemplations But he look't on Eloquence and Wit as things to be used very chastly in serious Matters which should come under a severer Inquiry Therefore he was both when at the Bar and on the Bench a great Enemy to all Eloquence or Rhetorick in Pleading He said if the Iudge or Iury had a right understanding it signified nothing but a waste of Time and loss of words and if they were weak and easily wrought on it was a more decent way of corrupting them by bribing their Fancies and biassing their Affections And wondered much at that affectation of the French Lawyers in imitating the Roman Orators in their Pleadings For the Oratory of the Romans was occasioned by their popular Government and the Factions of the City so that those who intended to excell in the Pleading of Causes were trained up in the Schools of the Rhetors till they became ready and expert in that luscious way of Discourse It is true the Composures of such a Man as Tully was who mixed an extraordinary Quickness an exact Judgement and a just Decorum with his skill in Rhetorick do still entertain the Readers of them with great Pleasure But at the same time it must be acknowledged that there is not that chastity of Style that closeness of Reasoning nor that justness of Figures in his Orations that is in his other Writings So that a great deal was said by him rather because he knew it would be acceptable to his Auditors than that it was approved of by himself and all who read them will acknowledg they are better pleased with them as Essays of Wit and Style than as Pleadings by which such a Iudge as ours was would not be much wrought on And if there are such Grounds to censure the performances of the greatest Master in Eloquence we may easily infer what nauseous Discourses the other Orators made since in Oratory as well as in Poetry none can do Indifferently So our Iudge wondred to find the French that live under a Monarchy so fond of imitating that which was an ill Effect of the Popular Government of Rome He therefore pleaded himself always in few words and home to the Point And when he was a Iudge he held those that Pleaded before him to be the main Hinge of the Business and cut them short when they made Excursions about Circumstances of no Moment by which he saved much time and made the cheif Difficulties be well Stated and Cleared There was another Custom among the Romans which he as much admired as he despised their Rhethorick which was that the Iuris-Consults were the Men of the highest Quality who were bred to be capable of the cheif Imployment in the State and became the great Masters of their Law These gave their opinions of all Cases that were put to them freely judging it below them to take any present for it And indeed they were only the true Lawyers among them whose Resolutions were of that Authority that they made one Classis of those Materials out of which Trebonian compiled the Digests under Iustinian for the Orators or Causidici that Pleaded Causes knew little of the Law and only imployed their mercenary Tongues to work on the Affections of the People and Senate or the Pretors Even in most of Tullies Orations there is little of Law and that little which they might sprinkle in their Declamations they had not from their own Knowledg but the Resolution of some Iuris-Consult According to that famous Story of Servius Sulpitius who was a Celebrated Orator and being to receive the Resolution of one of those that were Learned in the Law was so Ignorant that he could not understand it Upon which the Iuris-Consult reproached him and said it was a shame for him that was a Nobleman a Senator and a Pleader of Causes to be thus Ignorant of Law This touched him so sensibly that he set about the Study of it and became one of the most Eminent Iuris-Consults that ever were at Rome Our Iudge thought it might become the greatness of a Prince to encourage such a sort of Men and of Studies in which none in the Age he lived in was equal to the great Selden who was truly in our English Law what the old Roman Iuris-Consults were in theirs But where a decent Eloquence was allowable Iudge Hale knew how to have excelled as much as any either in illustrating his Reasonings by proper and well pursued Similies or by such tender expressions as might work most on the Affections so that the present Lord Chancellor has often said of him since his Death that he was the Greatest Orator he had known for though his words came not fluently from him yet when they were out they were the most Significant and Expressive that the Matter could bear Of this sort there are many in his Contemplations made to quicken his own Devotion which have a Life in them becoming him that used them and a softness fit to melt even
If it had been but a Horse he was to Buy he would have out-bid the Price and when some represented to him that he made ill Bargains he said it became Iudges to pay more for what they bought than the true Value that so those with whom they dealt might not think they had any right to their favour by having sold such things to them at an easie rate and said it was sutable to the Reputation which a Iudge ought to preserve to make such Bargains that the World might see they were not too well used upon some secret Account In Sum his Estate did shew how little he had minded the raising a great Fortue for from a Hundred pound a Year he raised it not quite to Nine Hundred and of this a very Confiderable part came in by his share of Mr. Selden's Estate yet this considering his great Practice while a Counsellour and his constant frugal and modest way of Living was but small a Fortune In the share that fell to him by Mr. Selden's Will one memorable thing was done by him with the other Executors by which they both shewed their regard to their dead Friend and their Love of the Publick His Library was valued at some Thousands of pounds and was believed to be one of the curiousest Collections in Europe so they resolved to keep this intire for the Honour of Selden's Memory and gave it to the University of Oxford where a noble Room was added to the former Library for its Reception and all due respects have been since shewed by that Great and Learned Body to those their worthy