to wish what they were not able to hope for that they should be like the beasts that perish And wicked company which is the Atheists Sanctuary were so bold as to say so though the worst of Mankind when he is left alone at midnight may wish but cannot then think it a belief that there is no God Into this wretched this reprobate condition many had then sinned themselves And now when the Church was pestered with them and with all these other Irregularities when her Lands were in danger of Alienation her Power at least neglected and her Peace torn to pieces by several Schisms and such Heresies as do usually attend that sin for Heresies do usually out-live their first Authors when the Common people seemed ambitious of doing those very things that were attended with most dangers that thereby they might be punish'd and then applauded and pitied when they called the Spirit of opposition a Tender Consciouce and complained of persecution because they wanted power to persecute others when the giddy multitude raged and became restless to find out misery for themselves and others and the Rabble would herd themselves together and endeavour to govern and act in spight of Authority In this extremity of fear and danger of the Church and State when to suppress the growing evils of both they needed a man of prudence and piety and of an high and fearless fortitude they were blest in all by John Whitgift his being made Archbishop of Canterbury of whom Sir Henry Wotton that knew him well for he was his Pupil gives this true Character That he was a man of Reverend and Sacred memory and of the primitive temper such a temper as when the Church by lowliness of Spirit did flourish in highest examples of Virtue And though I dare not undertake to add to this excellent and true character of Sir Henry Wotton yet I shall neither do right to this Discourse nor to my Reader if I forbear to give him a further and short account of the life and manners of this excellent man and it shall be short for I long to end this digression that I may lead my Reader back to Mr. Hooker where we left him at the Temple John Whitgift was born in the County of Lincoln of a Family that was ancient and noted to be both prudent and affable and Gentile by nature he was educated in Cambridge much of his Learning was acquired in Pembroke-Hall where Mr. Bradford the Martyr was his Tutor from thence he was remov'd to Peter-house from thence to be Master of Pembroke Hall and from thence to the Mastership of Trinity Colledge About which time the Queen made him Her Chaplain and not long after Preâ—end of Ely and then Dean of Lincoln and having for many years past look'â— upon him with much reverence and favour gave him a fair testimony of both by giving him the Bishoprick of Worcester and which was not a usual favour forgiving him his First-fruits then by constituting him Vice-president of the principality of Wales And having experimented his Wisdom his Justice and Moderation in the menage of Her affairs in both these places She in the 26 th of Her Reign made him Archbishop of Canterbury and not long after of Her Privy Council and trusted him to manage all Her Ecclesiastical Affairs and Preferments In all which Removes he was like the Ark which left a blessing upon the place where it rested and in all his Imployments was like Jchoida that did good unto Israel These were the steps of this Bishops ascension to this place of dignity and cares in which place to speak Mr. Cambdens very words in â— is Annals he devoutly consecrated both his whole life to God and his painful labours to the â—â—od of his Church And yet in this place he met with many oppositions in the regulation of Church-affairs which were much disordered at his entrance by reason of the age and remisness of Bishop Grindall his immediate Predecessor the activity of the Non-consormists and their chief assistant the Earl of Leicester and indeed by too many others of the like Sacrilegious principles With these he was to encounter and though he wanted neither courage nor a good cause yet he foresaw that without a great measure of the Queens favour it was impossible to stand in the breach that was made into the Lands and Immunities of the Church or to maintain the remaining rights of it And therefore by justifiable sacred Insinuations such as St. Paul to Agrippa Agrippa believest thou I know thou believest he wrought himself into so great a degree of favour with Her as by his pious use of it hath got both of them a great degree of Fame in this World and of Glory in that into which they are now entred His merits to the Queen and Her favours to him were such that She called him Her little black Husband and called his Servants Her Servants and She saw so visible and blessed a sincerity shine in all his cares and endeavours for the Churches and for Her good that She was supposed to trust him with the very secrets of Her Soul and to make him Her Confessor of which She gave many fair testimonies and of which one was that She would never eat Flesh in Lent without obtaining a Licence from her little black Husband and would often say She pitied him because She trusted him and had eased Her self by laying the burthen of all Her Clergy-cares upon his shoulders which he managed with prudence and piety I shall not keep my self within the promised Rules of brevity in this account of his Interest with Her Majesty and his care of the Churches Rights if in this digression I should enlarge to particulars and therefore my desire is that one Example may serve for a Testimony of both And that the Reader may the better understand it he may take notice that not many years before his being made Archbishop there passed an Act or Acts of Parliament intending the better preservation of Church-lands by recalling a power which was vested in others to Sell or Lease them by lodging and trusting the future care and protection of them only in the Crown And amongst many that made a bad use of this power or trust of the Queens the Earl of Leicester was one and the Bishop having by his Interest with Her Majesty put a stop to the Earls sacrilegious designs they two fell to a open opposition before Her after which they both quitted the Room not friends in appearance but the Bishop made a sudden and a seasonable return to Her Majesty for he found Her alone and spake to Her with great humility and reverence and to this purpose I Beseech Your Majesty to hear me with patience and to believe that Yours and the Churches safety are dearer to me than my Life but my Conscience dearer than both and therefore give me leave to do my Duty and tell You that Princes are deputed Nursing Fathers
and consent to what his Lordship proposed to prove out of those doubtful Books if he would but consent to the Judgement 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 engaged 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 Dr. 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 Dr. 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 CRANMER'S 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 savoured of the Disciplinary stile it sounded everywhere 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 Adversaries God hath bestowed upon him themselves though nothing glad thereof must needs confess Now of late years the heat of men towards the Discipline is greatly decayed their judgements begin to sway on the other side the Learned have weighed it and found it light wise men conceive some fear left it prove not only not the best kind of Government but the very bane and destruction of all Government The cause of this change in mens Opinions may be drawn from the general nature of Error disguised and cloathed with the name of Truth which did mightily and violently possess men at first but afterwards the weakness thereof being by time discovered it lost that reputation which before it had gained as by the outside of an house the passers by are oftentimes deceived till they see the conveniency of the Rooms within so by the very name of Discipline and Reformation men were drawn at first to cast a fancy towards it but now they have not contented themselves only to pass by and behold afar off the Fore-front of this reformed house they have entered in even at the special request of Master-workmen and chief builders thereof thy have perused the Roomes the Lights the Conveniencies and they finde them not answerable to that report which was made of them not to that opinion which upon report they had conceived So as now the Discipline which at first triumphed over all being unmasked beginneth to droop and hang down her head This cause of change in opinion concerning the Discipline is proper to the Learned or to such as by them have been instructed another cause there is more open and more apparent to the view of all namely the course of Practice which the Reformers have had with us from the beginning the first degree was onely some small difference about the Cap and Surplice but not such as either bred division in the Church or tended to the ruine of the Government established This was peaceable the next degree more stirring Admonitions were directed to the Parliament in peremptory sort against our whole Form of Regiment in defence of them Volumes