preached in the beginning of every year Brief determinations of Theological Questions in the Schools very many and written with his own hand Fuller and more exact determinations of questions at the Commencement of the same number with his Latin Sermons a Book against Stapleton De originali peccato written fair and prepared for the Press The loss of these we may impute to his Immature Death For by a winter Journey to London and immoderate watching he contracted a Disease whereof he died peaceably breathing out his Spirit sweetly as an infant and saying He desired to live no longer unless for Gods Honour and the Churches service He was honourably buried in his Colledge having been Regius Professor An. 16. Head of St. Johns An. 9. Decemb. 1595. AEt 47. IV. Dr. Andrew Willet From Dr. Peter Smith 1. THere is no way more expedite of instruction to good life as Polybius wisely observeth than by the knowledge of things past and of the noble acts of famous Worthies their Histories are our Documents and their honours our incitements whereas Fame contemned brings contempt of Virtue We are not easily moved with Precepts Examples are more powerful Wherefore I have adventured briefly to sum up a few remarkable passages of the Life and Death of the Laborious and Learned Dr. Willet whose worth in the full Latitude cannot easily be expressed and my guide herein shall be either certain knowledge or most credible relation 2. It was ever esteemed no mean blessing to be well descended and though thy Fathers goodness shall avail thee little if thou beest not good yet it availeth much to make thee good Such a good Father had this worthy man by name Mr. Thomas Willet a grave Divine who in his younger time was Sub-Almoner unto that Reverend Prelate Dr. Cox Eleemosynary and Schoolmaster unto Edward VI. our Englands young Josiah of most blessed memory After whose death Dr. Cox being in Exile during the Reign of Queen Mary this Mr. Willet was not only deprived of his Service but enforced for his Conscience to forsake his first Promotion in the Church of Windsor and to betake himself to the House of a truly noble Gentleman who was a faithful Obadiah and hid him in those days of persecution But when Dr. Cox by Queen Elizabeth was advanced to the Bishoprick of Ely his antient Chaplain then repairs unto him is lovingly embraced and preferred to a Prebend in his Church And afterward when a Messenger told the good Bishop the Parson of Barley in Hartfordshire was dead the Bishop replied He is not dead And when the party avowed he was dead the Bishop again replies I tell you the Parson of Barley is not dead for there he sits pointing at Mr. Willet who was then sitting at the Table 3. The Rectory being thus added to his other means did now enable him to do works of Charity and as he had freely received so he freely gave He remembred that he had been the Dispenser of a Princes Alms and still retained a magnificent mind that way His Wife was as nobly minded and as free In her elder years when her Children were disposed of in the world her manner was to call her poor Neighbours in and feeding them to say Now again have I my Children about me Thus they laid up blessings for their seed were preserved upon an unexpected accident befalling a Proctor of their Colledge undertook his Office at the Commencement and being as Thucydides saith of Themistocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very dexterous and ready to perform any thing well upon the sudden his Orations were such as gained the approbation and applause if not the admiration of all his Auditors both their own and strangers who knew the straits of time wherein he was confined 7. After he had spent 13 years in that University his Father now grown old resigned his Prebend in the Church of Ely which by the Favour of Queen Elizabeth sede vacante was conferr'd upon him Hereupon he left his Fellowship and betook himself to the Society of a Wife of the Kindred of old Doctor Goad Provost of Kings Colledge In this estate God bless'd him with a numerous Issue 8. His manner was to arise early in the morning and to get half way on his Journey before others could get out he came down at the hour of Prayer taking his Family with him to Church after he was preferred to the Rectory of Barley upon the death of his Father there Service was publickly read either by himself or his Curate to the great comfort of his Parishioners before they went out to their daily Labours Prayers being ended he returns unto his task again until near dinner time then he would recreate himself a while either playing upon a little Organ or sporting with his young Children and sometimes he would use cleaving of Wood for exercise of his Body At his Table he was always pleasant to his Company telling some pretty Apothegme or Facete Tale and seasoning it with some profitable Application After dinner his custom was to refresh himself a little sometime sitting in Discourse sometime walking abroad and now and then taking some view of his Husbandry after which straightway to his better employments again till supper time so that commonly without extraordinary avocations he spent no less than eight hours a day in his Study 9. By which long continued course he had read the Fathers Councils Ecclesiastical Histories c. and published Books to the number of 33 besides nine more unprinted He hath much variety of matter in his larger sixfold Commentaries where he hath collected and judicially disposed those things which you have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scatteringly in many several Books and saving the Readers cost and pains hath molded up together the choicest flour of Commentaries old and new that appear upon those parts of the Scripture but his Synopsis Papismi carrieth away the prize before all other Writings wherewith Dr. Willet hath adorned our Church being now the fifth time and that by special Commendation from his Royal Majesty published Justly is he numbred by Bishop Hall sometime his Collegue in the Service of Prince Henry among those Worthies of the Church of England to whom he gives this Elogy Stupor mundi clerus Britannicus 10. Amidst all his pains of Writing and his other Studies he never omitted his usual exercise of Preaching In his younger time he read the Lecture for three years together in the Cathedral Church of Ely for one year in St. Pauls in both with singular Approbation of a most frequent Auditory Sometimes he preached in Cambridge both Ad Clerum and Ad Populum discovering himself to be the only man Quem rus non infuscavit whom the Country had not stained and therefore at his last Degree was chosen to answer in the Divinity Act. 11. This being over he returns to his people again daily teaching them and instructing them in a plain Familiar way applying himself to their capacity and