Benefactors who not only parted so generously with this great Treasure but were a little put to it how to oblige them without crossing the Will of their dead Friend Mr. Selden had once intended to give his Library to that University and had left it so by his Will but having occasion for a Manuscript which belonged to their Library they asked of him a Bond of a Thousand pound for its Restitution this he took so ill at their hands that he struck out that part of his Will by which he had given them his Library and with some passion declared they should never have it The Executors stuck at this a little but having considered better of it came to this Resolution That they were to be the Executors of Mr. Selden's Will and not of his Passion so they made good what he had intended in cold Blood and past over what his Passion had suggested to him The parting with so many excellent Books would have been as uneasie to our Iudge as any thing of that nature could be if a pious regard to his friends Memory had not prevailed over him for he valued Books and Manuscripts above all things in the World He himself had made a great and rare Collection of Manuscripts belonging to the Law of England he was Forty years in gathering it He himself said it cost him about fifteen Hundred pounds and calls it in his Will a Treasure worth having and keeping and not fit for every Mans view These all he left to Lincoln's Inn and for the Information of those who are curious to search into such things there shall be a Catalogue of them added at the end of this Book By all these instances it does appear how much he was raised above the World or the love of it But having thus mastered things without him his next Study was to overcome his own Inclinations He was as he said himself naturally passionate I add as he said himself for that appeared by no other Evidence save that sometimes his Colour would rise a little but he so governed himself that those who lived long about him have told me they never saw him disordered with Anger though he met with some Tryals that the nature of Man is as little able to bear as any whatsoever There was one who did him a great Injury which it is not ncecssary to mention who coming afterwards to him for his Advice in the settlement of his Estate he gave it very frankly to him but would accept of no Fee for it and thereby shewed both that he could forgive as a Christian and that he had the Soul of a Gentleman in him not to take Money of one that had wronged him so heinously And when he was asked by one how he could use a Man so kindly that had wronged him so much his Answer was he thanked God he had learned to forget Injuries And besides the great temper he expressed in all his publick Imployments in his Family he was a very gentle Master He was tender of all his Servants he never turned any away except they were so faulty that there was no hope of reclaiming them When any of them had been long out of the way or had neglected any part of their Duty he would not see them at their first coming home and sometimes not till the next day least when his displeasure was quick upon him he might have chid them indecently and when he did reprove them he did it with that sweetness and gravity that it appeared he was more concerned for their having done a fault than for the Offence given by it to himself But if they became immoral or unruly then he turned them away for he said he that by his place ought to punish disorders in other People must by no means suffer them in his own House He advanced his Servants according to the time they had been about him and would never give occasion to Envy among them by raising the younger Clerks above those who had been longer with him He treated them all with great affection rather as a Friend than a Master giving them often good Advice and Instruction He made those who had good places under him give some of their profits to the other Servants who had nothing but their Wages When he made his Will he left Legacies to every one of them But he expressed a more particular kindness for one of them Robert Gibbon of the middle Temple Esq In whom he had that Confidence that he left him one of his Executors I the rather mention him because of his noble Gratitude to his worthy Benefactor and Master for he has been so careful to preserve his Memory that as he set those on me at whose desire I undertook to write his Life So he has procured for me a great part of those Memorials and Informations out of which I have Composed it The Iudge was of a most tender and compassionate Nature this did eminently appear in his Trying and giving Sentence upon Criminals in which he was strictly careful that not a circumstance should be neglected which might any way clear the Fact He behaved himself with that regard to the Prisoners which became both the gravity of a Iudge and the pity that was due to Men whose Lives lay at Stake so that nothing of jearing or unreasonable severity ever fell from him He
of the Leiger-Books of Battell Evesham Winton c. one vol. Seldeni Copies of the principal Records in the Red-Book in the Exchequer one vol. Extracts of Records and Treaties relating to Sea-affairs one vol. Records touching Customs Ports Partition of the Lands of Gil. De Clare c. Extract of Pleas in the time of R. 1. King Iohn E. 1. c. one vol. Cartae Antiquae in the Tower Transcribed in 2 vol. Chronological Remembrances extracted out of the Notes of Bishop Usher one volume stitched Inquisitiones de Legibus Walliae one vol. Collections or Records touching Knighthood Titles of Honour Seldeni 1 vol. Mathematicks and Fortifications one vol. Processus Curiae Militaris one vol. A Book of Honour stitched one vol. Extracts out of the Registry of Canterbury Copies of several Records touching proceedings in the Military Court one vol. Abstracts of Summons and Rolls of Parliament out of the Book Dunelm and some Records Alphabetically digested one vol. Abstracts of divers Records in the Office of first Fruits one vol. stitched Mathematical and Astrological Calculations 1 vol. A Book of Divinity Two large Repositories of Records marked A. and B. All those above are in Folio THe proceedings of the Forrests of Windsor Dean and Essex in