were published in English and in Latin yet this was no more than writing Devices were set on foot to erect the Practice of the Discipline without Authority yet herein some regard of Modesty some moderation was used Behold at length it brake forth into open outrage first in writing by Martin in whose kind of dealing these things may be observed first that whereas T. C. and others his great Masters had always before set out the Discipline as a Queen and as the Daughter of God He contrarywise to make her more acceptable to the people brought her forth as a Vice upon the Stage 2. This conceit of his was grounded as may be supposed upon this rare policy that seing the Discipline was by writing refuted in Parliament rejected in secret corners hunted out and deciyed it was imagined that by open rayling which to the Vulgar is commonly most plausible the State Ecclesiastical might have been drawn into such contempt and hatred as the overthrow thereof should have been most grateful to all men and in a manner desired by all the Common people 3. It may be noted and this I know my self to be true how some of them although they could not for shame approve so lewd an Action yet were content to lay hold on it to the advancement of their cause by acknowledging therein the secret Judgments of God against the Bishops and hoping that some good might be wrought thereby for his Church as indeed there was though not according to their construction For 4. contrary to their expectation that railing Spirit did not only not further but extremely disgrace and prejudice their Cause when it was once perceived from how low degrees of contradiction at first to what outrage of Contumely and Slander they were at length proceeded and were also likely to proceed further A further degree of outrage was also in Fact Certain Prophets did arise who deeming it not possible that God should suffer that to be undone which they did so fiercely desire to have done Namely that his holy Saints the favourers and Fathers of the Discipline should be enlarged and delivered from persecution and seeing no means of Deliverance Ordinary were fain to persuade themselves that God must need raise some extraordinary means and being persuaded of none so well as of themselves they forth with must needs be the instruments of this great work Hereupon they framed unto themselves an assured hope that upon their Preaching
known that it was he that sent it and he lived to see as lively a representation of his dead Friend as Marble can express a Statue indeed so like Dr. Donne that as his Friend Sir Henry Wotton hath expressed himself it seems to breath faintly and Posterity shall look upon it as a kind of artificial Miracle He was of Stature moderately tall of a strait and equally proportioned body to which all his words and actions gave an unexpressible addition of Comeliness The melancholy and pleasant humor were in him so contempered that each gave advantage to the other and made his Company one of the delights of Mankind His fancy was unimitably high equalled onely by his great wit both being made useful by a commanding judgement His aspect was chearful and such as gave a silent testimony of a clear knowing soul and of a Conscience at peace with it self His melting eye shewed that he had a soft heart full of noble compassion of too brave a soul to offer injuries and too much a Christian not to pardon them in others He did much contemplate especially after he entred into his Sacred Calling the mercies of Almighty God the immortality of the Soul and the joyes of Heaven and would often say Blessed be God that he is God divinely like himself He was by nature highly passionate but more apt to reluct at the excesses of it A great lover of the offices of humanity and of so merciful a spirit that he never beheld the miseries of Mankind without pity and relief He was earnest and unwearied in the search of knowledge with which his vigorous soul is now satisfied and employed in a continual praise of that God that first breathed it into his active body that body which once was a Temple of the Holy Ghost and is now become a small quantity of Christian dust But I shall see it reanimated J. W. An EPITAPH written by Dr. Corbet late Bishop of Oxford on his Friend Dr. Donne HE that wou'd write an Epitaph for thee And write it well must first begin to be Such as thou wert for none can truly know Thy life and worthâ— but he that hath liv'd so He must have wit to spare and to hurle down Enough to keep the Gallants of the Town He must have learning plenty both the Laws Civil and Common to judge any Cause Divinity great store above the rest Noâ— of the last Edition but the best He must have language travel all the Arts Judgement to use or else he wants thy parts He must have friends the highest able to do Such as Mecoenas and Augustus too He must have such a sickness such a death Or else his vain descriptions come beneath He that would write an Epitaph for thee Should first be dead let it alone for me To the Memory of my ever desired Dr. Donne An Elegy by H. King late Bishop of Chicester TO have liv'd eminent in a degree Beyond our loftiest thoughts that is like thee Or t' have had too much merit is not safe For such excesses find no Epitaph At common graves we have poetick eyes Can melt themselves in easie Elegies Each quill can drop his tributary verse And pin it like the hatchments to the herse But at thine Poem or Inscription Rich soul of wit and language we have none Indeed a silence does that Tomb bâ—fit Where is no Herauld left to blazon it Widow'd invention justly doth forbear To come abroad knowing thou art not there Late her great Patron whose prerogative Maintain'd and cloaâ—h'd her so as none alive Must now presume to keep her at thy rate Though he the Indies for her dower estate Or else that awful fire which once did burn In thy clear brain now fallen into thy Urn Lives there to fright rude Empericks from thence Which might profane thee by their Ignorance Whoever writes of thee and in a stile Unworthy such a theme does but revile Thy precious dust and wakes a learned spirit Which may revenge his rapes upon thy merit For all a low-pitch't fancy can devise Will prove at best but hallowed injuries Thou like the dying Swan did'st lately sing Thy mournful dirge in audience of the King When pale looks and faint accents of thy breath Presented so to life that piece of death That it was fear'd and prophesi'd by all Thou thither cam'st to preach thy Funerall Oh hadst thou in an Elegiack knell Rung out unto the World thine own farewell And in thy high victorious numbers beat The solemn measures of thy griev'd retreat Thou might'st the Poets service now have mist As well as then thou didst prevent the Priest And never to the World beholden be So much as for an Epitaph for thee I do not like the office nor is 't fit Thou who didst lend our age such sums of wit Should'st now re-borrow from her bankrupt mine That oare to bury thee which first was thine Rather still leave us in thy debt and know Exalted Soul more glory 't is to owe Thy memory what we can never pay Than with embased Coyn those Rites defray Commit we then thee to thy self nor blame Our drooping loves that thus to thine own fame Leave thee Executor since but thine own No pen could do thee Justice nor bayes Crown Thy vast deserts save that we nothing can Depute to be thy ashes guardian So Jewellers no Art or Metal trust To form the Diamond but the Diamonds dust H. K. An ELEGY on Dr. DONNE OUr Donne is dead and we may sighing say We had that man where language chose to stay And shew her utmost power I wou'd not praise That and his great Wit which in our vain dayes Makes others proud but as these serv'd to unlock That Cabinet his mind where such a stock Of knowledge was repos'd that I lament Our just and general cause of discontent And I rejoyce I am not so severe But as I write a Line to weep a tear For his decease such sad Extremities Can make such men as I write Elegies And wonder not for when so great a loss Falls on a Nation and they slight the Cross God hath rais'd Prophets to awaken them From their dull Lethargy witness my Pen Not us'd to upbraid the World though now it must Freely and boldly for the Cause is just Dull age oh I wou'd spare thee but thou' rt worse Thou art not only dull but hast a Curse Of black Ingratitude if not Couldst thou Part with this matchless man and make no vow For thee and thine successively to pay Some sad remembrance to his dying day Did his Youth scatter Poetry wherein Lay Loves Philosophy Was every sin Pictur'd in his sharp Satyrs made so foul That some have fear'd sins shapes kept their soul Safer by reading Verse Did he give dayes Past marble Monuments to those whose praise He wou'd perpetuate Did he I fear Envy will doubt these at his twentieth year But more matur'd did his rich soul conceive And in harmonious