Manners and Learning of other Nations that they might thereby become the more serviceable unto their own made to put off their Gowns and leave Mr. Hooker to his Colledge and private Studies 10. Thus he continued his Studies in all quietness for the space of three or more years about which time he entred into Sacred Orders and was made Deacon and Priest and not long after in obedience to the Colledge Statutes being to Preach at St. Pauls Cross London to London he came to the Shunamites house a house so called for that beside the Stipend paid the Preacher there is provision made for his Lodging and Diet two days before and one day after his Sermon but to this house Mr. Hooker came so wet so weary and weather-beaten that hardly with much diligent attendance was he enabled to perform the office of the day which was in or about the year 1581. 11. An. 1584. Decemb. 9. he was presented by John Cheney Esquire to a Country Parsonage which was Draiton-Beauchamp in Buckinghamshire not far from Alesbury and in the Diocess of Lincoln where he continued about a year in which time his two Pupils Edwin Sandys and George Cranmer were returned from Travel and took a Journey to see their Tutor where they found him with a Book in his hand it was the Odes of Horace being then tending his small allotment of Sheep in a common field which he told his Pupils he was forced to do for that his Servant was gone home to dine and assist his Wife to do some necessary houshold business When his Servant returned and released him his two Pupils attended him to his house where their best entertainment was his Company and having stayed till next morning which was time enough to discover and pity their Tutors condition and having given him as much present comfort as they were able they return to London Then Edwin Sandys acquaints his Father of his Tutors sad case and solicits for his removal to some Benefice that might give him a more comfortable subsistence 12. Not long after Mr. Alvie Master of the Temple died a man of strict Life of great Learning and of so venerable behaviour as to gain such a degree of Love and Reverence from all men that he was generally known by the name of Father Alvie into whose place Bishop Sandys commended Hooker with such effectual earnestness and so many testimonies of his worth that he was sent for to London and there the place was proposed to him by the Bishop as a greater freedom from cares and the advantage of a better Society a more liberal Pension than his Country Parsonage did afford him and at last notwithstanding his averseness he was perswaded to accept of the Bishops proposal being by Patent for life made Master of the Temple March An. 1585. 13. Mr. Walter Travers was Lecturer at the Temple for the Evening Sermons a man of competent Learning of a winning Behaviour and a blameless Life but ordained by the Presbytery in Antwerp He had hope to set up the Geneva 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 Discipline and Ceremonies of this Church insomuch that as one hath pleasantly express'd it The Forenoon Sermon spake Canterbury and the Afternoon Geneva 14. 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 Mr. Travers appeals and Petitions her Majesty and the Privy Council to have it recalled but in vain For the Queen had entrusted the Archbishop with all Church Power Hereupon the party intending the Archbishop's and Mr. Hooker's disgrace privately printed the Petition and scattered it abroad Now is Mr. Hooker forced to appear publickly and print an Answer to it which he did and it proved a full Answer writ with such clear Reason and 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 15. The Foundation of his eight Books of Ecclesiastical Politie was laid in the Temple but he found it no fit place to finish what he had there designed and therefore solicited the Archbishop for a remove saying When I lost the freedom of my Cell which was my Colledge 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 Justification of our Laws of Church Government and I shall never be able to finish it but where I may study and pray for Gods Blessings upon my Endeavours 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 judge me worthy such a favour let me beg it that I may perfect what I have begun 16. About this time the Rectory of Boscum in the Diocess of Sarum and six miles from that City became void to which Mr. Hooker was presented in the vacancy of that Bishoprick by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 1591. And in the same year July 17. was he made a minor Prebend of Salisbury the Corps to it being Neather Havin about ten miles from that City which Prebend being of no great value was intended chiefly to make him capable of a better preserment in that Church In this Boscum he continued till he had finished four of his eight proposed Books and these were publish'd with that large and affectionate Preface An. 1594. 17. The Parsonage of Bishops-Borne in Kent three miles from Canterbury is that Archbishops Gift In the latter end of the year 1594. Dr. 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 Hooker whom she loved well to this good living of Borne July 7.1595 In which Living he continued till his death without any addition of dignity or profit His fifth Book of Eccl. Politie was Printed first by it self being larger than his first four and dedicated to his Patron Archbishop Whitgift An. 1597. 18. These Books were read with an admiration of their excellency in this and their just same spread it self into Forein Nations Dr. Stapleton having read the first four boasted to Pope Clement VIII That a poor obscure English Priest had writ four such Books of Laws and Church Politie and in a style that express'd so grave and such humble Majesty with
