Alen or learned Doctor Stapleton both English men and in Italy when Mr. Hookers four Books were first printed meeting with this general fame of them were desirous to read an Author that both the Rerformed and the Learned of their own Church did so much magnifie and therefore caused them to be sent for and after reading them boasted to the Pope which then was Clement the eight that though he had lately said he never met with an English Book whose Writer deserved the name of an Author yet there now appear'd a wonder to them and it would be so to his Holiness if it were in Latin for a poor obscure English Priest had writ four such Books of Laws and Church Polity and in a Style that exprest so Grave and such Humble Majesty with clear demonstration of Reason that in all their readings they had not met with any that exceeded him and this begot in the Pope an earnest desire that Doctor Stapleton should bring the said four Books and looking on the English read a part of them to him in Latin which Doctor Stapleton did to the end of the first Book at the conclusion of which the Pope spake to this purpose there is no Learning that this man hath not searcht into nothing too hard for his understanding This man indeed deserves the name of an Author his books will get reverence by Age for there is in them such seeds of Eternity that if the rest be like this they shall last till the last Fire shall consume all Learning Nor was this high the only testimony and commendations given to his Books for at the first coming of King Iames into this Kingdom he inquired of the Archbishop Whitegift for his friend Mr. Hooker that writ the Books of Church Polity to which the answer was that he dyed a year before Queen Elizabeth who received the sad news of his Death with very much Sorow to which the King replyed and I receive it with no less that I shall want the desired happinesse of seeing and discoursing with that man from whose Books I have received such satisfaction Indeed my Lord I have received more satisfaction in reading a Leaf or Paragraph in Mr. Hooker though it were but about the fashion of Churches or Church Musick or the like but especially of the Sacraments than I have had in the reading particular large Treatises written but of one of those subjects by others though very Learned men and I observe there is in Mr. Hooker no affected Language but a comprehensive deer manifestation of Reason and that back't with the Authority of the Scripture the Fathers and Schoolmen and with all Law both Sacred and Civil And though many others write well yet in the next age they will be forgotten but doubtless there is in every page of Mr. Hookers Book the picture of a Divine Soul such Pictures of Truth and Reason and drawn in so sacred colours that they shall never fade but give an immortal memory to the Author And it is so truly true that he thought what he spake that as the most Learned of the Nation have and still do mention Mr. Hooker with reverence so he also did never mention him but with the Epithite of Learned or Iudicious or Reverend or Venerable Mr. Hooker Nor did his Son our late King Charles the first ever mention him but with the same reverence enjoyning his Son our now gracious King to be studious in Mr. Hookers Books And our learned Antiquary Mr. Cambden mentioning the Death the modesty and other vertues of Mr. Hooker and magnifying his Books wisht that for the honour of this and benefit of other Nations they were turn'd into the Universal Language Which work though undertaken by many yet they have been weary and forsaken it but the Reader may now expect it having been long since begun and lately finisht by the happy pen of Doctor Earl now Lord Bishop of Salisbury of whom I may justly say and let it not offend him because it is such a truth as ought not to be conceal'd from Posterity or those that now live and yet know him not that since Mr. Hooker died none have liv'd whom God hath blest with more innocent Wisdom more sanctified Learning or a more pious peaceable primitive Temper so that this excellent person seems to be only like himself our venerable R. Hooker only fit to make the learned of all Nations happy in knowing what hath been too long confin'd to the language of our little I stand There might be many more and just occasions taken to speak of his Books which none ever did or can commend too much but I decline them and hasten to an account of his Christian behaviour and Death at Borne in which place he continued his customary rules of Mortification and Self-denyal was much in Fasting frequent in Meditation and Prayers injoying those blessed Returns which only men of strict lives feel and know and to which men of loose and Godless lives are Strangers At his entrance into this place his Friendship was much sought for by Doctor Hadrian Saravia then one of the Prebends of Canterbury a German by birth and sometimes a Pastor both in Flanders and Holland where he had studied and well considered the controverted points concerning Episcopacy and Sacrilege and in England had a just occasion to declare his Judgement concerning both unto his Brethren Ministers of the Low Countrys which was excepted against by Theodor Beza and others against whose exceptions he rejoyned and thereby became the happy Author of many Learned Tracts writ in Latin especially of three one of the Degrees of Ministers and of the Bishops Superiority above the Presbytery a second against Sacrilege and a third of Christian Obedience to Princes the last being occasioned by Gretzerus the Jesuit And it is observable that when Beza gave his reasons to the Chancellor of Scotland for the abrogation of Episcopacy in that Nation partly by Letters and more fully in a Treatise of a three-fold Episcopacy which he calls Divine Humane and