holy numbers weave A Crown of Sacred Sonnets sit to adorn A dying Martyrs brow or to be worn On that blest head of Mary Magdalen After she wip'd Christs feet but not till then Did he fit for such Penitents as she And he to use leave us a Letanie Which all devout men love and doubtless shall As times grow better grow more Classicall Did he write Hymns for Piety and Wit Equal to those great grave Prudentius writ Spake he all Languages Knew he all Laws The grounds and use of Physick but because 'T was mercenary wav'd it went to see That happy place of Christs Nativity Did he return and preach him preach him so As since St. Paul none ever did they know Those happy souls that hear'd him know this truth Did he confirm thy ag'd convert thy youth Did he these wonders and is his dear loss Mourn'd by so few few for so great a Cross. But sure the silent are ambitious all To be close Mourners at his Funerall If not in common pity they forbear By Repititions to renew our care Or knowing grief conceiv'd and bid consumes Mans life insensibly as poyson fumes Corrupt the brain take silence for the way To'inlarge the soul from these walls mud and clay Materials of this body to remain With him in Heaven where no promiscuous pain Lessens those joyes we have for with him all Are satisfied with joyes essentiall Dwell on these joyes my thoughts oh do not call Grief back by thinking on his Funerall Forget he lov'd me waste not my swift years Which haste to Davids seventy fill'd with fears And sorrows for his death Forget his parts They find a living grave in good mens hearts And for my first is daily paid for sin Forget to pay my second sigh for him Forget his powerful preaching and forget I am his Convert Oh my frailty let My flesh be no more heard it will obtrude This Lethargy so shou'd my gratitude My vows of gratitude shou'd so be broke Which can no more be than his vertues spoke By any but himself for which cause I Write no Incomiums but this Elegy Which as a Free-will offering I here give Fame and the World and parting with it grieve I want abilities fit to set forth A Monument great as Donne's matchless worth April 7. 1631. Iz Wa. FINIS THE LIFE OF S r HENRY WOTTON SOMETIME Provost of Eaton Colledge There are them that have left a name behinde them so that their praise shall be spoken of Ecclus. 44. 8. LONDON Printed by Thomas Newcomb for Richard Marriot and sold by most Booksellers 1670. THE LIFE OF Sir HENRY WOTTON SIR Henry Wotton whose Life I now intend to write was born in the year of our Redemption 1568. in Bocton-hall commonly called Bocton or Bougton place in the Parish of Bocton Malherb in the fruitful Country of Kent Bocton-hall being an ancient and goodly structure beautifying and being beautified by the Parish Church of Bocton Malherb adjoyning unto it and both seated within a fair Park of the Wottons on the Brow of such a Hill as gives the advantage of a large Prospect and of equal pleasure to all Beholders But this House and Church are not remarkable for any thing so much as for that the memorable Family of the Wottons have so long inhabited the one and now lie buried in the other as appears by their many Monuments in that Church the Wottons being a Family that hath brought forth divers Persons eminent for Wisdom and Valour whose Heroick Acts and Noble Imployments both in England and in forraign parts have adorn'd themselves and this Nation which they have served abroad faithfully in the discharge of their great trust and prudently in their Negotiations with several Princes and also serv'd it at home with much Honour and Justice in their wise managing a great part of the publick affairs thereof in the various times both of War and Peace But lest I should be thought by any that may incline either to deny or doubt this Truth not to have observed Moderation in the commendation of this Family And also for that I believe the Merits and Memory of such persons ought to be thankfully recorded I shall offer to the consideration of every Reader out of the testimony of their Pedegree and our Chronicles a part and but a part of that just Commendation which might be from thence enlarged and shall then leave the indifferent Reader to judge whether my errour be an excess or defect of Commendations Sir Robert Wotton of Bocton Malherb Knight was born in the year of Christ 1463. He living in the Reign of King Edward the fourth was by him trusted to be Lieutenant of Guisnes to be Knight Porter and Comptroller of Callais where he dyed and lies honourably buried Sir Edward Wotton of Bocton Malherb Knight Son and Heir of the said Sir Robert was born in the year of Christ 1489. in the Reign of King Henry the Seventh He was made Treasurer of Callais and of Privie-Councel to King Henry the Eight who offered him to be Lord Chancellour of England but saith Hollinshed out of a virtuous modesty he refused it Thomas Wotton of Bocton Malherb Esquire Son and Heir of the said Sir Edward and the Father of our Sir Henry that occasions this relation was born in the year of Christ 1521. He was a Gentleman excellently educated and studious in all the Liberal Arts in the knowledg whereof he attained unto a great perfection who though he had besides those abilities a very Noble and plentiful estate and the ancient Interest of his Predecessors many invitations from Queen Elizabeth to change his Country Recreations and Retirement for a Court-Life offering him a Knight-hood she was then with him at his Bocton-hall and that to be but as an earnest of some more honorable and more profitable imployment under Her yet he humbly refused both being a man of great modesty of a most plain and single heart of an antient freedom and integrity of mind A commendation which Sir Henry Wotton took occasion often to remember with great gladness and thankfully to boast himself the Son of such a Father From whom indeed he derived that noble ingenuity that was alwayes practised by himself and which he ever both commended and cherish'd in others This Thomas was also remarkable for Hospitality a great Lover and much beloved of his Country to which may justly be added that he was a Cherisher of Learning as appears by that excellent Antiquary M. William Lambert in his perambulation of Kent This Thomas had four sons Sir Edward Sir James Sir John and Sir Henry Sir Edward was Knighted by Queen Elizabeth and made Comptroller of Her Majesties Houshould He was saith Cambden a man remarkable for many and great Imployments in the State during her Reign and sent several times Ambassadour into Forraign Nations After her death he was by King James made Comptroller of his Houshold and called to be of his
year of his Age he proceeded Master of Arts and at that time read in Latine three Lectures â—e Oculo wherein he having described the Form the Motion the curious composure of the Eye and demonstrated how of those very many every humour and nerve performs its distinct Office so as the God of Order hath appointed without mixture or confusion and all this to the advantage of man to whom it is given not onely as the bodies guide but whereas all other of his senses require time to inform the Soul this in an instant apprehends and warns him of danger teaching him in the very eyes of others to discover wit folly love and hatred After these observations he fell to dispute this Optique question VVhether we see by the Emission of the Beams from within or Reception of the Species from without and after that and many other like learned disquisitions in the Conclusion of his Lectures he took a fair occasion to beautifie his discourse with a Commendation of the blessing and benefit of Seeing By which we do not only discover Natures Secrets but with a continued content for the eye is never weary of seeing behold the great Light of the VVorld and by it discover the Fabrick of the Heavens and both the Order and Motion of the Celestial Orbs nay that if the eye look but downward it may rejoyce to behold the bosome of the Earth our common Mother embroidered and adorned with numberless and various Flowers which man sees daily grow up to perfection and then silently moralize his own condition who in a short time like those very Flowers decayes withers and quickly returns again to that Earth from which both had thei first being These were so exactly debated and so Rhetorically heightned as among other admirers caused that learned Italian Albericus Gentilis then Professor of the Civil Law in Oxford to call him Henrice mi ocelle which dear expression of his was also used by divers of Sir Henry's dearest Friends and by many other persons of Note during his stay in the University But his stay there was not long at least not so long as his â—riends once intended for the year after Sir Henry proceeded Master of Arts his father whom Sir Henry did never mention without this or some like reverential expression as That good man my father or My father the best of men about that time this good man changed this for a better life leaving to Sir Henry as to his other younger sons a rent-charge of an hundred Mark a yearâ— to be paid for ever out of some one of his Mannors of a much greater value And here though this good man be dead yet I wish a Circumstance or two that concern him may not be buried without a Relation which I shall undertake to do for that I suppose they may so much concern the Reader to know that I may promise my self a pardon for a short Digression IN the year of our Redemption 1553. Nicholas Wotton Dean of Canterbury whom I formerly mentioned being then Ambassador in France dream'd that his Nephew this Thomas Wotton was inclined to be a