though he knew how to turn his tongue to a Courtiers ear yet he more affected the simplicity of plain Preaching And always in denuntiation of Judgments he would put on the Bowels of Compassion and the spirit of Meekness sugaring every bitter Pill like a wise Physician that it might go down the more pleasantly neither were his labours in vain enjoying such a people as received his Instructions with delight For there was a sweet harmony between the Life and Doctrine of this Reverend man whether we look upon him as at home or as abroad with others 12. It was my happiness to make aboad under his roof his House was a little model of a Church and House of God here morning and evening Sacrifices were offered unto God daily his Children after supper read some part of Holy Scripture and he required of every one present that they should remember some one Sentence or other and afterward he himself as he thought convenient would rehearse the same again adding some exposition and now and then some Application to them Together with these private exercises of Piety no man more religiously observed the Publick Congregations than he did continually calling upon his houshold to follow him to Gods Holy House where especially he is to be worshipped Besides his endeavour was to order his Family like a little Common-wealth He had his Laws and Ordinances set up in Tables directing his Family in their several Offices and Duties both Oeconomical and Moral and in all these things so much as might become his place he made himself an exact pattern and example to them all 13. It may be some searching eye may hap to spy out one trained up under his good Discipline who yet peradventure groweth not after the seed first sowen in him It is a blessed gift of God to have all good Children but every man nay every good man cannot enjoy it St. Austin saith well Though I keep a watchful Discipline over my house yet am I but a man and they are men that live under me neiter dare I arrogate to my self that my House should be better than the Ark of Noah where yet amongst but eight persons there was one Reprobate found or better than the house of Abraham or Isaac or Jacob or better than the Family of Christ our Lord where was one Judas or lastly better than Heaven when the Angels fell Truly when I call to mind his many blessings of his Children I may use the words spoken to the Mother of St. Austin a little varied Fieri non potest ut Filius istarum benedictionum pereat 14. As for his Charity to others he entertained two of his nearest allies being fallen into some want at his own Table many years and maintained for the most part a Son of either of them at the University It was usnal and annual with him to give a dole of Bread unto the poor on the Coronation day and on the Powder Treason At Christmas he gave Corn to some of the poor of his Parish to others mony to others yea to all the rest of his Neighbours liberal and loving entertainment In the time of Harvest when the Fields were crowned with Gods Blessings he would scatter of his heaps with a full hand and a chearful heart among the Gleaners who rejoyced at his coming into the Field If he set any one to work no Master paid more freely nor more speedily than he if the poor bought Corn of him as they did often they were sure ro gain both in price and Measure if he bought any thing of them he would give them more than they demanded and his substance increased with his bounty 15. Had any of his Neighbours suits and troubles abroad he was their Counsellor whom they always even the meanest found easie of access 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as friendly to be spoken with Had they need of the assistance of some great persons he would intercede for them either personally or by Letters Had they Jars and janglings among themselves he would call both parties and handle them so with mild and courteous speeches that he would soon compose their differences And such was his Humility that he would condescend to any office for their good himself would sometimes write their Bills amd Bonds and other instruments to save them expences And such things being ended he would return with great alacrity to his higher Contemplations Lastly for the Town of Barley where he lived being not able to do what his heart desired he gave out of a little Tenement which he bought twenty shillings per an to the poor for ever and perswaded some other his richer Friends to a greater liberality to this same Town He was indeed a powerful perswader to works of Piety but in none more than in soliciting that old Gentleman Mr. Sutton to that Heroick work of his in the erecting of his Hospital whom he earnestly desired not to be like that Antigonus sirnamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the future giver but to do something in his life And doubtless he during life projected that which after death was honourably effected 16. He studied chiefly to do good unto poor Ministers not only by his private bounty but he prevailed with the Dean and his fellow Prebendaries of Ely to grant considerable Augmentations for three poor Vicars out of the Impropriations belonging to that Church and he induced old Mr. Castell to yield out of his Impropriation of Tadlow ten pounds per an to the better maintenance of the Vicar of that Town Never may they want their due honour with men and reward with God who religiously take care to cherish and continue these good works so happily begun 17. The exercise of Hospitality was even hereditary to him from his Parents This Abraham so loved nay he loved still saith Chrysologus That he would scarce think himself happy in Heav'n if he were depriv'd of the use of it if he may not have Lazarus lie in his bosome And Synesius saith By being harborous he entertained God himself So this liberal and godly man whose doors were open to any worthy of entertainment enjoyed the comfort of many happy Guests some of them strangers men of other Nations who having heard the Fame of him in their own Countries Travelling to see this Land have in their way resorted to his house as ambitious of his Acquaintance But sometimes his goodness was abused as once by a Jew entertained in his house and seemingly converted calling him Father and pretending to desire Baptism but when the time of Solemnity was at hand the Jew vanished and ran away without returning thanks to the Doctor for all the courtesies received Another Impostor a Roman Catholick begged his Prayers and Instructions and humbly desired upon Repentance to be admitted to the Holy Communion but when the time came this Guest appeared not and was seen there no more A third Intruder was a Separatist who seemed a long time inclining but at