Satanical this Doctor Saravia had by the help of Bishop Whitgift made such an early discovery of their intentions that he had almost as soon answered that Treatise as it became Publique and therein discovered how Beza's opinion did contradict that of Calvins and their adherents leaving them to interfere with themselves in point of Episcopacy but these Tracts it will not concern me to say more than that they were most of them dedicated to his and the Church of Englands watchful Patron Iohn Whitgift the Archbishop and printed about the year in which Mr. Hooker also appeared first to the world in the Publication of his first four Books of Ecclesiastical Polity This Friendship being sought for by this Learned Doctor you may believe was not denied by M. Hooker who was fortune so like him as to be ingaged against Mr. Trevers Mr. Cartwright and others in a controversie too like Doctor Saravia's So that
Works and by their Transcription they fell into the hands of others and have been thereby preserved from being lost as too many of his other matchless wrirings were and from these I have gathered my observations in this Discourse of his Life After the publication of his answer to the Petition of Mr. Trevers Mr. Hooker grew dayly into repute with the most learned and wise of the Nation but it had a contrary effect in every many of the Temple that were zealous for Mr. Trevers and for his Church Discipline insomuch that though Mr. Trevers left the place yet the seeds of Discontent could not be rooted out of that Society by the great Reason and as great Meekness of this humble man for though the chief Benchers gave him much Reverence and Incouragement yet he there met with many neglects and oppositions by those of Mr. Trevers Judgement insomuch that it turned to his extreme grief and that he might unbeguile and win them he designed to write a deliberate sober Treatise of the Churches power to make Canons for the use of Ceremonies and by Law to impose an obedience to them as upon her Children and this he proposed to do in eight Books of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity intending therein to shew such Arguments as should force an assent from all men if Reason delivered in sweet Language and voyd of any provocation were able to doe it And that he might prevent all prejudice he wrote a large Preface or Epistle to the Dissenting Brethren wherein there were such Bowels of Love and such a Commixture of that Love with Reason as was never exceeded but in Holy Writ and particularly by that of St. Paul to his dear Brother and fellow Labourer Philemon than which none ever was more like this Epistle of Mr. Hookers so that his dear friend and companion in his Studies might after his death justly say What admirable height of Learning and depth of Iudgment dwelt in the lowly mind of this truly humble man great in all wise mens eyes except his own with what gravity and Majesty of speech his Tongue and Pen uttered Heavenly Mysteries whose eyes in the Humility of his Heart were always cast down to the ground how all things that proceeded from him were breathed as from the Spirit of Love as if he like the Bird of the Holy Ghost the Dove had wanted gall let those that knew him not in his Person judge by these living Images of his soul his Writings The foundation of these Books were laid in the Temple but he sound it no fit place to finish what he had there designed and therefore solicited the Arch Bishop for a remove saying When I lost the freedom of my Cell which was my College yet I found some degree of it in my quiet Country Parsonage but I am weary of the noise and oppositions of this place And indeed God and Nature did not intend me for Contentions but for Study and quietness I have begun a work in which I intend the Iustification of our Laws of Church-Government and I shall never be able to finish it but where I may Study and pray for Gods blessing upon my indeavours and keep my self in Peace and Privacy and behold Gods blessing spring out of my Mother Earth and eat my own bread without oppositions and therefore if your Grace can Iudge me worthy such a favour let me beg it that I may perfect what I have begun About this time the Parsonage or Rectory of Boscum in the Diocess of Sarum and six miles from that City became void The Bishop of Sarum is Patron of it but in the vacancy of that Sea which was three years betwixt the death of Bishop Peirce and Bishop Caldwells admission into it the disposal of that and all Benefices belonging to that Sea during this said vacancy came to be disposed of by the Archbishop of Canterbury and he presented Richard Hooker to it in the year 1591. And Richard Hooker was also in this said year Instituted Iuly 17. to be a minor Prebend of Salisbury the Corps to it being nether-Havin about ten miles from that City which Prebend was of no great value but intended chiefly to make him capable of a better preferment in that Church In this Boscum he continued till he had finished four of his eight proposed Books of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity and these were enter'd into the register Book in Stationers Hall the 9. of March 1592. but not publisht till the year 1594. and then with the before mentioned large and affectionate Preface to them that seek as they termit the Reformation of the laws and orders Ecclesiastical in the Church of England of which Books I shall yet say nothing more but that he continued his laborious diligence to finish the remaining four during his life of all which more properly hereafter but at Boscum he finisht and publisht but only the first four He left Boscum in the year 1595. by a surrender of it into the hands of Bishop Caldwell and he presented Benjamin Russel who was Instituted into it 23. of Iune in the same