party in such a project as if he were not suddenly prevented would turn both to the loss of his life and ruine of his Family Doubtless the good Dean did well know that common Dreams are but a senseless paraphrase on our waking thoughts or of the business of the day past or are the result of our over ingaged affections when we betake our selves to rest and that the observation of them may turn to silly Superstitions as they too often do But though he might know this and might also believe that Prophesies are ceased yet doubtless he could not but consider that all Dreams are not to be neglected or cast away and did therefore rather lay this Dream aside than intend totally to lose it for that dreaming the same again the Night following when it became a double Dream like that of Pharaoh of which dreams the learned have made many observations and that it had no dependance â—n is waking thoughts much less on the desires of his heart then he did more seriously consider it and remembred that Almighty God was pleased in a Dream to reveal and to assure Monica the Mother of St. Austin that he her son for whom she wept so bitterly and prayed so much should at last become a Christian This the good Dean considered and considering also that Almighty God though the causes of Dreams be often unknown hath even in these latter times by a certain illumination of the soul in sleep discovered many things that humane wisdom could not foresee Upon these considerations he resolved to use so prudent a remedy by way of prevention as might introduce no great inconvenience to either party And to that end he wrote to the Queen 't was Queen Mary and besought her That she would cause his Nephew Thomas Wotton to be sent for out of Kent and that the Lords of her Council might interrogate him in some such feigned questions as might give a colour for his Commitment into a favourable Prison declaring that he would acquaint her Majesty with the true reason of his request when he should next become so happy as to see and speak to her Majesty 'T was done as the Dean desired and in Prison I must leave Mr. Wotton till I have told the Reader what followed At this time a Marriage was concluded betwixt our Queen Mary and Philip King of Spain And though this was concluded with the advice if not by the persuasion of her Privy Council as having many probabilities of advantage to this Nation yet divers persons of a contrary perswasion did not onely declare against it but also raised Forces to oppose it believing as they said it would be a means to bring England under subjection to Spain and make those of this Nation slaves to strangers And of this number Sir Thomas Wyat of Boxley-Abby in Kent betwixt whose Family and the Family of the Wottons there had been an ancient and intire friendship was the principal Actor who having perswaded many of the Nobility and Gentry especially of Kent to side with him and being defeated and taken Prisoner was legally arraigned condemned and lost his life So did the Duke of Suffolk and divers others especially many of the Gentry of Kent who were there in several places executed as Wyats assistants And of this number in all probability had Mr. Wotton been if he had not been confin'd for though he was not ignorant that another mans Treason makes it mine by concealing it yet he durst confess to his Uncle when he returned into England and came to visit him in Prison that he had more than an intimation of Wyats intentions and thought he had not continued actually innocent if his Uncle had not so happily dream'd him into a Prison out of which place when he was delivered by the same hand that caused his Commitment they both
his hand a Walking-staff with which he professed he had travelled through many parts of Germany and he said Richard I do not give but lend you my Horse be sure you be honest and bring my Horse back to me at your return this way to Oxford And I do now give you Ten Groats to bear your charges to Exeter and here is Ten Groats more which I charge you to deliver to your Mother and tell her I send her a Bishops Benediction with it and beg the continuance of her prayers for me And if you bring my Horse back to me I will give you Ten Groats more to carry you on foot to the Colledge and so God bless you good Richard And this you may believe was performed by both Parties But alas the next News that followed Mr. Hooker to Oxford was that his learned and charitable Patron had changed this for a better life Which may be believed for that as he lived so he dyed in devout meditation and prayer and in both so zealously that it became a religious question Whether his last Ejâ—culations or his Soul did first enter into Heaven And now Mr. Hooker became a man of sorrow and fear of sorrow for the loss of so dear and comfortable a Patron and of fear for his future subsistence But Dr. Cole raised his spirits from this dejection by bidding him go chearfully to his Studies and assuring him he should neither want food nor rayment which was the utmost of his hopes for he would become his Patron And so he was for about nine months and not longer for about that time this following accident did befall Mr. Hooker Edwin Sandys then Bishop of London and after Archbishop of York had also been in the dayes of Queen Mary forced by forsaking this to seek safety in another Nation where for some Years Bishop Jewell and he were Companions at Bed and Board in Germany and where in this their Exile they did often eat the bread of sorrow and by that means they there began such a friendship as lasted till the death of Bishop Jewell which was in September 1571. A little before which time the two Bishops meeting Jewell began a story of his Richard Hooker and in it gave such a Character of his Learning and Manners that though Bishop Sandys was educated in Cambridge where he had oblieged and had many Friends yet his resolution was that his Son Edwin should be sent to Corpus-Christi Colledge in Oxford and by all means be Pupil to Mr. Hooker though his Son Edwin was not then much yonger for the Bishop said I will have a Tutor for my Son that shall teach him Learning by Instruction and Vertue by Example and my greatest care shall be of the last and God willing this Richard Hooker shall be the Man into whose hands I will commit my Edwin And the Bishop did so about twelve moneths or not much longer after this resolution And doubtless as to these two a better choice could not be made for Mr. Hooker was now in the nineteenth year of his age had spent five in the University and had by a constant unwearied diligence attained unto a perfection in all the learned Languages by the help of which an excellent Tutor and his unintermitted Study he had made the subtilty of all the Arts easie and familiar to him and usefull for the discovery of such Learning as lay hid from common Searchers so that by these added to his great Reason and his Industry added to both He did not onely know more of Causes and effects but what he knew he knew better then other men And with this Knowledge he had a most blessed and clear Method of Demonstrating what he knew to the great advantage of all his Pupils which in time were many but especially to his two first his dear Edwin Sandys and his as dear George Cranmer of which there will be a fair Testimony in the ensuing Relation This for his Learning And for his Behaviour amongst other Testimonies this still remains of him That in four years he was but twice absent from the Chappel prayers and that his Behaviour there was such as shewed an awful reverence of that God which he then worshipped and prayed to giving all outward testimonies that his Affections were set on heavenly things This was his Behaviour towards God and for that to Man it is observable that he was never known to be angry or passionate or extream in any of his Desires never heard to repine or dispure with Providence but by a quiet gentle submission and resignation of his will to the Wisdome of his Creator bore the burthen of the day with patience never heard to utter an uncomly word and by this and a grave Behaviour which is a Divine Charm he begot an early Reverence unto his Person even from those that at other times and in other companies took a liberty to cast off that strictness of Behaviour and Discourse that is required in a Collegiate Life And when he took any liberty to be pleasant his Wit was never blemisht with Scoffing or the utterance of any Conceit that border'd upon or might beget a thought of Looseness in his hearers Thus milde thus innocent and exemplary was his Behaviour in his Colledge and thus this good man continued till his death still increasing in Learning in Patience and Piety In this nineteenth year of his age he was December 24. 1573 admitted to be one of the twenty Scholars of the Foundation being elected and so admitted as born in Devon or Hantshire out of which Countries a certain number are to be elected in Vacancies by the Founders Statutes And now as he was much encouraged so now he was perfectly in oâ—porated into this beloved Colledg which was then noted for an eminent Library strict students and remarkable â—cholars And indeed it may glory that it had Cardinal Poole Bishop Jewel Doctor John Reynolds and Doctor Thomas Jackson of that Foundation The First famous for his Learned Apology for the Church of England and his Defence of it against Harding The Second for the learned and wise Menage of a publique Dispute with John Hart of the Romish perswasion about the Head and Faith of the Church and then printed by consent of both parties And the Third for his most excellent Exposition of the Creed and other Treatises All such as have given greatest satisfaction to men of the greatest Learning Nor was this man more Note-worthy for his Learning than for his strict and and pious Life testified by his abundant love and charity to all men And in the year 1576. Febr. 23. Mr. Hookers Grace was given him for Inceptor of Arts Doctor Herbert Westphaling a man of note for Learning being then Vice-chancellour And the Act following he was compleated Master which was Anno 1577. his Patron Doctor Cole being Vice-chancellour that year and his dear friend Henry Savill of Merton Colledge being then one of the Proctors 'T was that