Quarto one vol. Those that follow are most of them in Velome or Parchment TWo Books of old Statutes one ending H. 7. The other 2 H. 5. with the Sums two vol. Five last years of E. 2. one vol. Reports tempore E. 2. one vol. The Year Book of R. 2. and some others one vol. An old Chronicle from the Creation to E 3. one vol. A Mathematical Book especially of Optiques one vol. A Dutch Book of Geometry and Fortification Murti Benevenlani Geometrica one vol. Reports tempore E. 1. under Titles one vol. An old Register and some Pleas 1 vol. Bernardi Bratrack Peregrinatio one vol. Iter Cantii and London and some Reports tempore E. 2. one vol. Reports tempore E. 1. E. 2. one vol. Leiger Book Abbatiae De Bello Isidori opera Liber altercationis Christianae Philosophiae contra Paganos Historia Petri Manducatorii Hornii Astronomica Historia Ecclesiae Dunelmensis Holandi Chymica De Alchymiae Scriptoribus The black-Book of the New-Law Collected by me and digested into alphabetical Titles Written with my own hand which is the Original Coppy MATTHEW HALE The Conclusion THus lived and died Sir Matthew Hale the renouned Lord Cheif Justice of England He had one of the blessings of Virtue in the highest measure of any of the Age that does not always follow it which was that he was universally much valued and admired by Men of all sides and perswasions For as none could hate him but for his Iustice and Virtues so the great estimation he was generally in made that few durst undertake to defend so ingrateful a Paradox as any thing said to lessen him would have appeared to be His Name is scarce ever mentioned since his Death without particular accents of singular respect His opinion in points of Law generally passes as an uncontroulable authority and is often pleaded in all the Courts of Justice And all that knew him well do still speak of him as one of the perfectest patterns of Religion and Virtue they ever saw The Commendations given him by all sorts of people are such that I can hardly come under the Censures of this Age for any thing I have said concerning him yet if this Book lives to after-times it will be looked on perhaps as a Picture drawn more according to fancy and invention than after the Life if it were not that those who knew him well establishing its Credit in the present Age will make it pass down to the next with a clearer authority I shall pursue his praise no further in my own words but shall add what the present Lord Chancellor of England said concerning him when he delivered the Commission to the Lord Chief Iustice Rainsford who succeeded him in that Office which he began in this manner The Vacancy of the Seat of the Chief Iustice of this Court and that by a way and means so unusual as the Resignation of him that lately held it and this too proceeding from so deploreable a cause as the infirmity of that Body which began to forsake the ablest Mind that ever presided here hath filled the Kingdom with Lamentations and given the King many and pensive thoughts how to supply that Vacancy again And a little after speaking to his Successor He said The very Labours of the place and that weight and fatigue of Business which attends it are no small discouragements For what Shoulders may not justly fear that Burthen which made him stoop that went before you Yet I confess you have a greater discouragement than the meer Burthen of your Place and that is the unimitable Example of your last Predecessor Onerosum est succedere bono Principi was the saying of him in the Panegyrick And you will find it so too that are to succeed such a Chief Iustice of so indefatigable an Industry so invincible a Patience so exemplary an Integrity and so magnanimous a contempt of worldly things without which no Man can be truly great and to all this a Man that was so absolute a Master of the Science of the Law and even of the most abstruce and hidden parts of it that one may truly say of his knowledge in the Law what St. Austin said of St. Hieroms knowledge in Divinity Quod Hieronimus nescivit nullus mortalium unquam scivit And therefore the King would not suffer himself to part with so great a Man till he had placed upon him all the marks of bâ—unty and esteem which his retired and weak Condition was capable of To this high Character in which the expressions as they well become the Eloquence of him who pronounced them so they do agree exactly to the Subject without the abatements that are often to be made for Rhetorick I shall add that part of the Lord Chief Justices answer in which he speaks of his Predecessor A person in whom his eminent Virtues and deep Learning have long managed a contest for the Superiority which is not decided to this day nor will it ever be determined I suppose which shall get the upper hand A person that has sat in this Court these many Years of whose actions there I have been an eye and ear witness that by the greatness of his learning always charmed his Auditors to reverence and attention A person of whom I think I may boldly say that as former times cannot shew any Superiour to him so I am confident succeeding and future time will never shew any equal These considerations heightned by what I have heard from your Lordship concerning him made me anxious and doubtful and put me to a stand how I should succeed so able so good and so great a Man It doth very much trouble me that I who in comparison of him am but like a Candle lighted in the Sun-shine or like a Glow-worm at mid-day should succeed so great a Person that is and will be so eminently famous to all Posterity and I must ever wear this Motto in my breast to comfort me and in my actions to excuse me Sequitur quamvis non passibus aequis Thus were Panegyricks made upon him while yet alive in that same Court of Justice which he had so worthily governed As he was honoured while he lived so he was much lamented when he died And this will still be acknowledged as a just inscription for his Memory though his modesty forbid any such to be put on his Tomb-stone THAT HE WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST PATTERNS THIS AGE HAS AFFORDED WHETHER IN HIS PRIVATE DEPORTMENT AS A CHRISTIAN OR IN HIS PUBLICK EMPLOYMENTS EITHER AT THE BAR OR ON THE BENCH FINIS