year The Parsonage of Bishops Borne in Kent three miles from Canterbury is in that Archbishops gift but in the latter end of the year 1594. Doctor William Redman the Rector of it was made Bishop of Norwich by which means the power of presenting to it was pro ea vice in the Queen and she presented Richard Hooker whom she loved well to this good living of Borne the 7. of Iuly 1595. in which Living he continued till his Death without any addition of Dignity or Profit And now having brought our Richard Hooker from his Birth-place Place to this where he found a Grave I shall only give some account of his Books and of his behaviour in this Parsonage of Borne and then give a rest both to my self and my Reader His first four Books and large Epistle have been declared to be printed at his being at Boscum Anno 1594. Next I am to tell that at the end of these four Books there is printed this Advertisement to the Reader I have for some causes thought it at this time more fit to let go these first four Books by themselves than to stay both them and the rest till the whole might together be published Such generalities of the cause in question as are here handled it will be perhaps not amiss to consider apart by way of Introduction unto the Books that are to follow concerning particulars in the mean time the Reader is requested to mend the Printers errors as noted underneath And I am next to declare that his fifth Book which is larger than his first four was first also printed by itself Anno 1597. and dedicated to his Patron the Archbishop These Books were read with an admiration of their excellency in This and their just fame spread it self into forain Nations And I have been told more than fourty years past that Cardinal
Imprimatur Ex AEd. Lamb. Oct. 29. 1664. Geo. Stradling S.T.P. Rev in Christo Pat. D. Gilb. Archiep. Cant. Ã Sac. Do. Mr RICHARD HOOKER Author of those Learned Bookes of Eoclesiasticoll pollitie W. DolleF THE LIFE OF Mr. RICH. HOOKER The Author of those Learned Books of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity Prov. 2.15 The tongue of the wise useth knowledge rightly LONDON Printed by I. G. for Rich. Marriott and are to be sold at his Shop under the Kings-head Tavern over against the Inner Temple gate in Fleetstreet 1665. To the Right Honourable AND Right Reverend Father in God GEORGE Lord Bishop of Winchester Dean of His Majesty's Chapel Royal and Prelate of the most Noble Order of the Garter MY LORD THere present you with a Relation of the Life of that Humble man to whom at the mention of his Name Princes and the most Learned of this Nation have paid a Reverence It was written by me under your Roof for which and more weighty Reasons you might if it were worthy justly claim a Title to it But indeed my Lord though this be a well-meant Sacrifice to the Memory of that Venerable man yet I have so little Confidence in my Performance that I beg your Pardon for Supscribing your Name to it and desire all that know your Lordship to receive it not as a Dedication by which you receive any Access of Honour but rather as a more humble and a more publick Acknowledgment of your long-continued and your now daily Favours to Your most Affectionate and most Humble Servant Nov. 28. 1664. IZAAK WALTON The Copy of a Letter writ to Mr. Walton by Dr. King Lord Bishop of Chichester THough a Familiarity of almost Forty years continuance and the constant experience of your Love even in the worst times be sufficient to indear our Friendship yet I must confess my Affection much improved not onely by Evidences of private Respect to many that know and love you but by your new Demonstration of a Publick Spirit testified in a diligent true and useful Collection of so many Material Passages as you have now afforded me in the Life of Venerable Mr. Hooker Of which since desired by such a Friend as your self I shall not deny to give the Testimony of what I know concerning him and his learned Books but shall first here take a fair occasion to tell you that you have been happy in chusing to write the Lives of three such Persons as Posterity hath just cause to honour which they will do the more for the true Relation of them by your happy Pen of all which I shall give you my unfeigned Censure I shall begin with my most dear and incomparable Friend Dr. Donne late Dean of S. Pauls Church who not onely trusted me as his Executor but three days before his death delivered into my hands those excellent Sermons of his now made publick professing before Dr. Winniff Dr. Montford and I think your self then present at his bed-side that it was by my restless importunity that he had prepared them for the Press together with which as his best Legacy he gave me all his Sermon-Notes and his other Papers containing an Extract of near Fifteen hundred Authors How these were got out of my hands you who were the Messenger for them and how lost both to me and your self is not now seasonable to complain but since they did miscarry I am glad that the general Demonstration of his Worth was so fairly preserv'd and represented to the World by your Pen in the History of his Life indeed so well that beside others the best Critick of our later time Mr. Iohn Hales of Eaton College affirm'd to me He had not seen a Life written with more advantage to the Subject or more reputation to the Writer than that of Dr. Donnes After the performance of this task for Dr. Donne you undertook the like office for our Freind Sir Henry Wotton betwixt which two there was a Friendship begun in Oxford continued in their various Travels and more confirm'd in the religious Friendship of Age and doubtless this excellent Person had writ the Life of Dr. Donne if Death had not prevented him by which means his and your Pre-collections for that Work fell to