Henry Savill that was after Sir Henry Savill Warden of Merton Colledge and Provost of Eaton He which founded in Oxford two famous Lectures and endowed them with liberal maintenance 'T was that Sir Henry Savil that translated and enlightned the History of Cornelius Tacitus with a most excellent Comment and enriched the world by his laborious and chargeable collecting the scattered pieces of S. Chrysostome and the publication of them in one entire Body in Greek in which Language he was a most judicious Critick 'T was this Sir Henry Savill that had the happiness to be a Contemporary and familiar friend to Mr. Hooker and let Posterity know it And in this year of 1577. He was admitted Fellow of the Colledge happy also in being the Contemporary and Friend of Dr. John Reynolds of whom I have lately spoken and of Dr. Spencer both which were after and successively made Presidents of Corpus-Christi Colledge men of great Learning and Merit and famous in their Generations Nor was Mr. Hooker more happy in his Contemporaries of his Time and Colledge than in the Pupillage and Friendship of his Edwin Sandys and George Cranmer of whom my Reader may note that this Edwin Sandys was after Sir Edwin Sandys and as famous for his Speculum Europae as his brother George for making Posterity beholden to his Pen by a learned Relation and Comment on his dangerous and remarkable Travels and for his harmonious Translation of the Psalms of David the Book of Job and other Poetical parts of Holy Writ into most high and elegant Verse And for Cranmer his other Pupil I shall refer my Reader to the printed Testimonies of our learned Mr. Cambden of Fines Morison and others This Cranmer whose Christen name was George was a Gentleman of singular hopes the eldest Son of Thomas Cranmer Son of Edmund Cranmer the Archbishops brother he spent much of his youth in Corpus-Christi Colledge in Oxford where he continued Master of Arts for many years before he removed and then betook himself to Travel accompanying that worthy Gentleman Sir Edwin Sandys into France Germany and Italy for the space of three years and after their happy return he betook himself to an Imployment under a Privy Counsellour of note for an unhappy undertaking after whose Fall he went in place of Secretary with Sir Henry Killegrew in his Embassage into France and after his death he was sought after by the most Noble Lord Mount-Joy with whom he went into Ireland where he remained untill in a battel against the Rebels near Carlingford an unfortunate wound put an end both to his Life and the great Hopes that were conceived of him he being then but in the 36 year of his age Betwixt Mr. Hooker and these his two Pupils there was a sacred Friendship a Friendship made up of Religious Principles which increased dayly by a similitude of Inclinations to the same Recreations and Studies a Friendship elemented in Youth and in an University free from self-ends which the Friendships of Age usually are not and in this sweet this blessed this spiritual Amity they went on for many years and as the Holy Prophet saith so they took sweet counsel together and walked in the House of God as Friends By which means they improved it to such a degree of Amity as as bordered upon Heaven a Friendship so sacred that when it ended in this world it began in the next where it shall have no end And though this world cannot give any degree of Pleasure equal to such a Friendship yet Obedience to Parents and a desire to know the Affairs Manners Lawes and Learning of other Nations that they might thereby become the more serviceable unto their own made them put off their Gowns and leave the Colledge and Mr. Hooker to his Studies in which he was daily more assiduous still enriching his quiet and capacious Soul with the precious Learning of the Philosophers Casâ—ists and Schoolmen and with them the foundation and reason of all Laws both Sacred and Civil and with such other Learning as lay most remote from the track of common Studies And as he was diligent in these so he seemed restless in searching the scope and intention of Gods Spirit revealed to Mankind in the Sacred Scripture for the understanding of which he seemed to be assisted by the same Spirit with which they were written He that regardeth truth in the inward parts making him to understand wisdom secretly And the good man would often say that the Scripture was not writ to beget Disputations and Pride and Opposition to Government but Charity and Humility Moderation Obedience to Authority and peace to Mankind of which vertues no man did ever repent himself at his death And that this was really his judgment did appear in his future writings and in all the actions of his life Nor was this excellent man a stranger to the more light and airy parts of Learning as Musick and Poetry all which he had digested and made useful and of all which the Reader will have a fair testimony in what will follow In the Year 1579. the Chancellor of the University was given to understand that the publick Hebrew Lecture was not read according to the Statutes nor could be by reason of a distemper that had seiz'd the brain of Mr. Kingsmill who was to read it so that it lay long unread to the great detriment of those that were studious of that language Therefore the Chancellor writ to his Vice-chancellor and the University that he had heard such commendations of the excellent knowledge of Mr. Richard Hooker in that tongue that he desired he might be procured to read it And he did and continued to do so till he left Oxford Within three months after his undertaking this Lecture namely in October 1579. he was with Dr. Reynolds and others expell'd his Colledge and this Letter transcrib'd from Dr. Reynolds his own hand may give some account of it To Sir Francis Knolles I Am sorry Right Honourable that I am enforced to make unto you such a suit which I cannot move but I must complain of the unrighteous deaing of one of our Colledge who hath taken upon him against all Law and Reason to expell out of our house both me and Mr. Hooker and three other of our Fellows for doing that which by Oath we were bound to do Our matter must be heard before the Bishop of Winchester with whom I do not doubt but we shall find equity Howbeit forasmuch as some of our adversaries have said that the Bishop is already forestalled and will not give us such audience as we look for therefore I am humbly to beseech your Honour that you will desire the Bishop by your Letters to let us have Justice though it be with rigour so it be Justice our Cause is so good that I am sure we shall prevail by it Thus much I am bold to request of your Honour for Corpus Christi Colledge sake or rather for Christs
possest with a high degree of spiritual wickedness I mean with an innate restless pride and malice I do not mean the visible carnal sins of Gluttony and Drunkenness and the like from which good Lord deliver us but sins of a higher nature because they are more unlike God who is the God of love and mercy and order and peace and more like the Devil who is not a Glutton nor can be drunk and yet is a Devil but I mean those spiritual wickednesses of malice and revenge and an opposition to Government Men that joyed to be the Authors of misery which is properly his work that is the enemy and disturber of Mankind and greater sins than Gluttony or Drunkenness though some will not believe it And of this party there were also many whom prejudice and a furious Zeal had so blinded as to make them neither to hear reason nor adhere to the wayes of peace Men that were the dregs of Mankind whom Pride and Self-conceit had made to overvalue their own pitiful crooked wisdom so much as not to be asham'd to hold foolish and unmannerly Disputes against those men whom they ought to reverence and those Laws which they ought to obey Men that labour'd and joyed to find out the faults and to speak evil of Government and then to be the Authors of Confusion Men whom Company and Conversation and Custom had at last so blinded and made so insensible that these were sins that like those that perisht in the gainsaying of Core so these dyed without repenting of these spiritual wickednesses of which the practises of Copinger and Hacket in their lives and the death