the happy Menage of your Pen a Work which your would have declin'd if imperious Persuasions had not been stronger than you modest Resolutions against it And I am thus far glad that the first Life was so impos'd upon you because it gave an unavoidable Cause of Writing the second if not 't is too probable we had wanted both which had been a prejudice to all Lovers of Honour and ingenious Learning And let me not leave my Friend Sir Henry without this Testimony added to yours That he was a Man of as Florid a Wit and Elegant a Pen as any former or ours which in that kind is a most excellent Age hath ever produced And now having made this voluntary Observation of our two deceased Friends I proceed to satisfie your desire concerning what I know and believe of the ever-memorable Mr. Hooker who was Schismaticorum Malleus so great a Champion for the Church of Englands Rights against the Factious Torrent of Separatists that then ran high against Church-Discipline and in his unanswerable Books continues to be so against the unquiet Disciples of their Schism which now under other Names still carry on their Design and who as the proper Heirs of their Irrational Zele would again rake into the scarce-closed Wounds of a newly bleeding State and Church And first though I dare not say that I knew Mr. Hooker yet as our Ecclesiastical History reports to the honour of Ignatius that he lived in the time of S. Iohn and had seen him in his Childhood so I also joy that in my Minority I have often seen Mr. Hooker with my Father from whom and others at that time I have heard most of the material passages which you relate in the History of his Life and from my Father received such a Character of his Learning Humility and other Virtues that like Jewels of unvaluable price they still cast such a lustre as Envy or the Rust of Time shall never darken From my Father I have also heard all the Circumstances of the Plot to defame him and how Sir Edwin Sandys out-witted his Accusers and gained their Confession and could give an account of each particular of that Plot but that I judge it fitter to be forgotten and rot in the same Grave with the Malicious Authors I may not omit to declare that my Fathers Knowledge of Mr. Hooker was occasioned by the Learned Dr. Iohn Spencer who after the Death of Mr. Hooker was so careful to preserve his unvaluable Sixth Seventh and Eighth Books of ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY and his other Writings that he procured Henry Iacksow then of Corpus-Christi College to transcribe for him all Mr. Hookers remaining written Papers many of which were imperfect for his Study had been
by which and no other everlasting life and blessedness is attainable and these two ways 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 Iustification their Iustification 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 elect 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 Iustification but Christ no effectual but his Mercy and says also we deny the Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ we abuse disanul and anihilate 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 consequent overthrow the merits of Christ shall man be so bold as to write on their Graves such men are damned there is for them no Salvation St. Austin says 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 error 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 error 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 and 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 M. 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 worthinesse of their deeds although the onely thing that troubleth and molesteth them be a little too much dejection somewhat too great a fire arising from an erronious conceit that God will require a worthinesse in them which they are grieved to find 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 die sayes Mr. Hooker if it be ever proved that simply an Error doth exclude a Pope or Cardinal in such a case utterly from hope of life Surely I must confesse that if it be an Error 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 be named Bishops that he kneeled both when he prayed and when he received the Sacrament and says Mr. Hooker in his defence other exceptions so like these as but to name I should have thought a greater than fault to commit them And 't is not unworthy the noting that in the manage of great controversie a sharper reproof than this and one like it did never fail 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 occassion to testifie the Dove-like temper of this meek this matchlesse man and doubtlesse if Almighty God had blest the Dissenters from the Ceremonies and Discipline of this Church with a like measure of Wisdome and Humility instead of their pertinacious zele then Obedience Truth had kissed each other then Peace and Piety and flourished in our Nation and this Church and State had been blest like Ierusalem that is at unity with it self which can never be expected till God shall blesse the common people with a belief That there may be offences taken which are not given and That Lawes are not made for private men to Dispute but to Obey And this also may be worthy of noting That these Exceptions of Mr. Trevers against Mr. Hooker were the cause of his transcribing severall of his Sermons which we now see printed with this Books of his Answer to Mr. Trevers his Supplication and of his most learned and useful discourse of Iustification of Faith and