of them and their adherents are God knows too sad examples and ought to be cautions to those men that are inclin'd to the like spiritual wickednesses And in these Times which tended thus to Confusion there were also many others that pretended a tenderness of Conscience refusing to take an Oath before a lawful Magistrate and yet these men in their secret Conventicles did covenant and swear to each other to be assiduous and faithful in using their best endeavours to set up the Presbyterian Doctrine and Discipline and both in such a manner as they themselves had not yet agreed on To which end there were many that wandred up and down and were active in sowing Discontents and Sedition by venemous and secret murmurings and a dispersion of scurrilous Pamphlets and Libels against the Church and State but especially against the Bishops by which means together with indiscreet Sermons the common people became so phanatick as to believe the Bishops to be Antichrist and the only obstructers of Gods Discipline and then given over to such a desperate delusion as to find out a Text in the Revelation of St. John that Antichrist was to be overcome by the Sword So that those very men that began with tender and meek Petitions proceeded to Admonitions then to Satyrical Remonstrances and at last having numbred who was not and who was for their Cause they got a supposed certainty of so great a Party that they durst threaten first the Bishops then the Queen and Parliament to all which they were secretly encouraged by the Earl of Leicester then in great favour with Her Majesty and the reputed Cherisher and Patron general of these pretenders to Tenderness of Conscience his design being by their means to bring such an odium upon the Bishops as to procure an Alienation of their Lands and a large proportion of them for himself which avaritious desire had so blinded his reason that his ambitious and greedy hopes had almost put him into a present possession of Lambeth-house And to these undertakings the Non-conformists of this Nation were much encouraged and heightned by a Correspondence and Confederacy with that Brotherhood in Scotland so that here they became so bold that one told the Queen openly in a Sermon She was like an untamed Heyfer that would not be ruled by Gods people but obstructed his Discipline And in Scotland they were more confident for there they declared Her an Atheist and grew to such an height as not to be accountable for any thing spoken against Her nor for Treason against their own King if spoken in the Pulpit shewing at last such a disobedience to Him that His Mother being in England and then in distress and in prison and in danger of death the Church denied the King their prayers for her and at another time when He had appointed a day of Feasting the Church declared for a general Fast in opposition to His Authority To this height they were grown in both Nations and by these means there was distill'd into the minds of the common people such other venemous and turbulent principles as were inconsistent with the safety of the Church and State and these vented so daringly that beside the loss of life and limbs they were forced to use such other severities as will not admit of an excuse if it had not been to prevent Confusion and the perillous consequences of it which without such prevention would have been Ruine and Misery to this numerous Nation These Errours and Animosities were so remarkable that they begot wonder in an ingenious Italian who being about this time come newly into this Nation writ scoffingly to a friend in his own Countrey to this purpose That the Common people of England were wiser than the wisest of his wiser Nation for here the very Women and Shop-keepers were able to judge of Predestination and determine what Laws were fit to be made concerning Church-government and then what were fit to be obeyed or abolisht That they were more able or at least thought so to raise and determine perplext Cases of Conscience than the wisest of the most learned Colledges in Italy That men of the slightest Learning and the most ignorant of the Common people were mad for a new or Super or Re-reformation of Religion and that in this they appeared like that man who would never cease to whet and whet his knife till there was no steel left to make it useful And he concluded his Letter with this observation That those very men that were most busie in Oppositions and Disputations and Controversies of finding out the faults of their Governors had usually the least of Humility and Mortification or of the power of Godliness And to heighten all these Discontents and Dangers there was also sprung up a generation of Godless men men that had so long given way to their own lust of delusion and so highly opposed the blessed motions of his Spirit and the inward light of their own Consciences that they had thereby sinned themselves into a belief which they would but could not believe into a belief which is repugnant even to humane Natuâ—e for the Heathens believe that there are many gods but these had sin'd themselves into a belief that there was no God so finding nothing in themselves but what was worse than nothing began
all her Church-cares by his wise Menage of them he gave her faithful and prudent Counsels in all the Extremities and Dangers of her Temporal Affairs which were many he lived to be the Chief Comfort of her Life in her Declining age to be then most frequently with her and her Assistant at her private Devotions to be the greatest Comfort of her Soul upon her Death-bed to be present at the Expiration of her last Breath and to behold the closing of those Eyes that had long looked upon him with Reverence and Affection And let this also be added that he was the Chief Mourner at her sad Funeral nor let this be forgotten that within a few hours after her death he was the happy Proclaimer that King James her peaceful Successour was Heir to the Crown Let me beg of my Reader to allow me to say a little and but a little more of this good Bishop and I shall then presently lead him back to Mr. Hooker and because I would hasten I will mention but one part of the Bishops Charity and Humility but this of both He built a large Almes-house near to his own Palace at Croyden in Surry and endowed it with Maintenance for a Master and twenty eight poor Men and Women which he visited so often that he knew their Names and Dispositions and was so truly humble that he called them Brothers and Sisters and whensoever the Queen descended to that lowlines to dine with him at his Palace in Lambeth which was very often he would usually the next day shew the like lowliness to his poor Brothers and Sisters at Croydon and dine with them at his Hospital at which time you may believe there was Joy at the Table And at this place he built also a fair Free-School with a good Accommodation and Maintenance for the Master and Scholars Which gave just occasion for Boyse Sisi then Embassadour for the French King and Resident here at the Bishops death to say The Bishop had published many learned Books but a Free-school to train up Youth and an Hospital to lodge and maintain aged and poor People were the best Evidences of Christian Learning that a Bishop could leave to Posterity This good Bishop lived to see King James settled in Peace and then fell sick at his Palace in Lambeth of which when the King had notice he went to visit him and found him in his Bed in a declining condition and very weak and after some short discourse betwixt them the King at his departure assured him He had a great Affection for him and a very high value for his Prudence and Vertues and would indeavour to beg his life of God To which the good Bishop replied Pro Ecclesia Dei Pro Ecclesia Dei which were the last words he ever spake therein testifying that as in his Life so at his Death his chiefest care was of Gods Church This John Whitgift was made Archbishop in the year 1583. In which busie place he continued twenty years and some moneths and in which time you may believe he had many Tryals of his Courage and Patience but his Motto was Vincit qui patitur And he made it good Many of his many Trials were occasioned by the then powerful Earl of Leicester who did still but secretly raise and cherish a Faction of Non-conformists to oppose him especially one Thomas Cartwright a man of noted Learning sometime Contemporary with the Bishop in Cambridge and of the same Colledge of which the Bishop had been Master in which place there began some Emulations the particulars I forbear and at last open and high Oppositions betwixt them and in which you may believe Mr. Cartwright was most faulty if his Expulsion out of the University can incline you to it And in this discontent after the Earls death which was 1588 Mr. Cartwright appeared a chief Cherisher of a Party that were for the Geneva Church-government and to effect it he ran himself into many dangers both of Liberty and Life appearing at the last to justifie himself and his Party in many Remonstrances which he caused to be printed and to which the Bishop made a first Answer and Cartwright replyed upon him and then the Bishop having rejoyned to his first Reply Mr. Cartwright either was or was perswaded to be satisfied for he wrote no more but leftâ— the Reader to be judge which had maintained their Cause with most Charity and Reason After some silence Mr. Cartwright received from the Bishop many personal Favours and retired himself to a more private Living which was at Warwick where he was made Master of an Hospital and lived quietly and grew rich and where the Bishop gave him a Licence to Preach upon promises not to meddle with Controversies but incline his Hearers to Piety and Moderation and this Promise he kept during his Life which ended 1602 the Bishop surviving him but some few moneths each ending his daies in perfect Charity with the other And now after this long Digression made for the Information of my Reader concerning what follows I bring him back to venerable Mr. Hooker where we left him in the Temple and where we shall find him as deeply engaged in a Controversie with Walter Trevers a Friend and Favorite of Mr. Cartwrights as the Bishop had ever been with Mr. Cartwright himself and of which I shall proceed to give this following account And first this That though the Pens of Mr. Cartwright and the Bishop were now at rest yet there was sprung up a new Generation of restless men that by Company and Clamours became possest of a Faith which they ought to have kept to themselves but could not men that were become positive in asserting That a Papest cannot be saved insomuch that about this time at the Execution of the Queen of Scots the Bishop that preached her Funeral Sermon which was Doctor Howland then Bishop of Peterborough was reviled for not being positive for her Damnation And beside this Boldness of their becoming Gods so far as to set limits to his Mercies there was not onely one Martin Mar-prelate but other venemous Books daily printed and dispersed Books that were so absurd and scurrilous that the graver Divines disdained them an Answer And yet these were grown into high esteem with the Common people till Tom Nash appeared against them all who was a man of a sharp wit and the Master of a scoffing Satyrical merry Pen which he imployed to discover the Absurdities of those blind malitious sensless Pamphlets and Sermons as sensless as they Nash his Answer being like his Books which bore these Titles An Almond for a Parrot A Fig for my God-son Come crack me this Nut and the like so that his merry Wit made such a discovery of their Absurdities as which is strange he put a greater stop to these malicious Pamphlets than a much wiser man had been able And now the Reader is to take notice That at the Death of Father Alvie who was
Master of the Temple this Walter Travers was Lecturer there for the Evening Sermons which he preach'd with great approbation especially of the younger Gentlemen of that Society and for the most part approved by Mr. Hooker himself in the midst of their oppositions For he continued Lecturer a part of his time Mr. Travers being indeed a man of a Competent Learning of a winning Behaviour and of a blameless Life But he had taken Orders by the Presbytery in Antwerp and with them some opinions that could never be eradicated and if in any thing he was transported it was in an extreme desire to set up that Government in this Nation For the promoting of which he had a correspondence with Theodore Beza at Geneva and others in Scotland and wâ—s one of the chiefest assistants to Mr. Cartwright in that Design Mr. Travers had also a particular hope to set up this Government in the Temple and to that end used his endeavours to be Master of it and his being disappointed by Mr. Hookers admittance proved some occasion of opposition betwixt them in their Sermons Many of which were concerning the Doctrine and Ceremonies of this Church Insomuch that as Saint Paul withstood Saint Peter to his face So did they for as one hath pleasantly exprest it The Forenoon Sermon upake Canterbury and the Afternoons Geneva In these Sermons there was little of bitterness but each party brought all the Reasons he was able to prove his Adversaries Opinion erroneous And thus it continued a long time till the Oppositions became so visible and the Consequences so dangerous especially in that place that the prudent Archbishop put a stop to Mr. Travers his Preaching by a positive Prohibition Against which Mr. Travers Appeal'd and Petition'd Her Majesties Privy Council to have it recalled and where he met with many assisting Friends but they were not able to prevail with or against the Arch-bishop whom the Queen had intrusted with all Church-power and he had received so fair a Testimony of Mr. Hookers Principles and of his Learning and Moderation that he withstood all Sollicitations But the denying this Petition of Mr. Travers was unpleasant to divers of his Party and the Reasonableness of it became at last to be so magnified by them and many others of that party as never to be answered so that intending the Bishops and Mr. Hookers disgrace they procured it to be privately printed and scattered abroad and then Mr. Hooker was forced to appear publickly which he did and Dedicated it to the Archbishop and it proved so full an Answer an answer that had in it so much of clear Reason and writ with so much Meekness and Majesty of Style that the Bishop began to wonder at the Man to rejoyce that he had appeared in his Cause and disdained not earnestly to beg his Friendship even a familiar Friendship with a man of so much quiet Learning and Humility To enumerate the many particular points in which Mr. Hooker and Mr. Travers dissented all or most of which I have seen written would prove at least tedious and therefore I shall impose upon my Reader no more then two which shall immediately follow and by which he may judge of the rest Mr. Travers excepted against Mr. Hooker for that in one of his Sermons he declared That the assurance of what we believe by the Word of God is not to us so certain as that which we perceive by sense And Mr. Hooker confesseth he said so and endeavours to justifie it by the Reasons following First I taught That the things which God promises in his Word are surer than what we touch handle or see but are we so sure and certain of them if we be why doth God so often prove his Promises to us as he doth by Arguments drawn from our sensible Experience For we must be surer of the Proof than of the things Proved otherwise it is no Proof For Example How is it that many men looking on the Moon at the same time every one knoweth it to be the Moon as certainly as the other doth but many believing one and the same Promise have not all one and the same Fulness of Perswasion For how falleth it out that men being assured of any thing by Sense can be no surer of it than they are when as the strongest in Faith that liveth upon the Earth hath alwayes need to labour strive and pray that his Assurance concerning Heavenly and Spiritual things may grow increase and be augmented The Sermon that gave him the cause of this his Justification makes the Case more plain by declaring that there is besides this Certainty of Evidence a Certainty of Adherence in which having most excellently demonstrated what the Certainty of Adherence is he makes this comfortable use of it Comfortable he sayes as to weak Believers who suppose themselves to be faithless not to believe when notwithstanding they have their Adherence the Holy Spirit hath his private operations and worketh secretly in them and effectually too though they want the inward Testimony of it Tell this to a man that hath a mind too much dejected by a sad sense of his sin to one that by a too severe judging of himself concludes that he wants Faith because he wants the comfortable Assurance of it and his Answer will be Do not perswade me against my knowledge against what I finde and feel in my self I do not I know I do not believe Mr. Hookers own words follow Well then to favour such men a little in their weakness Let that be granted which they do imagine be it that they adhere not to Gods Promises but are faithless and without belief but are they not grieved for their unbelief they confess they are do they not wish it might and also strive that it may be otherwayes we know they do whence cometh this but from a secret Love and Liking that they have of those things believed For no man can love those things which in his own opinion are not and if they think those things to be which they shew they love when they desire to believe them then must it be that by desiring to believe they prove themselves true believers For without Faith no man thinketh that things believed are which argument all the Subtilties of â—â—â—ernal powers will never be able to dissolve This is an abridgement of part of the Reasons he gives for his Justification of this his Opinion for which he was excepted against by Mr. Travers Mr. Hooker was also accused by Mr. Traversâ— for that he in one of his Sermons had declared that he doubted not but that God was merciful to many of our fore-fathers living in Popish Superstition for as much as they Sinned ignorantly and Mr. Hooker in his answer professeth it to be his Judgment and declares his Reasons for this Charitable opinion to be as followeth But first he states the question about Justification and Works and how the Foundation of Faith is