makes the Sick mans Bed easie by giving rest to his Soul made his very Languishment comfortable and yet all this time he was solicitous 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 completed 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 moneth 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 onely 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 days before his Death his House was robb'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 Friends with him the blessed Sacrament of the Body and Bloud 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 insomuch 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 better in 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 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 onely 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 me 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 blessed Martyrs and Confessours 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 till which blessed time Let Glory be to God on high let Peace be upon Earth 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 Iudicious 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 he dye Was it because his Life and Death should be Both equal paterns 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 Honors 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. Richard 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 died in the forty-seventh if not in the forty-sixt 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 die 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 October the 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 Iane and Margaret
that he gave to each of them a hundred pound that he left Ioue 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 Mony for him and more frugal than his Mistress in keeping 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 Bachelar in Divinity and Rector of St. Nicholas in Harble down near Canterbury who died about 16. years past and had a Son Ezekiel now living 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 moneths 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 died in the moneth of September 1623. For his other two Daughters I can learn little certainty but have heard they both died before they were Marriageable and for his Wife she was so unlike Iepthaes 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 doe 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 finisht 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 moneth 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 moneths 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 days 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 Doctor Iohn Spencer mentioned in the life of Mr. Hooker who was of Mr. Hookers College 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 Doctor 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 usually printed before Mr. Hookers five Books but omitted I know not why in the last impression of the eight Printed together in Anno 1662. in which the Publishers seem to impose the three doubtful as the undoubted Books of Mr. Hooker with these two Letters I. S. at the end of the said Espistle which was meant for this Iohn Spencer in which Epistle the Reader may find these words which may give some Authority to what I have here written And though Mr. Hooker hastened his own Death by hastening to give Life to his Books yet he held out with his eyes to behold these Benjamins these Sons of his right Hand though to him they prov'd Benonies Sons of pain and sorrow But some evil disposed minds whether of Malice or Covetousness or wicked blind Zeal it is uncertain as soon as they were born and their Father dead smother'd them and by conveying the perfect copies left unto us nothing but the old imperfect mangled draughts dismembred into pieces no favour no grace not the shadow of themselves remaining in them had the Father lived to behold them thus defaced he might rightly have named them Benonies the Sons of Sorrow but being the learned will not suffer them to die and be buried it is intended the world shall see them as they are the learned will find in them some shadows and resemblances of their Fathers face God grant that as they were with their Brethren dedicated to the Church for messengers of Peace so in the strength of that little breath of Life that remaineth in them they may prosper in their work and by satisfying the Doubts of such as are willing to learn they may help to give an end to the calamities of these our Civil Wars I. S. And next the Reader may note that this Epistle of Doctor Spencers was writ and first Printed within four years after the death of Mr. Hooker in which time all diligent search had been made for the perfect Copies and then granted not recoverable and therefore indeavoured to be compleated out of Mr. Hookers rough draughts as is exprest by the said Doctor Spencer since whose death it is now 50. years And I do profess by the Faith of a Christian that Doctor Spencers wife who was my Aunt and Sister to George Cranmer of whom I have spoken told me forty years since in these
or in words to this purpose that her Husband had made up or finisht Mr. Hookers last three Books and that upon her Husbands Death-bed or in his last sickness he gave them into her hand with a charge they should not be seen by any man but be by her delivered into the hands of the then Archbishop of Canterbury which was Dr. Abbot and that she did as he injoyn'd her I do conceive that from Doctor Spencers and no other Copy there have been divers Transcripts and were to be found in several places as namely Sir Thomas Bodlies Library in that of Doctor Andrews late Bishop of Winton in the late Lord Conwayes in the Archbishop of Canterburies and in the Bishop of Armaghs and in many others and most of these pretended to be the Authors own hand but much disagreeing being indeed altered and diminisht as men have thought fittest to make Mr. Hookers Judgment suit with their Fancies or give authority to their corrupt designs and for proof of a part of this take these following testimonies Doctor Barnard sometime Chaplain to Doctor Usher late Lord Archbishop of Armagh hath declar'd in a late Book called Clavi Trebales Printed by Richard Hodgkinson Anno 1661. that in his search and examination of the said Bishops Manuscripts he found the three written Books which were supposed the 6.7 and 8. of Mr. Hookers Books of Ecclesiastical Polity and that in the said three Books now printed as Mr. Hookers there are so many omissions that they amouut to many paragraphs and which cause many incoherencies the Omissions are by him set down at large in the said Printed Book to which I refer the Reader for the whole but think fit in this place to insert this following short part of them First as there could be in Natural Bodies no Motion of any thing unless there were some first which moved all things and continued Unmoveable even so in Politick Societies there must be some unpunishable or else no man shall suffer punishment for sith punishments proceed always from Superiors to whom the administration of Iustice belongeth which administration must have necessarily a Fountain that deriveth it to all others and receiveth not from any because otherwise the course of Iustice should go infinitely in a Circle every Superiour having his Superiour without end which cannot be therefore a well-spring it followeth there is a Supreme head of Iustice whereunto all are subject but it self in subjection to none Which kind of Preheminency if some ought to have in a Kingdom who but the King shall have it Kings therefore or no man can have lawful power to Iudge If Private men offend there is the Magistrate over them which Iudgeth if Magistrates they have their Prince if Princes there is Heaven a Tribunal before which they shall appear on Earth they are not accomptable to any Here says the Doctor it breaks off abruptly And I have these words also attested under the hand of Mr. Fabian Phillips a man of note for his useful Books I will make Oath if I shall be required that Doctor Sanderson the late Bishop of Lincoln did a little before his Death affirm to me he had seen a Manuscript affirmed to him to be the hand-writing of Mr. Richard Hooker in which there was no mention made of the King or Supreme Governors being accomptable to the People this I will make Oath that that good man attested to me Fabian Phillips So that there appears to be both Omissions and Additions in the said last three printed Books and this may probably be one Reason why Doctor Sanderson the said Learned Bishop whose writings are so highly and justly valued gave a strickt charge near the time of his Death or in his last Will that nothing of his that was not already Printed should be Printed after his Death It is well known how high a value our Learned King Iames put upon the Books writ by Mr. Hooker as also that our late King Charls the Martyr for the Church valued them the second of all Books testified by his commending them to the reading of his Son Charls that now is our gratious King and you may suppose that this Charls the First was not a stranger to the pretended three Books because in a discourse with the Lord Say when the said Lord required the King to grant the truth of his argument because it was the Judgement of Mr. Hooker quoting him in one of the three written Books the King replyed they were not allowed to be Mr. Hookers Books but however he would allow them to be Mr. Hookers and consent to what his Lordship proposed to prove out of those doubtful Books if he would but consent to the Iudgement of Mr. Hooker in the other five that were the undoubted Books of Mr. Hooker In this relation concerning these three doubtful Books of Mr. Hookers my purpose was to enquire then set down what I observ'd and know which I have done not as an ingaged Person but indifferently and now leave my Reader to give Sentence for their Legitimation as to himself but so as to leave others the same Liberty of believing or disbelieving them to be Mr. Hookers and t is observable that as Mr. Hooker advis'd with Doctor Spencer in the design and manage of these Books so also and chiefly with his dear Pupils George Cranmer whose Sister was the wife of Doctor Spencer of which this following Letter may be a Testimony and doth also give authority to some things mentioned both in this Appendix and in the Life of Mr. Hooker and is therefore added GEORGE CRANMERS Letter unto MR. Richard Hooker February 1598. WHat Posterity is likely to judge of these matters concerning Church-Discipline we may the better conjecture if we call to mind what our own age within few years upon better Experience hath already judged concerning the same It may be remembred that at first the greatest part of the Learned in the Land were either eagerly affected or favourably inclined that way The Books then written for the most part favoured of the Disciplinary Stile it sounded every where in Pulpits and in common phrase of mens speech the contrary part began to fear they had taken a wrong course many which impugned the Discipline yet so impugned it not as not being the better form of Government but as not being so convenient for our State in regard of dangerous Innovations thereby like to grow one man alone there was to speak of whom let no suspition of Flattery deprive of his deserved Commendation who in the defiance of the one part and courage of the other stood in the gap and gave others respite to prepare themselves to the defence which by the sudden eagerness and violence of their Adversaries had otherwise been prevented wherein God hath made good unto him his own Impress Vincit qui patitur for what contumelious indignities he hath at their hands sustained the world is witness and what reward of Honour above his