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 J. S. at the end of the said Epistle which was meant for this John 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 dye 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 J. S. And next the Reader may note that this Epistle of Dr. 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 endeavoured to be compleated out of Mr. Hookers rough draughts as is exprest by the said Dr. Spencer since whose death it is now 50 Years And I do profess by the faith of a Christian that Dr. 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 finish't 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 or unto Dr. King then Bishop of London and that she did as he injoin'd her I do conceive that from Dr. 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 Dr. 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 judgement suit with their fancies or give authority to their corrupt designs and for proof of a part of this take these following Testimonies Dr. Barnard sometime Chaplain to Dr. 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 amount 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 alwayes from Superiors to whom the administration of justice belongeth which administration must have necessarily a fountain that deriveth it to all others and receiveth not from any because otherwise the course of justice should go infinitely in a Circle every Superior having his Superior without end which cannot be therefore a Well-spring it followeth there is a Supreme head of Justice 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 judge If private men offend there is the Magistrate over them which judgeth 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 sayes the Doctor it breaks off abruptly And I have these words also attested under the hand of Mr. Fabian Philips a man of Note for his useful Books I will make Oath if I shall be required that Dr. 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 Governours being accomptable to the People this I will make Oath that that good man attested to me Fabian Philips 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 Dr. Sanderson the said learned Bishop whose Writings are so highly and justly valued gave a strict 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 James put upon the Books writ by Mr. Hooker as also that our late King Charles the Martyr for the Church valued them the second of all Books testified by his commending them to the reading of his Son Charles that now is our gracious King and you may suppose that this Charles 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 replied They were not allowed to be Mr. Hookers Books but however he would allow them to be Mr. Hookers
called Basilicon Doron and their Orator was to acknowledge this great honour and return their gratitude to His Majesty for such a condescention at the close of which Letter he writ Quid Vaticanam Bodleianamque objicis hospes Unicus est nobis Bibliotheca Liber This Letter was writ in such excellent Latin was so full of Conceits and all the expressions so suted to the genius of the King that he inquired the Orators name and then ask'd William Earl of Pembroke if he knew him whose answer was That he knew him very well and that he was his Kinsman but he lov'd him more for his learning and vertue than for that he was of his name and family At which answer the King smil'd and asked the Earl leave that he might love him too for he took him to be the Jewel of that University The next occasion that he had to shew his great Abilities was with them to shew also his great affection to that Church in which he received his Baptism and of which he profest himself a member and the occasion was this There wâ—s one Andrew Melvin a Gentleman of Scotland who was in his own Countrey possest with an aversness if not a hatred of Church-government by Bishops and he seem'd to have a like aversness to our manner of Publick Worship and of Church-prayers and Ceremonies This Gentleman had travail'd France and resided so long in Geneva as to have his opinions the more confirm'd in him by the practice of that place from which he return'd into England some short time before or immediately after Mr. Herbert was made Orator This Mr. Melvin was a man of learning and was the Master of a great wit a wit full of knots and clenches a wit sharp and satyrical exceeded I think by none of that Nation but their Bucanen At Mr. Melvins return hither he writ and scattered in Latin many pieces of his wit against our Altars our Prayers and our Publick Worship of God in which Mr. Herbert took himself to be so much concern'd that as fast as Melvin writ and scatter'd them Mr. Herbert writ and scatter'd answers and reflections of the same sharpness upon him and them I think to the satisfaction of all un-ingaged persons But this Mr. Melvin was not only so busie against the Church but at last so bold with the King and State that he rayl'd and writ himself into the Tower at which time the Lady Arabella was an innocent prisoner there and he pleas'd himself much in sending the next day after his Commitment these two Verses to the good Lady which I will under-write because they may give the Reader a taste of his others which were like these Causa tibi mecum est communis Carceris Ara-Bella tibi causa est Araque sacra mihi I shall not trouble my Reader with an account of his enlargement from that Prison or his Death but tell him Mr. Herberts Verses were thought so worthy to be preserv'd that Dr. Duport the learned Dean of Peterborough hath lately collected and caus'd them to be printed as an honourable memorial of his friend Mr. George Herbert and the Cause he undertook And in order to my third and last observation of his great Abilities it will be needful to declare that about this time King James came very often to hunt at New-market and Royston and was almost as often invited to Cambridge where his entertainment was suted to his pleasant humor and where Mr. George Herbert was to welcome him with Gratulations and the Applauses of an Orator which he alwayes perform'd so well that he still grew more into the Kings favour insomuch that he had a particular appointment to attend His Majesty at Royston where after a Discourse with him His Majesty declar'd to his Kinsman the Earl of Pembroke That he found the Orators learning and wisdom much above his age or wit The year following the King appointed to end His progress at Cambridge and to stay there certain dayes at which time he was attended by the great Secretary of Nature and all Learning Sir Francis Bacon Lord Virulam and by the ever memorable and learned Dr. Andrews Bishop of Winchester both which did at that time begin a desir'd friendship with our Orator Upon whom the first put such a value on his judgement that he usually desir'd his approbation before he would expose any of his Books to be printed and thought him so worthy of his friendship that having translated many of the Prophet Davids Psalms into English Verse he made George Herbert his Patron of them by a publick dedication of them to him as the best Judge of Divine Poetry And for the learned Bishop it is observable that at that time there fell to be a modest debate about Predestination and Sanctity of life of both which the Orator did not long after send the Bishop some safe and useful Aphorisms in a long Letter written in Greek which was so remarkable for the language and matter that after the reading of it the Bishop put it into his bosom and did often shew it to Scholars both of this and forreign Nations but did alwayes return it back to the place where he first lodg'd it and continu'd it so near his heart till the last day of his life To these I might add the long and intire friendship betwixt him and Sir Henry Wotton and Dr. Donne but I have promis'd to contract my self and shall therefore only add one testimony to what is also mentioned in the Life of Dr. Donne namely that a little before his death he caused many Seals to be made and in them to be ingraven the figure of Christ crucified on an Anchor which is the emblem of hope and of which Dr. Donne would often say Crux mihi Anchora These Seals he sent to most of those friends on which he put a value and at Mr. Herberts death these Verses were found wrap't up with that Seal which was by the Doctor given to him When my dear Friend could write no more He gave this Seal and so gave ore When winds and waves rise highest I am sure This Anchor keeps my faith that me secure At this time of being Orator he had learnt to understand the Italian Spanish and French Tongues very perfectly hoping that as his Predecessor so he might in time attain the place of a Secretary of State being then high in the Kings favour and not meanly valued and lov'd by the most eminent and most powerful of the Court Nobility This and the love of a Court-conversation mixt with a laudable ambition to be something more then he then was drew him often from Cambridge to attend the King who then gave him a Sine Cure which fell into His Majesties disposal I think by the death of the Bishop of St. Asaph It was the same that Queen Elizabeth had formerly given to her Favourite Sir Philip Sidney and valued to be worth an hundred and twenty pound per